#(can also obviously plot+if we have something going add another thread to the mix if anybody wants etc)

[familiaanteomnia]

starter call

-like for an likely iconless, multi para starter -open to everybody -please specify which muse you'd be interested in (or an few+obviously yours if applicable)

replies i owe as of now is- (1) for constantine

[insingersfall]

Are dreamers descendants to fallen angels?

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the origin of dreamers, especially in relation to Ronan’s faith and his anxiety about creating life - a job he feels should be exclusive to God.

This is going to be long so the short story: Maybe dreamers are descendants to fallen angels?

Here’s my long ass thesis on why I think so:

Since CDTH I’ve seen this quote a lot:

In a wider sense it doesn’t have to mean anything, just a powerful ending to Bryde’s cheesy monologue about Ronan being too good for basic humanity, but I immediately read it literally.

-       do you long back?

And just two pages afterwards we get this:

Coincidence? I think not.

Bryde knows what Ronan is and where he comes from - the sky.

The question of “what am I” is something Ronan struggles with during the entire course of TRC and a vital part of his storyline.

And it’s always this:

Not who am I, What am I.

During the first four books Ronan struggles both with this huge existential dilemma of “what” and with more mundane questions regarding “who” he is. I think Ronan’s coming of age-arc, especially the “why do you hate yourself”/ “I don’t” - scene in TRK is one of the most moving scenes in YA. I read that as being about “who” he is. And In CDTH he’s older, he’s figured a lot of shit out. There are no negative feelings left about him being gay for example. Not in relation to his family, himself or to his religion.

But he still has a lot of negative feelings and anxiety about being able to create life. He still struggles with his identity as a dreamer alongside his identity as a catholic.

Ronan being religious adds so much to his character and this is why I can’t help but read A LOT into the religious symbolism. And it’s there.

Maggie herself posted this a while ago to clear up why Ronan gets so mad in BLLB when the copy of him dies. It clarifies multiple things - that Ronan is very much stuck in toxic masculinity and refuses to show vulnerability while also being very vulnerable, as well as how the situation mirrors his suicide-attempt, which is obviously triggering. But for this theme I want to highlight these two paragraphs:

“First, the setting. Adam is not religious, but Ronan is, and St. Agnes is a place he goes with the broken remains of his family. Now Ronan takes Adam — someone Ronan has only just allowed himself to admit internally that he likes, a lot — not just to the church, but to a private part of the church Ronan frequents on his own. “

And

“But to Ronan, it’s not just a copy. It’s a person who just happens to look like him. Remember that Ronan has spent his life loving dreamed people just as hard as real people. Ronan has spent enough time with Matthew and Aurora to know that even though they came from dreams, their feelings are real. They are not disposable. This other Ronan is really terrified, really in pain, and really dying.

And the real Ronan killed him. He’s killed someone.”

This is one of the very few times Maggie has explained something that isn’t explicit in the book. As we know Maggie is a major spokesperson for “the only things canon are the things in the book” but here she adds additional information. Why? Because it’s really, really important to Ronan’s character. Both the religion and his feelings about creating life. Especially these two combined.

He hates himself for a lot of things, and he hates himself for the ability to create -and therefore take away- life. Something only God is allowed to do.

Well yes Adam, maybe there are two gods in this church. Or something like it.

So - fallen angels? What does that mean really?

The story of fallen angels differ a lot from religion to religion, I’ll focus on the Christian tradition since that’s what our lord and savior Ronan Lynch would like. There isn’t a lot of Bible stories about it, it’s more of a tradition arising from later accounts in religious texts and poetry.

The Devil is a fallen angel who together with a bunch of other angels rebelled against God and was expelled from Heaven to Earth.

In some older interpretations the “angels” on Earth had children with humans and created giants, who in time became demons. Or, if you’re writing YA fantasy with a religious MC, maybe these descendants of angels became dreamers.

Lucifer rebelled against God because he too wanted the power that God possessed.

“Lucifer apparently became so impressed with his own beauty, intelligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the honor and glory that belonged to God alone. The sin that corrupted Lucifer was self-generated pride.” 

I sure think that sounds like Bryde, and it sounds a lot like the sin Ronan fears God will judge him for.

And on the subject of the Devil. Who in this series is often referred to as a “devil of a boy?”

It’s our man, Ronan.

A quick search of the word “Devil” in the Raven Cycle (1-4) led me to a number of passages, mostly as part of a saying, but at some occasion to specifically describe someone, or as a direct reference to someone.

Ronan, Niall, Kavinsky and Aurora. Dreamers and their dreams.

Coincidence? I think not.

The same search in Call Down the Hawk I would say really confirms this recognition of mine. It has for starters this wonderful paragraph:

But it also broadens the parable to all of the Lynch brothers.

The upper quote about the three brothers all being handsome devils is the only time not even Matthew can avoid the metaphor. A character who up until then has only been compared to an angel.

Contradiction? No, not in the question of descendants to fallen angels.

A creature who are - by definition - both angel and devil, savior and sinner, companion of God as well as a child of Satan.

We don’t know for sure yet how one becomes a dreamer. But we do know that it in some way it’s inherited. In some peculiar way from parent to child. From one devil father to one of his devil sons, the one he created together with another one of his creations. Because Ronan therefore is a clone of Niall? Is Hennessy a clone of her mother? Kavinsky one of his parents? Maybe the next two books will tell. Regardless I still like the idea that they all descend from the first angels on earth, mixing with humans.

I also just have to mention that Ronan not only dream of the sky, but also on multiple occasions dream about flying. Not as a bird, but with his own wings.

So what do I think this will mean in the big scheme of things?

Not a lot honestly! I’m not even sure I’m arguing that this will be a plot point.

But I do think the paradoxical identity in descending from something so torn between good/evil is fucking perfect for Ronan. Someone who’s constantly torn between his own fuck-ups and wanting to do the right thing.

Who creates marvelous life in form of magical animals, angelic brothers and light where there needs to be light, but who also creates monsters, horrors and dangers.

Who wants to protect the world from climate change and protect the people he loves from danger and for all we know might instead accidentally end the world.

Who turns to God and fears hell at the same time as he’s presenting himself to the world as a devil of a boy.

I just think it’s beautiful, whether Maggie has a storyline planned with this or not.

So I’ll just end this thread with the upper picture and with the quote describing Ronans’ birth.

[alistonjdrake]

All Of My Projects

A rundown of everything I’m working on/plan to work on in no particular order but just so I can keep track and I have some base idea of how far along I am with each wip.

The Saints’ Song

A series of four books detailing the political intrigue of the Escana Empire and her allies as well as the forever scandalous Prince Argus and his relationship with Leo, a pirate.

Currently working on the second draft of Of Blood and Stone, the third book in the series after having rewritten the first two. I have some planned minor edits I still want to make to ORG for the purposes of self publishing and to just make myself overall happier with the finished product. I have OBS mostly outlined I’m still just making plans for how I want this book to go given the plot changes I’ve made in the first two and the added characters who will make appearances as well as now debating to add in a fifth POV sooner. Obviously this is the work I’ve worked on the longest and is has the benefit of having the most world building as anyone who browses my page for more than a minute can tell you.

The Night Court

A standalone that takes place in the same world as The Saints’ Song only some 50ish years later (an early 19th century setting instead of a late 18th century setting) and in a different country. The story of a courtesan named Mikolaj with a secret past and his romance with two other sex workers. Marian does not get an honorable mention.

Cautiously calling this the second draft or I’m almost done with draft one and a half as I did restart and change earlier chapters several times before getting to this point. I’m on chapter thirty-five out of a planned thirty-seven. I’ve already taken some minor notes for things to look at for a rewrite but I do plan to take a break from this piece before I dive back into editing and rewriting. I have my insecurities about how the plot flows and the copious amount of sex scenes but we’ll see how I feel about it in a few months. I AM really happy with my culture building for Gegra (the setting) though. It’s clearly distinct enough from Escan even without the time period changes. In my humble opinion, of course.

The Saints Are Drowning

I believe I wanted this to be a novella. A renaissance inspired era “prequel” or TSS that takes place in the often mentioned holy capital of the world, the city of Mignola and follows the election of a new Justice as the city is thrown into chaos.

I have it outlined, all characters named and vaguely fleshed out with their wants and needs, and since it takes place in the same world as the previously mentioned works most of the world building is clearly done (except for any changes that need to be made to fit a new time period). I haven’t started writing it.

Someone Will Die

Taking place in a reimagining 1930s America on a college campus where one can enroll to briefly avoid the possibility of being torn apart by monsters. A popular student is murdered and a professor with something to hide is chosen as the most likely suspect. 

This one has been dropped a lot due to the fact that I decided to write it out of chronological order and in alternating POVs of a small group of the related characters. I’ve been working on another outline and the timeline of all the events as they happen instead of the mixed up order that the story is told. I have some minor debates with myself to just get rid of the fact that it takes place in “America” (very loosely) and just make up a setting completely. All the locations are already fictional and the history completely different but this might be something I save for another draft just because I don’t think it would be helpful for me to start tearing into the other chapters with a mind to start changing things. I really want to finish a draft.

We Heard the Devil

Cults and boarding schools. 28 year old Chris “Gopher” Vernon reflects back on his last year of high school back in 2007-2008 where he was a victim but also on his relationship with the strange student who lived across the hall.

It’s not fantasy. It’s a bit out of my comfort zone but a piece I can see myself being really proud of when I finish as it’s the most personal due to the setting being my home state of Connecticut and deals with a lot of my own frustrations just with a “horror” twist. I have it fully outlined and I’m easing into the first draft. I don’t mind that this one will take a long time to write just because writing close first person POV is also difficult for me among the other differences from other works.

These Trees Do Talk

Softly planned “sequel” to the above. Not with any related characters but I like the idea of having a series of black, New England horror stories that are loosely connected by the thread of my own traumas from my upbringing. And I like the title but it’s otherwise not planned.

The Sorcerei of Cokumpoint

A mid-Victorian setting with illegal magic gangs and family feuds. Ethel starts the book on the search for her presumed dead twin brother and instead finds a witch and a villain whose been terrorizing the city.

While this is actually a fantasy rewrite an a complete redo of a story I wrote in my teen years (as well as the standalone version of a trilogy) I’m considering this a first draft. I don’t have it outlined and I should start cracking into some notes. I’ve had it on pause for a few months for this exact reason which is a shame I really love the setting and I haven’t gotten to the gangs yet. I also do not mind how goofy the title is. 

Before picking this up I would like to flesh out an outline first and really organize my thoughts for how I want this story to go. 

Harem Wip

Obviously unnamed. The story of an eunuch helping a concubine climb the ranks of a harem in order to get close to an emperor he wants to seduce and  murder for his own political gains. I have it more or less outlined but I am held back because I haven’t picked a name for the main character and I’m still in the early stages of building the world it will take place in. I have vague ideas rolling around a map currently and I’d like to flesh out the setting more before going forward as that will likely inform the plot choices I make. 

Cruise liner Wip

There’s nothing here than my love of Edwardian cruise liners and I want to go back to writing about gay things happening on boats. This is in the earliest stages of me tacking ideas onto a board and hoping they stick.

[scarlet--wiccan]

You can ignore this if you don’t have any thoughts but what your ideal new young avengers run look like? Who would be on the team, what would you even call it now that they’re all adults (except Cassie I guess?)

One of my favorite things about Young Avengers, which I think is often underplayed to the detriment of the characters, is that the team is routinely forced to operate outside of the law and against the wishes of their elders. In the core YA books, the kids are more often working in opposition to the Avengers rather than in cooperation. These are characters whose methods and motives are not usually aligned with those of the established superhero organizations, which is also reflected in many of their appearances beyond YA-- Strikeforce and Empyre are great examples, as are Cassie's adventures in Astonishing Ant-Man. This rebel element is often at odds with the fact that many of the characters admire the Avengers, or have close personal relationships with individual Avengers members. The dissonance becomes especially strong when Billy and Teddy, who have the most reason to distrust and resent them following Children's Crusade, are consistently characterized as Avengers fanboys.

That's not to say that I think the Young Avengers should, like, hate the old Avengers, but I do think that this tension is a key part of the series. The 2005 run was about a group of kids who stepped up, at a very young age, to do a job that wasn't getting done because the previous generation had failed, only to get shot down by the people who had failed them in the first place. It's about a group of kids grappling with complex and painful family histories, and, in many ways, they're foils to the Runaways, which is why I don't really like it when they play junior Avengers or emulate the traditional superhero team structure-- WCA was really fun, but I'm not going to pitch a second volume, you know? I much prefer them operating as an ad hoc group, mainly because they each come from different backgrounds, have different goals, and work in different fields. They're not people who work together because they're part of an organization, they're people who show up for each other because they're friends and they care about one another. That is, in my mind, a more effective approach to a team book with such disparate characters than what the typical Avengers title tries to do.

So, anyways, that's what I think makes Young Avengers special and it's why I think the book still has a place in the Marvel world. Pitching actual story ideas is hard now because Teddy and Billy are, apparently, living off-world and very busy being royalty. In my previous post, I outlined an older idea for a BillyTeddy ongoing series that could have easily functioned as a third volume of Young Avengers, but would require some editing to work in a post-Empyre world. The idea was for Billy and Teddy's apartment in New York to act as a base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends, who come and go over the course of various story arcs. The two of them are presumably living full-time in space now, but it's also been established that they're magically anchored to each other in a way that makes it easy for Billy to warp between New York and the throneship-- anywhere Teddy goes, Billy can instantly follow, and vice-versa, which means that the series could still use Earth as a main setting without pulling the royal couple out of their other storyline.

I'd love a Young Avengers/Runaways crossover set in space-- their previous crossovers mostly have to do with alien drama, after all, and I've been itching to get Xavin back on page. I'm very serious when I say that I want Xavin, Teddy and Noh to be best friends, and I think they'd be fun leads for a miniseries, or even the opening arc of a limited run that eventually folds in the other YA and Runaways characters. I'm imagining an extended version of the interstellar road trip from YA (2013). Maybe Teddy will recruit his two closest alien friends to go on a sensitive diplomatic mission where he can only bring a small party, but it turns out to be some kind of trap and they end up stranded somewhere and have to, like fight their way out of hostile territory and make their way back to the Alliance with no ship. Billy can reach Teddy, obviously, but he can't just warp the whole party home because the distance is too great or they're in an alternate dimension or something, so he rounds up a rescue party and Karolina insists on coming along because, I don't know, the Light Brigade is mixed up in this and she feels like it's her responsibility to help Xavin even though they haven't seen each other in years. Nico obviously comes along with her, and can help Billy with tracking spells.

I'd also like to see a YA book led by the series' most under-served characters-- Tommy, Eli, and Cassie. Building off of Cassie's capers in Ant-Man, I'd be very into a heist or espionage story about the three of them, probably joined by Kate because she'd add a lot of cohesion to the cast and is so well suited to this type of adventure. Maybe they're undercover, and they have to, like, fake-fight some of the other Young Avengers, but they all join forces once the misunderstanding is cleared up. I'm picturing a cold open where the whole first issue is made up of, like, security camera footage of three masked figures breaking into a high-tech vault at AIM or Roxxon, and they steal a bunch of weaponry and fight their way out through a bunch of goons, but then it's revealed that the whole thing was a distraction to cover up a fourth intruder who moves too fast for the cameras to track. At the end of the issue, it's revealed to the reader that the intruders are the Young Avengers, and the real prize was a computer holding the last backup of Jonas's AI. The rest of the first arc is about them trying to rebuild Jonas with help from Vee, but they have to keep it a secret from the Avengers because they're planning an even bigger heist against, like Kate's dad, and they need to keep the whole operation under wraps because he's got eyes and ears all over.

I'm not particularly eager for another fantasy story after CC and YA(2013), but I'd be into a cosmic-fantasy arc about America solving some sort of inter-dimensional crisis or chasing a villain across worlds with Tommy and Billy's help. I really want more development between America and Billy, but I also think that she'd be really funny friends with Tommy and I want to see more of him playing off of magic characters. Maybe Leah (the one from Earth-15513 that's living on Earth-616 now) receives a mysterious message from Loki and asks the Young Avengers to help her track them down. America and Billy volunteer and Tommy tags along. Along the way they end up discovering some sort of evil curse or spell and go on a quest through various dimensions in order to break it. In the end it turns out the whole thing was set up by Loki to manipulate them into defeating an evil alternate-universe Loki-- maybe the one from Leah's native dimension-- because Evil Loki had used an enchantment that made it impossible for 616-Loki to harm them, which includes allies who are knowingly fighting on Loki's behalf. Better yet, it's a proxy war, and Evil Loki has recruited pawns of their own-- including Sylvie and Lisa from the Young Masters! 616-Loki does come clean when the dust is settled and finally reconnects with the Young Avengers. Loki is glad that Leah found a way to escape her destiny, but they admit that they don't feel they've succeeded in breaking out of their own cycle, to which America and Billy are like "we've seen how far you've come, but you need to remember that people care about you and stop bailing on us when we actually want to talk it out with you," which Tommy backs up because, like, he's been that person. Friendship! Character arcs that don’t fizzle out when a book wraps in under twenty issue!

