#but bookend threads of the beginning of them and the later of them

[emmxax]

Types Of Story Endings

https://www.scribophile.com/academy/how-to-end-a-story1. Circular ending

Sometimes called a tied ending or a full circle ending, a circular ending brings the story “full circle” back around to where it began—with subtle differences that show how your characters have grown within their world. Most stories that follow the Hero’s Journey story archetype have a circular plot structure. The protagonist goes on a grand adventure, learns and experiences new things, and then returns to the life they once had, but changed.

You can use themes, settings, literary devices, or turns of phrase to link your beginning to your end and create a circular story. This is sometimes called the “Bookend Effect.” In a short story, it’s an almost foolproof way to give the reader a sense of completion. For instance, you could open with your main character coming in out of the rain, and then close with them snuggling under the covers listening to the rain fall. The image of the rain “bookends” the story and makes the reader feel they’ve reached a satisfying conclusion.

In larger works, such as a novel, your bookends can be a place where your story starts and stops, a thematic idea that your character was working to understand at the beginning of the story, or a metaphor that has taken on new meaning.

2. Resolved ending

A resolved ending ties up all the loose ends in your story. Shakespeare was a big fan of resolved story endings; so was Jane Austen. Readers of the romance genre have grown to expect resolved endings, which usually involve everyone living happily ever after (except the villain, who slinks off into obscurity).

Your resolved ending doesn’t necessarily have to be a happily ever after, but it should give the reader a sense of fulfillment. For now, at least, everyone’s story has reached its finish line and there’s nothing left to say. This means tying off all your artfully crafted subplots, addressing all of the dramatic questions raised at the beginning of the story, and ensuring that any lingering secrets have been laid to rest.

Giving your story a resolved ending doesn’t mean that your characters’ lives won’t go on beyond the last page in the book. It means that this particular chapter of their lives has come to a close, and now they can embrace a blank slate from which to begin a new one.

3. Unresolved ending

The unresolved story ending leaves loose threads so that the story can continue after the book is closed. This is especially popular with books in a longer series. When you end your story on a cliffhanger, your readers remain engaged with your story until they get a chance to read what happens in the next one.

Even when you use an unresolved ending to close your story, it should still have that essential sense of completion by the end. You wouldn’t finish the entire book the way you’d finish a chapter. By the time you reach the ending to a story, the major, central conflicts of the plot should be resolved and your characters should reach a resting place between battles. However, an unresolved ending will leave some questions unanswered, and raise new ones about the future of your characters and their world. It’ll always give the reader the feeling that the story continues after the last page.

4. Ambiguous ending

The purpose of an ambiguous ending is to make your readers think. Like an unresolved ending, the ambiguous story ending leaves some lingering questions at the end of the book. The difference is that with an unresolved ending, the reader needs to wait to get the answers from the writer later on. With an ambiguous ending, the reader can reflect on the story and look for answers within themselves.

The best ambiguous endings offer two or more equally conceivable possibilities. For example, your story may end with a separated couple agreeing to meet for coffee. Do they get back together? Or do they get the closure they need so they can move on? Both are within range, and it’s up to the reader to decide what they believe the real truth to be.

Ending the story ambiguously is also a great way to bring your readers together. It will make them want to compare ideas in forums, discussion groups, or with friends. Ambiguous endings engage the reader in a creative and cognitive way.

5. Unexpected ending

Commonly known as the “twist ending,” this ending gives the story one dramatic, final turn as it reaches its close. This works like a literary sleight-of-hand—you tell the reader, “Look, here, at this perfectly incongruous hat!” while your story mechanics are working to create something much more powerful and surprising.

Even though your story ending may be unexpected, it still has to make sense within the world you’ve created. This means laying the groundwork in bits and pieces through plot, character, and setting in a way that slips beneath the reader’s notice, but that they can easily refer back to in their memory as they consider the ending of your story.

This type of ending is the cornerstone of mystery novels. Through genre convention, readers have grown to expect an ending that will shock and delight them, but in a way that feels like a natural progression of the story. Done skillfully, the unexpected ending can pack a huge emotional punch and secure you a fan for life.

6. Expanded ending

Also known as an epilogue, this is a second, smaller story built out of your story’s ending. This gives the writer space to explore what happens after the story’s close, and to address any last questions the reader may have. Do the hero and heroine ever see each other again after they save the world? Does the little girl really grow up to be a doctor like she always wanted? Does the misogynistic young pilot ever grow out of his flaws and become a better person? These are all things that you may not have space for inside your story, but you still want to share with the reader to give them a fuller understanding of your story world.

The expanded story ending gives your readers a little more time with your characters before they have to say goodbye. As readers, we understand that their story goes on even after our role of observer has ended. This isn’t meant to be a resolution to your plot, but rather a window into what the next chapter of life holds in store for the characters we’ve grown to love.

7. Reflective ending

A reflective ending happens when the protagonist is able to look back at their experiences and consider them through the lens of their growth over the course of the story. They may ask themselves, “Was it really worth it, in the end? Did I do the right thing? How different does the world appear, now that I know the things I do?” This creates one final, intimate connection with the reader as they explore these ideas together.

This reflection might happen if the character is looking back at an event from their youth, or if their circumstances have changed dramatically through the events of the plot. This type of ending is popular in fantasy and science fiction—for instance, if the character returns to the “real world” after a period of intense fantastical experiences—as well as in creative nonfiction, where the author may be reflecting on some formative events in their life.

SOURCE:

https://www.scribophile.com/academy/how-to-end-a-story

#writing #prompts #motivation #writiers on tumblr #wattpad #ao3

[elaine4queen]

I have submitted to the tyranny of the foot. A foot injury makes even small tasks difficult and tiring. I went to the hospital yesterday because it had flared up very badly after a week of mostly rest, but the weekend required at least two brief walks with the dog. 

I book a block of dog walks and resign myself to an indoor life. In the scheme of things it hardly matters. I won’t have a change of scenery for writing to, but at least the dog’s needs will be met.

The triage nurse told me to do some movement with it, but not to overdo it, and that healing might take a few weeks. At any rate it’s sunny so I can do a laundry and hang it out. This time of year line drying feels like a proper treat. Having the laundry on always makes me feel productive, even though it’s a machine doing the work. Writing slows down. It’s okay, I tell myself, don’t worry about it. This week I have a visit to Louise in Manchester and the Writer’s Group in Lewes, so I will see the world outside a bit. The hypnotic view of traffic on Thursday, bookending a short visit, and then the focus of the group on Friday. It’s Terry’s turn for feedback on his manuscript, and I have to do the reading for that yet.

Slow down, slow down, slow down and stop.

The Accident and Emergency text me asking how my experience with them on Sunday was. I give them top marks, because really, I had barely any time to complain on social media about having to be there. They text back to ask what was good about it and also if there was anything they could do better. I write

I was seen quickly but not rushed. I disclosed my autism and when I needed extra help with directions between X ray and triage and back everyone was kind and considerate. The injury was explained well to me, as well as what I should do next.

I came in the main entrance after parking in a disabled bay nearby, as I expected there wouldn't be any parking near A&E. The signage is not great from there, and it would have been a lot simpler to have walked up the hill outside, which is how I walked back. I had a foot injury so the walking wasn't great, but really the thing that made me feel upset was the signage and lack of it.

I didn’t mention that I was actually in tears by the time I actually found A&E which is several corridors and at least two different lifts away from the main entrance because I didn’t want them to know that. It’s still hard to acknowledge how shaming anxiety is even though I know it’s a massive part of being neurodivergent for a lot of people. It’s also exhausting metabolising waves and waves of signage, and terrifying when it’s missing.

When I got home I saw that Jim had commented that I should read the QR code on my wristband and see what it said about me. I replied 

It says ‘Whiney middle class old lady with sore foot. Pretend to X ray her and kick her out PDQ’.

And this kicked off a whole thread of other suggestions, which was fun.

***

The week passes quickly. I spend Wednesday reading Terry’s submission. I spend so much time marking up typos that it takes until Thursday for me to realise what was especially good about the content. He’s describing his parents young adult lives, and the writing, like the action, is gritty and granular. His writing is so pacy that it’s easy to ignore the emotional depth, for instance, of the killing of his mother’s brother in the war. He points to her devastation by comparing it to the beginning of the devastation of London itself.

Later, he describes a fight between his father and his father’s brother. A fight in a culture where men hitting each other is commonplace, but the particulars about who benefits from what conditions in a fight between two men of different heights. It’s so visceral I can almost feel my own shoulders move in a dodge and weave as I read it.

#hospital #reading #original writing #actually adhd #actually autistic #brighton

[cryptiique]

( @mysteriene )

                    when commander shepard declared her resignation from active duty, there was a great deal of backlash. the galaxy still needs her. the alliance needs her. a spectre doesn’t simply quit. ( if anything, they die. ) won’t she become bored, after a life spent with far more thrills than anyone can expect in a single lifetime? is she too valuable to be allowed rest? but then ━ hasn’t she earned it? haven’t they all earned it?

                    it is decided that they have ━ or rather, her wife has decided. and the galaxy learns as well as emiko already knows that liara t’soni ( not even needing to mention the shadow broker ) is very difficult to refuse.

                    the sun rises lazily over the shore, spreading its beams into their little house. the light grants the waves and the sand a shimmering effect, as though the entire planet is a massive crystal. emiko rises not long after the sun itself. she slips from the comfort of their bed with a soft kiss to her wife’s forehead and takes her place upon a mat set before a wall of open glass doors leading out to a deck. it always seemed like an impossible dream when they spoke about taking some time away, somewhere nice. somewhere with a beach. 

                    she doesn’t need to wake liara just yet. she will rise when she likes. in the meantime, she practices her early stretching ━ her cybernetics still creak, and the freshly grown skin grafts protest slightly against the movement. but she is alive. a warm, open smile remains upon her lips as she slowly practices, listening to the sound of her wife’s breathing.

#* ｡✧ ━ ⦅ character: emiko. ⦆ #mysteriene #:3cccccccc #sliiiides this to you as well #don't mind me #but bookend threads of the beginning of them and the later of them #bc............ #soft............ #beach house.............

[aggresivelyfriendly]

Hello loveys! Here is chapter four of

‘Tis the Damn Season

~Let It Snow~

Thanks to @dirtystyles for the beta and late night video mining thanks it Night Niki!

Enjoy! Reblogs are Love!!

"We have a problem," Harry states as he comes in the room. Emma's heart nearly stops and she feels exposed. Not just because she is naked, though she is literally bare, but because he's just been downstairs to talk to the landlady and Emma is terrified of what the hell the problem could be.

He was just downstairs, while she was luxuriating in the sheets scented like them. What could he have encountered there that would lead to this deadpan voice and monotone face?

Emma's mind is good at this, at possibilities, it's why she's good at her studies and internships, she can run through lots of scenarios in her head and then plug in logistics and costs and benefits. She doesn't even need a spreadsheet unless you get beyond a handful of variables.

Variable one - she's gonna think of them as variables because problems are more nerve wracking - there are fans outside. They've heard from someone, through a grapevine or hedgerow, that Harry stays here a couple days each Christmas.

Emma can see a way out of this, though it requires sending Harry to be the sacrificial lamb. He will have to go to the altar and sign things, which is better than being beheaded, and take pictures and give hugs and lead them away. Then Emma can linger, maybe eat lunch in the pub garden and leave when the coast is well and truly clear. It's not how she wants to spend their last day this break together, but it gets them both out of here unexposed, if not totally unscathed.

This is the best case scenario.

Variable two - while he was downstairs Gemma texted. She's cottoned on. Well, Emma is totally afraid and halfway sure her friend can sense that she's sleeping with her little brother every chance she gets and hasn't been honest about it. Emma knows Harry has not been forthright either. The puzzle pieces can't be hard to put together. They've gotten lazy. No, the word is addicted. The fact that they both always disappeared and went dark for the same number of days was more than noticeable the first time, it wasn't a pattern yet thought. An easy to recognize and predict four three year old pattern. Emma is good at those too, patterns. So is Gemma, all those themes, all those books.

They'd talked about it, she and Harry, that second year, their first meet up with intent. Agreed they would be limited, controlled, discreet. They would meet late, after pub crawls, and only get together after Gemma went back to London.

She's not sure who they were fooling.

Because then, instead, they just holed up, skipped social events, turned up moments apart from one another and left the same way. Basically they'd ignored every one of their rules, the ones they'd designed to keep their secret. They couldn't help themselves, nor stay away. She had to sit on her hands and never look at him to keep from touching or kissing in public. Harry didn't even bother.

Last year, Gemma had made a few comments, about them flirting, about Harry peacocking around Emma, about them leaving at the same time. About his hands on her.

Emma remembered when they'd pulled themselves out of each other's arms, him to go home, her to a meet up with Gem and some others. He was definitely less stealthy, not sleeping at home and all, but he insisted on holding her while he fell asleep and waking up to her kisses. What was she supposed to do but melt?

Emma had been late, because of course she was, she'd almost been out the door when he'd asked to be kissed goodbye. "I just put on lipstick." She'd shaken her head, and then his face had taken on that impish hue and he'd kissed her lipstick and clothes off. The waiting Uber had left without her and she lost her perfect 5 star rating.

She'd come in, flushed apologizing and lying about her mother needing her to go to the shops. Gemma had pushed her a drink and given her a look. Like she knew, why Emma was late and Harry was sneaking out to sleep in a shitty pub bed. Then later, she'd said, "Harry's up to something, someone, he's been staying out all night again. My mum isn't that bothered, but I just want to know who." The look she'd turned on Emma was nothing short of an invitation.

Emma could have confessed. But it felt like a final chapter, a bookend she wasn't ready for, so she'd shrugged and suggested maybe he had a girl in Manchester, or a boy. It had been a joke, but Gemma hadn't blinked, and Emma wasn't surprised either, so that seemed interesting. Luckily the conversation flowed beyond that when a new old friend arrived.

Gemma kept giving her looks though.

Emma did feel like she was wearing a scarlet H.

And she'd come to the party with it two days ago. The letter may not have been apparent on her sweater, the kinda ugly but also perfect Christmas sweater she'd found at the thrift store one day. It was red, the threads of it shot through with silver, like it was made of tinsel. And it was big, she was wearing it as a dress. The expediency of last year's dress fed her lunacy this year. They should definitely control themselves this time. Thank god the door had been locked.

The big H over the heart of her sweater cum dress was probably only visible to her.

And possibly to Harry, from the way he had zeroed in on her. He'd greeted her when she came in the kitchen door with a lingering kiss on her cheek. She was totally breathless just from seeing him. He had grown. He was a bit taller and seemed to have slimmed down. And his hair was brushing his shoulders in this way that could only be described as princley. She was waiting and hoping for true love's kiss.

That was probably why, when he looked around naughtily and scooted her over 5 steps to be under the mistletoe, she hadn't even been able to find an eye roll of protest. The kiss had tasted like home, because he was the best thing about Christmas and coming home to Holmes Chapel. He was what she longed for on days that literally didn't end in Iceland, cozy nights with him, under the blankets near a fire. It lingered, his lips on hers, the slick of his Christmas cookie scented tongue. He held her a moment later, the hug lasted too long as well.

"Oooh, Harry get off!" Gemma had harrumphed.

Emma had been sure her face was bright red, but Harry had just rolled with it, pointed to the mistletoe, and said, "Seemed more appropriate than a full make out!" He'd pulled back and tossed that comment over his shoulder but winked at her as his hands dropped. It had seemed to satisfy for that moment. That was before Emma had ignored rules and definitely fallen into her pattern. The Boar's Head on Boxing Day and maybe a few more. Hell, even the landlady recognized them and told them she'd saved their preferred room for them. Gemma was quick, sharp as a knife blade and could cut like one too, when hurt.

Maybe Gemma had gotten sick of the unexplained sober night disappearing acts and called him out.

Would they come clean? Did that mean this was over? Did that mean this was beginning?

Emma wasn't even sure what she wanted. This was the worst case scenario, that those they loved and were deceiving knew.

Or, maybe they knew for an even worse reason.

Variable three - it had gotten out to the press. Someone had snapped a photo of them kissing before the "we were just hugging" excuse. Or got them together here in a more salacious situation. Going to a room together - no - that can't be right. They meet here, behind closed doors, no one can get to them here, it's like their fortress. Nobody knows. Would the landlady sell them out?

Emma takes a deep breath, she's just given herself some very rapid fire and escalating worst case scenarios. She needs more data. "What's wrong?" Her voice is steady.

Maybe not steady enough, he looks up with his brow quirked and his mouth a bit drawn.

He reads her, she feels him open her up like the spine of a book. She hopes he doesn't ask. How long would it take to explain the crazy journey her mind just took? Instead he just tilts his head and gives her a naughty smile. "We're stuck!" His eyebrows raise like he's just told her he found a stash of herbs that act like viagra.

"Huh?" For as quick a thinker as she is, she feels really behind. May have been that smile's promise, or that his news is simple, innocuous, not full of consequences.

"Come look." His head motions to the window he is standing in front of. He puts her in front of him immediately and hooks his chin over her shoulder. "We're snowed in!" He's gleeful.

"You'll miss your flight." She sounds worried. This would stress her out.

"I will, but I won't miss out on you! And I can't get my ass chewed because this is an act of God!"

"An act of God to get you laid!" She laughs. She's joking.

He doesn't look amused. "I already got laid." He tries for a playful eye roll, it doesn't land, like when you jump off a swing and miss, tumble over, twist an ankle. "I'm excited, how cozy is this! We get to hang out for at least another day. We can order food in and stay in bed and watch movies! Everyone else will be snowbound too so we won't have to put on real clothes or anything at all and go to the pub or family dinner or anything. Just us two with no obligations!"

He looks gleeful to have extra time off. She shouldn't begrudge him, he works hard and so does she. "What movie do you want to watch?" He's already digging for his laptop and sweats, he's down to a tee, tossing her the one she slept in.

There's a part of Emma that thinks she should bring up all the winding trails her mind just ran, instead, she smiles and catches the love bug he's infected with. "You pick, baby." Baby, wow, she thought she only said that in her head, or when she's under him. She'd be happy if he doesn't notice. He does, and the way he looks over it makes her happier.

Hours later, after he calls down for shepherds pie and tea he says, "We should get pints'"

"I don't like beer."

"Then wine!"

"Ok, wine." They usually only had tipsy tumbles at the party. This was intentional; on her part at least, she liked to remember their limited time together so she could live off it all year. "I feel like I need to warn you, wine makes me feel sexy."

"Oh, oh no, what will I do?" He put his hand to his heart then to his head and reclined in an arch that belied his 'I don't dance' claims. Maybe not yet, but one day he'd be a dancer. "I know you will launch an assault on my virtue!" He stuck his tongue to the cover of his smirking mouth. She'd take that invitation.

"Yeah. I should make a start on that job now!" She advances on him with all the moves she put into being the best footballer in sixth form. Harry runs from her, but the room is small and cozy and cluttered, so he quickly tumbles over. He groans from the floor.

"Oh, are you hurt babe?" She's on her knees looking his perfect face over for forming bruises when he laughs and pulls her down on top of him.

"Nope, fine and dandy!"

"Dandy is right!" She secretly loved his evolving look. But had to take him down a few pegs regularly.

"Heeey! I had to call a foul, you are way faster than you look!"

"How does one look fast?" She's talking, he's kissing.

"When you look like you have moves," he moved his eyebrows in illustration, "and I'm like a newborn gazelle."

"Bullshit, I think you just get distracted."

He blinked and just stared for a moment. "Nobody's ever said that but my mum." Emma wasn't sure what that meant, but it meant something. The deep kiss and eye contact said so. As did his downshift.

They'd been on 4th gear headed to 5th when she'd started joking. Now he was back to third and decelerating.

"Cmon," he broke the kiss to say and came back like her lips were honey to his bee. It took him three lip locks to get to the next words. "Let's go get cozy and watch something."

She barely remembers the movie he put on. But she'll always remember him narrating it in her ear and his comment on the aesthetic.

"Do you like the costumes and set design or the actual plot?" She tilted her head back to ask and found her lips had the same magnets in them his had earlier. Must be contagious like his glee for snow days.

"Both, but I guess ideally they are equally great, but I'd say the latter in this case."

"You know, pop star, for a boy who left school early, you're awfully cerebral." She meant this as a compliment.

He blushed and gave her a shy smile. "Nah, I'm a lad."

There was something about the way he said it, like this was one of those beliefs everyone had about themselves that they didn't really share, but affected them.

Emma climbed up over him. "Hey, you're not allowed to put yourself down around me, ok?"

"Being a lad isn't necessarily a bad thing." That rang true, he believed that.

"Yeah, I agree with you. But you aren't just a lad Harry."

He looks askance for a second. "I mean, I'm not like, a genius or anything," he nudged her, "not like some people."

"I'm not a genius." He made a face. "I'm not. I'm smart, but more than that I'm dedicated, and you obviously are as well. You work really hard Harry, and you make people really happy. You make great music. You know that, right? That what you do has merit? That it matters?"

"I'm not saving the planet." He looked deeply at her.

"Neither am I." He scoffed. "No, really. I'm just trying to do what I can to make things a little better. And you are too."

"Yeah, but I want to do more, like more good."

"And you will, you do know you're like 21 right." Sometimes she needed this reminder too. He was even younger than her.

"Not quite."

"Stop reminding me I'm older than you." She ruffled his hair.

"Older and wiser."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Styles."

Harry reversed their positions, she was under him, looming blue and beautiful above her. "I dunno, I like my geography."

The kisses he was applying to her collarbone were pretty compelling.

"I guess I'd have to see a little more flattery," she sighed.

"I think you're the smartest girl I've ever met." That kiss was right below her ear.

She made an encouraging sound.

"I love the color of your eyes when there is soft light behind you." That kiss was to the same spot on the other side. It was also very specific.

"I miss you and the way you smell 11 months out of the year." That one was on the hollow at the base of her throat.

"If I could, I'd just follow you from Amsterdam to Iceland so that I got to wake up to you every morning." That one she felt required a follow up, but that kiss was on her mouth and escalated to all of the other positions his held.

It wasn't until the next morning, when they we're still snowbound, cozy, and together that she thought to say, "You know you could do anything you wanted, be anything you wanted. You're limitless, Harry."

She didn't tell him she'd also love if he chose to follow her between her school and her hoped for career. Just like she hoped he would never tell her he wanted her to follow him on tour. It was too limited.

