#I agree adding some scenes would’ve helped flesh out certain parts

[majoringinsarcasm]

“V9 was filler because nothing changed about Ruby or Jaune, she could’ve had her breakdown in Vacuo while the real plot was being fleshed out.”

Ahem

1) Above all else you sound like you hate fun bc V9 was so freaking cool and visually stunning and new and different and weird and wonderful

2) Had Ruby gone to Vacuo right away she would NOT have properly grieved Penny nor would she have had time to vent her frustrations because she is a Leader, capital L, and it’s been 8 volumes of her not addressing her issues or having bursts of anger and then immediately trying to comfort someone else. See V4 when she tries to tell Jaune that Ren and Nora will be fine. He responds “you don’t know that” and we see her smile fade. Her uncle might die and it’s her fault he’s hurt but she’s trying to comfort Jaune. No time for her.

Or in V6 where she just learned the big bad they are fighting seemingly can’t die. She goes to Oscar and makes him feel human she comforts him even though she’s no doubt flipping out inside. And then later when she smashes the bottle to wake Qrow up she is visually upset that he’s passed out drinking again but she softens and hugs him and offers support.

She has been trying to prove herself since Volume 1. She is the one who tells Jaune that as Leaders they have to put their team first and themselves second and she’s stuck to that rule. She wants to prove that Ozpin making her Leader wasn’t a mistake. With Jaune, it’s similar, he doesn’t ask for help from anyone with his emotions. He’s the golden retriever, the lovable idiot stuck in the tree. He didn’t want to be a team player at all he wanted to be The Hero, someone who didn’t need help, someone who could save his friends instead of being shoved in a locker and moved to safety. He didn’t want to work With them, he wanted to save them all.

And that’s why V9 is so special. For the first time since the series began Ruby Rose “puts herself first”. She’s been lamenting all of her failures she’s been stewing in this hopelessly because she thinks SHE is the issue when that’s not the case.

“What about me?!”

“What happens if I choose me?”

She decides she is Enough, flaws and failed plans and all. She does not need to change into someone else to be better because SHE was never the problem. The world would have fought against whoever came out of that tree and she’s holding her own hand and saying “I will be there for this girl I will grab the weapon she made and I will fight for Myself as well as everyone else. I am worth fighting for.”

And with Jaune, well he got to be The Hero all by himself. He got to be the protector of a group of beings that did what he asked and wanted to make him happy. Who Let Him Help. No one shoved him into a locker, he wasn’t laughed at for making up silly team attack names, he was in charge all by himself. He was selfish but he STILL wasn’t putting himself first at the same time. He was clinging to unhealthy ideals because he was without a team to lean on or even help. He had no one to call him out nobody to keep him level. It’s not until the final battle that he gets to be “the man he’s always wanted to be.”

Jaune is a strategist. He’s good at looking at the whole picture BECAUSE he’s not on the frontlines from the start. He provides perspective and new ideas. In V4 he also plays this role but he’s a bit reluctant. He’s without a weapon and sees at first the role as lesser, but now he’s fully embracing it. He’s from a big family and then had a team he’s not Built to be a lone wolf. He’s built to be with a family, he’s meant to be part of something bigger. After years of being the rusted knight he never changed or got better and THAT was the lesson. He got to play out his ideal and was worse because of it because a hero isn’t what he thought it would be. Or what he wanted it to be.

In the end Ruby still doesn’t call herself a huntress. Somewhat calls her that. In the end Ruby still doesn’t pick that definition for herself, but someone she showed kindness to and helped just because she could called her that. THAT is what makes Ruby a huntress. It’s not just about fighting monsters or even protecting those who can’t protect themselves. It’s about kindness, it’s about love, it’s about patience.

Ruby Rose is a huntress, because SHE embodies what a HUNTRESS should mean, not the other way around. And That is why this finale means everything to me. She’s better than the heroes in the books, and now she gets to save herself along with everyone else.

[emubop]

Adding on to my post from yesterday, I’m just gonna list all the issues I have with Disco (a separate list of the things I love soon to come!)

Under a cut for length and for spoilers. Seriously. Major spoilers ahead. And tw for discussions of character death, if that bothers you.

With that in mind, let’s get to it! (This is in no particular order, btw.)

