#neither romantic nor endgame but very much there and fun to explore

[naiad-r]

Leblanc!Jayce & Mel

I was going through Arcane frame by frame and found these. Had fun drawing.

Fun fact (not): Everyone whose form Leblanc was taking are dead.

[whoreiorcats]

we want your thoughts as to where gemma would go from here btw xx

OK so. if you really want to know what I WANT to happen, read the stone.

I don't necesarily think that everything I wrote here will come true, but I do believe some kind of dynamic between Helly and/or Helena and Gemma will be explored next season. We have the Helly/Helena switcheroo set up and Gemma is outside, so it feels natural enough.

I could see Gemma having sympathy for Helena (somehow we would get there, trust) and that being used to help guide the general audience (which is still largely dubious on Helena) into also feeling that way.

The parallels between them were how I came to appreciate Helena's character a lot more than I had before. Among the non-nuance fucker tumblr audience, Gemma seems to be a favorite and garners basically 100% sympathy, so that might have to be the gateway into Helena for the normals (I don't think that's a bad thing, per se).

Outside of that, I really hope that Gemma gets to be somewhat outside of the characterization we've already seen for her. Her environment is neither the familiar world of her pre-Lumon life nor is it the monotony/horror of her Lumon life.

She is naturally going to be in a very unstable, unpredictable environment where it feels like she could be recaptured or assassinated at any moment and there is much to be done still to fight back against those who imprisoned her. She really should respond to this scenario differently than she did the other two.

I could see her being a bit hardened, but I do want her to remain Gemma. I really don't want her to react to the situation the exact same way Mark has (which I have seen some people suggest as an interesting option, I simply disagree) because A) she has very different baggage and characteristics than mark, and B) that would be boring because we would be retreading old ground.

If the shoe was on the other foot, if Mark's death had been faked and Gemma left on the surface, I don't believe she would have severed (tho I do need to read that one fic where she did because undeniably it's a fun concept). I don't think she would/will be unaffected by Mark's absence from her life, but she will react in her own "extraordinary" way, imo.

I think her having way more sympathy/empathy for the innies than any of the other "outies" would make a lot of sense--she should be able to relate to them in a way no one else can. She could be an advocate on their behalf, even though she is wanting to have her husband back--great opportunity for angst and drama. I think she makes a lot of sense as someone who can keep a level head and her morals about her even in an extreme situation like this.

I particularly would love to see her still being the rock for her in laws and eventually getting really fucking tired of it and trying to do her own thing, whatever that might be fucking helena eagan who said that?

Long term, I don't want her and Mark to just be married again and that's it; I think it would be very weird if we just returned to the pre-canon status quo. Again, if you want to know what I really want, it's in the stone (or will be eventaully), what I think could happen is pretty different (tho I am eternally hopeful).

I really truly think endgame markgemhel is not off the table in the slightest. If Gemma ends up single or not in any way with Mark (also fully on the table imo), I think Dan must have something interesting planned for her. I hope hope hope, anyway. I am fairly positive she will survive to the end of the series (I am not sure if Hellyna or Mark S/cout are as safe), at this point it would be insane and annoying to kill her off, so I think it's a no on that front.

Sometimes I think I'm fucking crazy, sometimes I think endgame GemmaHellyna is fully plausible and even foreshadowed and inevitable, but we'll see. They're just perfect reflections/inversions of the other, it will be complete waste if SOME kind of relationship (romantic, platonic, worse) between them is not explored.

This is a weird side thing but I kind of don't want her to kill Mauer, like with her own hands or actions. I think she has proven herself to be a badass and someone (idk Cobel) could kill him for her. I do want her to live in a Mauerless world, I just also think she deserves a break.

And in so far as reintegration, I wonder if that is even possible for her? My guess is yes but it will be a lot more complicated--which is on top of an already dangerous procedure. I could see them OTCing one of her innies to fuck with her and the anti-Lumon resistance and reintegration being the only way to resurface "Gemma". Rebel/Coghabi team up? Three ladies with PhDs work it out :))))))) life could be dream

I think that is all of my future Gemma thoughts!

