#but i just think it's an important parallel to the earlier episode

[lurkingshan]

I’m thinking a lot about the scene between Pran and Tian where they discuss the fight Tian and Phupha are having. Not the fake one about who liked who first, but the real one about Phupha refusing to travel home with Tian or change anything about his life to meet Tian’s needs. It’s a funhouse mirror image of the conflict Pat and Pran are having about how much Pran should let Pat help him, and their long-term dynamic of Pat letting Pran win every disagreement and always being the one to compromise or give in when their needs are in tension.

What I love about it is that Tian doesn’t know anything about their relationship, he’s just (drunkenly) talking about his own experience, and how frustrating and exhausting it is to be with someone like Phupha who never meets him halfway. And Pran is sitting across from this guy who looks like his twin, whose story he has already memorized and connected to, who he now thinks of as a sort-of friend, and he is self-aware enough to see the parallels instantly, and to feel a little embarrassed and ashamed that he is essentially the Phupha in his relationship. And you see him react, just a little, and maybe start to think for the first time about what it must feel like for Pat to yield to him on everything, and never have that reciprocated by Pran.

Reading this wonderful post from @waitmyturtles earlier where she mentioned how she empathizes with Pran, I was also reflecting a bit about where I see myself in this story, and let me tell you, I am such a Phupha. When it comes to how I want to live my life, where I want to be, and how I want to spend my time and with whom, I am uncompromising to a fault. I completely get where Phupha is coming from - I told you who I am, and now you’re telling me it’s not enough. He is frustrated by the idea that he has to change himself for Tian, and I get that, I really do. It’s something I am personally not willing to do. The key difference between me and Phupha, however, is that I am not in love and I do not desire to be in a romantic partnership. He very much is, and very much does.

So what might a guy like Phupha think, as he is struggling so much with the idea of yielding to Tian, when he is met with someone like Pat? Someone who is so like him in some ways - in his strength, his masculinity, his physicality, his confidence, his loyalty, his desire to help others - and yet so unlike him in other ways - his emotional openness, his vulnerability, his comfort with compromise, his absolute willingness to put his pride aside for his lover. Where Phupha is rigid, Pat is versatile, in every sense of the word. There is a lot Phupha might learn from talking to someone like Pat about how he sees his relationship, why he is always willing to bend to Pran’s needs, and why he ultimately feels it’s worth it, even if he sometimes feels some of the frustration that Tian does. Might Phupha have his own epiphany next week, opening up a path for him to finally compromise on something important to Tian?  

@dribs-and-drabbles, I’m not sure how this might fit into your theory about the patterns playing out in these episodes, but I really hope we get to see this happen next week, and watch both of these couples learn from each other’s experiences and find a way to meet their partners in the middle. Because as @waitmyturtles said, this is the work of being in a long term relationship.

In the server with @bengiyo @shortpplfedup @kyr-kun-chan @wen-kexing-apologist we talk often about how amazing it is when romances address what happens to couples after they get together, and how exciting it is that we are starting to see more bl shows about the work of staying together, and I’m so glad that the genius minds behind Bad Buddy and A Tale of Thousand Stars took the opportunity of this special to dig into that so authentically. And to have done it in such a brilliant way, by mixing and matching these characters from beloved shows, putting them side by side and demonstrating how they are similar and also how they can learn from each other, creating a sense of community in this shared universe, and making it all so damn fun along the way, is just an unbelievable treat for us as an audience. Can't wait to see how it all comes together next week.

#bad buddy #a tale of thousand stars #our skyy 2 #thai bl #shan shouts into the void

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: T.K. and T.K. possible and potential parallels

Taylor Kelly vs. Tommy Kinard

I've been thinking about the "possible and potential parallels" between Taylor Kelly and Tommy Kinard all day and I believe their similarities go far beyond their initials.

Since the new stills for 7x4 are now available, I think I may know where one of the "You don't know me"'s from the title of episode 7x5 may come from.

I did a post about Buck saying "You don't even know me" in 2x8 (linked here) and I think there's going to be several people saying it to someone in 7x5 and one of them might be Eddie saying it to Tommy. At first I didn't think it sounded like something he would say but now I do think he would especially if it's about Buck.

Back to the regularly scheduled program...

Last week I rewatched the begins episodes for Chimney, Hen and Bobby (post linked here) and I was reminded of how horribly Tommy treated Chimney and Hen when they first arrived at the 118. He wasn't really rude to Bobby (his best friend Sal DeLuca was) but Tommy transferred to the 217 not long after Bobby transferred in.

Reminder, Tommy and Chimney are "supposed" to be friends and Chimney called him in 2x14 to help the 118 with the neighborhood fire in Doheny Park. But it's interesting because in 7x4, Eddie's the one who will be hanging out with Tommy but Chimney will be the one who invites Buck to play basketball with them 👀.

Before I continue, I have to include something Hen said in 3x16 while the 118 was playing pool in the firehouse.

Buck had just met Red and he was freaking out about how the firefighters from Red's former firehouse left him behind (Actually, he was really freaking out about himself but reminder, Eddie had already taken care of that when he changed his will after 3x15). He went on to explain how Red was living in a one bedroom apartment that he paid for with his pension. Sound familiar? It should because Buck lives in a one bedroom apartment and he's single 👀.

After some discussion about them keeping in touch with each other if someone left, transferred or if Bobby retires, Eddie asked Chimney and Hen, "Like you two. You still keep in touch with the guys who used to be here, right?" but Hen responded, "Um... I don't know if we'd call some of them friends". Then Chimney said he called Tommy for a favor the year before but he never called him back.

In 7x3, Hen still side eyed Tommy and she didn't trust him but she went along with it to save Bobby and Athena. Also, Chimney wasn't shown calling Tommy to ask him for help, they were already there when she arrived.

Why is this important?

Well, what if Tommy DIDN'T really change and he's still the same person he was years ago just like Taylor DIDN'T change? Reminder, the show made it seem like she was redeemed but she really wasn't.

In 5x18, she told Buck "You knew who I was when you started dating me" and the truth is, he did.

So what if...

Tommy shows his true colors to Eddie and says something about Buck and Tommy ends up being the same jerk he was towards Hen and Chimney years earlier? If so and Eddie realizes Tommy is not the cool new friend he thought he was, then he just might tell him "You don't know me or Buck". Reminder, Eddie hasn't had a lot of friends and I said it before that him and Marisol might just be friends and they aren't seriously dating (post linked here).

I just think it's interesting that Tommy and Taylor BOTH HAD TROUBLED PASTS with the 118 during season 2 and they're both being paralleled with Buck and Eddie and they are/were supposedly their friends.

Another reminder, Taylor always wanted to throw the 118 under the bus and she finally did in 5x17 with the Jonah story so maybe Tommy hasn't changed at all. Or maybe he has but he's still holding onto some frustrations or animosities towards Hen, Chimney and Bobby, especially if he's still cool with Sal.

The point of this post is, I don't think it's a coincidence that Taylor and Tommy have the same initials, troubled pasts with the 118 and they're both connected to Buck and Eddie.

Eddie loves Buck to his CORE and they're in love with each other! Therefore he won't hesitate to tell Tommy to get the hell on if he says something negative about Buck.

Will Tommy Kinard show his true colors before the end of 7x5? Only the showrunner, writers and producers know the answer to that question.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #chimney han #hen wilson #bobby nash #118 firefam #911 on abc #911 abc #911 spoilers #911 speculation #911 meta #911 season 7 #911 season 7 speculation #Anti bucktommy #Anti bucktaylor #Anti eddiemarisol #Anti eddietommy #Anti tommy kinard #Anti taylor kelly

[eisforeidolon]

Forgive me for restating the obvious, but I was reading through an old post and it just kind of hit me in a way it hadn't before: One of hellers' most fundamental disconnects with the show (and media literacy in general) is how they try to insist parallels establish romance.

SPN used parallels to couples and romantic tropes a lot in regards to the brothers. But it was never meant as a signal that they were romantically in love or to tell you something you otherwise couldn't figure out. It was to underline what we already knew from the entire rest of the story about how they were the most important people in each other's lives. It used romantic relationships because that's a central status typically reserved only for romantic relationships - that was part of the point.

Let's take an example or two. Dean compares himself and Sam to Jesse and Cesar from The Chitters. After interacting with them for a while, Dean is like, 'Haha, you fight just like brothers, almost as bad as Sam and me' and they say that it's more like an old married couple. This is Dean comparing an exact thing that actually happens between him and Sam, silly petty bickering, to something that exactly happens between a married couple. Likewise, let's take Dean's expression and the script note he's thinking about Sam's close call in Red Meat. Michelle is talking about watching the man she loves die and how nothing can be the same, and Dean is thinking about how he believed he lost Sam earlier that same episode and reacting to what she's saying. No one is under the impression that these are signposts telling you for the very first time that Sam and Dean are weirdly, claustrophobically close in a way that compares to romantic couples. They're quick moments which draw an underline on what you already know from the way they've acted towards each other for the entire preceding (and following) length of the show. If you cut either of those moments? It would change nothing about what we understand of Sam and Dean's relationship, because that's how using parallels in storytelling actually works.

Hellers want to insist that romantic couples and tropes being parallels to D/C in and of itself proves that D/C is romantic. Why else would SPN use couples and romantic tropes?!? Well, because SPN does that all the fucking time, maybe? Which is even before you get into how superficial the basis for their supposed parallels typically are.

Let's take an example or two. Hellers want to insist that Dean and Castiel were paralleled to David and Violet from Bloodlines because and I shit you not, one of them wore a tan coat. As well as the absurdly generic dialogue line, "I was there, where were you?" being used both in the backdoor pilot and in 6x20 by Dean. Aha! David and Violet are clearly stand-ins for Dean and Cas, and they were planning to run away together, so D/C is clearly romantic, BOOM! Except literally nothing about Dean and Castiel's actual relationship lines up with that. In no sense were Dean and Castiel ever planning to run away from their families together - not at the point where Dean was calling Castiel out for pretending he didn't know where Dean was if he really wanted advice or otherwise. Unlike the actual parallels with Sam and Dean, there is no underlying narrative base. Likewise, hellers want to insist that Castiel is Dean's Colette. Aha! Cain said Dean is living his life in reverse, and he killed Collette last and his brother first, so since he said Dean would kill Castiel before Sam, Castiel=Colette, and Colette was a romantic partner, so Dean lurves the angel! BOOM! Just for the sake of being pedantic, let's break this nonsense down one more time. Cain lists Crowley as well as Castiel as people Dean will kill before Sam. Collette was special to Cain because she saw everything he was, never gave up on him, and was able to get him to drop the blade. Which is literally what Sam does during the time Dean has the Mark - meanwhile Castiel tries to get Dean to not go and slaughter the Stynes and fails and is ready to give up and kill Dean after he goes demonic. Which doesn't even get into the part where ... Cain is literally just wrong in telling his little fairy tale. Dean is not him. When given the choice of killing his brother, Cain does it. When given the choice of losing control, Cain does it. Dean tries to get Death to shoot him into outer space and then kills Death rather than actually kill Sam. Dean and Dean's love for his brother are both far stronger than Cain is capable of understanding. So the parallel life thing? Is fundamentally hooey anyway. Again, there's no narrative there for a parallel to be drawing an underline on because none of their cobbled together meta resembles anything going on in the actual text. That's not how storytelling uses parallels or any other kind of subtext, by creating something entirely separate and expecting the general audience to decipher it. Though it's no surprise they try to insist that a show would do that, because they have nothing else.

