#this is really fun because after s5 i was like... where does the plot go from here?? like i genuinely had 0 idea

[trashworldblog]

RIGHT?? and since we dont have almost any info on his backstory (how old is he? how long has he been time traveling? how many trips?) theres really no way to guess what can come next. which means we can get REALLY silly with it. i always thought he based his episodes on his travels. so its possible that the puppets that the genie knows about are only the ones that were on the show. or maybe the genie did a Really good job and found ALL the puppets and there really is no puppets left.

yeah i think the items being shelved is interesting because its a good way to represent something happening in the past. especially since its LITERALLY behind ryan. like in his past and physically.

oooh i see. thats really good! maybe ryan had to give something of the professors in order to save him. the satchel really is the only thing i can think of that would be important and irreplaceable to the professor.

another caveat i was thinking of is what if the professor only had a limited time on earth or if ryan / the professor now owe the genie a favor. or if the professor had to promise not to make anymore puppets and is now breaking that promise and the genie is gonna fucking get him again.

yeah i think the hat might be back but he isnt wearing it on his head? and its probably due to logistics puppeteering or with lighting.

also! last season i thought the puppets looking different was just due to madison being ridiculously talented (and she is. i mean LOOK at the meteor!! so cool!) but i thought it was just an artistic choice and not lore relevent, but they ended up all being holograms! and now the most recent puppet has more of that puppet history vibe so 👀 maybe things that seem to just be logistical choices/not lore relevant may be! idk! keep an eye out!

ALSO YEAH time travel shenanigans are always super weird to explain and its absolutely okay if puppet history never goes into that becuase i dont really care about flaws in logic with that stuff and also.... its a puppet show, ive already bought into the world. i dont think anyone is gonna be upset about it. plus every aspect of this show is super good and well done so like... if the time travel logic isnt 100% accurate to ... whatever makes people think time travel logical... thats ok.

yes!! the article definitely means that they did die and death did say he remembered a little blue nerd dying in dino times. THEY DIDNT GO THRU A CANNON EVENT *cue miguel ohara theme* but either way the genie is gonna be PISSED cus not only is the professor isnt dead, hes still causing puppet chaos.

i think he might have a new satchel in the trailer, and i mean, its possible he got a whole new wardrobe becuase he's bigger now. so none of his clothes and accessories fit.

i think s6 will be chill lore breadcrumbs and s7 will have more lore stuff! maybe not the same level as s5 but 👀👀 itd be cool if it did👀👀 id like that 👀👀. i think it just depends on if shane has a good idea planned out and when s7 comes out. he had a year to make a season 5 and that seems like the right amount of time for him to make a BANGER loreful season.

YEAH I HOPE RYAN AND THE PROFESSOR CAN BE FRIENDS FOR A WHILE. I NEED THEM TO BE NICE. i dont see the prof getting revenge on ryan at any point, he seemed genuinely regretful in s5 and genuinely relived and happy to see beef boy. and yeah him and his family looking up at the stars... 😭😭😭 that scene still makes me cry. its just so sweet and sad. <3

thanks for talkin lore!

hey guys im gonna write about lore now because im a little drunk and i have Big Feelings and Ideas about the puppet show. LETS GOO!!

ok so some background: we know the substitute [the hologram professor] was defenestrated by ryan at the end of last season. we also know that defenestration doesnt ALWAYS mean that the person dies. (also can a hologram die? sources say probably not. i mean he can kick and bite but just because he can manipulate matter doesnt mean he can die per say. he can probably recharge.)

we ALSO know that the power box and victory algorithm are outside of watcher hq in the dumpster. this was revealed in 6x01 and DEFINITELY not a mistake. im like 95% sure this plays into what happens next.

so whats my theory???

i do think this season is gonna be pretty chill lore wise. i think after 4 and 5 we deserve this little victory lap and shane is gonna give it to us. im almost positive there wont be any post show lore bits (except for MAYBE the season finale) there might be more breadcrumbs along the way though! and i will be looking out for them

when we DO get into lore times, i think the most likely things to happen is something that threatens both the professor and beef boy or one of them. i think we explored alot of the internal struggles with their friendship and i think their friendship is solid and earned now. (and it feels repetitive to make them not be friends again). ive kinda been waiting for a team up, and im very excited for this to happen!!

so, my #1 theory is its probably gonna be the substitute coming back to get his revenge. probably with a little help to. top suspects are 1) genie, 2) the devil, 3) asmodeus? and 4) secret fourth thing (a character we dont know about yet) i am curious about what the substitute is gonna do with the victory algorithm. in the lore scene where hes watching the machine count, it really does seem to just be a machine that counts points like jokes and puns along with correct answers, and all it does is award a ticket for the winner. i dont see how that can be manipulated into being helpful for him.

we also gotta get those little puppets out of the wondreum arena!!! and the professor doesnt seem to know that they're stuck in there!!!! i think that is also gonna play a role at some point, but i can't quite place where it falls yet. maybe the substitute will mention it and the professor will be like ??? WHAT??? maybe that's first on the professor's priority list??? maybe they'll get them back before the substitute comes back? idk yet. but its definitely a factor and something to keep in mind. i remember the substitute saying that god said that they could send one representative to earth to figure the whole mess out anf they sent the substitute, im just curious how any puppet was supposed to do anything about that??? are they supposed to bring their now unanimated objects to the wondrium arena for the puppet souls to inhabit??? idk but im excited to see how this part gets resolved cus i wanna see the little guys get outta there.

[azure-firecracker]

The X-Files Season 1 Review (First-Time Watcher)

(Any fans-please come talk to me about the show and send me asks-I’m obsessed!)

It did not take long for me to realize that this was going to become my newest hyperfixation show. It has everything I love in my shows-a strong focus on its main characters, campy sci-fi monsters mixed with some genuine creepiness, slow burn romance, banter. In short, it’s the perfect show for me. I was basically hooked right away.

Like all first seasons, it was pretty clear that the show was still finding its footing. There were some clunky bits to iron out and the show definitely found its vibe more and more as it went along. I would say it began getting overall more consistent around episode 10 (with individual exceptions before and after that).

In terms of episodes, I enjoyed almost all the episodes of this season even though I would only call a couple stellar. Most episodes were fun or at least had fun moments, and the banter between Mulder and Scully (what’s their ship name?) is enough to keep me going through even the clunkiest and cringiest plots.

Speaking of Mulder and Scully, it’s rare that a show can make me love two characters so equally but I really do. Although Scully is much more in line with my usual favorite characters (she is my special girl and I will do anything for her), I also have a special place in my heart for Mulder’s neurodivergent traumatized puppy energy. Of course they really go together so it’s natural that I love them both.

The only weighty criticism I have for this season is that I feel Mulder gets more spotlight moments than Scully. Not egregiously, but it feels like he’s usually the one in the final fight, seeing the aliens, figuring it out, etc. I do know that they were trying to break gender roles by making Scully the skeptic, but given that the aliens are so real…here at least she often came off as oblivious and she sometimes felt like she was tagging along on Mulder’s quests. Which SUCKS! Because I LOVE HER and she could be SO USEFUL if the writers LET HER. This is why I really loved the moments where she got to step up. Veteran viewers…want to tell me if this gets better?

That criticism aside, I could watch these two fight monsters for days, and I know the S2-S5/6 stretch is considered the show’s best, so I’m looking forward to that.

Individual episode reviews under the cut.

Pilot: Fantastic introduction! It did a great job establishing the characters and their dynamic pretty seamlessly, as well as introducing the alien lore in a way that we could digest. It wasn’t perfect and the story was a bit clunky at times, but it got me hooked and did its job well. I also liked Scully being the audience surrogate here. 8/10

Deep Throat: This episode really solidified the dynamic introduced in the pilot, and is packed with great character moments. It gets a HUGE boost from Scully exchanging the guard to rescue Mulder at the end. I mentioned living for the moments when Scully gets to step up, but I think it was necessary to put this moment so early. Because Scully is new to the X-Files and also clearly wrong about aliens, it was necessary to show us that she had a lot to bring to the table and that Mulder needs her. Also a special shoutout to Seth Green as a stoner. 9.5/10

Squeeze: A very fun monster of the week episode, slightly reminiscent of BtVS. Decently creepy with that 90s horror/sci-fi vibe we all love. Plus lots of great Mulder/Scully moments. (Also, despite my complaints about Scully being underutilized, I enjoyed Mulder saving Scully at the end. Rescuing one another from mortal peril is actually my favorite trope, as long as it’s balanced. In that regard, this season has been). 8/10

Conduit: Honestly this episode was a little slow for me, I felt like the pacing could have been better. I had a hard time staying interested. Also it was hilarious that this was supposed to be Iowa because Iowa does not have mountains like that. It gets a boost from the ending scene which in itself is a 100/10. 6/10

The Jersey Devil: Now this is campier and goofier than suits the show, and I feel like they realized that soon after this. The Mulder/Scully banter still made this a good time, but it wasn’t great. Also not helped by the fact that everything happened during the day (the only time in this show where the lighting was too bright) and the Jersey Devil looked like a normal person with some dust on her. 6/10

Shadows: I found the mystery of this one quite engaging. Back with those 90s horror vibes we love, and it kept me guessing right up until the agents figured it out. Negative points for the lack of Mulder/Scully banter though. 7/10

Ghost in the Machine: Was this cheesy? Yes. Was it objectively good? No. Did I enjoy it anyway? Yes. Who doesn’t love a killer computer? Also Scully crawling out of the vents was badass af. Objectively like a 6/10 but 7/10 for my personal enjoyment.

Ice: Now THIS was the stuff. An objectively great episode of television. The tension, the paranoia, the fallout, seeing what our leads do under that kind of stress…brilliant. (Although my dad the geologist couldn’t help but point out that there is no ice sheet in Alaska). Very tempted to write an alternate version where Mulder actually is infected and Scully has to find a cure before the others kill him. That would’ve been interesting. Anyway 10/10

Space: Apparently people don’t like this episode but I enjoyed it. It had a ticking time bomb feel that I quite enjoyed. Also Mulder’s space nerdiness was adorable. 8/10

Fallen Angel: Similar to Conduit, this episode felt rather slow to me despite the fact that there was a lot happening. It just sort of failed to hook me, which is a rarity for this show. 6/10

Eve: This was FUN! I love when we get to unravel the mystery along with the agents and the plot twists definitely kept me guessing. Props to the child actors who did a great job. I did get thrown off by the many parallels to Stranger Things-even though this obviously came out first. 8/10

Fire: Once I got over my anger at sharing a name with Mulder’s horrendous ex, I liked this one. Both Mulder and Scully got good character moments here, with Mulder trying to shield Scully from all his drama and also showing one of his flaws-he’s susceptible to manipulation. Scully, conversely, was really the MVP of this episode and carried the investigation on her back. Also props to our bad guy of the week-great job being creepy! 7.5/10

Beyond the Sea: Immaculate. Probably my favorite episode of the season. Scully burying her grief in work and Mulder being gentler with her than he’s ever been. Scully’s family lore reveal. Both of them going toe to toe with this killer (forgot his name) and not knowing what to believe. Mulder getting shot and Scully getting FURIOUS. Scully’s complicated relationship forming with this killer while she also thinks about her father (rather reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs). Cinema. 10/10

Genderbender: So we have gender switching aliens who kill people…I’ll give the show overall a pass since it’s 1994 but I will not be revisiting this one. Extra points for Mulder yelling GET OFF OF HER at the guy who’s working his weird magic on Scully. Minus points for him blaming her for it after. 2.5/10

Lazarus: So we got panicked Scully 2 episodes ago and now we get panicked Mulder and it is GLORIOUS. I also found all 3 side characters-Scully’s ex as well as both criminals, interesting, especially as Scully’s ex began to mix with the bad guy. Minus points for not shooting the bank robber until after he started shooting up a room full of civilians, extra points for Mulder being great this entire episode. 9/10

Young at Heart: Episodes with creepy killers are always my favorite, and I loved seeing Mulder get toyed with. Reverse aging science…eh it’s not the main point. Minus points for the worst plan ever (let’s invite the killer into a crowded area and let him shoot at Scully even though apparently her bulletproof vest barely saved her), but extra points for Mulder angst. This man has so much guilt. 9/10

E.B.E: Honestly the plot of this one wasn’t super interesting but that’s not what we’re here for is it? Every Mulder and Deep Throat interaction? Perfect. Scully’s little « the truth is out there, but so are lies » speech? Immaculate. The ending where Deep Throat reveals his backstory and Mulder says « I’m trying to decide which lie to believe? » Cinema. 9.5/10

Miracle Man: A bit of a letdown after such a strong streak, but still solid. Pretty good! And I admired that they had the guts to kill the kid too. 6.5/10