[wordssometimesfail]

An Extremely Belated and Unasked-For Dissection of the HIMYM Finale

So, I recently hung out with a teenage cousin of mine. He told me that he had just discovered How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, and was a couple of episodes away from the series finale. Since the show’s been finished for a while and the internet fallout was so prolific, I asked him if he’d been spoiled for the ending. He said no, but then began insisting that I tell him what happens. 10-15 minutes of begging later, I finally relented and gave him a bullet-point summary of the finale. 

He burst out laughing, said I was a bad liar, and asked for the real ending. 

Instead of digging in my heels, I shrugged and told him he’d just have to watch it, so, y’know, that’ll be hilarious. But it got me thinking. 

I, like everyone else, felt so fucking betrayed by the ending of HIMYM. Because it affected me so much, in fact, I became a bit obsessed with it. I went back to the show not long after the finale aired, just to watch old episodes again. This was partially because it had been a “comfort watch” for me for so long, and partially because I felt a deep-seated need to dissect the show as a whole. 

And the thing is, if you rewatch the show with the ending in mind, it is very easy to see that they kept the ending in their heads the entire time. It’s decently, if subtly, foreshadowed. While the characters’ behaviour in the finale is frustrating, it is actually fairly consistent with their established personalities. And the misogynistic subtext of the finale was, unfortunately, a mainstay of the show long before that point. We gave C&C a lot of shit at the time for the ending coming out of nowhere, but outside of a few minor timeline/continuity issues, honestly? It didn’t. The groundwork was laid, and the clues were there all along.

So... why did it feel unearned? Why did almost no one see it coming, even avid, weekly watchers? Why does it sound so much like a bad lie? 

I think the main problem came in when the showrunners realized that they were likely not going to be cancelled until the story was done. If you look at the first 4 seasons, you can see where they left themselves lifelines to complete Ted’s story if the plug were preemptively pulled: 

Cancelled in Season 1 - Victoria becomes the Mother. Robin and Ted have feelings for one another, but because of timing and circumstance, they never pull the trigger. The audience was (presumably) rooting for them all season, so seeing them end up together years after Victoria’s death is satisfying, and feels like the resolution of years-long tension. You CAN love again after losing a beloved partner! (In hindsight, considering the ending they went with, I kinda wish the series had ended here.) 

Cancelled in Season 2 - Robin and Ted break up earlier than they do in-show. Ted meets the Mother at Marshall and Lily’s wedding, which also happens earlier than it does in-show. While in this timeline the audience HAS seen Robin & Ted as a couple and there is less UST to resolve, the toxicity of their relationship has not yet been explored, so seeing them get back together has more of a “they’re finally ready for each other” feel. 

Cancelled in Season 3 or 4 - Stella becomes the Mother. The “Shelter Island” wedding ends in a reception and a honeymoon, and the pacing is drastically altered. Again, Robin & Ted have not really relapsed in this timeline - they broke up and are both miserable about it, regretting what they did but both being too proud to admit as much, until it’s too late and Ted has fallen for someone else. The Barney/Robin hookup in S3 makes this a bit messier, but basically works. The rift caused by their hookup (+ Robin begging Ted not to marry Stella before the ceremony) kicks off the dissolution of the gang, and either...

Barney doesn’t catch feelings in this timeline and that’s the end of it.

Barney doesn’t catch feelings, but they continue a FWB relationship that eventually implodes as Robin realizes she wants what she had with Ted again, she can’t do casual anymore. 

Barney does catch feelings, but upon accepting that Robin will always be pining for someone else, “relapses” and goes for the Perfect Month. (This one works whether they do the FWB thing or not.)  

Ultimately, the tragedy of poor timing strikes again, and there is still some narrative satisfaction to the Ted/Robin endgame. 

Barney’s finale plotline (unplanned daughter changing his life) would’ve worked if the show had ended at any of these points, since Barney’s secret desire for romance & family wasn’t really explicitly explored until later. Marshall & Lily’s finale plotline (ascent into picket-fence bliss at the expense of their beloved status quo) works no matter what, mainly because that was their overarching plotline for the entire show. 

While the original ending concept was showing its wear as we approached the end of the actual S4, there was still some time to salvage it after this. The death knell came, not when Barney expressed romantic interest in Robin, but when Robin returned that interest. 

