#librarians meta

[queenofglassbeliever]

Jacob has trust issues and it really shows when it comes to his love interests. But that's not a problem he had when it came to Sarina. It's one of the reasons I love them as a couple.

I know that Cass wasn't canonically his love interest, but it's still really obvious how much her betrayal hurt him.

Then there was Mabel who kept secrets and lied pretty much the entire time she knew Jacob.

But Sarina didn't lie to Jacob. Same day they met, she was up front about who she was and why she was at the Team Building Camp.

She admitted to being an undercover journalist, that she'd been fired for writing about magic. Opened up about loosing her reputation. And that she wrote about the Library. She took a risk doing so. She wasn't aware that he was a Librarian and that he already knew that magic existed. She risked someone else believing she was crazy. Risked possibly getting fired from her camp counselor job.

But that didn't stop Sarina from trusting Jacob with the truth. Sarina's honesty separates her from Jake's other love interests. The others had good reasons for their betrayals and lies and none had real malicious intent. But it doesn't negate any hurt they caused Jacob by breaking his trust. Sarina showed Jake that he could trust her by trusting him first. And in return, he trusted her.

She further proved she was trustworthy by pulling her stories about the Library.

It's shown subtly, but a mutual trust exists between Jacob and Sarina. And that is so important.

[actpopmer]

In the librarians Flynn has been the librarian for ten years right? So the library wouldn’t need to send any more letters out until he’s dead right (except for guardians)? But that means the LITs would have got their letter ten years before canon, if Ezekiel and Cassandra are in their early twenties does that mean they got their letters as teens, or potentially preteen? I just started my rewatch of the series, am I missing something here? Are Cassandra and Ezekiel so smart they got their letters that young? Or is this a plot hole?

Or what is more likely the case, I’m overthinking everything again.

[queeenpersephone]

Hi has anyone else realized that S4E4 of the Librarians, aka The Silver Screen, mirrors the main plot of S4?

First, the plot. Motives are unclear. A woman appears to be bad and, at further glance, is good. It’s Nicole inverted. The ostensible villain (Madeleine/The Library) was really just manipulated by the actual villain (Tony/Nicole).

Second, and more importantly, character-wise. Let’s put aside the growth of Jenkins for a minute and focus on what I consider to be the main character arc of S4: trust. Flynn and the other Librarians’ trust in the Library, but most importantly, Eve’s trust in Flynn.

In Silver Screen, Eve goes into the adventure with preconceived notions about what Flynn should be like: suave, sexy - like her favorite movie character. She is frustrated with him the whole first part of the episode when he doesn’t live up to her expectations, and in since a big part of Flynn’s growth has been because Eve has faith in him to grow, he resists when he doesn’t feel the support. Then he’s also uncomfortable and not up to his usual standards. They fumble their way through the episode, doubting and awkward (even when they’re kissing, which I assume they’ve done a lot for several years) and completely miss the point of the movie because they’re so wrapped up - Eve, in Flynn not being what she wants, and Flynn, doubting himself.

Once Jenkins is able to remind them that they are Librarian and Guardian, things clean up so quickly that the scenes are actually sped up, just to illustrate and good these two are at what they do when they’re in their right minds. Flynn is brilliant and cool, Eve is empathetic and strategic, and no bad guy ever stands a chance.

In Season 4, Flynn doubts the Library and when Flynn disappears, Eve doubts Flynn. She uses her preconceived notions about him- that he’s run before, even though he swore to her that he was staying now - to push the suspicious nature of his disappearance out of her mind. Neither of them are at their best with this separation, and actualization of the mental/emotional separation in Silver Screen, and instead of leading to a bad movie plot, it leads to the destruction of the Library. Jenkins, again, is the catalyst of Eve realizing what’s going on through his death. Once Eve has faith in Flynn again, and we see that Flynn, on being kidnapped by Nicole, restored his faith in the Library, they’re able to gather the others and restore the Library in a matter of hours. The others, of course, are crucial to this success, but this is Flynn and Eve’s show. Eve could not have restored the Library on her own - she needed Flynn’s faith in the Library. Flynn could not have done it on his own either - he needed Eve - to believe in him and help him and make him feel like he’s bursting once more.

And both finish with a reuniting family and a happy ending.

[dracox-serdriel]

Eve Baird

The Librarians Season 4, Episode 6 And the Graves of Time reveals something incredibly telling about Eve Baird.

Flynn has plans to go bowling with Eve. (And we know from his comments that these plans were made about a week ago.)

Cassandra has plans with Eve to catalog the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Stone has plans with Eve sparring (likely a standing date/time, though that isn’t stated).

