#the only bad parts were. those. two episodes. yeah they really didn’t need to make that.

[td-hateblog]

i still can’t believe they made a total drama season that was actually good. like it actually had well written jokes in it. and it had REAL GAY PEOPLE?? the hell

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

These Scars Remain

Summer of Bad Batch 2024 | Week 6 | Prompt: Battle Scars

Summary: "Did I ever tell you what Tech did when I got my first big scar?" POV: Wrecker (Word Count: 3131)

Read on Ao3

Notes: I touched on a few of the concepts here in one of my other works that I wrote up while imagining how the months between episodes 2.16 and 3.02 had gone for Hunter, Wrecker and Echo. And recently I've been thinking a lot about how Wrecker might have gotten the huge scar on his face. And then I saw this week's prompt. This is the result.

            “Wrecker.”

            Pain. So much pain.

            “Wrecker!”

            Blinding… burning… pain… ringing… agony… so dark…

            “Wrecker! Wake up!”

            Stabbing… crushing… why wouldn’t the pain stop… just make it stop…

            “WRECKER!”

            That voice… he knew that voice… who… Tech, why was Tech yelling at him? Why was the ground shaking…?

            Wrecker came to with a groan. He wanted to move, find his way to more solid ground so he would stop shaking – maybe he wouldn’t hurt as much if he wasn’t shaking – but the only part of his body he could manage to move for himself was his eyelids.

            The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Tech’s goggles, which were currently taking up most of his field of vision – a field of vision that was narrower than usual… Wrecker blinked, what was wrong with his left eye?

            Then he realized the ground had stopped moving… No, Tech had stopped shaking him. Why had Tech been shaking him…? Had he been asleep? Were they late for a battle simulation or…?

            Suddenly Wrecker remembered: the squad was in their third and final week of completing individual field tests, tests that would determine whether each member of the squad was prepared to progress to the final months of advanced training. Hunter and Crosshair were currently in a different room, Wrecker didn’t yet know what tests had been assigned to those two today. Wrecker and Tech had been shuffled into another area, with Tech being assigned target drills with the blasters in one corner of the long training room, and Wrecker being given the task of disarming a bomb at the other end of the room.

            He had thought it would be a smoke bomb or something similar, he had been told as much – at least, he thought that’s what he had been told by the trainers before they left to watch the proceedings from the observation room. Wrecker still wasn’t sure what had gone wrong, but he was starting to think that definitely had not been a smoke bomb…

            But it didn’t really matter what kind of bomb it had been; he should have been able to disarm it. All the regular cadets had to prove themselves to a certain standard; Wrecker knew full well that his squad of 99s had to prove themselves to be not just on par with the regs, but superior.

            Now, Wrecker couldn’t help but recall that how quickly a cadet recovered from injury during training often played a role in determining whether said cadet was decommissioned or not. And… well, Wrecker knew he had definitely been injured.

            That, on top of having clearly failed the test…

            He didn’t know if retakes were allowed with these exams – he had never asked. None of his squad had needed to.

            “Wrecker! Can you hear me?” Tech may have stopped shaking him, but his anxious voice persisted in calling Wrecker’s name, and Wrecker realized he had spent the last few seconds of reverie staring in a silent daze.

            “Y… Yeah, Tech, I can hear you,” Wrecker replied. His words sounded muffled, garbled to his ears. It hurt so much to talk, but he tried to keep talking anyway, more to reassure Tech than anything else. “Guess I…”

            Tech suddenly disappeared from Wrecker’s line of sight, replaced by a medical droid. “The stimulant worked, CT-9903 has regained consciousness,” Wrecker heard the droid report, before he felt himself being lifted onto a gurney.

            Oh. He was going to be taken to the medical wing. That was fine… just, he didn’t really like going to the medical wing, he didn’t like all the tests that involved being poked and prodded and scanned, and he definitely didn’t like being there alone…

            “CT-9902, where are you going?” the gruff voice of Gibli Ecto, their trainer, sounded somewhere behind Wrecker.

            “I’m going with my brother to the medical wing. I want to stay with him,” Wrecker heard Tech reply.

            “He’ll be just fine on his own. You need to finish your exam. You weren’t supposed to leave your testing station in the first place,” Ecto returned in a tone of finality.     

            “I already passed the test,” Tech replied.

            “Excuse me?”

            Tech’s voice was fading as Wrecker was carried further away, and Wrecker strained to hear his brother’s frank explanation: “Of the 150 targets on the exam, I have already accurately hit the first 136 of them, yielding an average 90.6% hit rate. Even if I miss the last fourteen targets, I’ve already exceeded the target rate required for passing at this point in my training. I don’t need to complete the remainder of the test. I want to accompany CT-9903 to the medical wing.”

            “CT-9902, your insubordination is grounds for disciplinary action…”

            “Let him go, Ecto,” one of the other trainers sighed – Wrecker couldn’t tell who was speaking now, maybe Timbria? “He’s right, he already passed. And these are special circumstances. CT-9902, you’re dismissed.”

            “Yes, sir;” and Wrecker heard hurried footsteps catch up to him before his gurney was carried through the test room doors.

            “I’m here, Wrecker,” Tech said matter-of-factly, placing a hand briefly on Wrecker’s right shoulder to reinforce the fact of his presence. “I’ll stay with you during the medical tests.”

            “Thanks, Tech,” Wrecker said weakly. It still hurt to talk, still hurt to breathe, still hurt to think – and Wrecker found himself succumbing to unconsciousness again.

---

            “Oh good, you’re awake,” was the first sound to greet Wrecker’s right ear.

            “What… what happened?” Wrecker said bemusedly, staring around at the sterile and well-lit room, registering the fact that the left side of his face and head was heavily wrapped in bandages; and the events of the day rapidly caught up to him even before Tech spoke again.

            “You were unsuccessful in disarming the bomb,” Tech started.

            “Yeah, and it blew up in my face. Got it,” Wrecker said, trying to ignore the sick feeling that was developing anew in the pit of his stomach. He was grateful it had been an individual rather than a group exam, that none of his brothers had been nearby when the bomb had gone off, but… What would happen to him for failing his first explosives test? He had heard rumors of other cadets being decommissioned for far less. “I mean, what happened after I passed out again?”

            “You’ve only been unconscious for half an hour, but that was ample time for the medical droids to see to your wounds,” Tech said conversationally, before his tone turned more somber and he seemed reluctant to continue. “Based on what they were saying amongst themselves, I don’t think you’ll regain function of your left eye or ear.”

            “You mean… I won’t be able to see or hear on that side again?”

            “That is correct.”

            Wrecker tried to shrug – oh, it hurt to shrug. And it hurt to grimace from the pain of shrugging. Even thinking still hurt. But none of that mattered. So long as they let him retake the test, he’d learn to live with the pain, just like he’d learn to live partially blind and deaf. He was going to be a soldier and stay with his squad, no matter what. “Guess it’s a good thing I have backups. One ear and eye’s enough. I can still crush droids.”

            Ever since the first wave of graduates had been shipped out a few months ago to officially serve in the Galactic Army of the Republic and fight in the new war, cadets had been informed that they would primarily be facing battle droids, and battle simulations had shifted to reflect this. Barreling through droids had become one of Wrecker’s favorite things to do, and just thinking about it now would have been enough to make him smile – if it didn’t hurt so much to move his face.

            Tech smiled at Wrecker’s brash determination. “That is also correct. It does not seem that your injuries will have any permanent effect on your brute strength and physical domination of the battlefield.”  

            He sounded almost relieved as he said it, and Wrecker suddenly realized Tech was as worried about Wrecker being decommissioned as he himself was.

            Maybe that was why Tech had not only left his own test without permission to make sure Wrecker was alive after the explosion, but also had been so insistent on staying by Wrecker’s side afterwards. If anyone would be able to mount a successful argument against decommissioning any member of this squad of 99s – even if the argument went up against Prime Minister Lama Su himself – it would be Tech.

            The squad had been together long enough and understood each other well enough that Wrecker knew he could count on any one of his brothers for anything. Still, the fact that Tech had risked his own standing as a cadet just to be able to stay close and ensure Wrecker’s safety made Wrecker’s heart warm with gratitude, and he felt in his bones that whatever happened, Tech would always be there for him.

            Wrecker loved his brothers so much. Nobody could have asked for better squadmates.

            “You’re the first of us to be assigned that task. I wasn’t aware the disarming test involved thermal explosives,” Tech said now.

            “I didn’t know either,” Wrecker replied in a low voice.

            Tech sighed. “At any rate, you’re going to have a very – ah, impressive scar.”

            Wrecker frowned as he cautiously patted the layers of bandages on his head. “How do you know?”

            “I saw the damage. The droids did their best and it’s already healing quickly, but… there was a lot of tissue missing. Your hair probably won’t grow back in that area either. All along here – ” and Tech indicated the area by stretching his hand over his own left ear and side of his head.

            The full implications suddenly hit Wrecker; and despite the continued pain, he grinned.

            “What is it?” Tech asked curiously.

            “It’ll be my first battle scar.”

            “I’m not sure you can call it a ‘battle’ scar when you didn’t sustain it in a real battle,” Tech replied drily.

            “I know I didn’t get it in a real battle, but most of the other regs won’t know that,” Wrecker countered. “The important thing is, the regs’ll see this scar and they’ll know I survived something big. And since the scar is right on my face, no one will miss it!”

“Unless you have your helmet on,” Tech pointed out.

            Wrecker stammered for a moment as he tried to come up with an appropriately witty response, but before he could verbalize his retort, the door slid open to admit two very anxious-looking cadets.

            “Wrecker!” Hunter exclaimed, hurrying over to the bed.

            “An actual explosion. Is there anything you can’t survive?” Crosshair quipped as he came up behind Hunter, though the worry was still apparent in his eyes.

            Wrecker tried to guffaw, though it came out more as a wheeze. “It’ll take a lot more than that to put me out of the fight!”

            Hunter shook his head. “This shouldn’t have happened. You weren’t supposed to be tested with a thermal explosive in the first place. From what I can tell, the trainers are all trying to figure out what went wrong.”

