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unholyhelbig · 3 years

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Title: Centerfold [Pt.2]

Ship: Beca Mitchell/ Chloe Beale

(Read Part one here)

Beca Mitchell’s phone was a box of constant communication. She had her emails redirected so that she could feel every single time she needed to address something at the office, even if she was there and the soft pinging culminated in the very screen she stared at. She had a multitude of contacts and would video chat with the team in Italy, and sometimes L.A.

So, what she knew deep down, was that it was impossible for her not to look at her phone all day. Physically she had to check the notifications to keep her world running. Emily intercepted most of them, keeping her deep stare on her own screen before glancing up at her boss every couple of minutes. They were both on edge and Beca didn’t much appreciate the tension that sparked between them.

She held her breathe each time a new ping sounded off until eventually that lull of anxiety was hushed to a dull ache in the pit of her chest. She went through her morning meets and a new presentation to her team about how their coding for a new watch wasn’t up to parr- they had a few days to fix it before it dropped, and the CEO made sure she knew that.

When the notification from Chloe did finally come through, Beca almost didn’t’ notice. She registered the pink of the logo that slowly shifted to a deep purple. But the name? Oh, the name she hadn’t clocked for a few seconds after that. And even then, Chloe Beale? Her Chloe, actually responded.

Beca lilted the computer screen and frantically looked up at Emily, who was already at her door. She didn’t bother to knock. Instead, she situated the office and closed the blinds and very coolly, but not so coolly, pressed her back against the wood and breathed.

“Dude,” Beca said.

“I know,” Emily said “Did you read it?”

She hadn’t read it. She hadn’t even thought to read it because her mind got stuck behind the massive roadblock that was Chloe Beale and her stupid pun username. She opened the application and hesitated over the message icon. She was supposed to be playing it hard to get like she didn’t’ care if she even got a response. But she did care and apparently so did her assistant because she was right behind her, blindly gawking like her halo fell into her eyes and blinded her from right and wrong.

“If I click this she’ll see that I read it and then there’s no going back.”

“You don’t want to go back, do you?”

“You told me to keep her guessing,”

“Truthfully, I didn’t think you’d even get a response.” Emily shrugged sheepishly “Figured you would forget about it in a few days and… open it.”

Beca frowned but hovered the mouse over the message. She wanted to close her eyes but felt like she was watching a car accident, complete with the red and blue flashing lights and the metallic crunch of metal. Either way, she couldn't avert her stare. She didn’t want to.

Chloe: Hey stranger. I must admit that I was never expecting to hear from you again, big shot manager. I’ve kept my tabs on you… New York is my home, so if you’re serious about coffee, so am I.

Her breath caught in her throat. Chloe Fucking Beale had said yes. Her childhood love had agreed to coffee that neither of them could probably stomach. Chloe Fucking Beale who was a playboy model with more than a million Instagram followers, and Chloe Fucking Beale who she was pretty sure she still loved.

There had been other people, men, and women that she had thought she fell for. She folded into soft touches and stronger commands. She was happy for months at a time and on one rare occasion a full year with a man who ran his own tours of the city. But none of those relationships had ever been like the one she had with Chloe.

Beca pulled in a long breath that filled her lungs with stale coffee and copy paper. She tilted her lid and looked to Emily because she was the expert. And Beca was frozen. That same cold excitement filled her and it also rocked her ever-loving shit. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think.

Emily looked at the darkened screen, then at her boss, then back at the screen before lunging forward and typing back a reply. Perfect. Are you free this Saturday?

It turns out that Chloe was free that Saturday and if she wasn’t, she didn’t’ say a word and quietly cleared her schedule. The day was quickly approaching and Beca really wanted to know why the New York Branch put her in charge of everything when she could barely figure out what to wear to a simple cup of coffee.

This felt more like a simple cup of coffee.

Emily eventually got tired of the barrage of pictures she was getting and took a cab to Beca’s apartment an hour before the actual date. They settled on black jeans and a blue button-down that Emily pulled closer to her chest for extra measure because according to her “You look good in anything and Chloe won’t be able to make eye contact with you.”

Then she was on a subway that smelled like stale snow and hot morning breath. They picked a small shop downtown that not many people knew about. It was a feat in the city to find a place that wasn’t packed like a sardine can and Beca trusted Chloe’s judgment tenfold.

Beca got there first, and her palms were sweating despite the cool atmosphere that swept through the little shop each time the door opened. It was a meta cross between a thrifted bookstore and a café. People sat and ate and read and the scent of what Beca imagined old magic to be, mingled well with coffee grinds and fresh pastries.

She ordered a simple black americano and settled by the front window, the glass fogged from a warm contrast with the cold of the busy street and curved lettering faced the patrons. There was a simple logo and one barista behind the counter. She chose a random book and pretended to read, but only skimmed the same paragraph over and over again.

Her main focus was on the door and the bell that chimed each time it was opened. One of those times, after a businessman and a hipster kid hugging his laptop close to his chest, it was Chloe. Soft and vibrant compared to the rest of the dim academic setting.

Her hair was pulled behind her ears and a pair of golden framed glasses rested on her nose. She had aged like wine and the wind that blew in behind her carried the sweet scent of southern peaches through the front door. She wore a white sweater with a plaid peacoat and high wasted jeans, and Beca knew she was staring.

Everyone was, they couldn’t’ help it. She overtook the room with a warm and sparked presence. If anyone recognized her they didn’t’ say a thing, out of saving their own face or because the girl in the centerfold of the latest playboy was wildly different than the one standing in front of her. This… this was her Chloe.

She didn’t’ know if she could hug Chloe, if touching was okay, but as she stood to greet her, she was pulled into the warmth of the woman. She was wrapped in overwhelming touch and emotion and she buried her nose into Chloe’s hair as they held onto each other, not quite willing to let go of the familiarity before realizing that it was inappropriate not to.

“Wow,” Chloe ran her hands down Beca’s arms, stopping at her elbows “You haven’t aged a day, have you?”

“It’s the lighting in here, I think it’s one step up from basement overhead.”

Chloe laughed and it was a magical sound. The only thing more intoxicating was her smile, which never seemed to leave her lips as she ordered her own drink, something loaded with sugar and caramel, and leaned forward across the table to get a better look at her date.

Beca sipped her coffee and quirked an eyebrow “What?”

“I haven’t seen you in ten years, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for me to study you.”

“There’ll be plenty of time for that,” She tested “What have you been up to all these years?”

Chloe leaned back in her seat and cupped her mug. It was a russet red and steam rose from the pale liquid that soaked inside. There was a sickeningly sweet odor to it and part of Beca regretted ordering nothing but a black coffee. It seemed like a disservice to the atmosphere of the shop.

“Oh, a bunch of stuff here and there. I used to be based out of LA, I did a lot of acting there. Little stuff like soap operas and a couple of commercials. It wasn’t for me, though so I moved here to pursue modeling and it’s been going well. Really well.”

Beca didn’t’ want to mention the playboy magazine or the curve of Chloe’s legs and the way her skin shown under the bright summer sun. She never returned it to Jason because he never asked for it back. It was an unspoken solidarity between the two.

“That’s amazing,” Beca smiled, feeling excitement in her chest “Anything I would recognize?”

Chloe hummed into her drink “Mm, maybe a few things. It depends on how you feel about Playboy. I never thought you were much of a reader.”

Beca looked down dejectedly at the old spined book to her right. It was true, she hadn’t read the Catcher in the Rye and she barely got through the introduction paragraph because of the nerves and the heartbeat that beat so strongly against the inside of her wrist right now.

“I’m not usually. But I do enjoy looking at the pictures.” Beca flicked her stare back towards the woman across from her “Though, that’s not the reason I reached out to you.”

“Truth is, I’ve always wanted to message you, but you looked like you were doing so well. Like you were so happy. I didn’t want to throw you off or seem like I was chasing something that we used to have.” She said, “So I waited.”

It was Beca’s turn to laugh, “I felt the same exact way. We’re both pretty stupid, then huh? Waiting like this for something we knew… for something we knew we wanted.”

Chloe smiled wider and clinked her mug against Beca’s yellow one, not spilling any of the mostly full drink. “To being stupid. And getting to know each other all over again.”

And that’s exactly what they did. They sat and talked until they were the only two in the coffee shop and Beca even dared to kiss Chloe when they got to the subway platform. She tasted like caramel and sunshine if such a thing was even possible.

But it was because she had found Chloe. Centerfold Chloe. High school Chloe, and most importantly, her Chloe.

#Beca Mitchell #chloe beale #bechloe #bechloe fic rec #pitch perfect #pitch perfect fandom #pitch perfect fanfiction #Bechloe Fanfic #Bechloe fanfiction #Request #au

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yostresswritinggirl · 3 years

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hi!! i can't send asks from my side blog (dandelion-dreams) but i was on reddit looking at genshin theories and i saw this theory about paimon maybe being from khaenri'ah and being the unknown god that separates the twins. and it made me think about how we basically don't know anything about paimon and other characters have commented about never seeing something like paimon before so that's a little sus. i was curious to see what you thought about these theories?

Yo, actually this one I've known about for quite some time now and my opinions on this may actually replicate the theories you've read about.

The existence of Paimon had always been questionable and I really think she's related to either of those, honestly. First of all, in-game features of Paimon are frequently mentioned meta a lot of times, the most recent one being Rosalia (who commented on her ability to appear and disappear out of thin air).

And then the different symbolisms and shared themes. Mihoyo likes subtlety and hiding things in plain sight, more so they value logos/symbols a lot in their games:

- Paimon in demonology is named after one of the nine kings of hell. More so, Mihoyo patterns their named archons after "72 Demons named in the Ars Goetia (a mysterious Grimoire on Demonology found in the 17th century)." Barbatos, Rex Lapis/Morax, AND Paimon are included. This could hint on higher power for our companion.

- Paimon's shirt also has an odd symbol of treyarch, a symbol you see in the game on a very specific location. You can ALSO see this symbol behind the lines on the opening scene of the game. In the domains, specifically behind the tree you loot. I've also seen official art of the tree where five floating symbols similar to Paimon's headpiece floats over it.

- The Unknown God and Paimon also share the black star symbolism, counterpart to that of the siblings.

- Paimon's neck piece or weird scarf also has such abyssal designs on it I've never seen on others. Someone made a point about this but I kind of forgot.

- Paimon in several in-game lines had been called out for being overly observant of the traveller (by Albedo). Had also hinted that she doesn't need any kind of additional power (If you pick the line for Paimon when talking to Sucrose about Albedo), and even being seen as 'overly defensive' when justifying the stars when Scaramouche talked about the fake sky.

- With that in mind, meeting Paimon was also a questionable occurrence for someone who knows how to fly. How'd she even end up in a lake? It's already stated that Paimon doesn't KNOW how to swim so during animations when you swim, she ends up floating above the water. Could she not have done this during that time? It could be hinted that it was intentional for the purpose of meeting the traveler, and/or she had seemingly fallen from the sky, with the only known floating piece of land being Celestia.

- EDIT: I forgot to mention ahahaha that Paimon wear a HALO. However! This halo is actually not connected in the back, this usually corresponds to a broken halo which means different things: Such as falling from grace, self-destruction, and all that shenanigans.

Khaenri'ah is still quite a topic that's very hard to discuss because of its vagueness. But if by chance that Kaeya, owner of the eyes that resemble that of the Unknown God, then the possibility of Paimon being related to Khaenri'ah is much more convincing than I thought it would be.

Overall, I am a firm believer of the 'Paimon is sus' side of Genshin. However I have yet to delve into whether Honkai can give more details about it, as only my brother had dived into Honkai Impact. But the dummy skims through dialogue so fast he might be useless anyways.

Sorry this took a while, I was out in the beach doing beach stuff hehe, I hope my words were useful at least aaaaa

Second edit: I'd like to reiterate a point that I've seen and that was the fact that both Venti's Wind Sprite form and Paimon were called/recognized as an Elf in the game. Could it be that Paimon is instead a sprite of some kind too? The existence of Elves in a game like Genshin is quite confusing tho and that rare occurrence of similarity feels like a major ploy than anything.

#exile.goblet #Theory time #genshin impact #genshin impact Paimon #I'm actually not that good with theories hahaha

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lamapachebaby · 3 years

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El Gran Concurso del Mes

⚑ Damas y caballeros sean bienvenidos a este concurso donde presentaremos a dos de las mujeres más bellas de aquí, y ustedes se encargaran de decidir cual es la más hermosa, con ustedes las bellezas del siglo, las joyas de Don Halo, les presentamos a Lechuza y a Mapache.

⚐ Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this contest where we will present two of the most beautiful women here, and you will be in charge of deciding which is the most beautiful, with you the beauties of the century, the jewels of Don Halo, we present to you Owl and Raccoon.

⚑ Lechuza: Un placer competir contigo y por tu esposo

Mapache: Gracias Lechuza

Bien como decía, en este concurso podrán elegir quién de las dos es la más bella de las dos, simplemente pueden darle Like o Rebloguear para cada una y el que tenga mayor cantidad será la ganadora.

Realmente me ha gustado pensar en si Lechuza y Mapache (mis dos amores) tendrá algo relevante por aquí y por lo que estoy haciendo estoy (casi) seguro que si, pero volvamos al concurso.

⚐ Owl: A pleasure to compete with you and for your husband

Raccoon: Thanks Owl

Well as I said, in this contest you can choose who of the two is the most beautiful of the two, you can simply give it a Like or Reblog for each one and the one with the highest number will be the winner.

I really liked thinking about whether Owl y Raccoon (my two loves) will have something relevant around here and from what I'm doing I'm (almost) sure it will, but let's go back to the contest.

⚑ Don Halo: ¿Dónde estábamos?

Mapache: En los datos de nosotras

Ok, ya hemos dicho como se hace esto:

⚐ Don Halo: Where were we?

Raccoon: In the data of us

Ok, we have already said how to do this:

♡ Lechuza | Owl

⇄ Mapache | Raccoon

⚑ Mis dos hermosuras darán algo de que hablar y cuando terminen analizaran todo y decidirán si Lechuza o Mapache tendrá el Like/Reblog. Sin más que agregar, les dejo con las dos para que vean sus cosas personales, por cierto también vale darle Like/Reblog sin analizar sus cosas.

⚐ My two beauties will give something to talk about and when they finish they will analyze everything and decide if Owl or Raccoon will have the Like / Reblog. Without further ado, I leave you with both of you to see your personal things, by the way it is also worth giving Like / Reblog without analyzing your things.

[Lechuza | Owl]

⚑ Mis buenas e impecables acciones son mi atractivo, es lo que mi amor siempre me ha dicho desde que lo conozco. Puedo ser algo compleja a la hora de pensar en algo para mi beneficio y el de Don Halo, pero les puedo asegurar que si se trata de relaciones amorosas llámenme la Diosa del Amor por ser experta en estos temas.

⚐ My good and impeccable actions are my attraction, it is what my love has always told me since I have known him. I can be somewhat complex when it comes to thinking of something for my benefit and that of Don Halo, but I can assure you that if it is about love relationships call me the Goddess of Love for being an expert on these issues.

⚑ Estas alas son muy elegantes y hábiles, si se trata de volar, claro que soy buena con eso, puedo aprender de mis errores y tomar en cuenta ciertas cosas que pueden afectar a alguien, se guardar mis propios secretos así como tengo un fuerte compromiso para cualquier meta y se exactamente como manipular a las personas. Que hermosa.

⚐ These wings are very elegant and skillful, if it comes to flying, of course I'm good with that, I can learn from my mistakes and take into account certain things that can affect someone, I keep my own secrets as well as I have a strong commitment to any goal and I know exactly how to manipulate people. That beautiful.

⚑ Un Le-Matoran: ¿Y usted es toda una soñadora y/o divertida?

Lechuza: En eso voy, a veces estoy con la cabeza en las nubes (y no por volar) por varias cosas que se vienen a la mente, me gusta ser aventurera y ser creativa, al igual que todos ustedes, pero también soy algo sensible y tímida por los factores que tengo, y lo ultimo que quiero decir es que con todo esto soy alguien alegre de buen corazón.

Don Halo: La más hermosa de mi vida.

⚐ A Le-Matoran: And you are a dreamer and/or fun?

Owl: In that I go, sometimes I am with my head in the clouds (and not flying) for various things that come to mind, I like to be adventurous and be creative, just like all of you, but I am also somewhat sensitive and shy for the factors that I have, and the last thing I want to say is that with all this I am someone happy with a good heart.

Don Halo: The most beautiful of my life.

[Mapache | Raccoon]

[Mi primera foto de perfil | My first profile picture]

⚑ “¡Tu belleza es irresistible! amo tu linda cara esos ojos debajo de la máscara son increíbles”, las palabras que mi marido me ha dicho en el día de mi boda.

Puedo ser algo arrogante y de orgullo no tan alto, me gusta ser una persona muy leal y con cariño, todos me admiran y me quieren, por lo que soy la favorita del mi grupo y no lo dudo, ya sabia que en un momento tendría demasiada fama.

⚐ “Your beauty is irresistible! I love your pretty face, those eyes under the mask are incredible”, the words that my husband told me on my wedding day.

I can be somewhat arrogant and not so proud, I like to be a very loyal and loving person, everyone admires me and loves me, so I am the favorite of my group and I do not doubt it, I already knew that in a moment I would have too much fame.

⚑ Ya ha dicho hace tanto sobre lo que hago con el en lo mejores momentos, realmente diría que si es algo hermoso hacerle estas cosas a mi esposo y que el me haga todo lo que me hace.

Don Halo: Si no saben de que habla, vean la publicación de las hermosas piernas de Mapache y su curvado trasero, continua.

Mapache: Bien, toda mi vida creí que estaría sola pero entonces el apareció y me dijo que necesitaba compañía, fue hasta aquí cuando todo cambio y realmente estoy orgullosa de esto por que siempre quise a un hombre de buen carácter para mi y para mi hija, así es tengo una hija que cuido con mucho amor y cariño, mientras que Lechuza es su tía.

⚐ He has said so long ago about what I do with him in the best of times, I would really say that if it is something beautiful to do these things to my husband and that he does everything he does to me.

