#or when the ending recasts everything that comes before in the worst way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mishastoesies · 3 years

Text

layout of MY widower arc:

jack is born and he’s a baby. sam and dean walk into the nursery guns raised and they see a crying baby. dean moves first, puts his gun away and holds the baby and tries to get him to stop crying

dean calls the baby “cas jr.” while he’s trying to get jack to stop crying and sam is like [sam noise] dean his name is jack. look at the wall for two seconds

dean lets jack hold his pinkie, jack grabs it, and gives dean a little baby handprint scar around it. cue dean’s glib little “got a killer grip there, slugger” while he’s actively trying not to cry

dean carries jack in a sling while watching cas’ body burn. everything else about that scene remains the same. the yellow curtains were INSPIRED

when they get back to the bunker, dean pours all of his hard liquor down the drain. and when he’s done with that, he goes into the kitchen, grabs the wine he uses for cooking and the six packs of beer he keeps around and pours those down the sink too

enter... the hell zone: dean has baby insomnia, grief nightmares where cas burns on the ceiling when he manages to sleep, hallucinates cas everywhere, and the withdrawal symptoms are VERY bad. shot of him crying for three seconds, taking a deep breath, and soldiering on

during ALL of this, sam is trying to be there for his brother but like... the monsters did not Stop just because dean acquired a baby. cue sam becoming the de-facto On Site Adult for the wayward sisters, especially alex who becomes sam jr., and also doing more witch stuff with rowena because yknow. dean’s busy with the kid he’s allowed to fuck around and he’s PRETTY sure he won’t have to do any finding out (spoiler: he does find out, but that’s a season 14 sam thing)

SPEAKING of the wayward sisters, dean has an epiphany during one of his more lucid moments and looks at jack’s makeshift nursery and is like “the bunker is... not a good place for a kid” so he takes himself to sioux falls and crashes with donna and jody for a few weeks before he can get him a Home

mary tries so hard to give him baby advice but it’s all terrible advice from the reagan era because yknow. thats where she’s from. “you don’t need a carseat, when you were jack’s age you slept on the floor of the impala” “by the time he’s two you can just drop him off at the park and let him play” “are you MAKING your own baby food? i did the same thing! i fed you and sam blitzed up pop tarts a couple of times!”

gabriel shows up early and nearly sends dean into Mystery Spot 2.0 because he’s convinced that dean knocked cas up. this is the first time we get confirmation of jack’s true form looking like cas. dean gets yelled at for a good 3 hours when he says “no no no, jacks not mine, he’s the antichrist” because thats gabriel’s NEPHEW how DARE he say that

when cas comes back, dean runs to him, spins him around, and kisses him on the lips. dean is weeping during this. cas is shocked, and pulls away, and this leads to: the awkward era.

during the awkward era, cas is 100% in love with dean and dean is 100% in love with cas, BUT they both don’t want the other one to make a “hasty decision” - cas thinks dean’s just emotional from having to be a single father for months on end and is latching onto him as a result of that, and dean thinks cas is only being nice to him because of jack and couldn’t possibly feel the same way as him

dean can go back out on cases now, and cas is relegated to stay-at-home parent because he wants time with jack. dean avoids them because he thinks that he’d be unwelcome and intruding on them. cas secretly wishes dean was with him the whole time.

this continues until dean gets got by one of those offshoot-djinn that make you see worst nightmares instead of idyllic dreams. his worst nightmare, surprise, is cas dying again. dean and cas have their very emotional conversation in the middle of the night about this, dean says “i can’t do this without you”, cas says “i don’t want to do this without you,” cue emotional sex scene, and in the morning, they’re once again in-sync and acting like an old married couple, taking care of jack together and being a liddol fambily

while all of this has been happening sam has embroiled himself in witch politics, having become the leader of a growing reformist faction in the community that wants to reconcile with hunters and work to stop larger threats, and he’s pretty sure that rowena’s betraying him because she’s out for power and power alone, so he decides to fake his own death using rowena’s resurrection trick and some illusory magic (here we recast sam as ryan ross from panic! at the disco) to go undercover and see what she’s been saying

(spoiler: she HAS been double-crossing him and readying for a hostile takeover with her own group. sam now needs allies, powerful ones too... who can he call on? that’s right. gabriel thee archangel. yes my version of season 13 ALSO has horrible sabriel bait! you’re welcome!)

the angels’ plan to kidnap jack is 100% worse this time because they effectively want to take this very small baby and use him as a generator to keep heaven running. they don’t view jack as a person with potential, they view him as a battery. cas and dean are now on the run from heaven itself, and who can they call on to hide them? who left heaven after deciding the angels were just Not That Compelling? that’s right. chuck.

chuck in THIS version has a soft spot for his grandson and takes them in, BUT they have to share a house with becky. becky loves the baby, and jack, who is now one year old, loves becky’s pet cat and becky’s three year old daughter.

scene were dean and cas are lying in the guest bedroom of becky’s house and dean is like “i didnt want this for us. i wanted us to be normal” and cas is like “dean, i don’t want normal. i want you. i’d go anywhere for you, i thought you knew that”

claire comes to visit them often, even when they’re at becky’s house. the first time claire visits is when dean is alone in the bunker with cas still dead, though, and after she punches dean in blind anger, she holds jack and is like “yknow, i always wanted a baby brother.” when she visits at becky’s house she brings cas a dean funko pop and is like “i got it at the hot topical :)”

there’s so much more to this but this is like... the main part of it

#baby jack truthing #supernatural #dean winchester #destiel #this is so obnoxiously long and for WHAT. for WHAT #and i cut myself off at 20 paragraphs but there's MORE. kill me

266 notes · View notes

whoacanada · 3 years

Text

‘Wishful Thinking‘

Summary: Every NHL champion gets a single brush with ice magic. When Jack takes his first cup with the Falconers, he accidentally undoes the wish that brought him back from the brink of death in 2009, and Bitty becomes hell-bent on lifting the cup himself for a chance to set things right.

A/N: Finally posting some concepts I’ve played around with that aren’t 100% complete massive fics, but still pretty solid, just little things that might be enjoyed. Yet another cup-wish-gone-wrong-au with monkey-paw components. Also inspired by discord convos about canon!Jack meeting an older, veteran NHL!Bitty and having a lot of feelings. Also mentor/father-in-law!Bob trying to help Bitty navigate the NHL. There’s more to this floating around but this is the meat of it

____________

Bob can sense when it happens. A shift of something monumental that he’s only felt on a handful of occasions his entire life. A quick glance across the ice finds a number of the celebrating Falconers looking around curiously, unsure of the sensation; for so many, it’s their first brush with ice magic. A pleasant novelty. The vets, though, they look to each other.

Bob turns and doesn’t have to look far to find his son, one hand clasped around the cup, the other around Eric Bittle’s waist, smiling from ear to ear. Something about the moment is wrong, but Bob can’t quite determine why as he’s overcome with a wave of nausea. The stadium lights are too bright and he blinks hard, face scrunching, trying to force whatever wrongness he’s feeling out of himself.

Someone’s made a wish.

The moment passes. Bob’s vision clears. There, veiled in a shower of blue and gold confetti, is Eric; alone at center ice, face twisted in confusion as he looks around for the man who only moments earlier had been in his arms.

“You take the cup, you get one real wish,” the decades old, bourbon-lacquered voice of his first coach reminds him. “But only the one. Can be something small, like an empty cab in the rain, or it can be something big. World changing, even. The one thing, the most important thing — ”

“No,” Bob breathes. “Please, no.”

“— You never use your wish on another player.”

____________

They don’t know exactly what Jack wished for, but the next time Bitty’s blades touch the ice, it’s as if he’s stepped into the body of a new man. No more slurs. No more targeted chirps. He’s just one of the boys.

He plays. He wins. Then, the offers start to come.

NHL teams looking for fast wingers, team players, leadership material; not one of them mentions diversity, or Eric’s status as the first out NCAA hockey captain. No one cares. No one remembers Jack, and no one cares about Eric.

The best and worst case scenarios rolled into one. If this is the reality Jack unknowingly traded his existence for, Bitty has no choice but to walk through the door his partner opened.

Bitty swallows, trying to force the words out on one of his now nightly calls with the man who would have been his father-in-law in another world, if the shared connection between them hadn’t been interred in a Montréal cemetery almost a decade prior.

“I think . . . I think he wished for acceptance.”

___________

“No one remembers anymore.”

Eric scuffs his skate against this ice, building up a small pile of shavings before scattering them again, focusing on the soft white as if somehow he’ll be able to transport himself bodily to somewhere cool and quiet. Jackson Hole. Banff. Tremblant. Anywhere but here. Anywhen but now.

“Saw Tater last week at a press junket. Blank stares all around. Some days, most days, I wake up and I don’t know how I got here. I can go without thinking of him.”

Weeks. Eric doesn’t say aloud. Months. Those hideous mornings when he wakes up beside a warm body and forgets they aren’t him. They aren’t supposed to be him. Was there ever even a him.

Jack. Eric mouths silently, just to remind himself. His name is Jack.

The details always slip. The universe constantly trying to correct the fallacy of Eric Bittle remembering a man who died before they technically ever met. Faded photographs and corrupted memory cards. Selfies that used to have two people in frame. Vlog posts with cosmic ADR, swapping Jack’s name for someone else’s like a hastily rewritten script. Eventually, even Eric’s memories turn traitor. First times lost to reshoots and post-production magic. Blue eyes are brown. Black hair is blonde. Jack becomes Phillip. Eric’s first love recast. In desperation, he pulls a page from Memento, finds a tattoo parlor and has ‘Jack Laurent Zimmermann’ inked in dark, unmistakable letters on his inner thigh. Adds a cup, the Falconers’ crest, and the date they lost everything. It works well enough until the name fades; there are still days where a hook up will ask why Eric has a championship tattoo for a team he never played with.

Now, all he has is Bob.

“That’s why I’m here.” Bob reminds. “That’s why we talk.”

“But what happens if we don’t.”

Bob’s familiar assurances rumble through the phone. Constant. Refusing to acknowledge the harsh realities of the passing of time. The ever-present doomsday clock moving them both toward disaster — Bob aging, Eric aging out. He’s good, but he isn’t great, and the only offers coming his way are single-season contracts with teams that haven’t sniffed a championship in years. One day very soon, there will be no more chances for Eric to undo what’s been done. No more favors to ask of teammates that have long since forgotten a world where Jack Zimmermann was a college graduate and a rookie MVP. Not just an addict. Not just dead at nineteen.

Eric listens to Bob ramble, asks him to tell him a story, to tell him about the Jack that Eric never really got to know. The Jack he can barely remember. A man that Eric has dedicated his entire life to honoring, to bringing back — from where he cannot fathom — and Bob obliges in a soft tone Eric imagines is not dissimilar from how he must have spoken to his son as a child.

Eric ignores his teammates rushing around him — tossing chirps and gentle insults about his ‘Sugar Daddy’ — and focuses on the accented voice in his ear; grasping desperately at the memory of a man who doesn’t exist. Pretending. Hoping.

__________

Across the ice, Eric sees Kent Parson watching him. When they lock eyes, the aging star glides toward him, under a guise of one amicable captain greeting another. He’s pushing 37, and while the years of competitive play are starting to show, he’s just as viciously handsome as the day they first met. At least, Eric thinks he is. He can’t imagine a life where Kent Parson strolled onto a college campus and played beer pong at a frat party, but there’s a folder of old photos on Eric’s computer. Jack is in none of them, but there’s one of himself and Kent. Smiling.

Eric can’t recall why the image bothers him so much.

Parson used his wish years ago on something that he’s never bothered to share — and Eric’s far too much a gentleman to ask a man who was once a rival what he wasted his golden ticket on — but now, he’s slowing down, and this is supposed to be his farewell season. Going out with a bang, riding the high of his fifth cup win. He’s worked hard, and he deserves to shove the Penguins back down into obscurity for another season. Deserves it far more than Eric, with his selfish, single-mindedness that’s ruined god knows how many careers in the last decade between his own ruthlessness and Bob’s meddling.

Except. . . this is also likely Eric’s last season. His last chance to undo the great tragedy of his life, and Parson knows it.

“How you feeling, Peaches? You ready?”

Eric hates the nickname in the same way he hates when his father calls him ‘Champ’.

Eric fights his own shame because he wants to be honest, say, ‘No, I’m not ready, I’ll never be ready,’ but Eric can’t ask for what he wants, anymore. He wants the Aces to balk on a power play. He wants Parson to flub a pass and throw the game — he even knows the man would probably do it, too — but Eric needs to come by a win honestly. They learned the hard way in 2022 when Eric hands were wrapped around the cup, wishing, praying, crying, pleading . . .

Clear eyes, full hearts, or some such bullshit.

Cheaters don’t get wishes.

“I can’t remember, anymore,” Eric admits as they square up across the face-off circle, the resigned terror of an inescapable end creeping upon him like the burn of an old injury ignored for far too long. “Kent. Please.” Parson leans down, rests his stick against the ice, and holds Eric’s gaze as if to say, I’m here. Trust me. Just play.

The puck drops.

________

There’s someone watching him, young, handsome with dark hair and the kind of bright blue eyes that scream ‘notice me’ with all of the biological bluntness of neon plumage and a mating dance. The man weaves through the crowd, unnoticed by Eric’s teammates, and comes close enough that Eric can’t help but assume familiarity. He must be a fan, the way he’s flushed and excitable.

Eric’s drunk enough on the moment that he’s happy to indulge his baser instincts. He also literally can’t remember the last time he brought company home and if there’s ever been a night to get laid, it’s this one.

“Crisse, look at you, Bits.”

The man is caught between being awestruck and simply struck, reaching out to touch Eric’s arm but not quite making contact, like his depth perception is the tiniest bit off. He drops Eric’s old nickname so easily, so earnestly, that for a moment Eric thinks they might already know each other — but that’s impossible. Eric would remember someone so handsome, so very much his type.

“Only my friends call me ‘Bitty’.” Eric cautions, raising his half-empty champagne bottle in a mock toast and flashing his best ‘you’re coming home with me tonight’ smile. “But I’m more than happy to to get acquainted with you, Sugar.”

Eric isn’t usually this forward, this unrestrained. Tonight, it doesn’t matter, he’s celebrating: another championship, the end of a career, a life well lived. It’s to be expected. What isn’t expected is how the man’s relieved smile falters; as if Eric’s unbridled joy is somehow misplaced.

“Bitty? It’s me.”

“And ‘me’ is called . . . ?”

On very few occasions in Eric’s life has he been able to witness true devastation first-hand; and those instances were related to deaths, hockey losses, or blackout morning afters.

“Jack.” The man says softly, face slack with surprise. “It’s. . . Jack. Bitty, you know me.”

“If we’ve met before, I’m sorry,” Eric apologizes, hating to see the kid look so defeated. “I meet so many people — ”

Over Jack’s shoulder, Eric catches sight of Bob Zimmermann and waves, delighting in the way Bob’s face lights up when he catches sight of Eric, practically going supernova when he notices Jack as well, crossing the ice like a man possessed; Bob moves to pull them both into a hug but Eric’s new friend holds up a defensive hand and Bob stops mid-gesture.

It’s extremely apparent something is off, and between the reporters, the confetti, the champagne, and the fans, Eric is missing all of the context clues.

“Just won my last cup,” Eric singsongs, gesturing with the bottle between his mentor and the man Eric would very much like to fuck — who look very similar now that Eric can see them side by side. “Everyone’s super excited, right? Yeah? So, what’s going on. Did someone die?”

“No.” Bob says quickly, eyes flicking between Jack and Eric warily. “No. Not . . . that.”

“Severely injured?”

“. . . Non.”

“Okay, then, we should be celebrating!” Eric throws his arms wide and nearly clocks a passing teammate. “No more party pooping, Bobbert. Speaking, this is my new friend, Jack. Jack, Bob, Bob, Jack. Though, I’m getting the feeling you two might know each other. Or might be . . . related.” Eric gasps and smacks his free palm against his forehead. “Oh my god, the Tremblant retreat? Is that where I know you from? Listen, I was fucked up on pain meds that whole weekend, I am so sorry if we’ve already met.”

Despite Eric’s continued attempts at clarifying their shared mystery past, Jack keeps looking at Bob with that same wounded expression and it’s really killing Eric’s buzz.

“Bob.” Eric redirects. “Help me, here. Cutie’s nervous.”

“Eric, this is my, ah, well,” Bob’s smile is so forced, so tense, it looks more like a grimace. “Well, this is my son, Jack.”

There is only one ‘Jack’ Eric has ever known in relation to Bob Zimmermann, and he is not someone to be mentioned in polite conversation.

“Your son?” Eric echoes slowly. “Your son, Jack.”

Bob realizes what Eric’s tiptoeing around and casts a furtive glance toward the younger man, lifting two fingers to his cheek conspiratorially to imply ‘it’s a long story, not meant for public ears’. Eric knows how to play along.

“Wow, okay, did not expect that, but now that you’re saying it, I can one-hundred-percent tell. You have the same, well, everything.”

Eric takes Jack’s hand for an obligatory shake, not missing the way Jack’s features twist up into something caught between flattery and misery, before staring down his pseudo-mentor.

“My question is this, where have you’ve been hiding him — because how long have I know you, Bobby? Shame.”

“I’ve been . . . away.”

Jack’s tone is weighted with context Eric absolutely does not possess, but can definitely read into. Given the age difference and Alicia’s conspicuous lack of attendance this evening, Jack’s definitely a love child from some 90s Zimmergroupie. Or, original Jack didn’t actually OD and Bob spirited away his kid to keep away the prying eyes of the public; but that wouldn’t explain the age difference or the shared name.

Oh, Bobbert.

“Couldn’t wheel him out too soon,” Bob jokes, but Eric can tell the man’s heart isn’t in it, reinforcing Eric’s suspicion.

“Well, I’m happy you did,” Eric says graciously, trying to smooth over the awkwardness. “He’s very handsome, when he isn’t doing this Eeyore impression.”

“Just like his father,” Bob says reflexively — defensively — as Jack goes pink. “Eric, will you excuse us for a moment? Back in five minutes, tops.”

Eric offers a gracious wave, gaze lingering on Jack’s retreating back — and backside, bless — watching Bob rest a firm hand on his son’s neck, gripping tightly to lean in and furiously whisper something. As Eric watches, Jack looks back over his shoulder; it’s not the fond glance of a potential paramour. Regret, maybe? Grief, definitely.

He must be as disappointed to be cock-blocked by his father as Eric is.

Across the ice, Kent Parson has rushed Jack, gathering him into a crushing embrace that the younger man returns easily — burying his face against Parson’s pads; pulling back only when Parson grabs Jack’s shoulders to push him away, taking a long look at him, holding his face between his hands briefly before pulling Jack back into his arms.