            Well, at least he hadn’t misheard critical information… but he had still failed the test, and he was still badly injured, and he couldn’t help but think that he might be deemed unfit to be a soldier.

            “That should be grounds to allow him to retest, then,” Tech was saying thoughtfully.

            “Oh, yeah,” Hunter said, “that’s not gonna be an issue.”

            Hunter said it so confidently, Wrecker couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief. “Really? So I’m not getting…”

            He couldn’t finish the sentence, but all of them knew exactly what he meant.

            “Nope, you’re not,” Hunter said. “I overheard Nala Se saying we’re ahead of the curve already, whatever that means, and that the Jedi will probably want to see our skills for themselves when they get here.”

            Tech’s face perked up with interest. “Jedi?”

            “Yeah. Some of the cadets were saying some Jedi will be coming to oversee training operations from now on. I guess it’s true.”

            Tech now had his “explanation incoming” expression on. “That will be most interesting to experience. The Jedi are formidable warriors, and by all accounts their ways seem to be quite distinct from the Mandalorian and even Kaminoan styles of fighting and training. They have been…”

            “Yeah, yeah, Tech, we didn’t ask,” Crosshair cut him off with a playful shoulder bump to offset the harshness of his voice.

            Wrecker shifted himself slightly to a more comfortable position, noticing that the excruciating pain had become more bearable now that he wasn’t worried about his fate and the fate of his squad, now that he could look forward with new resolutions.

            He wasn’t going to be decommissioned over this. He was going to become an explosives expert – no bomb would ever best him again, and he wouldn’t let any bomb pose a threat to any of his brothers. He was going to be one of the best soldiers out there, just like his brothers were going to be, even if he only had one working eye and ear. He was going to wear his battle scar with pride, because it showed that he might get knocked down, but he would never be beaten. And as long as he, Wrecker, wasn’t beaten, his brothers wouldn’t be, either.

He would make sure of it.

********

“You must sever the connection hinge. Now!”

Pain. So much pain.

            “There is no time, Wrecker. Plan 99.”

            Blinding… burning… pain… ringing… agony… so dark…

            “When have we ever followed orders?”

            Stabbing… crushing… why wouldn’t the pain stop… just make it stop… JUST MAKE IT STOP…

            “Wrecker?”

Echo’s voice drew Wrecker’s thoughts away from Tech’s final words ringing again in his ear, though it wasn’t enough to draw his gaze away from Tech’s broken goggles.

            He didn’t want to think of Tech as broken. He had tried so hard since Eriadu to focus on happy memories with Tech, their time together as cadets, as soldiers, as deserters, their lives together as brothers. But sometimes – most times – focusing on Tech’s life was impossible, when the brutal reality set in.

            Tech was dead. Wrecker hadn’t been able to save him. Omega was gone. Wrecker hadn’t been able to save her – it had been days and they hadn’t even been able to find her. But there was hope Omega would be found and rescued. There was no hope for the same for Tech.

            “Does it ever get better, Echo?”

            For a brief moment, Wrecker wasn’t sure if Echo had heard the question – his voice had been so low and gruff he wasn’t sure if he had even heard himself – but then Echo sighed and leaned against the console, crossing his arms as he faced Wrecker.

            “Yes,” Echo said slowly. “It does get better. But it never goes away completely. You’ll go for longer stretches of time – days, weeks even – feeling okay, the ache is so dim you almost don’t notice it. And then suddenly you’ll feel the pain all over again, like it never left in the first place. But that won’t last long, the pain will fade again, because you’ll have learned to live with it. Just like all the other injuries and losses you’ve learned to live with.”  

            Wrecker sat in silence, grappling with this explanation. He knew Echo had lost brothers before – lost his entire original squad, actually – and he figured Echo must know what he was talking about… but Wrecker didn’t understand it. At all. Losing a brother wasn’t like losing one’s sight or hearing, wasn’t the same as recovering from a blaster wound or a knife to the gut or burns from an explosion.

            Especially since the brother that had been lost had been with Wrecker since the beginning, had helped him through every single injury, every single hurt, those that had healed without leaving a trace and those that had left scars – all of them, except this one.

            Some battle scars couldn’t be seen. The losses that caused them ate away slowly on the inside without leaving any physical marks, just aching emptiness that somehow hurt even worse than every other injury Wrecker had ever experienced.

            All of Wrecker’s physical injuries had healed over time. He didn’t think it was possible that time would somehow make this wound heal too.

            As if he knew exactly what Wrecker was thinking, Echo now added, “It hurts a lot, at first; but remembering my brothers, what they meant to me, all I learned from them helped me keep moving forward. That’s how I learned to live with it. I live for them.”

            “I… I keep trying to think of Tech, of how much he talked and studied and came up with some of the craziest plans,” Wrecker confessed. “I wanna talk out loud about it, but…”

            He didn’t need to finish the sentence. If he wanted to ramble on about Tech, Hunter would patiently listen to him – Wrecker knew this; but, much as his older brother tried to hide it, the look in Hunter’s eyes when Wrecker had first done this had been more than enough to convince Wrecker to stop. Hunter just wasn’t ready to talk or listen about Tech, and Wrecker had to respect that.

            But thoughts and memories like these flowed easier for Wrecker when he was able to talk through them. Holding it all in was so hard.

            Echo glanced back at Hunter, who was currently sleeping fitfully on his rack. The lengths to which Wrecker and Echo had had to go in order to convince Hunter to rest at all…

            “You can talk to me, you know,” Echo offered. “There’s a lot about your time as cadets on Kamino that I don’t know about.”

            Wrecker sat in silence for some time, staring again at Tech’s goggles. Tech had had such poor eyesight that couldn’t be corrected without lenses, no matter what Nala Se and the other medical personnel had tried, that of all the 99s in the squad, he had nearly always been at highest risk for decommissioning; and after Wrecker’s failed disarming test, it had been comforting to know that one brother really understood what it was like to have limited vision, even if Tech had pestered him for months with all the options he had researched of possible ways to restore Wrecker’s vision in his left eye, while Wrecker had responded by teasing Tech that at least spectacles were not one of the options.

            The memory was enough to almost bring a smile to Wrecker’s face – almost – and he glanced up at Echo.

            “Did I ever tell you what Tech did when I got my first big scar?”

@summer-of-bad-batch

[ilexdiapason]

(part one here) (part three here)

(CW: character experiences a severe derealization episode)

“D’you want me to order pizza?” Oli asks, somewhat redundantly, because Martyn is twenty-two (according to the police report) and a gamer, of course he’s not gonna turn down free pizza.

“Oh, god, yeah,” says Martyn. And, a second later - “Please.”

He fires up the Domino’s website obediently, pulls up the deals and picks one that’ll leave him some leftovers for when Martyn’s long gone tomorrow. Meateor for himself, as usual, and then he spins the laptop round on his knees to present Martyn with the options. “What are you having?”

Martyn stares at the screen, unblinking, for a few too many seconds.

“... Something wrong?”

He clears his throat. “Yeah, no, just. Um. Been a while.”

“D’you just want a margherita, then? Keep it easy?”

“No, I don’t - I was -” he grimaces, shakes his head roughly, and thumbs at the fabric of his shirt where the tea stain sits “- trying to remember what I liked.”

“Vegetarian?”

“No,” Martyn responds immediately.

“Olives? Mushrooms?”

“I’m not picky -”

“Pineapple on pizza?”

Martyn snorts. “Okay, yeah, I don’t much like pineapple on anything, I’ll give you that.”

“But as a concept.”

“No problem with it.”

“Then, Marty, my friend, you’ve lost the plot.”

He sits another moment, deliberating. Then - “Sweetcorn.”

“Yeah?”

“I like sweetcorn on pizza.”

“Alright,” says Oli, and spins the laptop round again to check the options. “Vegi Supreme or Chicken Feast?”

“I’ll take the chicken,” Martyn says, resolute.

Oli sends the order through, with potato wedges on the side, because it’s his money and he’s gonna pick the extra items for the deal. Then, once the little order tracker with the fake AI has popped up and started telling him stupid jokes to amuse him for the next 25 minutes or so, he turns back to look at Martyn. “Can I ask something?”

He raises his eyebrows. “Ask what?”

“And you don’t need to tell me if it’s, like, personal or whatever, just… what were you eating? If you haven’t seen pizza in however long?”

Martyn makes a face. “Whatever, honestly. It wasn’t a big worry for me - I mean, not like I could - yeah, it was just whatever. Not dead yet, so I’m clearly not malnourished.”

Oli cocks his head. “Whatever like whatever you were given, or whatever like you were scavenging?”

“Like - uh - like - I mean, I wouldn’t say scavenging, that’s - like whatever I could find? I know I’m not explaining this very clearly, it’s -”

“No, no, I said you didn’t need to tell me! Don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.” (It’s not like Oli doesn’t want to know, but he doesn’t need to know if it’s going to make Martyn uncomfortable to explain it.)

“Anyway. It wasn’t bad, it was just… y’know how Covid makes it so you can’t taste anything? Little bit like that.”

“Original Covid did. I don’t know about all the new variants.”

“Ah, yeah, heard about those! Did they ever run out of Greek letters?”

“Don’t think so, thank goodness.”

“Yeah,” Martyn nods.

Beside Oli, the little Domino’s robot lets him know that their pizzas are now going in the oven.

It feels odd, to be sitting here on the sofa, taking an extended lunch break with somebody who he’s only known from Minecraft servers and scratchy in-game prox chat. It feels odd to know that he’s doing hospitality for a man six or seven years younger than him, a friend who’s never answered out-of-character about himself before today. It feels odd to know that he’s actually looking at the real Martyn - not some rat, not some pirate, just… some guy.

Oli swallows and steels himself for what he’s about to say. “Erm - again. Don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. But… besides this whole Doc thing, what was your life like? Your normal life?”

Martyn’s expression flips into something unreadable for a second, then mellows again into neutrality. “Yeah, uh - nothing special, really. Born and raised in Nottingham, did alright at school, got the grades for uni but I ended up deferring. I was trying to get a job in my gap year but I didn’t really wanna end up behind the counter at GAME or McDonald’s or anything, and nowhere else ever got back to my applications, so… spent a lot of time at home, playing video games. No girlfriend, no mates who really stuck after college; not much worth writing home about. I wasn’t much of anything, really, not then.”