And this isn’t about to turn into a screed about how Swarkles should’ve been endgame! Upon rewatching the show, I actually like Swarkles a lot more in theory than I do in practice - the showrunners went out of their way to make the pairing seem great, but act toxic. They have FANTASTIC moments, but those moments are strung together by poor communication, self-destruction, and Robin at her most insufferable (her desperate attempts at getting Barney to like her again in the first half of S8 were... *shudders*). They, much the same as Ted and Robin, are clearly shown to Not Work. 

Even so, from the S4 finale onward, the show began to build toward Barney and Robin’s wedding, and that killed the planned ending. I say this began at the end of S4 because, as I said before, it isn’t until Robin explicitly returns Barney’s feelings that Swarkles becomes a threat to Ted/Robin - or, at least, a threat as perceived by the audience. Beyond the fact that this inadvertently turned Swarkles into a fan-favourite pairing, and was a large part of why the ending was poorly-received, it effectively changes the story. 

Before canon Robin/Barney, no one other than Ted was really presented as a viable romantic option for Robin. She wasn’t interested in getting serious with anyone else, she didn’t have that electric connection with anyone else. In S1′s “Zip, Zip, Zip”, Robin turns Barney down (despite him offering the casual, fun fling she purports to want) because she’s hung up on Ted. In S3, Robin sleeps with Barney but is uninterested in doing so again, and her attentions are quickly back on Ted (though at this point it’s more unspoken). No matter who Robin hooked up with, even when it was another principal character in the ensemble cast, the primary tension was always between her and Ted. But as soon as she develops real, romantic feelings for Barney, that tension is gone. 

And it... never really came back in the same way. 

Other than their FWB arrangement in S4′s “Benefits” and a couple of near-misses later, Robin and Ted are not involved again until the end of the series. In fact, in “Benefits”, neither Ted nor Robin are interested in taking their relapse further - they only want casual sex, and are so romantically disinterested in one another that Ted ends the arrangement for Barney’s sake in the same goddamn episode. Though Ted does express that he still has feelings for Robin as early as S5, at no point does she reciprocate in any meaningful way. All of the romantic tension between them after the fact is one-sided. Robin is no longer romantically interested in Ted by approximately the midpoint of Season 4, her attentions are firmly on Barney (and later, other serious romantic interests) by the end of Season 4, and she isn’t interested in Ted again until the final episodes of the show. 

The problem here isn’t that Robin had other serious romantic relationships, but that Ted was no longer a serious option in her mind for so much of the show’s run. Starting in S6, the wedding build starts in earnest, meaning that for four whole seasons (S6, S7, S8, and S9), the audience knows that someone is getting married. We’re told that Ted meets the Mother at the wedding, so there’s Zero chance of any of his relationships working out during that 4-season period - the tension is gone from his love-life, because we know that we’re waiting and we know what we’re waiting for. Suddenly, Robin and Barney are the center of the romantic tension of the show, and... Robin hasn’t been interested in Ted for a year. She and Barney are involved in a love quadrangle plot of which Ted is only an observer. By the time it’s confirmed, it’s painfully obvious that Robin is the bride at the foretold wedding, even with Barney’s red-herring girlfriends tossed in the mix. We spend all of Season 8 building up to the wedding. We spend all of Season 9 on the wedding weekend. Barney and Robin actually address the more toxic aspects of their relationship, and resolve to work on them (something Ted and Robin never actually did). We meet the Mother, and spend a season gleefully building up to the Mother meeting Ted. 

Remind me... why are we supposed to want Ted and Robin to get together in the end? 

There are other issues with the finale that bother me, but are not the focus of this rant as I don’t think they’re the Biggest Problem:  

The gang was always going to drift apart, but they seem to stay in frequent contact with one another in flash-forwards that we see earlier in the show. This is... not super supported by the finale. (Ex. If [roughly] kindergarten-age Luke and Penny drew pictures of times they hung out with Aunt Robin, why does the finale imply they barely got to know her until after their mother passed?)  