She wished they were limitless together instead of on the divergent roads they'd chosen.

#harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #tis the damn season #chapter four #let it snow #Harry styles imagine

[metawatts]

When I’m With You, I’m at Home- a Freezerburn Thesis

Table of Contents

Introduction

Tell Me Can A Heart Be Turned to Stone?

Any Remarkable Heart Has Gone Through the Hardship and Shame

Goldilocks and Snow White- The Freezerburn Dynamic

Snowflakes, Sunlight, and Songs- Symbolism Surrounding the Ship

Counterarguments and Refutations

Conclusion

Let’s get this show on the road. 

1. Introduction

RWBY has had multiple attempts at diversity throughout the years, from the good, to the bad, and an entire spectrum in-between. Some of this involves LGBT+ couples, which are a favoured ship in the RWBY fandom. The most popular of these wlw ships are generally involving pairs between the main four girls, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. In this thesis, I am going to discuss the characters of Weiss and Yang, the storytelling and development of their relationship, and why this ship is top-notch.

2. Tell Me Can A Heart Be Turned to Stone?

Weiss Schnee, first appearing in the White Trailer on February 13th, 2013, is the second character who appears in RWBY canon. In her trailer, Weiss’s main theme song, Mirror Mirror, characterises her as a lonely individual who fears that she has become so closed off from the world that she’ll never be able to make any connections or open up to others again.

Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss is characterised as a prim, proper, snobby brat when we meet her in volume 1, her haughtiness getting her into spats with her teammate and partner Ruby, and eventually causing friction within the group when her racist and discriminatory attitudes collide with the rest of her team. While we don’t get a proper resolution in the form of actual apologies for her actions, this part of her characterisation is quickly dropped throughout the rest of the show and Weiss later becomes the main person to stand up to racist actions in the cast.

Weiss, from volume 2 onwards, is characterised as a defrosting Ice Queen, cold, proud, and thorny to everyone, but slowly warming up to her team. She proves herself to be loyal, brave, and compassionate to her teammates over the course of the rest of the show, consistently offering support and kindness where she can. She fits rather well as a support fighter within the group, consistently buffing her teammates with her semblance, and using her elemental dust for combat effect. She has consistently been a caring, supportive individual to her allies, despite her overarching motif of ‘loneliness’.

3. Any Remarkable Heart Has Gone Through the Hardship and Shame

Yang Xiao Long, first appearing in the Yellow Trailer on June 2nd, 2013, is the final member of the protagonist team to appear. Her debut song, I Burn, is all about her love of fighting, and her supreme self-confidence in her skills. What is interesting about the trailer version of I Burn is that it carries through the other songs from the rest of her team, depending on what stage of her battle she’s fighting.

The older sister to main character Ruby Rose, Yang doesn’t get much characterisation in volume 1 aside from being generally nice, supportive of her sister, and hints to some staggering anger issues and impulsive behaviour. This personality is in place throughout volume 2, where she gets more information given on her backstory and begins to show the flaws in her character, specifically how her abandonment issues from Raven drive her, her aimlessness of purpose scares her, and how her reckless temper puts her in more danger then she can handle.

Volume 3 puts Yang through a physical and emotional wringer, starting with being framed for attacking Mercury and ending with her desolate in her bed, having lost her right arm to Adam. The rest of the show attempts to tackle her storylines of depression, PTSD, disability in the form of amputations and prosthetics, the neglect and abandonment from her deadbeat mother, trauma surrounding Blake and Adam, and her anger issues. Despite it all, the core spark of Yang’s warmth is still available for her teammates, with her welcoming each of them with open arms when she reunites with them.

4. Goldilocks and Snow White- The Freezerburn Dynamic

Weiss and Yang have the healthiest friendship of the four main girls in team RWBY. They have excellent synergy when they work together, as implied first with their team move in Painting The Town, further fuelled with the two of them planning the Beacon Dance and having it go without a hitch, and confirmed when they go into the Vytal Doubles Round together. Weiss and Yang have complete trust in the other during combat, consistently protecting each other in a way no one else in team RWBY does. A good example of this is Weiss willingly throwing herself into a lava spout to protect Yang from an attack from Flynt. Even outside of fights they are always pushing the other to be their best. Eg. Yang confronting Weiss on her attitude towards Blake in volume 1 and Weiss supporting Yang throughout volume 5

While they don’t get as many scenes as some of the other bonds in the show, their rock-steady faith in each other is especially prominent after Yang kneecaps Mercury, with Weiss immediately declaring with full confidence ‘Yang would never do that’ and ‘Yang would never lie to us’ when Blake doubts Yang in the same scene. Yang, meanwhile, shows an incredible amount of emotional maturity after the Fall of Beacon when she recognises that Weiss did not choose to leave her side, having been forced to return to Atlas by Jacques.

When they reunite in the Branwen camp, they once again immediately have each other’s backs, with Weiss’s knight acting as a guard for their backs while they face off against Raven. Yang, despite her conflicted feelings towards Raven, instantly shows anger and horror at the fact that Raven kidnapped Weiss, showing how her bond with Weiss is much dearer to her. Weiss, once the danger has passed, throws her sword away without a shred of hesitation and bodily flings herself into Yang’s arms, hugging her close while proclaiming ‘I missed you so much’. Yang returns the hug, but not before looking stunned at Weiss’s actions, and returning the sentiment with ‘I missed you too’. In one of the more beautiful bits of animation in the show, Weiss’s knight fades out of existence behind them.

Throughout the talk with Raven, Weiss and Yang’s main roles are relegated to asking questions to allow for more exposition, but Weiss stands up for Yang quite a lot against Raven, specifically calling her obnoxious when Raven tries to start on a delaying tactic. Weiss also grounds Yang when Yang’s temper threatens to get the better of her, taking Yang’s hand and calming her down when Raven insults Taiyang to get a rise out of Yang. The two ride off on Bumblebee together, and when Yang reunites with Ruby, she shows no hesitation in inviting Weiss into the hug as well.

In Alone Together, we get Weiss and Yang talking in a scene where Weiss allows Yang to vent out a lot of her frustrations about Blake and her abandonment from family before she opens up about some of her own homelife, in an attempt at empathy about them both having experience with extreme loneliness. Weiss states ‘I don’t know loneliness like you do. I have my own kind’ and finishes the scene with ‘I’m here for you too’ to Yang, offering a measure of support that Yang has not been offered by anyone since she left Patch.

While Yang and Weiss don’t have much time together during the Haven fight, they are generally aware of each other, particularly when the other is in trouble. Yang’s expression when Weiss is impaled is horrified, meanwhile when Blake is standing in front of the rest of the team, Weiss’s eyes are on Yang to wait and see what Yang wants to do. It is only when Yang chooses to agree with Ruby that Weiss offers the hug to Blake, since she is aware of just how much Blake hurt Yang.

It is this trust and support that makes up the backbone of Freezerburn’s dynamic as a ship, with the two of them near-eternally supportive while also being willing to push the other to do better for themselves. Both with their own experiences of loneliness and with trauma, they also have never pushed their pain onto the other and have instead showed mutual communication, understanding, and warmth to each other.

5. Snowflakes, Sunlight, and Songs- Symbolism Surrounding the Ship

Freezerburn has a lot of good symbolism that is a shipper’s playground for the pair. From their first noticeable team-up being bookended with rainbows, to the very classic hot and cold dynamic that is very popular in a lot of important bonds in media. Yang saturates herself with fire imagery, to the point that it is the main tell of her semblance, and a recurring motif in most of her music. Weiss has the exact same saturation of her snow and ice motif, with her glyphs being snowflake-patterned. This provides a nice contrast both in and out of show for the two characters when it comes to their imagery.

Another, more subtle, piece of symbolism that threads through volumes 4, and 5, is Weiss’s knight being narratively tied to Yang. While one could make the argument that this started in volume 3, with Weiss first manifesting the Knight’s right arm in Heroes and Monsters, the same episode where Yang lost her own arm, that ties Yang’s traumatic experience into shipping fuel, which is a bad take and should not be done. Trauma is not romantic and holding up a disability and the event that caused it as the shining example of True Love is not a good argument for a ship.

Instead, we can talk about how Weiss first summoned her Knight in Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, where Yang also takes her ‘step forward’ so to speak, listening to her father’s advice for their next spar, and how tying the two events as the ‘Steps Forward’ also comes into play when they first reunite in Lighting the Fire. Throughout the beginning of volume 5, Weiss has been using her knight as her comfort, and it is only when she is hugging Yang that she allows her knight to disappear. While this symbolism is a thin thread, it is still worth mentioning as a connection that exists.

Speaking of the songs, Weiss and Yang between them have the most singular character songs in the RWBY soundtrack, each of them stringing together to tell stories. For Weiss, her songs start, retroactively, with Path to Isolation, flowing into Mirror Mirror, Mirror Mirror Part II, It’s my Turn, and finally ending with the masterpiece This Life Is Mine, where she lyrically discards the mirror motif that has been with her from the start. Yang, meanwhile, starts with I Burn, quickly followed by Gold to show her softer side, with her number of songs diminishing over the events of volumes 2 and 3, before it kicks back into force with the triumphant Armed and Ready, the anger-fuelled Ignite, and ending on the heartbroken All That Matters, where Yang ruminates on how much Blake has hurt her, and will likely hurt her again in the future.

These two ‘song stories’, so to speak, are both currently at a pause until we get any further Weiss and Yang solo songs, but considering how we left with Weiss on a high note in her character development, finally freeing herself from her father’s abuse and ready to take her life for herself, and Yang at a low point where she requires the support of someone who has not hurt her the way Blake did, it is an interesting contrast . I would also like to talk about the significance of Home playing over the Freezerburn reunion, as Home upholds the same values of endless support and safety that is a running theme throughout Freezerburn as a ship. Specifically, the lines ‘I had you through it all’ and ‘A haven of safety where I’ll dry your tears’ are very emblematic.

6. Counterarguments and Refutations

Now, the main argument that seems to exist against Freezerburn as a ship is, well, Bumbleby. Now, I don’t mean to attack Bumbleby, I am not trying to start a ship war, but I would like to point out that Bumbleby, currently as it is written from volume 4 onwards, is based around trauma bonding and lacks any of the trust or open communication that Freezerburn has. An example of this is the talk in the truck in volume 7 doesn’t have Blake and Yang discussing anything of importance and instead features them dancing around their issues until Yang goes along with what Blake wants. Another example is the main Bumbleby fight scene in volume 6, where Blake spends most of it offscreen climbing a wall, letting Yang take the brunt of the fighting, and doesn’t make any moves to truly protect Yang from her ex.

I would also like to state that Bumbleby, going into volume 8 this weekend, is not canon yet, and should not be taken as canon. If RWBY can confirm relationships with things like ‘this is my wife, Terra Cotta’, or with kiss scenes, then it can do the same for Bumbleby. And should Freezerburn become canon instead, then it is a good milestone for LGBT+ representation in media, as Freezerburn is also a wlw ship, and would not devalue the show’s attempts at inclusivity.

7. Conclusion

To finish things up, Freezerburn is a great ship. This ship is an overall positive development for Weiss and Yang, character-wise, as it brings out their best qualities rather then their worst qualities. Freezerburn has a healthy amount of trust, respect, and communication, never feeling like the other ‘owes’ them anything, and they are endlessly supportive in a variety of ways. It’s good, what else is there to say?

#rwby #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #freezerburn #rwby-meta #ship-meta #thesis #mod watts

[gascon-en-exil]

A Game of Thrones 10th Anniversary Season Ranking: Part 2

Link to Part 1

Time for the bottom half of the list. The four seasons here will surprise no one, but the order might.

#5 Season 6

You can tell what I most what to talk about here...but there's an order to these things.

S6 actually has a bunch of great ideas, but they drown beneath the most slapdash plotting and character work the show has seen yet in order to set the stage for the narrower conflicts of the last two seasons. It's notorious for bringing back characters who haven't been seen in a season or longer only to kill them off (Balon Greyjoy, Osha, Hodor, the Blackfish, Rickon, Walder Frey) or awkwardly graft them back into the main plot (Sandor Clegane, Bran). There are plot threads that ought to be compelling but are too rushed in execution, like the siege of Riverrun, Littlefinger's hand in the Battle of the Bastards, or Daenerys's time back among the Dothraki and then finally getting the hell out of Meereen. Arya hits on the only interesting part of her two-season sojourn in Braavos - a stage play, of all things - only for it to stumble at the end with a disappointing offscreen death and some incomprehensible philosophy ahead of the start of her murder tour of Westeros. There's also so much cutting off the branches, enough to be conspicuous; the final shot of Daenerys leading an armada of about half the remaining cast she assembled partially offscreen says that better than anything else. Well, not anything....

Highlight: Without exaggeration, the opening of S6E10 is easily my favorite sequence in all of GoT. The staging, the music, the mounting suspense even as it becomes increasingly obvious what's about to happen, the twisted religious references particularly in Cersei's mock confession to Unella, Tommen throwing himself out a window because he can't deal with the reality of how terrible his mother is, how Cersei gives absolutely no fucks whatsoever about murdering hundreds of people at once in a calculated act of vengeance largely prompted by her own poorly thought out actions - I love it all. It's the single most masterfully-executed act of villainy in the whole show - Daenerys torching King's Landing probably has a higher body count, but the presentation there is all muddled - and if I had any doubts about Cersei being my favorite multi-season major character they were silenced in this moment. The explosion of the Sept doesn't sit perfectly with me, because I liked the Tyrells and because of what I said about deaths like theirs and Renly's in the previous post under S2, but I think that unease only cements the strength of this sequence. It's an overused phrase in fandom these days, but GoT at its best is all about moral greyness that gives its audience room for multilayered reactions. Cersei nuking the Sept and making herself the sole power in King's Landing, which in a sense is just a more overt example of the kind of character/plot consolidation elsewhere represented by Daenerys's armada, is one of those events that's impossible to approach from a single angle if you care about any of the characters involved. And hey, it's not in the books (yet, presumably), so unlike Ned's death or the Red Wedding the GoT showrunners can take the credit for realizing this one.

Favorite death: Even leaving aside the Sept and related deaths there's a lot of good ones to choose from in S6. Ramsey is cathartic but too gory for me, Osha's was a clever callback but a little delayed, it's hard to pin down specific deaths when Daenerys incinerates the khals, and Arya only gets half credit for Walder Frey and his sons when she saves the rest of the house for the opening of S7. I'm thinking Hodor, not so much because I enjoy his character or the manner of his death but because it's a clever bit of playing with language (that must have been hell to render in other languages for dubbing) wrapped up in some entertainingly murky consent issues and some closed time loop weirdness. It's all very...extra? Is that the word for it?

Least favorite death: Offscreen deaths continue to be mostly letdowns, in this case Blackfish and the Waif. Way to botch the ending of Arya's already near-pointless Braavos arc, guys. Speaking of Arya, this spot goes to Lady Crane, whom the Waif somehow kills with a stool or something. It's a dumb way to send off an entertaining minor character.

#6 Season 8

I swear that I'm not putting S8 this high solely because of Jonmund kind of sort of happening. I've never been very interested in either of them and the sex would be far too bear-on-otter to suit my pornographic preferences, but even so the choice to close out the series with them is hilarious.

I really don't need to elaborate on why S8 is down here; everyone who's ever watched the show has done as much in the nearly two years since it wrapped up. I do however need to explain why I've ranked not one but two seasons below it. My biggest argument here is that I don't believe it's fair to critique S8 for problems it inherited from earlier seasons. A non-comprehensive list:

Mad Queen Daenerys: unevenly built up beginning from S1 and continuing in some form through every following season

The questionable racial optics of Dany's army: also seeded as early as S1 and solidified by S3 with the Slaver's Bay arc

Cersei only succeeding because she makes stupid decisions and then lucks out until she doesn't: apparent from S1, directly lampshaded by Tywin in S3, fully on display with the Faith Militant arc of S5-6

Jaime not getting a redemption arc or falling in love with Brienne: evident with his repeated returns to Cersei throughout the show as one of the most consistent elements of his character, particularly in S4 and during the siege of Riverrun in S6

Tyrion grabbing the idiot ball/becoming a flat audience surrogate mouthpiece: started in S5 around the time the showrunners ran out of book material for him and wanted to make him more of a PoV character and his arc less of a downward spiral, although I've seen arguments that changes from the books involving his Tysha story and Shae set him on this trajectory even earlier

The hardening of Sansa's character: began in earnest in S4 and never let up from there

The strange ordering of antagonists: set down by S7's equally strange plot structure - the Night King had to come first with that setup

CleganeBowl and the dumber twists: from what I've heard the whole thing of writing around fans on the internet guessing plot twists started pretty much when the book content ended, so S5-6 maybe?

Yes, there's plenty to criticize about S8 on its own merits...but just as much that was merely the writers doing what they could at that point with deeply flawed material.

Highlight: This may sound cheesy, but the better parts of S8 are almost all the cinematic ones, whether that's E2 being a bottle episode with tons of poignant character send-offs before the big battle, a handful of deaths with actual satisfying weight like Jorah's and Theon's, and an epilogue that incorporates both closure for individuals and the broader uncertainty of messy socio-political systems that GoT has always been known for before working its way back to the Starks at the very end for some tidy bookending. Even imperfect moments like the Lannister twins' death and the resolution of Sansa's character felt weighty and appropriate based on what had come before.

Favorite death: Forget about the audio commentary attempting to flatten Cersei's character; Cersei and Jaime Lannister have an excellent end. Cersei especially, as the scenes of her stumbling her way down into the catacombs as the Red Keep crashes down around her really show off how her world is abruptly falling apart and how she retreats into her own self-interest at the end in spite of her demise being at least partially of her own doing. There's some stupid moments associated with these scenes, like Jaime dueling Euron to the death and CleganeBowl, but I can excuse those when the twins end up dying exactly where you'd expect them to: in each other's arms, in a ruined monument to their family's grand ambitions that, like Casterly Rock itself, was taken from another family.

Least favorite death: Quite a few dumb ones in S8 have become forever infamous. Missandei sticks out, and for me Varys too just as much because of how the writing pushes him to do the dumbest thing he could possibly do purely for the sake of killing him off ten minutes into the penultimate episode. But no one belongs here more than Daenerys Targaryen, killed at the height of a rushed and uncertain villain reveal by a man who takes advantage of their romantic history (who is also her family, because Targaryens) to stab her in a moment of vulnerability - pretty much only because another man tells him that Daenerys is the final boss. Narratively speaking that might be the case, but even so this is the end result of multiple seasons of middling-to-bad buildup. Not even Drogon burning the symbolism can salvage that. Also Fire Emblem: Three Houses did this scene and did it better.

#7 Season 5

...Yeah, we're going to have to go there.

Sansa's rape is not a plot point that personally touches me much. It's terribly framed in the moment and the followup in later seasons is inconsistent at best, but it's not a kind of trauma I can relate to. On the other hand, in the very same episode Loras is tried and imprisoned for homosexuality, and Margery faces the same punishment for lying for her brother. That hits much closer to home, not just for the homophobia but also for the culture war undertones of the not!French Tyrells persecuted by a not!Anglo fanatic who later reveals himself to be the in-universe equivalent of a Protestant. The trial is just one part of Cersei's shortsighted scheming, just as Sansa being married off to Ramsey is part of Littlefinger's, and both of them get their comeuppance in the end...but it's unsettling all the same. I especially hate what the Faith Militant arc does to King's Landing in S5, swiftly converting it from my favorite setting in GoT to a tense theocratic nightmare that only remains interesting to me because Cersei is consistently awesome. What's more, pretty much everything about S5 that isn't viscerally uncomfortable is dragged out and dull instead: the Dorne arc, Daenerys's second season in Meereen, Arya in Braavos, Stannis and co. at Castle Black. The most any of these storylines can hope for is some kind of bombastic finale, and while several of them deliver it's not enough to make up for what comes before, or how disappointing everything here builds from S4. S4 has Oberyn, S5 has the Sand Snakes - I think that sums up the contrast well.

Highlight: S5 does get stronger near the end. As much as his character annoys me I did like the High Sparrow revealing his pseudo-Protestant bent to Cersei just before he imprisons her, and there's a cathartic rawness to Cersei's walk of atonement where you can both feel her pain and humiliation and understand that she's getting exactly what she deserves (and this is what leads into the climax of S6, so it deserves points just for that). The swiftness of Stannis's fall renders his death and that of his family a bit hollow, but it's brutal and final and fittingly ignominious for a character with such grand ambitions but so little relevance to the larger story. The fighting pits of Meereen sequence is cinematic if nothing else, and even the resolution to the Dorne arc salvages the whole thing a tiny bit by playing into the retributive cycles of vengeance idea (and Myrcella knows about the twincest and doesn't care, aww - no idea why that stuck with me, but it's cute all the same). Oh, and Hardhome...it's alright. Not great, not crap, but alright.

Favorite death: I don't know why, but Theon tossing Myranda to her death is always funny to me. Maybe because it's so unexpected?

Least favorite death: Arya's execution of Meryn Trant is meant to be another one of the season's big finale moments, but the scene is graphic and goes on forever and I can't help but be grossed out. This is different from, say, Shireen's death, which is supposed to be painful to witness.

#8 Season 7

I can't tell if S7's low ranking is as self-explanatory as S8's or not. At least one recent retrospective on GoT's ruined legacy I've come across outright asserts that S7 is judged less harshly in light of how bad S8 was. If it were not immediately obvious by where I've placed each of them, I don't share that opinion.

Because S7 is just a mess, and the drop-off in quality is so much more painful here than it is anywhere else in the series except maybe from S4 to S5 (and that's more about S4 being as good as it is). The pacing ramps up to uncomfortable levels to match the shortened seasons, the structure pivots awkwardly halfway through from Daenerys vs. Cersei to Jon/Dany caring about ice zombies, said pivot relies largely on characters (mostly Tyrion) making a series of catastrophically stupid tactical decisions, and very few of the smaller set pieces land with any real impact as the show's focus narrows to its endgame conflict. As with S6 there are still some good ideas, but they're botched in execution. The conflict between Sansa and Arya matches their characters, but the leadup to that conflict ending with Littlefinger's execution is missing some key steps. Daenerys's diverse armada pitted against Cersei weaponizing the xenophobia of the people of King's Landing could have been interesting, but there's little room to explore that when Cersei keeps winning only because Tyrion has such a firm grip on the idiot ball and when Euron gets so much screentime he barely warrants. Speaking of Tyrion's idiot ball, does anyone like the heist film-esque ice zombie retrieval plotline? Its stupidity is matched only by its utter futility, because Cersei isn't trustworthy and nobody seems to ever get that.

