#hes also very blue. i might need to draw this fucker properly at some point
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No one is surprised: I am in another Curse of Strahd game. His name is Ezra, he's a school of swords bard, and I love him.
I do commissions!
#curse of strahd#curse of strahd oc#dungeons & dragons 5e#rpg character#original character#tiefling#cos is somewhat of an interest to me. i might even enjoy the overall story or something#one of my friends and i have already talked about our characters being friends right before the campaign#so im having a lot of fun#also strahd is bald in this game. hes bald and hes torturing us with his baldness#once again sorry for the shit picture. my phone sucks at taking closeup images apparently. it likes blurring things#hes also very blue. i might need to draw this fucker properly at some point#ezra#ghostart
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Merry Christmas to @katiesocs
Everyone is born with heterochromia — one eye is their own eye colour, while the other is the colour of their soulmate's. It's only when they meet their soulmate for the first time that their own eyes match properly.
There was a time before 1941 when Murphy had been very excited about maybe one day meeting his soulmate. One of his eyes was a nice ocean blue and the other a deep chocolate brown. As tacky as it may have sounded, he liked both colors. It felt wrong to prefer one color over the other as it was a mystery which one belonged to his soulmate and which was his. He spent an embarrassing amount of time picturing himself with both blue eyes or both brown eyes, and picturing a soulmate with the opposite pair of eyes. He had imagined how their first meeting would go; in a small corner diner in the neighborhood, Murphy tucked in a corner sketching as a tall handsome guy leaned over to compliment his work. They’d talk and wouldn’t notice their eyes had changed until one of them pointed it out, they’d exchange numbers and eventually get married. Atleast, that’s how he hoped it would happen. Unfortunately for him, things most likely wouldn’t happen that way.
Having been in Brooklyn in 1941 and being gay made the whole concept of soulmate matching more complicated. Granted, it would have been easier to find his soulmate than be able to live a happy life with them at that time. Having to spend the rest of his life with a person who is supposed to be his match made in heaven, but being forced to hide it because of the way society viewed people like him? It terrified him. What if his soulmate couldn’t handle a life like that? What if he couldn’t? These thoughts plagued his mind every night and they only became worse when kids in his class found their soulmates.
Of course maybe he wouldn’t find his soulmate at 17, maybe he’d be older with a stable job and living somewhere where his lifestyle wouldn’t be criticized or frowned upon. Or maybe his soulmate would be someone rational enough to keep his thoughts and worries at bay. They could live in a time or place where everything would be fine. He wished he didn’t have to be old, or dead to experience something like that. Except, after receiving the beating of his life in an alley, Murphy meets Briar and is turned partially immortal. Which, cool, but also, how was he supposed to live a fulfilling life with his soulmate now? It only brought a wave of new worries and he tried not to think about them too much. Besides, he’s super strong now.
As the years passed and the color of his eyes remained unchanged, Murphy’s hope of meeting his soulmate plummeted drastically after every decade. It’s not uncommon for someone to never meet their soulmate before dying, he’d just be part of the small percentage that doesn’t. Besides, it’s not like he’d be alone. Briar had also never met her soulmate and she didn’t seem as bothered by it as Murphy. He guessed it’s because she had lived longer and had made her peace with it. He couldn’t wait to get to that point so he wouldn’t have to think about it so much. He was tired.
Eventually they had settled in a small town of Beacon Hills. They had lived in so many towns since he had become part of the clan that he’d lost count and stopped caring about the names. It wouldn’t matter anyway. They’d have to relocate after a few years when people start to question why they still look so young. Murphy had grown accustomed to it. Moving around so much had left little room for friendships and attachments. But it was also the fact that he’d outlive mostly anyone he met that held him back from socializing much. Most of his interactions were limited to the clan and anyone Briar has business with, being that he was second in command and all that. And if he sometimes ventured out by himself to be around people in hopes of casually meeting his soulmate, then that was nobody’s business.
On one of their “off” days, while Briar is out without him, Murphy finds himself becoming ansty. Nothing is easing his need to want to do something, not even drawing. He’s gone through at least half his sketchbook, but can’t seem to complete a whole sketch without giving up halfway through. Eventually he slams his pencil down on his desk and pushes the sketchbook away, cursing loudly, as one does. The clan members, Lena, Elliot, and Tipper, ignore his outburst and continue to do whatever it is their doing from where they’re lounging about in the room.
“I'll be right back” He announces. Only Tipper acknowledges him as he heads out the door.
“Don’t die!” Tipper yells out, and somehow Murphy finds that reassuring.
He doesn’t know where he’s going, given that he doesn’t really know the town well. Or at all. But the sound of faint dance music leads him to a club on the outskirts of the downtown area. There are small groups of muscled men, some nearly naked, standing outside of the building. Murphy watches for a moment before deciding to head inside. He flashes the bouncer his most current fake ID card and brushes past the tall men by the door.
The music is way too loud, with too much bass, it nearly raptures his ears. He adjusts to the noise quickly enough and bee lines to an empty corner where he can be left alone but still be able to see almost everything. If human 1941 Murphy could see him now, openly gay, sitting in a gay club, living with no fear of who he is. It’s freeing, really.
Someone sends him a drink, a lean man with light brown hair and a big smile, he waves at Murphy from the bar as the server sets the drink on the table. Murphy raises his glass as a thank you and silently hopes the guy doesn’t come over. And he doesn’t, thankfully, leaving Murphy to solitude like he’d intended.
Going to clubs isn’t something he does often, but he does like to check out the scene every couple years just to see how things are. It’s good to see how much better things have gotten since the 40s, and he’s weirdly glad that he’s been able to see firsthand how progressive people have become. Not that things are 100%, but they’re better.
He doesn’t stay long and he doesn’t finish the drink the man bought him, not that he can get drunk anyway.
Walking briskly through empty allies probably isn’t the best idea Murphy has had, given that the town is packed with hunters and other supernatural beings, but he makes it back to the forest in a breeze. It’s quiet for a moment, but the sounds of running and yelling and growling quickly reach his ears and he finds himself heading toward the noise. Another great idea on his end, really.
The scene is hectic. There’s a young woman hiding behind a tree as two figures roll around on the ground fighting. It’s hard to see much from where he’s standing, but Murphy can see one of them is losing horribly. He sees flashes of yellow and white eyes, and then the yellow is launched about 100 feet in the air and into a tree.
“Oh shit.” He says dumbly as the figure with white eyes turns to face him. He looks over at the girl still hiding, clutching the tree as if it’ll be enough to keep whatever that is away. “You should probably run.”
And then he’s rumbling with the thing too.
It’s strong, Murphy notices right away. He stumbles a bit as he tries to hold his own against it and it doesn’t take long for him to get launched like a toy, but thankfully he didn’t get thrown at a tree. Oh right. He looks over to the other person on the ground, struggling to get up. He sees the yellow eyes, fangs, and pointy ears and figures that he’s a werewolf. They’re doomed if neither of them can take this thing down together.
“Might wanna hurry up there, Larry Talbot.” He feels an uncontrollable urge to help the person, to make sure they’re okay. It’s weird and it’s gone when they push themselves off the ground to go at the creature again. Brave fucker, then.
Murphy staggers to his feet, and throws himself into the fight again. The werewolf is down on the floor in a second, falling flat on his stomach. The second it takes Murphy to look down to make sure he’s not hurt is enough time for the wendigo to crouch down and sink its teeth into Murphy’s thigh. He yells out in pain and falls to his knees because what the fuck that’s a lot of teeth.
Murphy must black out or something because the next time he opens his eyes he’s lying on the forest floor, alone. He looks around for any sign of the yellow eyed werewolf or the beast, but there’s nothing, not even a sound. The wound on his leg is almost fully healed, but Murphy can still practically feel all the teeth in his flesh, it’s gross, really. Slowly, he rises to his feet, shakes off the dirt from his clothes, fixes his hair, and heads home. Briar isn’t home yet, thankfully, so he walks straight to his room and lays on the floor.
Some time later there’s a knock on his door, which means there’s a clan meeting, so he makes his way to the living room where everyone, including Briar, is waiting. He takes a seat on the arm of the couch next to Lena and Briar takes that as a cue to start.
“There’s a wendigo loose in the area” She says. Tipper is the first to raise a hand.
“Those are the ones that shapeshift right?”
“Technically, most supernatural beings can shapeshift” Elliot replies from the opposite end of the couch. Then as an afterthought adds, “So you’re not wrong.”
“Am I ever?”
Elliot makes a face.“Well…”
Tipper glares at Elliot then turns to Lena. “Have I ever been wrong? Don’t lie.”
Lena looks at the finger Tipper is pointing at her, then looks up. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Wow. Unbelievable.”
“Wendigos live off eating human flesh” Elliot supplies, because of course Elliot knows what it is.
“Ah. Cannibals.” Tipper nods, “Hey aren’t we somehow cannibals too?”
Elliot is pinching the bridge of their nose, mentally preparing to hear whatever it is Tipper is going to say.
“I mean. Right? We drink human blood, that’s like one step away from human flesh.” Everyone groans as Tipper seems to be having a crisis. “I’m not a cannibal, but who knows.”
“Guys.” Briar warns. They all shut their mouths and go back to paying attention to what she has to say. “It’s apparently already gotten three people, including one tonight. So can we please be serious about this.”
“Wait. Was it a girl?” Murphy asks. “The one that got killed?”
Maybe he should’ve tried a little more than telling the girl to run. If she got killed because of him…. he pushes the thought away and waits for Briar’s response instead.
“No, it was a guy. He was with a girl, but I managed to get her home safely.” Briar says, then looks at Murphy. “How did you-”
Briar stops abruptly and stares with an open mouth, and soon Murphy can feel the stares from the rest of the clan. He looks over at them, then at Briar, then back.
“What the fuck are you guys staring at?” He looks down at his clothes and notices that they’ve got dirt all over and there’s a twig stuck to his sweater. “Oh. Yeah I might’ve snuck out and fought the wendi-whatever”
Apparently that isn’t enough of an answer because they’re still staring at him as if he’d grown a second head. “What? Stop fuckin looking at me like that”
“Murph….” Briar begins, but can’t seem to get the words out. Now they’re all starting to freak him out.
“If no one tells me what the fuck is going on i’m going to-“
“Bro. Your eyes.” Tipper says. And what? what about them?
“Okay?” He’s a little panicked now. Are they bruised or something? The fuck.
“They’re both blue” Elliot adds.
Both blue. What the fuck? He nearly throws up, for some reason. How did he manage to meet his soulmate and miss it? Fuck.
