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raayllum · 3 months

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So what's the Mirrored Trio Theory?

The Mirrored Trio theory is, for lack of a better explanation, a two pronged theory regarding the way the main trio will parallel both the generation that led to / immediately received Aaravos upon his fall (himself, Leola, and a speculative human who may or may not have been a mage / helped to found Elarion) and how they may also parallel the Orphan Queen, Jailer, and Aaravos yet again. So put your tinfoil hats on and strap in because it's going to be a speculation heavy one, lads! We're going to get deep in the weeds.

Fallen Trio

So the first trio we want to talk about is what I'm going to, for lack of a better term / meta simplicity, refer to as the Fallen Trio, consisting of Aaravos, Leola, and 'Elarion' — our stand-in for a potential human Aaravos had a close dynamic with that may be intertwined with the human city of Elarion.

First, I want to talk about Aaravos and Leola. We get our first mention of Leola in S5, specifically with Leola's Last wish being a star for both Xadians and for humans, who use it to navigate and "to find their way in the endless darkness of the night." This is fitting given that what we know of unicorns from the book one novelization — that they gave primal magic and stones to humanity out of mercy and compassion — and that Tales of Xadia singles her out further as the specific unicorn to do so, although it omits primal stones from the equation:

This is, of course, a big parallel between Leola and some details we know from Aaravos as well, who also gave gifts to humanity: the relic staff that Ibis identifies as truly belonging to Aaravos ("It was a gift from one of the Great ones" / "If you seek to return that staff to its true owner...") and, as Claudia says, dark magic:

However, there's also been indications that Leola might've been a Startouch elf (tweet from Aaron Ehasz identifying her as the Startouch child + the star on the star chart map, although it's not entirely clear), that star magic can be reality altering, that Startouch elf designs had unicorn like horns protruding from their foreheads, and that history can change and shape things differently than they necessarily were.

Either way, unicorns are one of the few creatures we know to also possess the Star arcanum and, seemingly like the Startouch elves, are all but gone from Xadia (+ the Pentarchy)'s physical plain. And that she, like Aaravos, were two Star(touch) beings who both wanted to help humanity and help them develop magic, but did so in very different ways. Whether they are literally related or the same species, I think this parallel between them means they're set up to have an almost sibling-esque bond — one that existed, and one that accordingly fell apart under the brunt of dark magic and other disagreements, as TDP is prone to do.

(Put a pin in Callum and Ezran for now, cause we're going to circle back to them shortly.)

Bare minimum, Leola and Aaravos will have to be foils if not contemporaries of each other, given the closeness of their original goals in manifestation, regardless of motivation. This is particularly true given that Aaravos preys on mages in particular and that dark magic (plus a little Star magic, maybe?) allows him to literally possess people who have done dark magic, which can be no happy accident.

Given that Leola seemed dead set on giving humans primal magic, it seems unlikely she might've been too keen on a dark magic, alternative development either, which we know came after, thanks to Ripples.

It happened long ago, when humans had only just learned to hold fire in their hands without burning. They nurtured their precious primal flames secretly—in the dark of night, beneath shadows and shrouds—as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters. Eventually, for the audacity of their fire, they were hunted, and—though they looked to the stars for salvation—the stars, too, looked down upon them with disdain. Humanity had been given something it was never meant to have.

So again, you have two characters with very similar goals/desires, but very different ideas of how to achieve said goals. This one of the reasons why, I think, that TDP loves to have siblings disagree, as it's an effective way of having more worldviews on display with some hope for reconciliation or the tragedy of deterioration, or both. Callum and Ezran stand alone as the one sibling pair that hasn't been terribly wrenched apart by political or ideological disagreements thus far, save for Sarai and Amaya, who were torn apart by Sarai's death.

Which brings me to my next point: if Aaravos and Leola had a sibling like bond, did he lose her to their potential ideological disagreements, or did those disagreements actually cost her life?

Whether Leola just walked away and likewise abandoned him (like Soren), became too distant in disagreement to continue having some sort of bond (like Harrow and Viren, and Janai and Karim), flat out died (like Khessa, Harrow, and Sarai), or all three, that could be one of the many cogs motivating Aaravos to keep turning the wheel of the cycle, as grief has often been the primary motivator throughout history, even amongst the 'villains'. A "song of love that loss" that Aaravos has chosen handpicked "instruments" for, after all (4x03, 4x04).

And like I said, Callum and Ezran are long over due to have a disagreement, given that they haven't had a substantial one since season one, and given that Ezran has grown to only be more assertive than he was since then, not less. This could easily be over Runaan (Callum, having already sworn himself to helping Rayla free her parents, and Ezran, understandably holding onto anger and grief concerning Harrow's death). I'm sure there are also plenty of other things they could heavily disagree over in the future, like military aid or action or how to approach trying to defeat Aaravos, etc.

The point to all of this is that I think Ezran could be a very good stand in for Leola — at least in terms of being selfless, deeply compassionate, uncomplicated, and adamant about giving people their freedom even at the cost of themselves and even if that gift can be misused or discarded (3x04) — which means Aaravos could offer a potential parallel to Callum in the sibling split. Aaravos, who turned to dark magic as an option regardless of or precisely because of the potential violence, and Callum, who argues for the Nova Blade whereas his brother still always champions a non-violent route thus far.

After all, TDP loves to have their "person A is estranged from their sibling and is determined not to lose their lover" parallel, given that it's happened four times (Harrow, Viren, Sarai; Viren, Harrow, Lissa; Claudia, Soren, Terry; Janai, Karim, Amaya) already.

Now, this could be wildly off base as we know very little about Leola and even less about her potential dynamic with Aaravos, but if we follow along with the idea that Ezran could parallel her and Callum could parallel Aaravos, I think now maybe we can talk about Elarion and Rayla.

Years ago we learned that there was a place on Xadia's map (both sides) that was named after someone who had a deep connection to him, and that many of his choices are based around this relationship. Given the Midnight Star poem, people defaulted to Elarion ("Elarion, black-eyed child / her twisted roots spread deep and far / The humans’ might sparked by the light / of Aaravos, her midnight star") although I've also considered Kalik.

And while I'm still not unconvinced that Elarion isn't just a name like Elara and Laurelion, before Aaravos changed his name, combined, I do think Elarion has to be important in Aaravos' backstory, and that it's more than likely that a founder of Elarion / a human involved with Elarion for a variety of reasons.

For starters, while we can be told that Aaravos had a soft spot for humans at one point, giving us a specific person or dynamic to think of is helpful in regards to emotional investment, and in helping to explain why he may have developed said soft spot. We also know, thanks to a birthday post years ago, that a human once gave him a gift:

He thinks that if he cared for the idea [of birthdays], he’d like to remember the taste of a smooth red fruit a human had plucked from a tree for him, once. It had been so crisp, and so sweet.

While this could've been the Orphan Queen (we do know, thanks to 1x01, that there's a tree planted in the castle courtyards 300 years ago, but we don't know it was an apple tree), an apple transfer like this one feels far more "Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and knowledge isn't always a Good thing" type schtick. Not only does it seem to indicate a more intimate bond, it also might foreshadow the reason Aaravos Fell.

One of the most interesting, but perhaps more discreet, reasons I think there's a connection between 'Elarion' as a person and Aaravos is because of the nature motif running between what little we know of Elarion and to do with Aaravos' mirror and appearance motifs. The Midnight Star is riddled with flower and nature symbolism, referring to it as a "trembling seed" and "fading bloom," that "her roots took hold" and later became "twisted," and that before the gift of Aaravos, she was "wilting" with "bone-white branches". And Aaravos' mirror and the box that held his matching key have blooming flowers on it.

See the flowers along the bottom on the actual frame of the mirror, then sculpted along the sides, and the top? Yeah. We also know that flowers themselves, thanks to Tales of Xadia, are featured in a story told both in Katolis and amongst the Moonshadow elves in particular, featuring an elven thief who steals what you value most, leaving only flowers in their wake. This is the only story in all of Tales of Xadia that we see two cultures share, even if they interpret it wildly differently.

Flowers that were always gone by morning, and gifts that couldn't be accepted or understood ("I’ve got one more gift for you, Callum: I'm going to keep you safe. I have to. I love you too much not too [...] Taking on hard choices and going to dark places is an act of love. It’s a gift. So, please let me give you this gift, Callum. Stay safe, and stay in the light").

We also know that whoever Aaravos loved, he inevitably lost whether due to time or tragedy. While this form of grief is one the show has explored, it was previously largely only through Harrow, who mourned Sarai for 9 years upon losing her, and who avenged her by slaying Avizandum, and more briefly through Ethari believing Runaan was dead.

That was, until season four, where Callum grieving Rayla and dealing with the fallout of that grief and distance turned it into more of an accentuated plot point, both before and even after her return.

Before, losing your partner in this manner would've been something Callum had witnessed, but not experienced. Now, whether the show wants Callum to sympathize with Aaravos or not, it is an experience that they could both understand, particularly if it is going to be one of Aaravos' main motivators.

Thus, we have a disagreement set up between 'siblings' (Leola, Aaravos; Ezran, Callum) as well as lost love (Elarion, Aaravos; Rayla, Callum) as a big motivator for choices, grief, and what possibly led to the fall. That Aaravos, at least in practice / thematic lineups, being a Callum who lost his Rayla and his Ezran*, and then lost himself.

Therefore:

Aaravos — Callum

Leola — Ezran

Elarion — Rayla

[ * This is not to say that Callum would pull an Aaravos and go on a hellbent 1000+ year revenge scheme, because he's not like that, but I do think it could be a very poignant and apt parallel of giving him and Aaravos more in common than they currently have, which is about nothing but magical curiosity and connection. ]

However, 90% of this is all speculation of things that have been kept supremely under wraps. For something a little more tangible simply because we have slightly more information, let's talk about the

Imprisonment Trio

The Imprisonment Trio, as the name implies, refers to the two humans who seemed to directly (the Jailer) and potentially indirectly (the Orphan Queen) be involved in imprisoning Aaravos (the third in this trio). This time, however, I'm going to argue that Aaravos — in terms of his imprisonment — is going to parallel someone other than Callum, but we shall see.

To start, I want to look at the Jailer and the Orphan Queen, since their parallels to Callum and Ezran respectively are the most obvious.

We don't know for sure whether the Jailer came from Katolis, but we know that the Orphan Queen did, eventually taking on the throne from the previous royal family and starting Harrow and Ezran's royal line, first hinted at in 3x05 with "Only orphans can ascend to the throne". Ezran has been directly compared to her in both role and appearance by the show's framing and by characters like Rex Igneous in 4x08: "I should have seen it before. Long ago, it was a human who saw through the Fallen Star's schemes and helped Xadia put an end to them. You look so much like her." This plays well into Ezran's tendency to discover or unearth long lost things, most notably Zym's egg, just as the Orphan Queen became the Truthteller of Aaravos' treachery.

Callum, for his part, is a human mage, just like the Jailer. He's clever, very talented with magic, and despite being Aaravos' preferred prey as a mage will ultimately — like the Jailer — play a role in his defeat. He will also work with and for the archdragons and their wills, but has no problem being disobedient either, in the name of concern or mercy, much like how the Jailer kept Akiyu alive rather than tell the archdragons the truth. And like the Jailer, he understands the potential danger of knowledge: "The entire world would be in danger if she let him live with this knowledge" / "I need you to kill me."

