#I've heard of the issues with the show after season 5 or so

[eph-em-era]

OFMD intimacy breakdown eps 6-7

Oh hey, it's me! Back again with an intimacy breakdown for episodes 6-7. prefacing this, once again, that I'm not a certified intimacy coordinator, I'm an IC in training, choreographer and director. I'm also not affiliated with the show, just have interest in the subject.

Check out episodes 1-5 here.

Massive spoilers so it's under the cut.

(I do note that there's not an IC credited in these episodes - I know there's one attached to the project so perhaps they weren't utilised in these ones, or were uncredited. Who can say!)

Let's start with - I don't know why these two episodes were so deliriously fucking fast. Potentially scheduling issues with Taika? Alternatively I heard that they lost some budget, which would have cut things a bit.

HBO Max I am in your walls.

regardless, not a fan! I think the acceleration of the relationship worked, just because of what we know about their characters, but the wider plot was too fast for my liking. Hoping in the event of a season three they take that to heart.

Anyways, onto the intimacy!

Calypso's Birthday

On a whole, I found this episode deeply charming. I love a bit of whimsy, and the ep felt like a tribute to their queer audience. Felt very seen!

It's quite challenging interpreting intimacy in these scenes as an interloper, cause I don't know how much is purposeful, vs how much is staging. Regardless, we will forge on.

One -

I would have loved a little more closeness during Izzy's first singing scene! There's what feels like a metre of space between them; something as simple as arms brushing or leaning against each other helps build that intimacy. I am guessing the gap is for shooting space - you need to see what's going on behind them - but it really loses something. It's not bad intimacy, I just would have liked more.

An alternative character interpretation is that Ed & Stede are still trying to fumble their way through things and public displays of intimacy are too much for them - which could also be the intended effect.

But as we all know - a hand touch can ignite a thousand feelings, and I would have liked a little more.

Two -

Lucius and Black Pete emerging after their day-long fuckfest. I've said it in the past and will happily say it now - I think Matthew Maher and Nathan Foad have the best chemistry out of this entire cast. It's so sweet, and so honest in a way that's very grounded compared to the rest of the cast - which is surprising considering who their characters are!

Lovely positioning! Very simple staging but effective, it makes the moment feel so, so private and intimate. It's really lovely.

Three -

Ed and Stede finally get it together and have sex. Okay, so this is obviously intercut with Izzy singing, so I'll lay it out in stages.

First, the jacket grab.

What does this say about Stede? He's been buoyed by his weird night and he wants to do something about it. What does this say about Ed? He's willing to go along with it, but it is not necessarily his first reaction. He's clearly feeling qualms about something - whether that's his relationship, or being a pirate - and he's not the one to initiate. This comes back later.

Regarding the staging, more technically - this is pretty common. A grab using the lapels or jacket is a very easy way to show intensity and passion. Does Ed respond with the same passion? Not quite.

Oh hey, an up against the wall kiss! Very fanservicey, consider me impressed. I think this is a fun bit of staging, I suspect they were given very strict hand placement, cause nothing moves that much, it doesn't look particularly improvised.

Rhys Darby does something very specific with his hands when kissing that I've noticed now and I will never not notice, which is deeply annoying.

It's a very nice moment, but honestly, I would have loved a pause? There's something very sexy and very charming in a scene like this where one character makes the other character wait for it. A little holding back, breathing together, finding the moment. More of a seduction than this brute force omg we need to do this now thing.

I saw someone on Twitter say "Ed and Stede fucked but haven't made love" and that's the vibe I'm getting off the scene. Both of these characters have had a weird day, they're probably tipsy, there's been a lot of emotions and this is a desperate spilling over I need to feel your skin against mine now thing, from two people who don't really know where they both are yet. There isn't seduction cause it's not the place for seduction, cause no-one here properly knows how to communicate yet! They're saying everything but saying nothing.

I hope, in the event of further scenes like this, they have the moment to breathe.

