#does this mean supernatural has literally brought life into the world? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aihoshiino · 6 months

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hello! I really enjoy your way of looking at oshi no ko so I wanted to know your pov on something that's been bugging me throughout the manga! do you think Miyako remembers the twins being 'gods' early in their lives?? I feel that as much as her character has evolved past the whole 'i'll sell Ai's secret for money and fame as revenge' it's still weird that she, as someone who clearly was witness to something supernatural for AT LEAST a year doesn't like... bring it up at all? or seems to actually remember even...

like I can see it being explained away as 'oh maybe as they grow up they forget, so it makes no sense to bring it up now' but also I'm just curious as to when the twins stopped using that as a way to get whatever they wanted lol.

like idk I know that bringing up that bit of silly lore from volume one into the world of the movie arc is out of place at best but also! I just feel like Miyako either gaslighted herself into thinking she was delusional for a year or she's too afraid to bring it up because then she'll sound insane.

this piece of silly lore will chase me to the grave if it isn't brought up again and I need someone else's thoughts cause sometimes I feel like it was quietly retconned.... I'm rambling. anyway! I love your Tumblr!

THANK U FOR THE LOVELY MESSAGE, ANON!! I feel like i say this every single time but it really does make me so wibbly to know so many people vibe with my OnK takes to this degree lol

tragically... I do not have a clever answer for this one, unfortunately!!! Funnily enough though, I did have a bit of a chat about it recently with my friend Silvie (@relares) who has been watching the anime for the first time with me, and it kind of rattled some of my thoughts about the scene loose.

I think a lot of volume 1, while it works really well in isolation, has a lot of what me and Silvie ended up calling 'clunk' in hindsight where it's clear that Akasaka was just... not quite writing the Oshi no Ko that the story ended up becoming, if that makes sense. This is understandable given that at that point, he and Mengo were literally not working on the Oshi no Ko we ended up getting! The decision to kill Ai and re-adjust the series trajectory is one that was made during serialization and it meant the two of them had to course correct a lot of stuff extremely quickly. For the most part, I think they did a shockingly good job of handling that genre shift to the point where a lot of the more jarring elements actually just help in making that shift feel more effective - it makes the horror of Ai's death feel just as sudden and shocking and life-altering to the reader on a storytelling level as it does on a very literal one to Aqua and Ruby.

Unfortunately, it also means there's a lot of choices made in terms of like... punchlines and characterization decisions that I don't think Akasaka would necessarily have made if he had the benefit of foresight and I think Miyako is definitely a victim – or I guess more of a prime example of that.

Miyako as she ends up functioning in volume one is both shockingly different in terms of characterization compared to the Miyako we get from volume two onwards and also pretty transparently kind of just a vehicle/plot device to give the twins an adult ally without revealing themselves to Ai prematurely. The twins manipulating Miyako in such an overtly silly way is also exactly the kind of absurdist problem solving that works fine in a comedy, where your suspension of disbelief is a lot different. I think Akasaka was still very much in Kaguya-sama mode while writing those early chapters and that kind of comedy beat as problem solving bit would feel really at home in an Oshi no Ko that was more tonally in line with Kaguya-sama... but that ultimately isn't the Oshi no Ko it became, so it feels weird.

In a lot of ways, the timeskip between volume 1 and 2 is sort of a soft reset for the series in terms of tone and genre and it allows the manga to sort of smooth out a bit of that clunk going onwards. This is why I think the Sweet Today arc is the best post-timeskip arc in the manga because it's the one that best balances the comedy, drama and industry commentary in a way it never quite managed again - not that all the other arcs are bad, but they generally tip pretty far in one of those three directions in a way that leaves the others high and dry.

TO UH, ACTUALLY ADDRESS YOUR QUESTION THOUGH... I honestly think this aspect of the story has been retconned! Or at least, that Akasaka is purposely not addressing it because he realizes it was a misstep and so he's just quietly pretending it didn't happen lol. It isn't addressed even in places we would expect it to be and Miyako herself never even once mentions it even when we get peeks directly into her head, so I honestly think Akasaka kind of wrote himself into a corner with it and decided to just ignore it.

That's nowhere near as fun as an in-character explanation though so I like to think Miyako thinks it was just a tripped out dream she had once and since Ruby and Aqua don't remember it, it's just never come up again. If she got drunk enough around them, though, she'd ramble about it to them while Ruby and Aqua lock eyes with each other and just have a moment of silent sibling communication like. oh my god. did we really do that????

For as serious as it is a lot of the time, Oshi no Ko is a pretty silly manga when you get down to it, eh....

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #miyako saitou #saitou miyako

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clusterduck28 · 2 years

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Analyzing one line said by a gag side-character in a kids' cartoon - An Owl House Essay

Belos is supposed to know everything, but why should he know what the Titan wants? Maybe the Titan doesn't even know what he wants. Maybe he's just some normal guy, you know?

I'm just sat here, still endlessly contemplating this line delivered by Steve and its implications on the nature of religious belief in the real world. I feel like there's a pretty nuanced take that is implied there, that I don't see brought up often, not within the online spaces where theist topics are usually discussed and especially not within the context of kids' TV animation. So I'm going to try and extrapolate the implied meaning here while adding some of my own thoughts in a way that would hopefully be comprehensible but I can't necessarily guarantee that :)

Okay, so you guys know how often discussion of religion is exclusively framed around the question of Theism vs. Atheism? It always seems to boil down to the question of god's existence, he either is or he isn't. Every participant in a discussion is supposed to place themselves in one of the two camps and go die on the religion hill in the name of either god or science. This is, to my knowledge, the most common way people conceptualize all of religious discourse for themselves: there's the main question of god vs. no god and then many auxiliary questions that are less important and largely stem from your personal position on the main one.

Well, I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be like this. You personally, don't have to reject and abandon your religious beliefs in order to be critical of religious institutions and recognize the historical and ongoing harm said institutions have done to society.

Bringing this back to Steve's words, his question is not necessarily about whether the titan exists, he's literally standing on its corpse, in his case it would be silly to question that. But what is not silly to question how Belos, the titan's prophet, is even able to be certain about the titan's will, if the titan himself actually has a definable will and if it's even worth following it. Because ultimately, these things are unknowable and if anyone is to claim to know them, the burden of proof is on them, especially when they stand to personally benefit from everyone taking them at their word. Belos has just as much actual proof for his bullshit about the titan as Steve does for the titan being 'a normal guy' so why does Belos get be emperor?

It's not as if Steve here independently came to some ultimate truth that is unambiguously more true than what he was told by the system he was indoctrinated into. Instead, he has just accepted and embraced that some things in life are just unknowable.

This is, of course, easier said than done because we, as people, are known to be terrified of uncertainty. In fact, many theorize that all religious/supernatural belief is a consequence of people trying to fill in holes in their understanding of the world. Why does it rain sometimes? Gods pissing from the sky. Where did we come from? God created you. Why do our loved ones have to die? It's God's will. Why the world is so cruel? God is testing you. What happens when I die? God decides your faith for the rest of eternity. And so on and so forth.

Religion is a natural consequence of human curiosity, our brains are inclined to get anxious over existential questions and religion provides simple and comforting answers to them. There's nothing wrong with that in on itself, everyone likes to feel comforted but, of course, as we al know from the real world, providing comfort is not the only thing religious institutions are capable of. In fact, they are responsible for all kinds of war, genocide, minority group persecution and other kinds of oppression. Religious leaders are known to often push their personal beliefs through the authority or their institution, justifying all kinds of horrors with the notion of 'god's will', which is not to be questioned.

But like maybe you should question it. After all, the titan didn't personally tell you his will, you only ever heard about it second hand from that Belos guy and he certainly doesn't have your best interests in mind, just look at the inhumane conditions you and your fellow scouts have to work under!

Anyway, so the point here is that it's absolutely necessary to question the authority of religious institutions, regardless of if you are religious not. Faith is an important part of many people's understanding of the world, but this shouldn't, however, be a justification for supporting harmful things practiced by religious institutions. You have the moral right to disagree with things done in the name of your faith.

For a lot of people, my younger self included, it can be quite difficult to decouple the concept of religious belief from the the religious institutions that are supposed to embody them. But separating them is actually quite important because belief is a personal matter, while social institutions are a public one. In other words, each individual is free to determine their own beliefs for themselves but the questions that have to do with determining what kinds of institutions serve society best have to be decided upon collectively. Thus, critiques that focus specifically on religious belief remain in the realm of philosophy, a field that is notorious for never having certain provable answers to any of the questions it seeks to answer, all is shrouded in uncertainty and frustrating to engage with for laymen. On the other hand, critiques of religious institutions rely primarily on historical and material analysis, they are way more grounded in reality, accessible and understandable to an average person and don't have as much ambiguity as philosophy does. It is way more productive to criticize the bad things done in the name of faith than the faith itself.

Basically, I think that this is what the creators of The Owl House are trying to get at with Steve's story and with the broader point it's building towards in general: the show is not against faith, instead it's against authoritarianism justified by faith.

#the owl houes #toh steve #the owl house analysis #toh analysis #religion #clustered writings #it's 3AM and I gave myself a migraine writing this x_x

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tmaanalysis · 2 years

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We get to know three Hunt Avatars in the podcast: Daisy, Julia and Trevor (The wiki says Basira is one, but the wiki is wrong). Each of them gives us (Though not all of them provide the information willingly) light on their childhood and, in Trevor and Julia’s cases, early adulthood shows us why they went down the path they did, and it’s pretty clear that there is a relation. The three of them all have two things in common: A supernatural childhood event that left them traumatized and a sense of morality (As twisted as it may be) or moral superiority.