Anyways, if we got a third Young Avengers volume, I'd prefer a limited run with a cohesive story, but all of the ideas I just outlined would probably work better as smaller arcs in an ongoing series. I have a lot of ideas about tying up loose threads and continuing arcs that are already in motion, but I'm hesitant to plot out what the next big step in these characters' lives should be. I definitely think it's time to give Tommy and Cassie another shot at the spotlight, and I want Eli to come back with a new costume and codename.

At this phase, it's just really hard for me to land on any larger, deeper stories because I'm so unsure of what the next few years will look like for Billy and Teddy. There's also an America title that's been in production limbo since the pandemic started, and I feel like there's some kind of drama on the horizon between the Maximoffs and Krakoa which would theoretically impact the twins as well. I also anticipate editorial pushing for Kate in a Hawkeye book when the tv show comes out.

[elliepassmore]

Elatsoe Review

5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: magic, urban fantasy, ghosts, #OwnVoices, regional gothic, mysteries, Indigenous legends I absolutely loved this book, from the casual magic to the stories of six-great-grandmother to the ghosts to the creepiness of Willowbee. I'm such a sucker for those Tumblr posts about regional American gothic, and so much of the little details of this book felt like those but woven into a complete world. I liked reading about the little alterations made to our world to make it the one in the book, as well as some of the ways magic might be dealt with considering the way we deal with non-magical things. I thought the worldbuilding was really good, obviously, and I thought things were introduced in a well-paced manner. The mix of exposition and reveals were also good, and Little Badger did a good job of making the exposition not actually feel like exposition. I especially liked the way Little Badger brought some new aspects to some of the lore in the book, like how vampires technically needing to be welcomed onto Indigenous land or fairies being interdimensional beings. I thought the discussion of how magic interacts with the world was interesting, and I liked the added 'realness' of having two characters discuss the carbon footprint of certain magic uses much like the way we'd debate plane vs. train carbon emissions. Since this is kind of worldbuilding, I'll mention here that I very much enjoyed the creepiness of Willowbee. It's mostly a normal town from the outside, except for the fact that the occupants will stare down strangers the entire time they're in town. And the fact that there's a mansion on the outskirts and there are several misaligned parts of the town's history. The deeper into Willowbee and its history the characters go, the creepier the town gets. It's a really good mix of creepy without being over the top, and honestly it might be more of a situation where you go 'well that's...weird and unsettling' more so than it can be considered creepy, but still. The stories of six-great-grandmother were also a really enjoyable piece of the book and I liked hearing about her adventures. She seems like a really cool person and just absolutely gives zero fucks what other people think of her (though at least most people she comes across in the stories seem to respect her). The stories were definitely a good way to do some worldbuilding as well as give life lessons to Ellie and allowed for those things to be included in a non-intrusive, natural feeling way. I think it would be cool at some point to see some more stories about six-great at some point, maybe in a smaller bind-up or ebook. As for the characters, Ellie is the 3rd person narrator for the entire book except for one chapter 3rd person narrated by Vivian, her mother. Ellie's goal is to figure out what happened to her cousin while also keeping her family safe and preventing it from happening to anyone else. This book is a nice change from most YA books with a similar theme in that Ellie's parents are present and supportive of her and help her along the way to reach her goals, never once doubting her word. Family is a really big part of things and you can tell how much it means to Ellie. She's devoted to her family members and the traditions and secrets of her family. She's a good detective, willing to do the dirty work, and is smart enough to realize that live streaming some of her adventures is a good way to avoid being disappeared. I enjoyed reading about her relationship with her dog, Kirby, as well, who has been a ghost for 5 years but is still a wonderful companion despite his incorporeality. Kirby serves as both a pet, a warning signal, and a good way to explain some of the ways of the world and about ghosts. All the ghosts were very cool and I liked learning about the family's history with them and some of the family secrets about ghosts. Ellie's grandmother seems like a serious badass for having a mammoth as her ghostly companion, and I think she would be another good one to have a book about. Below is also an interesting concept and I like Ellie's realization that it isn't necessarily one point in time, but it can be multiple stacked on top of one another, like all the oceans or deserts that were in one place across the billions of years that place has existed. Vivian also added some interesting complexity to the family's use of ghosts, since like all eldest girls in the family she has the ability but doesn't use it as much as her relatives seem to. In her narrative chapter we get hints as to why that is and a time when it was different, which I thought added some nice layers to her character and the story and use of ghosts as a whole. Jay, Ellie's best friend, also features prominently in the book as someone who helps with her investigation. He's a rather optimistic character and acts as a good support during the investigation, pulling out some pretty good resources as well. Jay himself is a fairy and aside from the obvious mentioning of it in the beginning of the novel, there are some more subtle bits dropped throughout the book that make it realistic, such as the pointed ears he hides under his hair or the part(s) where he uses a will-o-the-wisp as a flashlight. I thought his interactions with Al were amusing, considering he's fine with the other guy until it turns out how serious Al is about his sister, though I think he's more grumbly about it than genuinely upset. Despite being what Ellie calls a "Celtic-and-Nordic American," Jay respects Ellie's culture and traditions and is respectful when inquiring about things he doesn't know. I enjoyed the interactions between Ellie and Jay and it's obvious how close the two of them are. While the book ends with all the loose threads tied and I think it'll be a standalone, if Little Badger were ever to write about Ellie again I could see the two of them being partners-in-investigation in/after college. Something I did find off about their relationship, though, was the fact that they've supposedly been best friends since babyhood, yet don't know some pretty basic things about one another. In one scene, Ellie mentions that she didn't think he was actually related to Oberon and in another Jay is surprised to hear Ellie's full name is Elatsoe, both of which seem like things you would know about your best friend. I mean, the first name one is something you would probably know about your regular friends too, so it seemed kind of weird that he never would've heard her full name before. There are other times where it seems like they're more 'newly best friends' than 'lifelong best friends,' but overall I enjoyed their interactions and their friendship. Most of the characters in this book were awesome in different ways, though there's not enough room to go over them all. Ellie's parents were both supportive and trusting of her, though they did still worry and caution her like parents do. Pat, her dad, comes across as a warm person and I liked the little quirk of his that's revealed at the beginning re: gas and survival stories. He's a vet, so it only seems natural that he's married into a family where the women raise ghost animals. Vivian is a teacher and seems to be the more protective of the two, though she's not stifling about it. She's the parent who's mostly with Ellie during the book, since the dad has to work and is only really in the beginning, and we get to see a lot of how her and Ellie interact and the advice she gives El. Another family member is the cousin-in-law, Lenore. Poor Lenore has just lost her husband and has a still-young baby. I sympathize with that and with her sense of grief and pain. What I do not sympathize with is the way she handles some things. For one, she seems entirely too dismissive of the family's culture. In one part of the book Ellie is reminiscing on a time she visited with her cousin and that even then she knew there was tension between Trevor and Lenore re: cultural traditions. Well, in present-tense Lenore seems to almost completely ignore some pretty major parts of their culture, such as burying those who've passed with personal items and not using their name to refer to them for a certain period of time. Likewise, she knows the dangers of human ghosts, yet she still seems to want Trevor to come back as a ghost *SPOILER* and 1) even attempts to disturb his grave to get that to happen and 2) is said to seem very happy when news he did come back as a human ghost breaks *SPOILER END*. Al is, as mentioned, dating Jay's sister, Ronnie, and is a vampire/cursed man. The lore behind vampires was interesting, and I liked how Little Badger used a version of them that sees vampirism as an illness, since it adds a layer of complexity to the world and reveals some of how discrimination that is applied in situations in our world is applied in the world of Elatsoe. Al seems like a pretty laid back guy and he clearly cares about Ronnie and Jay. He's more than willing to help with the investigation, even when it gets him into some pretty serious trouble, and he takes most things that occur in the book with a pretty chill attitude. Ronnie, Jay's sister, appears toward the end of the book with some friends and is 100% willing to kick some ass in Willowbee. With only being in the book for a short time, she seems like a cool character and seems decently close to Ellie and her family as well. One thing I felt a little weird about was the one scene where she and Ellie are on the phone and Ronnie says "I get that you're asexual, so, like, it can be a friend or zucchini or..." (201), which felt a little along the lines of 'I don't care if someone's white, black, or purple.' I really enjoyed Elatsoe and thought the characters, worldbuilding, and plot were all excellent. I definitely recommend it for fantasy lovers, and I'll definitely be reading A Snake Falls to Earth when it comes out.

[romancing-lady-whistledown]

Just wanted to comment on your last post - there was no frustration and drama for me when I was watching Elu and Skam and Skam France before I made the huge error of looking for the fandom and joining it. Now I realise it was a big mistake, I have to constantly block people on Tweeter for hating on my faves and I've come to really hate another remake which I only didn't care about before having to deal with its stans. So I totally understand what you're saying. Me, I wish I'd never joined.

So this got long af so I’m gonna put it under the cut lol

Oh I absolutely feel you, when I say frustration and drama, I am refering to the live-watching experience and all the fandom drama that comes with that. I have a very polarizing feeling about being in the online fandom personally. For me the positive aspects have been so big that I can’t say that I wish I’d never joined personally, but especially if the positive aspects I’ve experienced haven’t been part of your fandom-experience I definitely see how you can get to the point where you wish you never joined in the first place, especially in the past year, because the negative aspects...they’re rough, and they do make the experience of the actual show different from if you just watched it on your own or you watched it as a casual viewer in the country it’s airing in, rather than as a part of the fandom on Tumblr and/or Twitter.  

I watched the original Skam as a casual Norwegian viewer, I was in a Facebook-group with other casual Norwegian viewers, there was never any drama about anything, not the clips, not the characters, not the actors and not the creators of the show. It was just watching the clips, often someone commenting about how the clip was cute, funny, sad ect, and then everybody moved on with their day. There would sometimes be a thread with questions like “Where do you think William is?” or “What do you think is up with Even?”, but it was always very casual. Sometimes I think the online fandom forget that the majority of the remake-viewers are the casual local viewers, the ones who only casually watch that one remake as a show on it’s own, not as a part of the “Skamverse”. The international Twitter/Tumblr-fandom is just a little part of the people watching the show and the opinions we see here don’t necessairily reflect those of the more casual audience (as one can often see in for example reaction-videos on Youtube where the reactors watch alot of shows at the same time and might not even blink at something that might’ve been a big deal in the online fandom). 

Being a casual viewer worked so well for me with Skam, the whole viewing experience was very chill and enjoyable. I did the same thing with Skam France S1 and S2, I watched the first episode of every remake, and Skam France was the only one I felt compelled to continue watching. It wasn’t the most exciting experience plotwise since it was just the exact same as the og, but I love the cast, I love the French language and it was overall pleasant and fun enough that I kept watching both seasons all the way through. As someone who has no attention span for TV-shows, the fact that they did keep my attention without anyone to push me to keep watching is enough for me to not concider them bad in the way alot of people do. Not very exciting after having watched the og, sure. Do I prefer the og S1 and S2? Yes. But bad? I personally wouldn’t say that. If I came into the fandom before I started watching on my own I know I would’ve been told to either skip S1 and S2 or skip Skam France altogether, and that obviously wouldn’t have been very good advice in my case, although it might be for someone else. That is why, when someone shows up on Tumblr saying they wanna start watching the remakes and ask for advice, I never ever tell them not to watch a remake. I could be robbing them of something that might deeply touch them, just because it didn’t touch me. 

This brings us into one of the aspects of being in the online fandom that can be both really positive and really negative, that being the way it can affect your experience of the show itself. On the positive note, there’s no way I could’ve gone through Skam France S3 in the casual way I went through the original Skam or S1 and S2 of Skamfr. No way. Having someone to talk to about all the amazing moments with was an actual need for me. Hell, two years later and I still need that. Not to mention the fan art and fics that has kept Elu alive for me ever since S3. There was this whole detective-work in the fandom about finding Eliott’s Instagram during S3, finding out about the Instagram-posts David and Niels made about the S3 clips, being in the online fandom actually added to the experience of watching S3 for me, and even now almost two years after S3 I’m left with some actual friends, friends that aren’t even in the fandom anymore but who I still talk to almost daily, as well as some lovely bloggers who are still invlolved in the fandom and who’s blogs I prefer to visit rather than visiting the tag.

But then there’s the negative side of this. While being in the online fandom certainly can add to the experience, it can also affect it negatively. That was what happened with S5 and S6 for me, to the point where I had to switch between staying completely off Tumblr and delete the Twitter app from my phone. While S5 had a couple of plotlines I didn’t like, it also had alot of amazing moments when it actually was dealing with the main theme of the season. S6 did not give their plotlines the proper exploration and conclusion they deserved, but on the other hand the reason why that was so frustrating to me was because I found those plotlines so interesting and actually wanted to see them explored properly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have cared if the plotlines were dropped out of nowhere, like ofc it would’ve been weird but if the whole Tiff-plot suddenly disappeared I wouldn’t complain. While they were flawed and nowhere near the level of S3 for me, I did enjoy so many of the clips and Skamfr S3, S5 and S6 are the only remake-seasons I have downloaded on my computer knowing I will rewatch them regularily. If I didn’t overall enjoy them, I wouldn’t wanna rewatch them. I don’t hate-watch anything. I could barely get through Skamfr S4 (a season I genuinely didn’t like) and I could not get through Wtfock S4, (which I liked even less). So the flaws Skamfr S5 and S6 had didn’t turn the seasons as a whole into trash for me, but I know they did for alot of people and going to the tags while in the middle of the live-watching experience couldn’t just be a bummer, it could almost transfer some feelings and opinions that weren’t my own onto me just from seeing them repeated so many times. I appreciate nuanced discussion, which does include constructive criticism, and there was alot of that too, but there were also alot of posts that I would not concider that. In this case, when I got some time and distance away from the live-watching experience and got the space to think for myself, I realized that as often is the case, my feelings about the seasons weren’t black and white, or in this case, masterpiece vs trash. Yes, I don’t like certain plotpoints (like the love triangle and car-scene from S5 or the Tiff-plot and the overly rushed conclusions to the otherwise interesting plotlines in S6), but that doesn’t mean that I personally think S5 or S6 as a whole are trash, not when the good episodes and clips were as good as they were to me personally. The online fandom experience has also, just like for you, completely turned me off from another remake that I otherwise felt neutral about and at one point even liked, which really is a shame.

So yeah this turned into a long ass essay just to say, the online fandom-experience is a true mixed bag for me. Although the positive experiences I’m taking from it, mainly the lovely and talented people, the friends I made and the full Skam France S3 experience, ultimately made it worth it for me, I can totally see how, especially if you didn’t have those experiences, you would simply wish you never joined. When it’s a pain, it’s a pain.

[wisteria-in-the-garden]

Bellarke & Revelation of romantic feelings (includes minor 6x01 spoilers)

I have to say, I love Bellarke, but I really do not understand the majority of the Bellarke fandom, or why so many of them have stopped believing that Bellarke will get together romantically in canon. I don’t really engage much in fandom, but I do lurk in it, and finally felt the need to break out of lurk mode for a bit. I saw a couple people saying on twitter that they’re never going to address the fact that Bellamy poisoned Octavia for Clarke, that they’re probably going to make the narrative say ‘he did it to save everyone,’ that it’s irrelevant now, and that it should have been addressed in S5. Do they really believe all that? I don’t get it. Why are people so convinced that they won't address the major Bellarke plot points from season 5? Just because it’s still unresolved, doesn’t suddenly make it irrelevant. You say they should have addressed it in S5, but where was there time for it? It happened in 5x08 and they weren’t even reunited until 5x13 when the world was literally ending again. But it's still an active narrative thread and a secret that Bellamy has withheld from Clarke (”not to mention, kill the people we love” wasn’t subtle, and Bellamy stayed mute about it. Also, Echo notably still doesn’t know either, and it’s relevant to her too because she has a boyfriend who would go to greater lengths for another woman than he would for her). You’re essentially saying that you think the writers will completely drop/ignore/retcon it – why? Because you feel like JR hates Bellarke and has no intention of following through on the storylines he’s set up in canon and it’s all just bait, right? Even though there is no concrete reason to believe that, besides fandom reading into intentionally ambiguous/misleading/un-spoiler-y comments he’s made which don’t accurately reflect the canon story he’s telling (meaning you’re valuing word of god comments over canon – not always a good way to understand a story, especially when those word of god comments are unreliable like Jason’s are). The story is very obviously romantic Bellarke, especially in S5 – he just won’t outright say so in interviews because that would constitute spoilers when the story has yet to reach its resolution. And we all know how anti-spoiler Jason is. Didn’t he even retweet an article calling bullshit/questioning his description when he called Bellarke non-romantic partners and soulmates following S5? Whether he did or not, this seems to be the number one quote which has fandom so convinced romantic Bellarke is dead. But if I’m recalling the quote correctly, the “non-romantic” qualifier (which is not the same thing as platonic by the way) is tacked directly onto the partner half, rather than the soulmates half - two different descriptions that don’t seem to match (intentional ambiguity – does the “non-romantic” qualifier also apply to the soulmates half? It might, but it also might not). And the non-romantic partners half is true as of the S5 finale, because they have yet to act on any romantic feelings – it’s a description of their status, not the nature of their relationship/feelings for one another. The nature of their relationship/feelings is very obviously romantic in canon, but that is something that JR won’t ever say before they are canonically together romantically, because it’s spoilers for his story. And fandom should know him well enough by now to know that they can’t expect him to spoil what his intentions are for Bellarke in interviews, nor can they read what he says as definitively clarifying his intentions one way or the other. The only way to know his intentions is to follow the story on screen.