Like the brothers, they were a (future) royal and mage working together, starting off what perhaps was a long tradition of Katolian monarchs having high mages. If, as often theorized due to having an Aaravos-y twin box (S2 novelization) and his love of puzzles, Kpp'Ar is indeed descended from the Jailer, that adds another layer onto Kpp'Ar being one of Callum's predecessors as High Mage. While Ezran has the job and the bloodline of the Orphan Queen, Callum would've more directly inherited the position of (high) mage from the Jailer's thematic and occupational line.

Granted, there are differences. Most notably, the Key of Aaravos was given to Callum, not to Ezran, although there could be potential future parallels between the brothers and the Sunfire siblings, with Karim unable to undo Kim'Dael's chains because his sister is still queen, and the brothers needing to work together to fully use the cube. I wouldn't be surprised if Ezran learns more about the cube and the Orphan Queen in S6 while Callum still has some unknowns to its true meaning, leading to some delicious dread and dramatic irony. But I digress.

The point is that the Jailer and the Orphan Queen both had their roles to play in imprisoning Aaravos, and that Callum and Ezran, respectively, will both have their roles to play in trying to keep Aaravos contained, only to inevitably somehow fail in a way that allows him to escape, if by another's hand. We do know the brothers will be going to weird ruins in a future season thanks to some out-of-context spoilers that have yet to pass, and the Ruins of Elarion would certainly fit:

Which, just like the out-of-context spoiler card, you might've noticed that I haven't mentioned Rayla and who she's going to be paralleling yet. Well, that's because this time / generational pass around, I think she's going to be the primary foil to Aaravos.

Now, this train of thought isn't new by any means. I've thought Rayla paralleled Aaravos reasonably well since S3 aired largely due to their status as ghosted/banished elves, a compassion for humans (at least implied for Aaravos) that other elves disapproved of, and their dynamics with Callum and Viren, respectively.

Both Rayla and Aaravos have to work to earn their high mage's trust ("And should we trust you? Have you told us the truth about everything?" / "And why should I trust you?") over the course of season one for Rayla and season two for Aaravos, ending in promises of allegiance and togetherness: "You've got to stay with me" / "I will stay with you" (2x09). Aaravos leads Viren to his doom in being tackled off the Pinnacle, and Callum throws himself off the Pinnacle after Rayla.

You can imagine my delighted surprise, then, when S4 simply cranked it up even further: Rayla was hunting Aaravos' mage ("I spent two years hunting"), and Aaravos was hunting Rayla's mage ("Yes, mages were his prey"). Rayla wants to protect Callum and kill Viren, and Aaravos had promised to save Viren and use Callum. Even for Callum himself, 4x04 and 4x07 seemed like clear set up for Rayla symbolizing agency in Callum breaking free from Aaravos' control someday, putting the two in literal opposition to each other. Two potential paths (although picking Rayla, at least at first, may not be mutually exclusive from picking Aaravos).

Rayla, who was also harshly punished by Xadia with no trial.

This isn't to say that Aaravos didn't do anything wrong and is being unjustly punished — far from it — or that Aaravos' imprisonment and subsequent freedom won't have parallels to anyone else like say, Callum, who will likely be imprisoned by Aaravos through possession in S6 and ultimately freed by Rayla. More so that imprisonment of different sorts has been a running theme throughout Rayla's arc, and that Callum — who is primed to be Aaravos' chain breaker, whether through possession or not — could also be hers (if not just her parents') the way he has routinely been in the past, whether it was from instigating the events that eventually led to her binding (chain) coming off or saving her from being emotionally stuck (3x08) or from doing anything for her freedom (5x01, 5x08). He's primarily been someone who is tethered to freedom when it comes to recognizing and breaking cycles (chains of history) or literal restraints, and it's only in season four and season five that he's shifted to being both tied to freedom and having himself restrained.

I've speculated in the past this may result in Callum (and Ezran) leading to Aaravos' release in order to save/free Rayla; however, the show may not want as much of a repeat from 5x08, and freeing the Moon fam from the coins also resulting in Aaravos' freedom through an escalation of events would also keep that ironic thread, so it could really go anywhere.

Two humans, one elf, and endless tragedy, repeating and breaking cycles all at the same time. Ezran, discovering important info about his ancestor and possibly the Key; Callum, following in the Jailer's footsteps and unravelling the final puzzles of the prison and figuring out how to undo it; and Rayla, ghosted, banished, vying against Aaravos for the control and agency of his latest pawn who also happens to be the love of her life.

So for the Imprisonment Trio:

The Orphan Queen — Ezran

The Jailer — Callum

Aaravos — Rayla

In Conclusion

Is any of this something? I don't know, honestly. I think it's plausible, at least partially. I think it'd be neat. We know TDP likes varying intergenerational parallels and looking at how history repeats, whether that's directly through family (blood or not) lines, or by having repeating plot points (the dragon quartet, or Rayla being immobilized) and trials (Rayllum facing Sol Regem, much like Ziard, etc). We know there was someone Aaravos loved and lost, we know he's not above using what people want against them, and the connections between Ezran and the Orphan Queen are just Text at this point, although how they may manifest further, we don't know.

This is just one particular stab at it, and an examination of three of the series' most interesting (potential) trios. We'll simply have to see if anything here hit the nail on the head.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

—Dragons Out

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp meta #tdp theory #predictions #mirrored trio theory #tdp aaravos #the orphan queen #leola #aaravos x elarion #parallels #analysis series #analysis #brotp: we're in this together

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heyitspersephone · 6 months

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Thinking about stranger things again now that the strikes are over and how, narratively, it would be way, WAY cooler to have Mike get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5

It’s just something about the way Mike’s trauma is never addressed or handled in any way?? Like, he hugs his mom twice and then when he was depressed in season 2 and 4 nobody did anything (his parents scolded him for his behavior in s2 ig but that’s not support). His best friend went missing leaving from his house, he watched his body get pulled from the quarry, watched El (in his eyes) kill herself stopping the demogorgon, watched Will be possessed, saw Bob die, was in Star Court when everything went down, saw Billy die, had his best friend move away, was SHOT AT (and really too few people talk about the shooting in Cali bc omg??), buried a body, and watched the apocalypse start. And that’s just off the top of my head.

(And yes I’m aware that the other characters (especially Will) are traumatized too but I will get to my point in a second just hold on)

The plot is geared towards this idea that Will and Henry have to have some big face off (and they should, in my opinion, but I don’t think it should be in a possession, or at least not the the Vecna kind of possession, yk?) but that makes it all the better, writing wise, to have mike be the one in danger. Will was helpless and hiding in s1, I think Will should get his big strong moments in s5 where he gets to be the hero of the story.

It would just be a lot more fun to work with Mike being Vecna’d than Will, because what are we going to bring up with Will’s visions? His dad? His sexuality? The events of s1 from his perspective? It would be cool to see, for sure, but we already know most of that. Mike, on the other hand, has a number of untapped things, like jumping off the quarry, why he’s so hesitant to tell El he loves her, how someone who was smart and kind enough to take El in in s1 and come up with the spy and sauna plans in s2 and s3 could turn into the oblivious asshole that he was in s3 and s4 (he needs therapy, ik, I still love his character but I want to explore the reasons he went from his s2 characterization to his s3 one)

It would be a very interesting parallel, I think, to explore Mike’s thought processes in this way, especially with all of Mike’s repression business (bc whether you ship byler or milkvan he is repressing his feelings HARD. Like, beyond his inability to say I love you there’s the fact that he doesn’t bring up the apparent many times he called pre-s4 during the Rink O Mania fight?? That literally would’ve absolved him of guilt in that argument since he WAS reaching out to Will the whole time? Hellooooo????).

Anyways, this all brings me to my main point: Vecna targets isolation as much as he targets trauma and guilt. The whole party was traumatized by the events in s1, s2, and s3, but Max was the one targeted. Plus, Henry went for Fred, Chrissy, and Patrick (I think his name was Patrick) instead of going for the perceivably easy targets that the mcs would make (ik narratively that would’ve made it more boring but shhh), so why Max and those three specifically? They were isolated. Lucas and Erica have each other, Dustin goes to Steve and Robin, Will and El have each other and Jonathan and Joyce, Nancy probably goes to Jonathan, and who does Mike go to?

No one. And don’t say Nancy because if those two have heart to hearts then I’m the next coming of Christ. Max separated herself from the Party in the aftermath of her grief and guilt over Billy, and it feels quite obvious that Mike was doing the same (like I said, he has repression issues). So Mike is traumatized, alone, and guilty (be it Will getting taken from Mike’s house, losing El in front of him multiple times, the many deaths he has witnessed, or the internalized homophobia angle), which makes him more of a target than Will, in my opinion (or at least an easier one, especially given his tendency to put himself on the line during fights (quarry, most of s2, s3 mindflayer fight), which would set him up on the suicidal ideation path)

Furthermore, as I’ve seen a few other people point out (and I can’t find the posts but one of them had eight screenshots of the various moments), Mike is always the one getting in the way, so it would be a strategic move for Henry to target him to get him out of the picture. Mike was the one that found El and got her involved in saving Will s1, he was the one who came up with the spy plan and called out the ambush in s2, he was the one to monologue Will out of his possession s2, he was the one with the sauna plan for Billy in s3, he was the one trying to help El get the strength to fight s4 (even if the monologue sucked ass it’s the intention that counts). As much as people like to hate on Mike, he is in the leader position most of the time when the party is grouped up (barring his mental health struggles slowing that down beginning of s3 and throughout s4, but he’s still capable of it). He’s the idea man, and he’s the one whose character’s foundations were built on the desire to keep his friends safe, so it would be a very fun plot line to watch him be the one targeted in s5. Like Will said, as lovestruck and cheesy as he was, Mike is the heart of the party when he’s on his A-game, so Henry should 100% be trying to keep him in the issues he’s been struggling with.

Obviously, Will and El are the Targets with a capital T for Henry since they’re the ones that got away or whatever, but I think Mike is a weakness of Will’s (and El’s tbh but also I think they need to have separate character arcs and I don’t exactly ship milkvan) that should be exploited.

TL;DR: Mike should get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5 because it would make sense in lore and be a very cool way to resolve his character arc

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 5 months

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Catradora fan here but I wanted to ask if you think it would've ever been possible for catradora to be done well by the show? It's obviously not a perfect ship but I wanted to know if you thought it had any potential at any point as a viable ship or not? /genq

first off, props to you for being respectful and open to different opinions! it's the bare minimum but not a lot of c//a shippers do that, so i really appreciate it.

secondly, yes. i think the ship did have some potential and there were definitely ways to make it less toxic (and not incestuous) so let me just go through a few things i would change if i were to rewrite this ship:

1. catra and adora would not be raised by the same parent or portrayed with a sibling dynamic. instead they're just close friends, and shadow weaver would be either catra's or adora's adoptive parent. i personally think it would be interesting if shadow weaver was catra's adoptive mother, and hordak was adora's father figure.

going on a tangent here, there's a bunch of reasons why this would be a good choice. one, apparently in the 80s she-ra, hordak was like a father figure to adora, since he's the one who found her and brought her to the horde. the latter is also the case in the reboot so they really could have given us an interesting father-daughter dynamic with these characters.

two, it would create an actual connection between hordak and adora. in the show, we barely see them interact at all, despite them being enemies. it was always adora vs catra, and not adora vs the horde (and hordak). hordak doesn't even have to be abusive or toxic towards adora, in fact, it would help a lot with his redemption if he was actually a decent parent. teaching adora wrong morals, of course, but ultimately caring about her. it would also increase the emotional impact when adora leaves the horde, because she would be cutting ties with a person who genuinely loved her, despite being an evil warlord.

