#in a show where she was supposed to be a main and significant character

[wrvvth]

Finally left the honeymoon phase for arcane season 2 and I can finally admit it genuinely was not that good, but not for the reasons that most people (tiktok users) think

[p0rk-guts]

Velvette if she served cunt

Design breakdown below 👇🏾(BEWARE IT'S VERY LONG)

Alright going into detail about my gripes and edits. Like Velvette but her design is just. Not good to me. None of her (main) outfit details look like they fit to me— pinstripe pants + long fur coat paired with black crop top and scene sleeves? Skull earrings? TINKERBELL HEELS????? Tell me how any of that meshes well or even makes SENSE for the social media influencer persona she's supposed to have going on. Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be clown themed... But I'm just gonna toss that idea out bc being a revered social media influencer and a clown at the same time just seems a bit oxymoronic to me, and the "clown" details aren't adding shit for me.

And don't think I forgot about her features. Pale ash grey skin and wavy hair at best. If she was supposed to be some type of creature where a nonhuman skin tone would make sense then maybe I could let it go?? But as far as I can tell she doesn't have an object or creature or animal theme like the other V's and if she does I shouldn't need to do detective work to figure it out. There is no reason for *any* of these poc characters to have grey skin, especially since they don't have any other poc features at all.

Sorry that shit gets me heated anyways. Onto my redesign. Gave her a more obviously black skin tone and textured hair bc I love a 30 inch buss down as much as the next girl but considering how there are no significant poc cast members with visibly textured hair I think she deserves to flaunt some coils if no one else will.

Ngl I'm not. A fashion girlie. Idk what's trendy idk what screams "influencer" so a lot of this was just throwing shit at the wall that I've seen around recently but it looks cute enough to me. And there was a bit of inspiration taken from Aliyahcore and ghetto fabulous fashion ❤️

If you can't tell this is shamefully inspired by lovesart23's Velvette reimagining because imo they had some outstanding ideas for Vel. I low-key stole their idea for those floating eyes in her hair that follow her around and help her keep tabs on shit it was just a superb idea for a social media overlord to me. I also took some inspo from @furbtasticworksofart 's redesign because vampire influencer sucking up the souls of her followers in exchange for content??? Too good (also the eyes were supposed to have bat/vamp wings I just forgot 😭) So yeah she's a vampire demon now. Without the features she was looking too human anyhow. Maybe she also feeds off of the energy of her followers through tech like after Vox mind controls them or whatever... Idk idk is that anything

Speaking of Vox, the screen glasses are meant to connect her to him w/ their color and shape while serving the purpose of being like a second phone she can post and check the web with. Like lovesart said in their reimagining vid, Vel doesn't really do more than pose for selfies and scroll on her phone when it comes to social media so in my head she's constantly flipping her shades on and off, using them to scroll and stay active, and they can show when she's not paying attention or respect to something/someone bc scrolling is more worth her time in the moment.

The hearts everywhere are also supposed to kinda represent social media likes + connect her back to Val w/ his heart patterns. That might've been what the hearts in her og design were for but. I just didn't like their placement bc I'm a nitpicker and a hater❕

I have so much more I could say about possible ideas for Velvette because I love evil black girls and I only want them to succeed in my media and I could treat her so much BETTER but I'll refrain bc this is way too long anyway.

Alright for reading/scrolling through all that rambling I offer you the sketches + some alt hair ideas I had

P.S. I'm very open to constructive criticism but if I see anyone just dick riding in my replies or rb's I'm just blocking you on sight ✌🏾

[longing-for-rain]

hey there!

please don't take this the wrong way, because i'm genuinely just asking. i've seen your criticism of aang and kataang appear on my dash from time to time, and it just got me wondering: how can you enjoy the show?

i understand that you feel passionate about katara, and i suppose about the entire story, but. aang is like on screen 90% of the time, and he gets his happy ending too (as happy as it can be, of course, with having his entire culture and people on the brink of non-existence). how do you reconcile your love for the show with your dislike for its main character and how the narrative rewards him?

and once again, please understand that i'm not attacking. i'm just curious to see at what point does someone stop being a fan and start being simply critical of a certain media, if you know what i mean.

thank you for answering if you do, and cheers!:)

I just don’t pay attention to him very much. Even in the finale, Zuko’s ending and story stands out more to me. Him standing before the crowd in his sparkling crown, announcing that he wants to bring in a new era of love and peace, that’s powerful to me. Watching Zuko go from an abused boy who thinks his only worth comes from accomplishing an impossible task in his desperation to appease his abuser, to a literal king taking back his power and using it for good, is a powerful story.

As for Katara, to me, her true ending is the Agni Kai. I wrote a whole post about it. That is the culmination of her arc, where she is able to display her power and use it to overthrow the regime that she’d grown up being terrorized by. And then after Zuko was nearly killed, Katara was able to save his life just like he saved hers. The way their stories intertwined was beautiful, and it was a beautiful conclusion to Katara’s story, watching her not have to feel helpless for once and bringing the change she’d always dreamed of.

As you can probably tell, these are my favorite characters so I was satisfied by their endings. To be honest on my rewatch, I usually kind of just skim the Aang vs. Ozai fight because it’s just an anime battle. The characters hadn’t even met prior to the fight, so the emotional depth is lacking compared to the Final Agni Kai.

As for the balcony scene? I don’t watch it. And I think it says a lot that by simply not watching it, nothing is lost. It adds nothing to either character and only serves to give Aang a reward. Before that moment, nothing about the finale suggested Katara wanted that at all. Neither character played a significant role in the other’s finale arc. There was absolutely no narrative significance between them.

But there was for Zuko and Katara.

To me, Katara ended the story as a heroine and warrior, not a love interest. With Zuko, that was her ending. So that’s the real ending to me, because that’s what her character means to me.

[martialartslover7]

I am so frustrated about Hinata Hyuga.

Like, do you want to know, why I won't shut up about her? Leaving the romance aspect with Naruto aside, I just find this so insanely disrespectful towards her, that, canonically speaking, ignoring all the filler, she. Does NOT. Have. Even a SINGLE. On-screen victory. To her name. And all she is now, in Boruto, is just "housewife".

All she gets reduced to, is merely an "extension" to Naruto. For being his wife, she literally can't match up with him in terms of overall feats. The power balance is all off. Everything hinges purely on Naruto, every time. I don't like this. And yeah, go on, get all smart on me, try to correct me by bringing up that damned databook, this is one instance where I go: Fuck all of this, I don't want to read this shit, I WANT TO SEE IT. ON-SCREEN. SHOW. DON'T TELL. Don't just show me some random throwaway factoid garbage from a databook, that holds as much weight to the overall canon, as a miniscule hole in a sinking ship.

And what makes this worse, you just have to re-contextualize all of this:

Hinata took her training seriously

She was inspired by Naruto, without getting downright obsessive over him, meaning, she still got her priorities straight as a standalone kunoichi, while making use of his "proud loser" mentality to boost her own confidence

Her entire character, by default, is the classic trope of "princess, rebelling against her dogshit family", just to break the molds, making her so easy to root for

She remained humble, until the very end

...But what does all this mean for her? Nothing.

Every single fight, in-canon, that she participated in, always ended in a loss for her, even in Shippuden, where she is supposed to be stronger, it doesn't make any goddamn sense, you train your whole life, and you can't win a single fight, when it absolutely needs to count?

In the course of the story, all that happens to her, 80% of the time, is her getting abducted, and this happens about THREE. FUCKING. TIMES. The first time is perfectly excuseable, because it happened, when she just barely jumped out of the womb of her mother, but two more times, once when she was a Genin, and once as a fucking adult, by Toneri? COME. ON. That last one is just low.

All her clan issues just get resolved off-screen, we never get a rematch between her and Neji, not a proper look into the clan's politics, and in the end, Neji's death only ended up traumatizing her even harder, for no freaking reason, his death still remains so pointless and hollow to me, like, this is a pattern I keep noticing, every time she was on-screen, either she does nothing of significance, or she is busy eating Ls like a champ

I can't believe this shit, man. I am not just here for the NaruHina fluff, I am also here for Hinata, and what happened to her, to me, is a textbook example, on how NOT to write a side character, let alone one, that is later "destined" to become a romance confidant for the main character. I am not sugercoating this, you can do countless Hinata appreciation posts, the question arises, do you really appreciate her character, or do you just like her, because she is drawn super pretty, all the while knowing, she got reduced to a worthless jobber, the longer the story went on? Because to me, that is just shallow. You can draw her the absolute prettiest, it won't mean a thing, when all she is now, is just a wife "trophy", no more of her own thing. Seriously, shame on you.

PEACE.

