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I always love me some

the legendary screenshots in video form

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Why they cancelled Swamp Thing 😔 man I hope HBO really does pick it up

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So, um… Episode 7 of Swamp Thing.

I am completely and utterly in love with this episode. It’s my favourite one so far. But then again I say that to myself every week. They just keep getting better and better. Every second is enthralling.

Honestly, my mind is racing. Forgive me if I misremember a scene or two. These rants/ramblings are always written after my blind reaction. I’ve barely had time to process all this.

First of all, the casual greeting between Abby and Alec, after he’s seemingly back to normal, is so innocent and sweet.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

It’s like they’re meeting for the first time, on the school playground. Two shy children trying to make a new friend.

I wonder if, for a split second, they had both thought Alec had been magically cured. I think Alec always doubted this sudden change, he could sense that something about his body was still ‘wrong’, but Abby… she seemed hopeful. Which makes it all the more disheartening.

Alec is obviously different now, after the ordeal he’s been through. Even in his 'human form’, he’s a shadow of his former self. He seems like a broken, empty shell. So lost, so tired… Did he always have those bags under his eyes?

Still, he tries to be upbeat and put on a show, when he throws up his hands and says “Can I get you anything?”

Always thinking of her wellbeing.

He’s still learning about what he can do, when he accidentally summons the fruit tree. The good- no, the life he can create. Alec has always had good intentions, and the swamp reacts to his need to help Abby, even something as minuscule as serving up food. I like how his summoning ability is utilised later on.

Throughout the episode, Alec comes off as damaged by what he’s seen - the Rot has shaken him. But he’s also equally amazed by the Green, the beauty of its creations, and how it’s beyond science. The walk through the wild flowers is a wonderful scene. I love the way Abby looks at Alec, she’s enchanted by his physical presence and every word he breathes. This whole new world he’s introducing her to is mesmerising.

I think, even though he explained his return as a hallucination, a small part of her believes it to be real, and yearns for him to stay this way forever. Seeing him as his old self, it’s given her a taste of the future she’s been striving for. It’s lit a spark in Abby, that has erupted into burning flames of determination, she keeps pushing forward, seeking every avenue for a cure. She’s willing to go deeper into the area affected by the Rot, despite Alec’s warnings and how visually afraid he is, just to get a sample, that might not even have medical value to his situation.

She’s willing to risk her life to save him.

When she’s attacked by the tendril, and they rush back to the lab, Alec is distraught by how much agony she’s in. This is exactly what he didn’t want to happen. It’s like a waking nightmare. He wants nothing more than to take away the pain but he doesn’t know what to do. He’s barely scratched the surface of the Green and his abilities.

When Abby suggests a solution, a plant that can help, and encourages him to summon it, I love the way Alec buries his chin in her shoulder and forces his eyes shut - by establishing that connection, be grounding himself and melting against her body, he can channel his thoughts to the Green far easier. Because for a moment, they’re one, all he can feel is her pain and every part of him is screaming for help, to forces his doesn’t quite understand.

The miracle plant that they need bursts through the window, therefore bringing the episode full circle. The bush overcomes his old shelf of beakers - the same one he ran his hand over the previous episode - perhaps to symbolise that his old work and life of science is now being pushed aside, for his new role as protector of the Green?

A war takes place in Abby’s body, between the Rot and the Green (the visuals in this scene are excellent, the two distinguishable colours coursing through her veins, respresenting both sides of the fighting, are disturbing but also hauntingly beautiful) and Alec uses his powers to assist the cure, and save her life.

And then we arrive at my favourite part of the episode. After the 'war’ in her arm is won by the Green, Abby wakes up, tucked up in bed, with Alec cleaning her wound. He’s so happy to see her safe and alive, that welcoming smile he offers her is more than enough to represent that overwhelming joy.

Abby places her hand on his, and sees the hallucination distort, but doesn’t pull away. She’s not repulsed by his swamp form.

The spores are wearing off. Alec is disappointed when he dryly mutters “It was fun to be Alec Holland for a day.”

Abby wants him to come closer, and he obliges.

I love every word of the dialogue here.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. All we have is right here, right now.”

Even if this moment can’t last, she wants, more than anything, to make it special.

Abby closes the gap between them and kisses Alec. This short kiss caused my heart to shatter.

Alec looked so incredibly broken when she pulled away, he didn’t know what to do, what to say, what to think. His breath hitched, he was ready to cry. But instead, he rested his cheek on her head, his face saying a thousand words. He’s in love. He wants to be with her, so, so, so badly.