“Fuck” He breathes out as he runs his fingers through his hair, going over all the events from tonight. Who could it have been? Somehow the wendigo situation is put on hold and they're all trying to figure out who the lucky guy might’ve been. They probe him for questions and he answers as best he can because honestly the only thing on his mind is What The Fuck?
They somehow narrow it down to five people. Murphy is still in shock an hour later, and stares at the wall they’ve made into their mystery board. Or whatever. It’s full of post-its of different colors and sizes, most with their names crossed out. The five left on the board are moved to the center, all in order of most likely to least likely. Tipper is the most excited about it, having gone through at least three red bulls.
Server
Bar Guy
Bouncer
Wendigo
Yellow Eye Guy
“We’re going to find this dude, alright? I swear to you.” Tipper holds Murphys face in their hands, Murphy swats them away and stands. He apparently hadn’t moved since he found out about his eyes.
“Alright alright get back” He straightens his jacket and moves closer to the wall. He squints at one of the names. “Seriously? The Wendigo?” The Wendigo is my soulmate?”
“It could be. Can’t rule anyone out”
“That’s…” Murphy shakes his head and sighs. “Alright. I guess. Whatever.”
They all go into a whole discussion about how they’re going to track down every single person on the list and Murphy is surprised that Briar is joining in on their hijinks. Their excitement is kind of contagious, he finds himself buzzing. or shaking. He can’t tell.
“Shouldn’t the cannibal be first on the list? since it’s, ya know, a priority?” Murphy asks.
“Yeah but what if we die before we can get halfway through the list?” Tippy says, as if duh. Murphy shakes his head.
“Right.” He says. “Right.”
Somehow they all make it back to the club where Murphy had spent his time earlier that night. Tippy practically runs into the Bouncer asking a million questions per second. The poor guy looks at the rest of them asking for help. Elliot tugs Tipper away and asks what they need to ask.
“Have you matched today?” The man shakes his head. “Matched 6 years ago. Sorry.”
After showing their IDs, they all head inside and wait for Murphy to guide them to whoever the Bar Guy is, and the server. Luckily, the server is still on the clock, Elliot and Tipper beeline to the guy as soon as Murphy points him out. They stop a couple feet away from him and then head back.
“Unmatched” They say at the same time.
They can’t find Bar Guy anywhere and Murphy is scared that maybe he left and they won’t be able to find out if they matched. They’re about to lose hope when Murphy bumps into someone and it turns out to be Bar Guy. One eye green, one eye light brown. It’s a no then.
“Hey! It’s you!” He exclaims excitedly, clearly drunk. “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were matched.”
Murphy half laughs. “Yeah”
The club is a dead end and now they’re left with a Wendigo and Yellow Eye Guy. Fuck, what if it’s the Wendigo?
——
There’s a meeting with local werewolves and hunters the next day that Murphy is supposed to go to, being second in command and all. He really doesn’t want to go, but he showers and changes into his Fancy Hoodie and is on his way. They meet up at a veterinary clinic a couple minutes away, because that’s where meetings are held nowadays. They’re greeted by a bald man that Briar calls Deaton who leads them into a back room where three men are standing around an examination table.
The youngest one of the three is standing with his arms crossed, gaze stern. His eyes unmatched, one eye dark brown and the other a grey green. The older man next to him has matched eyes, both green. The other a cold blue pair. He doesn’t realize how much he’s been paying attention to people’s eyes again, it’s been awhile since he last cared.
He stands to Briars left, not saying a word for the rest of the meeting. The werewolves–– that he’s learned are named Derek and Peter–– had been out hunting it down along with the other older man, a hunter named Chris. They haven’t figured out exactly who the wendigo is, so that's their next step. If there’s one, there’s usually a whole group of them, sometimes whole families. Murphy only listens to about half of what they say, but he manages to absorb enough out of the conversation to relay information to the rest of the clan in case they have questions.
When the meeting is over, they all go their separate ways, Briar and Murphy going straight to the clan to catch them up on what they’ve learned. The three members are huddled around the “Soulmate Wall”, Tipper staring intently at the remaining two names. Murphy appreciates the devotion, and he’s glad they’re all putting in effort to help him, but he’s also a bit terrified of finding out who exactly his soulmate is. And he’s also afraid of not finding out. He never thought it would be like this once he matched.
Briar calls for a quick meeting, peeling the three from the wall. She’s about to start speaking when Tipper stands abruptly, sniffing around.
“I smell blood”
And they’re off. Human blood can mean another attack, or death. Briar takes the lead, a look of determination in her eyes. She’s not one to let others die when she’s around and neither are the rest of the members, so they’re moving as fast as they physically can. When they reach the source of the scent, they’re met with a lanky pale boy sitting on the floor tending to his palms as a boy with wavy hair crouches next to him. They both jump up when they realize they’re not alone.
“Oh there's more.” The pale boy says as he hides behind his friend, or soulmate. Murphy can see that they’re both matched from where he’s standing. “We’re gonna die.”
“Who are you?” The other boy asks. Murphy can’t stop staring. He feels warm inside.
“You two shouldn’t be out here.” Briar says instead of answering. If the wendigo were to catch the scent of the boys blood, then he’d be in a lot of trouble.
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” The one closest to them answers, he glances over at Murphy and sends a shiver down his spine. What the fuck is up with him today?
“Yeah he’s-“ The pale one starts, then cringes a bit. “He’s capable of taking care of himself”
Briar pauses for a moment then shakes her head. She must recognize who they are.
“You must be Stiles and Scott.” She says.
The two boys exchange a confused glance. “How did you know that?”
“Derek,” She tells them. “He told me we’d be likely to run into you.”
They’re all interrupted by a loud screech coming from further into the woods. The one with an uneven jawline says a name, Murphy thinks it’s Allison, then runs off in the direction of the noise. His soulmate probably. Murphy doesn’t understand why he’s so disappointed, but he has no time to think about it because Briar is running to the commotion too.
“Yeah, you guys just— I'll wait here.” The pale boy says as they begin running off one by one. Tipper salutes the boy and laughs before leaving him there with a bloody hand, which probably isn’t a good idea with a wendigo on the loose. But they’re all gone so Murphy leaves too.
They find a half injured Wendigo trying to fight with the guy from earlier. There are a couple arrows sticking out from its back, all probably from the tall girl in a long black coat holding a very modern bow. She’s still shooting at it, trying to immobilize it enough for them to take it on, but it’s almost like the arrows are doing nothing to it.
“Scott!” She yells out just as the wendigo sends the guy, Scott, flying. He crashes right on top of Murphy who’d been standing a few feet behind him. Groaning, Murphy pushes him off and shakes off the leaves on his clothes.
“That thing just loves throwing people around.” He mumbles, readying for a fight. the clan members are already going up against it and it’s just barely enough. Soon they’re all being thrown around like rag dolls, it’s hard to see who’s being thrown where and who’s who. It’s all a blur really, until a shot is fired and the thing falls to the ground with a thud. Everyone’s eyes go to Chris, who’s still holding the gun up.
“Don’t worry, I used a tranquilizer.” He reassures Scott who looks disheveled and a bit scandalized. He must be anti murder or something. “It won’t keep him down long, let’s get him to Eichen.”
Briar nods, then stretches an arm out to help the arrow girl Murphy assumes is Allison. She helps her up off the ground and then both of them freeze.
“Oh!!!!” Tipper yells out. “Holy shit you’re matching.”
Everyone keeps their distance, letting the two have their moment. The clan is buzzing with excitement, including Murphy who lets himself forget that he has a soulmate out there somewhere that he might not ever meet. At Least Briar found hers. He notices that the pale guy, Stiles, is somehow now next to his friend, he was probably hiding out in the trees.
Murphy watches intently as Stiles approaches the wendigo carefully, peeling its eyes open. He frowns as he shuffles away back to Scott.
“He’s unmatched.” He hears him say. Were they hoping he was matched? Well now Murphy knows the wendigo isn’t his match either. That’s good, then. “We’ll find your Larry Talbot, buddy”
At that, Murphy’s head snaps over to the pair. “He called me Larry Talbot though,” Scott clarifies. And Murphy’s head is spinning. Could Scott be Yellow Eyed Guy? How does he ask? Should he get Tipper to ask? “I don't even know who that is.”
“He’s the, uh, original wolf man.” Murphy says. “From 1941.”
“Huh.” Stiles says, hands on his hips. Scott stares intently at Murphy, it kind of makes him squirm.
“You…” Scott starts to say, taking a small step forward. “I recognize your voice. It was you.”
Murphy absolutely freezes. So it is Scott. That explains the warm feeling inside when he was around him, the same feeling he feels right now. The two stare at each other for a second too long that Stiles starts looking between the two excitedly.
“Oh, my god!” He exclaims in the same tone as Tipper a few minutes earlier. “Dude!”
“Yellow Eyed Guy!!!!!” Tipper yells, grinning.
Everything turns into a blur of hugs and yelling and congratulations that Murphy doesn’t even realize when the wendigo was taken away and when a group of people turned into just Scott and him. It’s calm, finally, and he’s glad that his soulmate didn’t turn out to be a flesh eating supernatural creature. After nearly 100 years, of living a life of not knowing who he could end up with, of worrying that maybe he wouldn’t have one because of what he became, he’s finally found someone that’s brave, with a good moral compass, and cute. Someone he still has to get to know, that makes him excited to want to learn everything about them. The thought makes him happy.
“So, soulmates?” He says nervously. A kind smile spreads across Scott’s face, it makes Murphy swoon.
“Soulmates.”
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14x03 watching notes
Just finished watching and said, out loud and to no one: “Awww Jack.”
(This is not a spoiler, he’s just so sweet.)
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Hallo, I am watching from bed despite having 3rd hand inherited a 2nd monitor over the weekend so theoretically my watching experience would be back to giant comfortable side-typing glory.
But comfy.
Easily accessible stuffed toys because Bobo Fucking Berens in Dabb era has made me cry more at this dumb show in the last couple of years than I cried in the previous ten.
Expectations: it's our Dean episode to make up for no Dean until now, and also Jody is there to see Sam's beard, and also Cas continues to be party!Cas, and Jack's shirts get darker and darker.
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Side note: I think I was rushing out the door before I could talk about our lil Nougat of Denmark properly last episode where he was all, so we're killing my uncle then, and Cas was all D: D: D: D: D: who raised you. (Dean. Dean did. In this regard the boy is his father's son.) This, of course, is another Shakespearean irony than is being returned to Dean via Jack.
