#the rift is bonkers!!! it's a whole fucking lot!!!

[jakowskis]

Day 7 - Do you have any all-time favorite scenes? You can bring up multiple - an objectively good scene, a silly scene that makes you smile, a sad scene that makes you cry, maybe a scene that just sort of stuck with you… your choice!

i have a bunch ok i tried to put em in categories. under the cut bc i think torchwood's entered spin territory by now and i still cant seem to shut up about it. pls help

scenes that rot my brain

when they mutiny against jack in the s1 finale. that whole bit, from gwen with rhys’ body in the autopsy bay to owen shooting jack to when they trigger the emergency protocol and open the rift. ill never get over how it first felt to watch that whole scene for the first time, it drove me insane. it still drives me insane. ive watched it 300 times it's sooo 😩 MY scene. g-d.

well, that’s my scene, and so are all the owen & ianto scenes in s1ep12. those two make me feral. ive gushed about theose scenes before, so ill spare u this time. my otp 4eva. and also owen having a villainous breakdown wahahaha. my fucked up little guy of all time

the scene where owen’s patching gwen up in countrycide drives me nuts. it’s such a clever seduction scene + it’s so intimate. i love it. (i also enjoy the two separate scenes where she chokes him fdhskjfdsf. countrycide tree scene makes me BLUSH and nothing makes me blush fsdkjfdshfkjdshfjkd. i am very very bi <3)

owen begging diane to stay in out of time... don’t touch me. every time i think of that whole scene i wanna cry. i have never seen such sad eyes in my life. (see my tags here for more of my thoughts on this topic fkjsdfhs.) burn pay my fucking hospital bills

that moment between jack and owen at the end of combat... “for a few seconds i felt totally at peace... and then you blunder in. do you always know best, jack? is that what you believe?” “i want you back at work tomorrow.” that scene has always driven me crazy. there’s a few scenes in the show where jack’s monstrous and the others yell at him over it, but that one hits the hardest. owen just seems to actually cut through him in that moment, and it kills me.

the scene at the conference table in s2ep5. i’m not the biggest fan of that ep, i talked abt it more the other day, but that scene drives me bonkers, for a number of reasons… the insight into the characters (owens mommy issues!!! tosh n ianto’s need for purpose!!! gwen loves rhys AND jack!!!), for sure, but especially the way jack’s relationship with all of them is presented. ill talk about it a lot more when i discuss his character, but jack… reminds me of a cult leader, in a lot of ways, and it’s most prominent in that scene especially. the show doesn’t realize it’s framing him like that, and the fandom doesn’t seem to pick up on it either. but i do, and i think it’s fascinating. 

gwen drugging rhys in combat. it just kind of blew my mind when i first saw it - there's a moment with every character where i went “oh wtf theyre fucked up. ok im obsessed now” (owen's was ghost machine, ianto's was actually ‘pray they survive’ in meat, jack & tosh never had one for me which is probs why they dont rot my brain quite as much fhdskjf) - that was gwen's. also important to note burn gorman agrees w me bc on the commentary of this ep during this scene he was clapping n laughing n probably kickin his feet HFDKSJFHDSJKFDSK he gets me

all of fragments tbh esp owens portion but specifically ianto crying when he walks away from jack at the end of his segment, and owen crying when he's talking to the doctor + him n jack walking thru the cemetery. aaaa.

(yes those were almost all owen scenes. im the deranged owen guy rmr.)

scenes that make me smile

the very first scene in the hub in the pilot :) it just feels a little bit magical in an industrial, bleak, kitchen-sink sort of way, which is what i love sm abt tw, the way it occasionally strikes that balance. the way stepping into a big base in a sewer manages to still feel magical… that’s special.

in episode 2 when theyre having lunch + in episode 4 when theyre at the bar, when they’re all gathered around and laughing. ohh i wish we got more of that

every time gwen n owen are dumbass giggling besties, or teasing each other… twice in s2ep10, and in ep 7, and then when theyre fooling around at the beginning of s2ep2. i love themmmm those two are my idiots they make me smile

jack & john’s fight in kkbb heheh

owen n martha gorillaz scene in reset. wahoo! shicka shicka shicka shicka feel good

bernies apt in ghost machine ep :) i just like the way they go through his shit, steal a bunch of it, n then leave, it always makes me giggle. “so call the cops” JACK. 

scenes that stuck with me / made an impact

john and his son in out of time. that was rlly rlly emotional.

also jack helping him off himself. g-d that episode was heart wrenching.