TLDR; Their entire argument is that a comparison to a romantic couple makes two other characters' relationship automagically romantic because reasons. Which even putting aside the lack of validity in their parallels ... continues to be a boldly idiotic statement given the number of actually textual comparisons the show makes between Sam & Dean and romantic couples. Again, it's no wonder they freaked the fuck out over that forehead touch, because they very fundamentally refused to understand what SPN was actually doing on literally any level.

#destihellers #destiew #long post

[vidavalor]

I absolutely love your take on things, so here goes: I believe that in 2.06 (at 18:07 mins to be exact), when Crowley comes back from heaven with the other angels and enters the shop, I hear a miracle sound being made when Aziraphale pops out from behind the shelf and says ‘You came back!’ Any idea what that could be about?

I also had another question but forgot. Will ask when I remember.

Hi! Thank you. :) Hope you're having a good week so far! I also saw your other ask-- am writing up something for it.

I think it is Saraqael miracling up a ramp. There's also a little concrete grinding sound that goes along with it that sounds like the ramp extending from when the angels arrived a few episodes earlier to investigate the Gabriel miracle. Saraqael doesn't make as large a ramp this time but it's visible behind Crowley as the angels come in. There are some weird things about whatever happened during the night of the ball but I think this bit in particular is just Saraqael wheeling themselves into the bookshop.

One miracle/supernatural sound on the show that I do think is very important is the sound of Gabriel arriving in the sushi restaurant in the first episode and Aziraphale's reaction to it and what those things together say about angels and demons. I'm sure this has come up before. I think it's interesting to think about ahead of S3 though so I'll bring it up again.

We hadn't seen Crowley & Aziraphale together in the modern era by that scene in the series-- just on the wall at Eden, in what appeared at the time to be their first meeting-- so we didn't know yet that Crowley always comes up on Aziraphale's left. So when the sound of an arrival happens, Aziraphale looks to his left, expecting Crowley, with whom the scene implies he was supposed to have dinner and who he knew was running late after a spot of Hell business. When Aziraphale doesn't see Crowley, Gabriel is then there on his right.

So, The Supreme Archangel of Heaven and a demon of Hell make the same sound upon arrival, eh? :)

Also probably worth mentioning that when Aziraphale looks to his left, there's a mirror on the wall, so he winds up seeing Gabriel in the mirror before then turning to look his right to look at him directly. This is great visual storytelling because the mirror then allows Gabriel to be foreshadowed as a mirror of *both* Aziraphale and Crowley, which is something that does happen in S2. The lack of Crowley here is a bit eerie, actually, especially because Aziraphale looking in one direction to where Crowley should be and then looking back at the Supreme Archangel of Heaven is, well... it is now a parallel shot to the last time he and Crowley look at each other in 2.06. This scene now parallels the looking at each other across the street bit as Aziraphale goes into the elevator. Only Crowley is so very present in that scene and Gabriel is the one who is gone, if his position still remaining and represented by the elevator/The Metatron.

Also the pink/red and the black and it's a Japanese restaurant (evocative of Buddhism more than Christianity)-- Aziraphale might as well be eating in Hell by Heaven's measures here lol. Gorgeous color composition in this scene and the way its shot-- so that the brighter color actually causes Gabriel, in grey, to stand out more-- is the stuff film nerds like me swoon over. It's such a good shot that "oh, hey, it's Jon Hamm and oh, he's lookin' extra fine" somehow manages to be your second thought lol.

Anyway, the same chime sound of arrival existing for both Gabriel and Crowley... it's almost as if they're the same type of being, yeah? Almost like, other than the holy water/hellfire thing or the color of feathers, there actually aren't really any major physiological differences between an angel and a demon...

...so, almost like there's no such thing as a "demonic miracle." It's all the same powers. It matters from where you pull power, not what miracles you're doing. It's how Crowley & Aziraphale get away with doing miracles "their kind" is not supposed to do. So long as Crowley pulls power from Hell and Aziraphale pulls power from Heaven, it doesn't matter what miracle they are performing and no one can tell in their head offices. They only notice the drain of power.

This line is actually tongue-in-cheek because they both have known for ages by 1941 that there's no such thing:

After Heaven began to send angels to Hell as demons, they deemed certain types of miracles as evil/demonic and forbade angels from performing them. It's social control more than it is a difference in ability or biology. Think of what's-his-name in Heaven (military character in S1, played by the same guy as Mr. Brown of Brown's World of Carpets whose character name is escaping me and I can't find atm) when Aziraphale gets discorporated up there in S1 who says that Aziraphale can't get back to Earth without a body and Aziraphale proposes possessing someone, which the guy says that angels can't do. "But demons can," says Aziraphale and later proves he can do what demons do by possessing Madame Tracy. He and Crowley and their The Arrangement, which had Aziraphale doing temptations and Crowley doing blessings. Crowley & Aziraphale know that the Heavenly rhetoric is bullshit but it's unclear who else, if anybody, knows.* (Aside from The Metatron & God, whose narration is full of cheeky reference to this idea and to the idea that the angels and demons are not superior to humans.) It's so far been a subtle thing but I'd kind of like it to factor into how things change in the Heaven/Hell system, however that happens.

*Crowley putting his engineer cap on, experimenting around with his ability to do miracles... that demon doing some dedicated science to figure out whether or not he and Aziraphale would kill each other if they had sex is God's favorite chapter in her 6,000,000,000,000 word, never-really-enemies-to-lovers-to-whatever-they're-calling-it, slowest-of-all-possible-burns fic.

#good omens #good omens meta #ineffable husbands

[zeep-xanflorp]

ok i'm just gonna ramble ab unmortricken bc i have exactly ZERO COHERENT THOUGHTS AB IT

evil morty backstory - i rlly like that they just made him some random morty who rose above everything after getting sick of rick's abuse. it makes what he did feel even more earned and weighty. i think his motivation is a bit extreme still but i can't rlly blame him.

it's cool seeing infinity beyond the central finite curve. the jetsons inspired bit was v amusing bc i forgot about them lmao. but otherwise it seems absolutely wild west beyond the curve and i LIVE for that.

i also didnt imagine that we'd be seeing him again. i thought the way he left the show was perfect and if they brought him back it would just feel cheap but it DOESNT in this episode i love his appearance.

i rlly like seeing our morty be supportive of rick. he's literally trying everything to cheer him up and it's very important to me.

the prime decoys confuse me. like do they all share a consciousness? is prime just very very good at fucking with ppl that he's made all the decoys communicate w each other?

evil morty outsmarting rick is a great recurring theme in the episode. "filter for probability stasis" YEAH U TELL HIM LITTLE DUDE. we've never seen a morty like that EXCEPT for him and i think it's wonderful.

the exchange between rick and evil morty. "you're such a narcissist" / "literal glass house" / "you think you're better than me?" / "jesus i HOPE SO" SHITTING

i didnt initially like the decoy trap thing being full of loads of other ricks. it made me feel like our rick wasn't very important to this dude and rick just made an enemy of a guy who didn't know he existed. BUT i don't stand by that anymore. the rest of the episode made me change my mind very quickly with.

the omega device. holy fuck this is the worst reveal to come out of this episode. she wasn't just killed, she was ERASED by prime in every reality. like she is GONE gone. that's why we've never seen her, save in flashbacks and memories. she's gone.

and i'm pretty sure it's our rick's fault that he did that. we see his beth and his diane be killed by a bomb, not wiped from reality like slo mobius is later in the episode. so his family was killed BEFORE all the shit with the omega device. ik correlation ≠ causation, but it rlly explains why our rick in particular is so hungry for revenge. if he was the one that made prime kill diane everywhere then he had to be the one to make prime pay for it.

i like how the multiple monitors seems to be prime's signature move. it happens here and in the s6 premiere.

and oh fuck the parallels. "when i invent something it works, it's called being talented" in story train vs "when i make a weapon in works."

oh man the diane head weapon thing. it's interesting that it was programmed to mock rick sexually, but even on our rick who knows it's a trap, it still affects him seeing her face again. "god i missed that face." and then the blank stare when she asks for a kiss. pretty sweet and fucked up.

rick and evil morty having to work together to get their portals working. the contrast between our morty freaking out and evil morty blank staring.

the bit with the portal closing too soon. i know it happened earlier this season and i think it's so funny lmao.

I CANNOT STRESS TO YOU ENOUGH THAT I WAS SO MADE WHEN I WORKED OUT THAT INSTEAD OF YELLING WHILE GOING THROUGH THE CURVE THING IN THE MIDFLE OF THE EP HE WAS SCREAMING "PRIME" THOSE DIABOLICAL LITTLE BASTARDS AT ADULT SWIM.

prime calling rick the Wife Guy. hilarious. raises questions. makes me gnaw on my cell bars.

AND THEN the second incredible reveal of the episode: "Honestly, Wife Guy, I do miss when it was just us. The only two Ricks who actually invented portal travel." WHAT bestie prime bby girl u need to say that again. you guys were the ONLY ones who invented interdimensional travel, every rick's claim to fame. but no they just got the technology from prime who started a boys club of ricks who wanted to leave their lives behind that our rick refused.

but the reference to a time when they were closer, when it was only them - HELLO?? maybe i'm grasping at straws bc i want them to bang but holy shit.

the confirmation of the fan theory that rick based his AI voice on his wife. 10/10.

and then the fight scene. oh gods the fight scene. rick just screaming that he'll kill prime. prime regenerating constantly, looking unscathed as our rick becomes more and more dishevelled. it's too perfect i CANT. but otherwise they both seem pretty evenly matched w all the implants and stuff so without the regeneration i think rick would've had him. oh well.

rick like literally died during the fight.

the cool grandson/shitty grandpa exchange gives me breath. i LOVE how it's a morty that outsmarts prime. it's what he deserves.

prime still trying to be a smartass to evil morty, growing more and more panicked as it goes on bc he doesn't know what to do with the situation and control for once is not in his hands.