The point of this focus is very much to show Jack vs Cas mindsets on it when we're getting Dean returned to us, and I assume considerably more nuance is being added to the story. But for now, Jack being ready to kill his father to kill his uncle because his father was ready to kill him to kill the ghosts he saw of his enemies in Jack is more than enough of a pile of tragedy level angst to be working with.
I just need it to be clear that as far as I'm concerned, Jack is working in a completely different genre from EVERYONE ELSE around him, and the fact that it's the protagonist of a tragedy is fairly alarming, as it's a mindset that Sam, Dean and Cas have hurdled over since season 5/6 and though Dean still assumes he'll die bloody, he is at least capable of dreaming of a happy ending, and a lessening of the angst load has allowed that. Their personal stakes in the story are dwindling, in a sense, while Jack has showed up with like FOUR FATHERS and an evil uncle, which is so much potential family angst Shakey would have exploded. "Wait you can just addeth extra fathers thence addeth extra angst!?!?"
Yes my dude, yes.
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*hits play* *Sam ruggedly cocks his pistol* You're stealing this whole shtick from Dean and I think it is time for the angst that you were the one dramatically cocking a gun and being the yes reductive heteronormative blah blah penis of the dynamic while Dean was not there to do it.
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Oh no we immediately start with more Jack angst recap and aside from everything I just said I remembered that Bobo personally murdered me in 13x03 with the Jack n Sam stuff and here we are a year later.
Mr Stark I don't feel so good
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THE BEARD EXCHANGE IS LITERALLY THE OPENING SCENE. BOBO I LOVE YOU. Thank you for breaking the tension and immediately drawing attention to how Sam has been busy and miserable. I think 14x01 set up well that every time he even had a moment to sigh his phone would ring again, and hence the beard appears as Sam eskews personal grooming and comfort in exchange for finding his brother. Jody is gonna draw attention to it at some point too because we have the promo shot of her nice peach fuzz-ing him, and I sincerely hope this is bookends to the episode and the next episode Sam is clean shaven with no comment except Jody prodded him in the face, and let me tell you only Bobo has me fantasising about the narrative framing of an episode like this.
God i'm a nerd
Anyway more seriously, this exchange coming out of the blue has a clear motive: Dean is up and about, still so freshly de-Michaeled he's in a waistcoat (and LORDY the only other scene he was in a waistcoat? 7x12's ending scene where Sam turns into such a moron in Jody's presence he's waving blushily at the door still AFTER SHE HAS GONE). Complaining about not being able to eat and sleep might be a sense of hyperbole to catch given the lack of elapsed time, but it also warns us that this might be how Dean reacts to being un-Michaeled. Or would he not, given he's up and about and snarking like his old self? How damaged will he be and how much can he repress into snark? He is playing off the very idea that this experience will have been damaging to his psyche and of course Michael did a ton of stuff which was expressly tuned to BE damaging to his psyche, then punched a mirror and shattered Dean's reflection for extra emphasis.
So all this question of how Dean is doing is loaded into the very opening line before he's even taken off his waistcoat, or of course, had enough time to truly eat/sleep/develop massive tells of the psychological trauma he may or may not have taken.
Obviously the show wouldn't be the show if he were fine, so I'm taking it as a question posed.
Then of course it slides into Bro Banter to prove it's Dean, remind us JUST how much we missed this snarky genre savvy fucker, and to make Sammy smile.
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Also we're mocking Jared for being friends with that one Duck Dynasty guy who Jared's fans insist is the least awful of the bunch and also who you end up hanging out with when you're most embedded in the Texan stardom scene rather than living in Hollywood or whatever.
(God imagine being famous and from Atlanta and sticking true to your roots and you end up with the Queer Eye guyses as your BFFs instead)
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Listen Bobo showed his socialist party membership card on twitter, he has no fucks to give about waving his politics around and I love him.
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"If you're going to ask if I'm okay, you don't have to" (I am making fun of your beard, what more do I have to give you, bro?)
Buddy, I have been watching your face for over a decade and you have the sad tired pink eyelids of a Dean who is both tired and miserable.
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Oh NO Dean walks into the main room expecting his comfy quiet library and war room full of 3 trusted family faces, and finds the bustle of Boss Sam's operation. The upcoming noise of these people before he turns the corner is an immediate warning that we should have expected this as dramatic irony for Dean's comfort levels from the start, and now he's back, well.
Panicked eyes.
He needs quiet recovery with his peeps, not alarming sudden change. A rug pull immediately after possession is a terrible thing to deal with. I've been wondering if this is a full reverse of season 6 for Dean - from the trustability of the hunter compound to the fact he lives in it, to the Samuel running it. But the effect is the same. Dean comes back from quiet time off to a change he can't handle and Sam in a new position in a family/hunter heirarchy. In this case, not Samuel's soulless goon, but a fully bearded Boss Sam King Of Hell Sir who Runs Shit competently in a way we the viewer trust implictly as Sam having Done Well, and also that the AU peeps might be a bit rough or untrained in some ways but 100% reliable in that they really do have no ulterior motive and every reason to think of Sam as an AU Moses who popped up and walked them to another land of safety and comfort.
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Like, Dean, welcome back, you have Hamlet, Moses and Mobby to deal with. Cas seems to be the same as you left him, though. If somehow, impossibly, squintier.
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"Right, Chief told us"
GOD I MISSED JENSEN'S MICRO EXPRESSIONS
You know how Michael sucks? No micro expressions. Guy doesn't have an anxious bone in his body.
This little bundle of neuroses I have chosen to love is full on having a meltdown on the other hand.
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"Dean? Is it really you?"
"Hey kid"
HUG. THE. BOY.
I suppose this is better than last year when he had a hug from a shapeshifter and had to wait to episode 6 for a hug from his father, but REALLY this season has been tormenting me with how bad Jack feels and even a hug from his gramgram isn't enough to satisfy how he should have been hugged by Sam, Cas and now Dean already this season.
We're only on epiode 3 and he's already got more hugs than he had this point last year. Deep breaths, Lizzy
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Children need a lot of cuddles to affect their development into sensitive people okay? Dean got a lot of hugs up to age 4 and Sam basically did not, and he's an awkward moose and Dean is snuggly. I want Nougat to have the same development into a sensitive lad because he has EIGHTEEN FUCKING PARENTS AND NONE OF THEM HUG HIM
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CAS HEARD 'DEAN' FROM ACROSS THE BUNKER, ARRIVES IN A BLUR
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GOOD NOUGAT, HUG DEAN.
But like, dude, Cas just showed up at a run and made the gooiest eyes at Dean who made them back, and now you're officially cockblocking, so naff off, kid
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I watched with prayer hands and Cas just got gooier and Dean got sulky he didn't get a Cas hug and this is officially the worst. Bobo, you let me down, my guy.
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I mean no, Cas's gooey eyes were
...
Cas doesn't do gooey eyes. He squints. Squintily.
Who is this guy
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Lol Mobby aren't in the episode because they stayed back to clean up - Sam gets stammery to Jack. Is he scared to imply they're maybe banging because he finds it weird but everyone else present is an even worse audience to announce this to for one reason or another (historically coped much better with the concept of dad sex when discovering adam and also didn't drive the car off the road into a ditch on finding out mary banged ketch), or is he trying to protect Jack from the concept of Michael leaving a pile o dead bodies for one reason or another, knowing Michael is his rage button?
-
He was the one who dealt with Jack trying to stay back in the AU to fight Mikey instead of just coming home.
-
"Speaking of clean up, I need a shower" *gestures vaguely* *Cas opens his mouth like why did I have a reaction image here? Do you want -* *closes mouth* *dean leaves*
Guys. You fucking suck. Go take a shower together and work things out.
-
"Still okay, I promise" *bisexual finger guns at Cas*
cut to: Cas squinting after Dean like "is he implying something"
"..."
"I really feel like he was trying to communicate something to me"
"..."
"I have no idea what Dean just hinted loudly to me twice in short succession and now that he has gone to shower I guess I will never know what he was attempting to communicate to me"
-
"Where's Nick?"
"Hopefully not in this episode. Let's just say he needs some time because he's in a dark place and hope that's ALL we have to say about him"
-
Oh no. "Sam. Dean. How is he really?"
Cas has a one track mind.
But then we get the shot of Dean opening his door and they're still talking about him over the top of it, but it's that same shadowed shot of himself silhouetted in the doorway, the inner darkness represented by his room... Sam went into his and stripped himself of the tools in his pocket but before he could sleep, Jo called and set them all off again with the next lead.
Now Dean opens his door and turns on the light so we can see his inner self in a moment of peace and privacy, but essentially with a voice over about how he's super not okay.
-
Just how we left it. You can't even tell that for the last 2 episodes/3 weeks Cas has been coming in and snuggling your pillow every time he's not in a scene because where the fuck was he inbetween scenes in 14x02
-
God I have missed lingering shots of Dean's room, equating his inner space to his inner feelings. *paws lovingly at the shot* Dean's room all tidy and orderly and as he left it, yet feeling somehow very very empty and off-kilter in an unfamiliar way because he hasn't been here for so long.
-
It was all serious then guitar music started playing as Dean started stripping
and look
I saw the promo pics
you saw the promo pics
some person in the audience is like... why are we lingering on Dean getting undressed alone in his room while guitar music kicks up?
-
Is this what all that winking and finger gun action was about?
-
(Dean didn't wink but I took a lil break to chat with Mittens and the moment has evolved into him gurning at the door for like a minute trying to remind Cas that this means he joins him in the shower in 5)
-
"Fuck this shirt in particular"
I still think it was the audacity of wearing a bow tie that dragged Dean to the surface last episode
-
I love how Dean changes from this plain white t-shirt which is completely clean and shiny, into his normal dark dark brown shirt between scenes. I hope he got to shower. Whatever happened, this scar could have said "Ha ha ha I'm behind you", and he would have finished stripping down right to the skivvies then started fresh with his own boxerbriefs before freaking out and rushing to show the others.
-
But yeah, he's PISSED and embarrassed about Michael. You don't throw a guy's shirt on the floor like that unless you feel SERIOUSLY used, and here we end up with a creepy sort of STD metaphor, complete with the visual similarity to the clap: https://www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/products/clap.html
Bad fling, Dean?
-
Poker!witch gave Sam the clap in the episode which was totally not a metaphor about Sam getting the clap then beating poker!witch at his own game like nearly 20 episodes before he was possessed by Lucifer then beat him at his own game.