[hatosaur]

tlou hbo ep.6 thoughts ig

you sent this to my main inbox but i'm answering here since i figure you follow me here anyway (also late watching it lol but it sure was bliss to not watch for a bit)

i think it's a waste of an episode to have all the flashbacks put together like this. they're meant to give little bits of insight as to why ellie is gunning so hard for revenge (but ellie isn't gunning very hard in the show right now, she actually seems pretty occupied with her relationship with dina that abby is hardly on her mind at all). they accompany and highlight the brutality and danger that we were meant to see (again, absent; story's gutted of all the brutal killing ellie's supposed to be doing) but they feel a lot less significant when put up against each other.

they probably could've made for intro segments since the show seems pretty fond of these but maybe they'd be too long? though there have been long intros before in season 1.

it being from joel's perspective is a very confusing choice. even if they started out the season attempting to flesh him out more, it still doesn't really work because he's been dead the entire season. i don't think we gain anything from having more of his pov because we know enough of how he felt about the rift between him and ellie already, and especially not with the thesis that they set up for the episode which is the cycle of...fatherhood? the story is already about joel's story as a father and the choices he makes because of it! why are we throwing in yet another point his morally gray choices as a father?

instead of joel and ellie's relationship being okay with an undercurrent of tension only to make a sheer drop when ellie seeks out the truth about salt lake, the episode presents it more as a gradual fall. i can see a world where it would be interesting but it stumbles so much. ellie's characterization is one of the season's biggest problems because she's written as if she's still 14. she's still happy-go-lucky, she still jokes and quips, and she's still same-old ellie and i think that's a huge misstep. because it really doesn't seem like she's all that affected by the weight of what joel did.

they remove some pretty integral scenes that give insight to how feelings about salt lake have just been festering within her all this time, like the flashbacks of when she was 17, where she finds the bodies of jackson residents who ran away and where she runs off to salt lake to find the truth (presumably to cut back on set costs??). it's the legit turning point for their relationship but they sub in, uh...eugene's death? there's an attempt at ellie's feelings about infection and where she stands as an immune person, but again, the episode is from joel's perspective so that clearly isn't the point of the scene but instead, ✨joel's gray morality again✨, hooray. the show keeps beating us over the head with THIS shit in particular, and neglecting that subtextual facet of ellie's character that has to do with her lost sense of purpose as "the immune girl." y'know. a major part of season one.

the eugene scene makes it more about ellie's overall distrust in joel being reaffirmed but not really in regards to what happened at salt lake specifically.

i could pick at every detail in the episode if i wanted to, but i feel like the most important is the porch scene. what. the fuck.

pushing the porch scene up makes no sense at all? with this, it felt like they just didn't want the flashbacks as a motif at all, which would've been fine for the others but this one? how do you botch one of the most important scenes to the story? it's not even supported by any momentum because this episode didn't build any at all.

the porch scene is meant to be pivotal to both characters. it's joel stating that he stands by his choice, and it's ellie offering an olive branch between them. instead, much like with the whole episode, they cram two important moments in one: ellie starting to forgive joel and joel confessing the truth about salt lake. why is this HERE of all places. why did they choose to have joel confess in one of his last moments with ellie, when it causes a rift between them in the og story?

and ellie forgives him almost immediately! what causes her to break down, hyperventilate, and stop speaking to joel entirely for two whole years in the game, she gets over completely in the show in a matter of minutes.

it begs the question now: what is ellie's motivation here, really?

ellie's reason for going on a damn-near suicidal revenge mission is just not strong enough in the show. it effectively boils down to "she loves him so she goes," which is fine, but other people loved joel. everyone in town loved joel. in the show, she's the one who presses pretty hard to go (unlike in the game, where tommy mirrors her grief). the show is of the position that "only a certain type of person would do this (one with a 'violent heart')" when it should be "ellie is desperate to do this because of what she could've had." it is a character choice based on a perceived mistake.

they softened EVERYTHING in this version of the story to the point where i feel disoriented just watching. they softened joel, they softened ellie, they softened every edge of the story that gave it clarity for, what, some simulated sense of "nuance"? to explore more of joel's gray morality and the consequences of his actions?

for a story about ellie's journey through self-destructive revenge, it doesn't feel like it's about ellie at all. she doesn't feel like the main character and it shows in the plain fact that they chose to use the flashback episode to explore MORE OF JOEL and not of ellie.

[eldragon-x]

An aromantic reading of Deltarune and Kris Dreemurr

Pretty much what it says on the tin, just my interpretation of how the game and characters, especially chapter 2 and Kris, interact with romance, and how it coincides with the overall themes.

I've been meaning to write an essay like this for months and am trying to finally get it out less than a week before the next chapters of Deltarune come out.

Because of the time pressure, this isn't as throughout as I would've liked it to be and doesn't include screenshots, but I thought it's better to get my rough idea out than not at all, and I was afraid this might become even more daunting to write if I wait and the new chapters have even more material for this topic.

Warning for discussion of abuse and incest in relation to Snowgrave Route and speculation around Ralsei's relation to Asriel.

So, choice, autonomy, freedom, and lack thereof are some of the major themes in Deltarune that are reflected in the characters in various ways. I'm going to focus on the party members we had so far (Kris, Susie, Ralsei, and Noelle) specifically for the sake of this topic.

Kris lacks autonomy due to quite literally being controlled by the player via the soul. The exact how or why are unclear, but we do know that we are capable of acting against Kris' will and there have so far been three occassions of Kris removing the soul from their body in order to act without the players influence or knowledge.

Ralsei lacks autonomy because he is dedicated to a script. His entire purpose revolves around bringing the Deltarune prophecy to fruition, he insists Susie fight on his and Kris' side for it, he brushes it off when Susie points out how strange the Spamton Neo fight was, and he's shocked when things don't go how they're "supposed to" during the Snowgrave route.

On top of that, he's - for lack of a better word - a huge doormat, towards Kris/the player especially. Suggesting Kris should try to be merciful on their journey, but clearly only keeping it a suggestion. Offering that Kris can hit him if they want in response to them attacking his dummy?? Just generally being willing to put aside his morals and wellbeing for the player to a concerning degree.

Noelle lacks autonomy because she lacks the courage to stand up for herself and considers herself weak and helpless. She says Kris and Rudy are the only people she's able to say no to, her percieved powerlessness against Queen potentially reflects Noelle's concerning relationship with her mother, and through the Cyber City she relies on Kris to guide her and show her how the dark world works which is taken to an extreme in Snowgrave.

Susie on the contrary, is a character I would say represents freedom and choice in a way. She shuts down the player's choices and goes against the script on several occassions which makes her a strong foil to Ralsei. She first rejects her role of a hero of legend and instead joins Lancer, she's kinda weirded out by Ralsei's speech about how Darkners find fulfillment by assisting Lightners, she causes herself and Ralsei to be able to act, and she drags Ralsei along with her on the split path, questioning why everything should be up to Kris, the protagonist.

-

With that established, I now want to talk about Kris' relationships with these characters, especially in chapter 2.

Noelle and Kris are established to be childhood friends who drifted apart at some point.

It's significant that one of the important steps in the Snowgrave Route involves Noelle being unsure if they can even still call each other friends, saying they're "something else", and have Noelle think there's no good interpretation of that.

The Snowgrave Route is the Noelle Romance Route where you, essentially, force these two into the "childhood friends to lovers" trope.

People have already pointed out how Kris' and Noelle's dynamic in Snowgrave is framed like an abusive marriage. Noelle's main weapon here is a ring obtained through implying she and Kris are in a romantic relationship. Noelle relies on Kris to get "stronger" which only causes her to become more hesitant to speak up and afraid of losing control again afterwards. This is also so far the most blatant instance of characters noticing the player's presence in some way with Noelle talking about how Kris has been acting odd recently and they're unrecognizeable to her.

And, I might read too much into this, but I feel like there's something to be said about how the Kris + Noelle section of this route ends with Berdly - Noelle's closest friend who genuinely tries to look out for her when he notices she's in a bad situation - being frozen by Noelle. Friends are always second best when there is romance.

-

I wouldn't exactly call the normal route of chapter 2 the Ralsei Romance Route but it is the only route where Acid Tunnel of Love happens and I consider it sort of an equivalent to Snowgrave Kriselle when it comes to the romance aspect.

We don't exactly know how Kris feels about Ralsei, but they don't seem very fond of him, while Ralsei is almost desperate to please Kris and/or the player using Kris as a vessel, and is implied to have a crush on them/us.

And, I'm going to be blunt, having a character who is supposed to remind us of Kris' brother be implied to crush on Kris is a weird choice.

I've seen people say that these elements don't co-exist. That Acid Tunnel of Love doesn't actually have romantic undertones because Ralsei is supposed to resemble Asriel, or that Ralsei doesn't actually resemble Asriel because Acid Tunnel of Love has romantic undertones. But I just don't think that's true and it would feel insincere to me to try to "solve" this problem.

To be clear, I personally don't think Ralsei is Asriel or even has any familial relation to the Dreemurrs. What really matters to me here is that these elements are there and we currently lack the full context and maybe we just have to sit with the uncertainty and discomfort of it.

More precisely, we have to sit in the discomfort of it alongside Kris themselves, who rather cruelly has to sit through this ride, hearing Ralsei say that it's nice that they're themselves, and potentially comply with the players choice to hug Ralsei even though we know they don't like hugs, because we think it's cute.

-

Kris' relationship with Susie is very important. They seem to be closer to each other than anyone else really which is kind of wild when you remember they were still on bad terms a day ago.

I've mentioned how Susie represents the freedom of choice the most out of the main cast in my eyes, ironically partially because she takes away choices from Kris. But, seeing from a meta perspective that she's really taking away choices from the player, I believe she can become a gateway to agency for Kris, seeing how much she genuinely cares for them and how Kris themselves seems to trust her.

The ending of chapter 2 stands out to me in the context of romance in Deltarune and what it means for Kris and Susie. Specifically, when she asks who Kris would take to the upcoming town festival: Noelle or Ralsei. The two people who Kris is forced to have a "romance route" with depending on which route you play.

If you choose either of them, Kris will say it in a confused way and Susie insists that she meant nothing weird by it. If you don't respond, Kris stares at Susie "like a weirdo" and she insists she was just joking.

