feeling extra productive today so here's another set of silly unO-themed text posts and whatever !!
unOrdinary returns on the 27th.... 9 days from now... yippeeee!!!! It's also turning 10 on the 24th! I'm so excited to see what horrible terrible things await my beloved children :3
Thoughts on John [and Sera] in unOrdinary ep 375 and its parallels with ep 283 (SPOILERS!!!!)
Part John (1/2)
[Next post focusing on Seraphina]
One of the first things that stood out to me while reading ep 375 was how similar it felt to ep 283:
There is only one bed
Sera tells John he can share said bed with her
John declines since he doesn't want to hit Sera because of his nightmares
John asks Sera how/why she's bothering with all this needless stress
Sera reassures John and mentions that she focuses on what's in front of her to avoid being stressed out
Compared to ep 283, ep 375 is a lot more romantically charged, which is quite pleasant for everyone who has been eating Jera crumbs for the last 10 years or so (don't get me started I could yap even longer about the ship itself /pos). But I'd also think about what Jera's midnight conversation has to say about their respective characters, especially with ep 283 in mind as well.
Let's start off with John:
John's always been worried about Sera's well-being over his own, even to the point where he would willingly bottle up his issues instead of bothering her. It's only natural that in a situation where they're either hiding or on the run, John would ask her how she's managing to not freak out or why she's still even bothering with it all when she has the choice to leave. But I dare say that while John genuinely does mean to ask Sera these questions, he's actually also seeking reassurance from her.
Sera is almost always poised and confident, while John is almost always angry and snarky regarding the circumstances they keep finding themselves in. But when things slow down a bit and he's able to think, John's insecurities start bubbling up to the surface.
In ep 283, he asks her why she isn't freaked out by the fact that Spectre's after them since they nearly got assassinated a few chapters ago back in ep 273. We don't get John's thoughts on what he could possibly be worried about but I think he was worried about his and (mostly) Sera's safety while hiding from Spectre:
Without an ability to defend themselves with, they're sitting ducks so they have to hide, and it's an unpleasant experience to be cooped up for days on end. But talking to Sera about how she's handling the situation they're in makes him feel better, so he thanks her for the reassurance. Despite the circumstances, he's happy to just be able to share her struggles so she doesn't have to be alone to shoulder the burdens of being stuck to Spectre anymore.
If Sera isn't stressing then there's no reason for John to be freaking out either; he finds comfort in the fact that she's able to face everything head-on even when she has no choice but to. The only person who really needs comforting is himself... Sera is fine after all (or at least is quite good at hiding her anxieties and woes)! But it's also because Sera is so brilliant, strong, and independent that John starts feeling insecure again later on in ep 375.
While Sera snoozes, John thinks back to how she figured out that Neil's been stringing them along with information and in typical John fashion, shits on himself for it:
"If it were just me on my own..." is where I assume he started thinking about the idea of being out here alone without Sera by his side. After all, she had already been separated from him for a few weeks after she had to leave school and then Wellston entirely. During that time she was able to regain her ability and get blacklisted even harder by the Bureau. There's nothing tying her down to Wellston, Spectre, the Bureau, or John anymore, so why does Sera still bother to deal with every mess coming her way?
Or as John not-so-subtly puts it, 'Why are you still here... with me?'
With his self-esteem still in tatters after all this time (can't blame him though), John can't understand why she's still putting up with him and his problems because Sera could go anywhere and start a new life, away from the Bureau, Spectre, her family... John. With her wits and power, she could just show up anywhere and make a life for herself where no one knows her, just like how Vaughn had after he disappeared for years and came back to participate in the education system. It's a valid fear that John has, maybe even subconsciously fueled by his misapprehensions of his mother's disappearance 15 years prior (leaving because her family wasn't good enough for them).
After all, Sera doesn't have to break Blyke out of jail, unravel the secrets the Bureau and Spectre hide, find Jane, or even be with John. And yet she remains because she wants to do all these things and change the world for the better, all while being together with John. No longer is she the Seraphina who cast all her responsibilities away and took her authority for granted. Thanks to John's influence in her life, she was able to change for the better even after all the horrible things she experienced while being a high tier and a zero.
You'd imagine that John should know that Sera loves him with all her heart -- enough to sacrifice everything for him over and over again -- so why would he have to seek reassurance from her in such a roundabout way?
Ultimately, John still is prioritizing Sera over himself. He doesn't ask her outright "how am I supposed to handle this crazy Spectre shit?" or "why do you bother still being here with me?" because he doesn't want to make their situation solely about him. I'm not even sure if he realizes that he's seeking her reassurance since caring about her is simply second nature to him.
There's nothing wrong with John seeking reassurance from Sera either since that's something he's always found comfort in: the idea that she's always going to be around to either stop him from another rampage or (in these cases) quell the gnawing voices in his head that make him feel worse about himself. Sera said as much back in ep 230:
Of course, Sera does comfort John by telling him that she's exactly where she wants to be and that as long as she's focused on what's in front of her, the consequences of her dangerous games don't really bother her. Unlike in ep 283, Sera in 375 is looking directly at John as she says "not if I just focus on what's right in front of me."