Oli is, he decides, going to ignore the implications of that comment. “Family?”

“Mum, dad, sister who’s been moved out for a few years. Dog. Oh, I hope he’s still alive, that’d suck if I never see my dog again.”

“Fingers crossed,” says Oli.

“What about you? What’s the home life of OrionSound like, when he’s not at the computer?”

“Oh, Marty, my entire life is at the computer,” he quips. “I work in software development. I actually did my degree in psychology, but you’d be surprised, there’s not a lot of room in the market unless you’ve done a load of other certifications as well. I guess I could have got a therapy licence, but as it turned out, I’d spent enough time in first year making terrible visual novels that by the time I got into the workforce I technically knew how to code. AI snapping at our heels now, of course, but it’s probably gonna eat itself by Christmas, so I’m not too worried about that.”

“I dunno,” says Martyn, “I’ve seen some pretty advanced AI.”

“So, yeah. I spent a few years freelancing, contracting for one place or another - I’m quick, which people seem to like, although that’s mostly so I can get back to gaming as soon as possible. And then… like two and a bit years ago? Yeah, would’ve been two years this past July… then I got a really nice position at CHESTCorp, it’s mostly remote work, I drive down to London every few months so they can “review my performance in a controlled environment”, whatever that means, and they pay well enough that I can afford this place on my own, which is -”

Oli stops talking when he notices Martyn’s face has gone white as a sheet.

“What’s wrong?”

“I knew it,” Martyn murmurs.

“What?”

“I knew it,” he says again, stronger, “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you, I knew you - I thought - he told me this would happen, I’ve seen it happen, I should’ve just learned from my mistakes the fucking first time, but clearly I’m stupid.”

“Marty, what are you -”

“Didn’t wanna believe this shit could follow me out here, but evidently it - oh. Oh, no, no, you fucking - it’s not over, is it? I’m still - that’s why nobody picked up the phone, it wasn’t real, you couldn’t synthesise my mother’s voice, I’d know! You’re CHEST, of course you’re CHEST, the one person I thought - I mean, I hoped - you’re fucking cruel, is what this is, it’s cruel, and you’re not fooling me twice. Don’t know how you got the food this realistic, but -”

“Martyn,” Oli tries to interrupt, “are you okay?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Martyn says through gritted teeth. “You’ve given the game away now, CHEST agent. Should’ve known it wasn’t real. Should’ve known I couldn’t get out that easy. Or you caught up before I got out, one of you fuckers, planted something, or - I don’t know, made me think I was finally out of this stupid place. Made me think it was fine so I’d start giving up secrets. Well, you’re not getting another word out of me, you fucking idiot. Some interrogation room you’ve got here, huh? This your best simulation? Get a better model for your TV, I’ll tell you that for free, the reflection’s too smooth.”

Well. Er. “Martyn,” he tries again, “I think you might be having a flashback?”

“Nothing back about it, you bastard. Giving me false hope like that. Thank god I don’t actually know Doc’s name, or you’d have been able to track him too, wouldn’t you? Fuck you. Don’t ever bring my family into this again, any of you.”

“Okay,” Oli says slowly, rifling through his psychology knowledge for grounding techniques, “you think this isn’t real, right now?”

“I know it isn’t real,” Martyn spits, “and it’s getting worse the more I’m poking at it. See, look -” he stomps a foot at the floor “- you’re losing resolution trying to keep it running.”

The carpet, which has not changed and is certainly not lower resolution than it was when they got here, endures being scuffed at. Oli doesn’t want to actually lay a hand on Martyn right now, though; he’s got a bad feeling that’ll end in something much worse than being kicked. Instead he dips into the kitchen across the room, pops an ice cube out of the tray faster than he’s ever needed to, and brings it back over to the sofa. “Here,” he says, chucking it at Martyn’s lap, “that real enough for you?”

Martyn catches the projectile reflexively. He stills, silent, both hands cupped around the ice cube, staying in the air.

Then, gradually, his eyes unfocused… his arms lower.

He opens them and stares down at the piece of ice in his palm, and, slowly and almost imperceptibly, begins to rock forward.

The Domino’s tracker chimes again. Their food has finished cooking, and it’s being delivered by Amal. Oli almost wants to laugh at the absurdity of it.

Whatever Martyn’s running from, it must go a lot deeper than he thought.

(part five here)

[heloflor]

Was thinking a bit about how “The Devil’s Playhouse” has a lot more comedy than people make it out to be, and while especially thinking about “The Penal Zone” I realized this episode is actually very very very very gay. Like, I’m pretty sure it’s the Telltale episode with the highest amount of gay moments (205 is second on this list, what with Sam getting catcalled by a moleman, Max flirting with Mr. Reaperphone, the whole bachelor party, Peppers etc).

I think what I really like about those moments is that it’s a great example of normalization. The characters are incredibly casual about it, talking about gay relationships the exact same way one would talk about straight relationships, it’s really neat to see! Especially considering that this game was made in 2010, a whooping 5 years before gay marriage was legal in the whole US. It's crazy and great how much they were able to get away with!

(Screenshots of all these moments with timestamps (and quotes) under the cut. To have as little pics as possible, only a small section of each dialogue is taken. And to have a limit of two screenshots per pic max, some dialogues that are cut in two parts in-game have the second part pasted under the first. The timestamps puts you at the beginning of each conversation. All footage from NapalmX717 with the screenshots in chronological order of this video)

Max: “What can I say, Sam? Alien ships love to abduct me. It’s not my fault I look so probe-able.” (9:44)

Sam: “Nice work, little buddy! Make sure you wait three days to call, or he’ll thing you’re desperate.” (11:47)

Max: “Well, he IS pretty charismatic, Sam. And he’s from space, which is a plus. But you’re the only hairy, overweight, domineering control freak I need, Sam.” (20:38)

Sam: “I don’t need to go to another planet for a methane rich environment, as long as I’ve got you, pal.”

Max: “That’s really sweet and obvious, Sam.” (22:46)

Skun-ka’pe: “Perfect! Just the one I wanted to see ha ha ha ha!”

Sam: “Keep the hands where we can see ‘em, pal.” (23:36)

Max: “We could just give ourselves tongue-baths, like cats and flight attendants do!” (30:57)

Sam: “Why do we have jumper cables? Neither of us knows how to use them.”

Max: “It’s simple, Sam: the RED cable goes on the RIGHT nipple, the BLACK cable clamps to the…” (34:42)

Max: “Oh boy! Now I can finally set up my 24-hours adults-only naked bunny chat line.” (34:58)

Sam: “Toys...Toys… we must prepare… the toys….”

Max: “Well, that’s just a typical Friday night for YOU, Sam.” (36:45)

Flint Paper: “Oh. Well yeah, that could be it. I was thinking it was you, Sam!”

Max: “You think you know a guy. I’m not angry, Sam, just very disappointed.” (1:03:49)

(For context they’re talking about who might be Girl Stinky’s secret admirer)

Max: “I can’t lie to Flint Paper, Sam!” (1:05:20)

Max: “What kind of pretend mother would I be if I didn’t worry about our imaginary baby?” (1:10:31)

Momma Bosco: “Oh, it’s not all bad. I’m getting better at apparating. And now I don’t leave a trail of ectoplasmic slime behind every time I leave the room.”

Max: “That’s better than Sam can say.” (1:23:13)

Sam: “I’m not gonna rest until I find the guy who killed my partner!” (1:43:13)

Max: “Wow. I feel really very close to you now, Agent Superball.” (1:45:33)

Sam: “I don’t like the thought of you teleporting off without me, Max.” (1:46:33)

Max: “Sam, this is all so sudden! I… I don’t know what to say!” (2:07:10)

Sam: “I think one of us should try to smash through that window with his rock-hard, melon-sized head.”

Max: “And I think one of us should try the door, unless he wants to spend the rest of the day picking plate glass out of his partner’s fluffy white nether regions.” (2:17:00)

Girl Stinky: “Sam and Max? Don’t tell me Skun-ka’pe wants YOU guys to be his love slaves, too?” (2:24:48)

Girl Stinky: “Eww. He wishes. He’s SO not my type. You only have to date an evil gorilla once to learn never to make THAT mistake again.”

Max: “We’ve all been there, girlfriend.” (2:25:07)

Girl Stinky: “Gee, it sounds like YOU two should go out with him. Would you like me to give you guys some privacy?” (2:27:33)

Max: “You’re my best friend, Sam! I know you’d take a bullet for me!” (2:31:02)

Sam: “You keep coming up with creepy disaster scenarios that always end with you eating me, Max. It’s getting annoying.”