They don’t just look like old friends, it’s a reunion of desperation, like the videos his mother sends of soldiers coming home from war, but before Eric can think better of it, a teammate fists a hand in the collar of Eric’s sweater and pulls — away from Bob’s forlorn love child and forgotten first meetings — and the night goes on.

Bob doesn’t return. Neither does Jack.

Eric doesn’t even notice.

__________

#Part I #maybe?#zimbits #omgcp #angst #long fic #cup magic #ice magic #my stuff #my fic #NHL!Bitty

196 notes · View notes

takaraphoenix · 3 years

Text

I finally got around to watching the finale season of Black Lightning and... I’m not too happy. It wasn’t the worst final I’ve ever seen, but considering how pretty darn consistent the quality of this show was, this season definitely was a huge drop.

For one, the thing I loved about this show was the family. And we literally spend nearly the entire first half of this season with everyone in their individual corner, only edging on when they interact. With little to no understanding toward what the other(s) are going through and with no one having even remotely a good way of coping with their trauma. (Imo, at least one out of four main characters should be shown having healthy coping mechanisms. At least one.)

And then, in the middle of the season, we waste a whole entire episode on a useless backdoor pilot.

How has the CW done this twice now? Heralding a spin-off quite loudly, announcing it way earlier, then dedicating an entire episode of the final season of the show to set up that spin-off and also consequently sacrificing the potential happily ever after of multiple characters for the sake of making this spin-off work... just to then cancel the spin-off before it ever airs.

Khalil could have returned in the finale. Him and Jen could have been reunited. We also could have had a whole episode more to spend on this season instead of the set up. If the CW would just make up its mind earlier. If you set a fandom up for a spin-off and work it into the show this strongly, you really gotta pull through on the spin-off.

And speaking of Jennifer, that was really the big problem for me this season.

I thought the reason the show got cancelled was greatly that China Anne wanted to quit. But I also thought she would at least give us this final season. And even with her “cutting back”, this could have been handled better.

Quite frankly, just doing the recast and keeping the reason and being done with it would have been better. Or, if they really wanted to keep China Anne, just... keep her in the pod. This machine created a whole body, there was no reason for it to only take one day. They could have just put Jennifer’s character on ice until the finale where it is “done” creating the body and we’d only have China Anne’s Jennifer.

But to introduce as major a villain as “manifested malevolent space energy” in literally the last 20 minutes of a show is just ridiculous. Seriously. What a huge reveal with huge implications that should have been a far bigger deal and then Jen just kicks its butt in five minutes flat and we comment about how crazy it is that there is life up there and that’s it.

This is something with such huge implications and it might be okay if you actually end a universe because hey, not everything has to be wrapped. But they only ended this show. They’re still keeping this universe. Among which are two (2) shows focused on aliens. And now we know there are living, evil particles in our ionosphere. And yet I just know this will never come up in either of those...

Honestly, I still think it was a massive mistake to make Black Lightning a part of the Arrowverse. It was so incredibly half-assed on the writers’ part.

Last season, when Jeff was literally dealing with a foreign invasion on American ground, no one got called for backup even though a foreign invasion is definitely grand enough scale to get some other heroes involved, that was by far not just a Freeland problem.

They ended that season in Gotham City, but... for literally no reason and also not for any cameo or anything? Metropolis and Star City kept being namedropped this season and at one point, Jefferson interacted with Barry completely off-screen (they couldn’t even have Grant phone in??) and due to Covid, there was no Big Crossover Event this batch of seasons either that they could have been a part of.

Lastly, they also never gave us any Lynn and John interactions. That was the one thing that really made me excited about BL joining the Arrowverse, because Arrow had already heavily implied that John Diggle was John Stewart. But now Black Lightning ends, after Arrow ended, and Lynn and John never even shared a frame and I’m really put out by that.

With what tiny little name dropping they did and with the zero impact that the Arrowverse, the merged Earths, the fact that now Arrow and Flash and Superman and Supergirl and Batman are all real in BL’s world now and it just... had absolutely no effect to this world at all... a world where... hunting metas was such a huge, integral part and now it’s part of a world where there are so many metas? Nah, the only effect that had was that Tobias name-dropped Central City as another place they could cleanse...

It was such a lackluster retcon that really served absolutely no purpose at all and didn’t make a dent in the world-building or plotlines, they really should have just kept it its own world...

Just, so many things about this final season that bothered me. I’m glad the majority of characters got a happy ending out of it, I’m mildly frustrated by the implications of the torch being passed on because genuinely I’d be dying for crime fighting wlw wives I would absolutely watch a continuation/spin-off about Thunder & Wylde (even without Lightning, since China Anne wants to quit).

#Black Lightning #Arrowverse #DC Comics #Phoe's Random Show Rants

28 notes · View notes

not-close-to-straight · 3 years

Text

Random Wanda Vision Thoughts--

Episode 1: I am an emotional bitch crying at Wanda and Vision saying “i do” at the end of episode 1, like can these babies please catch a break? they just want to be happy.

Also Agnes and the 70′s show mom are my favorite wtf.

STARK TOASTERS I SEE YOU.

WHO IS WATCHING THEM WTF

Episode 2:

Dottie should die, she seems like the type who needs gently run over by a bus

WHO IS IN THE RADIO

Elizabeth Olsen is so cute in this, absolutely adorable

IS THAT DAVID SCHWIMMER PLAYING THE PIANO

Vision is drunk from getting gum in his gears, I’m actually cackling right now.

Tiny bit culty with the “for the children” thing, huh? Yikes

BABY BUMP!

Some creepo decides to get in on their world and Wanda literally went “i think the fuck not, let’s try this again and this time in technicolor”

is that the cop who asked out Ant Man on the radio?

The difference in “sitcom” Wanda who is happy in her world and “real life” Wanda when she realizes something isn’t right is honestly astonishing and Grade A Face Acting. See what happens when they let women do more on screen then walk around in tight clothes with full lips parted in a sexy pout?

Episode 3:

Seventies Vision’s hair is ENDING ME, I can’t even deal with that.

IT HAS TO BE DAVID SCHWIMMER except he looks like “russ” from friends instead of “ross”

Poor Vision is not handling impending fatherhood well

COMIC BOOK NAME DROP BILLY AND TOMMY I LOVE IT

Poor pregnancy fritzing Wanda. DID WANDA JUST GLITCH A TIME ERASE AND NOT MEAN TO? Listen, I did not expect to love them as a couple this much. EW HER WATER BROKE OMG

A STORK

Oh Wanda, poor baby she’s so afraid, I write way too much fan fiction about how all these characters are secretly terrified to go through life alone to be okay with this.

Why did I start crying immediately when the babies were born, I’m too emotional for this. She is so beautiful and Vision is so soft meeting his son as himself, oh my gosh. THE TWIN SCREAMS while the other twin comes omg this is Grade A Sitcom bullshit.

The doctor knows something is Up and so do Herb and Agnes. *don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious*

...have we actually seen Ralph and I’m just blanking on it? WHY DON’T THEY LIKE GERALDINE? WHO IS SHE?

Oh no i’m crying again over pietro and the sokovian lullaby. Don’t let me watch this while I’m PMSing wtf this is torture. GERALDINE KNOWS ABOUT ULTRON

OH SHIT WANDA IS PISSED LOOK AT THAT DANGEROUS LADY. that head tilt is fucking lethal.

I love agnes oh man. I know because of spoilers she’s something of a bad guy? but I love her

WHAT HAPPENED TO GERALDINE OMG DID WANDA KILL HER

Oh no, not dead. Just kicked tf out of the bubble. I just realized the symbol is for Sword. Is this some sort of experiment to keep Wanda contained post Endgame? I should have read more spoilers, I’m fucking confused.

Episode 4: OH HOLY SHIT IT’S MONICA RAMBEAU AND IT’S POST EG SNAP OH MY GOSH SHE HAS NO IDEA SHES BEEN GONE FOR FIVE YEARS MY HEART IS BREAKING MY HEART IS BREAKING I CAN’T TAKE IT

It IS the cop that hit on Ant Man! WHAT DO THEY MEAN WESTVIEW DOESN’T EXIST

Oh it’s Darcy! Damn straight it’s Dr. Lewis. How very shocking, a woman was the one to show a room full of Ridiculous Men what’s going on?

ZOMBIE VISION OH MY GOD “no we can’t” oh man she is starting to CRACK and Vision knows something is wrong OH NO

At this point I should point out that I am 1000% surprised at the quality of the show and 1000% pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying it. The bar for Wanda’s character development was literally subterranean, but this is has been frankly sort of amazing??

Episode 5

Agnes asking about “taking it from the top” WHAT. I love so much the way the characters “break character” it’s so interesting and well done! WHY IS WANDA LYING TO VISION.

WHERE IS RALPH

oh my god the babies are children now?? why isn’t agnes noticing?? THEY’RE SO CUTE I COULD CRY ALL OVER AGAIN

I do not. trust. hayward. Why is he asking about Wandas nickname? Monica knows whats up-- she knows Wanda is grieving and hurting.

THE VISIONS CORPSE WHAT? WHAT IS WANDA DOING OH MY GOD SHE STOLE VISION. Vision has a living will? Don’t you have to be human for that? Are you telling me the woman that loved Vision would straight up ignore his wish to not be turned into a weapon after his death? I have a hard time with this.

Oh no Vision is starting to worry me. He’s onto Agnes, he’s noticing Wanda getting careless...the boys are adorable though. Good on Agnes for not even flinching.

DAMN RIGHT WANDA COULD HAVE TAKEN OUT THANOS LETS HAVE SOME RESPECT PEOPLE. Also, why is Monica being sketchy about Captain Marvel?

EMAIL ALERT EMAIL ALERT “none of it is real.” oh my god what is happening?!?!

“Is this yours?” OH MY GOD. “This will be your only warning” she is so unafraid and I love her for it. I love her accent coming back when she breaks characters LOOK AT HER TURNING ALL THOSE MEN AROUND I LOVE HER.

“Fix the dead” oh my god the shock on her face. The absolute irony of her trying to tell her boys there’s rules when she’s writing the playbook as she goes. Oh my god. “Can’t I?” Jesus, then the credits start rolling because she wants the episode to be over but Vision won’t let her OH MY GOD. My heart is breaking

WHAT DOES IT MEAN SHE DOESN’T KNOW

SHE RECAST PIETRO

Episode 6

OOOOH look at the classic costumes! Pietro is slaying me. I mean, it’s the wrong pietro but its still very funny. The way Vision calls her out and then plays it off is.... spooky. She is fully aware thats not her brother. “Be good.” holy shit.

Look at me not liking Hayward again. “which one is the sassy best friend” i feel like that’s....racist. “don’t use the last five years as an excuse to be a coward” DRAG HIM SIS

Listen Uncle Pietro being a little shit head is my favorite. I use the OG Pietro in my fics but this one is hilarious.

Vision lied about being on duty? Yikes. The one house where people are stuck in a loop? YIKES. Its crazy how everyone is starting to be super aware of Wanda pulling the strings--MAGIC CHILD OMG.

Whats past ellis avenue? Is that the limit of Wanda’s powers? I don’t super understand how Vision has his powers if he’s technically dead. HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE AVENGERS ARE she really just gave him enough life to exist just barely. Agnes knows he’s dead so she wasn’t snapped??

Agnes’s witchy laugh while dressed like a witch is legit awesome. We call that FOREEEEEEEEESHADOWING! Oh and there’s Ellis Ave. Got it.

Monica’s blood is changed?? Idk how to feel about Black Character willing to die for White Charaxter? I mean I know Wanda should be Jewish but still. Uncomfortably close to icky tropes but maybe I’m reading too far into it.

YIKES where was she hiding the kids till now? How’d she do all this? “I’m not a stranger or your husband” YIKES.

OH MY GOD DEAD PIETRO

OH MY GOD VISION STAY IN THE BUBBLE SOMEONE SAVE HIM SAVE HIM OMG BILLY CAN HEAR HIS DADDY DYING SAVE HIM

“The people need help” oh Vision you are truly Worthy

She literally expanded her world to save him omg

DARCY WHERED YOU GO geez look at power of this girls mind it’s about damn time we got a glimpse at just how intense her powers are

Season 7

Ok is this like a reality show? Oh man she is GLITCHING.

Oh no it’s just Wanda not Wanda vision cos she feels alone? So sad. She really is losing it isn’t she and not in a “lol how awkward” sortnof way but in that truthful hard to watch way that so many of us feel when we’re at the breaking point

“I actually did bite a kid once” I literally ugly laughed right there

I KNEW I COULDNT TRUST HAYWOOD

It’s so nice to see Darcy used in a real way. Her character was totally wasted in Thor

The way Wandas little interviews get more and more sad :(

Uhhh what does that mean Agnes is quiet on the inside? Again with the Ralph thing. I’m starting to think there’s no Ralph at all??

LOOK AT THIS GIRL WITH HER SPACE ROVER . She’s got that same look of determination her mama had. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER WHY ARE HER EYES BLUE

“....soooo Wanda killed me?” I’m ugly laughing again and I shouldn’t be but the comedic delivery is excellent. The whole “office” vibe with the cameras is making an otherwise devastating episode fairly funny

LOOK AT THIS GIRL STANDING UP TO WANDA we love a sharp cheekbones beauty

“Maybe I already am” I mean, I would have loved to hear that post Ultron when for some reason everyone blamed Tony for everything?? But hearing it now is just horrifying and I hate it

Oh vision deciding to go get to his wife is beautiful.

WHERE ARE THE BABIES WHERE ARE THE BOYS OH MY GOD IM FREAKING OUT WHAT BASEMENT THATS NEVER GOOD

Uh hey what the fuck is up with Agness creepy basement of horrors??

AGATHA HARKNESS OH MY GOD

This song is a BOP wtf she deserves an Emmy for this shit

Snoopers gonna snoop what?

Episode 8

Of course it’s Salem, where else would a witch story start

“They simply bent to my power” What a queen

lmaoooo THAT ACCENT COMES AND GOES Agatha really said what we’ve all been thinking

Wait so Wandas power drew Agatha in? I thought maybe Agatha trapped her here?? SHE DOESNT KNOW WHAT WANDA IS

THE BABIES

Oh ouch this trip down memory lane is gonna hurt me isn’t it?

Oh no her mama I’m dying inside send help. The TV sitcoms. Oh my god is this her last memory before her parents died. HELP ME I CANT WATCH THIS

Oh my god, she had powers when she was little?? SHES NOT AN EXPERIMENT???

Listen I generally think telling a story retroactively is lazy writing? Just give us a well developed story the first time?? But this is BRUTAL and brutally well done.

SHE SAW HERSELF IN THE MIND STONE???

Would it have been so difficult for them to give us even a PEEK at this version of wanda vision in CACW? Marvel has the worst habit of just popping up like “oh hey these two love each other all the sudden with no real reason for it” but this is wonderful. So much character development.

Oh listen to this woman begging to be able to bury her husband omg. WAIT SO SHE DIDNT BREAK IN AND TAKE HIM?? WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO VISION?? DID HE PUSH HER INTO THIS PSYCHOTIC BREAK?? HE TOTALLY PLAYED HER INTO RECREATING VISION SHE JUST WANTED CLOSURE. He literally showed her visions dismembered corpse and said “say goodbye” I will kill this dude wtf

“I can’t feel you” guys I have to pause this so I can cry for a minute

“I can’t feel you” and then she leaves. Totally alone in the world. My heart is an empty husk.

Why the house though? Why west view?

OH FUCK ME UP ARE YOU KIDDING ME VISION WAS GOING TO BUILD THEM A HOUSE I CANT TAKE THIS ANYMORE

It’s not even real vision? Just the projection of her broken heart? “Welcome home” I am broken. Physically broken.

CHAOS MAGIC

SCARLET WITCH

I CANNOT

OH MY GOD WHITE VISION??? NO NO NO

#WandaVision

58 notes · View notes

omniscientwreck · 3 years

Text

Day 6: Time & Transformation // Temptation

Day 6 of @shadowgastweek (I’m very late I know I’m sorry!)

Please enjoy this little glimpse into the future I hope the wizards will get one day, please let me know what you think!

“Caleb?”

“Ja?” The wizard looks over, silver hairs peeking through the copper and he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose looking over from the loveseat where his papers and books were sprawled across the dark upholstery.

A familiar, grin spreads freely across his features.

“Can I tempt you away from your studies for a moment?”

Eyebrows raise and a mischievous glint, “Well you know, this is some important work I’m doing. I’m not sure if you can compete.”

Gliding over, Essek leans down over the human’s form, sporting his own devilish grin. The wizard’s eyes raked over him with a hunger. That could wait. They have time. “Oh I assure you I can be quite compelling.” And he leans in to kiss Caleb. Kissing him is so comfortable, safe, it fills him with a warmth he’d never previously known. It’s been years and it still excites him when their lips connect. Caleb’s short stubble scrapes a bit before they part, Essek righting himself and offering Caleb a hand.

“I have to say Thelyss, you make a good case. What is it?”

“I just wanted to talk with you, about tomorrow.”

As Caleb stands he smiles reassuringly, “Mein Engel, you are still nervous?” He grabs for Essek’s hand, lacing their fingers together. Caleb’s hands are strong and his fingers are wider than Essek’s. It’s easy to feel reassured in his grasp, familiar callouses rough as Caleb’s thumb rubs circles into his hand. “The spell has been performed many times without issue, we’ve got it figured out. I’m certainly excited to see what happens.”

Essek nods, “Of course I am excited too, but well. The other times it was you and now it’s me and transmutation certainly isn’t my specialty.”

A gentle laugh falls from Caleb’s lips and he squeezes Essek’s hand, “You know you really don’t give yourself enough credit. You quite nearly pioneered an entire school of magic. You’ve been it’s foremost scholar and teacher for some time. I understand nerves but I promise you I trust your ability. You’ll have the rest of the Nein there, Veth has had it done to her and the rest were there with us the first time. I will be okay. Besides, won’t you be happy for me to be rid of some of these age markers?”

He winks at Essek, teasing, already knowing the answer. “You grow more beautiful every day Caleb, I have never once regretted the aging of your body. You know very well it’s not about looks, it’s about time.” Caleb stops their walking and wraps his arms around him, pulling Essek in and kissing him gently, chastely. “Regardless of how old you look or what happens tomorrow I intend to stay by your side until death. But we only have one life so we may as well lengthen our time.”

Caleb kisses the tip of his nose and they continue outside of their home. The dark of the night engulfs them and the glow of the stars is vibrant as always, Essek looks at his husband and tries to quell the nerves, the anticipation, when a voice fills his mind, “Hey Essek it’s Jester! I couldn’t wait to see you and Caleb until tomorrow, it’s been so long and I’ve missed you so much. I’m-” the spell cuts off and he waits a few moments to see if she plans to recast.

When he hears nothing he responds, out loud so Caleb can hear, “Hello Jester. It is good to hear from you. We’re home and I believe you know our address. You’re welcome at any time.”