Shapes: Another fun 90s horror episode, HEAVY on the BtVS vibes. And it actually dealt with all of the Native American issues better than I thought it would! Not necessarily well in every aspect, but I was expecting much worse considering Genderbender. 7.5/10

Darkness Falls: Y’all this was GOOD! I loved the sense of impending doom that was just present the whole time, and the melancholic feel of the entire thing. Minus points for the anti-environmentalist sentiments and for the blatant plot armor at the end (they really should have died…but then there wouldn’t be a show). 9/10

Tooms: While Tooms being let out on parole was a bit of a stretch, I enjoyed seeing Mulder stretched to his limit. He’s a good character to do that with. Tooms was an even better villain here than in Squeeze imo, because his craftiness really got to shine through. Huge bonus points for the scene in the car. « Mulder, I wouldn’t put myself on the line for anybody but you. » I’M DEAD. 8.5/10

Born Again: The most memorable parts of this episode for me were the thick fake New York accents and the fact that the kid was named Michelle so I kept quoting Derry Girls in my terrible fake Derry accent the whole time. 5/10

Roland: This was the only episode I hated. I could barely get through any Roland scenes-I thought the autism portrayal was clunky and unnecessary and I just don’t want to watch autistic people suffer. It pained me. There wasn’t even any Mulder/Scully banter to salvage it. In fact, it seemed they were barely in the episode at all. It gets half a point because Scully looked really pretty this episode. 0.5/10

The Erlenmeyer Flask: Now this was GOOD STUFF. I feel like since we know the aliens are there and there’s less mystery, alien-focused episodes so far have been slower and I’ve liked them less but THIS kept the pace up and the mystery going throughout. I was fully hooked. I was also WORRIED for Mulder at the end-I thought we were getting a season cliffhanger! And those chemical burns looked BAD. And I DID NOT expect Deep Throat to die OR for them to get shut down. Where the heck are they gonna go from here? I love it. My favorite thing about this episode was really getting back into Scully’s headspace for the last 10 minutes or so. With some exceptions, I feel like a lot of the season has been shown through Mulder’s eyes (part of my gripe from earlier), but the pilot was 100% Scully and circling back to her here felt right. I also liked that she had to do another hostage exchange-a parallel to the first time she really showed why Mulder needs her. So much to love here. 10/10

Idk how many txf fans I have here aside from my one post that made the rounds, but if you’re here congratulations for making it through my essay! Let me know if you’d like any more thoughts/analyses, and if you’d like shorter, episodic posts when it comes time for Season 2:)

[acoraxia]

SWK is from uh LMK right? can u tell me things that will entice me 2 watch it pls

Sun Wukong is a character from the novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’e!

He’s in A LOT of movies like Nezha: Reborn (my FAVORITE), Monkey King Reborn and got a brand new game (Black Myth Wukong) and was also in TV shows like Journey to the West 1996 and yeah Lego Monkie Kid!

I will happily tell you things but be aware my love for the show died at S3. I have not kept up with it after sitting through S5 and realizing it wasn’t for me anymore

So LEGO Monkie Kid takes place after the end of Journey to the West where Sun Wukong succeeded in helping his master (the Tang monk or Tripitaka) deliver the scriptures to the west. In the book he becomes a buddha (Victorious Fighting Buddha to be exact) but LMK omits that and instead focuses on MK (Qi Xiaotian in the mandarin dub) who’s a big Sun Wukong fanatic and stumbles upon his weapon, Ruyi Jingu Bang (a staff)!

Season 1 is the introductory season, lets you know how much it differs from the original source, how the characters start off, etc. my favorite thing about it was Wukong’s mannerisms and how he was written as a very chill immortal dude who’s “retired” and decided to take MK under his wing because… why not! He cares a lot about MK even if he doesn’t know how to say it and I adore the way their dynamic is written out (they’re not close but they could be! I literally used to make compilations on SWK’s voice acting and tone, even made a huge analysis on his character on my old tumblr blog)

Season 1 also introduces the Six Eared Macaque and without spoiling I will say I guffawed when I saw what they did to him (in the book the guy dies after his introductory chapter so everything is free styled) — it has a LOT of original characters like MK’s best friend Mei Dragon (Long Xiaojiao), Tang (just. Tang), Pigsy and Sandy (named after their book counterparts)! They’re all very fun and nicely written, even go as far as support MK in his journey to become the Monkie Kid!!!

I am very particularly endeared by Mei and MK’s bff dynamic and how much the show wants you to know that they are the bestest friends ever—look at them or else.

Season 2-3 focuses a lot on the main villain and imo does a GREAT job in making us anticipate their big reveal moment!! I have to say it really pays off with the buildup from Season 1, corporates some elements from the book that I could nod along to because, heh, it’s a very creative way to add in some plot points that old JTTW readers could have wondered about during their first watch.

There’s also a LOT of hidden elements like Mei’s attacks, MK’s name, etc.

The animation absolutely carries this show, too! The driving point is in their expressions and body language, you can tell a lot of thought went into it and I love what they did with the comedic timing of certain scenes (especially when MK cracks a joke under pressure)

And I’m not going to be negative on this post because I don’t want to stop you from watching S4 or S5 but as someone who’s read the book and adore the complexity of SWK’s character, it just didn’t hit as hard and felt like they slapped the book out of my hands—but again the animation carries for S4 before they changed studios.

I also just really love Sun Wukong, he is so silly, he is so fun, he canonically cannot fucking die and almost destroyed the celestial realm/heavenly realm because they didn’t respect him and it was then used as an allegory for the lower class rebelling against the upper class iirc (don’t quote me on that) and he can shoot lasers from his eyes, make clones and kill god 💜💜💜

If I were to expose you to Sun Wukong I’d straight up tell you to watch a Black Myth Wukong playthrough and then watch Monkey King Reborn and THEN watch Nezha: Reborn so you get a solid grasp on him BEFORE watching Lego Monkie Kid

“Why not recommend the book?” well it is a LONG book and it has a lot of poems and SWK’s not even the protagonist and—

[raayllum]

So, Kpp'Ar.

Where is his coin right now, and what are the odds the last diamond gets used to save him?

The tricky thing about Kpp'Ar's coin is that we don't know precisely where it is. Right now there's 3 options:

Rayla took it but kept it voided because he looks like a dark mage, and Callum (if he knows) never asked any questions. Cue main trio still having it

It's buried under the rubble of Katolis castle and will be retrieved by either the main trio or Claudia in 7x01

It was buried under the rubble of Katolis castle and, off screen, Claudia already picked it up

The first two are the most likely, and I personally lean towards #2

If the protags find it, that's good for them because Kpp'Ar has clearly Plot Relevant information about Aaravos (box twin from novelization) and the staff (now confirmed in S6). He's also our resident reformed dark mage now that Viren is dead and clearly knows a lot about magic and how things work. Since he knows something about the Staff of Ziard that we just don't, he may also know things about dark magic's creation and Elarion that we don't, all of which will be extremely important in S7. This is also the most straight forward because the Dragang would have the coin and the unused quasar diamond ready to go

However, the option that is "more interesting" To Me is if Claudia finds it. If she found the coin, she'd see a glimpse of former family that she could find while also wrestling with the fact that maybe Viren made Mistakes (shocking, I know), something we haven't really seen her outwardly acknowledge. She'd also seemingly know that they need another quasar diamond - and Aaravos will presumably want his cube back, so he has reason to want to go charging after the dragang and letting Claudia lead the way (how she'd find out they have the other one? who knows). This also means that Claudia would be on the offensive of trying to steal back the quasar diamond (maybe the boys are trying to save Pip-Harrow?) and that she thinks she's going to get a Replacement Dad Grandpa back and... Kpp'Ar is furious and scared of her use of the staff and is 110% against Aaravos. It'd be one hell of a rude wake up call but one she desperately needs - although how much she'd listen to him given that she's drinking that "my Dad was a good man" juice and that Kpp'Ar was willing to let Soren die... who knows

All that said, given that the staff could imprison multiple elves... presumably it could also free maybe more than one person? So maybe Kpp'Ar could get out 'right away' in that lens, but who knows.

But yeah like. Kpp'Ar has info that seemingly almost no one else in the series does, a unique connection to Claudia and Soren's family history, it's been confirmed we're learning more about his arm wound thing in S7 (this was confirmed after S5), and I think he'd have a lot to offer Callum in particular as a contrast (but by no means does canon Need to do so, it'd just be fun). It's gonna be him over whatever-remains-of-Harrow, I'd be very surprised if it went anywhere else

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s5 episode 3 "unusual suspects" thoughts

it’s been a bit since i last watched an episode (count: 5 whole days!) and i need my hit of scully and mulder time. so imagine my surprise when i went to watch today’s episode, and saw it is not about scully and mulder, but the lone gunmen? 

hmm. hmm hmm. well, how do i feel about this?

let’s just say that when i was doing my preliminary research to see if i wanted to watch this show, i came across a plot point that is going to be addressed in a few episodes, and i want to reach them NOW to see how they play out. and that is all i will say on the matter. 

even if i really really really REALLY want to say more. i will not. 

(author's note: imagine me sadly pressing my palm against a rainy window... no scully and mulder time today 😔)

okay. so lone gunmen origin story… let’s see where this brings us!!

it’s 1989 (the intro riff to style begins playing from an unknown source)

the swat people are here in maryland because there are a lot of gunshots. so they’re going into this mysterious building, rifles drawn, and everything is very very dark. 

there’s blood on the floor but nobody around!!! and then they hear a guy groaning under a cardboard box???

whoever it is keeps moaning “they’re here, they’re here” <- WHO IS HERE?

woahhhh another guy finds the lone gunmen!!! they say they didn’t do it!!

while they’re being arrested, the guy under the box keeps yelling that they’re here. which does not clear up anything. 

was that naked box man mulder…? no, it can’t be….

the intro was shorter again this time. i WILL make note of it no matter how many times it happens.

sad byers is in a jail cell with the homies :( the girls are fighting!!!! it seems they did NOT get along at first

IT WAS MULDER IN THAT CARDBOARD BOX?????? “he’s currently being held in five point restraints”, says the cop talking to byers <- what does THAT MEAN (types furiously into a search engine) ohhh okay. okay. got it now.

byers wants to know where a lady is, and he says that she IS real, because mulder saw her, but…. this answers none of my, nor the cop's, questions

“so what i’m looking at here is a warehouse break-in with nothing stolen, a shootout but no guns, lots of blood but no bodies, and an FBI agent who likes to take off all his clothes and talk about space aliens” <- yeah, that sounds about right 

BYERS WAS BORN THE DAY KENNEDY DIED???? okay that is crazy for reincarnation theorists 🔥 

LMAO is that why his name is “john fitzgerald” … my brain put together the date quicker than the name itself 

yes, he confirms this immediately after i type it up. fun byers trivia for ya, i guess.

so he works for the federal communications commission, for now at least. he was at a computer con booth giving out buttons when all of this began!! aww, he looks so happy to be gathering your information

NO some random people were mean to him and he looks so sad now :( (him being referred to as narc is a repeated occurrence throughout the episode)

he sees a mysterious woman at the booth?? who starts to say something, but then leaves. and he follows her while his coworker is going to town on some computer games. aww man, i wanna show this guy tears of the kingdom. he’d be so happy.

mysterious woman runs into frohike, who is giving her a speech on a machine he made that gives you 33 channels of premium TV??