But he can’t.

He’s not 'the charming man’ he used to be. He doesn’t feel like Alec anymore. He doesn’t feel like he can offer her a life that he desperately wants for them both. Because he’s not human.

This leads into the final scene between Abby and Alec, where he finally reverts back to Swamp Thing in the eyes of Abby, and the viewer as well. He’s beginning to accept his role as the Avatar of the Green. After almost losing Abby, he doesn’t want her to get involved with this 'war’ he’s destined to be a part of. He has to let her go, as much as it physically pains him to do so.

After trying to fight for him, she says goodbye, through a touch to his shoulder, unafraid to connect with him when he’s Swamp Thing, and leaves on the boat, in tears.

But despite Alec losing hope, she’s still going to keep pushing for a cure, by taking that sample back to Atlanta. In order to save the man she loves.

I’m intrigued to see where their relationship goes from here, since Swamp Thing has pushed Abby away, in order to fight alone. With only 3 episodes left, I hope they aren’t separated for long. Abby won’t stay in Atlanta, I guarantee it. And Swamp Thing… I don’t think he truly wants her gone.

Now that their love for one another has been fully established… They’ll be together again.

Very soon.

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SDCC 2013 | SDCC 2019

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mood

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Have a Keanu enthusiastically pointing at your profile pic!

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Can we do it?

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Crowley + being a dramatic bitch

Good Omens (2019)

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And then I hop into bed for a nap!

me getting home after doing the bare minimum 

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me: gimme lucifer season 5

netflix: we literally just gave you a whole season

me: yea but i finished that

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Friendly reminder that this blog is pro-choice and if you don’t think a woman should have full control of her own body, then kindly unfollow me right now and go to hell

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Lucifer: Hey do you think I could fit fifteen marshmallows in my mouth?

Dan: You’re a hazard to society.

Ella: And a coward. Do twenty.

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Humiliation As Punishment. Or; why Chloe Decker does not need to beg forgiveness.

In the three weeks since season four of Lucifer dropped, there’s been a rather visceral reaction to the main storyline - that of Chloe Decker coming to terms with the fact that her partner is literally the Devil. Some viewers who have spent three seasons identifying with Lucifer’s journey out of a perpetual adolescence and into adulthood seem to feel extremely betrayed by where she begins the season. And to that, I have only one comment.

Good.

You’re supposed to feel betrayed. Absolutely devastated. Because that is what Lucifer is feeling and if the show has managed to evoke that kind of visceral, emotional reaction, then it has done it’s job.

However, the reaction that some fans seem to have come to is that, in order for Chloe to earn forgiveness and redeem herself she should quite literally “grovel” and “beg” Lucifer in order to convince him that her apology is sincere. And to that, I have only one visceral reaction of my own.

Oh, hell no!

Let’s start with the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the verb “to grovel.”

     a. intransitive. To lie prone or with the face downwards; to move with the body prostrate upon the ground; to grovel in the dust or dirt (fig.): to humble oneself, perform an act of humiliation.

Now, let’s look at the OED definition of the verb “to beg.”

transferred. To ask as a favour or act of grace; hence to ask humbly, earnestly, supplicatingly; to crave, entreat. (With many const.: cf. ask v.).

Now let’s pull out a few key terms, shall we?

- to ask as a favor or act of grace

- to ask humbly/to humble oneself

- to perform an act of humiliation

We’ve seen humiliation used as punishment before; quite literally in Hell, when Lucifer gets the formula for the antidote from our favorite professor who watched too many Saw movies. We hear Maze talk about how guilt is used as the primary weapon to torture souls in hell. Within season four itself we see others use humiliation as punishment - first when Dan (in one of his lowest moments of the entire series) humiliates Lucifer with his own failure to save Rookie Joan and then, in direct response to that humiliation, Lucifer is driven to cripple Julian for life in order to punish him for Joan’s murder. 

Crippling Julian isn’t about making sure he can’t hurt anyone ever again - it’s about making him completely dependent within the American prison system, which is notorious for being one of the worst prison systems in the civilized world. The rest of Julian’s life will be lived in terror and humiliation until he finally dies - where the torture will most likely continue.

Whatever Chloe’s transgressions against Lucifer, at no point does he seek to humiliate her. In fact, others have commented on the fact that their fighting (as painful as it is for us to watch) is an extremely healthy model. He absolutely draws boundaries with her, but hurting her, punishing her, is not something Lucifer wants. What he wants, from the opening shot to the final scene, is Chloe’s acceptance. And, by drawing those boundaries, by refusing to let her try to mold him into her panicked idea of a “good man,” he gives both of them the space to realize that he already is a better man than he’s ever been given credit for, even by himself. 