So, I went off track a little, but back to the issue of them addressing the fact that B poisoned O for Clarke – there’s every reason in canon to believe it will be revealed, just as Clarke’s radio calls were revealed to B (after she had clearly and intentionally withheld that info during the fireside scene in 5x05 for... reasons) and it was a turning point that made him realize she did care after all. The whole reason he was upset with her for her actions in 5x09 is that he was hurt because he thought she simply didn’t care about him anymore, when that was never true – thus his immediate forgiveness when he learned she did care after all and that she regretted being so rash/reactionary. Now, he understands that he matters to her, but I don’t think he knows in what capacity yet. That will come out this season, I believe, probably when they have that second conversation about the radio calls that we hear in the trailer – he says “you called me every day for six years, and you left me to die in the fighting pits” and the essence of that statement is “how can you love me and do something like that” (because those are two very contradictory actions and it gives him mixed signals). Basically, he’s seeking clarification from her, in her own words, about how she feels. Didn’t we hear that they’ll have a long conversation this season? That is probably where that voice-over was taken from, and there’s a good chance feelings will be revealed, at least to some extent, during said conversation. It was clear in the first radio calls conversation that it’s still unresolved – she ran away quickly again to avoid talking too much about it, and Bellamy looked kind of unsatisfied before being distracted by the Red Sun Rising book. And as for Bellamy’s side of things (regarding the poisoning and his motivation for it), already in the first episode, we have Clarke talking to Jordan about the algae, mentioning that it’s what Bellamy used on Octavia, and then a close up on Bellamy’s face as he overhears her saying this. So it’s something that is clearly still on his mind – and an obvious sign that the writers don’t intend to drop it and it will come up again. Whether it is brought up by Bellamy during their second conversation about the radio calls, revealed to Clarke (and maybe even Echo as well) by Octavia sometime before or after that, or what, I can’t predict, but I do believe it will be revealed and addressed, the same way Clarke’s feelings/the radio calls will be. There are clear signs that this season is building up to an eventual revelation of feelings on both sides, and I don’t understand how so many people that supposedly ship Bellarke can’t see it or don’t believe it, simply because they think JR is somehow out to get them.

And I would also like to add regarding the events in 5x09, from Clarke’s POV, Bellamy giving the flame to Madi felt like him turning against her to save his other family, that didn’t include her, the same way she believed he had poisoned Octavia only for them (and he let her believe that – not telling her that it was actually for her). That’s why she felt so hurt and betrayed and part of why she reacted so rashly (in conjunction with the extreme overprotective mama bear instincts) – she didn’t understand that by doing what he was doing, Bellamy was trying to protect not only his other family, but also herself and Madi. She didn’t see how giving Madi the flame could make everyone safer, including Madi herself. Granted, Bellamy didn’t do a great job of reasoning with her, but Clarke wasn’t exactly being receptive to the idea either. She just automatically assumed it would put her in greater danger – but we saw how Madi, with the flame, was able to sway someone who had been loyal to Blodreina to her side. The flame gave Madi power and protection. And Clarke, because she didn’t recognize this at the time, thought Bellamy didn’t care about Madi’s safety, and therefore also did not care about her. So essentially, the basis of their entire conflict in S5 is an epic misunderstanding/miscommunication rooted in the fact that neither truly knows how important they still are to the other, after six years apart. Because they weren’t able to be open about it to one another. Clarke couldn’t open up to him at the fireside scene in 5x05, then saw that he’d seemingly moved on with Echo and closed herself off even more, and then finally was crushed and heartbroken when she didn’t know Bellamy was acting on her behalf and it seemed to her like he was throwing her and Madi under the bus for Echo and the rest of spacekru (culminating in her running away with Madi and leaving his fate in Octavia’s hands). Meanwhile, because Clarke never opened up to Bellamy, when she left him behind to die it seemed to him like she no longer cared about him either. And they were both wrong about that. Thus, in order to resolve that conflict, they HAVE to start being more open/honest with each other about how they feel, and part of that includes the revelation of both the meaning behind the radio calls, and the fact that Bellamy poisoned Octavia for Clarke, because he loves her (and not only that, but he loves her more than Echo – which Echo will eventually figure out too). So yeah, that’s why I believe that they will address both, and that all the associated romantic feelings are going to be revealed – because it’s been set up in S5 AND what we’ve seen so far of S6, plus it’s essential to the resolution of their lingering conflict from S5. Also why, on a more general level, I’m confident that Bellarke is not, in fact, dead (despite the conflict they had, despite the temporary existence of B/E, despite JR’s unreliable comments and so on; whatever other reasons fandom has for thinking Bellarke is dead).

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 41

Spoilers, obv.

After last issue's formalism, this one just accelerates. And, as everything in this arc, everything is a big beat. If everything is a big beat, how do you choose what to spend your space on? What beats really matter? How do you pace it? What can be a grace note and what's a scene? That's what this issue, and the rest of the arc, tends to be about.

This issue has gone down very well. I'll admit that while I absolutely gasped when I got paged in, I suspect it's going to be least favourite of the whole arc. That more says how much I enjoy the rest of the arc. Also, as a friend put it to me, I may be allergic to making people happy.

Let’s get on with this.

Jamie and Matt's cover:

There is, to some degree, a "Who hasn't had a headshot cover?" to this arc. As such, Mimir finally gets his. This is a glorious one – the pinks and blues, work really well, and the circuitboards frame it well. Obviously, Mimir plays a big role in this issue, so it is thematic. As is…

Paulina's cover

I just love Paulina's covers, as her being the regular alt-cover artist on Thunderbolt should imply. This made me want to immediately pitch a kick-ass pop D&D bard comic to someone, Xena Warrior Princess as produced by Xenomania. The names of the swords are the chef-kiss, but there's so much to love. The expression is everything.

Page 1

One page scene, with a modified nine panel grid. The one page scene is something that happens a lot this arc. I did a two-page version, but with the right seven panels, we're sorted. Yes, this is all we see of the de facto antagonists of the series this issue – when last issue was all about them, it doesn't worry me too much.

Page 2

Standard music journalist concept. That the second album tends to be worst than the first. Hard to prove, though my old friend Peter's note that "you have your whole life preparing for your first album and have a year to do your second" does seem to imply an easy explanation.

Page 3-4-5

Stealth mission! It's Metal Gear WicDiv!

We actually forgot to add the flashes to the first panel until the very last minute. Monthly Comics is a hell of a time sometimes, stress the “hell.”

I love the determination of Laura in the second panel of 3. That's great eyes.

Looking at this now, that "I can't do much now" is in a panel smaller than 1/9th of the page says a lot about the scale she's working on. The background was Matt in full trippy mode – I had a friend note that this scene is a little akin to Kohl in Rue Britannia 5 (The difference being Kohl is using nostalgia for a performance, while Laura is just doing a performance) but the moving squiggle does remind me the use of optical illusions in Phonogram 3. Bugs in the optic nerve are our friend.

Panel 3 on 4 is obviously Clayton living large and conquering. When you ask for something like "Can you sample the background and use as a speech balloon" you have no idea if it's going to work.

We could have divided the middle panel into two, but I suspect it'd have been less effective. We've seen the trick before. Now we see the same trick, but different. Mix it up. We're performers.

Hmm. I realise the Norns string of balloons is something I'm doing more often now – it's not something I've always done. I'm normally a one-panel-one-emotion, which strings of dialogue rarely allow (as, if there’s any change of emotion inside the string, the image is rendered ludicrous). In a middle shot, and a strong emotional throughline with the dialogue and I'm more okay with it.

While this whole three pages is an action sequence, it's also exposition for Laura's current state. The best exposition is demonstration, I guess.

I mean, the last panel of page 5? That's how cut to the bone we are. Problem? Solve it. Problem? Solve it. We don't need to fuck around anymore.

Page 6-7-8

And after six whole trades, the reunion between Lucifer and Laura. I suspect a different writer would have played this bigger and more melodramatic, but when the reader knows this, a splash feels overkill, especially with the taut pacing of the rest of the issue. However... there are five panels here. That's a page's worth of content, and enough to give an emotional throughline.

Sometimes when writing it's all about trying to find an honest response which is also unexpected. Like, in life, you think you'll feel sad or happy at certain times, but when you live through it, you don't. Or you don't entirely. What other stuff is happening? That's what rings true to me.

Anyway – that's where Laura's Guilt comes from. Laura at her most Dionysus.

And then Lucifer shatters all that self pity with the wink. Did you miss me? Of course, you did.

Page 7, panel 4 is one of those "a comic panel is not a moment in time" bits of magic McLeod always talks about. As in, as we read across the panel time progresses. The Mimir/Cass conversation is getting on for... 10 seconds, maybe? The teleport signatures do not take that long to appear. It's only with Laura's interruption that panel kicks into high gear.

As Multiversity noted you can easily imagine another draft of this with a bigger fight scene. And it's true – but also lying around was a version which cuts it even shorter. Do we need to really give a whole page to Cass breaking out? I felt so. Without the big beat, it feels flat. And it's good to see Cass let rip.

The slight angle on Jamie's external shot with a Norns black/white plus golden thread from Matt is really interesting. We don't often see the Norns as combatants in WicDiv, so this is a rare chance to give Cass a "Hello, I am a bad ass too, in case you've forgotten."

Page 9-10-11-12

Cripes. Going this and making notes I can't believe how tightly we're winding this and (more so) getting away from it. We did all this in four pages?

Two panels to the escape – the right image and a handful of taut captions to hold you between scenes. The first is doing a lot of work, but the second is just elegant. What do you need but the broken doors? Great stuff by Jamie here.

(Laura's captions do a lot of work here in setting up the themes, and the return of Sakhmet's memory to the story)

If you're wondering "How on earth could we get the escape be quicker, it's to take the first two panels on page 8 and move to the previous page. That makes it a five panel page, which is entirely do-able. That's a cost, but it would have bought slightly more space in this scene. As it is, I preferred to cut mid-page and end with Lucifer's first spoken lines in ages.

Once more, a big reveal in a small panel. Chrissy's note on the script was basically hearts for Luci at this point. Like, the second she cuts to the chase and tell s people what to do...

...and then the page turn, and she just goes full Lucifer. I know you lot have missed her, but I have too.

Getting back to Inanna was also easy, the sweetheart... but it all leads back to Sakhmet. That Mothering Invention was as tight as it was didn't leave much room for Laura to think about Sakhmet, or mourn at all... or, most of all, make it clear the story (and Laura) considers her loss important and real. It's an awful sad panel at the end of the page.

Inanna's voice was easy to find again. He's such a sweetheart. Tara is a little harder, just as I wrote her less, but I've been fascinated by this arc in terms of writing her as an actual character. I think one of the ironies of issue 13 was that it put Tara on a pedestal, and the pedestal is an objectifying as any other cage. Getting her back as a character is wonderful, and she gets to be as messy and flawed as everyone else.

Inanna not knowing ANY of this is hard. That's the problem with most of this arc – there is so much information flying around, and secrets some (but not all) are aware of. Who gets to respond to what and when? What to remind people of? What to let slide? Inanna not knowing about Baal is so huge it had to be hit and hit hard.

And then... the bodies.

When plotting this and trying to work out how I could get the cast – oh god, this is not a deliberate pun, but it's also clearly a pun - back on their feet, I was thinking of the Morrigan Gambit. Three heads, three bodies. Perfect. Then I remembered Mimir, and swore. I started to think about how that would be a tense, dramatic situation and how the personal politics could play out and I realised that Tara would just turn it down. I then realised that's exactly how the scene would work too.

(In a "tightness" thing, I suspect in another world, this scene would have been two pages. The "and Tara then just butts in" is the key thing, but you could get the timing a little more intricate to sell the moment more – still, even in this page, I could have extended it more, but seeing Tara's elaboration and everyone else's response to it was just key work for them all.)

In passing – Mimir's glowing in the dark in the penultimate panel just wonderful. Nice work Jamie and Matt.

Page 13

From the Sisters of Mercy's song, Marian.

Page 14-15-16-17

Here's where you talk about spending space. What's important here? You need the scale to show what Baph has been doing – and Jamie turns it into something astoundingly gothic. The use of blacks, the use of light and shade. Just the right level of suggestive. It’s one of my favourite bits of composition in the issue.

As the pantheon are getting back together, this leads to an increase in crowd scenes, which are the eternal artist killer. As such, I'm looking for solutions which only involve the absolute minimum of the cast in a scene.

Thee was an awful moment earlier in the issue when I went – wait! Do I have too many heads to carry? Then I realised I was fine. That said, finding places to put them down so we can have chat scenes was also somewhat tricky. The shelf turning up on page 15 is an example. Clealry Baph planned to (er) have a place to keep heads.

Well, I say, Baph, but it's clearly Nergal now. The road from early Nick Cave to late Nick Cave has been a long way. It's a great shot.

To go back to the space, why spend it on this? We’re reintroducing Nergal and Morrigan, and we’re also showing the scale of them in the plot, and the actions of Nergal. Where we go with the bodies is such a big beat, it needs to come from something similarly large. That’s also the reason why so much (relative in the issue) space is spent on the Morrigan/Nergal scenes. Of course, it’s also a key scene for this subplot, so demands space for that. It’s rarely just one reason. Probably a useful time for my usual “these notes are only ever a selection of thoughts.”

This is also a serious pose panel by Jamie.

The “I could bring her back.” He’s an underworld god too. If she could do it, he could. This is something which I suspect some people thought implicit in the old scene, but the final manipulation of Morrigan is unpacked at length in the nine panel grids.

Nine panel grids are a natural rhythm for this – when I was planning the later bit the triple-goddess of it made obvious sense, so it expanded to the whole scene. Also, the cropped image reduces the possibility of a Jamie crowd scene.

I always thought that, given the amount of time the various characters get on film, Ladyhawke could more accurately be called Blokeywolf. I digress.

Page 18-19-20

As said earlier, the triple-goddess to nine panel grid is one of those natural ways to give a stress to each of the elements. You’ll notice the clicks are left then right then centre. I’d originally written it as left to right, before – after Chrissy’s Editorial urging – rewrote to end with the Macha section to go last. Gentle Annie may have been the kinder part of Morrigan, but Macha was the part he mostly dated.

Then, in a moment of weirdness, Jamie actually drew it in the original order, despite never having seen that script. Morrigan has powers, as does the logical necessity of a left to right panelling order. As a nine panel grid, just moving panels around to fix it is easy. Hail grids!

Like most of the big acts of magic, it’s all about emotional sense than anything else. Hence, it is inevitable as Nergal actually does this, the bleak temple he’s constructed starts to crumble. And, in perhaps the most ludicrous bit of me in the comic, The Temple Of Love Is Falling Down. Too much is the bare minimum.

Jamie’s triple-portrait of the Morrigan is pretty startling. I have no idea if Jamie will miss drawing Badb’s hair, but I’ll miss seeing it.

Re-reading this now I’m struck by how low-key it is. That was always part of WicDiv’s magic – the finger click, and then things happening. The Morrigan transformation was usually drawn to be instantaneous – one panel Macha, the next Badb and so on. This kind of keeps to that.