“captain my captain” in tkks, suzie on the ground covered in blood… things i think about. “it’s all your fault, jack." ahhhh

in ghost machine, when gwen holds the device and sees herself crying and covered in blood, and afterwards she’s all dazed and she looks at owen and he stares back and he looks dangerous. i loveee that scene. will never get over s1 owen. he’s a ticking time bomb and when he explodes he nearly destroys the world. character of all time to me. i love that he redeems himself in the end but ohhhhh sometimes i think of a world where he becomes a proper antagonist. he rlly walks the precipice 

g-d and the scene where he had the knife held to ed morgan, when i first watched it i didn’t know what he was gonna do and it was so tense. 

when lisa was first revealed in cyberwoman and mogwai played…. transcendent. the outfit was silly right off the bat but the vibe + reveal was cool enough i was rlly excited. i love the concepts in that episode i wish they took it more seriously. no metal bikini + no pteradacyl fight and we could’ve had it all. but also. would it be torchwood without metal bikini + pteradacyl fight.

“it made me happy” scene in countrycide. a lot of people seem to find that ep upsetting, i wasn’t really affected by the subject matter, but That got me. chilling. you go into torchwood expecting evil aliens, so the episodes about evil humans really hit.

the resurrection scene in s2ep7. i’m getting tired so im not gonna babble as much but agh. i wanna eventually do an analysis on owen & jack’s dynamic - i’ll talk about it there.

also, it’s a little moment but in the same episode, when gwen calls rhys crying… it reminds me of that bit in succession, during connor’s wedding, when tom calls greg, which is one of my favorite moments in that episode too. taking the time in the middle of a tragedy to step aside and privately call a loved one for support, bc u need a minute to break down when uve been doing ur best to stay strong. i think torchwood is bad at handling grief and letting their characters experience it, so it’s a nice little moment that actually lets her grieve. that, and the glove clearly triggers her, so she got double whammied with the death of a friend + the reminder of the time she nearly died. again, in a show that doesn’t typically frame moments of weakness and pain very sympathetically, it’s refreshing. 

idk why, but in ep7, when it goes back and forth between owen figuring out the murders + tosh crying to mary while she looks unsympathetically down at her… it’s just a well-filmed, cool scene, and i enjoy it. thrills me, heh. also owen adhd icon

aditd... maggie’s wedding… we’d been married less than an hour. scenes that got me. i think of maggie a lot. i think of that scene a lot. i think ‘the woman on the roof’ is my most listened to torchwood ost track, fff. it’s very special to me. that song reminds me of a thomas newman score.

tosh n owen’s deaths. of course. both of owens deaths actually, the second one is more impactful but the way nobody held him when he first died bc they were all in shock haunts me ;-;

#tdot #txt #I AM TRYING SO HARD TO NOT DO THESE SO LATE BUT. ARHGHGHHGHGH #me when i give myself a fun lil fandom challenge n it tURNS OUT TO BE CHALLENGING #ARGH!!! #but. here. take it

[aelaer]

Fuck knows when I'll be able to write again, so have a WIP fic snippet

It's been only 5 days with this shoulder injury and I'm already going absolutely bonkers. I'll be talking with my GP in 3 days and a specialist in a week to see how much typing I can do safely, but I'm not terribly hopeful. And voice to text sounds awful, though it has been suggested.

So here's a section of my still unnamed WIP that will be the final fic in my Earth-197320 series, an offering to those here since I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to publish it before the end of the year.

Spoilers for the series if you have yet to read the ones I've published. In the meantime, enjoy an emotionally constipated Tony.

He had been sitting at Pepper's bedside for about fifteen minutes, deep within his own thoughts with the occasional spoken word to her when he heard the sound of a portal in the room once more. Tony lifted his head in surprise; he wasn't expecting Stephen to return today.

Yet there he was, dipping through from an interior he didn't recognize. It wasn't Wong's place, at least, but it didn't look like a place where a rift would form.

"Hey," Stephen said in greeting, as if this were expected.

"Hi," Tony said, drawing out the 'i'. "You're back…?"

Stephen's brow furrowed. "Yeah. Of course."

Tony blinked. "Are you not done with Pepper, then?" he asked as he rose from the chair.