-
"Do the whole vulcan mind meld thing" Listen, James T Kirk, you can't just MAKE yourself one of the most iconic slash pairings of all time by comparing - wait
wait a minute
*Checks slash history books and sees them as a dictionary definition or two*
-
Anyway.
-
Dean's so eager for Cas to jump into his head. Just, like. Again. We all said it but immediately after that shirt throw? It REALLY emphasises that Dean sees Cas in this transcendant way to being used by an angel that got in his head. And left an STD mark on his arm. He can just immediately think, well, that sucked. But here's MY angel and I'm just gonna rev myself up and present my head for inspection and this isn't even a thing I'm concerned about. Hit me, big guy.
-
Oh come the fuck on Bobo.
I didn't have time to hit pause to have a heart attack about Cas putting his hand over The Scar, the one on the wrong shoulder, to get a clearer reception, because there's a HISTORY in scars, okay? They leave a mark and to the discerning poker and prodder like Cas that history can be read in the mark... And Cas sees... Michael being stabbed by a spear. Not just, like. Seeing Michael being stabbed by a spear, mind you. He sees it in a Bobo episode in a way wildly reminiscent of Patience seeing Claire/Kaia getting stabbed by a VERY SIMILAR LOOKING SPEAR and getting her Wayward introduction that way, when the whole Dreamhunter thing ended up being a massive Destiel parallel and Kaia getting stabbed already mirrored CAS getting stabbed by a spear (Michael's, natch) in 12x12, never mind the other stuff.
So Bobo has just built up a Destiel Dreamhunter sandwich, with Destiel nonsense either side, complete with bonus shoulder scar imagery, and a nice gooey dreamhunter centre.
Bobo, if you hadn't noticed, is really really really really reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally bitter he isn't off writing Wayward Sisters and hanging with his girls.
There's still a bunch of stuff to add up here, about why and who and how it all connects, which would involve dragging in these other spear-y episodes to assemble the full picture, so I'm just gonna hit play now I'm recovered from the shock :P
-
Oh dude it was a hooded figure who even LOOKED like bad Kaia and tbh at this point I'd say maybe even was?
Like, how many pronged spears are out there anyway and Jody's dealing with it so is it local? Did Michael pop up on Kaia like hey so you and I are both from alternate universes, what do you wa - OW FUCK JESUS FUKKIN CHRIST -
-
"Dean, who was that?"
Dean recognised her, and Cas was mind-melded enough with him to know that Dean did... Good grief I can not handle Dean and Cas existing on an emotional plane.
It's enough to mean they're the ones who call Jody with a tip off for HER rather than months of them asking her to help THEM.
-
Introducing us back to the Wayward world - South Dakota mug, and a text that Claire is a little angel who has been training her gals and even did the laundry.
I'm so happy
-
Eyebrow raise
God, Kim Rhodes is the most beautiful woman on the whole show and that's saying something considering, like. Ruthie. Lisa Berry. Something about the way she uses her face is so full of intelligence and humour that I am HELPLESS in her presence
-
God damn I want that fabled Girls' Night episode. Billie comes along too on a night off.
-
Rowena calls her up for chats sometimes these days, they're actually really good pals.
-
Sam you fucking moron you can't even finish a sentence in her presence. Just slap Dean on his WOUNDED arm and throw the ball to him.
-
Everyone leaning over the phone... This is the closest Cas has ever come to Jody.
"Jody, that's the good news."
Jody recognises that gravelly voice and snaps to holyshitanangel attention. "What's up?"
The implicit thing here is that Cas and Jody know each others' voices and are on at least chatting acquaintance. I would like to think they're invited over for beer at the same time but we have no proof..................... yet. This is Bobo on a "fuck you" rampage so I'm just, like, gonna wait see.
-
Bad Kaia has been going around ripping heads off things. DAMN, GIRL.
-
Considering the placement of the pronging was ~random~, in the sense that she can meat fork you anywhere, that means the placement of it on the meat of Dean's arm where the handprint once was on the other is even MORE significant in a metaphorical sense, of writing about "the scar" in the way of giving it a mystical property tied into the wider framework of all these relationships and events at once. The amount piled onto a simple stabbing is unbelievable, and the use of the scar as the vector for all this is definitely the byline of the episode given the title and all. It's brought Kaia back to us, given Jody the clue she needs.
And more dramatic irony that Claire was just asking to help, and Jody was like DEFINITELY HUMAN, SO ALL MINE. HAHAHA. And now we know, no, it's not all "human", it's bad!Kaia and that makes her CLAIRE'S.
-
I keep stopping to seal clap
-
it's 7:20am
-
Cas is packing up to leave with them!!!
And Jack looms blurrily into the background in his darkest t-shirt yet. And he's been RAPIDLY cycling through them.
In a sense this is good laundry practice, in order that you have a full load of lights followed by a full load of darks.
Metaphorically, however, this is BAD.
Jack sounds pissed they're all wearing jackets and packing bags, and he's wandering around in an over-sized dark grey t-shirt (one of Dean's? AUBobby's? It doesn't look like his standard fare which fits his body, this makes him look SMOL), with no idea we were off to kill the wizard.
Let's be charitable and say he wants to meet Jody and hang out with Kaia again.
But more likely Bobo is once again messing with Jack's inherent darkness in his presentation, especially as right now, once again while Jack is being The Sweetest Little Cookie, meeting his grandparents for ice tea and looking through the family photo album with misty eyes, he is ALSO Prince Nougat of Denmark and this is causing some serious darkness slippage because, well, revenge. Revenge is bad, kiddo. Don't need a ghost of your dead father (hey Dean's back) to tell you that.
The accusatory tone is enough to warn us that Jack's not doing so well and I'm going to assume drags Cas away from a mission with Dean followed by cooldown eating pizza and watching flicks with the girls.
-
"Kaia's killer is in Sioux Falls" Buddy.
"He, she or it can hurt Michael" BUDDY.
I suppose they're bringing Cas because Bad Kaia kicked their asses and they assume Cas is the same height as her pet/metaphor for Kaia's inner fucked-up-ness so he can probably fight it??
-
"Michael's my enemy too! I fought him. For MONTHS." JACK sweetie. You can't just go around like, having an enemy list. And comparing it with your collective fathers' list.
The line about bringing Kaia into it and being responsible for what happened to her is good, though. Jack's got a social consciousness and that is lovely because he keeps doubting his goodness but when it comes down to it he wants to meet his grandparents and feels bad that Kaia got dragged into things and killed.
Of course, not realising this is Bad Kaia, they're all off to get MORE revenge on that thing that killed her.
-
Aw, Dean, no, don't point out how smol he is. He's wearing a huge baggy shirt to emphasise it already.
"I didn't - I didn't MEAN to be a dick" Whoops. Well, you were. You also missed the part where Jack went from smol precious child to angsty teen.
Fun fact: Hamlet was supposed to be like 18 or whatever, but because a famous actor wanted the lead role but was like, idk, 50, Shakey bumped up Hamlet's age a lil so he could get away with it, making him more of, like, a giant manbaby who is still functionally a teen in all ways except he keeps getting portrayed by middle aged men.
So, of course, we have our one and a half year old Nougat who is a 29 year old actor now getting into his terrible teens, and if that isn't the funnest nugget of trivia...
... then you are not as much of a nerd as I am about irony, coincidence, and neat overlaps of thingies.
Point is: get me a version of Hamlet where the other expected actors are adults of course, but Horatio and Hammy and his squad are dumb teens.
-
Lol Bobo just randomly introduces a cool lady hunter who is dragging a random victim of a hex down into the bunker to be healed by an angel. That poor girl is going to have a story to tell.
A lot just happened in a few seconds but at least Jack, who has stormed off for his nth teenage sulk of the season, now has a Cas trapped in the Bunker with him.
Dean n Sam gonna get their asses kicked by Bad Kaia
honestly is this just a ploy not to keep Cas where Jack is, but to keep Misha away from stunt fighting?
Anyway Dean communicates most of the above to Cas silently, and tells him that he should stay with Jack and also heal this girl and they have the most married eye conversation about what needs to be done, which is wonderful that they've been having these silent conversations all Dabb era but this is definitely the wordiest so far. I mean one of their more recent was just "Dean I can hear that cowboy music in your head" "what cowboy music?"
-
DEAN DOESN'T EVEN LOOK THRILLED TO BE DRIVING BABY AGAIN.
Sam mostly looks concerned he's hitting 80mph
I don't know anything about American speed limits but this is an alarming speed to me because in the UK 70 is usually like, the Most, and we don't have enough long straight roads that when there's no speed limit it's ever really recommended to go super fast because you will flip your car and die because all our roads are one and a half car length wide and extremely wiggly. And our motorways are congested enough you're more likely to be in a traffic jam than top speed anyway :P
-
I love that Dean measures people by their favourite Spice Girl. Hey Dean the 90s called, they want their pop culture relevance back.
You gay icon you.
(I'm reminded of 12x07 and Bobo and a similar conversation where Dean listed off all his manly manly historical faves)
-
Dean thinks Cas can handle it back home :')
-
"Something huge happened and you won't really talk about it!"
Okay Sam, he's traumatised and that's surface text.
You do realise the entire massive subtext is his repression and yet another metaphor for some huge queer experience and that this is the same conversation as 10x04 when he was grumbling into his chin about being embarrassed about what he did with Crowley? You realise that right?
Stop poking him about it, he'll talk when he's ready to open up. In the mean time he's feeling used and ashamed that this fling didn't go as planned after the whole first flirtation with waving his wings around and killing Lucifer where it all seemed fun to embrace his ~true self~ and have a crack at being a Flaming Michael Sword.
-
Also of course, we might just take him on his word that he really does NOT remember most of everything that happened because if he was truly repressing that much he wouldn't have been so gung ho for Cas to read his mind earlier but this mood pre-dates that so even if he remembered everything when Cas poked his brain, which seems unlikely as Cas saw it too, the wider sulk about his Clap Scar is more than just this.
-
It's a common experience, though, that Dean is repressed and moody, and Sam barrels in there trying to make him talk about it before he's ready, so the pressing is in character, regardless, that Sam doesn't trust that Dean is telling the whole truth and that there's some huge secret he's holding back.
The best part of queer subtext is that whether there is one or not it works - if there isn't, it's a metaphor for the obvious. If there is, same as above but the metaphor is concretely attached to whatever Dean is not telling Sam, and that in turn then becomes a part of the queer subtext, offered up on a platter to tell us more about how Dean is handling his post-possession shame of being, essentially, roofied after thinking he'd agreed to a consensual fling with a dude on his terms of entry and no strings attached, no walk of shame like he did when he was undressing earlier.
