#argh whatever

[kairosthewizard]

It's fine. I just have to live with it

[the-pigeon]

the allium flower represents unity, good fortune, prosperity, humility, and patience

(/rp)

///

photo credit // tommy and ranboo, dream smp // i will by mitski // what’s a soulmate? by kazually // mom & me & mom by maya angelou, // hero n villain duet by natalie chaves // a little life by hanya yanagihara // tommy and ranboo’s untitled letters, dream smp // ranboo and tommy’s relationship wiki page // calling old friends by defiance, ohio // ranboo, dream smp (paraphrased) // please dont by mxmtoon // shatter by lateaugust // ranboo, dream smp // pressed sweat pea flower by neptune holub // screenshot of ranboo // jealousy, jealousy by olivia rodrigo // perfume by lovejoy // google search screenshot // post by @/businessbois // catalog of unabashed gratitude by ross gay // screenshots of tommy and ranboo x x // pressed sweat pea flowers by neptune holub // tumblr post by @/indiedreams // a little life by hanya yanagihara // ultimately by khai dreams

[theabyssalmuses-archived]

Despite claiming to hate humans and find them annoying while claiming she sees them only as ‘playthings’ or ‘snacks’, remember that it’s 100% canon to Fate: Grand Order that she willingly set out to take care of tons and tons of humans when she was under no direct command to do so. Ibaraki-Douji is, in a weird, odd kind of way, a hero in that she saved the lives of hundreds, possibly thousands of humans in a time when she wasn’t even under Gudao / Gudako’s control.

Never forget this. 

[winchestersingerautorepair]

Cas in 13x14: Whatever it Takes

Okay, here we go. First off, let me just say how well-done that episode was. I was bouncing off the walls last night with commentary and general flailing (I’m pretty sure I drove my casual-viewer watching buddy crazy) and I couldn’t wait to organize and elaborate on the notes I took into a coherent post. Coherent is the key word here, because I’m looking back at my notes and seeing some of them are not quite as insightful and well thought out as they were at 10:30 at night (For example: “Dean but not, you know.” Huh? What does that even mean, Maeve?) 

Anyways.

Familiar Themes, New Context

So, Cas x Self Worth has been an important theme for a few seasons now --- and it has been well established that much of Cas’s self-worth stems from mission and his failures and successes on this front. While we have seen an exponential amount of growth from him when it comes to this (see resolution of depression arc as well as literal and metaphorical renewal,) 13x14 re-established Cas’s yearn for mission and purpose as well as the positive and negative implications this has for his character. I would like to point to the very title of this episode: “Good Intentions.” I know this title immediately brought Cas to mind for me as well as raise some red flags, because ‘good intentions’ never end up well, especially in Cas’s case. This is not to say he made some incredibly detrimental, immoral, irreversible mistake this episode --- because he didn’t, imo --- I simply point this out because it is key to interpreting his decisions and also helps to bring other examples of Cas’s good-intentioned actions to mind.

Now I will not deny some of Cas’s behavior and attitude reminded me of an earlier, more righteous and stoic version of the angel, but I was more struck by the the stark differences between Cas then and Cas now. In almost every other instance of “Cas on a mission,” he has removed himself emotionally from the situation (to the best of his ability.) He acts out of necessity, and does so with strategy and logic, and even when his actions aren’t solely objective he manages to make them appear so. While there have always been exceptions to this rule, I was blown away at how blatantly and unapologetically 13x14 threw away the Cas rulebook --- putting Cas’s actions and words in direct conflict, and taking a soldier who is usually cool and calculating and showing him as emotional and reactive. This conflict was so evident, in fact, my casual-viewing friend asked me what was up with Cas, and I didn’t have an easy answer:  I was just as blown away as she was. Cas has been growing increasingly emotional these past few seasons, but I had not yet seen it in this context; I had gotten used to the depressed, docile Cas, and it wasn’t until this season and the re-emergence of the BAMF I remembered so well that I really grasped all at once how much Cas has morphed as a character.

And that’s not to say I haven’t noticed the exponential changes in his character over the last few seasons, because, well, they were exponential. I didn’t think he could still surprise me.

He did.

Go figure.

Conflicting Narratives

I cannot tell you how important this strategy is to telling Cas’s story --- the audience is familiar with several iterations of Castiel, so paralleling his current actions/behavior with those of an older version of Cas is perhaps the most effective way of showing character development. And holy mother of hell has he done some development. First off, I’ll explain what I found so striking about Cas this episode. We were essentially told two different stories: Cas from the Winchester’s point of view, and Cas from his own point of view. Take, for example, this exchange:

Dean: How are you holdin' up, Cas?

Castiel: I'm fine.

Dean: No, I just mean with, you know, everything you've been through. And I know you really wanna find Lucifer.

Castiel: No, it's not that. It's about --- well, it is that, but it's also I --- Dean, I was --- I was dead.

Dean: Temporarily.

Castiel: And I have to believe that I was brought back for a reason.

(Cas goes into his responsibility for Jack and preparation for war with Michael.)