Don Halo: If you don't know what he's talking about, check out the post about Raccoon's beautiful legs and curvy butt, go on.

Raccoon: Well, all my life I thought I would be alone but then he appeared and told me that I needed company, it was up to here when everything changed and I am really proud of this because I always wanted a man of good character for me and my daughter, like this It is I have a daughter that I take care of with a lot of love and affection, while Owl is her aunt.

⚑ A mi me dicen la Diosa de la Psiconica por ser excelente en la psicología y en el control mental, así que si quieren ayuda psicológica llámenme que no trabajo de psicóloga por dinero.

Pero además de todo esto, estoy escribiendo una serie de frases que los motivará en cualquier momento, con todo lo que dije diré que estoy muy feliz de haberme casado con el y tener todo lo que he soñado.

“La vida es tan incierta sabes... Que uno no se explica como puede uno vivir tantas cosas y poder resistir aquellas que son tan dolorosas como un disparo al corazón es así pues entonces que cuando uno se ha recuperado de todo ello solo queda a veces (y solo a veces) una esperanza aunque solo sea una pequeña pizca de esperanza...”

Don Halo: Eres la mejor para mí eres la esposa perfecta y bien hermosa.

⚐ They call me the Goddess of Psychology for being excellent at psychology and mind control, so if you want psychological help, call me, I don't work as a psychologist for money.

But in addition to all this, I am writing a series of sentences that will motivate you at any time, with everything I said I will say that I am very happy to have married him and to have everything I have dreamed of.

"Life is so uncertain, you know... that one cannot explain how one can live so many things and be able to resist those that are as painful as a shot to the heart. It is so then that when one has recovered from all this, it is only left to sometimes (and only sometimes) a hope even if it's just a tiny bit of hope..."

Don Halo: You are the best for me, you are the perfect and very beautiful wife.

⚑ ✇ Bueno ha sido un placer que todos ustedes participarán en este concurso recuerden que pronto subiré más contenido y me despido, adiós.

⚐ ✇ Well it has been a pleasure that all of you will participate in this contest remember that soon I will upload more content and I say goodbye, bye.

Créditos por Lechuza | Credits for Owl: tinyworld96 (1) | lavilustra (2) | maria_fernanda_figueroa_ortiz (3)

Créditos por Mapache | Credits for Raccoon: noedetuincumbencia23 (1) | vaneidk_ramirez (2) | miranda_hdez2009 (3)

Créditos por la Portada: quien.es.lacuentafandom

#lechuza #mapache #quieneslamascara #quien es la mascara #¿quién es la máscara?#quien es la máscara #qelm #masked singer #the masked singer

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daddy-ul · 4 years

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18, 25, and 26!

Hey there, stranger!! This ended up being LONG, so feel free to skip a bit the boring parts fjsdkfssda

18. Which piece of your Met merch is your treasure?

...... you are coming for my throat, are you? HOW CAN I PICK ONE?? I know I wrote these ask, so it’s also my faul BUT

Uhmmmm, I think I posed the question wrong bc what does ‘treasure’ mean in this context? If we go with emotional value in general, I should say my SKOM dvd/book bc, as lame as it can sound, it plays a major role in my inner life + i’m a strange animal and i bought it without knowing a thing abt metallica, and it was what convinced me to listen to them. .... but is it a treasure if I could buy it whenever I want? It’s everywhere, even on netflix.

If we go with treasure = rare... well, I could say my concert tickets, bc of course they are only mine. MHHHHHH

I’m making this harder than it should be, am I? LOL, then let’s compromise:

It’s a tie between a) my met crop top that makes me feel powerful af and has the pushead sun design on it;

b) Back to the front bc HOLY SHIT I still think about that book, how it’s structured in such a heartfelt way and... well, you know that when you love a thing... you kinda recognize that love in other people or even in object? You recognize the care and thought and passion... bc you have them in you. I can see them in that book. And the ending lives rent free in my head;

c) my So What! issues bc they bring me so much JOY and they are so fun, and it was not easy getting them and some are already sold out!! My treasure indeed.

25. Fave HTSD lyrics

You are ruining me, hope you know that. djsakdhajkdhadh kidding, I love these kinda things (I have many opinions and no qualms about spreading them fdjfhsd)

I’m a rebel so I do what I want, which means that I pick one line for every song of the album

Hardwired: hardwired to self destruct (such a great, dark concept); Atlas: Overload, the martyr stumbles/Hit the ground and heaven crumbles/All alone, the fear shall humble (bc it rolls magnificently on the tongue);

Dead: When doubt returns/May it be/That faith shall permeate our scars (i love dark stuff as much as I am an optimist); Moth: Overdose on shame and insecurity;

Dream: He sleeps under cosmos shaking/Stars granting his breath (HOW COOL IS THAT???? such amazing images); Halo: Fear to turn on the light/ For the darkness won’t go away (I am a basic bitch and this still hits me hard as it did in 2016);

Confusion: Rapid is the road to sacrifice/Just takes longer to come home; ManUNkind: Seized by the day/Frozen captive by the night (i love the pun);

Revenge: I return this nightmare, I will find you/Sleepless, cloaked in despair, I’m behind you; Savage: Sharpened edge touch liquid flame/Deepened seed soaks angers reign (I LOVE METAPHORS OKAY??? Also i wrote a damn meta on this song, it was hard to choose);

Murder One: Born to lose/Living to win; Spit: Remove your heart, it’s only good for bleeding

One day I’m gonna write a meta about how much James’ writing lyrically speaking has changed during time, down to the structure (ie. in Death magnetic there were SUBORIDNATES and in HTSD has a lot of 2-words lines)

26. What Met riff is eating your brain today?

Uhmmmm, more than a riff today I’m kinda obsessed with the violins in a specific part of Moth into Flame S&M2 bc they sound EXACTLY like lil insects swarming and dying around you. (this reminds me that I have also my S&M2 post in the drafts)

#SOPH PLEASE DONT HATE ME #i swear i didnt mean to droning on so much #ask #you picked really hard questions sjdjsjdjd #love that #thank u so much #jinn contemplates life. metallica and life.

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bitchcakegreen · 5 years

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A View from Behind the Camera - GoT episode 6 x 9 - Battle of the Bastards part 4

Hi all! I am so sorry I haven’t had much time to meta lately. There’s been a lot going on in my life with the holidays and work and just being plain lazy about it. But I’m here to rectify that right now! We ended our last directorial analysis of the BoTB with Jon facing off in front of thousands (really 500 extras) of Ramsay Troops. For this post I’m going to jump forward a bit to the Black Moment and take it form there. There is quite of bit of serious battle work in between these two posts and it doesn't feed the narrative as much as it is juts gorgeous choreography to watch. SO without further ado here we go!

We are going to start this at the ‘black moment’ or the moment when Jon is buried under a pile of bodies and men. In storytelling, the black moment is “usually one of the most emotional sections of a story, so it can be difficult to pull together” It is that moment when everything looks bleak for the hero or protagonist and the audience is just not sure they will make it to the other side. In Jon’s case, his forces are exhausted - physically as well as literally - and they are trapped in a classic Roman Testudo formation around them.

No I have seen a few metas and posts about how this mirrors Dany’s slave crowdsurfing, but that’s not really the case. At least not from a technical standpoint. What have right here is a shot that is meant to convey the sheer size of what is happening to Jon. He is buried in the apex and at the bottom of this pool of bodies. The weight of the fate of Winterfell is literally crushing down on him. Sapochnik removes all music from this section and all the audience hears is heavy breathing as we cut to the darkness engulfing Jon. We are in his POV at this moment. In Dany’s slave surfing moment we are given the symbolism of her rising above and being separate from those around her. She is essentially ‘better’ then those she is surfing on. For Jon, it is the opposite. He is entrenched, he will forever be part of and at the bottom of those who fight for the North. This is the true black moment, in more ways than one.

Jon is literally and figuratively drowning and grasping for breath. The audience is given only the muffled sounds of battle, this is meant to mimic what Jon is actually, or would be, hearing in this moment. The farther Jon is pulled down into the crush of bodies the more muffled the sound gets.

Next we have the camera panning from ‘below’ Jon to over his head as he crawls out. The camera continues to pan up until we have a extreme wide shot of the crush of bodies with our ‘hero’ in the center.

I really love this shot because it tells such a great story in it’s simplicity. We have the strains of “My Watch Has Ended” as Jon climbs out. The subtly in such a huge shot is like art. This is followed by a quick cut to a medium close up of Ramsey that pans in tighter. What I love about this moment as well is that Iwan has been directed to NOT sneer, NOT be smiling and cheerful. AT this point his character thinks he has won and in this moment Iwan chooses to play that as an inevitable outcome. He assumed this is what would happen. He’s won. As he knew he would.

Next we cut back to a close up of Jon as he strains to get out of the crush of bodies (sorry for the overuse of this term but it truly fits) It is a profile shot with the sun peaking out of the clouds over the top of Kit’s head (This would have been put in post production) almost casting a halo around our ‘hero’

We cut to an over the shoulder of Jon watching the continued carnage around him. We see WunWun in the distance trying to fight his way out. This is met with a close up of WunWun as he swats at the bad guys around him, pulling arrows out of his side as he goes. The camera then shifts to a wide shot of Tormund butting heads with SmallJon Umber, Jon in the background. The music is swelling as Tormund is getting his butt kicked. The camera then cuts to Jon, still trapped, looking over his shoulder at Davos who is a bit away from him. The camera pans to make Davos the center of focus and the audience now starts to hear the horns.

Davos looks around briefly in the shot until we cut back to Jon, who is in closeup, and is also looking around. Next we cut to Tormund and SmallJon. They stop fighting briefly and we get a confused look from SmallJon as the horns continue to blow. Now in this brief section we have about three camera angle changes in quick succession. First a two shot of SJ and Tormund, then an below the elbow shot angled up att Tormund(This is to really emphasizes the move that Tormund uses to pin SJ’s arms) Then a cut to an over the shoulder of Tormund as he bites SJ’s ear off. Finally we have a close up of Tormund as he leans back and spits out the ear. A few more quick shots to cover the ass kicking Tormund gives SJ and then we cut to Ramsey in a medium close up. He is right of center of the shot and focused in that direction. A single horn blast happens and Iwan is directed to turn his head and focus on the left side of the shot.

Cut to a slow mo close up shot of the Knights of the Vale sigil flag as it flaps in the breeze. The music swells as we now get the “Trust Each Other” theme. The camera pans, still in slow mo, down from the top of the banner to the rider. There is a quick cut at about halfway down the rider’s body to a wide shot of the Knights of the Vale as a collective.

We hold with the riders for a few seconds, still in slow mo, before we cut back to Ramsey in a medium shot.From there we go to an extreme wide shot of the Vale army pouring over the ridge onto the battlefield.

We pan back as they keep coming until the GA realizes we are in a POV shot over Ramsey’s shoulder. From there we quick cut to Jon in close up staring off to the left of the shot. What is assumed is that he is looking at the Vale army, but that’s not really where his focus is. In the next shot we cut to a wide of LF and Sansa on horseback at the head of the army. They are stationary and the Vale riders rush past them. We quick cut back to Jon and it is in this moment that the audience is made to realize that Jon and Sansa have made eye contact, over the field of battle and are focusing on each other for a moment. The moment is broken at the end of the close up shot with Jon as the bodies surrounding him start to move. We have a close up of Sansa now and she looks pensive and then she looks away to the right side of the shot, she is focusing on Ramsey now.

(For my own personal enjoyment...doesn’t this look seem familiar *cough* winterfell is yours, your grace*)

We cut to a close up of Ramsey and a gorgeous piece of acting on Iwan’s part. He is focused on Sansa and you can see the disbelief just rocket across his face.

We then cut to an action shot taken from a lower angle as the horses thunder across the battle field toward our trapped Wildings/Northmen. Then several back and forth quick cuts of Tormund stabbing the hell out of SJ. Then we cut to an extreme wide shot of the Vale riders breaking the formation and essentially ‘freeing’ our heroes. (I use the quotes for heroes because as we all know, there are no real heroes in this show. They are all grey at best)

A cut to a wide angle upward shot of WunWun fighting off Bolton men. Followed by a frenzied panning right and left to show the chaos of the Vale riders breaking through and the battle tide turning. Then we have an over the shoulder frame up of the field between LF and Sansa’s shoulders. Even though the shot contains them both it is worth noting that Sansa is always the main focus. She is in sharper contrast then LF. You can bet your ass this is deliberate.

We pan forward a bit and that brings us closer to Sansa before we shift POV and are now focus on a front close up of her. This shot pans forward as she smiles slightly. Then the shot shifts again and we see a wide action shot of the Vale bannerman in the thick of the fighting. Off the left side of the shot Jon starts to climb up the bodies and into focus. He stands and then the camera shifts to an over the shoulder shot of him focused on Ramsey downfield.

Camera shift to a medium shot of a bloodied and dirty and pissed off Jon. Which holds for a moment before we have a wide profile shot of Ramsey. What’s great about this small shot is that we see Ramsey through a haze of smoke. One of his flayed men burning is off camera and it’s darkening the shot. It’s a great metaphor for the destruction of his army. He never comes into full focus in this shot.

Cut to Jon in an upward medium shot, WunWun behind him. Jon has a bloody Longclaw clutched in his hand and his right of center in the shot and focused off camera at “Ramsey’. Tormund climbs into the frame from the left bottom corner. We hold a moment with Jon center, flanked by WunWun and Tormund.

Cut to a close up of Ramsey. Iwan has been directed to be scared here. This is the first time we see Ramsey scared. Iwan plays it tight and not over the top which really works well for his character. Cut to a close up of Jon that pans tight. Then to a medium shot of Ramsey on horseback. He turns and starts to ride out of the frame and then we cut back to Jon in close up. He ducks out of frame and then we shift to a medium shot of Sansa on horseback, she is clearly focused on Jon, this shot pans in slightly before we shift to an extreme wide shot of the battlefield and Jon chasing Rasmey. This is down in a POV over Sansa’s shoulder.

Finally we cut to a closeup of Sansa. She is scared to death.

If you don’t focus on the details you mess so much. What is so amazing about Saponchick as a director is you can see how different his approach is as opposed to someone like Alan Taylor (You all know how I feel about that hack).There is more thought in each frame then in many other episodes combined.

And that is where we will end for this post. In the next one we will look at the beat Ramsey to a bloody pulp in the courtyard scene. See you next time!

#jonsa #jonsa is endgame #jonsa is here #jonsa is coming #directorial analysis #Female directors

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orionsangel86 · 6 years

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Episode Review - 14x01 - Want, Everything, Sunshine, and Beyonce

Hellatus is over everyone! Put away the crack memes and shit posts and bring out your meta caps because we are back in business! Oh boy are we back in business!

Right before @tinkdw came over to watch the premier with me, we discussed our expectations and both agreed that whilst our expectations were pretty much in our boots, we would consider the episode a success if it was even remotely meta. We wanted to be able to see clearly constructed themes both as a continuation of what had come previously and as a foundation for a strong season going forward. We were both hoping that at least from a meta perspective, that the episode would leave us happy and thirsting for more.

Dabb did not disappoint us.

It was such a strong episode meta-wise. There is a lot to pick apart that is ripe for discussion and I seriously hope that Dabb will keep a close eye on the other writers to ensure that these themes continue throughout the season. Plot-wise it was a weaker episode, but then again Dabb has always focused on the character emotional arcs more than the actual plot points in recent years, and I am grateful for that. The second half of season 13 felt stagnant to me simply because there was little to no character development and from a meta perspective it was also extremely weak. I went into this hellatus feeling negative about the show simply because I hadn’t actually enjoyed an episode properly since 13x12. However, the season 14 opener was most definitely enough to quench my thirst and get me excited for the coming season. Fingers crossed it goes from strength to strength.

Long review under the cut

Michael!Dean - What Do You Want

Straight in after the introductory Nyoooom of Baby (driven by a grim looking Sam and a pretty impressive swap from title music to diegetic music), we are introduced to the angel of the hour.

8 Things about Michael:

1. I am not sure how I feel about Jensen’s performance right now. He is playing Michael extremely straight and whilst I can see how this cold, calm portrayal can come across quite terrifying, it’s not a carry over from Christian Key’s performance. I don’t want to be too critical, because we only saw him in a few scenes so far, but when I compare it to how Tahmoh portrayed Gadreel alongside Jared, and the way Misha pretty much nailed Mark P’s performance (and greatly improved it), I guess I’m still waiting for Jensen to WOW me in the role. The one thing I will say is that he did terrify me and managed to come across creepy when acting alongside his own WIFE. So he's doing something right I'll give him that. When Jensen wants to have chemistry with someone, he does.

2. I like the fact that Michael’s goal right now seems to be to educate himself on our world. He’s not running around causing terror and mayhem like Lucifer, he’s learning how best to go about “improving” the world. He also appears to be inspiring people with his words: “Holy men, leaders, killers” and we have seen the effect he had already on Kip the Demon - who was inspired to run for King of Hell until Sam Fucking Winchester ruined that plan. I wonder if we will be seeing the fallout of Michael’s specific type of inspiration throughout the season.

3. “What do you want?” Obviously this question is an important one. It was repeated like six times throughout the episode, though never to the main characters. It looks like this is going to be the theme of the season and as far as TFW’s personal journey’s go, this is now the question we are asking them and the question being explored. What does Sam want? Or Cas? Or Dean? This has an endgame flavour to it that has me extremely excited.

4.Michael’s own personal want of “A better world” is a follow on in a way of many of the villains that have come before him. For seasons now we have been exploring this concept of improving the world for the better. We had it first in season 8 when the brothers had the goal to do the trials to make a world without demons, in season 11 Amara’s vision was to destroy so she could reshape the world to her own blueprints that she saw as better than Chuck’s. Dabb era has been even more obvious, first with the goal of the British Men of Letters being “a world without monsters” which was shared by Mary wanting a better world for her boys, and then in season 13 Jack’s arrival floated the idea of “paradise world” to Castiel. I don’t think Michael is gonna fair any better than any of these others, and wonder exactly where all these escalated versions of “a better world” will end up. It's all exploring the notion that nothing is black and white, but in fact a grey area.