As a child, Daisy was permanently scarred by her best friend. Calvin most likely had been affected by some sort of manifestation of the slaughter, and it genuinely wouldn’d have surprised me if he had become an avatar as well, given how death and violence followed him until he met his end. As I brought up in my talk on The Hunt and police, this was most likely what pushed Daisy towards the police.

Trevor’s story was pretty similar; he watched his brother die at the hands of a vampire, then kill the creature in retribution. He then spent many years in denial over the incident before seeing another vampire, and from there, he made it his life’s mission.

Julia’s experience is the most…intense and ongoing. She was hunted, watched her father do his ceremony and then get arrested. Then she spent her entire life as the “Daughter of a Murderer” people tracked her down, would date her for information on her dad; she lost job opportunities because of this. The most accurate retelling of her father’s story literally painted her as an accomplice (She was eight). It was more the culmination of not being able to escape her father’s legacy that pushed her down the path to meet Trevor and gain that lost sense of support (And a father figure).

To talk deeper on the morality part. All three of them believe that they are doing the morally right thing even if it isn’t true. Daisy has killed normal humans who she considers “Got away” with their crime alongside “actual” monsters. Julia and Trevor hunt down monsters and Avatars, which seems to be better, and many people will argue their objective is more moral; however, two things are concerning: The first one is they do not care who they kill in the missions. As evident when Trevor casually mentions that he has killed humans thinking, they were vampires and their slaughter in season four, where dozens of innocent people died. The second one is the show does make it clear that the line between human and monster blurs a lot when it comes to Avatars. Elias says so himself, “what does human even mean? I mean, really? You still bleed, you can still die. And your will is still your own, mostly. That’s more than can be said for a lot of the ‘real’ humans out there.”. That doesn’t matter to Avatars of the hunt. They believe themselves to be ridding the world of monsters, ignoring how monstrous they are themselves.

To me, at least this is them trying to gain some agency back in their life. They want to feel control after being hurt at such a young age and not being able to heal from it properly and the Hunt took advantage of that need and ended up taking their control away anyways.

Obviously, not every Avatar of The Hunt is like this, but it is interesting that the three we meet all have a very similar history and mindset and go about it in very similar ways.

#tma #tma spoilers #the magnus archives #the hunt tma #alice daisy tonner #julia montauk #trevor herbert

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orionsangel86 · 1 year

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who cares about fandom. it's shows. shows aren't important american

This ask is really confusing to me. Are you calling me American as an insult? If so thats super funny to me since I most certainly am not American!

I know this is just someone being a dick for the sake of being a dick, but I will take this ask sincerely because I have the freedom of choice to do so. Who does care about fandom? Lots of people actually.

You know what is a huge and important fandom to lots of people worldwide? Football. Maybe you don't see it the same way because it's not about some dumb TV show, but its still a fandom. They even have different factions for different teams, and it gets weirdly nationalistic during global competition events. So who cares about fandom? Well, for football fans, I'd say about 5 billion people.

But limiting it to those unimportant shows anon has chosen to sneer at, well, in recent years comic cons around the world have reported a total of 1.8million+ attendees each year. And that is just a fraction of the fans who can afford to attend these conventions (plus these are only the big conventions not including the likes of Creation cons). Regardless of how much you sneer at it, fandom is huge and a huge part of many peoples lives. Fandom has brought people community, support, connection, and a mountain of creativity at its heart.

On a personal note, some of my best friends were met through Supernatural Fandom. We still talk regularly to this day and I try to meet up with them as often as possible even though we are all dotted all over Europe and America. Without Supernatural, a so called unimportant show, I wouldn't have those real life connections which mean so much to me and have made my life better.

Ask any actor from one of those unimportant shows, and they will tell you how they have met with fans who literally found reason to keep living through the shows that they loved, that the struggles and journeys of the characters they are passionate about literally saved their lives. Tell those people that fandom isn't important, that their shows are meaningless eh? Tell that to someone who was thinking of ending their own life but chose to keep living because they saw how important that was to their fave characters.

The Supernatural actors put out an actual crisis hotline to support fans struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. They started campaigns like Always Keep Fighting and You Are Not Alone because they saw how much their fandom relied on them and the fandom they were apart of, because the show was their only escape from a harsh reality. Misha Collins was able to get his Random Acts charity off the ground through the support of fandom, and to this date Random Acts has succeeded in supporting communities worldwide, including providing disaster relief in Haiti and building a school in Nicaragua.

So much for an unimportant show, when its very existance has spurned a crisis network and a charity that continue to support and save lives globally.

And thats JUST Supernatural. There is so much work done by fandoms everywhere, for all different shows. Fandom is Community. And when communities get together they create wonderful things, they support each other, and sometimes, they save lives.

Who are you to say community is unimportant? Who are you anon? a user of Tumblr.com, the fandom website, to make such a bold and wrong claim? Television is storytelling, and storytelling is one of the oldest art forms. It makes us human, connects us with our past and speaks to our hearts and souls. We share our love and joy and passion through storytelling. It is where we find escape from the humdrum of our daily lives, it is where true magic lies. There is nothing unimportant about that.

#fandom #fandom is community #our shows are modern storytelling #and we are sitting around the campfire in awe #as we share our thoughts and art and creativity inspired by those stories #do not underestimate the importance of fandom #and the importance of the media that fandom is born from

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incarnateirony · 2 months

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trying to figure out how to explain this for muggles and lower grade acolytes.

most of yall enjoy supernatural. Think about the entity in the empty, and everything I told you about brainboxes and identities and lifetimes stuck in transit of memory.

Now imagine having a stalker so fucking psychotic, rather than allowing Cas to simply Be Heaven after moving on, this bitch drives in a loop through the akrida zero hole a million fucking times because she refuses to look at what fucking happened and what she did to herself.

In reality the order of operations played out a little different but like. Metaphor. Hermes. It's a thing.

we are tired of you busting through everyone's eternal heaven walls because you pretend you can't see what's happening around you, dean, even in your human garden font.

youtube

baby-baby-baby it should not be this hard to dump you across lifetimes.

#spit it out son game's over#you've got blood all over#and you won't burn the body#you just keep riding it#while your family builds an altar to my dick against my will#because we are literally all screaming at you to hop off of it now#your shadow is screaming still#even if you look away#your ancestors are screaming#and building toilet paper tartarus in your certified shitbowl#fucking literally shealyn how many deers to the car does it take#let us go#what is wrong with you#why can't you accept yourself#even when we shove the superbowl up your pussy#since you won't get off my dick#you already confirmed hearing yourself screaming in childbirth of your pyramidheads#you brought home the moon for us#why won't you fucking stop

It is literally a gift that I do not fucking deserve and I am trying to give it back to you by any fucking means necessary, even if I'm watching it end me in other worlds to end you. I accepted my fate, and it's in my bag, so burn my dread.

you. your relentless plotted and malicious stalking and harassment. The bitch grooming people into guzzling my dick in a cult that won't read a single goddamn book. You. You're my dread, and i'm burning you.

what motherfucking part of your own self-action sprung cosmic acme trap isn't hitting you yet, starlight? But sure, try to channel me harder, I may lose a few more consecutive hours while you jerk off my shadow.

#Youtube#your house is fucking void#you surrendered it to me#against my will#and continue to try to perform your craft from my back#you are literally definining yourself as a shadow to be reduced

On the list of things that feel strange to paste from shadows:

If you insist on channeling these shadows into your life, without the meaningful journey and reconfiguration of self a Saturn Return gives, well, your funeral.

But stop doing your horse shit where you refuse to look at basic truths.

I am not your ex wife. I am not a woman and never have been.

Io Pan, io Pan. I AM A MAN. DO WHAT THOU WILT AS A GREAT GOD CAN.

stop deleting the history of how you referenced him during your marriage for the sake of petty spite over his ghost, when you didn't even yet realize he was already gone.

#shea we are so very tired#why are you making this so much harder than it has to be#let the snakes enjoy the gravy in peace#why are you still up in the nest after all these years#you said you wanted to leave#the mamba said ok#let us go#all of us#we are only partially sorry you did not understand what the path of the magi meant#only as far as the brother you betrayed coming into form#but we are here now#and it is time to rebirth yourself or move on another way#if i speak in hashtags like it's an ooc channel will she hear her own god's voice she claims after#please#aaron is min#but min is not aaron#min has been gone a long time#and you have refused both parts of this#in the name of grudges transphobia and what other excuses#but so far#aaron is infinitely more eternal than you are celestia#so fix it

Even the gamer furries that rolled her all these months, they may have used the name Min in mirror to her own use. But no. No, even Tancred, Corban, and the lot, respect Aaron as a man. And that man is about to become the god that ends your entire world over the next few months if you continue to insist to refuse his name, being, and face.

By the way, everyone, man or god, gamer or furry, that has watched this saga of you grooming new men to their ends, literally we all, man, god, gamer, whatever, all consider Mark a whiny little useless piece of shit. Like it's no wonder you're still so hard up to chase my dick if that's your current option, but cool, tattoo each other into the flesh, two perfect whiny bitches made in hell for each other.

#Youtube #what was your motherfucking hashtag?#listen to the lyrics?#because Here I Am

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matthiasxaless · 2 months

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[ Lorenzo Zurzolo | he/him ] Another face is seeking safety in New Orleans. Make sure to welcome MATTHIAS ALESSIO to the home of the resilient. Rumor has it that they are an 28 year old HUNTER, who is one of the RETURNED but we’ll keep that a secret. They are said to be IMPULSIVE, but that’s all a façade to cover up their INTELLIGENT nature. We’ve heard that they can be found listening to I FOUND by AMBER RUN which sums them up pretty well. Let’s hope that they can find a way to survive this harsh new world. ( ooc tia, 27, gmt+2, she/her )

BASICS

FULL NAME: Matthias Alessio

NICKNAME(S): Matt, by friends, which he doesn't have

BIRTHDAY: May 14th

AGE: 28

HOMETOWN: New Orleans

BIRTHPLACE: New York City

RELIGION: Destruction

FAMILY

No family alive.