"what are u gonna 'aw geez' me to death?"

evil morty not even explaining his plan, just silently dragging in our rick and reviving him. saying "knock yourself out" with the intended double meaning. prime's almost scared expression as rick gets dragged in.

and then our rick has a choice. he can stop evil morty from keeping the weapon plans or he can kill prime. but that's a choice he made already. it's not even a decision. so his other enemy gets away.

the brutal brutal scene at the end when rick is just hitting prime. no tech, no implants, no gadgets. just fists. and rick beats him literally to a pulp as prime screams and laughs at him and taunts him further. it's meant to be sickening. it's meant to be personal. and it accomplishes that perfectly.

they don't even show prime's body in great detail. it's RIGHT in the background but we heard the sounds of the punches, we saw his nose break and his bloody teeth and haemorrhaging eyes and his brains coming out the side of it head and all we can make out is his fucked up swollen and broken face in the background as he sits still attached to the chair, a river of his blood pouring from the room.

but its not triumphant. they made rick's revenge hollow and bittersweet. its over but it destroyed rick in the process. who is he now that he isn't hunting prime? fucking no one.

then "look on down from the bridge" starts playing. we heard this in season 1 in rick potion #9 after morty had to bury a version of himself. he was struggling with the purpose of his life after switching universes. but he deals with it and overcomes it.

i think that scene is rick, for the first time in the entire show, struggling with his nihilistic philosophy. bc yes, he's shown to be an existentialist in the show (the difference being existentialists are "nothing matters but this matters to me" instead of "nothing matters so i don't have to do anything"). he had a drive. he had ppl he cared about. but now he's reached his goal he just feels empty and hollow. everything's meaningless and he's NOT okay with that. he never has been, but he has to grapple with that finally now he doesn't have a distraction. i don't think he can just bounce back and move past what happened.

ppl are saying this episode felt overstuffed and maybe it was but i'm very pleased with it and want to know where it's going.

i feel we still don't know the full story with prime. i'm predicting a flash back episode in the future explaining what the nature of their relationship was like before the bomb incident.

we also know that evil morty has this weapon that could destroy all ricks. so that is just a ticking bomb.

anyway i can't wait for angsty rick.

i actually watched unforgiven for this episode bc i'm a big fan of westerns anyway. the only real parallels i can see is they both have a group of three (two are already partners and the other one is the call to adventure) and an unsatisfying ending. bc that's the nature of westerns. they should NEVER end happily, and if u think so then ur wrong (/nsrs enjoy media how u want).

some things i haven't mentioned but enjoyed nonetheless

the schematics for the omega device is titled <SCHEMATICS BOOGER-AIDS-V2>

the arm/leg swap best in the fight

the comparison between the song at the end playing here and in season one shows with just visuals how the dynamic of beth and jerry's (and beth's) marriage has evolved since then.

everyone freaking out when indiana jones rick shoots and it ricochets off the wall and evil morty just stands expressionless until it hits his forcefield.

morty going to hug rick covered in blood, realising, hesitating, and then doing it later anyway to try and make rick feel better.

evil morty making a point to say that he doesn't want vengeful summers coming after him for omega devicing rick. not vengeful mortys, vengeful SUMMERS.

just evil morty in this whole episode was an absolute delight i need to see him more.

THE TEAR MARKS AFTER RICK EMERGES FROM BEATING PRIME TO DEATH

slo mobius' wife almost going down the same path our rick did only to find someone she loves and focus on that, saving her. makes me wonder if they're gonna try putting rick in a relationship.

this ended up being way longer than it should have. anyway. very pleased. this season is hitting all the marks for me overall.

also don't be too hard on me i didnt edit this 😭

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #rick n morty #r&m #rnm #rick c 137 #rick c137 #rick #rick and morty spoilers #unmortricken #rick and morty season 7 #rick and morty season 7 spoilers #rick prime #evil morty #prickcest #rick and morty meta

[lookingforcactus]

Maybe this is a stretch driven by my hope for siuaraine, but I wonder if the final scene between Suian and Moiraine went the way it did because Suian thinks Moiraine might have turned to the dark

"You lied to me about being stilled."

My eyebrows shot up when I heard that line, bc that's a big deal accusation for an Aes Sedai. And parallels nicely with Alanna and co. accusing Lan of being a darkfriend last episode

Which I know some people hated, but the thing is, Lan and Moiraine have kind of been acting super sketchy, if you don't know the things we know

Like, from Siuan's pov: Lan shows up and tells her Moiraine has been stilled, which in MONTHS of letters, Moiraine never mentioned. Siuan is horrified that happened, has got to be terrified that Moiraine is going to kill herself, and is also lost and hurt and baffled that Moiraine would hide this from her

Like, that omission was a HUGE DEAL, relationship wise. Not a good move keeping something that important from your wife, especially when they were plotting together and it would be 100% reasonable and probably also a good move for Moiraine to turn to Siuan for help

And going back to Siuan's pov, she's dealing with ALL THAT, plus the Dragon, which is another thing she and Moiraine (seem to be?) at odds about

There's darkfriends in the Tower

Moiraine has been hiding something from her

Moiraine has been stilled

The town they're in is assaulted and set on fire

Someone has broken the Dragon out of the White Tower's custody

And when Siuan goes to try to, presumably, get him back, what happens?

She turns the corner and finds Moiraine, Lan, and Rand standing there, alone, in front of a waygate that MOIRAINE JUST OPENED

And I'm sure that normally, this wouldn't make Siuan worry about Moiraine's loyalties, but...she just found out the love of her life was stilled and then spent six months completely failing to tell her about it

Who wouldn't be shaken? Who wouldn't already be asking "If she hid something as big as THIS from me, what else could she be hiding?"

And then she shows up and Moiraine has just used the One Power to open a waygate

Earlier in the episode, when she finds out Moiraine has been stilled (well, close enough), what she says is something like "Six months of letters, and not a single word about that." The very common Aes Sedai route of lying by omission

When she shows up at the Waygate, she says "You lied to me about being stilled."

Siuan thinks Moiraine was able to break one of the oaths. Which Moiraine could only do if she'd sworn herself to the Dark.

And as Lan establishes, the idea of tying off a weave and leaving it in place is so not a thing anymore, it's barely even the stuff of legends. Why would Siuan think that's on the list of possibilities? Especially in such an overwhelming and emotionally fraught and literally things are on fire moment?

And all Moiraine says in response (in her defense there are a lot of things going on) is "I can't"

Which, yeah, Siuan knows that is (supposed to be) the case

And THEN, fucking Lanfear shows up, gets pretty easily talked into not killing Moiraine by Rand, and then Moiraine and Lan follow Lanfear and Rand through the waygate without a word

I think it would be 100% reasonable, actually, for Siuan to suspect that Moiraine is a darkfriend after all of that, and given what she knows

So much of Moiraine's life has been out of Siuan's view, for like 20 years now. So much could've happened

And now Moiraine is using the One Power even after she told everyone that she was stilled

Kind of a guilty look actually!!!

(If this is what they're doing though they definitely should've been more clear/explicit/developed with the setup, tho. But otherwise I think it's really interesting as a potential plot point!)

#wheel of time #wot show spoilers #wot season 2 #wot on prime #moiraine #siuan sanche #siuanraine #rand al'thor #I know a lot of people didn't like/were confused about Lan getting accused last ep and the setup for that #but I actually really liked that too #was gonna make a whole separate post about why that was good before this happened #now the parallels have me thinking even more that I'm right #it also explains part of WHY they had that scene with Lan #besides the fact that it basically got the rest of the aes sedai informed about the dragon thing #I think?????? #they all keep so many secrets lmao who knows

[lightwise]

THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR FREEDOM

AKA Analysis of Crosshair in The Tipping Point

This may sound like a strange claim to be making about Crosshair in S2 E14. (SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS EPISODE YET).

Crosshair is imprisoned this entire episode. Tied down. Tortured. Unable to move. And yet I was almost speechless at how he is rendered, in both his facial expressions and his choices. As strange as it sounds to say, I think Crosshair is at peace in this episode. This man is finally, fully HIMSELF. It’s HIM. This is the REAL Crosshair, like we’ve never seen him before.

His face (and his eyes) are so OPEN. I don’t know how else to describe it. Prior to this, Crosshair had a variety of colorful facial expressions that he usually kept on him, ranging from sarcastic sneers, brows pulling together in worry, feigned disinterest, and downright rage. (I will be making a separate post on the expansive range of Crosshair’s expressions and how I think they signify what his real emotions are). 

But here, we start with Crosshair in a prison cell, being roughly taken out of his confinement to another location. Normally I would expect Crosshair to have a very sour, disdainful look on his face as these TK troopers cuff him and haul him out. But he doesn’t. Yes there’s a bit of a raised eyebrow still, but his face is just calm. Open. Serious but not fraught with tension. (Also, shameless side note: this man looks so good in blue/gray/not black colors. They make him seem softer and more open, as well).

Not only that, but he gazes around him, eyes moving side to side, paying attention to the other prison cells (maybe even looking to see if there was someone he knew also being held there?), even getting himself in trouble for taking an interest in those around him. Crosshair, who has always held himself separate and apart, has always pretended to look away even when he was listening. He is present, even in the midst of a horrible situation. 

I was reminded of the end shot in The Solitary Clone, and the parallels of him walking freely down the hallway as an imperial there, and a prisoner here. But in the first one he’s actually a prisoner inside himself, while in the second, he might be held captive on the outside, but he’s free on the inside. 

Even to Emerie and Hemlock, Crosshair remains surprisingly mild and level in his responses. May I remind you what this man’s face has looked like earlier in his story when dealing with people in power over him - and when being tasked to give up his family.

But instead he simply gazes at them calmly–suspicious, but clear-headed. He is in possession of his self esteem and purpose once again, and he doesn’t need to put on a front of superiority or fury in order to face the gaze of others. 

And he knows immediately what the doctor wants. He obviously has no intention of giving up his brothers. His face and tone remain even, controlled. He still says “the kid” to Hemlock’s face, but there is no animosity in using those words. And we will see how that was no longer Crosshair’s real opinion of Omega.

On the flipside of this calmness, we have very rarely seen Crosshair fall apart from pain or fear in front of others. But this torture from Hemlock is excruciating, and as a result of Crosshair’s emotions being closer to the surface, his sensitivity to pain and fear and anguish are on full display as well. 

He manages to escape the current torture, but his goal isn’t to save himself. In maybe the most important scene of this episode, Crosshair risks his life to warn and try to save his family, his brothers, his sister, with no regard for the consequences to himself. And yes, we almost got to hear him say “Omega” for the first time. Do we need any more proof that he cares? Crosshair is finally, truly, making the right decisions for the right reasons and he knows it. And that loyalty is going to help him bear whatever he has to bear to keep his family safe. 

He is in so much pain and I hate it 😭

“Why suffer more?” Hemlock asks him. He is defiant, yes. But his “severe and unyielding nature,” his stubbornness and loyalty, his need to be accepted for who he is, are finally being put to the right purpose.