Caleb’s crows feet crinkle around his still piercing blue eyes, “Well, if Jester’s here then so is Fjord and I can’t imagine the others are far behind. We should prepare the guest beds.”

They float inside to welcome their friends and briefly Essek’s anxiety is pushed to the back of his mind.

-----

Long ago he’d finally stopped referring to the Nein as ‘Caleb’s friends’ and accepted his role in their lives and allowed them to step into their roles in his properly. Agents of change, bestowers of affection, it’s been about a year since they last saw everyone together.

Ten years ago when they defeated Lucien the group took a break. Jester and Fjord split off to Nicodranas with Veth, Caduceus went home, Yasha and Beau had posted up mainly in Zadash, and Essek and Caleb spent a great deal of time travelling and exploring. Whenever one of the Nein called they all answered, whether it was something as simple as providing fire power when Beau had an investigation or something as momentous as tying up loose ends from their past, they remained steadfast to one another.

Jester, Fjord, and Veth and her family are the first to arrive and Essek opens a well aged wine. Luc is a teenager at this point and he’s becoming a bit of a menace at the amusement of his uncles. Caleb had previously taught him message and he’s been getting a lot of mileage out of it. Jester and Fjord have stories from having come back from a few months at sea, helping with some errands for merchant ships for old times’ sake.

Their home feels full and alive, and the next moring when Beau and Yasha arrive, and then Caduceus it feels like the family is whole again.

They begin digging clay out of the back yard just as they had the first time and as everyone assumes their positions, laughing and joking, filling the backyard with cacophonous uproar, Essek is hit with nostalgia.

He misses travelling with them, having them by his side and standing at theirs throughout some of the worst confrontations in history. He misses the jokes they lob his way with ease, Fjord and Veth hurling insults back and forth, all of it. It seems like so much time has passed since they had last upturned his yard to help a friend into a new form, but in his comparatively long life it’s hardly any time at all.

They assemble the clay, sprinkling in diamond dust and Essek is basically useless with nerves, they’ve created the trough, incorporated the diamond dust. All that’s left is him. They pause to eat, Caduceus’ cooking a welcome break from the day’s preparations.

Dinner is delicious, and loud, full of stories Luc and Yeza have heard dozens of times but still delightful all the same. As they finish eating and prepare to cast the rest clean up as Essek floats outside to check their arrangement one last time. He feels a punch land on the back of his shoulder, where he was once marked by the Nonagon and Beau surveys alongside him, the day’s work. “Hey man, you okay?”

He should be used to her check-ins but she still puts him on edge despite their ‘beef’ as she put it having been ‘squashed’ years ago. “I am alright. This is a big deal and well, I just want to perform well.”

“You will.” She rubs his shoulders a bit and continues, “You know, I didn’t think you deserved him. Even after we figured our shit out and you like became cool. I didn’t think you were good enough for him. Thanks for proving me wrong, you’re good people and I know you’ll take care of him. You’re nervous because you care and that shows me a lot about you. You’ve always been that way but. Well, I see the way you look at him, it’s just real fucking nice.”

All he can do in response is nod and swallow hard, he doesn’t have words to explain what the reassurance means. He kneels down to ensure the dimensions are right for the fiftieth time and the others come out breaking the silence.

“Ah- before we begin can I steal him quickly?” Caleb asks his friends as if they have somewhere else to be or any reason to deny the couple a few words. He takes Essek a good distance away so they can talk without being overheard. “Schatz, are you ready?”

“It feels like I should be asking you that. You know the form you would like to assume?”

Caleb nods, “Just as we discussed, we’ll put us on a more even playing field.”

Essek tucks a stray strand of copper hair behind a rounded ear and looks at his husband’s face one last time, “I can’t say I won’t miss this view Widogast, you are a most striking man.”

Caleb just laughs and kisses him gently, “Well you have much to look forward to.”

They stay like that for a moment, hands clasped, pulling their bodies close, eye to eye. Determination and a stoic resilience fall over Essek and he nods to Caleb, “Ready?”

“Ready.”

All told the casting is uneventful. The Nein are knelt in a circle around Caleb with Essek at the head, kissing him one last time before beginning the incantation. As the wind picks up and arcane lines and symbols light up, Essek’s concentration is stone cold. The clay begins slowly building over Caleb, covering his face entirely and as the view of his partner is taken from him he seems to connect on a deeper level to Caleb’s psyche. They think together of the chosen form, and he can feel a reassuring wave come off of Caleb as he continues reciting the incantation. The runes light and as he continues casting and putting everything he has into ensuring their mutual happiness. His voice gradually rises and arcane power swirls around them, hair freely whipping around the faces of his friends, watching with confidence, Yasha smiling knowingly at him across the vessel. He can feel the heat radiating as his hands pass over Caleb and at the hour the clay bursts, the ensuing wave of arcane energy pushes him back a foot or so, even in his kneeling position. The light from the spell is snuffed instantly and the night is dark again. Before them is Caleb anew.

He brushes clay away from his face with slender fingers, gently sitting up as Jester helps him. Essek floats over, kneeling beside him where he sits.

Caleb turns to look at him, he has the same copper hair and bright blue eyes, but the skin is smooth and free of stubble, his ears narrow to a point, and his features are just a little finer.

They did it.

Caleb looks at Essek for a moment, not dissimilar from the look they’d shared as they met at the altar the day they were wed, “So this is what you look like in the dark.”

He cups Essek’s face with a smooth hand and laughs lightly as the Nein begin chattering around them, Essek doesn’t hear what they say as Caleb brings his new lips to Essek’s and they’re locked in their second first kiss. Pulling back slightly, Essek’s laughter rings out and they press their foreheads together. He feels someone wrap their arms around the two of them and eventually the rest of the Nein join. In the middle of the large group hug two wizards hold each other and time stretches before Essek as the full gravity of the what they’ve done makes his heart soar. Time will catch up eventually, it always does, but for now they have plenty.

#shadowgast #essek thelyss #caleb widogast #critical role #critfic #shadowgastweek2021 #I just wanted to write romantic semi-domestic fluff okaaay #god i love these two so much

19 notes · View notes

twh-news · 3 years

Text

How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the future of the MCU

Loki finale spoilers follow.

Just minutes into the season-one finale, Loki and Sylvie finally arrive at their destination following last week's big castle reveal. When the doors to their destiny swing open, Miss Minutes suddenly appears and congratulates the pair on completing this "awfully long journey."

Sure, season one was only six episodes long, but Loki's story started way before this. Combine all of his movie appearances with the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey hijinks of this show, and it sure does feel like we've been on a long journey with the God of Mischief.

And now, following that post-credits reveal, Marvel has confirmed that Loki will indeed return for a second season. Thank the gods this journey is continuing, because there are more loose threads in that final episode than there are in all of Asgard's finest tailories combined.

Loki ending explained

Upon arriving at the Citadel at the End of Time, Loki and Sylvie are promised all of their greatest desires, including an infinity gauntlet, the Throne of Asgard and a win against those "self-righteous' Avengers. Christmas came early for our Lokis, but despite all that, they both end up turning Miss Minutes down.

And with that, the Big Bad of Loki (and now the MCU as a whole) is revealed to be Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors, AKA He Who Remains AKA Kang the Conquerer AKA "a jerk" (his words, not ours) AKA the villain that comic book fans predicted all along. What follows is a hefty amount of exposition that puts even the first episode to shame, so we'll do our best to summarise.

While He Who Remains bops around to avoid Sylvie's sword, he serves the pair tea and begins to explain his big origin story. Eons ago, in the 31st century, our guy (let's call him Kang, even if the show didn't) discovered the multiverse around the same time that other Kang variants did. At first, they shared knowledge and tech amongst themselves, but as time went on, those who were not "pure of heart" began to invade other realities, which erupted into all-out war.

This Kang was different from the rest, because he discovered Alioth, a creature born of the tears in reality that this war created. He Who Remains weaponised the creature, thereby ending the multiversal war. To preserve cosmic harmony, this variant then decided to isolate the "sacred" timeline, his own, and prune the rest to avoid another war. He then created the TVA to maintain this peace and thereby keep his other variants at bay.

According to He Who Remains, the only way Loki and Sylvie can move forward is if they either take over the TVA or kill this variant, which would unleash the multiversal war along with an "infinite amount of devils." So either "stifling order or cataclysmic chaos."

Pressure mounts once they cross the threshold, the point beyond the timeline that Kang knows. Everything from this point on is a surprise to him, so he's content to let his fate rest in the hands of two Lokis because… he's tired, he says.

Sylvie thinks that He Who Remains is also He Who Fibs A Bunch, so she tries to kill him. Loki isn't so sure though, and as you might expect, the pair try to settle this with a cheeky knife fight. This ends with a big kiss (cue the strings!) and then a double cross.

That's right. Sylvie chooses vengeance over love and shoves Loki through a portal, sending him back to the TVA. And with that, Lady Loki guts Kang like a fish. He seems pretty chill about it though, promising that she'll see him soon... Ominous much?

At that point, all of the timelines start branching out like crazy, creating the multiverse of madness that Kang tried to stop, until he got bored of it. We then cut back to Sad Loki at the TVA where he tries to tell Mobius that a terrifying new threat is on the way. But Mobius doesn't even know who he is anymore.

Does this mean that the timeline has been altered? Or has Loki been thrown into a new reality? Either way, it's not looking too good for the God of Mischief because a statue of Jonathan Majors has replaced the Time Keepers one we usually see in the TVA lobby.

How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the MCU's future

Season two is going to throw plenty of new challenges at Loki, and hopefully a lot less exposition. First of all, our God of Mischief will need to figure out what the Hel's going on in this new version of the TVA. How will he get Mobius on side if Kang has always ruled this timeline or rewritten history in some way?

And it's not just one Kang he needs to worry about. He Who Remains has now become They Who Remain, which means that there are an infinite number of time-travelling villains to fight. And the worst thing of all is that Loki doesn't even have Sylvie on side now either following that savage betrayal.

Things could soon change in that regard though given the pair's connection. With Kang's tempad, Sylvie can go anywhere now, and we wouldn't be surprised if she ends up drawn back to Loki in some way.

Ravonna will almost certainly pop up again too. The TVA is all she's known, before the mindwipe anyway, and her quest to discover free will could end up transforming the Judge into an ally of sorts. And boy does Loki need all the help he can get.

Beyond the show itself, Loki's finale also just changed Marvel's entire trajectory. Not since we saw America's Ass has the MCU been left so shook by one event, but here we are, about to dive into the multiverse of madness.

The most obvious connection is between this and Doctor Strange's next film, which happens to be called The Multiverse of Madness. The good Doctor must be having heart palpitations after watching this episode, and rightly so, because he's perhaps the only one strong enough to fix this mess, aside from Wanda of course. In fact, the Scarlet Witch could turn out to be the key to everything going on here.

As a Nexus Being, Wanda can reshape reality itself, and that's going to come in handy given all of the Nexus shizz happening from this point on. Elizabeth Olsen's involvement in the film has already been confirmed, and at the end of WandaVision, it was strongly implied that Wanda will visit another reality to try and rescue some version of her now deceased children. Could this help fix things somehow or perhaps make them worse?

Doctor Strange and Wanda aren't the only ones caught up in all this. An animated show called What If...? will dive into some of Marvel's alternate realities firsthand, and the upcoming Spider-Man sequel will also tackle the multiverse with cameos from franchise stars who appeared pre-Marvel. Who knows? Maybe Spider-Ham will turn out be the one who saves everyone.

All this multiverse tomfoolery also opens the gates for X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to finally join the MCU. Marvel's First Family, as they're known in the comics, are already confirmed to star in their own film, and those Merry Mutants won't be far behind either. Whether those teams end up being recast or whether they ask the original actors to come back, one mutant whose return has already been confirmed is Deadpool.

#loki #loki series #marvel #mcu #article #digital spy #loki spoilers #loki series spoilers #spoilers

18 notes · View notes

asagi-s-garden · 3 years

Note

WB is the worst when it comes to DC. It's no coindence that Constantine is leaving 'Legends of Tomorrow" in the wake of the upcoming HBO Max show. And this pandemic ruined a lot of plans. As you said "BL" wasn't meant to be in the Arrowverse put when it happened they were all gung-ho for it. They had plans for Jeff to visit Central City and for Anissa and Grave to chill in Gotham. But then the pandemic and whatever BTS drama that got "BL" canned. Like *something* happened. It got an early renewal in Jan then it was cancelled in Nov. And CW didn't even bother to have proper trailers for new episodes. Don't tell me somebody on the show didn't rub the network the wrong way to result in that level of pettiness

Yeah, WB isn't just the worst with DC, but really the worst with favoritism in my personal opinion

They tried so hard to make the DC streaming service a huge success but as soon as they saw it wasn't going to be they got rid of everything like it was on fire, HBO Max is the new golden child so they're cutting their own throats in other areas to make it succeed- IE: Theaters

My poor Suicide Squad 2 ;_; no I won't say "my THE Suicide Squad" it won't roll off the tongue it was a sacrificial lamb to the damn streaming service :(

I know it's an unpopular opinion to not be all over streaming but they're really clearly cutting way more than just corners in order to feed that specific beast and try to make it compete with Disney+, that's why they're starting to draw the string on the Arrowverse :/ The same thing happened, I think, with the DC streaming service though, when they saw that the biggest success of DC was the Arrowverse, they decided to pull their dying streaming service as well as the DCEU into it to pump the Arrowverse up more, now that the Arrowverse is starting to go under- with three shows being gone, Batwoman being in questionable territory, and the two biggest successes of the year being largely disjointed from it (Superman and Stargirl), I think they're going to try to scramble it like eggs :/ They're doing the same with the DCEU to a degree though, by having loosely connected stories that do more universe hopping and tone changes (IE: Joker coming out just months before Birds Of Prey and having been preceeded by Shazam!) I think since they're seeing more promise in that approach right now for the movies, they might be trying to do the same for TV- or they're just trying to let the Arrowverse die of neglect so they can pump up HBO Max like you said

Ofcourse now that WB has been bought by Discovery, we might get some big changes to this; Discovery already said they wanted to pour seven BILLION dollars into DC properties specifically in the first year alone, and I know the rumor is that they're only going to try to gloss up DC so that they can sell the assets to the highest bidders once their "probation" period ends but like.... seven billion is a hell of alot of gloss..... and if they can start pulling in more numbers like Joker, Superman & Lois, and The Suicide Squad (wich may have not been a huge hit at the box office but wich reportedly smashed the HBO Max numbers enough that WB is circling James Gunn like a starving shark), then I have a hard time believing they'd be wanting to get rid of it, especially when, let's face it, DC is easily the most well known and most marketable asset Discovery has ever had and probably ever will have purely because of Superman alone, you can't find a person anywhere who hasn't atleast heard of Superman, regardless of how much the film properties are hit-and-miss financially, I have a hard time believing anyone would just throw that kind of name power to the wolves....

But onto Black Lightning, I actually have a pretty strong theory about that one

I'm almost certain that China Anne McClain is why the show was canned

And do not get me wrong, I don't mean that in a snippy way, but China quit Black Lightning pretty urgently- to the point that she only wanted to do limited episodes for the final season

Backing up a moment here though, let me explain why I think this was the nail-in-the-coffin

Black Lightning was very quickly becoming centered around Lightning specifically

That doesn't mean to say that it wasn't still Jefferson's story and that Anissa wasn't still important, but Jennifer was getting set up to be The Powerhouse of the show, with the bulk of the drama probably surrounding her and the thought of her potentially taking on her father's mantel

It seemed like the idea of Black Lightning retiring or atleast putting on the suit a little less was starting to become a thing, and with Jefferson firmly accepting his daughters as part of the world of Metas at that point, that would have lead to Anissa and Jennifer taking much more of the spotlight than they had in the beginning- that's a natural progression of things, and although I actually prefer Anissa's storyline (it's just more my personal cup of tea), I will readily admit that Jennifer was the one who had the ability to carry an entire season's worth of story on her shoulders.... not so much Anissa, who has her wife (so romantic subplots are pretty toned down), her powers are developed and stable (nothing quite like the learning curves Jennifer was facing), she has a stable job and a stable superhero identity- two, in fact-, so no literal schoolyard drama or issues with "Am I in my father's shadow? Is this how the world sees me and do I want them to see me this way?" much like what Jennifer was starting to experience in the end of the show either

TLDR Anissa mostly had her shit together, wich is great for her, but it doesn't lend to being able to carry the most dramatic storylines like it does with Jennifer, who's still figuring out pretty much everything

I think Jennifer was already starting to take a very large amount of the story as of the last season and even starting to steal the spotlight before that, if they were to come back for more I feel like she would have been in a place of being much more obviously groomed to take on the main charector status wile Jefferson stepped back just a little bit to be more supportive to her journey instead of the other way around

And the show could still exist very much as Jefferson's story wile that story happened to center on Jennifer

.....Buuuuuuuuuuuuut that's where the problem comes in

China said before the show was cancelled that she was going to step down from playing Lightning because she wanted to focus on her faith more and be removed from anything that wasn't "in service to God", wich is totally fine for her, but it does put Black Lightning in a bit of a difficult position because the charector they were gearing up to make their breakout star was suddenly going to either have to pull a Winn and just... be.... gone.... or have to get recast

To be entirely honest, I'm not sure why they didn't stick with the recasting instead, I thought Laura Karuki did a fantastic job as Jennifer and the "Am I Jennifer or am I JJ?" story would have been a great thing to explore for an entire season, but if I had to guess, they maybe just didn't want to mess with it?

Black Lightning had good numbers but it wasn't in the top five or anything to my recollection, not since it's premiere season anyway, and it could have been a compound decision of "We weren't going to keep this up much longer anyway so let's just take this as a sign to wrap it up", although I think that the way the recast was done could have presented a stable option for them if they had decided to give it a go for a full season, although maybe that's just my opinion and they initially made the recast so that the people behind the curtain could see if Laura would work well enough as Jennifer and when they decided that the vibe wasn't right they went on ahead and pulled the plug rather than risk getting the same um... resistance.... than Batwoman met over their recasting choices

Although I could go on for days about why that situation is different (to be clear: I do like Ryan quite alot but I don't think the Batwoman situation was nearly as seamless as Black Lightning's in terms of recasts, but that's another story for another day)

TLDR I think if China had stayed aboard they would have gone on for atleast another season or two, but there are some shows where members of an ensemble cast are so essential that their leaving is too big of a blow to stay through

It's much like when Dylan O'Brien had to bow out of Teen Wolf for a little wile, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a fan who absolutely loved season six, and even before that people were having a hard time staying with a lack of Tyler Hoechlin, with some even stepping away when Crystal Reed left, even though- at both of those points- most of the core cast was still there and at no point did the titular main ever leave, I feel like Black Lightning's situation is very similar, people were just too invested in Jennifer

3 notes · View notes

hope-faith-love-abide · 3 years

Text

I haven’t been keeping up with Heartland season 14 updates the past few months, but I decided to catch up on some of it since the premiere date is coming up and the teaser trailer was released recently. And I noticed some interesting speculation about what might happen in the new season, and I have...a lot of thoughts about it, haha. I think I need to write it out in order to really sort out my thoughts and feelings on it, but I think it might get kinda long since it’s pretty major, so I’m going to put it under a cut.