'I'm here because I want to be. That's just how much you mean to me.'
Sera unsubtly declares that she wants to be with John and that he is actually one of her top priorities. After all, the thing who just so happens to be "right in front" of her gaze that "keeps [her] going" is John. He's always been one of her top priorities from the start of the series. She's outsmarted lie detectors (Nadia), threatened Arlo over John's safety (even though she didn't have the full story lol), chose to work with Leilah to regain her ability to save John from himself, and so much more... all because she loves him fiercely. And John, who is eternally grateful to Sera for everything she's done for him, pays her back in kind:
Instead of repeating that he's glad that she's here with him even after everything, he simply holds her left hand and gently kisses it, reinforcing his devotion to her that he's always had. A kiss on the hand is a chivalric and romantic gesture, and it does encapsulate how he feels about her: he'd do anything for her.
Neither of them have to say anything because they're quite aware of how they feel for each other. They'd easily sacrifice everything for one another... that's just how Jera has been for a long time now.
John can't stop her from playing dangerous games and living life on the edge, so he might as well go all-in and stay as one of her main pillars of support. After all, Sera finds comfort in John's presence just as much as he finds comfort in hers. John is just more direct when it comes to how often he expresses his affections for Sera; and though he's more subtle when it comes to asking her for reassurance, John's love for Sera is unmistakable either way.
(Anyway I'll make a separate post eventually talking about how far Sera has come as a character because ep 375 was just as important for her specifically imo!!! Outside of the context that this episode was stuffed with Jera lol 10/10 chapter)
Edit: Here it is !!!
Part 2 / Part Sera (this one is also very long)
Hi, do you think that in 378, Sera intervened on purpose at that specific time so that John wouldn't end up killing someone and that causing him to spiral?
Hi! Short answer: yes.
Very long answer: Yeah, but also I also think that if Sera knew that John was going to be heavily injured, she would've rushed to help him sooner. But considering that she came to help not too long after Valorian was taken hostage, there is a good chance that she was watching them fight and waited until she had an opportunity to act. I do also think that Sera must've taken the time to head back to the motel to grab two of the disablers to use on Scorch and Cinder, but it probably only delayed her slightly in coming to assist John.
In episode 377, she didn't really seem all too worried about how John was faring on his own because she knew he wouldn't be struggling with using his ability. She assumed John would've been fine against those EMBER agents, so she wasn't rushing to go help him. On the other hand, you can see how worried she is for him in ep 379 as she tears down the road to get him healed as soon as possible.
She definitely didn't foresee John taking so much damage against Scorch and Cinder because if she had, she would've intervened much sooner and taken them out before they would've had the chance to hurt John even more. Neither of them are in a position to be letting the other act recklessly, especially now that they're in the real world away from Wellston, the protection of their friends, and support from Darren (which John points out in episode 380).
While John has definitely grown as a person since the start of the series, you can still see that some bad habits of his persist even up to this point in the series. In this case, John is still looking for excuses to hurt other people, but he is able to better justify his ruthlessness against EMBER and the authorities. All because they're horrible people upholding a corrupt system that only benefits a select group of the power-hungry.
Unlike his senseless violence streak pre-season 2 part 2, John actually has a valid reason to go after the authorities and EMBER: they ruined the lives of everyone he knows, especially his family's, Sera's, and his own. Sera's absence in that turbulent part of John's life lead him to almost throw his life away in an attempt to take down as many feds as he could (though it's unknown if he actually managed to kill anyone... I'm sure Uru would've mentioned it in the story by now if John actually killed a bunch of people). She wasn't there to actually stop him from losing himself, and John had made a deliberate choice to not "bother" her with more "unneeded" stress.
Old habits really do die hard... The most unfortunate part of that arc is that Sera definitely would've risked getting caught if it meant she could support John when he really needed her the most. But John chose not to seek Sera for reassurance and it led him spiraling once more (though he does notably treat his friends a lot better since the last time his mental health took a nosedive).
Obviously in episode 346, we see that hearing about John's self-destructive behavior ended up adding to Sera's stress greatly, and I doubt she is going to be willing to peel away from him any time soon, knowing full well that she remains his tether to sanity while he still grieves William's death. So now that John is within her reach once again, Sera is back to watching over John and upholding that promise she made to him way back in episode 230:
((Side note: Uru-chan makes it very clear that the main characters of unOrdinary are deliberately choosing a less violent way of solving their societal issues, in which I mean that the children are NOT killing anyone in their quest to make their world a better place. Kuyo and Blysenmi nearly kill Byron (Kuyo cuts down Arnold and that lady in ep. 333), Arlo and Blysenmi almost kill Farrah, and John and friends blow up a bunch of feds many times. Yet no one in the main cast has killed anyone as of the time I am currently writing this post (June 1, 2026). I'm glad that no one has actually killed anyone so far considering that our protagonists are 17-18 year old children who really shouldn't be desensitized to murder in a world already filled with so much violence. I enjoy that the children have more empathy to spare than the adults running around killing people without giving a fuck.))
