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georgefairbrother · 9 months

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On 18th September 1972, BBC News reported that the first 193 Ugandan refugees, fleeing persecution by the country’s military dictatorship, had arrived at Stansted Airport, Essex. Over half of the arrivals had British passports, and housing and immediate needs would be overseen by the Ugandan Resettlement Board.

Uganda’s Asian community, numbering around 55 000, many of whom ran family businesses and small enterprise, were ordered in August 1972 to leave the country within 90 days by President Idi Amin. Amin had publicly denounced Ugandan Asians as ‘bloodsuckers’, threatening that any who had not left by the arbitrary deadline of November 8th would be interned in military detention camps.

Many of the initial flight of refugees had endured frightening experiences prior to their departure from Uganda, at the hands of Amin’s troops. "On the way to the airport the coach was stopped by troops seven times, and we were all held at gun point," one refugee told reporters. Another stated that he had been robbed of personal valuables and Ugandan currency on the way to Entebbe airport.

News reports at the time cited some opposition within the UK over the acceptance of the Ugandan Asians. The Leicester local authority mounted a newspaper campaign urging refugees not to come to their region seeking jobs and housing. The BBC asserted that, in hindsight, the resettlement programme was seen as ‘a success story for British Immigration’.

The loss of the hardworking and successful Ugandan Asian community devastated Uganda’s agriculture, manufacturing and commerce. Idi Amin was deposed in 1979 and died in Jeddah in 2003, having been responsible for the deaths of as many as 300 000 Ugandan civilians during his reign of terror as President. In 1991, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni invited the expelled community to return home to help rebuild the economy.

The Wilson Labour government also had to grapple with a refugee crisis from a former African colony.

In February 1968, BBC news reported;

"…Another 96 Indians and Pakistanis from Kenya have arrived in Britain, the latest in a growing exodus of Kenyan Asians fleeing from laws which prevent them making a living…"

Many Asian people living in Kenya had not taken up Kenyan citizenship following the country’s independence from Britain in 1963, but possessed British passports. Under Kenya’s Africanisation policy, non-citizens required work permits, and were being removed from employment in favour of Kenyan nationals. There was growing public demand for laws to prevent non-citizens from owning businesses or even operating as street and market traders. As a result, British passport holders were leaving Kenya at the rate of 1000 per month, leaving a huge deficit in skills and experience within the business community and civil service.

Fearing a backlash over the large numbers of Asian immigrants, Home Secretary, and future Prime Minister, James Callaghan, rushed through the Commonwealth Immigration Act, which made it a requirement that prospective immigrants must have a 'close connection' with Britain.

This led to disagreement in Cabinet, with Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, George Thomson (1921-2008) arguing;

"…To pass such legislation would be wrong in principle, clearly discrimination on the grounds of colour, and contrary to everything we stand for…"

In 1971, the Heath government made further legislative changes that would mean that (some) immigrants from Commonwealth countries would be treated no more favourably than those from the rest of the world, and that tightened restrictions on those who stayed by linking work permits to a specific job and location, requiring registration with police, and reapplication to stay in Britain each 12 months.

The Patrial Right of Abode lifted all restrictions on those immigrants with a direct ancestral connection with Britain.

Home Secretary Reginald Maudling (later famous for being smacked in the face by Irish MP Bernadette Devlin, and for having to resign over a corruption scandal linked with disgraced property developer John Poulson) denied that this was, in effect, a 'colour bar', telling the BBC;

"…Of course they are more likely to be white because we have on the whole more whites than coloureds in this country, but there is no colour bar involved…"

Unsurprisingly, not everyone was convinced.

Vishna Sharma, Executive Secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, described the bill to BBC News as, "basically racially discriminatory, repressive and divisive," and added, "It will create divisions amongst the Commonwealth citizens already living in this country on patrial and non-patrial basis. It will create day-to-day bureaucracy and interference on people living in this country. It will create more hardship for people wanting to enter into this country."

(Source; BBC reporting and history.com. Photo Credits; BBC News)

#social history #uk politics #working class history #social justice #uk government #human rights #uk history #british culture #society #history #race relations #immigration

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celinamarniss · 5 months

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Year in Review

In 2023 I posted 4 fics at 58,153 words.

Previous years:

2022: 4 fics at 45,096 words.

2021: 3 fics posted, 55,788 words.

2020: 7 or 10 fics posted, 125,738 words.

2019: 7 fics posted, 72,149 words.

2018: 7 fics posted, 87,752 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,643 words

2017: 9 fics posted, 115,336 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,653 words

In total, 49 fics posted to Ao3.

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

34,355 words, gen, Din/Luke/Mara

The Din/Luke/Mara fic I told myself I wasn't going to write! As these things tend to do, it expanded into a much longer fic than I expected. The "five things (plus one)" structure helped to keep it from spiraling even further, but those individual chapters ended up being much longer than I expected and took much longer to write. At first, I serialized the first couple of chapters in smaller excerpts for WIP Weds on tumblr. It was fun to get a little feedback and the weekly deadline compelled me to write those chapters quickly. But when engagement dropped to basically nothing I stopped posting updates and waited to post each chapter to ao3 when it was done. My progress slowed down considerably, but the chapters got longer. I had fun, most of the time.

The Girl Who Traveled the Ways Between the Walls

4,938 words, gen, Animalis verse

Written for the 5k AU fic challenge. Luminous Creatures begins with Mara and Luke's daemons settling, and I regretted never writing a story with an unsettled daemon character. I wanted to write a fic with a fairy-tale vibe and I wanted to explore the weirdness of the Imperial Palace. The Palace becomes a fairy tale wood, and Mara sets off on a quest in which she encounters strange people who aid her or demand aid. Does she learn the right lesson in the end? Perhaps not.

Echo, Revenant, Targeter, Phoenix

15,431 words, gen, Winter Retrac character study

I wrote this one for the Star Wars Big Bang, an experience that ended up being so stressful that I dropped out. I still finished the fic on time and posted it. The fic attracted a modest number of readers (unsurprising given Winter has been basically forgotten these days), but their enthusiasm was very gratifying. I've always liked Winter and I wanted to give her a chance to shine.

However, while I love the worldbuilding and individual scenes and images in this fic, as a whole I don't think it's very gracefully written and I've never been very happy with it.

Cascade

3,429 words, mature, Luke/Mara

I wanted to include A Non-Zero-Sum Game in Vol II of my printed fic collection, but the series felt unfinished without the fourth and final story that I planned to write after Tether. So five years later, I finally wrote it. It was interesting to go back to those old fics and try to write a story that fit the series. I wanted to post it before the new year broke so that I could count it in the 2023 list, and I rushed to get it out. It could probably still use some work.