(i was going to say "i do not think that sounds legal" but i didn't want to sound like a Youngling. but yeah. not legal)

and langly is in the booth next door to him heckling him 💀

they’re fighting over who sells better bootleg cable LMAOOOOO!! who will win?!

this spat allows mystery woman to escape, but byers runs into her!!! she drops a photo of a child and he says “she’s very cute” as he hands it back to her. byers, why are you kind of a puppy dog here? look at him. aww.

he is stuttering and says she looks like she could use some help, but not in a way that sounds condescending at all; he seems like he genuinely means it, even if he doesn’t know wtf is going on.

oh my god, well looks like he is good at sniffing out the truth. he sits down with mysterious lady, who begins to tell him about how her child, who just turned three, was kidnapped by her boyfriend recently. the ex boyfriend is very dark and mysterious but dipped when there was a kid involved… but then came back and took her??! who is this man????

and the investigators are not finding anything!!! EXCEPT that the guy is in baltimore somewhere. but now the guy knows she’s looking for him!!!!!

she hands byers a card that says "arpanet/whtcorps" which he knows the meaning of; apparently it’s a special government project, and you can access it through the internet. glad it means something to him because it sure doesn't to me.

ohhhh, byers says he’ll try and go online and figure it out… i feel like he’s being drawn into some sort of trap, but he just wants to do the right thing….

they finally introduce each other, and now we know that mystery woman is named holly. good to know. he points out that there is a pack of sugar right in front of them that says holly?? ohhhh is she lying and that was the first name she came up with…….?

so byers comes back and kicks his coworker ken off of the computer. ken has been EVICTED!!!

the code brought them to the defense data network!!! and she wants him to hack into it??? that feels like a huge ask….

he betrays his FCC code of ethics and tries to get in there… and it takes him literally 3 seconds. damn. he could have been doing that all along. it was simply his moral code holding him back.

they find an encoded file allegedly for her daughter susanne modeski, but i don’t buy it….

but as they’re printing out the papers with the code on them, she says she sees the crazy ex boyfriend!!! they hide… why am i scared it’ll be mulder lmaooo 

AND IT IS????????

what the fuck. 

so, obviously she’s lying on a bunch of different levels. i'm trying to imagine mulder kidnapping a child. it’s laughable. 

he runs into frohike and says “no thanks, handsome” to his offer of bootleg cable and frohike responds with “ah, a man of distinction” <- LMAO so they've just been flirting with each other from the very start?? good to know

mulder’s hair is fluffy to try and make him look younger, and it’s kinda funny and kinda adorable, but mostly funny 

byers and holly go to frohike for help, because he is a very good hacker!!! he says, why are we trying to crack this code if we can just beat the shit out of your ex boyfriend and find your daughter??? it’s a very good point. holly says it’s too dangerous. 

“lady, I’M dangerous” <- LMAOOOO frohike is a king of knowing his value

frohike says i’ll just go find him!! he could have the girl here for all we know!! that's direct action baby!!

holly’s trying to get them to stop following mulder, the "mysterious ex", while byers and frohike watch him…… mulder grabs some alien detection machine and it goes off (lmao) but then he darts into a back corridor. 

and he finds them first!!! OHHHH he busts out the picture of holly and says they’re looking for her at the FBI ohhh nooooo

NOOOO... holly’s gone and ken is being taken away because they think he did the hacking… but all he did was play dig dug 😭😭 poor ken

byers starts to say it was him that did it, when frohike says you cannot turn yourself in as a hacker!!! aww byers :( he doesn't want any trouble... how far he has progressed in the episodes during which we come to know him since these initial moments of guilt and doubt

frohike says they need to hack into the FBI so they can figure out what is up with this woman. byers is gagged at such a request, but then frohike reminds him he’s literally already hacked into the government today, so get used to it.

meanwhile, langly is gambling??? wait. they’re playing D&D. how do you gamble while playing D&D??? no time to answer that. byers and frohike interrupt to request his assistance!

before he can agree to anything, langly makes frohike confess that HIS is the best kung fu 💀💀💀😭😭

byers is having a crisis as he realizes he will probably go to jail… meanwhile, langly hacked right into the FBI!!!! with great efficiency!!

omg wait!!! we have mulder’s info here…. he was born 10/31/61 and his eyes are green??? i guess i don’t spend a lot of time admiring his eyes. and he has a telephone number that i’m sure people still call and whoever it belongs to gets (rightfully) pissed tf off. 

WAIT, IT LISTS HIS CAREER HISTORY….

"1983-1986: oxford university 

1986: quantico academy 

1988: currently assigned to the violent crimes unit"

this answers almost none of my questions, and if i think about it for longer than 3 seconds, i will end up doing a whole post trying to figure out HIS timeline in addition to scully’s. so now i have to struggle with THAT. we’ll circle back to it.

(i'm going to assume those 3 years at oxford would be for a grad degree? unless he went off and traveled the world before attending undergrad? because he would be 26 when went to quantico and then 23 when he started oxford, which gives him enough time to have done an undergrad degree somewhere else?? yeah. let's go with that for now)

they realize there is nothing in his profile about being psychotic or having a daughter, so that’s a point against holly. look at the man! looks totally sane.

OH tea…. HOLLY *is* susanne modeski, wanted for MURDER, SABOTAGE, and other crimes such as TERRORISM!!!! she blew up a lab!!!! this is... not good.

poor byers is realizing what he has done while someone enters the room!!! it’s HER!!!!!!

now what is going on here!!!!! she denies the blowing up of the lab and the killing of people, saying instead she tried to quit her job, which is not a job where you can just quit. and there is no daughter. byers looks so hurt. aww :(

she says that the coded file he found earlier contains everything she needs to expose the government’s plot against its own people… and she had unwittingly moved it forward by developing “ergotamine-histamine gas” <- well. that doesn’t sound good.

it causes anxiety and paranoia on its subjects!! is that what was released in mulder’s apartment at the end of s2??

(sometimes i miss big pieces because i'm so tuned into the little details. like finding out birthdays and the character's wall decorations. ergot i remember from never again, though)

susanne slash holly says the government is going to release this chemical onto the public in baltimore!!

she says the government is behind what happened to JFK and also placing bibles in hotel rooms. you see, i do not think these are quite on the same level of crime. oh, she says it’s for surveillance. well. okay. i guess. 

they don’t seem to believe her, but she has a gun so they move forward with cracking the code as she requests. the message talks of an “E.B.O.”, an engineered biological operation, using toxins on humans. 

ohhhhh there’s an address for where the toxins are located!!!! and she is being watched at all times, ordered by dr. kilbourne, who she says is her dentist??????

now what does her dentist have to do with this? OH, a mouth implant!!! i realize this mere milliseconds before she takes some pliers and leaves the room. you can imagine what will happen next.

she goes to the bathroom to pull out a tooth and it has a…. thingy in it????? what it actually does is incredibly unclear, and tbh i'm cool with that. i don't need to know everything

they flushed the tooth for the fear of giving away the location. which does make sense, but part of me thought they would study it. then they go to the warehouse and find the chemicals in the boxes as described. they are keeping the chemicals in asthma inhalers!!! that's just diabolical.

NOOOO, mulder is here!!!! and he is placing them all under arrest!!!

but then two other people come to grab her??? and mulder is like who tf are you????? they start shooting!!!! and the gas is spilling all over him!!!!!! which is why he’s ripping off his clothes!!!

the two mystery men go to shoot him, but susanne shoots them first!!!!

he’s writhing about….. and she runs away…. when a team arrives wearing gas masks???

AND THEY HAVE X WITH THEM?? who walks up to the lone gunmen, past them, and over to mulder????

X tells them to “sanitize it” while the lone gunmen are watching…… it is giving that scene in monsters inc

mulder is seeing aliens due to the drugs!!!! and that’s why he’s saying “they’re here” ohhh okay that makes sense

they take the guys susanne shot, and they throw 'em in body bags. then seal all of the other boxes of the gas, as well as the opened packaging on the floor that came from the boxes being shot a billion times.

byers asks X what authority he has to do this, which leads him to being told to stfu by frohike…. but he’s not letting it go!!!! ohhhh now they’re being sat down execution style…. X has the gun, and it is behind the head of byers...

the gun is empty, though!!!! so he tells them to "behave yourselves" and leaves. THAT'S ALL HE'S GOING TO DO?? he's going to let them simply walk away???

“it’s all true what susanne said about you people, isn’t it?", asks byers, as X leaves; "about john f kennedy, dallas?”

“i heard it was a lone gunman” <- OHHHH NAME ORIGIN REVEAL 🔥🔥🔥

(i’ve missed X rolling up, saying the coldest lines, and disappearing into the night air... rest in peace king)

someone comes to pick him up, and he leaves. just an average day on the job for a guy like him.

back to byers being questioned, where we began all of this. and the cop does not believe him at all, lmao. would you??

frohike and langly are groaning about women because “your molar pulling girlfriend roped us in and left us swinging in the breeze” (crazy sentence btw) (let's not get misogynistic about it)

oh byers is PISSED at this “i’m here because i wanted to learn the truth” <- YEAH, YOU TELL EM!!

he says she doesn’t owe him anything!!! she opened his eyes to the truth!!! i love a sad looking man with a moral compass!!

and mulder verified their story so they can leave now!!!

mulder’s car was stolen, so they think that susanne took it and went to the newspaper... and sure enough, we see her leaving the building.

they run to find her, knocking down some random guy in the process (LMAOOO) she says the reporters didn’t believe her story, and no one would, but she appreciates their help

oh, and now she’s kissing byers. you see, i didn’t want it to go in that direction. but here we are.

the pay phone right next to them starts ringing,,, and she says “no matter how paranoid you are, you’re not paranoid enough” and that they need to tell as many people as they can the truth; that is their weapon!!! so that must be why they started their organization? to spread the truth?

she is then shoved in a dark car with X in the backseat????

the three or them are then at the convention center while things are getting cleaned up. and mulder is here!!! he says he has weird ideas. susanne is no longer wanted by the FBI… he needs to know wtf happened last night!!

(zoom out as they begin explaining that the government wishes to control and surveil our lives)

mulder does a shocked “whaaa?” at this news and it was so funny lmao

yeah yeah yeah the government is always watching us. we all know that.

so! an interesting episode to see the origins of the nerds, but i’m not sure exactly what it’s leading to? why did we get an origin story for them now? are they going to be playing a bigger role in the rest of the season? or did they just think this was a nice time for a lore reveal?

hmm. hmm. 

well, you may recall that earlier i specially was craving scully and mulder time. and i got NONE OF THAT HERE. so frankly, yes, i am annoyed. i’m not even saying it was a bad episode!! it just didn’t have scully in it, which makes it far less enjoyable than it could be.

i did enjoy seeing more into each of their individual personalities, though, so that is good? and i love how byers wants to be a good guy. aww. he's adorable.

i guess this was a fine episode, but it wasn't what i was looking forward to when i sat down and began watching, which was agents on the case time, so i may have no choice but to watch another episode tonight in an attempt to scratch that itch.

[fayedartmouth]

Hey! I’m kind of curious to hear about what you have in planned for Rafe in the fix it. I know you said he kind of really helps drive forward a lot of the questionable plans in Lisbon. I’m wondering if you are willing to share a bit about how witnessing JJs “death” and the way that it impacts the pogues effects him and his relationships with the pogues individually and as a group. I think he’s interesting because he’s kind of an outsider perspective as somebody who didn’t know JJ as well as the others and as someone who has been one of their main antagonists. are you planning on giving him a POV?

Okay, so the thing with Rafe is that I sincerely don't even like him as a character. I only find him interesting as an antagonist and if he wasn't already in the plot by necessity, I might have just avoided him altogether.

Keep reading if you want to know more -- and for a snippet because I have no self control.

That said, as I started writing it, he became a much more integral part. And a much more interesting character. I've found writing his POVs to be entertaining and useful -- and he continues to become a bigger and more important part of things, especially in the second fic.

Here's what I'll say about him. I think I give him a full redemption arc -- in the sense that he becomes not the villain. That said, my Rafe will always be an asshole and he's never going to particularly like the Pogues. His main motivation is making things right with Sarah, especially now that she's pregnant. For that reason, he'll tolerate the rest of them.

However, I think his relationship with Kie does become of particular interest. I obviously have no idea what will really happen in S5 but I do feel like the writers are strongly entertaining the idea of Riara. I don't intend on watching S5, and I strongly 100% reject that on a lot of levels. First, it would be absolutely insulting to have Kiara get over JJ so quickly (though I expect it'll be more like the groundwork for Riara, where they build a friendship, and then we'll see a flash forward to after the baby is born and it's implied that Kie and Rafe are seeing each other in the future -- like holding hands, etc.). And second, how stupid of them to literally have Kiara pair off with every male character who comes on screen. Plus, Rafe's done irredeemable things.

BUT I get the dynamic in that Kiara goes to a very very dark place, and Rafe's already been there. Kiara's looking for someone to affirm her darkest impulses after she loses JJ, and Rafe's more than happy to do that. So in the fix it, Kiara and Rafe will gravitate naturally toward each other, especially as Kiara rejects the Pogues' attempts to pull her back in and remind her of who she is. She absolutely does not want that, so Rafe is a welcome respite for her. In a lot of ways, Kiara becomes very self destructive, and her friendship with Rafe is a big part of that.

By the time they get in Lisbon, Rafe just wants to get stuff done. He wants to get Groff and get back to the OBX to set his life in order. He wants his money. He wants his stature.

Over the course of things, he will soften and question some things -- and will ultimately become a better person. My end game is to get him back with Sofia and let him have a happily ever after -- not with the Pogues. He'll always be Sarah's brother, after this, and he'll care about his niece/nephew, but he does not go full Pogue or ever incorporate into their friend group. He tolerates them -- maybe respects them at times -- but that's it.

I have plans for him further on down in the fix-it verse, but a lot of that is pretty far away, and he plays a crucial role in the emotional climax of the second fic -- and all its fallout.