-
Poor guy can not catch a break. Shoulda hooked up with Aaron when you had the chance so your first time having a dude in you wasn't such a big deal, but just a nice booty call to keep in your phonebook. Now it's all Crowley this, Michael that...
-
"We need to deal with it."
"Okay, I'm literally going EIGHTY to deal with it"
Dean, that's.
that's not therapy
"How can I be running from something when I'm RACING towards it"
"I don't know, it's kinda your thing"
Sammy boy you have been trapped in the same car as Dean for way too long. Your analysis is getting deep. Deep deep cuts. Leave him alone.
-
I mean this is a guy who dealt with a gay panic by hooking up with Crowley and singing karaoke for him so.
-
"I just *need* you to talk to me. Slow down."
Oh SAM you said a good and interesting combo of words there. Dean, go 70 instead of 80, give us some time to feel this out because I've been FREAKED and, for you, you got a time skip but I lived it all real time and it SUCKED, and I'm hurt too by this. Reminder: our family does not do well with LOSING each other, and this is every conversation we've ever had post-thinking that happened, and I did things responsibly and grew a beard and became Boss of a bunch of peeps and also King of Hell but we'll talk about that later... Like, slow down. I have my issues too. There's 2 of us in this car and you can't go 80 and time skip to the end of this conversation either. Not when I have 3 weeks of angst packed into it.
-
Also: classic Sam projection. Trying to get Dean to open up because HE has pain he wants to air, instead of just bringing up how he felt, he tries to get Dean to open up, and when this continues, as always, not to be how Dean deals with things, Sam gets upset because it never gives him the opening to talk about his shit until it's an argument...
You could have just started the convo, sorry about the beard, I really mean it when I say I haven't had a moment to myself for 3 weeks, it's been HELL and funny I should mention Hell, er, did you know you can kinda just declare yourself king these days... heh
-
At least he's using racing metaphors about wanting to catch up and also, like, catch up
Dean responds to the sport metaphors
-
Dean is like nah call Jody we're almost there. I skipped ahead.
-
Look, I'm delivering you to your boo, what more do you want?
Jody smiles at the sight of them in a way which is almost as revolting as Cas smiling at seeing Dean again
-
Hugs!
Send Jody to the Bunker to HUG OUR BOY
-
"How'd you do it?"
"What, me vs some assbag archangel? Who would you pick?"
"You, every time."
And this, guys, is how Jody is never, ever patched into their angst, because they present a narrative where Dean just kinda chucked off Mikey and sent him packing and it's all cool and he's a hero.
Jody has at multiple points threatened to beat Dean into submission in order to hear a true version of how he's doing and he has so far not given in and sat at her kitchen table with a box of tissues to sob through his crap, but I hold out eternal hope like the fool I am.
Anyway it's also telling RIGHT AFTER that last conversation where Sam was probing Dean so intensely, that this is the version of "I'm fine" that Dean is going with, and even though Sam KNOWS there's more to it, this is the wall Dean is projecting, even to him. Even when he knows Dean is freaked by it and doesn't know all the details.
-
Jody goes up like 18 pitches "Heeey I liiIIIiiike it!" she squeaks, forcefully tweaking Sam's beard because "nice peach fuzz" is too understated both for Jody and the volume of facial hair Sam has produced without comment until Dean came back and Jody showed up.
-
Dean has never been so offended in his life
-
*Jody continues giggling to herself while Sam desperately looks for a normal conversation*
-
AHAHA "I haven't been home since I talked to her........... I may be avoiding her"
Yeaaaah, bringing up that it's not just a normal human beheading and weird stab mark, but ALSO a KAIA-RELATED ONE maaay be... too much.
-
i'm going to be honest I've been so thrilled about everything I forgot to check what cast is flashing up on the screen
-
Anyway there is very much a subtext to Jody's avoidance of telling Claire what's going on that she knows how much she loved Kaia and how much of an issue this is - even if it's gonna be for revenge, because they don't know it's Bad Kaia - this is something where Claire's feelings make a MESS.
-
Bobo gets in Sam's serial killer thing, Dean is staring into the void like am I still even here or am I in hell. Is this a hell that Michael conjured. Mikey. Hey. Mikey. I figured it out. We're done here. Let's go back to regular torture. Michael. This is the bad place. Michael.
-
Dean stomps off into the woods because waiting for daybreak means being stuck in the same room as Jody and Sam flirting for a few hours.
-
Jody firmly pokes Sam in the chest with a map.
-
Sam.
-
A raven caws in the background, and Jack is wearing layers, the darkest shirt yet, a thick corduroy jacket in the style of early Sam, and is packing a bag.
-
He wrote a note and his handwriting is as disgustingly adorable as I thought it might be.
Alex wrote "Jack" with a cutesy backwards K in an autograph for someone who requested it at a con and I thought that was a cute detail but not how Jack would write and the real story - and I assume like with others they made him write it in character - is much more nuanced. His letters are competently shaped like he knows exactly how they should be, but shakily written, like he's not used to holding a pen, because, well, he isn't. He's not developed the muscle memory for it, just as he hasn't for fighting and all the other stuff, because in may ways he IS still a smol toddler with no life skills. His capital letters are huge and precise, like he knows he has to write them big, but disproportionate - putting so much emphasis on the titles of the people around him, the capital letters a metaphor for their influence on him. There's something clearly unconfident about writing and yet for all that obviously written by someone intelligent enough not to make basic errors of backwards letters and other things. He knows exactly how he is SUPPOSED to do it, but the execution is shakey, and disproportionate and generally looks unschooled and painfully revealing of his entire state of being.
-
Is this the scene where Bobo said out loud to an empty room, awww Jack.
-
I've been dreading that since the hiatus.
Maybe I should dig up that post and use it as the title for this one.
-
Triss is gonna die, Jack stopped by the stairs up out the Bunker in the war room, heard and saw Cas moving around, then in a fit of conscience or missing him already or something, stopped by to open the door and look in.
They have DEFINITELY expanded the Bunker set, in the sense that they've attached extra rooms to it or Wanek has sat down and made some parts more standardised, because they've shown off the corridor connections in every episode so far, and in this one we're seeing a never-seen-before connection which actually explains what is behind that window and how it fits. I mean, I'm pretty sure we've seen this particular room a few times, window and all, but never actual connections which show connected sets, so much as scenes starting or stopping there with no transition.
-
"She's been enchanted"
"Like sleeping beauty" Jack says with awe
"Awwwwwwwwwww" Lizzy says with awww
I honestly can't tell which moment Bobo said "Aw Jack" out loud about because we're getting such a series of them
-
Anyway, Hamlet, the great procrastinator, is distracted away from his mission to kill his uncle.
Not sure about the overlap of hearing things from the other side of a wall but I mean at least he's not going around stabbing people so
-
Jack also seeing all the important work they do for other people, even randos, and Cas getting involved in huntery business, distracted from emotionally nurturing him because of sleeping beauty there, and phoning rowena, doing the work to unknot a spell...
If we get Cas doing spellwork I'm gonna die, it's been Too Long.
-
Cas [squinting]: "Are you going somewhere?"
Sleeping Beauty: "ooooww"
Jack: "No."
Hon, that was so suspicious you are lucky this is Cas and not one of your other dads.
But. Aww Jack to an empty room.
-
"If I get a vote I'm team stick together" Jody remembers 9x19
Also Sam remembers bad!Kaia kicking their butts. They're on her natural territory
she is the Predator.
-
Sam keeps LOOKING at Jodio.
Look, I just
Cas keeps looking at Dean, Dean keeps looking at Cas
Jam won't stop looking at each other
-
That head is a Warning.
Come no further, mortals
-
I think Bad Kaia lives here
-
Vampires.
they really need to figure out how to biologically identify them except for teeth because they really come up against a lot of dead ones
-
Oh
"I brought tissue samples home, Alex ran them underneath the microscope"
Look, girls supporting girls, I knew what they needed to do before they did it lol
-
Dean: I was stabbed here
-
YAY I went frame by frame before the reveal and that is Kaia's face in there, the hood less spooky than before and more open to reveal her
-
Dean: bout to be stabbed here again
-
Dean finally has the moves to take on Bad Kaia after a season or two with the new stunt guy
but then her hood falls back and he's STUNNED
-
Now everyone is stunned
-
I think they've been using the Wayward Sisters Bad Place soundtrack for this but I'd have to check
the music is so very different and I'm not good at music ear thing
-
Cas: *eye twitches violently*
Me: Cas why are you having trouble with this line
Cas: "... marked.................... 'gross stuff'"
Cas, internally: Why did I marry into this family
-
Future MoLHunter 100 years later: "Man, this place is sweet, but the filing system is balls to the walls."
Other Future MoLHunter: "Babe, you did not read the Winchester Gospels before your initiation?"
F MoLHunter: "There is a drawer here marked 'hands of god' and the only thing in there is a pair of chopsticks and a ladel"
OF MoL Hunter: Okay I will give you that.
-
Me out loud to an empty room: aww Jack
He's so concerned about Sleeping Beauty, and he can't do anything about it but he's curious.
Maybe he CAN fix her and this is how he gets a lil power back.
I hope so because awww Jack being so concerned about her.
This is a Good Procrastination From Revenge
Hamlet, take fucking notes
-
"Is that your dad?"
"One of them, yes." Aw Jack
Aw Bobo
Jack's flipping around on family - he's accused them of talking about nick/Lucifer as his father, he's disowned everyone but grampa and grammy Kline, and now he's fondly thinking of his three hero dads
He's really struggling to work out his place and what sort of family set up he belongs to and to be fair, he has so many fucking options and all of them are somewhat disastrous or tragic, so he's 100% in his right to be fuckin confused.
On the other hand Sleepy Beauty has no context so she's gonna assume Cas is gay married with a kid Jack's age and that's like, not untrue.
-
"My mom... but she probably hates me"
"Why?" Jack says, horrified at the entire concept that a mom could hate a child, because, well, Kelly's love was COSMIC for him
"because I left," she anvils
-
"I was sick of being treated like a kid, and i thought I could make it on my own" Oh boy. She's just expositioning how Jack feels and immediately telling him if he leaves he'll fall in with a witch, who curses her with an AGING spell which will make her old before her time.
I feel like there is probably... a metaphor........... in here...............
-
Also a reverse of Dean's aged down curse, because the girl and her other victims were hansel and greteled.
I had a sudden whim a couple of nights ago to see aged down Dean and current Jack hang out. Bring back Dylan Everett to go play basketball with Jack out on the front step.