We knew for several seasons that Barney DID want a wife & kids, he was just afraid to admit it or pursue it because he thought he was too far gone. Yet we’re supposed to believe that his “relapse” after his breakup with Robin was him going back to the “real Barney”, and that despite having had 3 meaningful, serious romantic relationships throughout the series, one of which led to a marriage, he could not be arsed to so much as learn the name of the mother of his child. Despite getting 4 seasons of significant character development re: vulnerability, love, and relationships, he is supposed to have learned nothing, and changed not a whit. (NPH’s stance on this, that you may “want” Barney to change but some people don’t change, is... lame, imho, since we didn’t just want Barney to change, we were told and shown that he was actively changing, even if he wasn’t fully there yet.) 

On that same note, the fact that Barney didn’t “really” change until his daughter was born implies that things might’ve worked out with Robin if she’d been able to bear him children. Also, implies that his speech to his mom about how Robin means more to him than the possibility of having children was insincere or at least misguided. Gross. 

We all know about the Mother = Uterus shit, and while I don’t necessarily dislike the idea of the Mother having been dead all along, the idea that Ted and Robin couldn’t be happy together either until some other woman bore Ted’s children is also gross. 

In general, super sexist, and it’s not a twist when you directly contradict what you have told/shown your audience. It’s bad writing. 

But with all that said, if the show had ended somewhere between Seasons 1-4 (with minor to major tweaks - *reluctantly salutes*), the planned ending would have been fine. At least, it would’ve been fine with regard to Ted/Robin (and Barney’s character). The tension between them was still there, they still had audience support, and it made sense that, after all that buildup, Ted’s kids would be hoping for some closure to his tumultuous relationship with their Aunt. The problem is that, in the show as written... Ted and Robin do get closure. Ted, just like Tracy, is able to let go of the love that has consumed him and arrested his romantic development for so long, and that is what finally opens him up to meeting the love of his life. His relationship with Robin, even the unrequited mess it became later, not only led him to the Mother, it made him ready for the Mother. When he shuts Robin down in the penultimate episode of the show, Ted closes the door on that chapter of his life. That’s the closure. That’s the resolution of the Ted/Robin tension.  

And that’s a huge part of why the ending feels flaccid. They attempt to resurrect a dynamic that no longer holds any narrative weight - Robin pining after Ted in a happy relationship, lamenting what she’s lost, is not only something that we’ve seen before, it’s something we’ve seen Robin get over before. She didn’t realize “too late” what she had with Ted, or what she could have had. She had it, lost it, mourned it... then decided she didn’t want or need it again, and found something new with someone else. They wanted to throw the audience off the scent, but by killing all the tension between their endgame couple, and spending literal years building up relationships between other characters, they destroyed any momentum that that storyline had in the first place. They told a will-they/won’t-they story, and while there were moments where they subtly hinted that “they will”, more than half their text was dedicated to showing their audience, “no they won’t”. 

In the Season 2 episode “Something Blue”, Barney hears that Ted and Robin have something to tell everyone. When he begs them to tell him, they give him a story piece by piece detailing what happened. With each part of the story he gets, Barney guesses how it ends. Every time he guesses, Ted smiles wryly and tells him, “the story’s not over”. This implies to Barney and the audience that each of Barney’s guesses is wrong, because he doesn’t have all the information yet. 

Except... Barney does correctly guess the end of the story. He guesses that Ted and Robin broke up, Ted smiles wryly, says “the story’s not over”, and proceeds to continue to tell it, only for the story to, in fact, end with his and Robin’s breakup. 

This plot is emblematic of the problem with the end of How I Met Your Mother. One of the biggest running themes of the show is that until a story is over, you can’t turn it into a narrative. You don’t have the full picture, you don’t know who the bad or good guy is, you don’t know what story you’re living. Barney doesn’t know what story he’s being told until it’s over - except he does. And because Ted isn’t finished telling the whole story, he implies to Barney that he’s wrong. He throws him off, so he can end the story on his own terms. That’s what the showrunners of HIMYM did, too. They wanted so badly to tell the story as they conceived it, but in order to keep that ending as a twist, they couldn’t telegraph it too obviously. This, to them, meant throwing the audience so far off the scent of their plan that they obscured their plan, that they deflated the central narrative, made it look like there was no way it would happen, because we were being made to look in another direction. No, we clearly didn’t have the whole story. But we had the story that was unfolding before us, one where Robin didn’t want Ted romantically anymore, one where Barney was trying so, so hard to be better, one where Ted needed to let go in order to be happy. And that story doesn’t feel complete when it ends the way that it does, because the ending we got is the end of the story we saw in Season 1. 