So yeah, he's going to get POVs -- maybe not as much as the rest of the Pogues and not until the back half of the fic -- and into the second fic as needed. For fun -- because I wish I could just be DONE with the fic -- I'm posting a rather long snippet of Sarah and Rafe below!

Sarah was aware – truly, very aware – that things were going poorly.  In an honest assessment, they’d been going poorly for awhile now, since they lost Poguelania and JJ burned the town down in protest.  But there was bad–

And then there was <i>bad</i>.

They had crossed then, wallowed in it, and were now mowing headlong into the worst case scenarios.  JJ was dead; they were on the run.  They were turning on each other, and Rafe was suddenly the only person she could count on.

That was just the broad strokes, too.  At a fundamental level, Sarah’s boyfriend was in the grips of total denial, refusing to accept that his best friend was dead.  Kiara, on the other hand, was hellbent on revenge, shutting down all her emotions in a desperate attempt to avoid her grief.  Pope was a murderer and Cleo was oddly quiet and <i>what the hell</i> was Sarah even supposed to do.

Not to mention the fact that she was pregnant.

So.

<i>Great</i>.

She had done what she could so far to keep them together, and to keep them sane.  Cleo seemed to be keeping Pope mostly in check, though she could see the way his mind started working on the problem at breakneck speed sometimes, trying too hard to compensate for the loss of JJ.  Kiara was harder, because as much as she needed the comfort, the less she seemed willing to take it.  The first few nights, she’d held her as she slept.  Now, she wasn’t sure Kie was sleeping at all, completely consumed by the idea of getting back at Groff, taking from him what he’d taken from her.

Which one was worse?  At this point, it was a tossup, and she was so stressed out that she couldn’t tell if she was sick from pregnancy hormones or just how awful life was right then.

Fortunately, the Corsairs had stocked the kitchen before they left, with plenty of beer and ice cream for everyone.

Ice cream wouldn’t bring JJ back – nothing could do that, it seemed, and she still cried in the shower every morning when she thought about him – but it at least provided a small distraction from the fact that everyone around her was falling apart in his wake.

“I’m going to have to buy more, aren’t I?” Rafe quipped when he found her there late that night.  “I’d make a fat joke, but dad would roll over in his grave to call me out on it.”

Sarah glared at him.  “Double bad when I’m pregnant – not fat,” she reminded him.

He smirked lightly, getting himself a can of beer.  “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

She sighed, taking another spoonful as the good humor faded.  “I don’t sleep that great these days.”

“Hormones?” Rafe asked.

Sarah made a face.  “If you want to call flashbacks to JJ’s death that.”

He didn’t reply to that, and he looked down as he took a drink.  

She got another spoonful and shook her head.  “There was so much blood, you know?”

He nodded, still looking at the drink in front of him.  “I mean, if it’s any consolation, it probably happened fast,” he said.  He looked up with a small shrug.  “I think blood loss knocks you out pretty quick.  He probably didn’t feel it long.”

As if that made it better.  As if that made it easier to accept that he’d been murdered in cold blood by his own father.  <i>For nothing</i>.

It had been trivial.  Groff had done it in spite.

“I just hate it, you know?” she said softly, unable to put the bite in her mouth.  “The last thing I ever saw was the way his body just – stopped.  Like he was empty.  Like he was just gone.”

A puppet with his strings cut.  A discarded toy.  A shell of himself.

<i>Nothing</i>.

“JJ was always – so alive,” she said, and she smiled sadly.  “He was stupid as shit sometimes, but so, so alive.”

She thought of the way he used to make them laugh.  The way he never backed down when they needed him.  He was the first to fight, the first to back them up.  When she was hurting, he was the first to see it.  Bright eyes, dimple in his cheek.  A broad smile and a laugh that filled you up.

“Yeah,” Rafe said with a long breath.  “You always knew when he was around, for better or worse.”

She looked at Rafe, finding some solace there now.  He was being surprisingly magnanimous.  Like he was actually trying.

He took a drink and swallowed it hard.  “For what it’s worth, I think the intel is legit,” he said.  “The note Luke gave you guys.  It matches up with what I found out.  So, I think we might actually be on to something.”

She tried to be encouraged by that, but it was hard to muster up much of anything.  

When she didn’t reply, Rafe took another drink.”  “I’m not sure the others are dealing with it.”

She shoved the bite in her mouth then.  She didn’t want to talk about that.

“Maybank, I mean,” he said.  “I’m not sure the others are dealing with what happened to JJ.”

He said it like that, like JJ hadn’t been murdered in front of them.  Like they hadn’t just lost part of themselves – possibly the best part of themselves.

“Like are you not worried?” Rafe asked expectantly.

“Kiara just hasn’t let herself grieve yet,” she said quietly.  “Once we get to Lisbon, once we have a plan–”

He raised his eyebrows.  “I’m not worried about Kiara.  She pulls off the crazy pretty well.”

She frowned now, eyes narrowing at Rafe.

“I’m talking John B,” he said, like it was obvious.  He waited a second and scoffed at her.  “I mean, you know, right?”

She worked her jaw, stiffening her stance.  Of course she knew. How could she not know?

But admitting it.  To <i>Rafe</i>.

“He’s in denial, Sarah,” he said flatly.  “Like, full on.  I’ve gone along with it for now, because you asked me to.  But come on.  He’s delusional.”

Her brow darkened.  “That’s not fair.”

Rafe didn’t flinch, though.  “He is,” he retorted, with a short, bitter laugh.  “I mean, tell me that you know it, right?  You know that JJ’s dead.  I mean, he bled out.  Maybank’s gone.”

Even as he said it, it <i>hurt</i>.  Like a fresh wound, still seeping blood.  It was still so hard to imagine – that he was gone – and still so impossible to deny the loss.  “Yeah,” she said, even though the admission hurt.  “I know.”

The ice cream wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t even close.

She wasn’t sure if anything would be.  If some losses just kept hurting and never healed.  If some things just got worse instead of better.  If it was possible to be dead when your heart was still beating.

Rafe waited, though, like he was still expecting more.  “Then why are you not telling him that?” he said.  He waited until she looked at him again.  “You know it’s going to be a lot harder for him to face it later.  You’ve been coddling him since Morocco, and it’s not doing him any favors.”

It wasn’t a question of truth.  This wasn’t about right or wrong.  She shook her head, the feeling twisting in her gut and tightening in her chest.  “I can’t do that to him.”

Rafe looked like he couldn’t believe it as he gaped at her.  “You’re not helping him this way.”

She pushed her spoon into the ice cream, feeling smaller.  “John B’s different,” she said, trying to find a way to put it.  “He’s just – he’s not going to accept it, you know?  He won’t accept that JJ’s gone until we go back.”

The thought lingered, only half realized.

Rafe didn’t leave it, though.  “Go back and what?” he said, sounding incredulous now.  “Find his body?”

He was looking to shock her, but the answer was the one she’d been trying to say.  She looked up, steadier now.  “Yeah,” she said, lifting one shoulder helplessly.  “Pretty much.”

John B would have to hold him.  John B would have to feel the coldness of his skin, the silence of his heart.  He would have to see the stiffness of his body, the emptiness of who he used to be.  They would have to take him home and bury him.  They would carve JJ’s name into the tree and then – and only then – would John B accept it.

Rafe stared at her a moment longer, still in disbelief.  “And then?”

It was painfully obvious.  Horribly easy.

“And then, I’m there for him,” she said.  “I’ll hold him while he grieves.”

She’d pick up the piece while he fell apart.  She’d catch his tears so he didn’t drown in them.  She’d be there for him when he finally looked up from the loss.

“Seriously?” Rafe asked.  “You think that’s the best way to let him do it?”

He wasn’t being mean, even though he sounded that way.  Rafe could be cruel, and she knew that about him.

But that wasn’t what this was.

This wasn’t spiteful or hurtful.

He just didn’t get it.

He had no idea.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But hope’s not always a terrible thing.”

He shook his head, still unable to grasp it. “Even when it’s blind?”

“Miracles can happen,” she told him, confident in that much.

He scoffed again, taking a longer swig.  “That’s bullshit, Sarah.”

Her own ice cream was long forgotten. “Is it?” she pressed.  “I mean, look at us.  Maybe believing in the impossible pays out sometimes.”

He considered it at least, lips pursed for a long moment.  “It’ll hurt just as much if you wait,” he said.  “You can’t put that shit off.”

She sighed, pushing the ice cream away entirely.  “I know,” she said.  “But I don’t know what else to do.  JJ’s gone, Rafe.  We lost JJ, and I don’t know what to do.”

It didn’t make sense.  None of it made sense.

What was the point of it without JJ?  What was the point of any of it?

It would never be worth it.  Nothing they gained.  They couldn’t fix it.  

It was incomprehensible, the loss.  It was impossible.

Rafe looked down again, and Sarah closed her eyes while she tried to get the emotions back in check, tears burning unshed in her head and chest tight.  She breathed for a moment, and a long moment longer before she opened her eyes and pressed her lips together and inhaled.  Letting it out, she looked at her brother helplessly.  “I don’t know what things will be like in Lisbon.  I don’t know if we’ll find Groff.  I don’t know,” she said.  “But can you help me look out for Kie?”

It clearly wasn’t the question he was expecting.  His nose wrinkled reflexively.  “Why would I do that?”

It was an asshole answer, but Sarah knew her brother.  The fact that he was genuine made her give him just that much leeway.  She didn’t like to fall back on blaming her father for everything.  She knew her dad’s faults and flaws, but he had loved his children.  Rafe included.

That said, Rafe had learned entitlement from him.

And that habit hadn’t died with him.

“Because she’s hurting right now,” she explained, as simply as she could.  Then, she drove the point home.  “We all are.”

Rafe, even with his efforts, didn’t seem to get it.  He shrugged, shaking his head.  “It’s nothing to me.”

She sighed, feeling her exasperation rise.  She wanted to be patient with Rafe; she knew he was trying.

But they’d just lost JJ.  The weight of that loss was heavy on all of them, and Sarah was trying to shoulder the burden for John B and Kiara while grappling with her own grief.  She had loved JJ, too.  The idea of him being gone was still surreal, impossible to grasp.

She shouldn’t have to explain that to anyone.

Especially not her brother.

“It costs you nothing, you know,” she reminded him, lip curling with tired bitterness.  “To have the bare minimum of compassion.”

“Oh,” he said, gesturing with his drink in one hand.  “Here we go.”

She didn’t back down, though.  Not now.  Not with him.  “No, you want to be a better brother,” she reminded him.  “So start by being a better person.”

To that, he had no comeback.

She kept going.  “I know you didn’t just come on this trip to get back at Groff.  I know this isn’t just about revenge,” she said.  “You came because you wanted to do the right thing by me.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, somewhat emphatic.  “<i>You</i>.  My sister.”

He wanted that to be the distinction, but she couldn’t – she wouldn’t.  Especially not now.  “Okay, and they’re my family, too,” she said.  “In fact, we may as well be honest about it.  JJ has been a better brother to me than you ever have been.”

That one seemed to hit Rafe where it hurt.  She saw him recoil, just slightly, the pain quickly turning hard.  “Right, since losing all your money and making you all fugitives was awesome of him.  Brother of the year material, right there.”

At that, she bristled.  “He was trying to do the right thing,” she said.  “He may do the wrong things, but he always does them for the right reasons.”

“Really?” Rafe said, voice dripping with doubt.

She didn’t yield, not on this.  Not about JJ.  “Really.  You tried to drown me once, remember?  Held me under?"

Rafe went still, mouth pressed closed as he knew he couldn’t argue that.

“JJ jumped in to save me.  He kept me afloat the whole storm, and swam me back to the shore by himself,” she said, the memory making her throat tight.  “He didn’t think.  He didn’t hesitate.  Because that’s how JJ loves.  Action.  Always action.”

Rafe pursed his lips, his gaze falling.

Sarah released a breath, trying to unfurl some of the tension.  “I know you want it to be different, and I’m willing to try,” she said, waiting until he looked at her again.  “But if you’re going to love me, then you have to love them.”

Rafe exhaled heavily, short and incredulous.  “So, what?  It’s a package deal?”

She drew herself up and nodded.  “Pretty much.”

Rafe didn't like that — clearly.  “It’s not like they want me around.”

“So?” she asked, nonplussed.

“So, how am I supposed to help when they don’t even trust me,” he said.

“Well, you have to start somewhere,” she said.

He sighed, rolling his eyes like he was put out.  But when he looked at her, there was concession in his expression.  “I don’t even know what you want me to do.”

The edge had diminished to something softer, and the admission was almost genuine.  Sarah softened, too.  “Just – ask people how they are.”