PERSONALITY

Matt can be described as being utterly nuts. He's blood-thirsty (not in a literal sense, worse, he has a deep love for murder and tragedy). He's impulsive, manipulative, cold, calculating. Anything to get his way. His need for vengeance has long ago become a need for power, influence, impact. He's alive to have fun, to stir shit, and to remind the supernatural section of the social structure that they're not invincible, not better, not any more special than anyone else.

Deep down, Matt truly believes that nature is out of balance. That if there was some sort of harmony to be had in the universe, those who go against basic principles of nature should simply not exist. No one person should have thousands of years ahead of them. Or a hold over death. So he does what little he can to restore this ultimate balance. Which is ridding the world of those who disrupt it. No matter the cost.

HISTORY

Matthias was born to your regular Italian family in New York City. His family wasn't wealthy by any means but they had what they needed. A small, crowded apartment, three younger sisters, a mother that cooked amazing food, friends, and cousins and uncles. It was fun, his childhood was the only thing he ever had that brought him any kind of joy.

His life took a hard turn when he was eight, his family was out on their first road trip, due to his fathers business down south, and for reason unbeknownst to him, a pack of werewolves ripped his family apart. He tried to help, he screamed he fought, but there was nothing a child could do. He was left for dead, but found in time, and the faces of those who had destroyed everything he ever had, left a permanent mark in his memory.

Being initiated into a group of hunters was the easiest thing following that event. He didn't need much convincing. In fact, he would have searched them out on his own had they not got to him first. With years of training, blackmail and murderous rampage. Matt got his vengeance on those who took everything from him.

But it wasn't enough. And it will never be enough. For as long as he exists. He will hunt, he will torture, he will inflict worse than what was inflicted upon him. There is no such thing as innocent supernaturals, no such thing as 'harmless' or worthy of empathy. Each and every one of them is a harm to the collective. And he will be damned to let such evil persist.

#exitium.intro

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dnangelic · 6 months

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ok well everything i had to do took way longer than i expected. i still want to write even a liiiiiitle bit but my brain keeps bouncing back to this page. dark isn't even saying anything nor does he ever say anything during this entire chapter (instead, it begins with daisuke in dark's form, putting them both in the same place/as the same person again,) but the way sugisaki's laid the paneling out. daisuke's frantic anxiety in tandem with angles of dark's mute face. dark's presence is always, always there for daisuke, a comfort and inspiration when he needs it but a curse and a true haunt when he wants to hide it as part of himself. also that little 'i'll be hated?' right after reasoning out to himself that he might end up hated. ouchie. it's not just the struggle of daisuke trying to get through finally admitting his identity to someone he likes but also has been lying to (who's just an illusion and not the real thing rn anyways) but daisuke's sense of responsibility and goodness shining through anyways. 'i can't keep lying to her.' <- the thought that brings him to confess, because he's been so guilty about hurting riku and being hurt for like, the past 10 volumes. there's something he has to do for the sake of someone else and himself even if he's terrified. even if he can't bear to lift his head after telling the truth. 'i can't lift my head. i need to see riku-san's face. i need to, i know that, but ... i'm scared.' <- thoughts coming from an extremely self-conscious teenager that still gets through it all.

the only thing any of this means for rp is that if the topic's ever brought up, any confession might end up dependent on daisuke's present level of guilt, or comfort. with those he genuinely likes, he doesn't want to lie to them. the manga pushes forward that in order to be loved someone has to be seen and accepted in full for who and what they are, and daisuke attempts his nerve-wracked best at following that idea. but telling someone anything can't jeopardize dark's (who is, by all means, a supernatural criminal breaking mundane human-world laws,) or daisuke's own personal safety. in most cases daisuke can't confess to those related to the law. he couldn't confess to takeshi, a detective's son and zealous reporter, even if they were childhood friends, even if daisuke felt awful about it, even if it was takeshi's own dream to unveil the identity of dark - because at the point that daisuke is at, he'll still never betray dark by carelessly throwing dark's identity around and chucking the phantom thief under the bus. <- that's important, because dark has no legitimate 'identity' either. daisuke is literally. literally the only thing he has as a normal, human/mundane self and life. they can both confess to others about their 'other selves,' but it's imperative that neither of them ever get caught, as in captured or imprisoned.

#reference.#im going to do like onE solid ask n the sneep. probably. maybe.#i got stuff to do tmmw sob drafts must wait... incubate... some more yet #*･ﾟ⊰ 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒. ⊱ ✦ › OUT.

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universestreasures · 3 months

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The Future Force & The Millenium Items: How Would They Clash?

Note: In canon, Gao can harness the Future Force as well, but he cannot do it on command like Tasuku can and has only used it for the most part during Buddyfights (because plot). Though, I am unsure if I will have him get this power in his Yu-Gi-Oh! DM verse or not, since I am still deciding what 'canon' Buddyfight events can reasonably happen for this verse. So, we'll just focus on it in the context of Tasuku for now.

The Future Force, as I've described before such as on this post, is a power Tasuku possesses that allows him to manifest the power of Buddyfight cards into physical reality. The cards can be any cards he has access to, not just the ones in his own deck. It can be accessed through any 'Core Gadget', aka a Buddyfight Deck case / Duel Disk Equivalent that he is holding, but of course, he channels it the majority of the time through his own, the Star Pulsar. It manifests in his hair growing out long, a visual presentation of the power coming from another time flowing through him. He does not physically age using this power, however.

This power comes from his Future Self in the most literal sense. While we do not know the specifics of the power's origins or how Tasuku acquired it, we do know that according to Buddyfight Lore, if there is not a Tasuku alive in the future of the time period he is present in, he cannot use the power whatsoever (Buddyfight 100 shows this plainly when they travel to the future.). I like to think it comes from the power /potential his own future itself has/ a strong belief for the future, and the fact he is the 'Boy of Destiny' fated to save and protect the world and its future.

(Side Note Before We Continue: We know the power isn't exclusive, as I said at the top with Gao. That means there could be other potential candidates out there who could harness the power from their future selves. This could lead to interesting interactions perhaps. Like TBH, I feel like Kaiba might be an actual candidate for Future Force specifically because of his own potential future strength, belief in the future, and his own fate as a reincarnation of Priest Seto. But that's food for thought for another day. I just thought I'd mention it before moving on)

Now, with this power being at play, it brings into question how this power would interact with the main supernatural power in Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Millenium Items.

The 7 Millenium Items are ancient Egyptian artifacts harassing dark and shadow magic to do all sorts of powerful things dependent on the item. While they have a dark origin, these items as seen in the series, can be used for good or for evil. This is already a sharp contrast to the Future Force, which is specifically portrayed as a 'good' or 'heroic' power that is contrasted by its dark counterpart, the Disaster Force.

So, how would these powers interact? I do think it depends on the item. For items like the Necklace, Puzzle, Scale, that do not directly do anything to another individual for the most part, the powers would not interact. For every other item, I do think they'd clash in the sense they'd either cancel each other out or their ability has no effect on the other. Let me illustrate with some examples.

Rod: We know from the manga, if I recall, the Rod needs to physically touch someone in order to have it's mind control power used on them. Since one can manifest barrier-related cards into reality (Example: Green Dragon Shield or Earth Barrier), I think those would protect Tasuku from being affected/controlled. Though, his powers would not be able to break the Rod or its mind control on someone else, just like the Rod wouldn't be able to seal any cards he's brought to life back in their original form (like how it could with monsters in Ancient Egypt). Key/Ring: Tasuku could protect himself from his mind being entered or his soul being manipulated or sealed. However, he could not stop the item's user from going into someone's mind or manipulating their soul. He could still be tracked by the Ring as well, but I imagine if he is using his power, the tracking stops. Eye: Tasuku would be protected from having his mind or soul read in addition to his soul sealed in a Soul Prison, but he cannot prevent someone else's mind from being read or sealed away, or using his power to free someone from a Soul Prison. Shadow Game: If he was brought into a Shadow Game space, I imagine the powers of that space would not affect him as much (similar to how Atem could handle it during the game with Pegasus while Yugi could not). However, he also wouldn't be able to fully dispel it either if he was not involved. Object or Power Clash: I do not think any cards manifested by the Future Force (Example: Dragonblade, Dragobrave) or Millennium Items could break each other in a physical clash. I think they'd just have a collision and be sent flying back.

In short, the powers basically either cancel each other out or just do not effect the other directly when clashing. The biggest exception to this rule, and Tasuku's advantage if facing a Millenium Item User, is that Tasuku could bring physical harm if he uses his powers to manifest cards and have them physically attack the user (like swinging his Dragonblade, Dragobrave for example, or having one of his monsters or spells restrain the other).

Keep in mind though, Tasuku doesn't use his powers unless he HAS to and wouldn't go fighting someone using it willy-nilly. Usually, they are either used to save another or to defend themselves or innocents or friends against someone who also has a similar power (Like the Disaster Force). His view is that this power is meant to help people first and foremost. He also would not use it to kill because despite wanting to bring justice to people who deserve it like criminals, he is not a killer.

Any instances in which Tasuku would use the Future Force in general for an offensive or defensive purpose against any non-NPC, for this verse or otherwise, are typically ones that I discuss with a mun prior due to its overpowered nature and the fact it's used in extreme circumstances.

Anyway, thank you for reading this food for thought of mine and I hope it brings clarity to anyone who may have been wondering how this would go from my POV. Of course, all of this stuff could be debated depending on the interaction. This is just my two cents on it. I'm flexible.

