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cluelessrebel1988 · 10 months

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If I Ran The Zoo (or how I would plot out an Animorphs TV/streaming series if I had the time/ability/resources)

So this is something I've been kicking around in my head on-again, off-again for a couple years now, and I thought I'd put it out there, just for the lols (do people still say that?)

My thought process is for a 5 season arc, with each season being somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-15 episodes long, give or take. There would be a few changes with the order of things, and a few minor characters would play a bigger role. I'm not going to go episode by episode, but just sort of outline the big arcs for each season. I'm not in any way suggesting that this is the best way to do it, just that this is how I would do it.

Season 1

This season obviously would start the events of The Invasion and would primarily incorporate events/plot points from the first 10 books, including finding Ax in his crashed ship (though I would move that to either take place in the first episode, or in the second half of the two-part premiere), Tobais getting stuck in his hawk form (and getting an episode or two dedicated to him coming to terms with that), and introducing Erik and the Chee (Erik would be introduced as a friend of Marco's early in the season, with his identity as a Chee being revealed in the second half of the season).

The only major plot point from that run of the series I wouldn't put into play just yet is the reveal of Marco's mother as Visser One (although I would be very much establishing her through flashbacks, dreams, etc., so people will recognize her when Visser One does show up).

The main arc of the season would involve the Kandrona Ray and the events of The Stranger, with the team meeting the Ellimist and learning about the ray and its significance and plotting to take it down to try to end/expose the invasion. Erik and Ax tagteam providing info about the ray and its use, but it's the vision from the Ellimist that gives Rachel the final clue, again, as in the book, with that occuring at the end of the penultimate episode. The season finale is solely focused on devising and executing the plan to destroy the ray. The plan would succeed, which would prompt Visser One's return, revealing her host to be Marco's mother as the cliffhanger for the season.

Obviously, we would be exploring the kid's home lives more, with the relationship with their families and friends and the whole 'work-life balance' thing that comes with fighting a guerilla war against an alien invasion. Not to the point where they're having to fake illnesses to skip school every episode, but enough to show that it's putting a strain on their relationships. I would also explore Rachel's relationship with Melissa Chapman more and have Melissa be a bigger supporting character in the show. We'd also introduce Karen and Aftran in this season, revealing her to be a controller early on, but something that Cassie doesn't find out until the end of the season

Season 2

Season 2 would pick up a few weeks after season 1, as The Alien did with The Stranger. The kids learn that their hope that the invasion would reveal itself with the Kandrona ray destroyed were in vain and that Ax knew that. The premiere would largely follow the plot of that book, with the Animorphs attempting to integrate Ax into society and attempting to take the fight to Visser Three with the help of a Yeerk traitor, and Ax telling the others about the Law of Seerow's Kindness. Ax would get a lot of development this season, with the events of The Deception coming into play.

Tobias would help free the Hork-Bajir as in The Change and get his human form back as a morph, and the reveal that he is Elfangor's son would be included in this season as well (Obviously we're tapping into the Andalite Chronicles for flashbacks in at least one episode this season to help set that up).

Marco's main character arc would revolve around learning that his mother is Visser One, keeping it a secret, only to have the others find out later, thus incorporating The Predator and The Escape. Also Visser One is the big bad for the season, delving more into her conflict with Visser Three. The season would end with her supposed death following the Animorphs' thwarting of her plans

For Cassie, we cover the utilize adapted versions of The Departure and set up for The Sickness, with Karen/Aftran and Cassie perhaps getting trapped somewhere and forced to work together to get out of it, laying the groundwork for Aftran to be captured by Visser Three. The season finale would also center around the efforts to rescue Aftran.

Jake and Rachel will have arcs and roles to play in each of these stories as they each start to fall into their respective roles as leader and fighter, respectively. If they get their own arc, it would be around trying to save Tom specifically.

Additionally, Melissa is still around in her expanded role, but with a new friend: David, who would be introduced fairly early in the season in a recurring role (Melissa is also recurring at this point). She and David will have a B-plot where they become friends and are together when David finds the morphing cube, the discovery of which also occurs in the finale.

Season 3

Obviously, the primary source for the main arc of season 3 is the David Trilogy, with The Discovery in particular serving as the source for the season premiere. It plays out mostly the same, with the Animorphs learning that David and Melissa have the cube and plans to sell it online. They try to retrieve the cube before the two of them can attract the attention of the Yeerks, but ultimately fail, leading to the battle at David's house. They manage to get Melissa and David out of the house before they can be captured, and are forced to reveal themselves and tell them what's happening, essentially recruiting them into the Animorphs.

The events of the rest of the trilogy, with the threat to the UN summit or some similar event involving world leaders as a target that they have to keep the Yeerks from taking advantage of -- as well as with David and Melissa's reactions to being Animorphs -- would take up the majority of the plot this season. Obviously Melissa becoming an Animorph opens up some new potential for her arc, especially around her relationship with her dad and trying to come to terms with him being a controller (and the fact that Rachel has been keeping this a secret all along). She and David would have similar arcs around their parents being controllers, but while David ultimately turns against the Animorphs, Melissa does not (although David tries to convince her to). The season ends with the gang trapping David in a rat morph, as the books do.

One of Melissa's major character traits is her interest in technology, something she used to bond with her father over (working together to take things apart and then put them back together before be became a Controller to try to keep her safe) and I imagine her and Ax developing something of an awkward friendship as she tries to ask him about the morphing technology and other Andalite technology, with him being reluctant to share due to the Law of Seerow's Kindness. But, as he's grown closer with the Animorphs, he would eventually acquiesce and they would begin to bond. The two big relationships (Rachel and Tobias, and Cassie and Jake) also take major steps this season

The other major arc for the season involves other Andalites, incorporating The Arrival and The Other, with the reveal that other Andalites are on earth and some are there to help...or are they? The season would also end with Tobias getting captured by the Yeerks to begin the laying of the groundwork for the discovery that the Animorphs are not, in fact, Andalite bandits.

Season 4

The events of The Illusion and The Test would be adapted for the season premiere, including the introduction of the Yeerk resistance (led in this series by Karen/Aftran) and Tobias's capture and torture, with the main difference being that it is Tom (who has largely been a secondary or tertiary villain thus far) being the one who conducts the torture. During the interrogation, Tobias lets something slip that most of the controllers in the room don't pick up on, but Tom does, leading him to investigate and setting up for the finale, which would be largely and adaptation of The Diversion, with the race against time to save their families taking up the majority of the episode. Melissa is able to save her parents, her father proving to be an asset in the final season with his knowledge of how Yeerk technology works.

This season as a whole would focus on escalating the war between the Animorphs and the Yeerks. The stakes become higher, as are tensions following David's betrayal. Visser One returns, learning that Marco is one of the Animorphs and we incorporate the events of Visser, seeing the Animorphs rescue her.

Following Tobias's capture and torture, Rachel becomes more angry and vengeful, setting up for her arc over the final season (we've seen hints of her violent streak over the series up to this point, but it gets more intense this season).

Season 5

With their secret out, the Animorphs regroup in the Hork-Bajir valley and try to figure out their next move. The final arc of the series would play out largely how it does over the course of the final books, with the team recruiting more Animorphs to help them with their mission, and even trying to recruit government and military officials to aid in the fight. Tom gets the morphing cube, adding controllers with the ability to morph (other than the newly appointed Visser One) to the threat against the Animorphs. The final battle would be a multi-pronged attack, with the bombing of the Yeerk Pool being part of the final assault and not a separate battle.

Rachel gets aboard the blade ship and kills Tom before being killed herself. In an effort to make up for the harm he caused, Hedrick Chapman sacrifices himself to both ensure the Yeerk Pool bomb goes off and to save Melissa one final time (the pair of them were in charge of building/detonating it, along with Ax), and Jake orders the flushing of the Yeerk Pool on the the Pool ship, alienating Erek and the rest of the Chee going forward. All of this is in the penultimate episode.

The series finale follows the aftermath of the war in The Beginning, and, as the books did, the series would end with Jake, Tobias, and Marco (and probably Melissa) being recruited to help save Ax from an as-yet unknown threat.

And there you have it, my outline for how an Animorphs series could/should play out. As I said at the start, this is just my idea and others might have different thoughts about what order the arcs should go in and what significant changes (if any) would be made. Please be kind with any criticisms, and if you'd like to share your thoughts with me, my inbox is open. I also did a fancast for the series a few years ago if anyone's curious about who would play who

#animorphs #series outline #just my ramblings #Jake Berenson #Rachel Berenson #Marco #Tobias #aximili esgarrouth isthill #Ax #Cassie #Melissa Chapman #David

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insanityclause · 3 months

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It was the end of production on the first season of “Loki” in Atlanta. Writer Eric Martin and producer Kevin R. Wright walked up to Tom Hiddleston, who was standing outside of the soundstage on a tea break. “This is the last day of Season 1. What are we doing for Season 2?” Martin asked.

Hiddleston responded by quoting from “Four Quartets” by T.S. Eliot: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” Wright and Martin paused and asked him what he meant by that, and Hiddleston replied, “I don’t know. I think we just have to bring it full circle. There has to be some sort of poetic catharsis and redemption to this long journey of struggle and pain and self-discovery. Let’s aim for that.”

And that’s what they did.

This season, he travels to the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and teams up with a benevolent variant of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the timekeeper who Loki bested at the end of Season 1. He makes friends, loses them and hops around timelines and multiverses. At the end, he takes responsibility for himself and the timelines he was so desperate to save to ensure the safety of his friends.

This is the most layered version of Loki, whom Hiddleston has been playing since “Thor” in 2011, and the perfect sendoff for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most beloved bad guy. It’s playful and poetic, moving and eye-popping. And it could also earn Hiddleston his first Emmy nomination since “The Night Manager” back in 2016.

Hiddleston calls playing Loki “the great surprise and delight of my whole life.” He was first cast in 2009, when he was 28 years old. “I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to play this complex, deep, ancient, elevated character that represents playfulness, spontaneity, unpredictability,” Hiddleston said. “What a sandbox to play in.” But he didn’t think he’d be playing the character 15 years later.

“The great surprise for me is that it’s been a joy every time,” he said. “It’s never felt like the same job. It’s always felt new. It’s always felt inspiring for different reasons — different actors, different stories, different themes. And yet all the way through a depth and a range of feeling.”

When the team was working on season 2, Hiddleston wrote “glorious purpose” on a whiteboard in the writers room. It was a callback to the first Avengers movie, when Loki tells Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) that he is “burdened with glorious purpose.”

“The glorious purpose he always wanted has no glory in it. It has only burden,” Hiddleston said. “He would finally end up in a position of responsibility and in a position of belonging. But he would be alone in his belonging.” That, Hiddleston said, was a jumping-off point and would guide the show to its conclusion. Martin told him, “The first season is Loki learning how to love and the second season should be Loki learning how to lead.”

“We’re given this extraordinary privilege and opportunity to create fiction,” the actor said. “But you want the fiction to resonate for people in their souls and in their lives.” In other words: glorious purpose, fulfilled.

This story first ran in the Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

#This got lost in the shuffle #tom hiddleston #loki s2 #emmys fyc #from Friday

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where-dreams-dwell · 5 months

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I’m seeing a lot of discourse about Bridgeton Season 3 and the recasting of certain characters and people keep talking about it being unfair to the original actors, or that they shouldn’t have jumped to other projects (Francesca’s season 1 actor was cast as the lead in Lockwood and Co, which was then unfortunately cancelled…) and instead they should have stayed around to be avalible etc.. and I think we’re missing an obvious point:

People don’t want to watch the kids that grew up on their Tv have s*x.