And how could I forget Sam's shit montage? Sums up S7 perfectly, really. To think that that is part of the only extended length of time the show ever spends in the Reach....

Highlight: A handful of character moments save this season from being irredeemable garbage. As you can guess from my screencap choice, Olenna's final scene is one of them, even if Highgarden itself is given insultingly short shrift. S7 also manages what I thought was previously impossible in that it makes me care somewhat about Ellaria Sand, courtesy of the awful death Cersei plans for her and her remaining daughter. The other Sand Snakes are killed with their own weapons, which shows off Euron's demented creativity if nothing else. I like the entertainingly twisted choice to cut the Jon/Dany sex scene with the reveal that they're related. And, uh...the Jonmund ship tease kind of makes the zombie retrieval team bearable? I'm really grasping at straws here.

Favorite death: It's more about her final dialogue with Jaime than her actual death, but again I'm going to have to highlight Olenna Tyrell here for lack of better options. She drops the bombshell about Joffrey that the audience figured out almost as soon as it happened but still, makes it plain what I've been saying about how Jaime's arc has never really been about redemption, and is just about the only person to ever call Cersei out for that whole mass murder thing. There's a reason "I want her to know it was me" became a meme format.

Least favorite death: There aren't any glaringly bad deaths in S7, just mediocre or unremarkable ones. I still think the decision to have Arya finish off House Frey in the season's opening rather than along with their father at the end of S6 was a strange one that doesn't add much of dramatic value.

#Game of Thrones #GoT

[amwritingmeta]

4x06 Deconstruction: This One Goes Out to All of Dean’s Fears

I started working on this after 14x19 and it’s been sat in a document folder needing to be turned into a post ever since. With all the fairly delicious callbacks to this particular ep in 15x07 this seems the opportune time to give it a polish and share. Hope y’all will enjoy!  xx

So, I’ve been meaning to do this ever since I wrote this meta on 4x05, because watching the opening half of S4 is like taking a nose dive into Dean’s character and what he needs to understand about himself in order to let go of old patterns of behaviour and belief systems, grow into his own person and find the answer to what will actually make him happy. 

The trajectory of this nose dive is set up through Castiel arriving on the scene with his way of looking into Dean’s soul and stating uncomfortable truths: You don’t think you deserve to be saved and Good Things Do Happen. 

S4 and Dean’s rebirth (or his rehymination, as he calls it in 4x05) is all about setting him on the path towards adulthood. This is where his coming-of-age story really begins in earnest. The need for him to let go of old patterns of behaviour has been hit on throughout S1-3, but those first seasons act more as a setting up of this fact, letting us follow the behavioural pattern, whereas in S4 we start to get more contrasts to it, including discovering new sides to him, like exactly how much he knows and reads etc.

Now, let’s focus on how Yellow Fever explores Dean’s inner fears and explicitly lets him know that he has to confront them. 

This episode states that this is the work that’s beginning for him, whether he likes it or not. 

(he likes it not) (which is why he rejects the proposition in the episode’s final scene) (and has continued to reject it out of narrative necessity ever since) (but I skip ahead)

I’m late to the party here, so I’m #sorrynotsorry for the repetition, but I’m really eager to finally dig into this episode, since how it comes off the back of 4x05 and how it leads right into the absolute smasher that is 4x07 has felt so weighty to me ever since I deconstructed Monster Movie.

Contemplating the visual and thematic callback in 14x16 to this very episode, established through Felix the snake, as well as the most recent callback we got through that lovely piece of dialogue in 15x07, I feel that the intricately crafted exploration of Dean’s fears in 4x06, and the stated need for him to confront them if he’s to be happy, is more intriguing than ever.

Alright, before we go ahead and dig in, I want to present you with a few thoughts on Dean. Namely, I’d like to list the fears I see this episode exploring and they are:

Fear of Rejection (linked to perception of societal judgement)

Fear of Death (linked to Hell)

Fear of Growth and Internal Transformation (linked to fear of happiness)

Fear of Happiness (linked to losing his mother at a young age)

Fear of Failure (linked to Protect Sammy, and, in turn, linked to all the above)

These fears, and how they interlink in rather amazing ways, inform his behaviour, and it’s his behaviour when confronted with all of these fears that the narrative of 4x06 explores. And to my brain it does so in staggering ways, yeah?

Yeah. Okay. Let’s dig.

Little Pink Bow

We start the episode with Dean, running for his life, terrified. 

I mean, he is literally running from his fears. It’s rather gorgeous. 

The scene also paints the mood for the rest of the episode, where Dean’s skewed perception of the root of his fears are explored in depth. 

As a viewer, you’re brought into the belief that Dean is truly running from Hellhounds because, of course, this belief is effectively established through use of sound as Dean is running away from the noise of barking dogs, teasing the idea that the fear Dean’s displaying has to do with seriously bad memories of getting ripped to shreds and sent to Hell. (remember that we’ve only had glimpses through snippets of nightmares up until now of how much Dean actually remembers of his time there)

The scene itself is shot with urgency and real threat. We feel Dean’s fear. We worry for him. We wonder what the fuck is going on. We don’t want him to get attacked and dragged back to Hell! 

We get an abrupt stop to Dean’s flight when he crashes into the cart of a homeless man, but Dean’s on his feet quick enough and it’s put in dialogue that what you should do is run from your fears. Because if you don’t, they’ll kill you! And then…

…we get the tiniest, friendliest little dog, complete with pink bow as a visual aid underlining exactly how non-threatening it really is meant to be perceived by us.

This reveal of Dean not being about to get dragged back to Hell is funny, obviously, on many levels because we’re relieved that Dean’s terror is unfounded, and then we get hit with the understanding of Dean the Soldier Warrior Man running away from the sweetest little creature ever.

So, though this is sincerely funny thanks to impeccable acting, to me, there’s a bit more to it, and it’s to do with how this scene really sets the tone for the entire episode.

This tone is all to do with the exploration of Dean’s character makeup and what really makes him tick. 

Surface level narrative explores our first impression of what this episode is about: Dean’s fear of dying and going back to Hell. (Run! It’ll kill you!) This episode is about to lay it bare to us how Dean’s struggling with his memories of Hell, with his lingering fear that God has made a serious mistake and that it’ll all get ripped away from him again. 

His feelings of guilt at how he caved and began to torture souls keeping his self-loathing as intact as ever, and that self-loathing keeps him feeling, very much, that he didn’t deserve to be saved. Which feeds his fear that it was all a big mistake. And around and around it goes.

But his persistent self-loathing and feelings of worthlessness are in turn anchored entirely in fears that have been with Dean his whole life. The fears listed above in the intro to this analysis. And, to me, these fears are what that pink bow is about. 

Because subtextually I see Dean running from himself when he tries to escape that little dog. He’s running from fears that are, if he really dared open his eyes and look at them, not nearly as threatening as he thinks they are. If he just dared recognise them for what they are and begin to face them, he’d see that they’re no more dangerous than that little dog is.

Subtextual level narrative explores those fears, the ones intrinsic to Dean’s character, the ones feeding the surface level narrative fear of Hell and that are keeping the guilt and sense of worthlessness and lack of faith in himself very much at the forefront of his self-perception.

S4 is all about pushing Dean to open up to who he truly is. It’s about asking himself what will make him happy. It’s all about identity. And, yes, the series as a whole is about identity, but this season pushes that theme into a whole new focus from previous seasons. 

There’s a shift with Castiel entering the narrative and God reaching down a hand to give Dean a mission. There’s tentative faith beginning to blossom in Dean, which is a hugely important building block for Dean to dare to face his fears, and is also something this episode picks up from 4x05 (It’s kind of like a mission… Like a mission from God…) and builds on.

His Heart Gave Out

So, we get an immediate plant that what we’re about to deal with is matters of the heart. 

This plant is important for the plot of the episode, of course, but symbolically hearts are tied to Dean and it’s been implied since as early as 2x01 (ah @mittensmorgul​ pointed out that it actually starts in 1x12 and of course! how could I neglect the episode that started the faith thread?? tut! thanks for the pointer Laura!) that heart issues could be what kills him, rather than a bullet between the eyes. Right? 

Right. But rather than looking at it as a direct foreshadowing of Dean’s death, it could be seen as a comment on what is keeping him from living, and what’s keeping him from truly living is the fact that he’s unable to open his heart, to have faith, to trust. (and how can you follow your heart if you don’t trust it?) (you can’t is how)

Also very much the reason why Castiel the angel of Heaven and bringer of faith (who’s biggest problem is having too much heart) has stepped onto the scene, but I shan’t digress. 

The fact that the coroner actually takes out the heart of our vic and places it in Dean’s hands gets a rather amazing bookend moment in the scene where Lilith tells Dean he knows why this is happening to him and that he should listen to his heart. *slow eyebrow raise* I’ll get back to that.

Sheriff’s Office

Please note that the cute young deputy is already noticing Dean, and Dean notices him noticing, and Sam is noticing them noticing each other. This is important to note not only because it’s fucking amazing to make note of it, but also because of the Moment that comes later. We all know it, I still gotta call it out, but that’s for later.

Now for the sheriff.

I just want us to make note of a few things regarding the sheriff as well:

The sheriff gave the deputy instructions he didn’t want to be disturbed and now scolds him for doing as told

The sheriff gets the brothers to take their shoes off

The sheriff keeps putting disinfectant on his hands

Conclusion, he’s a control freak, and he’s a control freak because? 

I’d say he’s a control freak out of fear. A man doesn’t use disinfectant like that if he’s not terrified of germs, right? And this character trait lowkey links him to another control freak germaphobe. Yup, that would be Dean.

I’d also like us to note that Dean can’t stay professional and act like an actual adult (because he’s not one) when the sheriff says the word gamecock. The sheriff, being an actual adult, gently corrects the behaviour, leaving Dean looking self-conscious.

Could Be a Hundred Things

We continue the setting up of how Dean’s fears are about to go through some serious deconstruction, and with it the man himself, when Sam and Dean leave the sheriff’s office to have this exchange (edited btw):

Dean: Something scared him to death. Sam: Alright, so what could do that? Dean: What can’t? Ghosts, vampires, chupacabra. It could be a hundred things. Sam: So, we make a list and start crossing things off.

Yeah, remember the list I made of Dean’s fears? Going through that list and exploring Dean’s fears is what the narrative of this episode is setting up to do. Dean is, as the brothers are soon to realise, infected with the same ghost sickness that killed the vic. So here we have foreshadowing, in dialogue, of exactly what this episode means to do: go through the list of Dean’s fears and highlight, with each new situation where one of these fears is explored, exactly what Dean’s issues are and why the biggest one is… his closed off heart.

First fear: rejection.

Because why exactly do those teenagers make Dean need to cross the street? He doesn’t like the look of them, but why? They’re just a group of friends standing on the sidewalk in broad daylight. 

I’d say it’s to do with Dean’s fear of societal judgement, that has kept the conviction and reliance on his toxic masculinity armour so firmly in place for so long. Even firmer in place, I’d argue, than John’s immediate influence. 

John introduced it as a necessity for survival, for keeping your head focused in a fight, for putting emotion aside and getting the job done, but wearing the armour also meant social status and acceptance, even admiration. I think Dean caught onto this at a young age. Because that’s how we all form our personas (how we present ourselves to the world), through societal conditioning. Or through growing aware of this conditioning and telling it to go fuck itself. (good for you if you’re in that place) (Dean’s journey has been all about getting there) 

The fact that Dean’s insecurity stretches to even the possibility of teenagers side-eyeing him is a really great set-up for how this very deep fear is about to get put under an extremely bright light for the rest of the episode, through Luther’s storyline. 

She Smells Fear

Sam and Dean go to see the vic’s neighbour Mark and oh, he really, really likes his reptiles. 

Second fear: growth and internal transformation.

Why do I see this scene as being indicative of this fear? Well, because of how snakes, as we know, symbolise transformation. They symbolise healing. (Ouroboros anyone?) 

Now, of course, surface narratively speaking, Dean doesn’t exactly enjoy having a huge albino python sliterhing onto his lap (though the dirtier connotations that can be made from the visual are all shades hilariously poignant) (also the fact that the Devil was a snake and Dean’s fear of Hell) (all part of the symbology for the surface level fear), but him freaking out at all the reptiles and one spider (also symbolic of transformation), to me, has much more to do with what these creatures all declare for the subtextual reading (the pink bow related one), and their declaration is a continuation of what 4x01 told us.

Dean needs to open himself up to much needed internal growth and transformation.

This is what the first five episodes of the season, landing us here in 4x06, are all about: deconstructing Dean, forcing him to gain new perspectives on himself, on his behavioural patterns, on what has shaped him into the man he’s always seen himself as. 

Look at how, in just a few short episodes, he’s had someone enter his life that has not only brought with him a whole new world view, where God and the Devil exist, and where Heaven, for whatever reason, actually seems to be on his side, but this someone has also brought him back in time to bring him a new understanding of his mother and who she really was, not who she was when filtered through John’s view of her. 

I mean, that’s giving an insight into his lack of faith in himself as well as laying the foundation for beginning to question his self-perception right there. Within the first three episodes of the season. *head explodes*

So, to my mind, this episode is an extension and, in many ways, a deepening of what the season has clearly set itself out to do, yeah?

The fact that Marie is stated in dialogue to smell fear is just delightful. 

Might I also draw your eye to how we, in this scene, are told that the vic was freaking out. About witches. Who is skeeved out by witches? Dean. So there’s a narrative tie there, which I find interesting. (that the witch-freakout for Frank is tied to The Wizard of Oz comment is just icing)

Why is Dean so skeeved out by witches? I would say because witches symbolise something deeply regressed within him, which is his feminine side. His non-performing side. Rowena comes as a Dean mirror, and a very powerful one at that, bringing deep truth and standing in, for her first seasons, as a representative of toxic masculinity traits not simply being allocated to men and underlining how we can all display these traits, regardless of gender.

There’s also the ghosts (the past), the vampires (dual nature of identity and wearing a mask to cope) and chupacabra (happiness, mayhaps?), and how Carl Jung talks about what monsters really represent to us and why they’re so prevailing throughout human mythology. I mean, I studied this at uni so Carl didn’t teach me this, but the fact that it ties in with Carl Jung’s doctrine just gives me a sense of synchronicity. But. This is already getting fucking long, guys. :)

Moving on.

When Mark says that Frank used to tape his butt cheeks together we get another moment of Dean being an absolute child about it, unable to keep a smile down, presumably at the idea of butt cheeks taped together, not the idea of bullying, and again he totally offends the person talking, and he grows sligthly self-conscious about it. 

He really needs some self-perspective, yeah? Yeah.

Scratching the Itch

I mean… Look, I think that Dean has never been able to scratch the proverbial itch because what he’s the most scared of is the idea of daring to believe in a good thing happening, because good things do not last, not in Dean’s experience. You know? 

He’s a big-hearted, soft-to-the-core, loving type of human being, who longs, more than anything, for real love, to be loved for who he truly is. And all of that, including his true identity, is being repressed out of his fear. Of happiness. Because Good Things Don’t Last. 

I’ll talk more about the root of this further down, but I just find the fact that in this episode, the ghost sickness, which is a manifestation of fear, is literally an itch he keeps trying to scratch, and it just gets bigger and worse and is a visual statement of how his internalised fears are pretty much driving him out of his head is a rather poetic choice.

So, we get the information that Frank’s wife committed suicide way back when and that Frank had an airtight alibi and then we get the reveal that Dean appears to be, by all accounts, haunted.

Ghosts as representatives of needing to put the past to rest… Just throwing that in there.

And Dean is driving slow. 

Second fear: death.

And this was already established through the fear of Hellhounds at the beginning of the episode, yeah? But given the deeper issues being addressed here, you could actually argue for Dean’s fear of death not only being linked to a very real fear of Hell, but of a genuine desire to live.

Peeling back the layers of the Blaze of Glory bravado that’s kept him on a self-destructive fast-track for so long and revealing the softer belly underneath. 

I mean, one could argue. Since this episode is all about stripping away the toxic masculinity armour and showing the non-performing side to Dean. Showing us the truth, rather than the lie he’s been telling Sam since he got back from Hell. And on a subtextual level, stripping away the armour that’s keeping him safe from himself and exposing those nerve endings.

Because he should listen to his heart. 

But we’ll get to that.

Eye of the Tiger

I really do appreciate the detail of the cowboy scene on that hotel. Like. Wow. It’s almost insane. To me, this show is all about deconstructing the American ideal of the 50s, right? The ideal that’s informed toxic masculinity patterns since then, as well as the toxic patterns of societal judgement at large. 

It was in the 50s that the Hollywood western shaped the cowboy/sheriff character into becoming a glorifed male hero ideal, moving away from the truth of the rather open-minded wild wild west and into the commersial version of a very white, very straight man’s man who got the job done, no matter what, and sorted shit out wherever he went. Yeah? 

Anyway, I digress. This deconstruction is why cowboys and native americans and the wild west symbology is just so poignant on the show. And here it is. In all its glory. Attached to a hotel that could be said to be low-key linked to happiness.

Because the bluebird is a symbol of happiness.

Fourth fear: happiness.

And, look, Dean’s fear of heights is linked to the hotel, okay? His fear of flying. And flying is linked to? Yeah, you get the idea here. Of course, Castiel. 

Here’s the thing, this is a highly dubious reading, because it’s absolutely not anywhere in the narrative that Bluebird is the chosen name for a hotel suddenly related to a fear of heights related to a fear of flying and being out of control and it tying back to Cas, who is making Dean feel all sorts of not-in-control. Yeah? That’s my reading.

But it’s my reading because there’s more. 

Wait for it.

First, let’s talk a bit more about this scene —>

Dean rejects food. (love Sam’s reaction face like the fuck?) 

Why the fuck does Dean reject the food?

I’d say because food is a superficial band-aid, right? It’s ineffective comfort at this point. A way to eat his emotions, rather than find healthy outlets for them, like, I don’t know, actually connecting to others because that’s just a recipe for disaster, death and loss. But his emotions, right now, will not be suppressed by simple means. They’re completely in control of him and refuse to be put back in their designated boxes. 

So the ghost sickness can be spread like any disease and, of course, attacks the heart. Dean got infected when holding Frank’s heart. 

Sam didn’t get infected and Sam and Bobby’s theory is that the men who got infected all had a history of being dicks. Which is, you know, funny, but tragic, when looking at the surface level fear of Hell. Because Dean became a torturer of souls. So kinda a dick. Very much using fear as his weapon. 

But when it comes to the principal and the bouncer, it’s not verified that they did. Sam and Bobby are just associating using fear as a weapon with the roles of principal and bouncer. Especially when looking at how Dean tries to reject the idea that he, as a hunter, uses fear to scare people, Sam telling him all they do is scare people, and fair enough, but the ghost sickness isn’t infecting Sam.

And it isn’t infecting Sam because, for the subtextual layer of Dean’s fear, this theory is too shallow.

For the subtextual layer of Dean’s fears I’d say that the ghost sickness actually latches onto guilt.

There’s even the aspect to Frank where guilt might actually be the foremost reason for why the ghost sickness infects him as well, since we’ll learn later through Luther’s brother that Frank’s wife wasn’t killed, but was a victim of suicide. We don’t get it extrapolated on what caused her to take her own life, but safe to say her marriage was anything but healthy, and Frank’s outrage and murder of Luther seems to be underpinned by him being wholly unable to process his own guilt,  instead ending up projecting it onto an easy target.

baby gonna cry?

The fear of dying and of going back to Hell is threaded through in this scene, clarifying it further for us that this is what Dean’s terrified of. 

The ticking clock pretty much acting like a visual underlining of Dean feeling like he’s back on borrowed time. It’s inevitable that he has to go back. For all the things he did while there. He can’t have been forgiven. He sure as shit hasn’t forgiven himself. 

Dean breaks the clock. Doesn’t need the reminder of how his head is, as he tells Sam, on the chopping block again. He’d almost forgotten what that feels like.

For a moment. Like a glimmer. There had been the thought that he was serving something bigger. That maybe he was off the hook. Chosen to do great deeds. Aw, Dean. You’re not meant to learn how to have faith in a higher power. You’re meant to learn how to have faith in yourself.

They realise, as Dean coughs up a wood chip, that he’s the biggest clue they have.

Dean doesn’t like it.

Cassity & Sons

Now. Of all the things to call this lumber mill, this haunted structure - housing Luther, our ghost of the hour who is in the narrative to be representative of Dean’s deepest issues, his most repressed fear - of all the things to call it, there’s a Cass in the name. 

It could just be a tounge-in-cheek thing. It could mean nothing. But I like to think it does. Coming off of the absolutely angel riddled narrative of 4x05 as well, I really do think it does.

From the Bluebird of happiness and Dean’s fear of flying/heights, to the structure that is about to be significant in exploring Dean’s deepest fear being owned by a man named Cassity… I feel there’s reason to think there’s a reason for it. 

But, either way, this structure and Luther himself are important for exploring Dean’s deepest fears.

(they’re not playing around with the sign and making sure to linger on it either)

Now. Dean takes one look at this place. A place he has no idea if it’s haunted or not, btw. And states he is not going in there. Sure, nine times out of ten a place like that, given Dean’s previous experience with places like this, turns out to be haunted. Fair enough.

But in a subtextual context, with the structure itself owned and run by Cassity… 

Dean doesn’t want to go in there because of what he’ll have to face. Which is, in essence, the need to face up to the fact that he’s already beginning to open himself up to the idea of change, to wanting change, because of this formidable someone who’s arrived in his life through a rain of sparks as a catalyst for Dean to begin to gain a sense of what faith actually feels like.

Dean doesn’t want to touch all that with a ten-foot pole. 

Because, and this is wholly unconscious, but because touching it means daring to have faith that Good Things Do Happen. And because Dean’s fear of happiness is fed by the conviction that Good Things Don’t Last, and this fear sits at his very core and so – he drinks.

He downs half a bottle of whiskey.

Because he’s gonna need liquid courage to face the idea of opening himself up.

And he mans the flashlight.

Rejecting that gun is interesting, because, of course it’s tied to his fear of injury resulting in death, but it’s also Dean rejecting something that’s always brought him a sense of control before. 