As the year went on, I failed to meet a lot of the arbitrary deadlines I set myself, and that made writing frustrating and unfulfilling. I don't want it to be like that! I want fic to be fun.

However, I have a lot of non-fandom projects coming up in 2024, and I'm going to have to shift my focus away from fic, at least a little bit.

GOALS FOR 2024

(almost exactly the same as the goals for 2023)

Triumvirate Finale! (explicit, very) The big finale of the Triumvirate series, in which the trio returns to Coruscant to face the Emperor. Doesn’t have a proper title yet. Progress so far: three chapters drafted, 15,410 words.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion (gen) The sequel to The Things You Find on Tatooine. Progress: the first chapter finished, 2,241 words.

Lando Calrissian and the Jewel of Andara (gen) The Lando and Mara heist romcom I’ve been promising forever. Progress: three chapters drafted, but in need of heavy revision, 6757 words.

Other fics on the backburner:

Courtship remix

Experiments

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

More daemon fic!

#year in review #writing #process #my stuff #my fic #all my gratitude to everyone who read my fic‚ commented‚ and cheered me along

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jamesblackshaw · 5 months

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New Album Delay

Dear all,

I just wanted to give an update on where I’m at with the new album and say a few words before the end of the year.

With the deadline I gave myself fast approaching, it’s becoming apparent to me that I’m not going to be able to finish the record in time, at least not in a state that I’m completely happy with.

While I’m very pleased with the significant amount of work I’ve done so far and can’t wait for you all to hear it, I confess progress has been slower than I would have liked, with the last couple of months proving particularly tough to spend time on the album due to other work and life commitments. To rush things out at this late stage, especially after being absent for some time, feels wrong so I’m asking that you please bear with me just a little bit longer.

The new deadline for the release of the album will now be April 13th, 2024. The date itself might seem a bit arbitrary but it will mark nine years exactly since the release of my last record and I’m confident it will give me more than enough time to finish things up.

I’m sincerely sorry for disappointing everybody who pre-ordered the album and were looking forward to listening this year, but I assure you it’s not far off completion and I truly hope it will be worth the wait.

I also just wanted to say a massive thank you to all those people and to anyone who took the time to write me a kind message or say hello to me at a show. Your support in making this album and in general has meant so much to me and I feel incredibly grateful to be back in this space again after such a long time not knowing if I would or whether people would actually care.

I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and well and happy. There’ll be more soon but in the meantime, all my best wishes and thanks for taking the time to read this.

James Blackshaw, 13/12/23

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silcoitus · 6 months

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TMSA 26-27 Delay

I hate making this type of post, but I also know that it's better to miss a self-imposed arbitrary deadline than to share a chapter that I'm not proud of.

I had said before that I aimed to get chapters 26 and 27 posted at the end of November and December respectively. I will likely be missing those deadlines. I had finished writing 26, but through the course of writing 27, there are some things that need to be completely rewritten in 26. I'm struggling with certain scenes/resolutions and I'm realizing it's because the pacing wasn't right and therefore the characters' actions felt rushed and unnatural. I want to get this right the first time. I don't want to have to rewrite this story after it's been shared. (Not that there's anything wrong with it; I just personally don't want to.)

So, in the interest of giving myself some breathing room, I'm not setting a release date for these last chapters. While setting the deadline was beneficial a few months ago because it helped me focus, it's now detrimental because it's making me rush through the end for the sake of meeting it.

Yes, I know, perfection is the enemy of good. But I also don't want to give you a BAD ending. And it's not like I have stock holders breathing down my neck to get this shipped out like some AAA video game.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Thanks for being wonderful readers. Thanks for staying with me during my most ambitious writing project ever. And special thanks to @purplefangirl42 and @ink-and-dagger for putting up with my DMs where I spew all manner of imposter syndrome and doubt. Send me your invoices so I can pay you back for the therapy lol I can pay you in Silco gifs and smut drabbles.

#silcoitus #silcoitus update #silcoitus rambles #tmsa #the mad scientist's assistant

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britishassistant · 2 years

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Poor Yuuya, he’s an easy target for anyone to pick on. I imagine Yuu or Yuuken standing up for him when the boss’s boss is to harsh on him and helping him bulid more confidence in his abilities.

Thank you for the ask, dear anon!

“Kuroki!”

Yuuya can’t help startling at the sound of that voice.

Oh please, what does he think he’s done wrong now, please let it be a little thing, please let it be over with quickly—

“Where are your talking points for the report on Leviathan?!” The man thunders, face so dark a red it’s practically purple. “I told you to have them on my desk two hours ago!!”

No he hadn’t. But if Yuuya points that out, or the fact that even if he tried his best to compile his findings the man will scold him for somehow not being able to read the supervillain’s mind, it’ll just lead to more screaming, and Yuuya potentially losing his job.

Better to keep his head down, keep apologizing.

“Y-yes, I, I’m sorry, sir, sorry—”

“Sorry doesn’t finish reports, Kuroki!” The man bellows, a vein throbbing. “I swear, I’m beginning to wonder if you’re serious about wanting to keep this position—!”

“Sir.”

Yuuken is big, looms over Yuuya and their boss’s boss easily. It’s sorta intimidating at times, even when Enma doesn’t mean to. Right now though, Yuuya somehow feels a little safer than he did a moment ago.

“W-what is it, Enma?!” The man’s stutter is audible and from the way his lip curls, he hates that it is. “Can’t you see I’m busy?!”

“Just wanted to check that Yuuya was ready for the Gracey-Asim engagement interview.” Yuuken says, face practically a stone wall. “You’ve assigned it to us on the roster, for 4pm?”

Yuuya feels a rush of hope go through him. If their boss gets distracted berating them about what to and not to do on this new assignment, he’ll probably forget entirely about the arbitrary deadline he “forgot” to notify Yuuya for the Leviathan report. Nice one, Yuuken!

“That can wait, Enma!” The two of them share a grimace as the tyrant that runs their news station blusters on. “It’s a fluff piece about the youngest of the Graceys and the eldest branch Asim finding ‘twue wuv’, our viewers aren’t going to care about it beyond a good gossip! I assigned you and Kuroki to this purely because neither of you have a record of causing incidents with our more distinguished guests, unlike Radcliffe. But if Kuroki can’t even hand in a simple report on the actions of a notorious supervillain which actually affects people’s insipid little lives, then maybe he’s not fit for—!!”