Bridgerton by definition is a s*xual show, with explicit scenes and n*dity from its leads. When it gets around to the younger kids stories (if the show’s renewed enough) no one will be 100% comfortable watching s*x scenes when they remember that actor as a child.

Game of Thrones ran into this issue too. We all watched Maisie Williams grow up on screen, watched as her characters story grew and she had to handle tougher subject matter and scenes. No one wrote into complaint when we watched her pretend to kill a child at 14 (playing an 11 yr old Arya Stark), when she blinded and killed a p*edophile at as an actor of 18 (15 for Arya) or watched what was essentially torture p*rn of a blind 19 year old being beaten relentlessly every week for a month.

But when it came time to do an intimate scene… suddenly the audience felt awkward. Something about s*xual intimacy crossed some internal boundary for a large portion of the audience and suddenly the voyeuristic nature of being an audience in those scenes was driven home. It was okay being a viewer to explicit scenes if they were violent or gory, but explicit scenes of romance… nope that somehow feels indecent.

It was a tasteful scene, only partial n*dity, nothing full frontal, and the blocking and writing made it clear it was consensual and enjoyable. In every way possible this was a positive thing for Arya as a character and as both the character and actor were adults there was no concern about appropriate story lines.

And yet.

People wrote in. People switched off, fast forwarded, talked about it at work on Monday. Articles were written, and it became a discussion piece around the TV; even knowing all the above people still felt wrong watching an actor they first knew as a child and who they ‘watched grow up on screen’ perform a s*x scene.

So I think a big part of Bridgerton’s casting choices around the younger children is to head this off at the pass and to not invite the discussion. Why risk even a percentage of your audience not watching the intimate scenes that season (or god forbit not streaming the season at all!) when you can just recast and remove the problem? Why borrow trouble or controversy, especially when other plot points in future stories will likely do that all on their own?

This way we get to have a child character played by a child actor, who the audience can find cute and precocious, who they can feel parental and familial toward with complete peace of mind. And then when the season comes for that siblings love story, ‘oh would you look at that puberty made them look all grown up and completely different’! A new adult actor is playing the adult version and the audience can watch them enjoy their love affair with no guilt, unease, or annoyance.

So yes it’s probably sad for the actors who first played these characters or are playing them now to know that they won’t get to be the one to act out their characters ‘main character moment’ season. But they were hired on in that capacity, they knew what they signed up for, and at the end of the day no one is ‘entitled’ to anything in Showbusiness.

The whole show’s already a guilty pleasure, so let’s not tip the balance too far!

#bridgerton #bridgerton season 3 #casting #re-casting #roles #francesca bridgerton #arya stark #maisie williams #intimacy #intimacy on screen #media literacy #actors #hyacinth bridgerton #gregory bridgerton

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sopefulheart · 8 months

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marriage in ‘gilmore girls’ (pt. 1)

in this post, i'm gonna talk about how marriage/proposal is used to sweep problems under the rug in 'gilmore girls.'

wow, what a cheery topic!

1x21 - love, daisies, and troubadours

to recap, lorelai and max are fighting before a date about luke of all people. luke has just left lorelai’s house after telling her that rachel has left again. max is jealous because he thinks luke is an ex from their time apart. understandable.

max says, “why do we always do this, lorelai? when it’s just getting good again?” or whatever

they both conclude that it never ends up working out when they get back together. they both conclude they need a solution.

lorelai says “let’s break up.” max says “let’s get married.”

oh wait, but-

a few episodes back, lorelai had said to max, “i don’t ever want rory to feel unsettled in her life.” she said that was the reason she chickened out and ran. fine. this is the first time you’re dating with rory around.

you getting married after breaking up with the same man every five minutes over two months seems quite contradictory to me…

but anyway, don’t even get me started with when she called off the wedding on the fly because she realized she didn’t love max and then rory was extremely confused. that’s rory feeling unsettled.

like hello??????? i would’ve run away too.

(i know rory ran away before lorelai and max got engaged but rory was feeling unsettled way before that because of dean as well)

but okay i gotta give it to them because the thousand daisies lorelai found at the independence inn were cute.

honestly, i love max.

lorelai treated max so horribly and don’t get me wrong, her being confused was valid but taking time to figure it out instead of rushing into marriage would have been better than ghosting and hurting that poor man. AND THEN SHE COMES BACK AND KISSES HIM IN S3.

this is just one of the reasons why i don’t like season one all that much. i start my rewatches with season three because i am personally a team jess girl.

anyway, then there’s christopher. he’s a whole other post.

i’m just gonna talk about one of the times he proposed here.

1x15 - christopher returns

“lor, i wanna marry you.”

that whole conversation was insane.

to recap, chris and lorelai are standing in the kitchen discussing what had happened the night before. on emily and richard’s balcony. i shall say no more. lorelai very clearly regrets it and expresses her desire to never ever do that again with him. his first thought is to get married-

that's not even the bad part. he then says:

"c'mon, we're already a family"

WHO'S WE? you deign to show up for once for thirty mins and suddenly oh my god we're all happy and together?????

no. that doesn't make up for the 15-16 years rory didn't have a father involved in her life. you don't just get to show up and act like everything is all hey howdy doody. AND HE ALWAYS DOES.

he always just shows up when he wants to.

with gg, he couldn't escape that because she didn't have a mother either, so he had to be her father. he had the choice to either raise gg or abandon her. thank god it wasn't the latter because i- yeah. he finally understood what lorelai went through even though it wasn't totally the same because she was 16. that's one of his only shining moments when he admits what he did with rory was wrong, so i'll give him that.

this is just one facet of his personality that i very much loathe.

oh! here's my personal favorite: dean telling rory he’s getting married to lindsay :) but that’s in part 2.

see ya hehe

****i can't decide whether this is rambling or not but this is what this whole thing is for

#gilmore girls #marriage #i know nothing about marriage #i cant stop watching gg #i still dont know how to tag #please read #rambling maybe?#thank u

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thegreatlukeski · 11 months

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Luke and Carrie's Bad Rapport Episode #143: 20 YEARS of Friendship!

The first two 15-minute segments of this episode were recorded in June 2023 when Carrie and Alexann were visiting Luke in Burbank, and features them and the Bad Rapport debut of Luke’s new roommate, Santana Maynard! The next 5 segments after that were recorded in July 2023, and featured Carrie talking about travel woes, Luke talking about getting high on the 4th of July, and we both review “Peacemaker” Season 1 and the first 7 episodes of the anime “Komi Can’t Communicate”. At that point (months before the SAG/AFTRA strike, which we both support), I was supposed to have finished editing and posting the episode. Well, real life got in the way as it always does, which kept me from editing the episode for 3 months until after FuMPFeST 2023 ended.

Carrie pointed out that we were closing in on October 25th, 2023, which is the 20th Anniversary of the day Carrie and I met. Ten years ago we did a whole huge special episode recapping the first ten years of our friendship (Episode #93). So we figured it made sense for us to record a couple more segments having an unprepared (my fault) conversation about some of the highlights of what she and I have been doing together and separately over the past 10 years to commemorate two decades Carrie interrupting Luke and Luke belching on the mic to annoy Carrie. So that’s what we did. You’re welcome, I guess?

Also, there hasn’t been a Bad Rapport podcast posted in the month of October since 2019, so I have been saving up some HALLOWEEN BANGERS for you all to rock out to! The comedy and music tracks for this episode are by The Ghost And Molly McGee, the great Luke Ski, Peter Hollens, Whitney Avalon, The Muppets, MC Lars, Schaffer the Darklord, Josh Gad, Alex Brightman, mc chris, Adventure Time, Rob Paravonian, The Cuphead Show, Skunk Barf, Art Paul Schlosser, brentalfloss, Mighty Magiswords, Insane Ian, TV’s Kyle, Eminem, WandaVision, Wig Wam, Peacemaker, Freeced featuring Awkward Marina, Mega Ran, Devo Spice, Jeff Whitmire, Carrie Dahlby, Chris Mezzolesta, Green Jelly, Posehn, and Trevor Strong. What do you get when you put it all together?… You get Episode #143 of “Luke & Carrie’s Bad Rapport”, featuring an AMAZING commissioned piece of art by FuMP superfan CHUCK! Please follow her on social media, @vv3spa on Instagram and Twitter, her commission prices are pinned to the top of her feed! Speaking of ‘feed’… “CHICKEN!”

Episode length: 4:04:04 (4-4-4: Two-Thirds of the Beast!)

Listen: http://badrapport.com/2023/10/25/episode-143-20-years-of-friendship

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kaiba-fangirl · 2 years

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youtube

@youreputtingrootsinmydreamland Look & attitude do seem similar from what I know & have seen. Only difference is, despite what anything else may seem, Seto is actually the character of Light. Yugi is Dark & Shadows. ...& that could become a whole dissertation itself lol, so lemme just... Oh & if you see any of this in Prison is a Marriage, etc, then, yes of course. (✿◡‿◡) In fact I think it was while diving through Kaiba characterization analysis & arc that helped me figure out how to get them out: They couldn't do it alone.

There's quite a few inaccuracies in here that I'm surprised this guy made. Sorry this got so long, but, there's 2 manga series, Season Zero, then 226 episodes of anime, & 3 movies as the alternative. And of course I have a playlist of surviving amvs.

*Gozaburo ran Kaiba Corp as the most profitable weapons manufacturer in the world.

*In the manga, Seto is not the tech genius. Still considered brilliant & smartest storywide, but all his tech comes from Kaiba Corp's R&D. That chess game in the orphanage? He cheated. Because it was just about winning them a better life. In the anime, he is the tech genius, and fairly beat Gozaburo.

*Parents died, then they were passed around through relatives until their inheritance ran out, then dumped at the orphanage. Another reason for being cynical of "loving groups." Gozaburo adopted them when he was 10, Mokuba was 5.

Oh! & he's basically the Walt Disney of this world too, as his & Mokuba's childhood dream is to build amusement parks all over the world for kids to have fun and enjoy! UwU

*I think he flashed the manga pages by, but Seto was physically abused by Gozaburo & tutors. Canonically there was a dog collar chaining him to his desk and a riding crop to keep him from falling asleep. Scars only appear in fanart though. First suicidal thoughts... Until Mokuba slipped him that drawing of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, giving him a will to live again.

Seto (~12yo?) proudly shows Gozaburo designs for a virtual reality game, Gozaburo throws the papers back in his face, tells him off, and has him dragged out of his office. Gozaburo then uses Seto's designs, as applied to weapons technology. Seto is sickened that the technology he developed was used to more effectively kill larger amounts of people.

*I believe it was at 15 (or 14) that Gozaburo gave him like $1million (USD equivalent), & he had to pay him back like 10x or something within 1 year. (I'm not fact checking this) So... He went out, bought up small companies, closed them out or did whatever to keep multiplying his own liquid assets. Within that year, he made it. Ah. Yes! A worthy douchebag successor to take over Kaiba Corp someday! ...someday, in the distant future, right?

*At 15 then, Seto had had enough & was enough of an asshole now, that he believed he could run the company better. & he had just had all this practice with taking over companies...

