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vizowrites · 3 years

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“We” vs “Me”| or “Why BlitzStrike Works So Well For Me But Stolitz [as of episode 6].....Doesn’t”

Alright my Loves, so I said that I was going to talk in further detail about my feelings regarding Stolas and the multi-layered portrayal of his relationship with Blitz in the new episode, and today’s the day where that happens!! First of all, though, before I really get into my feelings about things, I want to just make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I’m not trying to sway anyone from one side to the other, or trying to shame anyone for shipping two fictional characters. I’m fully in the boat that you are completely entitled to ship whoever you want, but I also think it’s wise to at least be able to recognize the faults and flaws in a pairing--and especially to be able to recognize them in the context of an IRL relationship. In this analysis in particular, I’m specifically focusing on these two relationships within the realm of the Helluva Boss universe [......Hell] and within the specific context of their characters as they’ve been portrayed in the show thus far. And, my biggest disclaimer of all: I’m doing this for no other reason than I felt like putting my jumbled thoughts together into a cohesive post so that they don’t have to stay bouncing and buzzing around in my head. Please keep that in mind that this is just pure personal opinion and interpretation before anyone comes at me with torches and pitchforks. <3 <3

SO WITH THAT LONG ASS DISCLAIMER OUT OF THE WAY

Let’s finally get to the good stuff. And the not so good stuff. :D

So I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone who follows me here that I’m a huge BlitzStrike fan. What I think fewer people know is that when I first entered the fandom a few months ago, I actually was on board the Stolitz train like so many others that I’ve met here in the fandom. Naturally Stolitz was the first major pairing I was introduced to, and I did find both the characters of Blitz and Stolas incredibly interesting and compelling in their own rights AND saw the potential in how they could really come to grow into one hell of a relationshp over time. I was honestly really excited to see it happen, too.

And then I watched Episode 5 [still my favorite episode, btw] for the first time and had this sudden question hit me like a truck that even now is still relentlessly burning in the back of my mind because I still haven’t found a legitimate answer for it: Why in the FUCK wasn’t Blitz falling head-over-heels in attraction to Striker throughout this fucking episode??

And I don’t mean that in a “They’re so hot and I ship them now why didn’t they get together?? DX DX” kind of way--I mean that in the genuinely perplexed “I don’t understand based on what has been presented to me thus far about Blitz as a character and the storyline overall why he’s reacting so nonchalantly to this whole thing”. To Note: This is me wondering this from the context of what’s in the show itself, not from any extra fan materials like the Instas or Twitter or just straight up knowing that the most likely answer is that there are people on the creative team that ship Stolitz really hard and realistically wouldn’t have probably written Blitz as being attracted to Striker because that would just be--to quote Jack Sparrow--blowing holes in their own ship. No, this is me disregarding ALL of that and trying to rationalize this with myself from the perspective of a fan whose entire knowledge of the show and its characters comes exclusively from what’s in the episodes themselves. .....And that’s where I just can’t find my answer, except for the Stolitz positive “He’s not attracted to Striker because he’s in love with Stolas” answer. Which really doesn’t even feel like a satisfying answer, because the entire vibe I’ve gotten from Stolitz in the show has just felt.....strangely.....off. Like, the framework is there and the elements are there, but I’d felt as though they had so far to go still that it would be entire SEASONS before they got there.

And THEN the new episode [Episode 6] came out and I’d heard a handful of fans going crazy because the show was finally addressing Stolitz in full, and I thought to myself, “Well, maybe if the show really is going to go with saying that the reason Blitz wasn’t interested in Striker is because he’s in love with Stolas.....sure. I’m curious to see how they finally establish it in an episode, especially since there’s only two more episodes left in the entire first season.” And then I watched the episode. And then it hit me why Stolitz just does not do a damn thing for me but BlitzStrike does despite the fact that we’ve had 4/6 episodes [5/7 if you count the Pilot] of Stolitz but only 1/6 [1/7] of potential--not even canonical--BlitzStrike:

When Striker talks about Blitz, or interacts with Blitz, he always talks about them as a “we”. As a team. A partnership. OR he just straight up puts the entire focus on Blitz and his accomplishments and keeps himself out of it entirely.

When Stolas talks about Blitz, he always talks about them within the context of “me”--of himself--of what Blitz does or should do for him. Even here in episode 6, in the most “selfless” instance we’ve seen yet, where he does ask about Blitz’s safety first BEFORE going right back into how Blitz’s actions affect him and what Blitz should be doing in response for him. Stolas’s focus is always automatically set to himself--and even when it comes to the people he supposedly loves the most.

To explain what I mean here, let me give some examples directly from the show itself, starting with the Stolas side of things:

Episode 1

Blitz, in the middle of trying to hide so much that he actually clamps both of his hands over his mouth just to muffle the sound of his own breathing, knowing damn well that this psychotic bitch who already shot him once won’t hesitate to do it again if she finds him.....gets a call from Stolas. Stolas, who we clearly see from his leisurely hang out time in his bubble bath, is literally watching this happen and is fully aware that calling Blitz right then was potentially putting him in danger. But what does he say when he gets Blitz on the phone? He offers--not help--but Blitz the use of his book in exchange for monthly sex. Stolas literally uses Blitz’s peril as leverage here--consciously or not, though given the fact that he knows the situation at hand, I’d find it very hard to argue that he didn’t do this on purpose--just to get him to agree to be his bootycall until further notice.

Stolas not only doesn’t lift a finger to help Blitz once in all of this--even at the moment where he and Millie are about to be shot in the face--but instead continues to stay on the phone talking about all of the things he wants for their upcoming future rendezvous. He already got exactly what he wanted out of this and he still just continues to go for more for himself.

Episode 2

.....There are honestly so many fucked up things that happen here as far as Stolas and his relationship with Blitz goes but honestly the thing I want to draw the MOST attention to is actually Stolas’s storyline with his daughter, Octavia. I know it’s a little left field, but bear with me--this is actually something I want to use as comparison for Stolas’s relationship to Blitz as we go along:

When Stolas first decides that he’s going to take his daughter to Loo Loo Land, he does so while completey setting aside the fact that she doesn’t want to go. He just offers her assurances that it’s going to be so much fun because he remembers that she loved it so much when she was a little girl--effectively putting his memory above her wishes even as she’s sitting right there and telling him that she doesn’t enjoy the idea of going now.

Stolas doesn’t actually notice just how uncomfortable he’s making Octavia throuhought their entire trip by spending his time sexually harassing paying more attention to Blitz than he is trying to cheer her up. This tells me that Stolas--though I do believe he genuinely wanted to do something to make her happy--still wasn’t able to completely overcome his own self-centered tendencies at first even when it’s for her. And this is the person that Stolas loves more than anyone or anything else in the entire world. It still wasn’t enough.

It’s only when Octavia runs off and completely breaks down that Stolas finally gets the much needed slap-to-the-face of reality to understand just what he’s putting his daughter through--and, for the first time in the entire show, he actually puts someone else’s needs and well being above himself. It’s the one solid honest display of love that we see from Stolas in the entire show--and it’s how we as the audience come to learn that that’s how Stolas shows that he loves someone: When he puts their needs above his own with no strings attached or expectations of something in return. A true selfless act just because he loves them. **Keep in mind the parallel of Stolas carrying Octavia out of Loo Loo Land at the end, and how it compares to Stolas carrying Blitz out of D.H.O.R.K.S headquarters.

Episode 5

The. Fucking. Cigarette. I had no idea that something so small and quick would be able to infuriate me as much as it did, but the fact that Blitz used the post sex cigarette to free Stolas from his wrist bondage but then Stolas turned around and put the cigarette out on Blitz’s horn which is literally a part of Blitz’s body just.....honestly it sums up exactly what I’m trying to get across in this entire huge ass post: Stolas only ever thinks of himself first and anything pertaining to anyone else just doesn’t cross his mind at all unless you blatantly put it there in front of his face. And the fact that he’s still at this point with Blitz all the way here in Episode 5 is not.....promising for their relationship.

The fact that Stolas literally cannot stop himself from calling Blitz “Blitzy” or talking to him in such a condescending way no matter how frustrated Blitz gets and how many times he asks him to stop. I just--how is that supposed to be interpreted as someone talking to a person that they love? There’s no respect or dignity given to Blitz at all on Stolas’s part, and the fact that it seems to be presented as a “Oh teehee it’s just their cute couple thing” is just.....I really, really don’t like that. It also doesn’t match with the Stolas in the very next episode which I quite frankly think is because the creators have been listening to the feedback from fans and were like “We need to SHOW THEM that Stolas actually does speak to Blitz respectfully!!” but that’s just my personal opinion there and, also, it still didn’t happen.

Episode 6

Keeping in mind that THIS is finally the episode where we see Stolas actually save Blitz from danger and demonstrate even the slightest inclination towards his well-being.....I think that honestly makes the next few things here even more fucked up

First and foremost: “WE”. The second after Stolas asks if Blitz is alright and gets the assurance that he is, he roughly grabs his cheek and points out that “If you get in trouble, I get in trouble! WE don’t want that”. The fact that this is the first time that Stolas ever talks about Blitz in the context of “we”--when really what he’s really saying is that him [Stolas] getting in trouble is going to be a bad thing for all of them--is just.....so, so disappointing. At least with this I could hope that perhaps the idea here is that Stolas is genuinely afraid that if he gets in trouble, he won’t be able to protect Blitz from the undoubtedly much worse trouble that he would be in as an imp, but still. The fact that Stolas immediately reverts back to his self-centered perspective so quickly after supposedly being so worried about Blitz’s wellbeing, really makes it seem as though it’s just his own ass that he’s trying to protect. And that.....isn’t exactly what I’d been expecting from “the episode that confirms Stolitz is canon” feedback I’d been hearing.

"Am I going to get ANY thank you for the rescue Bltizy?” This for me was kind of what actually lead to me having this whole epiphany over Stolas’s selfish perspective in the first place. I realized that even here--even when he’s just been the most “romantic” towards Blitz that he’s ever been in any previous episodes up until now [and yes this shift in his character was incredibly jarring for me because of that]--Stolas still goes right back to thinking about what he’s going to get out of this now that he knows Blitz is safe. Let’s take this back to that thing I was saying about Episode 2 and comparing how Stolas rescued Octavia and how he rescues Blitz. Obviously they’re going to be different because it’s Stolas’s daughter vs his hook up BUT just think about where the focus is for Stolas in both of these scenes. With Octavia, Stolas is entirely focused on making things up to her--taking her to do something she wants to do--even if it’s something that he himself doesn’t fully understand or isn’t fully into. That doesn’t matter though, because the entire point is that he’s doing something just for her. It doesn’t have to be about him. But now go back to the scene where Stolas is carrying Blitz out of the room. What does he do? Ask what Blitz is going to do for him. That just takes the idea that this scene was a confirmation of their love and throws it right out the window. Stolas--as we’ve been shown before--would never ask for something in return from someone that he actually loves.

Now let’s take a look at the one and only episode we have of Striker and Blitz interacting together, with an honorary shout out at hallucination!Striker’s appearance in Episode 6:

Episode 5:

Striker knows Blitz’s name.....and he uses it. He’s literally the ONLY other character that we’ve seen so far refer to Blitz as “Blitz” instead of “Blitzo” or “Blitzy” by someone who wasn’t a member of I.M.P.. Aka someone who wasn’t a member of Blitz’s family. He shows Blitz respect at that basest level, and only builds on that from there going forward.

Striker first recognizes Blitz for being “the bold imp that started his own killin’ biz”. Not his hotness, not his skills in the Harvest Moon games because at that point he hasn’t seen them yet.....but for his accomplishment in starting up his own successful business down in Hell. He treats it as an accomplishment. With the kind of respect that comes with acknowledging another person for their accomplishments. Right there, within two seconds of meeting him, Striker demonstrates more respect for Blitz than Stolas has yet to do in the entire show.

The Harvest Moon Festival Games. Now this is something I find fascinating to think about from Striker’s perspective in particular. We as the audience are shown pretty early on that Striker has a strong desire to be the one who comes out on top. He likes the idea of being superior and he openly relishes in the praise and attention he gets for being better than everybody else. ....Except Blitz. When they tie in the games, Striker doesn’t seem bothered with sharing the spotlight with him at all. If anything, he--again--respects just how skilled Blitz is in rightfully earning his place beside him on the stage. That, to me, is HUGE. I’m not going to go so far as to say that Striker necessarily sees them as equals because I think that might be going a bit too far for his ego but he does still fully acknowledge that Blitz is in the same general class as him: that is to say, better than most. Worthy of the same kind of acknowledgement and praise that Striker gets. I literally can’t get over just how big of a thing that is for what we’ve been shown of Striker’s character, and I think it’s unfortunately something that’s incredibly easy to miss or gloss over. :(

And now--for what I personally think is the most significant thing of all--we have: “We”. How many times does Striker suggest during that final scene between them that he really wants Blitz to join forces with him as equals? He never demands that Blitz join up with him, he doesn’t threaten him into joining up with him--Striker barely even hurts Blitz at all during their fight scene compared to how he tried to straight up murder Moxxie--and, most of all, Striker continues to acknowledge that Blitz deserves better than his current arrangement with Stolas. And he’s right. But instead of putting it as “I’M right and this is why you should do this”, he always puts his focus on Blitz himself, or the two of them together as a partnership: “You are so above sucking on a a digusting rich pompous Goetia” | “We could be the most dangerous beings in Hell, Blitz” | “You could partner up with me and klll the unkillable--starting with the one that treats you like a plaything”. It’s just--I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put together why Striker appeals so much more to me as a romantic interest for Blitz, but really breaking it down episode by episode and comparing the differences in wording between Striker and Stolas’s dialogue when it comes to Blitz is just.....holy shit.

Honorary ShoutOut of Episode 6:

The fact that the only thing hallucination Striker has to say to him is “But you don’t want to do things alone Blitzo!” is really, really interesting to me in the fact that he’s.....not......wrong?? Like, To be fair, Striker, RoboFizz, and Verosika all spill their harsh truths, but the thing is.....Striker’s is markedly different in that his wording really isn’t harsh or aggressive at all the way the other two are. He’s just kinda stating a fact in an overexaggerated way because tripping balls hallucination sequence. It’s very interesting to me that that’s the worst that Blitz can imagine him to say--as well as the fact that halluci!Striker calls him “Blitzo”, which is really weird considering that Striker’s never called him “Blitzo” once in the entire show. Makes me kinda wonder where that came from tbh.

Alright so, in conclusion of this very long and rambly styie post: I want to take things back to where I started by reiterating that this is not me trying to convince anyone that BlitzStrike is “right” and Stolitz is “wrong”, or that you should stop shipping what you’re shipping in the fandom. This was just me honestly getting way more excited than I should’ve been over having my “Eureka!” moment for realizing why this new episode didn’t put me back on the Stolitz train like it did for so many other people--and why, in fact, it actually made me think even more favorably of the idea of Blitz and Striker being together.

Thanks for sticking around with me for this very long read, I hope you found it interesting, and I really really hope that it didn’t piss anyone off or rub too many people the wrong way. Like I said at the beginning, ship who you want to ship!! That’s part of the fun of being in a fandom. I’m just hoping that this might help make it easier to understand at least one perspective on why Stolitz is seen as being so problematic as a ship [as of where they are right now].

Here’s to seeing where things go from here!!