Starting with the last two episodes, since they’re pretty fresh in my mind - they felt very rushed. I’ve seen some people say that the season should have ended right when they got back from the mirrorverse, and I completely agree. The final arc felt like it needed at least two more episodes to be fleshed out. I wanted to see more of the characters actually dealing with what happened in the mirrorverse, and having time for development; and while we got a little bit of that between Michael and Ash, it wasn’t very much. And like, I get why. When you’ve only got two episodes to get the plot where you need it to go, of course character development is going to be sacrificed for time. Which is why I think they should have either a) added more episodes to the end of season one, or b) ended the season with the mirror arc, so that they’d have more time to explore the Klingon war thing at the beginning of season 2. Disco has some very wonderful characters who are very deserving of development and growth, and it’s unfortunate that they didn’t get it.

Culber’s death... This is the main point where I’m like “yeah, I don’t blame you for not liking the show anymore,” because I came very close to that too. In the end, I do still think I like the rest of the show overall, but this part... I just about stopped watching. In short - the way the show treated Dr. Culber was absolutely shitty. Sure, I’m like 99% certain they’ll end up bringing him back in season 2, but in the meantime, he’s still very much dead. And NOT ONLY did they use the “bury your gays” trope, but out of only TWO gay characters, they buried the man of color. Like... that’s just... what the fuck.

I’m expanding this into multiple points, bc it’s the biggest point I have. Culber’s death is legitimately the worst thing Disco has done. Not only just the fact that they killed him, but how they did it. His death was violent, sudden, and meaningless. The main characters barely even get to react to it before moving on. His killer doesn’t face trial or repercussions. (Note - I personally see Voq as being entirely the murderer and not Tyler, since Tyler had no agency in the killing and was if anything just a tool, but either way, no justice is served.) And then we, the audience, have to see the brutal killing scene AGAIN in the “previously on” section of the next episode or two, which makes it seem like they’re using this horrific event as mere shock value. I literally felt sick to my stomach watching it. What happened was disgusting, and I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to watch the show anymore because of it.

I trust Wilson Cruz. I trust Anthony Rapp. I trust them when they say that there’s a plan, that Culber will come back, that this will work out at some point. Their reassurances do help me personally to make some measure of peace with the situation. I don’t want to think that two openly gay actors would sign onto the script if this is how it ends between their characters. But right now, Culber is still dead, for no good reason that I can see, and it still stings. This is justifiably upsetting. And until I see him come back with my own two eyes, yeah, I’m not gonna be happy about it.

Aaaaand speaking of death, let’s talk about Georgiou. I just... that’s not a good way to start your show off, ngl. You take a very strong and deep character, played by Michelle Yeoh no less, and then just kill her? It’s bad writing. They could have easily had Michael transferred off the Shenzhou and arrested and kept Captain Georgiou alive. They could have even kept the whole “tragic backstory” thing in play, with Michael and Philippa no longer on speaking terms, and Michael mourning the loss of what was once such a close relationship. (I do appreciate that they brought her back as her mirror counterpart - and boy howdy the Emperor is a good character - so that does take a little bit of the sting out, but still. Not the best way to open the show.)

And then Landry dies in both universes?? I can accept mirror!Landry dying because of the whole “Lorca’s second hand” thing, but like... god, this show has got to stop killing off poc. Especially woc. I can understand that they’re trying to do a “raceblind” thing, and I understand their reasoning - the whole “it’s a utopian future and everyone is treated the same!” thing - but it doesn’t really work like that irl for the audience. Unless someone is actually literally colorblind and sees everything in greyscale, no one has any business saying they “don’t see color.” And no one should be casting with that mindset. The situation could certainly be a lot worse - they’ve got Michael, at least, and she’s fucking amazing - but it could also be better.

And yeah, it’s a warzone, and people are going to die. I get that. But just... do some critical thinking about who you’re killing, why, and if it can be avoided. If for no other reason, it makes the story a lot stronger in the long run.

It’s the year of our lord twenty-gayteen, can we stop having the makeup on white people playing Kingons being so hmmm questionable maybe?

(With regards to several of the above points, I’m white, so please let me know if I’m overstepping my bounds here. And like the point about Culber - I wouldn’t blame anyone for disliking/not supporting the show because of these reasons, and I’m not ever going to try to convince anyone that these things are okay. Because they aren’t. Just because I like certain elements enough to give the show a second chance with season two, doesn’t mean that anyone else will or should do the same. Continuing.)