“Ah—excuse me, sorry!” Yuu pokes their head in, a wide customer-service smile on their lips, waving a sheaf of papers above their head. “The Leviathan report, right? I accidentally picked it up earlier when I was grabbing the notes Yuuya helped me with for the Champion follow-up. I’m sorry for the confusion, it’s my fault.”

Their boss’s boss snatches the papers offered. The papers that seem to have a much higher page count than what Yuuya’s currently got on his computer.

“Hmph.” The man shoots a disgusted glare between the two of them. “Don’t let this happen again, Radcliffe. You’re causing enough problems for the station as it is.”

And with that, he dumps the papers on the desk, turns, and strides out without a backwards word of apology to Yuuya.

The three of them all deflate in unison once he’s out of the room, shooting small, tired grins at each other.

“Wait a minute,” Yuuya pulls the report towards him, flipping through it to check he’s not going crazy. “Sorry, Yuu, but what…?”

The report has at least seven extra pages stapled to its original length, somehow detailing a new plan Leviathan’s got in the works about infiltrating the beauty industry using eel slime…?

“Poison Queen enjoys talking about new skincare routines he’s discovered, if you can get him onto the topic,” Yuu shrugs in reply to his questioning stare, as if this is totally unremarkable information that anyone could get if they wanted. “And Azul can never resist bragging if he thinks he’s getting away with something.”

They rub the back of their neck with a sigh. “Honestly, I’m just glad you set the document to be open for editing—I don’t know what I would’ve done if not. I still owe Tsunotaro from the last emergency kidnapping, and I don’t have enough tuna to bribe Grim, so.”

“…You’re kinda scary sometimes, Radcliffe.” Is all Yuuya can say to that.

Yuu sputters. “Wh—hey! How, how am I scary?!”

“Listen to what you just said.” Yuuken advises. “Then ask the question again.”

Yuu’s mouth opens for a beat, a finger raised in rebuttal.

They slowly close it again.

“Okay, you know what, fair.” They lean against Yuuya’s desk. “So you stealing my cameraman from me to go interview Jawad al-Asim and…Leota Gracey?”

“Megami Gracey.” He corrects on autopilot. “Do you remember, the half-sister they found living downtown after her mom died, maybe, ten years back? There was some scandal about the mom’s involvement in some criminal activity that influenced the original custody ruling. Ken Gracey made a huge deal about ‘bringing his rightful daughter home’, nobody was talking about anything else for weeks.”

Yuu and Yuuken stare blankly at him.

“O-or not?” Yuuya ventures nervously. “Have you…didn’t you guys hear about this when you were kids too?”

“First I’ve heard of it.” Yuuken shrugs.

“Yeah, me too. But I did grow up out in the sticks, so.” Yuu seesaws a hand back and forth, before their face grows solemn. “But that doesn’t answer my question, Kuroki.”

“H-huh??”

Yuu looms over him, hands splayed flat on the desk as they stare him dead in the eye.

“What are your intentions towards my cameraman?”

…what.

“What?”

“He’s obviously going to besmirch my honor, Yuu.” Yuuken deadpans, only a small twitch by his mouth betraying his amusement. “Ravish me senseless. I’ll never be fit for marriage after he’s done with me.”

“How could you, Yuuya?! Yuuken’s so innocent!” Yuu splays themself against him, one hand dramatically thrown over their forehead. “Will no one be spared your wicked wiles?!”

Yuuya can feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “Wh—ho—we—I’m not—!! Enma! We’re going to be late for our interview!”

Yuuken doesn’t even bother to hide his chuckling as he helps Yuuya gather his notes and follows him out of the office, the jerk. “Lead on, Yuuya.”

“Have him home by eight, Kuroki!” Yuu calls after him, because they’re the worst. “I’ll know if you stop for any canoodling!”

Yuuya sticks his tongue out at them over his shoulder, which just cracks them up more. Why, oh why, do all his coworkers have to be so crazy?! His boss is normal, but so far she’s the only one! Wait, does that mean he’s somehow weird too?!

Still, he sighs, as he makes a few last minute notes in the passenger seat while Yuuken loads up the gear they’ll need in the company van and straps himself into the driver’s seat. At least it’s a simple, uncomplicated, un-supervillain-related assignment. The chances of things going off the rails are at an all time low, even for him.

Yuuya rallies. Interviewing a rich girl about her upcoming engagement. What could go wrong?

#twisted wonderland #twst #supervillain au #twst yuuya #kuroki yuuya #twst yuu #twisted wonderland yuu #enma yuuken #twst yuuken #yuu and yuuken are a force of nature when they tease #megami gracey #we need to find a name for the boss’s boss #it was hard referring to him in text without one

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frettchanstudios · 1 year

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It has already been a year since the unveiling of the mural I designed titled "Connections", located in the French Quarter of New Orleans (you'll have to go back to read about it). It was a monumental moment in my life and career and I look back on it still blown away that I had that opportunity. On the same day I ate oysters for the first time and I haven't had a good oyster since. Before I left, Consul General of Canada, Dr. Rachel McCormick suggested that maybe one day I could create a piece inspired by my experience. I am about 90% done this painting (I've made it blurry on purpose to maintain some sort of wonder). This project has made me take a step back and realize how much I love to add intricate details to my work. Often by the time I get to do a passion project I'm just too burnt out. I haven't painted something this detailed in years and even then this has to be the most detailed piece of work that I've done. I set an arbitrary date, April 4th, to have it completed by, but I started stressing myself out for no reason other than I wanted to have it completed today, which is silly. Deadlines are great, but not everything needs to be rushed. So I decided to sit back and really see how much I could push myself to add those finer details and take more time to develop my work and I'm so pleased with how it is coming along. I cannot wait to share the final work when I'm ready to call it done. Sorry for the tease!

#New Orleans #Painting #art #Frettchan Studios #artist #Indigenous art #aligator #NOLA #swamp #flora #fauna #wild life #work in progress

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waugh-bao · 9 months

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I think one issue is the Stones are trying to treat it as simply a new album rather than a new album after a big and significant loss. And obviously no one wants an album launch to be a downer, but it seems like they would recognize that they get asked about Charlie frequently and do something to address it. It doesn't have to be an album of mournful music, but I wish they would sometimes try and be proactive rather than reactive. I know Mick isn't a 'live in the past' sort of person, but even just taking the time to talk about how it was different without Charlie and they miss him and are excited for people to hear him on those two songs would go a long way. Make it as positive as possible. Instead it is like 'answer one question about Charlie and then they just rush on to talk about Steve.' At the same time, typing that out makes me feel like I'm saying they need to demonstrate their grief more and I don't mean that...but maybe there is a tiny part of me that does want that, to know that they really do miss him even though I know they did love him? Its complicated I guess.