And then… the reveal. That the new bodies isn’t a splash page says everything about this issue, but it still gets the punching the air moment. We had to have one of those eventually. Lucifer in a black suit is one of the things I’ve been waiting as long to see as Nergal in his. I giggled with glee at seeing this. Jamie’s worked in elements of the Morrigan into each of the gods – Lucifer’s red hair is the most obvious one, but Gentle Annie in Inanna and Macha in Mimir also have their notes. Inanna’s netting top is the main one – and note the shapes on Mimir’s armour changing to mimic Macha’s.

Yes, writing Lucifer remains fun and easy. I recommend it to everyone.

Page 21-22

In terms of seeing chat, people responding to the small details in the issue is one of the bigger joys. That Jamie got the Inanna/Nergal hug in the background of this exchange between Laura/Lucifer/Cass is absolutely wonderful. Laura and Cass have come a long way.

This is arguably a small cliffhanger – the smallest of this arc, at least. However, it sits on the weight of the rest of the run. We’re promising a solution to one of the larger mysteries in the run, and I suspect we get by on that. Note how space is used – this is a dense panel layout, but we go to a thired of a page for Laura’s “I know how to end this” (so giving it weight” and then going to three panel page for the conclusion (which adds weight to each of these beats.) Jamie takes the framing to tight on Cass for the beat as well to sell it. Note Matt with the Norn-colouring creeping in – and how it goes from the fires in the first panel to this is just a joy.

Page 23

Interstitial, and obvious reference to the Jay-Z record, but everyone is just excitedly clapping over the adding stuff to the godwheel. Sergio outdid himself here. It’s certainly an example of how you can have storytelling and even hero-shot audience-cheers beats out of things entirely unlike a traditional comics panel. After all these issue,s we get to see something added to the godwheel. Of course people cheer. That said,  as I said to a friend, “Of all the things I’ve found to torture the WicDiv readership, hope is the cruelest of all.”

EDIT: Actually, I messed up here - Jamie did the tweaks. Nice work Jamie!

And that’s it. Next up – 42, wherein questions are answered. In passing – the letters we’ve been getting are amazing. I’m going to try and cram as many as I can in the issues to come, but issue 44 will be our last one with a letters page. So that’s a timelimit if you wanna try and get in. It’s wicdiv@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading.

[trashcanmarvelfan]

Best. Job. Ever. 8/12

Summary: Reader gets a job on the set of Spider-Man: Far from Home for the 3 weeks they are shooting in New York City as what she thinks is a production assistant, but a twist of fate has her reassigned as Tom Holland’s personal assistant. As she & Tom grow close during filming, will their budding friendship turn to more or will they go their separate ways after filming concludes?

Warnings: Language, but that’s pretty much it? This is basically a PG-13 rom-com. (Legal) alcohol use as well but since it’s legal do I really need to tag it?

Word Count: 2114 for chapter 8.

Author’s Note: As this was written WAY before Spider-Man: Far from Home was released (actually before Avengers: Endgame was as well) I’ve kept plot details and which scene was being shot on what day extremely vague. Also, I’m American but tried to write Tom as British as possible, although I do think he’d try to stay(ish) in character and use as much American slang as he could while he’s still playing Peter.

Chapter-Specific Author’s Note: I hope this part was worth the wait... ;)

Requests are always open!

Cross-posted at AO3.

The next morning, Y/N woke up and checked her email.  Waiting in her inbox was Tom’s schedule for the final week of filming.

She pulled up Tom’s text thread. Got your schedule for next week. Ik you’re hanging out with Harrison today and we're going out tonight, so we can just go over it tomorrow or whatever.

Tom texted back almost immediately. Sounds great. Maybe we can do it tomorrow evening after Haz leaves? I was also thinking we could all have brunch in the morning so we can give him a proper send-off.

Ok, that’s fine, and brunch also sounds good. LMK the details tonight.

Y/N decided since she wasn’t meeting up with the guys until much later in the day and since she had been in NYC for almost 2 weeks and still hadn’t really gone sightseeing that she needed to get out and do something, so she took a shower and got dressed in some comfortable clothes she could go exploring in, grabbed her wallet, and headed downstairs.

She asked at the concierge desk for tour recommendations that she could do and wound up deciding to book a bus tour that passed by some shops she wanted to go to. She walked down to a little cafe’ for coffee then boarded her bus.

One of the stops was near the Strand Bookstore, so she decided to disembark there and check it out.

She took one step inside and froze. There were books everywhere she could see - books of every shape, size, and genre.  I’ve died and gone to heaven.

She spent most of the morning exploring the shop, finally choosing a few books to purchase before realizing how late it was and running back to the bus stop to continue her tour.

After eventually making a full loop around New York City, Y/N got off at the stop closest to the hotel and rushed back to shower and change for the evening.

She checked out her outfit in the full-length mirror in her hall. I guess this is it, she thought.

Laura had helped her pick out an outfit via Skype, delighted that Y/N had packed the pink satin camisole top she had bought Y/N for her birthday, and insisting that it was the perfect top to pair with black leggings and a pair of comfortable, low-heeled shoes that Y/N had bought earlier that day.  Y/N had gone with simple accessories, choosing a rose gold bracelet and teardrop necklace, and kept her makeup light lest she sweat it off under the club lights.

A knock came on the door.

She opened the door and Tom’s jaw dropped. “Y/N, you look absolutely stunning,” he breathed.

“Thanks,” Y/N replied shyly. “Ready to go? Where’s Harrison?”

“Oh, err, he said he'd meet us downstairs,” Tom replied.

“Oh, ok, that’s cool.”

Tom offered his arm. “Shall we?”

They exited the elevator in the lobby where Harrison was waiting. “Y/N, you look fabulous,” he said.

“Thanks,” Y/N replied.

“The Uber is a couple of blocks away so we should be getting outside.” Harrison pointed toward the doors. “You two ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’m set. Tom?”

“Ready,” Tom replied.

They made their way outside where their Uber was just pulling up to the curb.

Tom got in first, holding out a hand to help Y/N climb in behind him. Harrison followed behind her.

They greeted their driver and chatted casually on the way to the restaurant.

After dinner, they walked down the street to the club.  Tom gave his name at the door and he, Y/N, and Harrison all showed their IDs to get their armbands for the bar, Y/N handing her belongings to Tom to keep in his pocket.  They walked in to the club full of glowing lights and thumping electronic music, peoples’ bodies swaying to the beat.

A waitress led them to their table above the dance floor and asked them if they wanted a drink.

“We should start with shots,” Harrison declared before ordering 2 tequila shots for each of them.

“Can I also get 2 shots of lime juice?” Y/N added. “I usually add a chaser at first if I'm doing tequila shots,” she explained at Tom and Harrison’s quizzical looks.

Once their drinks were delivered, Y/N picked hers up. “To good friends, good tequila, and good times,” she declared.

“Hear hear,” Tom and Harrison both agreed as they all clinked their glasses together.  Y/N drank her shot of tequila, the liquid burning her throat as it slid down. She immediately chased it with the lime juice, shuddering at the tang. “Ugh, much better mixed together in a margarita,” she joked.

They quickly followed with their second shot before Harrison decided that he was going to go check out the dance floor.  He shot Y/N and Tom a good-natured wink before he left.

Tom leaned in, the intoxicating combination of his cologne and the alcohol already starting to swirl in Y/N’s system making her feel fuzzy. “I’m going to go to the bar,” he said in her ear to be overheard over the music. “Want anything?”

“Sure.” Y/N told Tom which drink she wanted and he disappeared. She sat quietly for a few minutes before pulling out her phone and taking a selfie to send to Laura. Nightlife in NYC, she captioned it.

A couple of seconds later, a gorgeous blonde-haired guy bumped into her seat. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Y/N said. “No harm done.” Y/N waited for the guy to keep walking, but he stopped right next to her.

“I’m Matt.”

“Y/N.”

Matt tilted his head to the side. “How about some company? A pretty lady like you must be lonely sitting there all by yourself.”

Y/N shook her head. “No thanks. I’m actually just waiting for someone.”

“Then do you wanna dance?”

“Um, no thanks.”

“How about a drink then?”

Y/N was starting to get uncomfortable. “Um, actually--”

“Here you are, love.”

Y/N looked up to see Tom carrying her drink as well as a beer for himself.

Y/N shot him a grateful look. “Thanks, babe.”

Tom sat next to her and gave her a lingering kiss on her cheek, dangerously close to the corner of her mouth. “So terribly sorry darling, hope I didn’t keep you waiting long,” he said apologetically, putting an arm around her shoulder. He pretended to only just then notice Matt. “Oh, hello. Sorry, didn't see you standing there.”

Y/N tried to keep her chill. “No big deal, honey. I was just talking to Matt, here.”

“Umm, actually you know, I've got to get going,” Matt mumbled. “It was nice to meet you, Y/N.” He rushed off.

“Bye, Matt!” Tom said cheerfully.

“Ugh, what an asshat,” Y/N said, taking a sip of her drink. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

Tom shrugged and took a swig of his beer, keeping his arm around Y/N. “You were obviously uncomfortable and that guy clearly wasn't getting the hint.”

They were finishing their drinks when Harrison came back. “Time for a break. I need another drink.” He pointed to Tom and Y/N. “It's your turn to get out there."

Tom offered Y/N his hand. “Dance with me?” he asked.

Y/N nodded and took his hand. “Show me what moves you've got, Holland,” she said with a wink.

“Order me another beer when our server comes back?” Tom asked Harrison.

“Sure thing, mate. Y/N?”

“Yeah, actually.” Y/N told Harrison what she wanted to drink as she and Tom stood.

Tom led her to the dance floor, where one song had just ended and another song had begun.

Y/N swayed her hips, letting the beat of the music and the warmth of the alcohol in her system relax her. Tom wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her flush to him.  Y/N hooked one arm around Tom’s neck, closing her eyes and matching Tom’s rhythm to where they were one seamless flow.

They danced for several songs until Tom’s hand slowly traveled up Y/N’s back until he reached the bare skin where her top was cut low. Y/N shivered as Tom slowly ran a finger up her back, opening her eyes and locking gazes with him.

Tom’s gaze held something… primal, something that both excited and terrified Y/N at the same time.  She subconsciously licked her lips, Tom’s gaze flickering down for just a second before raising back to her eyes.  His grip on her waist tightened. “Y/N…” he murmured.

“Yes?” Y/N replied breathlessly. The way Tom said her name in that accent of his made her briefly wonder how many other different ways she could get him to say it and in what other situations. She blushed at the thought.

Tom tilted his head, leaning in slightly, while Y/N followed suit until...

...Someone knocked into them, shattering the moment and breaking the spell.

“You know what?” Y/N said nervously, looking everywhere but at Tom. “I need to hit the ladies’ room, I’ll umm… I’ll be back in a bit.”

Tom nodded. “Okay, I’m going to go back to the table then.”

Y/N nodded as well.  She went to the ladies’ room and splashed some cool water on her face. Get a grip, Y/N. You’ve both been drinking, and with the lights and the music… Just keep it together.

She walked back to the table, where the guys were each drinking a beer, Y/N’s drink on the table between them.  

Y/N sat down and took a long swig of her drink. “Bit warm in here, isn’t it?” she said. “Luckily we seem to be right under the AC.”

After a while and another drink, Y/N had calmed down enough and was ready to get back out on the dance floor.

She took turns dancing with both Harrison and Tom, but this time she was sure to keep a respectable distance, also switching to water for the rest of the evening lest she get tipsy again and lose her inhibitions.

They called an Uber back to the hotel, where Y/N and Tom dropped Harrison off at his floor, wishing him goodnight.

When Y/N and Tom arrived on their floor, Tom asked, “Would you like me to walk you to your door?”  

Y/N giggled. “That’s so gentlemanly of you, but it’s literally down the hall. I think I can make it.”

“Ok, good night then.”

“Good night.”  Y/N turned and walked towards her room.  She was almost to her door when Tom called out her name. “Y/N!”

She turned to see Tom jogging towards her, holding her belongings that he had been keeping in his pocket.  “You might need these.”

Y/N blushed as Tom joined her in front of her door. “Haha oops, yeah, those might be important.” She bit her lip nervously. “Thanks for inviting me. I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Me too,” Tom replied with a soft smile.

Y/N's fingers brushed Tom's as she reached for her belongings, setting off that same spark that she had felt earlier that evening. She leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Tom's cheek before turning towards her door.

Suddenly Tom grabbed her hand. “Y/N, wait.”

Y/N glanced back at him in surprise.

Tom dropped Y/N's hand as his eyes searched hers. What he was looking for, Y/N wasn't sure. Tom reached up and tucked some loose hair behind Y/N's ear, his fingers lingering on her face in a gentle caress.

Y/N subconsciously leaned into Tom's touch, her eyes fluttering closed as warm lips tentatively pressed against her own.

She reached up with her free hand, trailing her fingers up Tom’s arm before wrapping her hand around his bicep and pulling him closer, Tom wrapping his arms around her and pulling her flush to him as he continued to kiss her breathless.

The sound of a door closing down the hall brought them back to Earth, Tom giving Y/N one more chaste kiss before separating.

He grinned. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

Y/N smiled shyly. “Night, Tom.” She swiped her keycard on her door before entering her room, not noticing that Tom hadn’t moved or taken his eyes off of her for a second until she was inside.

She flopped down on her bed and touched her lips with her fingertips, the feel of Tom's lips still on hers.

What a night.

Taglist: @laureharrier @thoughstofaredhead & @greenarrowhead

[aotopmha]

Attack On Titan Chapter 106, 107 and 108 Thoughts

Turns out I only missed three chapter posts during my inactivity.

Which is neat. But now I'm back and as rockin' as ever.

I think the simplest way to start is to address the biggest elephant in the room: the reveal at the end of chapter 107.

Historia is pregnant.

I'd make a soap opera joke, but that's too easy.

The first can of worms this opens is that she is a girl who likes girls and it is really common to not only kill one of the sides in a lesbian relationship, but also "turn them straight". The good part here is that the story does everything to disconnect it from that element. Chapter 107 shows the pregnancy is a necessity forced onto Historia because Eldia needs to survive until they develop good enough technology to defend themselves.

It goes back to one of the story's biggest thematic threads about survival and combines it with Armin's statement "If you can't sacrifice anything, you can't achieve anything."

I think it's equally possible that the pregnancy is as fake as it is real. So I'm going to look at both possibilities and what I think they have as a basis.

I think the tidbits that support the pregnancy being real are Hange's talk with Eren in the beginning of chapter 107, which shows him being angry at Historia being sacrificed and the concern the man at the end of the same chapter shows for Historia. The second one is a pretty easy one: it's just an act. The first one is trickier.

For Eren it would obviously be that he doesn't know because he's not in on the plan or he's talking about Historia being turned into a Titan.

Chapter 108 says that Eren and Zeke have talked. We don't know when, but if a fake pregnancy is planned, Zeke either didn't tell Eren, doesn't know himself, which would be odd considering it's stated to be there to extend his lifespan and Yelena is said to have come up with that plan, which I think is a reliable piece of information for now; that or Yelena is just acting independently to save Zeke because they can't interact due to being restricted by the Garrisson. The rest of the SL also seem to just take it as it is. If it's not real, not many people show hints of knowing it's not real.

It might just be a plan devised by only Yelena and Historia that nobody else knows about because Historia would not put anyone through the same fate of being forced into a situation of not their choosing. Not the child or the father. Only when she's probably forced to, which was implied in chapter 107, but 108 does give her ability to choose, which is another element that makes me suspect it's not real.

In addition to that, Historia only agreed to inherit the Titan. That was her chosen sacrifice. The pregnancy actually takes away most of her remaining freedom, something the characters have been fighting for to get back. Historia's choice in the cave meant taking back her freedom and choosing for herself. So it seems at odds with the themes so far. Giving your life, sure, but your personal freedom, too? Nah.

If the pregnancy is real, I think it's at least not chosen by people pleaser Historia. Her statement to take the power on seems to be genuine and out of the desire to genuinely help her friends and her people to survive, so I think the pregnancy would be a similar choice for her. We only have a few panels, but I think her character hasn't regressed.

(Chapter 107)

The story and where it could be going is an absolute headache to speculate about to me because there are so many pieces and variables to consider.

How much interaction did Eren have with Historia or anyone about the plans after Kiyomi's suggestion to have her have babies to keep the royal bloodline alive? There is a whole lot of questioning to find a better solution, as well. The past few chapters have each at least had one scene of someone looking for a better way.

Hizuru itself is suspect because they are greedy for Paradis' resources, too. Hange questions whether all really will be over in 50 years. The pregnancy is stated to be dangerous by itself, so the risk is still there. For Zeke's remaining year, it would make no difference whether the pragnancy is real or fake.