5. I already discussed Michael and Sister Jo here. Cas mirrors... Cas mirrors everywhere... I also side eye the "pretty things" line because it reaks of Dean and his whole sublimation thing. In that sense it seems Dabb is making Jo a mirror for both our boys. I'll be keeping a close eye on her from now on.

6. ”Why would he say yes to you?” “Love”. OH DEAN. Just, Dean wasn’t in this episode but my god did we feel his presence RIGHT HERE. And to think there are people out there that still think this is a macho mans show about macho manly men. I’ve never known another character with more heart than Dean Winchester. This show is about LOVE above all things. I wish people would stop trying to deny that fact.

7. Radioactive Pigeon:

Look I’m not trying to be critical okay it’s very pretty and this is the FIRST time they have attempted showing an angels true form and that is amazeballs and all, but still. He has little pigeon wings and a bent halo. Pfft.

8. The Purity of Vampires. I actually love this. I think it comes across a bit silly on the surface, but the whole idea of monsters being pure is a massive callback to purgatory and season 8 and anything that calls back to season 8 makes me happy.

Sam Fucking Winchester

Excuse me while I scream HELL YES. I have been waiting for Sam to take on the leadership role for AGES. Honestly this was always my dream endgame for Sam. To organise and lead the hunting community. There’s your better world guys. It was something that the writers flirted with in late season 12, but at the time Sam only took on the position with Dean’s approval and encouragement to go ahead. Sam has always stepped back and let Dean take the lead throughout the show as the big brother and parental figure. I think this was always a role he was destined to fill and something that has been building in the subtext for a long time (much the same way as the toxic codependency has been shown to hold Sam back.)

What’s of interest here is what will happen when Dean comes back and is fighting fit. Will Sam relinquish his leadership position to Dean? Or fight for it? Will this cause conflict? I read this amazing meta on this which turned into an epic discussion and I highly recommend reading it. My HEART.

Sam’s state in the episode is one of constant motion. He cannot stop for a second, always being pulled from one thing to another. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t get to change out of his hideous blue and orange shirt (which is officially now my favourite Sam shirt), he doesn’t even get to finish his soup. I know Jared said that Sam had a ‘grief beard’ but Tink and I are adamant that the beard is simply due to the fact that Sam doesn’t get the time to shave. He has taken so much weight on his shoulders and in amongst that has to deal with horribly traumatic things such as face the face of his abuser and actually be a healer to him. Sam doesn't get a moment to himself and spends all his time concerned about others. It's very noble of him, but he's going through the motions.

Sam is the contrast here to both Cas and Dean, who are physically and mentally stuck in their awful situations. Sam is also stuck in a way, stuck with no time to actually contemplate the situation he has got himself in. Stuck without a moment to breath, or to grieve his brother. Stuck holding the weight of the world on his shoulders as every other single character looks to him for support, help and guidance. Sam is the motherfucking Beyonce of the episode, that is for certain.

He is also calling the shots on hell now...

(x)

... I find it amusing that back in the early days Sam's destiny was to be the boy king of hell, and it's almost like he's fulfilled that destiny, not by being king, but by being gatekeeper and in a position powerful enough to scare the demons into submission. This is probably what Crowley intended. Sam probably owns the moon now.

About Nick - Well, first of all, I TOLD YOU SO. I did say that I could tell the guy from the back of his head and I was damn right about that. Learn to trust me guys I am occasionally good at this stuff. Okay, now that that is out of my system, let’s talk about this. Round of applause for Jared in this scene. Because he takes Sam’s hell trauma extremely seriously and made sure that every nuance, every twitch, was picked up by those camera’s. I loved that. Potentially Nick could be a good way to help Sam heal in the coming season, as Sam has finally freed himself from Lucifer’s grasp. Is it fair that he should have to look after the face that tormented him for years? No. Not at all, but could it prove somewhat cathartic in the end? Maybe.

At the end of the day, Dabb must have considered Nick to have a purpose beyond “I want to give Bucklemming something to play with so they don’t fuck up my actual story” and “We need to keep stroking Mark P’s ego for some stupid reason”. Because otherwise I am really worried about how limited his power must be, and refuse to entertain the thought that he was overthrown by Singer and his horrid wife. I can see the potential in Nick being a dark mirror for Dean following his freedom from Michael’s possession. How Nick deals with the post possession trauma could be an indicator to how Dean is really coping even when he buries it.

At the same time, both Sam and Cas have been possessed by Lucifer, and therefore have all the experience between them to help Dean’s recovery without needing Nick to get involved. So I dunno guys. I’m trying to see the positive in something I otherwise despise.

Anyway I thought Jared was fucking superb in that scene and pretty much the whole episode and want to give him a round of applause because it is rare that he truly gets to shine on his own without Jensen by his side.

Now all we need is for Sam to get some sleep. How he is still functioning by the episodes end I will never understand.

Castiel Everything Winchester

(x)

Look at him. So defiant and done. You can almost imagine that fire behind him burning in his eyes as well. He’s such a dom.

Several things about Cas in 14x01:

1. He is 100% done with every demon on the planet and doesn’t give a fuck. Honestly though. The way he says “Oh God” when Kip walks in. The way he rolls his eyes. I wonder if he had Dean’s voice in his head saying “You know who wears sunglasses indoors Cas? Douchebags.”

2. He is making desperate choices in order to save Dean, which is certainly typical for him. The fact that he spends the entire episode stuck in a chair is a fantastic metaphor for his whole feelings on the situation, a metaphor then reinforced through a mirror at the end when he speaks with Jack (we never get anything explicit with Cas do we?). The fact that Cas can’t save Dean right now is weighing on him, but he is determined to do whatever it takes. The conversation he has with Sam at the end is a brilliantly short but important moment:

“I should never have gone to those demons”

“Cas no I don’t blame you. honestly I wish I had thought of it first. If it meant finding Dean I’d work with.. I’d do anything.”

The takeaway here is that actions speak louder than words. Sam HAS been distracted being leader of the hunters and having to face his own nightmares thanks to Nick, but Cas has literally been doing anything he can with a soul focus on saving Dean.

It's an intimate moment between them. In a bunker now bustling with life and movement this is the only time in the episode that it really seems still. The library has always been Sam's private space, where he feels most at home - like the kitchen is for Dean. But here he and Cas sit as equals together weighed down by their shared grief. It's the soft moments like this that I love the most about this show. They are both willing to do anything they can, but the difference is that whilst Sam is being pulled in lots of different directions, Cas’s sole focus is Dean. Note that heaven wasn’t mentioned once. It hasn’t even crossed his mind.

3. Everyone Knows, but Cas doesn’t give a shit.

“How is it you lost Dean, I thought you guys were joined at the... well you know, everything.”

It is an extremely explicit nod to Destiel. It is also the first time a line like this has made it into an episode since season 7 I think. The difference now being that we’ve had years of steady subtext and narrative building on the love story, hence the line has a different weight to those previously. It was very carefully written, careful not to imply that Cas was joined to BOTH Winchesters as the line was specifically about Dean. It was written by the showrunner, who would have known the significance of such a line, it encourages the view that all of heaven and hell have made their own assumptions about Dean and Cas’s relationship, and in case anyone wants to argue that the missing word was “hip” like the saying goes, the gesture and nod by Kip goes to prove otherwise. In other words, there is no platonic interpretation. Which is delightful.

Cas’s completely stoic silence is even more delightful. God I love him.

4. He can’t see demons true faces anymore. Like everyone else, Cas not realising those people were demons really threw me for a moment. Tink and I both agreed that the scene should have had Kip snap his fingers and have the demons smoke in and possess all those people instead - still catching Cas off guard but not making it seem like he is just super unobservant. I personally feel like this was just an error Dabb made. I have no desire to try to meta explain that one and I accept it as the error it is. I do like that it took an entire room of demons and 4 sets of enochian hand cuffs to overpower him though...The fact that he had to sit there and watch his family be beaten and almost killed around him whilst he was helpless again, is an excellent parallel to Dean’s current situation and what he will most likely have to face in the coming episodes, and also a reflection of Cas’s mental state (as mentioned above), Coming out of this episode it seems like this will be another season where Cas and Dean mirror each other and walk similar paths in terms of growth and development - if only those paths would meet with a kiss!

5. He’s the bait. Tink found this line hilarious straight away, where as I had to blink and ask why because I obviously took offence. But once we started discussing it and realised the quadruple entendre it is I found myself applauding Dabb on his genius. Cas IS used as bait, by the SPN PR people. Because he’s Mister Popularity. He’s also the character who causes the most conflict in fandom, with those who love him so much they are bitter and mean and those who simply hate him often complaining about the exact same things but in different ways - leaving the regular fans stuck in the middle (Tink explained this to me with delight - how both anti’s and bitter!cas girls alike will latch onto that line for completely different reasons). He’s also potentially a queerbait depending on how you look at it. But anyway. Cas’s epic eye rolls in this episode were almost enough to rival Sam’s bitchfaces. I am impressed.

6. He takes no pleasure for himself. I am forever going to obsess over Cas’s relationship with human food and drink:

“Coffee has no effect on me.”

“Me either, not anymore. But its like with saltwater taffee or infants, you know I just like the taste”

Although we can argue his refusal is out of stubbornness to not give the demon the satisfaction, even when accepting drinks from the Winchesters he doesn’t usually bother, or will stick with water. Even if he is seen ordering coffee it is usually only to avoid looking suspicious in diners. We know Cas enjoys some food and drink, but Cas rarely allows himself the pleasure. Even in 13x14 when Dean offered him a beer, it remained unopened. A symbolic metaphor for Cas refraining from indulging in other pleasures? This is why I am so so desperate for Michael to ask Cas what it is HE wants. Lucifer stated that Cas was a “pleasureless dullard” and I want to see this theme continue. Cas uses his grace as an excuse not to indulge and I consider this linked to meta about the “sacred oath” of heaven and Cas being duty bound and numbed by his grace. But these are all elements for a bigger meta at another time and the moment in this episode is just another snippet of that.

7. He looks awesome framed in fire. I just really liked the set up of Motown Meats as the new hang out for hell, with its fire pit and orange glowy bar. There is a lot of general symbolism there but I enjoyed the flames framed behind Cas in every shot he was in. Because even though he was mostly stuck in this episode, that fire raging inside him didn’t burn out once. He WILL save Dean. Just as he promised to Jack at the end, even if he get’s battered, beaten and bruised, his determined stubborness to save his husband will win eventually. Cas is no longer the broken thing of seasons 11/12. He well and truly rose like a phoenix in season 13 and now it’s showing through, as it’s a mission fueled by his own passion and love.

Jack Winchester (AKA my nougat son)

Poor Jack, like his father he hasn't had it easy in 14x01. He is struggling with his humanity now, his usefulness, in such a clear mirror to Cas that it kinda hits you in the face. He is desperately seeking guidance from those around him. First in the form of AU Bobby who has clearly bonded with Jack following their experiences together in apocalypse world.

It is great to finally see the Bunker gym! A room we all have ingrained in our fandom hive mind thanks to a 100 destiel fanfics. We all know what's gone on in there. >.>

Throughout the episode, Jack seeks out guidance first with Bobby, which goes badly, then with Sam, which is interrupted, and finally with Cas, which is when he finally gets told what he needs to hear. I am really happy that whilst Jack has so many father figures now, it is Cas who truly holds that torch and is able at least somewhat give Jack what he needs near the episodes end. If only he had damn well given his son a hug!

I loved the conversation so much that I transcripted it here:

JACK: I’m fine.

CAS: You did well

JACK: All I did was get punched. In the face

CAS: To be fair we all got punched in the face

JACK: That’s not - Before when I had my powers I could have done something

CAS: Jack you don’t have your powers, and your grace should regenerate in time, but until then..

JACK: I’m useless. I cant kill demons I cant find Dean and Michael is in our world and I cant stop him.

I can’t do anything. I don’t have anything.

CAS: Oh Jack. That’s just not true. You’ve got me. You have all of us. You have your family.

And we are going to find dean and we are going to beat Michael and we are going to do it together. Because that’s what we do.

This whole conversation was PERFECT. Every line chosen so specifically and weighted with meaning. Urgh Dabb I fucking love you for this.

Jack starts with “I’m fine” which Cas knows by now means you are not fine but he has also learned to recognise that sometimes it doesn’t mean “leave me alone” as Jack was crying out for guidance and support here.

The mirrored “got punched in the face” calls to attention the fact that Jack is a reflection of Cas himself here and everything he has felt both now and in the past.

Jack’s complaint about being useless without his powers is a fear Cas has carried with him since his fall in season 9. It’s something that still weighs on him and whilst Cas now knows his place by the Winchester’s side, knows that they are a family and that he is not just a hammer, I think that fear of losing his power and being cast out is still well and truly weighing him down. It will be cathartic for Cas to see the family accept Jack as one of their own even if he is “useless” and human.

Cas’s “That’s just not true” when Jack says he is useless - his voice breaks and you KNOW Cas has had those exact same thoughts.

“you’ve got me, you’ve got all of us. You have your family” compared to You’re my family, I love you, I love all of you” compared to “We're family. We need you. I need you.” The difference is there is no ambiguity in the word ME. Dabb turned it around, but had Cas clear it up. It’s the same line every time. The only difference is the placement of each individual statement. If this isn’t yet another clear example that the “I love you” was specifically directed at Dean I don’t know what is. THIS IS A CONTINUING PATTERN PEOPLE.

The determined promise to save Dean at the end, right after he specifies the singular and plural because obviously Dean was on Cas’s mind at that point - Mister I Don’t Get Words Wrong over here knows exactly what he means.

I love this whole conversation, but as I said above, it drums home the fact that whilst the Winchesters and others may be sources of guidance and support for Jack, he only has one true father, and I think Dabb wanted to make that clear in this episode. Remember:

Fingers crossed for more father/son bonding between these two in future episodes.

Mary and Bobby

(x)

Baring in mind I was expecting 1 small Destiel moment in the episode in the form of a line from a demon. You have NO IDEA how happy this moment between Mary and Bobby made me. If anyone saw that inktober pic I drew for premier day of me and Tink gasping in shock at the screen, it was for THIS moment. My face lit up in delight.

I said at the start of this long review that Dabb picked his moments well. With every second counting from a meta perspective. This was one of those.

Tell me, anyone, when watching that moment, would you deny that there was something between Bobby and Mary? As homework I'd like you all to play this scene to your heteronormative friends and family, or even be brave and ask a bibro. Would ANYONE deny that it was intended to be romantic?! I highly doubt it.

And yet there was nothing textually explicitly romantic about it. There was NOTHING in this scene that hasn’t been filmed a thousand times between Dean and Cas. The fact that Dabb chose to write this extremely small seemingly unimportant moment, in the kitchen, and for Bobby to use THOSE EXACT WORDS. As I have mentioned several times already, Dabb doesn’t fuck around when using well known moments from past canon in order to reinforce the importance of a thing. Dabb LOVES parallels. He wrote Bloodlines after all. He also knows the fandom hive mind and the things we pick up on and latch on to. This was a very smart calculated decision to include this in the episode and I am LIVING that he did it. GIVE ME ALL THE BOBBY x MARY/ DESTIEL PARALLELS.

...

I actually really liked Mary in this episode. There is so much discourse in fandom about her and whilst I find Sam Smith pretty cold and wooden, I have never understood the utter hatred of Mary as a character. Hence why I praise Dabb’s genius at this moment:

(x)

Because this line literally sums up her entire arc since her return. Tink and I paused the episode and basically flailed at each other because this is EXACTLY what Mary has been trying to do. She was in HEAVEN, with her BABIES and suddenly she is back on earth with two grown men who are strangers to her, telling her they are hunters and have suffered a life of HORRORS without her. So she ran. Hell, I would have ran too. She shoved herself into hunting because all she could think about was trying to make things GOOD for her boys. Trying to FIX her mistakes the only way she knew how: by HUNTING. She was drowning in the bad. So she found focus in trying to make things good. Like in this episode, she reassures Sam so much that he snaps at her. He doesn’t want to be reassured, and that’s fine. But my god this felt like the first time Mary has truly had a voice. I really weren’t kidding when I said that Dabb made sure every word counted.

OTHER THINGS

I am unsure how I feel about the title card:

Tink called it. I think it looks a bit odd, a bit too clean. I like the title cards to be grim and dark. Black angel wings though! And hey, at least the fiery halos in the title cards are perfectly spherical... so we know they CAN do it right...

*side eyes SFX team*

Kip as a wannabe Crowley was kinda fun for a one off episode but I am glad that they are stressing now that wannabe Crowley’s get killed. The last one we had was Bart in 13x08 who was very much the same flirtatious queer coded demon. I’m fed up with the villainous queer coding by now. It’s been done too often. Give me another Demon like Alastair or Ramiel or none at all.

“Asmodeus Kentucky Fried” DID ANYONE LIKE ASMODEUS OTHER THAN BUCKLEMMING? This made me LOL.

The fight scene at the end was really weird and overly long. I dunno why they decided on so many random slow mo and wooosh shots. the whole Mary slow mo throwing the blade at Sam was cringy. I wish they’d stop being experimental and stick with what they know! You think they’d learn after 13x23!

Maggie was a bit annoying. Why bring her along if she can’t fight? Also the random cuts to her reaction after Jack was angsty had me reeling. simply because in het couples that’s a brewing romance and that is a massive NOPE from me. I like her as an individual character, I DO NOT like her as a love interest to a 1 year old, and I certainly wouldn’t like some pining story for her where she falls for an unavailable guy. It’s not fair on her character. The one thing I did like was the “pointy end” comment. It reminded me of Charlie for some reason.

The throw away line about Ketch being in London looking for the golden egg Lucifer/president extractor. Nice closing of a plot hole there Dabb.

I liked the Jesus weapon expert hunter dude. He seemed quirky. Dead man’s blood bullets are an excellent idea.

DETROIT. Why does everything always happen in Detroit? I swear one day they are gonna reveal that Detroit is like a central universal power hub where the walls between the dimensions are thinnest or something. I could go on about this but I am sure a better meta writer elsewhere already has and this is waaay too long so I’m leaving this here.