Ezekiel has plans with Eve ... baking? Cooking? Not sure. But he definitely has plans with Eve.

Most of the episodes show us how the Librarians rely on and work with each other. But this episode really hit home how much each one of the Librarians relies exclusively on Eve.

Not one Librarian walked into that scene looking for Jenkins or one of the other Librarians. Not only did they all make plans with Eve, but none of them seemed willing (or in some cases, able) to complete those tasks without Eve.

And, yes, it makes sense that the Guardian of the Library would be critical during any dangerous activities (such as executing a mission or dealing with a crisis). Pretty much every episode has shown us how much the Librarians (and even Jenkins) need Baird to survive. But this scene occurs when there is no major mission or crisis in progress (at least, as far as the Librarians were aware of at the time), thus implying that this was an average day in the Library (or at least as average as a day can get while working in a magical collection of knowledge and powerful artifacts).

Even on a day with no magical dangers, every Librarian needs Eve Baird.

[ididchoose]

At some point, and I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but I think it was around the end of the first, beginning of the second season, Stone learns to respect Jenkins as a fighter, and it changes their relationship. 

They had perhaps the most antagonistic relationship of the LITs in season 1. (Jenkins and Ezekiel sniped at each other more, but we saw the underlying relationship there under the barbs).  For Stone, I think he struggled to trust or believe in Jenkins for a while, but once he did, he was all in. 

We’ve seen hints of it before, but tonight when Jenkins showed up and it was just pure relief and even a bit of excitement on his face, it just shows how very very far their relationship has come.  Jenkins shows up and Stone knows, not only are they going to be okay, but this is going to be awesome. 

[valyaharkonnens]

here’s my thing™

the scene where flynn almost dies sacrificing himself using the Eye of Ra, right?it made me v emotional and im highkey glad hes alive, but also on the very down low in the pits of the lowkey i kind of hope he had died? like this show is too positive sometimes and these characters need a bit of a challenge. i understand it’s supposed to be campy, but some of the earlier episodes (especially S1, "And the Heart of Darkness") kind of set the show up to tackle some bigger, darker themes, that they kind of just fell short on (especially between the eye of ra stuff and the deus ex machina resolution with cassie’s tumor)  

also controversial opinion flynn is kind of annoying me in the show, and way too ross geller for me to actually enjoy? like he was great in the movies, i LOVED MOVIE FLYNN but once he got here his character development kind of tanked. I get that he’s not used to working in a team and that stuff, and all of the issues the librarians had with him were completely valid and p much my issues, and that scene was kind of perfect except i felt flynn was out of character, also THE ISSUES WERE NOT RESOLVED. it only occurred to me that post-intervention flynn was “trying” when eve said something to him about it, and i was like what? where do you see that…. and yea i get that thats mainly an issue of him not being in every episode, but he’s there enough for it to make a difference. idk if this is shoddy writing or a writers room full of evelynn (fleve?) stans (no offense to y’all at all, it just seems like the writers are heavily prioritizing some storylines over others) but it just kind of felt lazy to me? like wheres that season finale conflict? 

in general with shows like this, if I get too much positive reinforcement, if characters are constantly in mortal peril and make it out without a scratch (or hell, with some extra powers), if flynn manages to make it out of a death sentence like this alive (like hello? destiny candles anyone? when tf is he gonna burn out?), then i wont have my guard up for future episodes. it kind of ruins any tension the show wants me to experience bc I know the characters will be fine and it becomes so predictable it gets boring when characters are in near peril in every episode without any long-term consequences. 

idk hate me if you want, and I get that this show is supposed to be campy and uplifting, but we need a lil tension to get us through. this season finale screamed “we might not get picked up for another season so here’s a pretty bow to wrap things up”, and gave me little motivation besides bi!cass to wait it out until next winter. 

tl;dr im an angst fairy and a lil unsatisfied w/ the way this season ended

edit- thanks to a lovely anon who kindly reminded me the fatal sep was the ep before, sorry about that! i removed that part from the post, but overall, the pov still stands

[dracox-serdriel]

Ezekiel Jones

I’ve been seeing theories that Ezekiel is naturally resistant to magic (or at least, some forms of magic).

[Related posts: Flynn Carson, Eve Baird, Jacob Stone, Cassandra Cillian, Jenkins, and Other Characters]

I thought I’d make a post about times when he was/was not affected by magic.

Times Magic Got Ezekiel

01x03 And the Horns of a Dilemma - Ezekiel experienced the Labyrinth’s effects (the “lingering curse” that bamboozles people that escape the physical place so they’ll wander back inside) just as much as the others.