Why the fuck is this show so obsessed with eating people? Stop it. Get some help.

The only explicitly bisexual/pansexual person we see is the Emperor, who sleeps with both a man and a woman and seems very satisfied with both parties afterwards. Which, okay, cool, except she was also trying to get information out of them, so whether or not she was even attracted to either one is debatable. I personally think she was - thanks to Michelle Yeoh’s acting, which is a goddamn gift - but that still leaves us with the only representation of bi/pan people being a murderous emperor from the mirror universe. And the “relationship” is entirely sex-based, as well as being with multiple people at once, which only furthers the stereotype of bi/pan being promiscuous, being only bi for a threesome, being untrustworthy. And to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with one night stands or poly relationships! Those things are perfectly fine! But when that’s all that bi/pan people are shown as, it can play into really damaging stereotypes - and as a bi/pan person, I’m frankly getting a little fucking sick of it.

(I mean, it’s better than DS9′s “mirrorverse=gay/bi/pan” thing, I’ll give it that, but I’m not going to give any show brownie points for reinforcing harmful stereotypes. You’ve improved slightly, Trek, but not nearly as much as you should have.)

I’m just making another point here for Dr. Culber’s death because seriously. Fucking seriously. What the fuck.

I would’ve liked to have seen more one-off episodes, like “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.” That was a fucking awesome episode. It’s fun! It’s got character development! I wanna see more of that!

The portrayal of Klingon culture is a bit inconsistent. And okay, to be entirely truthful, I’m really not that into Klingons in general? So having a plot centered around them wouldn’t be my first choice anyway. But if you’re going to do it, please do it right. It felt like the writers sometimes “forgot” important elements of Klingon culture for the sake of the plot, and just... come on. The Klingons are brutal warriors, yes. They’ve killed innocent civilians in the course of battle, sure. But they have a whole honor code, and going out of their way to murder thousands of helpless, defenseless people? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it just doesn’t quite seem to fit.

I really, really wanna see more of the bridge crew! I wanna get to know them! They seem so cool who are they please Disco I’m begging you

This is a very dumb, very tiny thing, but I was kinda hoping I’d see some Cardassian makeup in the crowd while we were in the Seedy Black Market on Qo’noS. Did appreciate the Trill lady tho!

I dunno, the ending almost felt... too neat? If that makes sense? I would have liked things more ambiguous, a few more loose ends. It felt like they threw in a happy ending out of nowhere; it didn’t really match the tone of the rest of the show.

Speaking of tone - it felt to me like Disco was trying to mix the upbeat, thoughtful, philosophical tone of classic Trek with the grittier, more critical, more heavy tone of DS9. I love both classic Trek and DS9, but they don’t exactly mix very well. Disco’s tone felt a bit confused and convoluted. And like, here’s the thing - classic Trek doesn’t preclude heavy subjects (”Conscience of the King” from TOS is a great example), and shows like DS9 don’t preclude fun and optimism (there’s episodes like “Explorers” that are uplifting, and “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” is a fucking delight). Star Trek at its best should always tackle difficult issues, should always have determination, should always have hope. DS9 had a more morally gray outlook, yes, and certainly questioned the idea that the Federation is utopian, but it was still underpinned by the main characters wanting to do good. Wanting to improve the world around them. It managed to do a very good job of adapting Trek’s message to its darker tone - whereas Disco feels like it’s flip-flopping between having a darker tone and trying to be like TOS. Like, buddy, just pick one. You just gotta pick one.

The more times Sarek shows up in Disco, the more he looks like a complete dick to Spock in TOS. This isn’t necessarily a complaint, because Sarek being a dick is certainly in character for him, but I’d like to see that disparity in how he treats his children addressed. By his wife. Specifically by his wife. Amanda is a national treasure and I need her to call her husband out.

idk I think there’s more but like, I’ve been working on this for hours - WAIT HANG ON

This has been bugging me since the beginning of the show, because while Michael’s mutiny was certainly a bad idea, she technically... didn’t really do much of anything before being taken to the brig? She almost has the ship fire on a Klingon vessel, but Georgiou shows up and stops her. Helm locked phasers on the vessel on Michael’s orders, yes, but earlier they locked phase cannons on the vessel for a short time, which Georgiou agreed to. Her actions during the mutiny didn’t really change their situation at all. So why does everyone blame her for starting the war?