Its different now. Its not going to be the Beggar's Banquet launch or even the Bigger Bang launch. They are in a different place. Mick is 80. Maybe they don't want to talk about age and that but they can't act as if everything is still just great and everything is like it has always been. The fact that they are talking about their collaborators and guest artists...I don't think the old Stones would do that. They were enough, they don't need other headliners.

Obviously we are looking at things through a definite Charlie slant because he's our guy. But I think all Stones fans know the band is different now. I don't need everything to be 100% Charlie-centric but there has to be something beyond "oh yeah that guy who was our foundation for 60 years is gone now but oh well, moving on" I really, really hate to think of them doing it again if something happened to Ronnie. Would Mick do it if something happened to Keith?

I think as much as, or more, than wanting a ‘demonstration of grief’, it’s a matter of respect. They spent 60 years working so hard to make the world see what an amazing drummer and wonderful human being Charlie was, made a point to have him as the centerpiece of the No Filter and 60th Anniversary Tour shows, and always do something for his birthday, death date, etc. (What’s been said in interviews has been a little less consistently great since he passed, but they’re human, and obviously there are a lot of complicated emotions to work through, including anger). Now it just feels as though they’ve entirely dropped the ball, or are even trying to shove any mention of his aside, like he’s some ‘disloyal’ band member who quit instead of a person who loved them but had no choice in leaving.

Oh, totally. They know, though they would never admit it, that a Stones album with a ton of collaborators and guest/fill-in artists is almost never a great Stones album. Dirty Work (1986) is the archetypal example of that. And I think you’re right, a lot of what makes this feel so discomforting is that they’re treating it like every other album launch, when the unspoken assumption underlying it is that this is the last album launch. They don’t have 18 more years to fool around. Like the bit in the press conference where Fallon asked them how fast the album was done, Ronnie said “very”, and Mick explained that they’d been “lazy” about it up to a point, but for reasons he couldn’t remember, suddenly decided to set themselves a deadline to finish. Everyone knows that’s BS and that some arbitrary deadline wasn’t what kicked them in the ass to get this done, nor does it give a sufficient response for why everything recorded before 2019 was binned.

It’s a bad look, and I think even more eyebrows would be raised if they replaced Ronnie too. As far as Mick and Keith, I wish I could say I knew 100% he wouldn’t make that choice, but I don’t. You’d like to hope Mick has the humanity, or the common sense, to see how bad that would be/look, but with the right record exec in his ear and the promise that he wouldn’t have to retire, I wouldn’t entirely rule it out. And if they do stop if Ronnie or Keith is unable to go on, the lovely implication of such a choice is that Charlie wasn’t worth stopping for, but one of them is. They opened up a Pandora’s box continuing on as they did after No Filter.

#charlie watts #ask response #anonymous

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coldgoldlazarus · 3 years

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Impromptu Discussion Of RWBY'S Themes

(This was supposed to be way smaller and less rambly, but I kinda went crazy instead so now this is a whole thing.) If you haven't seen Volume 8 yet for some reason, spoilers under the cut:

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While I have lots of issues with Unicorn Of War, I do have to admit one interesting thing he pointed out was how each Volume of RWBY seems to have it's own central theme or thesis.

Volume 1: Innocence

Volume 2: Maturity

Volume 3: Trauma

Volume 4: Recovery

Volume 5: Choice

Volume 6: Responsibility

Furthermore, I don't remember if he explicitly pointed this out himself, but I find it interesting that with the first six, they can be grouped up into three sets of pairs based around contrasting themes. Volume 1's light-heartedness in introducing the cast plays off of Volume 2 drawing clear attention to the team still being kids despite their increasingly perilous lifestyle. Volume 3 puts the characters (and the audience, honestly) through a sudden and intense horrific experience, leading into Volume 4 addressing the aftermath and the need to heal and press on. While Volume 5 has RNJR somewhat limited, the plots with Raven and Blake and Illia (and even Lionheart to a lesser extent) highlight the idea of choice, while Volume 6 answers that with the importance of the responsibility that affects those choices.

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Unicorn Of War didn't really touch on this for the most recent two volumes, but they carry this idea forward in a rather interesting way, with each Volume doubling up on both a theme and it's counterpoint, examining both in equal measure and being more (thematically) self-contained as a result, even as the plot more directly flows from one to the next.

Volume 7: Trust vs. Fear

Volume 8: Agency vs. Circumstances/Consequences

Volume 7 isn't afraid to wear its thesis on its sleeve, to the point that it's literally spelled out by the opening and the finale credits songs, so I don't feel the need to elaborate on that any further, but Volume 8 is a bit more tricky to sort out since there's just so much going on all at once.

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Still, I think that with Penny and Cinder and their decisions and level of autonomy taking center stage, the horrific reveal of the Hound's nature, everyone struggling under the weight of an unprecedented and cataclysmic event, and the "flip-o-lympics" of defections happening left, right, and center, I do think it's safe to say that Volume 8 is primarily about the complicated interplay between personal agency and the limitations imposed by ones' circumstances; where one ends and the other begins.

In a way, it's almost a repeat of the Volume 5/Volume 6 duology, but it takes the idea further and increasingly puts strain on 6's hopeful conclusion that "the effort has to be made regardless of the risk," with RWBY and company forced to confront a worst-case scenario where the consequences of failure extend well past just themselves in a very immediate and painfully visceral way. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, and here it's their very ideology, their very agency and ability to make a meaningful difference, that becomes threatened and worn down.

Enough essays have been written about Penny and her struggling to retain her own agency against her enemy's suppression, her friend's well-intentioned meddling, and her own self-sacrificial habits, that I don't have much to add there. (Maybe once V9 and beyond show us how this plotline is handled going forward, I might get into some thoughts on her identity and the humanization via the staff, but while I'm cautiously optimistic I'd still prefer to hedge my bets for now.)

But similarly, Cinder's storyline shows us her attempts to reclaim her agency after falling so low, even as she remains trapped by the circumstances of her upbringing and Salem's influence that she's still in denial about and how that impacts her decisions. (And again, paralleling and continuing Volume 5's earlier, rougher explorations of choice and morality and the complicated squiggly line between external factors and personal accountability.) Hell, this is even explored a bit in Salem, when Yang calls her out on her bullshit in Witch.