#vizowritesthoughts #BlitzStrike #Stolitz #Helluva Boss #hahahahaha I've been dreading posting this because I know it's going to lead to shit even though it's all just personal opinion :'D #but since I went to the trouble of writing this entire thing up I figure what the hell #might as well post it now #anti Stolitz

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lilydalexf · 4 years

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Chimerical

Chimerical’s stories aren’t at Gossamer, but you can now find them at AO3. If you have not read them, are you in for a treat! For instance, Regular People and Regular People Still are some of the X-Files fics I have read and re-read. You may also know Chimerical from her site Chimerical Publications, which was an extensive Mulder and David Duchovny fansite. Big thanks to Chimerical for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

I’m not surprised at all that X-Files fandom is still popular, it was an amazing, creative show with iconic characters. Aside from just being entertaining, like all good Sci-Fi it asked deep, profound questions about the nature of relationships and humanity. It’s these things that people remember more than the MOWs.

However, I’m surprised to hear that my stories are still read, mostly because there is always something new, someone has a new take, and of course, we have the more recent episodes which provides all new fodder for writers, which is wonderful. But it’s super nice to hear that stories from the classic show still mean something. Also, I wasn’t a prolific writer, there are only 12 stories, but perhaps they struck a chord and people like to revisit them the way you like to re-watch a favorite episode or movie.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Fanfic is certainly not new, but The X-Files was absolutely at the right place, at the right time. The internet was just really taking off, and it enabled fans to connect instantly in ways that hadn’t before. I remember that Fox used to send out Cease & Desist letters in an ill-considered attempt to stem fanfic because the Suits just didn’t understand what it was. Nowadays, of course, they embrace much of it, encourage it, even. Supernatural wrote whole episodes about it. But in the early days they were really stupid about it.

But what I took away from it was that great community can exist with people you have never met in person. There is a great sharing of ideas and love of great characters.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

It’s true, no Facebook, twitter, tiktok – it seems strange!

But I connected to fandom though the old Usenet message boards, you couldn’t wait until the episode was over until you could leap on and start discussing the episode. And it was painful if you were on the west coast as I was because you would get spoiled. In truth, it wasn’t must different than Twitter, just without the character limitation. But it was rather the wild, wild, west, no moderators and no terms of service. It could be a free-for-all, and some of the disagreements were legendary! For writing, certainly ATXC was the big dog for fic, and of course alt.tv.x-files for discussion. There were many different Yahoo Groups and AOL mailing lists, that catered to interests in fanfic (Friendship/Adult/Slash) or to the characters and/or actors.

But frankly, the main thing I remember was what a complete PITA it was to just get anything posted. There were all these size limitations and ASCII issues that don’t exist today, you had font and formatting limitations, which cause people to get weirdly creative with italics, bolding, quotes and so on. And you had to break your story up in weird way simply to jam it into the email because there were size limitations. And it never failed that no matter how many Beta Reads you had, you didn’t see that last damn typo until AFTER you hit the send button. There was no edit button, all you could do resend the whole damn thing. It was the fanfic version of the 20 mile walk to school through the snow……Kids today have it so easy! LOL….

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Actors are, and always will be, the face of the show. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are amazing actors, and the nuance they brought each week was a wonder.

But one of the things that the X-Files also did was make people aware of the people behind the scenes, the showrunners, the writers, the directors. This was also something new. For most TV dramas, most people couldn’t tell you who wrote an episode if you had a gun to their head.

But people knew the writers like Vince Gilligan, James Wong, Darin Morgan, and of course Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz. And they knew the directors, Rob, Chris and the late great, Kim Manners.. It was like a repertory company. You could count on Morgan & Wong for the creepy, you could count of Vince Gilligan for the humor and relationship stuff, you could count on Darin Morgan for the “what the hell was that, but I loved it.”

So I guess what I took away was a deep appreciation for the craft, for the work. This carried over to other fandoms. I’m more aware of the creative team beyond the actors.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

Believe it not, I didn’t watch at the beginning. I’ve always been a Sci-Fi fan but for some reason this wasn’t on my radar. I came in about the middle of Season 1. I was channel surfing and stopped the X-Files, it was the episode “Ice.” I won’t lie, I stopped because I saw David Duchovny in a henley and I’m never one to pass by an attractive man. But as I watched, I became intrigued by these two characters, and their conflicted relationship with each other, even though I didn’t really know what was really going on. But I had to know more. That’s good writing, where you can walk in half-way through an episode and be captured.

I immediately checked out the old AOL Service forums and found a group. Of course, back then, there was no streaming, there was no BitTorrent. So, you just had to wait until when and if the network decided to show a repeat, which meant you were screwed if you were trying to catch up. But someone on one of the boards offered to send me VHS tapes of the episodes of missed. That’s fandom as its best - I’m excited about this and I want to share it with you. So in about a week I was caught up and hooked. I had to see how these two people’s story turned out.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I’ve always written as a hobby, taken many writing classes, have always written short stories, worked on a novel or two. I’ve got friends who are writers by profession. But the closest I ever came to doing it professionally was co-writing a play that ran for a month off Broadway many years ago, so I’m a dabbler, at best. I’m a big reader, and good stories always make me think, “well, what if this happened….”

So, X-Files wasn’t my first fanfic rodeo. I had been involved in Quantum Leap fandom and Beauty and the Beast, some Star Trek. Once I good hooked on the show, I immediately began searching out fanfic. But it took me a long time before I wrote anything. I’m not sure why, perhaps I was waiting to see where the story went. But X-Files was different in that it blended one of my favorite genres with a truly compelling relationship story. And I don’t just mean romance, it was a melding of two entirely different ways of looking at the world that was captivating. Scully was so strong and Mulder so complex, how could you not love them.

So, I enjoy writing, I learn from it. I learn from the feedback, both good and bad. I’ve never understood fanfic writers who say “just sent me nice feedback.” No one loves criticism, and not all criticism is valid. But you learn from it. I’ve had people tell me they hadn’t looked at an episode from that point of view and they like it - and I’ve had people tell me that I didn’t know what I was doing, everyone knew that Scully would never cuss (to which I say, please, she grew up on military bases!) But it helps you improve.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

It was a period of my life I cherish because I met some friends who are still my friends to this day, all these years later because we found other things in common besides a show. It was great to share ideas and debate storylines. And it was a fun, creative, and exciting time. Each episode was must-see and then talking to my friends about it later was the best part.

I started to drift away when David Duchovny left the show. I thought then, and still think, they should have called it a day because the beating heart of that show was Mulder and Scully together. You can’t rip out half the heart and expect the patient to live. On an intellectual level, I got why Duchovny left, I got why Anderson stayed and I got that Fox was a fledging network back then and XF was a cash cow. But on an emotional level, it all turned upside down, especially when the much-promised “search for Mulder” never really happened.

Fans got angry. They were angry at David for leaving, they were angry at Gillian for staying, and they were angry at poor Robert Patrick, perfectly decent person, for merely existing. It got ugly and I got up caught up in that. Frankly, I was as much to blame as anyone in carrying on stupid arguments about crap that didn’t matter. And one day I just realized I’d let all the joy be sucked away, and this just wasn’t who I wanted to be, or how I wanted to spend my time. So, I took a break, I still watched the show as it limped on, but I disconnected from the fandom part of it. And by the time I’d had my break, the show was done!

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I’m always a fan. There are many shows I’ve followed and liked, Supernatural, Fringe, Walking Dead, but I don’t get involved in the internet drama. So, I don’t get as invested.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I assume you mean besides Mulder and Scully! In literature, My favorite writer is John Steinbeck and every character he created was indelible and singular. East of Eden is my favorite book and the characters of Adam & Caleb Trask, as well as Cathy Ames are so well drawn. Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, they’re all perfect. Another favorite book and character is Alexandre’s Demas, The Count of Monte Cristo. The arc that Edmond Dantès’ life take is quite Mulder-esque. And of course, Harry Potter, I’m a sucker for a character fighting against overwhelming odds.

On TV, Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. That was an amazingly well-crafted series, also featuring a female show runner, Deborah Pratt. I love the character of Raymond Reddington on The Blacklist, there is something about a completely unapologetic bad guy. I would have once said Dean and Sam Winchester, but sadly that turned into a case of staying too long at the fair and I stopped watching a couple seasons ago - But the early seasons rocked. Literally every single character in M*A*S*H was golden, and they knew when to call it quits. Thomas Magnum from the original Magnum PI. (People my age will still remember the “Did you see the Sun Rise, Ivan” episode!)

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

Oddly enough, a few weeks before you reached out to me, I watched the X-Files movie again. I remembered the incredible excitement when it came out. Fox did this tour across the county; it was like a mini-con. But I remember they had the trailer on a loop and my friends and I sat through it so many times we could recite the entire thing by heart. TV shows, such as Star Trek, had made the leap to movie, but I don’t believe a TV show had ever made the leap to films while the show was still on TV. But damn, it was good.

I watched the two recent XF mini-series. They did much to revive the old feeling, especially the episodes by Darin Morgan, who is a national treasure. And it was wonderful to see David, Gillian and Mitch. I’m sorry there won’t be more.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I haven’t in quite a while. Mostly because real life has interfered (work, personal stuff, Covid) over this last year and I have trouble concentrating. But I would certainly return to it, you need the escape of a good story.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Oh yes! But they were all from the time I was writing. Lydia Bower, DashaK, BlueSwirl, XFBandit, Paula Graves, Taverl, Prufrock’s Love, and dozens of other are still on my PC.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Like children, they each have their virtues but some may be harder to love than others. While I love a good smutty MSR, I was also a big fan of conflict resolution. So, I’m going to cheat and split the baby here. Based on feedback, I’d have to day my most popular story was Regular People and its sequel. And I really enjoyed writing that. It’s simple, it’s sweet, it’s what I hope for Mulder and Scully. The chance to just BE, if only for a while.

I wanted to try a slash story, so Wind River. That story was inspired by the murder of Matthew Shepard. I have dear friends in the gay community and I was so angry that this could happen in this country, so that one was about the need to treat people compassionately and who better to do that than Mulder and Scully.

But in truth, my own favorite is one that didn’t get much attention, called Rock Bottom. I wanted to explore that the fact Mulder and Scully, were, on occasion, just truly awful to each other and yet still reason to come back together.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I have a couple unfinished stories. There’s one from Quantum Leap, I want to finish first and when that’s done, I would like to finish the two X-Files that are half-baked.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I do legal writing as a profession now, so I write all day long, but analyzing a case or a legal matter is not the same creatively and I do miss that, so I see returning someday, you need to feed your soul.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Well that’s all over the place, much like my mind! Often I was inspired by something I thought was unaddressed in the episodes. That’s where the Just One series came from. Or it’s a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern kind of thing -- That is, what’s happening off screen while the main action is going on. I find that intriguing, and that’s where Risking Everything came from. The incident in By Coincidence actually happened to a friend of a friend and I thought it would make good fodder. Pentimento came to me following a lecture I attended at a gallery, what happens when you peel back the layers you thought were true. You never know what’s going to connect.

What's the story behind your pen name?

“Chimerical” means existing as the product of unchecked imagination, given to unrealistic flights of fantasy- which seemed right for a fiction writer, especially for XF. In the early days, it became the phonetic “KiMeriKal” when I was on the old AOL service simply because Chimerical wasn’t available as a screen name! But I’m finally [email protected]!

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

Yes, my friends are aware, some of them have been my betas over the years. My brother knows I write, but I don’t think he’s ever read anything because he would find the smut elements uncomfortable coming from his little sister!

Is there a place online (Tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

The most recent versions of my stories are at AO3. If I ever get around to anything new it will be posted there as well.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Thanks for reading, thanks for remembering me, and it was a great time in my life. Fandoms are great communities as long as we can always remember there’s a human being at the other end of the keyboard. Be kind, be compassionate, and never stop imagining the possibilities.

(Posted by Lilydale on February 23, 2021)

#old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #chimerical

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world-of-ryan · 4 years

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When COVID-19 shut down production last March, it especially hit hard for NBC’s New Amsterdam. The show not only films at several real-life hospitals, including Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn and Metropolitan Hospital in Harlem, but it also had a pandemic storyline planned. Of course, not the coronavirus specifically.

“There was so much fear and anxiety at that time around the pandemic, we didn’t want to air an episode where people were getting sick left and right and further scare people,” says series star Ryan Eggold, who plays medical director Dr. Max Goodwin, in this exclusive interview.

But New Amsterdam will touch on the COVID-19 pandemic in its Season 3 premiere. It will feature a very powerful montage showing the doctors and nurses at work trying to save lives, working until they are exhausted, showing people getting vaccinated, and then moving into post-pandemic stories.

“Working on a hospital show, post-pandemic, our first responsibility is to tell the stories of the nurses and doctors who have worked so tirelessly to try to keep people safe and healthy,” Eggold continues. “Peter Horton directed that episode. And I think his and [executive producer] David [Schulner]’s intention was to honor the healthcare workers and what they’ve been through and start in that place of, this has been Ground Zero of fighting the pandemic, and it has taken its toll on everybody.”

From there, the story continues with Dr. Vijay Kapour’s (Anupam Kher) life hanging in the balance due to COVID, Dr. Helen Sharpe (Freema Agyeman) unable to touch people as a result of lingering anxieties, Dr. Iggy Frome (Tyler Labine) facing his eating disorder/body issues and Dr. Lauren Bloom (Janet Montgomery) unable to give up her patients to their special-care physicians.

“It’s kind of like that wartime mentality with soldiers coming back and having trouble adjusting to civilian life,” Eggold says. “These doctors were so overwhelmed with patients, not enough beds and trying to keep up. What are the ramifications on their personal life and their psyche? And how do they get back to the new normal?”

Also, viewers will get a long-awaited moment between Max and Helen. Expect some resolution regarding their feelings for each other, despite the fact that Helen has moved on with new head trauma surgeon Dr. Cassian Shin (Daniel Dae Kim).

“I will say that I think Max and Helen have a unique relationship that they are forced to confront this season and figure out what it means for better or for worse, and finally name what has been unspoken for a while,” Eggold adds.

For more scoop on season 3 of New Amsterdam, read more of the interview with Eggold.

How did the New Amsterdam pandemic episode compare to what actually happened?

I haven’t seen that episode because it didn’t air, which is usually how I see them, so I would be curious to know myself. It’s pretty wild. It’s happened to the writers a few times where they’ve written something and then it happens later. But nobody could have predicted COVID was going to happen.

I saw the first two episodes and it feels like a sadder show this year. Will that continue?

No. There’s a lot of humor. I was saying to David, “Is Max getting too broad?” There has been a lot of humor on the show lately, which is nice. I think it’s important to find humor and joy amid a pandemic because we have to remind ourselves what we’re fighting for. The intention is not to make it super heavy and sad, but certainly in the beginning to discuss it; it is a heavy, overwhelming, larger-than-life situation that we’ve all been through.

Max also seems to have lost his “How can I help?” attitude–which is what inspired him to take the job and kept him going when he lost his wife. Will he get that back?

Yeah. I think it’s evolved from how can I help, or how can I fix the system and make it better, to how do we begin again? And how do we build from the ground up because we weren’t prepared for this and it changed a lot of things. I think his perspective has widened in a good way and he will see things differently this season.

What will be the new challenges for Max this season?

One thing is he’s a single dad who is trying to get his hospital through this pandemic. And he has left his daughter Luna with [late wife] Georgia’s parents in an effort to protect her and keep her safe as he is going to the hospital every day. But I think there’s a lot of guilt like, “Am I doing the right thing? Am I being a bad father by not being there? Am I neglecting her?” So, that’s something that he wrestles with.

Then the question of romance. Is there a partner for him to find and is he ready to start a relationship with someone after losing his wife? In the back of his mind, I think it’s something he wants, not only for himself but for his daughter.

(Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

There’s a moment where Max realizes that some of his great, crazy ideas aren’t always the right way to do things. Is he growing?