And finally, the third piece - the closing of the curtains.

What does this say about the characters? Hey this is a private moment, you're not allowed to witness this. It's the same as Ed/Stede other moments of intimacy. Everything is private, it's hidden, it's on a remote beach on an island or unobserved under the moonlight.

These dudes might talk about each other constantly and are unashamed to say they like each other, but they sure as shit can't show it publicly. There's also clear reticence within Ed - which echoes him saying he wants to take things slow, as well as his hesitance in the next episode.

This reticence is also shown in their costuming. This isn't a we spent care and time taking each other's clothes off energy, this reads more like Stede Bonnet is emboldened for one of the first times in his life and got naked way too fast. Hey, he's the one taking charge. He's the one closing the curtains.

Man On Fire

Not a whole lot of intimacy in this one. I'm not going to spend long on it, because it's not particularly meaty, but I think the Olu/Zheng hand grab over the table is adorable and a perfect way to show two people on the same page after going through it. It's balanced and sweet.

Now, the other thing:

This staging is suuuuuuch a missed opportunity, but I also think it works considering the later context of the scene.

Y'know how you'd usually show a morning after? Snuggling up together, shoulder to shoulder, legs intertwined. Hazy and precious and lovely.

It's a bit harder with this particular set piece - you can't shoot them from the reverse, cause of the window, so everything needs to be pointed out towards the camera, making snuggling side by side harder to shoot. In theatre you'd just angle the prop differently, but you can't do that on film in a room that has established locations.

Initially when I watched this, I was like "okay rookie move, they've missed the obvious".

But.

It makes sense with the characterisation of this episode. Stede's killed a guy. He's had probably the first bit of pleasurable intimacy in his entire life. Man's ego's the size of the room. He's got his chest out cause he feels good.

Ed, however. He's fully clothed. He's doing the good thing, doing the right thing, getting breakfast in bed but it's still not quite right in the way "it should be" (the twine), and he's buttoned up to the neck. No swagger, no body showing. What does that scream? Avoidance. Weirdness. Maybe even a bit of discomfort.

Keep in mind that in the last 12 hours he's seen Stede, who he fell in love with because of his whimsy and difference from other pirates kill a guy. He's seen him threaten other peoples' lives. He expressed the desire to take things slow and instead, in a feat of piqued emotion, they hooked up, and they probably shouldn't have.

They're not cuddling because it's weird. The whole moment is weird. It's almost a walk of shame but they're on the same damn ship together. They might have hooked up, but the pair of them clearly still aren't on the same page.

I doubt we'll see it next week, but I hope these two can find their peace. This is a genre comedy, not just a romance, so I doubt it'll be anything explicit, but I would love to see a scene that's deeply passionate, building the intimacy without building the pace. Take us in closer, let us feel what the characters feel without immediately cutting away.

Loathed as I am to link some of these clips because of their nonsense dialogue, here's some moments in other mlm media that do well at building that intimacy.

This Bill/Sam clip from True Blood that doesn't even have a kiss but holds the tension really well. Another nonsense dream sequence scene from True Blood that still has nice staging. Agron and Nasir from Spartacus have incredible chemistry with a variety of clips to choose from. There are so many options and I would love love love to see them explored in the final episode of S2 or in S3. Very excited to see them both on the same page - ENTHUSIASTIC CONSENT FOR THE WIN.

Thanks for reading! Reblog if you liked. If there's anything juicy in ep 8 I'll cover it as well.

[hannigramislife]

I feel like Dazai's relationship with Akutagawa is misunderstood. Dazai cares about Akutagawa, he just doesn't know how how to be kind like Odasaku. In the dark age light novel (THEY DIDNT SHOWNIT IN THE ANIME AND IT MADE ME WANNA CRY) but Dazai constantly brags about him to Oda AND DOES SHOW HOW HES PROUD OF HIM AFTER A JOB.