But if you pick Susie, there is no indicator that this is something Kris wouldn't say nor brings them discomfort. Susie complains that they're dodging the question and of course she'd be there if they went.

-

In conclusion, chapter 2 puts Kris in romantic situations which are clearly forced one way or another. Romance is "inevitable" and all characters involved lack autonomy in some way.

Susie is a character who has a lot of freedom comparatively, is never forced into a romantic situation with Kris, and Kris seems to be the most comfortable around her.

None of this inherently makes Kris aromantic of course, but it stands out how the narrative of chapter 2 seems to force romance upon them, partially through the player's hand, and frames it as something uncomfortable. And I would be surprised if this doesn't become a pattern in future chapters.

-

Some things I don't know where else to bring up:

I don't really know where to fit Berdly in the big themes of autonomy and freedom, but I want to note that he also looks up to Susie and I think him "crushing" on Noelle, realizing he actually just admired her as a friend, and then "crushing" on Susie as soon as he gains respect for her is extremely closeted aro teenager behaviour.

I'm not sure what this all means for Suselle specifically, so far the game has played them rather straight, but I defenetly think their relationship is gonna go through a lot and be further developed throughout the game.

[sparrow-in-the-field]

Alright, I waited to share my thoughts/criticisms on severance s2 because tbh for a bit I thought I just wouldn't, but I keep thinking about the show, so I might as well!

Typical disclaimer that this is all just my opinion. I know some people loved this season, and I know others are more like me and preferred s1. And both of those takes are okay! Either way, it's just a fun show to talk about!

Alright a couple links and then I'll jump in:

Here were my thoughts on s1. It's one of my favorite seasons of any show ever. I wrote that post right before s2 aired, when I was still young and naive and hopeful about the next season lol.

This post by failchild is a far better written and organized post that sums up my main criticisms as well. I reference it a few times in my thoughts and highly recommend reading it.

Discussion under the cut because it's gonna be a long one!

I managed to bucket my criticisms into four categories, with examples in each. Let's just jump in!

Too many new characters, too few consequences

I'm not sure it was even a show that needed new characters, yet we got so many this season! Imo, the heart of the show was always the four in MDR (see my s1 post). In addition to them as the main group, you had Cobel, Milchick. Devon and Ricken. Gemma/Ms. Casey, of course. Burt and Felicia. A substantial and valuable cast! Adding one or two new characters, sure, it's bound to happen, but with only 1-2 new ones, they could be fleshed out and worked in to the main story in a way that felt organic and like they were complex characters. Not a single character that was added this season felt that way to me. They fell flat, and ultimately barely made a mark in the story. For instance:

Drummond. Who is this man??? I'm sorry who is he?? Why did he start showing up with virtually no introduction? I think he and Helena might be siblings because he called Jame father but tbh with the weird cult stuff that could just be what they call their leader so idk for sure?? Why couldn't they have given him a proper introduction. One line. "Hey Helena your [half, full, who cares] brother is back from [literally any other implied Lumon site]." Or "Alright MDR, this is Drummond, Grainer's replacement for security." Like!! I know feeding exposition through dialogue is boring sometimes, but I sure can still benefit from it when it's a brand spanking new character! And then beyond that, what was his personality? Brooding, I guess. What was his job? To be antagonistic, I guess. The creator of the show has said that Drummond cares about Helena above everyone else, but I sure as hell didn't know that! They made eye contact sometimes, as people do. They said words to each other in a meeting, like twice. And I'm supposed to understand they care about each other on a deeper level, from that?? If you want to make claims about your characters, then you have to show me in the actual show instead of mentioning it retroactively. And then Drummond died. So none of it matters anyway. He was written in to be a brooding henchman and he died and that was it. No understanding of his motivations, his background, even really his role in the company or the family. And now he's dead so it doesn't even matter. Not to mention that Mark S. literally had no idea who he was when they fought. They'd never met before. To me, it made the fight feel less significant, and more violence for the sake of violence.

Ms Huang. I want to love Ms Huang, and I suppose in a way I do!! But I wanted to understand her, I wanted to know her. All I know is she is a child doing the same internship that Cobel did. Her presence I appreciated and could pick up on its significance without the show blatantly telling me (having a child manager is a shield for violence, Lumon has always and continues to use child labor, etc.). But what about Ms Huang herself?? What are her motivations, what is her background? Any question she was asked, she dismissed. And where is she now? Oh that's right. Sent away. I genuinely believe we'll never see her again, because her story was a dead end. She was a kid in an internship and it ended. What more would there be for her next season? So yes, the child worker was a "whoa" moment and it tells us something new about the company, but she's another new character who comes and goes with no actual consequence to the plot or main characters.

Dr. Maur. I hate this man. Who the fuck is this man. I get that someone had to be down there working on Gemma (I would have appreciated a nod to Cobel though, like she at least had some involvement since she sent Ms. Casey to the testing floor in s1) but this character felt less like a person and more like a nearly cartoonish villain. Just the creepy man doing creepy experiments. And then in the end? Mark and Gemma escape, get in the elevator before he can catch them. No real confrontation; he's not even in the room when Mark finds Gemma. idk if we'll see him again next season, but frankly if we don't, it won't make a difference.

Fields. I also hate this man. This was one of the new characters I was actually anticipating! I expected him to potentially be a very interesting and involved character! But nope. He's in one episode, is a real fucking freak, and then is gone. Doesn't matter. His character had zero consequences on the Burt/Irving plot, and I seriously doubt we'll ever see him again (good).

Lorne. Okay I do have a soft spot for Lorne, she is precious and good! But she only showed up when convenient. She talked to Mark and Helly/na when they showed up, and she saved Mark from Drummond. Last season there was a huge running theme about the departments coming together; Burt/Irving was about more than their romance, it was this idea of workers joining together. But Lorne only saved Mark because she just so happened to be there when he was in trouble (their departments never sought each other out again after their encounter). And then Mark leaves. And she...takes Emeile back to the other goats? I guess? Maybe we'll see her again, especially if the innies really are going to rise up in a more significant way. But who knows for sure.

A lack of consequences for everyone, actually

It's staggering, how little had actual consequences in this season. So much that happened either in s1 or started to happen in s2 just... didn't matter. For instance:

Reintegration. Everyone's talked about this already so I'll keep it short. But it felt so exciting that Mark was reintegrating so early, and that first shot on him on the table at the end of ep3 got me so hyped!! Only for nothing to happen. By the finale, even the way Mark is talking about it sounds like he's not actually done it (wild that after "flooding the chip" he's still acting right as rein [able to get into physical fights in fact] and having no issues, meanwhile Petey was out here fighting for his life just to take a damn shower). It felt like Mark could have just been considering reintegration and nothing would have been different in the plot. "But we needed it for Gemma's episode!" Except we didn't? Nothing about that ep felt like reintegration as we've seen it. He honest to god could have just stared wistfully at a photo of his wife and they could have jumped into flashbacks that way.

Helena's YouTuber ass apology video and general lack of outside world response. This ties into the whole world feeling a lot smaller this season that failchild talked about, but it's really frustrating that the s1 finale essentially ended up having zero consequences. I feel like with as many people as were shown in s1 to protest severance or hate Lumon, at least some people in the outside world would be calling bullshit on Helena's excuse for what Helly said at the party. But what? She made the video and everyone was like "oh okay" and dropped it? I'm not saying this had to be a huge plot point, but like, idk. At least show me some protestors outside the property! Have the news on in the background, have Helena mention being annoyed at journalists asking her more questions! Just any acknowledgement that what Helly did at least made ripples, because that finale felt so huge when it came out. And the way the s2 treated it, essentially nothing was accomplished from an honestly incredible thing that Helly managed to pull off.

Milchick. Again, I think people have already talked about this a lot, so I'll keep it short, but. I so greatly wanted to learn more about Milchick this season. I wanted to know his backstory, his motivations, his dreams, anything. He had a bigger part this season, so I was hoping to see some form of character development, whether for the good or bad, I didn't care! Just something changing within him. But despite everything he faced, nothing changed? I guess he told Drummond to eat shit (which again, a weird lack of consequences he faced for that), but then was like "whelp, back to doing what I always do!" I guess I just went into this season wanting to understand Milchick more, and I still don't. He had the same outcome as s1, still essentially a henchmen trying to control innies. Except this time we got to see people be racist towards him. ...cool.

Ricken's storyline. Not much to say here other than Ricken played such an interesting role in s1, with his book inspiring the innies. They started to go somewhere with that but got bored I guess?? Anyway, hope him and Eleanor are doing okay lol.

The board???? So. What happened to the board. Remember when everyone reported to the board? When every vital decision seemed up to the board? When Cobel used to speak to them through Natalie. When, hell, in this very season, Mark plugged in that speaker and that's how he got his friends back!! Why did the board just like, completely disappear by the end of the show? The board wasn't in the back half of the season at all, let alone in the finale!! Supposedly the most important day in Lumon's history, and the board just?? isn't there?? Isn't even mentioned. I have no idea why they dropped this concept. There for awhile it was one of the more fun mysteries of the show, and now it's like it hardly even existed.

The core group is gone: Irv, my beloved, I'm so sorry

Again, this has been talked about a lot already, but just. Man I'm ngl sometimes I now get emotional over s1 clips because look how much those four used to mean to each other!! They were a family!! And now that's all gone and it's like the characters don't even care?