If you got this far. Kudos and thank you for sticking around to read my thoughts. Feel free to ask me anything about any of the above. If I could hand out cookies through the internet I totally would right now.

Basically I enjoyed the episode. I have since re-watched it a dozen times and it is really the meta of it all that makes me love it. The story IS weak, and there ARE moments that are a bit odd, or infuriating depending on the way you look at it, but the heart of the episode was classic Dabb. All character driven and full of meaning. I am extremely well fed after this meta feast, perhaps even enough to get me through the horror show that will be Bucklemming’s 14x02.

So long as Cas continues to look like a sexy beast I’m sure I’ll get through it.

I’ll just leave this here:

God he’s such a dom. :P

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gaming-rabbot · 5 years

Text

Salmon Run and Presentation

A (not so) brief dissertation on narrative framing in video games, featuring Splatoon 2

With the holidays in full swing, I took advantage of a deal one day when I went into town, and finally got my hands on Splatoon 2. Having loved the prior game as much as I did, waiting this long to get the sequel felt almost wrong. But like many another fellow meandering corpus of conscious flesh, I am made neither of time nor money.

Finally diving in, I figured I might take this excuse to remember that I write game reviews, sometimes. You know, when the tide is high, the moon blue, and the writer slightly less depressed. I ended up scrapping my first couple drafts, however. You see, a funny thing was happening; I kept veering back into talking about Salmon Run, the new optional game mode the sequel introduces.

Also I might look at the Octo Expansion later, on its own. After I get around to it…

Look, the base game already has a lot of content to explore, and as previously stated, I am sadly corporeal, and not strung together with the metaphysical concept of time itself.

My overall thoughts, however, proved brief, so I’ll try to keep this short.

(Mild spoilers coming along.)

Gameplay wise, I think the story mode is much improved upon by handing you different weapons for certain levels which were specifically built with them in mind. Whereas the prior game left you stuck with a variant of the starter splattershot all the way through. This keeps things interesting, pushes me outside of my comfort zone, and it’s a good way to make sure players will come from a well-informed place when deciding what weapon they want for multiplayer; which, let’s face it, is the real meat of these games and where most players are going to log the most time.

I also love the way bosses are introduced with the heavy drums and rhythmic chants and the dramatic light show. It endows the moment with a fantastic sense of gravitas, and manages to hype me up every time. Then the boss will have an aspect of their design which feels a bit silly or some how rather off, keeping the overall tone heavily grounded in the toony aesthetics the series already established for itself.

Narratively, I felt rather okay about the story aspect of Story Mode. The collectible pages in the levels still have a certain amount of world building, though this time it seems more skewed toward explaining what pop culture looks like in this world, such as, an allusion to this world’s equivalent to Instagram.

Cynical as it is…

That’s definitely still interesting in its own right, though perhaps it’s less of a revelatory gut-punch as slowly piecing it together that the game takes place in the post-apocalypse of Earth itself, and the inklings copied ancient human culture.

We still got some backstory for this game’s idol duo, though. And that, I appreciate. It means Pearl and Marina still feel like a part of this world, rather than seeming obligatory for the sake of familiarity, given the first game had an idol duo as well.

Meanwhile, perhaps it is a bit obvious that Marie’s cousin, Callie, has gone rogue, and that she is the mysterious entity cracking into the radio transmissions between her and Agent 4. If I recall correctly, that was a working theory that came about with the first trailer or two. That, or she had died.

As soon as Marie says aloud she wonders where Callie has gone, I knew right away. And that’s just in the introduction.

That said, on some level, after stomaching through certain other games and such that actively lie or withhold information to force an arbitrary plot twist for plot twist sake, it feels almost nice to go back to a narrative that actually bothers to foreshadow these things. Plus, having gotten already invested in Callie as a character from the first game, I still felt motivated to see the story through to find out why she went rogue. And, loving the Squid Sisters already, there was a hope in me that she could be redeemed, or at least understood. In terms of building off the prior game’s story, Splatoon 2 is moderately decent.

Also, I mean, c’mon. The big narrative drive might be a tad predictable, but hey, this game is for kids. It’s fine.

That, I think, is something I love the most about Splatoon. Despite feeling like you’re playing in a Saturday morning cartoon, and being aimed primarily at children, it doesn’t shy away from fairly heavy subjects. Such as the aforementioned fact that the humans are all long dead and you’re basically playing paintball in the ruins of their consumerist culture.

Which brings me to what fascinates me so much about Splatoon 2: the way in which Salmon Run is framed.

You see, on the surface, Salmon Run appears to be your typical horde mode; a cooperative team (typically comprised of randoms) fights off gaggles of foes as they take turns approaching their base in waves. Pretty standard for online shooters these days, as was modernly popularized by Gears of War 2, and Halo ODST.

I say “modernly,” as the notion of fighting enemies as they approach in waves is not exactly a new concept for mechanical goals within video games. Rather, the term itself, as applied to multiplayer shooters, “horde mode,” became a point of game discussion when Gears of War 2 introduced the new game mode by that same name back in… 2008?

No, no that can’t be right. I played Gears 2 back in high school (I had worse taste back then, okay?). Which, from my perspective, was basically yesterday. That game being ten years old would mean I myself am old now, and that just can’t be. I’m hip. I’m young.

I am, to stay on theme here, fresh.

But okay, existential crises and game talk terms aside, the writing team behind Splatoon 2 probably decided to absolutely flex when it came to the narrative surrounding Salmon Run. It is one of the most gleaming examples of the nontraditional things you can do with writing in video games, to really elevate the experience.

Let me explain.

You see, narrative in video games typically falls into one of two categories: either the story sits comfortably inside of the game, utilizing it like a vehicle to arrive at the destination that is its audience’s waiting eyes and ears. Or the narrative, on some level, exists rather nebulously, primarily to provide something resembling context for why the pixels look the way they do, and why the goals are what they are.

Not to say this is a binary state of existence for game writing; narrative will of course always provide context for characters, should there be any. It’s primarily older, or retro games that give you a pamphlet or brief intro with little in the way of worrying over character motivation, and the deeper philosophical implications of the plot, etc (though not for lack of trying). These would be your classic Mario Bros. and what have you, where the actual game part of the video game is nearly all there is to explore in the overall experience.

Then you have games like Hotline Miami that purposely sets up shop right in the middle to make a meta commentary about the state of game narrative, using the ideological endpoint of violent 80’s era action and revenge-fantasy genre film as inspiration and the starting point to draw comparison between the two. It’s bizarre, and I could drone on about this topic.

But I digress.

Despite falling into that latter category, that is to say having mainly just an introduction to the narrative context so you can get on with playing the game, Salmon Run is a stellar example of how you can make every bit of that context count (even if it does require the added context of the rest of the game, sort of, which I’ll explain, trust me).

First, a (very) brief explanation of how the game itself works, for the maybe three of you who haven’t played it yet.

A team of up to four inklings (and/or octolings) have a small island out in open waters. Salmonid enemies storm the beaches from various angles in waves. Each wave also comes with (at least) one of eight unique boss variants, who all drop three golden eggs upon defeat. Players are tasked with gathering a number of said golden eggs each round, for three rounds, after which their failure or success in doing so shows slow or fast progress towards in-game rewards.

And it’s all an allegory for the poor treatment of labor/workers, utilizing the fishing industry as both an example and a thematically appropriate analogue. Yes, I’m serious.

First, Salmon Run is not available through the main doors like the other multiplayer modes. Rather, it is off to the side, down a dingy looking alley. And when you’re shown its location, either because you finally entered the Inkopolis plaza for the first time, or because the mode has entered rotation again, Marina very expressly describes it as a job.

A job you should only do if you are absolutely, desperately hard strapped for cash. You know, the sort of job you turn to if, for one reason or another, you can’t find a better one.

An aside: technically, playing Salmon Run does not automatically net you in-game currency, with which to buy things, as regular multiplayer modes do. Rather, your “pay” is a gauge you fill by playing, which comes with reward drops at certain thresholds; some randomized gacha style capsules, and one specific piece of gear which gets advertised, to incentivize playing.

The capsules themselves drop actual paychecks in the form of aforementioned currency, or meal tickets to get temporary buffs that help you progress in the multiplayer faster via one way or another. Which, hey, you know, that helps you earn more money also. Working to get “paid,” so you can get things you want, though, still works perfectly for the metaphor it creates.

When I first saw it open up for rotation, I found out you had to be at least a level four to participate. Pretty par for the course, considering it’s the same deal with the gear shops. But, again, it’s all in the presentation; Mr. Grizz does not simply say something akin to the usual “you must be this tall to ride.” He says he cannot hire inexperienced inklings such as yourself, because it’s a legal liability.

After returning with three extra levels, I was handed off to basic, on-the-job training. Which is only offered after Mr. Grizz (not ever physically present, mind you, but communicating with you via radio), the head of Grizzco, uses fairly typical hard sell rhetoric when it comes to dangerous, or otherwise undesirable work: calls you kid, talks about shaping the future and making the world a better place, refers to new hires as “fresh young talent,” says you’ll be “a part of something bigger than yourself.” You know, the usual balancing act of flattery, with just the right amount of belittlement.

Whoa, hang on, sorry; just had a bad case of deja vu from when the recruiter that worked with the ROTC back in high school tried to get me to enlist… several times… Guess he saw the hippie glasses and long hair and figured I'd be a gratifying challenge.

The fisher imagery really kicks in when you play. Which, I figure a dev team working out of Japan might have a pretty decent frame of reference for that. A boat whisks you out to sea with your team, and everyone’s given a matching uniform involving a bright orange jumper, and rubber boots and gloves. If you've ever seen the viral video of the fisherman up to his waist in water telling you not to give up, you have a rough idea. Oh, and don't forget your official Grizzco trademark hats.

It’s on the job itself where a lot of what I'm talking about comes up the most; that is to say, despite buttering you up initially, Mr. Grizz shows his true colors pretty quickly. While playing, he seems to only be concerned with egg collecting, even when his employees are actively hurting. This is established and compounded by his dialogue prior to the intermediate training level, in which informs you about the various boss fish.

Before you can do anything remotely risky, even boss salmonid training, Mr. Grizz tells you he has to go over this 338 page workplace health and safety manual with you. But, oops, the new hire boat sounds the horn as you flip to page 1, so he sends you off unprepared. “Let’s just say you’ve read it,” he tells you, insisting that learning by doing is best.

This flagrant disregard employee safety, in the name of met quotas; the fact we never see Mr. Grizz face to face, making him this vague presence that presides over you, evaluating your stressed performance with condescension; that we are not simply given the rewards as we pass thresholds to earn them, having to instead speak with another, unknown npc for our pay… It all drives toward the point so well.

The icing on the cake for me is when a match ends. You, the player, are not asked if you’d like to go back into matchmaking for another fun round of playtime. Rather, you are asked if you would like to “work another shift.”

The pieces all fit so well together. I shouldn’t be surprised that, once a theme is chosen, Splatoon can stick to it like my hand to rubber cement that one time. It has already proven it can do that much for sure. But it’s just so… funny? It’s bitterly, cynically hilarious.

Bless the individual(s) who sat in front of their keyboard, staring at the early script drafts, and asked aloud if they were really about to turn Mr. Grizz into a projection of all the worst aspects of the awful bosses they’ve had to deal with in life. The answer to that question being “yes” has led to some of my favorite writing in a video game.

All of these thoughts, as they started forming in my skull, really began to bubble when I noticed Salmon Run shifts become available during my first Splatfest.

Splatfest is, to try and put it in realistic terms, basically a huge, celebratory sporting event. Participation nets you a free commemorative t-shirt and access to a pumping concert featuring some of the hottest artists currently gracing the Inkopolis charts.

The idea, the notion, that a hip young inkling (or octoling) might miss out on one of the biggest parties of the year because they need money more than they need fun? It’s downright depressing.

It got me thinking. I looked at my fellow egg collectors. In-universe, we were a bunch of teen-to-young-adult aged denizens missing out on all the fun because we desperately needed the cash. We became stressed together, overworked together, yelled at by our boss together. But in those sweetest victories, where we’d far surpassed our quota? We celebrated together.

Spam-crouching, and mashing the taunt, something changed. I felt a greater sense of comradery with these squids and octos than I did in nearly any other coop game. And it’s all thanks to the rhetorical framing of the game mode.

It accomplishes so many things. It’s world building which wholistically immerses you in the setting. But mainly, its dedication to highly specific word choice does exactly what I mentioned earlier: it elevates the experience to one I could really sit down and think about, rather than use to while away the hours, then move on to something else. So many games make horde modes that feel inconsequential like that; it’s just for fun.

There’s nothing wrong with fun being the only mission statement for a game, or an optional mode of play. But this is exactly what I mean when I say this is the nontraditional writing games can do so much more with. And Splatoon 2 saw that opportunity, and took it. And what a fantastic example of bittersweet, cold reality, in this, a bright, colorful game meant mainly for children…

Happy Holidays, everyone!

#Rabbot Reviews #video games #review #Splatoon 2 #Salmon Run #narrative #framing

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kittsasu13 · 6 years

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Kylo & Rey The Numerology of 3

In months since The Last Jedi released I have read many meta about the significance of three. Three is turning out to be very important to this Skywalker Saga. So, though this will be a very quick explanation of my thoughts I will try to sound cool. (not too bothered by how well this turns out)

So, what reminds us of three? Well, let us begin with the obvious. Three is what a trilogy is. There are 3 movies for each trilogy AND there are 3 Trilogies for the Skywalker Saga. Which JJ Abrams says 9 will end the Skywalker Saga. I might even throw in the whole 3 6 9 (which would make sense anyways, but I enjoy being silly)

Well, what else? Maybe we could talk about Rey? Her introduction to the Saga was with three buns. Which we should relate to Leia who was introduced with two buns. On top of that Padme was introduced as Queen with one huge ass bun that looked like a damn HALO.

Now what about Kylo ? What does he have that is three? Well, he himself can take all three last names. Solo, Organa and Skywalker. He can take the fact that he is the third Skywalker. Anakin, (Luke and Leia count as 1 since they are twins) ..

. Also, and I mean this for both Rey and Kylo . Kylo is the third human male that Rey Met in The Force Awakens. (Finn, Han, Kylo)

Also if I want to be silly Kylo only talked to the human females his mom (via force) , Phasma and Rey... So that is something haha ..

Now, When I started researching the number three online a lot of interesting things came up. Now the next explanations are going to be completely manipulated to serve purpose to the Star Wars ST . So if that upsets you. Please ignore my fascination. and just... what is fun?

Now, I will continue with what stuck out to me.

“if a three doesn’t apply their inventiveness there is a possibility of moodiness and depression.”

This stuck out hardcore for me in many ways. Though it is established early on in the Prequels that Anakin is very good and likes fixing things. There is also this understanding through his time working on C3PO that he needs to tinker on projects at home even though his daily job is fixing. This trait passed down to Ben for sure. Since Ben designed and made his own lightsaber the same as his uncle. Ben is also in tune to Calligraphy as pointed out in the Last Jedi (extended) So he is creative and expresses himself in unique ways. This is essential to a three like himself.

Rey is a fresh slate with a nobody background (as far as The Last Jedi describes) so her creativeness is in her work as a scavenger. She unknowingly has very good direction and guidance through the force on her side. So she is always going to get through difficult situations. Her new challenge is fixing the broken saber and figuring out what she wants to do for the future and what she wants to do with those ancient Jedi texts. Her creative energy is certainly going to get a work out and I am all for it! (Excited for what you plan to do Rey!)

Another 3 that really stuck out to me was, “upbeat out look on life- positive thinking- ooze charisma, understand the importance of active listening skills, make people at ease and are simply fun to be around”

This hit me hard for both Rey and Kylo! Sure Rey and Kylo are two halfs of a protagonist who we relate to very differently, but who can deny that they try to see the positive ?_adding in that if Ben had a negative outlook on life he would have let Chewie kill him_ Rey looks ahead now to seek belonging and I am positive Ben will do that in 9 more completely. Everyone saw in The Last Jedi that Rey is patient and Ben has amazing listening skills. He has a unique sense of humor (watch TFA for reference, AKA “The Droid, stole a freighter?” ) Also it took time but Rey was able to calm down around Ben and when Rey saved everyone they felt safe. When I think of all the fun I remember back to TLJ novelization. When Ben was asking Rey if she could see his surroundings and when Rey and Ben were flirting around the coffin over the lightsaber.

Another interesting 3 is that “they dislike responsibility”...

Now I don’t mean to delve into the tropes or the cycle of life journey’s.....

The times where Ben and Rey might have been compared to this dislike are as follows....

Rey, telling Finn she has to get back to Jakku. Rey telling Han she is just a “scavenger” and again bringing up Jakku. Rey running from Maz’s castle saying... “Get that Phallic object AWAY from meeeeeeee.”

Leia saying that Ben wouldn’t want the responsibility of royalty in Bloodline. Ben getting irritated that Lor San Tekka is bringing up that he has family and is more than his mask. Snoke telling Ben that he has too much of Hans heart. Ben asking Rey to cut everyone she and he knows and loves out and rule together...

“three’s love ..........connection”

Hand touch. tears. talking by the fire. you are not alone. Neither are you. Need I say more?

Now this last part I want to share is a little long , but I really liked it... Thanks for reading! (I don’t think I need to explain this next part)

“As a combination of 1 and 2, the 3 often experiences very intense emotions. Controlling that cycle is one of the lessons of this life path number. Rule your emotions, don’t let them rule you. Once under control take that energy and direct it toward a passion for greatest success and happiness. -the ability to see past-present- future during vision quests is honored as a great gift.”

#reylo #funny spec #my thoughts #building beautiful souls #life path 3 #3 #I am so silly when it comes to this shit #I didn't actually explain Leia but she and Luke are a 2

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winteriron-trash · 6 years

Note

Ok, so that fanfic questions ask meme? You wanna do ALL OF THEM?!

YES, LET’S DO IT, HERE WE GO, PREPARE YOURSELF I’m copy and pasting answers I’ve already done just so I don’t have to retype them and there’s a break because god this got long. I might link this on my About Me post, cause holy shit I spent time on this

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Actual fandom? Probably DC. That’s when I started reading fanfiction and really poked my head around online communities dedicated to media and all.