Absolutely. He’s a character who’s full of ambition to change things and to make things better. And he’s very headstrong and optimistic. He’s certainly overly idealistic about how to make those changes happen. The show is about finding out the reality of how that change happens. You have these lofty ideas of, “I want to make everything better, I want to do X, Y and Z,” and you can’t do that overnight, so what does it look like on a daily basis? How does change occur on a systemic level, which is certainly bigger than the individual?

To your point about admitting fault, I think he’s learning that he can’t do this on his own and he can’t change the world overnight and that you need other people. You can’t be a one-man band, so I think he’s going through a lot of change and evolving a lot.

What was it like filming in the hospital in March 2020?

Our last day of filming we were at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, and it was weird. People were starting to get nervous, “Should we be filming in a hospital?” We didn’t know a lot about it. Is this real? Is this really growing the way people say it’s going to grow? And very quickly, the world changed overnight.

It’s the right decision not to film in the hospital right now, not for our show, but to get out of the way of the hospitals and to let them function to the best of their capacity when there are so many serious things that need to be addressed. And, then for the show, to keep everybody safe, of course. But I hope we can get back to that once this pandemic is behind us because there’s always this wonderful authenticity to be found when we can shoot in those places because you are near the reality of healthcare so it helps you reflect that story.

Did it take New Amsterdam longer to come back because you had to change your filming locations?

We had to build a lot of sets. We had to build a lot of the hospital locations that we use, and we had to add more sets and locations we could film in. Then everybody was just making sure it was safe and making sure we had the practices and protocols in place to do our job, be safe and not put anybody at risk. To everyone’s credit, it feels really safe. We’re tested every day and we have a lot of protocols in place that keep the set running efficiently and safely. It’s a good place to be.

How did you handle the pandemic?

I look back and that was so much time that we had. I feel like I should have written a novel, climbed a mountain, or something. But, no, I slowly went crazy and did all the usual, like slept. I did do a fair amount of writing. I wrote a screenplay, trying to put my brain to work a little bit. I was in denial like, “This will only last a month of weird whatever.” Then a month goes by and you’re like, “I guess it’s still going.” Seven months go by and it was crazy. It was nice to slow down and catch up with family and unplug for a minute. I wish it had been under better circumstances and people’s lives weren’t at risk, but, yeah, there were some positives.

#new amsterdam #ryan eggold #season 3 #press release

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darkdisrepair · 4 years

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Hailey Upton: Character Study Post-crossover

After watching the FBI/Chicago PD crossover this morning, I have some interesting thoughts about the character of Hailey Upton, who I am very much in favor of as a character, so if you don’t like her, you might not want to read.

Check it out!

Timing is Everything: Hailey & External Factors

Personally, Hailey’s (and to an extent, Tracy’s) “polarizing” label that isn’t really deserved but people do it anyway. The problem isn’t the character, or the actress, the problem is just that she’s gotten kind of crappy timing in many ways. When she arrived on chicago pd, she came on the heels of Sophia Bush’s exit, a character that a lot of people loved and shipped furiously with Jay. I started watching for Hailey not gonna lie so I’m not super attached to Erin or Sophia. I got the impression that some people (not everyone) didn’t like her because Hailey is very unapologetic, and looks very similar to Erin. She was very clearly the person meant to replace Erin, so people started assuming things about her character that were kind off-base, and the crossover (in my mind) proves that a little bit.

From what I saw on Twitter, the FBI fandom seemed very enthusiastic about Hailey’s character, even though the situation is pretty similar to the Erin/Hailey dynamic. Tracy stepped in for another established, liked character (Maggie) while the actress who plays her is on maternity leave. The difference, which explains the lower levels of toxicity, is that there is an assurance there that Hailey will not be staying, and that she is not a replacement, just a guest.

Even though she did clash with OA, people were willing to stay for her side of the story. Now, the people on Twitter might just be the vocal fans of the FBI show, but I think that shows that a lot of the tension with Hailey’s character comes from a) her strong personality and b) the fact that she came in at a very tense time in the Chicago PD fanbase.

Back to the Beginning, by Going on Another Show

I don’t know if I’m the only one who noticed this, but Hailey was on fire in this episode, honestly more so than I’ve seen in many of the episodes on Chicago PD. Don’t get me wrong, I love her in every episode she’s in, but you could tell that the writers really took the time to do her character justice.

She was fierce and sassy and determined and everything I remember her being in her very first episode. This crossover was basically a reset for her, which is what I think Voight wanted, and maybe even the writers too. I’d noticed in CPD episodes prior that she started to lose some of the qualities she started out with. It’s hard to name what they were, but she was becoming too much of a mini-Voight.

Personally, even though she definitely didn’t completely play by the FBI’s usual playbook here, she wasn’t Voight-like here. Yes, she threatened to break someone’s arm, and yes, her interrogation tactics were definitely not ones that I think the FBI show usually talks about, but she did everything by the book, just with her own twist. And I think that’s why Voight was drawn to her in the first place, when he brought her onto the team.

At the beginning of her character arc on Chicago PD, she was very by-the-book, but not in the conventional sense. She knew how to get things done the right way, and stopped at nothing to do so. She knew where the lines were and toed them when she needed to but never let cases compromise her morals, and rarely let emotions cloud her judgement.

This hadn’t happened on Chicago PD for a while. Coming to the FBI and being reminded that there are lines and other ways to get cases done really brought her character to where it should have always been, which in turn made her an even more dynamic character to watch.

Also, side note, but the FBI show is so aesthetically pleasing, which helped Hailey come alive even more :) Major credits to Monica Raymund for that!

Hailey and Voight: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

I’ve never been one to compare Hailey to Voight, and to me, this episode showed how different they are.

She adjusted extremely quickly to the FBI. At first, everyone was hyper-aware that she was not a federal agent, including OA. They doubted her abilities and second-guessed some of her choices.That changed quickly once Hailey saw some action and made some key points in their investigation. OA started to listen to her and take note of what she was doing, trusting her to watch his back, and the rest of the team did, too, even letting her interrogate a suspect.

She inspires people to do better, to learn more. OA realizes that maybe cops aren’t inferior to federal agents. Jubal and Castille recognize her interrogation skills and her strategical skills, too.

This episode, if anything, highlighted the differences between Hailey and Voight.

She wins people over because she knows how to beat the system without breaking it, and uses her deep knowledge and passion to find ways to help people without hurting them (for the most part). People trust her not because they know she can bend the rules, but because she knows when to be vulnerable. See, for example, how she relates to victims of abuse. Voight earns people’s respect because he protects the people he cares about, without restrictions. He connects with criminals through threats and violence, for the most part.

Hailey may have been come to New York because Voight thought she was becoming too much like him, but this episode just showed how different they are. She is more open, more cooperating, and has stronger morals than I think Voight ever will.

It’s hard for me to explain, but to me, they’ve always been very different, and to me, showing up in New York and bringing such warm energy to the unit shows the difference between how Hailey influences people and versus how Voight does.

What the Future Holds for Hailey on Chicago PD

What will happen when she returns to her team?

I think she’ll be more aware of the impact that cases have on her. She got the wake-up call her character desperately needed, and now I think her conviction in herself will be stronger than ever. I think she knows that she can’t keep going down the path she was starting to walk in Season 7.

She might not go back to how intense she was about the rules in Season 5, but I do think she now knows where the lines are and how to get things done without breaking them.

I’m predicting that something will come up that will force her to come to terms with what she’s done with Darius and Gael, in one way or another. She hasn’t shown guilt about those things yet, but I think what she did to both of them really does bother her. She doesn’t want to feel it, but getting Darius killed and fabricating evidence was overstepping, and she knows that even if it was done in the name of loyalty, it was still against everything she stands for.

What direction is her character arc going in?

To me, the writers seem to be leaning toward a massive Hailey-centric episode. The hints about her history with her father keep getting dropped (even on CBS, which was surprising!) and I think the fact that these cases keep coming up is affecting her, even though she doesn’t know it yet.

I was really disappointed when “Intimate Violence” focused on how Jay dealt with seeing abuse, rather than what Hailey thought. I thought for sure she had a better background to interact with Michelle instead of Jay. I also thought the roles would have been reversed, that Hailey would have wanted to rush in and stop the violence while Jay wouldn’t comprehend the emotional weight of the situation.

As a result, I’m hoping that we cover that history and maybe meet some of Hailey’s family. I think that’s part of her past she needs to explore before really coming to terms with who she’s become.

Finally: where is her relationship with Jay going?

It seems like the coronavirus pandemic ruined a lot of Hailey’s upcoming storylines on FBI and Chicago PD. I got the impression that there was going to be some kind of milestone for her and Jay, whether a confession or an injury, that sparked the possible beginnings of a romantic relationship.

I don’t think Upstead will just happen, even though the more we go on the more the show seems to be leaning toward them getting together. I know for sure I don’t want them to hook up right off the bat- I think their relationship is deeper than that.

I do think that Hailey and Jay both need to figure themselves out before they get together. Jay still carries a lot of guilt with the Angela situation and Hailey, as shown throughout the season, seems to be struggling emotionally with her sense of loyalty to her friends and her own inner demons.

If neither of them are in the right headspace, Upstead does have a lot of potential to crash and burn. They need to both be at a stable place in their lives to even think about considering dating. If the show tries to start something before either characters are ready, their relationship and partnership won’t last, so this upcoming season will be crucial.

Part of me doesn’t want them to be a thing, because if it doesn’t work, one of the most central relationships on the show will have been destroyed. Their trust is what makes their bond so beautiful to watch, and I’d rather preserve that than have them date.

Overall, thanks for reading, and sorry this got so long! Share your thoughts. Who is Hailey, really?

#hailey upton #chicago pd #fbi cbs #jay halstead #hank voight #hailey upton meta #upstead #oa zidan

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scgdoeswhat · 5 years

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Unpacking The Elementalists Finale

I’d like to dedicate this to my dear Kane anon (and other TE anons) who have been hitting my ask box up for the last several months. I’m sorry this took forever to get out and I know it doesn’t ease the fact that they ixnayed Kane, but hopefully this makes a little more sense of TE’s abrupt ending.

Without further ado...

I’ve been wanting to make this post since Book 2 Chapter 10, but life has been hectic. TE’s finale finally forced my hand and so here I am, with a bunch of theories, points, and thoughts I've had noted since the book came back from its hiatus. First off, now that TE is officially over (😭) we now know that the hiatus was primarily used to tie up all the loose story lines and to give us a tidy ending. The writing in the second half of the book was more solid, concise, and had a clear cut vision of what the writers wanted and where the plot was headed. As much as I hate to say it, the first half of the book may have been overly ambitious. They introduced the Moral Compass, potentially two villains in Kane and Alma, and a plethora of different storylines. I had a number of people tell me through the first five/six chapters of Book 2 that they were confused with the plot because it became too convoluted and hard to follow along. I think they introduced too many elements into the story, which dragged down the arc. Let’s break down some of these individually: The Moral Compass was something we were all excited to see implemented, because it gave us the potential to be an evil MC. In the end, we know it didn’t make much of a difference, save for dialogue and/or violent options. I think this was originally something intended to be greater than what it amounted to, and part of it is the limitations of the medium that the app is and simply, resources. This also ties into…. The plot involving Kane and Alma. I don’t believe having Kane as the Big Bad was supposed to be as defined as it ended up being. The two Sources were written far more ambiguous in the beginning, with the chance that depending on your choices, you could side with either one by the end of the book and/or series. The hiatus streamlined the plot, discarding elements that were difficult to pull off, including multiple MC point of views that may have held the possibility of being evil or choosing Kane, therefore placing Alma as the antagonist. In a narrative story app such as Choices (as opposed to Lovestruck, where the routes have the same players but different stories altogether), I just don’t think this advanced storytelling would have been doable. These plots are primarily linear, and MC being evil/with Kane/etc, it would present a different set of problems, including the fact that this becomes an entirely different story while there is supposed to be one solid ending. (For what it's worth, I enjoy the MC customizability of Choices more.) Looking at the group of friends, obviously Beckett was incredibly fleshed out while the others were not as much. I wanted to delve further into our friends’ backgrounds a bit more, and I think at the beginning of the book, we were on that path. Aster and her wood nymph family was a perfect example of table setting. We had two or three scenes before the hiatus to go to the forest, and I thought the Wand Wars and their involvement against Kane was slated to be more prominent. I think the writers had something bigger planned, but how would it all tie in if players started choosing the evil choices? Again, having too many choices causes a domino effect that makes it nearly impossible to navigate when the story is supposed to end with a particular goal in mind. The chapter where we can receive the wand was a symptom of ending the book early and I think the execution of the actual Wand Wars scene was lacking the emotional punch the initial introduction of it warranted. This is unfortunate because the setup they had in Book 1 made it seem much more violent, disastrous, and full of hate compared to what was shown (i.e. Attuned just being greedy bastards). We were introduced to Shreya's Serene & Sublime business and the potential of family disapproval and lack of support in the beginning, but everything was tied up with the gala chapter. Looking back, I was curious why it was so easy to get so many financial backers this early into the series, but knowing that TE only went for two books makes much more sense why we knew whether S&S succeeded or failed. (Tangent - for anyone who didn't secure backing, is S&S successful at the end of the book?) I think Griffin, his scholarship, and his decision between Natural Sciences and Thief was also slated to be a bigger subplot. We never met his parents, despite them being brought up very early in Book 1. If TE had gone the originally planned three or four books, I have no doubt his family would've been introduced and MC would have needed to help sway his parents (and the committee for the scholarship) whether Griffin continued on the NS or professional Thief path. Doing the Griffin scenes (even as platonic friends) influenced his standing for the scholarship and not doing them made him lose out to Amy, if I'm not mistaken. Question for everyone regarding Zeph and the Thief captaincy: Does he get it in everyone's playthrough? I wonder if the writers always planned for Zeph to get the captaincy or if Griff would have kept it depending on your playthrough if they had all four books to use. Another big plot point that resolved itself out of nowhere was Atlas and MC butting heads over their Sun Source mother. I was not a fan of this storyline at all. I felt like the disagreements between the siblings was unnecessary drama that came off as forced. They tried to explain Atlas' position, and I understood where they were coming from, but Atlas was very unreasonable with their constant “who cares about mom” shtick.

I think this was something that could have been more impactful if there weren't so many plotlines happening and more focus could have been given to it instead of a few screens of Atlas saying they were pissed off before storming away from MC. This was also a plotline that was directly influenced by the Kane/Alma decisions. If MC sides with Kane, it makes much more sense for MC and Atlas to be against each other as opposed to MC being good/siding with Alma.

Five major subplots were opened, but how do you seamlessly weave these elements into a 17-19 chapter book? In my opinion, you can't. Each time something new was introduced, I felt things were glossed over, despite big chunks of chapters being focused on whichever subplot the chapter was about. Throw in the romance and I think it is nearly impossible to resolve each aspect in a complete manner.

What also hurt was the pacing of the series. This was also seen in Book 1, where sometimes a chapter would span one or two days, only for a huge time jump to occur in the next chapter.

So many ideas could have been explored through the course of four books (which is what I believe they had planned), but all the different elements should have been introduced at different times. Instead, Book 2 was an amalgamation of so many ideas but not enough time, space, or resources to thoroughly hash out and have a satisfactory resolution. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was having too much Beckett that hurt the series. He obviously kept the series afloat and was one of PB's biggest moneymakers in recent history. Despite the constant complaints on tumblr, people fail to realize that the ENTIRE online fandom (FB, IG, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Wiki) comprises maybe 0.5% - 2% of the ENTIRE player fan base. It only made sense that PB capitalized on him because their numbers dictated that the resources should be spent in that manner. The fallout from this was that Beckett was the only one who had his storyline relatively complete, and that was due to the spending power of everyone who romanced him. I think what hurt them the most was the multiple storylines and the indecision of which direction they wanted to go. They had a grand idea of the direction through Book 2 (and Book 3, let’s not lie here) but in-game mechanics and the type of game Choices is made it difficult to pull off. The app wasn’t the correct medium for what they envisioned. In my opinion, the overall story arc had the potential to be brilliant, but again, the app wasn't designed for the type of story the writers wanted to tell.