“But she killed that Klingon during her spacewalk!” Yeah, she did, because he came charging at her with a bat’leth with the intention to kill. In that scenario, her actions were self-defense. She attempted to talk to him, he then proceeded to try to kill her, so she fought back to save her own life and ended up killing him in the process. And all this happened while she was investigating a foreign object in Federation territory. So while I can see why she was charged with mutiny and assaulting a fellow officer, I don’t think it’s fair to say that she started the war. The Klingons on the ship of the dead were planning to start shit before anyone even got there.

I can understand why Starfleet would have thought Michael started it, at least at first, because unlike the audience, they couldn’t see the Klingons planning beforehand. That’s fair. But then Ash Tyler shows up, and he’s revealed to be Voq - who was there! he knows what happened on that ship! - and eventually, he loses Voq’s consciousness but retains the guy’s memories. So Ash knows how the war started. Ash knows, or should know, that the Klingons on that ship were the instigators. Why wouldn’t he tell Starfleet before fucking off with L’Rell? He says he loves Michael, so why wouldn’t he want to set the record straight? And most importantly, why wasn’t Michael told any of this?! She’s been blaming herself for this whole war, she’s been suffering needlessly for it, let her fucking rest! Yeah, she was exonerated and accepted back into Starfleet, which is great, but it came across as “welp you basically cleaned up the mess of a war you started and saved Earth from annihilation, so I guess we’ll clear the slate for you.” It should have been more like “well given what we know now, we can say that you’re innocent of starting interstellar war; and as for the rest, stopping the destruction of Earth is a hell of a community service, so you know what? Welcome back.”

My point is, Michael Burnham has done nothing wrong, ever, in her life

Alright, at this point I think that about sums it up, and I’m tired of looking at this anyways because it’s been hours now, so uh, yeah. Thanks for coming to my ted talk

[eliaspsuedo]

Fire Emblem Warriors thoughts

12-16 hours, DONE! At least with story mode, I still have history mode and all the unlockable characters to get through.

I’m sure the main Dynasty Warriors games are good. They should be if companies keep making spin-offs based on them, but my general thoughts on these Dynasty Warriors spin-offs is that they’re fun diversions but they get repetitive without any decent hook, either in the story or gameplay. I played Dynasty Warriors Gundam 1 back when I was young and Dragon Quest Heroes in preparation for this game. From what I remember of DW Gundam, it’s that I liked it for the first few hours till it got stale, but I’ll always remember the original mode. The interactions (always loved seeing the Zechs, Puru, and Domon), the scenarios, and it was the first time I saw stuff like G Gundam and most early-UC shows. Dragon Quest Heroes is one I really enjoyed for the gameplay and bits and pieces of character interaction. It felt a tower defense game, where you get medals to summon monsters as your sentry, it really livened up the combat. Lastly, because I was more familiar with DQ, I got to understand all the fanservice, references, and the joy seeing my favorite DQ characters interact with each other. So, now that is the context of where I’m coming from in terms of DW games is clear, what did I think of FE Warriors?

First up is the negatives of the game.

Story mode was pretty bare-bones, which I expected but I was hoping for a little more flavoring in what little meat I got. The plot was pretty average: Young Lords, Chaos Dragon, obvious betrayal, etc. all that stuff you’d see in a FE game, but what really made the whole story come out as “meager” for me, was the lack of cross-game interaction and involvement in the main plot. There are brief bits of cross-game interaction, like Lissa talking to Oboro or Camilla praising Robin, but they’re brief and there’s little impact on the plot. This is important because this is a chance to either flesh out the characters out of their element or give us a pair that we’d never thought about, but now we want to see more. I go back to the Zechs, Puru, and Domon group from DW Gundam. They were all from different series, had different alignments, and completely different personalities, but seeing them work together, and even get out of their comfort zone by acting out of character really made them stand-out.

But what about the Supports? That’s a problem, cause by relegating the fun and interesting interactions there the player will miss out and the story will suffer. You have to work to get them, which is harder since maps last longer, rates feels slower, and for all that hard work you get 3 minutes of character portraits talking to each other. It’s ok in regular FE because there’s more opportunities to raise levels, you get more talk, and it mostly helps side characters. Let me put it this way, would you rather see Frederick fix Leo’s collar in a text box and read about it, or fully animated while you’re in the game?

