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fluffyspaceball · 3 days ago

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Ok so the Addams genuinely do not care about people dying in the original series and movies also the hate for pugsley is dumb af because he grew up around murderers and man eating zombies so ofc he doesn't care??

Wednesday s2 part 2 spoilers before the cut

All I will say in general terms is that I spent 85% of part 2 not feeling great about where it was headed and the chances of it sticking the landing, and then the other 15% going, "oh shit they're actually cooking?!" and that 15% was pretty much at the most important parts.

Spoilery thoughts below in no particular order:

When Francoise referred to herself as "mommy" in the finale, I fucking hissed through my teeth. Hats off to the writers for going that route and giving us such an on-the-nose parallel.

Same for when she slapped Tyler. Like, such a casual plummet into freefall.

Also, can this kid get a break, please? He's 0/3 on parental figures so far. The bar is in hell for Morticia to clear.

Speaking of, wasn't a fan of Tyler immediately being forced back under the new antagonist's control. Wound up feeling like a slow retread of s1e8 and s2 part 1 where he's working for the bad guys, but the extent to his agency and input can't be parsed out from him being ordered around. I get it, because Isaac (and Francoise), and Dort, were the primary villains, so having Tyler around could make things overcrowed. But they essentially drip fed us just enough that his character wouldn't be accused of being put in timeout, development wise.

Which is a shame because Tyler was the most fascinating hook after s1, and he was still the most fascinating on paper in s2, and he wasn't quite put on ice until s3, but he definitely wasn't given enough of what I wanted.

At the very least, give him a more active role in this new familial dynamic with the long-lost uncle who is almost as evil as Thornhill added to the mix, instead of him being subservient and...not really seeming to care?

Like the whole "mommy" thing. That alone was enough to be it's own 1B plot with all of Tyler's past trauma. And we're barely given crumbs of it.

The body swap hurt my soul:

As someone with a non-existent tolerance for second-hand embarrassment, episode 6 was the most horrifying part of the show and one of the most uncomfortable things I've sat through. However, watching Ortega and Myers have fun miming each other's characters was great whenever I wasn't shrinking back from the second-hand cringe moments.

Ajax my beloved:

The ghosting subplot is still a bunch of teen drama garbage, but us Ajax girlies can't stop winning. I love this kid so much.

Only change re: Ajax is

1) he deserved more of a resposne to the ghosting thing and less excusing Enid's behavior,

and 2) I wish he'd grabbed or shoved Dort away from Bianca right before he stoned him. (Minor nitpick, just love when a character's protectiveness is very visceral and tactile. Also, Dort's downfall was too clinical. I wanted it RAW.)

But seriously Ajax is like a mid-C-tier, ancillary character in terms of screen time, but he steals my heart every time he's up there. With all the family drama and teen angst and revenge plots, it's refreshing having a character who is just good to the world. He's a stablizing, neutralizing ingredient that is very necessary to the tone.

Wenclair:

I was uninterested in Wenclair as a ship after s1 because it felt very basic bitch, for lack of a better word, with the black cat x golden retriever, grumpy x sunshine dynamics that people latched onto and ran with. (For my money, I was a WenClay girlie -- aka Wednesday/Bianca.)

But you know what. This season made me fine with Wenclair.

Do I ship it in my head? No, but I'm not really sure I ship Wednesday with anyone now. Her connection with Tyler has soooooo much to flesh out beyond it being explicitly romantic in nature -- they can still be unhinged and fucked up in their relationship to each other-- , so even my Wyler membership doesn't mean I'm in on Wednesday in a ship.

And like Tyler, Wednesday has her own kind of deep connection with Enid that maybe isn't romantic, but it doesn't have to be.

(Also, congrats to the shippers, because the body swap + Enid being an 'alpha' werewolf (iykyk) gave them so much material to work with lmao 💀)

New characters (Agnes and Isaac):

Agnes really grew on me as a character. I enjoyed her annoyingness in part 1, but then part 2 gave some character to it, and yeah. She's up there on my tier list when we see her real self! Love her dance number with Enid and their weird burying of the hatchet.

I'm torn and need time to digest how I feel about the Isaac plotline being connected to the Addams and everything.

As a villain, he's definitely my favorite in terms of style (the Victor Frankenstein aura is undefeated), but idk, I'm rarely a fan of such personal revenge plots like this, and having the villains and protagonists being related via this close of a past history. It almost feels like it overstuffed the season -- or is that just my pre-release expectations talking. There's the obvious theme about control and coercion going on with the dual plots of Tyler being recontrolled and Dort/Bianca manipulating everyone, so taking away the Tyler aspect might run counter to that element.

For now, I think the season got too big. Or maybe that's just on me preconceived expectations.