I also think the timing and having a very short turnaround hurt, as well. Players had high expectations and when you factor in the hype around the other books that were also released on Fridays, TE lost some of its sparkle. Most players didn’t get a chance to miss it for the regular 2-3 months we’ve been trained to wait for sequels. (I recognize that I’m an anomaly and the previous three sentences do not apply to me at all.)

Even with all this, I applaud the writing team for wanting to deliver a story that was worthy of a magical world. I love all the Pend Pals (‘Motley Crue’ for me), the familiars, the side characters, loved to hate the villains, and from someone who is not into Harry Potter lore at all, I was absolutely sucked into the magick universe that the writers built. (Metal Att for life ⚙!)

If TE does return in the future (and I REALLY hope it does), I think it will be even stronger than the first two books because the world building is complete. We know almost everything we need to know now. Instead of using a Book 3 to search for Sun Mama, the family is complete, MC and Atlas are attuned to all the elements, and there are so many open-ended questions that Book 2 left us.

If they implement a time jump where MC and the Pend Pals are all post grad/mid 20s, it also gives the writers a chance to move the story from the Young Adult genre to a more mature setting. We saw this in the later diamond scenes, where the writing appeared similar in their vividness (and coding in the final scene - THANK YOU, glorious writing team) to Open Heart, Bloodbound, and A Courtesan of Rome. This removes the restrictions placed on the group of being college kids, and therefore are almost fully developed with their magick, giving the possibility of moving the story out of a university setting.

If you've made it all the way here to the bottom, thank you for sticking with me and apologies for spelling/grammar since this has all been on my phone 😂 I think this comprises almost all my notes I've been keeping for the last 2 months. Feel free to agree or disagree; I just wanted to post my thoughts on this book and series that I love so much.

Now, I'm going to go back to my holiday (don't worry, I didn't write all of this while on vacay lol) and I'll try to answer asks when I have downtime.

#the elementalists #beckett harrington #shreya mistry #griffin langley #aster d'yew #playchoices #choices #beckett x mc #griffin x mc #shreya x mc #aster x mc #zeph hernandez #atlas ernhardt #te

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cindiliciouscindi · 5 years

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Kat owes Adena an apology...!

I see one or two people on Twitter spitting on Adena, talking about how she went away, left Kat heartbroken, only to return after she has moved on with someone else. You know what I call that line of thought? BS... And I have no apologies for that.

Anybody who KNOWS anything about this show, and about this pairing, knows that all Adena has ever done, is put Kat's interests and feelings above her own, and to her own detriment, and from last night's episode, it's clear she is still doing so. There are so many references to cite, where do I even begin?

In season 1, Kat and Adena made huge efforts to be together, and by the end of season 1, we saw that Adena packed her goodies and came to New York to be with Kat, only to be upended by her visa issues; then Kat had to go after her, re:Peru, then by season 2, Adena abandoned everything, returned to New York again, and started living with Kat.

By 2x01, we saw how Adena made Fesenjoon, was waiting for Kat to come home, only for Kat to whisk her away to an unplanned Scarlet party. Do I even talk about how Kat never went down on Adena until she had to literally mention it? And you and I know that Adena was definitely going down on her the whole time. Anyway, that's just one aspect of it.

If anybody recalls 2x04 during the ILY scene, Adena stated how she missed her mom's birthday, just because she didn't want to lose Kat. She CHOSE Kat.

By 2x06/2x07, Kat kissed somebody else, told Adena about it, and in the interest of Kat, Adena suggested the OR, which Kat accepted, until she was done playing the field. All these time, Adena was sitting patiently and waiting, waiting for Kat to maybe choose her wholly, just like she did.

All the time in season 2, Adena was like a house wife, while Kat spent most of her time with her friends, and work. For someone who was introduced to us in season 1 as an independent, entrepreneurial badass, Adena suddenly wasn't working, her visa issues were pending, but Kat never read the room. She never paid any attention to Adena's feelings, she was just at the receiving end of all the affection and consideration Adena was dishing out. Adena, on her part, based on her compassionate character and love for Kat, didn't want to bother Kat by expressing what she was going through. I get that we were supposed to see things from Kat's point of view, but that did a lot of disservice to Adena's character, hence all the hate from people who probably just studied the storyline through short clips.

Fast forward to 2x10, Adena had started getting into her work groove, then at Kat's behest, she abandons everything (again), and jets off to Paris with her.

At that "break-up scene," we saw that Adena asked Kat the way forward, but Kat decided that the best thing to do was walk away to go prepare for her event, while Adena was still squatting in tears. Compare to 2x06 when Kat asked Adena the way forward, Adena actually made something happen... She suggested the OR. Bad or good as it was, at least, she thought hard and came up with what she felt was best for the relationship (again, in the interest of Kat). But, in Kat's case, she got up and left. Adena wasn't the one who got away, Kat was, because if she hadn't bailed at that moment, all Adena wanted was for them to work out a way forward.

I say all these to say that Adena took some time off because Kat just wasn't getting it. She was too self-absorbed to notice that Adena was going through A LOT!

Kat owes Adena an apology for not paying attention to her, for being unable to have the needed hardcore discussion, and figure out a way forward (in 2x10). Of course, part of the blame goes to Adena for not speaking out, not laying her feelings bare, but when she finally tried to in 2x10, it became obvious that Kat didn't have the emotional strength to handle the weight. And before anyone goes assuming anything false, THIS entire post is NOT a Kat-hate post, absolutely not, rather it is an Anti-Adena-hate post.

We've always known that Kat needed to grow up, and being her first relationship, she was bound to mess it up, and she did.

Now Adena is back hoping that they can have that missing discussion around everything that happened. Clearly, open communication was missing from their relationship, especially from Adena's end.

Fast forward to 3x08, Adena is pretending to be okay when we know from all the longing stares, and unspoken words, that deep down, she is definitely not okay. But she won't do anything that puts Kat in an uncomfortable situation. And knowing Adena, if Kadena will get back together, she will sit back at this point and allow Kat make the decision. She won't pressure Kat, especially since Kat says she's happy with Tia. That's just who Adena is. And in real life, that's the way some of us love our significant others. That's how she has always loved Kat, by putting Kat's interests first, at the expense of her own. And that's the character consistency I will always applaud the writers for.

#kadena #the bold type #kadena are soul mates and they have the capacity to work through this #tia is an amazing character and i hate that the writers put her in the middle of an unbreakable bond #i will not tolerate any adena slander from people who are uninformed

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travllingbunny · 5 years

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The 100: 6x10 Matryoshka

Yes, that last scene was one of the most emotional, powerful and beautiful scenes of the season and arguably the entire show. And we all have been talking about it, posting gifs and obsessing over it the whole week.

I doubt that I have anything substantial to add about it that others have not already pointed out, from the fact that this was the first time Bellamy has actually said “I need you” to Clarke (she has told him “I need you” and “We need each other” a few times, but he has never expressed his feelings through words like that), without any qualifiers like “we all need you”, but only mentioning that he and Clarke’s daughter need her; to the ironic foreshadowing from 6x02, when Bellamy, under the eclipse psychosis, got into Clarke’s face and told her “Maybe you haven’t noticed, Clarke, but I don’t need you anymore”(of course, it was obvious that he was just protesting too much). I sometimes have mixed feelings about the phrase “the head and the heart”, because it has been overused and misinterpreted in the fandom, and has led to me oversimplifications of both Clarke’s and Bellamy’s character. But it was used beautifully in this scene. And yes, Bellamy’s CPR skills are crap and he seemed to be massaging Clarke’s belly instead of restarting her heart (while mouth on mouth actually doesn’t matter much compared to restarting the heart – it just looks good on TV) – but it wasn’t the CRP that brought Clarke back, anyway. It was hearing Bellamy’s voice in her mind, passionately telling her that he needs her and wouldn’t let her go, that he couldn’t lose her again, and that she’s a fighter and needs to fight.

If there still people arguing that Bellarke is not an epic romance, it must be incredibly difficult to argue that after Bellamy has actually brought Clarke back to life with his love. In 6x07, Clarke gave up and was going to let Josephine have her body while she dies, after Josephine had made her believe that Bellamy had given up on her and already moved on from her death. She changed her mind later, prompted by the part of her mind that is her moral compass and voice of reason, embodied by her mindspace version of Monty. But she really got strength to fight and defeat Josephine after hearing Bellamy’s voice and knowing that he needs her and has fought for her, and after he gave her strength with his voice. Proving that love is not a weakness – it can be an incredible strength.

However, I also enjoyed the scene of Josephine and Gabriel’s reunion and goodbye that happened right before the Bellamy/Clarke reunion, the scenes in Clarke’s mindspace – which I was so glad to return – and all the Clarke and Josephine’s interactions. And, of course, Bellamy coming to save the day (in a very similar way as he did when he saved the Delinquents from the Mount Weather guards in season 2), and the awkward hug between him and Octavia.

This entire storyline is great enough to put Matryoshka among my favorite episodes. But, to be objective, I can’t give it a perfect score, because the other storyline in the episode – taking place in Sanctum – while also good, wasn’t as great, and missed some chances.

The title of this episode is one of the The 100’s best ones. Russian nesting dolls are a pretty good analogy for the way that each new iteration of a Prime has, in their mind, memories of all the previous lives.

More thoughts under the cut...

I loved Clarke’s snark about how much Sanctum guards suck. Because, well, they really do. They have obviously never needed to fight a really dangerous enemy, as the Primes are used to having all their people brainwashed and docile, and their only real enemy before the Earth people arrived, the Children of Gabriel, are also rather incompetent. As Josephine pointed out, they have never managed to kill any of the Primes. They seem to have just killed a few of the potential hosts. The Primes have, in fact, been better at killing each other, since Kaylee killed Josephine, Josephine killed Kaylee, and then had the entire Lee family wiped. (This makes me wonder about the lifespans of the Primes in their previous hosts. It doesn’t seem that most of them lived to old age, going by how many of them there were over the course of 211 years, which begs the question what the causes of death were. Illness? More “accidents” like the one Josephine VII died in?)

Clarke and Josephine’s interactions in this episode were lots of fun and even featured some funny moments (a rarity on The 100), with Clarke snarking at Josephine a lot. Their relationship turned into more of a frenemy one, as they started to see some of their similarities and had some sort of almost-bonding… which, of course, was not going to last. That was obvious even when Josephine was trying to convince Bellamy that she and Clarke were friends – which he didn’t buy. Still, it was fun to see Clarke and Josie arguing like roommates or even sisters annoyed when one is leaving her things in the other’s room.

So much in this episode focused on the history between Josie and Gabriel, such as when she and Clarke were in the hatch where Josie used to come for “research” – and to have some fun with Gabriel. It reminds me of season 1, when Clarke used to go and research Earth, first with Finn, and later with Bellamy, as they found the depot with the weapons. But, unlike Gabriel and Josie. they never got to have a drink and other things together.

I like the way they continued to use drawings/books as embodiments of Clarke’s and Josephine’s memories, respectively, with the image of books lying around in heaps in Clarke’s side of the ship, as their minds started merging and Josephine’s memories spilled into Clarke’s mind. She didn’t need to go into Josie’s side of the mindspace to see glimpses of her memories, most of them from scenes we have already seen – such as that Dave guy killing himself right in front of her; Russell killing her during the Red Sun eclipse; Josephine waking up in Brooke’s body; or scenes that had been referenced and that we were meant to see – Josephine convincing Tai and his wife to give up their baby son to be sacrificed to the gods, telling them that his spirit will be with the gods. This is a scene that was deleted from 6x07 (as confirmed on Twitter by the actress who played the mother), and I now I wish it had not been, since this subplot played such a big role in this episode, but seeing a few seconds of it, at least, made up for it to an extent.

It’s interesting that the drawings on the walls of Clarke’s mindspace room have changed significantly since the last time we saw them, in 6x07. I noticed it as soon as Clarke woke up in her mindspace, because the wall right behind her bed was completely different and, most obviously, featured a huge drawing of season 5/6 Bellamy, to Madi in shock collar. (Not to be confused with another drawing of the same scene of Madi in shock collar, next to a drawing of a smiling Madi, which was and still is on the wall to the left of the door.) Another new drawing on the same wall is the season 4 scene of Jasper showing the Arkadians the list, and there are other drawings that have been moved around. After rewatching the episode, I noticed a lot of other differences as well. See the screenshots for comparison in this post.

The fact they reworked the entire room for this episode suggests that the changing walls reflect the way that Clarke’s mind works - some memories are more prominent than others, or are brought back from her subconscious, and they also cluster in different ways. But the main reason the prop department made an effort to change the drawings was most likely because they wanted to focus on different images this time. So the scene of Clarke waking up immediately shows, most prominently, Bellamy next to Madi – which may mean that Clarke is now letting herself think of Bellamy more and in a different way, knowing he is trying so hard to save her and how much she means to him – unlike in 6x07, when she was scared to face him and afraid that he could never forgive her.

Another reason for the reworked walls is so Josephine and Clarke can focus on the drawing of Tondc after the bomb, which was already there in 6x07, but is now in a different place and larger, covering the entire wall opposite of Clarke’s bed. (More on that below.)

One of the reasons Josephine was such an effective villain is because she was a "shadow " character to Clarke, with both many similarities and sharp contrasts. Josie is, in many ways, what Clarke haters (in universe and in the fandom) say that Clarke is. The show seemed to purposefully play with the parallels between them, between the Lightbournes and the Griffins, while the Gabriel/Josephine relationship was played as a parallel and contrast to Bellamy/Clarke, especially throughout episodes 6x09 and 6x10, even down to the casting of all the actors who played the former two characters.

Episode 6x07 Nevermind was mostly focused on loss, grief and guilt. Clarke’s spirit was almost broken by her trauma and her guilt over the deaths she caused directly or indirectly, especially those of people close to her (e.g. blaming herself for Maya’s death and for Jasper’s downward spiral it caused), or even those she almost caused (Blodreina blaming her for the times she left Octavia to die, but also for her greatest regret, leaving Bellamy to die in Polis). We saw that her darkest place was about the trauma caused by the deaths of her lovers, Finn and Lexa, the primal traumas that Josephine referred to, and Clarke uncovered Josephine’s primal trauma, Dave’s suicide. While we don’t know for sure what previously happened between Josephine and Dave, the way those memories were paralleled made me think he was Josie’s Finn, so to speak. (If you don’t think that comparison is fitting, remember that Clarke rejected Finn once he made up his mind about her, that he turned into a stalker by season 2, did something terrible and basically caused his own death, which caused a lot of trauma to Clarke, and her first retreat into the “Love is weakness” mentality.)

But this time, Josephine’s memory that was focused one of her and Gabriel, which represents love and happiness for her. It is my second favorite scene of 6x10, and it isvery beautifully done, with the music and the cinematography giving it a dreamlike quality and conveying the romance between those two, which we hadn't seen much on screen even though it plays such an important role this season. (The choice of songs used on The 100 is always on point – and the song “Apocalypse” by Cigarettes After Sex is perfect for the show in general, and contributed a lot to making this scene what it was.) It felt romantic and dreamlike because it is Josephine's happy place and a memory she didn't want to give up - but we were also reminded of the disturbing aspects of it - through Gabriel’s obvious discomfort and guilt (he didn’t want to be brought back, but after having killed at least 46 people to bring Josie back, he couldn’t have held it against her that she did the same) and the fact that neither of them were in their original body - reminding us of the fact that many innocent people were murdered to make those 160 years of romance and happiness possible.