Max: “If you don’t like it, then stop looking so damn tasty.” (2:38:11)

Max: “Think of something quick, Sam. I don’t like the way he’s undressing me with his eyes.” (2:53:22)

[canonically47]

my take on the OFMD s2 finale: fuck that

(major spoilers continuing from here)

it’s sweet that the crew now also has zheng, auntie, spanish jackie and the swede is back, the reunion kiss was the sweetest thing ever, i loved lucius and pete’s wedding etc etc but there’s some things i can’t look past.

let’s get into izzy. izzy went through a lot this season. he started off as someone we were meant to dislike and slowly evolved into the only reason the crew was alive and functional. they became his family, and he became their new, true leader. their new unicorn, if you will. they cared for him, they loved him, and he loved them back. hell, he even had that sweet speech about piracy that made me tear up!

but then he died. and this isn’t the bury your gays trope, since the show has dozens of happy gay people and a lot of queer joy, but the redemption through death trope - or at least a poor attempt at him.

look at me. izzy got all the redemption he needed. he proved himself. he was happy. he was content. he had a good life ahead of him. and then he died.

his final words didn’t even mean anything, because ed still left the crew (along with stede). and this is sweet because they got to fulfill their dreams of having an inn, but this would have been better if izzy’s speech was just slightly different. or if it was like it canonically is, then it should have been established the crew was going to visit, or the inn was temporary, or ANYTHING.

back to izzy - i’m not mad he died. i’m mad the timing was horrendously bad. a single 28 minute episode is not enough to have ed’s character arc evolve, a sweet reunion, lots of drama and comedy, kill izzy off, have a lupete wedding, and have gentlebeard stay behind to have an inn. there should have been one or two extra episodes. there should have been more time to mourn izzy! i was sobbing my ass off and the show had already moved on to the wedding - i mean, what?? are we just not meant to care? i get that he had that burial, and he was shown as the last frame in the show yes, but how much tribute is that? stede’s dialogue made it seem like he barely cared when we knew the two had gotten closer! i get that he may have had conflicting emotions and this show is a comedy, but come on, people, you can do better!

the inn idea is sweet but i don’t see it lasting. the fourth episode really makes me wary of this idea because those two girls really fucking hated that domestic lifestyle bro!!! also, ed just accepted himself as a pirate outside of blackbeard, he just forgets that life? that’s bullshit. you can’t just spend the entire season exploring ed’s character as a pirate and then drop the pirate part. you can’t!!!

still mad about izzy. still confused about why everyone was in such high spirits after his death despite, you know, them getting along with him amazingly this season and loving him so deeply. but whatever, i too would be back at sea and giggling after my (at heart) captain died. in fact, i would even get married after that! yay, ring those bells! (/sarc)

i loved the wedding but you cannot tell me it wouldn’t have been better if there had just been more time between izzy’s death and it.

also. i’m pretty sure so many other characters walked off wounds in that exact area izzy got shot in... but i guess... plot armor??

tl;dr: i’m pissed off at OFMD’s season two ending, especially the way izzy’s death was handled.

yeah, i’m not happy with this. at least put me out my misery and announce this is the last season. dragging it on for longer would not work.

ending words: i would have been much more content with izzy dying if he was given more time, if his death was handled better, and if his speech had meant anything at fucking all to ed.

[shadouge01]

I’m back.

My discombobulated thoughts now that I have finished Sonic Prime SPOLIERS!!!!!!!

********

Okay so I watched season 1 in parts and season 2 when it came out and just watched season 3 today. I binged everything, so if I don’t remember something 100% correctly, that’s why.

Sonic prime is good.

I know, shocker.

Okay, I haven’t watched any of the other shows so I can’t compare it to X or Boom or whatever. But this seemed to have a darker tone than most other sonic media and I enjoyed that a lot. (I know I need to watch SATAM, don’t yell at me.)I’ve dipped in and out of this fandom a lot. And my participation is all over the place (I won’t be posting about Ken spenders anymore, I took my Kenspiracies too far when I had that stupid twitter account yeah, that was me) but ANYWAY

This show was great. Not perfect, the main flaw I found was the pacing is very fact paced and action heavy which is good for a Sonic show and good for a person with ADHD like me. However I found the first season took awhile to get going and was more episodic. I know it was to introduce the characters but I got bored a bit. I’ll say again I liked the episode in Season 1 with Thorn Rose but the Boscage Maze and especially No Place never felt that fleshed out to me. I still wanted them to be saved because I cared about Sonic and his friends, but the worlds weren’t very interesting.

I. Love. New. Yoke. The aesthetic of this place is perfect and VERY Sonic CD bad future-seque which is PERFECT. I only wish we spent more time there. Especially in season 3 which takes place entirely in the Grim after the first two episodes, which I get, I do, but the pacing again, I felt was too fast and too much action and not enough character moments. The he ending felt rushed, because I really wanted to see the rebels rebuild New Yoke after the Egg Council was gone (assuming the other shatterspaces didn’t freeze in time like Green Hill did, but I got the implication that was a unique case.) and I wanted to see the others return home as well. I guess this leaves it open to a sequel or expansion of some kind, comics, some kind of spin off media, I’d even love an animated movie if they fixed the pacing issues, but yeah, that was my only gripe. I guess I wanted more time with Sonic and Nine reconciled too before everything happened but that’s the painful thing in life, sometimes you don’t get that. We know the prism still exists so then interacting again some way in the future might be possible, if they know how to control portals and such, hell with the chaos emerald they might be able to go to other worlds anyway. I wonder where Shadow is keeping the prism. I wonder if Nine stays on the Grim by himself or if he goes back to New Yoke. He deserves friends, and I’m sure some of the others would come around to him given time. renegade Knucks was up there fighting with Sonic after all. It could work. I just want him to be happy :((

I guess those are small nitpicks in the grand scheme of things because I want to say that the tone and storytelling was GREAT, the music was epic and cinematic and fit the tone of the show very well, the contrasting color palettes of different worlds really helped make it pop. The 3D animation was fantastic and felt perfect for a show like this. Characters were VERY expressive. (Hey Sega, can you update your in game models please thanks, you know it’s bad when the SA2 models have more dynamic facial expressions). Anyway, I thought the voice acting was great. Shadow’s voice felt a little wrong but I’m probably just used to Humphrey and Griffith, I don’t like his voice in forces either but I digress. It worked for this. Sonic’s VA was amazing and really able to convey a wide range of emotions and I thought the other characters had good VAs. Nine was great. I do wish maybe he’d had a redemption earlier against a greater threat a la Zuko style but one can dream. Nine is still easily the best version of Tails, ever. I was lukewarm on Tails as a character before and Nine made me appreciate everything about all versions of Tails. Incredible. What I love about Nine is he takes things too far because he has serious trust issues and him and Sonic fail to communicate which as a neurodivergent person is very relatable. I think Tails in general and especially Nine, is very autistic coded, and I love that. I just wish season 3 Nine had more development before the end because his arc was perfect until the end of season 2 but I’m at least glad he did realize and did the right thing. He’s really just a scared kid who wants a safe place, don’t we all? Again I REALLY want to see more material with him in the future and what becomes of him with Sonic gone.

My other favorite side characters were Thorn Rose, Rusty Rose, and Dread, but I thought they were all great. I loved that the roses had a great character moment, as did Dread when he finally realized that saving his friends was more important than treasure. The Egg council was awesome, taking different traits of Eggman and turning them into a squabbling family was PERFECT. The fact that they met their demise because they were arguing over the prism was so real. Great stuff.

I want to talk about Sonic himself because this is one of the best Sonics I’ve seen. I haven’t decided if this is better than Movie Sonic, but I love both a ton along with Adventure. This Sonic is one of the most expressive Sonics with the most emotional range. Yeah, he’s still overly cocky and hilarious, and mostly always optimistic, but I love that he actually learns from his mistakes and comes up with new ideas. The fact he even took inspiration from the Egg Council to never give up was great. I loved the robots of all the main characters as well. Sonic was well written, VERY in character but still serious when he needs to be (unlike Archie Sonic (sometimes) and 06, which is bad).

Speaking of 06, this is the best written Shadow we have gotten since 06. I mentioned very early on in this blog how I love his arc through Shadow 05 and Sonic 06. Sonic is way out of character and the Elise thing is stupid, BUT, Team Dark was perfect in 06. It’s sad we don’t have Team Dark anymore, but Rouge on team sonic was cool, I just like Rouge in general and if they’re gonna make her part of the main cast, good. Okay, back to Shadow. His development in game is that he goes from being angry at the world and wanting revenge, to being emotionally numb and trying to figure out the truth, to finally realizing his purpose and knowing not to give up and kicking the bad guys when it hurts. He’s hard to crack, but he DOES care about his friends, as you can see through subtle actions, rather it be Team Dark, Sonic, whatever. He’d never ADMIT to Sonic that they’re friends, but I do genuinely think he cares for Sonic.

Anyway, Shadow has been stagnant as a character since then, the best writing was in Forces with him vs. Infinite but it didn’t do much to further his character. He hasn’t been in a lot of media lately like Frontiers (although maybe they knew they couldn’t write him well for games and wanted to see how he went over in prime and the upcoming movie). Prime Shadow made me more excited for Movie Shadow, because if we got one of, if not THE best Sonics ever in Prime as well as the movie, I’m expecting good things from Shadow in the movie, considering they really nailed Tails and Knuckles in Sonic 2, imo, and now knowing that Shadow is allowed to have feelings again is so good. He’s very in character, overly serious, and cold, but he is incredibly dedicated to the cause and unquestionably a hero, like 06 Shadow. Prime Shadow reminds me a LOT of 06 Shadow and that’s GOOD. He’s also just great with his subtle nod to Sonic when Sonic talks about his friends, their excellent back and forthing with Sonic cracking jokes “I didn’t know you were a hugger” and Shadow responding with his straight man persona “do you want me to save you or not?” It was great stuff all the way through. I thought he was decent in Season 2, but Season 3 was AWESOME. I guess I had to trade Nine for Shadow, sigh. Nine did come back around in the end which GOOD, if they kept him as a villain the whole time I would’ve been pissed, but I digress. This might be the best Shadow since SA2, he’s SO GOOD YALL and I could keep raving about Prime Shadow all day. I loved when Dr. Deep called him an edge lord, it’s great meta humor, and in character for Deep who actually is an edge lord. Really hope SEGA takes the positive feedback from this and makes Shadow better in upcoming games/comics. LET FLYNN WRITE A GOOD SHADOW FOR GOD’S SAKE!

Ahem.

Anyway, I’m glad I watched Prime, it gave us the best Sonic Shadow and Tails maybe ever and it took the darker tone that Forces tried and really fleshed it out. Good job guys.