(Also, you cannot tell me this wasn't foreshadowing from The Solitary Clone.)

This is a man who loves and cares DEEPLY, who loves his family even after having had all trust severed on both sides, who would do anything to protect them, even if it means risking his own sanity and self. This man is at peace with his own actions - FINALLY. This is him. And that means so much to me.

I apologize now for the pain, but I am going to end by connecting this to a quote from Andor. Maarva’s last message to Cassian broke my heart and rebuilt it from the inside when I first heard it, and I realized that it could fully apply to Crosshair as well:

"Tell him, he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him... I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong." 

#crosshair loves his brothers #and his sister #loyal to a fault #and that loyalty has cost him everything #bring crosshair home #give this man a hug #crosshairsweep #crosshair #crosshair bad batch #tbb season 2 spoilers #tbb season two #the bad batch season 2 #the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #emerie #doctor hemlock #the tipping point #long post #analysis #somelightramblings #some light ramblings #somelightedits #some light edits

[parentsday]

i think david was a lot more like max as a kid but he softened the story he told to max nikki and neil in the car

thank you for the ask anon !! for your reference reading this made me grimace in a way that a wounded dog would upon seeing a piece of meat !! but seriously this is a topic that is very important to my personal and possibly general understanding of these two characters, so im just gonna say that i agree with you and such interpretation of david’s character is very easy to call accurate to canon as both david and max are written with obvious intent to be seen as parallels of one another, more so than they are written to be character foils.

max and david are set to be read as opposites in the show from the very start and i think this is also the easiest and safest way to perceive both of their characters if this shows meta doesn’t interest you. their standpoints and life views are seemingly removed as far away from each other as humanly possible and we are reminded of it more than necessary in the earlier content. the show tries really hard to make it look like david is an inherently good person put against max’s necessary evil, so it seems only right to view them this way. and yet the first two seasons of the show do a spectacular job at showing us that david is not at all as good of a person as he tries to be (not tries to appear, but tries to be, important bc first one is max’s perspective on david’s person while the second one is a description actually accurate to him). early seasons david is undeniably selfish and just as much of an asshole as max is, keep in mind that this is not my personal view on his character but a fact in canon that we are reminded of time and time again and is also something that gets lampshaded by the writers during the parents day episode. he pushes his positive perspective of the way things should be just as hard as max pushes his negative one, if not more, he behaves in his own personal interests instead of interests of others or the interests of camp constantly and guess who is the only other character in the show who does this just as often (the answer is max). the only reason why it’s not always easy to pin point this stuff is because they are constantly posed in situations that require them to act dissimilarly enough for it to create a contrast which isn’t always easy to pick up on as something intentionally vague and done for specific narrative purpose. this similarity extends onto the fact that they are both victims of abuse and the show is well aware of it and uses it to its own advantage. both max and david deal with their trauma in drastically different ways as seen by the way they talk about the world surrounding them, but the core of it is the same and that’s the important part of it.

so i believe it’s very safe to say that even if david didn’t say anything that would allude to him changing the story about his younger self to be nicer than it actually was, it sure was implied by the writers in the subtext of that episode, maybe in the subtext of the show in its entirety. early camp camp content surrounding these two based itself very heavily on david’s belief that his similarity to max is what will push this kid to become just like him in the future, so it really is not out of the left field to assume david was a lot more like max when he was younger. most probably because in many ways he still is just like him.

tldr; david sees himself in max in more ways than one and the show’s writing feels the same way because they intentionally wrote them to be as similar as possible. the writers rely heavily on these two being narrative parallels to make their characters work in the way they do so your headcanon is as real as it gets anon ^^

#camp camp #camp camp meta analysis #david cc #max cc #is it obvious i tried my best not to dadvid out in this one #treating these two like they are not intertwined in my mind just so none of you get the found family ick.. mwah mwah

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 2, Episode 5

This episode picks up the day after the Valentine's ball.

Blink and you miss it: Simon hid Wilhelm's sweater under his pillow.

Subtext: A parallel to S1E5 when Wilhelm made the exact same crispbread sandwich as breakfast for Simon.

Subtext: Meanwhile, Alexander has been stewing over what August told him, that Wilhelm was the one to throw him under the bus, so he's not exactly keen on talking to Wilhelm right now.

Blink and you miss it: As soon as Wilhelm gets the text message with the speech, he nervously starts biting his fingernails.

Subtext: Simon is wearing his purple shirt, of course this is how he's feeling.

Subtext: Sara is projecting a bit of her own storyline with August here. She knows he is the wrong person, but she still has feelings for him.

Subtext: Felice's hair has been a theme this season, she's literally been letting her hair out as a way of protesting her mom's controlling behaviour, and other traditions. She can't defy the housemistress, though, so she ties up her hair.

Blink and you miss it: As soon as Felice gets corrected, Stella ties up her own hair as well. She's also not ready to rebel just yet.

Subtext: There's going to be a parallel here in the next episode, so for now, just note how August sucks up to Jan-Olof, meekly asks to make some changes to the speech, and is shut down.

Subtext: And of course he is a stickler for titles, he doesn't care that August and Wilhelm are informal with each other, the hierarchy must be preserved at all times!

Subtext: Jan-Olof is really on a roll here, perfectly embodying the Evil System and its boring traditions.

Culture: Året med Kungafamiljen is a real show, it's a year-end retrospective containing highlights of what the royal family did during the year, and it is usually aired around Christmas time. However, it's definitely not the most-watched show in Sweden.

Subtext: Wilhelm is the last person to figure out that the obvious song is obviously about him.

Cinematography: There's some interesting composition in this scene, they're arguing, they're in the same room, they're actually pretty close to each other, but the camerawork highlights the distance between them by making sure they're never both in the shot at the same time.

Subtext: There's maybe a parallel here, Marcus said the opposite to Simon a few episodes ago.

Subtext: And what Simon says is absolutely true, in season 1, the Queen kept it a secret that she knew it was August, to get Wilhelm to deny it was him in the video, and she claimed it was to protect Wilhelm, but in reality she was just protecting the monarchy by burying all unwanted attention.

Subtext: Again, Jan-Olof never contradicts Wilhelm or argues with him. Of course one of the reasons he decided against the new school song was because of Simon, but he can't say that, so he deflects instead.

Subtext: A bit on the nose to have Wilhelm physically being suffocated by the clothes he's going to wear while holding his speech, but whatever.

Subtext: Bless their hearts for being supportive, but I don't think Rosh and Ayub really understand what they're up against if Simon reports August to the police. Wilhelm wasn't wrong, the court will obviously back August, because he's family.

Subtext: It's pretty funny how Wilhelm sees the entire court as a unit, but of course the Queen has no idea what he's talking about, she doesn't know Jan-Olof made the decision about the song earlier, so to her Wilhelm is having yet another random outburst.

Subtext: Just like Wilhelm told the truth about August and the video, revealing the stakes to Simon, she does the same to Wilhelm and reveals the stakes about the speech and about August being his spare.

Subtext: You all saw my longer explanation post of the plot point, here's the Queen spelling it out again, their plan is to introduce August as a member of the royal family, slowly, to make people get used to him.

Subtext: The way the Queen views her role leaks out a bit here. To her, royal duty is the most important thing, being queen is a job to her that she takes seriously. All the privileges is secondary to her, so she mostly sees what she did to August as burdening him with duty.

Subtext: This is going to be important for later, she tells Wilhelm to think of the repercussions of his choices first, and what he wants second.

Blink and you miss it: Fredrika proposes to Stella as a joke.

Subtext: The dark side is of course that she's been having a relationship with August in secret.

Subtext: Wilhelm is really warming up to therapy, in this session he pours coffee for both himself and Boris, and he's actively driving the discussion.

Subtext: This is how modern monarchies justify their own existence. It is inherently unfair and undemocratic that they inherit their positions, so one way they justify it to themselves is by convincing themselves that they are fit for the duty, that the can handle the job, and that they are better at the job than most others. Because if they aren't good at the job, why should the country tolerate the royals?

Subtext: Yet another callback to season 1, Erik tried teaching Wilhelm how to do the same, how to keep up a façade, a public persona, and that's what it looked like to Wilhelm because he knew the private Erik, the one the public never got to see.

Subtext: Yet another another callback to season 1. When the Queen tried to convince Wilhelm to deny it was him in the video, she said that no-one asked for this, none of them asked to be born royals.

Subtext: A recurring theme for Wilhelm is that he is never free to make his own choices, he is always bound by duty or traditions or expectations, so it's important that Boris encourages him to start making his own choices.

Subtext: August is practically holding court here, so Wilhelm gets a glimpse of what it would be like if he lets August take over for him. The choice is his, but this is one of the consequences.

Subtext: We're really on a roll here with all these choice and their consequences, so here Wilhelm lays out Simon's choices - and consequences - around reporting August to the police.

Subtext: In the end, Wilhelm chooses to accept whatever Simon decides, and if August can't be his backup any longer, he has decided to keep being the crown prince, for Erik's sake, and not for his mom's sake.

Subtext: A nice little callback to episode 1 where Simon told Wilhelm to start being honest and talking about how he felt.

Subtext: We don't know it yet, but this is where August tells his mom to sell off some of his assets, so he can buy Rosseau for Sara's sake. He refused to do this to pay for his tuition last season, but apparently this is worth more to him? How sweet, character development! Sara is changing him into a better person! Let's see how long that'll last...

Cinematography: When the show was casting people, Malte originally auditioned for the role of Simon. I thought that was ridiculous, because he's so good at being stuck up and smarmy and evil as August, how could he possibly play Simon? I don't know what they've done with the lighting and styling in this scene, but damn it if he isn't cute as fuck here! How does he do it? I could totally see Malte pull off playing Simon if he looked like this the entire time!

Subtext: I think it's interesting that Wilhelm and Simon have never ever had an interaction like this, they have never discussed their future life as royals, because neither of them really wants that kind of life. But both August and Sara want that, so they're having this discussion, they're imagining themselves as future royals.

Subtext: This entire book discussion is dripping with obvious subtext, you should all be able to pick this up without my explanations! Let's go through the highlights.

I think Henry is projecting a bit here, maybe he is the one that hasn't talked to his crush? Maybe he sent the poem to Madison? We'll never know!

Sara is definitely projecting, she's saying it's ok for her to be in love with August despite all the bad things he's done, because she thinks she can change him.

Simon is just straight up admitting that he's finally realizing all the pressure Wilhelm is under, and that it's actually not that easy for him to make the choice to live openly.

And Wilhelm straight up admits that he's been somewhat of a selfish jerk, putting himself and his royal troubles above everyone else.

Subtext: Karin Boye really did commit suicide, so let's hope that's not some kind of foreshadowing or symbolism.