Ultimately RWBY do find a way to circumvent a genocide and focus on the most important things to save, but even then it's imperfect and hasty and they still take losses that can't be undone, (though I swear to god if RT really did kill off FNKI I will be deeply upset and need to have words with them) as well as (hopefully more temporarily) paying in Penny's blood. It's the consequences of their circumstances, the lack of better options and better time to plan, all the variables they weren't even able to take into account. It's still a victory in that the majority of the citizens were saved, but with the loss of a Kingdom, (even though Atlas was deeply corrupt and frankly needed to go, that's one less safe place in the world) the loss of friends, the loss of both of the currently in-play relics, and even (for now) the loss of Team RWBY themselves. It was a combination of luck and cleverness that let them manage as well as they did, but it was still a draw at best.

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But even so, while the doom and gloom and the heart-shattering consequences was the point, there is a point. The misery isn't glorified for shock value like on some shows, (looking at you, Game Of Thrones) it's still a learning experience. Despite all the losses, they still managed to evacuate the citizenry. Even amidst everything going catastrophically wrong and Penny's agency being so smothered that she only got to choose the means of her death and who would recieve her powers as a result, there is still hope, because despite everything RWBY are still out there, and despite holding all the cards at the beginning, Salem's come out of this with just the relics, Cinder, two lieutenants in Vacuo, and not much else.

RWBY have now been through true war, and seen the consequences of their actions (whether good or bad) and the oppressive weight of the circumstances they must navigate within, and they're still out there. And while each Volume has its central focus or theme(s), there is also a lot of overlap and echo. ("It's like a poem, it rhymes.") Volume 3 explores the fragility of trust just as much as Volume 7, and 8 mirrors 2 in confronting RWBY with the darker side of the world around them and their place within a bigger picture. Cinder's story in 8 is a more refined examination of Raven's in 5, and several other characters face the same choice as Illia's. Even Volume 5's Menagerie plot answers ideas set up by Volume 1's finale. Point is, these themes aren't restricted to just one Volume, and I think it's safe to assume Volume 9 will most likely continue (to some degree) Volume 4's ideas on coping with loss and recovering from trauma, and learning from what went wrong without letting it define you. The strangely cheery tone of Friend, and the ending credits scene (starting on Ruby's damaged Crescent Rose but then moving past it to the horizon) are there to say that even after this, there is still a path to keep moving forward.

---

In the end, I feel like while RWBY has always been better than many give it credit for, (despite still being undeniably flawed) this choice to double up on the contrasting themes within a single volume starting from 6 onward* has helped make its exploration of those themes more clear, along with the duality allowing for more complex interplay between the opposing ideas, and the return to and expansion of the central focuses of earlier seasons.

*(because while it does pair with Volume 5, "she knew there really was no choice at all"; it also is very obviously focused on the duality of responsibility and action vs. apathy and inaction, making it also somewhat self-contained)

And I for one, cannot wait to see what Volume 9 will bring to the table.

#not a reblog #rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby analysis #rwby volume 8 #I can't wait for v9 #but i will anyway #because I prefer they take their time #and more importantly take care of their team #than rush it to an arbitrary deadline #and make the product and the people making it suffer #so I'm more than cool with the 2022 delay #just wanted to get that out there too #but I am very excited regardless #also nervous #because it's rwby #and pain is sure to be in plentiful supply #but still

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wickedhawtwexler · 3 years

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actually i was lying the other day when i said programming isn't my passion. i actually am very passionate about programming when i get to work on exactly what i want to work on and can drop it as soon as i lose interest

#literally writing python code on a saturday night because i have a Really Cool Idea™#i'm scraping a ton of data from ultimate guitar so i can look at chord progression patterns #idk programming can actually be so fun when you actually care about the end result and aren't just rushing to meet a deadline #(a deadline which is more often than not completely arbitrary!!!)#so yeah you know what even if capitalism came crumbling down i WOULD still write code!!!#BUT not in such a structured environment. i'd be creating and contributing to open source software #writing code to do whatever i'm interested in at the moment and working at whatever pace i want. THAT would be rad #m.txt

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mtlgrandprix · 3 years

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I'm 25 today 😱

#listen i KNOW it's just a number i really do #and that youth is overrated and people don't start decaying once they're past this age #but god it's just weird #birthdays in general always feel weird for me #like.... (at the risk of sounding incredibly pretentious) hollow if that makes any sense #and something about this number is a harsh reminder of everything i didn't accomplish that i wanted to #i finished my undergrad but with a lower GPA than i wanted #i thought i'd have finished a masters degree by now and have an important job™️ whatever that even means #but mostly i thought i'd feel more sure of who i am and where i'm going #or feel like my life is a bit more my own #i still feel like i'm waiting for instructions or to Know what i'm supposed to be doing #and yet i also feel like im constantly in a rush trying to meet some arbitrary goal or deadline and Then i can be happy #idk this is getting long #i also have a LOT to be grateful for and that's what's most important

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monster-bait · 2 years

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Ello! So I was going through amazon to see when Parties: Girls Weekend Book 2 would be release. And I notice it said March 30 2022, so it won't be release on Feb 28 ?

Alse would the kindle version and paperback would be release that same day or just the kindle version?

Hey there!

Yes, I pushed the release back a few weeks to buy some Amazon breathing room. I don't want to rush my edits, and if you've been keeping up with my publishing career so far, MGMF being a bestseller somehow landed me on Amazon's This Bitch™ List. My titles are held, my copyrights are challenged, it's generally been a *trying* experience.

I have several anthology deadlines I want to clear and I don't want Parties to be unnecessarily held up in the Amazon process, especially since it's already been delayed. I'd rather give you all the best book I can than race an arbitrary deadline set by my publisher (it's me, I'm the publisher.) If we can get the final edits accepted and pushed before the March date, it will release sooner!

Kindle and paperback will release together, and I WILL have signed copied on my Etsy storefront with book box media!

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incarnateirony · 3 years

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So here we are, The Great Supernatural Rewatch, 01.01 Pilot. If unfamiliar with this rewatch, please check my Objectives and Bracketing post [x], and then my Methodology Notes [x]; Also, reminder that I’m not the only person doing this, though each in their own ways. My Objectives and Methodology are my own.

I’m trying to get a little ahead of the official Jan 3 start date, since I know I will... inevitably fall behind, and this episode was ripe for the initial pick-through for the inevitability of a thousand call backs.

That said, with level 1. SYNCHRONIC: As it reads, unto itself, as best divorced from future knowledge of the story, it’s difficult to do much actual “meta” as much as review and commentary since literally it’s all character and story introductions. There’s some to be had, but beyond things like lighting, the Level 1 viewing tier is not going to lend towards much beyond basic archetypes, and a lot of mythology breakdown. This post will be heaving Level 2 weighted as a result. Most tier-1 posting is going to be an early build of key words, phrases and signs to assemble throughout the season watching (and tap back on later for tier 2 by tagging.)