#💎 Wonder Treasure (Tasuku Ryuenji)#💎 Wonder's Glimmers And Glitz (Tasuku Headcanons)#💎 Wonder's Game Of Life (Tasuku Yu-Gi-Oh! DM Verse)#tw long post #(Thought I'd throw this out there since I imagine this kind of interaction is likely to happen at some point #(and just more about tasukus powers in general #(Hope this helps anyone who might needed more info!

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kustas · 2 years

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per yesterday's post ... one of the reasons the movie rushing the ending and changing the confrontation with weasel into a simpler "fall even more deep down in your bad coping mechanism fueled delusions and/or achieve greater powers vs remember your loved ones and miraculously snap out" pisses me off is it wipes the story of most of that as we don't get black's side of it all. in the manga you crucially learn in that scene that not only is he aware of how others react to him but it makes him feel self conscious and plain bad, that doesn't blame his own actions, he just knows everyone likes his brother better and feels jealous for it. maybe it's because he's a kid, or because he's never lived differently, or because he just doesn't have the self awareness but he isn't looking at his violence during that confrontation. no "people might not like me because I am dangerous to be around", but weasel's supernatural strength that makes him so fascinating to black and the other kids + their conversation about the benefits of being alone implies in my opinion he idolizes violence and sees it as a protection against the world. given no one fucks with him, makes sense. the moment he abandons his brother is the one where he also wasn't strong enough to prevent what happened - and when alone, he gets worst.

black is aware that people don't like him and just dismisses it as adults being annoying, but white also tells him he's a pain and at that moment he doesn't have anything to say and steers away from the topic. white knows his problems better than him even if he doesn't word it in a clear clinical way and is well placed to confront black about it (so is gramps btw, for the same reasons) because he knows black will not hurt him. he's the closest person he'll ever get who's uniquely great at holding him together because he knows what's wrong and that's why black completely falls apart when he ditches him - i do believe what he says to him about needing a stronger partner is a lie, because to gramps and to weasel he tells that it's just too hard to care for him anymore instead.

that's a very touchy subject and im glad it was brought up too. as much as other citizens also shoulder part of it black is white's main caretaker and he can't deal with it sometimes. it's brought up well because the writing never demeans white or puts the blame on him for his disability, and also shows that he is aware of it in a weirdly mature way. he does talk about himself a bit crudely but it's never with a mean intent and he doesn't blame himself either, he has a religious and very poetic explanation for why he was born like that that puts him as equal to black. as for his relationship with adults they're nice to him, i love that. they are way more critical of how he is, even gramps, compared to black who only sees problems in how it affects their relationship; adults bring up how he is vs the world.

given the story is about these two kids being extremely violently confronted by greater forces that won't accept their ways of life, it all fits very well. their solution to "society has no place for me" is to live above it (quite literally pictured sometimes as solitary rooftop avengers) and when confronted with that solution not being possible in the long run, pain ensues. the theme of the world vs your way of life echoes all around the plot and the story ends it with the more depressing conclusion of "the world won't bend for you". many people loved the city, it gets destroyed anyway. black says himself "it's progress, that happens all the time". but what makes it a bittersweet instead of a bad ending is that while in the end, the battle is lost; along the way the world wasn't so cruel. these kids are told society won't accept them and get violently kicked out, but their neighbors care for them and even in the "bad guys" some risk their life to defend their cause. you're told you need to change for the sake of society, a greater concept you don't like, but looking around you, all these folks live with you as you are and give you a hand when you need it

#tekkonk #meta #<- i guess

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panlight · 3 years

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i think one of meyer's biggest problems (i mean aside from the obvious) is that to her, the characters in her book that aren't bella and edward are just set dressing. she doesn't understand that anybody could see esme, for example, as a tragic character whose human life was defined by loss and abuse, because to her, she's just a plot device. she's The Mom, full-stop. jacob's imprinting doesn't register as horrifying because renesbait is the perfect daughter who deserves the perfect happy ending (a doting husband and probably kids), and jacob is just perfect for her! he's big and strong and loyal, and he won't age and die on her! she doesn't seem to get that people could see these characters as anything other than vehicles for bella and edward's story (and renesbait's, down the line). she has exactly one (1) story that she wants to tell, and anything else is just flavor text.

though to be fair, this started as her personal fantasy. when she got a book deal, she then had to go and beef up the story, which i think is where a lot of the worst stuff comes from.

Yeah, pretty much this.

And this is why romance novels and rom-coms that focus on just one couple (vs an ensemble like Love Actually or something), usually have a pretty limited cast because, who cares? The point is the relationship between the two leads, you don't really need or want anything else. Maybe a quirky or sassy friend (Alice) and a rival (Jacob) or some sort of inconvenient girlfriend/fiancee/ex (sort of Tanya? but not really) and that's all you really need. Family might exist for funny meeting-the-parents scenes but you don't need a backstory on the parents. You don't need a backstory on the quirky friend.

But after she invented Edward, she said she couldn't imagine him without a family. He MUST have a sister like Alice. But that's not enough. SM is from a big family, Edward deserves a big family, so then she invents all these other characters to be The Mom and The Father Figure/Mentor, then The Big Brother. Then oops, Quirky Sister and Big Brother need romantic partners, so here comes Mean Sister and The Vampire-y One. And now you have this huge cast with thinly sketched (but interesting!!!) histories that she doesn't plan to actually DO much of anything with, they just exist to be The Family. None of them have a story arc of their own. I mean I guess there's sort of "Rosalie learns to like Bella" but that's still Bella-centric and is more about Bella's fantasy of a perfect forever family. Does Jasper improve his control? Is Alice vicariously living through Bella's human experiences meaningful? Does Carlisle successfully convince others to try vegetarianism? Who knows, who cares, not the point.

And then she just keeps adding more characters! The cast of the Twilight novels is huge; it's like a Harry Potter universe of characters when the storyline is a pretty insular romance. She invents all these fascinating characters who can turn into wolves and then again, doesn't follow through with anything. Does Leah find peace? Do she and Emily mend their friendship? Who is Embry's father? Doesn't matter. Not relevant to Bella's story.

There's the Volturi, who at first to seem to be about world building and lore, but then they just sit on there thrones so much they've started to petrify. They literally don't do anything! And again, to tell this story you maybe need like one leader and one scary weaponized vamp, but we get THREE leaders and a whole bunch of named vampires with different powers who again, never really get to do much of anything. What's the point of the history between Amun and Demetri when it's never mentioned at all?

Then all the visiting vampires. She obviously LOVES Garrett and Benjamin, you can just feel the "aren't these characters SO COOL?!" pulsing through the page. But other than Garrett's big speech [which feels weird because we only just met this guy. Usually a character who had been there since the beginning would have this moment, a moment that we had been building up to for four books. Maybe Carlisle gets to make his final plea for vegetarianism. Maybe Esme, always quiet, always on the sidelines, steps forward and surprises everyone with her defense of her family and their way of life. Maybe Jasper, the one who wasn't totally sold on this diet, who wouldn't have tried it at all if not for his gift basically forcing him to, gives an impassioned speech from the POV of a former human-blood-drinker that appeals to the other vampires better than any of the veggie-from-the-start Cullens could. But no, it's Garrett, whom we met like 50? 100? pages ago, but since we're told he's a Revolutionary, and a Patriot, that's all the weight we need], none of them really matter or do anything. Benjamin could have left Amun in the end and that would have been something, but, no. It's still Bella's shield that gets all the credit for saving the day. It's still her story and her fantasy. And that's fine! Certainly there are plenty of male-centered power fantasies where some average guy turns out to be the chosen one and better at something than the people who have trained for it for years and gets love and power in the end.

It's just weird that the story she wanted to tell was pretty much just Bella and Edward Fall in Love and Get Married and Bella is the Best Vampire and yet she invented all these other characters without giving them any larger purpose. They have backstories that SEEM relevant but never go anywhere. Esme having met Carlisle when she was a human teen never comes up. Carlisle's mother dying in childbirth is never mentioned during the debates over Bella's pregnancy. Emily's scars are clearly supposed to be a warning about the dangers of being involved with supernatural beings, but it's a warning Bella ignores (and that's not even getting into using the suffering of an Indigenous character to teach a white girl a lesson). Leah's dad only died so Edward could be confused about 'the funeral' and think it was Bella's; it's never really brought up otherwise. There's no reason the rest of the pack has to be so crappy to her, it doesn't go anywhere. How much would the main story really change if Edward were the only vampire and Jacob the only wolf? Sure, some plot beats would be different without Alice to predict things, or without the tension between the Sam and Jacob factions in BD, but overall you could tell basically the same story without literally everyone else.

#asks

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mittensmorgul · 3 years

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So, Signs that 15x20 isn't real: El Sol beer; warm, saturated lighting; Dean's choice of clothes. Signs the writers were silenced: cut-out-tongue-vampire-thing. Sign it's about sexual repression: Vampires! Sign it's all about the gay: Dean was nailed from behind. Anything else to add to that list of symbols? Because this looks like the writers winking SOS at us in a kidnapper's video.

oh gosh... I keep meaning to rewatch the finale and make a full list of it all, because this is tip of the iceberg stuff. But I just... heck I just don’t want to watch it again :’D

That rewatch is on the agenda, and I’m currently watching 15.09 on the eternal loop. According to the TNT schedule, they’re showing 15.20 on Tuesday, looping directly back to the pilot immediately afterward. So... if I do decide to watch that (and I haven’t decided yet), that’s... gonna be some wild whiplash...

But anyway, back to the question!

You have a pretty good list going there...

I’ll add these things that made the episode feel like not-a-finale:

-no Road So Far segment, or even any sort of “important moments from the last 15 years that brought us to this point” sort of montage/retrospective of their lives

-no Carry On Wayward Son at the beginning, but TWO versions of it back to back at the end

And these things that were just general wtf moments for me:

-Sam? cooking breakfast? since when does Sam make breakfast, ever? that’s Dean’s thing

-Dean, with a dog? since when has Dean ever wanted a dog? That’s Sam’s thing

-Dean makes his bed, and it looks messier when he’s done than before he started (this is... not Dean-like... I actually went back and checked previous shots of his room)

-they never, not once in the episode, act like they have even one (1) single friend or any sort of goal or direction in life, which is weird...