Consider: as he’s brought into situations of facing his fears, his armour falls away and the tools that  that armour relies on, to make him feel in control, don’t actually fill that function anymore.

Regarding Dean relies on that same peeling back of Dean’s layers, yeah? That same deconstruction. The shedding of the toxic masculinity armour to have a peak at what’s really underneath it all.

Dean masks his fear and he masks it really well. He feels he’s on control, all the time, thanks to the mask, thanks to the armour, but the truth is that he is a bundle of fear. Always. He’s just gotten so good at masking it that he’s masking the truth even to himself.

That’s what this episode is all about. Lifting that curtain. Forcing him into a position where all that raw emotion is exposed and he can’t lie to himself anymore. It helps set up the reveal of how he remembers Hell, but it also sets up for Dean’s journey of introspection this season, yeah?

Surface level vs. subtextual level.

EMF

If ghosts are representatives of the past (and needing to learn how to let go) then the fact that Dean is dealing with fears that were established in his childhood, meaning he’s one hundred percent facing his past and what’s shaped him into who he is with every new situation this episode, then that EMF meter wouldn’t work around him, would it?

He’s haunted by his past. Suppressed Hell-guilt, and repressed fears anchored in his childhood. Oh my.

I love Sam in this episode. He’s unfortunately a reactionary character, the straight man, as you’d call it, because this isn’t his journey, but oh what a reactionary character he is. Also —>

Can’t do a post on this episode and not have Dean screaming his head off. *sadism*

Now, I very much enjoy the fact that, once it’s time to do the detecting, Dean takes part in it without hesitation. Autopilot kicks in and he engages with the search for clues without any fear, because there’s nothing scary about it.

But when the ghost (the past) appears, he runs like the damn wind.

Sam is there, though, to take care of it.

And Dean downs the rest of the bottle. Taking us into that epicness of epicnessess that is —>

Drunk and Unabashedly Flirty

I mean, look, okay? This is blatant.

Dean stands there, having a slightly worried expression on when he notices the woman to his right, glancing over at her suspiciously, okay? We get that he’s still scratching at the itch, he’s still alert, even though he is drunk, right?

But what does not faze him? What makes him put on a goofy smile? The very cute (I’d even call him a pretty boy) deputy from earlier, with whom he exchanged looks, so that there’s an already established sense of mutual attraction there. 

Dean: You know what? You’re awesome.

And then Dean just keeps smiling goofily, taking the compliment that’s offered back to him, until Sam comes and pulls him out of there. 

And the fact that this is the one instance in this entire episode after the ghost sickness kicks in that Dean is not displaying even a whisper of fear is what has informed my impression of him being absolutely comfortable with his bisexuality. 

Here he’s dropping the toxic masculinty armour because?

Well, I’d say it’s because he wears that armour because it allows him to suppress/repress whatever fear is threatening to surface. Here, in this episode, we’re checking off a list, and he’s faced his fears at this point, and now only has to acknowledge them and learn how to actually dig deep and deal with them. (which he won’t) (but this episode is exposition for this being what the narrative wants him to do) (this is the big lesson it’s trying to teach Dean moving forward) (listen to your heart)

Luther

The habit of lying without a second thought (including to himself) is being stripped away with the rest of his coping mechanisms and here we get Dean freaking out over the thought of all the possible consequences that lying might actually land on their heads. 

Sam acts the parental figure as Dean regresses out of his control freak patterns and into a state where he’s in need of Sam’s protection, not the other way around. Whenever this happens on the show it’s always nice to see Sam stepping up to the plate without hesitation. It’s just that Sam doesn’t seem to remember his ability to do that and falls back on the codependency easily enough. Understandable, since it’s the core of the narrative motor, but oh, Sam. You’re such a clear leader.

Luther’s brother speaks of Luther’s backstory, and just as the characteristics of Frank and the sheriff make them Dean mirrors, the ghost of the hour is the biggest Dean mirror to me, and reveals a lot to us about Dean’s deepest fears.

Garland: Everybody was scared of Luther. They called him a monster. He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too different. Didn’t matter that he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn’t matter he’s never hurt no one. A lot of people failed Luther, I was one of them. I was a widower with three young ones and I told myself there was nothing I could do.  Sam: Mr. Garland, do you recognise this woman? Garland: That’s Jessie O’Brian. Her man, Frank, killed Luther.  Sam: How do you know that? Garland: Everybody knows. They just don’t talk about it. Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn’t like it. Then when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn’t know that. They found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant till he was past dead. 

Frank was the pillar of the community.

Luther was just the town freak. 

Frank was respected.

Luther was judged and dismissed as not even being human, simply because he didn’t look like everybody else. 

Frank is framed as being an abusive, violent dickhead - clearly not the most stabile marriage - and to find an outlet for his grief, Frank picks up a shotgun and then drags a man along a road until he’s dead.

Luther’s almost childlike innocense and kindness leads him to find an outlet for his unrequited feelings of love through drawing portraits of the object of his affections.

Frank is representative of toxic masculinity (performing Dean) while Luther is all about wearing his heart on his sleeve (non-performing Dean). 

And, to me, Luther’s backstory of how wearing his heart on his sleeve gets him nothing but societal judgement, and leads to his death, is telling of Dean’s deepest fear, and why it’s been perpetuated for so long through his experiences of societal judgement, because Dean’s deepest fear is his fear of happiness, and it sits at his core and informs the rest of his fears, which, in turn, inform his behavioural pattern of using coping mechanisms to suppress/repress his true emotions, locking himself away from ever really having to open up to them. 

And what is the root of Dean’s fear of happiness?

Well, here’s how I see it:

Dean’s biggest battle with his past isn’t the idealisation of his father, but why he idealised his father –>

The why stems entirely from Dean’s loss of his mother, because that loss meant having his life ripped to shreds, resulting in Dean losing his trust in that childlike sense of joy, tied to the stability of home, love, family –>

This is the root of his long-held belief that Good Things Don’t Last, which underpins the idea that happiness (and love) equals pain, an idea that’s been perpetuated throughout Dean’s formative years, since every time he’s come close to feeling happy, something’s happened to snatch that sense of stability and safety away –>

Fearing getting hurt by believing he deserves happiness was easily avoided by dressing himself in toxic masculinity armour, modelling himself after the strongest man he could think of: his father

So every time he came close to happiness and let himself believe, only to have things fall apart on him, that armour has gotten just a little thicker

Dean is stuck in an emotional loop that through this season’s first arc of deconstructing Dean with Chuck, but to me especially through the communication rift between Dean and Cas, is being highlighted, just as it was in 4x06. And we got the entrance into this mini-deconstruction thanks to the same occurance that lay the foundation for Dean’s fear of happiness: the loss of his mother.

It’s the brightest of threads, threading through all of the emotional subtext and necessary character progression that the series as a whole has been pushing for since forever for Dean (and through his progression what it’s been pushing Sam’s and Cas’ individual progression towards as well) *gorgeous*

We Are Insane!

This scene is so everything because omg the comedic timing is just!

And I love how, when thinking closer on the topic of a Dean deconstructed, in Yellow Fever, when all there is to him is fear, he rejects the life, and all sides to it, but when he lost his memories in Regarding Dean, and what was left was his innocence, all that was left for us to see was his wonder and excitement.

Meaning that Dean stripped of all of his fears (once he’s faced them and accepted them and integrated them) is a soft, happy, content human being. As long as he actually remembers who he is and exactly how to survive, he’ll be goddamn unstoppable. And he’ll be balanced and happy. 

*please, good gods, please*

Buh-Boom

Dean starts to have some serious hallucinations and any reason for Jared to play a different character or side to Sam is just all good with me (Gadreel is still just… mind-blowingly good). 

So Dean sees Sam with yellow eyes and here comes the final fear.

Fifth fear: failure.

Failing to Protect Sammy means pretty much losing his purpose at the Yellow Fever point in the narrative. It’s changed since S12, because of a big shift in Dean’s perspective, but of course, Protect Sammy is still at the top of the list of Dean’s self-worth check list. What’s he worth if he’s unable to protect Sam? To his mind, still not much. Protect Sammy as identity marker has tripped Dean up his whole life, and here that fact comes into stark relay.

Now if we stay with Dean in the hotel room, we get to witness how his inner fears attack him, and of course the surface level fear is the one that manifests: fear of death and going back to Hell.

Thusly – hellhounds.

They turn out to be the sheriff, who’s come to confront Dean about his investigation, and I love how Dean, no matter his fraught mental state, knocks that gun out of the sheriff’s hand and then has the rather amazing fortitude to tell the sheriff he has to calm down. Only it’s too late. The sheriff suffers a heart attack. 

Dean sits on the bed, scratching. Hears the voice of the Sam hallucination telling him he’s going back, and it’s about damn time too. 

Dean…

…picks up a Bible.

This visual ties right back in with 4x05 again, with the threads of faith beginning to show themselves in Dean’s progression. He’s beginning to want to believe. He looks at that Bible like it’s a life line. He presses his lips to it and hey, I’d say this might be his first moment of giving into prayer as recourse. 

But his prayer doesn’t exactly get him what he wants.

I’d theorise that it’s because he’s not meant to learn to have faith in God, but in himself, and this whole episode is about forcing him into a meltdown, which is what he’s in the middle of now. Zero faith in himself, zero faith that he’s not going back to Hell.

And that’s why Lilith appears.

I do love how Dean actually points the Bible at Lilith stating: You are not real.

He’s using God’s faith in him as a shield. Trying desperately to convince himself. Which is rather lovely given the context of how Lilith is a representation of something deep within him that he’s trying so hard to avoid confronting.

And here comes the reveal of exactly what the fear of Hell is really anchored in, because it’s not anchored in Dean’s memories of his gruesome death at the jaws of the Hellhound that killed him, it’s anchored in his memories of not four months in Hell, but forty years. 

Guilt.

And Dean’s heart starts to give out.

Dean: You’re not real. Lilith: Doesn’t matter. You’re still gonna die, you’re still gonna burn. Dean: Why me? Why’d I get infected? Lilith: Silly goose. You know why, Dean. 

What Lilith says now is, really, what’s informed my entire reading of this episode and I’ve mentioned it several times already. She tells Dean: Listen to your heart.

To me, it’s Dean at this point knowing, deep down, that the only way to keep himself from going back to Hell, the only way he can truly be saved, is all about him beginning to recognise his need to face his fears. 

It’s about him daring to listen to his heart and daring to let his emotions be his guide, rather than shutting them down, bottling them up, without question. 

This is what his journey is all about, yeah? To learn to let go of the past and all the fears that have been informed by what he’s been taught and told, and opening up to who he truly is and who he truly wants to be.

This is what the beginning of the season has set up for and what the rest of the season will continue to explore, slowly, of course, but meticulously, and it doesn’t slow down in S5 and, honestly, each season has added a new aspect of exactly this exploration, gently pushing Dean toward moments of daring to be honest with himself, which to this meta writer culminated in S11, when he finally had it pointed out to him that he’s not just attracted to or kind of enamoured with this angel dude, he is truly pining for him, and it made him unable to keep trying to deny the truth of how he’s fallen deeply in love, no matter the terror that comes with it. (and twice the worrying about getting ganked to boot)

I’d say that this realisation, this final admittance of his true feelings, is what opened Dean’s heart up to looking at what was really driving Amara from a different angle, and made it possible for him to, instead of blowing her to kingdom come using the soul bomb, actually talk to her on a more human level, about the feelings that were driving her actions. But, again, that’s my reading, not narratively stated anywhere so, you know, pinches of salt here.

Adding to all of this is how Dean needed Mary most because the loss of her is the root of Dean’s fear of happiness, and getting to have her back allowed him to gain perspective on so many things, like his idealisation of her (and through that beginning to slowly open his eyes to his idealisation of John as well) (though this didn’t take root until S13), and he got to tell her that he hated her for what she did to them, but that he loved her, he he got to forgive her, because he could finally see her as a human being, and human beings make mistakes, rather than only having her as an idealised memory, the loss of her idealised mothering love marring his ability to trust from a very young age. Especially his ability to trust himself, since he couldn’t save her.

This realisation is also what brought on the whole awkward 11x23 Brologue like… I don’t think you love me back because I couldn’t reach through to you, but hey, you mean a lot to me, bro.

I find it interesting that Sam’s the one to save Dean. Symbolically Sam and Bobby’s intervention saves Dean from being consumed by his fears. I’ve always felt like Sam stepping up and choosing to show Dean that he’s ready for independence, that he needs it, will push their unhealthy patterns to a breaking point, especially since Dean is already aware, he just doesn’t know how to let go when he’s not sure Sam’s ready. But we shall see.

I’ll Kill Anything

Look at where we land. Look at this absolutely stunning bookend and how it wraps the theme of fear and how it informs Dean’s behavioural pattern into a soft, warm statement of You Really Need to Stop This, Dean Winchester.

We start this episode with the visual of Dean running from his fears. The fears that are coming at him wrapped up in a neat pink bow. :P

We end this episode after it’s spent a good forty minutes picking through Dean’s fears, with him facing the two fears that always get to him the most, the ones that perpetuates his reliance on the toxic masculinity armour to help define who he is: his fear of rejection and his fear of failure.

We get the fear of rejection in how he completely overreacts to Sam and Bobby’s gentle teasing about how this line of work can get awfully scary, Dean forcefully reasserting how he’ll hunt, he’ll kill anything, unable to bear the thought that the men who know him best in the world could, for even a moment, think of him as yellow aka a coward (which of course they don’t) or question his killer instinct (which of course they wouldn’t). 

This brief emasculation, however, really bothers Dean in the moment (and Jensen plays it gorgeously) and he squares up to it without hesitation, the armour slamming down and leading right into the softer moment with Sam, when he gets the chance to be honest with his brother, to share some of the burden, but…

…Protect Sammy is still prevalent, and Dean chooses to downplay the ordeal he just went through, and lie through his teeth about the true nature of it, still not opening up to Sam about Hell.

So, back to square one we go, but with all this glorious insight into Dean as a character to warm us by, and here we now are at the end of it all, and I’m so very curious what Dabb - who cowrote this episode with Daniel Loflin btw - will give us. *hopeful for all the good things* *always*

#spn meta #long meta #episode deconstruction #spn 4x06 #my reading #dean winchester #character progression #fear of rejection #fear of death #fear of growth and transformation #fear of happiness #fear of failure #mary winchester #sam winchester #glorious subtext #symbology #Hell #hellhounds #Lilith #ghost sickness #haunted by the past #feels like he's facing his fears and has been #facing them for the past three seasons #being gently pushed in the right direction #and now that we're in the homestretch #I cannot wait to see where he lands!! #andrew dabb #daniel loflin #spn s4 #destiel

[jbuffyangel]

Timeless 2x11 Reaction: “The Miracle of Christmas Part 1 and 2″

And thus Timeless is officially over. How did the writers fair with the series finale aka The Timeless movie? Pretty freakin’ fantastic.

Let’s dig in...

It’s been several months between Timeless’ Season 2 finale and their series finale tonight, so the writers wisely include a “Previously on Timeless.” We flashback to all their adventures while Unhappy Future Lucy (who looks a little scary if I’m being honest) narrates. It helps because I seriously forgot her mother is dead. (They kill Susanna Thompson on every damn show!)

The beginning is a little jarring because storylines I expected to happen in a season or two are all happening RIGHT NOW. My brain needs time to downshift, but I eventually adjust.

First things first - dealing with the third point in the love triangle, Garcia Flynn. Timeless isn’t interested in drawing out the shipper war because Wyatt and Lucy are kind of a mess. They require some screen time so they are fixed in a realistic manner. 

Scary Future Lucy gives Present Day Lucy and Wyatt her diary. Spoiler alert: Lucy hooks up with Flynn. Spoiler alert: They break up sometime down the road because she is really in love with Wyatt. They play out Lucy and Flynn’s entire relationship in under 3 minutes. I’m not joking when I say they breeze through three to four seasons worth of triangle.

I love Goran Visnjic, and while I adore Lucy and Wyatt, I was never opposed to Lucy and Flynn. I mean yeah he’s a murderer. That’s a real negative, but it’s friggin Goran Visnic. Have you seen this guy? He’s so hot. Where Dr. Luca goes so goes my nation.

Kidding aside, the writers convey the depth of Lucy and Flynn’s relationship with just a few lines, which is an impressive writing achievement. I love how Flynn is all “I can’t believe you date me because I tried to kill you a bunch of times.” HAHAHA. Classic. And true! Ah the joy of television romance. But it ain’t gonna be you Flynn, so mosey along big fella. 

Jessica is not pregnant. UGH. I HATED THIS STORYLINE SO MUCH. 

I appreciate the writers giving it a fast and hard death, but this is one of the ways I think Season 2 went wrong. Timeless is a show that defied the typical television tropes and that’s what made it so interesting in Season 1.  However, I think their Season 2 renewal, and desire to snare more viewers, created a “throw everything, but the kitchen sink” mentality. 

They used every romance trope they could think of in Season 2 to see what would stick. It was just... not good. I don’t blame Timeless anymore than I do any other show that does this (and it’s pretty much all of them). It was just disappointing to see the show move in this direction, when previously they’d been so good at avoiding those kinds of storylines.

Flynn sacrifices himself by going back to 2012 to kill Jessica, so Rufus never dies. REDEMPTION ARC BITCHES!!! YESSSS!! 

Seriously, he is so bad ass. Flynn puts a couple bullets in Jessica (plus one extra to be sure) after a ninja knockdown fight. He knows the effects of traveling to his own timeline will kill him... or something. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Then he watches 2012 Flynn with his beautiful and living family through a window before he dies. 

Flynn leaves a goodbye letter for Lucy that pretty much says he loves her, but he knows she loves Wyatt and he wants her to be happy. So yes, GARCIA FLYNN sacrifices himself for Rufus, ensures Lucy and Wyatt find the happy ending they deserve even though he is in love with Lucy, helps stop Rittenhouse and save the world. I AM SO EMO ABOUT MY BOY RIGHT NOW!

As for Lucy and Wyatt, they tiptoe around each other for most of the two hours. Wyatt thinks she ends up with Flynn and Lucy doesn’t want to be second choice. They are the only two who remember the Jessica history. Dear God, can we all forget too? Everyone is pretty much, “Why aren’t y’all together because y’all were together before and it was perfection?” So meta.

Wyatt almost dies in an explosion while delivering a baby during the fall of North Korea. Yes, you read that correctly. WYATT LOGAN IS HERE TO SAVE NATIONS AND DELIVER BABIES!

Lucy realizes she almost lost Wyatt and they are wasting time worrying about the past. 

This part of the finale feels really predictable to me. There’s no way they are killing off Wyatt, especially after Flynn dies. Lyatt is endgame, so the two characters dancing around it for so long feels like prolonging the inevitable.

“After that explosion I thought you were dead. And for a moment I saw my whole life without you and my world ended Wyatt.”

But damn though, what a speech Lucy gives him. 

Honestly, it is slightly annoying she did most of the talking because Wyatt is the one who screwed up. At least he offers up a “I wanted to pick you Lucy, but I felt I owed Jessica because she was my baby mama” explanation. Of course, we all knew this. 

Lucy accepts Wyatt’s “I am a big pine tree” explanation because facts. Things really get cooking with some Lyatt mistletoe kissing. 

Source:  sisterzelda

Ah, a time honored holiday trope I will never grow tired of. Then they have sex

BUT CUT AWAY TOO SOON! Boo NBC!

Rufus is alive, but doesn’t remember being dead. Jiya remembers Rufus being dead, but he doesn’t remember Jiya living in Chinatown for three years in the 1800s. I think. 

Jiya is concerned she’s no longer the woman Rufus fell in love with (re: see three years of trauma). I argue Rufus fell in love with a bad ass and Jiya is still most certainly one. It is frustrating how quickly they had to go through her physical and emotional trauma from Chinatown. Ugh, this is some seriously important drama that could have been a multiple season deep dive. Stupid cancellation.

Rufus and Jiya realize they are still perfect for each other, because they are perfect for each other. They start a company together and become billionaires saving the world. Jiya’s hair color is extremely pretty in the final scenes too. I feel this is very important detail to include. I heart them. 

Source:  katie-mcgraths

Lucy and Wyatt discuss how they don’t want to become scary Lucy and Wyatt from the future and THEY DON’T BECAUSE OF FLYNN. They get married, Wyatt works for Agent Christopher on special projects, and Lucy is a tenured history professor who focuses on important historical women. BECAUSE THERE AIN’T NO TIME FOR THE MEN! That’s right fellas. Drink your tea and wait your turn.

Unfortunately, Lucy is not able to get her sister Amy back. She gives an poignant speech about grief and loss, which could be the show’s mission statement. This is how you write a series finale:

"Everybody loses someone they love. And no matter how badly they want to they can't get them back. In spite of that they find a way to go on. That's everyone's history." 

What connects all of time is our humanity. We are born. We live. We love. We suffer grief, pain and loss. We find joy. We endure. This is the thread century after century. In the end, we aren’t so different after all. 

THEN LUCY AND WYATT GET MARRIED 

Source: @splitscreen

AND HAVE TWIN GIRLS NAMED FLYNN AND AMY. 

Source: @splitscreen​

ALERT!!!!!!!!!! MULTIPLES CONCEIVED! IT IS THE DREAM! EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!!!! 

The final scene is 2023 Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus traveling to 2014 to tell Garcia Flynn about the time machine. Lucy tells Flynn he doesn’t lose his humanity even though he never gets his family back. He is the hero the team and the world needs in the end. It connects the beginning and end of Timeless so seamlessly. This was probably always going to be the bookend. I just wish we had a few more seasons in between it.

They hint at a future time machine being invented by a young girl Rufus took an interest in at the science fair. The morality of the time machine is debated between Agent Christopher and Connor. She wants to destroy it, but Connor argues they need to keep it so they can stop others from abusing its power. You can’t un-invent something. Someone sooner or later will create the same technology Connor and Rufus did. They have a responsibility to make sure time travel is not abused and another Rittenhouse does not rise. So, the time machine is kept, covered, guarded and waiting.

Do I think we’ll see a resurrected Timeless about this girl and her time machine? No. I don’t. This is the last stop on the Timeless train and, while it was a wonderful ride, it is over. Actors are released from contracts. Writers, producers, crew, etc have all moved on to other gigs. It’s a freaking miracle they even made the movie. (Apropos episode title).