Josephine looked lost in her memory, which made Clarke look at her in a different way, seeing some humanity in her, as it is the first time Josephine showed genuine love for someone. Clarke easily empathizes with people and is usually inclined to see the good in them (though she had almost lost that ability, as we saw in Eden: “There are no good guys”.), so she saw something she could relate to - it's no coincidence that she went on to believe, for a moment, that Josephine could get a second chance to be better.

Josephine: I wasn’t always like this.

Clarke: Trust me, I know the feeling. I mean, look around you.

Clarke: We can let the bad things that happened to us define who we are, or we can define who we are.

The scene of Tondc are the bomb are an easy visual way to convey the destruction that Clarke ended up causing while trying to save people she cared about - but it’s also arguably the first morally bad choice she has made, and the first time she genuinely started doubting herself and losing her moral certainty. It was also her letting a bunch of strangers die (and putting Bellamy’s sister at risk, which he blamed her for during their confrontation in 3x05) mostly to protect Bellamy. (Lexa, who convinced Clarke to do it, justified it with strategic reasons, which were her motivation, and, of course, it was also, by extension, about making sure that the mission of saving Delinquents from Mount Weather continues. But, for Clarke, it was mostly about removing a threat to Bellamy.) Is it meaningful that this is the bad memory Clarke brings Josephine’s attention to, right after seeing a memory of the romance between Gabriel and Josephine, which happened right after Josephine had brought Gabriel back, after he had brought her back - which meant murdering innocent people (two of the many) so the two of them could get their 160 years of happiness? Was Clarke thinking that maybe she could move on from the bad things like Tondc (and Mount Weather etc.) and do good in the future while also finding happiness, as Monty told them to?

And she was ready to extend that hope even to Josephine, someone she had previously seen killing babies and decided was so evil that she definitely needed to be stopped. For a moment, she thought Josephine could be stopped by some other way than destroying her. Wrongly, as it turns out - Josephine was defined by bad things in her past, as the last thing she did was try to kill Clarke in the exact same way Russell had killed her 236 years before, even saying the same lines: “Sanctum is mine”. Selfish, immoral people can fall in love and have relatable feelings, but they are still selfish and immoral.

One could say that Josie did feel responsibility for “her people”, as her reason for not letting Clarke live was because she thought Clarke would kill everyone in Sanctum. But her “people” she cares about really only consist of 12 8 people. We know she never cared about the rest of the people in Sanctum and never saw hosts as anything but bodies to be used, black blood gene carriers as anything but breeding cattle, and nulls are useless and disposable, or even vermin to be exterminated.

And no, Clarke would not kill everyone in Sanctum – not if there was any other way to save her people and stop the Primes. But people like Josephine are inclined to project and see the worst in other people.

Mindspace Clarke was in her season 5 gear this entire episode (unlike in 6x07, when she kept switching between looks from different periods of the show), but it’s interesting that she appeared as early season 5 Clarke, with pink streaks in her hair, when she fought Josephine in the end.

Eliza Taylor has really been knocking it out of the park all season, and she was fantastic again at the end of this episode – first playing Josephine in her reunion/goodbye with Gabriel, and later playing Clarke in her reunion with Bellamy. Chuku Modu was also excellent, and both of them did a great job convincing us that their characters have had a 236-long history, even though this was their first scene together. What made the ending even stronger was the parallel and contrast between Gabriel telling Josephine he still loved herm but that they had had their time, and he had to let her go; and Bellamy refusing to let Clarke go. Gabriel had to kill Josie, after having been the one to revive her the first time, while Bellamy brought Clarke back to life. The important thing there is that letting Josephine keep Clarke’s body – as Josie suggested to Gabriel, with her tempting suggestion that they use another life and then grow old and die together, taking out their mind drives - would have been morally wrong, while bringing Clarke back was the right thing to do. Gabriel had done a lot of bad things in the past – for over 160 years, he killed a lot of people to bring Josie back, he created the system of bodysnatching, and lived for a century as one of the Primes, before having his moral awakening. But better late than never. The look on his face as Clarke and Bellamy were hugging was a mix of many different feelings – he could easily relate to them, even though he had never met them before, and see the similarity with his determination to bring back the person he loved, and there was some sadness and maybe envy at seeing something he had but wouldn’t have anymore – but he also knew that, indeed, he and Josephine had had so much more time than regular people ever get, and should now let other people live and experience happiness.

It is nice to see Octavia acting like the old Octavia of season 2, with love and concern and happiness for her brother and for Clarke. But Bellamy’s awkwardness around his sister makes perfect sense, because he still doesn’t know anything about Octavia’s change of heart and personal growth, and she still hasn’t actually done anything to atone and show that she’s changed. He wasn’t willing to hug her back, but he did give her a little pat on the back, because he doesn’t really hate her, but you can’t just erase everything that happened between them.

Josephine is definitely dead now. As Gaia pointed out, the mind cannot be in two places at once. Just as there has been no copy of Clarke’s mind in the Flame, because she left it and Clarke’s mind has been in her own body since - Josephine stayed in the neural mesh instead of returning to the mind drive, so there can’t be a copy of her in the drive.

Meanwhile, in Sanctum…

Abby and Raven didn’t bring any reinforcements from the ship, because they had no idea about the things that have happened in Sanctum while they were away (Madi killing Miranda and attacking Delilah, Jordan’s injury, Russell arresting all the Earth people, Bellamy taking Josephine to CoG territory, or even the fact Clarke had been bodysnatched). They finally learned about Clarke’s “death”. Unfortunately, with the events happening so fast, we didn’t get to focus much on their reactions.

After reading the released script pages for the scene between the Earthkru in captivity, I think that it was a big mistake to cut some of the lines – Miller’s and Raven’s exchange about Jordan, and Raven’s comment that she is sure Clarke will also be fine, because she has Bellamy to save her. Both of these would have gone a long way to show 1) that our protagonists do care about Jordan and are worried about him and 2) that Raven does care about Clarke, which a lot of the fandom is doubting this season.

Raven seems to have had some subtle character development – she’s not inclined to be mean and judgmental to people as she was in the first few episodes, but is taking a cue from Kane and trying to be gentler and more compassionate as she talks to Murphy about him screwing up and about the importance of morality. (Are many Arkers religious? The idea of avoiding hell by doing morally right things certainly sounds like a religious one.)

Why are some fans now dissing Abby for her anger at Murphy? Fans wanted to see Abby upset over Clarke’s death, and now we see it, that’s not good, either? When she learned about Murphy’s betrayal, Abby must have also realized that it was Josephine, not Clarke, who convinced her to go with the plan of the Primes and put Kane in another body, so she’s aware that Murphy helped Josephine manipulate her, pretending to be Clarke and saying she’s doing it all out of concern for her. Of course she’s furious.

Emori is again trying to defend Murphy, by presenting his actions in the best possible light, but not lying: “He was trying to protect us all. When he learned she was alive, he did the right thing… Eventually.”

One of the things I love the most about the Sanctum plot is this episode is that it showed that Russell is really the worst. I’ve hated him from 6x03, but many fans believed he would turn out to be not-such-a-bad-guy. He looks sad as he does bad things, but then he does them anyway, and justifies his actions, and while he may appear less ruthless than his wife or daughter, in the end, he is just a bigger hypocrite. He is a megalomaniac who thinks he is better than anyone else. And oh, God, could he be more hypocritical? Dude actually thinks he and the Primes are somehow morally superior to the Earth people, calls them criminals and think he is doing justice by burning them at the stake. Justice for what, exactly? Because they didn’t take revenge when Russell and his wife tried to murder and bodysnatched one of them? When he (as he believed) murdered Clarke, he thought “Sorry” was good enough, but when Madi, a child grieving for her mother, lashed out in revenge and killed one of the Primes (who can come back), this is a crime that he needs to get “justice” for by executing one of the people who had nothing to do with it? Then he decides to burn them all, because one of his own people killed Simone after learning the truth about them, realizing that he had let them take and kill his baby son? I guess, in his mind, no one except the Primes qualifies as real people? (And not even all the Primes matter. He doesn’t seem to care that his wife and daughter wiped four drives and murdered the Lee family for good.)

Unlike Russell, who was obviously never going to turn around and be a good guy, Ryker is a character torn between doing the right thing, and being loyal to his family or ‘family’. (Priya is his mother, but Russell and the others are also the only family he’s had for 200 years, after he arrived to Sanctum as a teenage boy.) Which makes him wishy washy (although for understandable reasons) and a character whose actions can’t be always predicted.

When Echo told him: ‘Echo and Ryker “Admit it, it feels good to be on the right side”, she may have been talking from her own experience. But I’d expect someone like Echo, an experienced spy / assassin, to be more suspicious and careful and not so trusting as she was with him.

It’s very fitting that Russell is burning people at the stake (just as Cadogan, another cult leader, did) – as this was the traditional method of execution of “heretics”.

The episode was very tense until the moment when we learned all the Earthkru were going to be burned. All the tension was gone - one character dying is something that seemed likely, but all of them? That was obviously not gonna happen.

But poor Tai did get burned. And Ryker must be feeling pretty guilty now – he initially caused Tai to turn against the Primes by telling him the truth about them, although he didn’t predict Tai would kill Simone; and then he stopped Echo from assassinating Russell, who went on to burn Tai at the stake.

Echo remarked that Gaia only cared about Madi, even after she had banished her. But the truth is slightly more complicated – as a Flamekeeper who deeply believes in the Grounder faith, she cares only about Madi as the Commander, but she is also ready to consider killing Madi, if it saves people from a Chaotic Evil Commander, Sheidheda 2.0 (who was apparently so bad that it would make people long for the days of Blodreina). The relationship between Commanders and their Flamekeepers is complicated, and we learn that Sheidheda murdered three of his Flamekeepers (so, two more after his mentor), until he was killed by the fourth one. But the whole thing begs the question, even more than before, why does anyone think that putting the Flame into people, especially children, is a good idea? The idea is to help new Commanders use the knowledge and wisdom of the previous ones – but that doesn’t really work if one of them is incredibly evil, does it? All this time, we have only seen the Flame do something helpful once, and that was in 5x12 when it helped Clarke deal with her emotional issues. Other than that, it doesn’t seem to have helped a lot (especially with the Grounders somehow forgetting all the technology, in spite of having Becca’s memories). Other than that, we know that the previous Commanders were against Lexa abandoning the “blood must have blood” policy, and were not the ones to stop Madi from killing all the prisoners of war in 5x13. So, is it really worth keeping it, when it presents such a huge danger?

This is why I like this Dark Madi storyline – it really shows the dangers of making a child Commander and letting them have too much power, which season 5 glossed over, because Madi ascending was a means to an end. Now, contrary to what some fans have been complaining about, no one who is currently on the planet, other than Madi and Gaia herself, actually cares but the Grounder religion or considers Madi their leader, Bellamy and Clarke even left her sleeping while they took the team with them to the planet. But the fact is that is there are hundreds of people sleeping on the ship - the Grounder part of Wonkru – who do take Madi’s authority seriously and would follow her. Gaia pointed that out – the danger of what could happen if Madi goes back to the ship and wakes up her sleeping army, while she’s being demon child controlled/influenced by the Dark Commander.

Let’s take another moment to appreciate the fact that Simone wasn’t against burning a child, but only against wasting a potential host. Russell may have had an objection on the grounds of her being a child, but considering the fact he was OK with sacrificing newborn babies, I’m pretty sure he also is mostly concerned about not wasting a good host until she comes of age. The Primes are the worst.

Murphy saved the day with his quick thinking, suggesting a way to make new hosts, in order to stop the execution and saved all their lives, while Raven again proved to be a great problem-solver by coming up with a way to isolate and delete Sheidheda from the Flame and save Madi, and used bone marrow extraction as an excuse. It was very lucky that Russell was either suspicious, or just being himself, when he refused to be the bone marrow donor to save his wife, instead ordering it extracted from Madi – which will be a great opportunity to fix the Sheidheda problem. No, the Primes should not be allowed to create new hosts, but this is clearly a temporary solution, to buy time. (And BTW, contrary to what some fans think, bone marrow extraction doesn’t necessarily mean torture and certainly not death, people donate bone marrow to save people’s lives in real life, and no, the doctors who do it are not evil or Mountain Men-like. Nor did, for that matter, Abby’s experiments to find a solution to save the human race in Becca’s lab in season 4. Fandom seems to forget that the Mountain Men were killing the Delinquents only because 1) they needed too much bone marrow, and 2) they were d1cks and didn’t give a damn about other people’s lives.)

Questions and speculation for the rest of the season

Among brief glimpses of Josephine’s memories we saw spilling into Clarke’s mindspace, the one we have have not seen before or heard referenced featured a guy reading a book. In the end credits, he is called “Adjustor”. This must have something to do with the “Adjustment Protocol” from the title of episode 6x12, whatever exactly that is. The Primes have mentioned that a certain period for adjustment is necessary after waking up in a new body.

Why did Rose ask Clarke “Are you here to take us home” in 6x02? Will long-running mystery get resolved by the end of this season, or is it something for season 7?

What happened with Diyoza in the Anomaly? Or with Octavia? I think we’ll get a hint about that in the finale, but it will be the big theme for season 7.

Will Sheidheda be defeated by the end of season 6? Will Madi keep the Flame? If the Sheidheda problem/Dark Madi storyline continues long enough for Bellamy and Clarke to come back and learn about it, I expect Bellamy to feel very guilty about the consequences of Madi taking the Flame that he had not foreseen. (He never really gave much thought to the Flame itself, he just saw it as a pragmatic means to defeat Blodreina ensure peace and save the people he loves, and I don’t think he seriously thought it posed much danger to Madi beyond the danger she was in from Blodreina.) Fans have complained that this issue has not been addressed between Clarke and Bellamy this season, while we have seen Clarke feel guilty and apologize to Bellamy for leaving him in Polis.

Just how brainwashed are the majority of people in Sanctum and how long will they continue like this? They were obviously uncomfortable watching Tai die at the stake. We’ve seen what happened when Ryker revealed the truth to Tai. Delilah’s parents were similarly shocked and unhappy. But I’m afraid it would be too optimistic to hope that they all turn against the Primes, which would make the resolution way too easy, as there are currently just three active Sanctum Primes – Russell, Priya and Ryker. Gavin’s widow, for instance, is still fully loyal to the Primes, but she seems convinced that they are gods and that hosts get to be “one with the Primes”, rather than deleted from existence.

I’m sure Jordan will recover, but will he continue defending Priya, hoping to get Delilah back, or will he soon realize it is impossible, and what will his reaction be then?

(SPOILER) The synopsis for 6x12 mentions a “special Naming Day”. I like the idea that this will be the official ceremony for Josephine VIII – because it’s now time for Clarke to pretend that she is Josephine, just as Josephine pretended to be Clarke in order to fool the Primes and their loyalists, for a while. Clarke has a huge advantage there, as she’s gotten to know Josephine quite well.

Rating: 10/10

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drink-n-watch · 5 years

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Hello one and all, it’s once again time for my seasonal dose of adorable underdressed anime fun with Matt! My collaborations with him are my chance to see some shows on the more moe ecchi side of things that I wouldn’t necessarily get around to otherwise so it’s a good way to broaden my horizons. So naturally this season Matt suggested Psycho Pass! I had no objections….

Some more astute readers may know that I (much like a whole lot of anime fans) have a very soft spot for the series. I talk about it a lot and to this day this messy fever dream of a post remains one of my favourites!

But enough about me, Matt what are your thoughts/feelings about the franchise?