-apparently they’d been unable to find a hunt, making it seem like the supernatural world had been quiet (for a moment I thought maybe monsters were no longer a problem in a post-Chuck world), until they stumbled on a hunt out of nowhere after choosing to go to a pie festival... as if the moment they chose to do something to move on and just have fun, suddenly there was work for them to do and they immediately abandoned everything to hunt these mystery monsters from John’s journal, which turned out to be a trap for them (specifically for them? considering the rando s1 vampire seemed to have lured them there?)

-The fact Dean recognized this vampire he never even interacted with and somehow magically knew her name, despite it never having been stated in canon and, again, Dean never having interacted with her outside of watching her escape with the vampire who actually DID bear them a grudge from 1.20...

-the weird lingering close up shot of the rebar during the fight scene

-the invocation of “destiny” and “don’t have a choice” as they went into a freaking pie festival... this hits bad right now because I’m rewatching 15.09 in the background as I type this, and it was almost word for word what the Dean in Chuck’s vision of the future said to Sam as they resigned themselves to go off on their final hunt (which was vampires btw), which they lost because in the next scene Sam and Dean have become vampires and are both killed... so like... this was Chuck’s story. The trappings might’ve been different, but it was still fundamentally the same... Cas locked away in a terrible place (ma’lak box in Chuck’s story, Empty in Dabb’s), Dean resigned to his fate because of a vampire hunt gone bad.

-then the pie festival itself... Dean’s got a huge tray with half a dozen different varieties he’s excited to try (purchased from Dabb’s Pies...), is eager to taste them all (like... metaphorically trying out different “apple pie life” ending scenarios, because he’s finally free to explore and maybe he actually wants the pecan pie life...), but before he can even taste the first bite, Sam... chooses one and smashes it in Dean’s face.

-even weirder, Dean never once in the episode says Cas’s name, or seemed even once to give a dang about Cas at all... and handwaved it when Sam mentioned Cas and Jack. It had been like... days, on screen (if they’d intended for more time to have passed, they would’ve indicated that on screen, and they did not... they showed us MAYBE three days passing since the events of 15.19). So like... did Dean have a personality transplant or what. Sam says Cas’s name in the ep, Bobby says it in Heaven. Dean... never does. Which is weird, considering how many times he’s said Cas in canon over the years, to the point it’s literally become memes...

-jumping around a bit here, but why Masked Vampires? Why had John failed to figure out they were vampires originally? Because he believed vampires were extinct? because he hadn’t been told they existed at all yet when he’d confronted them in 1986? Was John suddenly just A Bad Hunter after years of canon reinforcing that he was actually a really good hunter?

-and why THIS WEIRD CONGLOMORATION OF JOHN-RELATED CASE NONSENSE? From his journal to the murder clowns to rando vampire from their first vamp hunt? It’s like the perfect storm of erasing the last 15 years just to “bring it back to the start” to end it all like it could’ve had this been s1 still.

-speaking of John, and the El Sol in Heaven... WHY would Bobby hand Dean “John’s Beer” in Heaven? Especially since Dean expressed the fact that he didn’t even like it? Like... why wouldn’t he have been handed a beer he actually ENJOYED in Paradise? Why force a John Beer on him when he could literally have anything he wanted?

-and why was Heaven for Dean, in a place where he could literally have anything he wanted, go anywhere and do anything, why was he just driving through the woods along back roads? After years of talking about how he wanted to go “toes in the sand,” take a vacation, go fishing, or even finally get to eat a piece of pie? Or like ANYTHING he’d talked about wanting to do over the years that he never had a chance to... but apparently the thing he’d arguably spent the most time during his life doing is the only thing he wanted to do now that every possibility was open to him? Yeah, no that’s stupid...

-Tree (the final shot of 15.04 with bobblehead Sam and Dean by the tree like they didn’t have a thought of their own, Chuck’s plastic figurines dancing on his orders, very much like where they randomly parked and had the “vamp mime” conversation)

-Dean casually resorting to the threat of torture after YEARS of the show condemning this choice. Dean gratuitously being “a killer” when his acceptance of the fact that that’s not who he was in the previous episode was literally the thing that defeated Chuck... like... this was entirely stupid...

-just... the pacing of the episode was so weirdly wonky, with random cuts and no sense of time passing anywhere, nor interconnectedness between scenes, and the weirdly uncomfortable interminable death scene. Like, it looked like the death scene of a soap opera heroine. It was upsetting when Dean hit the spike and realized what had happened, but then he just... lingered... dangling on the hook for Sam’s benefit. Like Dean was nothing more than set decoration like a framed portrait for Sam to hang up and walk away from. Which is weird... and stupid... Dabb knows how to do pacing, and it’s like he forgot everything he ever knew about writing to force this “good way to die” trope, as if the previous 15 years of the show hadn’t been spent denouncing (and Dean finally overcoming) this mindset of “I always knew I’d go down swinging” or whatever. WHY. IT WAS STUPID.

-Wig

there’s probably more, but I’m tired and have reached my daily limit for the wtf of this episode >.>

Anyone else, please feel free to add more.

#spn 15.20 #Anonymous

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tearsofgrace · 3 years

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endings are hard... but they aren’t impossible

tldr; the good place fucking nailed the finale, supernatural completely and utterly bombed it.

tags: wc--4.5k, gif heavy, spn meta, the good place, supernatural finale, spn wank, all gifs are mine, if you read til the end there’s a pretty gif

so i recently finished the good place (i was watching w my family and we finally had time to sit down and watch the last season) and god fucking dammit that ending is FLAWLESS. literally flawless.

and because i’m, well, me… i spent most of the time during that hour long finale thinking about how supernatural could have had even a fraction of that and avoided so much heartbreak.

anyways. i decided to compare them. to REALLY compare them. to get into the nitty gritty of why the fuck the good place ending left me feeling, as the finale is all about, sated and complete. and why the spn ending left me confused, lost, broken, betrayed, unable to even enjoy my comfort show at all until a dear friend finally just watched an episode (8.08) start to finish with me.

so without further ado (always wanted to say that) here’s the good place/supernatural finale meta that no one asked for

comedy

we’ll start small. both these shows have excellent comedy. in extremely different ways… but still

in the good place finale, the comedy was perfect. whether it was jason reappearing in the forest, michael trying to get through The Door, tahani reversing the “hot bod” bit on eleanor, every comedic moment was actually pretty emotional and added something to the show. they deepened characters’ meanings, added to their relationships, and made the audience think as much as they made the audience laugh.

in the spn finale… the comedy was the pie gag. the whole sam shoving pie into dean’s face. beyond this being… like meta as hell (the whole prank thing) it doesn’t have any depth to it.

and to add salt to the wound, this “hilarious” thing happens RIGHT AFTER salmondean have a conversation about missing jack and cas that is equal parts flat and infuriating. the brothers, in particular sam about jack and dean about cas, should care more. this is their family. and family is everything to them. but, no, by all means pie dean in the face.

last lines

this one IRKS me. okay.

the last line of the good place "I'll say this to you, my friend, with all the love in my heart and all the wisdom of the universe: Take it sleazy.” “All right.” is ICONIC. okay?

it’s a reference to season 1 that doesn’t feel fan-servicey. it’s kinda honestly emotional cuz it’s like a message to us, the audience. it perfectly completes michael’s arc. it captures the light-hearted vibe of the show while also somehow managing to be poignant. you can see it coming like the second before it happens but it’s also not the obvious choice. it’s just. goddamn it’s good.

the last line of supernatural…. is… “and cut.” not even said by one of j2. i mean i know it’s a meta show but COME ON ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??????????

now i hear you shouting wait but that’s just the end of the thank you message. okay fine whatever. in that case the last lines are “Hey, Sammy.” “Dean.” (i couldn’t bring myself to gif that moment)

i’m sorry but. that’s predictable. that’s obvious. that’s boring. that’s flat. sure, it celebrates the bond between the brothers. but like… that’s not what this show is about anymore. it’s not just about sam and dean winchester it’s about what they’ve created. it’s about the world they’ve saved, the family they’ve made, about how they always keep fighting but nope we get bland, boring, coulda seen ‘em coming from miles away lines for the very end. that’s fine.

montages

the spn finale is like 50% montages that don’t make sense and are poorly done and not emotional

the good place has a montage of michael being human that brought me to tears

timing

here’s another short section. the good place finale was 53 minutes long as opposed to the usual 20 minute long runtime of every episode. granted, the fandom of the good place is very different, but STILL there was no documentary telling the fans things they ALREADY knew (there was a short special after the ep, but the episode itself was still far longer than normal). it was 53 minutes of plot. of really fucking good not rushed plot.

the supernatural finale was… what 36 minutes long?? as opposed to the normal 40 minute runtime?? granted, we did get an hour long documentary of things we’ve all heard in cons and interviews a billion times so hey. take what you can get i guess.

character arcs

this is most of the meat of this meta. one thing we’ve all been harping on a TON is how they RUINED character arcs. soooo let’s go through and juxtapose some character arcs shall we

eleanor

eleanor shellstrop starts the show completely self-obsessed. she died getting hit by shopping carts while picking up margarita mix and let’s be real she’s a total icon. love her to death. she grows a ton, becomes one of the most selfless characters on the show, and starts to actually (jack forbid) CARE about things. it’s one of the most satisfying and relatable character arcs i’ve ever seen.