(Chapter 107)

Zeke's reason for giving away his parents is curious, too. Wouldn't *he* want to stay alive to make things right in his own way considering he thought he could do the job better than his parents? Talk about restoring the Eldian Empire is bad, but he at least seems to want to get this done by his own hand and in a much more smarter way. Regardless of his personal intentions, he would be a very useful weapon in the upcoming battle compared to Historia who would have no experience whatsoever.

My picture for now is that Historia's pregnancy is fake and they are betting on the upcoming battle to collapse Marley, which could happen with or without the rest of the world's support in that battle. If that happens, they could potentially get some sort of peace going. It's a massive gamble, which is something the SL is really familiar with at this point, but if they get Marley off their back, that's a step to potentially keep other nations away, especially if they try their best to show what's actually up to the world and stop the propaganda Marley is spreading.

In addition to that, while it would still aid the cycle, what has stopped Zeke from having a child himself with a woman that wants to? The hole of whether Marley knew he is royal blood was addressed by confirming Zeke has managed to hide it. Nobody on the wall with Dina survived so it didn't get out that way, either. That's another variable to add to the mix.

As with this whole story, it's meant to be a mystery, so I can wait for answers, but it's still at least a little frustrating. It's also exciting because this is the most unsure of any of my guesses about the story's direction I've been as long as I've followed it.

Speaking of uncertainty, trust and who to trust seems to be this arc's theme. It's not just the plot beats that are a mystery, but also the main players' intentions.

I consider Eren, Zeke and Historia the main players. We have not seen any details in their character perspective at all.

This aids everyone questioning them. One thing I appreciate in these chapters is that the characters have good reason to distrust Eren and Zeke. Eren went ahead and abused the SL's trust. Zeke turned an entire village to Titans and is responsible for many deaths on the Paradis side. It's not just drama for the sake of drama, it's testing the characters' bonds, something new the characters haven't been put through. This was the center of chapter 106 through Armin and was built to this moment:

(Chapter 108)

I already went into what Historia and Zeke might be thinking, but I have the most confident guess for Eren.

Of course he still cares. I think his concern for Historia is solid proof. The flashbacks are some time back so they are questionable, but that's in the present. His laugh at Sasha is something he does when in a high tension situation like that. He was tearing up in addition to that. The reason he went ahead so recklessly is to end this whole thing quickly and remove the need to pass the power because he doesn't want to pass it to anyone. In addition to that, he's the one who controls the power, so he's at least have some agreement and unity with Zeke. I feel like he would not agree with very crazy requirements.

But I think being suspicious is completely understandable and again, we don't really know for sure.

Finally, there are a few more minor developments I think that are noteworthy.

-Mikasa is a member of Hizuru's royal family. I like her being more plot important. Once again, Hizuru is suspicious, though. I think Historia might be in danger equally to Mikasa because of the importance they have as royal descendants, so that's something to note. I also really liked Mikasa sitting by Sasha's grave in chapter 107. Mikasa has had some quality scenes separate from Eren and together with Eren here. It's the most focus she's gotten in a while, which I think she really needs.

-I really look forward to the potential character arc with Gabi. It's been obvious since her introduction because of her similarity to Eren and his character arc, but the encounter with the girl Sasha saved seems to be a good way to kickstart it. It's potentially a very rewarding arc, as we saw it with Eren, I just wondered how it could have any sort of believable setup to it and here we go.

-I also like Marley's competency in chapter 108. They are not a forced threat which sometimes also happens, all conclusions they make seem pretty logical. Only Reiner's decision could screw them over, which he wants to probably make because those kids that went to Paradis kinda fuel his will to live. It's believable character behaviour all around.

These were excellent chapters in terms of setup, something I think AoT usually struggles with, but this managed to make me curious about pretty much all elements. I have my hesitations in terms of some of the elements (Historia's pregnancy in particular), but I really want to know more - I almost feel like I didn’t even go over half the possibilities where the story could go in this post.

Good stuff.

[twilight-adamo]

As Dreams Are Made On: The Mixtape - Liner Notes

Hello everyone! I am currently in the process of gathering my thoughts on Brave New World and trying to get the next installment of These Our Actors (which will focus on Rosalie) just right, in addition to trying to find my thread on Out of the Blue and other non-Twilight projects. This has been complicated by the fact that I’ve been fighting a couple rather nasty nose and throat bugs of late, and so this weekend I’m doing my best to relax and recover.

In the meantime, I thought I’d start offering up my notes on the Spotify playlist I posted a while ago and why I chose the songs I did. For anyone who didn’t see the link, here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/user/12153099402/playlist/5IYjYDbcM6qvQ2hgGnOCGF?si=orkjWU50SjKm7xbPSF_r5w

Since many of my choices do relate directly to specific plot points, there are potential spoilers ahead, so I’m putting this behind a cut. I won’t get through every song in this post, but I’ll add additional notes in subsequent posts as time allows.

As I think I mentioned before, I find playlists to be a very useful tool in my writing. It’s possible to spend too much time tinkering with playlists, of course, so I try not to do it in place of writing or outlining - this is just something I work on when I’m occupied with non-writing tasks that allow for a certain amount of downtime. Each song tends to relate to a plot point or an emotion I’m trying to evoke in a certain part of the story, and the sequence generally follows my outline of the plot, though I’ll sometimes put the playlist on shuffle if I’m feeling stuck and want to try and shake things up, and I sometimes end up adding, removing, or resorting various songs as my understanding of the plot evolves. Since As Dreams Are Made On is done, the current version of the mixtape - all 49 songs - is now pretty much in its final form, but when I’m working on a story, the associated playlist is very much a living document and subject to change.

Music has always been a hugely important part of my life, thanks in large part to my mother, who was an influence on much of my creative output. I tend to think of myself as a visual and verbal person first and foremost, but music has the power to set my mood, to reawaken old memories, to align my thoughts, and to soothe my emotional turmoil. My personal tastes are fairly eclectic - my mother favored country, and I’m still fond of the genre, but I also listen to a lot of pop, classical pieces, musical theatre, folk music, movie scores, and so on. Spotify has been kind of a godsend when it comes to building playlists, though there are unfortunately a few pieces which should be on the mixtape but aren’t simply because they’re unavailable on Spotify. I’ll try to make a note of those missing pieces in the appropriate sections.

Right, well, without further ado, let’s get to the songs.

Pieces and Pieces - The Rough and Tumble This song’s sort of a thesis statement for the whole story, in a way. The refrain, in particular, speaks to me of where I was going: Nothing is lost when it’s been found again / Everything’s found where it was lost. Cass/Bella (or CB, as I refer to her, when I’m not simply calling her Bella) has seemingly lost a great deal, but she comes to gain a great deal as well, and to recover things she thought lost to her forever. The line “I will make you mine again, pieces by pieces” also speaks to me of the story’s dramatic climax, where the nature of CB’s relationship with Alice becomes clearer.

Where Is My Mind? - Pixies Here’s where we’re getting into the actual sequence of events. This one might be a little bit of a cliché, but it reflects CB’s confusion when she wakes in the world of Twilight. It’s also just generally one of my favorite songs.

Turning Page - Sleeping At Last This is the first of many pieces pulled directly from the soundtrack of the Twilight films, and the first song that centers a character other than CB, as it reflects Alice getting hit by the mating bond full-force. It’s a lovely piece, but I think there’s an undercurrent of anxiety and some slightly ominous elements that suit Alice’s mood well. Love at first sight sounds like a pleasant prospect, but it’s also a frightening one, and neither Alice nor CB would have chosen it, given the chance to choose.

Iowa (Traveling, Pt. 3) - Dar Williams Another of my favorite songs. I listened to a lot of Dar Williams in college, and listen to her fairly often still, but I keep coming back to this one in particular. As a lifelong New Englander, famed for what my great-grandmother called ‘the Yankee reserve’ (which means we don’t tend to wear our emotions on our sleeves and generally we keep to ourselves), these lyrics in particular speak to me:

But way back where I come from We never mean to bother We don’t like to make our passions other people’s concern And we walk in the world of safe people And at night we walk into our houses and burn

So, to me, this song speaks of CB’s struggle with her own emotions as her life in Forks begins and she grapples with the mating bond and all it implies. And it also speaks to her background as a lifelong Bostonian, who doesn’t like to be a bother but nevertheless finds herself in a whole new social context and a position where she needs to reach out to others to survive.

Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs This is Rosalie’s introduction to the story. I don’t really know why, it just seems to suit her, somehow.

Bela Lugosi’s Dead - CHVRCHES It may be physically impossible for me to write about vampires WITHOUT using this song. I just felt like I had to fit it in somewhere, and the first meeting with the rest of the Cullens (sans Carlisle and Esme, of course) seemed like a good spot.

Looking for a Place to Shine - Deidre Thornell Hear the Bells - Naomi Scott I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot of compelling reasons for these two. They just seemed to fit the sort of transitional period between the first meeting with the Cullens and Leah’s introduction a little later on.

Red Eyes and Tears - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Leah’s introduction to the story. Again, it just seemed to suit her.

New For You - Reeve Carney We’re back to Alice with this one. It sort of reflects her own emotional turmoil in dealing with the mating bond and having to accept that CB doesn’t necessarily reciprocate all her feelings just yet.

Fearless - Taylor Swift Well, this one actually comes up in the story, so you can pretty much guess where it fits in. Again, though, it’s one of my favorite songs, and speaks to the joy that I think love should carry with it, and the idea that love should drive us forward and make us better. It’s been a serious contender for the first dance at my hypothetical wedding for a long time (though “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri may be beating it out now).

The Mercy of the Fallen - Dar Williams More Dar Williams! This one...I don’t know. Somehow, it speaks to me of love and acceptance, of individuals who are all burdened and broken in their own ways reaching out and comforting one another. And that, in turn, makes me think of CB’s first visit to the Cullen house: her first real conversation with Rosalie, her introduction to Carlisle and Esme, all of that. This is where she really starts to build bridges, I think, and where she and some of the others begin to open up to one another.

Bella’s Lullaby - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman This is of course one of my favorite pieces from the Twilight movie score, and includes a leitmotif that comes up more than once in both the films and in my playlist. I couldn’t find the original version from the score itself on Spotify, but this cover works. Of course Edward plays it on the piano at this point in the story, reading it out of CB’s thoughts, and I think she adopts it in a sense as a sort of personal theme. Every time I listen to it, it makes me think of soaring pine trees and crisp, cold air, and I find the melody very soothing.

Missing Piece: Star by Star - Cassandra Lease and Melissa Carubia Someday I’m actually going to get together with the friend who helped me with the arrangement on this one and record it. It probably won’t go up on Spotify, but I’ll likely post it somewhere. This is the song I wrote for my mother’s memorial service; the lyrics are of course reprinted in the story in their entirety. This is probably one of the most personal elements of the story, the point where I really started to spill my guts across the page. I obviously backed off a little from my own life once I introduced Callie to the story, but there’s still a lot of my soul buried in the text; sometimes, I think, too much.

Bella’s Lullaby (Extended Mix) - The Twilight Orchestra I’m not really sure why this shares the name Bella’s Lullaby when it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the shorter piece, but whatever. This is just a lovely piece that sets the mood for Alice and CB on the rooftop and the events that follow.

Possibility - Lykke Li Similarly, this is more of a ‘setting the mood’ song. I don’t think the lyrics quite fit, in their entirety, but this basically represents CB awakening to the possibility of forming a real attachment to Alice, despite her qualms.

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift Another (highly anachronistic) Taylor Swift song that shows up in the story itself. I can be an extremely basic white girl at times.

Bad Reputation - Avril Lavigne The Joan Jett version isn’t on Spotify! I don’t know what to tell you! This cover’s pretty good, though. Another Leah song, and something I imagine might be playing in the dive where CB introduces Leah to fried pickles.

Nothing to Lose - Minusworld My friend Melissa’s band! Get their EP, Giant Blazing Sword, wherever you buy digital music! Listen to them on Spotify and Bandcamp! Anyway, I think this is the track playing during Leah and CB’s encounter with the scary assholes in the alley, and when Emmett and the others get their big damn hero moment.

In Place Of Someone You Love - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman We’re skipping ahead a bit here. This piece comes after the shopping scene and CB’s attempt to analyze Rosalie’s abilities, when she’s in the dream of the burning house, trying to save her memories.

The Forgotten - Green Day This piece represents CB’s emotions after she wakes from her brief coma, as she struggles with losing her memories and burning away parts of the world she left behind.

Black Is The Colour - Cara Dillon And this piece represents CB’s acceptance of her feelings toward Alice, her confession of love despite her reservations. It took me a while to find a cover I liked, as I very much wanted to use a version that had a woman singing about another woman, for obvious reasons.

Okay, I think that’s pretty much all I can handle for now. More to come soon!

[random-thoughts-collection]

Supernatural | 13.13 Review

Supernatural - Devil's Bargain

written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner, directed by Eduardo Sánchez

I feel like Ross-Leming and Buckner get at least one or two episodes each season where they try to stuff as much plot development as possible into one episode. This is one of these episodes and it suffers from too many villains and from a predictable and boring focus point. I’m afraid I didn’t like this episode, and while there are a few good things in there, this review won’t be positive about most of this episode’s elements – especially when putting them in the context of the whole show.

Recycling stories: Lucifer

“I am powered down. But you can't kill me.”

Bringing back Lucifer as the big bad (or one of the big bads) was never a plot development I liked. It didn’t work for me in season 11, it made less sense in season 12, and having him around in season 13 creates a plot that feels sadly repetitive while giving us a less threatening Lucifer, a less impressive Lucifer, a less effective Lucifer and a less intriguing character all around. See, we had that angel-gone-human plot before. We saw it in Anna’s story in season 4 who wanted it, we saw Castiel dealing with being human in season 9 and learning from the experience, and we saw Metatron going through it and hating it in season 10 and 11. Where is the point in wasting Lucifer of all characters on that plot, especially after season 12 dealt with him being powerless quite extensively? Reducing your powerful archangel to a beggar is not a new and special idea, making them into a caricature of themselves is not a good idea, and with all this in mind most of this episode felt like a waste to me.

And there are so many parts about the plot that don’t make any sense to me. What is the point of angels stabbing each other with angel blades if it doesn’t really do anything to them? Why was Castiel running away from Asmodeus’ hideout, only to run back to it afterwards? If Lucifer is so powered down that he has to beg for food, why can’t the cupid defend himself again Lucifer? And how and why would Lucifer be able to create new angels? I can imagine he saw God doing it, but I dislike the idea that he can just do it himself just because he has seen it. For Jack that might be acceptable, him being a quite unique mix of archangel and human, but I don’t see why Lucifer would have that kind of creational power. Just convincing the angels because he can give them their wings back would have made more sense to me. And here’s another complaint: Lucifer on that throne in heaven looked utterly ridiculous. The design of the whole room looks uninspired but not simple enough to really impress through simplicity. The kneeling angels look out-of-place as well, and if they’re the only angels left that’s really not much. But if there are more then there should have been more. As it is, Lucifer doesn’t look like the ruler of Heaven but more like a wannabe king of a tiny sandbox.

And one little side note on Castiel: his part in this episode was mostly okay and I really enjoyed how he knocked Ketch out – but you of all people don’t get to say “If he were lying, I'd have known it” because you are not good at detecting lies in general while Lucifer is the King of Lies. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not believing your assessment of the situation.

Mini-plots & bringing back all the characters

“That's proven to be, uh, monumentally stupid?” – “Indeed.”

One thing Asmodeus, Ketch and I can agree on: taking Lucifer as a prisoner was a stupid idea. But I’m currently wondering for what the Crowley substitute and Ketch are needed in this season’s main plot. Asmodeus tried to get Jack on his side in the first couple of episodes and it didn’t work, they discussed all his backstory with Lucifer and the Shedim, he imprisoned Castiel and Lucifer and that didn’t have any consequences… so far this plot feels pointless and is therefore very frustrating to watch. I hope they actually go somewhere with this, but I’m worried they’ll end this specific plot without any satisfactory conclusion.

In a way it makes sense for the Winchesters to temporally work with Ketch since he saved their lives. And the Winchesters have worked with their enemies before (Lucifer, Metatron, the hunters who killed them, you name it…), so it’s nothing new to them. But for the same reason I wish they would just refuse to work with their enemy for once. To let them feel their pain and hurt for once and not have to ignore it – and even let Ketch get away with it all after everything is said and done. Ketch is also a difficult element here because of the way they brought him back. That the Winchesters wouldn’t salt and burn him is absolute nonsense, and every time he is onscreen I am reminded of that.