2. What is your latest fandom?

I don’t know, probably Marvel? Maybe Riverdale, but I was a fan of the comics before so

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

If I’m assuming this question is about the actual fandom and not the source material and the people in the fandom and its community as a whole? Probably the Percy Jackson fandom. Not really into it anymore so I don’t know the state of it now, but it was a pretty wholesome and positive community. Any community that calls it’s creator “Uncle Rick” has gotta be pretty dope.

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

Oh lord save my soul for admitting I like this, but definitely Five Nights at Freddy’s. The indie gaming, creepypasta, underground subculture as a whole is something I regret getting into. Don’t get me wrong, I usually love the source material, but the fandom is just so bad. You probably know what I’m talking about, the fangirls who insist they’re insane and are in love with Slenderman or something.

But specifically on FNaF, lord, I don’t even know what the fandom is anymore. It’s a meme, a fetish, and a hellspace all at once. And I’m not gonna fucking lie, I’ve been in this hellhole long before any of that. Like, I can’t even try to escape it, I’m in it for the long haul. I was just someone who joined for the lore and now we’re here with fucking casual bongos and trash gang and fuck I didn’t ask for this. I can’t escape. I know so fucking much about the franchise it hurts my fucking soul. I remember when the FNaF 2 trailer came out and we were all micro-analyzing London Bridge Is Falling Down. I remember when Springtrap didn’t have a name and we called that fucking Spring Bonnie or Golden Bonnie. I survived that era and I have PTSD from it, trust me. I remember when we were naive enough to think FNaF 3 was the last game. I know what channels were born and what channels died because of that series. I know it all.

I’m sorry, I got off topic. BUT I DON’T GET TO FUCKING RANT ABOUT IT ENOUGH, FUCKING FUCKSHIT

Oh, and a lot of bandoms I was in too. I went through an alt phase where I’d only listen to shit like BVB, BMTH, MCR, PTV, SWS, and so on. Once again, that sort of fandom was the same as the indie/creepypasta in being ‘different’ and ‘insane’ and all that and I was no different. I was a weird fucking kid when I was like 13. I regret all of it.

5. Which fandoms have your written fanfiction for?

Marvel, DC, and a couple Riverdale.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Not in many fandoms but

Marvel - WinterIronDC - SuperbatStar Trek Voyager - Captain Janeway/Seven of NinePercy Jackson - Solangelo

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

Marvel - Stucky, Stuckony, Romanogers, Clintasha, any incest ones, (save me for admitting this) SpideypoolDC - Any batboys shipped together, Bruce/Talia

And I don’t really have NOTPs for my other fandoms? Marvel and DC are really the only two things I’m invested in the fandom of. I guess you could count Wincest as well for Supernatural.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

What even is my latest fandom? Um, we’ll just say Marvel because I’m really not into joining fandoms much anymore. Honestly, I was a big DC fan who felt the need to hate Marvel because no shit. Eventually, I just got sick of the absolute shit movies DC had and I decided I had nothing to lose by just watching Iron Man. When I watched it I realized “wow, superhero movies can actually be good???” and I just binged the entire MCU in one month and was ready to see the next movie in theatres and I think I’ve seen every single MCU movie in theatres since Civil War? Definitely since Homecoming. I gave up on DC movies. The new Aquaman looks like shit, I’m so fucking pissed they redid Mera’s look when she looked perfectly fucking fine before and now she’s oversexualized and it’s gross. I’m excited for the new DC Batwoman TV show because I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO SEE A LIVE ACTION BATWOMAN SINCE THE DAWN OF FUCKING TIME

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

Probably the Tony Stark Defense Squad. As a collective whole, I think the Defense Squad is one of the sweetest, nicest corners of the fandom. We’re incredibly kind to each other, write great meta and fic, and it’s just a great community. Of course, there are assholes, but you know.

I might get flamed for saying this, but also the HYDRA Trash Party corner of the fandom is actually really nice? Like, they understand consent and abuse aftermath and all the real shit better than the rest of the fandom, not gonna lie. Like, for as dark as the fic is you’d expect the people to be fucking nasties, but I have never met a rude HTP enthusiast. Or even one who’s unaware of how consent and whump work. They’re all very aware and kind. It’s bizarre, considering the source material. They get an awful rep though.

10. Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Literally any fandom I’m in besides Marvel and DC. I think I wrote like 2 Riverdale fics. Getting into reading fanfic and getting into writing fanfic are two entirely different ballparks. I don’t really read that much fanfic anyway, especially not anymore. I read Marvel and DC, but even then. I think it’s hard because sometimes you can’t switch off the whole ‘reading like a writer’ thing. That’s why I enjoy classic literature. I’m a slut for some good ass prose and symbolism.

11. Who is your current OTP?

WinterIron, of ducking course.

12. Who is your current OT3?

I’m not really a fan of OT3s, to be honest, I find I’m personally pretty weak with writing poly relationships and I don’t really enjoy reading them because one character is usually focused on a lot more than the other two. But if I had to pick, I would say T’Challa/M’Baku/Bucky only because I am solely responsible for the creation of that abomination and you have no idea how much people begged me for a series after the first one, it astounded me.

13. Any NoTPs?

As before listed, Stucky, Stuckony, Spideypool, Clintasha, Romanogers

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

IronWidow is my top BroTP, but I also like WinterWidow as a BroTP. Stucky is good as a BroTP too, as well as Tony & Rhodey.

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Literally any ship I have. Yall I’ve been here since WinterIron was obscure. But to name a specific one I’m just gonna go with Pietro/Tony. I don’t know, I just had an idea I was writing for them and I was thinking about how much missed out potential there was between them. And with Pietro as a whole, but you know. Marvel has to kill off the only good Maximoff they had.

Oh, Natasha/Pepper too, but they aren’t as obscure, I guess.

16. Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Stucky, clearly.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Stony, and no. They fell apart for me, at least MCU-wise.

18. What ship have you written the most about?

By now, WinterIron, I believe. I recently passed my count of fics for Superbat.

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Pepperony, probably. I think it’s actually a cute and sweet ship and I like their in-canon moments, but I just can’t get behind reading fanfic of them? It never works out for me, I don’t really get it. It sucks because I do enjoy seeing their cute moments.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

I’ll do a different answer I thought of besides the first time I answered this. But Thruce was a big shocker for me. I didn’t even think about it during Ragnorak but then I saw an incorrect quote for it and I was like? Oh? This? This is a good, pure ship right here. The funny thing is, I actually wrote a fic with them as a side ship long before they hit it big so like, I was shocked when they came out of nowhere. But hey, I’m fucking here for it. I’ll probably never write it, but I’m here for it.

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Goodnight, My Angel. It was a Superbat fic and really sad, but I still love it.

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Probably... You Deserve Love And You’ll Get It. No, I won’t link it because I hate it that much. I’m not even gonna talk about it. It’s my most popular fic too why

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Super dorky, but The (Un)Wanted Kiss. It’s my first finished chapter fic, and the first chaptered fic I did on Tumblr and it just brings me a lot of nostalgia. It reminds me of where I was as a writer when I started it and it was an entire fic spawned from people wanting more of a simple 500-word prompt and that just blows my mind. It reminds me of the power of fans and how much love and support I got from it. It really kicked me off as a “serious fanfic writer” I think.

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

All You Are Is All I Need. That is a hot fucking mess. Probably The Red Halo too.

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

*sigh* You Deserve Love And You’ll Get It

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

I bullshit my way through them. My most recent fics have actually followed a trend of being named after songs.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Summaries. I always make them so fucking corny, I hate it.

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

One Foot In Front Of The Other, probably. Just because I want more fem!WinterIron fanart. I can’t say what scene because spoilers but.... yeah, anything from that would be great, really.

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

Sort of. I make some of my friends like Pizza read over my shit before I post it, but that’s not often, only when I think I need it. I don’t just because I write a lot and I’d feel bad for constantly annoying someone with making them read everything I write. I hate inconveniencing people.

30. What inspires you to write?

The better question is what doesn’t. I never stop thinking like a writer. My brain forgot how to turn off that feature.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

Ummmm, I can’t think of an exact thing? I get so many beyond sweet comments and messages, it’s hard to pin down one comment. I think if I had to pick, I once got a message from someone on Tumblr who was old enough to be my mother complimenting me and telling me I didn’t write like a teenager and I think that was really sweet.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. And honestly, any genre. I listen to everything. Everything. But specifically, Emilie Autumn has inspired a lot ideas/fics I’ve written.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

All of the above.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

Around 23k, I think?

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

Yes, and whatever I get prompted for, really.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

For fanfiction, I guess romance? I mean, that’s really all my fanfiction is. Otherwise, I’ll write quite literally any genre I feel like. I go wherever an idea takes me. I’m character based, not genre or plot based.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

Third. I fucking despise 1st person. I just do. That’s an entire rant we ain’t here for today.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

Usually canon characters. I only use an OC when I absolutely have to, to make the plot do the plot stuff.

39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?

Nothing. My writing sucks. All of it is shit.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Everything. I screech the most about pacing and sentence structures though.

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

Most of these are actually on my to-read list but whatever.

Winter's End by ali_aliska Winter is Coming (aka Fifty First Avengers Dates) by 27dragons, tisfan My Love is Vengeance by seikaitsukimizu The caged Hawk by asamandra Fertile Ground by 27dragons, tisfan

42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

27dragons tisfanChiaki_Hamano arianapeterson19 thepartyresponsible

43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

Not really? I’m not knocking any of the other ‘big names’ in the Marvel fandom, but I don’t really draw inspiration from other fanfic writers. Not for plot, and definitely not for writing style. I get inspiration from fanart I see sometimes, but it’s never one main artist who I stalk to be inspired, just whatever I happen across online.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

WinterIron, duh. I will not rest until WinterIron is the biggest ship in the Marvel fandom.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

I’ve mentioned this fic before and honestly, it hasn’t been topped yet, but In the Company of Monsters by Chiaki_Hamano. It’s not even a Marvel fic, and it’s not even a ship I like, but god, I fucking adore it. I’d love to write something like it, but with WinterIron if I had the time, I think the entire world and setting would fit WinterIron beautifully.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

Well, that all depends on what they’re looking for in my fanfiction. If they’re looking for WinterIron, I’d probably tell them to start with The (Un)Wanted Kiss just because that’s one of my most loved fics and I think I did really well with it. But if they just want a general fic, A Great Connection is one I’m really proud of and I still get gushing feedback about.

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

For just writing fanfic, Ao3. Tumblr can be a pain in the ass, and I don’t even use ff.net.

48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

Yes. But only if 1, I really, really loved it or 2, I don’t think the fic has enough attention. It also helps if the writer responds to comments. I don’t see the significance of saying “I loved this!” if the fic has dozens of other comments saying the same thing. As a writer, I know what comments writers prefer. Longer ones, deep comments pointing out what things they liked, and so on. However if I write a comment that long, I like to get a response because you know, I love seeing the writer talking about the elements of the story I liked.

49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

Not really, to be perfectly honest. Yes, I love and cherish every kudos and note I get, and the sweet comments make me want to die of joy. But I write for me. Even when I take prompts, in the end, I write because it makes me happy. Yes, I love the validation. But even without it, I would still write. I do not write fanfiction for you, I share fanfiction with you. There’s a difference. Writing makes me happy. If I only cared about the validation, I wouldn’t have a folder reserved of fics I’ll never post but I wrote just because I wanted to. I write to write. The moment I start writing for validation, I might as well stop writing, because it’s not worth it.

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

Ummmm I think I was just curious? I was new to internet culture, I saw fanart of Superbat and I discovered Ao3 and was like “wow, this stuff exists??? Words for free????? About my favourite characters being happy and dating each other??????????” and it was a downward spiral. I was like, 11 when I read my first fanfiction. I was obsessed with Superbat fanart, and I thought, what would it hurt to try actually reading it? Like, that was so taboo to me. And now we’re here. Tadaaaaaah

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

Oh, a chance to ramble. Yay. I’m gonna rant because I’m a rant-y person.

I think something that annoys me about fanfiction is not necessarily a probably within fanfiction, but rather the outward view of it. Fanfic has an awful rep within the real world. The one-time fanfiction really took centre stage was when Fifty Shades came out, which only hurt the platform by furthering the stereotype that it’s all porn made for horny freaks who just want to get off.

I should not be ashamed to say I write fanfiction. I should not feel childish saying it to myself. No one should. At least half of my ‘fans’ are nearly a decade or more older than me. It’s clearly not something that’s immature or silly. Of course, it can be, but any hobby can be dumbed down to a kiddy version.

But fanfiction at its core is ignored for what it really is. When adults talk about fanfiction they belittle it and only see a tiny subsection of it, ignoring what it’s supposed to be about. It’s about creating transformative works for media you’re passionate about.

Fanfiction gets a worse rep than other transformative works such as fanart or whatever. Writing as a whole does. Fanfic is painted as this utter trash.

I’ve read fanfiction that made me cry, laugh, feel shit. I’ve read fanfiction that tackled heavy topics. Even on a sexual standpoint, I’ve read fanfiction that was willing to write erotica that published authors wouldn’t fucking touch. Both in a kink sense, but also in terms of how the relationship functions. I’ve read shitty fanfictions, sure. But I’ve read fanfictions that were better than 90% of the published books I’ve read. Even fanfics I didn’t like.

To put fanfiction into perspective, the average YA novel (the age group fanfiction is generally but not always aimed at) is 70k words. I’ve read fanfiction that blows that word count out of the water. And it takes fucking skill to write something that long. It’s not just writing a bunch of porn or cute scenes, that takes serious world building and character arcs.

Fanfiction kills so many tropes that are common in YA and literature in general. I read a YA after reading nothing but fanfiction for a long time and I was fucking appalled? It was a popular YA too. I won’t name what one because you could literally imagine anyone and it’d probably fit. The characters were flat, the romance was outright manipulative and toxic, the plot was dull, even the writing itself was bland. This was the type of book years ago I would’ve loved. But compared to most (of course, not all. Shit exists, but I think in fanfiction, we’re able to better filter out the shit) fanfictions, it was fucking trash.

When I started reading fanfiction, I assumed it’d lower my standards. The first time I picked up an actual novel I was relieved, excited to not have to deal with the problems that are in unpublished writings. But I quickly realized it was the complete opposite. Fanfiction threw my expectations through the roof. I expect fiction to include representation, fresh plots, interesting characters, thrilling romances, and decent fucking sex scenes if they’re there. But it just wasn’t there. It all fell flat. As someone seriously into the writing and reading community I hear so often that it’s hard for plots to be original and you shouldn’t judge on originality, but then I read fanfiction written by fucking teenagers that’s fucking mind-blowing with plot twists and original ideas, and I have to wonder is it really that hard? It’s clearly doable, you just have to take away the fanfiction part.

I have YA novels sitting on my sheld I know I’ll never read and enjoy because fanfiction just made my expectations too high. Which is good in a sense because I pray some of these amazing writers, when they get older will go on to write mind-blowing original novels and I hope that this generation of writers will put out great literature in ten to fifteen years, but for now I’m just… underwhelmed. I think it’s why I read a lot of classic literature too. Shit was better back then.

And yet despite all that, fanfiction is still made to look like shit in the modern media. It sucks so badly for fanfiction writers not to look like serious writers. I could publish one book, have it get the amount of attention my biggest fanfic got and be considered a serious author. My biggest fanfiction currently has 40k notes on Tumblr. Imagine if that were a published short story. It’d be a fucking hit. And there are others that make my numbers look small. And yet it’s brushed aside as unimpactful.

I think a lot of that stems from the fact that fanfic writers do generally start out younger. I’m 16. Others either are or were my age. But age does not equate to skill in writing. Sure, that is a factor, but it is not the entire story. I know a 14 yr old who writes some of the best prose I have ever seen. And even if younger fic writers aren’t on level yet, fanfiction is what’s helping them grow as a writer. But because we’re teenagers, we’re turned away just because of that. Even more specifically because we’re teenage girls (for the most part, I’m not saying other genders and/or age groups aren’t writing/reading fanfic) and we all know how society feels about them. It’s just a fucking shame that fanfiction can’t be respected for the legitimate form of writing it is because of the stigma. I’ve seen fanfic writers say they aren’t real writers because of the stigma, it’s awful. We feel the need to tear ourselves down for an admirable hobby. I can’t say my favourite book is a fanfiction I read, when I has every right to be a valid answer.

We’ll cut this ramble off here because wow I really went on didn’t I.

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shark-myths · 6 years

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Church: Video Meta

This morning it is my great privilege to present a true piece of Peterick scholarship: an intensive examination of the Church video by my dear @leyley09!

I came into the FOB tumblr fandom (as opposed to all those ‘normal’ people out in the world) via two screen-based fandoms - Sherlock and Supernatural - so I am used to overanalyzing camera angles, immediate cuts, and music layered over images. And with a song and a video like Church, it’s impossible not to put some of that to use.

It’s important to remember with any kind of film media that someone has chosen what we are seeing. No one does anything in a single take. Multiple versions of every shot were filmed, and someone specifically selected the ones we get to see because those shots do the best job of telling the story that person wants us to ‘hear’.

For most films or tv shows, that’s generally the director, possibly with some writers or producers thrown in depending on the project. We at The Peterick Institute would like to point out that rumor has it Pete exerts a lot of creative control over the music videos. I’m going to go with “someone” and let you all jump to your preferred conclusions.

continued below the cut!

We open with one of our protagonists approaching a building before running into Pete. On a surface plot level, there is no purpose for Pete in this scene. The first few seconds were enough to establish that this guy is someone we’re supposed to be watching. So what is the point of having him run into Pete and drop his phone?

Since you’re reading this post on this blog, let’s assume there’s a deeper explanation, shall we?

It could be that the protagonist is a representation of Pete. They are dressed in similar colors. This guy is approaching a building that Pete appears to be leaving. He could be representing a younger version of Pete, one who is on his way into the phase of life that “current” Pete is exiting.

But what about the phone?

The dropping of the phone could represent the temporary loss of communication, which we all know was pretty much the hiatus.