The characters in Warriors are should be an ensemble, meaning their skills, personalities, and talents are equally spread out and given a proper time to shine. This is not helped by what keeps the characters we want to see together, the main characters. My friend who only plays FE Heroes, likes Dynasty Warriors, and doesn’t like Rowan character design, helped me put it into words: “They feel like discount Sharena and Alfonse.” I agree with that, cause there’s not much to Rowan and Lianna. Aside from what they are (twins, royals of the kingdom, etc.), who they are is lost on me. Rowan gets off better, cause he has aspirations and liking to knights, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are pretty much there. Since a large chunk of the plot is about them, we got less time to get a feel out of the Heroes.

Going to DQ Heroes, I got more fun out of Luceus and Aurora, the male and female characters of that game. Now, Luceus thing was he prattled on complicated battle strategies (something I wish Robin did in the game) and took an analytical look, and Aurora was his foil that summed up his plan and just attacked and did what she felt was needed. What made them so fun to watch was how we saw those interactions during a supposedly tense moment, and it lightens up the mood and brings up the energy for hack and slash.

Another thing, voices are repetitive, especially in menus.

I saw a piece of trivia on how Rowan and Lianna were made sword users to help with the tutorials. I can see why they did it, but I have a better idea: how about making them wield all the different weapons? It lessens the oversaturation of sword users, it really make them feel like our avatar, and allows some variety in the animations. Though rigging up 5 different weapon animations seems like a hassle…

The last big negative is how many characters have little to do. This is most apparent with Marth’s group as, aside from some scenes including one with Darios, they really don’t do much in terms of the plot. In fact, now that I think about it, even the other groups don’t much to do either. The most I remember is moral support and speeches, but for active and direct actions? Not much. Takumi disarming Darios, the Shepherds teaching the group, Sakura finding a cure for Rowan, snapping Corrin out, and the Gleamstones, those all are out of the top of my head. I’m glad Celica and Lyn aren’t in Story mode cause they’d have even less to do! I doubt adding more character from the other FE games would help. With a plot this thin, I doubt we’d see more of, say, Ike that we’d see of any other character. I guess if you want to see the older cast, that’s what FE Heroes is for.

There definitely could’ve been more to the story. At best, it’s ok. I think the problem was the story was too serious. In the above DW spinoffs, while it had dramatic moments, there was a lighter or fun tone in all of them. Cause you’re reveling in all the carnage, fanservice, and characters. The story of Warriors didn’t feel like that, it just felt like another cut-out FE story, and that’s sad. If it joked around for more scenes (one or two scenes of Owain and Niles don’t count), maybe the bland story would’ve been more forgivable.

So that means I hated FE Warriors, right? NOPE

It actually surpassed my expectations!

A big part of that is the gameplay. With the added FE elements, it manages to turn the rather repetitive combat into a tactical action RPG. First, the weapon triangle means you have to think who engages what. You defeat enemies faster and easier when you have the advantage, and vice-versa. This means team composition is crucial, giving you some thought in who you pick. Do you add archers cause there are fliers? Do you add mages cause there are dragons? Can I deal with being at a disadvantage? Combine this with the second: Commanding units, and you got something just like a FE game. During gameplay you can command your units to attack certain enemies or defend forts. You cannot ignore this and power through, you have to manage your units to efficiently win. This means you have to constantly go to the map and give orders, lest you have the AI dilly-dally, and pay attention who’s attacking what. For example, Takumi is guarding that fort, so I’ll order Corrin to kill him but not let Camilla go anywhere near him since he’ll shoot her down (Fun Fact: I did defeat Takumi with Camilla). Add to the fact the AI, which can handle themselves competently (though you do have to wrestle with it a lot), takes a while to defeat enemies, then you really have to do a lot of the work with your 4 playable characters to get the job done. This leads to a very engaging and frantic juggling act, and makes the core gameplay really solid.

Next, the pair up system was a really useful feature. You pair up two units and that unit will be your sword and shield. It adds another layer of strategy to your fight since now you can swap between a sword and a lance user to easily adapt to the situation. It comes at a cost though, as it cuts your commandable units. So that’s another thing to consider, losing a possible defender. Plus, the dual guard makes attacks not hit you and it is a life saver when you’re completing Anna missions that require you to not get hit.