Blink and you miss it: August is actually looking at Sara and smiling at her, but Simon misinterprets it as August secretly laughing at him for the sex tape.

Subtext: It's a bit late for this now, but here's one more detail on how Marcus is "perfect" for Simon, their parents apparently know each other, and both moms are so happy that their sons are dating. That Sara tries to teach her mom how to behave around the Queen is the complete opposite of that.

Cinematography: I've bitched before about how many gay-themed tv shows still use homophobia as a driver for drama, and it's just so nice to watch a show that's the opposite of that. Simon is gay, Marcus is gay, and their moms are just getting together and gushing about how cute their sons look together and how nice it is that they're dating.

Subtext: Sara is panicking here while trying to hide it, because she still hasn't told her brother that she knew it was August from the start. Bit of a dark side, eh?

Subtext: We've seen a lot of reasons for Simon making this decision, and one other reason has been somewhat of a theme in the first half of this season; we've seen Simon getting unfairly punished all the time, while the upper-class kids got away scot free. So enough is enough, it's time for August to get what he deserves.

Subtext: This episode has focused a lot on choice and consequences, but here Wilhelm decides not to burden Simon with the consequences of the choice. He's selflessly accepting it and that he now must keep being the crown prince, even though the pressure of it makes him physically ill.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm printed out the speech and nailed to his wall so he could practice it.

Cinematography: Colour theory anyone? Simon has been bottling up his feelings for Wilhelm almost the entire season, he wore a yellow sweater this episode, hiding the purple shirt beneath, but Wilhelm took off Simon's clothes and turned the whole thing inside out so the purple shirt is now very visible, finally. Also, that is one blue room!

Subtext: Yes, they finally remembered to close the curtains. And this time the show also fades to black, we don't get to see them having sex, because we are the nosy public that has been watching all along.

#young royals #young royals analysis #young royals subtext #young royals season 2

[fromperdition4]

Kinn vs. Korn

Okay, so something that seems to be fairly common ‘shorthand’ in the fandom is the idea that Kinn is firmly stuck under Korn’s thumb - Kinn wants to be a good son to his dad, who’s a manipulative and lying bastard, and so he won’t ever escape Korn’s grasp.

And while I do agree that Kinn loves his father, despite everything, and lets that sway his decisions —

— I don’t think he’s nearly as obedient to his father as he’s made out to be.

First, going back in the episode to when Kinn thought Korn was dead, we see him taking charge at a meeting with the main family’s business associates:

His ability to lead is called into question, most vocally by the two men near the head of the table, and Kinn gets… one of the scariest looks on his face:

(Look at those dead eyes and that chilling smile. Those idiots just signed their death warrants…)

And, well, Kinn takes care of it:

This scene is a great parallel to episode 1, showing us one of Kinn’s main approaches to running the mafia —

— and it is Kinn’s approach, not Korn’s - both Kinn (“People say I’m more like my mom”) and Korn told us this

And right away we saw Kinn go against his dad’s advice, while still playing the deferential son:

(Just look at this little shit)

Finally, going back to this episode, I think it’s important to note how Kinn reacts to Korn’s betrayal and murder of Gun - he’s not only shocked but disgusted by it:

For all Kinn’s bravado when threatening Vegas and Gun in earlier episodes, I think he was genuinely surprised it would come to this - brother killing brother, in cold blood.

I don’t know what this will mean for Kinn and Korn in the future - like I put at the top of this long post, Kinn still loves his dad. He stepped in front of Korn to protect him from Porsche. And the last we see of Kinn and Porsche is them playing their roles as heads happily, while Korn celebrates his victory.

I guess I just see the ending as more hopeful than others in the fandom do, and that’s rooted in the moments of rebellion we see from Kinn (and Porsche!) throughout the show. It will be tough, but I do think they’ll be able to work through whatever comes next - by going their own way.

#kinnporsche #kprewatch2023 #ep 14 #ep 1 #kinn #korn #porsche #this one got long haha #and I could have gone longer 😂 #gun

[coraniaid]

For the Top Five thing, Top Five Episodes of Buffy that don't have Faith in them but do make you think about Faith?

Not in any order except chronological.

When She Was Bad

Obviously I don't think the writers had the slightest inkling about Faith when this episode was written -- I very much doubt they'd even started to think about Kendra, honestly -- but in some ways this still feels like a Faith origin episode to me. 

So much of how Buffy behaves in this episode would go on to be echoed by Faith the following season.  The insistence on doing things alone and not relying on others (Buffy's refusal to let any of her friends try to help her mirroring Faith's "I'm on my side, and that's enough"); to refusal to tell the people she cares about them that she cares (Buffy's too-late admission that she missed Angel over the summer mirroring Faith's "Uh, Buffy? ... Nothing"); the conflation of sex and violence (the way Buffy demands Angel tell her if he thinks he could “take” her mirroring Faith asking the same thing of Buffy herself).  Even the sudden feigned interest in Xander (as a way of trying to make the actual object of her affections jealous) fits.

Ted

Not just because it’s the first time the show asks what would happen if a Slayer accidentally killed a person, not just because the detective who investigates the death is the same man who will later investigate Finch’s death in Consequences, not just because Ted himself – with his cultivated wholesome image and the lurking unspoken threat of violence and his love of mini-golf – feels like a foreshadowing of the Mayor, but because this is perhaps the one time we see Buffy feel unsafe in her own home because of something ordinary rather than supernatural.  Which I think is something that Faith could relate to.

(By the way, you should read @explosionshark’s Common Ground if you haven’t already).

Anne

This is the first episode in which I think the Buffy/Faith parallels are probably intentional.  It's very hard for me not to watch Buffy alone in her apartment in LA and not be reminded of Faith in her motel room.  So much of Season 3 is about stressing the importance of Buffy’s family and friends in her life (as shown by their absence in The Wish, or by the Class Protector scene in The Prom, or the end of Graduation Day), with Faith as a version of Buffy who didn’t get those things (hence Faith’s “you get the Watcher, you get the Mom, you get the little Scooby Gang.  What do I get?”; and  Buffy’s earlier “Different circumstances, that could be me.”)  And in Anne we see a Buffy who doesn’t have those things, and who is – until she’s talked out of it, by one of the people she already helped save in Sunnydale – an awful lot like Faith.  (Not the same side of Faith that we saw foreshadowed in When She Was Bad, but still I think an aspect of Faith nonetheless.)

Restless

There are a lot of episodes I wish Faith appeared in, but if I could pick just one it would have to be Restless.  And -- given that Faith is actually talked about quite a lot in Season 4 (in a way she isn't in Season 5 or 6 or even the first half of Season 7) -- I’m inclined to think that she might have if Dushku had been available.  We know that Willow and Xander and Buffy are all still thinking about her, after all, and that they were even before she woke up from her coma. If nothing else, she'd have made a lot more sense as the voice of the First Slayer ("No friends! [...] We are alone") than Tara did.

Dead Things

Season 6 is the only season after her first appearance in which Faith’s never mentioned at all, and also the season where Buffy herself is the most like Faith (crawling out a grave in Bargaining the way Faith did in her dream in This Year’s Girl, struggling with money for the first time in a way that Faith had to have been doing for the first half of Season 3 even though we rarely see it; not able to find meaning or purpose in her life except through supernatural violence).

And arguably that most Faith-like Buffy becomes is in Dead Things, which itself is full of very deliberate nods to both Bad Girls/Consequences and This Year’s Girl/Who Are You?  Both because Buffy (believes that she) kills a person, but also because the way Buffy seems almost relieved to be able to give up and turn herself in to the police echoes the way Faith herself eventually did just that (at Buffy’s prompting) in Sanctuary.

#btvs #asks #thanks!

[devisrina]

Can we talk about how cute these two were in the "Skate with Me, Barbie" Episode in 'Barbie a Touch of Magic'?

I'm not sure if they are going to keep this pairing a one-sided non-reciprocated crush, but I really want Brooklyn to like him back. I also think that this episode has the biggest hints of them being canon.

First, Brooklyn enters the skate match because she wants to earn the award that her parents won. When did they get the award may you ask? It was on THEIR FIRST DATE and wants to give the trophy for their anniversary!!!!.

Who ends up showing up for her to be her skate partner? Trey, who has a crush on her since the first episode.

Comparatively, when Barbie/Malibu gives up being Brooklyn's skating partner, she tries entering with Ken before he sprains his ankle and goes with Rocki. Ken has been Barbie's canon love interest (And since 1961 lmao, but this isn't in this universe of the BCU) and slow-burn romance since the Barbie vlogs and Barbie Dreamhouse adventures. So having the clips alternate between Brooklyn and Trey and Barbie and Ken could mean there could be a future romance between Brooklyn and Trey between the skating parallels.

Yes, there is a point where she says "Let's do this Trey. But don't go thinking that this is a date or anything." Could just be her rejecting him again. But this is the one time in the episode where he didn't make an advance on her. She could've flat out said the date remark thing to him when she first agreed to be his partner. Also, she didn't have to say 'date' she could've said 'don't think this is going to turn into something' or 'don't get any ideas'. Date is significant because of the story with her parents. So she might've been thinking about how this connected to her parent's story if they won.

And if we bring it back to Barbie and Ken skating, Barbie entered that contest too to get the double chance of the trophy. Imagine if Ken didn't sprain his ankle and was a better-skilled skater (+ getting replaced with Rocki) to have a chance of winning with Barbie. That would mean both pairings (Barbie and Ken, Brooklyn and Trey) would be the only 2 left in the contest. If either of them won, they would be paralleling Brooklyn's parents.

Barbie and Ken are a canon romantic pairing, but in the story, Brooklyn and Trey would have to win. So they're paralleling her parents.

Trey was also the one who went and carried the trophy over to her to give to her parents for their anniversary. She even looked over at Trey and smiled when she said she had a little help from her friends. Her parents would've definitely suspected something if there had been more focus on that aspect.

They also wouldn't have had a scene with them alone where she thanked him for everything that he did for her that day. She could've thanked him inside the room. But it also looks like she's walking him since they're neighbours. This is also funny, considering that Barbie and Ken also live by them, why didn't they join in if this was mean to be read as platonic? Hmmm.

They're also walking home together late at night OoOOoooooOOO.

They also do a callback to earlier in the episode where she called him out for not being a very nice person. She thanks him too for letting her keep the trophy, he might have some idea of how important it is to her parents. This could also potentially mean that if he was a bit less obnoxious and a little more nicer that she could take an interest in him.

She's also being kind of flirty too, she's pulling him by his sunglasses which is adorable.

And lastly, she giggles at his life-size reiteration of the trophy and again is flirty when she says "Later, partner."

And he says back, "Later, partner."

So do with that what you will. I'm shipping this.