The Hostile Takeover of Kaiba Corp - always a favorite plot device. (Many villains attempt hostile takeovers from Seto later on, but he holds on. He, however...) Seto & Mokuba had each been given shares of Kaiba Corp upon adoption. Mokuba owned 2% of the company, while Seto had a bit more. So, Seto started buying up more shares. When he had all he could, he held a meeting with Gozaburo's top 5 advisors, & threatened them. They threw their support behind him. Seto then held 49%, Gozaburo 49%, and Mokuba that same 2%. Seto staged threatening Mokuba as well - without telling Mokuba. (Where he pushed him up against the wall.) He wanted Gozaburo to think they'd had a falling out; he did. But Seto knew Mokuba would support him no matter what. One final meeting with everyone, & everyone else revealing they supported Seto as new CEO. Gozaburo snapped; he congratulated him, gave a deranged speech, including putting into words what would haunt Seto the rest of his life: "Losing = Death." Theeennn…

Manga, *AS TOLD BY MOKUBA, WHO WAS NOT PRESENT WHEN IT HAPPENED,* Gozaburo jumped out of the skyscraper window. Splat. Seto barely reacts. He makes a point of internalizing that "lesson" though. Losing = Death.

"Season Zero," it looked like he was freaking out & getting dizzy from the height at the window, but ultimately just collapsed on the floor. Heart attack? I don't recall him dying on screen, but this is the last we see of him.

4Kids Anime, Gozaburo only appears in flashbacks & his digitized mind later on, but it's commented early on that he "disappeared," right before the anime picks up, where Seto is already CEO.

Fanon… Seto pushed him off the roof when no one was looking. Manga Mokuba was an unreliable narrator; that's just the story Seto told him.

Seto immediately stopped all weapons manufacturing, and they began making gaming equipment and technology.

The "Betrayal" to Mokuba has to do with the DEATH-T amusement park in the manga & Season Zero, where Mokuba loses in the end, and begs Seto to not inflict the punishment game on him, cuz, brothers! Seto 1000% cold-heartedly & not caring 1 iota, tells him nope. He lost. Brotherhood makes you weak. The 10-yo Mokuba goes through the terrifying punishment game. Yugi & co are horrified.

*Kaiba vs Yugi atop Pegasus castle in Duelist Kingom (16yo) - winner gets to save their loved one: Mokuba or Grandpa? It's 3 episodes long. At the end of the 2nd, Kaiba suddenly went to dominating, even toying with Yugi (Pegasus had demanded Kaiba give him a good show, since Kaiba had not officially participated in the tournament. He was busy trying to stop another hostile takeover when Mokuba was kidnapped. Yes the running jokes are well earned.) --to suddenly Yugi had him cornered. The next move, Yugi would be able to win. Kaiba had nothing left. And if he couldn't save his baby brother, then he should be dead. And if he was as good as dead... In the middle of another breakdown, he started stepping backwards... and climbed up to the ledge. Yep this is 4Kids alright! Youtube actually allows some of this duel past copyright claims, but the entire suicidal part is cut out. Japanese version, he threatens to jump if Yugi attacks. 4Kids, he explains that the shockwave from the blast would knock him off, and Yugi wouldn't be able to live with a little blood on his hands, could he? Even if it was to save his Grandpa? If he's not willing to kill him to save his Grandpa, then he doesn't deserve to anyway.

*"He gets angry, then walks away without saying a word. Why? Because he knows what Anzu (Tea) said is true." -- In the 4Kids version, all of Yugi & Co are painted as uncaring & just wrong. She screams at him, "Yugi has friends who love and support him! What do you have at the end of the day, Seto Kaiba?!" After almost killing himself to save Mokuba just moments before, Kaiba is incensed at that being immediately belittled, even though he knows she doesn't know his full story. He tosses the chips he just won from Yugi up into the air, catches them, and yells back snidely, "I have all that I need!" Then he walks away. She's still right that he's alone. But he's only alone because the 1 person he cares about in the world has been kidnapped. -- The rest of his analysis about hating having to play dirty to win & not counting it as a win afterwards for pride's sake, that's all good.

& don't worry, after Battle City, when he finally blows up his father's military testing base... In the anime, Seto & Mokuba fly off in his jet, off to start building their first KaibaLand amusement park. In the manga, he has a great monologue about war and life and games and death, ending with, "Somewhere under this rubble, lies the road to my dream!"

& NONE of this is even getting into all the MAGIC!!! That he doesn't believe in. Even though he himself has latent magic abilities, that he's used completely unknowingly at times. --oh yeah, surprise! He was a prince in Ancient Egypt but his father sent him away then wanted him to dethrone the Pharaoh even though since he didn't know he was a prince he's actually devoted his life to that Pharaoh already------

I... have such a type, no matter what else comes out in the future, it's comical at this point 😅

#Youtube #seto kaiba #re: kaiba #seto kaiba for world domination #kaiba brothers #ygo manga #also check out what we didn't even get to:#kaiba in dsod #😍#first bishie to steal my heart #you're here forever #kaiba fangirl #i have a type

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sshbpodcast · 12 days

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Even a fanfic season of Enterprise is better than a 9/11 season

by Ames

After the deplorable nationalist nightmare that was season 3 of Enterprise, pretty much anything would be an improvement. And the final season of the Trek prequel series was… fine, I guess? Under the eye of the late showrunner Manny Coto, the show got back to its roots. A lot. Sometimes too much. But it’s a prequel series after all and that was sort of its expectation, so ya know what, your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By can sort of forgive it.

Much of season 4 feels a little like fanfic, much of the season was made up of two- and three-parters, and the whole thing fizzled to a finale that most fans utterly deplore, but still. Better than season 3. So what did your SSHB hosts think of these last twenty-something episodes? Grab your ushaan-tor and find out below and on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:15:34 for season chatter) featuring bonus picks from guest star Liz! En garde!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Top Three Episodes

It was especially hard to come up with good episodes this season, partly because they all ran together in multi-episode arcs that were hard to pick apart, and partly because so much of it was very meh. So what rose to the challenge?

“Borderland”: Caitlin The first three-part romp starts off with the potential to build to something decent (though you’ll see shortly that that doesn’t exactly come to pass). But the Enterprise folks knew enough about how to win our hearts: involve Brent Spiner! We’re really easy to please in that regard, and meeting a new Soong who loves to ham things up is enough to bring this episode to the tops list.

“Cold Station 12”: Ames And Brent is even better in the second part of the Augments journey, so we’re seeing a little more representation of that arc here. Watching Soong reunite with his loser son Smike is touching enough on its own, but then he also grapples with his own ethics when he sees the delight that his other loser son Malik takes in torturing people. Just what is a mad scientist to do?

“The Aenar”: Ames In a season that mostly scrapes by as “fine,” there aren’t a ton of standouts, so when the Aenar show up, at least they’re something original and interesting. This newly contacted race of blind telepaths who live under the ice proves engaging enough in an otherwise confounding three-parter. More of these guys and less of the Romulans, I say, which is normally sacrilege on this podcast.

“United”: Chris, Jake You’ll notice that Chris and Jake overlap entirely in their tops picks this season, which seems like some kind of conspiracy to me. They’re getting along as well as Vulcans and Andorians and Tellarites in the middle of this confusing plot about Romulan nonsense, so that’s something. And as usual, Shran proves to be an utter delight even if his fight to the death with Archer ends in a cop out.

“In a Mirror, Darkly”: Chris, Jake Chris has been bigging up this mirror universe claptrap literally since the start of this podcast eight years ago, and it turns out to be the campy nerdfest we all expected it to be. It’s definitely the most we’ve enjoyed the mirror universe since “Mirror, Mirror.” Even the title sequence gets in on the game! So if you like fun romps that are full of little easter eggs, this episode may be for you! (Chris is going to LOVE Lower Decks.)

“Observer Effect”: Ames, Caitlin This one’s actually a super simple concept executed surprisingly well! It just goes to show that bottle episodes can be some of the best episodes because, rather than going all out on bells and whistles, the focus is more on characters, pacing, and filming technique, all of which “Observer Effect” excels at! The slow build of suspense is masterful, and every actor gets to play an Organian at one point or another. Fun!

“Terra Prime”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake Many fans argue that this is where the whole series should have ended, and we’re inclined to agree. Sure, there’s a lot of fat to trim off of the two-parter that “Demons” and “Terra Prime” comprise, but who can say no to watching Peter Weller’s performance as the irredeemably xenophobic Paxton? We also appreciated some lovely work from Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blalock with their doomed baby thing.

—

Bottom Three Episodes

You’re going to see a couple of episodes with full sweeps from your hosts in the Bottoms list because, boy, were there some bad eggs this season. Not to mention that most of the two- and three-parters were unfortunately uneven as hell.

“The Augments”: Jake Remember how the Augments arc started out with such potential? Well it doesn’t quite stick the landing in the final installment of that arc, which just became repetitive and full of more teenage angst. Sorry, but Malik just plain isn’t that interesting a character, let alone a villain. The whole batch of augmented kids start to feel too much like a drama on the CW, with not enough substance to carry three episodes.

“Divergence”: Chris The main dumpster fire of the Klingon plot is the fully unnecessary retconning of why Klingon foreheads in The Original Series are smooth but in other series are ridged. It’s the answer to the question no one asked, and frankly makes us feel dumber for learning. Even Trip shimmying through space on a wire or some actual ethical character work from Phlox (for a damn change!) can’t save this awful premise.

“Affliction”: Ames, Caitlin We’re not even done shitting on the Klingon augment virus two-parter, as both are represented on the bad list! We start the whole thing off with some preposterous set up which includes the utter retcon that Reed is an unwilling pawn of Section 31, which we’ve been frankly over since that catastrophe “Extreme Measures” in Deep Space Nine. And don’t worry: Paramount is going to force feed us more.

“These Are the Voyages…”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake As promised, you have TWO episodes with sweeps, and this is one of them. Frequently voted as the worst of all Star Trek, the series finale is a slap in the face to any actual Enterprise fans out there (if there were any to begin with). But for Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to basically take over the show just after it’s been canceled is rude as hell and does a disservice to the characters we’ve been following.

“Bound”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But I’ve saved this one for last because it’s so insulting. All the men on the Enterprise end up entranced by some Orion slave girls sexing up the place, which isn’t cringey enough on its own somehow that we’re forced to watch a full music video of them writhing around. But it’s okay after all! The writers have subverted the situation by making them empowered slave girls! Who just really like being slaves! What?

—

So long, NX-01! That’s all from the abruptly canceled Enterprise. We’ll never know if this show could have bounced back from some more mediocre ideas, generally unoriginal plots, and more Archer yelling at crewmen than we were expecting. There’s nothing left to do but check out our full series Top Five Star Trek ENT Episodes and Bottom Five Star Trek ENT Episodes blogposts. Keep following along here and on SoundCloud as the podcast prepares to move into less charted territory! Bounce a signal off Echo 1 over on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t give cheese to Porthos!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #enterprise #top three #bottom three #borderland #cold station 12 #the aenar #united #in a mirror darkly #observer effect #terra prime #the augments #divergence #affliction #these are the voyages #bound

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group20gwss · 10 months

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Season 1, Episode 4

In episode 4 of Ginny and Georgia, there are two different scenes happening at once. The episode switches between Ginny’s and Georgia's point of view. For Ginny, this episode focused on her relationship drama with her boyfriend. She is struggling to feel sexy and when she sends a risky photo and gets no response, she is crushed. With the influx of emotions, she lets her guard down to her neighbor which leads to them texting about sending more pictures. In Georgia’s point of view, she is planning a casino night for a school fundraiser to raise more money than the bake sale the previous year ran by Cynthia. It ends up being a great success with Georgia’s sneaky strategies and the episode ends with her making date plans with the mayor, Paul, who also happens to be her boss. The key characters in this episode are Ginny, Georgia, Marcus, Hunter, Max, and Paul. The main actors are Ginny and Georgia, the mother daughter duo that the show is based around. Hunter is Ginny’s boyfriend, Marcus is Ginny’s neighbor, and Max is one of Ginny’s friends who is mentioned most in the episode. Paul is the mayor of Wellsbury and is Georgia's love interest.

