#SO EXCITED FOR CANON CLEOPE

[gotskamstuff]

MOM AND DAD LOOKING ADORABLE 🥹

[yellowlaboratory]

Hi!! What are your season 3 thoughts?? And most importantly, what are your Jiara related season 3 thoughts? :D

alksjdfhlaskdfj i have. so many thoughts. i've never ever written something short so uhhhhh.....stick with me, lmao.

first, non-jiara thoughts:

cleope was SO cute!!! i wanted to wait for the writing to convince me on them as a ship because I really wanted something more than "these two aren't with any one so lets put them together" for cleo and pope and I've been completely convinced. They both bring out a different side to each other and the way Pope opens his family and his home to her is just alkdjfhlksajdfhlkajsdhf it's unbearably sweet. i love her interactions with the heywards and i love how instantly she fits in. the scene when he leaves her in his room and she does a tiny dance and then falls back on his bed and says "thanks, pope"..... yeah i think i was cosigning on that ship as soon as I saw that asdklfjhaskdfl. and the scene in 3x06 where she stops him from shooting rafe and he cries in her arms.... oh my god. it single handedly saved that episode for me. AND THEIR KISS???? oh my god.

i also LOVED Cleo's friendship with JJ. When they are on a mission together, they are right there with each other. and, speaking of friendships, I loved that we got more JJ & John B, best friends since third grade content. the fact that they physically started fighting... idk, I think it just made them feel even more like brothers to me.

i also just really loved some of the (for lack of a better term) girlboss moments this season. there are SO many moments that i was loudly cheering for my girls. Cleo having the only brain cell like 180% of the time when Kiara is kidnapped. Kiara betraying rafe and stealing that boat (i was fully cheering ala kiara during the cliff jump scene like that is my GIRL) (also madison bailey the woman that you ARE the way she never even a little bit played into the r*ara of it all. any time Rafe looked or spoke to or was in the general vicinity of Kiara, she looked SO uncomfortable and I love that for me). and I really REALLY loved Sarah manipulating Topper lmao "you're such a giver" "it's just how i was raised" KLAJDHLAKSJDH

and, actually, I think the inculsion of topper in the heist was super funny and exactly the type of shit i want to see from him (if wheezie had been there to give him shit, it would have basically been any fic i've ever written with topper in it). when topper is being used purely for comedy, he's kind of a genius character - Austin North can deliver those bat shit Topper lines really well, and the rest of the characters (particularly Kiara) react SO well to him. he's so easy to make fun of!!! but then.... having Sarah go back to topper again was uhhhh not it. I think they should have kept the s2 or the s3 stopper storyline in, but not both. sarah going back to something that reminds her of a time when her life was easier while shit is absolutely hitting the fan and she has nothing else is like, very much in character, and that's what happened both times. the fact that they didn't show her growing through that in this season, but instead regressing..... idk, i'm excited to see a Sarah with more growth. also, canon comedic topper is dead to me forever after burning down the chateau so, i guess that's a loss on both fronts (i can't talk anymore about the chateau burning down but i have a lot of feelings about it).

i really hated big john. i'm so sorry, but looking back, John B should have left that man in the fucking bell tower. I think the amount of screentime he took is my biggest gripe of the season (i did a scrub of the show for just jiara scenes after my first watch and the amount of times i had to scroll by that man.... my god). and not only did he take up a shit ton of screentime, he kept John B away from the pogues - both physically and emotionally - for most of the season (the lack of goofy happy pogues moments is my second biggest gripe with the season). If you've read pltc, you know that I had a lot of thoughts about Big John and his relationship with the pogues but...... when he died (actually, this time), it was only dry eyes here lmao. I feel bad for John B, obviously, but everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) Big John did this season was so shitty for John B, I can only say that i think John B is better off without him.

i think the thing that has me the most conflicted is the 18 month time jump. narratively, it makes so much sense - and logistically, aging up the characters as the cast ages makes a lot of sense. i don't love that we'll miss alot of jiara and cleope but I'm coming around to the thought of it all by opening ao3 and waiting for those time jump fics to pour in. @ josh pate if season 4 opens with JJ slamming Kie against a wall as they're making out i'll forgive literally everything, i'm so easy to please.