"Ah, no—I wrapped it up at a good point. I'll just do a little bit more work on her tomorrow." As Tony continued to stare at him in bewilderment, Stephen rolled his eyes. "I'm checking in on you. You had a bit of a nasty surprise."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Wait a—oh, he better not be— 

"The phone call." Fucking hell. Tony frowned at Stephen and there must have been something particularly impressive about his frown, because Stephen held up his hands. "Look, you looked like you had just seen a ghost—actually, you looked worse than when you saw me in my astral form, so yes, I thought it would be a good idea to check if you were okay."

Tony's frown turned into a deeper scowl and he left the bedroom, telling Stephen, "I'm fine," as he did. He heard Stephen's footsteps follow him down the hallway and into the kitchen. "Honestly, don't you have a lot of other things you need to be doing now in the reality-protecting sphere?" 

Stephen rounded the kitchen island and gave a pointed look towards the glass and whiskey bottle that were still present from when he had taken a drink to take the edge off.

The look didn't help Tony in the slightest. "What? Can't a man enjoy a drink in his own home while a wizard is doing magical brain surgery on his fiance?"

"Haven't needed it for the other two detangling sessions."

"Maybe I just wasn't thirsty then."

Stephen dropped his look and sighed. "I'm not—Tony, I'm not trying to pry where I'm not wanted. I know we haven't known each other for that long, but that doesn't—" He paused as if trying to gather his words. He pressed his lips together, and Tony felt his scowl softening. "I want to help make this whole thing easier," he eventually settled on.

I want things to be easy too, Stephen, so I can write out the rest of this story :(

#mcu #stephen strange #tony stark #my writing #my fanfiction #wip

[tunemyart]

ok: thoughts on S3 The Rift? I’m rewatching xena for the first time in like 10 yrs and omg…

I *clapping emoji* LOVE *clapping emoji* THE RIFT *clapping emoji x2*

(but will also qualify my love of the Rift by saying I have NO idea how so many people watch it and go "oh yeah, how could Gabrielle DO that to Xena?" rather than the other way around bc were y'all watching when Xena methodically hunted down her and her child to kill her? Right on top of the trauma that Gabrielle had literally just gone through??? JESUS XENA WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO YOUR WIFE

anyway)

I love how it goes full on Greek tragedy, which is a literary form that is ALSO bananas, just straight up fucking bananas in the best way. It's not realistic! It's not meant to be realistic! It's meant to push the characters to the very limit of human experience and their own experience with humanity! To make us question their own limits and their own humanity! And it does a pretty fuckin good job of it.

And there is also the crowning glory of the Rift which is - the entirety of the show that followed. It transformed the show in terms of form and story, it transformed the characters in terms of how deeply nuanced and terrifyingly human they are (especially when it comes to their relationship with/to each other), and it quite literally formed the foundation the later seasons stand on. No way S4 exists without the Rift!! No way S6 exists without the Rift!!! The Rift permeates the rest of the show and creates an uneasy just-off-center kind of balance that, in X/G's learned, easy, familiar navigation of it, becomes maybe the most ridiculously intimate part of their relationship. They know each other. They keep choosing each other anyway. It's incredible.

#xena #xwp #thank you Rift for giving us jealous!gabs #this just in i am a gabrielle apologist #news to everybody i know! #just watched the bitter suite yesterday with a friend who's new to the show and he went straight from 'well that's abuse' to 'i love everyt #i've said before i do not deal with the gab drag at all and i stand by it #i was actually just thinking about paradise found in S4 when xena's going dark/crazy #and that split second POV flash in her mind to her hitting a screaming gabrielle #and that's a legit fear she has! that's one of the deepest fears of her soul! that's she'll abuse gabrielle #she knows she's capable of it - not just physically and psychologically but bc it's SOMETHING SHE'S ALREADY DONE #and like - whew! my GOD #to see her so terrified of it - this capability and fear of impulse that lies so deep within her #... and that would have meant NOTHING without the Rift #this horrible history between them that they keep referencing #which to be clear is a fuckin problem! and we should engage critically with it esp re: representation issues! #but that said you can't focus on it and survive the rest of the show #the rift is bonkers!!! it's a whole fucking lot!!! #but in context of the entirety of the show it's the gift that keeps giving #and that is my opinion on the Rift #my meta #ask #anonymous

[lady-byleth]

Ok, ok, ok, so I read your post about how the Big Twist of Volo actually being totally bonkers was unforeshadowed, and I agree for the grand majority of this statement.