The maps were also impressive. Taking advantage of fliers ability to, well, fly as well as using Dragonveins to improve the map for you units. It’s a really nice touch. There weren’t too many spaces without enemies, so there’s always something to do.

Let’s talk technical, because on the Switch it’s amazing. A steady framerate while docked (you can pick between 30 or 60 FPS), and undocked it works just as well. Especially with local co-op. I was impressed on how it ran undocked with two players. A little choppier, but it remains consistent and having a buddy around enhances the tactical edge, since you have to coordinate your actions.

History Mode was another thing I like. I haven’t completed it since I’m underleveled, but I am enjoying it more than Story Mode. On a FE map (complete with sprites), you select enemies like they’re missions and defeating certain enemies expands your area. The challenge here is to get S-Ranks to get Master Seals and other good stuff. It’s missions like defeat 500 enemies, or only use magic users, is varied enough to keep me interested, and there’s some story bits in it that seems interesting. Female Robin makes an appearance in the Awakening map, with Male Robin and Chrom watching in astonishment, it’s an interesting angle to say the least.

Finally, it’s the polish. The stunning animation, how it runs, how good the cutscenes look, and just how it feels like Fire Emblem. I had the same feeling with FE Heroes. Different format, same series, wonderful feel.

So in the end, I wasn’t expecting much, but I got more than what I asked and I definitely recommend it. Now I’ll just wait for my beautiful wife, and hope the next FE game on the Switch comes soon!

Now, let’s do the odyssey~

[ibringyouasong89]

On your post about Lucifer and Chloe, i actually agree with you. The last episode felt really awkward and out of place. At first i was so excited about the kiss and then i realised how ooc it was for Chloe. The fact that Luci talked about proving his worth but did nothing to actually prove it was stupid as he was still checking out women while trying to tell Chloe that they could work. Luci is still a man-whore who would probably get bored of Chloe in a week and Chloe deserves better than that.