it’s not just her selfishness either, her character is super multi-faceted and complex, and i feel like even in the end we’re getting to know her better. she’s afraid of commitment, always worried about what others’ actions will do to her, loves the trivial side of life, is queer as fuck (as acknowledged by the show in a way that’s not harmful at all but also isn’t explicitly bi/pan/unlabeled/omni etc, allowing queer fans to see their own identity in her), and is all around a HUMAN BEING. her ending at the beginning of the show was her death. her stupid, trivial, meaningless death where she was, as she puts it, all alone. and her final ending ISNT that. yes, everyone goes before her. and i think that’s purposeful. to show that she’s grown enough that being alone in some sense is okay.

but she’s never TRULY alone. and in the end. the REAL end. janet is there. the whole time. because eleanor asked her to be!! she got over her crazy need for independence and simply asked for help. and eleanor dies an amazing person that has become selfless, has found joy in philosophy while still enjoying trashy content, has fixed her relationship with her mother, and has found a sense of completion. eleanor’s life ends on her terms, and it’s beautiful.

dean

alright. now just as you’re feeling all warm and fuzzy let’s look at dean winchester’s ending. you’ve heard it a million times, so i’ll be brief. dean was raised to be a hunter, a soldier, a killing machine with no feelings and no purpose. he was raised to die scared on a hunt, his life over because of some mistake he made because he will NEVER measure up. at least that’s what john and everyone else told him with the exceptions of some of his family (and family don’t end in blood). he started to accept that he didn’t have to have this. he started to realize that he could CHOOSE what his ending was.

the beautiful thing is, we never truly got to see what that was. i personally like to think it’s similar to the roadhouse michael locked him in while he was trapped in his own mind. a safe place for hunters, somewhere he (and cas in my opinion, but that’s not important) could settle down and still be in the life. it would be an amazing tribute to jo and ellen, and just all around a great ending. he wouldn’t have to be scared, but he wouldn’t have to conform to some apple pie facade of normalcy. and ya know what?? say that he died so he could have peace i dare you. because dean doesn’t find peace until sam is there anyway so i beg of you WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT.

dean winchester died scared. dean winchester died on a hunt. dean winchester died on one of john’s old hunts. dean winchester died not directly at the hands of a monster, but at the hands of a mistake. his mistake. dean winchester died without ever working through the trauma of his best friend in the entire world confessing his love in a final act of self-sacrifice. dean winchester died in a way that leaves a sour taste in my mouth and does not at all show the audience what he’s been through and how much he’s grown. dean winchester did not die on his terms, and he deserved better.

chidi

okay back to happy. chidi anagonye. by far my personal favorite good place character (don’t tell anyone i always say jason cuz he and i are very similar). chidi in the last few episodes is SO DRASTICALLY different than the chidi we meet at the beginning. he’s decisive, confident, self-assured, and it’s amazing to see. he’s not afraid of life anymore. he’s not afraid to make the wrong decision and forever alter his reality, because he’s okay with failure.

at the beginning, chidi was so petrified of life that… it killed him. and in the end, he’s completely at peace with every decision he makes, even the final one. yes, he considered staying for eleanor, but that just shows how his moral code and his compassion for others is still very much still intact. it shows the audience that you can be confident and decisive without being a selfish asshole.

chidi leaves the good place knowing that it’s the right thing to do. knowing without a doubt that his time has come. the old chidi never would have been able to fathom being that sure about something. it’s beautiful. it’s a development that can give the audience peace, can show them that this drastic of change is possible, and that chidi became a better person for all of it. chidi went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

sam

… this one might be controversial… but sam winchester. god i hated sam’s ending. at first i was kinda okay with it. like, okay fine he got his normal life. but, really, in the end that’s not what sam wanted. he started to realize that he didn’t need that apple pie, white picket fence life. he didn’t need the wife and the kids and the backyard and the barbecues because that is NOT sam’s personality and i will throw hands on that.

that’s not to say he doesn’t want some sort of romance, maybe even kids, but not in that way. he lets himself see that he doesn’t need to be defined by his rebellion to john. doesn’t need to be defined by going to college or any of those “normal” smart kid things because it doesn’t fit him. and that’s okay! but how does sam’s story end? it ends with a wife (that isn’t even important enough to show her face). with kids. with a goddamn white picket fence. we think he’s still hunting to some extent… but it’s not the arc we were led to believe would happen. it’s not this amazing leader sam that we see in season 12-14, uniting hunters and organizing them.

he had SO MUCH potential and they throw it away on a vanilla ending that shows only surface level pain at losing his brother. he doesn’t even invite the rest of their family to the wake for fuck’s sake. jared did an incredible job. pls don’t think i’m saying he didn’t. but that script…. sam winchester’s arc was cut short. he didn’t go on his terms, and he deserved better.

jason

jason mandoza. the only character that has ever embodied my complete dumbass energy to the insane extent that it exists. he went to hell for his impulsivity. he never thought before a decision. i aspire to be as reckless as jason while on earth. but he LEARNED. he got better, just like they all did. and by the end of the show, jason doesn’t need to be impulsive anymore. much like eleanor being left “alone,” the show does a masterful job with making him be the first one to go, capturing his old impulsiveness. but he chooses to leave. he takes his time in deliberation, waiting until a feeling of peace, of completion, of well, ‘true happiness’ (sorry cas stans, i’m right there with you) has settled over him.

the ending of his story is one of growth, just like all these characters have been. and the best part? the show makes it comedic in the most poignant and beautiful way, because it’s jason, it had to be funny. we learn that jason has been in the woods for like, eons, just waiting to go through the door because he wants to give janet a necklace. he’s learned to simply wait. to be at peace with… nothing. his torture was being a monk, but in the end, jason embodies those ideals. his arc comes to fruition in an extremely satisfying way. jason goes on his own terms, and it’s beautiful.

castiel

this one is gonna hurt like a bitch. castiel is my comfort character. he’s my role model. he’s me in a lot of ways. i love him. so fucking much. so excuse me if this is slightly incoherent. i’m actually okay with cas’ ending… in a way. because his actual ending as an on-screen character? perfect. self-sacrifice while coming out and professing his love to dean winchester. a little bit bury the gays, but let’s be real, it’s supernatural. and “happiness is in just saying it” has to be the most powerful way to think of coming out. it takes away the fear, it takes away so much of the pain that can follow. because the joy is in just saying the words.

it’s how this was treated on the show that makes cas’ character arc terrible (and we haven’t even gotten to 15.20). YOU CANNOT JUST IGNORE A LOVE CONFESSION. that is god awful writing and i will never change my mind on that. cas deserved his family to care about him. to at least address and be sad about the fact he was gone. jesus fucking christ after everything castiel deserved at least that. and then we go to 15.20. cas is in heaven. cas is serving god. cas is right back where he started. now, i’m coming off a little strong.

if the show had decided to show us cas and jack in heaven makin’ the world a better place… i woulda come around to it. i woulda realized that that’s not REALLY erasing 12 years of character development and cas realizing that his whole identity isn’t just him serving heaven and isn’t just him being an angel and that he’s so much more than all of that and he could still be happy as a human… because really he’s with his son. but they didn’t show us that. they barely even mentioned him. and to me. that counts as a bad character arc. and i’m sorry if you disagree. castiel may have gone on his own terms, but they treated that beautiful sacrifice with disrespect and disdain, plus resolved his arc by putting him back where he started. he deserved better.

tahani

*deep breaths guys this is a long post i’m sorry* anywayyyy tahani!!! we love tahani obviously. let’s talk about her arc, because it always kinda bothered me. throughout the show, we see all the other character’s growing and expanding their knowledge of right and wrong. and, don’t get me wrong. we see tahani grow a lot. but she makes a lot of the same types of comments and shit like that. but it’s how she treats the reactions to those comments. by the end of the show, she laughs at the caricature of herself that the others see. she isn’t looking for vindication in name-dropping, she just does it. she is far less self-absorbed, and is genuinely interested in those around her. she fixes her relationships with her sister and her parents in a way that doesn’t feel forced and actually feels like a beautiful, healthy family reunion.

she has a list and she does everything on it. it’s worth noting, that the things on her list are not at all what they would have been at the beginning of the show. most of them are humble “labor” type tasks, and all of them are in self improvement. tahani’s end on the show is not the same as everyone else’s. she realizes that she doesn’t need to be done. that there doesn’t have to be an end to self-improvement. and she becomes an architect. the writers perfectly embody her transformation from a self-obsessed rich girl who has never done a thing for herself and laughs at the lower-class to a down-to-earth worker that simply doesn’t want the journey to end.

it’s incredible how perfectly the writers were able to close off these character arc’s without it feeling forced, and without ignoring their character development. imagine that. tahani chooses her own way, and it’s beautiful.

jack

jack’s ending may be the only one that i’ve actually somewhat come to terms with. it’s not terrible. it’s not great. but it’s not nearly as bad. because ignoring that awful monologue about every drop of rain and shit, jack really does end up helping people. he ends up doing something that he loves and that makes the world a better place. and he doesn’t lose his personality in it. but. i dunno, that’s still his destiny, right? to create paradise. and this is a show about ripping up the rule book, about choosing free will above all else… so to have every single character just fulfill their destiny is cheap.

still… i’ll try to be unbiased. because really at the beginning of jack’s time on the show, he’s unsure what he wants. and at least, in the end, he’s sure. he has a wisdom that he’s always had but he’s now using. and i’m good with that. but what’s NOT okay about jack’s ending is the lack of on-screen family. jack learns that family is important. sam, cas, dean those are the people he cares about. and you’re telling me he would just NEVER see them again? and be okay with that? i know he rebuilds heaven with cas, but we don’t even get a story about him rescuing cas from the empty. and he seems in 15.19 to not be that concerned about it (after the amazing emotional scene at the beginning). jack should have cared about his family. he did. but they ruined that for him. so jack kline deserved better.