Irv. By far the biggest disappointment in this season for me personally was Irv's story. It's almost hard for me to talk about because it bothered me so much. You had an incredible character, with an amazing actor, and you said "eh. Send him away." And then everyone just went with it?? I thought for sure they were going to raise hell to bring him back; they'd do the work as four or they wouldn't do it at all!! But no, they just...had a weird funeral. And moved on. I really thought what Irv did for Helly was the set up, the first half, of a full circle moment for the two of them. Imagine how emotionally fulfilling their reunion would be?? Imagine how much it would have developed their relationship! It would have been so cool. But no, Irv is just gone, and honestly nearly forgotten in a way that feels almost like an insult to s1 imo.

Dylan also was very much in his own world this season and I can't decide if it's in character? Like yeah him getting to see Gretchen was huge and I get that, but just. Idk, he loved his MDR family too, so much so that he stayed behind for them in s1!! He was always involved, he always wanted to be involved!! But then Milchick, who he hated by the end of last season, says "hey buddy maybe stay quiet" and he just does?? Idk man, felt a little convenient.

And then Mark and Helly were just. Idk man I'm not making this about ships. I liked when they kissed in s1; it felt authentic. But then this season they ramped it up to 100 and I just. Sorry. It felt so fast to me. It felt like they disregarded everything around them for the sake of themselves and that doesn't feel reflective of the characters I knew in s1?

The Lumon (and Cold Harbor) of it all

Other people have talked about this too, but there were some questionable choices in my opinion about Mark's sudden over-importance to Lumon, and also Lumon at large felt less coherent to me this season.

Why does everyone have to be in on the conspiracy? I'm mostly talking about Burt here. Why was he was Lumon cronie? I really thought that Outie Burt and Irv's story would have been an interesting character-based story, about this premise of loving someone but them being with someone else. Maybe a tale as old as time for some, but I think through the lens of two older queer men, and with the innie versus outie dynamic, it could have been a really refreshing story? It didn't need to be about Lumon. Not everything in s1 was directly about Lumon (Mark's relationship with Devon and Ricken, Mark dating Alexa, his attempts to talk to Petey's daughter, etc.). The only spy was Cobel and it made sense given her job within Lumon. But Burt?? Mr. Fine Arts degree Burt?? Was also the hit driver during his off hours?? The Burt/Irv storyline could have gone about a thousand different directions, and that was just... not the one I wanted, frankly. And tbh with how little screen time it got and how abruptly it ended, I seriously wonder how dedicated to the storyline the writers were either.

Cold Harbor's sudden urgency. Failchild's post covers the flaws of Mark as suddenly the most important guy really well, so I won't get to into that exactly, but from the very first mention of Cold Harbor, I had my hackles up. Before, a huge theme of the show was MDR just doing the mysterious work. There were quarters to meet, but no ultimate goal or end point. Then in s2, all of the sudden everything is urgent, everything is superlative. This Has to get Done. It is the Most Important Thing Ever. If it happens, Gemma will Die and Mark/all of MDR will be Fired and will therefore also Die (which the internal logic of that from both a science and business perspective... sighs I won't get into it). Maybe this is a weird take, but I didn't need the Ms. Casey/Gemma story to have urgency; I didn't need her life to be on the line for me to want her out of there!! It just felt so jarring to go from s1 of "they're all doing this weird work that has existed for at least a few years with several different people who came and went from the team" to "all of this is for Mark and Gemma and that is all that matters for the entirety of Lumon, and after today it will all be Complete and Done Forever". Like...what?

Additionally, in s1, Petey's map says "people live down here". There's this fear that people, plural, don't get to have outies. Yet when we finally see Gemma in s2, she's alone in this gigantic hallway maze. There are 25 rooms all for her and her alone! Again, suddenly in s2 She is The One. The rest of the MDR files are?? Fake?? There... aren't multiple people trapped down there?? Lumon's whole success rests on her and Mark's shoulders alone?? IF IT ONLY WORKS WITH MARK AND GEMMA HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TURN IT INTO SOMETHING USEABLE FOR LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE??? Sorry, I got carried away...my point is, in s1 it felt like a different story. It felt like MDR would care because Ms. Casey was one of them and she potentially represented a greater, darker world of permanent innies. But that was completely forgotten in s2.

Another contradicting detail was the marching band. Don't get me wrong, it was fun watching Tillman lead a band, but...why is there a severed marching band? It just doesn't align with the original theme of the severed floor, which was about keeping innies separate and departments small, for doing mysterious and important work. What possible other roles could a marching band have fulfilled on the severed floor?

Possibly my favorite point that failchild brought up was the way s2 dropped the corporate satire theme from the show, when that was originally what made it such a refreshing concept. I think my points in this section all nod to that at their core. The cult-y Kier stuff was fun as undertones in s1, but it taking over has made it harder to understand (or take seriously tbh) Lumon's actual power and goals as a corporation at large.

In conclusion

Okay that was a lot of criticisms! lol whoops. Tbh I think the writers had a huge challenge to accomplish after s1; it's a tough premise that had set at a ridiculously high standard in s1. And I think them getting to do this season at all, after 3 years, was so exciting and fun to watch! I wish things had gone differently, but hey, that's just how watching TV goes sometimes. I'll still stick around for s3--who knows how that'll go! (Please bring Irv back, please make Gemma a main character, please do something new with Milchick).

If there's something I didn't touch on in this that you'd like my opinion on, or want me to elaborate on something I did say, feel free to send me an ask! I genuinely like talking about this show even if it accidentally came off as haterism lol.

[warblogs17282]

How do you feel about Fizz and Verosika’s reaction to Blitzø almost being executed in Mastermind??

I loved seeing them both appear in the episode like that for a few reasons tbh, starting with Verosika, I firstly love just how it made this little piece of foreshadowing in apology tour come pretty much fully to fruition.

Secondly, I love that despite everything that's happened between Verosika and Blitz since that frankly quite awful break-up of sorts that they had to now, this is yet another example that very clearly shows just how much Verosika still cares for Blitz. For Blitz's wellbeing, and that it shows she can very clearly see just how cruel and barbaric this public execution is as a whole.

It just really makes all of Apology Tour's events hit that much harder in hindsight, to be honest with you.

As for Fizz, I suppose the thing I like the most about him being present in it and his reaction is just exactly what impact it'll end up having on season 3, aka the future of the story this show is telling.

We obviously don't know exactly what the writing team have made for season 3 and therefore, what impact this overall will end up having on the story, but at the same time I also think it's rather obvious that this moment in Mastermind will end up being relevant in the upcoming story at some point during season 3.

We've been through the Asmodeus discourse relating to this episode quite a lot already, so I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details about it in this post but the bottom line here is that this moment in the episode will have at least some level of impact on their relationship going forward and the upcoming story that season 3 will provide us with. Before I get jumped with pitchforks by anyone, I'm obviously not saying that it'll end up with Fizzmodeus breaking up and all that, but the very high likelihood is that they will end up going through some relationship angst for some amount of time in season 3, which will then ultimately lead into some quite significant character development for both Fizzarolli and Asmodeus as a result, so that's pretty much gotta be my main reason why I loved seeing Fizzarolli's reaction here so much to be honest.

And also, I just want to throw this little bluesky post out there that further implies that pretty much every other relationship in the show is going to be going through it for a bit or a while in season 3, the post was specifically about M&M here but it's 100% relevant to the other relationships depicted in the show as well.

Also, if you're seeing this and have any fanfic recommendations of AUs and all that where Blitz actually ends up getting executed in this episode, please send them to me I'd be very much interested in reading that kind of 'what-if?' fanfic tbh.

[zipzapfrogboy]

BYLER DOUBT BE DAMNED (An analysis on blocking and it’s significance)

Read this if you’re having doubt because I promise it will help at least a little.

(This might be sort of long and a bit unorganized because it’s my first analysis of sorts but just stick with me.)

The main thing that confirms Byler for me (and helps with doubt) is the final shots of season 4.

You know. Those.

I’m definitely not the first person to point it out but I want to talk about it a little more in depth. Specifically the blocking. It is so clearly a deliberate choice to place Mike and Will between two other canon couples (Joyce and Hopper and Nancy and Jonathan respectively). It’s most definitely foreshadowing both to romance and possibly s5 teams.

I’m a theatre kid, I’ve been acting since I was seven, I have experience and know some stuff. If directors don’t like what you’re doing or don’t think it works then they’ll tell you stop. The improv you see in shows and movies are things that were approved and stayed in because the directors wanted it to (in like 90% of cases). Same goes with blocking. Actors can’t just stand where they want unless explicitly told to do so.

Placement has purpose and meaning. It is so unbelievably specific and thought out. I have a director/theatre teacher who gave us at least a 30 minute explanation about how important stage placement is and the what it can convey. On numerous occasions she’s made us take two small steps forward, a large step back, stand a bit further from xyz, etc.

I was in a show that started rehearsing in June and the director had been planning and working on it since March or maybe even before then. Blocking (and choreography in the context of musicals) is planned for weeks to months ahead of time. Directors have visions and the reasons behind how they set scenes is to execute that vision perfectly and convey the right message and emotions.

I’m sorry if that all seemed random I’m just trying to emphasize my point.

Obviously it’s a bit different for filmed content but I don’t doubt that the same logic is applicable. You don’t place two characters who hate each other together because it doesn’t make sense story wise or character wise.

It’s thought out, planned, and so purposeful. It’s not just random placement and it’s certainly not foreshadowing just team pairings. Two characters who are a part of a complex love triangle standing between two already existing couples? Right…

And so now my question is, why?