“And if they tell me?” he asked.

“Be compassionate,” she said. 

“I didn’t give a shit about JJ,” Rafe reminded her.

She sighed, nodding a little.  “But you know what it’s like to lose someone you love,” she said.  “And you saw what Groff did to JJ.  You may not have liked him, but you know he didn’t deserve that.”

Rafe considered that, nodding slowly to himself.  He studied the ground for a moment before he looked up at Sarah again.  “Maybank did get a shitty deal.”

“The shittiest,” Sarah agreed softly.

With that, Rafe nodded again.  He seemed to buck himself up, coming to full attention.  “Fine.”

She raised her eyebrows.  “Fine?”

“I’ll help look out for them,” he said, as though it exasperated him.  

The smile tugged her lips up.  “Really?”

“I mean, I came this far,”  he said, almost in resignation.  “And if I’m really going to be an uncle–”

“You are,” she said.

He went quiet for a moment, and he nodded.  “Then, I’ll do it,” he said.  And then, with a shrug.  “They need all the help they can get.”

“It’s okay to need help,” she said.  “That’s what family does.”

He looked at her and considered it.  He looked at her and nodded.  “Yeah,” he agreed finally.  “Yeah, it does.”

[localfanbaselurker]

Watching Voltron:Legendary Defender for the First Time and Recording my Thoughts

S1-2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | you are here! | S7 | S8

<this debrief/review is pretty rant heavy because of how the season personally impacted me, but fret not! i (hopefully) made it to be still enjoyable/fun to read! just a heads up tho!!>

You get to see the “Pre” thoughts before the read more this time! As a treat <3

Pre-S6 Thoughts

->for the most part I think I understand what’s going on with shiro, but I want to really make sure. jussssst in case.

->they gave lance a big focus in season five so hopefully “we” get to see what that’s culminating to. Super excited about that!

->I don’t fw Lotor all that much despite him being the blorbo by proxy (oomf’s fav) but hopefully this season can change that. I’m just beginning to like him (beginning!) and it’s a 400k slowburn melting an ice berg of hate at that. but it’s getting there. soon they’ll hold hands.

->despite my personal enjoyment of allurance, I would be okay with lotura if Lotor got fully redeemed (in the show and in my heart)

-> PLEASE MAKE KEITH COME BACK!! AND WITH HIS MOM!! I’M BEGGING.

->I’ve noticed a sort of pattern where the characters get a specific episode(s) dedicated to them each season (shiro s1, keith s2, keith+allura s3, pidge s4, and lance s5) So hopefully hunk gets his focus episode this season

->I NEED to see what happened after keith found out about krolia

->hopefully more haggar/honerva lore, maybe even lotor lore to redeem him using Tragic Backstory™ points

Post-Season Six

-> what the actual frick.

-> what WAS this season bro.

-> This season had me getting punched,kicked and tortured left and right and up and down and everywhere. the plot twists and dramatic turns and cries and gasps just kept coming

-> this season left me like lance at the climax of a langst fanfic (yk like right b4 they save him and he’s all fucked over)

-> there are lots of things i liked and also SO MUCH i didn’t like this season

-> so pros and cons basically that’s it that’s the “review”

->WE GOT HUNK APPRECIATION!!! HE GOT TO BE THE ENGINEER AND BE SUPER HELPFUL AND ACTUALLY USE ONE OF HIS SKILLS ABDUWBDJSN IM SO HAPPY FOR MY BOY. MY SON. AAAAHHH.

->^LITERALLY LOOK AT HIM!!! HE GOT SOLID CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TOO!! He reacted much calmer than his s1/2 self would have in a far less stressful situation!!! He grew up!!! HE GREW UPPPP!!

->^He looks like he’s itching to make a gay joke

->why did lance “die” in the first ep?? It was so random and literally served no purpose?? like it was never talked about in the other episodes and was literally just randomly put in the episode’s run time. it had nothing to do with the shield or whatever was going on with Shiro or lotor either

->does it get talked about in the next seasons or?? like it was literally just a throwaway scene

->KEITH AND HIS MOM!!! THEYRE BONDING!!! KEITH MAKES GOOD RELATIONSHIPS!!!!

->the whole “two years” thing is a little difficult to comprehend on all of its layers but I like to think of it positively because that means Keith and krolia got to spend time building upon their relationship and everything that krolia missed, more than just those flashbacks were “memory shared” between them, and keith resolved some of his internal conflicts.

->however it is probably going to make Keith be even more distant with the team because in his mind two years passed while in theirs only like 2-3 months passed from seeing him in person (if you don’t count 5x04 but they barely saw him there) so the relationships that he was building with them have fallen back a little on his part but the others still feel super close to him, so I hope that also gets resolved in s7

-> LANCE IS CUBAN!!! I got super excited you guys don’t understand. maybe you do considering the notes on my post where I said that. But still. I actually squealed so loud when he said it.

-> The mock DnD episode was super fun!! the calm before the storm though I guess

->i looooved the fact that keith came back to the team but that episode pissed me off SOOOOO FREAKING BAD BRO.

->^“we need to attack Lotor when he comes back” OMFGGGGGG NOOOOOOOO THATS literally so STUPID. make a PLAN first you freaking IDIOTS.

->^Literally if they had just played it cool when lotura came back and then told Allura about everything privately THEN stage an intervention/interrogation with Lotor like in Season 5, NONE OF THAT WOULD’VE HAPPENED.

->^but nooooooo we have to be STUPID and ATTACK IMMEDIATELY because PLOT REASONS. istg. don’t get me started this isn’t even the beginning of that rant. I just… *long suffering sigh*

->^and the way they immediately took the altean girl’s word and turned on Lotor? Y’all some fake ass bitches fr didn’t even let the man defend himself. it could’ve been a misunderstanding but okay. damn.

->^WHY ARE YOU INCRIMINATING YOURSELF BRO. OH MY GODDDDDD. every time i told myself that this episode couldn’t get any worse,, it. got. FUCKING. WORSE.

->^low key get the altean girl’s frustration tho because that shit was traumatizing. literally my live reaction right there

-> the only good things that happened that episode were lance calling keith hot and the team meeting krolia. maybe the lotura kiss. (I would’ve enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for the knowledge that they were straight up gonna beat Lotor’s ass when they got inside the castle)

->I guess I have to suffer for the absolute SQUEAL I gave when Kieth went up to the black lion and said “FORM VOLTRON” making them do the thing where they’re divided into 5 frames like a comic

->^that bitch ass clone better be ready to catch these hands. you do NOT say that to my boy.

->I got so excited when keith went all galra! ultimately yeah he did it because he was incredibly stressed but still it was super cool!

-> I was actually a little sad that Lotor didn’t get a real redemption. Like yeah I saw it from a mile away by the way he talked about quintessence and overall attitude but idk,, like him and allura actually seemed in love. even if he was just doing it for the quintessence you could tell he actually ended up genuinely falling in love with her. maybe it’s just me, but i think it would’ve been nice.

-> maybe keith and him could’ve bonded about being half-galra, and keith would finally get some solidarity with someone who knows exactly how he feels? idk it’s just a lot of missed opportunity there.

-> and then they just…kill him off…wow. that was a lot to take in. I had to actually take a moment. I mean it wasn’t even his fault, really. the quintessence got to him just like his parents. it’s actually super tragic now that I think about it. reminds me of family jewels by MARINA.

->I will say though that final battle was absolutely amazing. Beautifully animated and the action was great. I loved getting to see all the lions powers in the quintessence field. And the flaming sword?? that was literally awesome.

-> my hopes of allurance died but i think this is actually a really good step, Allura still felt bad for lotor when she didn’t wanna leave him in the quintessence field because she still loved him and after the conversation she had with the mice it was obvious she doesn’t (and won’t) like lance back, (she could’ve began to in s4/5) and lance seems to accept this as well, (seeing how he handles it when allura confides in him) which would be good for their relationship. so im happy about that 😊

->ngl if they ended it here it could’ve been pretty good, solid ending. Like, leave the rest up to interpretation sort of thing. (Yes I know there are some strings to be tied yet but yk what I mean) The ending was really satisfactory and if they just fixed a couple plot holes it would’ve been the perfect way to end the show tbh. Idk tho I still need to watch the last two seasons so I’ll see if I still keep my opinion then

->lance’s s5 focus didn’t really culminate to all that much, but he got to be taken seriously when he cried about shiro, so there’s that.

-> the clone!shiro vs keith fight was literally beautiful too omg. The emotions were perfectly captured and the flashbacks were just so perfectly timed it was incredible. the way you could just feel exactly everything keith felt as he fought what looked identical to the man who practically raised him was just. wow.

->^literally gorgeous. look at that, man. beautiful.

-> Don’t get me started on “you’re my brother, I love you” because I will start crying immediately

-> So. yeah. This season was a mess. I laughed. I cried (a lot) I got super pissed in the middle. But it was really super enjoyable otherwise. Bittersweet, really.

-> Hopefully Season Seven doesn’t disappoint! I really hope there’s more Keith+Shiro lore. Just. In general all their family lore.

These are thoughts I’ve been compiling for a while. I will continue to post my thoughts on the tag “Laura’s first VLD”

Please Remember that I am just a person with a life and responsibilities and try to be patient about updates.

Thank you 💞

[sweetcloverheart]

Had a weirdly interesting+angsty MLB Fic prompt idea (that I might write later)

Context - Like, do you remember that one two-parter episode of Justice League Unlimited where Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are trying to stop this timetraveling villain, and at the end of the first part they end up in the future and GL meets his son, but it's a kid he learns he has with Hawkgirl despite the fact that he's dating Vixen at the moment and causes some angst/guilt with him

I kind of want to do something similar to Adrinette

Like, it's the standard "Emma (or Hugo or Louis, or all three) comes to surprise visit young mom and dad via Bunnix's Burrow and does a poor job hiding her ID" plot (possible set right before S6 but after S5 or after Chrysalis is taken care of) and Marinette is all excited and everything because her son/daughter's here, living breathing proof that everything worked out and that her future with Adrien is finally secure and it's all fun and cute babysitting shenanigans until Marinette slowly realizes that her "future child(ren)"...doesn't really look like her. At first she brushes it off and assumes they just simply took more after Adrien, but as the more time she spends with them passes, the more she realizes they really are nothing like her appearance-wise or in personality, and they tend to stick with Adrien more. Marinette tries to get reassurance clues about what her future as a parent is like and how Adrien and she are doing, but the child is steadfast in not giving anything up (they might've messed up in hiding their identity but they at least remember Aunt Alix's rules about No Spoilers)

And then she's referred to as "Aunt Mari" by habit/mistake, and the child is forced to confess that no, Marinette is not their mother - at some point in the future, she and Adrien break up, and Adrien goes on to marry the child(ren)'s actual mother and have them. Marinette is still good friends with him and happily acts as a surrogate aunt, but that's as far as their relationship goes now (whether Marinette goes on to marry someone else too, has a child of her own, or decides to remain a single pringle is up in the air/to the writer's discretion)

Needless to say, Marinette is upset. Adrien and her don't stay together. After everything they went through, after all the struggling, after fighting against Gabriel, Lila, Chloe, and every single force in the universe seemingly determined to keep them apart, they end up just splitting ways on their own (How did they even break up? Why? Was it because of her Ladybug and Guardian duties? Was it because he got bored of her? Was it because she skipped on too many dates? Did she forget a present, a birthday, an anniversary?). There's no happily ever after, no picket white fence and nice little cottage, no three kids and two hamsters to share in their blissful love and joy with.

And now Marinette has to go back into her life knowing that her and Adrien have an expiration date - and she has no clue when it will happen and how to stop it (or if she can).

(On the opposite end, there's also the idea of the child revealed to be Marinette's but not Adrien's (though still the same situation), with Mari having to struggle with the fact that Adrien and her don't end up lasting and wondering who exactly she actually does end up marrying and feeling even worst with this now on top of everything else she knows about Adrien. Does she keep going with the relationship despite knowing she'll let her heart be moved by another and abandoned him, or just end things now to save them both the heartache?)

[alrightbuckaroo]

Hello 😃 I binged all of lone star and I’m now fully in the Tarlos hole 🕳️ with no way of getting out 🥹 anyways as I rewatched their scenes again and again, I noticed how Carlos really works on himself, makes so much progress and is such a layered character (FUN! That’s how it’s suppose to be to keep the audience attached to the plot and character). But / and I also noticed how in season 1 when we met him he (came across as) more light, smiley, more carefree in a way. Now season 4 Carlos ofc had his goofy moments and teases TK still etc. but it seems more subdued and he seems more…reserved in a way? Less smiley, less happy. Not with TK, just a general vibe.