Whoever you are, THANK YOU! Seriously, one out of two of my favorite messages!And this new episode just further confirms how they’re trying to rewrite Chloe’s character - suddenly and unexpectedly - right after fleshing-out her character for the past season and a half (while not providing more insight or flashbacks about her past or how she came to be the person that she is).I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the new episode, but I wanted to give the writers the benefit of the doubt. Which I did and now I’m even more disappointed.First of all, I’m glad the sex scene turned out to be a dream, but if you ask me, again, it was WAY too early and rushed for this kind of thing to occur between them. If anything, I would’ve preferred to have seen a sex-dream (that either Chloe or Lucifer was having) and have had her/him woken up in confusion and terror because it was about her and Lucifer: two people who are still in denial about their growing attraction towards the other. Something which would’ve been acceptable as a Season 3 event instead of what we just got…cause now, after a whole season and a half of finding him repulsive and turned-off by his sexual escapades and lack-of-emotional-knowledge and overall immaturity, she’s suddenly attracted to him and finding him to be…boyfriend material? Meanwhile, he’s still belittling her CHILD, you know, TRIXIE?! And there has been little-to-no screen-time/bonding between Lucifer and Trixie. But now, if he becomes Chloe’s boyfriend by the end of this season, they’ll have all the time in the world to bond…because that, apparently, is the ONLY way it CAN happen. *heavy sarcasm.*Secondly, as much as I love Maze and her awesomeness, Chloe listening to her advice about “loosening up” was really immature and impractical. Two things that Chloe is not supposed to be. And I know Maze meant well, in her own way, but why does Chloe have to get laid in order to be happy or “loosened up?” Sure, sex is sex, and I guess for some people, they can get off on having “some fun” with people and leave it at that. But I had estimated Chloe’s character to be more level-headed than that, especially from an emotionally-intelligent and emotionally-mature perspective. But now, Chloe is being awkward in trying to be “seductive or sexy” in trying to get Lucifer to pay romantic-attention to her (and he STILL wasn’t getting it, which wasn’t a surprise) after heeding Maze’s advice…what?! Slapping him on the ass - which was just weird and unnecessary, but I suppose a change of pace from a female-empowering point-of-view - and then giggling loudly at something he said (which wasn’t that funny) and then remarking how romantic it is to make out with someone in a library (meanwhile, Lucifer is all “yeah, been there, done that.”). When, exactly, did Chloe suddenly decide to change her entire personality over-night and revert to acting like a teenage girl/young adult? And why does she have to change at all? I suppose people do act immaturely, in certain respects, in relationships or while around their “crush,” but this just seems…juvenilely stupid.Then there’s the whole unprofessional-angle where she goes ahead and antagonizes a serial killer…what the hell was that?! She suddenly decides to be impulsive, listens to Lucifer about attacking the professor’s ego, and causes said-psychopath a “trigger moment,” which results in a deadlier situation. Granted, he was already involving those two innocent young men in his “experimentation,” but now the conclusion is that she got herself poisoned because she attacked said-criminal’s ego based on an impulsive-suggestion (which wound up in driving an escalating situation skyward and she had to get into a fast, violent, physical confrontation with the psycho-professor who stabbed her with a poison-needle when he punched her in her side). How is that professional and protocol-based, especially for a seasoned detective/cop? The only time I’ve seen a detective/cop/federal agent antagonize a psycho serial-killer into a showdown is generally when there’s some personal vendetta that each character is striving to solve, yet is mirrored/paralleled by their opponent, who also happens to be their “opposite.” And all of that usually takes place in a high-profile blockbuster movie…not some TV cop-procedure-drama show that airs weekly. And as such a badly sketched-out episode as this one was.Another moment that I had a problem with is happening in two areas of this episode. When Chloe bursts into the room at the frat house/dorm - where the party is taking place - and sees Lucifer lying around, surrounded by all of these drunk, obviously-sexually-active, young, beautiful college girls. Chloe immediately jumps down his throat and assumes that he was going to have sex with them. Then, later on, when he asks her point blank (and honestly, he STILL needs her to tell him that she trusts him - like she hasn’t been proving that all along, especially given what she did in a certain courtroom for him), if she trusts him, she says yes and runs off after the professor in pursuit. I found that to be SO hypocritical. She trusts him to watch her six and back her up - even to be good/noble enough to save innocent people - but not to be around other people and talking to them without her supervision or without feeling threatened? How is that trust? And okay, fine, you can blame insecurity on her behalf…but that still doesn’t mean that she trusts him to be around other attractive people (and let’s face it, he finds everyone attractive, which is cool) unless she’s there to watch/check him.What’s even worse is that the writers are pushing them into this early “relationship” scenario in order to have it be an even bigger impact for when Lucifer finds the truth about Chloe. (Which he does in this latest episode.) But it’s SO unnecessary. You don’t HAVE to be in a relationship with someone (romantically-inclined or not) in order to find something heartbreaking. HELL, you could just be really good friends with someone and STILL have your heart shattered by them. And the sad part is, Lucifer turns right around and accuses Chloe for being part of this whole “Divine Plan,” as if she had a clue about what was going on or what he was even rambling on about. Remember, she still doesn’t believe that he’s the “Devil,” and again, that’s mostly because he refuses to admit/show the truth to her (because he’s afraid to lose her trust, which comes from the big part of his nature that is SELFISH). But for Lucifer to turn on Chloe, after she’s done EVERYTHING under the sun to prove that she is trustworthy and not out to get him, just speaks EVEN MORE about how much Lucifer DOESN’T TRUST CHLOE. And now he’ll probably even consider that a justified notion since anything that was developing between them - especially this newly-rushed romantic-entanglement *gag* - wasn’t “real.”Not to mention the awkward stare-down that went on between Dan and Lucifer. Seemed to me that Dan’s still-having-feelings-for-ex-wife-who-is-becoming-involved-with-you-whom-I’m-starting-to-consider-as-a-friend-though-I-hate-to-admit-it stare completely flew over Lucifer’s head…*sigh* It all just seems out-of-sorts and sporadic, if you ask me. A lot of people say this has all been building up, since day one, because of all the moments these two share. I, for one, did not see a whole lot of romantic undertone to those moments. I saw romantic POTENTIAL, which differs ENTIRELY from undertone, but thought that the moments between Lucifer and Chloe spoke of genuine (albeit tentative) bonding scenarios. Bonding moments that would help them develop a healthy, deep friendship that could then take flight and soar off into romantic-UST-unspoken communication-deep bond-tentative touching-more RECIPROCATED touching-eventual unexpected kiss land…but whatever. I laughed at the right moments, I even thought when Chloe hugged him and said she was “glad that he was okay” was sweet and cute…but for the most part, I still feel unfulfilled and disappointed by this episode. My faith and trust in the writers is dwindling more, day by day. I usually like to record the episodes on my DVD player so I can go back and re-watch them (so I can speed through the commercials instead of waiting for ads to finish like you have to do on Hulu), but I did not feel the need to do so tonight and right now, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t.I, personally, did not care for the whole “I’m not worthy of you” speech that Lucifer gave Chloe at the end of the 2x11. For one thing, Lucifer has VERY low-self esteem. We see that with how he regards himself and how he talks about himself. The only time he seems to have anything good to say about himself usually involves his sexual deeds and how good he is in bed. We also see how low of an opinion he has of himself when he went ahead and tried to commit suicide via being-murdered while in close proximity to Chloe, which would’ve resulted in an immediate death. He genuinely does not accept himself. Lucifer constantly needs people to accept him in order for him to be able to accept HIMSELF.