2. catra would show some restraint when fighting adora. the thing that most stuck out to me in spop was how remorseless catra was when fighting adora. it's not even that she's fighting to win or because she had to, she just liked seeing adora in pain. there's no coming back from that.

so i would write catra to be a little more compassionate and not hurt adora more than necessary. i would also add in parts where she's shown to care about adora, despite being on opposite sides. catra wouldn't brainwash adora and revel in seeing her go beserk, or try to gaslight her into staying, and for most part, she would try to avoid a fight with adora.

this would help the story stay true to the “i always loved you” dialogue, because it shows that catra cares about adora deeply, instead of telling us. what spop did was show us catra hurting adora over and over again with zero guilt or remorse, and then have other characters talk about how much catra loves adora or how perfect their chemistry is. not convincing in the slightest.

3. catra's redemption is more detailed and starts earlier, preferably in s4, after the portal incident and angella's death. this goes without saying because her redemption was the worst part of c//a. instead of having her do one good thing and slapping the good guy label onto her, i would show her actually facing consequences of her actions and trying to do better.

the characters wouldn't just gloss over catra's actions but would instead hold her accountable. and she would actually work on her toxicity instead of just saying “sorry i got angry, i'm working on it” and then proceeding to not work on it. i would only get them together after catra is at least 90% redeemed and in a healthier mindset to be in a relationship.

4. adora's arc would get more focus and a satisfying conclusion. in s5, adora's search for her origin and identity is abandoned in favor of c//a. this is so disappointing and just shows that the writers could not give two fucks about adora, the main character. so yeah, while c//a would still get its moments, i would not sacrifice adora's development or arc for it.

5. c//a would not be the “heart and soul” of the show. one of the many things i hated about s5 was how everything revolved around c//a.

glimmer and bow were reduced to the wingmen and paired spares, none of the other characters mattered, angella was completely forgotten, hordak didn't get enough screentime, and horde prime was a weak and badly written villain. all of this was because the creators focused too much on c//a (and even then, failed to make it romantic or appealing). so yeah, while i would still write c//a as a canon ship, i wouldn't sacrifice everything else just for this ship.

thank you for your ask, this is something i've wanted to talk about for a while now!

#spop critical #spop #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #she ra #anti catradora #anti catra #anti spop #anti c//a #antic//a #anticatra #anticatradora

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bugsbenefit · 3 months

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i'm mmmmh still thinking thoughts (it's about the poster, of course it is, been fascinated by that since s4)

the last few minutes of every season always drop some major hints for the next season that are pretty explicit in hindsight. some examples

s1 shows the baby slugs Will coughs up that come back in s2, hints El might still be alive when Hopper leaves Eggo waffles out in the forest, and gives Nancy a sweet moment with Jonathan despite still dating Steve, s2 has El living with Hopper and J/ancy going canon

s2 shows the mindflayer looming over the school -> meatflayer is the main threat of s3 (as well as s2 having lumax and mleven dancing who will both be established couples by the start of s3)

s3 ends with the Byers moving away and Max sitting alone in Billy's room, s4 then has the Byers living in California be a major plotpoint as well as Max's trauma around Billy's death almost killing her

and so on you get it. in hindsight there will obviously be some pretty major hints in the last 10 minutes of s4

and some already seem pretty straight forward. obviously the gates opening is the big thing, the UD will be a focus in s5. the camera lingering on the church and Jason's bible quote outside also seems like it's a pretty solid nudge at the vibe in town next season. also things like the hill scene in general with the coupled grouping (doesn't even have to be about "endgames" necessarily, would also make sense as main groups of s5, since they're split into adults, teens (now young adults), and kids (teens) again)

but the whole blood thing going on in the last 10 minutes that comes out of nowhere? i want to know where that is going

we already had a ton of blood in s4, with the lab massacre and nose bleeds for the Vecna victims. so why does the donating blood theme come up after all that, what happens in s5 that makes it warrant the blood teaser (that sounds horrible) when s4 already had so much of it? and it's not just blood in general, there's a very specific focus on "giving" blood, however you want to interpret that

the poster in the hospital room already feels extremely foreshadowy in s4 given how bold it's written, how it's the only legible text on screen, and how it's in the negative space of the blocking the whole time so your eyes are drawn to it

but it's not even just that one poster either. in case you missed that one or didn't bother reading it in the hospital they also give you the blood donations promo table that the shot lingers on, that has so many posters begging for your blood it's not even funny anymore. and hey, even for those not reading background posters, there's 4 separate blood drop graphics so you definitely know they want blood, the show seems to really really want people to acknowledge it

and now they use the same exact poster from these last 10 minutes again? in another location? that's more focus on it than even i expected what are we going for here

be a hero give blood you say? on the show with the constant allusions to being a hero? "heroes" by david bowie, superheroes and powers, "don't try to be heroes" only for Eddie to die when he breaks his own advice? all of s4 was about how you shouldn't try to be a hero and that running away is okay. Max also almost dies when she stops running to distract Vecna. girl you know someone is fucked with that poster, that's a set up screaming for disaster (it's also not lost on me how even the stage show has a focus on blood and !TFS SPOILER! as far as i know Brenner senior even dies after not being able to receive blood donations due to his now abnormal blood type anymore. so there's some weird focus on blood going on even outside of the in show canon now, even specifically about giving blood, or well, not being able to give blood in this case. no one was a hero and gave blood in tfs i guess lmao. what are they cooking here)

the poster is also so vague there's so many ways this can be horrible for the characters. in the actual blood donation to save someone way? would be kind of tame but who knows what lore/plot s5 will deliver. in the sacrifice yourself/get injured to save someone way? or a secret third thing we don't have enough context to guess yet?

be a hero give blood my ass. who's giving blood for what tell me now. also how bad will "giving blood" be for them

#that poster had me kicking my feet for months and now it's coming back? oh i'm so (ab)normal about that #no but the constant mentions of blood coming up right at the end when the show enters the 'tease the next season' timeslot #concerning as hell #it's giving sacrifice of some kind #or at least bad injury #but who knows well see #also thinking of that poster always makes the stav post about it and the whole dead and missing broadcast and mike come back to me #it's windows screensavering in my brain again #st5 speculation #st s5 #st5 leaks

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theflyindutchwoman · 7 months

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Okay I have a question,

I was thinking about this today, and it’s bugging me

Angela finds out she’s pregnant in 5x12 which arguably is around January because a few weeks later is Valentine’s Day (5x16) but then she has her baby in the finale

So she had to be like 3 or 4 months when she found out right? Because the finale was very clearly in May given the timeline, and Tim saying in 5x20 that he and Lucy have only been dating a few months.

This has been bugging me all day 😂 this damn show hurts my head with its timeline sometimes

The first rule of The Rookie is : we do not talk about the timeline! The second rule of The Rookie is : we DO NOT talk about the timeline! 😅 I've tried many times but after this season, this is a lost cause… I'm just going to assume that Angela discovered her two pregnancies well into her second trimester… Or she was right and Wesley is really a wizard 😂

I need to rewatch s5 cos I can't remember if the show mentioned a specific date/month for the finale. But May sounds about right. Maybe June? The one thing I remember is that Lucy was two weeks away from taking the detective's exam in 5.19 and as far as we know, she has yet to take it. Meaning that the events between then and the finale happened during a window of 15 days. But other than that, it's pretty vague...

#Little talks #the rookie #chenford #lucy chen #tim bradford

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purpleheartskies · 10 months

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Robby as a leader

In s5, there was a lot of emphasis about leadership and future champions showing leadership qualities. Although this was mostly on the Cobra Kai side, it's interesting that Robby was shown in a leadership position for the kids for both dojos in meaningful scenes.

Robby taking his place, front and center, amongst the Miyagi Fang kids and across the OG Karate Kid.

This was right after Robby specifically was needed to encourage Daniel to come back and lead them.

Robby taking his place in front of the Cobras, as their former leader, a place that he'd earned in s4e1 when he challenged the members of the dojo at the time.

Right before this, Silver and Kim were having a conversation about LaRusso, Lawrence, and Toguchi being pests and that Silver and Kim will swat the next one to land on their arm. Robby walked in right after that. During his speech, Robby said some pointed words about Silver, and they even stood off for a bit.

Also, important to note that this took place earlier in the day that Miyagi Fang took down Cobra Kai. Robby was the first person that day to make a direct move against Silver, by going to the dojo and making this speech to at least plant some doubt in the Cobras' minds and to show his support to Tory. It also seems that the Miyagi Fangs don't know that Robby did this.

Robby is no doubt the underdog of the series. But it seems for some time, Robby has been being built up as the leader to the teens too. Amongst the kids, Robby has been shown to have the most leadership qualities. To talk about these, I'm going to focus on a few situations, mostly from later seasons because Robby took on more of a leadership role for a group in these seasons.

In s3, Robby turned down Kreese's offer to join Cobra Kai. In fact, Robby knew that Kreese was trying to manipulate him to join Cobra Kai when Kreese visited him in juvie. Robby called Kreese out for trying to recruit him, although Kreese hadn't said anything about recruiting him. Robby also tried to research Kreese after meeting him. Later in s3, the morning after Robby spent the night at the CK dojo after he was released, Robby turned Kreese down again about joining Cobra Kai. It's only after Tory said that Kreese teaches you to channel anger into fighting that Robby considered joining CK and decided to hang out with the Cobras. During the snake heist, Robby was making his own decisions. He chose to show up at the zoo, he didn't take the beer, he called Tory out for trying to manipulate him into going into the zoo, and he stole the snake himself while the other kids ran. To be a good leader, you can't be a blind follower, which we saw that Robby isn't. In fact, in s1, Robby would question Trey and Cruz, but because of Robby's circumstances and the power advantage they had over Robby, Robby would go along with them even when he didn't agree with them, until Robby was inspired by Daniel's bonsai lesson. In s4, Robby held out on trusting Kreese for as long as he could, but gave in during his match with Kenny, which Robby regretted immediately after. At the end of s4, Robby made a choice on his own to walk away from Cobra Kai. He could have been nicer about it to Tory in s5e4, but given everything Robby has experienced, he's allowed to put himself first, especially for his own mental health and well-being. Robby needed his space from Cobra Kai. (This is one of the very few times Robby put himself first in s5. Even Robby's scene in s5e9 at the Cobra Kai dojo was him not putting himself or his well-being first, like he did for pretty much all of s5). Robby had done something similar after he'd gotten out a juvie. He walked away from both Daniel and Johnny because he needed his space from them. Robby like any person is allowed to put some distance between himself and people (Johnny, Daniel, and the "good guys") or something (Cobra Kai) that are hurtful to him, especially when those people or things don't change. Regardless, Robby also doesn't actively seek out and hurt people to be vindictive, another good quality for a leader to have. Robby has done things to "get back at" people, like to his dad (who has given him and continues to give him so much trauma) and to Hawk (who was bullying Kenny). However, Robby was still pretty measured and was pretty specific in what he did. (I address these things in other parts of the post.) In s3, Robby did seek out Shawn and attack him, but that was an act of defense, which is also supported narratively by the fact that Robby's fight against Shawn was included in the episode "Miyagi-Do". In the prom episode in s4, Robby's suggestion to Tory was to throw their opponents off-balance before the tournament. At most, Robby nudged Miguel to get his and Sam's attention, then Robby and Tory did a fancy dance lol. They quickly gave up on that plan as soon as they realized that they just wanted to enjoy their night out together.