[NOTE: This post was written approximately a week or so ago, and I’ve been just sitting on it trying to decide if I wanna post or not. But having watched the full trailer for Season 14 now...I’m like 95% certain that this seems to be the route that the season is going. Still have about 5% doubt because trailers can be misleading and I could just be reading into it. We won’t really know for sure until we see the first episode, and I’m so torn between being somewhat excited just because I want to know for certain and nervous because I know I will still be sad if it’s true.

Either way, I wanted to get my thoughts down before the season premieres so here it is I guess lol]

So...it’s actually possible that Ty might die/be dead when this season begins? Which is utterly bizarre to think about because I never would have considered this to be an actual possible situation for the show. Even when there was that summary that leaked earlier this year, I still didn’t think it was a real possibility. I thought for certain that was fake, because this is Heartland. It’s one thing for a side character to disappear from the show or to be killed off, but a main character? A main character can be hurt, injured, and on the verge of death, but they won’t actually die. Especially not a character who is in one of the two major ships on the show.

Until now?

Of course, if this does happen, I don’t think it’s something anyone on the show wanted, not even the writers. In an ideal world where every actor wanted to be in every episode of the show, I imagine they’d be perfectly happy continuing to write that story.

But in cases where an actor no longer wants to be a main character on the show -- well, obviously I can’t say definitively that this is the case, because as far as I know he has never specifically said this in an interview, but from an outsider’s/fan’s perspective, it feels like that is a possibility. I don’t know the reasons behind it though, and I’m not going to go that far into speculation.

But let’s go with this scenario hypothetically. Because it does sometimes happen with television shows, where an actor for one reason or another no longer will be part of a show.

What do you do with that character?

The character could be recast, I suppose, but I don’t think that would work in a show like Heartland. How would we explain in-universe why Ty suddenly looks different when everyone else is still the same? Even if you can find an actor that looks similar enough, we know what Ty looks like after 13 seasons, and I don’t think anyone would be fooled into thinking it’s the same guy. I guess it could be explained with the trope that he got into such a bad accident that they had to reconstruct his face, but that feels cheap and too much like a soap opera.

So that’s a no.

The character could be written out in other ways. Ty could just be off screen somewhere...all the time. He’s at the clinic, he’s spending the day with Lyndy, he’s at a vet conference, he’s gone back to save wolves from poachers again, he’s gone back to Mongolia for the third/fourth/fifth/ten billionth time.

That, honestly, would be frustrating. It’s maybe the least painful short term option, but long term, it’s not very enjoyable. It’s like when important side characters suddenly disappear from the show, occasionally mentioned but never seen on screen again, only 10 times worse.

Or he could be written off by...y’know, breaking up him and Amy. Which, frankly, is the absolute worst option in my opinion. It would immediately, retroactively, destroy the entire show, past, present, and future. Ty and Amy aren’t the only important part of the show, but they are a major part of it. The show has spent 13 seasons building up this relationship (with obvious ups and downs throughout, but I’m not focused on analyzing their whole relationship in this post), so to suddenly turn around and have them divorce would be an absolute trainwreck.

What would even be the reason? Even with some of my disagreements in the writing of certain decisions the characters have made (*coughtheMongoliaplotcough*), I don’t think those are reasons enough for these two characters to break up over it. So something new would have to be invented, and it would likely be something completely ridiculous and out-of-character for them both and also likely ruin their character development from past seasons.

Which leads us to yet another option: Ty dying. A year ago this was something I never would have considered for the actual show (or any of those other options, frankly). It could be interesting to explore in a fanfic, but on the show? No way.

But...things change. Reality sometimes gets in the way of a television show’s ideal storyline, which is one of the difficulties of the medium, especially a live action one. And just because one actor hypothetically doesn’t want to be on the show anymore doesn’t mean it should be derailed for all the other actors and crew who are on board.

So you get rid of the character. It isn’t hard to do. Probably the hardest part will be the very first episode when it’s revealed to the audience. How did it happen? Did it happen before the season begins, or does it happen in the first episode? Or if it happened before, do we get any flashbacks?

Is it due to complications from the gunshot at the end of season 13? A freak car/motorcycle accident? An accident during a vet call? Depending on what it is and the context of it, it can be a strong final note on the kind of person Ty has become. If during a vet call/because of an animal, it happens while he’s doing what he loves, taking care of animals. If from the end of S13, it’s from him protecting his wife. If a car accident, maybe he was going to pick up Lyndy to spend time with her after leaving a vet call, because he’s a loving father. All of those are inline with Ty’s character and still support the growth that he’s had from the first episode to now.

And then there’s all the story potential and character growth that it opens up for all the other characters. Because this is something that majorly impacts the entire family. And the description of season 14 that was put out does talk about a “life-changing challenge,” particularly for Amy for obvious reasons.

How does she deal with losing her husband? They’ve been together for so long, not just as romantic interests but as best friends. What does her life look like without him in it? How does this affect her work? Is her work with horses a comfort for her, or does it remind her too much of him? How does she guide Lyndy through this?

And then the rest of the family. How does Jack deal with his loss? Considering Ty became like a son to him and “officially” joins the family when he marries Amy, how does it affect Jack to lose him? Especially if it was in something like a car accident, similar to Marion. How does it affect Jack and Lisa’s relationship?

Not to mention Lily, and Lou, and Georgie, and Tim, and Caleb, and Scott, and Cass. Ty was a huge part of all their lives, so this will affect them in major ways too.

Again, it’s not ideal. But I do feel like this option provides the best story opportunities without ruining the characters in the process the way certain other choices would.

And, of course, this is all purely speculation. We won’t really know what’s going to happen until the season actually airs, and it’s entirely possible that the “life-changing challenge” will be something completely different, and Ty will be fine. And if so, that’s okay with me.

But if Ty is gone...I think I could learn to be okay with it. Though it does still depend on how they handle it. Like if everyone’s sad about it for one or two episodes, but then everyone immediately moves on and everything’s fine, then I wouldn’t be happy with that. We don’t need a whole season of everyone crying all the time, but we also don’t need this to be something that’s swept under the rug. We, the audience, will need time to grieve along with the characters. Because this is a main character that we could be losing here, not just a minor side character like Mr. Hanley for example. So I hope we get to see all of the characters going through the stages of grief and processing their loss in their own ways throughout the season.

Anyway, it was nice to write through my thoughts on this. It’s kinda funny thinking about how not that long ago, I would’ve been completely 100% against this idea ever happening in the show, but now I’m like almost on-board with it. Maybe it’s the effect of 2020 or something lol

#brigette's rambles #heartland

18 notes · View notes

tabletopjourneys · 3 years

Text

Session 34 Notes

The Silver Scale Pack finishes clearing Perfection of its worm and shrieker problem, then continues off-road until they arrive safely in Longview to meet Rana's mother.

@gher-bear @aradow @telurin @epimetala

On this day we find a dead worm, kill more shriekers, and then return to town. There we find out that Ixayl'anu's elk had an encounter of his own, saving the camels all by himself! We don't see what flying thing caused the ruckus though and call the townspeople back to safety with mirror communications. Edea takes over and we continue on our way to Longview. Along the way, we sight a thunderbird storm and find wondrous treasure in some long-abandoned wagons. Eventually we end up in Longview, upon which we immediately exit to the outskirts and meet Rana's mother, Romy. Then we end the session with a level up! Welcome to level 8 SSP!

(Read More)

(Taking a Long Rest) Before Diem goes to sleep, they recast tiny hut, rolls an 8 on watch, Rana rolls a 17. She can see the lip of the valley and sees a flash of light.

She gets a 13 survival check on mirror glint communication and recognizes this is an all clear? morse code with mirrors thing. Rana nudges Phi about it to see if she knows this mode of communication better or at least has a mirror on her as well.

Phi hands over her small mirror with a silver handle.

Rana assumes it’s Edea, messages the number 1, spells out worm, flashes “message received”

After a brief moment she gets back “not visible/query not found”

Rana: “Message received”

Rana tells Phi what was said back and forth, then leans over the building and tells Diem as well.

Phi and Ixayl’anu’s watch: 14 Ixayl'anu, 19 Phi

At 1 or 2am the most god-awful scream they’ve ever heard in their life, coyote mixed with a rabbit, loud and wailing and pained. It wakes Rana up.

Phi knows it’s deeper into the valley.

Rana scrambles to look down and check on us on the ground. Phi continues investigating and gestures the approx direction for Rana.

It continues for about 10 minutes.

Diem finally wakes up “What? Huh? What the fuck is that?”

Phi 27 perception out in the valley. She sees off in the distance and with a fairly good idea of what they look like, she sees one completely on top of the ground way off in the distance, mouth open, she can see it is “beached” and making this noise.

She pokes Rana and points it out, then whisper yells over the edge at us about it being one of the worms.

Rana with perception 7 thinks she can kinda make it out.

Phi: Half mile, ¾ of a mile.

It tapers off though and everything is quiet, too quiet afterward.

Phi keeps her eye on that worm.

Come morning, Diem gets 3 charges back on their band of shocking grasp and recasts tiny hut as we wake up, just to keep it there until it’s no longer needed.

Rana checks again in the morning and what she thought was the worm was a rock (17 perception this time)

Rana: Let’s go check out that worm.

We discuss what’s up while snacking on rations and getting ready to go. Rana and Phi bring their rats with, but we leave the albino shrieker in its box in the shade.

(Investigating a dead worm - more shriekers!)

We spread out walking toward the beached worm, Rana in front.

With a perception check of 20, Phi stops as she catches dust in the distance, but it turns out to be an actual dust devil instead; no poof poofs of worms.

Before we can even see the worm, we smell it super bad, the worst dead thing that’s been sitting in the sun, putrifying. We see it now and it’s not moving.

Rana: Was this here yesterday?

Phi: Not until last night when it started making noise.

Rana: Does it look like its been dead longer than it actually has? With a medicine check of 4, it looks fairly together. She remembers Edea did a blight spell but this doesn’t look like that.

Diem covers their nose and investigates. It’s still not moving, mouth is open, tongues are not moving.

Phi tries to shoot it, nothing happens, looks like she just hit a hay bale with it.

Rana: Well we can message Edea and tell her the last worm is dead.

Ixayl'anu: A worm is dead, are we sure it’s the last one?

Rana shrugs.

Diem keeps walking around until they finally see blood all over the ground on the other side of the worm. Eventually they get to a better angle as everyone goes around it the other way. They finally see there are no insides, it’s been hollowed out. They tell everyone else.

Ixayl'anu tries to investigate as well, but doesn’t learn much.

Diem takes a 12 investigation, sees foot prints that look like they could fit shriekers and the hole in the worm hide is ragged.

Rana walks up and smacks it hard but nothing happens.

Diem startles: Shit, Rana.

Looks like a scuffle in the area, mess of prints, two sets leading away, headed toward the other side of the Rim.

Rana: Let’s follow them.

Ixayl'anu: Do we wanna leave a message for Edea?

Rana: If you have a way to leave a message…?

Ixayl'anu: You’re the one who wants to impress her

Rana: I have a mirror.

We don’t have anything substantial to report to check in though so we decide to follow the tracks, Rana in the lead with a 21.

We see them go off into the distance.

Investigation for Rana tells her there are two sets of footprints, we gather there were 3 total.

This worm is roughly the same direction as our 2 lost shriekers, we walked through some slightly charred field, but this is quite a bit farther out than where we last saw the on-fire shriekers.

We are only barely still in sight of town. The farther we get form town, the more on edge Rana gets.

Rana sees a glob of blood and fur along the way, we keep moving while Rana makes sure we don’t get lost as we go. None of us are being stealthy, we’re trying to stick close to rocks though whenever possible.

Phi hears wet crunching sounds ahead, ripping wet munching noises.

Phi makes a stopping gesture at all of us: waitwaitwaitwait did anybody else hear that?

Only Rana hears it now too: I think they caught something else.

Ixayl’anu gets up on a rock to try and see (16): She gets the gross scent she’s learned to associate with these creatures.

We send Phi ahead to scout over the rock, stomach crawling over the top. 28 stealth: Phi sees 2 shriekers eating a dead cow. She turns her head and plays charades. Mouths “cow” then corrects to “two”

Rana to the rest of us: There are two cows, they probably belong to the village, let’s go get them. *she starts walking around to fight them*

Phi gets ready to fight as well seeing her getting ready to fight.

(Another shrieker fight)

The shriekers scream at Rana as soon as they raise their little heat sensors - she makes her save.

Rana: They’re not cows guys!

Phi takes a surprise round shot but misses. She shoots again and does 16dmg to pink - she uses her bonus action attempting to hide by sliding down the side of the rocks and moving back. 24 stealth check.

Blue rushes Rana and bites at her.

Rana flame blades, but misses. Fiery scimitar sticks around though and it will serve as a bonfire of sorts if Edea is looking at us.

The creatures LOVE it mmm so much lovely heat.

Pink also charges Rana and tries to bite the sword, bites through to no effect.

Diem rushes up and hits with one shot of eldritch blast for 3dmg.

Ixayl’anu rushes forward and takes a swing at pink, miss, hit, 9dmg.

Phi runs forward to shoot at them from behind, misses, and has no movement left to hide.

Blue tries to bite Rana with disadvantage, but hits anyway and deals 14dmg

Rana tries to stab blue with her sword, does 6 fire dmg.

These guys do not look previously charred.

Pink tries to bite Rana and her beautiful sword again, but misses.

Diem tries to parkour up the lower portion of the rock, makes it, casts eldritch black at pink, but misses both strikes.

Ixayl'anu hits pink for 8dmg, misses her 2nd strike.

Phi shoots at blue and gets a crit! 34dmg, blue is bloodied by it. Phi bonus action hides in a pile of rocks. 13 stealth - she feels sorta secure...

Blue bites at sword/rana and misses

Rana swings at blue but misses.

Pink bites at Rana and misses.

Diem casts eldritch blast at blue for 16dmg total (one crit)

Ixayl'anu slashes at pink, misses, misses

Phi has to do a con save and passes as purple screams at her from behind. It jumps down.

The others scream as well, Ixayl'anu and Diem make their saves though while Rana is immune from her previous success.

Phi runs forward (directly east) around the rocks and away from purple, she shoots at blue, misses, dashes farther away again (over 50ft away from purple)

Blue misses Rana.

Rana swings at blue, misses.

Pink misses.

Diem hits blue for 16dmg total again, kills it.

Ixayl'anu swings at pink 11dmg, misses with 2nd strike.

Purple charges Phi and takes a bite - 10dmg, she uses evasion to take only 5dmg.

Phi switches to her daggers and hits with both for a total of 13dmg, bonus action disengages, uses her movement to be closer to Ixayl'anu, slightly behind and a few paces east.

Rana stabs at pink and deals 6dmg.

Does purple look previously charred? No.

Pink bites at Rana and her sword, just barely misses.

Diem sees purple hungering after Phi and decides to try and help draw its attention toward them - Rana and her fiery sword all bright and tasty looking between. They hit purple with eldritch blast for 10dmg total.

Ixayl'anu hits pink for 7dmg, misses 2nd strike.

Purple turns around, sees the sword, but Ixayl'anu is closer so it attacks her and misses.

Phi attacks with her daggers and does 24dmg total, efficiently killing it. Phi disengages.

Rana swings at pink, deals 14dmg, killing it.

(After battle investigations)

Rana lets go of her flame blade, but keeps the remaining 10minutes of concentration to summon it back as a bonus action. She checks the cow for more information (10) it is very dead, nothing otherwise out of the ordinary.

The rest of us look around, Ixayl'anu gets a nat 20 investigation (19). She finds a shrieker halfway up the cliffs purple came from.

Rana and Phi check in on their rats, then Rana tries to climb up to the molt (17) and tries to chuck it down to the ground. It feels like a chitinous fiberglass body and cracks a little bit when tossed down.

Rana nature checks 16 - the molt is maybe slightly smaller, she survival tracks purple’s prints (another 16), it went up at the top of the ridge, previously it was following along equally with the other two, so probably the results of that 3rd set of tracks.

Diem investigates the molt for burning and finds some, points it out to Rana. It’s definitely something left over from one of yesterday’s on-fire runners, possibly from one of the three we just killed, after they shed their damaged skin.

Molt is 10-15 lbs - Rana shoulders it.

We follow purple’s tracks back to the worm, confirming all three of the shriekers we just killed were involved in wormicide.

Rana leads us back to town from there.

We talk about the 3 we killed, the 2 that got away yesterday (and whether they are the same) and handling the infestation only until we feel confident the villagers can take care of the rest.

When we get back to town we go check on the albino shrieker, Ixayl'anu cracks the lid to see if it’s still there. Little snout pops out and snaps at her fingers, gets one of her plate-gauntleted fingers before she shuts the lid.

Rana and Ixayl'anu were paying attention enough with their nature rolls they notice it’s larger than yesterday but still not as big as the other guys. There’s definitely not enough space for another one in that box. It is still all white.

Ixayl'anu squeezes a ration in there with it - it’s like trying to feed a crocodile through the fence.

Rana climbs back up to last night’s roof and pulls out her mirror, studying where the mirror flashes were yesterday.

Phi looks around to see if the town looks empty still since we’ve been gone. 20 investigation: Town looks pretty close to how we had left things. As she gets closer to the camels, she hears the elk making angry elk noises, self consoling and all worked up.

Phi tries to parkour up the building near them.

Rana starts the mirror flashes for hey look here hey hey. Listen!

Diem: Maybe we could build a bonfire somewhere and see if it draws in any more of the little ones?

Rana: (while flashing hey hey pattern) Let’s check in with Edea and see if the town people want to return first.

Edea responds with a “here/listening” mirror glint.

Rana: “All clear maybe.”

Edea: “Okay to return?”

Rana: “Should be.”

Edea: “We’ll return.”

(Ixayl'anu's elk is a hero! Recognize!)

Back to Phi parkouring up building (14 - makes it up okay); looks out into the distance at what might be wrong, elk is tossing his head and claims more space than the camels who have edged away. When he sees Phi, he bugles something, trying to tell her something and stomps his hoof and brandishes his antlers.

Phi looks out into the distances with a 24 for threats. Nothing in the distance.

Phi: Down boy (assumes elk is just not happy, elk snorts at her as she leaves).

Phi comes back: Your elk is not liking the camels, or the camels don’t like your elk, something is going on down there.