Race is a crucial aspect of Ginny’s life. She is mixed which is significant because Ginny is a person of color being raised in an all white household along with living in a predominantly white neighborhood. She struggles to feel wanted and beautiful in this episode which can relate to her racial struggles. It is like growing up and not seeing dolls with darker skin and curly hair. Ginny doesn’t have a racial role model in her life which would be beneficial for her self esteem. This racial divide also has underlying racial political implications, with the town being so white and little diversity within the cast. This racial divide makes Ginny an outlier at such a young and vulnerable age.

Both of the main characters in this show are female so many of the views of gender come from female experience with men. One of the opening lines that Georgia said to Ginny was “men are visual creatures, so give them something to look at” (1:47), which objectifies women within the first minutes of the episode. This gives Ginny, a young teenage girl, that the idea of womanhood is to be loved by a man. This idea of womanhood is what leads Ginny to send pictures of her in a bra to her boyfriend. She did this without warning, just wanting to feel sexy and wanted. When she received no response, her confidence dropped and she became very vulnerable. With her guard down, she starts texting her neighbor, Marcus, the same sexy pictures and others of her touching herself. Ginny is being objectified because she only feels beautiful when she receives a response from a male. This whole interaction shows how young girls crave the feeling of being told they're sexy and beautiful by men, even if it's the wrong ones.

In this episode, there are no non binary or a - gender characters. However, there are lots of male and female interactions. Females speak a little more in the show than males but it is basically equal. The males are present in the storyline to further romantic relationships. The main males, Marcus, Hunter, and Pual, are all romantically involved with one of the main females. They are very stereotypical male side characters that are just for a love interest. Ginny and her friends are also stereotypical teenage girls, watching inappropriate shows and giggling, going to school functions, and talking about their love lives. With being so stereotypical, a viewer who is also a 15 year old girl could look at Ginny sending those shirtless photos and think it's okay to do whereas in reality, sending those types of photos could ruin a person's life. On the other hand, Georgia is not a stereotypical mom. She is a single mom with four previous serious relationships and both of her children from two different males. In Wellsbury, MA where the show takes place, this is a very uncommon parenting situation. Georgia has to be strong for both of her kids and be able to make ends meet.

Sexuality is a big portion of this episode of Ginny and Georgia. For one, Ginny is figuring out her sexual life and her attraction to boys. She sends the sexy photo to two guys and tries touching herself for the first time. Georgia also puts Ginny on birth control because she thinks Ginny and Hunter are having a sexual relationship. These are all aspects of growing up and finding comfortability in your own sexuality. Along with Ginny, her friend Max was also a prominent character for sexuality representation. She is openly gay and has a crush on a girl Sohpia. By the end of the episode, Max and Sohpia are talking together at a school function, showing progression in their relationship. Max’s character is very important for LGBTQ representation in the show as she was the only queer character mentioned in the episode. She is not made fun of for being gay and is fully accepted by her friends. This gives the viewer a queer person to relate to in the show or an idea on how to be a proper ally. Sexuality is a very open subject in this show and can help the viewer explore their own feelings through watching their characters deal with theirs.

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thewistlingbadger · 2 years

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I've finished watching the new cm. Here are my thoughts:

Tbh i didn't think this was going to happen. I thought it was just a rumor or a lie, i didn't expect it to happen, let alone so soon.

I don't think this was necessary. CM ran for a really long time from 2005-2020 over the course of 15 seasons. I think where season 15 left off was good enough for the show. Considering that the show is very formula based imo it probably should have ended sooner because it was really repetitive, there wasn't any development, and when they released both of those things were true they'd come up with the most crazy, random, hysterical, bullshit ideas just to keep the show going.

I'm very glad that Reid is not here. That's probably the best decision they've made. Now they have to find a different plot point other than "let's fuck up Reid more than he already is"

This new version of cm is very different from the show we know and love. No theme song, longer run time (may just be bc it was the pilot), different tone, different dynamics, different acting, different budget, etc.

I think the acting all around was not good. It didn't come off as professional or convincing. The best parts are when the actors get back to the swing of their characters. Penelope Garcia was fantastic the whole time and she felt exactly how she used to be. Will and JJ's marriage is still as soft and tender as how it used to be. Luke still has chemistry and tension with Penelope. Even though JJ and Penelope don't have a single scene together, JJ gets excited when she sees her via video. Emily is still a good and passionate friend.

I think the best thing this did to the original cm is that it expanded things on a personal level off screen. The storytelling of the characters has always been sloppy, uncaring, and overall hit or miss with the show but i what happened in evolution is a great improvement! All this shit happened off screen and instead of leaving it alone, they actually told us what happened. Penny having her own baking club and setting up SOAR, JJ's kid, Rossi's wife dying, where the gang has been over the years, the dynamics, the situation, who's here and who isn't, all those details made it a better experience.

The events also feel realistic. The BAU not being what it used to be, everyone being divided, etc. It was a good touch

But even with that said some elements were very sloppy. I don't think this unsub was very compelling, there were definitely more innovative and creative ways to reintroduce the show. And the way they cut it off there at the end too. It's... intriguing. But not only that, but the way the BAU is now split up, the relationships, how that 1 guy was just walking over Emily the whole time, where JJ's kids were, i didn't understand those things and i needed further explanation. Although it's good to have off screen storytelling there are also moments were you need to explain what's going on.

Anyway the best part of the episode was Penelope and Luke. Will i come back to cm? Idk, if it proves itself worthy and peaks my interest again, then we'll see.

#/pos #/gen #cm #criminal minds #spoilers #mic does analysis

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 3 years

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Season 16 (Part 1)

Summary: After being captured by Michael while Dean was under his control, the reader has spent a very long time locked away waiting for someone to come and find her. When the day finally comes that the door opens, it’s not a familiar face she’s greeted with. Somehow the impossible is standing right in front of her but there’s no time to think about that. Something is terribly wrong and the reader needs the help of this strange young man if she wants to stop what Michael’s put in motion and have a chance at seeing Dean alive again...

Masterlist

Pairing: Dean x reader

Square: Free Space

Word Count: 3,600ish

Warnings: language, SPN season 15 and series spoilers, injury, mention of main character deaths, mention of torture, angst, fluff

A/N: This series takes place post season 15 and follows canon (i.e. if it happened in the show, it happened in this story’s universe). This series is told between the reader and Dean’s POV. This was also written for @supernatural-jackles Tell Me A Story bingo!

________

Reader’s POV

You just about had a heart attack when the door opened. It’d been such a long time since it’d been opened. Years and years and years. You’d lost track of the days quickly but it was long enough for you to accept that it’d been a very long time. Long enough to accept that when Michael took over Dean and threw you down in the windowless little room, Dean didn’t win that fight.

The only thing keeping you going aside from the spell Michael had put up to keep you permanently trapped, body stuck in time, was the desire to save Dean. Or what was left of him. You’d been alone for years, body having taken a beating by Michael when he first captured you. You were still covered in bruises, broken ribs that wouldn’t heal, pain in every breath. You didn’t sleep, didn’t eat. Solitude, cut off from the world, that was your main form of torture. Dean though...who knew what hell he was going through trapped with a psychopath like that for all these years.

You readied yourself, a dark figure walking inside the room. The room was pitch black to a certain point before you were trapped under a bright light you’d yet to figure out how to turn off. The figure stopped as their feet hit the brightness, a pair of brown boots and slim dark jeans all you could make out. They mumbled something and you felt the air shift slightly. You dared to reach at hand out to where the invisible wall keeping you trapped had been.

Your hand waved right on through it and you suddenly felt cool, clean air hit you. The person jolted when you sprang up, running away as you bolted for the door. You followed them up a flight of stairs and straight out into the foyer of a very nice house. You could see it was a man now and tackled him, straddling his hips and grabbing your knife from your waistband of your loose shorts, holding it to his throat. He breathed hard as you stared at him, cocking your head.

He was the spitting image of Dean. Mostly. His eyes weren’t green and there was something about his nose that reminded you of your own. The biggest tell of all though was the genuine fear in his face, the confusion.

“What’s your name,” you said. You held up the knife for a moment and tucked it away when you saw he was only focused on it. The young man, no more than twenty years old, took a deep breath. You yelped when he threw his legs up and wrapped them around your waist, yanking you off of him. He scrambled to his feet but you were on his tail, grabbing at his jacket. He spun around and popped you in the face, sending you to the floor.

You whined and cupped your cheek, the young man frozen in the doorway with a horrified look on his face.

“Who punches their own mom!” you shouted. He ran out the door and you went after, growling at your bare feet as he took off down the gravel driveway. “I’m gonna find you!”

You stomped your foot on the cool concrete front path, glancing to your right and spotting a sports car. You jogged back inside and found a pair of women’s sneakers, a little too big but you tied them tight and found some keys on a front table.

About two minutes later you were pulling up beside the guy on the road and hopped out of the car, the man running into the nearby treeline. You pulled out your knife and threw it, catching his jacket and pinning the sleeve to the tree trunk. He stumbled and fell down as you walked over, staring up with wide eyes. You sighed and ran a hand over your face.

“Can you at least tell me your first name?” you asked. He shook his head and you crossed your arms. “I bet your name is Lyle, isn’t it.”

“How’d you know that?” he asked, voice a bit higher than Dean’s but it made you smile, something warm and familiar to it.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think recently. Lyle is my top name for a boy if I ever had one,” you said. “So. Lyle Winchester.”

“That’s not my name,” he said. He stood up and pulled out the knife, carefully holding it out to you.

“You look just like Dean and me. You’re my son...somehow,” you said.

“Fine. My name is Lyle and that’s all I can say about myself,” he said. “I’m serious.”

You recognized the tone, that edge to it, the roughness but laced with an undercurrent of worry. Part of you wanted him to tell you everything about him but you knew he couldn’t, instead letting yourself give him a simple nod.

“I’ll make you a deal Lyle. I won’t ask questions about you that you can’t answer if you tell me how and why you got me out of there and answer anything else I want to know about this little situation.”

“Or else what?” he scoffed.

“Or else someday when you’re a teenager I won’t let you do anything. Lyle.” You took the knife from him and put it away, taking a deep breath. You stepped back out to the road, leaning against the car. You shut your eyes, something heavy draped over you. You peeled one eye open, Lyle leaning back against the car next to you in a blue flannel and dark gray t-shirt. His black hooded jacket was over your shoulders and you slipped your arms through the sleeves, wrapping them around yourself. You squeezed your eyes tight, shuddering before warm arms embraced you, Lyle almost as tall as Dean holding you close to him. “How did you know I was down there?”

“I can’t answer that,” he said.

“What year is it?” you asked.

“2089.” You froze, staring up at him. “Well, 2089 where we are right now is.”

“Lyle. It was 2018 when Michael took me. That’s not possible.”

“I can’t answer that either.” Tears welled up in your eyes and he hugged you again. “Sorry.”

“Dean was thirty nine the last time I saw him and it’s seventy one years later? He is dead. Sam is dead. They’re all dead so explain to me how the fucking hell I have a son with Dean!” you shouted. You pushed him away and ran your hands over your face. “Years. Fucking years I’ve sat down there waiting for him to come and get me. Him or Sam or someone. Fucking seventy one years!”