"I executed him." Akutagawa (page 77)

"You defeated an unyielding, formidable enemy and protected your allies, Akutagawa. Good work." Dazai (page 77)

I feel it important to note that Dazai's tone was sarcastic during most of this, while he was annoyed with akutagawa because he had messed up Dazai's elaborate plan to get information, he was genuinely impressed with Akutagawa. He only hit Akutagawa after he had started to talk back claiming that torture methods were more effective than interrogation.

(talking to Oda) "Akutagawa-he's like a sword without a sheath." Dazai grinned from ear to ear. "He'll surely become Mafia's strongest skill user in the not-so-distant-future, but for now he needs someone who can teach him how to put that sword away." (page 95)

BUT THIS IS THE AHXHHAHXBA PART WHEN ODA THINKS JUST AFTER DAZAI SAYS THIS "I was surprised. I've never heard Dazai openly speak so highly of one of his men like that before"

THERES SO MUCH MORE OF THIS BOOK THAT SHOWS THEIR COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BUT IT JUST MAKES ME ANNOYED WHEN PEOPLE ARE LIKE "Dazai doesn't care about Akutagawa!"

ANYWAYS PLS GO READ OR REREAD DARK ERA ITS SO GOOD AND IF YOUVE SEEN THE ANIME AND THINK YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IK DARK ERA, NO. NO YOU DONT. READ THE BOOK

Hii! Thank you for reaching out to me! I love discussing topics with people ^^

Alright, so I haven't read the book, but those two moments you mentioned *were* in the anime, though maybe the tonality was changed and off, which is so sad! Correct interpretation is important!!

I do tend to go off in my tumblr according to my feelings, and I am a very petty person, hence my personal hatred of Dazai, but here is my opinion:

Dazai is not a person who doesn't have feelings and emotions and stuff: it is very plausible that he could have cared about Akutagawa, or a version of caring, during his PM days. However, that does not excuse the way he actually treated him. And evidently Dazai had been shown kindness before - by Odasaku- and he saw first-hand how important it was to his friend to be kind, Dazai just was not in a place to care about such things.

And even so, I could have forgiven his PM days- if he wasn't so incredibly indifferent to Akutagawa during the present. The phone call on Moby Dick was so incredibly cruel and unnecessary, considering all Dazai had to say was "Don't fight Atsushi, the mafia and ADA are working to stop Fitzgerald" and Akutagawa would have complied. It is only an example, but my issue stems from the fact that Dazai manipulates Akutagawa to his own plans instead of letting him move on. His interaction with Akutagawa in season 5 before he asks a favor is also an indicator of that.

The case is that Dazai has learned to put in the effort to care for those he loves - Atsushi, Chuuya, the ADA.

To me, the list simply does not include Akutagawa.

[the-eeveekins]

So last month I started watching I'm in Love with the Villainess.

I'll be honest, I wasn’t too sure about this show going into it. I ultimately didn't like the last Yuri Isekai series I watched (The Magical Revolution), and I've gotten fatigued over yuri adaptations never being finished after getting a one season anime adaptation.

I won't lie that I enjoyed it right away. I do not like the opening music (I skip the OP every episode, which is incredibly rare for me) and I was initially put off by Rae & Claire's actions in episode 1. But I stuck with it, was really surprised by episode 3 directly addressing Rae being a lesbian and touching on the struggles of being queer and dealing with homophobia, and by episode 5 I was so impatient to learn what happened next that I bought the 1st Light Novel.

Well, it took me about a week to burn through the first 2 volumes of the LN and the Revolution storyline and honestly I was blown away. It touched on topics I never would've expected when I started the show last month. The depictions of the struggles faced by queer people were already hitting close to home, but then the 2nd volume blindsided me by touching on gender dysphoria and there were moments that brought me to tears.