[spacemanwandersstuff]

thoughts on the new sp special??

okay so this is definitely the best special since post covid, i think because it felt a lot like a typical south park two-parter episode. i wasn’t constantly checking how much run time was left and it felt really really really well paced like a two parter episode would be.

this special also felt like matt and trey were actually passionate about the topic. i’m guessing part of the problem of the recent specials is that they have been juggling so many things the past year (casa bonita, snow day, the contracts themselves). but something like the cred special didn’t feel like they were as invested or had a lot to say, which obviously isn’t always a bad thing because south park isn’t only social commentary. but for a special or two parter that does revolve around social commentary, a topic that matt and trey have a lot to say about just works so much better for the length. i think the panderverse had a lot of potential here because matt and trey seemed passionate about that too, and because the conversation between cartman and kathleen kennedy was really well done. but the end of obesity just executed it so much better with the pacing, b-plot tie in, characters, jokes, etc. the ending was so great too, just felt like a classic south park episode twist.

kyle and cartman were SO funny in this special. i don’t think they’ve had such good screentime separately or together for a long while, and their dynamic was so good. it’s the classic setup of kyle obsessing over something stupid cartman got himself into, but when they have to work together it’s even better. a lot like the dynamic in tonsil trouble, the cherry on top would’ve been if kyle and cartman argued more lmao

and kyle. kyle was UNHINGED this episode and it was hilarious. works so well with his character because he just can’t wrap his head around how stupid the healthcare system is, and the fact that people aren’t just selling ozempic for what it actually costs to make. also the fact that he’s like “yeah there’s tutorials for making ozempic on tiktok”, i think it’s funny he still uses tiktok. the episode also had him kill the twinkies mascot and casually dropped he has freckles, so that’s a huge win

this whole special just felt like it was made with way more… effort? the way the contract south park has with paramount and max have just really dragged down the beauty of its original format (6 days to air). specials like cred and panderverse just felt like they would’ve been executed so much better with a 20 minute episode made in 6 days. even in the behind the scenes documentary, trey says once an episode is finsihed he always feels like he could’ve added more to it or changed things, that their opinions may change while making the episode but they just gotta run with it, and that they usually wish they could work on every episode longer. that’s the south park’s strong suit, because having only 6 days to write, animate, voice act, and create the episode forces them to have no time to overthink. but there are exceptions with episodes that do need more time to make, and this special felt like one of those. it felt more like it had the right to be a special than most of the recent ones.

anyways, good special. had the classic south park feel and definitely one of the best specials as of late

[ramblingroommate]

Watching 9-1-1 for the first time

Ok the canonically bi firefighter got me. I’ve been seeing gifs of “the gay firefighter show” for around two years and I gotta be honest… I never gave it a chance. It was fun seeing people post about the show here and there but I mentally categorized it as “yet another queer coded queerbaiting show tumblr goes crazy for… been there done that”. But making one of the characters from the main ship (from what I understand) CANONICALLY queer after SEVEN SEASONS? A MONTH BEFORE PRIDE? Okay now I just have to watch it.

So here I am. Watching it for the first time and writing about it. This is more exciting than I expected tbh. Oh! Just to make it clear: I have never seen a single episode of this show but I have heard quite a few things about the characters over the years. But I never paid that much attention? So I’m not even sure what I actually know… I’ll figure it out when I get to it I guess.

Episode 1x1: Pilot

I like that straight off the bat the VERY FIRST thing they say is that there are two types of emergencies: the immediate abrupt ones and the long term slowly corroding ones. This character (Abby?) is a 911 operator and has a mother with Alzheimer so she’s pretty familiar with both types of emergencies. What a way to introduce a character! Also I like her voice, it’s soothing.

Here they are! Nice to finally officially meet you guys. Oh, I guess that’s something I know: I know all the characters names even tho I can’t really match most of them with a face. I obviously recognize Buck. And I know Eddie gets introduced in season 2. I’m guessing the older guy that seems to be in charge is Bobby? I think he’s like their boss or something? I hope the bits and pieces of info I know won’t start to mix in my head.

Also those are the worst compressions I have ever seen in my life. Can we put a little more effort in this cpr?

I mean… yeah? Mmmh. Okay that line threw me off for a moment. On one hand, of course they hang up after help gets there, that’s why they called in the first place. THEY are the ones in need, it’s about them not about you.

On the other hand, I think I understand what they’re trying to say… it has to be hard to not know if you actually helped or not, not have that closure. A nurse, a doctor, a firefighter know if the person they were called in to help was actually saved or not. Whether it’s good or bad, at least they get the closure of knowing. A 911 operator might be there for the worst part and then that’s it. On to the next one. Never thought about that before.

Oof that’s not gonna work. I mean I understand why he would say it and i remember an article talking exactly about this but… that’s not something that’s gonna help her in the moment.

… yeah

Tho I gotta say… they actually showed her fall, I didn’t expect it. It shows the kinda budget this show has, doing a stunt like that for a character you see for 3 minutes. Maybe a bit cold on my part to focus on that but oh well

Mmmh… a black book with names written inside. Either this has suddenly become Death Note or he has a Secret Past TM. There are also numbers… probably the number of people he couldn’t save in some tragic accident and somehow feels responsible for? And now he wants to make up for it by saving the same number of people. If that’s the case then it’s peak tv drama.

Ok wait wait slOW DOWN THERE, I CAN’T KEEP UP. Twenty seconds of conversation and I learned Bobby is a devout christian ex addict (alcohol and painkillers) who got in trouble with the department and spent ten years in and out of rehab AND has only been back for 18 months??? I wasn’t expecting to be told so much backstory so soon.

And then they immediately cut to Buck… is he a sex addict? Is that what they’re implying here? Gonna ignore everything else that happens on screen because firehose? Really?

WAIT A FUCKING SECOND

THIS SHOW IS MADE BY RYAN MURPHY?!?!???! AND BRAD FALCHUK TOO, THE TWO GUYS WHO ALSO MADE GLEE?

WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THE FUUUUUUU-

Okay so I have much more to say about this show than I thought so I’m gonna split my comments in more parts (part 2 here)

[yellowhollyhock]

I noticed in the episode samurai tourist people like saying how intuitive mikey was in noticing the role that Leo plays. But here’s the thing is it felt like he was defending Leo’s shitty behavior and telling Donnie and Raph their feelings aren’t valid. Also wasn’t Raph the first to notice Leo was fighting something else? The only reason Donnie and Raph were so hard on him at that is point is because Leo was being drill Sargent Leo to them except Mikey so of course Mikey had no issues with angry mode Leo because he wasn’t getting trained to death by the guy and yelled at. So I saw that as Mikey making excuses for Leo’s behavior all season. It feels like the logic of your mom defending your dad being an asshole. oh your father works hard to provide for the family! Don’t be so hard on him for drinking and yelling at you! Nice logic there Mikey Don and Raph had every right to be mad at that point.

Oh there’s all kinds of family politics going on during that arc

I think the main reason Mikey was defending Leo is because he’d just had training from him in Grudge Match. Also possibly he didn’t want them to be talking bad about him in front of guests? Almost like, yes this is an issue but let’s not do this in front of people. Which is thoughtful in a way, and immature in other ways. Which makes sense because Mikey is both thoughtful and fifteen.

Raph and Don have put up with a lot from Leo, and Mikey was shielded from the brunt of it. At the same time, Leo does go easy on Mikey for a reason, the two of them have a special bond and giving in by admitting his attitude is not okay might feel like a betrayal to Mikey? So yeah I do think he’s defending Leo’s bad behavior, and not really being fair to his other brothers in that moment. The whole family is trying to work around Leo’s demons though, they aren’t always going to make the right calls.

As to your point about Raph—yeah he seems to have picked up on the most the earliest and that’s why by Samurai Tourist he’s Done defending Leo’s behavior. He’s been patiently on the sidelines trying to let Leo work this out for himself and it hasn’t been working. It’s time to jump out in front of his brother and make the demons go away. Except he can’t because it’s not that type of enemy. This is the first time Raph hasn’t been able to reach Leo when he needs it, and that’s why he’s airing things out with Don. I think part of him hopes Mr. Fix-It will have some kind of solution the rest of them haven’t seen.

Meanwhile out of all of them I don’t think Donny’s trying to help anymore. He’s just tired of being yelled at and glad to have Raph’s ear about it. What they’ve all just lived through with Shredder’s defeat was very uncomfortably close to what he saw in SAINW. Probably literally everyone picked up on that except Leo, bless his heart. So we’re seeing both Raph and Mikey try to do their best for Leo here, but I think in their own (imperfect) ways also trying to look out for Don. Raph wants to confront the problem head on and Mikey wants to keep everyone happy in the moment. Neither of those things is truly an option, though.

I had a sibling go through her own type of Big Leo Arc and I remember these exact types of fights. Getting frustrated with each other when our approaches didn’t match up. With something like that going on, you have to be able to Treat Them Like Normal and make good memories in the middle of the chaos, and you also have to sometimes do what it takes to Dig Things Up so they can actually heal. I think we all tried both at one time or other and rarely were we on the same page. That experience definitely influences the way I see this arc (doesn’t make other readings less valid btw, just makes me extra obsessed with the family dynamics through those episodes).

I hope I kind of addressed what you were talking about? Short answer, Yes agreed let’s go easy on Raph and Don, they’ve put up with a lot already, and they’re not picking on Leo they’re trying to help (mostly. They’re definitely also mad but can we blame them?). Personally I’d take it easy on Mikey too, he reacted in a flawed way to a sucky situation. I think when people bring this up it’s mainly because they see that Mikey Is emotionally attuned and looks out for his brothers, but most of the time he does that through humor, which leads to him being treated as comic relief, in the show and sometimes in fandom as well. So I can see why Mikey lovers would want to use an example that doesn’t lead to a Comedic Moment, even if it isn’t necessarily the best one.

[meganwasbored]

The Dragon Prince Thoughts Season 1 Episodes 7-9

Episode 7

-“good try, doggies” she’s so cute

-RAYLAS HUMAN IMPRESSION I CANT

-“snow elf.”

-“I need something more personal than a shirt”

“Underwear?”

HHAHAHHA

-also if Soren or Claudia make any bad choices in the future I’ve decided that it is not their fault in the slightest thank you

-When Rayla said she was gonna ask nicely I didn’t think she was actually gonna ask nicely

-“I’m just a simple human girl who like the human things like bread and complaining all the time!”

“No, you’re an elf!”

“Fine I’m an elf.”

-bruh if that didn’t get it off what the heck will

-ELLIS AND AVA’S BACKSTORY OH MY GOSH

-“There she is! She’s an elf!” BRO WHYD YOU HAVE TO EXPOSE HER LIKE THAT WHATD SHE DO TO YOU

Episode 8

-ELLIS IS BACK

-even if the healer can heal her hand it wouldn’t be any use because the band is still on

-could not be more unrelated but I just remembered that Callum mentioned a jerk face dance in episode 1 or 2 and I can’t even describe how much I NEED to see that

-“How do you plan for indescribable terrors? I feel like you need to be able to describe them first”

-“Flash! Woof! Whoosh! Slish-slash!”