Also a few unannounced side projects; I’m about to start a “Combat Counter” and “Marksmanship Counter”, to see how Sam and Dean handle both in physical battles/scraps over time compared to each other, and who has the better overall aim in the long term.

Some things saved in this post will seem random and arbitrary, but are potential flags I intend to keep, mostly for later level 2, DIACHRONIC study.

Now to get to the meat:

STUDY: REWATCH/REVIEW STAGE

Allow me to lead with: this episode even unto itself is a fine spectacle of just how much the genre shifted over time. I am a huge fan of David Nutter’s directing; many would know him from, say, Game of Thrones. He didn’t stay long--just Pilot and Wendigo--before moving on. But some of his touches stayed with the show for a few years. The entire ambiance is a giant testiment to survival-horror, a grimness to it, even if the CW itself could never truly capitalize on it. The mood and ambiance was successfully played on. The entire episode is rife with cloudy lighting beaming between bars and through windows, bold silhouette shots, and more that gives an air of mystery even after some characters are established. Dynamic shots are plenty.

Your early reading here isn’t going to tell you much you don’t already know, but is for filing, review, and even reminder/refresher purposes. As the season unfolds, there’s going to be more to interconnect, obviously. If you would like to read more observations on actual parallels, scroll to the DIACHRONIC STUDY header. If I’ve taken a screenshot, even in Synchronic, it’s because it’s a flag I do expect to come back up in diachronic study later and need to catalogue for future parallels and address.

So, imagining it’s 2005, we’re watching Supernatural for the first time. We’re in a very different world, Both in the show, and in the real world. A standard, haunting discord rattles the minds of the audience as a tree moves like a hand towards the window of a suburban home.

We see a classic, nuclear family in this standard home, saying their charming goodnights to an infant. But within moments, we’re told in every classic way that everything is wrong. The infant’s mobile turns on its own accord; the clock stops.

It’s 8:12pm when the world goes haywire. The decorative moon in the room flickers, growing dim. The mother wakes to the sound of a distressed infant on the baby monitor. She rises from bed in her gown.

This is a point I’m left to negotiate cursed knowledge: to all visual cues, the mother’s attire appears to be white. The audience perceived it as white. But we know it, and Jess’ gown later, was actually pink; the film stock failed to capture it. Both short term and much louder in the long term, these two colors can deliver two very different meanings. But for us, a viewer consuming a digital medium with no knowledge beyond what they published, I’m left to decide that the text seems to determine her in a white gown.

The wife sees a stark silhouette, asking if the child was hungry, assuming it was her husband that quieted her. She turns away, tapping on a flickering light over an old marriage portrait that one can only assume was a previous family generation. She descends the stairs.

Here she finds her husband is sleeping. Panic takes her, bringing her to the room. Quickly, chaos erupts. As does she, once seen bleeding down onto the hand of the father from above the crib. We see her, sunken eyes, already dying, screaming without a sound. Silent. Unable to make a noise.

The camera details the desperation of the father rushing his infant to his older child. “Take your brother outside as fast as you can, don’t look back. Now Dean, GO.”

I’m unclear what John thinks he’s going to achieve running back in for Mary as fire takes the home. But soon, he finds young Dean, 4, outside, holding an infant, “I've got you Sammy.” John erupts out of the house as the windows begin to blow, sweeping in to carry Dean, who carries Sam.

As the fire department arrives, the first cords of a song we would later come to recognize as Americana haunt through otherwise chilling music that climbs actively to punch out through our first cold open.

The Winchesters are our first cold open.

We find ourselves in modern day with the rick of a rock cord, and a young woman in a white nurse outfit adjusting her earings while framed by an image of John and Mary--the mother and father--in a picture frame. Though she calls for Sam, we see nothing of Dean--not even a picture. The image on the counter tells of a life Sam(my) was too young to even know, but perhaps is in his blonde-haired woman who teases him about halloween while standing in front of a mirror.

Sam is clearly in his young prime, celebrating his LSAT with a 174 score much to his chagrin with friends dressed up in all styles of wardrobe. Behind Sam a neon black cat sign may just jinx his future in warm but dull lighting; ghostly drapes hide behind Jess in a blue, sharper light.

Sam’s friends perceive he must be the Golden Boy of the family. Jess is proud of him. “What would I do without you?” “Crash and burn.”

Night onsets. Dim lighting feels dusty despite the otherwise hopeful environment. Heavy creaking, groaning, footsteps; Sam rises on instinct, spying an open door and catching haunting noises--sounds. An intruder. And one fateful fight. The choreography spares little.

In actual combat, the intruder--quickly identified as Dean--comes out on top. (Combat ticker: Sam vs Dean: Dean 1) Easy there, tiger. As Dean haunts, revealing his roguish personality quickly, he’s then gotten the better of (this is not going to be considered a combat ticker, it’s not actual combat, but aftermath).

Sam challenges why Dean broke in, but Dean knew Sam would have never picked up without him. They’re interrupted from their silhouetting by the light flicking on, and Dean further displays his roguish charm, enjoying her smurfs, not dreaming of her getting dressed; but soon, it’s down to business--Dean says it’s private family matters. Sam, a unit in the doorframe with Jess, says it can be said in front of her. Until the fateful line: “Dad’s on a hunting trip, and he hasn’t been home in a few days.” The camera zooms on Sam’s set jaw to tell the audience how much weight is in that line as the audio itself drags a raw cord of suspense.

The dizzying stairs are a descent into a world Sam seems to have left behind, with the audience viewing from below. Quickly, we’re introduced to ideas: the Poltergeist in Amherst, the Devil’s Gate in Clifton, “always missing and always fine.” Sam’s bitterness is thick: rather than telling him not to be afraid of the dark, “dad gave me a .45″, though Dean challenges what he should have done. They soon stand in a cage of sharply lit bars, arguing if this was what their mother would have wanted--to be raised like warriors.

Dean challenges if Sam would want a normal apple pie life; Sam slaps back: not normal, safe. “And that’s why you ran away.”--But John told him to stay gone. Regardless, Dean doesn’t want to do it alone. Sam asks what he was hunting, and why Dean wasn’t there; Dean was working a voodoo thing in New Orleans.

Dean reveals Jericho, California--10 men over to years on the same 5 mile stretch of road.

The “Ran it through A Goldwave” is a funny side comment but I’m not gonna get into why beyond LOL “through a goldwave”, that’s-- whatever. But we hear, in EVP, “I can never go home.”