I mean, he has not one, not two, but THREE Pokemon that can only evolve through friendship, and two of them are ones that can sense auras and should know if Volo is evil, which I don't believe he is - he made some mistakes (and yes, those mistakes are pretty BIG ones...), but maybe he always felt some resentment towards Arceus for the suffering he endured, and Giratina, being an eldritch abomination who ALSO held some resentment for Arceus, ended up amplifying those feelings to a dangerous degree.

People say that the backstrike technique he teaches you was supposed to count as foreshadowing, and I guess I can see it, maybe? But... I'm just not seeing the grandness in the twist like everybody else is.

I swear I'm not saying all this because he's pretty. I'm just having a difficult time processing that his entire personality, his interactions with the protagonist up to that point were all a horrible lie. I feel like there's some good in him and he deserves a chance at redemption, you know?

Right?! Half his team evolves with friendship and you'd have to be able to keep this act up UNINTERRUPTED for weeks on end and I don't believe there's anyone who could do that. Plus, why go out of his way to have a cute little photo taken with his Togepi if he didn't love the little thing? No one would've questioned if he didn't do it, that something he did for himself.

And the backstrike technique...I guess that could count but we use it too and we get rewards for using it. If it was like...something he mentioned and then the game punished you for using underhand tactics, then I could totally see it as foreshadowing.

Also, the biggest thing I don't get is, why in God's name does he help CLOSE THE SPACE TIME RIFT if he's trying to use it to drag out Arceus?

I mean, when you get banished he goes out of his way to find you, brings you to Cogita and then tags along with you and Adaman/Irida to find the Red Chain. Why would he do that? What's the rationale behind this?

There's also the thing after you catch Giratina where the Prof informs you that Volo came to him, explained Giratina decided to watch over the region cuz you whooped its ass and then he just calmly left. Considering he was very vocal about his hatred for you after his loss, why would he go out of his way to inform you of this?

Plus, he and Giratina weren't even close to each other when it decided this cuz it must've happened after you beat it again, why else would it try to kill you a second time? This makes ME believe they really were connected on a mental level, the way Dialga and Palkia are with Adaman and Irida and after you catch it that bond was severed. He seems to revert back to his calm personality immediately after and even says he wants the pokedex to be finished

And to top it all off, something that would've been a really big oversight if unintentional, Akari and Rei don't seem to bear him any ill will. When he's mentioned their faces are either sad or neutral and we know that there is an angry expression they could've used. But they don't seem to be angry at him, despite the fact that he TRIED TO KILL THEM AND DESTROY REALITY. Not to mention that you can fucking DRESS LIKE HIM after you beat Arceus. Why would you willingly dress like someone who tried to kill you unless you still care about them a great deal?

Anyway, there's a lot more pointing to this being Giratina's doing and a lot of nothing that indicated this is really all just Volo being a dick. I mean, Giratina probably amplified his emotions to the point of villainy cuz he says he had some resentment before meeting it, but it wasn't all him. He's definitely not above redemption and honestly, given he left a message instead of telling you himself, he's probably feeling pretty guilty about the whole thing too

Anyway, this got long cuz I'm still mad about it xD thanks for the message, I'm glad someone sees things the way I do!

[luobingmeis]

also it's def bc i just finished the finale for the 2nd time but my brain is basically chanting "amnesty" on repeat so im just going to throw out thoughts i have so i can sleep soon akdksjdjd

minerva and juno become best friends after a night when both of them were working a super late shift and they just ended up talking for hours. they talked abt minerva's culture on Five and how it compared to growing up on Earth and juno heard minerva's battle stories (some valiant, some regretful) and minerva learned all about how juno got into the forestry service, and the two of them just really click

also i firmly believe that, on her planet, minerva is funny as hell, it's just 1) learning Earth humor and 2) realizing that, while on Earth she is seen as exuberant and loud, most people on minerva's planet were just that energetic

minerva tho did (and still does) have her own flare and charm tho

damn most of these are gonna be minerva centric

her and duck adopt a cat named fig newton im pretty sure ive done this one before

minerva and leo are also best friends and leo will teasingly hold that over duck's head bc, while duck missed out on almost 30 years, leo's known minerva for probably 40, maybe 50? at his core, tho, leo is really happy for the two of them

aubrey can actually understand dr harris bonkers phd's rabbit chatter. for a while, everyone thought she was making shit up on the spot for the goofs, but it was dani who realized "wait holy shit they're actually talking"

dr harris bonkers phd does eventually learn human words except in the "picks up on language after hearing the same phrases a lot" way, with some notable mentions being "hi honey!" and "hey what the fuck!"