My favorite stuff was when things were slower, quieter, more character focused, and less on the teen angst drama, Addams family drama (which I could not be assed to care about at all), and Isaac rushing around without a care in the world. So I didn't like the vast majority of the content, pretty much, is what I'm saying lol. Or that I liked it less.

Like, I get why they have the overarching villain with his master plan who is very clearly the bad guy and supposed to be defeated, but the series has also offered up enough meat on the bone that would have more room to be explored:

Outcast/normie relations

Hydes as a species being the outcast of outcasts, to the point any knowledge of them is struck from existence

Hydes as a metaphor for DID

The demonization of mental health, and how it leads to people being abused by the institutions supposed to help them

Honeslty this is me reaching too high for what is a very high budget teen drama, lol.

But s1 had kernels of Wednesday being a social justice warrior in the most fair definition of the word. She was unafraid of calling out institutional and societal norms that were wrong, normalized, and painted over with a glossy, faux sheen.

A mental institution having a blacksite for human experimentation that ran for decades? Wednesday would be all up in that shit tearing it down.

Hydes as a species being treated as inherently evil? Well that's just bigotry and racism.

Tangling with a cult leader? Wedneday Addams doesn't put up with bullshit, and especially the nice-sounding packaged ones.

Wyler/Tyler section:

My inner Wyler girlie roared in triumph when Wednesday freed him in the finale. Also, his little facial tick when Isaac buries her alive.

The inverted callback to him grabbing her by the throat in the s1 finale when she was in Enid's werewolf and choking him out was just chef's kiss. And then he returns the favor again at the skull tree.

Non-sexual choking kink, these two. It's enrichment for them.

Tyler referring to his Hyde as "his power" and that he likes having this freedom makes me hopeful for the future exploration of his character and Hyde-ness. Not that only Wednesday would feel that way, but it's a very Wednesday perspective that this horrible monster everyone else hates and fears is his "power" and "freedom". (Ignoring her pointed and biased feelings towards Hydes thanks to his impact on her.)

Morticia straight up saying "don't court the monster" (emphasis mine).

The Donovan hallucination in the sewers was unexpected, but I appreciate being given this material to work with.

(Hint hint: I am writing a different take of that scene, as I did Tyler's intro scene in episode 2, to flesh out some aspects of his character that can't be conveyed on screen easily.)

Tyler and Bianca being the only ones who are referred to as being 'groomed' set off my brainworms, as someone who'd turned over the idea pre-s2 of Bianca being one of the first people who might see through Tyler's walls due to her own past with being manipulated by a maternal figure. Unfortunately, that potential dynamic has sailed 💔

I hate Pugsley Addams so much:

Pugsley's culpability with the zombie/Isaac is pissing me off so much, and it makes me hate his character. Stupid twerp.

I'm no expert on the og Addams Family lore (which, to my understanding, this series had already taken a marked step away from said lore), but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be okay with their pet zombie murdering a bunch of innocent people. Like, they were weird and macabre and dark, but they weren't willfully dismissive of people's lives being lost because of their actions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but just every time I see Pugsley defend Slurp, I think about he 100% deserves prison time as accessory to manslaughter, and then murder. (Manslaughter before he knew Slurp would eat people, murder for after he knew and kept protecting Slurp.)

"But I just wanted a friend :("

BITCH YOUR FRIEND IS MURDERING A BUNCH OF PEOPLE AND YOU'RE EXCUSING IT.

So yeah, Pugsley easy F-tier character wise. I want to curb stomp him.

My other writing idea:

is for a canon divergence in the epilogue where Tyler shoots down the music teacher's offer and heads off on his own as he is finally able to escape Jericho only once all of his family -- both those he thought dead and those who were alive before he got locked up -- has died. He then happens to run across Enid (still trapped in werewolf form) along the way, and they strike up this weird dynamic where they still hate each other, but after everything that's been done to Tyler, he gets Enid's current predicament.

Like, he's taking joy in her suffering, but also he begrudingly admits to himself that it'd be a fucking nightmare if he was stuck in Hyde form all the time.

(Yes ik the epilogue said Enid is near the Canadian border, but also I don't care.)

Misc thoughts about scene crafting:

I've grown really tired of how Wednesday's dialogue is written. It's to the point that my eyes glaze over when I can feel another snappy, 'edgy' one-liner/analogy coming up.

It's giving fanfic writer vibes who have to make everything snappy and memorable, which then only dilutes the product into a flat grey.

Using generic chase music for the scene of Tyler in the hospital is a poor decision. Same for him going after Enid in the woods. Lean into the horror/tension elements. The music as is gives a feeling of excitement and fast-paced-ness. GIVE ME THE DREAD OF THIS HORRIBLE MONSTER BEING NEAR THE PROTAGONISTS.

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