Do you think it’s the writers / Rafa considering how much shit went down since season 1, like so many deaths of family members, and nearly losing TK many times, almost dying himself etc. that definitely leaves trauma and can really do you in mentally. Or is it cause he older now or?

Mhhhh trying to understand the shift, and although it makes sense given the circumstances, I do hope we get some carefree, smiling from ear to ear, serene Carlos in S5 with his husband again, at least here and there. Very excited to see where they and Rafa are going with it ♥️

Love your gif sets!

First, welcome! Happy to have you :)

I was just thinking this the other day, but I feel like Carlos has always been kind of reserved, and part of me thinks that's due to his background.

I definitely think he's a bit more open in season one and I think that's to counteract TK's casualness and somewhat guarded demeanor.

That said, when we learn that he thinks his own father thought he would be "too soft" to be a cop, it really made me wonder how Carlos handles his emotions; especially knowing his relationship with his father.

That mixed with the way his parents reacted to him coming out, his own struggles with his sexuality and (in my opinion) his need to kind of be this rock for both him and TK. (I also hope we explore his relationship with his faith at some point but that's probably a long shot)

We see him shed a single tear (if Rafael Silva is going to do anything, it's shed a single tear and know how to look good when doing it) when TK's in his first coma; but it isn't until halfway through season two when the loft burns down that we see him fully give in to his melancholy.

It wouldn't shock me if Carlos' more reserved nature was born out of everything that's happened to him that hasn't been explored. I mean, the guy was abducted, technically died, and was brought back to life all in one episode and the next week they were just back to wedding planning like it was nothing 😭

Anyways, I'm saying that because while I don't think the writers necessarily planned to have Carlos come off as more reserved, it wouldn't surprise me if Rafael is playing him as such. (It is a Ryan Murphy production after all, the actors are only given so much sometimes.)

I understand that it's an ensemble show, it's less than an hour long and the show isn't about TK and Carlos ; so that does leave a lot of blanks for us to fill in ourselves.

It could also be that he's older, I'm pretty close in age to Rafael and I think he's pretty close in age to Carlos and your late 20s are definitely a time where you're kind of like, "I'm an adult but I'm not grown up." I agree, I would love to see much more lighthearted interactions, which might be wishful thinking seeing it's a labeled a drama. I was saying that I hope there's an episode where the gang goes to the beach and their biggest emergency is that the snow cone machine is broken.

[kmze]

Just wanted to say that I’ve loved reading your TVD recaps! I haven’t done a full rewatch of the show in ages (I mostly just rewatch my favorite Steroline episodes lol), so it’s nice to get a refresher on all the batshit stuff that happened over the years haha. Can’t wait until you get to season 6!

Thanks Anon! I have never done this before either, I always watched the show live (or a few days after) from the pilot to finale so doing it all as a binge has been fun. I think I've picked up on stuff the show does that I didn't notice before, like the foreshadowing that Stefan was going to leave the triangle in S4. I'm up to S5 now and even though I know they foreshadowed Steroline watching it in a binge is like wow, they really built that up piece by piece. Even S3 which has like nothing with them their storylines have parallels i.e. torture jail, Klaus, their vampirism and coming to terms with it. Then you get S4 and S5 and the progression from friends > sober sponsor > best friends > maybe something more. The plot can definitely go off the rails though and there's a few side plots I've just decided to ignore because they bore me. I think what the show did best is have a lot of nuance with it's romantic entanglements and that's why shipping and ship wars were (and still are!) so heated. It's also much funnier than people give it credit for, there's been a few instances where I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

I am so excited to get to S6!! It's my favorite season, I really like S2 as well but S6 was a good storyline, great villain AND my OTP became canon. Plus Caroline really got to shine that season. My recaps for S6 are gonna be so long I'm sure lol

[variousqueerthings]

Hi!

I’m currently watching Doctor Who (2005) for the first time. Just finished season 4.

And I just read your post from last October (?), where you state that you dislike the character River Song. And even though this might sound a bit mean, I was so happy to read that I’m not alone in my strange aversion against this character from the very moment she appeared in the Library episode. Similar to you I just don’t like the fact, that one of the companions is getting this kind of super special treatment, especially when it is interwoven with a romance and even marriage.

Now I’m a bit apprehensive to start with season 5, because I know River Song will be a huge part of the plot... Is it possible to skip her episodes or would I get problems to follow the overarching story line, when doing so?

Something else I noticed and wanted to ask about is the fact that River Song only appeared in the TV series up to and including season 9 (according to the tardis wiki). I know there are many other kinds of media she appears in after 2015. But I’m curious if they indeed dropped the character in the TV show in some way after a couple of seasons?

So far I enjoyed Doctor Who immensely. It is a fun watch, a great opportunity to get lost in strange worlds and, on a more personal level, a nice way to relax after a busy workday. So I just don’t want to ruin this experience for myself, because I have to follow a character/ or a character construct I really don’t like.

And please don’t worry about giving away future plot points. At this point it is better for my enjoyment of the story to know what will happen, at least in regards to River Song.

SoooOOOoooooeeew hello first of all hello hi! welcome to Doctor Who! (I say, if you've seen s1-4/specials you're firmly In It!)

I want to disclaim to begin with, I know a lot of people do like River Song, and would rec seeing her narrative to understand her whole... Deal. I'm personally not a fan of that narrative, but I'll give you a rundown of it below and if you decide you wanna give it a looksee, or a partial watch, there are suggestions for some episodes including her below as well

to allay your fears that she's overpowering/unavoidable, she's kind of shockingly not, considering what M*ffat seemed to want from her. you can pretty much excise her episodes from the plot and miss almost nothing (and I let you know what you do miss below)

the seasons she's in the most are s5+6. she's only in two episodes in s7 and one more in s9 (with none in s8), which ironically does make it feel even odder to me that she's presented the way she is in s4. I know in the audio dramas she does meet other Doctors but in main canon on the show she meets 10 once, 11 a few times, and 12 once. compared to characters like the Master, Jack, even Rose and Clara according to M*ffat's own canon (these are episodes you will see, so you'll know what I mean at that point) she just doesn't compute for me as this "Most Important" thing that M*ffat tries to pull, in which her "specialness" feels incredibly linked to amatornormative monogamy (and generally M*ffat's penchant for introducing women as mysteries first, and characters second). Also in s5+6 especially she's presented as this uncomfortably "femme fatale" type character with dialogue that makes me want to claw my face off

I do have a watchlist that's for when I next go into this era that does skip the River Song episodes (that being said, I actually quite like her last episode. I have a theory that Peter Capaldi is such a grounding presence that over-the-top narrative and terrible dialogue is made emotionally resonant to me)

SO, first things first, I'll give you a rundown of her arc, and then a watchlist of how I intend to enjoy s5-7 moving forwards that you can totally follow

River Song canon (in brief): River Song is the child of Amy Pond (fifth/sixth season companion) and her husband Rory (also companion in those two seasons). Because she is conceived in the Tardis, she has some regeneration energy innate to her (I wasn't a fan of that personally). Before she is born a space cult that's obsessed with the Doctor for truly overblown reasons that are never fully delved into, but can be summed up as "Gallifrey is un-destroyed and the Doctor has the ability to bring it back into the Universe by using a passcode that's his name, and so this cult has formed in order to stop the Doctor discovering this fact and uttering his name," kidnaps Amy, replaces her with a flesh double who has Amy's memories, erases her knowing she's pregnant and then have her wake up in her real body at the moment of giving birth (if this all feels violating af, yes it is and it's never addressed)

then the Doctor and Rory go to rescue her, but in the moment they succeed, they discover that the baby Amy is holding is also a flesh double and the evil cult took her daughter/River from her and... *sigh please know I am only saying this because it's how they describe it on the show* "raise her to be the perfect psychopath" whose only wish is to kill the Doctor (all this training or whatever happens offscreen), but then the Doctor almost dies while saving her life and she gives up her regenerations to save him and the obsession turns into love, and so in summary her following the Doctor around is still centred around being groomed to be obsessed with the ground the Doctor walks on (okay can you tell I really really don't like this)

there is no examination of River's trauma in all of this, and only one moment related to Amy being angry she couldn't raise her child. There's also this creepy overtone of "The Doctor can't see you ageing because then he'll get bored of you" considering she was raised to have her whole selfhood revolve around him throughout her entire childhood

the final thing about River Song is that she was held in a top-security prison for awhile because she did end up killing the Doctor due to being "programmed" to, but the Doctor knows ahead of time that this will happen and so manages to change things so he doesn't die

SO that is River Song's arc in s5+6. now let's completely avoid it -- it's surprisingly easy:

s5

ep 1. The Eleventh Hour (introduction episode)

ep 2. The Beast Below

[then come episodes Time Of Angels + Flesh & Stone. a double episode in which Amy meets the Angels and also River Song. the important thing here is that the main "mystery" are cracks in space and time that erase you from having ever existed. the other important thing here is that at the end of the episode Amy is about to get married and kisses the Doctor/tries to sleep with him the night before her wedding, and the Doctor Very Much Does Not Want This, which leads into the next story-]

ep 5. The Vampires Of Venice

ep 6. Amy's Choice

[NOW WE ARRIVE AT THE FIRST SNAG -- if you want the rest of this season's mystery, you should simply watch the rest of the season. This will include River Song in the final two episodes being involved in that mystery, but if you'd rather jump to where I personally think things get interesting again, or gauge if you're up for it, here's the short rundown of salient points:

Rory is swallowed by the cracks in time and Amy forgets his existence (but the Doctor doesn't)

Rory is brought back as an auton/living plastic out of Amy's subconscious memory of him and accidentally shoots Amy due to programming while they're in Roman-era Britain

Amy is then put into a stasis chamber for 2000 years until she can be brought back out and revived using modern technology, and auton-Rory guards that stasis chamber for 2000 years

the cracks in time came from the Tardis exploding, which is making the universe implode, but they fix that

the Doctor closes the cracks in space/time and everything is reset, including Amy's parents returning from non-existence, and Amy and Rory get married -- to be clear, we never see Amy's parents again, nor are they mentioned in the future, so this catharsis is kind of irrelevant

There is a very famous episode in this called "Vincent and the Doctor." it's about Vincent van Gogh. the only thing you need to know going in is that during this point in the timeline Amy doesn't know that Rory used to exist, otherwise it's a solid standalone episode]

S6

ep 3. The Curse Of The Black Spot (to note, I always think this episode makes more sense directly after Amy's Choice as a "they're not married yet, but they're solving their relationship issues now," because s5 never has them adequately deal with their relationship issues, but s6 is solid on that front, but that's just me)

ep 4. The Doctor's Wife

ep 9. Night Terrors (to note, this episode takes place right after they discover that River is their daughter who was stolen from them. notice how this just... never comes up)

ep 10. The Girl Who Waited

ep 11. The God Complex (to note, this is the perfect final episode for the Ponds, but I will rec two more that come next season)

Season six can genuinely just be watched as these five episodes and it's quite an enjoyable season. The only thing that hints properly at a connective tissue related to River Song is that Amy in the first two both is-and-isn't-pregnant (because Amy is a flesh-double in the first two episodes) according to the Tardis scanner, and she sometimes sees a mysterious woman with an eye-patch. this is her briefly slightly waking up while captured

neither of these are relevant to the episodes they appear in

s7

QUICK NOTE: in the first episode of this season the Doctor discovers a strange woman who has been turned into a Dalek, called Oswin. He never sees the face of this woman, but we do, and it's someone who returns again in another lifetime, under the name of "Clara Oswald" -- I do not recommend this first episode, it is Very Very bad)

4. The Power Of Three (to note, this could form a good coda for the Pond narrative and it's a fun episode, but it's not necessary to end their story if you're happy with The God Complex finishing things)

[you can watch episode 5 "The Angels Take Manhatten" if you want (I mean, you can watch anything you want). it's the official canon departure of the Ponds. it's not great, but it's not the worst episode. River Song is there, but it's not so egregious in terms of writing. if you don't want to watch it: they go back in time, there are angels, they send Rory and Amy back in time and the Doctor can't follow them there because of squiggly wuiggly logic, and so they are left to "live to death" -- Amy writes the Doctor a goodbye note in which she says she and Rory have had a very happy life together]

we have now gone past the River Song narrative for the most part, although she turns up in a genuinely not bad cameo in the s7 finale that interacts a little bit with the library episode -- do note that at this point she and the Doctor are *sigh* married I guess. I have mixed feelings about the s7 finale episodes, but it's not because of her character, and I think the latter half of s7 is worth watching for you to form your own opinion of all of it

She appears again in the Christmas special of s9, which I quite enjoyed. I think also Alex Kingston has way better chemistry with Capaldi, and I sometimes think the show knew this too, because they literally at one point had her describing Eleven/Matt Smith as looking like a 14 yr old, which is... such an odd way to describe the seeming "love of your life" or whatever

so that's it for River Song. Hope this all made sense, let me know if you have any other questions

I have a separate list I'm developing like this for Clara's era, but she might be more your cup of tea, so I'll let you engage with her for yourself to gauge. Can always reach out if you're not quite vibing with her, or if you really really are, I'd love to know your thoughts!