01x04 And Santa’s Midnight Run - Ezekiel is clearly affected by Santa’s Hat (a totem for Santa’s current incarnation). Note: In this same episode, Ezekiel also made a “Christmas Wish” about experiencing Christmas Spirit as a “good guy.”

01x08 And the Heart of Darkness - Ezekiel is shrunk and teleported by the House of Refuge inside its dollhouse replica (to protect him).

01x09 And the City of Light - Eve Baird, as a quasi-ghost/being trapped in an energy field possessed Ezekiel’s body to help him win a fight against multiple opponents.

02x05 And the Hollow Men - Ezekiel falls under the spell of Pan’s Flute just as easily as anybody else. Note: Technically, we didn’t see Pan’s Flute knocking Ezekiel out... Stone walks in and finds him on the ground. However, he does wake up in the next scene with no sign of injury/trauma, so it was likely Pan’s Flute.

02x06 And the Infernal Contract - The magic of the Infernal Contract messes with Ezekiel’s abilities, getting him nearly caught during their heist and nearly killing him along with the others.

02x09 And the Happily Ever Afters - Ezekiel was pulled into the “happily ever after” story he and the other Librarians (and Eve and James Moriarty) were trapped in by Prospero via a powerful spell and matching totems.

03x01 And the Rise of Chaos - Ezekiel is just as affected by Apep’s Chaotic Radius Power as the other Librarians. (Though we see/hear very little of his belligerence.)

03x02 And the Fangs of Death - Ezekiel is injured by a werewolf and goes through the transformation process, nearly becoming one. Even after Jenkins prevents the transformation and reverts the changes, Ezekiel still shows some after-affects of the bite (e.g. “fetching” the ball Stone threw at the end of the episode).

03x04 And the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Ezekiel’s future can be predicted via Prophecy Glass--both by himself and by other people. Also, his memory was messed with just like Stone and Eve.

03x05 And the Tears of a Clown - Ezekiel was turned into a “Snake Charmer” for the Carnival Sideshow and his memory was messed with.

04x05 And the Bleeding Crown - Ezekiel is clearly in pain as his Librarian Juice is sucked by the Bleeding Crown.

04x02 And the Steal of Fortune - Something happens to Ezekiel when Fortuna “kisses” him. (Either his luck was stolen, OR he somehow was driven to fixation on gambling/winning that isn’t normally present in his character.)

Times Magic Tried to Get Ezekiel and Failed

01x05 And the Apple of Discord - Ezekiel is not effected by the Apple, which is supposed to turn you into the worst version of yourself.

01x06 And the Fables of Doom - When all the Librarians are turned into Fairy Tale characters by the reality-warping storybook, Ezekiel was “turned into himself,” aka The Jack, the character that gets by on his wits and survives the tales unscathed. He doesn’t even get a wardrobe change or a pet owl out of it!

03x07 And the Curse of Cindy - Ezekiel was unaffected by the “Love Spell Perfume” for Cindy even though everyone else exposed to it was affected by it.

04x04 And the Silver Screen - Ezekiel isn’t affected by any of the movies that drag him in, even though both Stone and Cassandra are are least get caught up as their characters in the Western. Ezekiel is likewise unaffected by the scifi film they get stuck in next... the only thing that gets affected is his costume/wardrobe.

Other Suspicious Magical Stuff

02x03 And What Lies Beneath the Stones - The hokolonote doesn’t duplicate Ezekiel. Correction: The hokolonote does turn into Ezekiel very briefly but doesn’t use him to impersonate/confuse anyone--just to antagonize the Librarians while locking them in the hokolonote’s prison.

02x04 And the Cost of Education - Ezekiel deliberately provokes the tentacled monster and manages to escape its grasps with little more than a golf cart. (And the noble sacrifice of Stumpy the Gargoyle.)

04x03 And the Christmas Thief - The Saint of Thieves chooses to make Ezekiel’s mother speak, despite it being obvious that Ezekiel knows more. According to the rules, The Saint of Thieves should have just as much power over Ezekiel as he does over his mother, since they’re both thieves.

I hesitate to draw conclusions without doing a similar list for the other Librarians and Eve. However, at first glance, Magic Gets Ezekiel far more often than he escapes it.

At second glance, Ezekiel seems “resistant” to magic that affects people via warping reality (e.g. the storybook in And the Fables of Doom and the films in And the Silver Screen) and to magic that attempts to manipulate their personality (e.g. the golden apple from And the Apple of Discord). Also, Ezekiel has been affected by magical totems twice: Santa’s Hat and the totem Prospero used on him in And the Happily Ever Afters.

Longer analysis coming soon.

[ididchoose]

Also what if he’s scared of Cassandra going the way of Morgana, but because he already knows how useless his arguments were to Morgana, he has no idea what to say to Cassie?