Speaking of the past: Asmodeus introduced us to the archangel blade and I can’t help but think that it would have been useful to know about it when the Winchesters fought Lucifer for the first time. Am I to believe they never found it during all their hours of research? That is one of the major problems if you revisit the same plot over and over again. Instead of doing something different than evil archangels and demons all the time it would create less plot holes and continuity issues if they would explore different legends and myths. Can this show please stop with the super knives? And after bringing Castiel, Billie, Ketch and Rowena back from the dead in this seasons now we can also add Gabriel to the list. Why are people in this show afraid of death again?   I can’t feel any excitement about Gabriel’s return and I have no idea how they will explain him being alive.

Anael

“After The Fall, when we lost our wings, I wasn't devastated. I was liberated. I was finally free.”

Sister Jo – or Anael – was a nice change from the usual stuck-up angel. We don’t see angels that have some interest and even sympathy for humans very often, and although Anael obviously exploits them and has only her self-interest in mind, she reminded me a little bit of Anna when she spoke about how she felt after her The Fall and how she sometimes envies humans. It’s for different reasons than Anna, but it was nice to see. As a result she seemed more human than the usual Heaven-Corporation-angel, and less dull than the average angels we get to see. Chemistry-wise her scenes with Lucifer were a bit weird though, mainly because Lucifer is not intimidating at all these days – for the viewer at least. It’s hard to watch the characters on screen are afraid or at least worried about him when you can’t feel anything of this supposed danger at all. This makes the grace-sharing moments uncomfortable as well. I’m not surprised that Ross-Leming and Buckner felt the need to get some sort of sexual undertones in this episode, but I was mostly grossed out by it. There is no attraction between Anael and Lucifer so I don’t see the need for this kind of moment, and while Lucifer is described as a seducer in many works he definitively doesn’t look like this in his current beggar state. So while I enjoyed Anael being her own person, I hope we’ll see her in different company the next time she is on screen.

And on a second thought: in some versions of the mythology Anael isn’t just a lowly angel but an actual archangel. For the longest time I thought of Anna as Anael, but that’s now not possible anymore. I just wish that when this angel appears they would have made Anael a more powerful, more meaningful angel.

And the Winchesters…

“Yeah, well, most of what we do are long shots. You get used to it.”

…were barely in this episode. They were dutifully collecting the different threads of plot and tying them together, but aside from that there was not a lot to do for them. They formed a new plan and I suppose therefore the writers felt there was no need to address Sam’s current mental state any longer, they’re overseeing Donatello’s translation progress and they lost another fight yet again.

Can we be done with angels and demons now, please?

Next: Good Intentions (spoilers)

It looks like we will find out what Jack has been up to so far and also meet Mary again.  We will be seeing the alternate version of Bobby Singer again, and apparently at least Castiel finds a way to talk to Jack. The next episode is written by Meredith Glynn and most of her episodes were decently written, so I am optimistic that next week’s episode will be more enjoyable than this week’s episode. Admittedly, the bar is low.

[cosmotoiper]

My First Real Post on Something

You know, I’ve never posted my own thoughts or really anything on here yet. So I might as well start now. Since I’d been looking at lots of dinosaur stuff as of late I decided that I need to get something off my chest. And almost no one’s going to agree with me but if I do find anyone who does agree with me then I will love you. Okay JURASSIC PARK SUCKS It’s a soulless, pretentious, hypocritical, piece of blockbuster full of annoying ass characters, bullshit science (which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact people seriously believe what they hear in it), and it’s full of lots of loose plot threads that go nowhere. It’s pretty obvious that a huge reason for it being made was to sell toys. (They even made the toys before they’d cast the guy who played Newman from Seinfeld in it, so his action figure doesn’t even look like him.)

Again, the main problem is how pretentious and hypocritical it is. You basically have this guy who does some amazing beautiful, selfless, thing by reviving extinct animals and he gets shit from everybody for it. Like before anything bad even happens he’s getting shit from the people who supposedly love dinosaurs.

But dinosaurs aren’t magical monsters who do nothing but kill, they’re animals. There was nothing wrong with what he did except for the fact that the zoo was run sooooooo poorly. He had, what, five guys working there. Most real life zoos will have 10 human workers for every animal. And this place has like hundreds of dinosaurs. Guess he “spared no expense” for everything except in this one crucial factor.

Just an electric fence. It wasn’t even that powerful, obviously, since the little shit-head boy didn’t die from being zapped by it. Of course, the girl is soooo much worse, with her know it all attitude with computers mixed with her lack of any actual knowledge with computers. Seriously, OH MY GOD THEY HAVE LYNEX!!!!!! AHHHH, CD ROM!!!! I’M A HACKER. I’M A VEGERTARIAN (which is important to the plot somehow.) She also is apparently the grand daughter of the guy who cloned the dinos but still says the stupidest line in the movie “meatasaurus”.

The big tour of the park was also planned on the day of a storm. Seriously, do meteorologists not exist in their universe?

The T. Rex kills some people. For some reason, I doubt a giant animal like this would go out of it’s way to rip through bathrooms and cars just to eat some tiny people. She was given a goat and everything. Clothes taste awful, too. They of course, also give bullshit about a giant predator that’s closely related to birds having bad eyesight. (In the book it’s cause of the frog DNA but here they make pretty clear that it’s supposed to be natural.) Such another sad bullshitism that the public has picked up from this movie.

So what, else? Ah yeah, the plot thread about the dinosaurs being sick. Well, the Triceratops shits out her own weight, the Brachiosaurus sneezes, and that’s it. They forgot about that plot thread after that. I understand that it goes into this more in the “book” but maybe if you start a plot point in a movie it should like lead somewhere or have a purpose.

The dinosaurs can also change sexes. Which is a big shocking reveal. Except for the fact that it doesn’t change anything. The only thing that mattered was the escaped and (for a while) that they were sick. But the sex chaning thing ads nothing. It was probably only there because Michael Chrichton read about frogs changing sex and felt it would somehow be clever to use it. It’s also the only reason why they have that crap about using frog DNA (even humans are closer related to dinosaurs than frogs). About the only thing it adds is the tragic inevitability of having a shit ton more sequel with no fear of running out of dinosaurs.

Jeff Goldblum can be a great actor. As can be seen in such classics as The Remake of The Fly, Thor and Hulk’s Road Trip to Ragnarok, and The Time He Read the Script to Steamed Hams. But he is just annoying as shit in this. He’s the primary asshole of the movie and embodies the pretentiousness

Samuel L Jackson’s in the movie. He does nothing. He’s never even on screen with a dinosaur. Want to see Samuel L Motherfucking Jackson fight a dinosaur? LOL I bet you would.

Newman and Samuel L Jackson are the only entertaining characters but they both die. I guess that in the book the annoying ass Chaos Theory guy that Jeff Goldblum plays dies, but in the movie he lives to annoy more people in some sequels.

Then we have the paleontologist guy who threatens a fat kid in front of a bunch of witnesses, he’s the hero. He also digs up an Asian dinosaur (velociraptor) in America. Here’s a thought, maybe it’s just fake. He buries it there and brings a tour to dig it up then offers to name it after them if they pay him 50 bucks.The velociraptors are also giant because they’re supposed to be deinonychuses. Even then, Spielberg told the crew to make them bigger. That pretty much gives a good idea of Stephen’s influence on this turd. “Uhh, I dunno, make ‘em bigger. Now leave me alone.” Stephen Spielberg only did it so that Universal would help pay for Schindler’s List, so I forgive him, I guess. They of course have no feathers either, this can be forgiven since it was the nineties and they didn’t know better. This can’t be forgiven, however, for the sequels going on now. “Feather the Raptors” would be a great name for a band, by the way.

Another annoying ass thing whole movie is bound to come up 100% of the time if you let any conversation about dinosaurs go on long enough. You see people who seriously seem to think that this is the only dinosaur related thing, like dinosaurs didn’t exist before this movie. It’s just such an overrated piece of..... well I don’t like it that much. This said, I keep coming back to this franchise just because some of the dinosaurs look decent and nice. And even though the toys are crap I keep looking at pictures of them. I guess I have a large interest in cheap crap made of plastic.

Well, anyways, I’m sure I could complain about it even more but I’ll let it rest for now. Anyways, HIYA Tumblr. How many enemies have I made, now?

[sosadandyetsoamazing]

about page

Sorry if it’s long, but I realized that I write the opposite of what most people assume about Jemma even when I don’t add the chitauri element. I’m assuming you already read the rules and know about season 2.

about her alien side, if you want more details the longer version is at the bottom: 

Jemma had Chitauri DNA since her birth, just a trace of it at first, that came from her great-grandfather’s experiments on himself (with the help of Roxxon). Her Chitauri DNA’s development was triggered by the Chitauri virus that infected her in season 1, which started changes in her not-so-human body. Jemma knew about the experiments since before SHIELD but naturally never told anyone; she refused to even think about it outside of making a secondary life-goal her intention to erase any trace of not human elements from her body. Unless we plot otherwise or we write the starter where your muse finds out, by default if we write threads set in later seasons I’ll assume that: she told Fitz about her alien status after Daisy recovered after being shot in season 1. In season 2 she told Daisy and then Coulson after Porto Rico and the inhuman powers reveal. Then May. The others found out later when she either told them or showed her real skin.

About her superpowers: she doesn't have all Chitauri abilities, but:

-she eventually develops thermal vision , but has trouble controlling it. -she can't survive a shot to the head unless she's made herself ready for it, unlike the actual chitauri. She can make her skin become hard enough to protect herself from bullets when she focuses on it (and in that case it shows scales) and to not break herself while using super-strength, but she's not invulnerable, she can still feel pain and she has no perfect control on it especially when emotional. -her eyes can turn yellow, seemingly when she’s using any of her other powers or is too emotional. -given that shapeshifting depends on ingesting someone first, she has no idea if she can turn into someone else, but she can at least hide her wounds and make herself look healthy, though they are still there. It requires constant focus however, so if she stops thinking about looking like her previous intact self for even one second, her wounds and bruises will show up again. -she does have extra strength and an amazing memory like the Chitauri do. But while she was already used to her mind working on a higher level, her body is mostly human and many factors are involved in how dangerous it is to use her strength on purpose.

 A very important canon divergence that I ask you to read from beginning to end: 

whether I write her with a Fitz rper and they are dating, or I write her in other ships, she will NEVER be the hope to someone’s doom (it has to be mutual). In this blog she will keep being bad at guessing people’s reactions to her words/actions, she won’t always know what to say, she’ll prefer to help with little actions, though obviously she’ll do her best to be nice to the people she loves and encourage them, and she will feel rejected and useless if that doesn’t work. She will keep being passionate about science but more about biochemistry, she was never emotionally equipped to be a doctor or therapist. Prosthetics are her thing with some help from Fitz, and she’ll work together with him on sci-fi issues since they are both out of their depth and both geniuses. She will not be able to repress every negative emotion for years straight and will need to be comforted too.  Jemma is messed up by traumas and PTSD, she doesn’t have an inhuman power that allows her to repress everything and keep functioning perfectly. She found pretty easy to kill in the past and uses it to her advantage and to protect her friends when they hesitate, can be cruel to people she’s angry at, hypocritical as hell when it comes to wanting her friends to be healthy and talk to her, has shown several times to feel both self-hatred yet also superiority towards many others, is only warm to close friends (season 1 team in particular) and more wary to others as well as downright rude behind her nice smiles and smug. She claims to not break rules in season 1 but her behavior says the opposite. She’s not very self-aware. She’s sassy and salty. I’m not bound by tvshow budgets so she will learn to fight as early as possible to keep people from getting hurt for her again and she’ll use all the tech available when on missions. Covering her face is a must before battle since she can’t out herself as alien-like/make people think she’s inhuman without endangering her family. Speaking of which, her little sister is back in her life around season 3  when Jemma finally tells her she’s a SHIELD agent and didn’t ‘abandon’ her to be a party planner. Their mother can go from neglectful and toxic to straight up abusive depending on the universe, in the latter’s case she’s more likely to be able to put herself in the shoes of other victims of abuse and be less harsh against them if they genuinely want a second chance, something she’d normally deny depending on the harm they caused.   

Important things to know when it comes to my characterization, but from now on ONLY bolded things are important:

-She never had a problem with anyone over being different, just like in canon. She was worried about another alien virus when it comes to the Diviner, she was worried Skye would die over her changes until told she was inhuman, that it was part of her DNA and accepted it, she wants Raina dead regardless of her powers, and we all know she didn’t leave Fitz because she couldn’t ‘accept him’. If Daisy rpers agree, Jemma went to the safe-house with Daisy to keep her company since she was in less danger than anyone else. Which means she was there when the other SHIELD attacked, Gordon took only Daisy away, Jemma attacked Bobbi and Calderon too, was shot/ICEd and taken back to the base, where she kept being antagonistic and was kept an eye on because identified as an alien - she only pretended to cooperate when May came back. If Jemma didn’t go with Daisy she was outed as alien and fought against the attackers but passed out from the gas. She’d have killed them until shot down once awake if Fitz hadn’t been there to explain what was happening. Canonically Gonzales meant to keep Daisy too, they wouldn’t let someone who just came out as alien or part alien walk away free, she was if anything another proof that Coulson couldn’t be trusted.

-In s3 she and Will stayed friends. Things went slow with Fitz because she needed a long time to recover from Maveth. She did get together with Fitz, but unless I'm writing with a Fitz rper, eventually they realized that they weren't the people they fell in love with long ago, that there was too big of a lack of communication and too little helping each other because too involved in each other's traumas, and so they broke up some time before the Framework, right after Fitz's investigation about Radcliffe. They intended to get some distance from each other to feel better after solving this last Aida issue, but then the Framework happened. Dekes are welcomed, but his grandfather wouldn't be Fitz unless plotted otherwise.

-She couldn't make herself invulnerable to Jiyera's torture in season 3, she couldn't let Hydra find out what she is and decide to torture Fitz instead. However after she escaped she didn't need to free Andrew Garner for help, she accidentally broke him free when using her powers. 

-She joined more field agents during the six months of break between season 3 and season 4, using her powers to do good but still feeling very wrong. She also understood Daisy's need to leave after Lincoln’s death and was happy to help her survive away from SHIELD, using her 'double agent' status with Mace to keep her friends safe and help inhumans. Though she did scold Daisy over expecting her to step back and only show up to be a doctor.  

-After the Framework, a newly traumatized Jemma wants to help her friends and Fitz, but she realizes that it's all too much right now, and she's in no position of being supportive. She also can't risk getting arrested. Coulson himself suggests her to leave with Piper and the others, and tells her that they'll call her if she's needed. So she does that, and goes back to look into her past, into who she is, as well as agreeing to see a SHIELD therapist to discuss her situation some day. It's all open to plotting, crossovers can happen due to portals, and when it comes to aos I ask to not be involved in plots such as characters' deaths aside from her having been told about Coulson and having seen him before he died in Tahiti if we must incorporate it in our plots.

thank you so much for reading, if we are mutuals and you want to let me know you read it, feel free to like this page!

The longer version of how she came to be part chitauri if you are interested: 

Jemma's great-grandfather's DNA was mixed with alien's by Roxxon, an evil organization that still exists to this day. No one in the family beside that man showed any special abilities, beside Jemma being a genius. Still, the child was told stories about how special she was by her grandmother, and the intention behind those first attempts to prepare Jemma was to reveal the truth once she'd be an adult and able to handle the news. But even as a kid she was a curious, skilled biochemist all too happy to experiment in her house's laboratory, and she ended up finding odd things in her DNA and questioning her family. So she was told the truth before joining SHIELD at age sixteen - whether SHIELD knew or not is to be determined - and she wasn't sure if she should believe any of it or how she felt about being part alien, so she elected to ignore it for now until able to research and learn more. Until, of course, the Chitauri attacked New York, aliens became 'real' to the public, and Jemma didn't have the courage to tell Fitz, her best friend in the world, or even to think about it too much, that she was part alien too. Jemma joined the Bus for field action as in canon but also to have the opportunity to deal with more alien samples and tech and study herself, even try to modify her own body to be completely normal even though the differences at the time were still minimal; sadly, everything went wrong. She was infected by a chitauri virus, which attacked the human side of her body and would have likely either killed her directly or by destroying the plane she was in and taking her friends with her, and the fact that she was given the anti-serum in time and the electrostatic shock that followed resulted in having her chitauri side awoken and her body actually start to change. Jemma began to notice odd things and tried to keep them secret while studying herself - and she realized that yes, the chitauri were the ones used in the experiments involving her great-grandfather much like she had feared.

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to Wynonna Earp: Episodes 210-212

An Occult 23andMe

The Setup: Miri and Kris adore Wynonna Earp and have been reacting to this season a few episodes at a time. As always, we are in awe of Emily Andras’s writing, Melanie Scrofano’s face and general talent, and the entire cast and crew. We also have a few questions, critiques, and predictions that are sure to be proven wrong. 