Timeless approached the series finale the correct way, which is what’s important to me. They didn’t leave a bunch of loose ends. The world was saved and I saw all our beloved characters living their happy lives in peace. I need to know these characters are going to be okay, so I can say goodbye. 

Thank you Timeless for the insightful way you approached history, your cast of wonderful characters, humor and unflinching honesty. I look forward to the streaming deal so I can rewatch again and again.

Source:  yasmin-khan

Stray Thoughts

The finale is one EPIC Lucy speech after another. My girl runs this show.

Nobody was dressed appropriately for a North Korea winter. 

It looked like the mother threw her newborn into Wyatt’s arms as her son came running to her. LOL Nice catch, soldier.

"I've loved you since the Alamo." Girl is that ever right. 

Don't mock. Saint Christopher is for REAL. He has helped me out of many jams.

Hahaha. Wyatt said m'am. That's how you know it's the end.

#timeless #timeless review #timeless series finale #timeless 2x11 #the timeless movie #lyatt #lucy preston #wyatt logan #rufus carlin #jiya marri #rufus x jiya

[thesummerstorms]

What kind of relationships do you think Etain has with the various nulls?

Ordo: 

Ordo & Etain’s relationship starts out really rough, to say the least, but you can see some turn around by the beginning of  Order 66 and definitely by the not-canon-ending where he tries to revive her and then sobs at her funeral. I want to say that they eventually actually end up pretty close friends. Gena has said before that she thinks Ordo actually ends up closer to Etain than Darman, and I kinda love that (especially the irony). 

I do think they squabble. They root for opposite sports teams, and Ordo’s type A while Etain’s definitely not so they drive each other crazy sometimes. Sometimes they inadvertently offend one another or are a little too honest. But It’s a good friendship. They’re supportive and honest and unreasonably loyal and gossipy. Etain has probably threatened to beat someone up for Ordo as if he wasn’t a super soldier twice her size. Etain also probably kept sending him letters when he went incommunicado for mental health reasons, not to pressure him, but just because she still loved and was thinking of him.

I like to think that, even though they aren’t living in the same place, Ordo and Etain try to raise their daughters to be at least somewhat close? Mirja and Koa are only two years apart, the same age difference as between me and my cousin, who I was super close to growing up, but I haven’t really discussed it with Gena.

Anyway, tl:dr Ordo and Etain go from “constantly in disagreement” to “probably still in disagreement, but in a loving sibling kind of way, absolutely have each other’s backs”.

A’den: 

So I feel like Etain has a decent respect for A’den long before she meets him just because she and Dar write letters constantly and Darman respects A’den. (She may or may not ask after him while Dar is stationed on Gaftikar, out of principle, after she asks after Dar and the rest of the squad.) 

I don’t feel like they probably meet until after Order 66, and Etain is not exactly at her best just then- but there’s still probably mutual respect there. A’den is, by all accounts, a man who smiles a lot, loves food, and has a sense of humor, and I think Etain would appreciate that about him when they interact, and A’den has likely heard good things from Mereel and Ordo- but Etain is at a place where it’s hard for her to bond very deeply with him. Then it’s more or less one thing after the other until Mereel dies and she and Dar flee.

More than likely, I think they become actual friends more after Mereel comes back from the dead. Mereel shows up at the safehouse he left Dar and Etain in pretty miserable shape, and of course as soon as the Nulls know, they immediately converge. Since Ordo’s travelling with an infant, A’den might actually be the first to show up? (Probably startling the hell out of poor, sleep-deprived Darman who sees him in the kitchen at 1 am and just blinks a few times before…. “Sarge?”) He and Etain start talking a little more after Dar and he bond over foodie stuff, and they stay friendly, even if she’s not as close to him as Mereel or Ordo.

At some point much later they probably have to haul Mereel out of some situation (or Mereel hauls them into a situation idk), and find they actually work well as a team for short durations.

Jaing

Everyone makes a point of “don’t tell Etain about the gloves”, but let’s be real guys. She knows. The emotions in the Force don’t lie, and she knew Ko Sai as well, which makes the impression stronger.

Jaing is easily the Null Etain is weariest of. It’s hard because she’s instinctively someone who reads emotional undercurrents, and while she feels threads of violence and anger in all the Nulls, Jaing wears his against his skin as trophies.

I don’t think she ever confronts him about it, even when it unsettles her.

He;s still family. She’s tortured people before and there’s no one in the family (except maybe the children) who aren’t capable of some terrible things. She appreciates the way he looked after Fi, or what she saw of it for those few days on Mandalore before she went into labor. He’s capable, and she respects that the same way she does for all of them. 

But at the same time, I think Jaing will always be the one she holds herself the most emotionally distant from. She would absolutely go after him on a rescue op if needed, out of shared bonds to other family and loyalty and duty, but they’re never gonna be close buddies.

Prudii

The mun forgot Prudii existed again, whoops.

Coughs, and links you to this post. And this post. Which have Etain: !!!!!!!!!!

I honestly don’t as many particular headcanons for Prudii at the moment. Etain pretty much auto-extends the same loyalty to him before she even meets him by virtue of his being first Dar and then Ordo and Mereel’s brother. I very much feel like she has hung over a staircase banister throwing pebbles at him at some point, but I can’t justify that?

Someone with a more developed sense of Prudii as a character is free to propose things, but I was rereading his scenes and nothing ..really..stuck?

I’m so sorry Prudii; I am failing you.

Komr’k

So I feel like initially Etain starts out a little off balance around Kom’rk. They’re the Null who, other than Prudii sorry Prudii, she probably knows the least about, and they don’t meet until after Etain’s death experience. Kom’rk has this weird balance of weary aloofness and bluntness going on, and I think that keeps Etain a little distant at first. She can match them for bluntness at least some of the time, but aloofness is harder for her to deal with. 

She grew up in the Temple, she has a mask she built for distancing herself from attachment to the people around her, and she retreats back into it at first, her emotional state at the time not helping matters any. (Possibly Kom’rk thinks her either cold or in shock at first.) But at her core she’s someone who wants desperately to be emotive and touchy-feely and reach out to everyone.

Eventually when they’re less weary of each other and Kom’rk’s more social side comes out a little, things relax between the two of them. I feel like while Etain is still in recovery, Kom’rk would be one who would pick up on her ambiguous feelings re: Kal, especially given their similar (if for different reasons) feelings and absolute willingness to call a spade a spade, and perhaps that ends up being an eventual basis of support for the two of them?

I want to say they end up having occasional lunches when their different travels have them in the same side of the galaxy, and since Kom’rk seems to be into some of the same social scenes as Mereel, maybe some occasional sight-seeing? But idk.

Mereel

Oh gosh. This is gonna be long, isn’t it? I tried to bookend with the most developed relationships, but… Listen, Etain loves Mereel. 

I think she probably wanted to try and steal the CipQuad from him on Trip Zip, but they don’t really get to know each other well until she’s pregnant and isolated and terrified on Mandalore. At which point Mereel shows her both massive kindness and genuine respect for her ability and competence, both of which Etain is practically starving for at that point. There are very few people who genuinely give a damn about her, not as a Jedi or because she’s carrying a clone’s baby but as herself.

She’s not used to being cared for. 

 He sees her when she’s incredibly vulnerable and gives her both some compassion and a sense of control/purpose back, and it pretty much cements a friendship from her end. We don’t know what all went on during their two months together, but obviously Mereel also felt close to Etain because he lets himself show an incredible amount of vulnerability back to her rather than laughing or playing it off as a joke like he does literally anywhere else.

I think they stay really close. When Etain needs reassurance post-death and Dar is still stranded on Coruscant, Mereel’s the one she trusts enough to be open with. I think they’re pretty casually affectionate with one another, and she worries about him, particularly after Kal destroys the cure and he goes off alone. (For good reason, as it turns out.) Mereel, of all people, actually gives her spiritual guidance that results in her seeking out Tarre and Ranah, pretty much instantly lands on her “unbelievably lengthy letters” sending list with out even any surprise from Ordo, is a fabulous Uncle to her kids. She trusts him in a way she doesn’t trust many people other than Dar. Perhaps goes to him for advice on occasion, though she also tries to give him advice she knows he’ll never follow.

(I also… I really ship Etain/Mereel? It started as a crack ship and then I started thinking about it too much and… oh no. It’s definitely a poly arrangement, though idk about actual Mereel/Etain/Darman. I’m not even sure how canon this is to me now bc it got all invested in my feelings and my brain betrayed me. But in whatever verse or AU it does happen it starts with a mix of closeness/vulnerability and guilty ust, and then after years of a strong friendship between them, develops into something open, less a demand or formal arrangement than their trust/care finding another avenue of expression. Possibly after Mereel dies bc the timing would be sketchy otherwise. Or ,again, in a different verse? Idk. Stupid overly invested crack ship.)

#ulvdakota #this is so long and took so long #i'm sorry #i ramble #nulls #Etain Tur-Mukan #etain tur-mukan #mereel skirata #ordo skirata #republic commando #a'den skirata #prudii skirata #komrk skirata #jaing skirata

[rebelsofshield]

From Spark to Flame: Predicting the End of Star Wars Rebels

In just a day the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels will be upon us. What began as a spark of rebellion has grown into an odyssey following the journeys of a diverse ensemble of heroes and villains spanning years, battles, generations, and a galaxy. It’s hard to believe that in less than a year’s time this series will conclude and close the book on a unique chapter of the franchise’s history and likely pave the way for the next iteration of this universe on the small screen. What should we expect in the series’ final season? In many ways, this final installment is a mystery, but because I love speculating and critiquing I’m diving in any ways. The following is my long, and I stress long, breakdown of my thoughts, opinions, and predictions going in. Who lives? Who dies? Who shacks up? Who cameos? How gratuitous will the wolves be? All here. Well kinda.

(There are potential spoilers below. Nothing not readily available to the public, but if you want to go in entirely clean, maybe stay out.)

Part I: What We Know

Something that Rebels shares with its parent series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is that it in many ways functions as a prequel to a large chunk of the franchise. While there are certainly climactic events and character arcs that are unique to the series, Rebels takes place in a period of the Star Wars timeline that is bookended by existing media. This has become even more apparent with the release of Rogue One in 2016. As a result, going into season four there are a few concrete facts that can help shape our expectations of how Rebels’ final season may play out.

Hera and Chopper Live

We know that the Ghost crew’s pilot, captain, and resident maternal figure, Hera Syndulla and her cantankerous droid, Chopper, are the only two members of The Ghost crew that are confirmed to survive the events of the series. Hera receives a literal shoutout line in Rogue One and Chopper has a now famous cameo in the background of the Yavin Base. This is not to say that the other members of The Ghost crew may perish, more on that later, but as of The Battle of Scarif, only two members are known for sure to be active members of the rebel alliance. We also can safely assume that at the very least Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus are no longer active Force-users in the Alliance. The dialogue between Mon Mothma and Bail Organa regarding Obi-Wan strongly indicates that there are no Jedi present in the rebellion at the time of the film. Now, there are many ways that Dave Filoni and crew could cheat this, but I would bet against having Ezra and Kanan swinging lightsabers by Hera’s side by the time this season ends.

The Battle of Lothal will most likely be a loss for the Alliance

Rogue One also reaffirms a statement in the opening crawl of the original 1977 Star Wars by stressing that the Battle of Scarif and the theft of the Death Star plans is the first major military victory for the Rebel Alliance in their war against the Galactic Empire. By this logic, it is unlikely that by the time the series closes its narrative Lothal remains under the sway of the Empire. Now, it seems unlikely that the series will end in a complete downer with our heroes failing in their mission, it is possible that Lothal proves a more symbolic victory, but more on that later.

Thrawn’s TIE Defender Plan is a Failure

One of the plot threads we see shown in the final trailer for the fourth season is the internal conflict between the development of Grand Admriral Thrawn’s TIE Defender fighters and Director Orson Krennic’s Death Star. Tarkin begins to suspect that Thrawn’s pet project may not be in the Empire’s best interest moving forward given its expensive cost and lack of proven success. What is presented to us is a scenario where the TIE Defender likely has a short lived life-span with a premature death. While Star Wars has retroactively inserted vehicles, technology, and lore into the Original Trilogy period since the Prequel Trilogy, it seems confirmed here that Tharwn’s attempt to update the Imperial fighter squadron machine is fruitless.

Part II: What We’ve Been Told/Shown

In the months following the end of Star Wars Rebels season three, we have gained quite a few kernels of information from both the cast and crew of the series. Before I jump into full on speculation, I wanted to take a moment to show and extrapolate on other information we’ve gained for the series.

The season will be shorter and more serialized

One of the major complaints leveled at the second and third season of Star Wars Rebels is the focus on anthologized storytelling at times lead to episodes that seemingly did not tie back into the overarching plot or felt like diversions. Season four, intentionally or not, will somewhat address this issue. It runs shorter than the second and third season, clocking in at 16 22 minute segments, several of which form two part 44 minute episodes. Also, according to Dave, the first several episodes wrap up disparate plot threads before converging on one long story that feed into a narrative that covers the thrust of the last chunk of the season. Conventional wisdom seems to hint that we will spend much of this season on Lothal as the liberation of the planet becomes a priority for the rebellion and our cast.

Mandalore is in Civil War

Ever since Ursa Wren slayed Imperial Viceroy Gar Saxon to protect her daughter, Mandalore has broken apart with the various houses and clans vying for control of the planet with the Empire backing the remnants of Saxon’s house. This conflict takes center stage in the season premiere “Heroes of Mandalore,” which was partially screened at Celebration Orlando and then in its entirety at FanExpo. (I saw the first half myself and it’s pretty great. No spoilers, but it left me with a pretty huge cliffhanger that I’ve been anticipating the conclusion to since April.)

Rebels seems to be pulling out all the stops in putting this conflict to screen. Not only do we get a wide variety of Mandalorian characters and factions, numerous characters from this series’ past as well as The Clone Wars are due for an appearance. After teasing her return to Star Wars animation last year, Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame is due for a reprise of her character Bo-Katan and appears to be wielding the legendary Darksaber (perhaps Sabine hands it over to the rightful ruler of the planet?). In addition to the return of Sabine’s mother and brother, the Rebels Season Three Blu-Ray also reveals that Sabine’s father will be making his debut in the premiere. Having seen part of the episode I can confirm that he plays into Sabine’s character in a fun fashion, it’s very apparent about how his and Ursa’s personalities mixed to create their daughter. Shots of Mandalorian soldiers being turned to dust also seem to hint that the terrible weapon developed by Sabine will be deployed by the Empire.

That being said it seems unlikely that the Mandalorian conflict will spill over into the greater galactic conflict with the Empire. While Sabine and some of her close allies may take part in the battle on Lothal (Sabine can be glimpsed in the final shots of the second trailer with the rest of the Ghost Crew), the lack of Mandalorian presence in Rogue One seems to make this an unlikely possibility.

The Clones Are Back

After sitting out season three, Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo confirmed that clones Wolffe and Gregor would be seen on screen once again before the end of the series at Celebration Orlando earlier this year. Similarly, Dave cryptically dropped concept of Captain Rex wearing camouflage armor seemingly hinting at the popular fan theory that an older extra in Return of the Jedi may be the famous clone veteran.

Saw Gerrera and the Partisans

We also have been informed that Forest Whitaker will be reprising his role as Saw Gerrera in the early portions of the season. In addition to confirmation that his alien partner, Edrio Two Tubes (or maybe it’s Benthic. I honestly didn’t even know there were two of them. Did you know that?), will be joining him. The final trailer and Filoni have both hinted that this season widens the gap between Gerrera and the rest of the Alliance and may explain why he is no longer a part of the larger rebellion by the time Rogue One rolls around. He also seems set to butt heads with some key characters in the ensemble. Ezra in particular seems drawn in by Saw’s no nonsense results oriented strategy. Ezra has often been marked equally by both his compassion and his desire to see the Empire and Sith defeated. It seems likely that he will be used as a vantage point for the viewer allowing them to see both the allure and danger of a more dangerous and fanatical battle against The Empire.

Space Married

One of the most widely popular and to many the most consistently playfully frustrating aspects of the Rebels ensemble has been the frequently hinted at but never explicitly shown relationship between Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus. According to clips shown at Fan Expo and the first and second trailer for this season, fans may finally get their wish and see the symbolic mother and father of The Ghost crew commit to some form of romantic relationship. Whether this has a happy ending is a whole other thing, but for a few happy moments we are more than likely to see this couple finally, maybe, kiss…or something. At least an emotional forehead touch.

Rukh

Thrawn’s Noghri bodyguard from Timothy Zahn’s classic trilogy of novels is set to make his first canon appearance this season voiced by the legendary Warwick Davis. While his role appears to have been reshuffled to be more of a special agent/assassin in Thrawn’s employ rather than the almost enslaved bodyguard in his Legends appearance, it is unclear just how much Rukh borrows from his original role. Most importantly, is he the one to place once again place the killing blow on The Empire’s blue skinned Admiral? I’m inclined to think not.

Space Wolves

Dave Filoni loves wolves. Like, he really really likes wolves. What would the final season be without a whole lot of giant magical space wolves? The Loth-Wolves so far have remained a mystery, but their importance and almost mystical presence have been stressed throughout season four’s marketing campaign. While we can rest easy knowing that Ahsoka isn’t pulling a Sirius Black and transforming into a wolf like some fan’s speculated, Filoni has stressed that the large white predators are a Bendu-like creature that border the light and the dark. What connection do they really have to the planet of Lothal and the series as a whole? Who knows, but it will be nice to finally get a sense of how they fit into the planet’s culture.

Ahsoka Lives !(?!)

Oh yeah, Ahsoka is back. How? Why? Where? Who knows, but Dave Filoni has confirmed that we will see Ashley Eckstein’s fan favorite former-Jedi at least one more time before the series ends.

Part III: Rampant Speculation

So what does this all mean? Where are we going? Who is that? Where am I? Before I start jumping into the general end game for the series, let’s get a few more pieces of speculation out of the way. Let’s talk characters. Let’s talk deaths. Let’s talk why Nick keeps using repetition to spice up this segment of his article.

Kallus and the Rebellion

While Alexsandr Kallus (yes, that’s officially his first name now) has been a rebel operative for about a full season now, this season marks the first time that the former Imperial operative is an active participant in the Alliance. Sporting a snazzy new outfit and set to make a change in the galaxy, Kallus is sure to be one of the more intriguing aspects of this season going into its start. I highly doubt that Kallus’s assimilation into the rebellion will make for a clean transition. In particular, Kallus seems primed to be a key source of antagonism with Saw Gerrera. As we learned in “The Honorable Ones,” Saw’s partisans were responsible for the deaths of Kallus’s men on Onderon. Similarly, Saw’s own fanaticism makes it seem likely that he won’t be keen on having a former Imperial Intelligence officer enter the Alliance. The two seem primed for a confrontation and Dave Filoni and the creative team would be smart to capitalize off this. The idea of having David Oyelowo and Forest Whitaker face off is too great an opportunity to pass up.  

Thrawn will survive

Grand Admiral Thrawn’s survival is one of the most hotly debated aspects of the series. The iconic Legends turned canon Chiss admiral has been a fan favorite on and off screen. While he more or less came out on top at the conclusion of season three, Thrawn’s fate is a bit more ambiguous this season. Like many iconic Rebels characters, he does not play a role in the original trilogy and for a character of his stature and in-universe importance, it seems unlikely that he is still an active participant in the Imperial war machine at the time the series concludes. We may have actually been given our first clue to the fate of Thrawn at New York Comic Con last weekend. Timothy Zahn, the original creator of the blue skinned villain, announced that he would be writing a sequel to his canon novel, Thrawn, tentatively titled Alliances, which would feature the character teaming up with Darth Vader himself. While this inherently may not seem like a dead giveaway that Thrawn makes it out of the series alive, the original Thrawn novel concluded just before the character’s introduction in the season three premiere episode “Steps into Shadow.” While it is possible that the sequel novel may function as a pseudo-prequel or even a mid-quel, this seems to indicate that Thrawn’s narrative continues past what is seen on screen. Similarly, the final novel in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy appears to hint that Thrawn spent much of his later career stationed in the Unknown Regions, although the language is vague and inconclusive.

Expect Lots of Cameos

With the Ghost Crew now firmly a part of the larger rebellion, it seems inevitable that we will be seeing at the very least cameo appearances from numerous famous characters. Bail Organa, Jan Dodonna, and Mon Mothma all seem like givens for speaking roles, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see various others as well. With the continued attempts to establish creative synergy between Rebels and Rogue One, I think it is highly likely that characters such as Admiral Raddus will appear, especially given that Stephen Stanton is already a regularly employed member of the Rebels voice cast. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we got a few more notable cameos such as Cassian Andor or K-2SO. Having two Fulcrum agents such as Cassian and Kallus interact seems like another relationship that would be key to exploit. I also would be very surprised if we finished the series out without seeing Leia or Darth Vader again. Both characters made a splash in their first appearances in the series’ second season and it seems like both characters still have something to contribute to the narrative, Leia in particular.

Only one Ghost Crew member will die

While Hera and Chopper are proved to make it out of the series, Rebels will not pull a Rogue One and end with the death of the majority of its cast. We may not know what fates may befall Ezra, Sabine, Kanan, and Zeb but a massacre seems off the table. For a simple and almost logistical reason, Rebels is a series that is at its heart tonally optimistic and targeted at a mature but younger audience. It isn’t afraid to kill characters, good or evil, this is true, but Rebels is a series that is most concerned with exploring family and the importance of standing up for a larger cause in difficult times. I do not see Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm, and especially Disney XD, sanctioning an ending for the series that reinforces such a bleak understanding of sacrifice and familial bonds. It may be a good ending, but it’s hardly the best and certainly not the route that Rebels will take. That being said, it seems just as unlikely if the entirety of the Rebels cast is to survive. Heroic sacrifice and the cost of war are a theme of Star Wars and Dave Filoni at times has been all too aware of this. I am willing to go on the record and say only one member of the Ghost Crew will perish and there are two likely candidates.

Sabine seems least likely out of the four non-confirmed survivors of the series to perish. Her fate at this point is almost more connected to the Mandalorian struggle than to the rebellion itself. While it may be a poignant end for her story to have her sacrifice her life to bring liberty to her people and reunite her family, it feels out of place and, again, overly bleak for the series to take this route for her character. Besides, with the media blitz that Sabine has received since her involvement in the Forces of Destiny toyline and animated shorts, I doubt we’ve seen the last of our graffiti inspired Mandalorian warrior.