“…is he okay?” “I think he’s finally cracked under the pressure”

-“Callum you may be a dummy but you’re not a fool!”

-don’t worry Callum, I appreciate your weird way of explaining plans

-bruh why does Viren even care about the elf anymore

-if y’all don’t start appreciating Callum’s humor RIGHT NOW-

-Bait you had one job

-I can’t believe they almost got killed by an oversized earthworm

-WHAT WAS IN THE BAG

-why am I getting weird vibes from Ellis all of the sudden is she gonna betray them or something? Like I have a feeling him telling her about the primal stone was a mistake but I can’t put my finger on why

-“knowing you is definitely worth losing a hand for” AWWWWW

-“I’m just a guy who can draw and make wry comments from time to time” yeah that’s why I love you what about it

-how did they just blind a creature with no eyes

-“Get zapped! Hahaha get zapped by the zap hand!” I love him so much

-“I knew whoosh should have been part of 🫡The Plan🫡”

-oh yeah and Ellis I’m sorry I ever doubted you

-WHAT DID VIREN DO TO THE ELF AND WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE A ZOMBIE NOW

-THE HECK DO YOU MEAN NO MIRACLE HEALER HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN THIS

Episode 9

-boy the heck do you mean you can talk to animals how did we not know this

-like talk talk to them or just communicate cause those are two very different things

-“fitting in is boring anyway”

-so is this a magical ability or is he just really good with animals and he thinks it’s more than that because he’s a kid, like I’m not saying he’s lying but I also don’t blame them for not believing him

-“you might say it’s, the ka-tallest” HAHAHA that was funny idc

-hey for every only child out there who doesn’t know how to write an accurate sibling relationship, just watch Soren and Claudia

-bruh there’s MUMMIES in this universe???

-WAS THE MUMMY THE HEALER IS THE HEALER DEAD

-her hand looks so bad oh my gosh

-THAT FACE SCARED ME YALL KNOW I DONT DO JUMP SCARES

-Callum is me when I lose a spider

-“I’m disgusted, and a little impressed” hahahaha

-I don’t understand this animal thing at all he’s being so ominous about it

-“then you have to do the thing” JERKFACE DANCE????

-JERKFACE DANCE

-“I should have figured it out, they were all illusions” um no actually I think you investigated a little too much

-ok but is she gonna give the collar back tho cause ik we love Ava but she’s gonna have it rough without it

-ik for a fact the egg’s not dead cause the show is literally named after it so stop teasing me with this

-Callum honey great idea but we gotta think these things through

-OH MY GOSH ITS SO CUTE

-DRAGONDRAGONDRAGONDRAGON

-so he DOES know exactly what they’re saying?? Is there a magical explanation for this or do we just have to except it, I’m good either way I just wanna know

-you have GOT to be kidding me, the indestructible knife can’t cut the band but a dragon nibbles on it a little bit and it snaps?

-Zym has already done something amazing and he was literally just hatched, most useful character on the show rn

-that short gust of wind that blew in Soren’s face right after he said “couldn’t you do this someplace warmer” was personal

-I was gonna ask why no one but the old elf lady was phased by the giant purple beam of light but then I remembered everything they just went through to get up there

-is Viren gonna just look like that from now on I still don’t even know what he did to the elf, put him in a coin?? Does putting someone in a coin make you look like that?? Remind me to never put anyone in a coin

[girl4music]

“We have to talk a little bit about last season and the finale and all that good stuff. Last season was unique. Still Season 5 is my ultimate favourite season but Season 6 is in some ways so special and it’s because I relate to it the most. I relate to all the ideas that were explored in this season. Yes, it’s painful and sad but it might be the realist season so far. The Big Bad this season was the Gang themselves. Everybody was their own worst enemy and everyone in the real world can relate to that. This season we got a real and unfiltered look through our characters’ very psyche. It deepened each character to a whole new other level. All the pain, all the heartbreak, all the depression, all that darkness, all that drama. It wasn’t for shock value. It was for a harsh and yet meaningful heartfelt story, and I love the show for that. So yeah, for all its sadness, I really really love this season. It showed that Buffy wasn’t just a witty, happy show with some sad episodes here and there. It can go to a really dark place and keep it there constantly. It made sense making life the villain of the season because Buffy struggled just with the idea of living and it’s such a real thing. Each character’s problems were real life situations that everyone can relate to. It felt like a carry over from ‘The Body’ episode. Like seriously.

The darkness and depression - most shows would have solved it in an episode or two. But this show shows that realistic path that this thing can take so long. Grief, depression, addiction cannot be easily curved over night. It takes time. And it makes this show so much more than just a typical fantasy/supernatural show. The fact that this season started with Buffy crawling out of her own grave only to end with her crawling out into the light. This symbolised how she overcome her depression. I loved how the whole season didn’t go with their traditional Big Bad of the season. There hasn’t been a huge villain conflict since Glory and most all of the baddies of the week were either the Trios schemes or self-inflicted by the main characters. But when we finally had a proper Big Bad, it was so complicated because it was Willow. And when you look back and you see the episodes with the Trio, you can also see that they also focused on issues with Willow. Like always hidden in plain sight. What a great way to hide the real Big Bad. The very fact that one of the Gang becomes the Big Bad is so fantastic. All the build-up of the last 4 episodes, 3 of which have jaw-dropping cliffhangers - amazing stuff.

Xander rejecting Anya at the wedding; magical drug addictions; Buffy handling her depression in a destructive way; Spike dealing with the chip, his demon side, his William side and the fact of what he almost did to Buffy; Willow turning into Dark Willow; Giles’ appearance - what the hell? What the hell? By the way, Alyson acted her entire ass off in those last 3 episodes. Only she can pull off being diabolically evil while she’s still simultaneously being Willow. A big theme that I thought was extremely profound is the idea of consent. Willow struggled with it many times during the season. She did magical spells on Tara and all her friends without their consent. The Trio of course - Jonathan didn’t even realize that having a sex slave was rape. Then Spike assaulting Buffy with the justification that she needed to feel him to be reminded of his love. Amy giving magic to Willow without her consent. They all violated someone in one way or another. And it was an interesting concept. And it was interesting that the fact that they tried to touch on that aspect, you know?

For me, I really didn’t like the Trio this season. They were a bit one-dimensional. Usually Big Bads are but in this season particularly it didn’t work. But I do understand why it was necessary to have them - if it makes sense. The only interesting part about them is how they started being just nerdy boys playing games, trying to be Big Bads even though they suck at that until they became men who committed evil crimes. Jonathan got it out of the 3. He was the most mature. He understood the weight of what they did. Yes, he kept quiet but he did realize that Warren was dangerous. Andrew - Andrew man is just a simp minion willing to blindly be loyal to him.

The thing that kinda bothered me a bit - I’m not sure ‘bothered me’ is the right words - but I didn’t like the fact that we didn’t really have the time to digest Tara’s death because immediately we went to Dark Willow. I love the scene between Xander and Willow not only because he was the one to pull Willow back, but it was also a moment for the grief or pain that Willow has gone through with the loss of Tara. The impact of Tara’s death was finally dealt with when Willow collapsed with Xander on the bluff. But as I said - it really made sense that Xander was the one who pulled her back because Xander more than anyone holds a special place in Willow’s heart. He’s her first love. Her best friend since childhood. I can’t think of anyone else who could’ve penetrated her wall of grief enough to remind her of her humanity. This season Xander spent time doubting himself, letting his fears take control of himself. He doubted his ability to do good by the people he loves. And it wasn’t just in a relation with Anya, it was in a relation with everyone else that is close to him. He doubted himself. He thought that he was incapable of doing anything for his loved ones. And for me in that scene, he overcome his fears. His love for Willow was strong enough that he overcome his fears even in the face of death - which was so beautiful to see. The greatest thing about seeing Anya’s reaction to hearing Xander’s the one to save the world this time is that realization that she spent all this time trying to hurt him that if she did he wouldn’t even be able to, you know, save the world. It was so subtle that I really really loved it. I would’ve never imagined a story’s arc that ended with both Buffy and Giles out of commission and leaving it to Xander to save the world from Willow. I mean, who would’ve thought? Willow always thought that she was a nobody and it was a constant thing since Season 1. But before Tara, before Oz, she always had Xander. He loves her even though she feels like she’s a nobody. But nevertheless he loved her the way she is and the way she was back then. And Xander is that constant reminder that old Willow was worth something, you know? And it’s such a beautiful thing to see. Also the fact that Willow and Xander’s relationship isn’t romantic - it is what makes this whole thing way better. I appreciate so much this show for giving us a platonic relationship. They put friendship at center and not romance. And God, I love this show for this, like seriously. Like in this whole Buffyverse I feel like there’s 3 characters who had the most character development of all the other characters. Willow, Cordelia and Wesley. Cordelia also did a total 180 and became a woman to be proud of in the end like Willow. And Wesley - this guy was a literal geek in every sense possible - and yet in a few years he became such a dark and bad ass character. And Willow - like from this sweet, genuine nerdy girl that lacks confidence to dark veiny Willow - like what?

Spike - they had us in the end. Like, seriously had us. Like I really thought he was talking about his chip. But it turned out to be not the case. I was played perfectly even though I noticed how it was weird that he was there looking to take his chip from out of his head to hurt Buffy when we already established that the chip doesn’t work on her in the first place. So yeah, I was like what? But they really did play me. But it makes sense knowing his existential crisis, and his feelings for Buffy are a huge part of that. And he has been struggling with himself non-stop this season. And I feel like what happened with Buffy was the final tipping point that spelled him. I remember his words being like ‘What have I done? What did I do? Why did I not do it? Why do I feel this way?’ But then it came to him and he sets out to get his soul back. He wants to go back to being William. A man that he thinks is worthy of Buffy. But we all know that getting your soul back after centuries of torturing, killing and mayhem doesn’t mean happiness and rainbows once you get it back. But this is only going to make Spike worthy to have a redemption arc, you know, just like Angel. And it’s interesting to know that the difference between Angel and Spike is that Angel didn’t choose to have a soul, Spike had. He chose on his own accord to get his soul back. So I’m not sure how it’s going to work with him, you know? So both Willow and Spike got their souls back at the end of Season 6 - which is interesting.”