He showed his true face to Linda once and used her as his human-yard-stick to see if others could handle the undeniable truth about his existence/identity. But he doesn’t show his face proudly, like Maze did with Trixie during Halloween’s episode (while admittedly holding her breath to see if she’d be rejected or not). He does so out of FEAR. Because he knows that his true appearance causes humans to be truly terrified-out-of-their-minds and disgusted-to-the-core-of-their-filthy-souls. All of those eons of having the same reaction from people has taught/shown him that he is something to be reviled and shunned and truly grotesque. Something that is worth being feared. And for most of the time, he has used it to his advantage, especially in being Hell’s #1 Punisher and King. But he has never shown his true face/self in order to gain true connections with other (to really open up to other people) because he already expects to be rejected. (People always reject and fear what they don’t understand, after all.) And again, this is all a big issue that he refuses to address or acknowledge. It’s a continual and cyclical topic that he, point-blank, refuses to share with Chloe.What also bothered me about that moment was the fact that, after Lucifer spells out how he’s totally “unworthy” of Chloe, she does nothing to correct that assessment. She just says “yeah, you’re right” and then kisses him. Is that supposed to be a statement of “Yes, you are unworthy and yes, you are right about WHY you are unworthy, but I’m going to kiss you and choose you anyway, despite your unworthiness.”?!?! And sure, yeah, you can take the kiss as a sign of affection and that she TOTALLY finds him worthy…but why couldn’t she have argued against his claims and TOLD HIM THAT HE WAS WORTHY?! Why couldn’t she have listed as many reasons for his worthiness as he did for his “unworthiness?” Lucifer is someone who constantly NEEDS affirmation that he is a good, kind, lovable, misunderstood soul. That he will be cared about/for and that he won’t be abandoned. Instead of giving him a meaningful speech about ANY of those attributes or issues, she just goes ahead and kisses him. That kiss wasn’t necessary to get any of that across. It was just…ambiguous-filler and very anti-climatic and disappointing.In regards to your other point about Lucifer getting bored with Chloe, I don’t know about that. The fact of the matter is, we don’t know if this is Lucifer’s first committed relationship or not. Maybe he had tried experimenting with “commitment” in the past with someone else (a demon, another supernatural being, or another human) and didn’t care too much for it or found it hard to be committed to that individual. Or maybe this IS his first, true, tentative approach to being in a committed relationship with someone. If it is, he may treat it as an experiment or the new shiny toy in his life. Will he stay with Chloe, after learning all there is to know about her (her deepest desires and all the twists and turns that exist in her soul), and accept that she is both mortal (if she does stay human) AND someone who was handcrafted by Dad/God in order to be in his “path?” That I can’t say. The writers obviously thrive on being unpredictable and are purposely going out of their way to make everything unpredictable, even already-carved-out character personalities.So…*blows out a breath* yeah. I’m going to suck it up and torment myself by watching the “winter-finale.” I will not have hopeful expectations and will be anticipating disappointment. Anyways, thank you for your message and glad to know that I’m not the only one who’s finding this sped-up-relationship questionable or lacking. Feel free to message me again!