duck, aubrey, and thacker, whenever they're all on earth together, always get lunch together to hang out. they then either go to the cryptonomica (even thacker bc, even if he never met ned, he still has respect for him and really feels like he wouldve liked the guy) or amnesty lodge

mama tries to keep it on the down low but, when she knows thacker is coming back to earth, she keeps a little personal countdown bc she misses her best friend a lot

hollis, keith, and jake are all best friends again and jake is the #1 holleith supporter

hollis and aubrey become best friends and hollis takes her out on their motorcycle and they absolutely get the whole "now listen here, bring her back in one piece or else" talk from mama

while travelling together, the quell becomes even more curious abt thacker's life and, kinda like a juno-esque situation, she's really inspired by him

that one is basically canon but it makes me too emotional to not mention

aubrey is unsurprisingly really into halloween and dani, even tho it's not a sylvan holiday, celebrates it with her and they come back to earth to carve pumpkins and decorate with the folks left at amnesty lodge

also some domestic headcanons i have just bc i love domesticity: aubrey and dani adopt sylvan twins and their sylvan forms are what we would picture merfolk like? like with the more webbed ears/hands and gills and sharp teeth but also arms and legs (with fins on them). it also seems implied that duck and minerva have kids but im still putting thought into their domestic sphere bc i dont bs domesticity

kirby, aubrey, dani, hollis, jake, and keith all become a fun little group

fun little group B is duck, minerva, dr drake, leo, and juno. basically chosen club +1 bc they all love juno

mama and thacker are on their own and also roam everywhere bc they're just like that

kirby runs the cryptonomica with almost as much flare as ned, and ned's walking stick nearly never leaves his hand

barclay and stern both buy each other tacky bigfoot merch thinking that it would be a funny joke to pull for candlenights and now they just have matching bigfoot tshirts

barclay also cooks a ton of packed meals for thacker, aubrey, and duck to take back to their new homes

now with the rift in the inner sanctum, everyone tries to get together for family dinners once a month bc they all miss and love each other and want to catch up as much as they all can

(they always end up visiting more than once a month tho)

#i didnt proofread this sorry if there are typos aksksjdjd #taz amnesty #headcanons #also sorry i dont got a lot for stern/clay yet im still new to shipping them omfg #5 #ducknerva #just bc idk if any mutuals have that blacklisted?

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

i ramble for 30 minutes (this is not a based theory i’m just dummy excited)

tl;dr: Guardian Takedown! holy fuck!!!

man i had a dream about the guardian takedown and then i had a dream about writing about the previous dream on tumblr, it was so fuckin weird. like it was all about how this minos prime was the place they constructed the souls for the Vault Monsters and that we had to take it down to stop their production. Fuckin WEIRD. it was totally based on how they said the guardian takedown would expand on the story introduced in bl3 so obviously we’re gonna learn more about the guardians through this sect of ‘rogue’ guardians. i am very interested in these guardian breaches but i imagine they may be a way for the guardians to either travel around the universe OR they’re trying to break their way to the other (upper?) dimension where the eridians/destroyer/something are originally from. I’m still of the belief that the Eridians ran away to their OG dimension using the Machine but im also down to hear about them sacrificing themselves to make the Eridium crust of Pandora because that’d be dummy interesting. Also implies that Sirens are soul eaters. That... lowkey kinda makes sense given their namesake. 