Your entire recap/review of Season 6. Wow. I had to quote the whole thing.

You are so insightful. Holy shit.

I fucking love you!

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Yeah, Season 6 is very special. And you’ve explained precisely why and how just like that. I’m in awe. 😮

“So both Willow and Spike got their souls back at the end of Season 6 - which is interesting.”

I swear I thought I was the only one who picked up on this parallel. The fact Dark Willow and Spike don’t interact. Of course they don’t. They’re one in the same thematically. They are the parallel characters in Season 6 and that’s why Spike was so wary of Willow. Because he recognized in her what he can’t stand in himself. He intentionally kept away from her because he didn’t want to be reminded of who he is out of a desperate need to be worthy and feel belonged. There is some striking parallels between Willow and Spike yet they barely interact. But I do believe that this season it’s very intentional that they don’t.

[tailsrevane]

[tv review] ds9 1x04-1x08 (1993)

ds9 threatening me with a good time.

1x04 “a man alone”

if you’re like me you want to write this one off for being principally about odo being so oppressed because *checks notes* it looks like he may have used his position as a cop to murder someone and then chafed at being removed from the investigation of a murder for which he is clearly the prime suspect, like regardless of whether he is or not he obviously needed to be taken off that case like a million years earlier than he was? and him being so butthurt about it is just wild?

seriously the main plot of this episode is just infuriating. and the secondary plot of keiko becoming a schoolteacher is… not that much better? like, you cannot convince me that ds9 wouldn’t materially benefit from an arboretum, and even if you wanted to take her character this direction, having her just kinda wander around scowling disapprovingly at all the children on the station is also just about the worst way you could’ve chosen to get there? so in one corner we have just absolutely wild copaganda, and in the other we have a bad idea poorly executed. super.

the problem is, this is also the episode that started jake & nog’s iconic friendship, so you can’t just totally write it off without losing something pretty vital to the series. not that their first few interactions were anything all that special, and it’s rather interesting seeing rom pop up in these early episodes because they clearly just had no idea who he was yet, but regardless jake & nog’s relationship is just such a big part of the show and one of the all-time great trek friendships in its own right, so you can’t just totally ignore this episode unfortunately.

also there’s some good quark/odo stuff and no matter how much odo infuriates me, i do certainly love how blatantly those two are husbands.

but yeah, y’know. the rest of it is still pretty awful. acab. c-rank

1x05 “babel”

there are kind of way too many episodes of season 1 that follow this basic format nearly beat for beat, but the aphasia virus is so novel that it kind of pushes this one to the top of the pack among those at least. plus we get a pretty awesome example of kira just bulldozing her way to a solution, which is pretty much always gonna be a plus. extremely “glad she’s on our side” energy.

also, with quark & odo basically the last two people on the station not affected by the virus, we get even more of them just blatantly being husbands, which is just about the only time i can stand odo. so, yeah. that’ll work. b-rank

1x06 “captive pursuit”

this wasn’t a terribly well-written episode, and o’brien is just about the least sensible character for them to decide is just… in charge of this alien just because he’s the first guy who encountered him? like, literally any other senior officer would’ve been better equipped for this, it seems like? like, don’t get me wrong, i did enjoy the clearly predator-inspired bullshit for, ah, totally not kink-related reasons. (don’t check.)

that doesn’t make this a good episode or anything, but like when the one hunter guy is berating the prey guy about how he’s gonna be put on display for people to insult & punish for allowing himself to be captured alive yeah i was hella into it, so i can’t say i didn’t get anything out of this pretty lackluster episode. c-rank

1x07 “q-less”

why the fuck was this a ds9 episode? like, i guess they needed to give ds9 one (1) and only one (1) q episode, but of all the ways to involve q in the show you’re gonna have vash’s return happen on ds9? really? what a just truly bizarre choice.

also like, in terms of q’s only ds9 appearance, following vash around making threatening comments and then getting punched in the face by commander sisko wasn’t exactly a great use of your one john de lancie appearance. c-rank

1x08 “dax”

i love a good courtroom episode, and dax is probably my favorite ds9 character, but it’s hard to say that the combination here makes an entirely satisfying whole? also like, i’m beyond infuriated that the only way dax was rescued from being kidnapped early in the episode is that bashir was being a fucking creeper? like, we’re basically being narratively told that his behavior was actually okay? so that fucking sucks.

the trial itself is actually pretty interesting, and i fucking love the old lady judge who is just doesn’t want to be there & consequently has no patience for anything. and i loved sisko fighting tooth & nail using every loophole of the legal system to keep dax from being extradited. this is a great sisko episode, honestly. the problem is that it’s not a great dax episode, and for it to work it would kind of have to be. c-rank

[bizarrequazar]

(@feanorianswelcome​ I’m giving this its own post since I ended up writing a lot, so here’s my honest thoughts on the Advance Bravely novel)

I finished it about a week ago and my review is that it’s the narrative equivalent of a car crash—horrible but you can’t look away.

It was BAD, like easily one of the most ridiculous and least sensical things I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t unenjoyable—there were a lot of parts that made me laugh if only for the absurdity. The main thing I think is you need to go in knowing that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously lol. Also all of the characters are horrible people to some degree and you just have to roll with it (except Tian Yanqi, who absolutely did not deserve everything that happened to him).

I did get a bit annoyed towards the end, for two reasons specifically. First was the breakup scene which was 100% abusive—I’ve seen a number of people say the relationship in general is abusive and honestly I disagree (it’s not healthy, but it’s not abusive until this point), but that scene really had me hoping that they wouldn’t get back together for Xia Yao’s sake. Yuan Zong’s behaviour in the breakup scene and during the time they were broken up made me really dislike him tbh. My second issue is just how many subplots revolved around one of them thinking the other was cheating. I mean once or twice, sure, but it happened AT LEAST five times just counting off the top of my head and the novel even ended on one of those plots?? They’re literally that “you know other men?” meme.

Honestly the novel should have ended after the well scene like the show did since that was the big dramatic event that led to them getting back together, everything after that kind of felt like an unnecessary extended epilogue.

I enjoyed it, I don’t regret reading it, but... yeah I don’t think I can recommend it at all lmao. I think if you watch the drama it’s worth it to read up to the equivalent of episode 28 since it does give you a lot of context that makes the show make more sense, but it’s not worth it to finish out the novel. There’s no big climax, that well scene is it (and it doesn’t come until around chapter 190 after a good forty chapters of stuff the show didn’t include).

Also I’m glad I never have to see nipples described as red peas again. 

Thanks boys, it’s been real.

[ashtraythief]

I love when you talk about Sam and Dean! Your thoughts on them are so interesting, and you really get the characters. I haven’t watched the season post 11 because I couldn’t take all the manufactured drama between the two boys, so I’m guessing I need to pick it up? You talking about them being settled and domestic and choosing each other over and over again is SO sweet. I’ve always been curious to see how their dynamic would change in later seasons, but I was worried there would be more manufactured drama. Like the writers kept making them fight and it felt so forced (can’t even think of what season I’m talking about right now..). Does that stop? Do you even know what I’m talking about? I can’t take the manufactured drama to make a more interesting show, I just want those babies to be happy and loving and catch bad guys together

Oh, thank you nonnie! That’s so kind of you to say <3 I know I'm not usually part of the tumblr meta crowd, so this makes me go all mushy inside ;)

Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Seasons 6-11 have their good stuff, but the soulless split, the Amy thing, the Gadreel thing, the Amelia thing, the darkness thing, the MoC thing, there’s just lots of drama and conflict. That definitely dies down later. Which I guess makes things better, but I am personally not a big fan of the later seasons, despite brother domesticity. (For reference, I love seasons one to five, I do enjoy six and seven, I find the Amelia thing atrocious, but I like the back half of season eight. Nine and ten are ups and down and mostly wasted potential. Eleven is both better and worse. I think it has many good motw and some outstanding brother eps like Red Meat and Safe House, but I absolutely loathe that they brought Lucifer back for many reasons and I’m not a fan of how they did the Darkness. Season twelve could have been good, but too many things rubbed me the wrong way. I really dislike thirteen and fourteen. Fifteen is probably the worst, Carry On excluded, even though I think is isn’t a good episode as a whole, it just has outstanding scenes.) For your question of whether you should pick it up: there are people who enjoy the later seasons for precisely the brother harmony reasons. I’m not one of them. For me the bad outweighs the good and I only rewatch very few episodes. I’ll put the rest under the cut because it’s basically late season negativity though I will try to point out things that I think worked.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the domestic moments, I love SamandDean being a unit and together and killing bad guys, but the bad myth arcs, the inconsistent characters, the endless angel mess, the endless regurgitation of Lucifer and the frankly lazy writing and incompetent show running make most of it unwatchable for me. Initially, I quit the show halfway through season 12, because a lot of the motw eps were just not great (a lot of the lazy writing included dumbing down Sam and Dean for danger and peril, when you know they’ll survive anyway and you know they’re competent hunters, but the writers weren’t smart enough to pull off good suspenseful plots most of the time), and I found the return of Mary both utterly unnecessary and I also didn’t think her character was written well. I have very petty reasons for disliking some elements of the Men of Letters strongly, so yeah. And then I was staying with a friend when the wire fight finale aired and that sealed the deal for me for a while lol.