Hello Irina, everyone, it’s me. My thoughts on Psycho Pass’s first season? Absolutely excellent, one of my Top 20 anime of all time. Thoughts on the second season? A rushed mess that does a disservice to the events of the previous season.

So season 3… Whenever a beloved series gets a new entry, there’s always a sort of backlash from fans. A weird fear that somehow it can go back in time and change what the original was. It’s counterproductive. Which is probably why Matt warned us on Twitter not to immediately compare it to the original…But Boy did this first episode make that hard!

There were parallels to the first season Everywhere you looked. The art style is instantly recognizable, and the environments remain almost untouched (aside from the CG but we’ll get back to it). The colour palette is very close, only slightly warmer and the framing and angles are perfectly consistent. The OP was purposefully similar which made the inclusion of that demon-like creature really stand out.

Beyond that though, we saw glimpses of the iconic Syble control room, the dominators in action, Shion back in force (oh hecks yeah) and even just a hint of Akane. And one of the first scenes was of inspectors Arata and Kei arriving on their very first day at the job, at a rainy crime scene in an opener that directly mirrored season 1’s first episode.

I know you don’t want us to compare the two, Matt, but it certainly seems the show isn’t about to let us forget its roots.

There’s nothing wrong with calling back to things that happened in previous seasons, in-fact they were some of my favourite parts of the episode. The problem is when people dont give a show a fair chance to stand on its own because their too busy holding it up to its predecessors shadow.

There’s something of a deft balancing act done here by making this part sequel and part soft reboot (at least that’s my impression) and I think it pulls off both very well.

To me though, this was an homage, not a rip-off. Tonally, visually and atmospherically it was very reminiscent of Psycho Pass but the character dynamics, faster and grimier corruption storyline set up and quick-fire dialogue are fresh. Not to mention the completely new mind trace gimmick. So far, I like it, but it has the potential of just turning into plot destroying “sci-fi magic”, what do you think?

It’s funny you mention the mind trace “gimmick” because (aside from the visuals) that was my favourite thing about this episode. I don’t know if you’ve seen Bryan Fuller’s ‘Hannibal’ tv series from a few years back but our protagonist in that show has complete empathy which allows him to become other characters which is almost exactly what Arata has (down to the wording) of his trait. So not only was I immediately on board with this but I was excited to see where it would take his character. Oh I vaguely remember it. I was actually thinking of Sherlock myself.

Arata is a light-hearted happy go lucky protagonist. For someone like me, whose favourite character was Kagari, it’s a thrill, but what do you think Matt? And ho do you think audiences will react. It’s a pretty big departure from previous protagonists.

I think a lot of his light-hearted disposition is a coping measure for having to deal with having complete empathy. I enjoyed this kind of protagonist compared to brooding and dour but I still think it’s a bit of a front.

O.k., I’ve avoided it so far but let’s just mention the CG for a bit. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t horrible but the integration was hardly seamless and honestly, it took me out of the moment on several occasions.

Hmm, I have to disagree, I thought it looked wonderful and very dynamic and interesting. I’ve heard streaming things with a lot of small details can look ugly so maybe that was the problem for you? I ~acquired~ a 1080p copy of the episode so maybe that’s why I thought it looked so good? No for me the issue was more that the light and shadow physics where calculated at a very slightly different angle that made the CG pieces sort of stand out in one frame and not the next. Once I noticed I kept on noticing. Also, I disliked the textures but that personal taste. Actually, I got to give it to prime, the quality if their streams are really good!

Overall, here is what I got from the first episode of season 3 of Psycho Pass. The narrative seems to be more action-oriented with hints of humour, rather than dramatic noir. There is a lot more emphasis on tech which leads me to believe we’re going to stray into cyberpunk territory. Political machinations are afoot.

I think it was a necessary change, this felt more like a US crime procedural along the lines of ‘Person of Interest’ so arguably not world’s away from what it was but different enough to feel like it’s carving out its own identity and not resting on everything that it’s previous seasons set up.

There were some red flags. The addition of what seems to amount to incredible psychic powers in Arata is a very tricky narrative element and unless used carefully and sparingly could either render stakes inconsequential or completely undercut and tension in the story. Moreover, the little we saw of the villains did seem a tad too goofball to be taken seriously and, in my experience, this universe really benefits from a strong antagonist.

In the closing scenes, there is a line seemingly spoken by Akane: “We must protect justice even at the cost of a peaceful society”… This was meant as a sort of handoff to a new cast and although a bit heavy-handed still cute. Except that to me, it sort of goes against what Akane stands for and negates some of her most important and powerful character moments (by the way, I’ve seen season 1, the old movie,

Seeing Akane at all was kind of unexpected–the opening monologue and the sort of revelation that she’s still imprisoned (I think that’s what they were going for–its been a while since I watched season 2) hit me harder than I expected.

On the other hand, I pretty much fell head over heels for Mika. Every scene she was in made me smile and glued my eyes to the screen. I always wanted to know more about the tech of Psycho Pass and that seems to be the direction the season is heading in and although we don’t know much about Kei and Arata, I like them both so far.

I like all the characters (both new and returning ones) so far, I quite liked the banter between our two inspectors and their chief–she seems like a pretty understanding woman–hope she doesn’t end up working for the bad guys!

From what I can remember of my very first impressions of the franchise at all, this is pretty much on par. I mean I’m way more excited but I’m bringing that down because a lot is due to fuzzy nostalgia feelings. I didn’t really have any expectations for this episode, all I wanted was a strong narrative and characters set in the familiar future fictional Tokyo of the Psycho Pass universe that I’ve got a lot of fondness for and on that front it absolutely delivered. If I have one complaint it’s that it introduced a lot of characters that didn’t do much (specifically those three mysterious characters who are either politicians or something I’m not quite sure) but there’s still plenty of time to find out what their deal is. All in all, I thought this was an excellent continuation and new beginning for the series.

Psycho Pass s3 ep1 – A New Start Hello one and all, it’s once again time for my seasonal dose of adorable underdressed anime fun with…

#action #anime #Collab #crime #drama #Psycho Pass #sci fi

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coffeebooksorme · 5 years

Text

Kingdom of Souls ARC Review

GOODREAD’S SYNOPSIS: Magic has a price—if you’re willing to pay. Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval. There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit. She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him.

I was provided an ARC by the author via the Kingdom of Souls Book Mail campaign. Thank you so much to Rena for the opportunity to read early. In no way does this affect my review and my thoughts are all my own!

This book kinda slid into my radar thanks to one or two vague posts on booklr and when I saw the campaign on Twitter, I figured why the heck not! I’m all for some new types of fantasy and when I found out this was heavily African inspired I got super excited! I love fantasy novels but the same old tropes and worlds have gotten a little bland over the years so an African inspired fantasy debut sounded like a good train to hop on!

This story is definitely a slow burn kind of story. A lot of world building is done in the beginning that can, for some people, make the story drag on and on. For the most part, I really enjoyed seeing the blending together of a lot of cultures that were heavily African inspired. A few people have compared it to Black Panther and how this book is Black Panther-esque but I only saw that comparison in the way the Kingdom was blended the way Wakanda was blended.

Our main character, Arrah, is desperate for magic since she comes from two powerful magic wielders, her grandmother is the chieftain (HBIC) of her paternal tribe, and magic wielders are pretty much respected and revered, but of course Arrah doesn’t have a drop of magic. The whole world is based around magic; it’s sold in the markets, their ‘religion’ is based upon it, and you’re considered less than if you don’t have it. The whole premise of the book is how Arrah doesn’t have it, wants it to prove her worth, and then needs it to save her people. Pretty standard plot for a fantasy novel but woo buddy, Rena did such an excellent job with twisting this bland storyline into something new and amazing.

Arrah, at times, could get a little annoying for me considering she was very passive and not actionable. At the beginning, there’s a scene where she grabs a staff, stands up for herself, and presents as this very go getter kind of character but for the next half of the book she was kind of passive. Things sort of happened to her and in my opinion, she never really did anything about it because she didn’t have magic and felt like she couldn’t do anything because of that. Really, the only time she actually becomes actionable is when she gets magic, through one means or another. I really disliked this aspect of her character because it would have been awesome for her to show the world how much of a kick butt character she could be without relying on magic.

The magic system was really cool and I enjoyed the mythology the Orisha presented to the story. I like how each tribe wielded magic in a different way rather than it being used the same across the board. I liked how this allowed each tribe to stay unique within the world. I really hope the final copy has a glossary of which Orisha is which and what they’re the ‘god’ of because it got a little confusing keeping them straight, despite each one almost always being named when they’re mentioned. Oh, and a map! I really would like a map of the world as well because we don’t just travel to two spots within the world!

There is some romance to the novel, though it’s very little and not fleshed out very well. To be honest, it could have been left out completely and the story wouldn’t have suffered at all. For me, I found it more insufferable and eye rolling than anything.

For most of the story, we got a lot of Arrah’s interaction with her family, world building, and history. Once we got to the true meat of the story, other characters became involved and I really enjoyed being introduced to them, though right now I can’t tell you who is who and what their names are because we didn’t see a whole lot of them on the page until the last quarter of the story. I’m sure we’ll see more in the sequel but I really did enjoy the camaraderie when it was finally there and I only wish we’d had more exposure to them during the beginning of the book.

Like I said earlier, this book was a bit of a slow burn for me. I attribute a lot of it to world building and some of it was, in my opinion, a bit of wasted time on the page. A good chunk of Arrah whining about not having magic, hating her mother, and pining over her love interest could have been cut. When it did get to the good parts, it got to the good parts. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone but the ending was absolutely fantastic, the twists was mind blowing, and I’m clamoring to read the rest of the story.

My Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Expected publication: September 10th 2019

#booklr #books #book review #book reviews #rena barron #kingdom of souls #arc review #bookstagram #mine #bookworm #book dragon #bibliophile

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dcbicki · 5 years

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do you consider all byler (headcanons, fanfics, etc) to be fetishizing? like, is the ship itself fetishization?

No. To do that, I’d have to consider all the people who ship it to be fetishists and I don’t. That’s not what I said and it’d be stupid to assume so – which is why people raging on at me on twitter last night for this very reason just missed my point (though a few admittedly didn’t even read the post, so…). If you want to ship By*ler because you want the gay rep it could provide, or you think their relationship has potential, then feel free and root for it to your hearts’ content.

But I know some people – typically people who aren’t minors because teens joke about this sorta thing and find it okay, I guess – do only want that specific pairing to happen for reasons that are less, let’s say, wholesome. I’ve seen the argument floating around that “Mileven made out so By*ler can too. The writers are just cowards.” and like… that shouldn’t be the talking point. You can’t compare a canon m/w ship to a headcanon m/m one and only highlight the intimacy as though that’s your one (1) wish for the ship were it to happen. There’s a problem there.

The story should be what matters, and I think I’ve made it pretty clear on here that I find that particular relationship would be detrimental to Mike’s whole character arc because it’s never been brought u in canon. And that’s what I was saying. I wasn’t attacking all of his queer(-coded) characters or just bringing up By*ler because it’s not my personal preference. The difference between that ship and his others (Reddie, Boreo) is that those did turn out to be canon in the end and I never saw as many people acting overtly open about the fact they just wanted two teen boys to smash lips, and his sexuality did play a major part in those arcs – “The Turning” is something else entirely because nothing is ever explicitly mentioned in that way. My argument was that Mike’s sexuality isn’t ever brought up or it’s never been suggested that he was being anything other than hetero, therefore it isn’t important to the storyline, and people it to be for weird reasons is wrong. The ship itself is harmless; it’s just a portion of its fandom that is toxic… But that goes for any fandom, LGBTQ or not.

#anon #answered #long post #my personal preferences weren't the fucking point basically and yet...

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sunlitroom · 5 years

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Thoughts on ‘The Beginning’

So - as with The Trial of Jim Gordon, I'm going to regard this episode as an extra, and do some meta as opposed to a full recap. My rationale is pretty much the same: this is an optional easter egg, and one that can easily be regarded as outside canon if desired.

Also - I found the deeper message, like that in The Trial of Jim Gordon, was so unpalatable it strained the show’s broader ideas and themes. So I’ve decided it’s not part of canon, for me.

Thoughts after the cut. Same disclaimer as with The Trial of Jim Gordon. I love the show. I tweeted like a maniac as episodes were airing, and got booted from Twitter. I want another network to pick it up.

However, my idea of meta is the old fandom one, which is critical analysis. If that’s not your thing, fine - but that’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, first things first.

I understand the rationale behind the time-jump, to an extent. The two extra episodes were just that - extra. One was spent on The Trial of Jim Gordon, which I have already been salty about in another post. This one was a sort of nod to the fans - offering Batman as a sort of reward. I’ve always been more interested in the story Gotham actually set out to tell, though, the story before Batman. The story of the city and its inhabitants. As such, I was always going to be less taken with an episode which was fundamentally mostly interested in giving us Batman.

But there were a couple of other issues that confused me. Gotham has always presented its own vision of the city, the characters. It’s shown it can be creative with canon, as well as adding its own ideas. Not only, for example, is their take on Oswald unique, but Fish Mooney – so pivotal in his development – only exists within Gotham’s universe. We got the Executioner and Cyrus Gold – yes, but we also got Nathaniel Barnes and Butch Gilzean, who had character and stories and lives all of their own.

I like that it thumbed its nose at Jim’s moustache. But go all the way with it. Yes, we know Batman’s coming. But if you want to continue to focus on Jim, and his wrestling with the notion of heroism – then just do that. Have the courage of your convictions. You can draw inspiration from the 60s series if you want, but you’re not shackled to it: Oswald doesn’t have to don a top hat and become 60s Penguin if you don’t want him to. The city doesn’t have to morph aesthetically into something we saw in the movies. You’ve told your own story. See it through.

That aside - the details.

The flash-forward was also a difficult ask because the story has been unnaturally cut short. Characters who were still wrestling with huge issues didn’t really get to address them in a truncated season and - as such - it’s sort of hard to accept where we find them now.

For example

We’ve seen Jim deal with several demons over the years. He has major issues with authority. His relationship with his father looms large. He wants to be a hero, but gets on better with the villains. He compartmentalises like crazy. He’s emotionally dishonest with others and himself. He enjoys playing dangerous games. He can’t resist a pissing match.

Am I to honestly believe that Jim has been entirely clean and pure in the interim? Why? Because the city was saved after near destruction? That’s happened before – he didn’t change. If anything, he’s more likely to have reverted to old habits once the crisis was over. Is he reformed because he’s a father now? Didn’t stop him killing Theo Galavan while Lee was pregnant.

Jim’s development was still very much in progress. As such, he feels unsatisfying here and - given what we know about him - you can’t help but feel he’s probably been up to his old tricks, but we’re just getting to see the sanitised surface of his life.

Lee likewise generally suffered quite a bit from the truncated season, and is good example of how the flash-forward doesn’t serve characters well.

In season 4, we saw her explore a darker side to her personality that the show has strongly and consistently hinted at since way back in season one, explicitly – when she says that Jerome’s confession of matricide thrilled her, and implicitly, when we wondered why the hell she was working in Arkham. We also saw her enjoy power in season 4. We saw her deeply committed to improving the lot of the residents in the Narrows, even if her way of going about it was short-sighted. We saw her shoot Sofia Falcone point-blank in the head in cold blood. We saw her, although many hated it, form an intense romantic relationship with Ed, where she seemed to find a fulfilment and recognition that she never found with Jim or Mario.

However, in season 5, the show clearly needed her to quickly step into the role of Mrs Jim and stepmother to Barbara. This meant becoming the angel at the hearth again, so it essentially erased those experiences, all that new characterisation.