oh, i have a headache. why. why. why. why annnd its gone. okay. if its the case that the Eridians have fully sacrificed themselves and are gone, is it possible you can still hear them through the Eridium? It’d make sense why Eridium is driving people absolutely bonkers on Pandora and such. I only ask because obviously the Overseer is speaking to her ‘masters’?? so they’ve got to be around somehow. But then that implies that Lilith (and Maya. and Troy) have been voring the Eridians and wow I hate that. to avoid that i’d much prefer my other theory about how the eridians just used the Machine to make a portal to their own dimension (explaining how Tannis was able to also create a portal to Pandora) and possibly? can communicate through eridium? I mean eridium is pretty otherworldly we can just say that because its true, so perhapeth they can use it to communicate with others. Kinda like the mirrors in the mirror dimension from one piece. That’d also remove the creepy ‘eating souls’ aspect of things because tbh that freaks me tf out. even if it is pretty badass (but we can’t ignore the fact TANNIS LITERALLY ATE SOULS CAN WE P L E A S E TALK ABOUT THAT GEARBOX IM BEG. actually if tannis is our eridian expert that’s a way to ASSUME she’s the reason we know about this weird guardian signal, but what if its actually because she absorbed those souls from Graveward?? we know this is originally content from the main game because you can literally find stuff (like voice lines and echo Icons for the guardian rifts) about this event so i’m 100% hoping it was supposed to expand on the whole ‘hey yeah Tannis just ate souls lmao’ thing because. seriously. the fuck. Tyreen I get. but TANNIS? phaseshifter??? hello???)

oh but the guardians right. If the eridians are truly gone gone (x to doubt. x) then the guardians are all truly crazy. why does the Overseer act like she can still hear the Eridians?? true she never actually says ‘eridians’ but when you put all her lines together its hard to see her calling the ‘masters’ anyone but. Especially when she’s all like ‘they left the house long ago’ like... you don’t die when you leave the house. You just walked away, which seems pretty obvious. If these guardians are a rogue sect of Guardians who transformed this planet, why??? I mean obviously we don’t have a lot to go on but the environment that we did get to see is very nekrotefeyo and machine like, so obviously eridian inspired. If we can assume the ‘main’ group of guardians are literally just here to protect the vaults (possibly the ones who are not as ‘ascended’ as those like the Overseer or the Watcher??) then we can guess that the ‘rogue’ group of Guardians like the ones on Minos Prime are the ones trying to do what the Overseer/Watcher wants. Which is hard to put into words given how vague everything is but I imagine they really really really just want to go feral and be able to do what they want instead of what they’re told. which, respect, but also please don’t murder people. that’s our job as Vault Hunters smh.

#im sorry #i just had so many thoughts lol #i woke up from a 12 hour nap and was like I MUST TALK ABOUT BORDERLANDS #so here we are #borderlands

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: The Trap (15x09)

Whaaaat did I just watch though? That made me... so happy? In the sad way? You know. You get it.

Cons:

I understand that the actress playing Eileen can't be in all the rest of the episodes, but I'm still sad to see her leave. It reminds me of Mary leaving, after her resurrection - just a plotty excuse to get a certain actor out of the show for a while. I wish it wasn't necessary. Eileen had better be in several more episodes, and she had better f**king live. That's all I'm sayin'.

Jared and Jensen were clearly having fun playing vampires, which is good for them, but it was a little too cheesy for my taste. Especially when Vamp!Sam got shot and Vamp!Dean attacked Jody. That should have been actually moving - this idea that even as a monster, Dean would go berserk watching Sam die. But instead I was too distracted by Dean's silly monster attack face. It's a small thing, but still.

Pros:

So let's start with the Purgatory stuff. This whole subplot was really just an excuse for Dean to emotionally apologize to Cas, and you know what? I am not mad about it. Really, it's a simple quest - get in, find magic flower, get out, create weapon to trap Chuck. So instead of watching two people hunt monsters, grab a flower, and get the hell out of dodge, we focus on the emotional aspect of this relationship.

First off, I love that Dean and Cas have to go into Purgatory knowing that Chuck has Eileen and Sam. You can see how torn Dean is, how every instinct is telling him to run to his brother immediately. But Cas is done caving to whatever Dean wants. He's scared for Sam too, but he knows that the only way to defeat Chuck is to follow through on Michael's plan. Once they're there, Dean is continually pissy, and Cas just doesn't have time for it. He scoffs at Dean's suggestion that they split up, and then later, as they are following their captive Leviathan to the flower they need, we get the exchange that everyone is already talking about: "You left." "I left, but you didn't stop me." Like... excuse me? That's the most... that's just... how is that not two exes being angry and bitter and heartbroken with each other? It was so much!