Before Phi gets back, the elk telepathically says to Ixayl'anu: I defended the camels successfully, be proud of me! *smug* your camels are safe, there was a huge battle and I defended them well.

Ixayl’anu makes her way down there anyway. On the way she describes shriekers to the elk

Elk: No it was flying like a bird

Ixayl'anu: Was it a bird?

Elk: It was weird, but it was flying so it must be a bird.

Ixayl'anu looks up but doesn’t see anything.

Rana and Diem check in on their camels

Ixayl'anu tells us it wasn’t natural, but none of us see flying creatures.

Ixayl'anu to elk: How big was it?

Elk: It was as big as me!

Ixayl'anu relays this.

Ixayl'anu: Did it smell?

Elk: The camels smell...

Rana casts speak with animals and asks her camel what happened.

Her camel is very upset by something large attacking from the air. The elk did scare it off, but now he’s been showboating about it ever since and the camels just want out.

Rana: Have you seen the thing from the sky before

Camel: No

Rana casts stone shape and makes a 5X5 passage, 1ft off the ground, carefully leading camels through the doorway and handing them off to people. Rana is playing tetris with stonework and camels, and she tries to explain to them what she’s doing, guiding them out - 20 animal handling check.

Animal handling for our camels handed over (5 from Ixayl'anu, elk’s antlers get stuck), I get a 9, Phi gets a 4, they are just too eager to be out. Phi’s camel picks her up, holding onto halter lead and goes trotting off into the greenery.

Diem’s drags them away from quicksandy dead worm area in the opposite direction, further into town rather than toward brush, but Diem does manage to see a little throughway and eventually the camel heads that way, Diem going with it to the little oasis area.

Rana helps Ixayl'anu with the last camel to get it to the brush.

We take a short rest as we wait for Edea.

Diem keeps their eyes on the skies but only rolls a 5 on perception.

Rana does the same, rolls 12, but she’s more interested in playing with her rat and there’s a lot of leaves in the way besides.

(Townspeople Return)

We eventually hear/see Edea with the group of villagers heading into the main building from across the pond. We hear large exclamations.

Rana: I think she’s here.

We go with her.

Edea is impressed by our pile of bodies

Rana warns Edea about what the elk saw, but we haven’t seen any indication. We still don’t.

Edea: We’ll keep an eye out, we didn’t see anything on our way into town either.

Rana: Don’t know if you guys heard that shrieking last night?

Edea: Yep.

We catch her up to that and the molt, edea wants to see it.

Edea: I’ve never seen anything like these creatures but I certainly wouldn’t have expected them to molt.

Rana: They look mammalian to me.

Edea: They’re definitely not insects.

Rana: Oh yeah and Ixayl'anu found a pet.

Ixayl'anu: Oh yeah (something I missed for notes)

Rana fills Edea in about el blanco’s details.

Edea volunteers to take the molt off our hands to the other druids of her circle.

Rana: As far as we can tell they love fire and heat

Diem: We thought we might light a bonfire before we leave, make sure nothing else comes after it before we move on.

Edea studies el blanco, then wrangles it, mouth together and ropes it closed.

Edea: It’s definitely malformed, compared to the other ones.

Edea pokes at the flaps and peels them up a little bit, it screams and struggles more: It definitely sees via these organs. What are you planning on doing with this one?

Rana gestures at Ixayl'anu

Ixayl'anu: (More words I missed for notes) definitely doesn’t need to come with us anywhere, just thought it might be useful to study.

Edea: Well, this was always intended to be our splitting off point anyway.

Rana: Yeah, I can get them to Longview from here.

Ixayl'anu: Yeah if it’s useful to study, we can leave it here.

Edea: Yeah this and the molt could tell us quite a bit.

Ixayl'anu: Not attached, just holding onto it as something we can maybe do something with.

Rana: Camels are by the oasis, they made it through just fine.

We talk things over, Earl comes out and sees shrieker pile “What in tarnation is going on here?”

Rana: Feel free to add to the pile

Earl: Val come look at this!

Val comes out to look.

Our plan is to wait out the heat of the day/afternoon. Diem sets up a tiny hut and we inform Edea of as much as possible.

Edea is now treating us all as competent and she’s giving us more respect as a result.

We begin our trek out of the valley toward Longview, none of us catching on that Rana is taking us slightly off-path from our plans.

Encounter roll of 19 from Ixayl'anu.

(Thunderbird sighting)

As we get to the far side of this canyon, beginning to climb out of it, we can see a lot farther than before, more regular level desert, far off into the distance, 10-20 miles away a huge thunderstorm is brewing, lots of lightning it looks real bad.

Perception checks Diem 1, Ixayl'anu 5, 23 Phi, Rana 22

Rana (excited and worried both): We need to get under cover right now! We can’t be out in the open when that thing gets here. I have never seen one but I think this is a thunderbird. I don’t think it’ll bother us if we leave it alone, but we need to get out of its way.

Phi: Is that bigger than a roc?

Rana: About the same size. I have never seen one...though it looks about the size of a roc.

Survivals: Rana 13, Diem 8, Phi 18, Ixayl'anu 6

We don’t really find a good spot. We find an overhang though, but not a big enough space for the tiny hut. We manage to be out of line of sight. It was coming toward us as we were looking for a spot.

To Diem (perception 4) it’s like being caught out in a hurricane.

Rana tries to get a look 17, Phi 11, Ixayl'anu 20

This bird is mad, something has pissed it off.

Ixayl'anu to her elk: This isn’t the thing is it?

Elk: *huddled* no this is not what I saw

We’re soaked to the bone, but it’s a warm rain. We watch for a good hour or so, we see it make a couple of dives in the desert but not near Perfection.

Phi wonders aloud if it’s mad about these new abominations in its land and it’s come to take it back and wash it clean.

It makes a couple of passes over the valley and then goes back where it came from to the North.

Rana: *grinning* Let’s not do that again.

Diem: That was AWESOME

Ixayl'anu is excited about the lightning.

Diem takes a long time to prestidigitation us all dry.

Rana picks up the lead again.

Survival rolls to get our bearings again diem 6, Ixayl'anu 7, rana 10, phi 17 - we’re pretty confident Rana knows the way.

Rana knows it would take another full day to get to Longview and looks for a game trail toward it instead of Bouldergap as we had planned (not that any of us catch on to the fact we’re off course out here.

It takes us awhile and we’re meandering a little. It takes us past dusk before we find a suitable area and begin setting up camp.

Phi: Rana, I don’t even see this path anymore...

Rana: That’s because we’re not on it. I use this path all the time, we’re almost certainly not lost *smiling*

Phi: Alright I trust you.

Diem casts alarm around the animals, then summons the tiny hut, coloured to blend with the desert sand.

Rana nat 20s first watch. Coyotes in the distance, lovely night, natural sounds, everything’s peachy.

She’s in a good mood when she wakes Phi up: It’s a great night.

Phi: Happy to be home?

Rana: More than a little. I like Rethwellian but it’s a little too green for my tastes

Phi: Well so far this desert has been nice but also a little smelly sometimes

Rana: In our defense, it’s usually not like that, hopefully they’ll be gone soon, maybe that thunderbird washed them away.

Phi: Hopefully

Rana: Alright goodnight

Phi: Goodnight

Perception 26, nothing really changes though she’s not as comfortable as Rana is.

On Diem and Ixayl’anu’s watch, Diem recasts tiny hut. Ixayl'anu gets 7, Diem gets a 4. Diem draws a bad rendition of the thunderbird in their dream journal (maybe because they didn’t get to see it so well lol).

OOC we rule that Diem doesn’t have to worry about timing and recasting tiny hut moving forward, it’ll last for as long as we need it.

Nice clear morning, Rana is pumped and ready to go, already on the camel as we climb out of our bedrolls.

(Lost treasure on the sandy deer trails)

Rana rolls a 6 for encounters - a few hours in, 10/10:30 we come to a scattering of splintered wood and strewn wagon wrecks up ahead. Rana stops because this isn’t supposed to be here. Even with an 8 she sees a wagon wheel.

Ixayl'anu: What, what’s going on?

We get close and see the remains of wagons.

Diem: Think this could be that missing caravan?

Rana: It’s possible, but we’re no longer on that path.

Ixayl'anu goes over to look at identifying marks on crates/wagons/flags

Rana perception checks around the area, Diem goes with her (22, 11)

Phi helps Ixayl'anu. She notices the wood is bleached and weathered, sitting in the sun for years and years.

Ixayl'anu: How long does it take for wagons to start looking like this? Doesn’t it take awhile?

Rana walks up.

When Ixayl'anu scrapes it with a claw it splinters like over-dry wood

Rana 10 investigates it, and agrees - very weathered and bleached, flags are tattered and bleached, light pink maybe used to be red. Rana goes up to the 2nd wagon, Diem follows. It looks like it was a goods caravan, no animals, no people, no bones (but rolled low for that).

Diem got sand in their eye (1 investigating for bones)

We are following a loose trail of debris, Rana sees the inside protected by the cloth and she sees several other crates that have been pried open, contents taken. Rana pulls one crate out

Phi and Diem both roll low on this next part.

Rana nat 20s looking this crate over, tucked away behind that crate is another one that got overlooked, barely protected, it has a strange symbol on it like the barest suggestion of an inverted triangle made with little triangles at each point and leaf blades in the center curling out toward the leftmost triangle point from a braided crescent moon along the suggested triangle’s right side, tips of the crescent poking up out of the leftmost and top sides of the suggested triangle. Rana drags it out and takes a closer look. It seems kind of heavy. Whatever is in there is well padded, no shifting or sloshing etc.

Phi 14 perceives for traps. She sees it is locked with delicate filigree on it, meaning it’s probably a trap. Attempts to disable the trap (24).

We talk about how very lost they probably were, because as Rana points out, you do not go off trail, the desert is very dangerous, it will kill you, and while we were okay off trail with her, you definitely do not go off trail with a caravan.

Ixayl'anu: I get that but how far off trail are we?

Rana: We are inadvisably far off trail, but I know where I’m going.

Phi defeats the trap and inside she finds a large teapot of red enamel with a slightly demonic face on the side of it with a large ring in its nose. When she picks it up steam gently comes up and it is warm.

Rana looks in the box for more identification. 18 investigation.

Rana 17 history checks the triangle-moon symbol too - she’s not certain where she’s seen the symbol but it’s tip of her tongue - not quite familiar, but something. She finds a very old, weathered piece of parchment with “the meal wish cauldron” written on it, along with what it does.

By putting in 10 gold (or similar value of jewels - per person?), you bring forth a great feast, including magnificent food and drink. The feast takes 1 hour to consume and disappears at the end of that time, and the beneficial effects don't set in until this hour is over. Up to twelve creatures can partake of the feast.

A creature that partakes of the feast gains several benefits. The creature is cured of all diseases and poison, becomes immune to poison and being frightened, and makes all Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Its hit point maximum also increases by 2d10, and it gains the same number of hit points. These benefits last for 24 hours.

We package it away into our own supplies for now.

Rana: We’ll get to Longview before nightfall probably.

We travel an hour and a half more before we get back to the main road again, very well trafficked, just like Rethwellian’s main roads, it’s like going from a deer trail to a five lane highway.

Diem plays off the whole bad bitch native desert dweller guide, so fuck off vibe

As we get closer and closer to early evening we can see Longview.

(Welcome to Longview)

We are going to see a small town, big enough to know everyone but only if you lived here awhile. Somewhat of a farming community, gardens behind houses are common, in the shadow of the mountain, a bit more greenery here, but not as green as Rethwellian.

Taking the main road in, not stopping, just going through town - Rana clearly knows where she’s going. “Welcome to Longview.”

Phi: So were you born here?

Rana: Yeah, I grew up here.

One person on the road nods at Rana but they don’t stop and chat. They stare more at us than her.

Diem thinks it looks very cute and cozy

Rana’s interactions are limited to nods and waves

Phi: How long since you’ve been home?

Rana: At least 2 years

We notice nobody’s trying to catch up with Rana, Diem just assumes that’s because they know Rana well enough to know she’s not much of a talker and/or they’re all very similar to her in that regard.

As we pass the inn

Phi: Are we going to stay with your family maybe?

Rana: That is the plan, yes.

She takes us to her mom’s place, taking a left and immediately leaving Longview for its outskirts instead. Comparatively small homesteading with some sheep that want fed, a small kitchen garden, that’s pretty much it. We passed a lot of farms on the way here though. This one is only about 10 acres.

Rana glances around at some to do things while she’s here, but not a whole lot, some of the fencing could use repairing. She finds a place for their camels for water and food, ties them off. While everyone’s unloading she goes to feed the sheep.

Then she leads us to the door. We make enough noise out there though that a farm dog comes out barking, excited to see her, yipping, mom comes out the back “Oh Rana you’re back!” (older, husky sounding voice, from the city, little bit more cultured, wearing very nice clothes).

Rana turns around with a grin and runs to give her a big hug

Mom: I missed you so much

Rana: I missed you too

Mom: You brought friends

Rana: I brought friends!

Mom: Bring them inside

A feathered female dragonborn, a white-haired female gnome, and a big scary human woman who looks like she could break you.

Rana: we’re gonna need somewhere to stay for a night or two if that’s okay?

Mom: Sure

Rana: I fed the sheep and the camels, I haven’t fed anything in the stable yet though.

Mom: We have some sheep that are laming too.

Rana: It is good to see you - it has been way too long.

Mom: I did hear from your brother about events.

Rana: Oh! Did he get his message then?

Mom: All 3 of them. One right after another

Rana (grinning): I’ll have to fill him in, it’s been an eventful few months

Rana waves us over.

Rana leads the elk to sheep pen so it doesn’t eat mom’s flowers. It is way greener here than the other gardens in town. Plants here are very lovely.

Rana looks around: I’ll take care of the plants while I’m here too.

Mom: They always seem to enjoy your attentions. Introduce me to your friends?

She introduces us, stops at Diem, “Drop the disguise.”

Diem clearly forgot they were disguised, but does so, looks a little out of sorts after they drop the disguise rather than their easily sociable butterfly self.

Rana introduces each of us and where we’re from, Diem says their home is a small village in Rethwellian nobody’s really heard of, not important.

We are introduced to mom as Romy

Level up!

Next Session: Feb 20th 4pm est

#Anesh #Perfection #On the way to Longview #Tremors D&D #Shriekers #Graboids #Ass blaster sequel hook #Val #Earl #Edea #Thunderbird sighting #Mealwish Cauldron #We meet Rana's mom!#Romy #Level 8!

4 notes · View notes

rizahawkais · 3 years

Note

I LOVED season 1 and 2 of the crown but found season 3 quite dull and difficult to get through. I'm enjoying season 4 (still havent finished bc I watch with my family and we're rarely all together) but I think that the earlier seasons were a lot better in my opinion

hi! i completely agree w you!

I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY! I replied to this the day you sent it but my laptop crashed and I lost everything I wrote so I put off till now!

All in all, the writing for the first two seasons were WAY better. My ranking is s2 > s1 > s4 >>>>> s3. In my opinion, season three was kind of terrible.

hahaha this is so so long.

In the first two seasons each episode’s mini story for the day was actually INTERESTING. Like, I loved where one episode was about the Mountbatten name and then the next was about the Great Smog! But, there was always an overarching plot and it always added up in the end. S1, S2 and S4 all had an overarching plot that worked! S1 was balancing family and the crown. S2 was balancing prime ministers and her husband. S4 was the downfall of Margaret Thatcher and Charles/Diana. S3 LITERALLY HAD NO PLOT! It was just a bunch of stories put together. The finale for season 3 was about the end of Margaret’s marriage! And although, it is an important event in the family’s history the fact that it was the finale episode????

Anyways, Season 3 genuinely just sucks. Season 4 is REALLY good. Yet, it still doesn’t leave as much of an affect on me like the earlier seasons. AND LIKE I KNOW BECAUSE I’VE REWATCHED THE FIRST THREE SEASONS SO MANY TIMES. I’ve only seen the fourth once because I’m too busy and it’s also too early for me to rewatch it. So, maybe my opinion of season 4 will change!

Now, because I am extra 😈😈 and crazy I will talk about every single episode IN ORDER. hehehehehehe. feel free to hate me

SEASON ONE

101 Wolferton Splash - 10/10 this episodes just sets everything up! we see how happy the marriage is and how loving king george is and we also see the FORSHADOWING!! we see lilibet and phillip making their life thinking they had time when we know they don’t and it’s just :( AN AMAZING PILOT EPISODE WITH AMAZING QUOTES!

102 Hyde Park Corner - 1000/10 this episode needs no explanation. the suspense and DRAMA right before lilibet finds out about her dad ALWAYS gets me!!

103 Windsor - 10/10 I hated this episode the first time I watched it! I didn’t understand the importance of her uncle and I didn’t understand the complexity behind the episode. I was 14 when I saw this episode for the first time! So, mind you I was quite ignorant. but, david basically represents the audience in the show for those who hate the monarchy and call them out on their hypocrisy. BUT DAVID IS A TERRIBLE PERSON! FUCK DAVID! i understand hating the monarchy and for him i know it was personal but the way he talks about his family in the letters UGHUGHGUHGUHGUHGUH this man is evil! there’s also the other story in the episode about the mountbatten name which is so brilliant!

104 Act of God - 15/10 this episode was boring on first watch but I WAS FOURTEEN! this episode took a break from the monarchy and concentrated on a british national horrific event THAT WAS IMPORTANT and i liked how it connected throughout the episode and all that and the CINEMATOGRAPHY OMGGGGG! anyways, something that pisses me off about this episode is that the crown kind of has the same kind of audience as euphoria! they only care about a hot actor or iconic character or the aesthetics AND THAT MAKES ME ANGRY! bc those are the ppl who call this episode the boring fog episode and the latest episode of euphoria a waste of time! they don’t understand the importance of what their watching. an event that killed hundreds by something that could have been avoided bc of science and for euphoria an ongoing pandemic of an ugly world and its affect on ppl not wanting to go on! IM SORRY THIS TURNED INTO A RANT but this episode is important in reminding audiences that disasters can be avoided but also once they happen anything can happen THIS WAS A SAD EPISODE OKAY AND I LOVED VENETIA SCOTT!

105 Smoke and Mirrors - 100/10 THE CORONATION EPISODE! Phillip tries to bring it to the common public and all the fighting between them just makes the coronation even more impactful when we watch it!