Okay, back to John vs Scorch + Cinder fight:
With Sera's constant consideration of John and his needs in mind, I do think that she chose to give John an "out" when it came to dealing with Scorch and Cinder. John has every reason to be enraged at EMBER and the authorities, and Sera knows this as well. He brutalizes Cinder the most because she was within reach, and I know he would've done the same to Scorch if he was the one to get baited instead during the fight in episode 377. I really do think John meant what he said when he stated that he didn't care if Valorian got killed or not because it would've given him an excuse to kill both Scorch and Cinder. Considering he already broke Cinder's arms and shattered a bunch of her ribs (and did considerable damage to Scorch before Cinder got involved), I'd say this John is fully capable of killing people.
Sera intervening and giving John a disabler to use lets him remain "innocent" in the way that he wouldn't be haunted by the fact that he had taken lives during one of the worst periods of his life. The fact that John is an 18 year old teenager means that anything rash he does now would definitely end up weighing on him when he hopefully mellows out and his brain finishes developing. Sera is now around to pull John out of making extremely violent and rash decisions, so that's exactly what she does. Sera would never kill anyone, so she obviously wouldn't want John killing anyone either, no matter how angry and vindicated he'd feel after the fact. Wanting the best for someone is natural when you love them after all.
While I don't think Scorch and Cinder necessarily "got off easy" since they're now disabled and in Spectre's hands, they deserve every horrible thing that's bound to happen to them. After all, they did endanger a bunch of innocent civilian lives for the sole purpose of luring out and killing Valorian, who is also probably also a child or a young adult at most. If they can stomach killing children and innocent people, then they can stomach being lab rats or repenting for their actions that led them up to this point of their lives.
Judging from Leilah's reaction, you can tell that Sera and John both probably didn't think about the aftermath of protecting Eastbrook Town. Sera could only come up with the most convenient solution that would both spare John from becoming a murderer and ensure the two of them wouldn't be in danger after capturing Cinder and Scorch. It's an imperfect plan since Sera does dump the responsibility of dealing with Cinder and Scorch onto Leilah, but in Sera's defense, she is also a kid who sometimes will act rashly if it's in her current best interest (which is prioritizing John's wishes and well-being).
John does calm down very quickly after he disables Cinder, which does show that the development John's been having since season 2 part 1 ended continues to show the fruits of his and Sera's labor. The old John probably would've tried to kill Scorch and Cinder even if Sera tried to stop him, but our current John does a better job at listening to Sera and remaining rational despite the circumstances. I am proud of him!
Will Sera continue to try her best to be John's moral compass while keeping them both safe? I'd hope so! Even now she's still worrying about him because she feels responsible to keep steering him in the right direction, which includes telling him that he needs to ask Cameron for advice since he's vulnerable against EMBER agents and can't copy Time Manipulation.
It's not like John is incapable of thinking for himself either, but his grief will keep looming over him and temporarily blinding him from being rational when his emotions get the best of him. He still very much relies on Sera to keep him from losing himself, and it's nice to see that he does value her support--even if it's not explicitly shown in the story! Let's just hope Jera can make it out of this current arc in one piece ;w;
This is how I feel every time any of the Wellston children are explicitly stated to be a "kid" LMAO. They are children too, and here they are trying to change the world as best as they can.... But I'll always dote on them for being 17/18 yr olds like a grandparent would... cuz they're baby!
Jonathan Joss was an Indigenous, gay man who was murdered on the first day of Pride month as well as Indigenous History Month. He died protecting his trans husband. Homophobia and racism aren’t marks of the past, and this is a heart breaking reminder of that.
Praying for a safe journey back to the spirit world, Uncle ❤️🩹🦅
Today is the anniversary of the death of Jonathan Joss (King of the Hill, Parks and Rec). Jonathan Joss was an Indigenous, gay man who died protecting his transgender husband, on the first day of Pride month. Today we remember him and how he protected his family.
Thinking of becoming a guy that thinks wolves are the most badass and aspirational animal, but about ants. Like wearing t-shirts about being loyal to my Queen and training to bench 5x my bodyweight. Studying ant warfare. Posting shit like this
The reason Qifrey is so awesome and relatable is because he wants to live. Man in his twenties being ominous as hell and breaking laws left and right and messing with forces beyond comprehension and lying to the cops and doing horrible things to the people who love him most and constantly destroying his own mental health and you peel back the layers and the motivation is "God I want to grow old someday."
God and the way in which he transforms from ‘I have to live because Olly wants me to live’ to ‘I want to live’ is so incredibly important to me. He was ready to give up, to let the Silverwood take him but Olly stops him. Olruggio traps him in a hellish pact because he wants his friend to live and he knows his friend wants to as well, Qifrey just has to come to that realisation.
i hate that when you try and look up shit for writing purposes it starts linking suicide hotlines and addiction advice articles like bro i just wanna know the information im not killing myself i promise. now tell me what i wanna know