Let’s move on to the building. First point - that is not a church. I've spent way too much of my life in "church", and churches don't have walls like this:

You know what does? Mausoleums (which was nicely confirmed in the behind the scenes video)

There is a major difference between a church and a mausoleum. You go to church to worship. You go to a mausoleum to lay someone to rest. (“you only get what you grieve” … )

(And sure, maybe they just picked it because of the cool stained glass, but how disappointing would that be?)

Let’s go back to that initial image for a second:

That’s right, humans of all sorts, that’s Patrick Stump looking like a Byzantine icon.

Ex: One of my favorite icons from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. (Patrick’s just got a bigger halo.)

In addition to reinforcing the idea of “holiness” - in western/Christian iconography, only the most holy (“you’re holy to me”) are given a halo - a big, bright circle also does an excellent job of drawing your attention to whatever is inside it. It’s like a bright white bullseye.

Patrick is not the only one who gets caught dead-center in this halo. Less than a minute into the video, so does Pete:

What else is happening at this precise point? Patrick is singing "swallow it for me".

Let me repeat an idea from earlier: someone decided that this ^^ is the mental image you should pull up every time Patrick sings "swallow it for me". (I’ll wait while you process that.)

While Patrick is singing the first verse and Pete’s being holy for swallowing (look, they said it, not me), we meet our other protagonist. Together, these two make up a pair of doomed lovers (the second pair of doomed lovers we’ve seen represented in music videos for this album alone). They appear to be of different ethnicities, which is still frowned upon by some (ignorant) people. So, perhaps they are symbolic of other "non-traditional" relationships?

We cut immediately from their affectionate reunion to this:

To run with our subtext, we’ve cut from Guy-representing-Pete kissing his girlfriend to Patrick in a halo singing “trust me that’s what I will be”.

“Oh the things that you do in the name of what you love” layers directly overtop our doomed lovers being spotted by someone spying from an upper level, someone who is not pleased to see them together. It’s clear they’re taking a risk being together in public, but people do a lot of things (make a lot of risky choices) when they’re “in love”.

Cut immediately to this:

For our surface level plot, Patrick in a coffin singing “you were doomed but just enough” is pretty obvious foreshadowing - this couple is doomed because someone is going to die. But why not throw a few extra layers of subtext on that, just because we can.

First, I want to introduce another layer of sub-plot. Remember Pete, from earlier? Leaving a mausoleum (a place you go to lay someone to rest, to grieve) for no apparent reason? Can it be a coincidence that Patrick is the *only* one we see in a coffin?

This Patrick here, this is not the current “version” of Patrick. This is not 2018 Patrick’s aesthetic. In addition to the suit jacket and the fedora, he has obviously had makeup applied. While this does also emphasize the idea that he’s supposed to be dead, it also harkens back to a time when Patrick had more pronounced cheekbones. (This is by no means a negative observation; people change over time in all sorts of ways, and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.) There has been some debate among the three of us contributing to this meta about what period this is supposed to represent, but personally, I don’t know that the specific time period matters. I think what’s important here is that a past version of Patrick has been laid to rest. WE WILL COME BACK TO THIS.

In addition to the foreshadowing for our doomed lovers, if that particular line is supposed to throw back to anything besides "I'm half doomed and you're semi-sweet", I don't know what it is.

Let’s move on to The-Guy-In-Charge.

We at The Peterick Institute refuse to think it is anything less than intentional that this guy appears in a similar outfit to that worn by “God” in the Youngblood Chronicles. Someone with a lot of power who walks into a “church” to punish people for a forbidden behavior? That’s a pretty common viewpoint. He’s also making a “prayer” gesture with his hands post-phone call. But it’s not exactly like “God”, is it? It’s just the outer layers that are the snappy white suit. Underneath, he’s wearing a dark shirt. To me, that reads as someone who just thinks they’re god - someone who thinks they’re that important, thinks they rule over your whole world… someone like a record label executive who might think they get to decide who you can and can’t be romantically involved with in public, perhaps?

Plus the ‘villain in a white suit’ trope is very common to Pete’s favorite pop culture time period. And when has Pete ever been able to resist a pop culture reference?

FUN FACT INTERRUPTION:

If you pause just right, you can get Pete making this face at the same time Patrick’s singing “I’d get on my knees”, which isn’t related to anything really, it just makes me giggle.

Next, our “villains” enter directly out of a bright light - bit like the “light at the end of the tunnel”, yes? This really just reinforces the idea that this is some kind of “divine justice”....or at least justice that thinks it is divine.

Our star-crossed lovers attempt to escape. They clearly know that this was a possibility. They knew being together was dangerous. They must have thought they were safe in this crowd because they weren't being the slightest bit discreet, but they weren't.

It’s fairly easy to see that, while they’re trying to hide in a back room, our lady protagonist takes off a necklace and puts it on her boyfriend. But it happens very fast, and it’s difficult to see what’s on the chain. It took me several viewings and a lot of frame-by-frame skipping to figure it out -- it’s a ring. (Seriously, just when I think this video can’t get any more painful.) She pulls it out from underneath her choker, so it’s something she was hiding.

These two aren’t just hiding a relationship, they’re hiding the nature of that relationship, the seriousness of it. So why reveal it now? And even better question, why follow the ring with a shot of Patrick in the coffin?

You've got to have a lot of nerve to drag someone out into a group of people, into a well-lit public setting, AND THEN KILL THEM. These guys had the perfect opportunity to stab our protagonist in the back room, and Guy-In-Charge chose to drag him out of there, shove him into the crowd (getting everyone's attention), and then stab him. That's a helluva statement. That isn’t a small statement for a small audience ("I don't want you to be with this particular guy"); that’s a big statement for a public audience (“this is what happens to people who don’t follow the rules”). This is someone being made an example in order to scare other people.

When our hero gets stabbed....he doesn't bleed right. That's not what fake Hollywood blood looks like; that's not what actual human blood looks like. I’ve seen some suggestions that it’s glitter. It is sparkly. But frankly, even if there’s glitter in it, the color/consistency looks a lot like the shitty grape juice I've spent most of my life drinking for Communion. (**After seeing the BTS video, there’s definitely a liquid involved.) WE WILL COME BACK TO THIS MOMENTARILY.

The last thing you see in this video is Patrick-in-the-coffin. Not the woman who's just seen her boyfriend murdered, not the two of them together in some kind of Romeo-and-Juliet style final embrace. No, the last thing you see is what appears to be a younger version of Patrick laid out like a wake. That's the impression they have chosen to leave us with, the one image they want to linger on our minds along with the final line of the song, “I’d get on my knees, yeah”.

So we’ve seen one layer of story - a pair of lovers torn apart against their will, a couple who are willing to risk everything to be together, a relationship that ends in conflict due to outside forces. If you’re familiar with shark-myths’ Tryst Theory, this could not fall any more in line. (If you’re not, um, this is basically it without the details.)

And underneath this surface layer, we have a past version of Patrick being laid to rest with only one visible mourner:

And the thing that we are supposed to associate most with this “dead” Patrick?

“I’d get on my knees”

He sings some part of that line four times from the coffin, five times if you want to count the final “yeah” after the last actual lyric.

(If you’re curious about the other things coffin!Patrick says, it’s “you were doomed but just enough” 2x and “confess my love”, so feel free to read into that however you’d like.)

Now that we’ve done our scene-by-scene breakdown, what are some other themes we’re seeing in this story?

First, I promised to address this:

Pete singing along is not a new phenomena, for sure, but singing along to a line like “confess my love” is….interesting, to put it mildly. It puts us at The Peterick Institute in mind of this quote from Patrick: “I don’t think Pete thinks of himself as a bass player. I think he thinks of himself as a singer. He sings through me.” What a lovely demonstration of Pete using Patrick’s voice to express himself.

Next, I want to touch briefly on how little we see Joe and Andy in this video. While that used to be (unfortunately) more common, more recent videos have been better about giving screentime to these guys. This was one of the first things I noticed watching this video the first time through. You're nearly halfway through the video before Joe or Andy get their first close up or solo shot, and neither of them gets centered on that halo like Pete and Patrick do. Andy gets closest, but it looks more like an accident, just because the drums are set up in front of it. It’s not the nicely centered in the frame kind of shot that both Patrick and Pete have. In addition, neither of them play any part in the coffin!Patrick subplot whatsoever, which also reduces their screen time.

This is interesting mostly as it relates to Pete. Patrick is the one signing; by default, he becomes the center of attention. One would expect the majority of the “concert” screen time to go to him. Additional “concert” screen time should be split fairly equally between the rest of the band. It is not.

You have two options for why that is. 1) The people-making-decisions are idiots and assumed that everyone would rather look at Pete than any of the other guys, or 2) it's intentional. What's the point of making the people you see most in the video besides our doomed lovers Patrick and Pete? Gee, I wonder.

Communion --

I mentioned Communion earlier while discussing the not-blood we see when our protagonist is stabbed. I think that’s a very relevant point. For one thing, it’s one of the main rituals associated with “church”. For many believers, that ritual confers a degree of holiness upon you when you participate in it. You’re supposed to confess and repent of your sins before you take Communion; for at least that brief moment, you’re as holy as you’re going to be. (At least in the tradition I’m familiar with.)

In addition, Communion is a fairly common part of a lot of funeral services, which is also very appropriate for our setting and subplots here.

And it’s not the first time this has come up:

In case you’re wondering why I chose only these two images, it’s because there aren’t matching images for Joe and Andy. You get a shot that is probably supposed to imply that they participated, but you never actually see them do it. (And shhh, don’t tell me that it’s probably for the same reasons you don’t see Andy eating/drinking/doing drugs in Young Volcanoes, shhhh.)

In my experience, two people dressed in white up in front of God taking Communion…...are getting married. (My dad wore a white tux in my parents’ wedding, so...)

Death/Rebirth --

This is not an idea that is new to this album. A quick glance back at SRAR and the Youngblood Chronicles is plenty of evidence of that. We’re connecting it directly to the images of a past!Patrick though. The fact that Patrick is made to look so different in the coffin than he does in the “performance” shots is a huge visual clue. As I mentioned earlier, I personally don’t think it matters which period of time this past!Patrick represents for each of us. What matters for the metaphor is that a past version of Patrick is dead/gone/doesn’t exist any more. As someone who was overly-churched, it reminded me a little of the idea that Christians are (IDEALLY) supposed to "die to the world" -- leave ideas/behaviors that aren't church-compliant behind them, in the past, as they are "reborn" into a sparkly new-and-improved version of themselves.

We’ve seen Patrick do this before in the Save Rock & Roll video, where he rejects the [brainwashed] version of himself and ends up in heaven, in a new-and-improved (AND WHOLE) version of himself.

To me, the depiction of a past version of Patrick - AND ONLY PATRICK - as being dead is big, huge jumping-up-and-down-with-pom-poms metaphor that the version of Patrick we’re being shown in the coffin doesn’t exist anymore.

As we at The Institute debated this issue, I received the following message from @shark-myths:

“The idea of possibilities dying out and ending *in order for them to be rejuvenated* is so key here. Like, they were doomed from the start and have always been each other's certain doom, and they destroyed each other and the band, and then impossibly and against all odds they ROSE AGAIN TOGETHER. Now there are no limits.

if you believe in peterick no end is final and no death is real.”

I read that email, minimized my browser, and looked right at this on my wallpaper slideshow:

“No end is final” indeed

To borrow one of my favorite pop culture quotes: "And what do we say about coincidence?" "The universe is rarely so lazy."

Thank you Leyna!!! Your contribution to scholarship will live on forever. Just like Peterick. 💜💜💜

#peterick #church #mania #fob #fall out boy #lyrics meta #leyley09 #guest contribution #church video #church meta #mania meta #tryst theory #peterick institute #video meta #pete wentz #patrick stump #romeo and juliet

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sunriseinorbit · 7 years

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How the Haikyuu!! Soundtrack Reflects Tsukishima Kei’s Character Development

Disclaimer! I’m only talking about the anime because that’s what has music and I’m not caught up with the manga anyway.

Haikyuu!! is really good and you know what else is really good? Its soundtrack, composed by Asami Tachibana and anime soundtrack god Yuki Hayashi (you may know him as the man behind the iconic soundtrack to Boku no Hero Academia as well as Death Parade and Kiznaiver among others).

And you know what else is really good? Its character development, specifically this guy’s:

(Am I biased? Hell yeah I am, do you know how big my crush on him was freshman year? But I digress.)

One thing I love about this series is how it brings characters in as antagonists and makes them super relatable and then, in many cases, sees them become protagonists in their own right, if not protagonists in the eyes of the narrative. Tsukishima is no exception. He’s the second character to do it after Kageyama, and the two of them are by and large some of the most developed characters the series has to offer, along with Hinata, Yamaguchi, and Oikawa.

But we’re talking about Tsukishima, and specifically, we’re talking about how the soundtrack highlights his character development through three specific tracks. (If you want to see me talk about his character development specifically, I wrote a meta on that last year!) And this is going to be a long one, so I’ll put the rest under a read more.

The first, Kageyama vs. Tsukishima from Season 1′s OST, is the odd one out of the bunch, but it does have his name in it, so I thought it was worth looking at.

At this point in the series, we view Tsukishima as an antagonist, an obstacle Hinata and Kageyama have to overcome in order to gain their spots on Karasuno. And the song reflects that, with an ominous electronic bassline serving as an ostinato (a short melodic or rhythmic phrase that repeats in the background throughout a piece of music - one of the most infamous examples in classical music is Ravel’s Bolero).

youtube

This bassline also stays on the same 2 E’s the whole time, making for dissonance when the actual bassline ascends chromatically. This builds tension, especially when the bassline hits an F at 0:25 and an F# at 0:31 that never really resolves at the end of the song, even when the melody ends at 1:01. This ascension is also very slow, making for an even more ominous tone.

Speaking of the melody, one of the other interesting things about this track is how it weaves in a chord progression between the melody (which comes in at 0:21) and the bassline. This chord progression isn’t present at the very beginning, but as it slowly creeps in, there are a lot of seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords that never really resolve to major or minor (though the whole song does have a minor tone, it’s still kind of ambiguous).

The combination of electronic instrumentation and the lack of resolution, along with a fairly simple melody on top of it all. give an impression to the audience that at this point, Tsukishima is cool and collected but also someone you don’t want to mess with because you don’t know who he is yet.

Onward! Now the real fun begins!

Season 2, particularly the training camp arc in its first half, is a time of growth and change. The main conflict during this arc comes from characters who want to change going up against characters who want to stay how they are (e.g. Kageyama and Hinata’s fight) or characters getting in the way of each other in the process of changing (e.g. Hinata stealing the ball from Asahi)

And notably, this arc contains the catalyst for Tsukishima’s character development that’s continued steadily throughout the anime at this point. After all, we all remember episode 8, don’t we?

No, not that. Okay, kind of that but mostly this:

Episode eight is when Tsukishima actually starts putting effort into volleyball and into his own personal development, and his main song on the OST this season, Moonrise, reflects that perfectly:

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There are three parts to what makes this song special, and the first one is much more easier to understand than the other two:

This song starts with an ostinato, a simple drum beat (that sounds like a heartbeat, make of that what you will), and a simple (well, mostly) four-bar chord progression, all synthesized.

The rest of the song consists of adding things to that, like more concrete piano chords, guitar, and a solid percussion line. Taking separate elements and putting them together, specifically elements from other teams’ playing styles, is what Karasuno focuses on during this arc and this season. Noya tries to do the libero set that Watari does, Asahi tries to do Ubugawa’s jump serves, all of Karasuno tries Shinzen’s synchronized attack, and Tsukishima (along with Hinata) learns about blocking from Kuroo (and a little bit Bokuto). The song reflecting that adds a nice touch.

(This next point is where I get big on the music theory, so I’ll link a video about it a little bit farther down if you’re confused)

This song is, not unlike Tsukishima himself, calculated. It sounds smart, almost crafty, but it also has a bright quality to it. Why’s that? It’s time for everyone’s favorite music theory concept, modes!

These are the seven big modes (here’s a video about them) but we’ll mostly be focusing on these two:

Aeolian mode is your typical minor scale, but this song isn’t in C minor, it’s in C dorian, which makes all the difference: The raised 6 in dorian mode as opposed to aeolian mode.

So here’s the beginning of the song I transcribed earlier, except this time the raised 6ths (the A naturals) are all in red:

This use of A natural instead of A flat makes the piece brighter because we’re borrowing from a key that’s a step clockwise on the circle of fifths and thus a brighter-sounding mode. (There’s one video about this concept here and another one here about Persona 5 that also has a bit about Dorian mode! 8 Bit Music Theory is just really good y’all)

And is character development bright? Heck yeah.

The raised sixth also makes the 4-3 suspension in bars 7 and 8 go to F major instead of F minor, which makes that resolution more happy and hopeful:

The third thing about this song that makes it really interesting and fit Tsukishima’s character during this arc is its floaty feeling. It’s echo-y and synthesized and it sounds curious. Well, there’s two reasons for that:

The first is the tempo and meter, a slow-ish three that is clearly felt in one rather than three beats but isn’t a Strauss waltz or anything like that. The beats aren’t clearly defined, so it feels more floaty.

The second is the prevalence of 7th, 9th, and 11th chords that have ambiguous tonality - that is to say, they have elements of major and minor. (Think something from Zelda BoTW) Practically every chord in this song isn’t just a major or minor triad, which adds to its curiosity. For example, here’s a C minor 7 chord that’s used a lot in this song:

But hidden within this chord are both a C minor triad and an E flat major triad, the relative major (C minor is in orange, E flat major is in green)

That contributes to the ambiguity of the song and the feeling of uncertainty.

So now that we know Moonrise stupidly well, where do we go from here? Season 3, of course!

Most iconic anime moments of 2016 am I right?

Tsukishima’s main theme in the Season 3 soundtrack is The Halo Around the Moon (There’s also The Daytime Moon, but I’m not going to be talking about that in this meta because it doesn’t really fit in besides giving a more general heroic vibe)

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You may notice right off the bat that this song has a lot in common with Moonrise, because it does. There are also a lot of differences, but I’ll talk about those later on.