106 Gelignite - 8/10 I DESPISED MARGARET IN THE FIRST SEASON i saw her as a spoiled brat who wanted to marry her dad’s assistant! AND ALSO HOW DID SHE NOT REALIZE THERE WAS DEFINITE GROOMING INVOLVED! this episode is generally very good but margaret just pisses me off a lot! however, her not being able to marry peter boresend shouldn’t have been because of his divorcee status but bc he simply was a predator in anyone’s clear eyes IM SORRY IF YOU DISAGREE BUT SHE MET HIM SO YOUNG NO WAY THERE WAS NO GROOMING good episode but pissed off at margaret’s lack of critical thinking besides but I WANT HIMMMMM LIKE I WANT EVERYTHING

107 Scientia Potentia Est - 11/10 hated this when i first watched it! but now one of my favorites! lilibet feels dumb and needs a tutor! prime minister and wannabe prime minister have health problems and keep it from her! lilibet finds out by accident and they all get yelled at! I LOVE WHEN SHE YELLS AT MEN!

108 Pride & Joy - 10/10 this episode is just adds on to the overarching plot of the season: balancing the crown and family. margaret says disrespectful things to ppl who don’t deserve it in place of lilibet while she’s on the commonwealth tour fighting with her husband! then lilibet scorns margaret and we see an ugly papa loved me more argument! absolutely brilliant!

109 Assassins - 1000/10 hated it the first time but now I LOVE THIS EPISODE! it’s the painting and porchey episode and churchill leaving episode. It’s so so so good! i honestly have no words to describe the brilliance of this episode besides the acting done by almost the entire main cast CLAIRE WOW! MATT WOW! STEPHEN (THE PAINTER) WOW! JOHN WOW! HARRIET WOW! when we see the painting getting burned coincided w the downing st dinner GETS ME EVERYTIME I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH!

110 Gloriana - 100/10 the climactic fight between the crown and family! which will lilibet choose?? and the foreshadowing to suez MWAH!

SEASON TWO

201 Misadventure - 100/10 LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS EPISODE the cutesy lilibet and phillip until it all goes down WOW! and the suez stuff i love it all

202 A Company of Men - 100/10 this is where i think mike’s wife starts snooping or it’s the next episode BUT THIS IS WHERE SOMETHING BEGINS FOR SURE first of all it foreshadows the episode later in the season about philip’s childhood AND MATT’S ACTING!! it’s too good for words!

203 Lisbon - 100/10 i like it when they fight lol that’s the only way i know how to describe why i love it LILIBET WAS EXCITED TO SEE HIM AND SO WAS HE but then mike ruined it by being a disgraceful and dishonest man RUINING EVERYTHING

204 Beryl - 10/10 i start to like margaret bc i feel bad for her! she’s suffering she’s sad that her lil predator boyfriend is no longer w her but look who it is MATTHEW GOODE! he not suspicious at all but the writers are like here take 20 minutes of perfect chemistry between the actors!

205 Marionettes - 100/10 I LOVE THIS EPISODE basically someone who loves the monarchy insults the monarchy and lilibet actually goes to listen to them! w resistance of course but she still took everything he said to fix the monarchy !

206 Vergangenheit - 1000/10 one of my favorites! i didn’t know about david’s nazi past so when i watched this episode for the first time i was completely baffled! another episode where she yells at a man!!!! i’m always annoyed in this episode tho by all the talk from the priest about forgiveness bc im like why would u want to forgive david for being a nazi?? but i think it was intentional by the writers to show the importance of understanding forgiveness and the grounds for it! THIS EPISODE IS JUST PERFECT IM ANNOYED BC I DON’T WANT TO FORGIVE HIM

207 Matrimonium - 9/10 this episode is amazing BEFORE you’ve seen season three bc you root for margaret and tony! but, also throughout the episode there’s all that tony and family and his gf and bf stuff that you think is going to lead somewhere but doesn’t??? like what was the point of introducing his mother and his relationships if it was going nowhere and not even mentioned in season 3??? LIKE WHAT WAS THE POINT WHAT WAS THE REASON? but, also there’s lilibet and phillip fluff in this episode I LOVE

208 Dear Mrs. Kennedy - 10/10 this episode is fun as an american bc i think jackie kennedy and jfk are so idolized here in america it was so interesting to see this other pov! BUT I ALSO REALLY LOVED LILIBET DANCING W NKRUMAH! I THOUGHT IT WAS SO CUTE AND THE MARTIN CHARTERIS STUFF LEADING UP TO IT WAS SO FUNNY!

209 Paterfamilias - 100000/10 no words. IT WAS SO SMART TO PARALLEL PHILIP AND CHARLES this has a lower rating than the previous episode which makes no sense but only goes to prove the idolization of jackie and jfk

210 Mystery Man - 100/10 EVERYTHING FROM THE FIRST EPISODE IS ADDRESSED IN THIS EPISODE THE SEASON COMES FULL CIRCLE JUST LIKE SEASON ONE DID AND SEASON THREE DID NOT DO THAT AND SEASON FOUR DID IT TOO BUT NO WHERE AS GREATLY

every single episode of seasons two has a 9+ rating from me!

SEASON THREE (worst season)

301 Olding - 5/10 weak starter but good for introducing olivia as lilibet and harold wilson and departing churchill BUT THAT’S IT! like the whole spy thing just went bleh LIKE IT HAD POTENTIAL but it needed early seasons writing not third season writing techniques TOBIAS DID A GREAT JOB THO IN THIS EPISODE HE WAS A GREAT RECAST FOR PHILIP

302 Margaretology - 6/10 okay. just okay. margaret kind of bratty but you actually feel bad for her then she gets bratty again and then you feel bad for her again and the scenarios in the episode just didn’t feel real like the whole lyndon b johnson was so jealous of jfk that he was rude to the queen so they sent margaret JUST DIDN’T MAKE SENSE like i know this show is fictional but the fiction tends to be believable until i research the episode afterwards BUT FOR THIS it just didn’t make sense

303 Aberfan - 1000/10 ONE OF THE GOOD EPISODES OF THE SEASON! those first fifteenish minutes??? TEARS! i never knew about aberfan until this episode and seeing this episode made me cry!

304 Bubbikins - 10000/10 THIS EPISODE IS TECHNICALLY NOT AS GOOD AS THE ABERFAN EPISODE BUT THIS IS A PERSONAL PREFERENCE we meet anne and alice in this episode AND I LOVE BOTH OF THEM (erinsdoherty is my current url!) this episode is so sad and sweet at the same time and loving bc i’m a sucker for philip’s back story!

305 Coup - 8/10 this had potential I FEEL LIKE IF THEY WROTE THIS EPISODE DIFFERENTLY LIKE HOW THEY WROTE ONE OF THE SUEZ EPISODE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER the fact that it all went to nothing and nothing basically happened WHAT WAS THE POINT

306 Tywysog Cymru - 1000/10 this episode made me like charles! what a horrendous statement! but, like i thought his relationship w his tutor was so heartwarming and he actually seemed to care and all that and it just all in all MADE ME HAPPY like this episode isn’t sad it’s a happy episode until the last scene w lilibet BUT YEA they gave us this one good episode until we hate him which i appreciate makes the story telling better

307 Moondust - -100/10 hate this episode LIKE GENUINELY HATE IT HATE HATE HATE and tbh im generally very very nice w my opinions ANYWAYS I WAS SO EXCITED FOR THIS EPISODE BUT IT WAS SO STUPID LIKE THE ASTRONAUTS BEING ASSHOLES WAS STUPID PHILIP BEING AN ASSHOLE TO THE PRIESTS WAS STUPID LIKE PHILIP IS AN ASSHOLE BUT IT’S BEHIND PEOPLE’S BACKS AND THEN THEY KILLED ALICE OFF SCREEN I HATE THIS EPISODE

308 Dangling Man - -1000/10 HATE THIS ONE TOO this episode convinced me that the writers for the first two seasons to this season has changed all of a sudden we forget that david was basically a nazi and the charles we met two episodes ago sees him as exactly like this uncle who he swore he would be nothing like to the people of wales??? LIKE WHO WROTE THIS THEY WERE DOING CRACK WHILE WRITING THIS EPISODE and i felt NOTHING during the lilibet and david goodbye WHACK EPISODE TERRIBLE JUST BAD TERRIBLE

309 Imbroglio - 5/10 episode started off good but then just went a lil too crazy by making it seem like a whole secret spy mission going behind lilibet’s back

310 Cri de Cour - 4/10 bad just bad HBC GOOD ACTRESS AMAZING ACTRESS given bad material like NONE OF THIS FEELS CONNECTED THIS STORY IS ALL RANDOM AND WE HAD A WHOLE EPISODE ABOUT MARGARET AND TONY AND WE DON’T EVEN MENTION ANY OF THE CRAZY STUFF FROM THE LAST SEASON BUT WE CONCENTRATE ON MARGARET BEING A SUGAR MAMA MAKES SENSE YALL

once again i hate season three

SEASON FOUR

401 Gold Stick- 8/10 written weirdly but had GOOD SCENES such as meeting thatcher and diana! BUT THE SCENE STEALER WAS OBVIOUSLY MOUNTBATTEN’S DEATH AND PHILIP TELLING CHARLES THAT HE BECAME DICKIE’S SON INSTEAD OF HIM SAD STUFF so like the death was sad and dramatic and I FELT BAD but like i shouldn’t bc im south asian and mountbatten did bad stuff to us BUT IT DOESN’T CHANGE THE RIPPLE WE FELT

402 The Balmoral Test - 9/10 funny episode but needed early seasons’ writing

403 Fairytale - 9/10 good episode but needed early seasons’ writing BUT ALSO THAT SCENE BETWEEN CAMILA AND DIANA MWAH CHEF’S KISS THEY BOTH DESERVE ALL THE AWARDS but needed early seasons’ writing

404 Favourites - 7/10 this episode is good but frustrating bc u finally realize how terrible of a mother lilibet is BUT THE ANDREW STUFF WAS GOOD I AM GLAD THEY PUT THAT IN! i liked seeing thatcher’s non-existent relationship w her daughter NEEDED EARLY SEASONS’ WRITING

405 Fagan - 10/10 GOOD EPISODE I LIKE HOW WE WERE EMERSED IN FAGAN’S LIFE AND I LOVE THE ACTOR FOR FAGAN TOO AND I LIKE HOW IT WAS CONNECTED TO THATCHER AND FUELED THE OVERARCHING PLOT OF THE STORY!

406 Terra Nullius - 100/10 GOOD EPISODE CLOSEST TO EARLY SEASONS WRITING THAT’S WHAT MADE IT GOOD seeing them not get along and then get along and then not get along again through a series of montages made the episode brilliant!

407 The Hereditary Principle - 6/10 this episode. how do i explain? the material for this episode was absolutely perfect for the writers of the early seasons! POOR EXECUTION

408 48:1 - 100/10 i like the political episodes more than the family episodes SO THIS EPISODE IS SO BRILLIANT BC OF THE BACK AND FORTH AND I GOT TO SEE CLAIRE!!

409 Avalanche - 7/10 early season writers would have shown the arguing before the avalanche and diana’s reaction JUST SAYING

410 War - 9/10 THIS EPISODE HAD THE YELLING AT EACH OTHER SCENE THAT WAS SO GOOD BUT ANYWAYS THE PROBLEM W THIS EPISODE WAS THAT IT DRAGGED I FEEL LIKE THIS EPISODE AND THE ONE BEFORE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE EPISODE TOGETHER

ALAS, what i would like to say is that i feel that season 4 shouldn’t have been so diana centric! it was diana from the beginning of the season to the end! not, that i don’t love the whole diana story but it was dragged and i think she should have been introduced around the third/fourth episode of this season the same way tony was in season two! camilla should have arrived at the beginning of season 4 so that the intensity between camilla, charles and diana was more believable! if we season three wasn’t so spread out they could have had more brilliant episode.

OK HAHA I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS VERY LONG RANT ABOUT THE CROWN PLZ FORGIVE ME! AND IF U READ ALL THIS WOW! IDK WHAT TO SAY I THINK I TALK TOO MUCH HONESTLY :( anyways thank you for talking to me :)

#the crown #queen elizabeth #prince philip #princess margaret #princess anne #princess diana #prince charles #margaret thatcher #asks #i talk too much

8 notes · View notes

myaekingheart · 3 years

Text

121. The Double Date

read the scarecrow and the bell on ao3 index | from the beginning | < previous | next >

The one thing Rei hated more than social situations was people who remembered halfhearted invititations to social situations. Unfortunately, on a Friday night, such was the case. Apparently Mikazuki had taken her careless offer for barbecue to heart. So now here Rei was in a dress that was all too tight for her comfort sitting in Yakiniku Q forced to smile and laugh over sake on the worst thing imaginable: a double date.

“Come on, everything is going to be fine” Kakashi reassured her as she got ready. She turned to glare at him and the tip of her lipstick smeared across her cheek, a sharp red line like a warning. Kakashi smiled sheepishly, reaching for a tissue and tenderly wiping her face clean. “Really, Rei, there’s nothing to worry about” he assured her. “It’s just four friends going out for food. That’s all.”

“That’s not all, Kakashi” Rei muttered. She capped her lipstick and raked her fingers through her tangled hair. “Anything can happen when four friends go out for food.” Truthfully, she wasn’t even sure if Tenzo and Mikazuki qualified as friends. Her and Tenzo didn’t know each other well enough. Mikazuki was kind and familiar but also strange and sometimes even suspicious. It was that same suspicion that was taking root in her stomach right now.

“It didn’t seem to be a problem on your birthday” Kakashi reminded her. “That was four friends going out for food.”

Shaking her head, Rei turned to color-correct the red splotch on her cheek in the mirror. “Yeah, but that was Guy and Sekkachi. That’s different. They’re practically family.”

“Then this should be a good change of pace” Kakashi mused.

Rei scoffed and shook her head. “You don’t know me very well, do you, Kakashi?” she jested. A sigh broke past her lips as she attempted to gather her fluffy hair up into the signature ponytail. “Maybe we should just call the whole thing off. Tell them we’ll do this some other time. For what it’s worth, I didn’t even mean it when I invited them to dinner.”

“But they took it seriously” Kakashi continued. “We’re supposed to meet them in less than a half an hour. It’s a little too late to back out now, don’t you think?”

Rei glanced to the clock and knew that her fiancé was right. She fastened her ponytail tightly at the crown and muttered, “At least there should be plenty of alcohol.” Heaven only knew she was going to need it.

Yakiniku Q seemed quiet for a Friday night. The usual drunkards huddled around the bar mumbling inaudible nonsense to one another but the dining tables stood fairly empty. The sight of it only further heightened the eerie paranoia pulsing through Rei’s veins. Where were all the people? A clap of thunder roared in the distance, the sky overhead threatening rain. Rei squeezed Kakashi’s hand a little tighter.

Mikazuki and Tenzo had already stolen a table at the back of the restaurant, chatting quietly with one another between sips of sake. A rising feeling struck Rei’s chest at the sight of them, a red flag urging her to run. Anxiety and embarrassment firmly rooted themselves in the pit of her stomach, overwhelming her with each step nearer.

Kakashi and Rei settled in side by side at the other end of the table. Kakashi eyed her curiously as she sucked in her gut and shimmied her skirt down her thighs in an effort to get comfortable. In the back of her mind, Rei cursed herself for choosing something she had evidently outgrown—a dress that Naru had picked from the Kawakubo dress shop so many years ago. It had been so long since Rei had gone out on a Friday night, she thought it was only appropriate to dress for the occasion. As she stared at her bland closet, she tried to envision what Naru would choose. Unfortunately, Naru’s tastes were five years outdated for Rei’s body. Her stomach squeezed tight against the fabric and her breasts were borderline spilling out of the already low-cut neckline. Mikazuki shot her a cautious glance as she took another sip of her sake. The tension mounted.

“So, congratulations on making captain” Tenzo commented, but it was clear that he was distracted. Rei shifted as she willed his line of sight to rise. Kakashi regretted not bringing her a jacket. “It’s definitely, a, uh…” Tenzo stammered. “A big endowment.”

Mikazuki’s face turned bright red, a pathetic yelp escaping her lips. She dropped her eyes and took an anxious sip of her sake. “I’m sure you’re very proud” she murmured.

Tenzo spluttered, stumbling over the words he couldn’t form in his mouth, as he met Kakashi’s brief but warning gaze. Truthfully, Kakashi didn’t understand why Rei felt obligated to squeeze herself into something so small and risqué in the first place. Her nervous laughter, the way she shifted in her seat, only further emphasized her anxiety. Kakashi took her hand under the table and gave it a tight squeeze, a sign of solidarity, a prayer to calm down. When words failed him, Tenzo sighed in defeat and took a long, desperate swig of his drink.

A painful stretch of silence passed between the four of them, interrupted only by the sizzle of beef on the grill and clink of ice in their glasses. I knew this was a bad idea, Rei thought to herself. She peered out the window to the hazy street below, watching passerby rush into the nearest shops to beat the rain. The bellows of drunks at the bar blurred into an incomprehensible white noise. Raindrops raced each other against the glass. Streelights flickered in the distance.

When Mikazuki finally broke the silence, Rei initially did not hear her. It wasn’t until Kakashi tapped her shoulder lightly that Rei snapped out of her daze. She had no idea how much time had passed but it somehow simultaneously felt fleeting and eternal.

“I just said h-how are the new recruits?” Mikazuki repeated. The uncertainty in her voice, the restraint, made it clear that she regretted having to ask again. That a part of her had hoped that they could just sweep her inquiry under the rug, forget she had ever said anything.

“Fine” Rei croaked in response. Her vision refused to refocus. “Th-they’re fine.” She cleared her throat, readjusted her dress yet again. Her skirt kept riding up as if hellbent on flashing everyone. She glanced down at her thighs and suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Her gaze snapped back up to the beef grilling in the center of the table, to Mikazuki sliding strips onto her plate, to the smell and the texture and the color and the flames. Rei pinched the skin of her thigh between thumb and forefinger, focusing on the sting of her nails, tried not to linger on thoughts of flesh. “They’ll need a lot of work but they have potential” she added.

Tenzo chuckled as he poured himself another drink. “Well, if that one kid of yours is any indication, you certainly have your hands full” he commented. Rei arched a brow. Truthfully, they were all going to be handfuls. Squinting, Tenzo thumbed through the index of names and faces in his brain. A few moments passed before he finally mused, “Sukui, I think his name was?”

“Oh. Him” Rei sighed. She could only imagine what Sukui Yukio must be like in the men’s locker room. But then the thought of the men’s locker room at all—sweaty men, barbaric men, naked men—caused her stomach to lurch yet again.

“Yeah” Tenzo laughed. “He’s a real exhibitionist in the locker room. If I have to hear him mention his resemblance to—”

“Keihaku Goman, I know” Rei interrupted, shaking her head. She lifted her glass to her lips, took a delicate sip. The sake burned her throat but in a good way. In a numbing way.

Blank and confused, Mikazuki searched their faces for a hint before quietly asking, “W-Who’s Keihaku Goman?” She tried to remain composed but with every passing moment, she was beginning to feel more and more outcasted in the conversation.

“He was the main actor in the Icha Icha film adaptation” Kakashi explained. “At least until he got fired and recast for Makeout Violence.”

