Little Red Writing Hood

Notice how the tar/mud clears when Stolas is shown. Also how he's elevated. Blitz sees him clean and smiling warmly at him compared to the others. He sees Stolas as too good for him. A fling that has yet to hurt him.

Those figures fanning him have his horns and form. He already holds Stolas in high regard and some part of him already cares for Stolas.

When the gold cuffs and collar appear, Blitz is clean, his forehead crest normal. Yet despite these cuffs, he keeps climbing towards him. He WANTS to be owned by Stolas. But he's scared to be in a committed relationship. It would hurt so much more. Hence, golden cuffs.

He's so scared and doesn't want anyone, let alone Stolas to see. But he wants him. Doesn't fight when Stolas pulls him in. He wants be held and looked at. To be cherished even if bound.

And he gets angry because he's scared and insecure and Stolas makes him feel safe. He just wants Stolas right now because Stolas makes him feel better.

Then his fear when Stolas disappears.

And fear that Stolas leaving him will break him. His greatest fear is losing Stolas.

Blitz is scared of letting people in. His family is gone and many crushes/flings have hurt him. But Stolas stayed and cares and Blitz cant handle letting him close, but losing him would destroy him.

Oh is that really why? I've been searching for answers and always get the *shrug* response basically

I heard in the very beginning that Melissa was "as shocked as everyone else" that the show wasn't getting renewed but that could have just been people making assumptions or her saying that publicly to avoid any backlash (ugh backlash...) but the timing of the baby as well would fit pretty easily

Being an actress and a mom is incredibly difficult even on the "easiest" (IE: least physically and/or emotionally demanding) projects but Melissa has all of my awe and respect for going through this final season doing all the stunts and physically exhausting shit she has to do after having just had a baby, not to mention that, if the preveiws are anything to go by for the tone of the last half of the season, she'll be doing some really exhaustive emotional work too with the PTSD stuff

If it was Melissa's decision then I really can't be mad about it; if it was WB's/CW's decision I can be absolutely bi-furious about it :)

I still find the timing of Superman & Lois to be extremely sus to be perfectly honest though, I mean, people have been screaming for Tyler's Superman to get his own show for years and they JUST SO HAPPEN to air the first season of it at the same time they're airing the last season of Supergirl? To the point that they really decided to split the seasons with eachother (air Superman A then Supergirl A, then Superman B and finally Supergirl B) with Supergirl getting FAR less promotion than Superman?

Mmmmmmmm smells executive to me

But to be just extremely and entirely fair, it's also possible that Melissa gave the network plenty of head's up that she planned on becoming a mom and wasn't going to renew past season six, wich would leave the CW one Kryptonian short and thus motivate WB to go ahead and greenlight Superman, knowing that it would have atleast the amount of success Supergirl did- and remember that Supergirl has been regularly coming in just under The Flash for the most watched DC show, with, I think, last year possibly being the exception due to Batwoman claiming that slot? I actually don't know if Batwoman claimed silver on this or not but I think it did

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Lightning was very quickly becoming centered around Lightning specifically

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I know part of it has to do with the pandemic

Batwoman was originally supposed to have a minor crossover with Superman this season, as well as Supergirl at the end of season one, and I would be more than willing to bet a similar situation went on with Supergirl, it's just too strange that they wouldn't feature her at all in the debut of her cousin's show when there wouldn't be a Superman & Lois without Supergirl, and it's equally strange to think that Supergirl is going to end without a cameo from her- to be perfectly realistic- more famous cousin, but I'm pretty sure Clark isn't going to make it

Another problem is filming schedules colliding

Remember that Melissa had her baby several months back, causing Supergirl's filming to be pushed back by a few months, so by the time most of the Arrowverse was half-done with their seasons, Supergirl was only just starting

The producers have mentioned multiple times that it's really hellish to rig even small cameos because of getting filming schedules and locations and paychecks straightened out, but when you add in the pandemic precautions, I'd say that it's especially shut down this season- wich absolutely sucks being Supergirl's last :( And when you add the fact that Melissa had several weeks where she would've been out of commission thanks to being a new mom, you just tighten that noose even more....