#Brooklyn Barbie #Brooklyn Roberts #trey reardon #Brooklyn x trey #Barbie a touch of magic #Barbie and ken #Barbie #Barbie x Ken #Ken Carson

[sarucane]

OFMD Spiral Parallels 5: The Unicorn

Intro: What I love most about how season 2 builds on season 1 of OFMD is the spiral narrative structure. Ground is repeatedly and explicitly re-trod from season 1 to season 2, but in season 2 everything goes deeper than season 1. Meanings are shuffled, emotions are stronger and truer, and transformation is showcased above everything. The first season plucks certain notes, then the second season plucks the same ones--but louder, and then it weaves them together to create a symphony.

---

In the first season of OFMD, the unicorn figurehead on the Revenge is associated with failure. Like Izzy says in season 2, it just doesn't do its job in season 1: it doesn't keep an eye out for danger on the horizon, it doesn't act as a guardian of the crew. It's a failure.

More specifically, the unicorn is Ed's failure. Ed who tried to be this larger-than-life figure in Blackbeard--a mythical monster, a kraken, a unicorn--but just couldn't cut it because he's a person, not a myth.

When Ed first appears on deck of the Revenge, he's clearly lined up as a parallel to the unicorn. What he's doing fits with that visual parallel too: he's looking out at the horizon for what's coming, and he's making a plan to protect the ship accordingly. Except, that plan fails because he's literally ahead, thinking it's a day earlier. The unicorn fails.

The unicorn also fails in episode 7, when the English shoot its head off. Calico Jack lured them in because of Ed, and it's Ed who failed to spot Jack's treachery (to Jack's own surprise).

The thing is, Ed's not as good of a pirate as he used to be. The first time, this is because he's not paying enough attention to the world. He's introduced as completely isolated from everyone but Izzy--of course he didn't notice it was a leap year. The second time, he fails because he's changed. He's become more trusting than he was before, and it makes him a worse pirate. He doesn't belong as captain anymore. It's not good for him or anyone else, as gets played out at the beginning of season 1.

But out of the wreckage of Blackbeard, a new unicorn emerges.

Izzy's association with the unicorn, and with Ed's failures as Blackbeard, is visible even in season 1. He's there when Ed is paralleled with the figurehead, and the unicorn head is blown off because Izzy sold them out to the English. And underneath that is Izzy's failure to understand Ed. He resists engaging with Ed on the "frankfurters" business, even refusing to use the same word to describe the clouds. Then he completely misjudges the situation that resulted in selling Stede out to the English. Ed would rather accept anything than watch Stede die, and Izzy just does not get this. In his own way, he's failed as a figurehead too: he hasn't anticipated what's coming, or protected what's important to him.

In season two, Izzy's fixation on the unicorn is a clear externalization of the self-hatred that drove his earlier suicide attempt. The unicorn didn't do its job, so it lost its head. Izzy didn't do his job, he failed the crew along with both Blackbeard and Edward (he couldn't make Ed be only Blackbeard, he couldn't make Blackbeard be more like Ed, he fed and perpetuated that duality until the paradox nearly destroyed everyone) and now he can barely get around.

Izzy's removal of the unicorn's legs is a form of self-punishment, like his refusal to let anyone help him after he falls and his insistence that "you're born alone, you die alone."

Except then, the crew transform the symbol from failure to rebirth. After all, a unicorn is a mythical creature. It's a story, and in the world of OFMD, stories can damn the unwary--but they can also offer salvation.

The unicorn is transformed from a symbol of forced obligation (the unicorn attached to the ship, Ed trapped in his life as Blackbeard) to decision (the unicorn transformed by collective action, a person choosing who he'll be to the people around him). They repaint it to shine in the dark, and it becomes a physical incarnation of Izzy's second chance--to "do his job," for his crew and his friends. And he doesn't stray from that. He doesn't fail them.

Izzy's out front when he's shot in episode 8, leading the way for the crew just like the unicorn led the way for the ship. Richie (being The Worst) tries to use the unicorn foot against Izzy, tries to transform the symbol back into one of failure. But it doesn't make a difference, because that's not what gets him shot: it's Richie himself who shoots Izzy. And Izzy dies having done his job, that he chose, out of love rather than obligation.

And in the final moments of the episode, the Revenge sets out with a limbless and headless figurehead. Without a unicorn. It doesn't need one: they're going to look out for each other.

And on Stede and Ed's island, the unicorn leg remains as a reminder of the potential for transformation, even from the deepest depths of failure and brokenness.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 spoilers #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #omfd meta

[princessamericachavez]

Absolutely unhinged that most of the key developments for Lucy and Tim’s romantic relationships in s4 are centered around each other. The narrative is almost never about their SO. Ashley and Chris were really never anything other than accessories to their development.

I mean, hear me out:

We start the season with the Chenford near-kiss, setting the stage for the next of the season. We know from the last of s3 that they are both starting to feel more for each other. A dance is owed.

Tim meets Ashley, but the whole episode is centered around him and Lucy’s competitive bet.

(A bet Lucy keeps pushing next ep because she has a crush and it’s their way of flirting until he asks her to stop competing)

When Genny comes around, we focus on Lucy’s excitement to meet her (and the curious looks Genny gives them both)

Tim and Ashley are dating and how do we find out? By Lucy’s shocked reaction. (And you can tell she’s slightly hurt, she was getting her hopes up with the flirting earlier). ASHLEY ISNT EVEN IN THE EPISODE AT ALL.

And then that whole episode and the next center around Tim’s past and Lucy finding out about it, being there for him and comforting him. Tim is vulnerable with her. We just found out he’s dating someone else but it’s actually about a step forward for THEM.

Kojo: the whole thing could’ve just been about Tim’s dog. Tbf he’s had it for a good while now and Lucy barely owned Kojo for a couple weeks (at most). But it’s still about “Lucy’s dog”, about her giddy reaction to their fight, about Ashley calling Lucy of all people for advice. First Tim/Ashley fight we see and Lucy is right there in the middle. And it’s no coincidence that Chris is introduced at the end of this episode, because Lucy is letting go.

Chris and Lucy’s initial crash about vulnerable youths is purposefully contrasted with Tim supporting Lucy and Tamara. They both seem hard and morally inflexible but Tim, the narrative tells us, is more compassionate and willing to grow for her.

Also we get an unprompted “are you ok?” from Tim.

“Now you’re all sweet on him?” Wonderful how the apparent Lucy/Chris growth is actually about Tim being jealous.

THE DOUBLE DATE. There’s little I could add here except how obvious the other two “plot accessory” status is. And the show tells us outright.

Not a development for their other relationships but it’s worth noting that Lucy’s conflict about her biodad is a wonderful parallel to Tim’s earlier trauma. He is there for her. While initially callous about it, we also get another completely unprompted check-in “You’ve been quiet.”

(Also incredible how they get paired for the documentary, while the only other pair is a married couple)

There IS one episode that gives Lucy and Chris’s relationship development that is not directly related to Tim, but it is directly related to Rosalind and the barrel (which WAS an extremely important moment for their dynamic). The contrast of how comforting she found Tim After the trauma vs Chris accidentally setting it off again is interesting.

THE WEDDING DANCE. There’s so little I can say about this wonderful scene that hasn’t been said before. Except the heart-eyes and goofy smiles mix is wonderful. Also, they keep looking at each other’s mouths. (Just pointing out how curious it is that neither brought a plus one. Nolan did… but they’ve been in a relationship for a while now and didn’t even think about it?)

INTERESTING that we contrast both of their relationship commitment issues in the same ep. With Lucy not wanting to meet Chris’s mom yet and Tim freaking out over the Hawai trip looking like a proposal.

But what’s more interesting is how the entire proposal misunderstanding is centered around LUCY and her reaction to it. Her uncharacteristic hesitation before she asks. Her hurt face when Tim says he could see himself married to Ashley. Her broken heart when he pretends to propose. (Insane how Chris appears right after, again as an after thought when Lucy is feeling pushed away by Tim)

And finally THE KISS. I mean, Ashley and Chris aren’t even in this episode but I think that’s important. The fact that they both have a SO doesn’t even come up. And when we finally FINALLY get Tim’s ‘oh’ moment, it’s a point where he’s finally realizing (thanks to last ep) that Ashley and him want different things for the future. Whereas Lucy just had her heart pretty brutally broken by him and is feeling dejected and scared to fall for it. It’s the perfect set up for all the s5 pining and misunderstanding.

Anyway, this got way too long but my point stands: everything about Ashley and Chris has been ABOUT CHENFORD and their development.

#chenford #lucy chen #tim bradford #the rookie #Sofia’s nonsense

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Loki 2x5 Voices Analysis

Spoilers for 2x5.

I was rewatching ep 5 and got to the scene right as Loki learns to control his time-slipping, he hears all these voices and they are kind of quiet and jumbled together but I did wonder if there could be any clues in those lines that might tell us what is going to happen to our characters, or just any other parallels or interesting connections.

So I turned on the trusty subtitles and I figured, as I've got some time to kill, I'd go through each line and talk about what I think the significance of it might be, as a quick note I haven't done these in the order that they are spoken in the scene as some characters had multiple lines. Also this is all just my own interpretation and opinions.

As I said above I do think there could possibly be some hints in here as to where are characters are ultimately going to end up, but I also think it tells us a lot about what Loki wants and what he was thinking about in this moment as he was losing everything.

O.B/ A.D Doug: It was a fiction problem.

To be honest if these are supposed to be hints as to where our characters could end up at the end of the finale then I haven't really figured out what this might mean for O.B. The line is in reference to the conversation he had with Loki earlier about the difference between a science problem and a fiction problem. Like science says its impossible for Loki to time travel in the TVA a place that supposedly has no time and that it's impossible for him to go back to the moment the Loom exploded and fix it , yet fiction says that he can, fiction says the impossible can become possible.

So maybe this line was added to remind us the audience but also Loki himself that if he embraces it as a fiction problem then maybe he can do the impossible, like going back and rewriting the story.

It could also be a nod to this idea of authors and the power they hold, the power fiction holds. You've got O.B, who was the author of the TVA handbook which played a very important part in this season, Victor Timely and how O.B based his work off of him and how Victor in turn based his work of O.B's creating that Ouroboros imagery. You also have HWR who very much played the part of the playwriter, dictator everyone's lives for them. Now you've got Loki who has figured out that he can be the author now and rewrite the story.

Another nod it could be to is the season 1 finale where Miss Minutes makes Sylvie and Loki an offer on HWR's behalf, telling them he can put them on the timeline together and give them everything they've ever wanted. Sylvie's response to this is that it is fiction and Loki follows up with We write our own destinies now. You also had Sylvie say earlier in this episode 'we are all writing our own stories now, you should go write yours.' So maybe this line is just playing into this idea of rejecting the story someone else has pathed out for you and instead embracing the power of writing your own story on your own terms.