Since I assume the anime is only going to be 12-13 episodes, I sincerely hope that Wataoshi gets a 2nd season to adapt the entirely of the Revolution Arc, but I won't get my hopes up. Like I said earlier, most Yuri adaptations never get more than a season, and I would be shocked if a 2nd season was greenlit that would tackle the queer issues present in the 2nd volume of the light novel.

(Seriously, if angry hets and bigots were freaking out over the conversation about Rae being a lesbian in episode 3, they will lose their fucking minds over some of the stuff later on in the series.)

If they do make a 2nd season and adapt it without punting on the queer issues, I could definitely see I'm in Love with the Villainess being among my favorite anime. I wasn't expecting the first 2 volumes to be a self-contained story, and since I was so satisfied with the ending, I'm not in a hurry to start reading the 3rd volume (and I've heard mixed things about the 2nd part of the story).

In the meantime I've started reading the manga adaptation and I'm rewatching episodes of the anime to catch foreshadowing I missed. My wife is officially complaining that I'm almost as obsessed with it as I was G-Witch 😅

[420technoblazeit]

hello! i'd love to hear your thoughts on hazbin hotel's writing :] i really like the show, but i'm not really sure if i think it's...good? if that makes sense. so i'd love a second opinion :O

oh my god thank you so much for sending this ask bc ive been thinking about this for sooooo long ive got a lot to say about this show. picture that scene in the first episode where charlie whips out her longass pile of drawings to explain the hotel. that's me rn i have many things good and bad to say about this show. first off im gonna keep it a buck fifty with you anyone genuinely saying this show is really bad needs to watch more shows. watch supernatural season 13 or something. this was not by any stretch of the imagination a bad show for me writing-wise and even the criticisms i have here are mostly nitpicks

i actually think they did a pretty good job given the constraints they had. 8 episodes with 25 minutes each is a ridiculously small amount of time. that's less than 4 hours total to tell this whole story and develop, what, 6 main characters? and introduce major antagonists and the minor antagonists for the next season. i don't know how much they had to cut but i'm willing to bet it was a substantial amount since the show in-universe takes place over the span of 6 months. like i know everyone says this about the show but i really do feel bad that they were given such a short amount of time because it's pretty clear to me that there's a lot of passion put behind this project

i've heard a lot of people say that they have issues with the pacing of the show and i kind of agree. i think the timeline of the plot is kind of weird with episode 1 taking place 6 months from the extermination and episode 2 taking place very soon after. if i remember correctly we don't know when episodes 3 and 4 take place but episodes 5, 6, and 7 all take place back to back probably because they didn't want to shove angel, husk, and sir pentious' major character development right at the end of the series as the plot came to its climax. i think i can understand that reasoning but it does make for a very odd structure and leave the story feeling rushed near the end. i don't know what could have fixed this because having vaggie and charlie visit heaven earlier would have meant that a lot of the show had a higher sense of tension and i think that would've been worse. idk. i understand the criticism and i agree with it i just don't know what could have fixed it

the songs are banger. obviously. that's what happens when you hire half of the living tombstone to write your songs theyre just going to be sick as hell. loser, baby was my favorite and the one from dad beat dad was a close second i liked it a lot. i also think they did a great job developing all of the characters and giving them really solid character arcs with a couple exceptions, mostly alastor, niffty, and vaggie. i'll touch on that in a second. to me angel dust is the emotional core of the show and i really like him and husk. theyre my favorites ill b so sad if they get wrenched apart next season