-
"Gave us all nice things," she says, clutching at a HUGE EVIL EMERALD PENDANT AROUND HER NECK
Jack.................................
Is that cursed
-
"She said having us there kept her young" She put her own age into that locket
dang I should get a bonus point for bringing up poker!witch before he was relevant
I'm always curious about the show's implications about witches maintaining their youth by sucking it from others, because almost every witch we've met who had a focus on age was doing it for that reason, whether it was eating children or playing poker.
And we have a 300 year old witch chilling around who we don't know anything about when it comes to immortality, except that she has it and she bestowed it on Oskar so it's clearly a spell she can do rather than an inherent trait of reaching a certain level of magic practitionery.
-
"Then it started taking me too. Even faster than the others!" yeah because she killed the witch so she probably has to suck poor sleeping beauty dry in order to regenerate and skulk away and start over somewhere
-
PS: Sleeping Beauty is really doing an amazing performance here. I 100% am in Jack's shoes of being horrified and wanting to protect her
-
"Cas is going to fix this. I promise" Sweetie! Have you ever called him Cas rather than Castiel before? It seems weird. He even wrote castiel on the letter
-
Sam deducts Michael's entire plan off the clue that Alex couldn't detect the vamps in her sciencing, and based on having been attacked by super werewolves.
But why is Michael cleaning up these people?
Unless he's taking threats off the board who would be too cool and powerful and may challenge him...
-
"Doesn't change the plan"
"but Dean - "
Dean walks off
Dean has no time for Sam suggesting maybe this is something awful because of Michael that Dean might know about or else be weirdly intimately connected to because of his weird Michael-based condition.
We have no clue what's going on and Sam doesn't like that and Dean's powering through and Jody is hovering in the background like WOW I can see why you leave me out of all your dumb main plot angst normally. Never done me one of these MAIN PLOT ones before. Can we go back to normal MotW where you're low key angsting in the subtext about whatever currently ails you?
-
Jody slaps Sam on the lower back
lower, babe. Lower.
-
Cas does magic, boom purple smoke!
Aw no she's still withered.
Jack, take her necklace off and smash it
because you did the good work of a hunter and talked to her and through being kind discovered what was wrong with her
-
Jody has a phone provider that gets her signal in the wilderness
-
"Claire's been doing so good, but anything connected to Kaia... she's a powder keg"
"FIRST LOVE STRIKES QUICK, AND TO LOSE IT LIKE THAT"
okay no Jody didn't shout it, but Bobo did.
ILY Bobo
I'm like 0% surprised but I am guessing other people who had been less trusting are throwing a complete party to have it textually confirmed like that. I felt like Bobo's intent especially when he went on the record in that stream AND he had been saying already that he shipped it right after Wayward Sisters, that he never ever meant to be coy about Dreamhunter, and confirming that Claire was madly in love with Kaia was a top priority on his fuck you list since he didn't get to write the show he wanted in order to work on this naturally.
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Sam nods like fair enough, happened to me with Jess, but uh wow okay no i did not - yeah okay yeah
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"He's not ready for this case"
"maybe he needs it"
Jam jam jam jam
I mean
Yeah mature adults discussing issues together and working out how they feel about Dean rage-hunting Bad Kaia
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hey look it's that one cabin that has been in like every episode of the show in the same way that one little stoney valley was in every episode of BBC Merlin
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Has she lost her spear??
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Dean, that was RUDE, you're so horrible to all these versions of Kaia
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That zoom up on his face is one of the top 10 Dean Is Not Okay zooms of the show
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So not like "bad cas" or "new bobby" are Dean's definitions for AU peeps - no word on what Charlie is to him, maybe because AU Charlie is a real issue for him to define as he couldn't help treating her like his Charlie.
But Bad Kaia insists that she is to Kaia what she is to me - they're joined in a different way. A way that back in Wayward Sisters was implied to be a dreamwalking connection of a very different sort, something anchoring our Kaia to the bad place and their connection was... weird.
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"That was an accident. I was trying to kill the blonde" She's remorseful about killing Kaia but upsets them even more by reminding them that she was out for Claire instead.
How about we kill no one, bad Kaia
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Oh no, Michael keeps sending monsters after her... Now she sounds like the original Kaia just because she's got "always more" things out for her. I suppose Michael learned of her through Dean, found her, and either wants to stop her or capture her because she has universe-crossing dreamwalking abilities, and woooow that will be useful to him.
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NOOO SLEEPING BEAUTY DIED. THIS IS REALLY BAD. JACK COULDN'T SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE HEEEEEEEEEER
waaaaaaaaaah
Stop fuelling Nougat having an interesting dark arc about his entire self and purpose and let him just hang around the bunker and watch TV and eat nougat and be hugged. Can we not just have a son who is okay and nothing is wrong with him?
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Oh no even the random hunter (did I really catch her name as Brunhilda or did I imagine that?) is crying at Jack crying over Sleeping Beauty dying. Cas is contractually obliged not to cry or do complicated stunts but he looks miserable too.
Oh, jack figured out the pendant?
But can they actually save Sleeping Beauty?
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Sam as usual getting in before I can - "Break her!??!?"
don't you dare hurt Kaia any more, she's already told you what she knows, Michael hurt her, you punched her out with the same face and then threatened her a bunch. She might be a snarky monster-hunting feral woodland weirdo but she's still Kaia-like and you have a history of being completely horrible to Kaia-like girls when you're in a bad place.
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And it turns out Dean just wants the spear that pronged him, to figure out what it did and how to hurt Michael with it. To go on his own revenge mission that he denied Jack because, guys, we are now in competition for who gets to have the angsty anti-Michael revenge mission. Jack and Dean literally competing to be most angsty about it.
Jack is being considerably more productive even if Dean solved the Kaia mystery.
But yeah. Revenge sucks you guys.
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Dean you need to eat a snickers and take a rest.
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smiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirk because fuck you Dean for always hurting me and the other Kaia who is probably also me.
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Jack is being much smarter.
The smartest cookie.
Who needs powers when you are a good cookie.
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"She wasn't cursed. This was."
GOOD COOKIE.
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I vote Jack gets to kill Michael. Dean has lost his Michael killing rights.
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"You're no different from him. Threats, violence, anything to get what you want."
"I am nothing like him."
Hon.
"Yeah you are. And you always have been."
I don't know if Kaia knows or if she's pulling a gambit, but acting like a mystic know it all and reading Dean stone cold in a villain way sure did take some of his rage away into that good old Dean self-loathing and fear, which was one heck of a good chess move regardless of if she can magically read him or not.
No I don't think Dean is these things but Michael is a means of exploring Dean's "blunt little weapon" sort of mindset that he has suffered from because of John's upbringing all this time, and Michael emotionally mauling Dean to the point of being a non-functioning worst version of himself who threatens Kaia (AGAIN) really is an on the nose way to display the sort of trauma that Michael tore into his psyche.
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Crap I need to go to yoga, but this is too good to rush so even though I don't have much left, I will be back for proper notes in a bit!
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Him smash magic glowy thing with hammer
just like i told myboy to do!
Cas's hair is ridiculously spiky.
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"What happened?"
YOU MADE NOUGAT FEEL GOOD ABOUT HIMSELF THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED
Aww jack to an empty room
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Sam I have been gone for hours. How have you not tackled Dean to the floor and apologised to Bad Kaia
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"I saw what you did to her, when you got angry. You shoved your gun in her face."
To be fair, at the time Dean had also been emotionally mauled by the feels bear because Jack gave him a vision of Mary being tortured in Hell-equivalent and he was also fucked up beyond belief.
Kaias really are seeing the worst side of him all the time.
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Bobo likes breaking Dean
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That was enough to make Dean let go
Also to ask a really good question about how she knows!
I'm way more curious about Kaia than Dean yelling at her :P
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Then she points out that he's angry and impatient because he's scared, like, duh, but sometimes he needs to be reminded that he can have "weak" emotions like that because he wants to be all tough and on the case and instead he's freaked out because Michael has messed him up completely. Like. Stay home. Help the boy with lore or something. Take a pyjama day.
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Wheee full flashback!
The early evening light gives it a Bad Place colour tinge, which is awesome.
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I can't believe Mikey shows up in his hat but not his jacket.
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He says he's BORROWING Dean here. Hm.
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Also, what I suspected, that he sensed her around and was just curious. Probably having a "what the fuck that's KAIA!?" from Dean inside him and being like Kaia huh? Time to chat.
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Mikey do you literally not have your own version of that fuck off huge spear they stabbed Cas with a couple seasons ago, or do you just collect cool spears?
There's something more than usually terrifying about his face in this conversation.
And he now says there's a war coming and thinks something weird like Bad Kaia might appreciate being on his side.
Oh boy.
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"Wild one" that's so cool
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Michael really has some great lines for being a massive pillock
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Omg he fight good too
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AAH this is Kaia's memory and she's psychically implanting it in Dean's head
"Stop!" he says, clearly not enjoying watching himself beat up Bad Kaia and, like, realising exactly how awful it looks to do this when he has to watch himself from the outside and for all we know feel her pain too.
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Of course Dean being desperate to get the spear to fight Michael could come across with a blur of ambiguity of Michael being desperate still to have it, whether to stop Kaia using it or because he just really wanted it and doesn't like being told no.
The concept that Michael just disappeared from Dean still lingers.
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So many fights with a whole bunch of people this season. Maybe just because there's so many friggin characters
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"Now you're in trouble"
*Bad Kaia literally leaps through a window to avoid dealing with this*
I love her
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NICE STAB
thanks for saving Jody
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Well that was quick
Also you're badass and terrifying and I think Claire might fall in love with you too >.>
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"I'm used to it" Oh babe.
She literally raised herself in a terrifying doomy forest so
I mean at least this world has dry crackers and beans. SCORE
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Jody has got a LOT of thinking to do about how to phrase any of this to Claire.
"So there's a feral Kaia living in the woods outside of town"
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Awww Sam offering her a lift to the hospital
Bobo wants us to remember 9x06 and Dean having to tend Cas's broken hand maybe
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Sam. Hug her right now. RIGHT NOW.
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Nope Jody just looks really tormented
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She's in a reverse Jack position - one mom to 3 hunters instead of one kid to 3 hunters :P
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Hey look it is Jack and one of his fathers.
"Jules is off!" Hey look Sleeping Beauty was called Jules. Nerdylittleshit doesn't read these notes however so she will never know that I decided this character was named after her :P
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Cas apologises for not being there for Jack, because it took this long to realise he's the father who's always at work while others have taken the stereotypically maternal role to Jack, Cas just gets to be the cool strong father who is usually dead, captured or just busy saving people and too busy for Jack as a result.