As for what it might mean for OB I'm not fully sure but I do think there is more to OB than we know as he often seems to be the odd one out. Unlike the rest of the gang he doesn't seem to have had his memory wiped when HWR invented the timekeepers and began to work more in the shadows. He's the only one who doesn't have a team to work with in his department at the TVA, whilst all the others where in timelines with 2's in them, 1962, 1982, 2012 and 2022, but O.B is the odd one out with his branch being set in 1994. There just always seems to be something slightly off about him and I do think we might get some kind of big surprise reveal about his character at some point in the finale. What that reveal could be and whether its good or bad, I have no idea. Maybe if they form a new TVA and O.B stays he'll be given the role of like story protector or Story recorder, in charge of making sure people get to write their own stories and then recording those stories, if that makes sense. But I'm just kind of throwing ideas out here I really don't have a solid idea of where they might take his character, but I'd love to hear everyone else's theories.

B-15: I looked happy.

This line by B-15 I thought was really interesting because its from season 1 but also because she doesn't actually say it to Loki, he's not even present when she does say it, she says it to Sylvie after Sylvie shows her the life she had on the timeline.

For B-15 seeing her past life was a big moment for her, it changed her entire perspective of the TVA and there work they were doing. She realised how wrong it was that the TVA had kidnapped workers from their lives on the timeline, that they had lied to them, that they pruned so many timelines and variants, people, for what was actually a lie. Immediately she decided to do something about it, to fight to protect those timelines. She is the one that convinces the Judge to change her opinion on the future of the TVA and who tried to appeal to Dox as well.

I've been of the opinion since the start of season 2 that B-15 given a choice would choose to stay at the TVA instead of going back to her life on the timeline. At first when I heard this line I thought it might have debunked that theory and maybe it was hinting that actually B-15 would return to her timeline as she was happy there and that is one possibility.

But having thought about it some more, I do think there is still an argument to be made that she would choose to stay at the TVA as it could be a case of the context of what she is saying being more important than what she is saying. As I said, I think this moment is the moment she changed her motivation and view of what the TVA really was but also what it could be. It was the moment she decided that she wasn't going to let what happened to her happen to anyone else, no one else was going to lose their happy life on her watch, type of goal. So I still think B-15 will decide that she'll make more of a difference at the TVA than going back to her life.

I said that I also thought that these lines could tell us something about what Loki was thinking and what he really wants and I actually think this line is telling us that he doesn't just want his friends to be safe, he wants them to be happy to, it could be a hint that when the time comes he'll give the option to return to their lives back to them, because as much as he wants his friends with him, he also wants them to be happy, so he makes that sacrifice of letting them go for their own happiness.

Casey: The TVA...

So the only thing Casey says is two simple words, The TVA. So I think this will mean that Casey will be one of those who chooses to stay at the TVA. I mean his life on the timeline isn't the happiness and he even asked when Loki said that they should all go back home, if they had to go back to exactly where they were, so its obvious that he doesn't particularly want to go back to his life. At the TVA Casey has friends, people who think like him like OB, and he is useful, he can help people, so I think Casey will get a promotion and will continue with his life at the TVA.

As for what this line tells us about what Loki was thinking/wanting well I think this one is an obvious one, he wants the TVA back, its the one place where he has felt like he has a purpose, where he can be good and do good, where he had friends. So it makes sense that the TVA would be in his thoughts as he sees everything slipping away from him.

The rest of lines are also very interesting as both Sylvie and Mobius/Don get more lines than the others, where they only get one, Sylvie and Mobius get three each. I think the reason for this is because they are the two most important people in his life at the moment, the ones he is closest to, its the woman he loves and his best friend. He cares and loves them both in particular and he really respects their opinions and advice. So it makes sense that its their voices that are the most predominant in this moment.

Mobius

So lets start with Mobius and what he says in this moment. The three lines are actually two quotes split into three, the first is:

'No I have to go back to see my boys.'

And the second that is split into two is a quote from season 1 from the scene when he gets pruned:

'If I could go anywhere...'

'Where ever it is I am really from.'

So this may be an unpopular opinion amongst some fans but I think these lines make it pretty clear where Mobius is going to end up come the end of the series, back with his boys on the timeline. But I don't think this necessarily has to mean the end for his character in future MCU projects. I actually had a thought about what Mobius/Don's role could be going forward in the MCU. It seems like Clint Barton's character is going to be phased out, retired. One important role Clint played in the MCU was that he was the 'ordinary' guy who was also a hero. He didn't have a special power, or a fancy high tech suit, he had his bow and his arrows, but he was also a father, he had a family. This was important for reminding the audience of how high the stakes were and what the consequences of the heroes losing were. If something happened to Clint then it would deeply effect his family and vice versa. I think Mobius could fill this role going forward, he'd be the dad, the 'ordinary' guy who still does what has to be done because he understands what the stakes are if he doesn't. So I could see him living a happy life on his timeline with his boys but where he joins the team when the need arises and helps Loki protect everyone before going back to his family again.

Going back to what this tells us about what Loki wants and thinks, I again think this shows us how much Loki cares about his friends. He's thinking about how Mobius/Don has been ripped away from his kids, from his life and I think it comes back to Loki just wanted his friends to be happy, even if that means letting them go back to their timelines. I also think Loki might be feeling a little guilty here as Sylvie had helped him see that he had pulled the gang away from their timelines more for his own selfish reasons than because he thought it was what was best for them. Don/Mobius could have been back in his timeline with his boys, instead he has this moment of fear and panic as he sees people turning to spaghetti and realises that he could be next and his boys will be left alone. So that is also playing on Loki's mind.

Sylvie

So Sylvie's lines in this moment were the most interesting to me. So here are the three lines she says:

'Everything is falling apart.'

'What's wrong with wanting something?'

'Do you think that what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we're destined to lose?'

When it comes to the falling apart line I think this is again telling us more about what Loki is feeling and wanting in this moment. Like Mobius/Don's line about needing to see his boys, this line reminds Loki that Sylvie's branch, the one where he was told that she was happy in and had made her a life on was now gone. Loki wanted Sylvie to be ok and yet he wasn't able to protect her timeline like he kept promising the TVA could do, so again its playing into the feeling of guilt and failure he is feeling in this moment. Its showing us how much he cares for his friends, he wants them to be happy, he wants them to be ok but right now they are all lost to him.

The line asking what's wrong with wanting something is particularly interesting to me. Sylvie says this to Loki right after he says that everything turned out the way she wanted and that she was selfish and she replied that of course she was selfish, that she wanted a life and then she asks him that question of what's wrong with wanting. I feel like all his life Loki has been told he's wrong for wanting, he was wrong for wanting to be heir over his brother, he was wrong for wanting to rule, he was wrong for wanting to have a purpose. He's never been allowed to actually get what he wants, so I think he now has come to associate wanting something as selfish and as something bad. But Sylvie is asking him to question that to ask himself if wanting something is really wrong.

I am going to come back to this subject of wanting in a moment but I want to talk about the last line that Sylvie says as I think it ties in with the line about wanting. The interesting thing about the last line, loki's being destined to lose, is that out of all the lines its the loudest and clearest. It's this line that helps Loki gain control of his time-slipping, I think that remembering that line combined with seeing Sylvie disappear in front of him, makes him think, no I'm not losing this time. I mentioned in another post that something else that is significant about this line is that it refers back to Sylki's nexus moment in 1x4. It's the moment that they feel that romantic connection to each other, that shift in their relationship into something deeper. I think its kind of beautiful that as Loki is losing everything that its that reminded of his love for Sylvie, the love that he has for all his friends that allows him to unlock that control and power over the time-slipping, allowing him to have the chance of saving all those he cares about.

I said that I thought the line about wanting something and loki's being destined to lose were connected, this is because Loki believes two things, he's not allowed to have what he wants, it would be selfish and that he is destined to lose. When it comes to the conclusion of this season in order for it to be satisfying, in my opinion, two things need to happen. Loki needs to win and he needs to get what he wants and accept that its ok to want it.

So if we look back over the last two seasons what do we know Loki wants? Loki is really bad at communicating what he wants, likely due to this shame he feels around wanting anything, I mean Sylvie really had to push to get him to admit to something as simply as wanting his friends back. But I think looking between the lines we can figure it out.

Loki wants to have a purpose. There's this running theme with the Loki's having this glorious purpose and without a purpose Loki is kind of lost.

In episode 1x5, Loki also talks about wanting to find a life with Sylvie, when they are talking about what they'll do after they've got to the end of time and defeated HWR Loki says they could figure it out together. Also when Miss Minutes offers for them to be on the timeline together, they both look hopeful for a moment, like that is something they both longed for.

We also know that he wants Sylvie to be ok. He tells her in 1x06 that he didn't want a throne, he just wanted her to be ok. When he find her on the timeline and she told him she was happy there, Loki backed off and instead focused on fixing the loom and by extension protecting the life she had created for herself.

We also know that he wants to help turn the TVA into a force of good, something that can protect as we see him trying to convince Sylvie that the TVA could be used this way.

He wants to protect his friends, he wants to have his friends with him. He tells Sylvie after the Loom explodes that he wants his friends back. But I also think he wants his friends to be happy.

He doesn't want to be alone and he wants to find where he belongs.

So for me the worst ending for Loki would be if he ends up alone, without a purpose or a home.

I did have one theory based on the clips of Loki entering the loom without a suit in the trailers and its one that I really hate and I will cry if it happens, so naturally I am going to share it with you all so you can suffer with me. But I did think that maybe Loki will sacrifice himself in order to safe his friends. However I don't think whatever he does to the loom will kill him I think it will send him and trap him at the end of time, like maybe whatever he does cuts the end of time off from the TVA and there is no way to get there, Loki can still control the timelines and guard them against any HWR variants coming through but he can't return, it could be a parallel to Thor's story in the first Thor film where he makes the choice to destroy the Bifrost and cut off his way back to Jane but saving lives in the process, and Jane then trying to find a way to reopen that connection. Maybe we'll get some hope with Sylvie and the TVA using HWR tempad to try and figure out a way of getting back to the end of time and bringing back Loki but that it will be left open ended and we don't get the answer as to whether they ever actually managed to get there.

As much as I'll admit it would be a nice parallel between Thor and Loki and it would paint Loki as the hero, I still don't want this to happen, I just feel like Loki has lost enough and deserves to win for a change. The only way I could except this happening is if Sylvie and the gang do find a way to open that connection up and maybe Sylvie chooses to join Loki at the end of time, like HWR and Ravonna had planned, that way at least neither of them are alone.

Another option is that they both end up running the TVA together. I know alot of people think Sylvie will end up settling on her timeline and that would be a suitable happy ending for her, I personally don't agree. I think the show has made it clear that whilst Sylvie claims she is happy on her branch, actually there is something missing and she is lonely, people who are happy and content don't tend to listen to songs about loneliness and not feeling satisfied with your life like Sylvie often does. Also I think if they both run the TVA together there could be a kind of ironic poetry to it. They would essentially do exactly what HWR offered them in the season 1 finale, to rule together, but they would have got there their own way. Followed their own path there. It could be a good way of bringing their story full circle.