Ezra is this series’ biggest question mark. Rebels is at the end of the day about him and his journey from street rat to Jedi apprentice to freedom fighter. Does the story end in his death? I’m inclined to think not. Why? Well, again, on a practical level, I cannot recall a single television series aimed at a preteen to teen age demographic that ended with the death of its child protagonist, even if, yes, Ezra is pushing the age boundaries for that term at this point. Rebels has to keep in mind both its adult and child viewers and killing off the hero in the hero’s journey may not be the move that best placates both audiences. That being said, in terms of canon, Ezra does create a problem. He is simply too prominent and powerful a figure to be left around in the universe by the time we reach the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. Well, where is Ezra then? I’m getting to that, I promise.

That leaves our two likely death candidates being Garazeb Orrelios and Kanan Jarrus. Zeb is the character I’ve spoken the least about in this write up and frankly there is a reason for this. While he began the series as one of the show’s more compelling and entertaining characters, season three proved just how stagnant a character the Ghost Crew’s Lasat had become. In two strong episodes in Rebels’ second season, Zeb’s character arcs had effectively resolved themselves. Zeb had not only found out that he was not the last surviving member of the Lasats, in fact there is a whole planet of them, but had also reconciled with his longtime nemesis, Agent Kallus. With Kallus now a willing member of the rebellion, this relationship also seems to have reached its natural conclusion. While there is certainly opportunity to develop this dynamic further, it almost feels as if Zeb’s purpose is to function as an extension of Kallus’s character rather than his own. Unfortunately, this makes Zeb the most dispensable and cleanest death for the Rebels team to pull off. Zeb has been with the viewer long enough for his passing to have an emotional impact both in and out of the series, while at the same time avoiding any long term damage to the series dynamics if he were to be taken off the table. Perhaps he sacrifices himself to save the Ghost Crew or Kallus? Or maybe him and Kallus go out together in a blaze of glory? It could go either way.

And then there’s Kanan. This is the hard one, because Freddie Prinze Jr.’s blind Jedi Knight and resident Ghost father figure has been not only one of the strongest characters in Rebels’ ensemble but also one of its most beloved. There is a genuine affection for Kanan. I’m sure a very large portion of the fanbase would love to see him and Hera happily settle down together and raise some Twi-Lek/Human hybrid babies (I mean we know that can happen thanks to The Clone Wars), but, man, things just don’t look good for him. Like Ezra, Kanan’s continued participation in the Alliance creates a massive problem for the larger lore of Star Wars. A practicing Jedi Knight being a participant in the Alliance would surely be noticed and would have come up in conversation, especially considering the addition of Luke Skywalker to their ranks following the Battle of Yavin. Kanan has to be removed from the playing field somehow. While it is possible he could join Ezra on my big series end theory, it is just as likely if not plausible that he becomes one with the Force. This would undoubtedly be the most emotional route the crew could take and it is a very likely possibility.

Part IV: The Ending

So how does Rebels end? How does this saga conclude in a manner that resolves its various plot points but also moves us towards an emotionally satisfying conclusion that capitalizes off the series’ themes? In all honesty, I’m taking a stab in the dark, but it’s one that I am confident in.

Lothal is the key. Not only is it central to the conflict at the series’ conclusion and is it the home at which Rebels began, but there is something about the planet that is special. Hinted at way back in “The Siege of Lothal” by Minister Tua, there is a secret reason for The Empire’s interest in Lothal as a planet. While this has become lost in the dozens of climactic events that have occurred in the seasons since, the secret for the Empire’s presence on the grassy planet has never been answered.

We know for a fact that this cannot be related to the strip mining of Lothal’s resources as Tua confirms that this isn’t the case. Similarly, Thrawn’s use of the planet as a staging ground for the development of the TIE Defender didn’t come to fruition until after he had been relocated to the planet at the start of the third season. Whatever secret lies buried beneath Lothal has been there for quite sometime and has barely if ever been touched upon.

So what is it? We do know that Lothal is a planet filled with hidden Force secrets. From the lost Jedi Temple seen in the first season to the Lothwolfs, Lothal has a rich secret Force culture. We know from the novels and comics that Emperor Palpatine has been stockpiling Force and Sith artifacts to use in outlook stations to observe some strange threat in the Unknown Regions, which is maybe probably Snoke or something . My theory is that there is some secret Force artifact, temple, or object/place of similar significance that The Empire is actively in search of located on Lothal. Dave Filoni has stressed repeatedly that this season will be delving into a great deal of stranger imagery that is not unlike some work they’ve done in The Clone Wars in the past. While he keeps it vague, it is not hard to call to mind images of the Mortis Trilogy or Yoda’s strange walkabout to learn the secrets of the afterlife.

I believe that while much of the Battle for Lothal will remain a military campaign, Ezra and likely Kanan’s story will take a swerve into the search and discovery of what this Force secret may be, and the Lothwolves are likely the first step to finding this. While we do not know enough regarding this secret to truly learn much about it as of yet, my guess is that this artifact sends Ezra to or leads him into the unknown regions and he is forced to abandon the rest of rebellion to follow his quest. Ezra leaves the rebellion war effort to focus on a task that is possibly even more important and even dangerous.

While I believe that this will occur towards the end of the series, my thinking is that perhaps the Force grants Ezra a brief glimpse into the future. He is able to see key events in the rebellion and will learn that the future, while always in motion, will lead to freedom. I suspect that this is where Rebels will show the fates of most of our cast in how they tie into the original trilogy, such as showing Captain Rex fighting on the moon of Endor. It will be vague and likely not mean much out of context to Ezra, but fans will be able to discern where and what is occurring.

With Ezra out of the picture, we end the series with him a new environment and seemingly unknown. We know for a fact that only a scant few voice actors and production supervisors have worked on the final scene of the series and that it has been top secret. I believe we end the series with a conversation between Ahsoka and Ezra. Dave has hinted for a while that we will see Ahsoka Tano again, but the nature of her reappearance has always been vague. We do know that Ahsoka disappeared into the depths of Malachor following her duel with Darth Vader. The promotional TOPS cards (shown above) released in 2016 seem to hint at this as well, even showing Lothwolves. It seems her fate lead her onto the same path that Ezra now finds himself. It ends with both eras of Star Wars animation joining forces to find a common future.

Well, that’s how I see it anyways. I may be completely wrong, but I feel confident that the end will be something at least slightly similar to this.

We will know soon enough. What are your opinions? Where and how do you think Star Wars Rebels will conclude? I would love to hear your thoughts and critiques and predictions.

#Star Wars #Star Wars Rebels #review #reviews #swr #Hera Syndulla #ezra bridger #Kanan Jarrus #Zeb #Garazeb Orrelios #Chopper #Thrawn #Grand Admiral Thrawn #Sabine Wren #Sabine #Mandalore #Timothy Zahn #Dave Filoni #Ahsoka Tano #Saw Gerrera #Alexsandr Kallus #Kallus #Agent Kallus #spoilers #potential spoilers #commentary #star wars rebels theories #Lothal #star wars rebels season 4

[comic-critic-squad]

Someone asked earlier what could be done to fix Home. I had some thoughts about the subject and I figured I might as well share.

Non-native speaker so sorry for any mangled language.

And obviously all of this would need a complete revamp for the comic and an actual script, but I am basically working with events that did occur in the comic and how to make them less… Bad. GENERAL THINGS/WORLDBUILDING

Remove the whole “dogs are immortal here” thing, since it affects absolutely no one, except allowing Meteor tribe to have a really old leader, which didn’t factor to anything anyway. Most old characters we meet are still well within the natural lifespan of a dog. Hell, they are intelligent dogs, they could live to be somewhat older than real dogs to begin with – I’d much rather have a doubled lifespan for these humans with paws than just make them straight up immortal ageless elves for no reason. Seems like this only exists to make people feel less creeped by the age difference between Roamer and Kargo (or any future pairings…)

Make it so that the Aedra natives have been there a lot longer. This would allow for deeper worldbuilding, but also make better explain why they have switched from packs to tribes, as they would have had more time to “evolve” to meet the challenges of Aedra.

Make the tribes more distinct beyond “these guys are evil rapists”, “these guys do stuff with antlers” and so on. Spend some actual time on them, especially the ones who will feature in the story – give them their own ways of life and relations with other tribes. I find it unlikely that there is no trade between tribes and that all tribes have the exact same products and ways of feeding themselves.

Remove the human made items or give them a proper explanation. It’s a fantasy comic. If you must stick with the current stuff, make the items more scarce and valuable, rather than giving everyone a set of armor, a bunch of knives, leg wraps and weird antler hats. One would assume that if they were given to them by sky gods, there would be a fairly limited number of each item.

Either commit to the spirit thing, or don’t involve them. Adding random ex machina spirits into your story only makes the rules more muddled.

Same with the nightbeasts. I like them, but they need to be a clearer threat with real, well established rules. The characters don’t need to know the rules, they can just assume, but the author does need to know how they actually work. It makes sense they would be more dangerous to newcomers who don’t expect them, but currently they are just totally pointless. If they are inconvenient to write around, perhaps make them inhabit only certain areas. Give them rules. Don’t make everyone absolutely safe from them with a single torch if you are going to use them.

Actually establish the size of Aedra. Make it bigger and decide from the start how long it takes to go from one place to another. Retcons and conveniences with the size have caused some really interesting time warps, and make the whole world feel tiny as hell.

Stop introducing so many characters. It’s a mess. We can meet new tribes without having each of them feature twenty random dudes.

Most importantly, if living in Aedra is supposed to be hard, make it hard. Allow characters to be seriously hurt and not magically healed in the next scene. Not everything needs to be life or death, but consequences should be clear.

PLOT

Make the Meteor Tribe smaller to begin with, but make them tougher and don’t end every conflict with them with Meteor casualties and nothing paid on the side of the Heroes.

Change the entire Meteor plotline. Arenak and Ranach can still be assholes, but don’t make it a tribe of rapists if you plan to convert them to good guys later. Perhaps they have issues with food (they do live high up north) and must practice population control, meaning they’d do selective breeding and tough training. Maybe Arenak is a tyrannical asshole and Ranach is personally bitter at Kargo and Ferah, instead of having no redeeming qualities or real motivations. Maybe Ferah and Kargo rebelled because they didn’t fit the mold of a productive member of society, or Kargo tried to challenge Arenak and failed. Let there be an actual reason for most meteors to want K&F dead, or at least far away from them.

With the Meteor tribe less evil, and more an, you know, actual culture with reasons for the shit they do, the conflict between them and K&F becomes more interesting and less black and white. Allow K&F to be selfish and not perfect. Let Roamer be naïve and just believe what they say, and regret it later when he realizes everything they said wasn’t true. Let this truth bomb come from Ronja when Roamer comes to “rescue her”. These changes make it feel less jarring when Ronja becomes the leader of Meteor Tribe and we are suddenly forced to emphasize with them.

If Meteor’s are supposed to be the main villains instead of a group we come to follow later, make them a lot stronger and allow them to return some damage, not die the moment they see Kargo. Killing Zilas does not count as returning damage.

Remove the entirety of the Aira subplot. Since her appearance, all Aira has accomplished is throwing Ferah off a cliff, and moping around. She isn’t doing anything, or providing us with any knowledge, she can go.

Remove the entirety of the Origin Orion subplot. It’s been almost a 100 pages since we last saw them, and I don’t see how they are going to factor into anything. Skip.

With Aira and Origin Orion gone, make Keirr and Jahla go along with either Roamer and co, or the Asmundr group. This way, we only have three plots: Roamer, Ronja, and Asmundr. This lessens the constant two page jumps into one group just to leave them again.

Let at least some of the main characters die. For real. We are 300+ pages in, with two fake out deaths. Rogio is contributing nothing, let him go.

Give each group clearly established roles and plots. Actually bring the plot threads together sometimes. Even if they want to make Home never end (oh gods), it could at least have bookends, seasons. Something to give it structure, rather than just dogs talking and strolling from one location to another

Not everyone needs to have a romantic partner. I know a lot of the readers are excited for shipping, but that doesn’t mean you need to pair everyone up

Make characters stay on task for more than five seconds.  - Agreed 100% with everything above. - Dr. Salt

#critique #opinion #submission

[disappearingground]

Think Of Us As Bookends: Jenny Lewis Interviewed

Clash Music August 8, 2019

American songwriter on her hidden hip-hop roots, creative honesty, and collaboration...

By Sarah Bradbury

“We can’t do anything about the shit out there,” Jenny Lewis says from the stage at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in West London, “but we’re all OK together in here.”

Bravely clad in figure-hugging, head-to-toe rose-gold sequins in spite of the atypical British heat still burgeoning outside the ram-packed venue, the Las Vegas-born musician oozes retro-edged glamour in her flame-red beehive and delivers a glitzy, soulful performance, every bit the music and style icon her reputation dictates.

The image she cuts on stage is in stark contrast to the laid-back woman in t-shirt and trainers I had the pleasure of speaking to just days earlier from a hotel room sofa at the K West.

Throughout our freewheeling chat that touches on Ariana Grande’s towering heels at Coachella, her love of boxing, and whether you sneeze when you eat peppermint, amongst more heavy-going topics, I feel the counteracting forces of an effusive warmth with an intimidating otherworldliness, as if speaking with a Hollywood film star of yesteryear.

Husky-toned statements end in pregnant pauses with eye contact firmly held, each anecdotal answer to a question leaving me on tenterhooks of what might come next.

The American singer-songwriter’s life in the limelight began as a child actress, appearing in Troop Beverly Hills and Brooklyn Bridge, Baywatch and The Golden Girls, Jell-O and Toys R Us ads in the late 80s/early 90s, her earnings going to support her family after her parents separated.

She made her break into music heading up much-loved LA indie band Rilo Kiley from 1998, which saw success over four albums and tracks featured on the likes of Noughties teen obsessions The O.C. and Dawson’s Creek. As well as time spent in The Postal Service, Jenny & Johnny and Nice As Fuck*, Lewis has been pursuing a solo career since 2006’s 'Rabbit Fur Coat'.

Earlier this year came the release of her fourth solo studio album, 'On The Line', to rapturous acclaim, delivering yet another installment of the particular brand of country-infused indie rock she has carved out for herself, which she has since been touring the US, Europe and many a festival stage with.

The journey to the album’s completion wasn’t an easy one - while 2014’s 'The Voyager' was preoccupied with the breakup of Rilo Kiley, facing her father’s death and suffering the tyranny of depression and insomnia, the five intervening years before the release of 'On The Line' brought their own set of challenges: the break down of her 12 year relationship with partner and musician Johnathan Rice and her mother’s death from cancer.

Yet while these life events may have left indelible marks on the singer-songwriter, the songs produced in their wake are counterintuitively dominated by spangly sing-along choruses, lucid images and strongly-drawn characters in immersive narratives. In her explanation of what inspired the album, she’s impossibly understated:

“Just life as it happens. All the things that you would imagine that happened between like 35 and 40. A lot of stuff happens in that period. So my songs either predict or mirror or shadow real life. I never know what I'm going to write about, I just kind of write about it.”

In that respect, songwriting is often a kind of therapy for the artist: “I think it's a feeling that births a song,” she explains thoughtfully. “And it's usually a feeling of agony or pain. Music is kind of therapeutic. And in that way it's something to turn to. It doesn't have to come from that place but I feel like it's always a feeling and then hopefully something catchy pops up.”

“In order for me to remember it, it has to be incredibly catchy or it'll just disappear into the ether of my unfinished songs pile. From 12 years ago, I have this one called ‘The Scorpion and the Lily’, that's just this thing that keeps unfolding. I don't think it's very good. I better stop…”

The intensely personal nature of her music means that the experience of releasing them out into the public realm can be a double-edged sword: “The life of a record is so funny because in the formative stage, it feels so potent. Working on it takes however long it takes. But this one took a minute, so to have it done and out in the world and now starting to see people know the songs, it's really satisfying. But it's also like, ‘How do you know that? That's really personal! Stop singing along with that sir, it's inappropriate!”

There’s also a process of translating the album tracks to work live: “On the road with a live band, you’re not playing any backing tracks, it's all what we're creating organically. So sometimes it doesn't work, a record piece.”

In particular, she notes collaborator Beck, the first of many on the album, is a meticulous producer: “Everything is very deliberate. So unless you hit all those marks live, sometimes a song will feel not as great. It takes playing it out in front of people 20, 30 times where it's like, mediocre. And then one night, you're like, ‘we got it.’”

But it’s a collaboration she has found exhilarating, “to experience my own songs through like another artist’s prism, rather than like a straight engineer, there's a trust. It's exciting to just feel what is going to happen. It’s the room. It's the cast of characters. It's how you feel on that day. It's the song. If the song sucks, it's not going to fly. But once I had the songs, I was very open to send them off to college or whatever.”

Growing up with parents as lounge musicians in Las Vegas, music was always going to figure largely in Lewis’ life: “They had a band together. And so music is just in the genetics, like that's just been the family thing. I grew up singing with my mom and my sister, and my dad was a virtuosic harmonica player - genius - so music was just the family business. I also had this side thing as an actor, which was also the family business. But then I just started writing from a young age.”

Her mother’s singer-songwriter records were certainly a key influence but Lewis credits a love of hip-hop for her obsession and dexterity as a lyricist: “I think it was hip-hop that really got me into words. My mom was listening to Laura Nero and Barbra Streisand. But then it was my music, like A Tribe Called Quest, that was a huge, just poetic influence. It was Big Daddy Kane, it was like Run DMC. Souls of Mischief. EPMD - all this lyrical stuff. I’d write poetry and raps. And then someone taught me how to play a couple chords on the piano and the guitar and then that was it.”

It was then later that country music came onto Lewis’ radar, completing the “mixtape” of genres that define her output: “I got into Gram Parsons and the Byrds in the early 2000s, then into Bakersfield stuff a little bit later. It’s all about storytelling. I like very evocative storytelling.”

And it is that very love of storytelling that has led Lewis to sit apart as a songwriter, bringing the acute specificities of her experiences and musical education to bear on a sound that invites her listener into a distinct world via vivid imagery and often biting witty observations in each track.

Opening with ‘Heads Gonna Roll’, the “lyrical mission statement,” featuring none other than Ringo Star plus a narcoleptic poet from Duluth, sycophants in Marrakech and nuns from Harlem, Lewis sees 'On The Line' as a story “from front to back. It begins with a breakup. But it's really a rebound. And then a death and rebirth.”

“So the beginning, it's like a play in my mind: here are the characters, now go for it. And Ringo's on the first track. It's a little braggy to put Ringo on the first track. But that is maybe the coolest thing that's ever happened to me…”

Also featured on the record are Jim Keltner - “one of the all-time rock and roll drummers” - Benmont Tench, Don Was, Jim Keltner and Jason Falkner. Delectable melodies and nods to country-pop and 70s soft rock serve to seductively sugarcoat searingly poignant evocations of much darker subject matter, arguably the most candid reflections on her past her music has ever dealt with.

As Lewis admits, ‘Little White Dove,’ is the “funkiest song about mourning and grieving.” Tackling her mother’s heroin addiction, their decades-long estrangement and final reconciliation before she died in hospital from liver cancer, she sings, “A mother and child / Emergency behind a yellow curtain / On the second floor / All the guardian angels at the door / With their long white coats and stethoscopes” before leading into the line: “I’m the heroin.”

‘Wasted Youth’ ponders her years acting as a child, “I wasted my youth on a poppy / Doo-doo doo-doo doo, just because,” nodding to the hard-earned cash part-funding her mother’s opiate addiction. Stand out track ‘Red Bull & Hennessy’, hits on her painful break from Rice, “And we had it all / It's falling apart / Never getting back again without that spark.”

‘Party Clown’ brings us Fuji apples, scorpions, beetles floating in red wine, while asking: “Can you be my puzzle piece, baby? / When I cry like Meryl Streep.”

Amid heartbreak and grief, lust and infatuation, cynical detachment and raw emotion, there’s a thread of black humour, as is pointed to in the album opener: “And maybe after all is said and done / We'll all be skulls.”

Having become increasingly adept as a solo artist, Lewis still looks back at first leaving her band as challenging: “Those were the best times ever. It's so amazing to see things for the first time, especially with a bunch of your friends around. It was so potent, and so fresh, and so new that it was like as exciting as it ever has been.”

Branching out at first filled her with trepidation, she recalls: “I was terrified. Making my first solo record, my friend asked me to make it for his label. That wasn't something that I would have done at that time. So I feel like I've been encouraged by people throughout my career. I've had these little spirit guides that have kind of like pushed me, like, ‘go do it. You can do it on your own.’”

That encouragement led her to surprise herself of just what she could achieve: “the art itself is the surprising part. When you realise you can do it. I remember hearing Rabbit Fur Coat off the tape in the studio after we had just cut. It was like live music. It sounded exactly like my dreams. It sounded like my soul. Band music is a collective soul but it’s different, it's everyone's experience. This was so personal.”

And now, she thrives on being, “the creative director of my world. I feel more comfortable doing it, you know, designing the set and directing the music videos. Like I directed the ‘Just One Of The Guys’ video” - a brilliantly fun ensemble of Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway and Brie Larson donning Adidas tracksuits and fake ‘taches - “which wouldn't have happened in my band, because it would have been a co-directing thing. So I feel like as far as a full artistic vision goes - good or bad, it could suck! - now I want to be in charge of the whole thing. I don't want to really, like, share.”

She reluctantly accepts a need to engage in the promotional side of the business, “though it is annoying, sometimes. But it is part of the whole thing. If I want to get my music out there, this presence is really important. So I try not to not to grumble about it. Because if you're not making like top 40 music, how are people going to find out about your music?”

At least with Instagram, she’s determined to have a laugh with it: “I've tried to curate my Instagram in a way where it is 100% authentic. It is 100% me. So whatever you see on there, if it's lame, it's my fault,” she says with a laugh.

I get a preview of the latest of her surreal Insta Story videos, “shot at the Queen's tennis centre. We opened for Death Cab For Cutie there a couple weeks ago. And that's where Wes Anderson shot part of the Royal Tennenbaums. Then we had these rabbit costumes...”

In the span of her career, the 43 year old reflects she seen the industry and environment both for artists and audiences shift. She herself had to distance herself from Ryan Adams who had worked on 'The Voyager' and the early stages of the current album, after allegations were made against him of sexual manipulative behaviour.