In s4, Robby established himself as the leader of the students early on. He knew he'd have to do that to earn his place, and he set forth the terms for it himself. He technically won, but when Tory got a kick in after, he still agreed to leave but she told him to stay. This shows he honors the rules he sets. That is, he's an honorable leader.

In general throughout s4, Robby had some equal standing alongside Kreese and Silver, as Robby was the sole person in Cobra Kai who could teach Miyagi-Do to the students, meaning Robby probably led a lot of the classes. Robby also tailored his lessons to the Cobras and didn't have them do chores. This shows he's able to identify how best to lead his group and change strategies to be more effective and to suit them. Robby also succeeded in making sure that most, if not all, of the students knew Miyagi-Do. Other than him, we saw atleast five other Cobras successfully use Miyagi-Do against the Miyagi-Dos in the tournament.

In s4e4, although fighting was definitely not a good solution, Robby agreed to a fair fight and expected the Miyagi Fangs to follow through and honor the agreement. However, they didn't and instead pranked the Cobras. It made me think of how Johnny said that he still doesn't know the difference between honor and mercy. These are two different concepts. Miguel still clearly doesn't understand the difference between honor and mercy either. At the end of s4, Daniel told Chozen:

"But there's too much at stake to honor an agreement made with men who have none. If Cobra Kai is gonna keep growing and getting stronger, I need to do whatever it takes to stop them. Even if that means going on offense."

This reminds me of what Robby told Johnny in s4e4:

"Hawk and some of your students have been bullying this kid. Tell them to stop or there'll be payback...I'm just trying to help this kid. But if those assholes don't knock it off, I'll do what I have to."

This isn't to condone Robby's actions. However, Robby had gone to Johnny and told him to tell his students to leave the kid they'd been bullying alone. At the drive-in, Hawk and them were bullying Kenny again. When the rest of Miyagi Fang joined them, they automatically assumed that the Cobras had been the ones causing problems. Although Robby knows firsthand that Miguel and Hawk fight dirty, Robby still trusted Miguel when he offered a fair fight, thinking they would honor it, which they didn't. Robby, regardless of what side he's been on, has never fought dirty. After this, Robby specifically chose to shave Hawk's hair because Robby had recognized at the s1 tournament that Hawk gets a toxic empowerment from his "stupid haircut". Hawk had kicked Robby between rounds over that taunt, and in s2 Hawk had tried to gang assault Demetri over a yelp review. The Miyagi Fangs, or at least Miguel, also chose not to honor an agreement that they had made. Pranking the Cobras instead of walking away cleanly, which Miguel and Miyagi Fang should have done, is not honorable. It also seemed that leaving Cobra Kai hadn't changed Hawk's bullying tendencies, and Robby knows firsthand that Hawk can escalate to violence quickly. The Miyagi Fangs don't do much to prove that they are honorable or can be trusted. Robby was reasonable to believe that Hawk could still escalate to violence while bullying Kenny, so Robby went "on offense" and targeted the source of Hawk's toxic empowerment.

The waterpark situation in s5e4 is somewhat an opposite scenario for Robby. When things seemed to be coming to a head between the two groups, Miguel said, "Clearly we can't coexist in peace so let's find a solution." Robby then suggested to Tory that they and Cobra Kai leave, wanting to avoid any more issues with the Miyagi Fangs. In this case, no one listened to Robby and decided on the waterslide race. At this point, he had quit Cobra Kai and the other Cobras knew that he had. He was no longer their leader. Miyagi Fang also was still hostile towards him. He was the only kid that wanted to walk away, and with no pranks. This time though Kenny got his payback on Hawk and cheated. Hawk confronted Kenny about it, and Kenny started fighting him. Robby came to Kenny's defense, though this time Kenny had been in the wrong. But Hawk can easily beat up Kenny, and Robby knows that. Robby should have stopped Kenny though, and not shoved Hawk, which Robby did to protect Kenny. Robby also knew that Kenny was brainwashed, and that Hawk wasn't. Miguel in turn shoved Robby to defend Hawk in this scene. However, Miguel had no reason to shove Robby multiple times in the parking lot afterwards, which makes Miguel shoving Robby in the waterpark to protect Hawk seem more like another excuse for Miguel to hurt Robby. (In general, Miguel's behavior towards Robby throughout s5 is not admirable. After all, since s1, Miguel has hated Robby for his mere existence. Even in s5e3, Miguel told Hawk and Demetri that he wasn't going to let Robby being with Johnny get to him. Miguel had no right to be upset that Johnny had his son with him. Not to mention, Miguel's ungrateful ass would still be stuck in Mexico if it weren't for Robby. The atrocious apartment fight after this, especially, also makes Miguel seem worse.)

In s5, Silver acknowledged to Kenny that Kenny would look to Robby for leadership before Robby left Cobra Kai. Robby was the first kid in the show to mentor another kid. And though a main reason for him doing so is sad, "Be the mentor I wish I had when I was younger," Robby was a great mentor to Kenny. Robby is young, so while the adult senseis range from self-centered and generally incompetent (Johnny) to toxic (Kreese and Silver), Robby comparatively did an amazing job with Kenny. Robby listened and adapted his teachings to suit Kenny, like how he told Kenny to use his speed. He told Kenny that he could be better than him and Shawn (although the context for the fight at the school is more than Robby choosing to beat up his bully, which is what Kenny wanted to do. Robby was the one assaulted that day in school). Regardless, Robby was doing what he could to deter Kenny from going down that path. At the avt, when Kenny beat up Anthony and promised to be his bully in school, Robby didn't tell Kenny, "you didn't learn anything I taught you," like Daniel had told Robby earlier out of frustration. Robby told Kenny "this isn't how I taught you," commenting about Kenny's actions and not about Kenny himself.

Robby did fight excessively against Kenny in the tournament. After holding out for so long about not trusting Kreese, Robby finally gave in. Robby faltered, but he quickly course corrected. At no point did Robby tell Kenny that he was not a good student, nor did Robby stop believing in Kenny. At the waterpark, Robby told Tory that she can take care of herself but Cobra Kai was no place for Kenny. This likely influenced Tory's concern for Devon later on, in addition to Tory's own efforts to take down Silver, as Tory tried to warn Devon off and later started mentoring her. After what happened at the waterpark, Robby did give up for a bit, but Robby was putting some space between himself and Cobra Kai, which he's allowed to do, as I've mentioned. However, when Robby reconciled with Daniel, Robby admit that he has people he cares about, Kenny and others, in Cobra Kai and that he wanted to take Silver down for them. Despite everything Robby was going through, especially because of Johnny, Robby still did what he could to help Kenny.

In s5, with Miyagi Fang, Robby was more in the background but still played crucial roles. He was the one specifically needed to bring Daniel back and bring everyone together, something Sam had realized back in s4 and had tried to unsuccessfully recruit Robby to do then. At the trials, Robby was able to convince Hawk, using empathy, to go easy on Kenny. In s5e9, Robby came to the dojo, humbly apologized, told them the truth about Silver and reminded them that they still had another way (Miyagi-Do). This shows that he has humility as a leader, and if he falters, he can admit when he's wrong and show his support. Robby's humility was set up early on. In s1, Robby had sincerely apologized to Daniel for lying to him. In s2, Robby apologized to Sam for snapping at her one day and for hiding the truth about the medal of honor. Having self-awareness and being able to admit to mistakes and apologize sincerely is important for anyone person to do, but is an especially admirable quality for a leader to have.

Silver's and Kim's lines before Robby walked into the CK dojo also establish Robby on equal standing with Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen. In the finale, Robby was the one who addressed Kenny before the brawl and was trying to talk him down, before Robby was interrupted by Miguel, which lead to Kenny striking first and the brawl. (Maybe Miguel and his hero complex didn't like that Robby was leading negotiations (alongside Tory) so Miguel stepped in to take the lead...) In fact, at one point, Kenny said, "You knew what would happen if him and his friends ever stepped in this dojo again," referring to Robby.

During the brawl, although Robby didn't yell "protect the egg", it was his "Ais" that the Miyagi Fangs listened to and not Miguel's. For the Cobras, Kenny yelled "get him" and later yelled "Ais", both of which the Cobras listened to, as he was their leader. It really does bring into question who was the leader amongst the boys in Miyagi Fangs at the end of the season. The Miyagi Fangs reacting to Robby's "Ais" and not Miguel's made me think of Silver's "they heard you but listened to me" demonstration. The Miyagi Fangs heard Miguel, but listened to Robby. And of course, after Silver showed up, Tory and Robby were the only kids to directly address him.

In general, by the end of s5, the Miyagi Fangs don't actively recognize Robby as a leader while the Cobras, especially Silver, already know Robby as a leader. After Robby made his speech to the CK dojo, Silver made a point to demonstrate that the Cobras "listen" to Silver but only "hear" Robby. The fact that Silver low-key validated an insecurity he has regarding Robby's ability to influence all the Cobras against him is meaningful. Silver's seen Robby's potential from the start, when he found him in s4e4 teaching Kenny Miyagi-Do principles. Silver had told Robby that he'll be able to kick all their asses. Silver also told Robby to be a champion he has to root out the fear that was holding him back, meaning Silver recognized Robby's potential to become a champion. Silver later told Kreese that he didn't have Robby under control. In s5, Silver acknowledged that Kenny had followed Robby before he left Cobra Kai, and Silver later believed that Tory had ducked out of her trial match because of her loyalty to Robby (though we know that she mainly did so because she had realized Silver was cheating again). No doubt Robby has earned a lot of Silver's ire as Johnny's son, Daniel's first (non-related) student, Kreese's "grandson" (another person who Kreese had chosen over Silver to share Kreese's legacy with), and the kid who would dare walk into Silver's dojo and take a stand to turn his students against him. Kreese had also acknowledged Robby's potential in s3 and 4, calling him a champion and a king. Though Kreese had been trying to manipulate Robby to be on his side, Kreese's conversation with Johnny at the s4 avt shows that Kreese really does believe in Robby's potential, like Kreese had once believed in Johnny's potential.