Why else would they set it up and block it like that? Give me an answer that explains the reasoning behind that choice; the choice of having El stand alone in front of them and having her boyfriend stand next to the person who’s in love with him. What else would that mean? That’s simply not how you do blocking.

When you as a director look at something from the outsider/audience perspective you need to see it with their eyes. What else could that convey? I’m being genuine when I say I don’t see anything else. If there is another way to interpret it (that makes sense and isn’t plagued by bias) then please tell me.

It’s a perfect example of foreshadowing. El standing alone symbolizes her arc of becoming an independent person outside of romance and Hopper. Her whole story has been about learning how to be a person and be herself. Her standing out alone in the field in front of her burning hometown isn’t supposed to mean nothing.

Just like Mike and Will standing together isn’t supposed to mean nothing.

We know Jopper is endgame, I can’t see why they wouldn’t be, and I’m 90% sure that Jancy will be endgame (or if they break up it will be on good terms). So, again, why would they place Mike and Will between those people. If it was supposed to be showing how close they are and how wonderfully strong their friendship is then why did they choose those other characters? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. IT’S THE DEFINITION OF A PARALLEL.

If I end up being wrong then idk.

Thank you for reading :)

Also there’s this so like

[derrygirlstrash]

Not to start shit, if you know me you know I'm a "ship and let ship" kinda gal and saying this I truly have no problem with James/Orla as a ship it harms no one and plenty of people like it, I like people having fun... that said...

I have never understood the common argument that James/Erin as a ship makes no sense and James/Orla should have been the ship instead. Often one of the arguments is that James/Erin wasn't set up while James/Orla was and I'm sorry... what? James/Erin have at least one ship heavy episode each season as well as plenty of background moments and several significant moments in Erin's Diary.

Even if you ignore all the background moments of the two holding hands, being inside each others personal space, the times where they're clearly matching and whatnot. There is at LEAST the implication that Erin would ignore her supposed crush for James, that she cares what he thinks, that Erin is James's type, that they're aligned in creative values and match each others energies, that Erin thinks he's handsome, that James thinks she's beautiful, that she can't imagine her life without him, etc.

James/Orla have some touchy moments... that's kinda all they have as far as romantic coding and I don't see how those two hugging in the Season 2 finale is somehow more significant than what setup James/Erin have throughout all the seasons.

Honestly, while I can see Orla liking James - you could build a case for it and convince me even though I see Orla as ace/aro in my own personal headcanons... no one has ever been able to give me a convincing argument for James liking Orla back. It kinda feels like you have to ignore that he never has a reason to fancy Orla back and just project onto him that.

Which, again, go off if that's your bag I think their friendship is fun and I could see making a ship out of it, but the common argument is that the SHOW makes a better case for James/Orla and like, no? No it really doesn't? It's just not main girl/main boy and some people really don't like that trope or Erin as a main and I think that if you say the show didn't set up James/Erin well and you argue the show would have been better with James/Orla based on what's in the show, you just might not like Erin very much?

I've also never been able to make sense of the argument that James/Erin is somehow the trope that 'guys and girls can't just be friends' like, is that not also James/Orla? Y'know, besides that Orla isn't a girl. They do use she/her during the show time period though and some people who argue this think Orla is a girl, they just think they're not THE girl. So somehow it's better even though it's the same thing.

Basically what I'm saying is that shipping is fun and we all oughta do it. Every ship besides the obvious ones is potentially fun and I'm down for it, but there is one ship the show was setting up and we all know what that ship was and I think it would be better if we all were honest about it.

PS: "James was gay the whole time!" Truthers, if you made it through this post somehow I'd like to offer a compromise: James Maguire is the most bisexual coded male character in media history we can all win here.

[beifong-brainrot]

Seeing those designs of the next avatar and her friend as adorable and promising as they are, why do they look like they belong in Voltron TvT?

Spoilers for the leaked potential designs under the cut!

Okay, so I think the characters in of themselves look fine, pretty cute. Though the artstyle is a clear variation from the the artstyles of the previous shows, which, while there were some miniscule changes, stayed relatively consistent.

For example the top lashes are much mor prominent and I think there's a general change in the facial proportions as a whole.

The main thing that upsets me about the leaked designs is the clothing choices for the characters, as I said in my previous post. The Avatarverse has a history of taking inspiration from real world outfits of various cultures, such as Southern Water Tribe parkas, or from other pieces of time appropriate media, such as Bolin's jacket in B4 being inspired by a WW2 comic book character, the Rocketeer.

These two, Jae (right) and our new Avatar, (Pavi) look, well a bit generic sci fi. At first I couldn't place my finger on what threw me off their designs, but I'll do my best to explain.

I tried to make a lil vision board to help me illustrate my points. Below you have the potential designs, with their colour palettes beside them, along with tve more vibrant colours I'd bicked from Tenzin and Aang's reference or promotional art. Bottom left is a sheet of Earth Kingdom background characters, and to the right of that you have designs for more prominent characters of a similar origin. I've also added desings for the air nomad bodysuits and pro bending uniforms which i believe are the closest to the proposed new clothing style.

As you can see the clothes Jae and Pavi are weaeing have more colours overall, but these colour palettes are more muted, which is a cheap trick to make clashing colours fit together more harmoniously. You can see this in a lot of modern futuristic shows, like Voltron, which I mentioned earlier.

It's usually a technique of having a character's palette consisting of more muted tones while having one or two colours that are more vibrant. This is a bit of a step away from Avatar's designs, which had less colour combinations as a whole, but were much more vibrant, with exceptions.

Avatar would usually pick a colour palette based around one colour, usually the one corresponding to their element, and work around it to pick colours that wouldn't clash, but were still eye catching enough.

Even more muted designs had a wealth of detailing and patterning. Which brings me to my next point. Pointless design choices. Let's compare Jae and Asami's designs, which both have some similarities.

They both have a type of shirt, boots and baggier trousers. But for Asamu, the details on her outfit make more sense. She has the logo of her company, a pattern on her chest, clasps to keep her jacket closed, pockets, and a bunch of straps that wind around her boots to either keep the black leg warmers in place, or secure her shoes.

Jae has that more 'futuristic' detailing that boils down to slapping multicoloured bumps onto a character. What are those grey things on his trousers? Pockets maybe, though they don't LOOK like pockets. What is that orange thing on his boot? It's not a locking mechanism like a buckle or button since it doesn't seem connected to anything. Is the orange thing on his belt supposed to be a buckle? Why is there a weird orange thing on his neckline? Im assuming the logo on his chest and shoulderpads is supposed to signify him as an airbender as it looks a bit like an airbender arrow which I don't know how to feel about.

Jae and Pavi's designs notably lack details of buttons, clasps and their clothes just feel like they don't fully make sense along witg being generic. Pavi has a brooch holding her customary spocalyptic wanderer cloak closed, though it is drawn in a way that we don't see where the cloak ends. The brooch may carry some significance, and it may juat be less detailed because its not focused on, but it does also just look. Generic.

There's also the lack of Avatar's staple inspiration from actual cultures, particularly chinese in these outfits. Jae's outfit only keeps the baggy pants and his weird neckbrace thing sorta slides off to the right, which doesn't really make sense. Pavi's clothing is the lesser offender here, but I really can't say I would pinpoint ger as an Avatar character if you didn't tell me she was one.

And I'm far from a cultural expert, so I really could just be talking out of my ass but none of these outfits carry the hallmarks of what I expected from avatar characters.

It's a shaame really because seeing what seems to be the concept art you can find here, I like these designs a lot more

Pavi's clothinv is much more vibrant, her clothing seems more detailed and Jae has a white lotus outfit that makes much more sense. And I like that he has an arrow again. I genuinely hope this ia the version we get, though this looks more like concept art, while the designs I was talking about looked like finished character sheets.

If you like these, designs, more power to ya. I think Pavi is adorable and sweet and she deserves better clothes lol. I hope Jae's outfit is just a uniform he takes off at the beginning of the show or smth. Because it ugly.

[seagull-energy]

An Ode to Antonia

Spoilers for Thunderbolts* ahead

As I'm sitting in my screening of Thunderbolts* having the time of my life watching the four way battle between Yelena, Ava, Antonia, and Walker, a shot rings out though the theater's sound system. Antonia falls to the floor on the screen, a bullet hole through her head. My jaw drops open in shock. Is this real? Surely not. Antonia has been on all the posters, all of the marketing, she is a main character of this movie... right? The scene that follows her death is incredibly well made and funny and one of my favorite scenes in the film, but I spend the entirety of it willing Antonia to get up, hoping this is a fakeout, in complete disbelief that this is an actual plot point of the movie. It's only when the incinerator goes off and the room fills with fire that I accept that yes, this is happening. She's really gone.

I enjoy the rest of the film. I grin when Bucky shows up to save/capture them; I cry during Yelena's speech to Alexei; I hold my breath as they all help Bob fight the Void; I roll my eyes at Walker a lot. But through it all, I think of Antonia. And I think of the lost potential of her story.

I do not know Antonia Dreykov. None of us do (except maybe Olga Kurylenko). In Black Widow she is silent; more of an obstacle than a character. She serves as a wonderful distillation of Natasha's past crimes still haunting her, only defeated when she is accepted and embraced, but she is not a person. She is a tool for the writers to explore thematic ideas. I suppose that's what all characters are, but most hide the inner workings of their narrative function behind a veil of personality and dimension. Antonia has no veil. She is voiceless and she is faceless, any life she might've had hidden behind her mask and the fact that she only speaks two lines across both of the films she features in. Perhaps I should have expected this, was she not marked for death from her very first appearance? A little girl, sent to the slaughter of other people's character arcs. It's an old tale, far from a surprising one at this point, but still; I had hoped we were past this by now. I do not know Antonia, but I wanted to learn about her.