“I think it's evolving and I appreciate the dialogue,” Lewis says. “I was one of fewer women on the road when I started. Now there are way more women out there. But there's still those moments. Like, this camera guy at this festival I played. I wanted the cameras to be in my aesthetic. So I go back to talk to him with the set list and he just rolled his eyes from the moment I opened my mouth. I could tell he didn't want to do it. But I've learned over the years, to just not bat an eye, and just be patient, and get exactly what I fucking want. But you still feel those moments of resistance.”

While she does joke that becoming an “icon” of any kind usually implies “you’re kind of old”, she has no doubt of the importance of inspiring the next generation: “When I saw my first proper concert, on my own, without my mum, it was The Cure and PIXIES were opening. I must have been 11 or 12. And I saw Kim Deal on stage playing bass. She was maybe the first woman I'd ever seen playing an instrument. And that really resonated with me.”

That’s not to say she fully embraces role model status: “I never think of myself in a leadership context. I'm trying to just be myself. I'm not trying to be perfect. I try to be responsible with what I say. But sometimes, I talk shit,” she says with a wry smile.

Were things more wild back in the day?

“I went to a bunch of Grateful Dead shows as a kid. And like the even the parking lot was wild. You know? I mean, it was like drug culture. That was the 90s. We still have fun. Although it's like pretty rated PG-13. I mean, I've never been invited to an orgy. So I don't know. I'm trying to be less of a square…”

While she might not literally be taking things day by day - “I’m a hippie but that big of a hippie that much of a hippie” - there’s a resistance to overengineering her forward path: “I don't have goals ever. I've got like, song ideas. I've got 10 or 12 songs I'm just starting. Like the kombucha thing, you’ve got to let it ferment.”

And there’s also a sense that having pretty much experienced it all, from child-acting to band life to solo artist, playing all festivals from Glastonbury to Coachella, becoming artistic director of all her output, she can take the time to relish in this moment.

The week previous she was at Latitude: “I love Latitude. Our set was so fun. But then afterwards, we got stoned and went out into the crowd to watch Khruangbin, which was the best festival sets I've seen since like, Tame Impala at Coachella. It was absolutely dancey. We were like we found ourselves in the middle of like a steampunk 30th birthday party where everyone was dressed up and dancing around us. And we were like, this is amazing.”

Later that week, watching her delight, charm and coax her summer’s evening London crowd into being wrapped around her finger as pink and blue balloons filled the air, I saw that this is a Jenny Lewis who’s survived significant turbulence in her life, faced her demons and gone from strength to strength as an artist as a result - and now gets to enjoy the pink and blue-hued view.

Does she have any advice for young women looking to for the success she has enjoyed?

“I'd say: wear what you want. Sing what you feel. Write what you know. Stand flat-footed. Don't take no shit.”

Wise words, well said.

#publication: clash #album: on the line #year: 2019 #mention: breakup #mention: mother's death #mention: songwriting #mention: parent's band #song: little white dove #song: wasted youth #mention: child acting #mention: heroin #mention: drug addiction #mention: advice

[spencerhasatwin-blog]

Season 6, Episode 11

The first time we see Spencer in this episode is in the intro, before the opening credits, and she is reading a letter from Alison about returning to Rosewood.  In this scene, Spencer appears conflicted, and perhaps frustrated.  Also of note, her watch resides on her left wrist, as it does for most right-handed people (one’s watch is generally worn on the non-dominant wrist so that it doesn’t interfere with daily tasks, such as writing).

Spencer is also the first Liar we follow back to Rosewood.  We see her framed in the foreground of the church which, by the end of the episode, will become Charlotte’s place of death.  From an artistic standpoint, this bookends the episode nicely, should Spencer be Charlotte’s killer.

The next five scenes, Spencer is wearing the same outfit.  In these scenes, her watch is on her right wrist, implying that this Spencer may, in fact, be left-handed.  She also acts a little unusually throughout.  Generally, when anyone speaks in these scenes, Spencer waits for others’ reactions before exhibiting one herself, as though she is waiting for a cue for how she, herself, should react.  Exceptions to this include when the girls meet with Ali, and Spencer states, “We aren’t on the playground anymore.  We haven’t been for a long time….” (giving Ali an extremely dark look), and earlier in the episode, when Spencer sarcastically tells her Mom during their reunion, “The family that campaigns together stays together.”  At times, there appears to be a devious undercurrent to seemingly benign comments.

The first of the dialogue scenes in the episode shows Spencer meeting back up with the rest of the girls.  When the girls discuss their current careers and relationships, Aria asks Spencer, “Who is Spencer seeing?”  Seemingly going along with the joking 3rd person, Spencer replies, “Spencer is too busy to see anybody.”  While this alone is not worthy of extra consideration, if we examine this scene through the lens of this-is-a-twin-speaking, it is a way of surreptitiously introducing this fact to the viewers for later analysis.  And is it any coincidence that Spencer takes the lead amongst the girls at the end of this scene, deciding what to do next?  True, Spencer has always been a pillar that the other girls can rely on, because she has a remarkable intelligence, but again, including it with everything else, it seems more significant than usual.

The next scene in which we see Spencer, she is meeting back up with her mother and going over the campaign. Watch still on the right hand, this should still be the imposter.  Of note here (aside from the aforementioned sarcasm about families campaigning together and staying together) is her worried pause when her mother says, “It’s your fault I’m doing this,” as well as an odd use of the first person when she gets defensive about her occupation.  When her mother tells her, “Sweetheart, you work for a lobbyist,” Spencer immediately denies this by saying, “No, we are not lobbyists, we work with grassroots political organizations to advance progressive legislation.”  1st person plural.  Perhaps she is referring to her company and fellow coworkers, or perhaps she is referring to her twin (the real Spencer).  If this last item is in fact the case, it would imply that Spencer knows her twin exists and has possibly been working with her.  Concerning, and there are points to contradict this elsewhere, but it is certainly a possibility.

The third Spencer scene shows her meeting back up with Toby.  Watch still on the right hand, and still wearing the same outfit, this would appear to still be faux-Spencer.  She is a little awkward at first, appearing to ask herself, “How do I do this?  How do we interact?”  Explainable simply by saying, “Well yeah, he’s her ex, of course she’s uncertain.”  But couldn’t she also be asking herself how the real Spencer would interact with Toby in this situation?  There are subtle, instinctual understandings between two individuals who have been as close and intimate as Spencer and Toby, which would be difficult to replicate by someone who hasn’t been a part of that relationship.  Notice that Spencer seems totally into Toby in this scene.  She cares about him, and appears to have a bit of a crush on him. Her attitude is kind of shy, with a touch of flirty, and she does a lot of uncharacteristic smiling.  Not hard to believe that a twin who has seen the real Spencer have so many things she missed out on, might covet her sister’s boyfriend at some point, too.  How easy to say, “this could be me.”  This would help to explain the most significant hole in the twin theory in this scene: when Spencer says, “Because I know you.”  Sure sounds like something an ex would say, not like something someone pretending to be an ex would say.  Unless she’d been watching Toby all this time, harboring her own feelings for him, and coming to know him from a distance.

Up next is the meeting with Alison.  This scene shows a rather harsh side to Spencer.  While everyone else is quietly upset, trying to be sympathetic to Ali, but rolling their eyes in frustration and still hating that this is a conversation even being had, Spencer is openly angry.  Her first line in the scene is, “So Charlotte is all better now.  What does this have to do with us?”  As the others interact with Ali, she carefully gauges their reactions.  And every time she opens her mouth, she is confrontational, seemingly attempting to ferret out the truth (“Victim Statements?” and “Who else is speaking?” and “Why isn’t Jason here?”).  While the other girls are on the defensive, angrily stating why they shouldn’t be made to do this, Spencer is on the offensive, attacking Ali instead of protecting her own feelings.  Of course, the nastiest comment she delivers is, “Pretty please?  With sugar on top?…That’s what you say on the playground to exact a favor.  We’re not on the playground anymore, Alison.  We haven’t been for a long time.”  Here, Ali looks hurt and vulnerable, while Spencer looks cruel and unforgiving.  An odd reversal of roles for these old friends, isn’t it?

In the next scene, as the Liars stand and watch Veronica Hastings’s campaign speech, Spencer encourages the other girls to say that they aren’t afraid of Charlotte anymore. Really?  After she just battled Ali on every single point she made?  What I see here is a person who doesn’t like Ali, and who wants Charlotte out in the open for some reason.  Perhaps so she can get to her?  Kill her?  As Spencer darts up to the platform for her mother to introduce her to the crowd, she is stopped by Mona.  She delivers and uncertain, “Hi Mona…” and appears distinctly uncomfortable throughout the entire conversation.  Mona references a time she waved at her at an event, and Spencer apologizes (As a side note not directly related to the main thread, could Mona be trying to catch Spencer in a lie?  Perhaps she suspects there are two of them, and this event never took place, or Spencer really did see Mona and wave back?).  Then Mona states that they’ve ended up in the same business, and Spencer looks vaguely mocking and says, “Um, not really.”  Is the business being discussed politics, or the “A” Game? Maybe Spencer’s twin is insulted by the idea that Mona would consider the game she played with the liars to be on the same level as her own game, or maybe it is a private joke with herself implying the same thing.  At the end of the conversation, why is Spencer so shocked when Mona asks her, “Do you still have nightmares?”  Her lack of response is odd.  Maybe she still hates Mona, or maybe she doesn’t know how the real Spencer would respond.  Every silence or lack of response is incriminating in this theory.

We’ve finally reached a new outfit (and potentially new day) the next time we see Spencer.  We’ve entered Charlotte’s hearing, where the girls speak to the judge about their feelings concerning Charlotte.  Spencer is now adorned in a demure pink coat, with a watch on the right wrist, implying that this is still not the real Spencer.  Spencer is up first, and she sets a precedent among the girls as having the guts to lie to the judge and say she is no longer afraid of Charlotte.  Her statement opens the door for the others to follow suit. As the other girls come up to give their statements, note that Spencer is sitting on the far right of the frame, allowing us to see her during nearly every frame of each statement.  At times, we can see no one else because we are so zoomed in on the person sitting at the table, but even then, we see Spencer in the background, looking over the speaker’s shoulder.  Again, artistry matters for a show that gives more clues than answers, so this is potentially representative of her role in their lives: always watching.  When Mona steps up for her turn, Hanna comments on her testimony being “the last nail in the coffin,” and Spencer nods along and rolls her eyes, not a single note of worry on her face.  As Mona speaks, she seems truly terrified.  She crumples up her paper and says she “thought she could do this.”  I suspect “A” has gotten to her already.  One possibility is that she defied “A,” who wanted her to make sure Charlotte stayed locked up, by speaking her actual truth: that she forgives Charlotte.  However I think it more likely, based on context clues, that she was warned away from telling the judge that she was still afraid of Charlotte, but she came planning to defiantly be honest anyway.  When it came down to the wire, she lost her nerve and buckled to “A’s” pressure, saying that she wasn’t afraid of Charlotte anymore. As she tells the judge this, she looks utterly unconvincing, appearing terrified even as she says it.  Specifically, she says, “Let her go home.  That’s all any of us wants.  To have a home.”  Why is this on her mind?  Is this what is being threatened?  Mona’s home, or family?  Then, of course, she begins crying and flees the room.  When Mona is emotional, it’s because she’s either acting, or not in control. My bet is on the latter in this scene. The final shot of the scene is of Spencer looking down with—dare I say—a scheming look on her face, as though she’s building up her nerve to do something.  It’s a very brief shot, but it lingers in one’s mind.

The next scene takes place just after the hearing.  We find Emily and left-handed Spencer sitting at a table at the newly refurbished Radley Hotel.  Spencer glances around the room warily, but this wouldn’t necessarily mean anything—both Spencer and her twin have likely spent time in Radley Sanitarium (we know Spencer has, and one of the running theories about Spencer’s twin is that she spent a great deal of time in Radley, envying her sister who lived on the outside), but is suggestive nonetheless. The same goes for when Spencer is reluctant to turn her phone off.  It is, in fact, a characteristically Spencer kind of reaction to have, but it could also mean more—that she has people she needs to stay in contact with for a secret plan, or that she has her phone set to automatically send out “A” messages to Mona, or any number of other things.

Later, still at the Radley, Spencer (a little tipsy) comments on how she’s missed the other girls’ faces, and that they “have such lovely faces.”  Endearing if it’s Spencer, but sickening if it’s Spencer’s twin/resident doll-maker.  And when the girls talk about how they need to get together more often “but not here,” Spencer opens her mouth as if she might object, before being cut off by Hanna talking about making a list of places to go and visiting each one together.  She then goes on to suggest places before bitterly stating, “and Ali and Charlotte can sit in that big, ugly house and they can bake cookies.”  Hatred of Charlotte?  Not uncommon amongst the Liars.  And anger at Ali for what she’s just encouraged them to do.  But such overwhelming bitterness towards Alison seems odd.  And then, Spencer is again over-the-top lovey-dovey with her friends, which is, again, endearing if it’s the real Spencer, but creepy as all get out if it’s Spencer’s evil twin, who’s spent years playing with them like marionettes.

The next morning, after the girls have gone back to Hanna’s room, right-watched Spencer is waking up hungover.  So.  Let’s say that both Spencers are in on this together. One Spencer could be sleeping in Hanna’s room, while the other was out committing the murder of Charlotte Drake.  After all, she “didn’t think they’d actually let her out.”

And who called Caleb to come take care of Hanna?  Spencer.  All a part of the larger game?  Right-watched Spencer meets him as he comes downstairs after speaking with Hanna. She’s familiar and comfortable with him, suggesting she’s spent some real time with him.

Flash to the funeral, where we see a very dead Charlotte lying in a very open, very prominently displayed casket as if to say, “WE’RE NOT LYING THIS TIME, SHE’S REALLY DEAD.” Not that we’re not still only 95% certain Charlotte is dead when they show us the corpse at an open casket funeral. This is PLL.  Mona’s eyes were freaking open in the trunk of the car, and she’s alive (UNLESS MONA’S THE TWIN!  Nah, probably not).  Speaking of Mona, we get a shot of her looking insanely guilty and worked up, sitting in the back pew.  You have to ask yourself, would she be feeling so guilty if she’d really told the truth, and she really wasn’t afraid of Charlotte?  It’s worse when it’s a lie, because you feel like you’ve manipulated the situation into being.  And Mona is far more worked up than the Liars.  Contact-with-“A” worked up.

At the very end of the episode, after the funeral has ended, the girls are approached by Lorenzo, who tells them to stay in town, because Charlotte’s death has been ruled a homicide. Who looks shifty and nervous upon hearing this news?  Spencer.  And who’s the one who, when one of the girls says, “I want to go home,” responds with, “We are home?”  Spencer. Anything to keep everyone together in the dollhouse.

You may be asking yourself, if that’s Spencer’s evil twin standing there, who is in the limo looking out at the Liars?  There are a couple of options: if Spencer is really in on all of this with her twin (or possibly being forced to cooperate), the real Spencer could be in the limo.  Another option is that it is Mary Drake in the limo, secretly attending her daughter’s funeral.  And of course, based on the most recent episode, the last (and least likely) option is that it was Pastor Ted, coming to say goodbye to his daughter, but extremely recognizable in his old parish.  

That’s it for my theories on this episode.  I might do a close examination of another pivotal episode at some other point, or I might do something on a scene-by-scene basis, but most of the theories I’ve seen out there (some of them truly inventive, and in my opinion, likely accurate [Avery Drake or Bethany Young both have good chances of being Spencer’s twin]) don’t go into greatly specific detail.  This seemed like a good episode to examine.  Hope you got some ideas from reading!

#pll #pll theories #pll twin theory #spencer hastings #pretty little liars #pretty little theories #spencer has a twin #pll 6x11 #spencerhasatwin

[vagrantblvrd]

Mile by Mile (1/1)

Summary: Given Ryan's reputation as the big, bad Vagabond, you wouldn't think he'd be a baby about it when they head up north on an extended job for Geoff.

Notes: Snapshots based on this post.

AO3

Given Ryan's reputation as the big, bad Vagabond, you wouldn't think he'd be a baby about it when they head up north on an extended job for Geoff.

Wouldn't expect him to make a face when greeted with gray sky and heavy clouds their first morning there, cold wind battering them in the face when they walk out of the motel room. Wouldn't expect him to scurry back inside, muttering about needing to change before they head out to talk to their contacts in the city. Wouldn't expect him to come back out bundled up in that hideous fur-trimmed coat of his he swore he got rid of ages ago and wearing leather gloves to boot, but he does.

He really does.

“Ryan, why?”

Ryan avoids Gavin's eyes as he mutters something that's lost in the collar of his coat, and strides off purposefully towards their rental car yelling over his shoulder for Gavin to hurry up or he'll leave without him.

“Idiot,” Gavin murmurs, pulling the car keys he lifted off Ryan as he brushed past him earlier out of his coat pocket. Just a spot of practice on his part really, never hurts to keep his hand in, and saunters toward the parking lot with a soft smile curling his lips.

***

It's always a nice thing, when things go their way.

Jobs like this, negotiating an alliance with other crews while hoping to expand the crew's reach is a delicate endeavor, and so very satisfying when things fall into place and  agreements are reached. Alliances forged, strong and looking to become even more so over time.

Playing politics is tiring, draining, and Gavin leans his head against the passenger side window as Ryan drives them back to the motel, something warm curling up in his chest as he listens to Ryan humming along absently to the radio with a little half-smile on his face.

***

“Wha - “ Gavin yelps, pulled rudely out of sleep when he feels a sharp jerk, rough slide of fabric against his skin and sits up, hands automatically reaching for Ryan -

- and stops, forehead furrowed in a frown as he tries to sort his thoughts in order, eyes falling on the other side of the bed where Ryan's rolled away from him in his sleep and taken the blankets with him.

There's a slight chill in the room, and realizes the motel's heater must have turned down in the night at some point. Most likely a built-in energy conservation measure.

Gavin huffs, corner of his mouth twitching with equal parts fondness and annoyance when he reaches for the blankets and Ryan pulls away from him with them, a low warning rumble of a growl coming from him.

“Fuck off,” Ryan mumbles, not truly awake as he burrows into the blankets like a small child.

“Ryan, no,” Gavin says, voice going small and pitiful, even though he's full-on smiling by now. “I'll freeze, Ryan, it's so cold.”

That gets through to Ryan, makes its way through the fog of sleep and has him cracking open one eye, peering at Gavin through a small gap in his little blanket cave.

“Ryan,” Gavin wheedles, slowly inching closer. “Don't be mean.”

There's a sigh, heavy, oh so put upon, and then Ryan wriggles free of the blankets and drags Gavin in close before draping the blankets over them both.

“'s cold,” Ryan says, barely above a whisper, words sounding heavy and unwieldy on his tongue. “Not like Los Santos.”

Gavin hums in easy agreement as he sets about poking at the blankets just enough to leave an opening for air, it's stifling being buried under the blankets.

He doesn't point out that the weather's held steady in the mid sixties the whole time they've been here, that they have a flight in the morning back to Los Santos and the crew and the sun-baked warmth of the city they call home, because that's not the point, is it.

Ryan's used to warm weather, grew up with it and managed the good luck to find his way to Los Santos through cities and towns where the weather never dropped below the low seventies. (By hook or crook, he's told Gavin before, twist of a smile on his face.)

He's been...not miserable, no, but definitely not thrilled with the change in temperature this whole time. Always has the heat up whether they're in the motel room or driving somewhere in the rental car, wearing that damnable jacket and the gloves he doesn't bother with in Los Santos.

“Stop laughing at me,” Ryan mutters, thread of embarrassment in his voice because the Vagabond should be above things like this, but Ryan? Oh, he's another matter completely, isn't he.

“I'm not,” Gavin says, but it's obvious he is, as much as he sympathizes with Ryan. “Ryan, I'm not.”

Ryan snorts, burying his face against Gavin's shoulder and regretting it almost instantly, saying, “Christ, you're a hairy bastard,” as he turns his head to the side.

“Oh, such sweet nothings you whisper in my ear,” Gavin says. “Always a charmer, you are.”

And neither Ryan or the Vagabond can let that stand as he rears up - cold forgotten - and brings a pillow down on Gavin. Gavin retaliates in kind and things devolve from there into stupidly fond smiles and helpless laughter.

========

Ryan has a habit of moving things around on Gavin. Forever insisting things are too cluttered, that Gavin leaves his shit lying about everywhere, which is a vicious, unfounded lie.

One that doesn't stop Ryan from tidying here and there, and misplacing Gavin's things time and again, though. Moving bits and bobs and in the process incidentally kicking the Pelican case for Ryan's favorite sniper rifle out from under the bed, just enough that Gavin bangs his foot on it when the lights go out during a storm

“Ryan!” Gavin yells, sucking in air sharply between his teeth as he hops around on one foot, pain somehow worse, more unbearable than any other he's known in his life at that moment.

Dimly he's aware of the steady footsteps coming closer, something inherently smug about them as Ryan appears, a great looming shadow in the darkness.

“You yelled?” he asks, clear amusement in his voice as he watches the spectacle Gavin's making of himself.

Gavin glares, and Ryan tsks when he thumbs on the flashlight he's carrying, lets the beam of light fall on the edge of the Pelican case.

“Oh, now, see,” he says, smug and annoying. “This is why we need to keep this place clean. Wouldn't want accidents like this to happen, you know.”

Gavin makes a noise of deep aggravation in his throat, fingers twitching as Ryan raises the flashlight enough for Gavin to make out his face and the big, dumb smirk he's got as Ryan chuckles meanly.

========

It's a bad night all around to begin with, rain falling hard and cutting down on visibility. So when things go wrong, when shit happens, there's an added level of difficulty thrown in.

Gavin's aware enough to admit he's not the best driver in the crew, but every so often he has his moments.

Laughs, something fierce in it as he dodges gunfire from rival gangs, hears the wail of sirens from the pair of police cars trying to flank him as he screams down the streets of Los Santos. Adrenaline singing through him along with a healthy dose of terror because hes not gone completely mad just yet.

Streetlights blur by, bookended by panicked creams from the few civilians out and about at this hour as he loses his pursuers, as they fall back one by one until it's him and one stubborn bastard in a car built for speed and not much else.

Gunshots pepper his car, and it shudders violently as they manage to get one of his tires. Swerving as he fights to keep the damn thing under control.