“Y/N,” he said, sounding a bit awkward but he cleared his throat. “I can’t answer everything because I don’t know everything. But I exist and that should tell you something.”

You wiped off your face with his sleeve and looked around, turning back and staring at him.

“I’m at the start of whatever this is and you’re way down the line,” you said. He nodded with a slight smile.

“I don’t understand it but this, where I’m from, this has already happened to you.”

“You’re from the future then,” you said.

“Not exactly,” he said.

“A different universe?” He looked at you like you were nuts and the air shifted, Lyle freezing. You turned and saw Jack, a smile on his face. “Jack?”

“Hi Y/N,” he said. He stepped over and gave you a big hug, a little bit of ache inside you easing finally. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just on pause.”

“Jack I don’t understand fucking anything. What’s going on?” you asked. He pursed his lips and sighed.

“Well you already figured out Lyle is your and Dean’s son. I didn’t think I could slip that one past you. But it had to be him that came and saved you.”

“Why?”

“Dean’s in heaven. Has been for 69 years.” You broke away from him feeling like you’d had a punch to gut and making you breathless. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that with the whole decades worth of trauma thing happening right now.”

“Did Michael…” you trailed off.

“No. A piece of rebar on a vamp hunt,” he said.

“He what?” you said.

“Yeah got pushed back on it. Sam was okay though. Oh and Dean had a dog for a few months.”

“Dean fucking died from that? That’s what kept him down?” you said. Jack nodded and you looked down, blinking your eyes. “Disregarding what is going on in my head right now about that, why didn’t you heal him? Or Castiel?”

“Well Cas was in heaven helping me rebuild after he sort of died and I brought him back. I kinda am the new God,” he said with a smile.

“I’m proud of that but again, why didn’t you come down here and heal Dean?”

“I’m sort of hands off in that regard,” he said. You were about to go off on him for that when it hit you.

“Jack how long have you known I was alive,” you said.

“2020 when I took over, I got these extra-”

“You knew I was alive and left me in a hole in the ground for over seventy years?” you said.

“Like I said, I’m hands off,” he said.

“I was your fucking mom! I took care of you! I protected you! I almost died for you more than once and when you find out I’m still alive you say fuck that bitch, she can deal with it on her own? What the fuck is wrong with you!” you shouted. You slapped him in the face, Jack pouting as you sank down to your knees. “I want Dean.”

“Y/N.”

“I want Dean and Sam.”

“Y/N-”

“I want Dean!”

“I can’t-”

“Fuck you! You’re as every bit as evil as that devil father of yours after all,” you said. You forced yourself to your feet, tears prickling in his eyes. “Oh did I hurt your feelings? Tough fucking shit! Do you realize that I have not only been stuck waiting for years but my body got stuck too. I’ve been sitting with broken ribs for seventy years. Every single breath excruciating.”

You yanked up your shirt, deep purple and black skin radiating across most of your abdomen. Jack reached out a hand and you moved back, dropping your shirt.

“I thought you were hands off. I don’t want your-” you said before warmth trickled through you, the pain gone, body feeling so strange at being without it.

“I don’t have to touch to heal you,” he said quietly. He swallowed and bowed his head. “I tried to let people live their lives without my interference and sometimes they’re messy but I’ve come to realize recently that’s wrong. A bit of help here and there is good. It gives people hope and maybe I should have done things different.”

“My family’s dead and I don’t want to wait around decades more to see them again in heaven. You’re going to-”

“No I won’t. Lyle’s life counts on you doing exactly what you’re supposed to as do your two other children’s. I can’t just put you in heaven. You can’t die right and you have to wait to see Dean until things work themselves out. Lyle’s going to be with you for a while and help get some things settled. It’s already set in motion so go with it,” he said.

“Jack I want Dean. Please,” you said. “Please Jack. Just five minutes.”

“Would you rather have your family back in the near future, alive, or would you rather have your and Dean’s souls torn apart and you never see him again, dead or alive? Rather he over there doesn’t exist? Rather no one exists?”

“I didn’t say that. Of course I would rather have them back alive-“

“Then be patient.”

“Jack. You gotta give me something. Something please.”

“I’ll talk to Lyle, tell him he can loosen up some. But I can’t tell you what to do. You have to follow your gut. Listen to Lyle and it’ll work out,” said Jack. You squeezed your eyes shut, Jack carefully resting a hand on your shoulder. “Do you hate me?”

“I hate that our family was ripped apart. I hate that you didn’t tell the boys I was alive once you knew. I hate that the last time I saw Dean alive we argued. I think what I hate most of all is that you treated us like everyone else. We’re not, Jack. We’re your family. All of us deserved a chance at normal and we didn’t get it.”

“Sam did.”

“How many years did Sam live without us? Without his brother?” you asked. Jack glanced down and you nodded. “You said you became God? Why didn’t you get rid of the monsters altogether Jack. Don’t tell me you don’t have that power.”

“I thought...I thought it was the natural order.”

“Yet you know there are other universes with no monsters at all. You could have taken the monsters away. Shit turn them human for all I care. The boys didn’t have to keep hunting after you took over. You could have been hands off and changed that one fact and saved so many lives, improved so many lives.”

“No. I couldn’t have changed it. Not back then.”

“Why the hell not?” you asked. He pulled his hand away and you found yourself in some clean clothes, Lyle’s jacket folded on top of the car.

“Because when I became God, I learned a lot. It sucks knowing that certain things have to happen and that I had to ignore when Sam prayed to me in that barn because things had to happen this way.”

“But why?”

“Because if I didn’t, if I’d intervened then and there, this universe, all of the ones I’ve been busy rebuilding, the way I’ve been rebuilding heaven...it’d be gone. Destroyed and I wouldn’t be able to put it back. It’s a temporary pain even if it doesn’t seem like it. So please, Y/N, please, listen to Lyle. Work with him. It’ll work out and things can be okay. You can have everything you ever wanted and more. You can have the freaking apple pie life and the no monsters and all of it but please understand you have more shit to go through first and whatever happens, do not let Lyle die.”

“He’s my son. I wouldn’t let that happen to him,” you said. Jack nodded and you grabbed his arm when he turned to leave. “You’ve grown up Jackie.”

“I’m still a baby by God standards,” he said.

“The guys take care of you after I was gone?” you asked.

“Yeah. I missed you though,” he said. “I accidentally killed Mary and sort of lost my soul for a bit. Things got bad for a while.”

“Do you see Kelly in heaven sometimes? Mary?” you asked. He nodded and you smiled. “Kids can fuck up and your parents will forgive you.”

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, Y/N. If I could snap my fingers to fix it all, stop it from ever happening, I would.”

“I’m going to trust that it had to be this way,” you said. “But give me a ballpark figure here. When do I get the guys back?”

“That’s relative. You’re going to end up breaking the space time continuum so it’s hard to answer that correctly.” You stared at him and he shrugged. “Not too long. A few days at most. I promise.”

“Wait is that how we have a twenty year old son?” you asked.

“Yes. The next time you see Dean he’ll be younger than the last you saw him. Just trust your gut and Lyle. Next time I see you I hope things are much better,” he said. You opened your mouth but he disappeared. You shook your head and turned around, Lyle now wearing his jacket, standing closer to the passenger seat door. For a long while you both simply stared, Lyle looking as if he’d just had his own long conversation with Jack.

“You can call me Y/N if that makes it easier,” you said. He nodded and you took a deep breath, going to the driver’s side. “So. What’s the next move?”

“Jack just said after I got you out we had to go to Lebanon. He didn’t tell me anything more than that,” he said.

“Any idea where we are?” you asked.

“San Antonio,” he said. “So we go North?”

“Yeah,” you said quietly. “Mind taking the first shift driving? I sort of haven’t slept in like seventy years.”

“No that’s fine,” he said. He walked around the front and you made your way to the passenger side, climbing in and sighing. He got behind the wheel and took a deep breath. “You and dad run a construction business.”

“That’s nice,” you said, smiling to yourself. “Dean’d be real good at that kind of thing. He’s really smart.”

“I know. Most guys can’t call up their dad for help on their architecture homework,” he said.

“You go to college?” you asked, Lyle nodding. “Do you know about...this stuff?”

“I’m still not convinced I’m not insane. I just got home on a friday night. We had dinner and everyone went outside to have a bonfire in the backyard. I went in to use the bathroom and Uncle Jack stopped me before I could get back outside. He said a lot of crazy stuff I didn’t believe but the fact you were in that basement...you and dad are only like forty but you’re obviously too old right now to have had me when that would have made sense and Uncle Jack said space and time is gonna break and-”

“Lyle,” you said, holding up a hand. “Relax. I just want to know, do you know what hunting is?”

“Dad doesn’t go hunting,” he said, narrowing his eyes. You smiled and nodded to yourself. “We don’t even own a gun.”

“I doubt that. But that must mean that something happens to the monsters along the way too.”

“What do you mean monsters? And why were you kidnapped in a basement? And what the fuck is going on? You’re supposed to be my mom that runs the family business and you kick ass in your soccer league in the summer and you can’t cook to save your life and that’s okay cause you’re really good at baking and pies and shit and I just don’t understand who you really are.” His face was flush, eyes fighting back tears. You smiled, reaching over and cupping his cheek.

“You’re a good guy Lyle. We obviously did something right,” you said, wiping away a stray tear that fell. “It’s scary. It’s really scary. I’m not your mom yet but I will be someday. I promise I will tell you everything you don’t know when I catch up to your time. Dean and I will. But we need to go to Lebanon and the faster we can go there and figure out what we have to do, the faster we can get you back home where you belong.”

“But can’t you-”

“This world isn’t safe, Lyle. It is very unsafe for a Winchester especially. Please drive now,” you said. You put on your seatbelt and he closed his eyes. “Please.”

“I was supposed to be having a smore right now,” he said.

“I know. But saving the world is kinda cool,” you said.

“I don’t want to save the world. I want to go home and not see my mom be beat to shit. I want my dad to go back to teasing me at dinner and not being dead,” he said.

“If we do this right, you can go back to that really soon. It hasn’t happened for me yet. We can talk all about this when you come back. The night you come back we can talk through it all. But we have to get going. The sooner we go, the sooner it goes back to normal.”

“It’ll never be normal again.”

“Yes it will. I promise.”

“How do you-“

“Because I just had this really bad thing happen to me but someday I’m going to have you and everything I ever wanted with Dean. So it sucks right now but it’ll be better eventually. I know it will. You’re here so I know it’ll be normal.” He nodded and wiped off his face, starting the car up again.

“Y/N. Are you okay after...you know...being down there beat up all that time?”

“Not really,” you said. He took off his jacket and handed it to you. You stared before he rolled his eyes, laying it over your front.

“Sleep. I can drive.”

“Lyle.”

“Y/N. Rest. It’s safe. I got this.”

“You take after your dad.”

“Take after someone else too,” he said. You smiled and nodded, resting your head on your shoulder, closing your eyes. “I’ll wake you up for breakfast.”

“Egg and-”

“Cheese on a biscuit, two breakfast burritos, extra hot sauce and a small hot latte.”

“At least my road trip order didn’t change,” you said, quickly relaxing and falling asleep for the first time in ages.

_______

A/N: Read part 2 here!

#tell me a story bingo #supernatural #spn #dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester #supernatural fanfiction #dean #winchester #dean spn

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thisis-an-original-name · 2 years

Text

who is out here writing smut for all the YOUNG stranger things characters. I just ran across a mike wheeler x reader smut which 1. No thank you but more important who made you think this is okay???