And then they get separated, and Dean searches for him. When there's only thirty minutes left until the rift closes, he realizes that he might have to leave Cas behind in Purgatory. For the second time. I love everything that goes unspoken here, because I truly believe that Dean would stay in Purgatory, and miss his chance to go home, to keep looking for Cas. But he can't do that, because Chuck has Sam. The prayer was... it was a lot. I know some people were disappointed and wanted some big declaration of love, but my expectations have always been pretty low when it comes to Destiel content.

So... to see Dean pray to Cas, literally fall to his knees part way through that prayer, to see him apologize, to see him say "of course I forgive you" and "you're my best friend," to see him acknowledging his own anger and how he takes it out on Cas, and how that isn't fair... I was overwhelmed. And Jensen really didn't pull any punches with the emotional nature of his reaction. We've seen a lot of dramatic angst speeches from Dean over the years - it's one of the show's trademarks. This isn't even the first time we've seen one of these speeches that's mostly about Cas. But this one isn't the typical "single man tear" type. Dean is openly weeping, his voice cracking as he repeats "I hope you can hear me." He thinks he might be saying goodbye to Cas forever, and it's so fucking powerful.

And that hug! Cas waiting by the rift for the last possible second, Dean planning to do the same, and then - they're reunited, and Cas got what they came for in the first place! I loved the hug, I loved Cas telling Dean: "I heard your prayer." It's just so - intimate. Dean praying to Cas is intimate, and it always has been, and it kind of drives me bonkers that it even exists.

Benny being dead was an interesting choice... they got the actor to come back for at least one scene, so it's odd not to see him here. That said, I appreciated that the writers didn't forget about him. Of course Dean would ask. And we also see Cas offering his sympathies, which leads in to their snippy exchange.

Let's go ahead and turn to the main plot of the night... Chuck systematically breaking Sammy's heart and fortitude. I am eMOTIONAL right now. I love that Chuck uses Eileen to cut Sam, that is just so dark and twisted and awful, and I felt so bad for both of them. But this isn't enough to break Sam Winchester, of course.

So Chuck tries a different tack, showing Sam what will happen if Dean and Cas swoop in and save the day, and defeat Chuck. The grim reality of the future is this: without God in place to keep balance, the monsters will start to take over the world, and Sam and Dean will not be able to stem the tide. That's the big picture, and it's what Chuck eventually explains to Sam... but in the immediate reality of it, Sam can only focus on the fact that their allies will slowly die around them - Donna and the girls, leaving Jody bereft, Eileen, leaving Sam bereft... even Cas gets buried in the box because the Mark turned him dark-side. And that at the end of all of this, Sam wants to go out swinging, while Dean wants to give up. It ends with Sam and Dean becoming vampires, and Jody and Bobby coming along to take them out once and for all. That's the reality waiting at the end of the line, if Chuck is defeated.

I hate to talk more about Destiel (haha no I don't), but I just have to point out that Dean identifies the moment when he lost all hope as the moment when he had to bury Cas. That's true love, baby! And Sam's increasingly frantic energy was really tough to watch, especially when we know that in this imagined future, Sam and Eileen formed a real relationship, and then he lost her. We start off this whole future by seeing Sam, Eileen, Dean, and Cas all apparently living together in the bunker, researching for cases, having movie nights... and then Jody calls to tell them that Claire is dead, and that's what starts the nightmare spiral.

And it gets worse than that - if Chuck is defeated, this is the apparent outcome. If Chuck isn't defeated, we go back to the whole "Cain and Abel" thing, where Sam and Dean are destined to kill each other. Chuck informs Dean, after Dean and Cas show up to save the day, that these weren't Chuck's planned endings. They were other versions of Sam and Dean, other ways that their story ended over the many different versions of Earth that Chuck has created.

Well, that's grim. I really enjoyed tracking the idea of "hope" as it's presented in this episode. Sam refuses to let Chuck get to him for a really long time, but one of the reasons that he loses hope, ultimately, and doesn't trap Chuck, is because he sees this future where Dean loses hope. Where instead of going out like Butch and Sundance, you have Sam basically forcing Dean to continue hunting, by threatening to go into reckless fights by himself. Of course Dean would never let Sam do that, even though he's lost his heart for hunting because his husband is gone. But then in our current reality, we see that Sam has lost hope, but Dean has not. Even as Chuck says that the dark ending is inevitable, Dean says no. Not this Sam. Not this Dean.