Supergirl is probably going to have a much quieter, more downplayed finale than it deserves because of the combination of these problems :/

I also wonder if there's some WB Fuckery going on

Before Supergirl made history by getting a real Superman appearance on TV at the same time that the DCEU had him in film, Superman and Batman were hard "no"s for appearing on TV from WB, that's why Smallville and Gotham were prequels and always made sure to use "Clark" and "Bruce" instead of "Superman" and "Batman", because WB didn't want people to like a TV version more than the film version, wich hilariously is what ended up happening on Supergirl- people were campaigning for Tyler Hoechlin to take over as Superman pretty much as soon as his first cameo aired- but it's also what sparked WB to loosen that leash and allow for doubles to start up

....However....

I don't think it's a coincidence that Supergirl- wich actually has higher ratings than many CW shows, even including other Arrowverse shows like Legends- got canned the same year WB decided to bring a version of Supergirl into the DCEU (although there are rumors that it's Lara Lane Kent who will appear, not Kara, the design does look alot more similar to Lara) and the same year that they premiere Superman- wich is by FAR the most removed series from the rest of the Arrowverse since Black Lightning- wich wasn't supposed to be in the Arrowverse initially in the first place so that one makes much more sense

Superman & Lois also seems to be getting a different audience or, atleast, a much broader audience, in comparison with Supergirl, Batwoman, and alot of the "less grounded" (because I don't know a better comprehensive word for it) Arrowverse shows, and that may be part of the reason too- an effort to create distance between Superman & Lois and the Arrowverse, to keep that broader audience

The CW does seem to be steadily inching towards that more "family oriented" Americana flavor lately, with S&L, Stargirl, and Walker being their most notable recent successes and what they're pushing hardest, with the only one breaking from that mold being Kung Fu, although that one is successfull without the push and is still family oriented

I really hope it doesn't mean that we're going back to Mayonaise Land and losing some of the great diversity- both in terms of the casts AND the stories themselves- CW was starting to have on it's roster as of 2018/2019...

But back to Supergirl!! xD

I feel like it's going to be a more downplayed finale than it deserves, as I mentioned before

I have the sense that the end of the season is going to be much less "Giant Big Bad To End All Big Bads" like alot of series ends, and much more introspective and sort of a "Kara started Here and now she's Here" type of story, reflecting more heavily on the Super Freinds and Kara's personal growth and her overcoming her PTSD- wich we've been seeing in the commercials, one of those "Supergirl's last battle is with..... HERSELF" types of moments

IN THIS SCREENSHOT, WE SEE THE WORDS “BEWITCHED, BETROTHED, AND BEWILDERED” AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN

So you know this building in the Given-Taken Teaser?

It is an orphanage called 'La Compassion'.

And there is a story behind it.

A Bruxa is a VERY powerful type of vampire, mostly found as women, however their true form is a large black bat with sharp claws and fangs. THIS IS A VAMPIRE SPECIES NOT AFFECTED BY THE SUN.

In this scene from the dusk-dawn trailer, it looks like most of them are burning, meaning they possibly vampires. Sunghoon isnt burning because we are guessing he is a werewolf. The only other person who looks like they arent burning is Jake. Could he possibly be a Bruxa? Or could he possibly be the alpha garkain (leader of a group of garkain vampires) that attacked the orphanage? Or was he the one who turned the rest into vampires?

In my opinion, I think the common occurrences of books has something to do with it. Books can symbolise knowledge and intelligence. However it can also symbolise truth and judgement. Truth: to reveal his (or their) true selves?

Also theres been alot of bloody hands down the window, they need to stop wasting the strawberry jam.

Yeah thats all for now.

If these dont connect then I'm an absolute clown 🤡

Simply put, the shattered teacup coming back together represents the reversal of time.

It’s to do with Stephen Hawking’s theory (which even he dismisses as science-fiction) that the universe, which is currently expanding, will one day instead begin to contract, meaning time itself will reverse. 