Once again, Cas’s search for purpose and how it ties into his self-worth. This episode is full of examples of Cas’s eagerness to get something done which he voices most enthusiastically to Sam and Dean, and while his zeal was refreshing it did not surprise me, nor did in seem to surprise the boys. It wasn’t until the visual narrative took a sharp turn that I really zeroed in on Cas, and you may know the scene I’m referring to: when he rushed down to help Dean after he was magically choked, and we got seven solid seconds (yes, I counted) of Cas staring bloody murder at Donatello before they cut away.

Here’s where it gets interesting. When discussing what to do about Donatello Cas’s argument is presented as strictly rational, all of his points relating only to what will further them to their goal. But he’s angry, and he decides to take things into his own hands.

(After discussing Donatello)

Cas: Fine. (Cas leaves the room.)

Dean: Cas---

Sam: Hey, what are you doing?

Cas: What I have to.

As soon as Cas is away from the Winchesters, something changes. His determination stays steady, but his motive comes into question--- this is more than just taking the mission into his own hands, this is reactive and aberrant. His rhetoric shifts away from logic and strategy to one much more emotional. Something hit a nerve.

Cas: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let you, or anyone, hurt the people I love. Not again.

(cue me, yelling at full volume into the abyss.)

Voila! Conflicting narratives! We have Cas, presenting himself as strategic and logical to the Winchesters, and we have a view of Cas behind the scenes that tells a whole different story--- somebody with a rash, all-too-human reaction to seeing someone he loves being hurt. Cas approaches protecting his family with the same ferocity he does any other mission, the difference being he is driven by human emotion, and not angelic duty, which begs the question: which rules his decision-making process? These scenes can answer that in part. While it can be argued Cas’s actions could have just been a means to an end (the end being finding out the ingredients to the spell,) this course of action was undeniably reckless, and probably unnecessarily dangerous. We know Cas was strong enough to overpower Donatello and I am certain could have found another way to get to this information, not to mention whatever he did to Donatello could have easily killed him as well. Not to say he isn’t impulsive, because he is --- but this impulse was borne out of love and anger and vengeance, a motivator much more associated with Dean. In my opinion, Cas was not intent on leaving Donatello with any capacity to function, mind-probe or not. It was seeing Dean get hurt that stirred Cas up, and it was the prospect of either Dean or Sam being hurt again that motivated him to take immediate action.

Why It’s Important

So, what does that mean for Cas? In my friend’s words, Cas is morphing. We know how far Cas can be willing to go for a cause, but much of Cas’s new cause comes irrefutably from a place of deep emotion --- while most of his missions have been rooted in protecting the Winchesters (whether or not he would admit it,) this is a somewhat new territory. We saw a few examples of reckless decisions made in devotion to the Winchesters last season, i.e. killing Billy, but the circumstance is what is important here. Cas is restored to his old, confident, smitey self, and yet it has not compromised his own humanity; in many ways, it has made it more obvious. Cas is no longer vulnerable and is still more human than ever, and that was on full display for us in “Good Intentions.”

But why is Cas putting up the front? Why is he presenting his actions to the Winchesters only in the context of logic and mission? The closing scene, in which Sam and Dean confront him about what he did to Donatello, Cas says he “did what soldiers do.” He writes off his actions as just hurrying along the process. He doesn’t address the emotional aspect of what he did, but the episode makes it clear to the viewer, much more clearly than they have done in recent memory, that there is much more going on in Cas’s mind and heart than he clued the Winchesters into.

Cas has come to terms with his love for the Winchesters (something can be said for him grappling with different emotions toward each brother, but I’m not going into that right now,) and he has much more emotional intelligence than he did last time he was at full power and consumed with mission, so I think misunderstanding of and unfamiliarity with human emotion will play much less of a role than it did in season 6.

I believe Cas is embarking on a character arc that will determine just how far he will go to protect his family.

(By family, of course, I mean Sam, Dean, Jack, and Mary.) And that has many implications. This subversion of early Cas will certainly give light to character growth as well as help resolve parts of his character (we are in the autumn of the show, after all.) It also has the potential to create problems. As we saw this week, Cas acted on impulse and subsequently put himself in danger (albeit not out of suicidal desperation, thank gosh,) as well as the friction he caused by side-stepping the Winchesters. I myself am most intrigued by the two different stories Cas is telling, and what that means for him personally (is it easier for him to rationalize his actions to others in the context of a mission? Is there another reason?)

I’ll leave this open for discussion, because I am more than eager to hear people’s thoughts on this.

But all in all this was an incredible Cas episode, as well as an important one. I’m excited to see where they go from here.

[yoshi-p]

i figured i may as well post this since i aint gonna finish this but all saints would be a holiday Sadik would only let his little ones participate in AND I FIGURED A SMOLL CAT BOY AS A TONBERRY WOULD BE CUTE ALSO GIANT DAD AS A MOOGLE maybe i will work on this i dunno

[callieskye]

Current Mood

[mrs-kurooo]

every piece of writing I post seems to feel more pointless than the last

[catoswound-moved]

p. crassus (the father/cos?97) banning human sacrifice 👍 m. crassus and p. crassus basically being sacrificed at carrhae... nvm im not talking about this anymore :/