I know the actors are all adults now (BARELY) but they still look like young teenagers and in the show they act like young teenagers. Like I don’t give a fuck how old Finn Wolfhard is, in the show he looks and acts 15. Y’all are disgusting.

But what grosses me out the most is that they are RECENTLY adults. All the kids were like 12 in season one. Have y’all been waiting for them to turn 18 like those creepy paparazzi who photographed Millie Bobby Brown at her 18th birthday party? Or were you already thinking about them like this three years ago, in season 3, when they basically looked the same but were literal children?

I don’t feel the same about the older kids because much like many older teenagers on tv, they’re played by people in their mid-20s (and most of them are over eighteen in the show.)

Throughout the whole run of stranger things, the older actors have been adults, and their characters have always looked like adults to some extent. You can’t say the same about any of the younger characters, and I don’t think it’s ok to suddenly start writing smut about them just because you waited long enough for it to be technically legal.

#stranger things #mike wheeler #how about we all leave the teenage actors alone #like they are literally still teenagers #yall are disgusting

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kylosgenesis · 4 years

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Teardrops on Fire

Synopsis:

Steve Rogers is the last Alpha of the an almost extinct Lycan pack. With only less than 100 members left. Steve must produce an heir to ensure the species survival and reduce the chance of attacks from others. Omegas are rare, and betas have a hard time producing children. Steves reality is finally setting in as his obligation of producing an heir faces a major set back.

Reader is the last suitable omega to mate with Steve, due to the fear of her daughters fate in the pack, her mother kept her hidden from the pack after her own exile. Only her mother, and Bucky's family know of her existence. Bucky is Steve's right hand man, and the packs best warrior! He and the reader developed a friendship and bond over the years, but age forced them to become distant.

What happens when she presents and her first heat cycle comes? Her body is in excruciating pain and a strong fever quickly overcomes her body. Facing the fear of her daughters possible death, her mom calls on the only person who can save her at this point, Alpha Steve! Bucky and the alphas friendship will be tested. The reader will be faced with her love for Bucky or her duty to the pack.

warnings: quick mentions of minor character deaths, A/B/O dynamics

Chapter 1: No longer children

The nights in the outskirts were loud, filled with crickets, and nature! The smell of the woods is all she'd ever known, her mom was exiled from the pack when she was pregnant with her, but only a select few knew of her existence. Those who did, protected her mom out of respect. She was kind and strong, she brought her daughter up on her own in a harsh, and desolate part of the woods. Still within pack territory, but at least an hour journey on car. Following the waterfall all the way to the bottom creek where the water came to a halt, and the cascade fell into a peaceful flow, That’s where she called home. There was only just an abandoned hunting cabin back then, but her mom rebuilt it with bloodshed, and tears. For a long time she managed on her own!

Winnifred Barnes was a kind woman, the only other person she'd ever known, Winnifred was a beta from the same village her mother came from. Every so often she would sneak out of the village, and travel down unto the creek with supplies, and fresh bread to deliver to them. She barely saw her, but her favorite memories involved her. She had a son, his name Was James, but he hated being called James. He went by Bucky.

~15 years ago~

“Here fishy fishy, I’m a friend” she'd had taken out a fish trap to the creek and spent the entirety of the morning watching fish just swim by her feet as they neatly avoided the trap she'd set up “ fishy, fishy please come “ she'd sighed in frustration! Whenever her mom came to the river, she made it look so effortless. She would just sing, and it was like animals wanted to be surrounded by her presence! It never took long for them to catch dinner and return home. “ Maybe it's because you're scaring the fish away with all the talking and paddling your making!” Bucky said with a smirk!

~flashback end~

Looking back, that was her first memory of Bucky. He was older than her. Maybe 12 at the time. He didn't let that stop him from being her friend. He taught her to fish that day! She went home with three small trouts and some catfish. she was stoked to show her mom the progress she'd made! She knew her mother often worried about her. She was alone, but Bucky brought a spark of life and joy into her life, she couldn't quite comprehend.

Years went by like that! She saw Bucky almost every week! He taught her everything she knew now!

They hunted together! Fished! Started fires!

They could spend hours around the woods within their own imaginations. She'd pretend that the king of the forest had kidnapped her, and hide! Bucky would use his tracking skills to find her! He was always the knight in shining armor, and they'd be gone for hours within our own world. As she grew older, she knew his interests would one day shift!

They stopped playing like kids, his body began to change, and her body did too. She no longer imagined the trees were magical , and she was a princess! Bucky no longer was the knight to the rescue! The world started to become more real, and her childlike imagination faded! Along with her favorite memories of Bucky.

It was the day of her tenth birthday! Winnifred showed up with a delicious tart, she was so exited when she heard her voice from across the cabin, her little heart nearly burst with excitement as she raced to meet her. Her happiness faced as she noticed Bucky was not with her! He hadn't come!

He had presented an alpha! He had officially grown up and had a different mindset now, he'd have duties and would soon start his own life. His days without responsibilities were over, He had a new life and had to to help take care of a pack now!

She had cried all day that day, her mom could tell she was inconsolable! Once again she was alone! Her only friend was gone, and it was just the two of them once again! She knew Bucky wasn't dead, but as the years went on without him it was like she was dead to him!

They saw Winnifred one a month at least, sometimes Rebecca, Bucky’s younger sister was with her. As Rebecca grew she too presented! She was a beautiful beta, it didn't take long for her to find a role and love within the pack.

Two years after Bucky stopped visiting had passed, and she was once again alone! She didn't know much about the people from the village, but Rebecca painted beautiful stories with her words about her friends and the guy she wanted to be mated to.

She used to fall asleep to her stories, and would imagine what they were all like! How Bucky was doing? what if she was there? What did being in love feel like?

Secluded from the world she loved books! They were her escape into any world she could wanna be in. As she grew older hunting became less fun, and more of a necessity! Her mother was growing older and weaker, she could see the strain that household tasks did to her body. She no longer sang when she cooked, the piano she used to play sat in the corner untouched, only collecting small specks of dust. Her life, just seemed monotone to her. Wake up, live, repeat! it was like she gave up living, while still being very alive! Losing a mate would often take a physical toll on the body, as well as an emotional one. She had noticed that when her mom lost her Pa, she lost half of herself along with him! She tried to be strong, but without a bond your body starts to become frail! Winnifred said her mother used to light the whole pack with her smile and kindness! She was so beautiful there wasn't a day she didn't have fresh flowers from prospects at her door, and that was long before she presented a as a beta.

She began to take responsibility for housework, gardening, and making sure there was protein on the table. In our household nothing went to waste! We used furs for shoes and clothing, Winnifred had been kind enough to donate us her old sewing machine once she was able to afford a new one.

Coming home from the lake after a long day of fishing, she tucked her old leather boots near the door. They were a couple of seasons old and needed to be reinforced with a new leather, but they were the best she could do with the nearly approaching winter season. Tossing the bucket full of freshly caught trout on the kitchen sink. She took the scales and bones out before neatly placing the fish on the freezer. It wasn't much, but it was enough to last through the harshest part of winter season. They still had a few months to prepare, but she didn't want to be caught off guard. Hunting big game was next on the list, they'd have enough to get them safely though.

After dinner they sat down near the fire! Her mom reminisced about her friends when she was young, and her father. Specially how much she loved him! You knew he was a good man, but it was no secret he had a temper, and a hard time taking orders. It was because of him you guys were banished! Her mom never wanted to talk about what happened, or how he died! She knew it must've been something bad. Despite everything they were lucky to be allowed within pack territory. Being outside a marked territory was very dangerous, and not many could survive the cruel nomad packs that would kill, steal, and rape any wondering females outside of a protected territory.

That night as she laid in her small bed. She looked to my side to see a hoodie. It was so small now! It used to belong to Bucky. She vividly remembered him giving it to her! One day, it got too dark, too soon! The walk back to the small cabin became straining to her small body. Bucky offered his hoodie to provide an extra layer of warmth. It still smelled like him! He smelled of pine and firewood with hints of fresh morning rain, his scent was comforting! Still to this day she couldn't let go of the thought of him.

Little did she know that would be the last time she saw Bucky!

That flashback brought her comfort, and soon sleep overcame her. Waking up the next morning felt as if she'd hunted an entire season, and hadn’t rested a second. Her hips were screamed for her to stay in bed longer, head spinning, and fluttering stomach, she pushed it all aside! She rose up to get herself some water, the thought of a nice warm tea with some fruits and maybe some nuts already alleviated her body, and caused her to salivate at the thought of relief.

As she walked into the kitchen to see her mothers usually tender eyes, She saw the opposite! Her mothers tender smile and eyes had fallen! Her eyes became filled with tears as she dropped her mug. Ignoring her aching body, she ran to comfort her in a hug! She hadn't seen her mother cry often, but at this very moment she sobbed, and looked at her in disbelief! It wasn’t tears of pride, it was pain that filled her words. She knew it was coming! They had hoped when the day came, she'd present as a beta, just like her mother! Her mother was apologizing with her soft sobs and tears. She had brought an omega into the world, the implications of being an omega without status or protection meant that a bad heat could kill her! Or a wandering cruel alpha could hurt her and claim her if I wasn’t careful.

This changed everything! She was an omega!

Bucky Barnes POV:

Bucky stepped out of his pickup truck. His hair was getting too long to handle, but he hadn’t had the time to get it cut. He had been away from the pack for what felt too long. He missed his mother’s cooking and the mead that Natasha's pub brewed fresh every morning. He couldn’t wait to shower, and become one with his bed.

Steve had entrusted him with a supply run for winter. Blankets, medicine, extra food and anything that could be used to fix an electric grid in case the power went out like the last few times. The village was nowhere near desolate or old, but the decline in births and the battles against other packs had left their village vulnerable.

Steve was his best friend! he had inherited the title of the pack leader from his father. He was caring, and would do anything in his power to keep his pack safe and prevailing! Bucky was only a year older than Steve! Growing up with him was the best childhood he could ever imagine. Steve’s father wasn’t as kind as forgiving as Steve was! Steve would often fall victim to his fathers outburst. His father needed a strong healthy Alpha heir, and Steve was small and often sickly.

His dad often reminded him he would never be a leader, and he probably wouldn’t make it past his fist designation season. When his father died ten years ago, little did he know that in only one summer that boy would tower over the pack at 6’5 and had the strongest and most intimidating glare a leader could have! What made him a leader was he had the heart, he was still that scrawny little kid on the inside, but with a giant heart.

Steve had fallen into his role as an alpha so naturally. He made sure everyone was taken care of! He took care of the widows! He made sure that the sacrifices their husbands made to protect the pack wouldn’t be in vain! He’d deliver wood and food from those supply runs Bucky would often make before every winter season. Steve and him were also 2 of the 4 teachers in the village. Wanda and Sam would take turns with the students as they tended to their own families as well. But Bucky knew that Steve was in a hard position, omegas were becoming rarer and rarer. The few omegas in the pack were already mated long before Steve presented. And the few unmated betas had difficulty getting pregnant. Less than 20 kids had been worn in the last 15 years, and that worried Steve! Their pack was declining in numbers and was soon gonna become vulnerable to invasion.

Bucky was grateful that his role as Steve’s right hand man was less straining than Steve’s. He was more of a warrior than a leader. He patrolled, and defended the pack from intrusions. He was the best hunter the pack had. Steve teased him about never crossing his way when he was on a mood, but he just loved the woods. He liked the calm! It reminded him of a simpler time, a time with her! He often wondered, how she was doing?