Throughout the series, Robby has been shown to be a strategic thinker who is at times willing to take risks, a good leadership quality to have. In s1, Trey and Cruz said that Robby always comes up with a plan. Also, as silly as it was, Robby's plan to "get back at" Johnny, by getting a job at LaRusso Auto to get a shirt with his name on it, was pretty intelligent because Robby knew exactly how to get to Johnny. Robby also entered and fought in the s1 avt unaffiliated, which took guts. In s3, Robby was able to stay on the run for 2 weeks (until the van was stolen from him and he went to his mom). In his juvie fight, Robby's strategy against Shawn was brilliant. Robby found him with a small number of friends, tricked him to get him to let his guard down, and then attacked after making sure his guard was down. Robby blindsided him and took out his two friends, so Robby could then just focus on him. Robby went into the fight knowing the risks, while at the same time, choosing circumstances that gave him the best advantage he could possibly get. This isn't to say that Robby doesn't get fooled. Robby did get fooled by Louie twice in s1. In s2, Robby forgot that the wallet thefts at the beach club was a three-person job. Robby can be naive or too trusting when he lowers his guard, but overall Robby is pretty intelligent and good at strategy. And, not condoning what Robby did to Hawk in s4, but Robby's move to stop Hawk from bullying Kenny again was to target the source of Hawk's toxic empowerment, like how Amanda's move to stop Tory from attacking Sam again was to target the source of Tory's anger issues. Robby was also smart about leveling the playing field by teaching the Cobras Miyagi-Do. Robby succeeded in making sure that all of his students knew both styles, while Daniel and Johnny failed because they were unable to keep their alliance together. In s5, Robby didn't have much input in the strategy against Cobra Kai at the end, but Robby was the one saving Johnny and himself throughout the Mexico trip. Robby's move to go to the CK dojo, show his support to Tory, and plant seeds of doubt in Kenny's mind was a good but risky strategy on his part. However, he felt like he'd let them down as a leader but decided to take a direct stand against Silver once he understood what Tory was dealing with.

As I go through all of these points wrt Robby being the ultimate leader to the kids, especially for the "good guys", two things come to mind.

One, the school fight and what happened at the end and after can be used to call into question Robby's ability to lead, and is why the Miyagi Fangs generally dismiss Robby since the school fight unless he is of use to them. However, compared to all the other kids except for Demetri, Robby was trying to do the right thing and stop the fight that day and was even saying that they should talk it out, but Robby was attacked and ultimately pushed to his limit. A person can only hold out for so long, and just because others view Miguel as a non-threat doesn't mean that the person who Miguel had attacked repeatedly, choked, and taunted cruelly would see him as a non-threat that can be trusted instantly. Miguel had also stopped verbally and physically attacking Robby only after Miguel had "won". Robby had every right to "not hold back" then. Miguel, Robby's attacker, who hates his mere existence even though Robby had never done anything to him in the first place and who has never taken accountability for hurting Robby, will of course act like Robby had no right to "not hold back" that day. Also, what happened at the end had been an accident. Robby running after the school fight is understandable. Robby is a person with feelings and "fight or flight" responses, like any other person. Eventually, Robby came out of hiding and went to his mom on his own. He also immediately took accountability for his actions when he said that he was at fault because he'd been the one who had kicked Miguel. All the adults in Robby's life failed him in this situation, as he had no true understanding or support from them, and these adults have continued to fail him since.

Two, I wonder how much of Robby's complex trauma influences his leadership qualities. I've mentioned his trauma responses, but his maturity ("too old for his age", "grew up too fast"), lack of self-preservation, being in survival mode, and fawning (which can be seen as humility), for example, play into him seemingly being more of a leader by taking risks, mentoring Kenny (and Anthony a little bit), always coming up with a plan, etc. In light of this, as much as I see Robby as a potential leader to the kids, I'd also love to see Robby get at least one mentor he wishes he had when he was younger (a strong support system of genuinely caring and compassionate adults would be ideal). Although Robby has many leadership qualities, he also still needs an adult in his life who is mature and grounded. He needs a mentor and supporter who he can look up to, who will be there for him and believe in him, and who can lead him.

(Note: Please don't reblog or reply with any dismissive comment or tag expressing negativity towards the show writers, the writing, or the serious aspects of the show. Such comments/tags minimize the contents of the post. This blog (link) explains more about my general thoughts about posting after s5.)

#cobra kai is robby's story #robby keene

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steve0discusses · 6 months

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S5 Ep : I don't know the episode numbers anymore I never wrote them down, so from here on out, I'm just going to number up from my previous post. So I guess episode 49

Fun fact I finished this post a week ago and then never pressed send. I can blame this on a lot of things, (work, illness, brain fog, etc) but at this point we just know it's the universe trying to keep me from finishing S5 of my Yugioh reblog, lmao.

So, last we left off, Sad Seto was next to die.

What makes this extra weird is that the other Seto is going to just watch this entire thing happen. He apparently didn't have enough traumatic disassociating while watching his Blue Eyes Wife die, now he will disassociate from watching himself go out in a blaze of glory, too.

Sad Seto's strategy against Zorc is not really what you'd expect out of the #2 of Egypt's court. Although...I guess before everyone biffed it, Seto was more like #5? #6?

He's above Mana I feel. Barely. Mostly because Mana probably isn't the right age to legally work, even in ancient Egypt when the working age is like...if you can walk.

But he was apparently so busy doing Aknadin's taxes that he's decided it's good judgement to throw himself at a 800 ft tall dragon/crotch/man.

for his credit, Sun Tzu's art of war hasn't been written yet.

And Sad Seto realizes his true purpose, which is that he has a smarter, stronger, and more powerful girlfriend (ish.) Which is a running theme on this show, as we all know.

In a bizarre cut that I can't believe they left on US TV...other than I think they couldn't cut this any other way, the penis dragon attached to Zork extended it's neck up to grab Blue eyes by her neck and just fling her into the ground, killing her instantly.

I don't like that the neck can extend longer. I don't like that it's a function of the dragon crotch. They knew. They knew what this looked like. Thanks, I hate it.

Also what an embarrassing way for Seto's past self to die. Truly the hieroglyphs about this event will be wild, and thousands of years later, Grandma Muto probably looked at this event etched into stone and just thought it was weird ancient pervert stuff.

Sorry if you were thinking Sad Seto would recover last minute and realize he's like the most OP person in Yugioh. He instead rotted from his hand and joined the rest of our Egyptian cast in Shadow Hell.

Leaving us with just Mana. And like kudos to her, but how on EARTH did she survive so freakin long!? Like of all of them, I thought Seto would be the last one. Not Mana. Not in a million years did I think it'd be the girl who hid in a pot.

But youknow maybe that's why she survived?

And then Bakura casually walked away from the only Seto who matters. Which is fitting, because if memory serves, that's also what Yami did to Seto for like half of the Battle City tourney.

It's such a weird strange bod on this dragon. It's such a strange bod. He's both got kind of a belly, but also is ripped to shreds. Such a weird bod.

In case you were like "We haven't given Seto enough motivation," we also toss in a few nearly dead brothers just to make sure we have properly traumatized this boy to the point where he'd duel someone who isn't Yugi Muto.

Seto decided magic exists 6 minutes ago, and he's already better at magic than Yugi Muto who's had access to it for YEARS.

Like he learned about magic in a different culture, a different time, a different language, and now he's fighting the final boss.

But it's Seto, so I buy it. He would speedrun his life like this.

That's the dialogue of the show where he says his first words were "neutron blast attack" and youknow...he probably has very few memories of himself as a child since his parents died and his other family put him up for adoption...but he knows his first words?

That, or Seto likes making his brand a reality by making up whatever nonsense it takes to make that brand legit. Which I can also see him doing.

Also please don't look at this foreshortened hand, don't look at it, ignore that this happened.

So thanks to Bakura's weird choice to drag Seto into this universe in the first place, now Bakura has to fight Seto and his 3 blue eyes that would not have existed here otherwise.

++++++ME RANTING ABOUT THE SETO ARC FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++

TBH it kinda makes the whole Sad Seto arc feel kind of like it didn't need to exist. Like this is the Seto fight that matters. This one right here, and although they share a name, it's not with the same guy who fought Zorc at the beginning of this episode.

And like I could add it to a list of problems with this season. But Sad Seto started out so interesting, and then forgot. It was like he only existed to introduce the dragon, and not explain anything at all about the nature of Seto Kaiba we know and love. Like the possession of Aknadin can be a parallel to how Seto was raised following Gozaburo's footsteps, but youknow...that's all old territory.

Like, I wish I had any sort of new growth from the interaction of either of the Seto's together in the same room, much like we've been getting from Yami facing his past self. Yami's been growing a lot, he's been facing his demons, but Seto? Seto's been walking around this desert trying find wifi.

(which like he did find a "wifey" which is almost wifi but wasn't as helpful because she was dead)

The Seto Kaiba who is fighting Bakura right now, is the same exact guy we saw at the end of the last arc against Zeigfried Von Schroeder.

Which means the reason that Seto is now souped up and capable of going up against Bakura isn't because of anything we witnessed here in this arc, but because of the weird horse guy last arc who taught him how to put up a better firewall.

And maybe there was a draft where Seto decides he is a spiritual reincarnation of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Maybe there was a draft where he gained a new ability. Maybe there was a draft where he realized the gravity of what was happening and wanted to save the world.

But it ain't this draft, unfortunately.

Seto is here not because of an internal growth reason, but because he was on a tablet in S2, and we have to know where that plot thread went to have an ending...but the show rewrote what it initially said in S2.

Like in the OG timeline, it was Seto who killed Pharaoh. But here we found out it was actually Aknadin who possessed Seto to kill Pharaoh. (and at some point in that fight, Pharaoh stuck his soul in a box and sealed away Zorc)

Sad Seto was apparently a chill bro the entire time. Just a nice guy who arrested half of Cairo and had a sort-of-girlfriend for about 8 hours before she biffed it.

And I would have been OK with that, if it were more interesting than what we initially thought happened in the past: where we thought it was a kickass Seto launching a coup. But unfortunately, it's not, instead it's a boy who started out powerless, and continued to be powerless despite working in Pharaoh's literal court. He didn't even have the power to not get possessed.

And I am sure there were other drafts, and endings are hard, and the author did get hella hospitalized while he wrote this season, animation is a miracle of many moving parts and budgets, and we were lucky to even get an ending to this show. So I don't want to sound like I'm complaining when there are so many worse directions this show could have gone. I'm just a little surprised it went this direction, mostly.

But say what you will about Yugioh, it doesn't like to be predictable, doesn't it?

+++++++++++++++++++OK I'M DONE++++++++++++++++++++++

Speaking of characters who haven't gained anything from being here, Tristan is no longer possessed!

Tristan begs his apologies and Yugi takes it gracefully. Which means, it's time for the main character of this entire show to finally re-enter the plot.

And they do so, in style.

Y'all I remember being excited about the look and style of extreme sports, but I do not remember this many heelies in the 00's.