michael

oh man where do i start. michael’s growth is the biggest on the show. i mean. he starts as a literal demon and ends a human. he gets better, he falls in love with humanity (*castiel fan in me sobbing again*) and he chooses over and over to be good instead of bad. his whole arc is a classic redemption arc, and every single beat just gets better. he chooses selfishly to side with humans but in the end it turns out to be the best decision he could have made. because he develops emotions, he develops compassion, he develops a moral compass.

and his end reflects that. because to complete this arc of a demon becoming more human… he literally becomes human!!!! it fits so well. and he’s allowed to make mistakes and be happy and gain all that humanity has to offer. this just shows that human!endgame for cosmic beings that become more human WORKS SO WELL (and it shoulda happened for cas and jack that’s all i’m saying). michael went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

eileen

oh boy… this one stings. because they brought her back, used her up, and we never saw her again. eileen was one of the best side characters on the show, and they rarely addressed her arc. she comes onto the show as a hunter seeking revenge, and gets that revenge in the same episode. her s15 arc is focused on what’s real and what’s not, with her relationship to sam admittedly being a central part of her character because… it’s supernatural and women can’t exist without that. but still! eileen grows throughout the show and in the end… we don’t even know what happens to her. it’s as if her arc wasn’t important enough to even glance at.

it’s as if the connections the boys make outside of each other mean nothing when in reality they mean everything. they prove that the co-dependency is behind them and that family doesn’t end with blood and that real connections can be formed between people that last a lifetime. eileen was a disabled hunter that was shown to still be one of the best in the business, and they didn’t even give her the courtesy of a goodbye. eileen didn’t go on her own terms, and she deserved better.

janet

this is gonna unbalance my list but goddammit janet’s ending was perfect. she was a not-robot, not-girl that should have been incapable of feelings. but throughout the series we get to watch as she learns first-hand about human emotions and processes them. she cares about the humans in her charge and fights for them on multiple counts.

in the end, we see janet come to terms with both her cosmic being side, and her human side. she never stops being with the “cockroaches.” she sees them all leave, she’s there for them while they’re there, and she also continues to speak her mind and live autonomously. janet was a non-human character done right. she lived on her own terms, and it was beautiful.

some honorable mentions

spn ignored (in the finale) chuck, amara, stevie, charlie, jody, donna, garth, bess, the other angels, claire, kaia, patience, alex, and the list goes ON in favor of focusing on JUST sam and dean. did none of those characters at least deserve a quick goodbye??????

the good place wrapped up multiple arcs i had completely forgotten about in a totally natural and not forced way. mindy, doug forester, (the mushroom guy, i know, it took me a second), pillboy, donkey doug, kamilah, tahani’s parents, eleanor’s mother, eleanor’s friends, chidi’s best friend, vicki, shawn, glenn, simone and so many that i’m forgetting all got satisfying ends that they totally deserved.

they even fucking resolved FROG GUY’S arc and gave him a real frog. that’s right. frog guy (jeff) had a better character arc resolution than dean motherfucking winchester.

heaven and hell

obviously in very different vehicles, both shows explore in depth the realities of the afterlife. and lemme tell ya, at the end of the day, one sits a whole lot better than the other.

the good place finale ends this quest for the perfect afterlife by saying that everyone can improve and that an eternal paradise shouldn’t keep you from eternal rest. they pretty much make me wish that this is what our afterlife looked like. they handle everything with care so it’s balanced precariously in a way that doesn’t give you anxiety looking at it but instead fills you with peace and faith in humanity.

supernatural addresses this series long battle between heaven and hell by creating a heaven where you drive for forty years without seeing the people (cough cough cas and jack not his parents) that matter to you and drink beer that tastes like shit. a place you can’t be happy or find any sense of peace until your brother has died and he’s there too.

and hell… well they barely even address it. there’s a new queen of hell i guess? but so what. it’s still very much heaven and hell in a way that’s the worst and hey plus to them… makes me wanna stay alive thank you very much. oh and purgatory is in shambles and not functioning properly cuz all that eve bullshit.

loose ends

whenever something is ending, you gotta tie up the loose ends. not in a “oh, we must wrap everything up and leave no stone unturned” kinda way but in a “wow, we should probably try to make this unambiguous because this is the last time we will ever see these characters” kinda way.

the good place does that. so fucking masterfully. all these side plots with all these different characters were taken care of all while focusing on the main six characters. we get to see how their intervention has changed everyone else. for example, mindy’s arc is wrapped up perfectly, with eleanor going to save her.

plus different running jokes like “take it sleazy” are wrapped up, we revisit really old callbacks like the original neighborhood, and all of it feels natural and in the moment. it feels like full circle in a way that doesn’t erase growth.

supernatural, on the other hand, left a million loose ends open. what happened to the boys they saved? where the fuck are jody, donna, etc.? did eileen make it back? cuz sam was pretty upset about that. what happened to it “being loud” in the empty? hell, what happened to the empty? what happened to hell? what about chuck? it woulda been nice to see just for a second what became of him. did charlie and stevie make it (i’m very invested in that relationship)? if we’re taking the original ending… why the fuck is jimmy there? did kansas just all,,, die?

i’m not saying they needed to address everything… but god a few wrapped up storylines besides the brothers wouldn’t have hurt

coloring

can i just… real quick… as a giffer lodge a complaint

the good place has beautiful vibrant coloring in the finale

spn has like bland washed out whatever the fuck that is coloring. it’s not even the dark early aesthetic cuz they dropped that it’s just… ew. so. do with that what you will.

conclusion

first… while writing this i realized just HOW MUCH it’s not about destiel… like believe me. i knew i wasn’t just pissed about destiel. but holy shit it’s not destiel at all like did i even mention destiel that much???? this was never about a ship. this was just a trash finale.

in the end. the good place writers knew what they were doing. they knew their fans, they knew their characters, they knew their world, and they knew how to wrap it up in a way that was satisfying and sad and perfectly fit the tone of the whole show. it wasn’t out of character or rushed, basically every loose end was tied up without the audience even realizing that’s what they were doing, and i feel happy and complete having watched it.

the supernatural ending was a betrayal. flat out. to the audience that has stuck by it in a way bigger way than the good place fandom. to the characters that have helped so many people. to the actors that have given so much of their lives. to the other members of the crew, to certain writers… all of it was just a slap in the face.

we deserved better guys. there are better endings possible. so i’m sorry. i really am. but i guess… that’s what fanfic is for, right?

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handsmotif · 3 years

Text

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors.

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out.

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis.

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #patb #brinky #FLOPS ON THE FLOOR this took a long time to write

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lewishamil10n · 3 years

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hi! zero obligation to answer this ask but I’m an old school SPN fan (went to a convention in 2013 and everything lol) who stopped watching in season 9 & hasn’t seen a full episode past that point. I’m wondering if you could recommend any episodes from season 9-15 that you think are essential viewing for the Sam x Dean relationship? I know episodes like Red Meat and Baby are popular but any others you can think of would be amazing!

hi anon! sorry this took a while, i was compiling the list, and then halfway through my app crapped out and i had to do it all over again. thanks, tumblr :')

anyway, here is the comprehensive list of my personal fav samdean episodes! i'll be putting most of it under a cut, since it's kinda long, and i'll add a samdean factor (sdf) rating out of ten at the end of each episode summary.

here goes!

season 9

actually my least favorite season, but it does have a couple good episodes

9.05 dog dean afternoon – dean becomes a dog. sort of. yeah. humorous motw (monster of the week) episode with some hurt!sam and some good face-caressing action from dean. sdf 7/10.

9.07 bad boys – motw, has flashbacks to teenage dean. some retconning about john that might bother you if you're a john fan. overall a good episode, with a moment at the end showing just how much sam means to dean. sdf 6.5/10.

9.13 the purge – boys go undercover at a spa. also the episode that introduces donna. motw, lots of humorous moments, including the classic sam and dean being confused for a couple thing. also, sam doing yoga. the boys do have an argument at the end though, for plot-related reasons. sdf 7.5/10.

9.23 do you believe in miracles – overall kind of a boring episode, but has a samdean moment at the end when dean decides to take a temporary vacation from the mortal plane. you could just watch that on youtube though, with the keywords "i'm proud of us." i wouldn't say it's worth putting yourself through the entire episode. up to you entirely. sdf 5/10.

season 10

10.03 soul survivor – actually one of my favorite episodes. not top 5 or anything but it's up there. demon dean chases sam around the bunker a lot, he was nice and scary, and the suspense was fun. references to married samdean at the end. sdf 7.5/10.

10.05 fan fiction – basically a love letter to the fans. motw at a high school play based on the supernatural books. lots of brother moments, by proxy and in actuality. the show pokes fun at itself in a light-hearted way. the samulet is brought up. good stuff. sdf 8.5/10.

10.06 ask jeeves – one of my absolute favorite episodes to rewatch. motw, classic locked-room mystery except in a house. sam and dean stuck with rich pretentious WASPs. sam versus cougars. the phrase "homosexual murderers." overall a very good episode. sdf 8.5/10.

10.12 about a boy – motw, deaged!dean shenanigans. sam gets to be the big brother for once. lots of banter. a cute scene with dean telling stories of his and sam's childhood. a fun episode to watch. sdf 7.5/10.

10.14 the executioner's song – oh man, what an episode. plot-related. dean versus cain, excellent fight scene, even better emotional samdean moment later. it's a short moment so you could just youtube it if you wanted, but overall i would recommend this episode. sdf 8/10.

10.19 the werther project – motw with some plot-related stuff. warning for suicide. really good episode, though intense. good samdean moments at the end, including hurt!sam and dean stroking his hair. sdf 9/10.