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"It's okay," Jack says, sounding considerably more emotionally balanced about it than he had in 14x01 when everyone was neglecting him
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"Today you PROVED that you have the mind of a hunter. And the heart of a hunter" Raised by the best, bitches!
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Awwww Cas wants to be a hunter with Jack! They can get a terrible car and hit the road and do an easy case and bond as they go and eat crappy food at diners and
Jack develops Nephilim Flu in response to having a nice moment with a father because he's so unused to being treated with full attention.
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Cas: *squints*
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"Must be getting my first cold!"
I have a cold too Jack! Awww!!
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Cas is going to make him some soup. This is too sweet. I don't even have words for any of this it's just gross. My teeth hurt.
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Jack I swear to god if you stopped your revenge quest and it hurt you so bad inside you're about to cough up a lung I am going to LA to kick the writers' asses in person so if you dare be even the slightest bit consumptive
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Oh thank god the scene changed before he coughed blood into his hand
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Awww and then Dean admits Sam was right, while still being the one driving on the way back.
I wonder if they filmed these side by side. "Dean slow down" "Sam you were right"
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"What Michael used me for" Ouch, hearing him say it like that... Sad sad thoughts.
He just wanted to skip ahead and have it all done because revenge makes you feel SO much better.
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"Dean... you did what you had to do" Okay it's even worse hearing someone else justify it rather than hearing that phrase come out of someone's mouth. At least when they say it about themselves they're just in a bad place. I don't even know if this is a pavlovian response I'm having but really flipping it around to have Sam say it is a validation - Sam certainly thinks things are better off with a dead Lucifer and would have a favourable bias, because it got the job done and whatever Mikey is up to at least it's not Lucifer doing it. Because even if Lucifer were doing the exact same things it would just be intangibly but clearly worse.
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"It wasn't a blink, being possessed."
Dean says to Sam, who has been possessed by an angel twice and when it was Gadreel, for almost as long as Dean was Michaeled
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Dean's so freaked out because fighting the drowning sense of being possessed was so horrifying and made him feel so weak and useless and he didn't even win that fight, Michael just bailed and let him have it back. With the "I own you" hovering over him.
It certainly reeks of being haunted by a bad relationship. The sense the nasty abusive ex hovering around outside the place you work every night...
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"And it's all on me, man" No it isn't, he got through because Lucifer told him how.
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Well I mean if you wanna go cosmic consequences, yeah it is because Billie done told you not to go universe hopping and that's several billion dominoes you messed around with doing exactly that
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But despite how I spent all of season 13 SHRIEKING at you not to do it while knowing full well you did, and how this is technically your cosmic hubris for doing that, I also don't actually blame you on a personal level, Dean. Just, like, so you know once I get back to the shrieking. Because ow you are very sad and in pain and if Nougat wasn't coming down with Nephilim Flu in the other scenes I'd basically rank you No 1 for wrapping in blankets and feeding soup.
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You're still in the top 10. Jodi had a pretty bad day too :P
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Oh COME ON JACK
*starts packing my bags for the ass kicking*
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Aww Jack to an empty room
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Um EXCUSE ME HOW MANY CONSUMPTIVE TISSUES HAVE YOU GONE THROUGH?
GO FIND YOUR FATHER RIGHT NOW
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HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS FOR THREE WEEKS?
Well no wonder you've been in a panic to get Michael killed.
SHEESH.
Dean's back and he's gonna kick your ass because he remembers when Sam did this in the Trials and he is very very anti consumptive family members.
#Asks#rape mention cw#for thematic parallels to the whole Michael-ing thing#because consent drama and angels as per usual#14x03#season 14 spoilers#my stuff
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Keith Analysis - Season 3
Pre S1E1 + Introduction / Season One / Season Two / Season Three / Season Four / Season Five
I highly recommend reading the rest of the posts in this series to get the most out of this! But here’s my take on Keith’s role in VLD Season three!
Season Three
Boy oh boy, does S3e1 have a lot to unpack. Let’s start at the very end of S2/ the beginning of S3 where we see Keith up in arms about the fact that Shiro is gone. By this point, I’ve already established that Shiro is as close to an actual family that Keith’s got, so of course he’s upset. Also, this upset of normal is just another nail in the coffin that is Keith’s sense of safety. He was finally feeling like he had a place on Voltron, then the whole half-Galra thing happened, and that was sort of solved in Allura’s apology, but with losing Shiro, Keith is losing his own sense of validity. Season 3 will be about re-establishing that in his own way, without Shiro there to back him. It’s a huge opportunity for character growth.
Brief Lance Note
Another really good scene in S3e1 is during the fight on Planet Puig with Lance, Hunk, and the Blade of Marmora. Firstly, we have Lance starting to feel the pressure of being the face of a team that’s falling apart at the seams. He’s supposed to be the glue of Voltron or the light-spirited one that keeps things happy. Now that Voltron can’t really form, he’s starting to feel that pressure now more than ever.
We also have discrimination against the Blade for being Galra, which is understandable, but demonstrative of systematic racism/oppression. No wonder Keith feels so lost; he’s literally at the center of all of that!
Back to Keith
This is the instance that I referenced at the very beginning of this whole thing where Keith says that he won’t give up on Shiro because Shiro was one of the only people that never gave up on him. I think that startles the other paladins a little bit because they’re finally realizing that Keith isn’t just some “lone wolf” who’s full of shit. Yes, he can be volatile, but he’s really hurting now, which is demonstrated when he blows up at the diplomacy dinner.
The most important part about Keith’s outburst is what happens afterwards – this will draw on a little bit of Lance’s development as well, so bear with me. At the very end of the episode, we have Keith staring at the black lion, with the other paladins standing awkwardly in the background. They all look to Lance, who is the first to step forward and tell Keith it’s alright to be hurting.
Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Coran jump in with their own anecdotes about how they feel about suggesting to replace someone who seems irreplaceable, but it’s Lance tying everything together that makes Keith take a deep breath and decide that he’s being irrational. This is the first in a long arc in season three that establishes Lance and Keith’s relationship in a way that goes beyond just a romantic ship. I’m going to return to what I talked about in season one with Keith having a borderline crush on Lance, which I still stand by. In season one, it was all fun and games. In season two, Keith had a lot of his own stuff to worry about with the Blade, but he had Shiro to talk to about it, both the Galra stuff and the Lance stuff, so it didn’t seem as overwhelming.
Now that Shiro’s gone, Keith is looking for something to fill the rapidly growing void that’s sucking away his sense of validation and trust, and he’ll find it in Lance, but most importantly, in himself, and I’ll prove that with my analysis of the rest of S3.
And just for fun, here are my two cents on Lotor’s introduction
Lotor is one of my favorite characters for a few different reasons that are established in this episode. Firstly, he’s crafty. He had Ezor watch Throk, and then used that to call him out in front of the whole crowd. He’s the embodiment of the honest and martyr-like villain (which will play into his romance line with Allura later, but that’s not for a while) in that he preaches that what he does will be good for the universe because it fosters loyalty rather than fear. Secondly, he’s charismatic as all fuck. He’s the villain that says “okay, I’m going to write down everything I’m about to do on a piece of paper and give it to you. You’ll know my entire plan. Will that stop me from completing it? You can bet the fuck not.” And he’s right. Even I believed him! When I first watched it, I was like “yeah, okay, this guy could actually be a good king.”
And then, the kicker, he gives all this confidence to Throk, and then demotes him to the farthest reaches of the empire under the impression that he just got this huge promotion. That’s savage. Lotor is so good at what he does. I’m thrilled to see what he does next for the sheer cleverness of it.
Back to Keith/Lance – I’m just going to start referring to them jointly for now because here’s where they start to become super intertwined
Man, S3 literally has so much in the way of character development that I’m only on the second episode and I already have so much to say. Let’s start with the discussion of who should pilot the black lion while in the lounge of the Castle. Pidge points out that everyone has their “thing,” and she calls Lance the goofball, which he doesn’t take well to (remember S2e10). He calls himself a ninja sharpshooter, to which Keith responds with “is that a joke?” Honestly he probably shouldn’t have poked the dragon, but I do believe he meant it in a good way. His eyes were nice and he was smiling. Lance was just feeling particularly insecure at that moment. Payback for S1e6 when Lance totally invalidated Keith’s tiny advance. Ugh, boys.
Anyways, Lance says that he would never follow Keith as a leader in retaliation, which sparks an argument and triggers Keith to say “that’s just what Shiro wanted.” This puts Keith in kind of a tough spot; it’s not that he’s against piloting the black lion, he just doesn’t want to 1) undermine Shiro, who is his idol, and 2) he’s afraid he can’t be what everyone needs him to be – he can hardly be what he needs for himself. This is reflected in the moment where he actually enters the black lion. While everyone else was thinking of themselves (except Lance, but I’ll get to that in a second), what caused the lion to awaken for Keith was Keith saying (about Shiro) “I can’t lead them like you.” This is the beginning of Keith learning to respect himself outside of what others project on to him.
However, he still doesn’t want to accept it. This is where Lance comes in. Lance literally tried so hard to be the one to take up responsibility of the black lion, but not for himself. This becomes apparent when he yields to Keith. Everyone is appalled at Keith’s objection to the lion even though it chose him, except Lance. Lance steps up, puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, and tells Keith he can do it. And Keith actually listens. This shows that Keith responds well to respect; he just doesn’t have a lot of it for himself yet.
When Keith actually goes to fly the lion for the first time, he does so by saying “this one’s for you, Shiro.” This hearkens back to the idea of Keith being a self-imposed martyr – he justifies doing things for himself through the lens of doing things for others. This will be the season that subverts that, though, which I will discuss once I get to the end of the episode.
Now back to Lance for a moment. Blue shuts him out (quick interlude for some cute headcanon: Lance has referred to his lion as male in the past, but in order to get Blue to open up, he hits on the lion like he would presumably hit on a girl, as he is so famous for. Does this provide evidence that Lance is bi? Maybe if you squint and tilt your head to one side. It’s something to think about anyways). Then, which lion calls to him? Red, of course! Lance being Keith’s right hand is really elevating their relationship – it plays perfectly into all of their other interactions. They’re a messy team, but a team all the same, and they each need the other to properly function.