Find our previous Wynonna Earp s2 reacting here, here, here, and here.

Spoilers through the season 2 finale, “I Hope You Dance,” below!

KRIS: I feel like you should lead with some all caps here or something

MIRI: As usual I HAVE A VERY MANY FEELINGS

THE BAAAABY

WYNONNA

***ASCENDED WIDOW MERCEDES?!?!??!***

And Jeremy is just such a peach

as per usual

KRIS: I actually saw this Scrofano Instagram the night of the episode (and I watch the morning after via iTunes) so I had some sense of the twist coming

MIRI: OH MY GODDDDDDDD

(I was really proud of how well I avoided spoilers this time)

KRIS: Which was kind of a bummer, but it still landed for me

Especially because of the detail of Nicole’s involvement

MIRI: Yes! An excellent tying together of various threads

KRIS: So you kind of called this, or something like it, back when we reacted to the pregnancy. Was this what you had in mind?

MIRI: ...I might have to reread that reaction really quickly to refresh my memory on what I meant

KRIS: I remember you said “noble sacrifice”

MIRI: Ohhhh yes

Yeah, I think from a show and a show writing perspective this is what makes sense

KRIS: At the time my mind went somewhere darker and more supernatural

MIRI: Because it is the version that reinforces/adds a layer to the core plot of the whole thing--Wynonna has to end the curse. For herself, but mostly for everyone she loves because she refuses to let this fall on someone else like it fell on her

And the baby adds to that, but without having to change the actual structure of things drastically--which they would have to do to add an actual baby in week to week

Also, this is the version with a combined maximum pain now and pain in the future. (slash tension, slash stakes)

KRIS: Yeah it definitely is obvious in hindsight that Wynonna would not want her baby in the Triangle

MIRI: But they covered it with the revenant question so well it didn’t feel obvious at the time!!

KRIS: It’s a little funny to me that Wynonna’s version of “I named her so no one looking for an Earp will find her” is “I didn’t give her a name that starts with W”

MIRI: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

KRIS:  Because I feel like “named after the grandparents” is pretty standard?

MIRI: “It’s just your mom’s name and my mom’s name and we’re only MASSIVELY FAMOUS/INFAMOUS within the community of people who might want to use/abuse this baby”

KRIS: I guesss maybe people wouldn’t necessarily expect Doc as the father

MIRI: Maybe, but several people with great knowledge of history already know

Like the Firebros Cult

KRIS: But aren’t they all, like, barbecued now?

Did I read that scene wrong?

MIRI: Oh, right

I forgot about that

Which is funny, because in the moment I was super excited about Dolls using his fire again!

KRIS: Right! And obviously I wanted a wide shot but I UNDERSTAND

MIRI: I mean, they already got a helicopter and a baby in the budget

KRIS: That did feel a little unresolved, mechanically, I guess because Dolls’s goal for the episode (get the doctor) was ultimately irrelevant

Emily Andras was very happy about her helicopter

“I was bluffing!”

MIRI: Let me just say for the 8,000th time: I would very much like to be Emily Andras when I grow up

KRIS: I usually roll my eyes at “gonna move to Canada” but if it’s “gonna move to Canada to work for Emily Andras” I’d have to be like “yeah that makes sense”

MIRI: YES

K: I really do like Canada, just not when Americans say they'll move there to run away from our problems

KRIS: Stuff like not getting a resolution beat for the Order made me think, not for the first time, that this show definitely rides a knife-edge of just having too much going on

MIRI: Yeah, I feel that re: Rosita and Mercedes too

KRIS: And if the emotional storytelling wasn’t as assured the whole thing could easily fall on its face

YES Rosita

MIRI: And I wonder if it was part baby clock/changing the whole season so late in the game?

KRIS: Maybe

I’d probably have to rewatch the first season

MIRI: But in general this show is just chock full of plot

Rosita is the only one that really bothered me

KRIS: I’m not super clear on what Rosita’s plan was, re: safe passage

MIRI: I wonder if there’s a scene or two on the cutting room floor there

(in this episode or previous ones)

Because she’s set up to be pretty cool, and while her point about the whole “I’ll shoot you last” thing being kind of TERRIBLE to say to someone/have to live under is valid, the turn just felt rushed to me

KRIS: Yeah

MIRI: Also, did she die?? Was she Saved? What exactly happened?

KRIS: I had to look up the last time Peacemaker turned blue and it was when Wynonna shot Willa

MIRI: Ahhhhhh I did not remember that

Huh

KRIS: I thought maybe she’d been un-revenanted but her reaction was still pretty angry so that didn’t feel right, so then I thought maybe Waverly had fired a warning shot?

MIRI: So maybe its when it has to act outside of normal bounds? Killing an heir, working for a non-official heir (yet?)

KRIS: Yeah that makes sense

MIRI: Hmmmm I’m holding out a tiny bit of help for it having saved Rosita and her not understanding

which is why she’s angry

KRIS: I definitely hope she comes back

as a regular

MIRI: And that would potentially fit with the idea of Waverly being something else supernatural

Me too!! I really love her

KRIS: Also sentient or semi-sentient weapons are always a favorite trope of mine

MIRI: I know this is not at all what you meant, but it reminded me that I love the Wynonna moment of declaring that she’s her own damn weapon, not anyone else’s to use

KRIS: And although I think the more straightforward reading here is “Peacemaker does what Wynonna says,” I also kind of like the idea of like “Peacemaker’s understanding of Family has caught up with the 21st century”

Yeah!

M: Speaking of family...(I love this gif and couldn’t find a better place for it)

MIRI: Well if Widow Mercedes could do it, maybe Peacemaker could too

Can we talk about her? Because I’m low-key obsessed

KRIS: Yeah that was wild

MIRI: I was 100% shocked

did not call her turning against the husband at all

and I LOVED IT

KRIS: Yeah, and a break with Beth was pretty well set up with her getting steadily disgruntled by everything over the last few episodes

MIRI: Yes! Her turning on Beth felt totally natural, but I did not even consider her turning on demon husband

How did you feel about him being all weak? I know someone who didn’t buy it, but to me it totally worked nicely as another Andras subversion of the expected story.

KRIS: That made sense to me

MIRI: Especially if he’s a demon who needs to feed (as the Widows clearly need to) and he’s been cut off for 100 years

Cool

KRIS: And I definitely didn’t feel cheated out of a battle with a demon lord or anything since I was invested in the baby stuff

MIRI: Totally! They did a very nice job of shifting the main tension and keeping stakes very high

Did you briefly think that Doc had become a revenant? Because I briefly thought that when he was talking to Bobo and I was Very Concerned

KRIS: No, but what line made you think that?

MIRI: When Doc said he’d been to hell

(yelling down to Bobo in the well)

And Bobo mentions Wyatt screwing both of them

But then he called Doc mortal

KRIS: Oh okay. Yeah I just really liked that line both on the level of having lied to Wynonna earlier and on the level of conceding that at least so far Doc’s maybe done more bad than good

MIRI: Yeah, it all worked, I just had a moment of fear

KRIS: So now we know that Doc listens to Adele

MIRI: As any right-thinking person does, yes

Wait, we jumped off of Widow Mercedes too quickly

I just need to say that she was SUPER COOL all ascended and powerful and shit and I wish there had been time to have her be the big bad of her own 3 episode arc or something

Ok, moving on to the bullet splitting thing

KRIS: My concerns about too many plot threads notwithstanding, I actually think this season was just as long as it needed to be and I don’t know that another major twist would have worked for me

MIRI: No, I don’t think it actually should have happened. The overall narrative would have suffered. I just wanted more Ascended Widow Mercedes in like a pocket universe or something

KRIS: She had kind of an Evil Elsa from Frozen thing going on (as someone who has not seen Frozen)

MIRI: And an interesting mix of Dark Willow and finale, white-haired ascended Goddess Willow from Buffy

KRIS: Oh that’s probably more what they were going for

Okay bullets

MIRI: I think the Frozen thing is valid

Yes, bullets! Doc finally gets to kill something/one

KRIS: I feel like we have literally never seen Wynonna load Peacemaker before so I had gotten to a point of accepting that it magically didn’t need to be loaded

MIRI: Hahahahahah

KRIS: I did kind of want his dramatic “When I shoot something, it dies” line to be lampshaded by someone

Although to be fair he called it out himself last week

MIRI: I would like to take this opportunity to say something that is not fair of me, but I feel strongly:

Tim Rozon’s face doesn’t make sense to me without the Doc Holliday mustache

KRIS: HA

MIRI: He’s still handsome! It’s a good face! but it just makes no sense to my brain

KRIS: There was a time in my life when I wished I could grow a mustache like that

It’s possible that time has not entirely passed

MIRI: hahahahah

KRIS: But mostly it was like, senior year of college

I feel like we should probably circle back to episodes 8 and 9 10 and 11 for a second

MIRI: Definitely

They did a whole episode without Wynonna! That is so fascinating and ballsy

KRIS: I feel like I wrote down notes somewhere about this but I can’t find them so maybe I just think about it a lot -- how do you feel about tropes like the Couple Destined to Be Together, or “destiny” tropes in general?

MIRI: Hmmmmmmmm it entirely depends on how well executed they are. Sometimes I am ALL IN, other times I think it gets creepy

I’m good with it here

Because it’s not super heavy handed to me

It falls more on the “they are just so right for each other, they keep finding each other” side of things than the “they are Destined To Always Be” side

Plus they had known and cared about each other as friends for a while in the alternate reality

You?

KRIS: As a trope it’s not my thing at all and I may be reacting more to fandom reactions than to anything actually in the text

MIRI: Been there

KRIS: I mean generally I was onboard with it

I think “they’re so right for each other” vs “they are destined” might be a distinction without a difference but I agree that execution counts for a lot

MIRI: I am a little bummed Waverly is confirmed gay (rather than bi) but I’m still so happy about the character and her sheer existence

KRIS: I’m also not sure exactly when it happened (and part of me is deeply suspicious and legitimately concerned that literally letting her hair down had something to do with it) but this last run definitely cemented Nicole as my favorite character

MIRI: Well I think the difference falls in what makes them right for each other being destined implies predetermination and an outside force

While being right for each other comes out of who they both are as people, and there could theoretically be other people just as right for them out there Say more about Nicole as your favorite

KRIS: Maybe part of it’s that she’s in a way the least intense of everyone? Not in the sense that she’s boring but that she has a healthy sense of perspective?

MIRI: Right. She is arguably the normal amongst all of these eccentrics

KRIS: I feel like it can’t be as simple as “audience surrogate,” but I guess there’s a little of that

MIRI: And she’s working to remain that, per Nedley’s speechifying

KRIS: And I think a lot of it is in her line readings -- like you could easily see someone delivering “your ass is top shelf” and “I’d do a lot of things to you” with too much of a wink

EASILY

MIRI: Yes! She’s just so sweet and earnest about both and it MAKES those lines

So, how did you feel about alternate reality without Wynonna?

I don’t know if I 100% buy Doc as the town bad guy, but he was kind of a dick before

So i guess becoming worse is as possible as becoming better

KRIS: I also think -- and I’m getting a little more real than I’m generally comfortable with here -- that as a straight man with a tendency to be hand-wringing about my trying to be a good feminist, there’s a safety in identifying with a character like Nicole who is also sexually attracted to women but by virtue of NOT being a man (and being written and acted as well as she is) is free of a lot of potentially toxic baggage

MIRI: That makes total sense to me

KRIS: I think the alternate reality was a pretty good execution of the “this one person makes all the difference” trope

(The “Remedial Chaos Theory” episode of Community is the high bar for me there)

I bought Doc as a bad guy but maybe not entirely as a ringleader

MIRI: Fair

KRIS: I loved how Rosita, Jeremy, and Nicole had all taken on bigger Black Badge or Black Badge-adjacent responsibilities

MIRI: Yes! I liked all of their interactions

The Iron Witch stuff worked for me too

KRIS: Yeah, better than I think I would’ve expected

MIRI: Grounding it in the sister relationship is always a safe bet on this show

KRIS: That bit where she let down the glamor for a second and Waverly and Nicole were Slowly Spinning in their “real” outfits was pretty cool

MIRI: Very dreamy and funky

I buy Waverly making a stupid choice to save Nicole. You?

KRIS: Yeah, in general I think pushing her luck when other people don’t want her to makes sense for Waverly, and definitely on the heels of everything she’s been through up to that point

MIRI: Agreed

KRIS: I really liked the team interactions in 8 a lot

Dolls telling Waverly “let’s just say it was an order”

MIRI: In the vision quest ep?

KRIS: The Nicole in the Hospital ep

MIRI: Oh, 10, not 8 👍🏻

Yeah, I like the friendship between Dolls and Waverly a lot. It’s never super heavily explored, but it’s always really charming

KRIS: Oh wow I totally lost track of the episode count at some point

MIRI: It was a 12 ep season, not 10

I think we got slightly thrown off in our thoughts about when we would react, that’s all

KRIS: I also really wished there’d been more of a reckoning between Jeremy and Wynonna about Rosita

That seemed like a really important beat that ended up not going anywhere because of all the ensuing crazy

MIRI: Yeah. I hope they come back to it in some way next season

KRIS: But I also really liked Dolls stepping in to be the test subject for awhile and I thought it was weird that possibility didn’t come up earlier

MIRI: Hmmmm

That is valid

Maybe because he couldn’t be killed? And she couldn’t either, but revenants can be harmed short term

KRIS: There also was never an acknowledgement that Waverly broke a promise to tell Wynonna about Rosita

MIRI: Like she was out for a few minutes when Tucker shot her

KRIS: I mean I bought it happening

MIRI: Yeah, people have been in general shitty to Rosita

KRIS: But there was a beat missing on either end -- even Rosita didn’t really mention it

MIRI: Maybe her turn was more earned than I have acknowledged

Right--the building blocks are there, but she never really had a good moment dealign with it all

KRIS: Oh, Nicole’s soon-to-be ex-wife!

Again it felt like there was a beat missing in Shae’s recognition that Waverly was the new girlfriend, or someplace where that might have come up explicitly, but I really liked skipping right over the jealousy tropes

MIRI: Agreed on both counts!

Do we think she’ll come back though? Only because of the note on the divorce papers

KRIS: I didn’t really get that sense, I more just read it as “hey here’s a healthy relationship that’s nice”

MIRI: I think you’re right

I like that Waverly can be weirded out without going full tropey Jealous Girl

So @sweet-but-mostly-sour wanted us to discuss Jeremy’s apparent powers. Any thoughts?

KRIS: I don’t know that it would’ve occurred to me independently

The line there did seem to be hinting at something (I can’t recall what he said) but it also would have made sense to me that he just knew the plan?

Especially because Waverly was pretty clearly expecting Doc at the rendezvous, as opposed to meeting up with him beforehand

Oh it was something about why he’d been recruited into BBD

MIRI: Yeah, one sec, I’m almost to it in the ep

I think

Ok I was wrong but I WILL find it

Oh, I think you were right about it being a warning shot--Waverly grazes Rosita’s temple and Rosita runs out

KRIS: Ah

(I wonder if she just missed?)

MIRI: Yeah, no idea if it was a deliberate warning or not. We know how tricky Peacemaker is

Found it!

Doc asks how Jeremy knows stuff and he says:

“I told you I was in an accident. [The car accident when he was 11.] I wasn’t recruited to Black Badge for my excellent Seinfeld impressions.”

KRIS: Hmm

MIRI: I really love how transparently into people he is without ever creeping on them

KRIS:  “I’d feel it in my groin”

I guess in hindsight that is also a plant

MIRI: The groin or the powers?

I forget who he said that about

KRIS: Doc

A plant for his having powers

hidden in a “Classic Jeremy” joke

Honestly I think I might prefer a Jeremy who picks up on things like Wynonna’s pregnancy just because he pays more attention than other people (or other men)

But I’m not against Jeremy having powers or anything

MIRI: Well, hopefully one doesn’t preclude the other

KRIS: I liked “I don’t fit in here. None of you asked me to” a lot

MIRI: YES that was beautiful without being shmoopy

KRIS: It was an unexpected way for that line to go

MIRI: I think he and Nicole could get a long very well

Yeah, I was expecting a “I never fit anywhere but here” thing and I liked this much better

KRIS: I think my other favorite finale line was “That better not be a nickname for your beav cause I’m not in the mood”

MIRI: Wynonna is always so very Wynonna and basically it’s just dialogue goals in all the ways

KRIS: And Melanie Scrofano finally got her f-bomb! Though I don’t know if it was censored on air

MIRI: I love how important that was to her

We have not yet discussed Mama Earp

KRIS: Oh yeah I really wanted to come with a Mamas Earp joke but blanked I guess there’s not really a joke there, I just wanted at some point to say Mamas Earp

That was another spoiler I stumbled on ahead of time (gif somewhere)

MIRI: I did not get what you were doing there but I finally caught up

Oh no!