My thoughts go to the others---the ones whose deaths served others more than their own character arcs, or worse, were completely pointless. Gamora and Natasha, sacrificed for a set of mcguffins; Frigga and May, victims to the age-old 'Dead Mom Curse'; Jane, brought back into the MCU seemingly just to die; and of course Wanda, unnecessarily villainized and unceremoniously killed. And outside of the MCU, Jean Grey, who can never be trusted to live with her power. I also think of the ones who live, but are pushed aside by the narrative. Sharon and America, who feel like afterthoughts in stories where they are supposed to be major characters. Maybe it was naïve, but I thought we were past this. I can't express how excited I was to see a team that was evenly split between women and men. That is so rare in this genre of stories, and has been almost unheard of in the MCU. I was excited to see more of Antonia and Ava, to see them get to be people instead of mysterious antagonists. And I got nothing. Antonia is dead and Ava got nothing to do but offer the occasional snarky comment. I am so tired of being disappointed like this.

Is it too much to ask? That every woman in a story feel like a multidimensional character? That every member of a team has time to shine and show their personality? Thunderbolts* is not a bad movie! It's not even a bad movie for female characters! Yelena is the main character and Valentina is the main antagonist and both are layered and interesting characters (although I personally can't stand Val). And then there's Mel, who has so much potential bubbling just under the surface! This is not Avengers 1, where Natasha is the only woman with significant screen time, we have come so far since those days (more MCU projects have been woman-led than not since phase 4 started) and that is amazing and so many of those projects have made me very happy. And yet. There always seems to be another senseless death, whether it's for shock, or stakes, or another character's arc. "To him we are just things." Yelena said in Black Widow. I hate how true it is.

[ilikekidsshows]

I know it's not nice to talk behind other people behind their backs so I won't say a name, I'm just utterly bewildered that a huge ml fan blog seriously just called Marinette and FELIX thoughtful schemers while calling Kagami and Adrien the opposite and I'm like??? First of all: WHERE are Marinette and Felix THOUGHTFUL schemers?

Marinette is not nearly as thoughtful as her fans claim she is, she 24/7 forgets about everyone and everything around her the moment she wants something. Just because she cries that she's sorry and isn't maliciously intentioned doesn't make her a THOUGHTFUL schemer? It's a miracle if she ever considers anyone in 90 percent of what she does. Its still questionable if Marinette has accepted yet that Cat Noir is even REAL underneath that mask since nothing about her behaviour and leadership implies that whatsoever.

And Felix?? I don't even know what to say about that claim?? In what reality is FELIX a THOUGHTFUL schemer, but Adrien and Kagami are apparently some impulsive airheads who have to be lovingly kept in check by the former two??

I don't wanna be a bitch, but how much copium is this massive fan blog on at this point? I used to really value their takes on the characters, but as of recently so many huge sugar blogs seem to be going bonkers on copium and ending up saying the wildest victim blaming things that clearly is much more rooted in their fan work than actual canon.

Like, okay, I get that Marinette fans are still in insane denial because they want Marinette to be a thoughtful schemer, so they disregard Canon in favor of whatever alternative show they have formed in their heads by now. But i get it, it's what Marinette was SUPPOSED to be, so I see where that denial is coming from. Especially cuz I know that in their fanfictions said person truly rights Marinette like a thoughtful schemer and what most of us wanted Marinette to be. I'm just bewildered that they apparently really can't see that Canon is doing something else entirely, but fine.

But FELIX? where the fuck is FELIX thoughtful? Why am I seeing so many Marinette stans have this attitude towards Felix that totally victim blames Adrien and throws Kagami under the bus? Are Marinette stans so in denial about that how Marinette is portrayed being toxic and even borderlining abusive towards Adrichat that when they now saw a similar writing pattern in Felix they just automatically go about it as usually and give him their Marinette treatment?

Cause that's the only type of mental gymnastics I can imagine being strong enough to make such a statement. I'm flabbergasted that they meant that as a SUGAR statement. Victim blaming abuse victims and throwing them under the bus to make their power controlling/abusing significant others out to be the thoughtful brains to their impulsive hearts with no attention span isn't sugar!

But I guess that's what forceful positivity and refusal to acknowledge that anything can actually be WRONG with your comfort show and main character gets you. This is not just about this one said person. So many Marinette stans in particular are so on edge by now because of how much they are trying to stay in denial that something is actually wrong, so they react in some sort of extreme way whenever anything is brought up to them instead of agreeing with them that fanon is the real Canon, and people just "don't get it".

So many Marinette stans I once followed for fan content I used to enjoy I had to unfollow and even block by now because not only are their portrayals of the characters not Canon compliant anymore, or they are stay "Canon compliant" in such a forcefully positive way that they just lean into the worst aspects and expect you to be cool with laughing at the victim (which is normally Adrien because abusing abuse victims and calling it love is just what Marinette stans to at this point to cope I guess)

Sorry, for going on such a long rant. That post really just broke the camel's back for me. I suppose I should block them now to make sure I don't get heated over one for their future posts again since that's unfortunately bound to happen again with their point of view, I just really wished there was a different way cause I rlly don't want to block all those blogs I once loved following. But so much has changed since season 4 😞

---

Abuse Apologia the Show is priming the audience to view abusive and toxic characters as saints. The only reason this didn't work with Gabriel’s “redemption” was because they started doing it too late into the game and because Gabriel became the perfect scapegoat for Marinette’s behavior in the finale. Marinette always made mistakes and then made up for them, but now everything she does is justified because she’s the greatest Ladybug ever because Jeanne d’Arc said so.

No, seriously. Just take a look at all the things that are said about Marinette in universe. The writers are doing such a bad job of writing her as a good person, the other characters have to lie about how she “constantly takes care of others”, and the Marinette stans grab onto these statements since they're the only indicator that Marinette being kind instead of completely self-obsessed is the intended canon. And that’s all that matters to Marinette stans, not what Marinette actually does, but what is said about her.

Marinette rarely thinks of others until she’s already caused damage. She’ll ruin a friend's week if it means she’ll get to spend time with Adrien, sure, but she'll also forget about a TV interview she agreed to or an outing with her friends for no reason. She's not that busy, because she always has time for harebrained schemes and can constantly disappear with no warning and no consequences. Her annual Heroes Day good deed is to forget about it until the morning of when she takes macaroons made by her parents to her classmates. All these were things Marinette then made up for, but the stans insist she’s being “punished for things that aren’t her fault”, and now the show agrees with them.

But, now that Marinette is no longer challenged by the narrative when she acts this way, it just makes it seem like she’s forcing her will on others when she’s supposedly trying to help. Because, we have to remember, the “thoughtful scheme” here most definitely refers to Marinette lying to Adrien about his father being a good man and Adrien himself being human. Marinette is so thoughtful for not wanting Adrien to be upset and have to rethink how he lives his life so that his free will doesn’t get hijacked (again). How thoughtful of her to endanger Adrien’s free will and possibly life by not telling him this extremely crucial information! If by “thoughtful”, we mean “thoughtless”, then sure.

Marinette used to make these kinds of calls even before the retool, but they weren’t this extreme and she used to realize when she’d been wrong or she’d luck out and manage to get things right even with no input from the people involved. ‘Dark Owl’ is a primary example of how Marinette just decided for Damocles that he would happily retire from superheroics after getting to win a fight with a supervillain one time although she did realize that helping Damocles find his own way of helping was a better solution. Marinette also decides to take it upon herself to fix her dad and grandfather’s complicated relationship despite being told of Roland’s extremely strong personal boundaries, and it was to her luck that it worked out well in the end. Basically, the end result tended to work out even as Marinette got pushy with her help in the past. But with the season 5 finale, the disrespect for Adrien’s autonomy is just so much more severe than anything that’s come before that I don’t think even it turning out fine in the end would make it okay.

Because now that we see the extreme version of this pushiness with Adrien, the way Marinette just goes with her first idea when it comes to how she should help others, instead of ever considering what they would want just makes it seem like she doesn’t respect the people she’s helping, which also explains why she lies about how she accomplishes everything with no help from anyone. People who need others’ help are kind of pitiful. She feels bad for them, so bad she has to help, but she doesn’t respect them enough as people to ask what they want or to follow their desires. When Marinette helps people, it’s on her terms, so it’s about her first and foremost.

Even Marinette’s “thoughtfulness” is toxic.

Félix is presented the same way. He’s the only self-aware Sentimonster who knows he’s a Sentimonster, so he decides he should get to decide what happens to all the other Sentimonsters by becoming the Peacock Miraculous holder. And we even see that he actually can’t be trusted with that power, because every single Sentimonster he creates he also destroys at the end of the episode because it wasn’t useful anymore. And Marinette enables him by letting him keep the Miraculous.

Adrien and Kagami are paralleled a lot in the show. Maybe this is the one pattern the Marinette stans can recognize, because that would explain how they automatically move their toxic Adrinette dynamic excuses to Feligami. Or it's just that the way Marinette's and Félix’s toxicity has been slowly built up as more and more extreme while all characters are constantly praising and forgiving her for it taught them to view this kind of behavior sympathetically when it comes to who they view as “good people”. It's just like how real life abuse apologia works. We easily excuse the people we care about and know personally because we know they aren't bad people. They're just stressed out. They don't realize they're being hurtful. They have good intentions.