Anyway, this is the link to read these in chrono order, you know the drill. See you next time to see yet another girlfriend biff it!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#yugioh #yugi muto #seto kaiba #bakura #yu gi oh #photo recap #S5 #YGO #theif king bakura #Tristan taylor #zorc necrophades

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irrealisms · 4 months

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Game Over. Try Again? liner notes

fic here if you haven't read it!

first thing i want to say is: this fic is heavily inspired by Samsara / 輪迴 by ForgivenMemes. if you're an mdzs fan and can handle the content warnings, go check it out.

some Actual Time Loop (rather than time travel) concepts that didn't get written: zam's last week of the server, from bedrock box to the wormhole. vitalasy on two birds/deliverance day.

however i did a lot of thinking about, like, who or what is causing the time loop? why? how can they break out? and eventually came to an answer: they're the ones causing the time loop, because they just keep trying and trying to make this work, long after it has become obvious that it can't work, because they love each other. so i wrote this instead. i could have given it a happier ending where vitalasy eventually breaks the time loop by Letting Go and Moving On to Season Five but this is thematically speaking ... the story we already got in s4? in canon, at the finale, vitalasy is able to let go of zam and move on to s5. so i wanted to make him a bit worse. also im obsessed with [cycles you cannot break and are trapped in forever].

it had to be vitalasy or zam because subz, after like two loops, would Simply Not Invite Zam. tbh. and out of vitalasy and zam, one of them already has Miscellaneous Glitch Powers, so.

relatedly: you don't get to see much of this in the fic but spoke (a) does not know what, exactly, vitalasy is doing to the server (b) does know that he's doing something. spoke would NOT be happy about the time travel. he worked so hard on the apocalypse!!!! it's the END of season four not the "okay now time to go back a few months". come on vitalasy where's the narrative catharsis

another fun fact from planning: if it had been a time loop proper and not time travel as controlled by vitalasy, they would've suspected spoke as behind it, but it absolutely would not have been spoke. spoke does not care enough about eclipse poly drama to put you in a time loop about it sorry guys

vitalasy paces a lot in this fic. that's a pretty common stressed/trapped animal thing. you see foxes do it a lot, in fur farms or pseudo-sanctuaries or generally abusive living conditions.

he also spins! that's just a vitalasy trait. watch any vod with vitalasy in it from a non-vitalasy pov and note how much he spins. it's a good trait. i wish i had included more of him spinning but i couldn't find a ton of good spots for it so he only spins once.

you know the thing life series fans say. "[character] never left [location]." none of eclipse federation ever left eclipse federation. now you may say, zam did very much leave eclipse federation, it was kind of a big deal that zam left eclipse federation? which is true! however. in the life series sense, none of them left eclipse federation, in that none of them are at all over it.

i think a lot about post-betrayal s4 eclipse federation. they're still hanging onto it. they hang onto it after and despite zam's betrayal, long after it's clear that it can't exist again like it did before. they keep trying and trying and trying even as it only becomes more and more apparent that the trying doesn't help. because they love each other. and that's what this fic is about.

sparrow called this out in the comments but. the multiple meanings of 'zam made their bed'. zam made their bed (physically, he placed it and designed it.) zam made their bed (physically, he made the covers nicer.) zam made their bed (he made this relationship what it was, you can't get rid of him without getting rid of that.) zam made their bed (now lie in it.)

i like the note of vitalasy putting his hearts in a chest for them at the end. he doesn't even know if subz and zam will keep existing in this timeline! and he didn't label it 'for subz'. zam is planning on betraying him that day and he still left the hearts for him, too. man!

also it's in glowing dyed ink to be a little reminiscent of All The Sign Rooms. my beta kelardry added that detail :3

here's a secret: i can, actually, imagine possibilities that went differently and ended up happier for eclipse. (most of them are "vitalasy replays subz's suicide enough that he successfully finds a way to get subz to agree to stay alive".) however, at that point, the fic would become canon divergence rather than time loop, so instead i made subz's suicide more of a fixed point. sorry vitalasy!

#my writing #therapists dni #any british ants in the chat?

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chirpsythismorning · 6 days

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Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.

After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.

This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.

But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...

Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.

Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.

But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.

One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.

The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.

Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.

Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.

Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.

What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.

While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.

Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.

This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.

Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.

Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.

Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.

We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?

Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…

Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.

It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.

And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.

If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.

This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.

I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.

And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?

I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.

The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!

And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.

While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.

Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.

And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.

Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.

This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.

Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.

The changes don't stop there.

Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.

Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:

And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:

Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?

Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...

I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.

And the changes go on, as they obviously would.

Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.

And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...

If you've made it this far, congratulations.

If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘

#byler #stranger things #willel twins #twelvegate #montauk #as you can see #i am out of my mind #and i'm okay with that #i've spent the last couple months trying to make a video going over all the willel twin evidence #and i can't decide if it's even possible to do without going over an hour #like there is just so much shit that fits too perfectly into this family being ripped apart by mind control and time shenanigans #i hope to have it done soon #trying to make it less than 20 minutes #but it's probably going to end up being closer to an hour #especially with this stuff from the montauk pitch being added to the mix now #anyways #willel and byler are the curtain behind the curtain #if you are open to one of them #you are bound to stumble across the other #and they don't want that to happen #stay tuned for the inevitable twin imagery to continue in s5 related to willel leading up to the big reveal #bc it's arguably the most consistent thing about this damn show #and tbh this all just makes the queer-coding for mike in s1 a lot more concrete to me #them exploring will's queerness through his dad's expectations for him to do more 'manly' things like play baseball #and jonathan saying he shouldn't like things just bc people telll him he's supposed to #how they connect that narratively with the boys being at a baseball field when mike's being pressured about his supposed feelings for el #with the bullies showing up and literally being homophobic seconds later #the fact that jennifer hayes did in fact exist in the original pilot and was the girl mike had a crush on #only for them to scrap that and just make it about her having a crush on will...#never once introducing this idea of mike liking her...

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raayllum · 9 months

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Anyway I wanna talk about hands in Finnegrin’s Wake

This is not my last or even my deepest meta dive on the episode by any means but I’m a bitch who appreciates consistent symbolism and the Hand Motif is on fire this episode so like, let’s talk about it.

The first thing to establish is the (understandable) importance of hands in Callum’s mage arc, given that you draw runes with your hands and hold magical objects, etc. This is in line with primal magic yes

but also with dark magic, highlighted explicitly in S4.

By being tied to primal / Sky magic, Callum’s hands (and ability to use them to help his friends, do magic, etc) is tied to freedom. This is also linked to chains/bondage with Rayla’s wrist binding and dark magic, metaphorically, for Callum. So it makes sense that 5x08, an episode that is very much about primal and dark magic and subsequent themes of freedom vs control is likewise obsessed with this hand motif.

However, I want to talk about Rayla, and Callum, and how the hand motif, dark magic use, and Callum’s connection to the Ocean arcanum are set up this season. Briefly on the last one (that can be a meta on its own I want to dive into, pun intended, in tandem with adding S4′s development to it) because post for another day, but I think it’s worthwhile to mention.

For starters, there’s Finnegrin having a direct callback to Callum’s line from 5x04 with Rayla (which is also being paralleled to Viren and Claudia’s “I’ll do anything” in 5x03 an episode prior). And with Callum’s hand clasped over his wrist, foreshadowing the ‘anything’ he’ll do will be to literally undo his chains (and to metaphorically take some on) in order to save Rayla by the end of the episode.

But we see Callum repeat this “wrist rubbing” motion a few times this episode (pin in it for later) in addition to the repeated emphasis in S5 with Callum always being the one to reach for / take Rayla’s hand. Although she and Callum are undoubtedly in a much better place than they were in S4 in repairing their relationship, Rayla still initiates almost zero contact with him across the course of S4 and S5 (grabbing his elbow and wiping his drool away when he’s asleep in 4x03; placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder in 4x09; resting her head on his shoulder in 5x02; touching his face in 5x08 to provide comfort).

This is a far cry from how touchy-feely she is with him in Arc 1, initiating much more contact than he does, but in S4 and S5 we see this switch around; almost anytime they’re being physically affectionate, Callum is the one initiating.

However, one thing hasn’t changed, and it’s that Callum is almost always the one, across seasons, to initiate handholds (3x01 and the back half of S3 once they’re a couple being the exceptions). And S4 (4x09) and S5 are no exception.

Okay, great, he holds her hand. So what? Well...

In 5x08, Callum does dark magic again outright and connects to the Ocean arcanum primarily out of love for her. As confirmed by the writers on twitter, Callum had to accept exactly what he says in 5x08 about the ocean - that it’s about unfathomable depths, embracing the unknown (even or especially when it scares you) and accepting that there are things you can’t control. And the lack of answers about Rayla’s whereabouts, “I don’t know how to feel about Rayla either,” and “I have to go after him” “I know” helped pave the way for Callum to reach those conclusions in 5x01 and 5x08 alike: “To love is to simply know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep.” And that realization included accepting that he’d done dark magic (and would do dark magic) to protect her.

So it’s not surprising, therefore, that while connecting to the Ocean arcanum, Callum looks at his hand, and rubs the same wrist as before, almost like he’s mimicking the crushing motion he would’ve done with the slug.

Or indeed that it’s a gesture Viren does in his dark magic induced dreams, and during Callum’s arcanum speech, either, if inversed.

Callum is accepting that the depths he can’t see, his “I would do anything for you” promises and inclinations, are a (dark) path he can’t entirely see and understand, but something he knows lives inside him, and has for a long time: “But not everything’s changed.”

Darkness equals dark magic equals chains, and Callum has enough self awareness (that Viren did not) to know more so of what he’s walking into, and that’s precisely why it scares him. Why, by the end of 5x08, even as it’s revealed how he got his chains off, it’s clear they’re not gone. Not really. Not to him. Especially considering now he knows exactly where dark magic leads in ways he didn’t before in 2x07: Aaravos. (“As long as we protect each other, as long as we love each other, you can never control us” and now Callum knows that isn’t necessarily true, because he gave up the info to Finnegrin, and he willingly took another step down a dangerous path.)

Which is why I love that Rayla is the one to reach for him, to gently touch his shoulder and then his face and pull him into a hug. And I love the way Callum hesitates to place his hands - powerful, ‘tainted,’ chained - around her like another link in said chain, so different and yet so similar from their hug in 2x04 about a lack of magic, and now having arguably too much. And all of it - the dark magic use, the metaphorical and literal chains, the devotional key of the Ocean arcanum, the hands - synonymous with his love for Rayla.

#tdp callum #tdp #rayllum #tdp meta #the dragon prince #hand motif #callum #multi #s5 #5x08 #could do a whole thing on elmer and how he thematically connects to the possession plot line but again #meta for another day <3 #analysis series #tdp spoilers #s5 spoilers #analysis #yes i Did hurt my own feelings writing this one thank you for asking #the fact i stayed so on topic for this one is Truly Incredible i think #i would do anything for you

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fabyzay-blog · 1 month

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The one where two ex-lovers meet again in a reality TV show.

Hi! When I was first reading LITG S5 I wrote a little something to help me understand the plot better because I love details and we were bearly getting any. So a wrote what I was thinking about how Suresh and my MC (Rays) met.

It was always meant to be just for me but I was browsing on my computer the other day and decided to share it here. (English is not my first lenguage so I apologize for any errors)

Summer 2022

Rays entered the Love Island Villa hoping to finally move on from Suresh. This was her new beginning, her chance to open herself up to love again. But what she didn’t expect was for him to be there too.