2X6 Prediction Summary.

So here's a quick summary of how I think the finale will go for each of our characters.

Loki and Sylvie will run the TVA together, or sit at the end of time together.

Casey, B-15 and possibly O.B (still unsure on him) will choose to stay at the TVA but will be given important roles within the new organisation.

Mobius will go back to his sons and life on the timeline but will still make sure that they know he is available if they ever need his help.

Anyway I've rambled on enough now, I might do a proper prediction post of everything I think might happen in the finale before the episode but that's all my thoughts for now.

#sylki #loki #loki x sylvie #loki spoilers #loki theories

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Sonine Prime ... Part 2

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

I unfortunately had to end part 1 a bit prematurely due to tumblr's video limit, so we didn't get very far into it. Right now we're about halfway into Sonic Prime Season 1 Episode 1, and (as promised) we're going to start part 2 tackling the scene that begins with Sonic and Nine's first meeting, and ends with them recounting Tails' and Nine's backstories.

So, without further ado, let's begin

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<< Part 1 | Part 3 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

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As I said in part 1, there is a lot going on here, and a lot to tackle.

We'll start with Sonic's side.

Now, it's important to mention that at this time, Sonic just believes Nine to be Tails who lost his memories/doesn't remember him. So most of this scene is Sonic calling Nine "Tails" and trying to appeal to him by talking about old times. While this will initially tell us more about how he feels about Tails than it does Nine (once again interesting that Tails specifically gets this focus as the best bud, a focus on "making things okay again" that is only later matched by Sonic's treatment of Thorn when he also believes that Amy is deep down inside her, because he initially believes them both to be a friend who has just forgot Sonic and themselves. Tails and Amy parallels in relation to Sonic: IIII), this is the basis upon which Sonic will build his relationship with Nine on, even though he will later consider Nine as a separate different person in relation to Tails.

Now, this scene is meant to call back to the flashback scene from earlier. Sonic punches in the code to Tails' lab and hopes it still works ("Tails you crafty fox"???🧐), and just as with Tails in the flashback, Sonic turns Nine's chair to make him face him.

"Tails, it's me!"

From Sonic's pov here, he can’t understand why Nine is fighting him or really what's happening. "Tails" was the nickname that Tails' bullies used when they were picking on him, but after meeting Sonic he was able to reclaim that nickname for himself. So to Sonic, he can’t understand why saying this name continues to make Nine angry and insist that his name is something else, just as he's put off that "Tails" would attack him and act like he doesn't know him.

He also spends a good chuck of the fight looking very hurt

"Tails, stop! We're buds, amigos...best friends!"

...

"Snap out of it, we go way back!"

...

"All my best memories of Green Hill have you in 'em. And you're not punching me!"

...

"Don't you wanna go home? Blue skies? Sunny beaches? Palm trees?"

And after spending most of the fight defending himself and dodging in favor of trying to appeal to who he thinks is Tails, trying to summon up memories of them being best friends, Sonic throws himself into the path of the other train to save Nine from getting hit.

"I've been trying to tell you that we are friends."

"Fabricated stories won't keep me from beating you back, intruder."

"Stop, just. Stop... We're friends—best friends. This has to ring a bell?"

Sonic just can't wrap his head around it—a world in which his best friend doesn't remember him, calls their times together "fabricated stories", fights him no matter how he tries to explain that they’re friends. None of this makes sense to him, and so he tries to explain how they met, because surely then "Tails" will remember him, right?

"From the moment we first met..." (interesting choice of words, considering what often follows this is the impression the character saying it got from the other or how they have always felt about the other)

But "Tails" only expresses surprise in how much Sonic knows, despite the fact that Nine has never met him before now, and explains a different, much darker version of Tails' backstory

One that doesn't include Sonic.

And again Sonic is having his hard time wrapping his head around this. That "Tails" is here, and yet doesn't "remember" him. That this "Tails" seems to have a similar backstory, but never met him. "Tails...but not. Here, but...gone?"

But he doesn't get too long to examine this before Nine asks "So, what else did we do?"

And this pretty much immediately perks Sonic up after he gets a look at Nine's face, like he really is curious what he could be missing.

And then of course that face comes back

And...it makes Sonic so visually happy and excited to talk about the Tornado, mention how they've gone on so many adventures and busted Eggman so many times...

"Look. We've had our share of ups and downs, but when we stick together? We never lose. And when all's said and done, there's no better reward than sharing a chili dog with your best pal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! We've got a lifetime of adventures and memories together."

Even though Sonic doesn't yet consider Nine his own person, this entire scene is incredibly telling as to who Tails is to him (best friend, partner, amigo, forever companion), and sets up a basis for his relationship to Nine.

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Now for Nine's side. For him, the bulk of the fight is him being aggressive and reacting due to his trauma. "Tails" was the name he was called as he was bullied and assaulted for years, and a name he came to associate with said traumatic experiences. The name he claimed for himself, symbolic of how he saved himself with his own power, is "Nine". Thus, when this strange hedgehog intrudes in his lab, interrupts his work, and calls him "Tails", boy does that set him off.

"Who sent you?!"

He's afraid and angry. Who else could this stranger be but one of those bullies or someone else to just call him a freak, intruding in his space.

And then the strange hedgehog calls them best friends? Continues to call him "Tails" despite Nine's clear aversion, and yet is trying to appeal to him emotionally?

But then the hedgehog puts himself in danger to save him. And that's really strange.

Because no one has friends here, right? Why would anyone save him? No one cares about anyone else, no one would just save someone at the expense of their own life, this hedgehog acts like he knows him and yet doesn't seem to know anything about him.

"Fabricated stories won't keep me from beating you back, intruder."

That's what it has to be, right? Maybe it's connected to why the hedgehog broke into his base. He saved him only because he needed him, right?

But the hedgehog makes it clear he never wanted a fight, the two rest on safe ground in the scareport. And then he tells another story to appeal to him.

The story of a two tailed fox who was picked on for being different, who was saved by Sonic, the very hedgehog before him.

And although that story is not quite right, the resemblance surprises Nine, catching his interest. Even if his past didn't happen that way, how could Sonic get those details (him being himself, getting picked on by jerks for having an extra Tail) right without Nine having never met him before? The way Nine reacts even implies his story is highly personal, and one he'd never told anyone.

And perhaps he feels a bit jealous, then.

Because this "Tails" that Sonic keeps talking about? He had someone there for him, someone who protected him when he was being bullied and picked on. But Nine? He took a beating for years. No one showed up to protect him, much less save him. He learned that he was alone, learned that these selfless people who would protect the weak don't exist, and so he finally saved himself.

Is that the kind of person Sonic is—the kind of person who would save a victim who's hurting, someone he'd never met, even if it doesn't benefit him? Just like how Sonic had saved him from being hit by that train?

"You weren't there"

And so what if Nine lets himself pretend for a moment that what Sonic is saying is true? What does it feel like to be Sonic's best friend, that person he'd stuck his neck out for and saved back then, someone who goes on adventures and kicks butt with him, who shares a meal with him, someone with whom they're both happy?

The way he begins to smile as Sonic talks about his times with Tails.

"But when we stick together, we never lose"

The way he frowns (touch adverse as he is) when Sonic puts a hand on his shoulder, but relaxes into it and gives this stranger a smile, and the way he perks up with the cutest, even bigger smile when Sonic pokes his heart.

"And when all's said and done? There's no better reward than sharing a chili dog with your best pal"

And then...Nine frowns again when Sonic says "best pal".

Because no matter how great that idea of home sounds, to Nine, none of that happened. None of this is really about him, no matter what Sonic says.

But, this is the beginning of the end for Nine. In just five in show minutes, he goes from trying to get answers out of Sonic, killing him, beating him back, to becoming interested in his "fabricated stories" and willing to help him with his little problem. He invites him into his lab this time and helps distribute the energy coming from him evenly on his body, even though he complains: "The only thing I hate more than people in my space is whiners."

Or the entire next scene. Sonic calls him amazing for his creation of the extra metal tails (which doesn't end up hitting Nine as intented), corrects himself after calling Nine "Tails" on accident, and then Sonic just speeds off, only for Nine to say "No– Wait, you dope! It's not safe!" and run after him.

While this is during an early period of the show where you can easily argue that Nine only cares about what he could use Sonic for and his current interest in the energy he exhibits, it still says a lot that he actually begins to show care in another person's wellbeing. And it also tells us a lot about Sonic that he'd transitioned from calling him "Tails" to "Nine" so quickly, even if he has to correct himself.

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Now, as we move on to Nine and Sonic's capture by the Chaos Council, this brief scene of them outside before their capture also shows us once more just how quickly Sonic is jumping to "normalcy", starting with getting "Tails" back as his adventuring buddy. Although he wasn't incredibly concerned before, he brushes off Nine's concerns about the Chaos Council, instead acting like everything will be fine ("Wanna run up the walls?"). And we can see that Sonic still believes Nine is just Tails, absent his memories of Sonic and their friends.

"When you get your memory back, you'll remember that 'low profile' isn't my thing"

Nine: I told you to keep a low profile!

Sonic: No you didn't.

Nine: Yes I did.

Sonic: You didn't.

Nine: Yes I did.

Sonic: Nooo, you didn't.

Nine: Are you sure we were "best friends".

Ahjsjsj well. Nine says that, but he'll come to realize that he likes Sonic even when he finds him frustrating or annoying (just like Tails and, frankly, his other friends do😂). He already has been helping Sonic out and allowing him to be in his space, even if he doesn't understand Sonic.

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And as I have hit the tumblr post picture limit, that's it for part 2! For part 3, we'll be beginning with Sonic and Nine's confinement in The Chaos Council's base, and perhaps I'll finally get to move on to Episode 2😂

#i just be ramblin #essay time #sonic the hedgehog #sonic prime #nine sonic prime #miles nine prower #nine the fox #sonine #sontails #see you all in part 3! #Sonine prime #Again sorry it's taking so much time to move between episodes but I'll tell ya. All of their interactions are just baked with so many #subtleties and expressions and there's just so much to say! Even from their first meeting their interactions are an exellent meal #And not to mention just how fast Nine is going to keep taking to Sonic‚ even though he's the one who has no basis to work off of and has to #get to know sonic from scratch #It's like one of those 'character meets an alternate universe version and has to learn to get to know this person who isn't quite the same #as the one they know‚ while the other (armed with stories about how that other person knows them) has to get to know and love a stranger wh #seems to be attached to a version of them that's *not* them' #sorta love stories. I love when there are actual conflictions and work that has to be done‚ so Person A can't just take Person B as a #replacement for the beloved they lost