It’s almost like glorifying abuse in a children's cartoon is a bad thing that can lead to real life harmful attitudes being enforced.

[moeyangwenli]

I feel like I come across as moralistic when I talk about Reinhard. In fact when I started the show, I was engaging with it how I engage with history. I’ve studied Roman and Chinese history somewhat in-depth; when you’re discussing a ruler, you aren’t trying to slap a “good” or “bad” label on them, but to place them in historical context. Appraisals of their merits and weaknesses are done neutrally. Thus, I was watching the show like a drama rooted in realpolitik.

The reason I ended up being critical of Reinhard’s writing is that it felt like the story romanticized him to a significant degree… specifically in how it ceased having any feeling of sociopolitical groundedness. If LOGH has historical felicity, it’s in terms of military history. Reinhard as head of state was glossed over; he faced none of the challenges one would expect for someone in his position.

I’ll give one example. You know what foe shows up to menace kings and emperors across history? Inflation. Financial crises have brought imperial powers to their knees, accomplishing what a thousand armies could not. I suppose you could say that seizing control of so much territory, including the financial hub of Fezzan, would solve that for him. But is that actually the case? The Mongols conquered vast lands and riches in a span of three generations, but it took no time at all for them to devalue their currency and burn through their wealth. What kind of taxes did Reinhard impose? I’d assume he’d have to levy high ones to maintain his military force and support his building projects. Wouldn’t that reduce his popularity?

While watching LOGH, I was asking myself a lot of logistical questions like that, which the story itself seemed uninterested in. For instance, where were all the damn ships coming from? An economic and materialist exploration of that question could be very interesting. I mean, we were told next to nothing about the economic systems of the Alliance or the Empire. One can assume they’re capitalist and feudal respectively, but how was the work actually getting done? Wouldn’t it have deepened the themes to compare the two societies in these terms? An exploration of how the Alliance’s economy was geared towards war would have been nice, as well as an acknowledgment of the role money plays in politics (the work liked to blame “the people” for the failures of democracy without actually going into how that democracy functioned). And on the side of the Empire, we are told that the Goldenbaums used forced labor. Well, did Reinhard outlaw that or maintain it? If he got rid of it, how did he replace the laborers? Wouldn’t that affect the imperial budget?

After watching LOGH, I went on a bit of a girl-on-girl kick to cleanse myself of all the masculine energy. I finally sat down and read JWQS (English title “Two Adamant Hearts”), an incredibly long Chinese novel series. Spoilers, but one of the main characters of that series, Jingnu, becomes an empress. She’s young and idealistic, determined to be a good ruler. And as soon as she takes office, she’s hit with the reality that she’s inherited a financial crisis. The story expends a great deal of time dwelling on what she has to do to save her kingdom from destitution.

I’m not saying LOGH had to do the same. Tax policies aren’t all that fun to learn about in history books, much less in fiction. My point is that I believed Jingnu as a good ruler more than I believed Reinhard as one because the story focused on what it would actually take to rule competently, justly, and responsibly.

Reinhard ended up looking like a pretty weak ruler in a variety of ways, and even if he had been perfect, I would expect his empire to be very unstable. It would take a ridiculous amount of effort to control and administrate all the territory under his power. Even an excellent statesman like Kublai Khan ended his reign in failure and disgrace because of the contradictions inherent to being an imperial power: the imperative to expand. But Reinhard’s glory was dimmed by nothing; even the most significant challenge he faced, the accusations of the survivor of Westerland, were only used to fuel his angst and get him in bed with Hilda, after which they were swept under the rug, never to be mentioned again. Couldn’t that have gotten out and damaged his reputation? Again, there were a million ways the story could have gone, but it feels like it only chose the safest ones.

So what I’m saying is I would have liked either for Reinhard to have done his absolute to best to be a good ruler, with focus on the logistics of that, or I would have liked to see the story take a realist turn where his legacy is tainted and his empire falls apart, or is at least destabilized. Ending the story with an epic tone, and the assurance that everything will probably be fine ‘cause Reinhard has a son, was too much for me. Especially given that there was no resolution between democracy and autocracy. At one point, Yang gave a wonderful speech about how dangerous it would be for all of humanity to exist under a dictatorship, and then the story ended with all of humanity under a dictatorship, and this was not painted as a bad thing 😭 A constitutional monarchy was maybe on the table but that was also not explored at all, leaving me with no choice but to conclude that LOGH ultimately did not care about politics in the least.

[uniquexusposts]

Her || Charles

Main characters: Charles Leclerc x OC Genre: fanfiction, fluff  Story type: novel  Part: 29/45 Word count: 3021 Co writer: @mistrose23

Story summary: Matilde Jørgensen, the new Scuderia Ferrari team principal, faced the nerve-wracking challenge of reviving the team's fortunes and aiming for a championship. Leading a historic team as a 'newbie' and separating her work and personal opinions posed a significant challenge. The big question: is she capable to do so?

Previous chapter

Chapter 27. The Monza Dream

Matilde stared outside, biting off the loose skin of her lips. She took a deep breath and felt a knot of nerves tighten in her stomach. Yesterday, nobody had to perform that hard, but today... Qualifying meant everything to the team. Therefore, the pressure was relentless, a constant companion that shadowed her every move. Usually, a race weekend didn't do much to Matilde. But this was Monza, all eyes were on her and her team. She couldn't shake the unease that gnawed at her insides, the fear of failure looming large in her mind.

A knock on her office door brought her back to reality. "Yes," she said and cleared her throat.

The door flew open, and Galileo entered the office. "Fifteen minutes until qualifying," he mentioned and closed the door behind him. For the first time as her assistant, he had to remind her of the times and meetings. He took a seat on the chair in front of her desk.

She nodded. "Perfect."

"How are you feeling?"

"Fucking nervous," she blurted. "And I fucking hate it."

He also hadn't heard her use bad words this much. "Understandable, but you will rock this. You prepped your team the best you could, Charles and Carlos are ready for this. There's nothing else you can do then just let it happen."

"I know," she mumbled. "It's just... The media is stalking me this week, throwing bullshit rumours in the out and the open. Fans are everywhere, they are counting on the team to deliver a win. Within the team, there are so many discussions and clashes over the strategies and everybody is just snubbing to each other. And let's not forget the board, they are watching me closely and they want me to fail so they can fire me," she summed. "Oh, and my family is here, so if we don't win or if we fail, they will think I'm a loser. I haven't slept properly in days and the pressure is just building up every minute. What the fuck am I supposed to do? Can I even handle this?"

"Matilde..." Galileo sighed. "Do you know who you are? Because the woman talking now isn't the Matilde Jørgensen, we know."

"Even the Matilde Jørgensen has fucking mental breakdowns and doesn't know what to do anymore." She groaned. "I hate Monza week."

Galileo softly chuckled. "You will love it tomorrow. And don't listen to all those media people, fans and whatever they are. They want to crank up the pressure because they expect a lot from you and the team. Turn this stress into motivation, determination."

"By the way, why did you cancel the interview with Sky Sports?"

Galileo tilted his head. "Because you needed some time for yourself, to have a mental breakdown, right?" He rose from his seat and made his way towards the door. "Stop overthinking. Talk about it. Or you will stress even more."

"Oh," she mumbled. "Thanks... I guess?" For a moment Matilde didn't want to admit that this was the right call. It showed that Galileo knew her better than she knew. "Good thing for me I will see both my psychologists next week," she said relievedly. "In person, this time."

Galileo pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head. "If you need to talk this weekend, you know where to find me. Anyway, come on, girl, let's get a snack and drink and go to the garage."

"I don't know what I would do without you." She got up and followed him to the restaurant area. "Where are the boys?"

"Already at the garage. It's so busy outside that we wanted them to be there in advance for some peace."

"Good," she said. They both got a snack and a lemonade. "I'm so nervous and excited at the same time," she mentioned.

Galileo smiled. "It's gonna be exciting."

"Let's just do this. Whatever happens... So be it," Matilde said and nodded. She took a deep breath and chugged the lemonade. "Alright, let's go."

"Be aware, there's a lot of people outside," he reminded her.

"We will own this moment, Galileo."

A reassuring smile played on Galileo's lips, also ready to face the moment everybody had been waiting and working for.

Matilde took a deep breath; the nerves made room for excitement. She checked herself one more time on the screen of her phone, making sure she looked well presented. As she, Galileo and others from her team made their way through the paddock, Matilde felt the pride growing on her. The air crackled with anticipation, and she moved with a quiet confidence, her every step purposeful. You wouldn't know that she almost had a nervous breakdown a few minutes before. Despite the chaos around her, Matilde exuded an aura of calm authority, her presence commanding respect and admiration.

They reached the garage. Matilde grabbed her headset from the wall and stood in the back of the garage, overviewing her team. She connected her headset with the radio and attached it to her trousers. With a steady breath and a full focussed mind, she passed the team of Carlos and stepped onto the pitwall. With a final glance around the garage, Matilde nodded to her team, a silent vow passing between them. Her eyes quickly found her family in the back of the garage and she also gave a nod to them.

It was time to shine.

* * *

Matilde and her press officer Thomaso were walking through the bustling grid of Monza. Every now and then she got stopped for a quick interview or an important guest who wanted to have a quick word with her. Once she reached her two cars, she talked to the engineers about some last minute changes.

Ferrari got a 2-3 at qualifying; Charles got P2 and Carlos P3. Max managed to set a better lap time with only a hundredth of a second. Checo got the fourth time and Fernando the fifth, but Checo and Fernando were not a threat to the top three - according to Red Bull and Ferrari. And despite Max's advantage, Matilde knew her drivers could pass him and possibly take the victory.