So has Wynonna known where Mama Earp is this whole time?

KRIS: I didn’t even think of that. I guess so. That’s interesting

I definitely thought the very first line of that VO was a “flashback” line

MIRI: Me too! I think it still might have been?

KRIS: It seemed like it was part of a “There’s X, and there’s Y, and then there’s Z”

What do we know about Mama Earp?

(Do we know Mama Earp’s name?)

MIRI: (Is it Michelle? the baby’s middle name?)

KRIS: Oh right

MIRI: We know she left when Waves was 2, if I recall correctly

And that’s about it

KRIS: Hang on I’m gonna rewatch that bit

MIRI: “There are men, Wynonna, mean as a rattlesnake cornered at dusk. And there are demons sweet as clover honey. And then there’s him. I told you he was real. I never stopped believing. But he will rise. And when he does, you’ll believe it too.”

KRIS: Man there’s a lot going on there

And maybe a lot of possibilities

MIRI: I know!

Has she been working on this the whole time? Did Waverly get her researcher tendencies from Mama Earp?

KRIS: Right! Is this why she came back to Purgatory?

MIRI: But she’s not fully back

KRIS: Was there some point when Mama Earp might have reached out post-return?

I mean Wynonna coming back

MIRI: Oh, did you mean Wynonna?

Gotcha gotcha

Also, will we get specifics about the mean men and sweet demons?

KRIS: (I also have to say -- #sorrynotsorry -- that I appreciate a show that is this careful about its use of needle drops)

MIRI: (this is such a Thing for you and I love it)

(Also, the music in Wynonna Earp is always damn effective, so I think I have to agree)

KRIS: Is mean men and sweet demons an unusually poetic line for the show or do I just feel that way because when other characters say lines like that it doesn’t always feel right?

MIRI: I think it is unusually poetic, but the HEAVY accent might be meant to somewhat excuse it as country sayings?

Also, I think it’s meant to read as “something my mama used to say” the way we took it, and then twist to be much more literal

I think Mama must have been wrapped up in the occult too. It can’t just have been Ward’s thing. Even if it was after she married in, the “I told you” part means she knows a decent amount about how all this started and where it might go

KRIS: Right

I wonder if Wynonna might have reached out to her after the vision quest?

MIRI: Would she have kept it a secret if she did? I’d buy that

Oh, speaking of Bulshar and secrets, what about that little nod Nicole and Dolls have when we see Nicole has the ring near the end there

KRIS: Definitely seems like Nicole getting an unofficial promotion (that I guess they don’t want Waverly to know about?)

MIRI: Maybe it’s less a secret and more a “when we have time, we’ll discuss all this”? I hope?

KRIS: The classic Intense Dolls Stare did come close to being unintentionally comical in slow motion, that close to Waverly’s line of sight

MIRI: YES

KRIS: Yeah I don’t see how it could be a secret

Maybe Dolls and Nicole are already just moving ahead and they want the others to Have a Moment

MIRI: That makes sense for all involved

Ok, is there anything big that we’ve missed?

KRIS: It’s kind of insane that we’ve mentioned Bobo literally once

I don’t know that I have anything to say about him, but still

MIRI: RIGHT, I meant to bring up Bobo!

KRIS: I guess I’d missed or forgotten that he was specifically Magneto-ish and not generally telekinetic

MIRI: I do have things to say, or just to bring up, I guess

Yeah, I had too!

And I wonder if there’s a reason for that that we will see/explore?

Ok, points that I don’t really have much to say about, but I feel should be stated: 1) He’s now an acolyte of Bulshar and 2) He called Waverly kin, but is pretty certainly not her father

KRIS: Someday Waverly’s going to start an occult 23andMe

MIRI: Hahahahahahahahahahhaa

KRIS: I definitely had one more little thing I wanted to mention but it’s escaped me

Oh Nicole’s cat!

MIRI: Calamity Jane!!!

KRIS: (God I have to get back into Deadwood)

MIRI: Do you have any predictions for next season? (Knowing, of course, that Andras will subvert all expectations and impress us all in the process)

KRIS: I basically wouldn’t dare at this point

Though I will ask for a web series that’s The Adventures of Randy Nedley and Calamity Jane

MIRI: OH MY GOD

I never knew I wanted that until just now

They are grumpy best friends

KRIS: I’m even too afraid to guess in which “act” of the season Waverly will come face to face with Mama Earp

MIRI: You say that, and I’m like, “Oh, well...wait. No...Could be..?” Andras is breaking my brain

I can definitely see a first episode option, a midseason option, an end of act 1 option, etc...

I predict we’ll learn what Waverly is, if she’s not entirely human

KRIS: That makes sense

I still kind of want to know what happened to BBD but I get the sense that’s a closed door

or at least as closed as TV gets

MIRI: Yeah, I’d say try to let that hope go for now

I wonder if we’ll be getting any new members of the gang? I feel like no

KRIS: Hmm

MIRI: Maybe someone to replace Rosita if she’s gone?

KRIS: I mean I hope Rosita comes back to the fold, somehow, but I could just as easily see her having a more complete villain turn

I could also see a version of this that’s vaguely Alias season 2 where Mama Earp is around a lot

MIRI: But I feel like things are pretty well balanced, plus we’ll be getting Mama Earp and surely some new enemies/adversaries

KRIS: I really hope Jeremy gets time with her

MIRI: Yeah, same. And she may come with a supporting character or two Interesting

Wait, with Mama or Rosita?

KRIS: Mama Earp

Just for the jokes

MIRI: Yes, I’m weirdly into that

KRIS: I was a little surprised there wasn’t a Wynonna-Dolls beat somewhere at the end

MIRI: I wonder if they didn’t want to put it in competition with the Wynonna-Doc beat

KRIS: I don’t see where it would have fit in but I’m curious about which ship is sailing next season

Yeah that’s what I figured

MIRI: I thiiiiink it’s Wynonna/Dolls

I think the little kiss with Doc was just an acknowledgement of the magnitude of it all and that they care about each other

She and Dolls seemed pretty settled after the vision quest

KRIS: Yeah

MIRI: Which reminds me that we may have the same side/opposite sides thing come up again next season

KRIS: With Doc and Dolls?

MIRI: Dolls and Wynonna

They discuss it in bed after the vision quest

KRIS: Ohhhhh right right

That kind of came out of nowhere for me

MIRI: Yeah, I think it was either a red herring going into the finale arc, or groundwork for future tension

KRIS: I’m basically just looking for a good Andras or Scrofano tweet to end this on

https://twitter.com/MelanieScrofano/status/901230636748464128

https://twitter.com/emtothea/status/901474002631249921

https://twitter.com/emtothea/status/901272365060861952

MIRI: She has a voice she uses to talk to/about cakes. Again, I aspire to be Emily Andras when I grow up

KRIS: https://twitter.com/emtothea/status/901278447497994240

https://twitter.com/emtothea/status/901278890181574656

https://twitter.com/MelanieScrofano/status/901265498771513344

MIRI: KRIS you have to give me time to react to things, stop texting at the speed of Wynonna plot twists!!!!! KRIS: OH we forgot about Jeremy referring to Wayhaught as Wayhaught!

MIRI: Jeremy is the most genre savvy, but in a totally non-annoying way and I love him very much

Oh my godddd I missed this as a callback

KRIS: Oh me too

MIRI: I feel like Jeremy’s “It feels like a Phil” line means they’re not going to go too far with whatever his perception/power is

He’s not all knowing. He has feelings and observations that are just him being Jeremy too

KRIS:  I think I found the winner

MIRI: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

They did say vagina/euphemisms for vagina a lot this episode

KRIS: https://twitter.com/emtothea/status/901264948176629760

MIRI: https://twitter.com/MelanieScrofano/status/901263525510873088

KRIS: https://twitter.com/MelanieScrofano/status/901279279379611648

We’re clearly out of control

MIRI: Our role models are not helpful on that score

KRIS: I feel like this has been a reasonably successful seeing-a-season-through

MIRI: Yes! I liked doing it this way and would be down for picking a show or two to do this for in fall

https://twitter.com/VarunSaranga/status/901268191984439296

KRIS: Maybe a half-hour?

MIRI: Yeah, that would be good. Do we want to do a new one or something returning?

KRIS: I guess we should wait and see

OH we should do Crazy Ex when it comes back

MIRI: YES

That’s not a half hour but YES

KRIS: OK we should really wrap up and have one of us start formatting this monster

Thanks to anyone who followed along with us

MIRI: Definitely! We hope you enjoyed and that you come back and keep enjoying. And let us know if you have any requests!

KRIS: Also fuck it, if the others aren’t watching The Bold Type by the time the season ends we should just do a finale reaction

MIRI: YES SOMEONE IS FINALLY GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE BOLD TYPE WITH ME

KRIS: SOMEONE PLEASE CATALOG EVERY SUTTON REACTION SHOT FOR ME

Wow that’s completely unreasonable, sorry Tumblr I take it back

MIRI: Never apologize, Kris.

Would Melanie Scrofano apologize? I think not

KRIS: Our Lady of Go Fuck Yourself

Hmmm, not my best

MIRI: No, I liked it

[phillhall]

Review: Stranger Things

(TV mini-series/Netflix)

Slick, nostalgic, pitched almost perfectly and so full of holes it could have been made in 1983...

There has been a buzz recently about a new 8-part Netflix series called Stranger Things, starring Wynona Ryder and some other people. Set in a backwater US town in the mid-1980s, it has a group of pre-teen ‘misfits’, a bunch of pre-college Jocks, an outsider/loner, a confused teenage girl, rogue cop, distraught mother - all the things that made 1980s ‘blockbusters’ from Steven Spielberg to the teen angst of John Hughes. Throw in a decidedly odd mix of Stephen King and Clive Barker and then don’t bother to think things through too much or you’ll end up picking it to pieces.

If you do start picking it pieces you begin to notice that it’s all style over substance and while it either allows or expects the viewer to fill in the necessary missing pieces, it also constitutes very lazy writing when some of the characters are literally just there to facilitate a plot thread.

There have been comparisons - justifiably - to Spielberg’s 80s movies such as ET, CE3K and his co-scripted The Goonies film and the homage flies thick and fast and any film buff worth their salt will be reeling off references faster than a teenager can have a wank and around the third episode I realised this was a production trick - a way of diverting the viewer’s attention away from the glaring lack of credibility and almost total lack of reason.

Plus - bleeding eyes? Really? Hasn’t this been done to death? Plus, why do film makers insist that people would bleed out of their lacrimol caruncle? Do you know what happens if you get a bleed in that part of the eye? Blood - a liquid and the surface of the eye, also a liquid/lubricant - mix and you get red, streaky eyeballs, especially when you blink. In a series that largely used 21st century special effects, this was one of several 1980s special effects they could have done without (but it was used as a plot device...).

The main story begins with the disappearance of an 11-year-old boy, mysteriously in some local woods. This in itself was handled like a baby with a hand grenade. I know this is the 1980s, but I’m fairly sure even the most red-necked and ignorant of US town sheriff’s would a) treated a missing child case with a degree of seriousness and b) done his searching during the day when flashlights were not required. Kid goes missing and townsfolk all do a day’s work before going into the woods with halogen lamps... This wasn’t the first thing in the show that puzzled me (unless it was an X-Files reference and therefore a decade too early) to the point of annoyance.

I’m going to stop being linear here because I’m not just going to spell out the eight-episodes for you. We are also introduced to 11 (played by Millie Bobby Brown) a young girl with closely cropped hair and a hospital-styled smock who is wandering around the countryside; she is met and befriended by the three friends of the boy who has gone missing. She has mysterious powers and doesn’t talk much.  We are then introduced to what I feel is arguably the weakest and the part of the story that prevents the series from actually working...

Matthew Modine plays the head of some weird scientific project based in a building completely cordoned off not too far from the place where the boy went missing. No one, not even the sheriff seems remotely bothered or even knowledgeable about an apparently top secret facility, with armed guards, is situated so close to their town. It would appear this place and its employees might as well be in a completely different country - or dimension - because in a town that is portrayed as being small enough to know everyone else’s business, the top secret facility obviously was doing it’s job well.

Modine appears to be working for the US government and using a telekinetic child to locate and spy on Russian/Soviet officials - all very cloak and dagger and all very superficial. The problem for the girl doing these experiments - 11 - is that to be able to link with whoever her keeper’s want her to, she has to go through a place where monsters live - which she later describes as ‘the upside down’. Using your own powers of deduction, it appears that by using this incredibly powerful girl to spy on people it starts to break down the barriers between dimensions.

We’re then treated to more film and novel homage with nods to Poltergeist, Stephen King novels about dimensional barriers and at times Labyrinth. There is also a tree and this tree is obviously the portal that the creature (or creatures) on the other side of it uses to come to our world and abduct its food. This allows one of the supporting cast to do something totally totally out of character and then allows the series makers to do something almost ridiculously 1920s in its cliffhanger execution. 

It’s the fact that the characters when the series is set up in the first episode don’t really express much after that first episode. We’re introduced to a group of young friends, but we have no real back story for two of them; the general conversation is that Mike the ‘leader’ of this gang of misfits and Will - the missing child - are best of friends and telephone conversations between their mothers’ (Ryder and Cara Buono) suggest the two women are also best of friends, but that never materialised. The thing is - no one talked to each other. It was like the 1980s was this period of time when everyone was just doing their own thing and no one else was remotely aware - maybe it was, but I can’t help thinking if Stephen King has written this - because it fits in with so many of his town-themed novels - it would have been more realistic in its characterisation.

It is so wonderfully crafted, it looks and sounds like it was made in 1986, even down to crowd scenes - the hair and clothes are all spot on. The dialogue, at times, veered into the wrong era - the expression ‘sick’ for something good was a few years away and began in a different part of the USA. Even the government as secret above-the-law agency was handled well, except... it wasn’t at all. The slightly bogus secondary antagonists - Modine’s security detail - were unconvincing and inconsistent - Spielberg did ‘sinister government’ spot on and believable; this lot just looked like a cross between crooks and psychopaths.

However many plot holes and things that were just badly written, it did have some really clever things going for it, there were some really unexpected performances and it fairly rattled along once it got going. Millie Bobby Brown stole the show for me and her tone and way she drifted through the series was possibly the best thing about it. Imagine a girl that has been kept as an experiment all her life, her lack of love and parenting, no nurturing, just used as a weapon and then being released into an unsuspecting world. The mixture of rage and confusion was set very well as was her ability to kill if she felt it was necessary. 

Wynona Ryder was a revelation in the kind of role that Dee Wallace or Melinda Dillon excelled at in the 1980s, but with little or no real back story about her life, looking at her house, compared to her peers, and judging by her general hippy-ish attitude in flashback scenes, you get the impression that histrionics, drama and crisis has never been too far from her door; had this been emphasised a little more clearly, you might have understood why no one seemed that overtly concerned about her son Will’s disappearance. The fact that another town youth also disappears soon after generates about as much interest as an apple-bobbing party at the local church. Ryder plays the in-denial grieving mom very well up to the moment she starts playing with lights, carrying an axe round and smashing walls open because Will was trying to communicate with her. How he was managing to manipulate the electricity in a mobile home in the middle of nowhere from ‘the upside down’ was never explained, not even looked at, it was just thrown in there to emphasise to the viewer that Ryder wasn’t just bonkers.

There are some excellent scary bits, but once the suspense is done with and you’re given the idea that 11 and the monster are more than just linked, it might just be the creature of her id (created by the thing she was using to do the government’s bidding) it becomes a bit of a slaughter-fest with 11 and the monster dispatching large numbers of faceless agents. The’upside down’ is a mixture of creepy and Silent Hill and at times it had tremendous atmosphere, but none of the main characters are particularly likeable; even the kids are an odd mix, with the black kid being the most overtly bigoted and the fat toothless idiot as the level-headed one, despite being a (low-grade) buffoon. Spielberg gave you emotional attachment to specific kids inside 2½ hours; this series never manages to really make you care about any of the kids, because they’re all dislikeable in certain ways. Only 11 (or El as the boys called her) seemed exempt from this and not enough time was spent on her ‘re-education’ to life and too much time spent on Modine glowering over her and showering her in fake love.

So much, like a 1980s film, is left to the imagination and that, now, is a problem. Setting it in the 1980s circumvents such irritants as mobile phones, the Internet and transparency, but that doesn’t necessarily add any authenticity to it. Maybe viewed weekly this might have worked better, allowing the viewer to not remember clearly certain bits, thus allowing the imagination to fill in the blanks; but as a box set it just falls down in places.