As such, like Jim, she feels flat here – like we’re only getting to see a facade. She’s back in her old post of intermittently saying supportive things to Jim, and apparently quietly looking forward to him quitting his job. When she's bizarrely given the task of defusing the bomb, as Lucius the tech specialist stands by the side - it really only underlined that stripping her of all that history and characterisation meant that she doesn't really have a real role of her own in the wider workings of the city.

Now to the heart of my problem with this episode.

We’re told, without any explanation, that Oswald was sent to Blackgate shortly after reunification, and Ed to Arkham.

Now, to be honest, I find this fairly implausible. In all the rebuilding efforts, I doubt the authorities would have the will or energy to go back and rake over who committed what crime when the city had been abandoned by the government. And even if they did, both their actions – willingly manning the barricades (Oswald sustaining an injury when doing so), would have likely gone some way to mitigating everything else.

You could argue that it's for some nameless crime they committed later - but the show could easily have indicated that by throwing in a line about some heist or scheme they tried to pull off that ended up with them being put away.

Mayor James - ‘Oswald Cobblepot is getting released tomorrow’

Harvey - ‘Should have got 20 years for that stunt he pulled after reunification - not 10. So should Nygma.’

It didn't take the trouble to do that - so I'm left assuming they were sent away on the basis of crimes committed during the split.

However, this poses us with some problems both in terms of the plot, and more deeply in terms of narrative repercussions. Because if we are going to start to get persnickety about charging people with crimes they’ve committed, and then having them face actual consequences – well, we saw Barbara shoot loads of randoms in season 5. Going back not too far, Lee shot Sofia Falcone in the head. Going back further still, Jim murdered Ogden Barker and Theo Galavan, and was indirectly responsible for several deaths by inviting Sofia Falcone to town.

So – then – if we’ve decided that actually charging people and sending them to prison is now the done thing, why are we so selective with who’s punished? Gotham is a show with a million shades of grey. It gives its villains humanising back stories and motivations – but it ultimately still wants to punish a select few like it’s a black and white universe. You can’t do that when your good guys are equally tainted. Not unless you want to give off an unfortunate stench of hypocrisy, anyway.

Oswald flat-out asks Jim on the pier. I could have escaped this city. I chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and defend it. Why was I punished?

It’s telling that Jim never actually furnishes Oswald with any good answer to his question on the pier. Because - over the years - the show itself has never quite figured out how to answer this one. He can’t answer. What could he possibly say?

Why then, do some get away scot-free, while others are punished? Why, as Ed observes, do some get to make choices - while others never get the chance?

Jim and Lee are ‘heroes’ (arguably wandering into designated hero territory, at points). They're never going to face consequences for anything. Jim going on a self-pitying drinking binge doesn’t count - not compared to a ten-year stint in Blackgate or Arkham. Lee never expressed any remorse for Sofia.

As for Barbara, well Barbara is brought back into the heroic fold, too.

First and foremost, she’s offered moral redemption by bearing Jim’s child. Becoming a mother meant all previous sins were forgiven.

When we meet her here, we see now that she’s wealthy and powerful – playing a serious role in the city. It’s empowering in a way – but it’s also a means of re-affirming the established order and putting her back in her box. Remember that Barbara is from one of Gotham's elite families - and she's finally behaving like someone from an elite and wealthy family would do. To make her position clear - she’s explicitly placed in the same category as Bruce here in terms of her wealth and control of the city. I’m assuming that pregnancy also made magically clean whatever money she used to buy up the city when it was on its knees. She didn’t seem to have access to her parents’ cash before now - so she must have used her ill-gotten gains.

(I would argue that strategically buying up parts of the city post-reunification is screamingly Oswald, but like other chunks of his characterisation and storyline, it got sent Barbara’s way in season 5 in a bid to flesh out her character)

Last up, she’s not demanding a romantic relationship with Jim anymore, but they’re now forever safely tied in that context due to their daughter - there’s no mention of Tabitha, or casual mention of a new partner. Troublesome, restless Barbara, poor little rich girl – demanding of Jim’s time and attention, namelessly unhappy, and with a murky ‘past’ is now ‘fixed’ and neutralised.

Thinking about those brought into the fold necessarily asks you to think about those who were excluded.

Oswald might have roots in an elite family, like Barbara, but - crucially - he’s also one part poor immigrant (as well as all his many other markers of 'otherness'). He can’t escape this - we got his jangling east European music as soon as we saw him in this episode, and we were reminded of Gertrud when he said he would lay flowers on her grave as his first act after his release.

Ed’s background is unknown, but we can safely hazard a guess that there’s no moneyed upper-class upbringing there. He was also willing to step up when it counted, and was even used by those in power for their own ends during the break – but none of that counts for anything, apparently, and he finds himself in Arkham. You could argue that Ed is unwell, and needs to be in a hospital – but Arkham is not shown as a hospital in any meaningful sense in the show. It’s an oubliette, where you send those you just can’t be bothered dealing with. It doesn’t look any better here than we’ve seen it before. Why hasn’t anyone tried to improve it? Again, they don’t have to succeed - if you’re determined to stick to canon, but why not suggest that Jim or Lee or Lucius has at least tried to have conditions improved or an official review launched into treatment of inmates? It would go a long way to nodding to the long and complex histories these characters have. However things ended – Lee and Ed had a pretty intense relationship. They cared about each other. She can sleep at nights knowing he’s in Arkham?

Jeremiah might have been clever enough to win himself a scholarship and a way out of the circus – but it’s not enough to enable him to escape his past – either explicitly, when he was hunted down by his resentful brother, or implicitly – when he winds up in a similar situation to the other outsiders. Yes, Jeremiah might have been manipulating the situation – but he was still sent to Arkham and left vulnerable to casual abuse. Whether it’s intended or not, Jeremiah’s accusation of abandonment can be read more deeply. Bruce left town - but, just like Oswald and Ed, the city in general abandoned him.

Selina’s an example who, I would argue, reinforces that this moral order of the universe. She's always been depicted more ambiguously - capable of villainous acts, but tied to the heroes through her bond with Bruce. This is reflected in what we learn about her here. Like Jeremiah, she's been punished by Bruce's abandonment, but her grey heroic status means that she doesn't lose her freedom, despite living a life of crime.

So what picture are we painted of the city?

Aubrey James is back in charge - corrupt as Oswald ever was as mayor, but less competent. The city’s remains were picked clean by Barbara - it’s now seemingly largely owned and controlled by two scions of the city’s elite. The commissioner’s got more than one murder to his name. His wife has one attempted murder to hers - giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Sofia’s still in her coma. Arkham’s still a hellhole.

What does all that say? Like I said before, you can argue that this was the inevitable endpoint – but you’ve changed the story already, so that doesn’t wash.

What you’re left with is the outsiders comprehensively punished. You can sacrifice your chance at escape and an easy life in favour of standing shoulder to shoulder to defend the city, you can be unwell, you can be a victim – doesn’t count. No matter what you do – you’ll always be an outsider anyway. You can’t win for losing. Some are chosen, some aren’t. And if you’re not, tough luck.

So in this universe, why the hell not don a showy suit and your best hat and commit yourself to villainy? Go for it, I say.

(Yes - I’m aware this is more analysis than it warranted, and it really just wanted to say ‘look Oswald has a monocle and Batman’s here now!’ - but I felt the need for venting meta)

#gotham commentary

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kdtheghostwriter · 5 years

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SNK 116: V Has Come To

Alexa: play “Roundabout”

When I first saw the Kanji that represents “rumbling,” my first two thoughts, in immediate succession where as follows: “Oh, shit, is it already happening” and “Oh, no, wait it’s just like JoJo.” (Fun fact about that ED, since Ded Memes live here. The little To Be Continued arrow always flies in before the drums hit. Like everything it gets adjusted for the purposes I suppose. Anyway!) Honestly, every chapter in this volume has ended like the episode of an anime, including this one with its hero/villain stare down and triumphant proclamation from the narrator. More on how those tables have turned later.

I want to spend most of this essay talking about Eren, since I spent most of the last one talking about his older brother. I’m not so much surprised at the direction his character has taken after so many years of pain and abuse. What does take me aback is how so many people are apparently sympathetic to Zeke while hating Eren, especially considering how Eren had a comparatively awful upbringing while spending a lot less time being shitty to people.

But maybe I shouldn’t be too shocked. Even as the main character, he’s always been controversial. Whether by people who want him to be paired with one character or another, or those who just plain don’t like him. Even in-story, good will has been hard to come by. One minute they’re honoring you and your friends in front of the Queen. A few years later, you’re locked underground as a fugitive of the military-controlled government.

It was the Chapter 112 recap where I broke down the nuance of a pro wrestling storyline – specifically in regards to their character-driven nature. I used performers like Shawn Michaels and Brett “The Hitman” Hart to outline the natural progression of a character from fan favorite to hated ne’er-do-well. Now, I’ll be using an example much more relevant to the story. The Rise then Fall then Return then “Turn” of Daniel Bryan.

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Most important thing to note about Daniel Bryan is that he’s not supposed to be in the ring at all. A series of concussions and other injuries forced him to retire from active in-ring competition. This was directly after a year-long saga of him trying to prove himself as a main event player. After what seemed like endless waves of red tape and front office hurdles, he achieved the absolute pinnacle of the business. Winning in the main event of the year’s biggest show, WrestleMania, and becoming the World Heavyweight Champion. It was always going to be downhill from that point. What couldn’t have been predicted was the suddenness of it.

Three years pass and Daniel Bryan announces his imminent return to active competition. His first match back is yet again at the Showcase of the Immortals. He receives a hero’s welcome and for several months is riding a familiar high as the most popular superstar in all of wrestling. And then, he fights AJ Styles and something changes.

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I must note here briefly that at this point in the latter part of 2018, AJ Styles himself is enjoying a year-long run as champion of the world’s largest federation. He and Daniel Bryan were scheduled to have a match at the Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Yes, the same Saudi Arabia that allegedly orchestrated the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Daniel Bryan, along with other members of the roster, refused to make the trip. As such, his WWE Championship match was pushed up a week to be contested on TV. Bryan lost this match, but that would not be the last time they faced. In fact, the very next time the two squared off, Bryan captured the title, albeit via some nefarious means. It was after this match (followed by a match with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar) that something broke within Daniel Bryan.

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The WWE’s relentless media schedules as well as the punishment of months of fighting on the road finally broke him down mentally as well as physically, and he decided that enough was too much. Daniel Bryan utilized his newfound platform as champion and killed the movement that catapulted him to worldwide fame. In its place, a message of repentance. He replaced the leather strap of his title belt with one made of hemp and naturally fallen oak. He railed against the paying fans for their unchecked consumerism and even admonished his boss, billionaire Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment Vince McMahon, for exploiting their more reductive tendencies.

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This is going to sound weird because, honestly, these things change month-to-month but, yes, Daniel Bryan is supposed to be the bad guy here. And for a segment of the audience he absolutely is. Live crowds across the country (excluding his home state of Washington) hate Bryan with a fiery passion. Meanwhile, all of Twitter asked all at once, “Wait, you want us to…boo him?” It’s the most famous Heel Turn in recent memory due in part to the circumstances and the performer involved. This was the most popular wrestler in the world not six months prior. But even though the crowd still loved him, they were not clamoring for him like they had been. The magic of the Yes Movement was largely gone.

In Shingeki no Kyojin, I’ve witnessed this cycle ad nauseum. It’s the ebb and flow of fandom. I’ve been reading this series long enough to recall a time when Eren was seen as a useless, whiny geek as opposed to the badass world-beater he is now. There was a time, believe it or not, where Reiner was as polarized and hated as Eren is now. Before that even! Reiner was little more than the cute, air-headed jock before he and Bertholt revealed themselves as spies. Isayama reveals him as his favorite character and he’s been the darling of the fandom ever since. Second perhaps only to Commander Handsome himself who is even more popular in death. Annie still has her fans, despite only being in maybe fifteen percent of this manga.

My point is the same that Isayama has been getting at for the past three volumes or so. (Maybe more than that if we accept Kruger’s monologue as the first example.) Your notion of how the world works has been fucked from the start. Good and evil; right and wrong; Marley and Paradis. Reality is only as good as your perspective. The author was not content with just stating this, though. To prove his point, he deconstructed his own carefully planned narrative, rebuilt it backwards, then flipped it upside down so that now, we’ve come back ‘round to this.

Funny thing, life is. When your idols become your rivals. Eren once confided in Reiner for support in his darkest moments. Now, it’s very likely he’s going to try and kill him. Simply for getting in his way. This is more of the framing I’ve talked about before from Isayama. This looks like any other match card from an actual title bout. To show you what I mean, I’m going to line up several examples.

Seeing it now? Classic promoter tactics. Building up the hype. People rib on the Dragon Ball series for doing this sometimes – in the case of Z – to a comical extent. But really, this method can be seen elsewhere in stuff like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Lupin the Third; I really could just name twelve more titles.

This is a rematch four years in the making. Yes, they met in Liberio but I don’t count that as a fight, considering Eren won long before anyone even transformed and Reiner was literally begging for his death. In present day, the Warriors have caught The Usurper off guard and they have much needed backup. This conflict has been set up like the apex of any Marvel movie. The mismatched group of heroes converging on one point, because the only hope they have of defeating the super villain is if they do it together.

This is why Pieck didn’t pull the trigger when she had the chance and also why Eren didn’t transform and splatter her and Gabi against the dungeon walls. Pieck is part of a team. A team with a plan. Part of that plan involved getting Eren Jaeger out in the open where he would be exposed to an all-out attack. Eren had prior knowledge of the Warrior Unit’s arrival and knew his best option was to track their location and cut them off. Pieck was likely dead whether she cooperated or not. What Eren didn’t account for was Porco, who was actually in plain sight amongst the other Jaegerists, but in a world where photography has just recently been introduced, one could not expect them to recognize him out of his Titan.

Pieck trusted her friends, and now they are all dropping in to Shiganshina to aid in her rescue. Eren did not trust his friends, and now they are all dead, mutilated or locked in a cell and they won’t be coming to his rescue. In another manga, this would be the turning point of the story where the Big Bad got his comeuppance and learned the ultimate lesson about the Power of Friendship and the series would end with the two brothers embracing in a pile of rubble. This is not any manga. Eren has three Titan powers at his disposal. (Four if he can get his hands on Porco again.) Unless there is a legit airstrike of some sort or some other secondary offensive, Reiner has no chance of winning this. Maybe he doesn’t have to, depending on what the plan is.

We still don’t know what Eren’s plan is either! That’s probably the biggest difference between him and Daniel Bryan. The Daniel Bryan character was developed weekly on television over many months and his motivations up to this point have been fully fleshed out. Eren’s motivations are a mystery to everyone except Eren. Even his brother Zeke doesn’t know what he’s up to. Zeke who, by the way, can magically appear in this upcoming battle as well. No, I don’t think Eren is the final “bad guy” of this story. I just wish he was, because he’s damn good at doing it.

I do not know how this ends. I am, however, sure of one thing.

Stray Thoughts

- I wouldn’t say either Eren or Pieck had the other fooled at any point. They were at an impasse and Eren decided to move the plot along.

- Eren isn’t the classic mwahaha villain (yet) but wow is he angry. And not the violent, explosive anger we know him for. Cold, cunning, calculated. I genuinely feared for Pieck’s life despite her holding the gun.

- I know we’ve been conditioned by this story to search for subtext, even when it’s not there, but I wouldn’t read too much into certain…stuff that happened with the 104th. The point here was to re-establish what we already know about the crew. Jean is a very perceptive lad and almost certainly the next Commander if anyone survives this story. Armin is…having a moment.

- I have to wonder how good Magath’s intel is for this op. Does he know that Shiganshina is deserted? Has he accounted for Zeke’s appearance? Does he know the God of Destruction is nearby?