Hannibal wants time to reverse, because that would mean his sister Mischa can come back to life. That’s why he said he drops a teacup to watch it shatter on the floor, and is not satisfied when it doesn’t gather itself up again. This is because it means the universe isn’t contracting yet, time isn’t reversing, therefore Mischa isn’t coming back from the dead. 

The first mention of teacups came in the Pilot where Hannibal compared Will to one - which, when I think about it, is astonishing. When you realise that, to him, the image of the teacup has enormous personal significance. He wasn’t even on first-name terms with Will yet he was already blurting out teacup analogies at him? Boy fell hard.

Anyway, the first time we saw a teacup was when a shroom-trippin’ Abigail dropped one on the floor of Hannibal’s kitchen, which I assume was a signal to book-canon savvy folks that Abigail was Hannibal’s latest Mischa-substitute. 

That idea was cemented in season 2 when Hannibal actually told Will about his little teacup-dropping ritual, and mentioned Mischa and Abigail in the same breath. 

“Occasionally I drop a teacup to shatter on the floor, on purpose. I’m not satisfied when it doesn’t gather itself up again. Some day, perhaps, a cup will come together.”

Then he looks right at Will and we get this:

The teacup as a symbol for the reversal of time had been expanded to include Will. 

Similarly, when Will looked to be in danger of becoming an actual biological father, Hannibal told him:

“Should the universe contract, should time reverse and teacups come together, a place could be made for Abigail in your world.”

Meaning?

Well, Hannibal was signalling to Will that time was going to reverse - Hannibal was going to surprise him by staging a time-reversal for him, bringing Abigail (his Mischa) back from the dead, the way he wishes he could revive his dead sister. 

He explained that to Will just after he stabbed him:

“Time did reverse. The teacup that I shattered did come together. A place was made for Abigail in your world. Do you understand? A place was made for all of us, together. I wanted to surprise you. But you… you wanted to surprise me…”

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Then, in season 3, when Will is stuck in a trauma-loop and keeps reliving moments from Mizumono, deluding himself that Abigail is still alive, we see a broken teacup coming back together (because he is reversing and replaying time in his head; he’s indulging the fantasy he was living as a murder husband with Hannibal; the world in which it is physically possible for time to reverse.)

That re-gathered teacup stayed whole right up until Digestivo, when Will finally stopped living in the past, stopped romanticising his relationship with Hannibal and pretending that they can recapture what was lost. 

This is signalled by the image of a teacup breaking, and staying broken, inside Will’s head, as he lies sleeping in his bed in Wolf Trap, Virginia.

Then, of course, he wakes up, and finds Hannibal’s notebook beside him, full of equations which Hannibal has written - as Bryan Fuller told us on Twitter:

And because these two are ridiculously attuned to each other, Hannibal sits down and immediately starts talking about teacups and time and the rules of disorder. 

He’s newly in love with Will again, he wants the teacup to be whole (at this point time reversing is like a metaphor for them getting back together).

But Will doesn’t. Will sees that the teacup is shattered, and he thinks it - and they - should remain broken up. 

( This is different to how it is in the books. In the books, my understanding is that Clarice helps Hannibal reconcile himself to the idea that Mischa is really gone, forever, but lives on inside him. Therefore, whenever he drops a teacup he is actually content to watch it not gather itself back together, because it doesn’t matter to him any more that time isn’t reversing. )

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If Will and Hannibal were to reunite, now, I imagine we’d see some re-gathering teacup imagery or have some teacup reference in the dialogue. 

For a long time I’ve thought that kintsukuroi would be the perfect metaphor - for not only their scars, but for them getting back together:

For the shattered teacup to come back together not because time has reversed but because they made it. That would be a more realistic, healthy view of things.

As Leonard Cohen sang, ‘forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in.’

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Jonouchi’s instinct to dive into the ocean after Yugi’s cards feels indicative of deeper things within him to me. There are two layers here.