Chloe and Lucifer have always existed as a partnership of equals - that’s established in the pilot. His God-given abilities literally do not work on her, so he’s forced to interact with her as an equal. So, let’s go ahead and model what would happen if Chloe literally did grovel for forgiveness.

To beg is to ask for a favor, an act of grace from someone in a greater position of power than yourself. To prostrate yourself on the floor, to be a supplicant to someone else, is to give them power over you in a way that can never be taken back. It is the act of a peasant to their lord or a vassal to their king.

In other words, it would be Chloe treating Lucifer as the King of Hell. 

This is exactly what Lucifer has spent the entire series struggling against, the reason he left Hell in the first place. That one single instant, with Chloe on her knees, begging for forgiveness, would place their relationship firmly in the realm of the identity he has struggled so hard to escape and would absolutely solidify Lucifer’s identity in Chloe’s eyes as the Prince of Darkness, the Lord of Hell, not Lucifer Morningstar, her partner and her equal, which is what he has been so desperate to prove to her; that he is more than just the King of Hell, more than his father’s disobedient son doomed to rule over the damned for all eternity.

And that would have been the complete and utter end of their relationship. As badly as Chloe hurt him, how could Lucifer ever respect her after that? After she were to prove to him that having seen all of him and known all of him, that she not only ran away, but then presented herself to him, on her knees, for punishment? Making his forgiveness into the role he’s struggled so hard to escape? 

In other words, no. Begging for forgiveness would not have made everything better or proven to Lucifer that Chloe was truly sorry. It would have done just the opposite - that she feared him enough to treat him just like everyone else. Or does no one else remember his response to the girl who pretended to be kidnapped in order to get revenge on the player who seduced and abandoned her when Lucifer showed her his Devil face and she began to beg him not to hurt her?

“Why does everyone say that before they’re punished?”

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martine22 replied to your post “Food For Thought (Internalized Misogyny Version)”

You forgot that time, in the loft, surrounded by armed men, she stepped in front of Lucifer, when they clearly intended to kill him. This despite the fact she could have left, as both Cain and Lucifer were urging her to do. She had no intention of trying to talk him down, as her next action was to pull out her gun and shoot. Not sure what she intended, but she definitively did not not act in her own best interest.

Actually, this is an amazing point because what Chloe actually says and does there indicates that she knows she is going to die to protect him. Without hesitation. That’s her intention.

CHLOE: You don’t have to do this, Pierce.

PIERCE: Yes, I do. And normally, I would just skip town and reinvent myself. But this time, I can’t. Not before I kill Lucifer.

CHLOE: What? Why? 

PIERCE: Because I know that he’ll never stop hunting me. And I can’t afford to spend the rest of my days looking over my shoulder. But you don’t have to die, Chloe. Step away from him.

LUCIFER: Detective, for once I agree with this imbecile. Step aside.

CHLOE, stepping in front of Lucifer: No.

LUCIFER: Detective.

PIERCE: Chloe.

CHLOE: I believed everything you said, Marcus. That you loved me. That you did all of this for me. Which is why I know that you won’t shoot. [This is her one attempt to talk him down by appealing to the–sadly nonexistent–better angels of his nature.]

PIERCE: You made me realize that life is worth living. And I will do anything to stay alive. And if you get in the way of that… [This is him telling her in no uncertain terms he won’t be reasoned with.]

CHLOE: Okay. I believe you. [And she does; this is where she formulates the plan of the next few seconds.] I don’t want to die. And I can’t. Not without stopping you.

The bold emphasis is mine, obviously. First, look at the exact words Pierce speaks; these are the same words Chloe uses against him. “You don’t have to die”/“I don’t want to die”; “But I can’t, not before I kill Lucifer”/“And I can’t, not without stopping you.”

Chloe doesn’t want to die but she knows it’s inevitable. So, she’s going to go for the power move (I can’t die without stopping you first; I can’t die without making it count) and take him out even though she knows her own life is forfeit, and all those other guns will start shooting as soon as she pulls hers. And still, Chloe Decker pulls her weapon and shoots Pierce knowing that, bulletproof vest or no bulletproof vest, chances are, she’s not getting out alive. 

But there’s something else vital to understanding Chloe happening in this exchange. She’s a cop. A good cop; a cop who truly believes her role is to protect and serve. Serve who? Civilians. And while Lucifer is her partner, he’s still a civilian consultant. He’s not a cop. He’s not armed. As far as Chloe knows, he’s defenseless.