The story we saw in Season 1 was of a man who hopelessly pined after a woman who loved him back, but wasn’t in a place to reciprocate the way he wanted. Years later, they reconnect and are finally able to make it work. That’s the story that HIMYM thought they were telling. But, because they never got cancelled and got free reign to tell this story for as long as they wanted, and because they didn’t want us to guess that darn twist, they gave us a whole whack of misdirections, plot threads, and character growth that ultimately gets nullified to make way for the ending of the “real” story. There is no momentum carrying us to the finale as planned, because the finale as planned was meant to be the ending to a much shorter tale. 

Everything else was just filler. 

[jules889-blog]

My problem with Stydia

Stydia was established from day one through Stiles' crush on Lydia. The dynamic was so interesting that it even helped set up both their characters on the show. In other words, Stydia helped build up Stiles and Lydia characterization through their interactions. This is what a good relationship development on a show does, it builds character not only when paired together but also on their own. This was done very well between Scott and Stiles in the first season. From Sciles we learnt that Scott is not the smartest person but ultimately he's sweet and caring (much like the ever lovable Joey from Friends). Similarly, Stydia punctuated who Stiles and Lydia were. Stiles as the funny, awkward, bumbling, obsessively loyal "Robin" to everyone else's "Batman" and Lydia was self-assured but also  insecure, she wanted to feel appreciated but also wanted to stand on her own two high-heeled feet.  Stydia is undeniably important to both characters on the show because it created multiple levels to their personality outside of other pairings on the show. Without that dynamic, Stiles would have just been 'the best friend'  and Lydia would have been the 'self-absorbed prom queen'. The fact that Stydia is real is undisputed, they have always had that "connection". The question here is 'is Stydia romantic or platonic?'

This is a relationship that could have gone either way. If Stydia was endgame, Jeff Davis should have cashed out on the development a long time ago, way back in Season 3B when Lydia and Stiles were starting to build up a friendship and Lydia could be seen developing feelings for Stiles (the red string, the staring, leaning on each other for support, staying back with him when he passed out). Jeff could even have done it after their first kiss which could have been passed off as Lydia actually wanting to kiss Stiles because she was starting to develop feelings for him. Instead, time went by, nothing happened until Stalia and we could only assume that the kiss was just to calm his panic attack and there was absolutely no romantic feelings behind it after all. The fact that Jeff Davis is now claiming it was always his intention all along cheapens all character development that both characters had after the kiss (and let's be honest, there wasn't much development since Season 3 to begin with).

If Jeff didn't want Stydia to happen then he should have stuck to his guns and kept it that way. The rush to push Stydia in 6A now seems forced and much like fanservice that doesn't even please its fans because they've run out of time to properly develop it (what with Dylan O'Brien leaving). It is almost impossible to develop a romantic onscreen relationship when half of its participants isn't there. Not to mention most of the fanbase isn't there anymore either. 

I was 13/14 when Teen Wolf first came out in 2011 and as a straight, white girl who was just discovering my sexuality, I hopped onto the Stydia train along with my group of friends with whom I used to watch the show. Growing up we weren't big on computers so we weren't involved in the online fandom but we had our own little Stydia ship happening. Fast forward a few years and my friends all slowly lost interest in the ship and the show, leaving me as the only one left watching the decimation of this once beloved show which was a huge part of my teenage years.

  I'll admit, Stalia completely destroyed any interest I had in the Stydia. I would have been happy if neither of them ever ended up dating anyone as long as they were happy and had strong characterisations. Why give them a relationship for the sake of having a relationship without any real substance? The fact that Jeff is pushing Stydia together now after most of its fanbase is no longer invested just reeks of desperation to keep the few fans who remain. This, to me, is not only an insult to the fans who have stayed in hopes that the show will again become what it once was but also an insult to himself. He is hanging himself and ridiculing all the work he has done in the past by devolving into fanservice and ridiculous plotlines. 