It's so fascinating, because it was Dean earlier this season who said that he couldn't even tell what was real anymore, but now, with his relationship with Cas newly repaired, he seems to have hit his second wind. He'll hold the torch of optimism while Sam cannot.

Eileen and Sam finally kissed, and of course they had to make it bittersweet! She needs some time away, she can't stay when she's so uncertain about what's real anymore. Chuck has manipulated their relationship, bringing them back together in order to prove a point. And that sucks, and it feeds in to Sam and Dean's fears about their free will... but it doesn't mean that Eileen and Sam's feelings for each other aren't real. I have hopes that Eileen will grapple with that off screen, and come back to help kick some ass by the time the finale roles around. Also the kiss was really sweet and soft and I want Sam to be happy SO BAD.

One final note: Sam didn't crush the magic orb thingy that was supposed to trap Chuck, making Dean and Cas' harrowing trip to Purgatory pointless. I was worried that this would cause a rift between the brothers, but instead, when Sam says that he believes Chuck's vision of the future, and how bad things will get without him around, Dean just says: "that's good enough for me." I love the fact that they are on the same page, and that here going into the endgame, we can have a united front.

One final final note: It looks like Jack is making a return! Place your bets now - will Jack replace Chuck as God, restoring balance and allowing our heroes the chance to defeat our ultimate Big Bad? I gotta say, I don't hate that as an ending to the show!

9.5/10

#review #supernatural #supernatural review #spn #spn 15x09

[dcbicki]

no offense but you and sarah are freakin WIZARDS!!! also your theories just infused me with SO much hope for the rest of the show— those wack ‘jaime and cersei die together xoxoxo jon kills dany 💅💅’ leaks were so damn scary but i feel much better now. (+ im in a similar position to you in regard to dany- i feel fucking disturbed at how d&d are treating her character now despite hardcore rolling my eyes every time she was onscreen in 8.01)

We really are wizards, aren’t we, @atimefordirewolves?

Not to sound like a total narcissist here, but I feel like the theory we’ve cooked up – that’s backed by (and you gotta bear with me here) logical and sensical leaks (including a new one from after I made that post!) – is just a hell of a lot more plausible than a twincest-double-suicide that ruins one character’s whole redemption arc in favour of the villain’s, and a ‘I have to kill my lover because she’s gone absolutely bonkers’ twist. 

But to be honest, what D&D – aka, Dipshit and Dumbfuck – managed to do is actually quite impressive, all things considered: They somehow got the whole fandom to collectively lose their shit after episode 4. Come Monday, everyone had collectively lost their shit. Like, I don’t think there was a single ship or character sub-fandom that was happy with how it played out. And this is part of why we think those terribly-depressing-and-awfully-glum leaks are fake as fuck (and maybe even have been planted by the powers that be.) If *they* turn out to be true, then the show’s whole reputation is shot, to be fucking frank, and I’m having trouble imagining those two jackheads willingly ruining their own careers for *gasp* shock value.

The only real rift I’m seeing is between Jonerys/Jonsa shippers still but that’s just… eh. Dany fans aren’t pleased, and like you said, even *I* made it clear that I can see why they’re pissed off. She started off the season as an entitled b**** but now she’s just… written so as to make the viewer want to hate her but it’s actually having the opposite effect because they’ve gone about it all wrong (if that was their intention… which I don’t think it was. It’s a whole mess that I can’t even formulate into words, basically.) Sansa’s savvy, but no one aside from Arya or Tyrion is listening to her so she’s coming across as jealous and kind-of-a-backstabber when really she’s just being pragmatic. Jon’s just playing the role of everyone’s favourite punching bag this season again, I guess. Arya’s wishy-washy and can’t seem to decide what she wants. Jaime’s whole storyline is up in the air because they’ve been hella sketchy about what his true motivations are. Tyrion’s alternating between being a *cool bro*, a somewhat decent ex-husband, and a potential traitor. People think Brienne was acting out of character because *deep breath* she cried. I don’t even know what the fuck Bran is doing.

And… yeah, ultimately, even if Sarah and I are proven wrong this weekend, we had a go at trying to help mend a fragile fandom, and honestly, we had a whole lot of fun doing it – weird Gendry fanart and Reddit dumpster-diving included :)

Here’s to the absolute clusterfuck that is sure to be episode 5, bitches!

#anon #answered #got leaks #game of thrones