- Yelena has been a favorite of mine since her debut, when everyone thought Connie grew three times his size. I won’t call it a Heel Turn because it doesn’t count if you weren’t wearing the White Hat to begin with.

#snk meta #snk 116 #shingeki no spoilers #eren jaeger #eren kruger #pieck #gabi braun #porco galliard #yelena #onyankopon #armin arlert #mikasa ackerman #jean kirschstein #connie springer #nicolo #reiner braun #theo magath #character study #everything is a jojo's reference

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sometimesrosy · 6 years

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I hate seeing things like this “Someone on reddit (a huge bellarke fan) has had infos on s6 regarding bellarke. She said it was someone she trusts and that unfortunately the person made it clear that bellarke wasn't happening this season, if not ever. She said she completely lost hope... so yeah, low your expectations” I know better than to believe fleakers on reddit or twitter from GOT but it still gets you down knowing you can’t completely disregard it until the season airs

Anonymous said:A reliable moderator on Reddit said she has an insider and so far Bellarke isn’t in Jason’s plans and she was told Bellarke isn’t happening in s6 if not ‘ever’. I really know i shouldn’t believe in things like this, that don’t have open source or sumn but I feel so down. I still have hope I can’t accept that they put all those scenes or dialogues for nothing

Okay. So that’s two on the same topic. So this is going around again…. Three different asks now. And one nagging ask declaring i won’t answer their first. And it’s all bugging me.

*sigh* fine.

honestly i wish y’all just wouldn’t read it. but i should get it out. and you should know why I don’t buy those rumors and understand that I have reasons, I did research when they first came out. I went back to the text. And I have been watching the source of that rumor for literal YEARS now, so I’ve made some analysis on the way she works. I think we all forget that this is the internet, and we know what you said last year, how many times your theories were wrong, and who you blamed when they turned out to be wrong. None of this I say here is being said lightly and I wish I didn’t have to say it, but I think more harm has come from letting these rumors stand without challenging them. So. I guess I should do it, even though I don’t want to. The other option is to just wash my hands of fandom all together. I guess I’m too stubborn. fine. This is going to be a mess because I wrote it all day long, trying to get it out, planning on deleting it, getting new asks, having conversations with people, taking things out, adding others. And I’m just gonna post it and let it go without editing anymore.

I am not delusional. I am not naive. I am not a blind bellarke shipper. I am JUST trying to stick to the text and watch the show. I AM critical, but that does not mean I am negative. I am looking to UNDERSTAND the show on screen. And when rumors or writer commentary doesn’t fit with what I see in the show, I put them aside and do not take them as confirmation of anything.

I have been sitting on this answer all day trying to figure out how to answer it, because it gets pretty negative about… well… about one particular person and I am trying to keep out of drama and mind my own business and stick to the text and my corner of fandom. But I’m so tired of this all the time.

I just went to reddit to find out why it’s coming back and who this redditor is and what they said. So I couldn’t find it in the 100 reddit, but it was in bellarke reddit. I don’t know know WHO that moderator is, although it might be someone I know, who I know listens to the person who started the original rumor, and even if it isn’t him, it’s still pretty clear to me that’s where this new wave of negativity is coming from.

I have been avoiding speaking out on this particular rumor because I did my research when it first showed up and tracked it back to a person I had a meta argument with YEARS ago. And because of that, I’ve been careful to not say too much about it because it ends up sounding like I have a grudge. But it’s too much now. It isn’t fair that this stuff goes around because someone decides they are all knowing and understand everything better than everyone else and they think it’s a good idea to spread bad feelings as “confirmation.”

First of all, I don’t do gossip. I do canon. I analyze canon and stories and film and visuals and symbolism. Whatever someone says outside of canon, I consider it and see how it reflects upon canon. The more official it is, the more I take it seriously. Someone having an unnamed source with no written confirmation of what they said? And then DECLARING their interpretation of undocumented source material to be ACTUAL CANON CONFIRMATION? No. That’s called gossip and rumor and innuendo and interpretation and speculation. NONE OF THAT IS CANON CONFIRMATION.

I am at about third hand here, one person told me what she said about what the inside source said, so I cannot confirm anything I say as truth. But I want to explain the stuff I heard, and why I have decided that, far from confirmation against Bellarke, it actually sounds to me like confirmation FOR bellarke. It’s about interpretation, confirmation bias, point of view, rumors, fears, and ego.

As far as I can tell, someone who is an insider, who is in the know about the writers room said something along the lines of,

“The writer’s room used to argue all the time about whether or not to write romantic bellarke, and now they don’t argue about it anymore.”

The person to whom this was told interpreted that to mean that it was CONFIRMED that Bellarke was dead and JR was NOT GOING TO DO BELLARKE AT ALL. RIP.

Even if the source who said this is a good, honest source, that’s not what was said. At all. That was an INTERPRETATION of the statement, which seems to be strongly influenced by prior assumptions. The statement is saying they decided. That means it could go EITHER one way or the other. EITHER they’re giving up on Bellarke OR they’re committing to it so no arguments needed.

And I don’t understand that interpretation. Because it means that this source of gossip believes that season 5 had absolutely no romance in it. That there was nothing romantic about bellarke to argue about NOT doing.

But in season 5 we had 2199 calls to Bellamy, She must be important to you/She is. Sexy hug. The hostage taker and his girlfriend. Clarke jealous of B/E kissing. TWICE. Another traitor who you love. I always cared about bellamy. Love is not a weakness. Don’t make the same mistake I made when I betrayed you. Go save him. Do you know how much she cares about you? She called you every day. Bellamy inviting her to the bridge and then giving her the romantic “look back” before he leaves. Waking up ONLY Bellarke. Marper charging them with care of their child (that’s not romance that’s MARRIAGE) and facing the new world in each other’s arms, TOGETHER.

I mean, maybe one of those things could be taken out of context and read as romantic when it’s not intended to be, but all of them, one after another? on and on? No. That’s evidence that supports a romantic storyline.

If they CHOSE to not do romantic Bellarke, then there would be NO explicitly romantic moments, Clarke would NOT be compared to Echo in Bellamy’s feelings. They would NOT have used the daily letter trope. The camera would not have closed in on his hand by so much skin and his lips brushing her shoulder. Clarke would NOT have been jealous– a shot that CLOSELY echoed when she saw finn and raven kissing, an explicitly romantic/jealous parallel to a canon love triangle.

And if they had changed their minds about romantic bellarke, they would have wrapped up the 2199 calls as NOT romantic at that fireside. They would have had Bellamy tell Clarke he poisoned Octavia to save Clarke’s life, and it was no big deal. They would have had Clarke tell Echo that Bellamy was her best friend, like a brother to her. But instead, they leave all these things unsaid, unspoken, still to be discovered. There are ACTIVELY open romantic Bellarke plots, especially because Bellamy HAS to either choose Echo and NOT Clarke, or he has to break up with Echo and see what can happen with Clarke, because he loves them both, as stated by Octavia. Or he could keep them both like Finn did. WHICH takes us back to romantic storyline anyway. Not endgame, but romance definitely. Which, EVEN if they have decided to go with endgame B/E STILL makes Bellarke part of a romance. Bellarke was a canon romance in season 5. Love triangle. C/B/E.

The writers CHOSE to put that stuff in there. They CHOSE to announce Bellamy’s love for Clarke as a tipping point for a major MAJOR plot and character moment. If they were clear about NOT putting romance in, they wouldn’t have done that. They would certainly not leave the storylines OPEN and in need of resolution. LIke with Supergirl, where Kara and James kissed and then did a 180 and were like, “nah let’s just be friends, HEy do you think that bland white creep is cute?” They tanked karolsen for a new ship. THIS is not happening on The 100. They did not tank Bellarke. They brought it in tighter and made it more immediate and brought other people into the the story and are forcing the need to CONFRONT the feelings they have for each other, because Bellamy is not going to be able to pretend he doesn’t feel that, when his girlfriend is there, and he SHOULDN’T be feeling it at all.

If they were in the middle and TEASING bellarke and not intending to make it GO romantic, or delaying it and intending to make it go there, they would still be arguing about it being too much or not enough or whatever.

However, if they put all that in there WITHOUT arguing, that means the plan, for everyone, is to do romantic Bellarke. It means they’ve already started.

They know how to do platonic. Raven and Bellamy are platonic. When THEY stood at that window looking into the future of a planet, they DID NOT TOUCH. Platonic. When Bellamy refused to leave Raven behind, it was the memory of CLARKE that made it painful, and Raven jollied him out of it by calling him names and lying to him. NOT romantic. If they had decided to NOT do Bellarke and NOT tease romance or foreshadow it, they know how not to make it romance. Which includes NOT comparing your love for her to your canon girlfriend.

NOW TWO people have declared the source to be a good source. And this has been the problem with this rumor, because this person has a lot of authority within fandom, has been involved with production, has a broad audience and does indeed talk to people. SO she is seen as an authority that cannot be questioned.

There is no authority that cannot be questioned about their opinion.

And I have had significant interaction with this person that calls into question her interpretations, her judgment, and her authority. I once called her a hypocrite because she said I could not possibly know authorial intent, because SHE knew authorial intent and I was wrong. Which, as a teacher, just pisses me the hell off, because she’s basically saying that only certain people are able to understand story, people with authority like hers. She was gatekeeping my interpretation. And, like, my JOB was to teach kids how to think for themselves and come up with interpretations. And that’s what I try to do here. Come up with my interpretations, show you how i got there, encourage you to come up with your own and back them up. I mean if you agree with me, great, but it’s fiction. We all get to interpret things. The better our analysis, the better we can defend it. To just flat out say that she was the authority and SHE knows and can tell everyone what to think? No.

So I guess that’s why I’m going all in on this. I wrote this this morning when I was ranting, but not sure I’d post the vague blog because I try not to be negative. But then I got the second ask so it’s all coming around again, and I already avoided speaking out about it the first time. And that didn’t make it go away. She’s still acting as an authority who knows everything and all she has to do is say it is confirmed, and other people take it as truth because she said it. It’s not like it will cause a rift in fandom. The fandom is in pieces anyway, and anyone who believes her thinks I’m delusional and an embarrassment, according to the anons I get, But I’m going to put this under the cut in the hopes that most people are too lazy to click more. But whatev, she’s not my friend, she doesn’t respect me I don’t respect her. And this whole gossip horror was the nail in my fandom coffin when it first came up a few months ago. I’m not naming names but if you know what’s happening or what happened the first time, you know the story.

I hope this is too long and y’all won’t read it. This is why I have been sitting on this post all day, but I keep getting asks and I’m getting so angry.

I know who said that, and i never trust her interpretations, because she spent season 3 telling us all, definitively, that Lxa was the hero now, CLarke was the Love Interest, and CL was endgame because it was *pretty,* and we had no right to think CL was dark. First of all, pretty does not equal good, and hasn’t been assumed so for like idk a hundred years? But worse, that I had NO RIGHT, to look at it any other way but a beautiful love story. (incidentally silencing abuse victims.) That we COULD NOT understand authorial intent, did not have the ability to do so, but she did, and we were wrong. And not allowed to say anything else.

When she doesn’t understand something in the show, she doesn’t bother trying to understand the story that JR is telling, she just says that he’s a bad writer. When she DOES understand something in the story, she says the writers are so bad that they didn’t do it on purpose, and it’s only because she’s so smart and clever that she figured out their underlying psychological misogyny that they didn’t know they were writing into the story. That’s the Finn as “Nice Guy” storyline.

When the writers actually TELL her that they LITERALLY meant what she saw and they are surprised the fandom missed it, she again goes back to blaming the writers for not being clear enough. When she was TOLD that the CL story in polis was a dark story of Clarke’s psychology and she MISSED it, she AGAIN blamed the writers for not being clear and then. And THEN. Get this. Blamed the fandom for never looking critically at the CL story in POLIS, For only seeing it as pretty, unless they were screaming ABUSE. Remember when I told you she told me I didn’t have a right to my interpretation and she was silencing abuse victims? So. Yeah. She’s referring to me, and those of us who were talking about that seriously, as abuse survivors or psychology students.

Anonymous said:She’s not the only one that claimed Bellarke is never happening. [XX] had some insider too as i remember and tweeted something along those lines of the moderator from Reddit publicly. {XX] is reliable enough and she said something like they aren’t planning canon but I don’t wanna put pressure on her I only saw her tweet she is not a part of fandom drama she’s a part of presskru.

Yeah. I’m not saying her name. That’s her. I’ve spent all morning trying to write my thoughts on this, and on what I’ve seen her do in this fandom for three years. And I found that reddit thread and I’m pretty sure that the mod’s “reliable source” is that woman who is NOT a reliable source. She’s a biased source who does not check her theories against the canon because she’s more interested in hearing herself talk and being right than in actually understanding the story.

Being part of presskru does not mean she is right. The press writing about this show has OFTEN been wrong. DO you remember season 3 at ALL? Some of those people were still writing reviews in season 5 where Clarke and Bellamy did not exist almost. They were trying to rewrite the show as Octavia-Raven-Diyoza centered. She was part of the completely inaccurate interpretations of season 3. Just because someone tells you they are an authority that does not mean you should take what they say without questioning them. QUESTION EVERYTHING.

She is not reliable. She has had consistently bad speculation and has interpreted this show ABSOLUTELY incorrectly MANY times. And when she’s wrong, she says the problem is with the story and the writers, not her meta. She refuses to question her own interpretations or even, really, to check it to the canon show. She believes Bellarke is dead so when someone said something, she IMMEDIATELY decided she had to tell EVERYONE that Bellarke was confirmed dead. This whole rumor comes from her. From her unreliable interpretations and confirmation bias.

Please, don’t take my word for it. Go back over her meta and her speculation. See what she says when the writers tell her to her face that she was wrong, and how she is friends with them until she is facing fandom and then she calls them all bad writers and the show a bad show and the story making no sense. When really, she the show just WENT OVER HER HEAD AND SHE MISSED IT. Every time she calls a writer a bad writer, you can just assume that she did some lazy analysis, jumped to conclusions, and when the story didn’t do what she thought it should, decided the fault was with the writers, the story, the characters, or, well hell, why not just blame me. I did after all say CL was abusive. And that’s why she didn’t bother looking into the symbolism of Clarke’s character development in polis.

Someone told her something, when she knows the whole cast and crew are on lockdown, and she ran to twitter and started telling everyone that she had insider information and she knew the truth. That is not reliable. That is HIGHLY suspect and arrogant and lacks any sort of honor. She needed to be the one who had insider knowledge, so she decided to hurt a whole fandom. She HURT people, because she HAD be the one to know the truth. She was NOT concerned with anyone else and did NOT allow them to be happy shipping their ship.

As far as I can tell, her interpretation of what someone told her is par for the course for her, had nothing to do with the canon, and everything to do with fandom drama, ego, confirmation bias, and the desire to be the authority and have everyone think she’s the shit.

I do not think she’s the shit. Sorry. I think she is an irresponsible writer claiming authority and using it to control those around her. Worse, she’s a teacher. And as a writer and a teacher, that makes me ANGRY. She can’t bully me into following her, or convince me that she’s smarter than me and make me hang on her every word, and so she blocked me a long time ago. But I’ve tried to help people understand the story and come up with their own interpretations and she’s actively gone out of her way to claim her authority to kill a whole ship and fandom. Am I biased? YOU BET. But that bias means I pay very close attention to what she says. And what she says, is suspect.

Please don’t send me any more asks about gossip, rumors or drama. And definitely don’t send me any asks about her.

I would prefer to talk about CANON, literature, film, science fiction, character development, symbolism, storytelling, and Bellarke.

#oh fuck just take this thing #too long; don't bother reading #antis #fandom wank #gossip and rumors #in defense of me

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