First off, there’s an ostinato similar to the one used in Moonrise, and here they are back to back:

This first one is Moonrise:

And this second one is Halo Around the Moon:

Notice something interesting? I did, and I’ll put it in blue:

Yes, despite these two tracks being in different keys (C minor and G minor respectively), the beginnings of the ostinatos are exactly the same. That’s the first indication that Halo Around the Moon is a reprise of sorts of Moonrise.

And here’s something funny: The Dorian-mode raised sixth I was talking about earlier? Guess where C minor borrowed that from? That’s right, G minor!

Another key similarity is at 0:18 in the song. Recognize that chord progression? You should, it’s the same one that’s used in most of Moonrise, complete with 4-3 suspensions into C major thanks to, you guessed it, a raised sixth.

The third important similarity is, of course, the prevalence of seventh chords, which again contribute to a sense of ambiguity.

There are more similarities between the two songs than that, but this post is long enough already, so let’s get to the differences:

There’s one rhythmic difference between the two that contributes a lot to the tone Halo has compared to Moonrise. I mentioned earlier that Moonrise is floaty, in a slow three without emphasized beats other than the downbeat. In contrast, Halo is in a solid four with clear beats even before the drums come in. One of the biggest reasons this works is the syncopation (putting emphasis on offbeats, something that happens a lot in jazz music, which this song is sort of emulating). You can see it with the ties in the ostinato, with the chords in the piano and guitar, and in the bassline.

The other reason this song sounds a lot more serious and solid is the fact that it isn’t restricted to dorian mode like Moonrise is. You’ll never see an A flat anywhere in Moonrise, but in Halo, an E flat seventh chord is the first sound you hear. Since aeolian mode (typical G minor, with E flats), is a shade darker than dorian mode (raised sixths, in this case E naturals), this makes Halo a lot more serious. Even so, Halo does switch back and forth between dorian and aeolian mode, which makes it retain a little bit of the wonder that Moonrise had.

So what does that mean in context of the scene it appears in? It reflects that Tsukishima is more confident in himself and his abilities, which is one of the biggest points that scene tries to make. The mode switching also shows that he’s still unpredictable (one of the main points Kageyama vs Tsukishima tried to make, too!) and has somewhere to go (which he does - during this whole match, he becomes Karasuno’s chief strategist and even pulls a Hinata face when going in for a hit at one point). But most importantly, this song is triumphant, with the electric guitar chords at the beginning and the ending that builds tension and excitement the whole way through.

Tl;dr: Tsukishima’s themes, even without their obvious titles, are clearly connected to him through their use of ostinatos, ambiguous chords, and dorian mode to make everything seem a little brighter, and the subtle and not so subtle changes between them show how he’s changed right along with the anime itself.

#han originals #haikyuu!!#hq!!#tsukishima kei #meta #han's soundtrack metas #this is VERY nerdy and i apologize #i've decided to start writing soundtrack metas now i guess #gotta use my perfect pitch for something #i realized a lot of things just making this post lmao

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margarittet · 7 years

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Why the SPN mixtape scene from 12x19 is screenwriting gold, and should be taught to the next generations of screenwriters everywhere - analysis

20 seconds. Two lines of dialogue, three gestures, a couple more camera angles. Episode 19, season 12 of a genre TV show “Supernatural”. A single strike of screenwriting and cinematic genius. The mixtape scene.

Robert Berens and Meredith Glynn, I bow before you.

This scene should be used as an example for future screenwriters how you can put maximum of meaning into minimal time and dialogue. Should be analyzed and taught at universities everywhere, how to achieve the most using the least. How to write for TV, where you only have less than an hour to built something spectacular.

WOW.

Let’s just peel off all the layers of these 20 seconds of footage and these 13 words. 13 WORDS.

(Cas knocks, Dean doesn’t say anything. Cas opens the door, apologizes for disturbing Dean in his room, and then takes a cassette tape out of his left inside coat pocket, and puts it on the desk, while tapping the label on it that says “Deans (sic!) top 13 Zepp traxx”.)

Cas: Um, I just wanted to return this.

Dean: It’s a gift. You keep those.

13 tracks. 13 words. The future. So number thirteen is important for the future. I mean, are you trying to tell us something here, writers?

(Dean takes the tape, oustreches his arm, and gives it back to Cas. We see Cas’ hand grabbing the tape, and taking it back.)

That tiny scene is ENORMOUS from the perspective of the narrative and the characterization. Let’s see what we can get out of it. (Prepare yourself: it’s gonna be long. Damn, how much meta can you write based on 20 seconds of television and two lines of dialogue?) (Hint: A lot.)

Thoughts in no particular order.

LotR reference

Let’s start with text, because text is kinda my thing. This is this:

I half expected Dean to roll his eyes at himself for acting like an elvish maiden - maybe he did internally. Anyway, we all remember how Aragorn and Arwen’s story ended, right? (In the movies at least.)

It’s great how Cas and Dean re never strictly cast as a female mirror or male mirror in any of the romantic pararells that the show does. Their gender roles and characteristics are extremely fluid, and it’s wonderful.

2) The label

Deans (sic!) top 13 Zepp traxx”

First thing: “Deans” - not “Top 13 Zepp traxx”, not “The best of Led Zepp”. DEAN’S top 13 Led Zepp tracks. This shit is personal. Your favourite music says a lot about you, it’s like showing somebody your favourite book, or your favourite fictional character. ONE favourite track says something about what you like, feel, think. 13 songs of your favourite band, especially if that band is Led Zeppelin? You may as well get naked, because you can’t uncover yourself much more than that. This stuff makes you open and vulnerable. They will know what you like, what you enjoy, what you feel, what kind of stories your favourite music tells. It’s a mirror of you. Led Zepp is not a band with three beats and five words in the lyrics. It’s long, it’s literary, and it’s epic. It tells a lot about the person, especially a person who loves music and stories as much as Dean does. By showing Cas that he loves these 13 songs of Led Zeppelin, he told Cas he loves cock rock, sexual innuendos, shameless romanticism, fantasy references, biblical imagery, American blues, stories about life, death, love, sex, angels, Satan, mythology, science-fiction and Lord of the Rings. If this band is not a metaphor for the many sides of the real Dean Winchester, I don’t know what is. Dean showed Cas his non-performing side.

This is not even good gift giving, Dean, darling - a nice gift would be giving Cas music HE would enjoy, not you. Give him Beyonce (“Halo” would be nice, lol), give him rap, give him some Britney Spears. No, you gave him Led Zepp, with a NOTE that these are your favourite songs.

You wanted to show yourself to him. This is fucking intimate.

The cassette is a symbol for Dean, for Dean's heart, like the necklace was a symbol of Arwen's heart. That is why no matter what Cas did in 12x19, Dean is still on his side. Why he fixed his truck, gave him the Impala keys without thinking, tried to talk to him instead of fighting him, why he was so hurt Cas left before. That's why he didn't even consider taking the cassette back. Because he has made his decision, he gave himself to Cas, and he will not hear of Cas giving it back (you can't give it back, really). Just look how quickly Cas grabs the tape back. He even uses it later to highlight "we", waving it between him and Dean. This moment is showing us Dean has given his true self to Cas, and he is not changing his mind. This happened already, and no one witnessed it but the two of them. Cas only tried to give it back, because he thought that after what he was about to do, Dean would want it back. Nope.

Nothing to see here. Moving on.

“Top 13”

Yeah, these are his favourite songs, but not all of them, just the best ones. Why thirteen? This is actually a weird number of songs for a cassette tape, especially for a band like Led Zeppelin. It’s too few for 90 min, and too many for 60 min (usual lengths of tapes). So I see three reasons:

Dean just chose songs that send exactly the message he wanted to send, so he didn’t need more songs.

It’s a reference to season 13 - which, I believe, will be romance heavy and amazing.

It’s a reference to “13 Reasons Why”, a show about a girl’s suicide and cassette tapes since this is the same episode where Kelly kills herself, dies, and is revived by the Nephilim, (and therefore it’s canon that the Nephilim can bring people from the dead. Cas, anyone?)

All of the above.

“Zepp”

Besides the fact that liking Led Zeppelin says tons about the real Dean Winchester, it has also different meanings:

Led Zeppelin is a shorthand for seduction, but also for a cosmic romantic connection.

We know two situations where Led Zepp is mentioned in terms of seducing somebody. Jo mentions that hunters want to get into her pants with “some pizza, a sixpack and side one of Zeppelin IV”. This means pretty much the same as “they think they can impress me with cool music while they only know four songs played frequently on the radio, fucking posers.” See, I know Dean is better than to put Stairway to Heaven or Rock n’ Roll on his mixtape, since these are the most popular, i.e. impersonal of Zeppelin songs (although he may be partial to “Battle of Evermore”, since he is a huge nerd). Aaaaaanyway, the other time we see Led Zepp as a seduction technique is when Nick the Siren talks to Dean about some more obscure Led Zepp records - he outdid Dean with his knowledge of Led Zepp trivia - and Dean is bought. This is exactly the opposite of knowing only side A of Zeppelin IV. This is a real deal, and Dean is so mesmerized.

And then we have the literal “match made in Heaven” of John and Mary - and we know she used Led Zeppelin to test John as a potential lover. He knew all the lyrics (again, real, deep knowledge of the subject vs the superficial one), and she knew he was worth going for. I don’t think Dean is testing Cas, but I think that since John and Mary connected over Zeppelin LYRICS, the lyrics are as important for Dean as the music is. That’s why he used them to show Cas what he feels. And it also reminds him of his parents.

Plus, honestly, if reciting/playing Led Zepp lyrics to somebody doesn’t feel dirty and/or disgustingly romantic, you’re doing it wrong. “Squeeze me baby, ‘till the juice runs down my leg”? Really?

Led Zepp is connected to John

Remember how, when we see Dean for the first time connecting with a kid in season 1, he teaches him that “Zeppelin rules”? That’s because Zeppelin is in Deans mind “father’s music”. It’s something you show your kid, something you can bond over.

It’s a well known thing that we choose partners similar to our parents, so it’s not a shocker that Dean connects John’s music with his love interests. It’s nothing weird. If he was going for a girl, he’d look for somebody who is like more like Mary (and since she also loved Led Zepp - well, remember Jo?)

Led Zepp is connected to Mary.

Since Dean and Mary are so similar, it’s not surprising that his first thought how to connect with his love interest is through Led Zeppelin (just how her was, when she met John).

“Traxx”

Ha! This one is great. They spelled it this way probably mostly to get our attention. “Tracks” was a legendary gayclub in Washington DC, and even now there is a gay club under this name in Denver, plus there are gay clubs all around the US and Canada that are called “Trax” or “Traxx”. Subtle and awesome. It’s a nice shout out to Dean saying he was in Purgatory in Miami.

(Edit: Plus, as many people pointed out to me since I wrote this piece, XX is also a common shorthand for kisses. I knew that, but I wasn’t sure it was something Dean would do. But now I agree. I guess I didn’t give Dean enough credit for being sappy. :)

The whole “Deans top 13 Zepp Traxx” label is Dean “no-homo”ing the tape - “Dude, look how cool I am, ain’t got no time for good grammar and proper spelling, dude. Bro.” You know, in case Sam sees the tape, and there are questions. *eyeroll*

3) Music as a non-textual device

It was said once that even though Led Zeppelin is Dean Winchester’s favourite band, we will not ever hear it on the show, because the royalties are just too. Damn. Expensive. The show can’t afford it in their budget to put Led Zeppelin on the soundtrack, even though the band’s music is crucial to understanding Dean Winchester’s complexity. So instead of scraping more money, they pulled “High Fidelity”, and put music IN THE NARRATIVE. This, my loves, is pragmatism 101. Why to spend a fortune to put ONE Led Zepp song in the episode, when you could just send your viewers to their Spotify account and listen to ALL the songs there, thus creating their own soundtrack for this episode and the relationship between the characters. I wish I would be this smart. This actually achieved several goals at once.

All Led Zeppelin music is now a textual part of the universe and Dean’s character, not just two songs that he mentioned in season 4. We know the tape has 13 songs, but we don’t know which ones, which means all the songs can be there, until we are told differently - “Schroedinger’s Mixtape”. Some viewers can even no-homo the tape by picking the songs that are neither sexual nor romantic, but it will be HARD.

4) Michelangelo’s “The creation of Adam”

In the way this moment is shot, we are reminded where they stand in the beginning of this episode - Cas is the celestial being (who just has been to Heaven), and Dean once again represents humanity - the humanity that Cas is canonically in love with.

(On another note: Michelangelo is one of the most famous gay icons in history.)

5) This short moment showed us as well that there is so much stuff happening off screen that we never get too see. Who knows what else we don’t know? What else happened between these two characters that we never heard about? This made me think we should always be careful with the new showrunners, since they love puzzles, games, and pieces of information peppered over the whole season that are not always what they are. There is ALWAYS MORE. They love playing with meta reading, and it’s glorious.

Also, instead of showing us the moment where Dean gives Cas the tape (what would be a regular thing to do), they showed us the BACK END of the situation. We have to construct what happened from the end, backwards. We know Cas got the tape, both characters know what happened between them when he received it from Dean, but we HAVE NO IDEA. We don’t get to see it because we were not privy to that moment. It was JUST BETWEEN THEM. It was an intimate moment that no one else got to witness, even the audience. And it makes it so much more important. It adds a new level of privacy and intimacy to their relationship, and it’s amazing, especially since the last few seasons seemed like they never are alone anymore.

6) Why a cassette tape? Especially since we don’t even know if Cas has a way to listen to it?

Because it’s a frikkin’ romantic trope!

In the world of storytelling mixtapes scream romance, and not much else (well, parental love, but that is so not the case here). It’s a thing that made me sit up and stare at the screen the moment it arrived, because I couldn’t believe they went there. I thought it was another queerbaiting moment, like the infamous boner prom-shot, but once they started sharing with each other how they felt, ALONE, ON SCREEN, IN WORDS, I knew it wasn’t. It was a way to show more casual viewers a symbol they would understand, while still staying in character. Dean would not write a love letter, or a poem, or even speak openly about his feelings, but he so would take time and effort to create a tape, especially since mixtapes were the language of showing your feelings that was in use when he was young and had his first crushes. And if Cas was more human, he’d understand it immediately. I hope he did anyway, he has got his pop culture references from Metatron, maybe some John-Hughes-references there.

The tape is new, the label is clean, words visible, plastic unscratched. If it was a tape Dean had before, it’s be dirty from lying in his car forever. Plus, noone makes mixtapes for themselves, especially when they already have albums - it’s too much effort for too little gain. It’s not John’s, because it cleary says “Dean’s”. Ergo - it’s freshly made. For Cas.

In conclusion: with the shortest piece of dialogue possible, and exactly three movements of the actors, they shot the narrative onwards and upwards on so many levels:

Dean’s performing facade falling down,

Dean showing (and giving) his true self to Cas,

Hints of off-screen moments between them that we know nothing about (added a new level of intimacy),

Cas being linked to the textual and intertextual codes for eternal love and sexual seduction,

Some hints for the future,

Dean is humanity (and Cas loves humanity),

Bisexual!Dean,

Binding the show to its earlier seasons.

20 seconds. 13 words. I am blown away.

I probably could find more layers, but I think four pages of meta for 20 seconds of TV is enough for now. Thanks for reading! It was fun!

#supernatural #spn 12x19 #the mixtape #destiel #dean winchester #castiel #cas #screenwriting #brilliance #robert berens #meredith glynn #bobo berens #spn meta #dean is bi #season 12 #mind blown

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helakkas · 7 years

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Rules: Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag 10 other people.

I was tagged first by @procasdeanating and then by @flyingcatstiel, so I’ll be an overachiever and answer both! Sheesh, the size of this thing. :D Sorry this took so long!

1. If you could start a one week vacation tomorrow, where would you go?

Italy! I’ve never been there, and the weather there is so much better than here right now. Also, I’ve always wanted to visit just to eat the food. (Priorities!)

2. What skill do you have that would come handy in an apocalyptic world?

Uhh. Probably would depend on the type of apocalypse? If there are zombies, I have a shotgun and I know how to use it. But I’m afraid I wouldn’t survive out in the wild for a week, if the food ran out.

3. Favorite episode last season?

I...I didn’t watch the season entirely, so I’m not going to say anything. ^^;

4. Can you play an instrument or do you plan to learn?

Yup! I’ve played piano since I was five years old. I haven’t practiced properly in years, though, so I’m not as good as I used to be. I’ve also taken singing lessons for a year, and I’m not good, but I’m learning.

5. Raspberries or strawberries?

Both. But if pressed, I’d say strawberries.

6. Who do you want to see brought back in the Alternative Universe next season?

Charlie! She’s my favorite, and I refuse to accept the thing they did to her.

7. First movie you saw at a cinema?

Aladdin. WIthout giving away which aging crisis I’m currently going through, I was fairly young.

8. Favorite version of Cas?

I’m gonna go with the classic, season 4 Cas. I love his story arc from seasons 4 to 5, and how he goes from being an asshole with orders to questioning, how he’s unsure, how he clearly grows to care and how he battles with his emotions. (Unpopular opinion? I don’t care for endverse Cas, and never have. I don’t think it fits him at all.)

9. If you could choose a song as a music cue next season, what would it be and for which scene would you use it?

Aaaah! I...I don’t know. Uhhh. I guess Gimme Shelter has always had kind of a SPN-esque feel to it, but...I don’t know where it would fit. (Oh, hey, it apparently was used in season 11! Thanks, google.) Um. I’m probably defaulting to fandom’s favorites here, but I’ve always listened to Florence + the Machine’s Breath of Life and No Light, No Light as Castiel’s unofficial themes. Maybe those could be used in his re-introduction?

10. This weekend is VanCon. What question would you ask the cast if you were there?

Jeez, this is why I don’t go to cons. I wouldn’t be able to ask them anything. Honestly, I don’t even understand how people come up with questions for them anymore - everything has been asked twice, save for new developments in the series. Uhh. If I got a serious answer out of him, I’d ask especially Misha his thoughts about the series and what he really thinks about the storylines Castiel has been through.

Thanks for tagging me, @procasdeanating!