“Oh…” Mikazuki gave a minute nod, taking another sip of her drink.

Rei took a long swig of her own, reveling in the warmth radiating through her body. She felt like a tiny little flame growing ever stronger, ever more invincible to the rushing rain surrounding. The knot in her stomach began to loosen. “I’m sure with time they’ll get better, but their teamwork needs a lot of improvement” she continued.

“Well, you’ve certainly learned from the best” Tenzo mused, motioning to Kakashi. His arm swayed as if the hinges in his shoulder were coming undone. He lifted his drink almost as if in salute before finishing off his second glass.

Kakashi shook his head, swatting at the air dismissively. “I didn’t come here to be praised” he remarked. Though his voice was stern and steady, there was an undertone of humble delight in his words. He wrapped an arm gently around Rei’s waist as he added, “I’m sure Rei will be a far better captain than I ever was.”

Rei blushed and shook her head, swirling the sake in her glass. “I didn’t come here to be praised, either” she countered. “This is a learning experience for me, too.”

“Have a little more faith in your abilities, Rei” Kakashi replied. “Everything will fall into place eventually.”

Mikazuki nodded in agreement. “Remember when we first joined the ANBU? Things felt so chaotic and intense but with time, we got used to things. And now you’re a captain.”

“I hope you’re right” Rei sighed, taking another sip of her drink. “Because right now, it feels a whole hell of a lot like wrangling cattle.”

“Or babysitting” Tenzo offered.

Rei laughed softly as she nodded in agreement. “I’m just glad I don’t have to do it all on my own” she replied. “Yugao has been a great help so far.”

“I’m sure” Mikazuki said softly. On her face was a smile that was both polite but forced. Generous. Tense. Rei tried to brush it off as she drained her glass and poured herself another. Mikazuki took a delicate bite of her beef then as she added, “It’s certainly a big responsibility. You’re practically in charge of everything. Do you even have time to sleep? Your complexion looks awful.”

Rei sucked her teeth as she carelessly threw a few strips of beef onto the grill herself. Truthfully, though, she wasn’t very hungry. “I sleep…” she muttered in offense. “Balancing work and our personal lives has gotten a little bit tougher and we’ve had to make some sacrifices but, I mean, that’s life. There’s nothing we can really do about it.” Kakashi was taken by the sharp undercurrent in her voice and his heart ached for her. He knew exactly what she was referring to.

“Tell me about it!” Tenzo exclaimed. He tilted the bottle of sake against the rim of his glass but when nothing poured out, he paused, squinted, shook the bottle, peered inside, then shrugged in defeat and tossed it over his shoulder. The bottle shattered with a crash behind him. Kakashi winced. “I mean, being in the ANBU at all is overbearing enough. Mikazuki and I barely get to spend time together as it is! I can only imagine how much less free time you have as a captain.” A waitress passed by their table, quizzically trying to decipher the origin of the bottle behind their booth. Tenzo stretched himself across the table and flagged her down, dutifully requesting another bottle of sake for the group. The waitress glanced to the others as if searching for their approval before giving a single nod and scurrying back to the kitchen. Satisfied, Tenzo flopped back into his seat and continued. “You know, I’ll admit, I was a little disappointed when I didn’t make captain! Spent my whole life in the ANBU and this is how they treat me? I think I deserve a little recognition, you know? But the more I started thinking about it, the more I realized everything I’d be giving up. After all, I need the free time to…sit. And exist. Like a tree! Like a big, beautiful tree! Rei, I don’t envy you one bit.”

Rei forced a polite, panicked smile. “Well, uh, thanks for that, Tenzo” she muttered. Kakashi leaned forward and slid some freshly cooked beef onto a plate for the both of them, encouraging Rei to take a bite but she simply shook her head and took another sip of her drink. “I’m not really hungry” she whispered.

The moment the waitress turned the corner, Tenzo’s eyes lit up and he reached across the table for the bottle of booze. He poured himself another glass sloppily, spilling sake around the immediate area. “You know, this is nice!” he exclaimed. “We should go out like this more often. If only Mikazuki and I could find the time!” Turning to his girlfriend then, he drunkenly pondered, “When was the last time we even went on a date? February? It’s like we never have time for each other anymore! What is that about?!”

“T-Tenzo, please…” Mikazuki whispered. They were beginning to attract attention. She took an anxious sip of her drink as she glanced apologetically to the patrons eyeing their table. Never before had she so strongly wished to be invisible.

“You know” Tenzo continued loudly, “How you two are managing to plan a wedding with all of this, I will never understand! Can you even plan a wedding with work like this? Is that even possible?” He chuckled to himself then as he gazed at his sake longingly. “If you ask me, I bet it’d be so much easier to just elope! What do you think, Mikazuki? Do you think we should elope?”

Mikazuki yelped in shock at the prospect. “T-Tenzo!” she exclaimed, burying her face in her hands. “Please, restrain yourself!”

Clearing her throat, Rei replied curtly, “We’re, uh, we’re making it work.”

In a show of great enthusiasm, Tenzo slammed his fist against the table and wailed, “I’m just so happy for you guys!” His eyes teared up momentarily but Rei was unsure whether it was due to his overwhelming emotion or if he was simply too drunk to function. “You’ll invite us to the wedding, right? I mean, we’ll have to check our calendar, obviously”—here, he drunkenly smirked at his girlfriend as if their conflicting schedules were an inside joke they were both in on—“but how could I miss the wedding of the century? Kakashi Hatake, renowned ninja, getting married!”

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”

Rei hummed in agreement as she brought her glass up to her lips. Just as she was mid-sip, however, Tenzo blurted out, “When are you guys going to have kids?!” and Rei immediately spluttered her sake across the table, coughing and gasping for breath.

“I-I’m sorry, what?” she croaked. She glanced to Mikazuki who sat there stone-still and mortified. Her cheeks burned bright red.

“Kids!” Tenzo repeated. “You know, babies!” He sighed and rested his head on the table, whining, “Kakashi would make such a great dad.”

“I-I don’t know about that” Kakashi replied anxiously. Now he was the one feeling uneasy. He glanced to Rei, searching her face for signs of the inner turmoil he was sure was spiralling in the pit of her stomach now.

Shaking his head, Tenzo insisted, “No, he really would! I mean it!” He turned to Mikazuki with bloodshot eyes and added, “It’s like he was made to make babies! You know?” With a groan, he dropped his face onto the tabletop and muffled, “I bet you guys would have so many babies.”

Nervous laughter broke past Rei’s lips as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Let’s just, uh…take one thing at a time.”

Tenzo laughed as if something about that was funny, hoisting his head up off the table. As he did so, his eyes landed on the karaoke machine at the other end of the restaurant and once again, his eyes lit up. “Hey, look, the mic’s open!” he exclaimed. Before any of the others could react, he catapulted over Mikazuki in the booth and stumbled toward the modest little stage. With each step, he willed himself to move faster, faster, faster as if the mic was at risk of being snatched up by someone else.

“Is he always this eager?” Rei asked, wide eyes watching Tenzo trip over the wires as he clutched the microphone tightly.

“Whenever sake is involved, apparently” Mikazuki sighed.

Chuckling, Kakashi turned to his fiancée and mused, “Remind me not to let Tenzo drink at our wedding.” Rei shook her head and nestled herself warmly against Kakashi. In the back of her mind, she wondered at what point in the night it would be reasonable to leave.

The karaoke machine switched on with an electric whir. Bright neon visuals pulsed on the screen behind him as he scrutinized his options. A static suspense hung in the air as he flipped through the song list until finally, he made his choice. The upbeat intro of none other than “Build Me Up, Buttercup” blared through the speakers. He made eye contact with Mikazuki as he belted out a verse about being let down by a lover, passionate and out of tune. Mikazuki’s face grew even redder as she sunk down in the booth. The other patrons in the restaurant seemed to pay no mind to her and for that, she was grateful.

“You know, he’s not half bad” Kakashi commented, tapping his fingers rhymically against the table.

Rei snorted and tilted her head back so as to better view him. “I didn’t realize you were deaf.”

Kakashi clinked the ice in his glass and replied, “It sounds better after a few drinks.” The irony was that he was hardly even drinking at all.

By the time Tenzo reached the chorus, Mikazuki had finally cracked. She excused herself and hurried to the bathroom, weaving through the crowd that had formed up and down the walkways of the restaurant. “How much do you want to bet she’s going to escape through the bathroom window?” Rei joked.

Kakashi shook his head. “I don’t think she’d do that.”

“You never know” Rei replied. “After a night like this, I’d be desperate for the nearest exit.” And deep down, she had to admit that she was.

“We’ll leave soon” Kakashi assured her. “After all, you have work in the morning, anyway, don’t you?”

Rei scoffed. “We all do.” She wouldn’t be surprised if Tenzo called out sick the next day. Heaven only knew he was going to be nursing a monstrous hangover. As the chorus swelled, Tenzo clenched his fist in a moment of power ballad passion and swayed his hips to the tune. The mic screeched but he didn’t seem to notice.

“I didn’t know he could get his voice that high” Rei laughed.

“I didn’t want to know he could get his voice that high” Kakashi replied. In the privacy of their little booth, he tugged his mask down to take a discrete bite of food before holding out a piece to Rei but yet again she shook her head. “Are you sure you’re not hungry?” he asked.

“Yeah, positive” Rei replied. She kept her eyes locked on Tenzo’s performance in an effort to avoid Kakashi’s scrutinizing gaze.

“You really should eat something” Kakashi urged.

“In this dress?” Rei laughed. “I’ll bust open like a can of biscuits. I’ll just grab a snack when I get home. Besides, I’m not really a huge fan of beef tongue.” Kakashi pursed his lips, displeased but not willing to fight with her on the matter. If she wasn’t hungry then she wasn’t hungry. He wasn’t going to force food down her throat. He only hoped she’d stick to her word about eating at home.

As the song faded out, Mikazuki slipped out of the bathroom and crawled back into her seat. Tenzo rushed to the table, his adrenaline rushing and a massive grin on his face. “Do you think they’d be pissed if I sang another song?” he asked. Before anyone could answer, he swatted at the air and exclaimed, “Ah, fuck it! I’m gonna go again! But first, refreshments!” He reached across the table for his glass and the bottle of sake, smirking confidently as he attempted to pour himself another glass. He had grossly miscalculated his aim, however, and spilled alcohol right into the tabletop grill. The flames flared with a roar of heat, licking at the ceiling maliciously. Tenzo immediately jumped back, dropping both his glass and the bottle, and releasing a clipped shriek.

Fuck. Rei immediately leapt to her feet before the flames could caress her cheek, but their heat was enough to make her lightheaded. Kakashi pulled her back as an extra precaution, holding fast in defense. Channeling all of her chakra into her mouth, Rei shot a sharp jet of water at the flame, effectively extinguishing it in a matter of moments. It was quick thinking like that, she supposed, that got her promoted to captain in the first place.

The door to the kitchens burst open as the restaurant owner came running to their table, shrieking profanities at them about burning down his dining room. Kakashi quickly dug in his pocket for some cash, slamming it on the table, before grabbing Tenzo by the arm and ushering the four of them out into the night air.

“I guess we’ll have to cross Yakiniku off the list of available places to eat” Rei huffed once outside. She smoothed her bangs back as she attempted to catch her breath.

“Unfortunately” Mikazuki sighed. She toed the dirt and muttered, “Their food wasn’t that great, anyway.”

Tenzo bellowed from the street about how he’d be back for an encore next week before spinning on his heel and accidentally walking straight into a wall. “Do you think he’ll be alright?” Kakashi asked, glancing to Mikazuki.

Shaking her head, Mikazuki replied, “I better walk him home just to make sure.” She readjusted her purse on her shoulder as she approached her boyfriend, taking his forearm gently and guiding him in the direction of his apartment. Kakashi and Rei waited until they turned the corner before glancing to one another with stifled laughter. If there was ever a reason as to why they never went out, this would be it. And to think, a disaster like this could’ve been easily avoided if they just hadn’t bothered with trying to be social. Chuckling in disbelief, Kakashi wrapped an arm around his fiancée and together they returned home.

The following morning, Rei stood in front of the full-length mirror in the ANBU locker rooms as she changed into her uniform. She pinched at her belly fat and poked at her thick thighs. If anything, this is just proof I need to go on a diet, she thought to herself. She couldn’t even comprehend how she had gained so much weight in the first place. Getting back in shape was going to be a hassle that she was not looking forward to facing. It was bad enough that the previous night had taken a far greater toll on her than she expected. She slept through three alarms and was forced to skip breakfast. She may have outgrown her dress, but her bad habits were evidently one size fits all. Groaning, Rei pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets and fell back onto the nearest bench.

“Rough night?” a voice then asked. Rei peered up through the gaps between her fingers to find none other than Arai looming over her. A smug grin painted her face.

“Why are you always in my business?” Rei asked, sitting up. “Don’t you have anything better to do than stalk me?”

“I’m not stalking you” Arai countered. “If I was, I would’ve already known why you were so damn tired.”

Rolling her eyes, Rei muttered, “Fair point.” She strained her arm so as to scratch her upper back and yawned widely, feeling pathetic. Not as pathetic, however, as Mikazuki. As Rei opened her eyes, she caught sight of the doe-eyed ninja skirting around the wall of lockers, a wad of dirty civilian clothes clutched close to her chest. Without even bidding Arai a simple see you later, Rei slid into Mikazuki’s path with a devilish grin. “So, how about Tenzo, huh?” she asked, raising a brow.

Mikazuki yelped in surprise, tossing her clothes in the process. Pastel tunics and cotton leggings cascaded to the dirty tile floor. “W-w-what about him?” she stammered.

“Oh, nothing” Rei replied, shrugging. “I just didn’t know he was such a party animal.”

Sighing, Mikazuki dropped to her knees and began gathering up her clothes. “He puked in a bush on the way home and I had to crash on his couch to make sure nothing happened in the middle of the night” she explained quietly, eyes downcast and embarrassed. She rubbed the tension out of her neck with a soft whimper, proving that perhaps Tenzo’s furniture was not the comfiest.

The one thing that stood out to Rei, however, was that Mikazuki slept on the couch. Her and Tenzo had been dating for quite some time now. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to sleep in his bed with him? For a moment, Rei was suddenly struck with the horrifying possibility that Mikazuki truly was as virginal as she appeared to be. But no, that couldn’t have been the case. There had to be another explanation. Maybe it was simply more convenient to give Tenzo space while he was sick. Maybe Mikazuki didn’t want to impose, or for Tenzo to get the wrong idea while under the influence. Rei was sure there were scores of valid explanations but she supposed she had just grown so accustomed to her very intimate relationship with Kakashi that none of them seemed to make any real sense.

“Sounds like quite a party” Arai interrupted from across the room. “If you ask me, it’s no fun unless someone barfs their brains out.”

“That’s disgusting” Rei cringed. Arai shrugged, seeing no fault in her comment, before skirting around to help scoop up the rest of Mikazuki’s clothes. Mikazuki thanked her quietly before scurrying off to drop her laundry in the bin. Before any more could be said, the dull alarm in headquarters sounded to signify the start of the morning briefing. For once, Rei was grateful for the interruption.

She skirted around the crowds to find her team, rambunctious as always for an early morning shift. As she took her seat, she briefly scanned the room. It came as no surprise that Tenzo was nowhere to be seen.

5 notes · View notes

oliverdant · 4 years

Text

T The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover is already jam-packed with heroes both familiar and new, but another important new player entered the stage in Part 3: Stephen Lobo's Jim Corrigan, better known as the human host of the Spectre.

While he only appears briefly in Part 3, it's clear the Spectre will have a big part to play in the future of the Arrowverse. Not only that, Oliver Queen seems to be a key piece of that puzzle. Read on for a quick breakdown of who the Spectre is and why his fate is now entwined with that of the Green Arrow.

Who Is the Spectre?

The Spectre is actually one of the oldest DC heroes, debuting in 1940's More Comics #52. He's also a founding member of DC's first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, At the time, the Spectre was depicted as the costumed alter ego of Jim Corrigan, a detective who was murdered by criminals but whose soul was rejected by the afterlife. Instead, Corrigan returned to life and began waging war on all criminals.

However, the Spectre has been re-imagined for the contemporary DC Universe. Now the character is depicted as "The Spirit of Vengeance," a powerful, ghostly entity who punishes evildoers in cruel and often ironic ways. For instance, one classic story shows the Spectre threatening to kill the entire population of New York after an innocent man is put on death row. In his eyes, an execution done in the name of the people makes those people responsible for its consequences.

In order to ensure the Spectre maintains a proper perspective on human affairs, the Spectre's master "The Voice" requires that he be bonded to a mortal (usually Jim Corrigan). The Spectre also once found a new host in former Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Becoming the Spectre was Hal's penance after a dark period where he was driven mad by Parallax and murdered most of his Green Lantern comrades. Gotham City detective Crispus Allen also once served as the Spectre's human host after Hal was redeemed.

The Spectre in the Arrowverse

The Arrowverse is only just now introducing the Spectre and his human host, though NBC's short-lived Constantine series seemed to be building towards the character's introduction before it was canceled. That series featured Emmett Scanlan in the role of Detective Jim Corrigan. The role was recast for Crisis, hence why Matt Ryan's John Constantine doesn't recognize Stephen Lobo's Corrigan. This version of the character appears to be from another branch of the DC multiverse (possibly from Earth-666, where the Netflix series Lucifer is set).

It's fitting that Crisis serves as the Spectre's debut, as the character played a key role in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths comic. The Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the universe, capable of inflicting punishment on the worst evildoers. In the comic, the Spectre is the only one strong enough to fight the Anti-Monitor directly, though even he was only strong enough to hold the all-powerful villain at bay long enough for Earth's heroes to enact their final plan. It seems safe to assume the character will have a similar part to play in the final two episodes of Crisis. The multiverse is gone, but the Spirit of Vengeance still lives.

Oliver Queen as the Spectre

However, it appears the Arrowverse is making one significant change to the Spectre as the crossover nears its climax. Based on the events of Part 3, it won't be Jim Corrigan controlling the Spectre, but Oliver Queen. As in the comics, a popular hero is taking on the mantle. But rather than Hal Jordan (whose existence has barely even been alluded to in the Arrowverse), it's Oliver Queen.

This gives us a better idea of where Ollie will end up as the crossover wraps and Arrow moves into its final two episodes. Despite his heroic sacrifice on Earth-38, Ollie apparently won't stay dead. Instead, he'll become bonded to the Spectre, play his part in Crisis and continue living on as the mortal host to one of the most powerful forces in the Arrowverse.

It's a fitting evolution for the character, and not just because Ollie and the Spectre are both so fond of green hoods. Arrow has always been the story of Ollie's quest to become "something else," tracing his evolution from carefree playboy to hardened killer to noble superhero to a father confronting his own, inevitable death. This is Ollie's last and greatest transformation. All that he's experienced in the 12 years between arriving on Lian Yu and making his final sacrifice have shaped Ollie's perspective on the world and the nature of justice. That perspective is clearly why the power of the Spectre is passing from Jim Corrigan to Oliver Queen.