Also, something that starts in this episode and will continue through S5 is Lance’s reflection of Alfor and Altean values. Keith is a reflection of Galran values; this has already been made abundantly clear. We’re just setting up another parallel between the two and further entwining their paths in some way. Also, more of Lance’s insecurities show when he’s actually considering that he may not even have a contribution to the team as he originally thought, that he might just be “the goofball.” This starts to show a self confidence issue that is far from being resolved. He’ll definitely need a little help with that one. Luckily, he’s just starting to form a relationship with a little emo boy who is legitimately built out of insecurities and MCR. It’s beautiful. One last thing about Lance in S3E2 is that he says at the end “sometimes what you want is not necessarily what you get,” and I think this is starting to reference his shift in viewing Allura as an object for romance to a friend and true teammate, which is something we’ll see more of in S4 and 5.
And finally, Keith grows a lot during that battle, especially towards the end when he makes that terrible decision and rockets off to track Lotor without consulting the team. But here’s the thing about that scene: Keith made that decision of his own accord and not because he was trying to emulate Shiro. His whole arc in S3 is learning how to accept himself as a valid leader, and this is just the beginning of that. While I want to whack him over the head with a stick for putting everyone else in danger, at least he’s trying.
And now, a word on Lotor in S3E2
Lotor, you mother fucker. First, he says “mercy has never been the way of the galra…until now.” Again with the craftiness! And his whole role in S3E2 was just to gather intel on Voltron by using their need to protect to draw them out and force them to work as a team. What he doesn’t realize, though, is in forcing the paladins to make up for their shortcomings, he’s acting as a foil to the whole team. Without being pressed by Lotor, Allura and Lance would have never figured out that they needed to pilot different lions. This is the beginning to a long storyline of Lotor and Voltron working together that doesn’t actually get played out until S5.
Back to Keith/Lance
S3E3 takes us to the first real instance of the new team of paladins working under Keith’s leadership, and it’s pretty much a mess from the beginning. What I appreciate about this episode is that it further develops the bond between Lance and Keith as a team and as people, starting with Lance’s immediate opposition to entering Thaeserix (the gas planet that fucks up everyone’s sensors.) We have Keith barreling through and getting everyone lost until Allura finally can’t keep up and gets separated. Everyone’s freaking out, and Lance is the one to tell Keith they need to go back, and he finally does. As demonstrated before, Keith listens to Lance before he listens to the others. This shows that Keith has some measure of respect for Lance.
They rescue Allura, but Keith is still all hot for battle and continues forward, getting the team separated even further until it’s just him and Lance. This is the first time where Keith actually admits that he messed up, and he hits a low point for a second. He voices his concern to Lance, who responds perfectly, saying “yeah, you fucked up. But hey, we’ll fix it together.” This is what inspires Keith to keep going, and the team can eventually form Voltron because Keith is actually starting to think like a leader, and not just because of the leader Shiro was. He’s starting to become his own leader. He couldn’t have done it without Lance.
My favorite part is the cute line at the end where everyone is ragging on Lance for being dumb (not true btw, Lance is very intelligent and kind, he just has some self confidence issues, so shame on the other paladins for taking advantage of that), and Keith says “I’m glad we’re all making fun of Lance, but we have a job to do,” or something along those lines. It’s the look in Keith’s eyes that gets me; he’s teasing Lance, but not in the same way as the others. He’s really grateful to have the blue paladin there for support. It’s a different type of support than he’s received in the past; from Shiro it was support of an upper, someone he idolizes and thus tries to emulate. From Lance, it’s support from an equal, so it’s an even stronger sense of self-validation, which is something that Keith really needs at this point.
A quick note: in the episode where they enter the alternate reality and find Sven and Slav, Keith all of the sudden has the black bayard and Lance has the red bayard. When did that happen? That seemed to come out of nowhere, but I think it’s an important thing to note, especially when we get to some of the symbolism in terms of the past paladins at the end of this season. This episode also has good evidence of Keith stepping into the leadership role, which he will continue to develop over the next few episodes. I’m also glad that Keith was able to find Shiro, but as I’ll discuss in the next few paragraphs, I think he senses that something is not quite right.
The Symbolism of 6
I’m about to discuss S3E6, but begore I get into that, I’d like to talk a little bit about the symbolism of the number six as it relates to Keith and Lance’s relationship. Coran says pretty early on that he’s ordered the paladins by height, most notably calling Pidge “number five.” He doesn’t ever refer to the other paladins by these number names, but that implies that they all have a number (and they all have pretty distinguishing heights). Shiro is the tallest and the leader; he’s number one. Lance is the next tallest; he’s number two. Then comes Hunk, then Keith. Keith is number four. What’s four plus two? Six.
I already talked at length about the importance of S1E6 to Keith and Lance, with this being the first instance where Keith realizes he may have feelings for Lance (the “I cradled you in my arms!” moment). In season two, the distinction isn’t quite as obvious, but we see Lance questioning Keith running off with Allura. Granted, this is probably canonically related to Lance’s “crush” on Allura (which I’ll discuss a little more come season four and five), but the fact that he’s asking if the two of them are together and he’s so bent up about Keith doing anything with Allura could be in reference to his conflicted rivalry feelings towards Keith in the first place. He probably doesn’t realize it, but he’s just as annoyed at the idea of Keith being with someone as he is at the idea of Allura being with someone (hint: he’s bi /like meeeee!/).
Anyways, now we have S3E6, which has, in my opinion, one of the most important Klance scenes so far (save maybe the pool scene, but that was just too too cute so does it really count?).
Season Three, Episode Six
We open from Lance’s POV as he’s acting sniper for the rest of the team. He’s about to take someone out when Keith rushes in with some sword badassery (“Hey, Keith! I had that guy!”). He keeps the scope on Keith for a little while, then watches Allura do some crazy stunts with her whip, to be met with “Well, that was awesome!” Similar to what I was talking about back in S2E6, this is a neat parallel drawn between Lance’s feelings for both the red paladin and the pink paladin. This, in conjunction with the sheer symbolism of colors (red/blue/pink), practically seeps with Lance being bisexual.
Anyways, now that we have Shiro back, this episode throws a wrench into the leadership dynamic that Keith has built for himself. Throwback to season two where everything was going fine until he found out about his Galra blood, this is another instance of regression for Keith. He spent all that time building up his confidence and leadership skills, only to now butt heads with Shiro. Actually, he doesn’t even really butt heads; he yields. He completely yields the black lion to Shiro. Coincidentally, Shiro can’t use the black lion right away, and I think that might have something to do with the whole Clone Shiro arc (which I honestly still don’t understand completely, so I’m going to keep my theorizing about that to a minimum). It’s a complete back swing to his seeing himself as an invalid leader (“they need you, you know” – Keith is once again isolating himself from the other paladins in favor of doing what he thinks is right for the team and placing himself at a disadvantage).
This is interesting when we get to the major Klance scene, and I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this: Lance voicing his concern to Keith. Initiall, Keith is surprised at Lance’s advance, but he’s very accepting of it. It’s an interesting side to keith’s character that we haven’t necessarily seen yet. He’s soft and kind of flustered at the whole thing, which is sO cute.
Lance, on the other hand, is being so brave by voicing these concerns in the first place. We’ve seen multiple occasions of him wanting to be on team Voltron (for glory, for recognition, for the universe, etc – we saw this when he tried to pilot the black lion), but he’s willing to give all of it up if it’s what’s best for the team. Remind you of anyone? Yes, Keith!
Keith is appalled by this and instantly shuts it down, telling Lance not to worry about who pilots what. I think he’s surprised that Lance trusts him so much, but that trust gives Keith confidence. As we’ve seen, Keith responds to trust very well, even enough to make a joke (leave the math to Pidge + a bonus Klance smile). I also believe that he’s telling Lance these things just as much to comfort him as it is to comfort himself; he cares about Lance, and he doesn’t want him to leave. We see that in Keith’s initially reaction (“What are you talking about?!”). Another important line in this scene is Lance’s “this isn’t a participation game. This is war and you want you best soldiers on the front line.” Judging from Keith’s reaction, Keith honestly believes that Lance is one of their best warriors; he values Lance’s place on the team and wouldn’t think of jeopardizing that for a second. Overall, this scene was great. It had Lance’s vulnerability, and it’s the first time another member of the team has recognized that and actively comforted him for it. This will be important to remember once Keith leaves and Lance doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it anymore.
Also, when the Paladins are fighting Lotor’s generals, Keith is blindsided by Acxa, but then he is saved by a good shot from Lance and a reassuring “I’ve got you, buddy!” They really have bonded trust-wise. If romance does come out of this, it will definitely be a slow burn, built on a strong bond of vulnerability and trust. And the smile Keith gives Lance after that interaction! I headcanon that at this point he’s over his initial crush and is instead seeing Lance as a real person and teammate that he cares for deeply. Lance’s faith in him is a beacon of strength and light in a particularly dark time. And Keith switching hands with the bayard? That’s some cool shit. He just keeps getting better and better.
Side note for Keith and Acxa: I’ve seen the theories where they are siblings, but I don’t know if I buy it. We know virtually nothing about Acxa’s past except that she somehow got trapped in the stomach of a weblum for who knows how long until Keith rescued her. It’s just not enough for me to see them as related. If ANYTHING, they could be half siblings since we don’t know anything about Krolia yet either except that she’s a deep cover agent for the Blade. This versus the literal ten pages I’ve written on Klance thus far.
Okay, now back to Keith’s leadership conflict. It’s especially apparent when he starts arguing with Shiro about taking out Lotor on the recon mission. He shows off some of his old colors by wanting to run off on his own, but then listens when the team tells him to stick together. What’s important, though, is that Keith doesn’t completely give in to Shiro. In choosing between taking out Lotor’s ship and taking out the cargo ship, Keith makes a snap choice, against Shiro’s wishes, that targets both. He’s a good leader, and he’s making good decisions. The rest of the team just invalidates that, bringing back the doubt that has brought him so much trouble in the past, which we see in Keith and Shiro’s exchange at the end of the episode.
Final note on season three: past parallels
In the last episode of the season, we get some back story on Alfor and Zarkon’s relationship as well as some of the other past paladins. There’s the potential to see Alfor and Zarkon as a parallel to Shiro and Keith, but there’s also the potential to see it as a note on Lance and Keith, seeing as Lance is showing Altean traits vs Keith’s Galran traits. I’m about to try to debunk that with my own theory: there was also a scene in that episode where Alfor, in the red lion, saved Blades, the pilot of the blue lion. The connections between red and blue just keep being dredged up. There are red and blue stars in the astral plane. Red and blue are everywhere. Keith and Lance are literally written in the stars.
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