The average viewer, at this point, isn’t going to be deeply instructing the story parallels--and in the scheme of it, Sam’s fear of going home barely scratches the meta surface. We do know John has been missing for three weeks. And find out Sam has a Monday deadline for his entry to lawschool, “whole future on a plate.” Jess worries over disappearing with his family, reminding of the deadline, but he promises to be back in time.

A sharp cut to JERICHO, CALIFORNIA. The driver shares similar concerns to Sam, “if I miss it, dad’s gonna have my ass,” he tells his girlfriend on the phone. A woman in white appears down the road as the car clock fries at 10:17, asking to be taken home. “Take me home?” “She lives at the end of breckenridge road.” “A girl like you shouldn’t really be alone out here.” She hikes her skirt. “I’m with you. Do you think I’m pretty? Will you come home with me?” hell yeah.

They arrive at a dillapidated home. “I can never go home.” No one even lives here. He steps out, turns around, and she’s gone. An eerie handprint appears on the window.

He decides to leave, clearly feeling the offsettling vibes, but isn’t alone. She steams with animosity in the backseat.

He looks into his mirror.

And wipes out.

After a violent death, we cut back to our boys and another exposition: credit card scams (jesus, could sam have yelled it any louder?), breakfast in a gas station bag, you gotta update your casette tape collection--why? because for one, they’re casette tapes. Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica--it’s the greatest hits of mullet rock. “House rules Sammy, Driver picks the music, rider shuts his cakehole.” “Sammy is a chubby 12 year old.” “What, can’t hear you.”

ENTER, JERICHO

Internal impala shots galore will end up being a major vibe of our next few years. A spunky guitar theme plays that we will eventually come to know. Dean pulls out a cigar box full of fake badges ranging from FBI to Bureau of Tobacco from the glove box, quickly showing us how deep this path goes for them already.

The cops review the mystery: no fingerprints, spotless; we find out that the victim was dating the cop’s daughter, who was posting missing flyers downtown. The boys introduce themselves as federal agents, are challenged for being too young, and Dean sasses his way through, “that’s very kind of you.” -- while gathering basic intel, we quickly find Dean’s tongue getting ahead of him, calling their lack of ability to find a connection beyond them all being male victims, calling it crack police work. The brothers’ dual personas exit the crime scene with a cuff upside the head from Sam to Dean, a bickering match, and Dean leaving a Mulder and Scully crack on the cops.

They quickly find Amy, the girlfriend, and lie to claim that were Troy’s relatives and had heard about her, and move to a diner to talk about events.

No major unusual things to warrant events; Sam compliments her necklace. She jokes that Troy got it for her to freak out her parents for “devil stuff”, but Sam quickly educates her on the pentagram meaning the opposite, a symbol of protection.

But there are weird rumors in town--people talk. In-sync, “what do they talk about”; a local legend. She tells them of a girl murdered on centennial where anyone who picks her up disapears forever. The brothers quickly move on to a library with a clunky monitor, fully dating us; not just the lack of good cell phones and wifi, but the equipment and the appearance of the search engine alone. Right, we’re watching this in 2005.

The brothers slapfight again, but Sam shows that even away from the life he never lost his prowess. He asks, “Angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?” and searches for suicide. 1981, 24 years prior. “Our babies were gone and Constance couldn’t bear it.”

So they go to see where Constance took the swan dive.

The brothers begin to fight.

SAM Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—

DEAN turns around.

DEAN Monday. Right. The interview.

SAM Yeah.

DEAN Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?

SAM Maybe. Why not?

DEAN Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?

SAM steps closer.

SAM No, and she's not ever going to know.

DEAN Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are.

DEAN turns around and keeps walking. SAM follows.

SAM And who's that?

DEAN You're one of us.

SAM hurries to get in front of DEAN.

SAM No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life.

DEAN You have a responsibility to—

SAM To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back.

DEAN grabs SAM by the collar and shoves him up against the railing of the bridge. A long pause.

DEAN Don't talk about her like that.

They’re interrupted as Constance appears, diving off the cliff, and immediately taking control of the Impala.

“Dude, who’s driving your car?” Dean holds up his keys.

They flee, over the bridge, and share another movement. One more fake card later, they find themselves in John’s room, room 10, in a motel. Sam remarks that the place is covered in Salt, and Cat’s Eye Shells. The entire room is covered in case work and lore.

I’ll break down the lore of these in a later mythos reblog, though the Asmodeus one really catches my eye for reasons outside of this episode.

Sam finds a photo-- a distinctly different family than the one on his college dresser. There, it’s John and Mary as an ideal image that framed Jessica. Here, it’s the life he walked away from. But while Dean heads out, he’s spotted by police, and their old coded dialect pops out, “Five Oh, take off.” Federal marshalls confront him: They’re looking for his partner (cue Wincest fans trying to make meta that’s about to be shot down one scene later, in the distance), fake US Marshalls, fake credit cards, is there anything about you that’s Real. My boobs.

Just putting a flag in the name Sheriff Pierce, we’ll figure out if that’s ever valid to anything later. But he tells Dean of the trouble he’s in with a room full of missing people and devil worship, for Dean to snap back he was 3 when they went missing. But they knew he had more than one partner. An older man. John’s journal is thrown out (Wincest meta dies a terrible death beyond previous scene)

Again, I’ll translate the FUTHARK in a follow up post, this is already taking a lot of time as it is.

Meanwhile, Sam is investigating the leads they and John both found. Previously spoken intents to burn her has him ask about her being buried at an old plot by Breckenridge at their old place.

SAM And why did you move?

JOSEPH I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died.

SAM stops walking. JOSEPH stops too.

SAM Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?

JOSEPH No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known.

SAM So you had a happy marriage?

JOSEPH hesitates.

Putting a flag in this for later.

But Sam decides to call the man out.

SAM A woman in white. Or sometimes weeping woman?

JOSEPH just looks.

SAM It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomenon, really.

SAM starts back toward JOSEPH.

SAM Um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women.

SAM stops in front of JOSEPH.

SAM You understand. But all share the same story.

JOSEPH Boy, I don't care much for nonsense.

JOSEPH walks away. SAM follows.

SAM See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them.

JOSEPH stops.

SAM And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children.

JOSEPH turns around.

SAM Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again.

JOSEPH You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance? You smartass!

SAM You tell me.

JOSEPH I mean, maybe...maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!

Sam is flushed out, and makes a fake 911 call to break Dean out, pointing out that the husband had been unfaithful. More dramatic silhouette shots really capture the early spirit of the piece, with Dean using a phone booth in lieu of other options. Hell, Dean was able to find a phone booth, let that take you back. They determine that John left Jericho, and establish his ex-marine habits with the coordinates, 35-111 that Dean had lied through to the cop. But while on the phone, the woman in white appears in front of Sam on the road, non-crashing.