After he presented he had to leave behind all those childhood memories, it often hurt him to think of her. She was special, and kind. She must’ve been so hurt when he stopped coming over. When his mom first made him come with her to the outskirts to visit a friend, he had been so angry at his mom for not letting him stay over at Steve’s.

Seeing her near that creek trying to lure fish in by talking to them, he knew he’d never be the same! He assumed the role of a mentor in her life. He's spent years teaching her how to hunt and fish, and the best ways to start a fire, they even competed on who could hunt the biggest game. She was a little less than half his age, but she had a fire to her. They were equal in the woods and you couldn’t tell her otherwise.

Then one night they hunted for too long! Night came, the sky opened up to rain, the temperatures dropped; he could tell she was starting to grow tired. The hair around her face became wet, and her lips were quivering. She smelled different than she usually did, It was delicious and intriguing to him! She smelled of coconut and honey, but with small delicious hints of lavender.

He couldn’t pinpoint why he was able to smell her that night, but after driving home he was met with waves of pain and rage. Like he needed to run away, and stay locked in at the same time! That night he presented as an alpha! He realized the world smelled different now and everyone had a distinct smell. But nothing or no one has yet to ever smell as good as she did that night. He was scared of himself; he was an adult alpha now.

Looking back on the memories of her, he thought she’d probably be a lot older now. She probably wouldn’t even remember him. He was not a 16 year old boy anymore he had the battle scars and beard to prove it.

After delivering the supplies around the village and finishing his patrol, he drove home! His house wasn’t fancy or big, it was enough for him to just lay down, and occasionally read or watch some tv.As he pulled up into his muddy driveway, he saw his mom's car, it wasn’t weird for him that his mom was in his house. She often came around to do some cleaning, and drop off some warm food for him when she knew he’d be back from a long day.

When he entered his home there were two scents, his moms, and a scent he hadn’t smelled in ten years. It was her mom, but what was she doing here in his house with a look of pain on her face? Winnifred motioned him to sit down! Her mother looked older, she’d grown weaker since he last saw her. She also smelled different, but it wasn’t her smell! He could scent her, her smell was mixed with her mother’s, but still ever so lovely and potent. There was something scaring him about your smell though.

As to confirm his suspicions his mom met his confused gaze, and confirmed what he already suspected from that hint of her lingering smell. Bucky could barely breath, he felt like he'd received a punch to his gut.

She’d presented!

She was an omega!

He had to let Steve know! It was his duty to let Steve know of this omega, she could save the pack. She was the first unmated and fertile omega in the pack in the last 25 years. To keep her hidden would be a crime against the pack. Steve needed her, he deserved to have this happiness.

Then why did it hurt Bucky so much to give up this Omega?

Taglist: @austynparksandpizza

#alpha/beta/omega verse #bucky barnes x reader #alpha steve x omega reader #alpha Bucky x omega reader #steve rogers x reader #omega reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #alpha steve rogers #alpha bucky #bucky barnes must be protected #protective bucky #protective steve

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mittensmorgul · 3 years

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So for the most part, I outright reject the finale. But I do think, in light of the whole "Jimmy was supposed to be in the bar, and Dean was disappointed by that because his perfect heaven would have Cas in it" just makes me all the more convinced that the final episode was some kind of djinn dream. Like.... There's no other explanation in my opinion. If Dean's perfect heaven was supposed to have Cas, and he tragically gets faked out by Jimmy (????? Why tf would jimmy be there anyway), it just proves that it's not ACTUALLY heaven. That, along with he El Sol beer he's drinking is all the evidence I need. I think after 15x19, Dean and Sam got whammied by some monster, and are stuck in a hallucination, and that's what we're seeing. (My headcanon is that it's actually The Empty doing it, because it knows if it doesn't keep Dean and Sam occupied and spinning in circles, they'll invade the Empty to save Cas. So its trying to prevent that) :)

Hello, anon friendo! I am gonna start by offering the socially distanced version of a high five, because yeah... There is just so much to unpack here, and you provided such a succinct and all-encompassing series of statements to start from. Thank you!

*flings open array of questionable suitcases*

First off, Congrats on having rejected the finale. I know a lot of folks are still struggling with that one, for many reasons. But you have hit upon so many of the points I’ve been trying to make about the finale since it aired. I’d just like to start with some of the assumptions I’ve heard from folks about the finale that make it impossible for me to consider it fully honestly canon. Because so much about it just makes no goshdang sense... like... not at all...

One of the biggest issues I have surrounding the reception of the finale in parts of fandom is that it portrayed a “happy ending.” The show itself spent the entire final season telling us that a gravestone marked Winchester was not and never would be a happy ending (thank you Becky Rosen-- words I never thought I’d say, but honestly and most sincerely meant). Let’s break this down a bit.

Starting from the assumption that “heaven was fixed” so that characters could have true free will there, making it satisfying in any way that Dean died so young and never got to truly experience happiness during life, I would like anyone who has adopted this attitude to then explain Kansas the band. I mean... explain that in any satisfactory canon-compliant way. (hint: you can’t. it makes zero sense in canon, if heaven is truly reformed and “happy” with everyone in possession of free will.)

Which brings me to Misha’s comments about Jimmy being in the Roadhouse. Why, if heaven were truly fixed, would Jimmy ever in a bazillion years attend a party for Dean Winchester? If Heaven were truly a “happy” ending for Dean, why introduce this element of eternal tragedy and heartbreak to his heaven experience? Why taunt him with the eternal loss of Cas-- even if you don’t think he reciprocated Cas’s romantic feelings, he was canonically the best friend Dean ever had, and being forced to exist forever in a place where he had everyone else he ever cared for except for Cas? Is frankly horrific.

How the actual fuck is that a happy ending, in any sense of the word?

How is this the sort of heaven that Dean would’ve made for himself before it was “fixed?” At least in the memorex heaven, he could’ve lived in oblivious peace with Cas, even if it was always just his own memories and not ~actually Cas~. I honestly think that would’ve been happier than the abject tragedy of what we did get, and what we would’ve gotten had the original script played out.

All of this kind of makes me wonder if they ever even actually defeated Chuck. Like... it feels more like Dean got pulled into the Empty at that moment with Cas and Billie, and everything else after that point was the Empty’s endless experience of sorrow and despair we knew it subject its charges to. So that’s one potential for what could’ve actually happened. I mean, everything about the finale was sorrow and despair, you know? Dean didn’t even get to enjoy his pie at a pie festival because Sam smashed in in his face. How is any of it happy, in any way?

Because if that was actually heaven, there wasn’t actually any free will (because why tf would Kansas the band have chosen to put on that concert? why tf would Jimmy have been there, just to torment Dean with the taunt of Cas returning to him only to have that hope snatched away again? It’s cruel. It’s, in fact, a source of intense despair).

The djinn theory could also work, and I’ve read some excellent fix-it fic using that as a premise. But that doesn’t really explain what happened to Jack (and Amara, since she was in there with them) after hoovering up Chuck’s power, you know? I think the simplest explanations in canon are that Chuck actually won via the unified power of Light and Dark being transferred into Jack and effectively using him as a vessel. With Sam and Dean convinced they’d won, they effectively stopped resisting Chuck’s story for them, and using Jack’s understanding of humanity and the Winchesters specifically, Chuck finally was able to implement a version of his story that the Winchesters would just waltz into without thinking it was supernaturally influenced at all. Going bigger and bigger with monsters and cosmic troubles hadn’t worked, but going so small Sam and Dean would barely even notice the influence-- even with the incongruous reappearance of a vampire that appeared in their lives once, for like two whole minutes 15 years ago, and an unsolved case from the journal from more than 30 years ago that John had never even linked to vampires at all.

At this point, I need to mention that I’m watching 10.23 as I type this up. An episode in which we confront the Mark, along with Death, and Dean’s despair, where he learns a version of the truth (but by no means the full truth, or even accurate truth in some respects) about Chuck’s Story, Amara/The Darkness, etc. That would unfold more fully over the next five seasons. And what was the case Dean took in this episode? Vampires. LOLOL omg this show is nothing if not horrifically consistent, yes?

So because of this, I went haring off through my own blog looking for a post I made a long time ago about the symbolism of how various monsters are used on this show (because again, consistency). I got sidetracked by other posts in my monsters tag, including this from after 15.09 aired, which feels particularly awfully relevant. This was my reaction to Chuck’s Story he showed Sam in that episode, about what the future would look like should he successfully trap Chuck with a Mark, and which... yeah is basically exactly thematically consistent with what we saw in the finale, right down to a cheesy twist on vampires. Read the whole post right here, but this is the part that reached up and punched me in the face:

this is how Dean personally reacts when he loses Cas. We know how he reacts when he loses anyone else– think about what he did when Charlie died. He went on a murder rampage against the Stynes for killing her. When Mary died he broke some furniture and went full bore toward both resurrecting her and stopping Jack. But without Cas, Dean loses the will to fight. Sam has… always been different. He referenced Jess in 15.04 to remind us of how he was after she died in the pilot episode. Just like John, he picked up the revenge mission and ran with it. But for Dean, Cas is different. Without Cas… Dean gives up.

Because... Dean gave up. Sure, he and Sam weren’t overrun by vampires in the end. Chuck knew they’d never stop fighting the monsters, one way or another. The only way to get Dean to give up is something Chuck hadn’t quite figured out yet... maybe not until after 15.17, after confronting Cas in the hallway of the bunker, after absorbing Amara’s power, knowledge, and perspective on Dean.

Chuck needed Dean to give up, and honestly? Pushing Billie to clear him off the table and send him (and Cas, that pesky angel who never did what he was told) to the Empty would’ve been a direct way to deal with that... pretty much akin to having one sibling locked in a cage forever, yes?

Also, still looking through my monsters tag, I’m reminded of 14.15, and still cannot differentiate the version of Heaven in 15.20 from what was done to the people of that town. This... is not... paradise. This is actively what Dean has been insisting is the OPPOSITE of paradise since like… 4.22… No ending where Dean was a “Stepford bitch in paradise” ever had the possibility of being “happy,” at the core of things, and this “fixed” version of Heaven just doesn’t hold up to any degree of inspection. Something is seriously wrong here. https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/183465650390/so-can-we-talk-about-this-monster-of-the-week-for

And since I was unable to find the post I wrote who knows how long ago about Monsters and how they’re symbolically used on Supernatural to represent larger themes in the episode, I’ll just attempt to sum up what Vampires have been used for. Revenge. Vampires are always, in some way connected to themes of revenge.

(and hooray, I found at least a post adjacent to the one I’ve spent the last four hours trying to find... https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/187207052080/i-obviously-did-not-think-this-through, where I mention that shapeshifters are about revealing hidden truths (mostly about Dean since most shapeshifters are connected to Dean), zombies are about grief and the inability to move past it.)

So why... why at the end of their road is the monster that comes after them-- literally FOR REVENGE for something that had never been blamed on Sam or Dean to begin with, from season 1, directly connected to John’s revenge mission and the first time they learned about the Colt AND the first time they learned in canon that Vampires were even real... like... this feels very specifically like some kind of layers-of-meta levels of shade on them, you know? Vampires are for revenge, so what vengeance exactly is being visited upon Sam and Dean in this episode? If not Chuck’s entire story for them itself?