[bugsbenefit]

tfs current spoiler thougsh under the cut. repeat. SPOILER talk, be warned <3

thought dumping with everything we know as of right now: it really feels like they crammed a Lot in there (to be fair with a 3+ hour runtime it probably doesn't feel overcrowded lmao). it's a LOT though. lore wise. which is cool for the play, but i'm not sure was a smart move for the show as a whole from a writing pov

all the parents backstories are fun to explore are fine and good, no issues there (that's also probably what most of the audience going to the plays wants to see tbh, i don't know how many supernatural lore die hards are out there tonight)

but there apparently being a considerable amount of lore about not only Henry, but also Brenner and Especially dimension X? is a bit concerning to me. because s5 will eventually have to speedrun some of that. how Henry got his powers Does seem like something a general viewer of the show would want to know. they'll have to go over that again in some way or shape. i'm just worried that it's going to be a 10+ minute flashback that's going to interrupt the current day plot to something like Henry originally going to dimension X, which, i'm not sure is something i super want but we'll see

my biggest concern right now is the whole Patty thing. with how big she was in the play AND her survival being a big plot point, she almost has to come back in s5. there's no way you bring an entirely new character into a play with only established cast without her coming back later on. and... i don't like that. that screams like story/pacing/writing problems for s5. most of the audience will not have seen the play so them introducing a new character after saying s5 wouldn't have any (which they technically scooted around by introducing her in the play) will feel weird to most people. especially with her character coming out of nowhere (to most of the s5 audience) and conveniently having super strong positive ties to the main villain? that's extremely deus ex machina and will feel contrived

and i don't really see a way for them to do including her well. unless she's like, a minor character at one point, plays no role in the main plot, and is more of an easter egg to catch for people who saw the play. but i honestly can't really see them go that direction

just. hm. not feeling very confident about where they want to go with Patty specifically. i feel like introducing such a major character in Henry's backstory in a side piece media that most of the audience won't see is a bit of a mistake

[coffeegnomee]

I was just going to write a comment but then i realized it would be really long. This is a full(ish) summary of s3-s5

I didn't hold back on any plot twist/spoilers but like, knowing what happened is very very different from watching it unfold so all videos and vods are well worth watching. but this can give a waypoint as many videos are published months (or years) after the events.

the briefest summary: s3 zam made an empire to keep spawn from being grief, everyone opposed and he got executed. came back for the finale. vitalasy wanted to revive everyone but then banned himself (or got banned i forget) and keeping everyone unbanned became Zam's job(TM). After 5 (or so) bases in one week that Spoke leaked every time bc he was secretly still teamed with clownpierce, spoke did a dramatic dialogue with Zam on a hill where he said (imma misquote) "why are you trying to save a world people are actively trying to leave" bc members had been banning themselves to give their extra hearts to Zam so he could revive people. then there was a big war which ended in Zam having another dialogue with Spoke where Zam just continually died to Spoke until he was banned. It was awesome. You can watch Zam's vid on it or the finale streams, both are great recap of s3. (both the spoke dialogues happened in the same vod, it's a really easy watch)

s3 Clowpierce is goated, i particularly love his funhouse, casino, cleansing, and finale vids and if you just watch that you get everything.

s4 ends with the wormhole, a game breaking glitch that Spoke Vi and Ash found (also Subz was there) and used to completely destroy the server. Before all that the server runs as normal, Zam initially wants to go solo but the joins Team Awesome which is commonly just him Mapicc and Ro but also Spoke and Terrain (iirc). There are many fun shenanigans. Around the mid season Team Awesome finds a dupe glitch (bc Zam killed Leo when he was unbanned and Leo, who was supposed to have an empty inventory, dropped the inventory he had when he died). TA dupes a lot and gets into fights. This is The Dupe War that gets referenced. There are videos on it, but no streams. It ends with them withering the entirety of spawn, completely annihilating it (there's more to the arc but that is important)

During dupe war Zam and Mapicc thought Spoke was betraying them by orchestrating it with Parrot, turns out it was just Spoke who was orchestrating Everything because part of the wormhole glitch required Spoke to social engineer Parrot into clicking a sign that would give Ash creative mode. When Ash got creative he loaded his hotbar and the Wormhole Barrel(TM) was brought into the game.

That same day Ash started showing the server the exploits (changing the course of the season DRAMATICALLY). Everything got put on pause.

What is everything? Well after the Dupe war Mapicc and Ro were planning on keeping duped items in a stash so they would never have to worry about items. Zam realized he Hated That(TM) bc exploits are unfair. So he left the team dramatically, fought them on the nether roof, and perished fantastically. He then retreated to his sanctuary where he built a castle.

Mapicc finds him at that castle the next day and you have The Castle Arc, fantastic arc, well worth watching as vods on Zam's channel. it's the vod after "the end of team awesome" which is also a great vod) Mapicc basically torments Zam nearly daily while Zam was also repairing spawn with Subz. Subz, as the finale of his spawn cleanup fights Mapicc and Ro who have become the bbegs of the week, he gets exiled. Zam grows a backbone and ALSO fights them, also looses, and then proceeds to die to Ro 13 more times. This is the Stone Sword Incident.

Left on 2 hearts he does a stream with Clown and Branzy which gets him banned by Mapicc and revived. Left on 3 hearts (or was it 1? I forget) he turns to his only ally on the server, ItzSubz_. Subz invited him to his team, the Eclipse Federation. What transpires after here is the most beloved arc in all of lifesteal history, from a fandom perspective. I wrote a whole writeup that's pinned on my blog. Its the greatest tragedy written by man.

Zam found himself on the very team that was behind the new exploit and when Ash showed the server the illegal items.. there truly are no words to describe the situation that went down between that team over the next few moths.

What ended was Zam betraying yet another team over the same issue; not giving up illegal exploits. wow that is a massive oversimplification. It's fine. we move past it.

Spoke completely takes over the Wormhole project which ends with around 100 other mcyts joining lifesteal for a massive protect-the-president type event before the server is destroyed and the season from hell is finally over.

clown is barely around. Ash is really only around to fuck everything up that one time lol and then he was busy (finals iirc?) during the finale so he gets no screen time.

s5 starts slow Zam is very much done with being the main character and not much happens for about like 5 months? Squiddo joins mid season and has awesome videos on lifesteal. she does an arrow cannon with wemmbu and then the orbital strike cannon.

When Zam returns from his break he joins Mapicc and Bacon and they invite Jumper and Pentar to make the Abyss. they start breaking bedrock at spawn and getting players to fall into the void. its a fun and long and shenanigan filled arc that takes a deep turn as themes of players leaving the server start setting in. They Void Ponies (the better name for the Abyss) make a week long scavenger hunt for the rest of the server to complete: if they finish the Abyss will stop voiding all of spawn, if they dont spawn will be destroyed. Minute heads up the opposition in the Foundation.

What nobody saw coming, or none dared imagine even when there were signs, was Jumper was secretly on the Foundation's side and leaked the scavenger hunt answers whenever the Foundation got stuck leading them to finish 5 minutes before Zam was about to break the first bedrock into the actual void (after 4 other layers of bedrock that took like a week straight of 9-12 hour streams)

All the work, stopped in an instant. The betrayal was one of the most insane things to happen on lifesteal ever. Mapicc immediately tries to kill her, Zam helps but both give up as Minute defends Jumper and both fight them back. No resolution to the betrayal. (Clown's video of this arc covers the whole Foundation side and is great)

Mapicc vows to destroy her life, Bacon agrees, Zam is down. Leaving Pentar to have the difficult choice: stay on the team and destroy the only member he knew before joining the server, or leave. He leaves. Eventually joining Minute and Jumper and Ash to form the pb&j.

Mapicc and Zam try fighting Minute and Jumper many times but fail again and again. The Presidency Arc begins, they elect one person to get legal exploits basically, changing three things about the server. 4C and Reddoons together win, disappointing Mapicc and Zam greatly as red and 4c were extremely inactive and only wanted CaptainSparklez on for one event, removed the heart recipe and had a third thing so forgettable i dont remember it and it didnt happen.

Basically they stalled out the already stalled progression of the server. Nobody was doing any big arcs, the last arc was soundly destroyed by betrayal and no revenge was possible bc Minute and Jumper were just slightly better pvpers than Mapicc and Zam.

With the captainsparklez event on the horizon, Zam being lower on hearts, and having just died to Minute and Jumper in a fight where he semi-illegally restocked, was called into the principle's office with Ash (owner of s5 with spoke). Ash told him off, and then was reminded that he didn't remove heart crafting from the presidency win, so he did that and told Zam to just kill 4C and Mid if he wanted more hearts.

This is the second time Ash changed the trajectory of the server. Zam goes into a moral quandary bc he's kind of evil this season but is he THAT evil to kill two non-pvpers? Mid debate Ash logs on again and asks him why they're still alive. So Zam kills 4c. He feels awful and spirals and goes to his and Pangi's base to think, but upon seeing their bed, realizes he could just farm Pangi off the server. Or just take half his hearts. The idea is so horrible, the depths of darkness so great, that he just starts laughing. and laughing. and laughing. truly a vod of all time. ("an agent of chaos is born")

So begins Zam's Joker arc, incredibly relevant to s6. Throughout the Abyss, Minute had been calling himself batman, and became the fixation of the Joker arc.

The presidency had also passed to Minute who had run saying he would do pvp style events but then just added the aether, changed the kit, and added the Blaze and Caves achievement race. And he was already talking about ending the server in peace.

This upset Mapicc Bacon and Zam, who had become The Players by this time. After consulting with Spoke (bc he always ends the server), they came up with a plan to break up all the teams. Mapicc started reaching out to Clown and Leo to see if they would betray the PMC, their team with Minute. And they came up with the plan to try and steal the presidency from Minute after his term was up (3 weeks, 3 changes) and use it to make the server hardcore, thinking they would finally be able to kill Minute and Jumper.

Zam full on went onto his Joker arc, blowing up builds, having people choose to blow up builds, fight each other, and a host of other Joker inspired moral dilemmas. Jumper also had a GREAT yap session with zam at this time (i'm pretty sure it's "your president doesn't care about you")

He also took off all his armor in front of Minute and Jumper multiple times, taunting them to kill him and break their peaceful ending. If they wanted him to stop destroying the server they could just kill him.

But they refused. over and over.

Then the Blaze and Caves event happened, Minute's final (or was there one more?) presidency event. whoever got the most achievements from the 900 or so new ones would get a heart cap of 30. Zam being Zam loves small tasks and went on a week of 12 hour streams to get them all, stopping all Joker activities.

In this week Mapicc made fun of Minute for not just killing Zam and over the course of the conversation Minute agreed to bet the presidency bc Mapicc implied that they were just opposing Minute bc Minute stole the presidency from Mapicc bc the vote was rigged after the CaptainSparlez event (iirc). If Mapicc could get the majority of the server to vote him out, he would step down.

Wemmbu approached Mapicc and I forget who suggested it first but what came out of it was Wemmbu would pay everyone who voted for him $500, Mapicc wanted Wemmbu to get the presidency bc he thought more people would vote for Wemmbu over him, and then proceeded to convince everyone on the server to vote against minute within like a 2 hour span. (you can watch the entire thing go down live on Zam's vod. it was incredible)

Minute was completely cooked. The presidency was ripped out from under him, Clown and Leo voted against him, everything was rigged from the start while he still believed the server would vote for what was right, not what was interesting, and definitely not for irl money.

Minute's vod "meet the yappers" is a vod of all time. Clown's video covers it as well. (yknow Clown really locked in on those videos. before that the entirety of s5 was streams but now there's like 4 videos on it and it covers all the basics)

That Saturday the BAC achievement race was finished and Zam got 30 hearts, Pentar came in second and got 25.

The server got turned to hardcore, and the Players accidentally killed Bacon with an arrow cannon like 5 minutes into it.

With the presidency gone, Pentar, Minute (Brandon), Ash, and Jumper became officially the pb&j and gave up being the nice guys. They were still self-proclaimed the good guys and they still wanted peace, they just had to kill a few people and then there would be peace on lifesteal.