i guess this is the perfect transition to the jiara of it all. the first few episodes literally bodied me. every interaction on Poguelandia bodied me - the way they were living their poguelandia/surf trip dream, the "just like we talked about", the angsty silent conversations they were having when they saw the plane. kiara getting kidnapped hit - I think the way JJ was so focused on getting her back was so perfect, the dock hug was actual literal perfection. I am a Hug Girl first and foremost and oh my GOD?

the first almost kiss floored me. i did not expect it. the transition from their dumbass little jokes to almost kissing.......... i'm gonna die. i literally fell off my couch. I think Pope being the one to break it up was inevitable, as was their conversation. idk how i feel about it, i know pope was always going to have opinions on jiara and i'm glad it wasn't super salty but.... i'm gonna need to rewatch it a few times i think.

episode 4 absolutely ended me. those conversations and the way Kiara knows JJ and the way JJ was imploding.... absolutely insane. the framing of that episode (like the actual cinematography not the writing lmao) was not my favorite, but the content was SO good. it was everything i wanted I was losing my mind. JJ telling Kiara she's a kook HURT. Kiara knowing that he's lashing out cause he's scared made me yodel. the talk in the chateau's yard about truces immediately followed by another almost almost kiss made me want to scream into a pillow. 10s all around.

I also love Heist Jiara. I loved seeing JJ at the carrera's house for the conversation about the cross, and the way he's a little bit like a caged animal around Mike is perfect!!! Him self destructing by stealing the money clip is just literally JJ 101. Jiara bike ride to Kilby Girl is now my entire personality!!!!!!!! also the fight about the money clip - that's not really about the money clip at all - followed immediately by JJ almost dying and Kiara being like "don't you ever do that again" is just aksldjfhkasjdfhlkjasdhlfkjasd i could YODEL.

the gate fight absolutely took me by suprise. the "i love you dude" was not what i was expecting AT ALL. JJ's buffering reaction and the way he's trying to downplay it was 10298/10. the hurt in kiara's face made me want to cry, and then John B fucking everything up feels... well, a little inevitable. I also love that even in their angstiest, jiara is still together, and in episode 8, they are sitting on the couch and kiara's playing the ukuele LIKE. they are best friends. they are so important to each other. nothing is ever going to change that. I also love love love the part where he's like "i'll tell you on the plane." idk it makes me feel buzzy.

episode 9 is a literal fucking feast. the feral jj, the way he KNOWS something is up when she doesn't show up, the way he drops everything and then ends up in kahoots with Barricuda Mike to get her back. "I kind of got a date" ????!?!?!?!??!!!!! then the whole thing about Marley the cat (josh I KNOW you are on the ao3 tag just drop me the username please) and Kiara immediately knowing it was him as soon as she heard "blond". the "me?". the KISS. the giggly happy in love couple that they are!!!!! i do wish the kiss had better lighting for my giffer friends but i know we're gonna get the brightest kiss in the world in s4 to make up for it (pates make it happen!!!). and i think my favorite scene of the entire season is them being so happy and giggly on the plane and the high five into a handhold alkdjsfhlkasjdfhlksadf.

episode 10 is obviously a drop off lmao. it sucks to leave the season on that note but we did get the "it's an adventure baby" and little background moments. I'm happy the pates didn't write themselves into a corner too much this season, and in a lot of ways I'm really glad that jiara is open ended because that means there's a lower chance of unnessecary bullshit being thrown our way really early on into s4. i would have liked a more definitive ep 10 moment but ultimately, espeically since we know we have s4, i'm not concerned in the slightest about it.

so, overall, i think there were parts of the season that felt slightly choppy (personally, I'm of the belief that they filmed a lot more than we saw), i think the first half was generally stronger than the second half, and I think i'm really, really fucking glad we have s4 confirmed so I don't have to stress about it even a little & we'll get to filming sooner. my sanity is hanging on by it's fingernails but it is in fact hanging on.

at the end of the day, i had the time of my life watching it and i had some really great people to share it with and I'll always be so unendingly grateful for that!!!!

[nemesyaaa]

MY BABIIIIIES

MOM AND DAD LOOKING ADORABLE 🥹