It also shows just how incapable Jeff is of actually creating strong, original content that keeps up with the ever-changing fans. As I said, I grew up watching the show, I now have more opinions on the show than I ever had before and am now starting to think for myself. The problem is that the show just refuses to grow with me. I see Jeff throwing new writers and characters at the show in hopes that something will stick. What he should have done is gone back to the characters that made the show successful (Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Derek, Isaac, Deaton, the mamas and papas, etc.) and developed those characters. This show has been on air for six years... it could have been very sentimental to the audience if they got to see the characters grow with them (this is the reason Harry Potter has kept its audience throughout the years). This is also the reason Stiles in the FBI was such a success with the few remaining fans (even though it made no sense at all). It was poorly written and had no business being in the (already screwed up) timeline but for once, we actually got to see some development that we've been itching for instead of the constant stalemate.

That said, fans have to accept that Jeff is not obligated to make a ship canon just because a fanbase wants it to happen. He is the creator after all, he has the right to decide which artistic direction his show should take. However, the same can be said for the fans... if the show no longer caters to our interests, we are not obligated to keep watching. This in no way makes you a 'bad fan' (a term I hear the Stydia shippers using more and more lately) nor does it make your past eperience with the show any less valid. It simply is what it is... and that leads me onto the next thing that bothers me about this show, Tyler Posey.

Although I was a Stydia fan in the beginning and I never picked up any other ship, Tyler Posey's comment on "watching the show for the wrong reason" really rubs me the wrong way. There is absolutely no right or wrong reason to watch a show. The audience can watch the show for any reason they choose. They don't even have to like a show to be invested in it. Sure, most people watch a show because they enjoy the plot but you can go in the extreme opposite and be invested in the show because of how bad it is. A show can be so bad that is keeps you entertained (God knows that's the only reason to watch Jaws 4). The fact that Posey thinks he can dictate the reason we should watch 'his' show is not only immature but also extremely misguided. It is not his place to tell a fan that they can't watch the show because they want to see Stiles or Derek (or a romantic Sterek). Heck, it's also none of his concern is a person is watching the show for a guest star or a recurring character like Danny or Coach or even Deucalion. Any reason to watch a show is valid if it makes you want to watch it. Don't get me started on the "twisted, weird and bizarre" comment because that is plain insulting to the show's dedicated fans. Oddly, he never stopped to think that maybe he should be encouraging any reason to watch the show. It doesn't matter how small or inconsequential it seems to him as long as they are watching 'his' show. He is the main character of this show and he has staked his professional reputation on it. Surely it is more important that 'his' show is successful even if it turns out to be a collaborative effort.

This brings me to the other actors in this ship... Holland Roden and Dylan O'Brien. To be honest, the actors just don't seem invested in the relationship. Like I said earlier, I never used to pay attention to fandom and behind the scenes interviews. It was not until the show really started to decline in quality (ahem, Season 4) that I started wondering "what the hell is going on?" and decided to look it up. From looking at cast interviews, I have come to the conclusion that Holland Roden's perspective has always been 'I don't care about about Stydia, but I'll do it if I have to'. On the other hand, it is Dylan O'Brien's attitude throughout the years that has had a massive change. At first, he was very interested, his attitude towards the romance was 'yes, give Stiles a romantic interest. I would love to act on the romance'. In one interview he said, "it will happen one day". Then along came Stalia and it seemed like he was ready to move on to other potential directions that his character could go and his attitude towards Stydia changed into 'it could be fun if it happens but I'm also willing to explore any other relationship'. Fast forward another year and he came off as 'I don't care about this anymore. It's time to move on from not only Stydia but also the show'. 

Normally, I don't care about whatever is going on behind the scenes, and I don't care about how an actor feels about their character as long as they portray it well (Harrison Ford can hate Han Solo as much as he wants, he portrayed that character too well for me to do so). The difference here is that Stydia was very poorly executed by both cast members. Holland and Dylan are both very good actors and have both given a solid performance throughout the past seasons (despite the horrible scripts as the seasons progressed). Despite their acting ability, neither of them were able to sell the relationship at all.

This begs to question, if even the actors could tell that the relationship had lost momentum, why couldn't Jeff Davis (the creator/ writer/ producer/ god of all things good and evil on heaven and earth? I don't even know what he is anymore) realise that this story arc had missed its opportunity and is no longer feasible? Who thought that the best way to develop one of the most demanded ships on the show was to have them kiss, look at each other then never do anything about it ever again? In what universe could this have possibly ended in any other way besides disappointment?