Onto @flyingcatstiel‘s questions! And thank you so much for mentioning my fics - it always makes my day whenever someone recs my silly stuff! <3

1. How many languages do you speak? List them, even if still learning or already forgetting.

My mother tongue is Finnish, but besides that, I know English (obviously), Swedish, German, Japanese and very little Korean. Sadly, my German and my Japanese aren’t very good, since I haven’t spoken them in such a long time that I’ve forgotten a lot. I’ve also (slowly, on my own) started learning Italian, but that’s basically at the “hello my name is” stage at this point.

2. Favorite Dean/Cas moment on the show?

Oh noooo. I love the little, quiet moments between them, like in season 8 when Cas is sitting on the bed and going through Dean’s bag and they’re just talking, or little touches between them. Or god, the unguarded happiness radiating from Dean when he finally is reunited with Cas in Purgatory and the hug...! But I’m gonna go with the classic and say Castiel’s introduction - the way he strolls into the barn and Dean puts a knife in his chest. I love how far they’ve come from the first impressions! :D

3. Favorite fanfic tropes in destiel fics?

Fake dating fake dating fake dating!!! I live for fake dating fics in any fandom. I also love mutual pining and slow burn. More specifically for SPN tropes, I love it when Cas is an angel/creature and Dean is human, wheather it’s in canon or AU setting.

4. Fruit or vegetable you don’t like (mango is not an acceptable answer, pick another one)

I’m good with most, but I can’t stand pineapple. (Mangos are delicious, as a sidenote. :D)

5. Tell me about a destiel fic you’ve read recently and really enjoyed. [please include title, author and link]

I really loved superhoney’s Rescue Me Tonight. Victorian setting and pining, what more could you ask for? Just wonderful. And Ahaviel’s Hunt for a Healing Halo was lovely, and amazingly meta - also, I kinda love fics where the author shows they have specific knowledge about something.

6. Which one of your own (recent) fan works (fic, art, gif set, vid, side blog, etc) you are proud of? If you don’t have any, give a shout out to a (recent) fan work that you really loved. [any fandom, please include title, creator and link]

I don’t have anything recent... I haven’t finished anything in such a long time that I’m ashamed. I hate it. :/ But I’m kind of proud of an unfinished fic that I will definitely finish for Christmas, if only because of the idea. Um. But I really liked Ties That Bind by squirrel_loves_wings - magic and fantasy, and I love the world and its possibilities! Also, I’m mentioning another fic by superhoney, The Watcher and The Warrior. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen a fantasy world constructed so carefully, so fully in fic.

7. Recommend me a new TV show to take my mind of SPN. Tell me why it will help.

I will always recommend Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but you already watch that, so... Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It’s a light-hearted crime show with a lady detective in the lead, taking place in Australia...in 1920s! It’s got a lot of fabulous dresses, wonderful female characters, well written stories, and lovely relationships between lead characters. I love it.

8. Are you going to watch season 13 of Supernatural? If not, when did you stop watching the show? (I’d love to know why but you don’t have to justify your decision)

Maybe. I, um, I feel called out, but I have to admit I stopped watching in season 9. I do own all the seasons on DVD, but I still haven’t watched the newer seasons, except for some episodes. I think I’m pretty caught up on the series thanks to tumblr, though. I stopped watching when it made me too anxious, and I didn’t want to witness my favorites dying (Kevin, Charlie, and I’m sure I’d love Eileen and Billie and whoever else). Plus all the other problems with the series kept piling up, not to mention how they didn’t seem to know how to write Cas...I’ve stayed in the fandom for the characters and the wonderful content fandom keeps making, and that’s fine with me.

9. Cats or dogs?

Dogs! I like cats, too, but I’m so allergic to them that I’ve never been able to spend much time with them.

10. What is your happy ending for Cas on the show?

*grumbles* What are the chances that Cas even gets a happy ending in this show... Um, I’d want to see him stay with Dean and Sam (if we’re being unrealistic, share a home with Dean and be in an unambigious, romantic relationship with Dean, but this is SPN, so that’s never going to happen). I’ve always liked the idea of Cas ending up as a hybrid, angel with a soul, so that he’s basically cut off from Heaven and somewhat human, but still retains some of his angelic qualities. Best of both worlds, kind of? Basically, I just want him to be happy. ;_;

Thanks for tagging me, @flyingcatstiel!

My questions:

1. Autumn or spring? 2. What is your introductory fic to SPN fandom, or which fic drew you in? 3. How many countries have you visited? 4. What is your favorite book and/or writer? 5. What’s the latest movie you’ve seen in theaters? 6. Cinematically, what is your favorite SPN episode? Not because of the plot or the lack thereof, but because of the shots and angles? 7. What movie/book/TV show world would you like to visit, or even live in? 8. What’s the last CD you bought? 9. What are your favorite tropes in fanfic? 10. Comments versus kudos - which do you prefer, both leaving and getting for a fic?

Tagging @nihonlove @apermanentsituation @i-am-mad-as-a-box-of-frogs @beanmom @the-suit-lady @everythingsinred @spellboundcastiel @awed-frog @zerostumbleine33 @reallyelegantsharkfish No pressure to answer this, though!

#long post #this is so long i apologize #ask meme #you can't believe how long filling this out took #tumblr doesn't work on my laptop well anymore because my laptop is ancient #but i finally did it

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anneapocalypse · 7 years

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My RvB Timeline

Since my RvB/Halo merged timeline continues to make the rounds, and since I’ve made a lot of other posts about my issues with the book timeline and how I don’t really follow it, I figured I’d go ahead and lay out the timeline I actually use for fic writing in RvB.

This is effectively Dropverse, as that’s where I live like 90% of the time and it’s the one that actually requires the most thought and means the most to me. The further back in my fic archives you go, the less likely my standalones are to actually adhere to this timeline, as it’s something I’ve developed over years of putting way too much thought into this silly show.

This is headcanon. It’s headcanon that ignores certain pieces of canon (particularly certain bits of dialogue) and I’m okay with that. For all I enjoy trying, I don’t actually believe all of RvB canon can be reconciled and where it can’t I just choose what I think works best for the kind of stories I want to tell. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be best for the kind of story you want to tell. Also, this is the kind of thing I am constantly updating and rethinking so the odds of me working from this exact timeline a year from now is like... slim. So, y’know. Grain of salt.

Carolina’s Early Life

While I’m actually not set in stone on it, I have for some time held to Allison dying when Carolina was eight. I know she’s said to have died “very early” in Leonard’s life, but at the same time I find Carolina’s memories of her mother a little too clear (she remembers repeated experiences, not just bits and pieces) for her to have been six. Eight allows for clearer memories for Carolina, Allison could’ve had her when she was 18-20, and for Leonard, your mid 20s are still pretty early in your life when you’re now fifty, and think every day about how many more days you could’ve had together. But I’m more flexible on this than some things, since it doesn’t have a huge bearing on most of what I write.

The important thing is that Carolina loses her mother young, but never forgets what her mother was like or what she believed in. At age 12, her father enrolls her in a 6-12 military boarding school. After graduation, she is accepted to a UNSC Naval Academy and goes on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in three years because of course she does. She completes her basic and specialized training, and receives her commission to Lieutenant at age 22, and promoted to Captain at 26, after which she is recommended for ONI Special Projects Division. It’s presented as an opportunity to advance faster, and so she takes it. (She knows her father is directing the program she applies for. It factors into her decision.)

Project Freelancer

In my timeline Project Freelancer begins no more than three years before the end of the war. The key point to my Freelancer is it moves quickly, for reasons I’ve explained here.

Of note:

Freelancer is cleared for funding after the loss of the Spartan-III Beta Company.

It begins after the official unveiling of the Spartan-II program. Dr. Church is influenced by his knowledge of the Spartan program and Catherine Halsey’s work generally.

Alpha is created after or around the same time as Cortana. (Also, he’s not created from a flash clone.)

The Director is still arguing with the UNSC over funding as the Counselor assembles a list of candidates. Dr. Church wants multiple AIs to assign to his agents. He is denied.

The simulation bases are built at the beginning of the project because fuck that retcon in particular; they are all built on the same planet because I prefer to make travel time a real thing in the stuff I write, and all of the Recollections locations being on the same planet makes working with that part of the timeline about a million times less bloated and complicated.

Beta’s spontaneous generation occurs not long after Alpha’s activation. With all the activity in the early phase phase of the program, it takes some time for the Director to notice this anomaly in Alpha’s neural matrix, and remove Beta from him and his virtual environment.

Project Freelancer was to have three distinct phases:

Orientation & Simulation Training. This was the team-building portion of the program. In the beginning, though agents did have individual combat scores, there wasn’t a leaderboard. As they were divided into squads, teamwork and team bonding was strongly encouraged. Somewhere near the end of this phase, the leaderboard emerged.

There were a few “real” missions during this phase as well, mostly targeted at getting equipment for the agents simulation bases that their funding didn’t allow. The specialized armor, the enhancements, and the Covenant tech used on sim bases (for example, the teleporters) was all stolen. The Director is still trying to get funding for more Ais, and briefly explores the avenue of agents running armor enhancements without AI. In most cases, this goes poorly, and after the number of training incidents reaches unacceptable levels, a new protocol was instituted.

Beta is removed from Alpha’s virtual environment late in this phase, though she is kept isolated. Alpha’s distress at being separated from her causes Omega to emerge. He is able to separate from Alpha on his own and aggressively seeks out Tex despite the Director’s attempts to contain him for further testing and reassignment. At this time the Director begins to explore further options for splitting Alpha.

Field Testing. At this point, simulation training is over and the Freelancers have moved on to proper “missions” exclusively, though still targeting what they’re told are Insurrectionists rather than Covenant.

The Triplets and other unsatisfactory low-level agents are ejected from the program early in this phase. Seasons 9 and 10 take place during this phase.

The remaining fragments are split in the following order (I have reasons for the order but that could probably be its own post):

Sigma

Gamma

Delta

Theta

Iota

Eta

Epsilon

If things had gone as planned, this phase would be complete when all the top agents had received their AIs and been field-tested.

Deployment in Covenant-occupied territories. This is the planned final stage of Project Freelancer that never happens because everything goes tits-up.

Post-Project

Alpha is moved to Blood Gulch immediately after the crash. Blood Gulch Chronicles begin about three weeks after that. Remaining agents in Alpha Squad and below are reassigned to the Recovery force to hunt down rogue agents, some of whom are still stranded on the planet.

The Blood Gulch Chronicles take place in the last year of the war. In particular, the Great Journey and Junior’s birth takes place right around the time of the Great Schism in the Covenant.

The Great War ends within a month of Tex leaving Blood Gulch, and the sim troops are reassigned. North is killed somewhere in that window, and Wash’s encounter with South follows. The Meta nabs Tex, Gamma, and Omega from the Valhalla crash site pretty soon after.

Church is not at High Ground alone for 14 months because that’s just ridiculous. Time seems longer for an AI. Handwaves aggressively.

Season 6 takes a few weeks at most.

About six months pass between the end of season 6 and Wash’s release from prison. Wash gets a trial before he goes to prison. Maine is ruled unfit to stand trial and imprisoned without due process because who the hell is going to advocate for him. Certainly not Wash.

Wash and Maine/Meta spend a week or so re-equipping to go back in the field, and only a few days on the ground hunting Epsilon.

Carolina catches up with the Reds and Blues very soon after the ice battle, for reasons I went into here. It’s been about two years since the ship crash. She is now around 28 or 29.

From the time Carolina makes contact to her final confrontation with the Director it’s a few weeks, tops.

I allow for some more wiggle room between the Director’s death and Chorus, for Hargrove to catch up with Carolina. But when he does, he “invites” the Reds and Blues back to Earth for a formal recognition of their efforts in stopping military corruption. There’s a lot of press coverage. Wash and Epsilon keep low profiles, but the Chairman is not an idiot and is definitely aware of who Wash is.

He puts them on a ship to take them “home,” i.e. ending their official deployments, so basically taking them to the nearest transit hub, probably Reach, where they would go their separate ways and return to civilian life. Instead, the Hand of Merope is deliberately diverted to the outer colony of Chorus, where it crashes.

At this time, I don’t have a rigid timeline for Chorus, though I very well might some day. So for now, that’s all she wrote!

#anne's rvb timeline #time is not made out of lines #rvb problems #drops this and runs away shrieking #rvb headcanons

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tuckerfuckingdidit · 7 years

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Agent Carolina? 💙

MY WIIIIFE. thank u for this. thank u. this meme’s gonna all be under cuts because omg. you can tell this is the only writing i’ll be doing today, because goddamn, do i ramble.

edit: it is now, in fact, the next day, fml. we are not going to talk about how long i spent rewriting portions of this post. we just aren’t.

How I feel about this character: *raptor screeching* carolina is my fave lady, period. i spent the whole show thinking tex was badass, but lina was the first character i loved. nope, not wash! that title is all hers. she’s the only character i’ve ever based an OC on intentionally because i was too chickenshit to actually write her. those days have since passed. mwahaha.

every time i watch it, i spend the entire freelancer arc rooting for her so hard. she is 100% the main character for me, the story is about her. that chase for the briefcase is one of the few things i’ve seen where every time i’m pulled 100% into it—like if she just pushes herself hard enough, she’ll win this time, even though i know she can’t. the fact that she gets so bitter and then comes out of it, and finds another family that she sticks by instead of keeping to her lone wolf act—like, the fact that she resolves to Be Better, period, is just. *flails* she’s such a personally inspiring character to me, and i am constantly floored by how much of herself she puts into everything she does.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: maine (thanks anne), wash, maine AND wash, kimball, south (!), york, 479er, wash and tucker. tucker could get it alone if she had a single doubt he wouldn’t brag about it for the rest of his fucking life. but since he has no chill, he gets none. she flirts though, but she was probably flirty with half the freelancers, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

oh, and emily. don’t look at me. i like ships that get off to bad starts. haha. get off. bow chicka bow wow.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: her and epsilon!!! oh my god. i could literally read c-squared dialogue for the rest of my life. any time they appear in fic with Banter™ i am So Alive.

My unpopular opinion about this character: once she’s no longer at 9000/10 stress levels 28 hours of the day, carolina is tactile. not cuddly, but tactile. it really grinds my gears that due to the nature of everyone always having a gun in their hand in halo, we rarely see characters make physical contact with each other in a friendly manner. people are either hitting/shooting each other, or standing seven feet apart. like, you’re telling me tucker isn’t the type of person to get in someone’s face when he’s yelling at them? the blocking is just… not good a lot of the time.

carolina strikes me as a playful elbower, a shoulder clapper (sarge too), and, dare i say it, someone who knows how the hell a hug works. it would take her off guard at first, but physical action is not something carolina struggles with. it’s talking about her feelings where she hits a wall. so it’s not overt. she’s not handing out hugs—but she is participating in them once she gets over her shock.

subtle taps to get attention, teasing hip checks/shoulder bumps, turning people’s bodies to make them look at things, dragging them off places when they won’t hustle—that’s carolina to me. she’s very direct. especially aboard the moi before The Angst swallowed her life whole, omg! i can’t see her not making physical contact with her fam when they’re all lying around out of armor before Everything Is Terrible. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that when carolina finally comes out and says the reds and blues are her family (aka finds her place in the galaxy again), she comes out of her shell and starts touching people. i think she’s coming full circle, not reinventing herself.

i’ve also always thought it was fucked up that they wrote her not saying a word to the boys when they were fucking shipwrecked. like, if you’re going to retcon it, retcon it properly?? she also just doesn’t get anywhere near enough on-screen relationship development with the reds and blues before the F-bomb gets dropped—as in “family”, not “fuck”. carolina’s relationships are the department she gets shafted in every time, because the writers only want to put her down when it’s time for her to kick ass. part of this is because the episodes are so short. #rip

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish we’d been able to see her turn on her father. she sides with him, the meta throws her off the cliff—and then she’s just gone. she just told her father “i would do anything for you”!!!! half of the freelancers have kicked up a mutiny; her father is not a soldier. i would have really liked to see carolina go back to her father to try and protect him from what was ostensibly a huge threat, demand answers, search for them herself when she wasn’t given any, and then leave when she knew her father had totally fucked up. carolina as the original recovery one while wash was recovering unfit for duty would have been awesome.

my OTP: fuck. fuck. i feel like i can’t adequately weigh in on this until i have read mainealina, but it also really fucks me up to stan a ship where half of the people involved are dead. like, both dead? okay, whatever. person A having to live knowing they can never bring person B back is an instant moodkiller for me. that’s too depressing, so i’m voting quasiplatonic carwash. i started to say kimbalina, but [spoilers for season 15] the team leaving chorus after church’s ~death makes me too sad to think about the girls ending their relationship on that note, omg. at first i really didn’t like the idea of the reds and blues leaving, but when you think about the season 13 finale, blue team is going to be pretty fucking demoralized, and retirement elsewhere means no more fewer Blue Team Problems for red team. i suddenly have a much easier time seeing them leaving. [/end spoilers for season 15] no kimball/carolina interaction doesn’t alarm me the same way carwash being split up does.

my cross over ship: not necessarily shippy (see next point), but i think she and john-117/the master chief would’ve been a sight. to. see. (epsilon and cortana tho. omg.)

a headcanon fact: i couldn’t pick between two, so have both. she’s blonde, looks a fuck ton like her mother, and dyed her hair when she enlisted as an announcement to the world that she was going to be her own person, not a younger allison.

potentially more controversial: i read carolina as aromantic, toward the “idem” end of the scale. she loves her friends hard, would die for them, but she wouldn’t know for sure whether she has Romantic Feelings for someone if said feelings bit her in the ass. she’s worried that exact thing happened with york and she didn’t notice, but she just. has no clue whatsoever. sexual encounters with friends? cool beans. realizing one of those friends is rOmANtCiALLY aTtRaCTEd tO hEr? then she starts to put pressure on herself that does nothing but stress her out over how to categorize things, how to label her feelings, if things should continue, etc. it’s a mess.

#mssmartian #agent carolina #the hurricane #rvb15 #rvb first spoilers #i am dead inside.gif #i knew i was gonna have to sort my shit out for her #but g o d i did not imagine it being that involved #waht the fuck #no reblogs plz.#red answers #red rambles for 3 straight days #red dies of dehydration and other complications

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