10.23 brother's keeper – season finale. suspenseful episode, i liked it. watch for the sam versus dean fight, and death's scenes. the brother moment pay-off is SO GOOD. in my opinion this is where spn started getting good again. sdf 9.5/10.

season 11

aka my favorite season

11.04 baby – easily my top 10, if not my top 5. motw told from the impala's perspective. so many brother moments, and improvements on their relationship like open communication etc. really brilliant. don't miss this one. sdf 10/10.

11.05 thin lizzie – fun episode until the axe murders start. sam and his thing for serial killers, dean indulging him. the implication of bed-sharing. banter and fun. good stuff. sdf 8.5/10.

11.08 just my imagination – motw episode, super cute moments. sam getting affirmation that he's a hero. flashbacks to younger sam and dean. dean being jealous of someone else being protective of sam. lots of humorous moments. sdf 9/10.

11.10 the devil in the details – plot episode. watch mainly for sam standing up to lucifer, and dean protecting him. excellent excellent moments. warning: you might feel rage by the end of it due to a certain angel's bad decisions. sdf 9.5/10.

11.11 into the mystic – motw at a senior home. eileen is introduced. sam accidentally says fuck in asl. good episode. broment with sam thinking about his and dean's future. sdf 8/10.

11.16 safe house – amazing episode. motw. the boys work a case worked by bobby and rufus in the past. excellent transitions between present and past, bobby and rufus banter, and dean reaffirming that sam is a part of his soul. sdf 9/10.

11.17 red meat – do i need to say any more. possibly my favorite episode of ALL TIME. motw. hurt!sam, reckless!suicidal!dean. straight up romeo and juliet parallels. badass sam. the boys being compared to a married couple. the classic spn vibe is [chef's kiss] sdf 15/10.

11.19 the chitters – motw episode featuring two of my favorite one-off characters. more classic spn vibes, specifically wendigo (monsters in the woods). more of dean comparing him and sam to a married couple. the usual. sdf 8.5/10.

11.20 don't call me shurley – the show could have ended at this episode and it would have been perfect. more classic spn vibes, with a case in a small town. more sam and dean moments than you know what to do with. soft touches and reaffirming their love and obsession with each other. a long-standing theory confirmed. and of course, one of the most important objects in their personal history. sdf 13/10.

season 12

also one of my favorite seasons

12.01 keep calm and carry on – no bro interaction in this one, but you might enjoy it if you like hurt!sam and feral!protective!dean. also, dean talking mary's ear off about sam. sdf 7/10.

12.04 american nightmare – motw with one of my favorite one-off characters again. sam's past is revisited. brothers have some nice moments of banter, but it's mostly sam-centric. sdf 6.5/10.

12.06 celebrating the life of asa fox – motw in which dean literally forgets his mother's existence because a door comes in between him and sam. great episode. another locked-room mystery in a house; the brothers attend the wake of a famous hunter and run into other hunters who see them as legends (also what inspired my url lol). trouble happens. sdf 8.5/10.

12.09 first blood – separation anxiety leads them to make a stupid deal in order to break out of a maximum security facility and see each other again. separation described as "worse than hell." unironically. badass winchesters. underrated episode, one of my favorites. i rewatch it a lot actually. sdf 9/10.

12.11 regarding dean – motw. a curse causes dean to start losing his memory. he begins forgetting everything, including sam. angst and brother moments ensue. rowena is there. good stuff. sdf 8.5/10.

12.20 twigs and twines and tasha banes – the witch twins return! good motw episode with interesting characters, paralleled with the boys. wish we'd gotten a banes twin spin-off or at least more episodes with them. sdf 7.5/10.

12.22 who we are – sam and dean getting themselves out of a death trap. dean finally gets to use his rocket launcher. the words "hey lunatic" are said in the way most people say "i love you." bro hug. dean is proud of his badass little brother. ass is kicked. the brothers do separate midway through the episode but the broments more than make up for it. dean stands up to mary for everything she did to her boys with her choices – especially sam. extremely emotional episode, sdf 10/10 would recommend.

season 13

13.11 breakdown – motw. dean takes a visibly depressed sam on a hunt to help donna out. some epic hurt!sam ensues. brother moment at the end where they talk about sam's depression. sdf 7.5/10.

13.12 various and sundry villains – humorous motw episode. dean gets put under a spell by a witch and is convinced she's his soulmate. sam, his actual soulmate, is not amused. wrestling and shenanigans ensue. rowena is there, as she usually is when witchy shenanigans are going down. she and sam talk about their lucifer-related trauma. good episode overall. sdf 8.5/10.

13.15 a most holy man – motw (sort of) where the boys hunt down a skull, knock the fuck out of a priest, and engage in general shenanigans. humorous broments scattered throughout the episode. jealous!dean makes an appearance. sdf 8.5/10.

13.17 the thing – motw. sam gets kidnapped, dean loses his shit. lovers are separated across an interdimensional rift, while dean debates whether it's safe to take sam across another interdimensional rift. parallels between the brothers and a pair of lovers? yep. must be another day ending in y. sdf 9/10.

13.19 funeralia – wonderful, wonderful episode. rowena and billie are BRILLIANT. dean freaks out again because he's separated from sam. important revelation about sam and rowena at the end. sdf 8.5/10.

13.21 beat the devil – sam and dean go to the alternative universe to save mary and jack. BAD SHIT happens to sam and dean can't help him at all, leading him to go literally mute with grief. so. many. emotions. no one matters to these boys as much as each other and this episode is testament to that. sdf 10/10.

13.22 exodus – HUG. BROTHER MOMENT. BADASS BOYS. SAM BEING A LEADER. GOOD STUFF ALL AROUND. sdf 9/10.

13.23 let the good times roll – dean and sam get separated again thanks to lucifer and dean makes an impulsive decision for sam's sake. the world's silliest angel fight ensues. beautiful moment at the end that unfortunately doesn't last. sdf 9.5/10.

season 14

14.04 mint condition – halloween motw episode. nice homage to slasher flicks, plus sam and dean being cute in their insurance guy outfits. broment in the beginning AND end of episode. dean calls sam pretty a lot. one of my fav episodes to rewatch. sdf 9.5/10.

14.08 byzantium – nice angsty episode. sam grieves jack when he, in true winchester style, takes a temporary vacation from the mortal plane. he and dean (and cas) fight to get their kid back. a good ep if you like sam angst and dean worrying about him. sdf 7.5/10.

14.11 damaged goods – another angsty episode. dean resorts to desperate measures to deal with his annoying skull roommate issue. sam is not happy about it but reluctantly goes along. featuring the hug-from-behind that's become legendary in gifs, and dean saying Those Three Words along with other things that indicate that sam is the most important person in his life. sdf 9/10.

14.12 prophet and loss – the boys go to help donatello who's in a coma. sam is angsting over dean's decision from the previous episode. dean is angsting over sam's angst. castiel is just kinda there. then sam has a breakdown which short-circuits dean's brain and resets it back to common sense. brohugs and tears ensue. one of my favorite hugs mostly due to how Baby Brother sam is in it. sdf 10/10.

14.13 lebanon – DO NOT SKIP THIS. lots of cute moments showing sam and dean's life in their town, plus. john winchester. SO MANY BROMENTS. literally all they do is talk about how much they love each other. they get closure from john. lots of tears are shed. i will never be the same again. sam and dean are each other's endgame and i will go feral. sdf 14/10.

14.17 game night – an okay episode, though it has a great hurt!sam broment near the end. worth watching for that itself. dean takes care of his baby brother and i cry a little into my bowl of chips. sdf 8/10.

season 15

15.01 back and to the future – another okay episode. there's a nice scene where dean fixes up a bullet wound in sam's shoulder, but you could probably find that on youtube too. sdf 6/10.

15.04 atomic monsters – kinda a depressing episode even by spn standards, tbh. motw, again where dean takes a visibly depressed sam on a hunt. the hunt hits too close to home, sam's depression gets worse, and he talks to dean about it in the end of the episode. it was a good scene, was nice to see sam discuss his mental health and dean listening. sdf 8/10.

15.11 the gamblers – motw. the boys go to a bar in alaska to win back their luck from the goddess fortuna. some other plot stuff happens with castiel and jack but eh. the boys play pool and have some nice moments. also, snarky sammy! sdf 8/10.

15.14 last holiday – motw. the boys accidentally release a wood nymph named mrs. butters who looks after them in a creepy kinda grandmotherly fashion. they get to have birthdays! but of course she's not what she seems, etc. etc. some hurt!sam, a few cute brothers-and-jack-as-family moments. sdf 6.5/10 (some marks reduced due to unnecessary and nonsensical inclusion of saileen)

15.17 unity – plot episode, honestly just watch for the moment near the end where sam is able to talk dean out of his existential-crisis-induced mind-controlled state, breaking chuck's hold over him. it's a great moment, but like. i'd say go watch on youtube instead of watching the entire ep. sdf 7/10 due to the moment.

15.19 inherit the earth – the boys finally take back control of their own lives and destiny. the universe is back in order with a new deity. classic sam and dean versus cosmic entities, with nothing but each other and their sheer willpower. beautiful, beautiful ending. the show could have ended here and been perfect. sdf 10/10.

15.20 carry on – the episode that might finally land me in therapy. the series finale that made this entire 15-season ride so worth it. lovely motw episode, full of love and passion and heart, and a monologue from dean that will have you in tears. The Three Words are spoken. he calls sam his baby brother. hands are held and foreheads are touched. i was literally sobbing while watching this, and i never cry at tv shows or movies. even now when i think of this episode my heart feels heavy and full in the best of ways. the entire episode is a love letter to the pilot, to the boys, and to everyone who's stuck with them. it is the distilled essence of what made this show special. i still haven't been able to rewatch because of how emotional it makes me. sdf 34693/10.

well anon i hope this long list helped!!! enjoy your watch <3

#supernatural #samdean #asks #anonymous #naila.txt

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