Jonouchi throws himself headfirst into things and throws himself into acts for the benefits of others because he needs to be useful. And this stems from the neglect of his home life. Jonouchi was affection-starved and he’s hungry for attention. And he needs to feel useful or otherwise he’s useless. He loves his friends of course but diving into the water for Yugi’s cards was reckless. And yet this instinct may have bloomed in part from Jonouchi’s poor esteem—that impulse, that feeling that those cards were worth more than his risked life.

that seems to be a big thing in the series, that fun and laughter are important and getting caught up in your own dignity makes you … brittle. 

zuko’s so obsessed with regaining his honour that every embarrassment or failure hits him hard. zhao’s so intent on his image that he destroys his own tactical advantages when it’s threatened. and ozai … well, ozai cares so much about his dignity that when his son “threatens” it in even the slightest way, he burns half his face off.

It’s like they meant for it to mean this, they meant to say the abused boy can’t ever get out even when he’s found a way out, when someone tells him he deserves to be out and he finally accepts it, he will never escape.

I’ve had suicidal depression for seven years, and one of the things that always made me feel more like giving it a go were because at the time i was very christian (protestant, not catholic) and i felt sure that i could go to heaven and all of my pain would go away. The only thing that would snap me out of it was the fear that I’d go to hell instead.

Dean Winchester having peace in Heaven is not a happy ending. It’s just not. Its what people say at funerals for their loved ones trying to console themselves, saying “oh they’re in a better place now, it’s okay.”

Even had Dean not previously expressed extreme contempt at Heaven previously in the series, I would be full of rage. Even if Dean hadn’t been inclined to suicide (which, considering his frequent reaction to choose to sacrifice himself when other options are available, he absolutely fucking was), I would have still been furious.

Heaven is not and never will be a happy ending. And their claim that it is is deeply, deeply fucked up.

I don’t even think having a montage where they grow old and end up in heaven is happy. We can assume this happens, it doesn’t need to be said. By saying it, you are contributing to that same insidious narrative that the only true happiness can be found in death. That all of your life didn’t matter; that it WASN’T about the journey, just the destination.

You can find comfort in heaven. No one is saying you can’t. But not like this. Never, ever like this.

Yep, for sure. The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that this isn’t the writers. And I have literally experienced this myself. It has literally happened to ME. I think because I’ve been watching Supernatural since I was basically a kid, I forget that I’m an actual adult who works in TV now. 

So, let’s say “a friend” and their colleague were developing a show with a writer. I’ll imagine that I’m that “friend”.  We worked for weeks with the writer making the show have complex layers and fleshed out characters, and ultimately the central premise of the show was a love story. It was about how in this strange world, these two characters were fighting against their fears and doubts about their reality so that they could be in love. The Exec, an old white man, would half-listen in when us and the writer would go through the story and nod and listen and go yep keep going and then leaving the room. The Exec comes in one day, having watched a show the night before that was doing well with ratings and on the call that day with the writer said ‘the show needs to be about this big exciting conspiracy - the love story isn’t what matters’. He tore up all the work and told us we weren’t seeing the show correctly, and we just couldn't argue with him. That was months and months of work that we and the writers had to tear up. We tried to rewrite it all, and finally gave him something he was now happy with, but it didn't make sense. The nuance and the complexity was gone for the sake of simple and action-filled plot. The character intentions no longer made sense and it was just disheartening. This happened all the time. The creative team would make something amazing and beautiful, and the old exec would say ‘nah that won't sell. you need more nakedness, more sex, more action, don’t be so liberal.’ Production companies are run by old white guys who sell shows to old white guys who work for broadcasters and SVODs which get their revenue from advertising companies run by old white guys. 

Even going back to s2, the show itself had begun taking shots at the corporate nature of television storytelling. It was revealed in interviews that EVERY suggestion the nitwit movie exec who “ruined the integrity” of the original script had been actual notes that the creators of Supernatural had received from corporate. And even when he learned the truth, that ghosts were real, he only took as much from that experience he could use to make HIS version of the script more authentic for fun and profit.

And they weren’t done with that theme in s2, either. They doubled down on this message in s6, with The French Mistake, which has been referenced multiple times in Dabb era even through the basic narrative themes of “alternate universes” explored in canon. And in that alternate universe where their lives were a television show, there was no real “magic.” It was all just a product that “not very many people” even watched. So also take this how you will.