Rays thought she had left him behind, that her wounds were finally healed, and that she was ready to move on to someone new. But then she looked into his emerald, green eyes again and all the feelings that were locked away in the deepest parts of her heart a year and so ago came back like a bucket of cold water.

He looked just like she remembered, his hair perfectly slick back, clothes that fit perfectly (purple swim trunks, her favorite color), and that confident cocky grin that always adorned his face.

He looked perfect, just like the first time she met him almost three years ago.

August 2019

Rays was good at her job. She was just an intern, but she worked her ass off to be the one to get promoted to writer before the end of the year.

So, when her boss asked one of the interns to take care of everything the attorneys the law firm had sent to take care of the merging the company was going through at the time, she did not hesitate to volunteer herself to the task. This did not fall within her usual responsibilities at the magazine she worked at, but she was going to be the best assistant those pretentious lawyers have ever had.

However, she did not expect the job to be this hard, and it was all because of him. Suresh De Silva.

The team was composed of two lawyers. Andrea who was in her forties, and barely needed her for anything. Suresh on the other hand was younger, closer to Rays age, smoking hot, and was always calling her over to the conference room the company had given them to work in.

He needed coffee, and documents she had forwarded to him thousands of times before, among many other things she could have given him the previous day or sent over in an email. She did not complain even once, she wanted that promotion, and the fact that he was so good-looking made her forget he made her go to his office multiple times a day. With time the dynamics started to change between them, he started to be the one to bring her a coffee and go to her cubicle every once in a while to get what he needed.

There was some tension between them from the beginning, but they never acted on it, after all, they both had to keep it professional.

One day Suresh came without Andrea to the office, so he asked Rays to work with him in the conference room instead of her cubicle so that she could keep him company and she agreed. They barely got any work done that day, they got to know one another, gave each other side glances, and flirted at every chance they could.

By the end of August Andrea and Suresh had finished their work at the magazine, and after weeks of flirting with each other their flirty banter in the office was over. She never asked for his personal number and neither did he, so she did not see him again, until three weeks later.

It was almost the end of September when Rays and a few of her friends decided to try a new club on the posh side of town in hopes of finding a rich guy who would pay for their drinks instead of the guys that frequent the club they always went to. After a few hours, she had already got a few free drinks and turned down a couple of guys trying to get her to go home with them that night, all of which she rejected.

She had spotted Suresh half an hour ago while she was dancing with a redhead, he was a few meters away from her dancing with a brunette.

He also noticed her half an hour ago, neither of them approached the other, they were playing a game. The teasing game and the one to stop teasing the other first would lose.

She grabbed the redhead by the neck and started grinding on him, biting his earlobe, and kissing his neck, all while looking at Suresh straight in the eyes. He started whispering into the brunette's ear and then they walked away to a corner of the club, he started kissing the girl's neck, all while looking at Rays straight in the eyes. So naturally Rays started making out with the guy she was with, her body facing towards Suresh, he could see the way they were kissing and his wild hands on her ass.

He wished that those were his lips, his hands. He parted away from the brunette to go to the bar, technically losing the teasing game but confident that he would be winning something else tonight.

When Rays stopped kissing the redhead she no longer saw Suresh. She cursed to herself thinking that he had taken the game to another level with the brunette and her plan had backfired on her. But after doing a quick scan of the club she spotted him, alone at the bar, staring at her with a cocky grin. She excused herself to go get a drink and made her way to Suresh.

“Having fun out there” he said to her when she finally arrived at the bar.

“I am” she answered “You?”

“I am, but not as much as we could have together,” he said confidently while sipping his drink. She gave him a flirty smile while getting closer to him, so close that he could smell the coconut shampoo of her hair and the sweet perfume on her skin.

“What makes you think I could have more fun with you tonight?” She whispered in his ear, making him shiver.

“I have a couple of ideas” He whispered back to her, she bit her lip and stroked his arm.

“Do you want to get out of here?” She asked him, and as quickly as they could they were walking out of the club together towards his car.

That night in September started them into this dangerous game of being friends with benefits. With time the nights together started to become days and mornings waking up in each other's arms. That translated into getting coffee before work together and fancy dinner dates.

By the beginning of October, the lines of their relationship started to get blurry, she had a key to his place, and he had a drawer in hers.

By the middle of October, they realized they were kind of more that fuck buddies and decided to give it a go at a relationship.

And even though she was his first proper girlfriend Suresh was a great boyfriend to Rays. He was spontaneous, adventurous, loving, and caring. He showed her a word she didn't know. Growing up with a single mother, Rays had barely gotten out of Edinburgh, but she had a bucket list of places she wanted to visit, and Suresh made it his mission to show them to her, to make sure they visit all those places together.

She was everything he didn't know he needed, his sunshine, he wanted her to be happy and always feel loved and protected by him because he did, he loved her with everything in him. He loved her, his family loved her, even the cat who hated everyone loved her.

She was it for him.

He was everything she ever dreamed, everything she wanted. She loved him, her family loved him because they saw how happy he made her all the time.

He was it for her.

Summer 2022

Rays remembers everything from the beginning of their relationship. She remembered how he made her feel, all the love she felt for him, and how loved he made her feel all the time.

But that was a long time ago.

Now looking at him she could only feel hate and hurt.

She remembered all the tears, the therapy sessions, the sleepless nights, and how broken she felt when she found out he cheated on her. How her world fell apart, and how stupid she felt for buying that ring the same day he decided to throw their relationship away.

However, looking at him again after all this time and under the hate and the hurt she was feeling, she knew that she never stopped loving him. And at that moment Rays realized that a part of her would always love Suresh.

This was going to be one heck of a summer.

#litg suresh #litg s5 #litg ex in the villa #love island the game #litg #suresh x mc #I hope someone read this jaja

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leaisterrified · 5 months

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Some thoughts on AtS s5

im watching angel season 5 for the first time and i honestly dont get why angel keeps trying??

i mean like, in buffys finale before he disappears into the shadows they have this whole thing with the cookie dough analogy, and them being all "maybe someday [we could make this work]" . and angel pretty much confirms that no matter how much he loves cordy (or his other friends for that matter) (and i still dont think angel ever actually had romantic feelings for cordy) (but thats a whole other thing) he'd still go back to buffy if he was given the option,

so, like, i just dont get why he doesn't give up the whole shanshu destiny thing (resign it all to spike since he wants it so bad) and use wolfram and harts endlessly plot convenient resources to track down one of those big green guys that made him human in ATS season 1, and then just book himself a flight to europe

maybe he's just too valiant and championy to give up the fight for the greater good, but like there was a whole episode about how his heart isn't even in it anymore. becoming human in the end was like the one thing keeping him going, and he doesn't even has that anymore. barely. when he can genuinely just stop waiting to trip over his 'destiny' and go get it. he's the only (established character) alive who knows the only way a vampire can become a human again (now that cordy's gone) and he's just holding onto that information for himself and maybe im just like making a big deal out of a little early 'what if' episode. that gave us a little bit of lore they're probably going to effectively ret-con by introducing some new bit of lore that makes it all meaningless. but STILL.

i get how before buffy was the slayer, and she had this responsibility to protect the world and guard the hellmouth and kill the vampires and what not, and if angel couldn't fight he'd just be a liability to her ,

but thats not even an issue anymore because like. they activated every single potential slayer. theres about a few thousand potential buffys that can do the job just as well, or they wouldn't've been chosen. and theres at least like two of angel at the moment, if they removed themselves from the fight now the fallout wouldn't be nuclear anymore or anything

they've reached this point where they could have the normal lives they always wanted they're just refusing to go get them??

#angel the series #angelus #buffyverse #word vomit #dont get me wrong #im a major spuffy fan #bangel will always unfortunately be endgame in my heart #and they could be. endgame. like RIGHT NOW.#could've been an email

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connorshalstead · 1 year

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A few opinions about Chicago Med below unpopular, popular, I dunno, y’all decide!

Ava’s character had so much potential, but the way the producers wrote her relationship with Connor screwed her over.

As much as I love Rhodestead, I really, REALLY wish Manstead would’ve worked out. Albeit, give Will some therapy and teach him how to treat a woman !!

If we couldn’t have Manstead, we should’ve at the very least had Jeff Clarke with Natalie, he genuinely cares about her, but at the time, she was in love with Will. I wish they had more time together.

Elsa sucks. Period. I get, that it’s fiction and she’s meant to be quirky and not an average doctor? But she’s such an asshole to patients that I can’t respect her as a doctor.

Natalie should’ve had an arc where she was transferred to the peds department permanently. She would’ve thrived there.

I don’t like Nina. I understand people that do, but she’s personally not for me, I think her and Will’s relationship was… pointless? It was only to make Will realize he was truly in love with Natalie. Which, didn’t matter in the end cause of how badly their relationship ended.

The way Sarah left was absolutely insulting to her character and her relationship with Dr. Charles. Biggest punch to the gut ever as someone who relates strongly to Sarah.

Connor’s best arc was becoming a heart surgeon under Downey’s guidance. Their friendship was too short and underrated.

Lanik deserved so much more screen time. He was the best E.D. Chief and should’ve gotten more appreciation.

Maggie carries the show, I take not disagreeing on this one actually. /hj

April honestly deserves to be happy. She’s been through so much shit, and she and Ethan DESERVED that happy ending.

The “safe” drug use site was maybe Will’s worst decision. Next to Jennifer Baker and taking care of Burke.

And leaving Natalie in the dark ^

As bad as I feel for both Natalie and Will, she had no right to treat Will the way she did, having lost her memory or not.

There was a point where I DID NOT like Natalie. She was flat-out emotionally abusive to Will when he genuinely did care about her and tried to help.

That being said, Will still has faults. He should’ve absolutely given her space after the breakup and the Burke situation.

And I know he’s a highly secondary character but, I can’t help but feel bad for Owen? He saw Will as his dad, he was probably the first male figure he saw after he was born for… quite a while? It was shitty of Natalie to completely separate them. Especially after how much Will cared about him.

Second, to all of that, Philip was fucking pointless.

Ben was the best thing to happen to Maggie as well.

Jesus Christ, I feel like these people go through fiancés like cigarettes. (April with Tate, and in S5, Ethan)

And Natalie with Jeff, then Will?

Like, let people get married?? What is Dick Wolf so scared of? (Gay ppl probably)

Will deserves a STABLE RELATIONSHIP with a good person, not an ex-drug addict (who he fought with constantly and THEN SHE ASKED HIM TO GO TO LA WITH HER?), not Natalie, and Connor is gone so… :/ Idk, give him and Nina another chance even???

I really wish we got more “casual” crossover content. Like, I wanna see scenes of Casey, Severide, the Halstead brothers, Upton and maybe even Ruzek? Just hanging out at Molly’s :(

I really think Sarah and Connor were a missed opportunity. Especially with all the weird shit that happened in the first two seasons? It wouldn’t have been too far-fetched.

Better than Sarah and Joey 😭

Sarah deserved a love interest and someone to help carry her burdens. That girl had been through enough

Along with wanting Will to have a stable relationship, we should’ve gotten more Reesestead scenes…

Crockett is kind of a dick…? Especially to Ethan in his earlier episodes. But, he’s redeemable.

I really like Noah! But, I think he’s better suited as an E.D. doctor, not a surgeon.