The national anthem blasted through the speakers. Matilde was standing next to Carlos' car, meaning she had a good view of the two red cars and the people around it. It was a beautiful, sunny day. It was a good day to race. She looked around; the Italian fans were singing the lyrics loudly, it was like an Italian team had already won. Matilde's gaze glided over the people on the grid; she saw a few of her former teammates, the reporters, important guests and of course, the board of Ferrari. They looked hopeful, but also judgemental and pretty majestic. Then her eyes fell on her family, who stood close to the two cars. Matilde smiled as her family also smiled. This was for what she had worked for.

After the national anthem, everyone was asked to leave the grid. Matilde managed to say a quick 'good luck' to both her drivers before walking off.

"Mati," Matilde's dad said, getting her attention in the bustling crowd. "Held og lykke," he said, wishing her good luck.

"Tak, far," she smiled. "See you soon, okay?" They were both walking towards the Ferrari garage.

"See you soon," he smiled, padding her shoulder.

They both entered the garage, but Matilde stayed with the mechanics. A nervous feeling flowed through her body as she stood between the people, all eyes were focused on the monitors. They all made sure their radios were working and on the right channel for the formation lap.

It was 15:00 and the cars roared to life, driving away from their position to begin the formation lap. Matilde felt a pang of excitement course through her veins. Everything looked good so far, and the engineers were communicating positively over the radio. The cars weaved from side to side, warming up the tyres. All the cars lined up again. The green flag was waved at the back of the grid.

The red lights popped on, one by one. With each light lightning up, the anticipation reached a fever pitch, the weight of the moment hanging heavy in the air. If everyone from this team would be monitored right now, the changes were big they all had to get examined by the high heart rate.

And then, it was lights out and away they go. Every car darted away from their position. Matilde's breath caught in her throat as she watched her drivers having a perfect start. The cars thundered down the straight, the engines screaming as they approached the first turn. Charles darted to the inside, making a bold opening move to try and snatch the lead from MaX, but Max defended fiercely, holding his line and shutting the door on Charles' advances. Carlos followed the top three. Meanwhile, Fernando seized the opportunity to slip past Checo, stealing fourth place. In the back of the grid, there were a few lockups and some cars had to dodge the other cars by taking another route. It was chaos. But everyone made it out alive. Matilde took a deep breath and made her way to the pitwall, taking her seat.

As the laps ticked by, Charles continued to put pressure on Max, hoping he could spot a weakness in Max' race to make a move. Charles managed to keep two seconds behind Max. Every corner was a battlefield, Charles pushing his Ferrari to the limit. Max defended his position with everything he had.

Carlos kept a watchful eye on his teammate, hoping he would find an opportunity to call for a swap. He maintained a consistent pace, staying a few seconds behind Charles, but wherever he could, he would close the gap. He didn't have to worry about Fernando passing him, since he was in a fierce fight with Checo ten seconds away.

The mandatory pit stops were made and it was all about finishing the race now. Matilde took a deep breath, one of the many she took this weekend. It felt like the race took forever. She could feel the eyes of the board burn in her back and she could feel the pressure of everyone's thoughts resting on her shoulders.

"Charles is struggling with the rears," Carlos observed and mentioned on the radio.

This was one of the many complaints about this race. Everyone was complaining or sharing an opinion. Everybody was stressed and felt the pressure of performing. Everybody had a short fuse. And it was irritating Matilde quite a lot. The way they all were working, wasn't like a 'normal' race. They knew they had to perform, they wanted to win, and currently, it didn't look like they would win.

"If Charles keeps going so slow, we will lose time on Verstappen. I can see Fernando in my mirrors," Carlos continued.

Matilde was still observing the data on her screens, analysing the data. In this instance, Carlos was neither entirely right nor entirely wrong. Fernando was indeed closing the gap since he got away from Checo, Max was indeed gaining time, but Carlos was simultaneously losing to Charles.

"What is Carlos doing?" Charles suddenly sneered, he couldn't contain his frustration anymore and decided to complain to the team. "Doing risky moves and all. He's trying to push me off the track?!" It was silent again.

Healthy stress and pressure.

"Keep focusing on your own race, please," Xavi said to Charles.

"Does he want us to lose the podium?"

"Negative," Xavi said again.

Matilde raised her eyebrows: negative? What kind of answer was that? It was a rhetorical question. She leaned back and crossed her arms in front of her chest, being impressed by the answer. But Xavi was right, Charles had to focus on his own race and not on Carlos' race. In this case, they couldn't help each other, and they had agreed on racing their own race.

"We are still on plan A," Xavi said to Charles, also letting the others know.

Riccardo, Carlos' engineer, opened the radio line to Carlos. "We are still on plan B."

"I feel like we are not racing anymore, but more like we're doing follow-the-leader," Carlos shared his thoughts.

Matilde bit her lip; the current strategy worked great on paper, but it didn't do much to the race pace. She had to adjust the strategy, but she wasn't a strategist anymore. She liked to think outside the box. It was unrealistic and nobody could afford it, but what if... She straightened her back and moved through different statistics, writing some notes down. They passed the first and only pitstop, there was no need to go with a second stop. Unless a safety car would deploy. But let's not assume that. Could she be that person to change the entire strategy? At least she could say that she tried everything to make her team win. Matilde reached for the radio button to transmit to both the drivers, the entire team and the TV producers.

It was now or never.

"Forget about the strategy," Matilde declared. Her announcement drew the attention of everyone. "You want to race, then race. Stay between the lines and don't crash," she said. All heads on the wall turned to her. "You are free to race each other. It's you and only you. Have fun racing."

Next chapter

Taglist: @itsjustkhaos@crashingwavesofeuphoria@maryvibess @chocolatefartstrawberry @snzleclerc @ironmaiden1313@blodwyn4u @sltwins @heart-trees

[theromanticrationalist]

Some Thoughts on Sheldon Cooper. . .

"Leonard, I am overwhelmed. Everything is changing and it is simply too much. I need to get away and think." | 7x24 The Status Quo Combustion

"Dr. Cooper, while you were away we came up with a solution that would allow you to change your field of study." "Wow. Pouting and running away actually worked! Yeah, I must say, that may not be the lesson you want to reinforce with me." | 8x02 The Junior Professor Solution

"I'm not leaving your world. I'm just talking about living across the hall." "I understand. Either way, I want you to know that I'm aware of how difficult I can be. So, I just want to say thank you for putting up with me." | 8x12 The Space Probe Disintegration

"It just seems silly to eat in two groups." "It doesn't seem silly if you think of that group as being lead by a big, evil baby." *a few moments later and everyone situated around the couch* "Well, isn't this nice. Sometimes the baby wins!" | 7x16 The Table Polarization

"Two years ago I got my driver's license." "What?! Why didn't you say anything?!" "I like being chauffeured around. It makes me feel important." | 10x16 The Allowance Evaporation

These are some of the moments where Sheldon shows a level of great self-awareness. I bring these moments up as showcasing that Sheldon's level of emotional maturity is much greater than his friends (and the writers of this show) give him credit for. One of the main problems is how the narrative often treats Sheldon as if he is completely incapable of growth, maturity, or taking care of himself. The truth couldn't be further from this. Even the narrative itself shows how much Sheldon changed during his relationship with Amy. The primary problem is that Sheldon's personality is so big and overwhelming, he doesn't HAVE to change because he is able to get everyone to do what he wants anyway, which he is fully aware of and exploits constantly. I mean if you are Sheldon, someone who has a mind sharper and faster than anyone you meet and prefer to have tight, tyrant-like control over your reality in order to feel safe and secure, pushing and manipulating people around to do your will is going to come naturally with the territory. The problem wasn't that Sheldon is a stunted adult who can't manage life on his own, but it is in the fact that Sheldon rarely got constructive and encouraging push back for his behaviors and choices. For when he did, which primarily came from Amy, he was fully capable of making corrections to his behaviors and expanding his worldview. It just ended up that he was either treated poorly and abusively or enabled and placated. That's why I really love the moment with Mrs. Davis when he comes back from his train-riding "sabbatical". Changing his field of study was a HUGE cataclysmic event in Sheldon's life and was one aspect that was causing him the greatest distress. Yet even in this reality-altering experience, Sheldon realizes that some of his responses to it weren't healthy, and makes a note of it with her, e.g. don't reward my childish behaviors because I will take FULL ADVANTAGE OF THEM. There was SUCH a missed opportunity there at the end of Season 7 going into Season 8. Penny realizing that she and Leonard needed to let Sheldon go, allowing him to make his own choices and do what he felt was right for him was a huge revelation for the characters. It was kind of a significant, paradigm shifting moment! I naively thought that they would build on that going forward in the show, but nah. Of course not. Any moments that would have allowed for such growth from all the characters were usually walked-back or dropped. It is such a shame, and makes the watching of this show frustrating for me. And yes! I know! I realize this is a sitcom! Why am I expecting such highbrow writing from something that is primarily supposed to be comedic and entertaining? Well, I think this subtext was implied in the narrative despite itself, especially with Jim Parsons. I think his acting conveys a lot of Sheldon's complexity through his body language and micro-expressions. There is SO MANY LAYERS to Parsons' performance, I just do not see how you couldn't possibly get wrapped up in dissecting them and having higher expectations of the narrative you are watching. Jim Parsons MAKES this show, otherwise what else would it offer?