Half a block later Gavin sees his chance to lose his new friend and jerks the wheel to the side, and then it's the deafening shriek of tortured metal, shattering glass and a carousel of lights and colors and sound, pain blooming bright and sharp as the world tumbles around him wildly, head colliding with something hard as everything goes dark

When he comes back to himself he can hear Michael and Geoff yelling at him faintly, comm dislodged from his ear and dangling from a wire down by his shoulder. Can hear the sound of chopper blades high above and half a mile back, faint and growing closer as Jack brings the cavalry, and all around him shattered glass and twisted metal.

Engine ticking as it cools, helped along by the rain and Gavin feels laughter choking him as he pulls himself from the wreckage of his stolen car. Miraculously still alive after a spectacular crash that had taken that stubborn bastard with it, mangled shell of his car nestled up against the brick wall of a nearby building.

Limping a safe distance away in case the car catches fire, explodes, Gavin pulls his phone out of his pocket and brings up speed dial.

Grins when he hears Ryan's voice, calm and measured on the surface despite the words.

  ”I'm going to fucking kill you, Gavin.”

“Ryan, I could use a lift, Ryan,” Gavin says, tipping his head back against the wall behind him, body aching and heart racing still, as the rain continues to fall. “Car's a bit banged up.”

========

Gavin's not a lightweight, but he's in a crew that's managed to attract people who can drink him under the table and then some.

Luckily, he has Ryan, now, who swoops in like some grand heroic figure to keep Gavin from drinking too much, these days.

“You're very handsome,” Gavin manages, patting Ryan's face clumsily. “Have I told you that before?”

Ryan sighs, fondness in it as he guides Gavin away from the others who don't even notice he's gone as they continue to celebrate the founding of the best damn crew in the city of Los Santos.

“Once or twice, yeah.”

Gavin hums, leaning his head against Ryan's shoulder.

“Very, very handsome,” he says, mostly to himself, but Ryan must hear it too, because he laughs, low and amused.

========

Ryan's the sort to entertain these little moments of vindictiveness, petty and mean, and all around annoying from time to time.

This time, Gavin honestly doesn't know what he's done wrong, just follows the sound of banging pots and pans, clattering dishware to the kitchen. Seats himself quietly at the kitchen island and watches as Ryan putters.

Grabbing ingredients from the refrigerator, the pantry. Various cabinets, and mixes and whisks and stirs, all with an angry edge to it.

“What.”

Gavin's eyebrows go up at the curt tone, the scowl on Ryan's face as he turns to Gavin.

“Couldn't sleep,” Gavin says mildly, resting his chin in his hand. “Thought I'd come keep you company for a bit.”

Ryan's eyes narrow, and he cocks his head to the side. Suspicious, like he thinks Gavin has an ulterior motive.

Gavin simply looks back, and after a few moments Ryan slumps, tension bleeding from him as he goes back to his cooking. He doesn't talk much after that aside from little comments to himself, thinking aloud, and acts as though Gavin isn't in the room.

Normally, Gavin would take offense, but there's anger to Ryan still. Tightly reined in, controlled, but still volatile. Likely to explode if Gavin pokes or prods him too much just yet. Best to wait for now.

And then Ryan reaches for the lid for one of the pots, reaching other another containing boiling water, and hisses as it burns, lid clattering out of his hold to the floor.

Gavin half-rises concerned, Ryan's name on his lips, and Ryan -

Ryan stares down at the lid for  long, long moment, fingers of one hand curled around his arm over the burn, pressing into it, and something in him seems to break.

Ryan turns, fast, and crosses the distance between them to grab Gavin by the front of his shirt, hauling him to his feet.

“Ryan - “

“You didn't fucking wait for me,” Ryan hisses, and this close Gavin can see past the anger, see the fear in his eyes. “You didn't fucking wait for me and you got shot>, Gavin.”

Gavin's chest aches.

He hadn't realized, hadn't thought this would still be bothering Ryan, but of course it would, wouldn't it? If Gavin was in his place...

“I had body armor,” Gavin says, weak protest, because he understands this. Experiences it himself every damn time Ryan throws himself at impossible odds for the sake of the crew, for Gavin. “I'm fine, Ryan.”

Ryan snarls, eyes flicking down to where the bullet had hit, right over Gavin's heart. Killing blow for certain, if Geoff hadn't insisted they all wear body armor, and not for the first time Gavin's glad for it, for his protectiveness when it comes to the crew.

“Just,” Ryan seems to deflate, anger replaced by bone-deep weariness, eyes sliding shut as he leans his forehead against Gavin's. “Fucking wait for me, next time, all right? Please.”

The ache in Gavin's chest sharpens, leaving him helpless and hurting and he brings a hand up to cup Ryan's jaw, thumb sweeping along his cheek.

“All right,” he says, soft, quiet. Heart hurting for all the promises they can never give voice to with the lives they lead. “All right, Ryan.”

========

“Gavin, no,” Ryan says, fingers snagging the back of Gavin's collar to pull him away from his computer. “Lindsay would kill us.”

Gavin looks over his shoulder at Ryan, all wide eyes and pouty lips.

“But Ryan, look at them! They're so precious!”

A small crew that's just started to operate in Los Santos, just started to get noticed. Young and promising but still so inexperienced. So much potential to them, they just need a little experience, a little push in the right direction

A hacker, muscle with brains, and a charming grifter, and by all accounts all of them talented enough to make an impression here in Los Santos, to be noticed.

The Fakes could use people like them, Lindsay could use people like them with B Team.

Ryan sighs, slowing to a stop and turning to look at Gavin as he releases him.

“You can't keep them,” Ryan says, wry twist to his mouth when Gavin gears up to offer up a rebuttal, “but we can talk to Lindsay, see if she thinks recruiting them would be a smart move.”

Gavin grins, wide and bright, and launches himself at Ryan. Like always, Ryan catches him without faltering.

========

At some point Gavin wonders aloud just how viable a coffee IV would actually be, and then Ryan pops in and casually brings up facts and science and tosses the ever deplorable commons sense into the mix, all while sipping daintily at his sugared up mess of a drink.

“Say what you will about my Starbucks,” Ryan says, eyeing the way Gavin's got a death grip on the coffee maker carafe like he's about to drink straight from it instead of being civilized and pouring himself a cup. “At least my coffee doesn't taste like bad decisions and regret.”

========

Trendy things and fads cycle through Los Santos at a frenzied pace, and every so often one will catch Gavin's attention.

“Hey, Ryan.” Gavin looks up from his laptop to see Ryan watching him, something wary in his face, like he knows what's coming. “You should try this.”

Ryan's eyes narrow.

“Something tells me I shouldn't ask, and yet I'm going to anyway,” Ryan says, eyebrow going up. “What should I try, Gavin?”

Gavin thinks about it, for a moment, tries to find the right words, but in the end this is Ryan, and he's used to Gavin.

“Remember last week, when you jumped out that window?” Gavin says, instead of answering. “Complained about your knees hurting for days after like an old man?”

Ryan's expression darkens, and ha, yes, perhaps this is not the best way to get him to agree, but.

“Oh, no,” Ryan says, a little too pleasantly. “Please, continue, Gavin. I do so love it when you insult me like this.”

“Collagen powder!” Gavin blurts out, turning his laptop around to let Ryan see the screen. “Says it's good for your joints and all.”

Gavin watches Ryan, sees the way he looks less and less impressed, even without stopping to read the article.

“As interesting as that sounds,” Ryan says, “I'm going to have to say no, because that sounds gross.”

Gavin huffs, shoving his laptop at Ryan insistently, and after a moment he takes it and grudgingly reads the article.

“Oh my God,” Ryan says, trying not to laugh. “They make it sound like you'd turn into Wolverine.”

Gavin rolls his eyes because of course, of course, Ryan would go straight to comics for that.

“Also, still no. Still sounds really, really gross.”

=========

Ryan is a consummate flubber of words, tripping over them from time to time and grasping at excuses when he does, and it's always a joy to see.

“Goddammit, Gavin,” Ryan says, elbow finding Gavin's ribs as they fumble their way through the dark. “I've told you before, it's not easy  to lay down suppressive fire and talk at the same time!”

“Sure, sure,” Gavin says, voice pitched to be gratingly soothing, corner of his mouth kicked up into something like a smirk. “It's just that Michael never seems to have that problem, or Ray. Jack. Even Geoff manages, and I mean, it's Geoff.”

There's a faint, indignant, Hey! over the comms, and Gavin lets the smirk roll over into a grin.

As far as heists go, this one hasn't been a stellar success, but they all made it out in one piece and they stand to profit beautifully once they get the chance to sit down and split the take.

Just the little matter of making it back to the penthouse to deal with first.

Ryan scowls at Gavin, who grins as the reach the end of the sewer tunnel that lets out on a hill overlooking Los Santos, glittering and shining like a strand of jewels in the dark.

They're miles from the penthouse, but they stashed a car half a mile to the east during the setup for the heist as part of the contingency plan.

Gavin looks up at the sky, a slow smile making its way across his face. It's a beautiful night for a stroll under the stars, just the two of them and the rest of the crew listening in over the comms.

Romantic as all hell, that.

Gavin catches Ryan's eye, hand brushing against his as they start walking. Sees the curve of Ryan's smile under the face paint, and thinks this life isn't so bad after all, if it gives them moments like this.

#fahc #fahc fic #freewood #vagrant fic #i have no impulse control #idk i needed something soft tonight

[counttotwenty]

Bullet Points: Strength in Numbers

A Wondrous Place-part 2 (part 1 here)

Bullet points are encapsulated scene analysis from the top of each act to the bottom. (each act is bookended by a commercial break)

1. I always find it interesting to see where the short act is placed in each ep. The one that only consists of 2 scenes. Is it close to the end where it serves to take all the threads of the ep and begin to pull them together for the big finish or is it, as in this ep, near the beginning where it serves to cast the threads out to be explored in the later acts?

No matter where it’s placed the two scene act always has something very specific to say. In this case it’s saying--keep an eye on these two situations going forward and watch how they inform and illuminate each other.

2. Dead leaves blowing across an empty street while morose piano music plays in the background. Snort. They reallllly want to make sure you get the fact that Emma’s in a lonely, isolated, desolate state of mind.

3. So let’s see, Emma has decided that this is the perfect time to update the way she handles information? Because the old way of doing things doesn’t serve the purpose anymore? Seriously?

I love you, Jane.

Just like the technology for keeping police files has changed since the curse was broken so has Emma’s place in life. She no longer has to assume that every person in her world will let her down and abandon her. Still...that can be a hard habit to break. It’s going to take work. Which she’s signalling here she’s willing to begin.

4. “If busy work helps, busy work it is.”

As I talked about in the first part, David’s mind is running on one track right now. Help Emma. He’s following her lead. Doing what she wants to do.

I think in this instance the sleeping curse came in handy because had David stayed awake for much longer, and gotten out of Emma’s direct orbit, he most likely would have started to ask a few questions about what was really going on.

5. I love that Gideon sussed out that a 2 for 1 drink special was the way to catch Regina’s interest and get her motivated to bring Emma to the bar.

Not because I think he pegged her as cheap, we have nothing in canon that leads us to believe that, but because of what it says about Regina’s frame of mind right now.

That’s right. I’m actually going to justify the things Regina said and did in this episode.

I know! I’m shocked too.

6. “We need a ladies night out. Me, Emma and ... Snow.”

Literally EVERYTHING about this line is interesting. Starting with the WE. Then moving on to how Regina lists herself first when reciting who needs a ladies night out.

Twice during that line Regina gestures between herself and Emma as a way of indicating they’re in a similar situation.

Regina is still smarting from the loss of Robin 2.0. Despite knowing intellectually he wasn’t “her” Robin she still feels like a woman who was left by her “boyfriend”. That’s crystal clear from the way she lumps herself in with Emma.

Regina is looking to soothe her own broken heart and using Emma as cover to do it. Everyone likes someone to commiserate with when they’re hurting and Regina is jumping at the chance to make Emma that person.

She literally throws the idea of Snow in at the end as a bit of an enticement to get Emma to agree to go.

7. Check out how happy Regina looks when David heads out to wake up Snow. Anything and everything she says and does in this ep has to be viewed through the lens of a woman in the throes of her own heartbreak.

I’m not saying that she has zero interest in helping Emma. I’m just saying that if she wasn’t in the midst of dealing with her own broken heart she wouldn’t be pushing this ladies night out.

For Regina, this night is about her pain not about Emma’s.

8. “You both made a bloody mess of this.”

Are you talking to yourself and Emma or to Jasmine and Aladdin?

Because they’re made of rubber, Captain and you’re made of glue.

The first thing you notice when viewing these scenes back to back like this is that Killian gets it. The light has come on for him. He understand the role his actions and reactions played in the fight with Emma. As has been the case for a while now he’s a but further down the road than she is when it comes to dealing with past issues.

By pairing him with Jasmine and Aladdin in this part of the story it allows the viewer to see that he has internalized the change both by the way he empathizes with Jasmine (words) and the way he handles the mess his initial instinct to flee has caused (actions).

If you step back and really look at this story it is a soaring love letter to the character of Killian Jones. And THAT is what’s going to set the stage for an epic true love reunion.

9. “A wish won’t get you back to Emma. They never work how you want.”

In other words, no shortcuts. No magic-ing up a solution. Getting back to Emma both literally and figuratively is going to require hard work. Some of which he’s already done, and some of which is in front of him.

BOING!!!!

Another reason the story wouldn’t have held nearly as much emotional resonance had Killian headed home after the scene with Snow on the dock is that for Killian to understand something intellectually, and even emotionally, is one thing. But he’ll never truly trust that he’s conquered it until it’s tested under fire.

10. “So now we’re all separated from our homes.”

Here let’s just put another big knot in the string tying our stories together in case there are one or two people watching who missed the first 10 falling anvils and flashing red neon signs.

11. So Jasmine withheld an important piece of information from Aladdin that has, to this point, hindered their ability to find home.

At this point while I was watching the ep the first time through I screamed--it’s in the ring. Because while Jasmine’s home is Agrabah, Killian’s is Emma. And it was becoming very clear that both resolutions were going to involve the diamond rings the stories hold in common.

12. Killian’s face as he watches Jasmine reveal her fear was very telling, mostly because of the look of recognition. Fear drove her to make a bad decision just as it drove him to do the same.

From that second on he’s no longer angry with her. He understands her. And more than that he realizes that instead of fighting against her (and by extension Aladdin) he needs to fight with them. There’s strength in numbers.

So just as Regina is attempting to marshal her forces in the previous scene to get what she needs Killian is doing the same here.

Really brilliantly constructed.

13. “This is my way back.”

If at first you don’t succeed. This is a really nice scene for Killian because it shows he’s not just a hothead flying off the handle and trying to bulldoze his way through the situation. He’s thinking. Planning. Keeping his head. Determined to move forward but also willing to change course when he hits a brick wall.

He’s growing as a character.

Well done.

14. “You have nothing to fear. This time you won’t have to face him alone.”

Killian understands what Jasmine’s feeling and thinking without her having to verbalize it. 

It’s really very sweet.

15. “Perhaps Agrabah has found its hero at last.”

Damn straight. But just like with David, it’s very important for Killian to hear other people acknowledge he’s become a hero.

WELL DONE!!

Next up--Give Me Strength

#ouat meta #Killian Jones #Bullet points #6.15 a wondrous place #I love this ep more every time I rewatch it

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Walking Dead: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (7x16)

In comparing this finale to last season's disaster, I must say I'm pretty pleased with the results. Was this episode still too long? Yes. Were there other annoying aspects to it? Yes. But it actually felt like something happened, and there were a lot of really satisfying elements to it. This has been a substandard season of The Walking Dead, and this is probably a substandard finale, if we're being honest. But it's miles ahead of what I feared we might get, so... a win in my book!

Cons:

Spoilers start here: Sasha dies. This isn't actually a "con" necessarily, as I liked most of the story with Sasha. It was pretty epic, and she got to go out on her own terms, and all that. But this episode weaves in a lot of flashbacks and hallucinations as Sasha slowly dies, and it's here that I have my issues. We see this stupid, overly sentimental scene with Sasha and Abraham, as they talk about sacrificing themselves for others. It takes place just before the group leaves to bring Maggie to Hilltop, meaning Abraham is fated to never return to Alexandria again. As I may have mentioned, I do not much care for Abraham. Like, at all. He's annoying. And Sasha, in her final moments, focuses on this memory of him. We don't get the slightest reference to her brother Tyreese, or her other boyfriend, Bob, who also died. It's all about stupid Abraham and his stupid gross face.

The other flaw is bigger, and it's with the stupid garbage people. Why are they so awkward and strange? We got an explanation as to why Ezekiel talks like he's performing in a play, but not so with Jadis. She sounds so stupid. I never understood why Rick wanted to align himself with her in the first place, and this episode has so many stupid stilted moments with her. There's this moment when she asks Michonne if Rick is "hers," and then says she's going to "lay with Rick" after the confrontation with the Saviors. As we learn later, Jadis and crew were planning on betraying them and turning to Negan's side, so... why did she even say that? It was super awkward. Who the heck were these people before the apocalypse? I keep using the word stupid, but that's what it is! It's stupid! Oh, and the betrayal was super obvious, too.

Although definitely better than Season Six's finale, Season Seven's last episode had an undeniable pacing problem. We all knew that the Hilltop and Kingdom people were going to show up and save the day, so why go through such a rigmarole to have them arrive at the eleventh hour? There might have been something more satisfying, actually, if all of those people had showed up before the Saviors did, and were lying in wait. As it is, we have to endure yet another beat-down from Negan before we can get to the revenge part, and it definitely slows the episode down.

Pros:

Let's start with Sasha. Negan tells her that he plans on using her as a way to get Rick and the others to fall in line. Sasha gets Negan to agree that only one person has to die as punishment for Alexandria's insubordination. Negan, being the dramatic son of a bitch that he is, wants to put Sasha in a coffin, then reveal her to the group. Sasha says she'll make the drive over to Alexandria in the coffin, so she can go to sleep. While inside, she takes the poison pill that Eugene had given her. When Negan opens it, Walker!Sasha emerges and nearly kills Negan, and this sets off Carl and the rest of the Alexandrians to begin firing, ending the stalemate and eventually, with the help of reinforcements from Maggie and Ezekiel, driving Negan off.

This is a good death. I hate that Sasha has to die, and I'm annoyed that her relationship with Abraham was such a big focus in her final moments. But her death meant something, and it felt earned, and proper. Unlike so many deaths on this show, this wasn't a random, shocking violent moment that ultimately means nothing. Sasha planned her death to have the greatest impact possible. As she says, only one person has to die. And she decides that one person should be her. The moment when she emerges from the coffin and knocks Negan off the truck is just great. I knew it wouldn't be that easy, but I really did want her to take him out in that moment. In any case, Sasha definitely gets some kills in, post-death. Turning yourself into a mindless weapon is such a hard core thing to do! I also liked the moments where we saw Sasha and Maggie sitting together in a pleasant field. Abraham-hating aside, it was a great bookend to the beginning of this season, when these two women had lost their partners and were feeling completely broken down. Now, in death, Sasha is serene in knowing that she did something to help her friends.

And it's Sasha that kick-starts the whole battle at the end. Rick and his team were in a completely unfavorable situation, thanks to the fact that Jadis and her people had turned on them. But just as I was wondering if Rick was really going to lay down his arms against overwhelming odds, Negan opens the coffin, and dead Sasha sparks an all-out war. It was the best moment in the whole episode, and it made Sasha's death feel significant.

Rick's character arc also comes to a head, here. After his talk with Michonne, we know that Rick is ready to accept losing the people he cares for most, so that the world can be a better place. At the start of this season, he was a sniveling mess as Negan nearly forced him to cut Carl's arm off. As the season ends, he meets Negan's eyes with fierce anger, believing Michonne has just died, no less, and basically tells him that he'll survive Carl's death and keep going until Negan is dead. Obviously Carl's death would be an unrecoverable blow to Rick, but he didn't back down, even in that most harrowing moment.

Also, Carl. Carl is the one who breaks the stalemate, just as much as Sasha is. The minute he sees Sasha is a Walker, he turns around and starts shooting. It's such a powerful moment for his character. I cannot get enough of it.

There's also an arc in this episode for Rick, Michonne, and Carl as a family. Basically, Rick and Carl both believe Michonne to be dead, knowing that she was struggling with one of Jadis' people up on a roof, and then hearing a scream. Later, they find her badly beaten, but alive. It was such an important thread to include, because Carl and Rick, even believing Michonne to be dead, still rallied when their reinforcements arrived. They still fought to survive and win, refusing to give in to despair.

I've had a hard time all season pinning down how I feel about Negan as a villain. This comes from the fact that Jeffrey Dean Morgan does such a great job, but the character himself is bogged down by too many speeches and a lot of repetition. The most interesting Negan moments are when we learn about his own moral code, and his own strange sympathies. He seems to actually respect and admire Sasha, for example, and he actually seems sad that she died. He's no longer amused by Rick, and finds him to be annoying, but the "necessity" of killing Carl to teach Rick a lesson seems very upsetting to him, because he does genuinely like Carl. Negan is a monster, full stop. But he's an interesting monster, one with more shades and complexities than you might first assume. As annoying as it is to drag out this Negan plot, I'm actually excited that we're not quite done with this character yet. I see promise.

As this episode ends, we have two sides preparing for war. Negan, with Eugene and Gregory by his side, vs. Rick, Maggie, and Ezekiel, the leaders of three communities now banded together. It was so satisfying to see this, especially for Maggie. We get a great voice-over, where Maggie says that all the bonding that they've done, all the sacrifices that they've made, they all come down to Glenn. He made a choice to save Rick when they first met, even though he didn't know him and didn't have to. Maggie was just following his example when she decided to show up and kick ass with the Hilltop folks. It's a beautiful speech, encompassing the importance of friendship and loyalty with the great gift of sacrifice. I'm very excited to see more of Maggie in this new leadership role. Things are about to get interesting, for sure!

And there you have it. I can't call this a great episode of television. In fact, we may be past the days of great episodes of The Walking Dead, sad though it is to contemplate. But this show is still good some of the time, and this finale is an example of that. RIP Sasha. Your death meant something.

8/10

#review #walking dead #walking dead review #the walking dead #the walking dead review #twd #the first day of the rest of your life