This seems like a way of allowing the character a relatively happy ending and a second lease on life now that his prophesied death has come to pass. Arrow may be ending, but this leaves the door open for Stephen Amell to reprise his role on a more limited basis - in other words, for future crossovers where the power of the Spectre is most needed.

This surprising status quo shift could also tie into the ambiguous way Felicity Smoak's story ended in Arrow: Season 7. When last we saw the older Felicity of 2040, she reunited with Mar Novu and walked through a portal to an unknown destination from which she can never return. It was implied that she was reuniting with Ollie. It may be that Ollie is destined to bond with the Spectre for 20 years, at the end of which he and Felicity can finally enjoy a life together, free from the woes of Star City.

#arrow #olicity #stephen amell #oliver queen #the flash #dc comics #crisis on infinite earths spoilers #crisis of infinite earths #supergirl #legends of tomorrow #batwoman #coie spoilers

39 notes · View notes

niki-frost · 5 years

Note

Say in a few years they decided to remake OUAT and chose you as the lead writer/director, what would you keep from the old show and what would you change (y'know, besides the obvious) and what would you add?

Fantastic and thoughtful question! Thank you!

(Showrunner would be the term used here, as a roomful of writers have to write according to the showrunner, directors have to direct based on the script they’re given, and there’s usually a different director for every episode. Showrunners often like to direct the first and last episode of every season, also.)

I think I would try to stay true to the first season as much as possible and then take things in a different direction from there. Season 1 was so very special and I want to honor that, to bring the show back to its roots in a rustic Storybrooke and a minimalistic Enchanted Forest, in a storyline that focused on character development and their relationships with each other in both the past and the present. As much as I adore Disney stories, there are a lot of crossovers from the rest of the show that I would cut out. Too many characters made the ensemble too wide, and we lost so many crucial moments for characters to grow and evolve and interact with each other, all for a few cheesy Frozen cameos and too many AU versions of the same character. When shows gain popularity and bigger budgets, it’s so easy to forget what’s important in favor of using more special effects and CGI and big fancy sets, and I think that’s where OUAT started going downhill. They got popular, received more funding, and started focusing on trying to please every single outspoken fan screaming for certain characters or ships or cameos... and they lost sight of their own story. Fans are vital to a show, yes, but most of them don’t know how to craft good stories for television. They aren’t professional storytellers for a reason, and they all want different things. Trying to implement everything they want in your story is a recipe for complete disaster.

I would try to keep a lot of the main cast, but there would for sure be some recasts to remove actors who have made homophobic jokes or have encouraged toxic behavior in their fans, as my version of a remake would definitely be SwanQueen endgame. That being said, I think I would keep a lot of the H00d/H00k stuff as important plot points, highlighting the unhealthy nature of their relationships so that in the end, Emma and Regina would come full circle and realize they’re perfect for each other. I don’t think I would have needed to change much about H00k’s progression, except this time around, Emma would actually be aware of his toxic behaviors, call him out on it, and eventually cut him out of her life because she realizes he’s bad for her. H00d would likewise be treated similarly, except Regina would kick him out of town the moment he tried to sleep with her while his wife was in a coma in the next room. (Marian wouldn’t be Zelena in disguise. There’s too much rapey context there for what was supposed to be a Disney show. Marian would awaken and have Roland again and she’d take over the Merry Men. I would have made Zelena her own standalone villain, sweeping into town in perhaps season 2 or 3 on a cyclone, having finally figured out how to escape Oz and get to Storybrooke to get her revenge on Regina, only to later be defeated and put through rehabilitation. The Regina/Zelena sisterly bond is too important and I think their progression from enemies to sisters should have been more thoroughly explored.)

Split Queen, as entertaining as it was, would not have made it into my version. It felt like forcing more drama into a character that had already gone through so much personal growth, and her suddenly being “afraid” of her own darker instincts and wanting to be physically separated from it seemed like absolute bull to me. Regina’s a smart woman, and that had been the dumbest decision she’d ever made. Dark Swan would have stayed in Storybrooke (bye bye, Camelot, you useless loaf of greenscreen) and would have brought out the worst in Emma regarding all her inner struggles with being abandoned and sacrificed by her parents for the “greater good.” There should have been so much more Emma/Snow/David angst that they completely missed out on, especially between Emma and Snow. The Emma/Regina relationship would have been in that I-hate-you-because-I-secretly-love-you phase around this time, H00k would turn on her and, in his obsessive hatred of any Dark One, would try to kill Emma, citing is as a “mercy” because he loves her and would rather her die than to be evil. Striking a mortal blow to Emma, he’s about to finish the job when Regina blasts him away. Emma’s fading, about to die from whatever Dark-One-killing-weapon H00k had stabbed her with, and Regina would save her with a True Love’s Kiss.

We’re all gluttons for punishment, so of course Emma will be in denial and Regina will be bitter about it. I feel like this would be an excellent chance to make H00k the villain he was always supposed to be, escaping his prison cell and fleeing Storybrooke, only to return with friends to get revenge on Emma for daring to reject him even after she was cured of being the Dark One. This would be a fun point to bring in a cameo or two of villains to join H00k and terrorize the town with a new curse. As our heroes deal with this new headache, Emma and Regina are forced to work together. Henry would encourage them to talk, and with his optimism, they slowly find their way back to their friendship and more.

I don’t know that Hyperion Heights would have happened in my version. It was an entertaining reboot in a fresh location and I loved adult Henry, Ivy, Jacinda and Sabine. But again, the convoluted storyline and cheating and rape and weird pervy moments kind of sour the whole season for me. I would have gotten rid of a LOT of the realm jumping throughout the seasons, focused on a lot of character backstory and relationships in Storybrooke, and then perhaps have made a single curse (much like the first curse) that simply dropped all our beloved characters in a new world somewhat like Hyperion Heights, except without the confusing time jumps and new/AU characters. It would have been the last big hurdle for the heroes to solve before returning home, now with the ability to portal-jump to the Enchanted Forest to visit their medieval friends. And of course, Emma and Regina would be the power couple overseeing it all, making sure to keep their worlds safe and protected for many decades to come.

I’m rambling at this point, but yeah, as a gay woman of color who already works in the TV and film industry, that’s my pipe dream of how I would remake OUAT. Hope that answers your question. :)

61 notes · View notes

arcanelucario · 5 years

Text

I’ve said it before (not on here, mind you) and I’ll say it again, Into The Spider-Verse is not the best Spider-Man film.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it and think it deserves a lot of praise, but at the same time it is massively over-hyped/rated. And the same goes for the Raimi trilogy, especially Spider-Man 2.

Into The Spider-Verse is probably ranked 3rd or 4th in my listing of the Spider-Man films, and that’s where it belongs. For me, the best Spider-Man films are Homecoming and Far From Home, though I’m undecided on which gets the top spot. Homecoming is a funner movie, but I think Far From Home might be a better Spider-Man movie, though only by a bit. Then again I’ve only seen Far From Home once so maybe I need to see it again.

I’ve seen so many people riding the metaphorical dicks of Spider-Man 2 and Into The Spider-Verse when they shouldn’t be. And I’ve seen so many people say that with the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that it’s good Disney/Marvel no longer have Spider-Man and that Sony own the sole rights. Hell, just a few minutes before writing this post I saw someone talking about seeing a Spider-Man movie not connected to the MCU that has no connection to Tony Stark or the Avengers or Happy or anything else from the MCU. Those movies already exist, they’re the Raimi films, the Amazing Spider-Man films and Into The Spider-Verse, and they’re nothing compared to Spider-Man’s involvement in the MCU.

The MCU Spider-Man films are nothing like those other sets of films, and that’s a good thing. They’re telling a new story, a whole new world and reason for Spider-Man being a thing. There’s new villains, new takes on characters, new places to go, but for some reason you people don’t want this. The previous films never told us anything about Spidey joining the Avengers or meeting Tony Stark despite those being things from the comics, but now we get to see these things be adapted, these new an unique stories come to life. But no, you people don’t want that, you don’t want Spider-Man to be part of a bigger and shared universe. You want Spider-Man to be it’s own thing and probably want a rehash of Spider-Man 3. Well guess what? It’s not happening. The Venom symbiote already bonded with Eddie Brock in a mediocre film that could have been much better that you for some reason want to share a universe with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man even though that would be laughably bad.

Looking back at all the Spider-Man films, they all are great, but they just aren’t the MCU ones. The Raimi films (in my opinion the worst of the bunch) were the first time we saw a proper live action adaptation of Spider-Man, making them extremely memorable and that’s probably the main reason why they’re loved so much. We got to experience everyone’s favourite web slinger, we saw memorable and well done villains (Green Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Doc Oc), we saw Uncle Ben’s death and we got a pretty good Spider-Man. But we also saw actors way too old looking for their characters, a Spider-Man with natural webs, awkward and sappy acting, a terrible love triangle, weird dancing on the street and in a club, weird facial expressions and whatever the fuck that 2nd Green Goblin was, among other things.

Then there’s the Amazing Spider-Man films (the second worst of the bunch), which I preferred to the Raimi films. We got a more believable Peter Parker, we got a Spider-Man with webs he built himself, we got a believable and cute relationship, we got some good villains (Lizard and Electro), we got a side plot involving Peters parents (which I honestly loved) and we got heart in the films. But sure, there’s also the Green Goblin (this version was kinda bad), sometimes it gets a bit sappy, the ending of 2 was kinda weird, the series was cancelled before we could see a third film, we got another Uncle Ben death and there’s probably more things I’m forgetting. Nonetheless, these films were still better than the Raimi ones.

Then there’s Into The Spider-Verse, a film which you people seem to have decided is definitively the best Spider-Man film. Sure, opinions are opinions, they’re subjective and different people have different tastes, but I keep on seeing people talk about it like as if Spider-Verse being the best film is a concrete fact, even though it’s not. Sure it had a lot of good. We finally got to see all these different versions of Spider-Man, we had an alright plot, we got things that would be much harder/impossible to see in live action and we just had a fun film. But we also had a absolute unit of a Kingpin which was fucking weird, a genderbent and weird af Doc Oc, a plot that despite me saying was alright still came out of nowhere (and yet you all act like it was perfectly normal and natural) and stuff that went on for too long. This films definitely does deserve praise, especially for the hard work the animators had to put in, but just because it had this hard work doesn’t mean it’s the best.

And finally, there’s the best of the bunch, the MCU films. We finally got an accurately aged Spider-Man. We got a realistic Spider-Man. We got the most accurate representation of Spider-Man out of any of the movies. We got natural romance, we got Peter actually having friends, we got new villains, we got Spidey, a Marvel character, interacting with Iron Man and Captain America (among others), also Marvel characters. And we didn’t even have to sit through another crummy Uncle Ben death or scene of Spidey gaining his powers. After all these years, all these attempts, we finally got a top notch Spider-Man, one we are extremely lucky to have. Sure, I have seen complaints about these films, such as a new version of Flash (though actually I fucking love this version), or so far Peter relying a lot on Tony Stark. But guess what? Peter is god damn teenager. He’s still coming into his own, he needs to have people to rely on. The other live action Spidey’s have been independent, so now it’s time we see him actually learn, and actually be the kid he is, be the Spider-Man he’s always meant to be.

If Sony and Disney don’t come to some sort of an agreement, then everything this Spider-Man is will be ruined. All that character development, all those relationships. Gone, reduced to ashes. He won’t be the Spider-Man we’ve known since Civil War, he’ll be someone completely different, to the point that you might as well recast him. This won’t be Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, this won’t be Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, this won’t be animated Spider-Man and this won’t be Tom Holland’s. It’ll be someone completely different, in a universe where sure, new stories can be told, but they won’t be as good. Currently Spider-Man is already an established part of the MCU, and he was supposed to be very important going forward, but you people want it gone. You want a whole series of 23 films to be ruined so you can fantasize about Spidey getting pegged by Venom because you don’t like seeing something new that makes sense.

So sure, go ahead and jerk off to your shitty opinion that Into The Spider-Verse is the best Spidey film, but keep in mind that you’re wrong. Keep in mind that you’ll never see something as great as the MCU and their Spider-Man.

And yes I know that in terms of the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that Disney are the ones mostly in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean that Sony makes good Spider-Man films and can make a good one going forward. That’s what Marvel Studios does, that’s what Kevin Feige does.

5 notes · View notes

theonceoverthinker · 5 years

Text

Endgame Thoughts!

Spoilers under the cut!

SPOILERS COMING

IN CASE YOU DIDN’T READ THE FIRST FEW WARNING, SPOILERS COMING!

...I know I already did a cut, but I wanted to protect anyone who clicked it absentmindedly.

Because I love you guys!

ANYWAY!

-TONYYYYY! He’s my favorite MCU character and I’m so sad he’s gone, but DAMN did he go out in a blaze of glory! “And I am Iron Man.” Talk about a full circle! And his death scene...JEEZ!!! I CAN’T! HIS BITS WITH PETER AND PEPPER...I CAN’T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW I FEEL!!! And I loved his final holographic message! It allowed for Tony to have an incredible final monologue in a really fitting character way. And it was specific to his family, but also not out of place as it played over everyone else’s reunions!

-I adored the pan through of everyone at the funeral. Tony and the team have grown so much and so close and seeing them come together to mourn and celebrate Tony was one of the film’s most beautiful moments.

-I love the five year time skip. Or rather, it broke my heart, but I love how that actually allowed there to be a real tangible impact on the world post-Thanos’ snap that can’t be taken back. The world fell into chaos, families were torn apart and had to rebuild, some people went off the deep end. And it also had a benefit that in a way, gave this aspect of the timeline emotional stakes: Morgan!

-This isn’t bad, per se, but I was kind of laughing during Clint and Natasha’s race to death. It was like a Looney Tunes cartoon! XD Don’t get me wrong, once Nat was falling, I was emotionally aligned with the scene and all, but the buildup was kind of funny in how they used every gadget possible to make it off the ledge! Even their jump faces were funny! XD I’M SORRY BUT SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT!!!

-Tony and Nebula’s friendship was something I didn’t know i needed, but now I just want an entire TV series of them becoming friends. That finger football scene was so cuuuuuteee! Both of these guys need more fun in their lives! Also, “You won.” I cosign everyone else who pointed out how amazing that was! I NEED more Nebula in my life!

-Captain Marvel had me cheering EVERY time she was on screen! First, she saved my babies Tony and Nebula. THEN, she kicks the holy crap out of Thanos! And THEN she shows up for the final battle as she draws away enemy fire and glows like a goddess! And the entire time, she’s clearly showing how she’s the best and just...everyone goes with it!

-Morgan Stark is adorable and I hope we get to see more of her! Maybe she and Pepper can show up in the next Spiderman movie. Like, they meet up so they can grieve together and since Tony cared for Peter like a son, Pepper will invite him into their family. But yeah, I love her 2000 (Because Tony will always love her more)!

-And SPEAKING of Spiderman, Peter Parker is such a sweetie! He’s so polite and kind and I’m so happy Tony hugged him because SOMEONE had to! He must be protected at all costs and I’m glad he’s got his friend to support him! But he is going to have the WORST Father’s Day ever. Poor kid!

-It doesn’t look like we’re getting a Loki resurrection, but I did appreciate how many times he appeared in this movie. Tom Hiddleston is just a really expressive actor, and I’m gonna miss him so much!

-I had a feeling Cap might decide to stay in the past. And it was a really nice send off of the character. So I didn’t see the first two Captain America films, but the full on Avengers films have done a good job establishing who he is so I more or less felt the impact of his relationship with Peggy! I also hope old Cap shows up to give wisdom to some of our modern heroes every now and then. They basically recast him so depending on the new (old) guy’s contract, we might see him again.

-I was surprised that the Falcon was chosen to yield the shield, but honestly, pretty happy! He can fly AND has a vibranium shield filled to the brim with awesome sauce! That’s gonna be so fun to see in battle!

-CAP CAN YIELD THE HAMMER! Btw, where IS the hammer? Cap had it when he left to go to the past. Is it just chilling in his house? I wanna see someone else lift it! LET’S MAKE THAT A PLOT POINT IN THE NEXT FALCON MOVIE!!!!

-I wish Okoye had more to do. Even if she wasn’t going to the past, maybe there could’ve been something more she could do on the sides to help out with.

-Scott’s reunion with his daughter off all things had me SOBBING! I think that’s partially the case because I saw Ant Man and the Wasp maybe two weeks before seeing this.

-So, is past Gamora gone? We didn’t see her fade away, but given how she wasn’t at the funeral nor on the ship, it seems like it. I feel like that’s a deleted scene, and probably shouldn’t have been. BUT it also looks like Peter’s searching for her, so you never know. This might be what happens in Guardians 3! I’ll be honest, I was expecting the Guardians to throw the Soul Stone back into the pit and for Gamora to be able to come back up, but that doesn’t seem to be happening at all.

-Also, Thor’s a Guardian of the Galaxy (Or rather, an ASGUARDIAN of the Galaxy) now? Guardians 3 is gonna be interesting. And I love that Nebula’s now an official part of the team. I’m honestly excited to see her dynamics with Rocket (since they were basically besties for five years) and Quill (They are gonna be FUNNY as all hell!)!

-I like how Iron Man, a character often shown to be selfish, ended the series doing about the most selfless thing you can do and Captain America, whose very presence in this era is characterized by a selfless act, allowed himself to do something that was in a way, a bit selfish. That was a great end to their respective character arcs!

-I’m not sure how I feel about the Hulk at the moment. Or Thor. I’m gonna need a bit more time to search my feelings for those.

-I love how the last Avengers film barely had any Scott or Hawkeye and this film had ALL of the Scott and Hawkeye! XD

-The “Come and Get Your Love,” “America’s Ass,” and “Heil Hydra” jokes had me and my theatre in STITCHES!

-THE LADIES OF MARVEL SHOT IS ALL I NEED IN THIS WORLD!!! <3 I can die a happy lady! But seriously, I want that as my social media EVERYTHING! I may be theONCEoverthinker, but hey -- change is good, am I right?

-Small detail, but I’m pretty sure that we had an outwardly gay couple mentioned during the support group scene! I hope we see that more overtly and with a more prominent character *cough* CAROL DANVERS *cough* going forward, but it was a nice moment.

-I appreciate that the only reason why we didn’t get more Carol in this movie was because she was being a hero on other planets!

-THAT SAID, I wish we saw Carol and Fury talk! It’s been so long since they’ve seen each other! You’d think she’d at least ask how Goose has been doing, am I right?

...I feel like I’m eventually gonna have more to add to this, but for right now, that’s the bulk of my thoughts after a night’s worth of reflections. XD

9 notes · View notes