So yeah, 100% agree, something is incredibly rotten in the finale. And I am sick to effing death of people trying to convince us that anything about this was “good” or “happy” or “satisfying” in any way. Or even “how it was always supposed to end” with Dean dead bloody, as if the entire back half of the series hadn’t been suggesting that a true win was the subversion of all of Chuck’s story for them, and Dean finally being able to have his chosen family all alive, happy, and chilling on a beach somewhere watching the sunset. Nothing will ever convince me that the ending portrayed in 15.20 wasn’t exactly how Chuck thought he “won,” rendering it entirely irrelevant to the rest of canon, unless all of canon was ultimately the tragedy we’d been encouraged to believe would be firmly defeated in the end.

Folks, you can’t have it both ways.

#spn 15.20 #chuck's process #if this was the 'happy' ending for dean they sure did fail big time to make it actually happy!#it makes me feel sick thinking that dean's happy heaven ending was more like an eternal pit of torment #like actively tormenting him and taunting him with the fact that cas was truly gone forever #like wow they went all the fuck out to make it clear that even in heaven #dean would never be allowed to respond to cas's declaration of love #like... it's the most hurtful and hateful thing the show could possibly have done to us #and it still fucks me up knowing there's people who think this heaven was a 'good' ending for dean #like... fuck that entirely and with extreme prejudice #i feel like i have not been emphatic enough about my absolute hatred for this episode in these tags #but sadly there are limitations to expressing the actual feelings i'm feeling in the english language #sometimes the only effective word for these feelings involves velociraptor screeching #Anonymous

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incarnateirony · 4 years

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CW Ratings Health Report

I’m copying most of this over from what I said on twitter so it’s gonna have the asterisks of anti-trending censorship, but,

Wow. Fl*sh premiered at a flat 0.30. I guess that makes sense since it's not shiny big new promotional stuff like W*lker and S&L, but it was one of their stronger leaders.

AA is already down to 0.25 after premiering 0.39 (above W*lker).

Quite literally, even their hottest stuff now is below where S*PN ended in the same year/would be running now on normal schedule.

Last year Fl*sh was 0.43 average when front end of S15 was running 0.3. (S*PN 15 premiered at 0.36)

Back end of S15 also ran 0.3 or at: Fl*sh's premiere level.

S&L ep 2 went from 0.37 to 0.27. That's a really fierce drop. Like REALLY bad. I guess #IStandWithNadria made a dent. It's more than a 25% demo loss in one episode. (27% actually.)

If S15 was still running through its final season normal sched it would be cruising top show on the network by a landslide at 0.3 (back half of season this fall) with rivals:

Fl*sh: 0.3 premiere, descending forward

S&L 0.27 descending

AA: 0.25 descending

W*lker: 0.21-0.23 descending

All other C0W products are currently airing at or below 0.2 in the teens (0.14-0.17 etc), with several rounding down to 0.1 (0.150 and under). It's very likely that Fl*sh will round down to 2 by May sweeps, W*lker fighting not to round down to 0.1.

Current season averages:

That’s literally all downhill from there. For example, we’ve seen the Superman, Walker, AA drops, and those are just the averages of those, but entire seasons of the descending numbers are going to average in past the first handful of episodes.

Current season average for CW across all shows is 0.197. However, just like W*lker's averages are still descending with much to go, S&L, Fl*sh and AA all have a ways to drag still. If it clings to 0.167 average across all shows its lucky.

Depending on how the top 4 drag, the average across these may be more 0.150, which would round the network down to 1 as a whole ksjdfksjdf and there's high chance of that for metrics reasons I'm not gonna get into right now.

As always: stop watching their crap live (OR DVR), stop streaming on official apps or paid platforms (netflix, amazon, etc), make sure your friends know to do the same. Because um. IDK if you noticed. But it's working.

So keep spreading it. This may just look like numbers to you, but this is MILLIONS of dollars in profit on their end.

Funny afternote: W*lker's skew is sending me. That's basically the audience age. The lower the number the older the audience, basically. Like "how many of our viewers are in our target demographic for ads/money" and I'm- 19%- I'm--

N*ncy Drew has been skewing old to the point people commented on it, and it's little surprise older S*perman fans have come out, or Sw*mp Thing, just bc logic. But S&L's numbers for example are average networks. W*lker is just... dusty with arthritis.

#rancid nutwork #the cw #ratings #supernatural #spn #charmed #nancy drew #legacies #riverdale #batwoman #swamp thing #walker #all american #the flash #black lightning #superman and lois

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adventuresindolls · 3 years

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May Photo Challenge!!

Our next photo challenge, #Daisies and Daffodolls, will begin on May 1st! It’s a creative, for fun, non-competitive daily challenge for you to share pictures of your doll(s). There will be a new prompt each day, listed below to give you a month to prepare, and you can participate in as many or as few days as you’re interested in. There is no judgement whatsoever, so please share regardless of how complex your props are, and don’t worry about posting a prompt late.

First of all, thank you so much to @desertdollranch for helping with the prompts, especially those surrounding AG birthdays and holidays, and for getting this whole photo challenge thing started back in September! And a huge thank you to @lesbianelizabethcole for designing all 5 banners!

The ground rules are the same as in October and December, but I’ll reiterate them for anyone that might be new. Tag all of your prompt posts with #daisies and daffodolls - all three words, complete with spaces. This will allow us to better find and share each other’s posts. You can organize your own posts however you want, but I recommend including the day’s prompt somewhere for context. Also feel free to post on other social medias if you want.

This is not a competition, and there are no prizes, but it should be a lot of fun. Feel free to use any size and brand of doll that you have! American Girl is very popular on doll tumblr, but all other types are welcome as well, including both established (historical or modern) characters and OCs. This could range from 18-inch dolls to Barbies to handmade dolls or porcelain dolls or even paper dolls.

I’ll reblog this post weekly until the beginning of May, and then begin each week of May with the prompt list for that week. Please find a list of all prompts below the cut.

5/1: The first day of each photo challenge is traditionally for seasonal fashion. Does your doll have a favorite spring outfit? Is it cool and light, or are they still bundled in a sweater for the chilly mornings?

5/2: Spring is all about new beginnings. Is your doll learning a new skill or trying a new activity this spring? Or maybe they just met a new person who became important in their life?

5/3: Today is National Textiles Day. Kirsten’s friends gave her a quilt they made after she missed school to help her family. Does your doll have any clothes or other items that are handmade? If not, do they make any textile items themselves? This could be something sewn, knitted, crocheted, or quilted.

5/4: May the 4th be with you! Does your doll like Star Wars? Who is their favorite character? What about other stories? Pick a hero from any movie, show, or book that your doll loves and have them act out a scene as that character.

5/5: Friends are forever. Who are your doll’s closest friends and what do they do together? Maybe they like to play board games or go to the mall or play pretend. Or maybe your doll is planning something special for their friend.

5/6: As the weather gets warmer, it’s the perfect time to head outside. Does your doll play sports, or do they prefer casual games with their friends? Maybe they like picnics or quiet hikes through the woods.

5/7: Happy birthday, Maryellen! Maryellen often feels overlooked in her large family, and she works hard to stand out and show her unique personality. What makes your doll special and unique?

5/8: It’s career day! What does your doll want to do when they grow up? Show them dressed up for and/or acting out their dream job.

5/9: Happy Mother’s Day! Addy and her mother escaped to freedom together, Caroline’s mother ran a shipyard, and Kirsten’s mother encouraged her not to lose heart. Does your doll have a special bond with their mother? How do they celebrate Mother’s Day? If they don’t have a mother or don’t have a good relationship with her, consider today a free space to show us something you really want to but that isn’t included in these prompts.

5/10: Bugs are everywhere! We might avoid some of them, but others are welcomed. Lightning bugs, ladybugs, bumble bees, and dragonflies are a few happy spring bugs. Show your doll doing something bug-themed. They might take a net out to catch bugs or draw a picture of a bug or hold a ladybug they found. Be creative!

5/11: Parties are always fun! Is your doll going to any birthday parties or sleepovers this spring? Maybe they’re attending a wedding or some other celebration? What are their favorite party activities?

5/12: Spring weather can be a relief after the cold and darkness of winter. What is the weather like where your doll is? Foggy? Rainy? Bright and sunny? Show your doll interacting with their local spring weather.

5/13: Everyone needs mentors and heroes. Who does your doll look up to? What have they learned from them or how do they honor them?

5/14: It’s the last day of the school year. What’s your doll’s favorite extracurricular activity or aspect of school that they’ll miss until next fall?

5/15: Happy birthday, Luciana! Luciana loves learning about space and wants to be an astronaut and go to Mars one day. Getting to space involves studying many different things, particularly various fields of science. Show your doll doing something related to space or science.

5/16: Today is National Do Something Nice for your Neighbor Day. What does your doll do that helps others or makes the world a better place?

5/17: Let’s try something different today! If your (OC or non-AG) doll had their own American Girl-style book series, what would be the central theme? What sort of things would happen to them? Show us at least one scene from this hypothetical series.

5/18: Beaches and swimming are iconic activities as the weather gets warmer and people have more free time. Rebecca and her family went to Coney Island for a picnic. Does your doll enjoy picnics, sunbathing, or sandcastles on the beach? Maybe they like to swim for exercise or hang out at the pool with friends? (I do not recommend putting your doll in a public chlorine pool)

5/19: Happy Birthday, Kit! Growing up seeing the effects of the Great Depression on people around her, Kit is determined to report on important things happening to real people. How does your doll relate to current events? Are they involved in activism or spreading awareness? Is there an important social issue that affects them personally or that they feel is very important? Or is there something good happening in the world that they like to think about?

5/20: Spring is a great time for tea parties. What’s in your doll’s teacup? Maybe they’re drinking a fancy tea, or maybe they prefer a refreshing glass of juice.

5/21: Spring is full of baby animals. Show your doll interacting with some sort of baby animal. (Safely! Please don’t grab a real squirrel or bunny!)

5/22: In December we celebrated Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. I’d like to reprise that, but with a twist: this time, we’re headed into the future! The amount of time and what your doll finds in the future is completely up to you. What do they do while there?

5/23: Cakes and pies and ice cream, oh my! What is your doll’s favorite dessert?

5/24: There may be fewer holidays in spring than in December, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to celebrate! Does your doll celebrate Passover or Easter? Or maybe they prefer a more obscure spring holiday to liven things up? Show them participating in whatever celebration you like.

5/25: Yellow is the color of flowers and sunny days and ducklings. Show your doll wearing or using something yellow.

5/26: Happy birthday, Samantha! After her birthday party, Samantha hears Aunt Cornelia speak at a suffragette meeting in New York City. What is a cause that is important to your doll? Show them with a sign supporting or protesting something close to their heart. As an added challenge, use a cause unrelated to the current events prompt.

5/27: It’s summer vacation! What are some of your doll’s favorite activities now that they’re free from school? Alternatively, what are some of their favorite hobbies to do anytime?

5/28: Happy birthday, Cecile! For her birthday, Cecile’s brother Armand gave her a beautiful porcelain doll that looked like her. Does your doll have a favorite doll or toy?

5/29: Late spring and early summer is a great time to go on a road trip or vacation. Where is your doll traveling to, and what are they doing there? Or maybe their family chose a staycation this year - what new fun new things are they discovering close to home?

5/30: Today is National Water a Flower Day. Show your doll interacting with flowers or other plants.

5/31: What is your doll planning for this fall? What are they looking forward to when school starts again? Is a big change approaching as the seasons and leaves turn? What does the future hold for them?

#Daisies and Daffodolls #American Girl Dolls #Our Generation #dollblr

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