So, all four of them, jumped Zam and killed him in a couple minutes flat (zam had threated to blow up the vitalasy hole, Vi's last place on the server before leaving. It was the classic Joker threat, but he went to actually do it bc Ash was being extra obnoxious in the call. And then got instantly murdered) and Zam was also banned.

Then like a week later (iirc?) Jumper asked Mapicc on to talk, she told him she regretted betraying the Abyss, that pb&j wanted to kill people and she just wanted the server to end in peace, and that she wanted Mapicc to kill and ban her so she could end her season on her terms.

It was a trap. Minute shot Mapicc with an arrow cannon. Killing him instantly.

They then got Wemmbu on and used their presidency power that was left over to cancel out his presidency power of immortality (it was just as confusing as that sounds) and killed him instantly.

Wemmbu didn't like that(TM) so he changed the tnt damage to 100 and dropped a nuke on them instantly killing Jumper Ash and Pentar. But that was unfair(TM) (and he lagged the server illegally to do it) so it was undone.

As a result Zam borrowed Pangi's account and Mapic borrowed Spoke's and they were back on to oppose this peaceful ending. Clown also locked in and was super active in the finale and was on Zam's streams a lot.

Wemmbu's next presidency thing (this was before they killed him. whatever. time moved weirdly in the finale) was the blessings and curses, Zam was pretty much emotionally done with the server, so in a final act of GayJoker flare, blessed Minute with fire res (which was useless bc Minute had 64 notch apples).

Mapicc and Clown were Not Happy with this, Mapicc took it as a betrayal, which upset Zam a lot because his whole thing this season was not betraying his team bc that's all he did s4. So he locked in for the finale. Pangi's account accidentally got banned, so he borrowed Spepticle's account.

Minute and co were not logging on a lot, even though they had a whole meeting about them playing at least a couple of hours a day so The Players could actually try and ban them and it would be a real finale event. Mapicc pulled out Salty Mode and once again got Minute to cave and Jumper and Pentar logged on and they did a 4v3. Clown out general'ed Minute and Minute got banned and Pentar got banned. Speptical logged onto his account to kick Zam off mid fight which was a delightfully great bit of possession control.

Jumper had to survive two days and got Squiddo and Ash to help, the three of them tried chunk banning Clown and Ro and Mapicc (zam got banned by clown so they couldnt use Spep's account to get Mintue back on). Mapicc died bc Squiddo made a mod to tap into Wemmbu's mod from his presidency and she nuked him and he died from an elytra glitch.

Eventually the next day Jumper and co chunk banned everyone, but clown and Ro walked out of it bc you can join and move a bit before you get kicked. Jumper elected to stay canonically in the ban and give up, even though they let the ban despawn by accident and she could log on. She conceded the event.

There was also, in the midst of all this, a moment where Jumper took a "which lifestealer are you quiz" while 4C was getting murdered in the background and got Zam which was extra hilarious considering in her yap session with Zam, Zam said she was just like him and she Vehemently disagreed.

And that sums up everything Zam (and Clown and Squiddo and Ash as requested) focused the last three seasons. If you can boil down several hundred hours of vods into something that begins to scratch the surface. Hopefully it helps contextualize some of the references that are being thrown around and at least give what seasons to look at to find out more. Zam notoriously has no videos on s5, and his s4 videos are fine but they don't get the depth that was s4. His s3 finale is one of his best videos.

Help someone whose into lifesteal smp explain to me everything thats every happened so that I can watch kaboodle

[kinetic-elaboration]

December 27: Some Daria Thoughts

I’m trying to slow down with my Daria rewatch because I’m too obsessed and have too few episodes left, and I’ve been mainlining it too hard. But I am really enjoying it. I think taking several years off from my formerly regular rewatches helped. But I also… don’t want to leave the universe of it, I guess. I’ve been toying around with some fic ideas, nothing that I would share but just something fun for me. Also I feel like I could use some ‘seriously this can be bad it’s just for me’ writing, to help loosen up.

Anyway, I’ve gotten almost to the end of S4, or the Tom Troubles Storyline. I definitely just let this story wash over me when I watched as a teenager and enjoyed the sort of sordidness of it but it’s different to watch as an adult. He’s so fucking annoying. It’s so unforgivable to cheat on your girlfriend with her best friend AND be so sanctimonious about it AND then to totally get away with it! I think making out with one’s best friend’s boyfriend is also unforgivable but in Daria’s case it’s more of a she-can’t-help-it-she’s-drawn-that-way scenario, or in other words, I don’t really think that’s in character for her and to the extent that it is OOC that’s a writing mistake, something to be annoyed at on a meta level. And even if you can kind of make that work—people make mistakes, 17-year-olds make lots of mistakes, this is an area far out of her comfort zone or expertise, sometimes we want to tell certain stories and that means stretching the limits of believable characterizations especially in long-form, serial narratives—she shouldn’t have stayed with him for a year! A year! That piece of toast!

The thing is that I do get why they did it. The show was getting pretty weird in S3, perhaps a little bored with itself, and after 3 full seasons I think it was also ready to grow, and ready for its characters to grow. I think bringing in Tom was an attempt to give Daria specifically, the character, room to grow: first by separating her from Jane and thus forcing her to explore other relationships or even just herself in solitude, and second by laying the groundwork for Tom/Daria in S5. I understand the desire to give the main character a boyfriend, especially at that point in the show. But it’s hard to imagine where Daria would find someone to date: first off it would have to be a new character, because there are no viable men in the existing cast and almost every character at this point in the show exists to be skewered, and second because her friendship with Jane is so intense and codependent. There might be one-off new characters like Ted (gay, btw), but for Daria to really want to date someone she’d have to get quite close to him and to get close to someone she’d need to detach herself at least a little bit from Jane.

Jane, yeah, one could imagine her dating someone: she’s always been more into men than Daria, she’s always been more willing to go out on her own, she’s always been less socially awkward and less dependent. And once she becomes serious with someone, that person is in Daria’s orbit and she can plausibly gain an interest in him that she wouldn’t have the chance to gain in anyone else. I mean, lol, even the safely unattainable Trent is Jane’s older brother.

That said, Tom plays a pretty minor role in S4. Mostly he exists to pull Jane away from Daria, as I said, although every time he and Daria do interact, they get along better than she wants them to. (And he’s also totally inappropriate with her! She doesn’t know how to flirt but he damn sure does! Looking at you I Loathe a Parade.) A lot of the story line that makes IIFY possible comes in those two episode right at the end of S4, the ones I haven’t gotten to yet in this rewatch. My feeling is… it might be worth using Tom to test the Daria and Jane friendship but Daria and Tom should have broken up either in the movie or by early S5. The only issue is that I think all of these earlier plot points exist NOT to test the Daria and Jane friendship or to help Daria become less co-dependent but to set her up for a S5 boyfriend the only way they knew how. And I can’t really argue that there aren’t many paths to ‘Daria dates in high school’ that AREN’T ‘Daria poaches Jane’s boyfriend,’ annoying as that is.

[raayllum]

hey I have some thoughts and theories on season six that I want to post but I feel like they’re kind of in cohesive and all over the place and rambly and I’m not really sure the best way to get them across especially when I’m more of a brainstorm type of personof like 10 different ways something could go I’m not really sure how to organize it or make it comprehensible to the average Tumblr scroller do you have any tips for this? because I want them to get reach cause I do feel like I’m contributing something but sometimes I think what I’m saying makes no sense at all or no one’s going to read all that you know. or, TLDR: Do you have any tips on making meta in general since you seem to be the main producer of it in the fandom ha ha, your input would be invaluable

So I actually did start writing a post a while ago about well, a kind of how to guide for writing meta, but it felt very self-gratuitous so it got semi-banished to the drafts although I still might finish / clean it up and post it someday

That being said your ask does make me realize that your query is not something I had considered going over, approaching it from more of a "here's how to train your brain to notice things that can be fun to write meta about" > organizing said thoughts, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! I hope some of this advice will be useful, and it may even have some overlap with other thoughts I had planned

The most useful way I've found when it comes to meta is treating it like an essay, with an introduction, body paragraphs / sections (and sometimes headers), and a conclusion of some kind when warranted. This means looking for similarities or main ideas with possible consistent threads (i.e. avenues Aaravos' evil plans could go might be split off into branches, each one detailing a different avenue). So that would be my best advice when it comes to organization.

However, most concerns about "not making sense" comes down to thinking through what context you have to provide for your audience to understand what you're discussing, depending on the length and depth of the leap / analysis. Are there any symbols being drawn upon we will want to explain in more detail before theorizing how they relate to the show? Are there any smaller details or scene summaries to include when putting these things together?

For example, when I wrote a meta about Rayla being the metaphorical light to Callum's darkness (pre-S5), I first had to establish why I associated her with light, drawing from visual examples from S1, S2, and S4, as well as the "Dear Callum" letter. Callum's side of things was more straightforward with dialogue in the text. Then I could take it one step further and talk about why this light-dark duality indicates that she will likely save him from possession after possibly leading to the fall in the first place. But I had to go from a bottom-top approach in steadily building the layers rather than starting from the top and working my way down, as for more symbolic matters in particular, that can often be confusing.

Although sometimes more simplistic, consulting the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, and why) can likewise be useful in meta in terms of 1) tracing where certain ideas are coming from in the text, 2) what is being posited/suggested, and 3) why these things might be conflated, and 4) who might be involved. Obviously meta tends to be more "what" heavy, particularly when its predictive, but it's kinda like explaining why one character might be more involved in one plot line than another, etc. There's going to be a Why to that Who, and those things both combine to form the What (otherwise known as theory or just plain analysis).

And don't be concerned about if people are gonna wanna read it. I find most people in TDP fandom are pretty down to theorize even if they may not necessarily write a lot of it down themselves (and often have cool ideas/contributions too!) and I am the king of making things overly long, yet people muscle through anyway!

That's about it for me without more specifics (a character study vs foil vs theme vs prediction are all kinda different in their own way) but I would love to hear more if you'd like to message me off anon or if you have more thoughts/questions you'd like to leave in my inbox once that's opened back up! Have fun theorizing, have fun writing, always feel free to break longer metas up into smaller bite sized ones as you go, and I look forward to seeing them int the tags!

[demadogs]

Isn’t too late to make Byler in season 5? There are only 8 episodes left and there’s no time for love stories but to fight Vecna. I hate this but i have to be realistic. Also it’s too late to make bi/gay the audience would be confused af.

i see your point completely. thats why i think if they do go through with byler it’ll be pretty halfassed because they should have started s5 with mlvn already broken up. ive seen some people say maybe el breaks up with him for good in like the first or second episode but at that point why didnt they just do it this season? why have the “i love you” scene at all if it genuinely isnt true?

defeating vecna for good, and breaking up mlvn, AND getting byler together is a lot all for the last season. and obviously i love byler so i’ll take whatever i can get but i do think its beyond dumb to not reveal mikes queer until the very last season after having him with el the entire show. it makes everything with el feel so pointless. honestly because of that i think it might make more sense for him to be bi now instead of gay but all the evidence has been way more gay coded than bi.

the thing is the duffers are still plotting all the evidence of it being requited in the form of subtext and we are beyond past the point of subtext!! we need to actually be directly told or shown mikes feelings!! it was fun in s3 and even in volume 1, but now they really gotta directly let us know where theyre going with this because theres not a lot of time left.

this was the season that should have revealed mikes sexuality. they put all their focus on will, a character thats already been pretty clearly queercoded from the beginning. mike was the one they really needed to show more of and i thought they were doing a good job of it in volume one!! with the fight over not being able to say he loves her and then what will said to him about it being scary opening up to people. i thought they were getting there but that monologue just fucking threw the whole thing away? like yeah maybe it didnt look genuine and theyll break up later but it would have been so much better for el to just break up with him this season and then leave byler ambiguous.

that being said, i do still think it’ll happen just because literally nothing makes sense if mike doesnt like him back:

why didnt he let el touch him when they were making out in s3? why did he tell will “its not my fault you dont like girls”?why did they frame him in a closet in s3 when el kissed him? why didnt he hug him at the airport? why did he emphasize “we’re friends!!” so much at the rink? why could he never tell el he love her and have such an important emotional scene of el calling him out on it if he actually does love her? why was mike nice and sweet to will as soon as el was no longer with them? why was he so “psyched out” (finns words) by will telling him its scary to open up to people because what if they dont like the truth? why did mike look so happy when he first opened the painting but when will said it was commissioned from el he drops the smile? why did will have to push him to continue his monologue which is what led him to saying he loved her? WHY DID HE STARE AT HIS LIPS SO OFTEN!!!??

the monologue ruined the pacing of byler completely and now youre right, it does seem like its too late, but i still think its gonna happen because nothing i just listed off was an accident.