She controls the car again, and forces him to drive to a broken home, repeating, “I can never go home.” Sam recognizes: “You’re scared to go home.” And that’s when the creepy ghost rapey vibes start, mounting him, demanding he hold her, she’s cold. “You can’t kill me, I’m not unfaithful.” He argues. You will be. Just hold me.

As she goes to rip out his heart, she flickers with the beat of his.

Dean breaks into the scene, unloading 12 shots into the ghost with iron bullets to disrupt her manifestation, giving Sam time to sit up and say, “I’m taking you home.”, where he drives through the house. Dean helps Sam out of the car, only to be telekinetically pinned by a dresser to be disabled.

The lights flicker again. Children manifest, water runs down the stairs, looking eerily like the light could be the Winchester’s old home

Here, she falls when reunited with her children. Sam clarifies--she could never go home, she was too afraid to face her kids (while not viable for the synchronic study, for my own sanity I’m going to note this season, Home will be all but mandatory to touch back here.) Dean says Sam found her weak spot.

They drive down the road with a blown headlight, Sam using an old map and ruler to locate the coordinates. But it’s realized Sam isn’t going with Dean to blackwater ridge, colorado 600 miles away. His interview was in ten hours. Dean declares, “I’ll take you home.”

There’s banter over meeting up later, and being a good team, but Sam goes inside and calls for Jess. “You home?” He finds a plate full of cookies with a note “missed you, love you” and relaxes in bed with the distant sound of a running shower.

And of course.

And so it began.

SYNCHRONIC STUDY: IN-EPISODE PARALLELS

In a first episode, there’s only so much to address. While we may question how much the Woman in White being in White may have been intentional with Jess and Mary, who wore pink (a diachronic full text body note later), in the initial review, it’s worth mentioning for the reasons in part 1 I’ve decided to air towards white in the final text product. Resultingly, the tie between Constance->Mary->Jess seems tangible. But it isn’t really so simple.

“Home.” Home is a huge keyword.

"I can never go home." within the episode unto itself, Sam is struggling to well, get back home. And frankly, returning home is the key of it. (hears distant uppity Wincest stans) The difference here is, this isn't a direct parallel, of course, as much as a general ambient mood that will haunt is forward through the show, even if current viewers just watching episode 1 don't recognize it yet. Sam going home kills Jess, essentially; or at least witnesses her death. At the same time, Sam fears returning to the hunter life, or more doesn't think he can because John told him not to come back. But now that Jess is dead, well, Sam can never go home to the life he was building. He has no choice but TO go back to the other home--the hunter life. Even if he’s certain it’s not what Mary would have wanted for them.

DIACHRONIC STUDY: IN-SEASON PARALLELS, LOOKING FORWARD

There’s no way I’ll have them all in mind, these are just what are flagging me along the way.

1.09 Home As the “Home” rewatch is not that far away, I’m going to save this as a placeholder with general notes about “Mary apologizing to Sam,” even if frankly, she should have to Dean too. But even if, at the time, the exact details of the deal may or may not have been established or hashed out by the authors--we’re not picking at arguing if the authors intended it or not here. Here, Mary apologizes for her deal. Here, Mary apologizes--for drowning her children. For magnetizing this poltergeist to this place that she demands let her sons go, where she forces the spook to let go of Sam. She couldn’t really go home in the truest sense until that passed. (I’ll have deeper chain-link connections on this looking-forward once actually at the episode.

DIACHRONIC STUDY: IN-ERA PARALLELS, LOOKING FORWARD

They’re here, but not pinging me at 1 AM beyond vagueblogging about Lucifer showing up as Jess to haunt Sam and the inevitable time travel episodes about Mary, so placeholder for later updates.

DIACHRONIC STUDY: BEYOND-ERA PARALLELS, LOOKING FORWARD

Obviously compare to above-dropped screenshots.

11.04: Mistakes were made.

Listen, Dean’s grimace seat has been in discussion lately, don’t blame me for thinking of Joseph’s mistakes right after the season as Dean-mirror Pastor Joseph. Funny how Sam’s get shown and Dean’s don’t.

11.23/12.01: Mary’s return in the (white or pink, I’m rolling with white as-above) gown, and all extending details.

12.22: Mary's dreamspace.

12.23: Dean, Castiel's death, Sam removing Dean

15.01: Woman In White, We've got work to do

I feel like the Woman in White is the most interesting of these that hasn’t been as talked to death as, say, the 12.23 elements with the Destiel parallel. After all, the Woman in White largely focused on Sam. It was his fear of home. It was him being faithful to Jess (and being unfaithful can be more than sex, really; after all, he made a promise to come back.) But in season 15, it’s Dean that the ghost of the jilted lover approaches, shortly after Dean nearly killed Jack in his pain. Was Dean the weeping woman? Or was Castiel? Who held the animosity in the back seat?

Or is this a shared path? As Dean puts the Equalizer away under the Cigar Box, he has his own haunting issues in the mirror.

Those will be addressed more deeply when we get to that episode in like half a year. But for now, I’m just putting a pin in it. With a side scribble of “Cas got his Secrets/Mary, Sam got his serial killer and clowns and Dean got... the woman in white with Belphegor.”

15.02: Road Closed

15.03: If one insists Mary and Jess’ dress are pink, Rowena’s dress upon wedding and unbirthing to death (and queendom)

15.04: I still think about Jess (shortly before Eileen’s return.)

15.13: If one insists Mary and Jess’ dress are pink, atop the eventually-addressed meaning of lighting (death and transformation) vs the Empress symbolism (fertility, rebirth), Castiel in pink light.

15.15: If one insists Mary and Jess’ dress are pink. Amara’s trenchcoat.

15.20: Beyond the obvious quotes, and the (IMO failed) attempt at nostalgia, there’s honestly very little callback to the original episode.

That’s it on first glance, I’m sure more will rattle out as we go forward. Well, mostly. Keys to the Legacy from Mint Condition is flagging me alongside control mechanisms like Castiel losing control of his vessel. But those are thoughts to put pins in for now and develop later.

COMBAT COUNTER:

DEAN VICTORIES: 1 (sam vs Dean)

MARKSMANSHIP COUNTER:

DEAN SHOTS: 12 shots, 12 hits.

(hits for any individual will be considered accurate even if targets teleport/flicker out as long as it should have hit the body)

The mythology pasted all around John’s Room is worth a second trip, but off the top of my head I see the Bell Witch and Asmodeus from the Lesser Key of Solomon (near the motel door).

I’ll reblog later to add commentary on that.

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