She isn’t driven purely by her friendship or romantic feelings for Lucifer in this moment. She is willing to sacrifice her life because it’s her duty. It’s what she signed up for. It’s how goddamned seriously she takes her job. Her words are acceptance. She walks into what she’s certain will be her death, eyes wide open, because it’s the right thing to do, it’s the cop thing to do, and most of all, because it’s the Chloe Decker thing to do.

How much conviction and strength of character does it take to be handed a way out and not take it—not even for Trixie? Chloe doesn’t waver. She doesn’t hesitate. She steps in front of the civilian because it’s her job and because—even if she was actually allowed to leave as Pierce has promised—she wouldn’t be able to live with herself afterward.

So, when Kinley tells her the world is at risk because of Lucifer? Chloe the cop is thinking about civilians. When she digs and digs and searches for proof (because that’s what she’s trained to do), and Kinley manipulates her by deliberately using her weaknesses against her (if he has been aware of Lucifer for seven years, you’d better be damn sure he knows quite a lot about Chloe Decker, Lucifer’s most constant companion over the last few), she finally agrees to the plan. Still reluctantly.

And here’s the kicker. Here’s the imagine-this-from-Chloe’s-POV kicker. 

She’s probably just as sure Lucifer could and would kill her as she was when Pierce pointed that gun at her. If Kinley is right, and Lucifer’s responsible for the untold horrors she’s read about, he’ll kill her before the “sedative” kicks in—if it even works at all. I’m pretty damn sure Chloe thinks she’s walking into mutually assured destruction.

And she still agrees. Because her job is to put her body—her life—between danger and civilians. Even if the danger is the Devil—Kinley’s Devil—himself.

They sure as shit didn’t cover that in the Police Academy.

And one final thing: Remember, too, that at this point? Lucifer himself is afraid he might be as evil as Kinley’s busy telling Chloe he is. He says as much to Mr. Said Out Bitch. He won’t talk about his Devil face, even to Linda. He won’t look at his wings. He may be clinging to Chloe for outside validation like a drowning man pulling his rescuer under, but the truth is, her doubt validates the thoughts he’s already harboring. And the whole point of the season—Lucifer’s entire arc for years—is that he has to forgive himself and accept himself first. And frankly? I’m not sure he’d have gotten there without Chloe’s doubt.

It’s like lancing a boil. Hurts more first, is pretty horrific and disgusting and messy during, but then? After? The infection actually heals.

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Here is your friendly soup kitchen ficlet reminder from your friendly brain twinlet. Pleeeease?

Background: Last night I was rewatching 4x03, and I wondered to @ariaadagio how the soup kitchen not-date might have gone if Lucifer hadn’t been paranoid about Chloe, you know, trying to send him back to Hell. She said, “Please write that.” I said, “You gotta throw it in my ask box if you want me to remember.” 

So. Without trying to rework too much of the context, let’s say Father Kinley didn’t go to Lucifer’s place to sow his insidious seeds of doubt. Everything else is pretty much the same. Chloe’s still poking a little too hard at Lucifer ‘changing for good,’ without the added angst of Lucifer thinking she’s trying to get rid of him permanently.

Also on AO3

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Soup Kitchen

Lucifer’s not certain why the Detective’s so fixated on what others think of him but, for the time being at least, he’s willing to humor her. She has, after all, had something of a trying several months. Her current fixation on his behavior is a small enough price to pay to have her accept him—

Or, if not precisely accept, at least allow him to remain at her side. The … flinching has ceased. He supposes he’s the affair with the axe to thank for that. 

Still, when they exit the car into a neighborhood that reminds him uncomfortably of Hell—the stench, for one thing, and the distant sound of voices raised in argument and screaming—he begins to question the Detective’s sanity once again. Humans, dazed and drug-addled, shamble along the streets like zombies. None raises their eyes; they are too far gone, too lost in their misery even to sense him. They don’t need him. As in Hell, these humans are quite adept at punishing themselves.

An uncomfortable certainty begins to uncoil in his abdomen, fueled by the tenor of the day’s conversation—Have you ever considered donating any of your vast fortune to charity? He’s met more than his fair share of proselytizers. Currently, the Detective bears a striking resemblance. It sets his teeth on edge. It feels like a fist closing around his heart. Or, perhaps, like an axe pushed deeper instead of removed. 

“Detective?” he asks sharply. “Where are you taking me?”

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