Also, as much as I LOVE April and want to say she does no wrong, the way she treated Noah was extremely childish and unfair. He truly could handle himself and him becoming a surgeon goes to show that.

Finally, Chicago Med is absolutely shit at trans and gay representation. To the point of sometimes blatant transphobia in some episodes… (Looking at Claire…)

Thank you for reading, and remember that these are my opinions ! Feel free to disagree but remember, sending death threats is a crime !! Respect people’s opinions.

#chicago med #one chicago #will halstead #connor rhodes #sarah reese #rhodestead #manstead #natalie manning #daniel charles #sharon goodwin #unpopular take #opinions #hannah asher #ava bekker

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avatarskywalker78 · 1 month

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How did your Cobra Kai/Karate Kid OCs come to be?

So, the first was Nicky Connors and she came about the same way most of my OCs came about - to give one of my favourite characters a friend, with the added layer of 'what if Johnny had a friend outside of karate who tried to help him but wasn't able to' and I was drawn to this concept as it developed into 'what if Johnny had a friend outside of Cobra Kai who still wanted to learn karate but wasn't allowed in Cobra Kai itself because John Kreese is an asshole' and I really loved this idea, and the OC herself as she grew, of how she sees Johnny and the rest of the Cobras as friends, as people who are just being led down a very bad path and yet being unable to really stop that because she's only one person, and sometimes one person isn't enough to help...only for it to turn out that she does have some influences (and later, her friendships with all of them get repaired after they make amends.)

As for her adopted son James in the CK era, I'd already decided that Nicky couldn't have biological kids, but wasn't bothered by this in the slightest and was happy to adopt - she was going to have a whole bunch of kids to start with, but honestly I think just the one is fine.

Now, the Barnes family started out as side characters in my first Mike fic, trying to settle (the ghosts of my past). I wrote this around three months before S5 came out and by this point I'd given up on watching past S4's mid-point because the whole thing was so bad, but I'd heard rumours that Mike would be returning in S5 and would likely join Cobra Kai and that pissed me off because of all the antagonists he has the least stakes in the situation - like he didn't know and probably wouldn't care about the history, he was literally paid to be there and sure, he lost out on the big payday but like. That was ultimately down to Kreese and Silver for making it complicated instead of just reopening CK anyway.

So then I thought 'what if Mike went and had a normal life with a family and had no interest in being dragged into another insane revenge plot', so that's what happened, and what I wrote of Leah and Elaine and Alex I liked (especially Elaine and her plan to set fire to the CK merchandise that was sent, like the chaotic streak was there already). Elaine herself became more established after S5 came out - I didn't watch it, but I was delighted to find out my prediction about Mike was correct, like he did go on to have a normal life! And he was still in the Valley so his family would be too, and I was always annoyed by the Sam-Tory fight so I thought 'what if someone stopped it' followed by 'what if that someone was Elaine' and hey presto, a fic was born! And I also gave more details about her older sister Sarah because I hadn't mentioned her yet. Leah became more developed after I took what canon gave us - co-owner of the furniture store, which she'd inherited from her father who had also been Mike's boss back in the day.

Gemma is an interesting one - because she initially started out as Johnny's daughter from a previous relationship, Robby's older sister, though the jury was out on whether Johnny knew about her or not. This version of her I had for at least a few months, but it didn't go ahead because:

When it comes to creating legacy OCs, especially children, I have to have some kind of connection to the canon character in question, some element of 'they'd be a good dad' and I just wasn't getting that with Johnny

I also didn't see how I could make this story fresh - Johnny's already abandoned one kid, do we really need to see that rehashed?

Then when I was writing my Cobra Kai Mini Rewrites I realised I was much more invested in having him repair his relationship with his actual, canon kid - but I wasn't going to give up on the OC after how much work I'd put into it, so I thought ' what if she was his cousin', which soon sparked off a whole thing about Laura's family because we know very little, but my headcanon was always that she was kicked out at 18 after falling pregnant with Johnny and I thought 'what if she had a much younger sister who came looking for her decades later and had a kid' because I love tragic family dynamics, but also I just found the idea of Johnny having an aunt who could be his sister and a cousin who could be his niece, because the age thing makes it a bit strange for him.

Also I liked the idea of having the running joke of 'I know she looks like my kid but she's not my kid' with most people Gemma runs into assuming this because they look very similar - and sometimes she'll play up to this solely to troll Johnny because it's very funny to do so.

talk shop tuesday

#answering my asks #thanks for asking!#talk shop tuesday #oc: nicky connors #oc: leah barnes #oc: elaine barnes #oc: sarah barnes #oc: alex barnes #oc: gemma laura mckinney #oc: lizzie mckinney #oc: james connors #karate kid #cobra kai

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kisilinramblings · 1 year

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Was wondering why a lot of people said Adrien almost has no agency and having codependent relationship with Marinette in this season and your reply to that anon enlighten me greatly. So, thank you!

Tbh I myself thought this will be the season for Adrien to finally step up his game. I mean, the whole s4 is about Marinette role transition from being a holder to guardian so it just make senses (for me) that this season would be about Adrien. And in a way, it does, but not in the way I like it.

It's good that he decided to focus to be a good boyfriend for Marinette as it will be a good lesson for a young kid, but the fact that's the only thing he could focused on his life at the moment is disturbing. All because he's NOT allowed to know more things because no one tell him anything and thus limited his own agency.

Where's his reaction when Ladybug didn't show up? Why he never ask what actually happened in s4? He forgive her without even knowing what he forgive her for and it's not good. Why Felix doesn't even said anything about Gabriel? Why Nathalie doesn't?

If what people said about the fairy tale Nath and Marc created in s4 foreshadowing a plot where Marinette as Adrien sole savior is true, I would definitely hate it if Marinette become the one who solve the Agreste mess without Adrien knowing that there's a problem in the first place. That just not the ending I want for Adrien.

You're welcome but please, let us all keep in mind though that while the narrative focus on Adrien and Marinette romantic relationship, the biggest obstacle to Adrien's freedom (and agenda) is Gabriel himself.

It is Gabriel who forbids Adrien to do things. It is Gabriel who is imposing his will and agenda (the contract with Tomoe) on Adrien. It is Gabriel who gives this illusion of choice to Adrien.

Like we got some cases this season of Adrien asking his father for permission and have Gabriel replies "But of course you can, you are free" while sounding hypocrite about it. And Adrien isn't asking just out of politeness. He is asking because he feels obligated to wait for his father's decision for everything.

It is not mere coincidence we get this after Adrien asked to not be a model anymore at the beginning of this season.

Adrien asks for some autonomy? Gabriel allows it only when it doesn't go against Gabriel's interests. Been there since S1 of course, but more focus gets put now that Gabriel pretends to be more present in Adrien's life.

Also, remember what was Adrien's buried childhood dream back in Wishmaker? To become whatever his parents wanted him to be. Now, we have an Adrien who is going against his father's wishes (unless Amok's magic is at play whether we like it or not).

Yes, Adrien could have a bit more independant scenes, but for S5, it doesn't bother me as much as some because I do see a growth in his character. Though I do wish for one more episode or two centered on Ladynoir's relationship. We know they are in good terms and Ladybug (finally) accepting Chat Noir's helping hand at the end of Strike Back despite having lost everything and entrusting Chat Noir with the Rabbit Miraculous (a very powerful and dangerous Miraculous mind you) did a lot in mending the gap that was created between. But yes, I too would have liked to have a bit more continuity with a few more episodes focused on the hero personas and there is 6-7 episodes to go so maybe? Still, I understand that the narrative focus for now is with what is going on in the civilian side.

You asked : "Where's his reaction when Ladybug didn't show up?"

And I'm sorry, I am not sure of understanding to what you are referring too. Do you mean during the Kwami's choice? I can't say for sure but I know that after Hack-San, Adrien trusts Scarabella. That she replaces LB when LB cannot be there to protect Paris. And in the interview at the beginning of Deflagration, for security measure, no detail was given and Adrien understands that too. But it also shown us that Adrien without Plagg, without being Chat Noir, without his friends (basically without his connections) is in a depressive state alone at home. It was even illustrated before Plagg left (aka that one shot during Jubilation showing Adrien's room being a mess). So, there is something lingering in his character, but it is also very in character for him to put it in a drawer and not look back at it... until it blows that is.

Why Felix doesn't even said anything about Gabriel? Why Nathalie doesn't?

Can't say for Félix, but it looks like he is one to take actions for supposedly another's sake, without waiting for them to ask nor consulting with said character first.

But out of the two, I so wish Nathalie would be the one to reveal some truths to Adrien. Especially since she has the other half of the Graham de Vanily ring. And during the episode Félix, she is the one who pushes Gabriel to tell the truth to Adrien. We however don't know which truth she was refering to. But like she also said back then : the longer someone waits, the harder it gets to reveal the truth.

If it is about Adrien being a sentihuman, there is the possibility she is respecting a wish made from Émilie, especially if there is a fear of othering here.

As for letting Adrien knows that his father is Monarch, it may be yet again a way to protect him, to preserve his innocence in this. Especially since Gabriel is doomed anyway. I think she considers it is for the best.

In both cases, it seems Nathalie is taking the "ignorance is bliss" route.

About the Fairy Tale analogy, yes, the imagery is there, but I'm going to use a direct quote from Protection here.

Marc : [Y]ou two just turn off your brain, follow the comic book, kiss each other and that's it! End of the show. Everything is magically sorted out. Nathaniel : Hence the name Magic Kiss. Marinette : I'm not so sure. What are you basing that on? Marc : Just about every fairy tale, shoujo manga and Hollywood romantic comedy ever. Adrien : Oh? And it works in real life too? Who knew?

And what happens in the very next scene? No kiss, just Marinette and Adrien being miserable. The opposite of the friends' (read audience's) expectations of how it would turn out to be.

Meaning the show is self aware here. Yes, the writers are using imagery, analogies, metaphors and codes/tropes of the romantic comedy genre. But they will do it with their own twist.

For example, on top of the princess tropes in fairy tales, they are using the good old narrative of a [young royal / noble] wanting to be with the person their heart choose rather than the person imposed to them. With the main villain calling himself Monarch. And they are paralleling somehow Émilie and "Gabi" loves story when they were young themselves. So there is a goal. There is this window of the heroes could potentially become like the villain.

Anyway, the story focusing its second half of S5 on Marinette and Adrien's romantic relationship is their way of tying the civilian and the hero's arc as one. At least, that is how I perceive it. It's Maribug and Adrichat vs Gabonarch.

I understand the fear of Maribug being the Knight in Shiny Armor Savior. At the same time, it is ironically what Argos tried to do during Emotion with the result we have seen. Argos did litteraly remove Adrien from the narrative, in order to do his coup meant to "save them" before making Adrien coming back and we have seen the results. Adrien was legitimately upset at his cousin.

Hopefully, Adrichat will have his own mission during the finale. At least, if Gabonarch isn't unabling / using him in the first place.

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 5 #ml s5 spoilers #ml spoilers #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #nathalie sanscoeur #félix fathom #ml emotion #ml pretension #ml s5ep18 #ml s5ep19 #welcome to the agreste mess

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