Eventually, when they announced the last season, I went back and forced myself through an entire rewatch and it was painful. I really don’t care at all about 13 and 14. I stopped giving any fucks about the angels after season 7 tbh. I really liked Cas and to some degree the angels until season 7, after that Cas’s characterization and powers were inconsistent and all over the place and no other angel stuck around long enough that you’d care about them and their power struggle (Hannah being the only exception). I know they needed to give J2 more time off and needed to give other characters more screen time, but that wasn’t it. I also didn’t care about the apocalypse hunters and the whole AU Michael thing. Never mind Lucifer. The addition of Jack could have been really good (though why they had to cast another white boy at that point in the show really is beyond me. No shade on Alex C, I think he did a decent job for the character and was downright delightful when possessed by a demon, but like, my dudes, at least try with the diversity when it comes to your most recurring regulars), and they actually could have used his struggle with his identity and his parentage and his relationship with Cas as a counterweight to Sam and Dean and give J2 time off. Instead the writers couldn’t decide whether Jack should be Cas or Sam and Dean’s foster son, and developed neither of these relationships as fully as they could have. There were great moments with all three of them and Jack, how their own history made them related to or raise the boy, but they couldn’t do it all in the time they had, so a more focused storytelling with Cas and Jack would have done wonders I think both for Cas as a character and a compelling side-plot to Sam and Dean’s adventures when J2 needed time off. Rowena and Charlie are bright spots in the later seasons, but Charlie was criminally killed off and Rowena could have gotten a little more screen time I think. 

What I like about the brothers and their conflict is that they both back each other’s plays, but also listen to each other. Their reunion after Dean’s Michael possession is beautiful, there are lovely brother bond moments (we see Poughkeepsie in action!), and there’s heart wrenching grief when Dean thinks Sam has died. Good stuff, really. There are occasionally decent motw eps, but overall to me 13 and 14 were a real chore, mostly because of the AU hunters I couldn’t really care about, but the show also didn’t make a good effort to make us care about them, and the whole Michael thing was just… like, Jensen tried, and later did a decent job, but also like…. why? Why the endless angel parade? There are good brother moments due to the whole Michael possession and there’s a mideason arc that has good moments and works, but again, I think there were better choices to move the plot forward than to recycle the angel idea over and over again. And of course Lucifer and Chuck and just… no. BuckLemming’s hard on for Mark P became increasingly unbearable and the return of Gabriel and the whole Princes of hell was also… idk. Cheap. Uninspired. Crowley’s reform of hell into a bureaucratic hellscape in season 6 was great, later on it became a boring corporate demon in suits kind of thing that lacked any kind of horror factor. I never was in the show for the horror aspect, but they watered down the concepts so much, took away any previous stakes and consequences that it all felt meaningless and inconsequential. Hell used to be scary. Going to hell used to be scary and this huge thing. Breaking out of hell used to be a huge thing that needed devil’s gates or heavenly armies. And later it’s just medieval-esque dungeons with stunt demons fifty to fifty-six standing around and everyone coming and going as they please. Hell turned into a joke, honestly and since it was seen so often in the later seasons it really grated on me.

Season 15 is an absolute dumpster fire with only very few good moments. Cannot recommend. Like they had one job of wrapping up the show, instead they managed to put out some of the most cringey visuals (ghosts running in daylight. Ghosts. Running. In Daylight. Running! In daylight!), ruin OG evil guys (see season one ghosts running in daylight), ruin canon in staggering uncaring ways, bring back other old characters with no real impact, have “fun episodes” that aren’t really funny. There are fun moments, like the fancy!chesters, and of course the three different AU glimpses with Samifer, BoyKing!Sam and demon!Dean, but you can just watch those snippets on youtube. And then they wrap up the big bad of the last few seasons without Sam and Dean actually doing much to contribute to that and only manage to go out on a high because covid impacted the filming of the last ep and Dabb’s kind of mediocre and weirdly paced script with an unfinished case that leaves more questions than closure is only saved by Jared and Jensen putting everything they had into the barn scene, the montages and the bridge scene, which are absolute shining beacons of two actors caring about their characters and saving the legacy of a show in the process. Like, no matter what happened post spn, they gave their all for Carry On, put so much thought in the dialogue, the costumes and the accessories, and they made it their own in a way that made it work. And I will be forever grateful for that.

I would apologize for this dump of negativity, but you asked 😅

So, I guess, if you want, you can do a selective rewatch and get the highlights and avoid the pitfalls? It’s what I do nowadays when I rewatch. I watch 1-5 mostly completely, and then every season, the number of eps I watch decreases. So I personally cannot recommend watching it all even though I know opinions differ wildly and you might miss out on cute brother moments if you skip some of the worse eps. I guess the development of the domesticity, of the security in each other is also something you miss out on if you only rewatch electively. So I guess if you can stomach the rest of it, it might be worth it. There are some people here on tumblr who draw out excellent meta of the later seasons and write excellent fic about it. I can’t remember specifics, but zmediaoutlet has really good thoughts on late season Sam and Dean. So if you want the brothers, try it, I think you’ll realize quickly if you can stomach the quality of the eps. Hope that helps 💜

[colinburbleswithhappiness]

The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself Rewatch: Episode 6

Spoilers probably:

So Gabriel has been avoiding talking to Nathan…oh right. This is one of my favorite scenes! Nathan tries to talk to Gabriel and Gabriel’s so tight and angry, and then all of a sudden yelling. “I thought you were going to die!” And then he repeats it. Softer, more vulnerable. Like he just doesn’t know what to do with that.

I just love when people don’t have “appropriate” responses to things. Like, he almost died and you’re going to yell at him about it? But it feels very real. People are messy.

Everything Jessica does is so fucked up. Poor Max and Odette. (Side note: I guess Jessica must speak French? I didn’t catch it the first time but she’s only pretending to be Max’s grandfather and she speaks to him in French. Unless the shapeshifting somehow gives her that ability? Seems unlikely.)

And Gabriel has to help Odette die. Which…seems like something he’s done before? I wonder when. How many times?

They give her a flower crown, they put a flower in her hands…I’m gonna cry.

Crying for Ceelia too. That little girl hiding from the wolf. Man, I don’t even like her. I mean she’s a good and interesting character but I can’t really get past the way she treats Nathan in the beginning. It’s clearly abusive, it crosses a line for me, I can’t really like her after knowing she did those things to a helpless kid.

I really love this part where Annalise takes the poison out of Nathan’s body, too. She’s so scared of hurting him. She thinks her power’s all about destruction but it isn’t. It can be used for good. (See also her taking the gun apart.)

And then all three of them clutch each other’s hands...

Nathan thinking it’s his fault the council killed his mom...oh, Nathan. Ceelia does get a great moment here. She’s almost crying at first, she quickly pushes him on from talking about Wolfhagen, she still can’t stand to think about it. And then she’s just so done with Soul and the Fairborns. And Nathan asks her what to do and she asks him that horrible old list of questions but now something’s changed. Because he’s a blood witch and she’s accepted it. And she’s going to help him. Love it.

I feel bad for Kieran, knowing what’s coming. He tries to stand up for what’s right (standing with Bjorn in relieving Soul of command), but then he loses his nerve. This kid is such a tragedy.

Nathan asks Gabriel if he’ll help him die peacefully if he doesn’t get his blood and Gabriel just nods…and then Nathan has to make it a joke, lighten the mood.

God I love this scene. “So how I do I go about getting my name in your dumb book?” “They’re names of people who are important to me.” “What, I ain’t important?” Gabriel gives him the pencil, wordless. “There, now you won’t forget me.” “I wouldn’t”. The long look he gives him. He knows more than Nathan how hard it could be to keep that promise.

And then, “I need a drink.” Lol. Because things got too serious there for a sec.

How much of the heart do heart-eaters have to eat to get the person’s powers? When I first watched I kind of assumed it was just a bite or two because that’s all they really showed. But in fics I’ve seen Nathan have to eat the whole thing. What is the truth???

Oh yeah, and then Gabriel and Annalise dancing on the boat. In the rain. :) Making Nathan laugh. Beautiful little moment.

This show is so fucking good. I will cry if it doesn’t get a second season.

[relative-dimension]

“The Waking Ally”

Season 2, episode 8 - 19th December 1964

[id: two robomen look down a square hole, towards the camera which is pointed up at them. /end id]

This "Invasion of Earth” is basically just focused on England, that’s the only place that matters. Obviously this is partly because it’s a British show, and also they wanted to draw those parallels to the Blitz, but I just think it’s funny that no other country really gets mentioned apart from “oh yeah no they got completely wiped out by plague a few years ago”

Fun: 3/5

Production: 3/5, the location filming is still really good, but there’s also some hilariously bad stuff going on.

Pacing: 3/5, the pace ramps up significantly, with all of the main characters becoming involved in the main finale at almost exactly the same point. For reasons of the pacing of the next episode, about half of the actual climax happens here as well, the revelation of the Daleks’ plan and the release of the bomb feeling more like the final moments of the finale than the cliffhanger into it (and the main reason for that is that next episode, the plot will be over within about ten minutes)

Character Writing & Use: 3/5

Depth: 5/5, an interesting piece of ideology here is that the Daleks “don’t care whether humans live or die.” This runs slightly contrary to the consistent use of Nazi and Blitz imagery and allegory in their presentation, and just like their first story, it’s part of the weird way these stories try to have their cake and eat it with the Daleks being space-racists, but also having their own personal reasons for their actions. In The Daleks that was that they needed the radiation to prolong their own lives, and here it’s that they are digging into the planet to use it as a tool for other conquests, and otherwise wouldn’t have invaded Earth at all in the first place. Personally, I think this makes the Daleks much more interesting as antagonists here than when their only purpose is the extermination of literally everything that’s not a Dalek - their space-racism was only focused on the Thals, and it wasn’t their primary focus, instead they were interested in survival above all else. By contrast, the new series seems to run with the idea of racial purity above all else, turning the political disagreements of the 80′s Dalek stories from interesting political commentary into a reductive solution to the plot in episodes such as Revolution of the Daleks, making this as the cornerstone of their identity as villains more important than telling an interesting story.

This is also the episode with the Dalek collaborators, who steal food from the prisoners such as Barbara and Jenny that they turn to the Daleks. Here, the politics is much more certain, with the atmosphere of informing and mistrust something which Barbara didn’t know to be cautious about.

My point here is probably that the Daleks worked as interesting allegories for fascism in very particular ways within this episode, something which was ultimately completely thrown out by the time the Kaleds were Nazis In All But Name about a decade from this episode’s broadcast. That being said, I haven’t watched many other Dalek stories recently so if I wanted to write a whole essay on this I would need to do some research.

Not Ageing Horribly: 4/5

Overall Score - 21/30