i have some thoughts on vaggie and this comes from a place of love because i think she's an example of a really great character concept with a not-so-great execution. here's what i think. the writers seem to have a tendency of only giving vaggie big character moments that are tied to her relationship with charlie. and it bugs me a little bit. im not saying that vaggie being charlie's girlfriend has to be a smaller part of her character but every time we get a moment with her like her song in episode 3 it's about how she wants to protect charlie. as much as i love 'out for love' in episode 7 it was kind of unnecessary because we already know how devoted vaggie is to charlie. that was never called into question. for her to go to heaven, knowing that they would recognize her there as a fallen angel, just because charlie wanted her to be there really shows how much she loves her. and i think that part of episode 7 could have been better devoted to exploring the reason why she put her faith in the hotel and what charlie was doing in the first place, because she wants to believe that she can find redemption for the crimes she committed as an exorcist. i don't think they talked enough about the idea that vaggie was cast out of heaven for showing mercy to a sinner. and how this shows the very black-and-white view of morality that heaven has. i think i would like vaggie as a character more if the show stopped trying to frame her belief in the hotel as loyalty to her girlfriend and instead talked about how she's trying to find redemption herself, not in trying to get into heaven but in atoning for the many sinners she killed during the exterminations. that's a really big part of her character that i think should be touched on more often

if you follow me you already know my nitpicks about alastor. theyre problems that will almost certainly be fixed in the next season and theyre incredibly minor, i just dont like characters who seem to always inexplicably one step ahead of everyone else and above all sense of consequence. and to me this is made worse by the fact that alastor appears so often in season 1 without having any character development right next to characters like husk and angel who are going through such horrible, horrible things in their lives. and i think the longer we get alastor as a mysterious 5d chessmaster type of character without knowing his true motivations the more annoying it gets. again, nitpicks that almost certainly won't be a problem next season given the way they're setting up his character. you might not have even considered this to be a problem and think that i'm just being a fucked up little whiny bitch. lmao. it's just a personal thing. niffty i think doesn't have to have character development, as it stands she's entertaining enough by herself and i'm fine with having her run around the hotel with no discernible motivations. she's just havin fun

i think the vees are some really strong love to hate them villains. val obviously is a despicable piece of shit and im looking forward to seeing him get what's coming to him. i have no complaints in regards to them i think their moments were tied into the series very well and theyre interesting antagonists already. it's gonna be great seeing them come more into the spotlight in season 2. i will say that i think some of the time dedicated to exploring their characters could have been put towards the actual main villains of this season, heaven and the rest of the angels, but whatever. as i said before i think a lot of the major plot exposition could have been spread out. but in general i think the vees are really interesting

[sweetcloverheart]

Any idea why The Show keeps undoing/ending GabrIel victories yet in the Season 5 Finale, GabrIel wins?

Well, according to the grapevine, since the MLB airs in Brazil via Gloob and a lot of kids there whom are part of the intended target audience have parents who are currently in prison and/or have served sentences, the latter likely "requested" the former to make it so his ending was more "digestible" for them/not remind them of their current circumstances - or so I've heard.

(Edit: I've been informed that the whole "Gloob suggested Gabriel not be jailed" rumor is a result of this twitter thread from TA answering a question about Gabriel's fate, where he mentioned Gloob informing him of the above mentioned about Brazillian kids (https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1479946079634399236). According to Brazilian fans, however, this is not the case at all and seems to be the MLB crew "passing the buck" as it were as an attempt at damage control regarding the leaks/reactions over Gabriel's finale fate and are upset they're being blamed for the writing decisions made. While I won't/can't say if TA lied/is being partially truthful on the thread, it's clear the situation's a huge mess and neither Gloob nor the Brazillian MLB fandom are the main perpetrators for whatever choices were made for S5, so do approach the rumors with caution)

Finale + other Leak spoilers under the cut

But frankly, it was likely mostly because Gabriel is the main villain and they needed to keep him in the driver seat to help ramp up the "will they ever catch him" drama until it was time to hand the wheel over to whoever they picked as successor (i.e Lila in Season 6), especially if we take the claim of everything totally being planned from the get go as is. I think they also just wanted to move on from Gabemoth without having to address all the more uncomfortable "complicated" issues his existence as the main villain have created (what with being Adrien's dad and the magical slavery and what not) - hence they gave him a, quote unquote, "Pyrrhic Victory" that allowed him "punishment" (Not living to see the results of his Wish) while still rewarding him for his crimes "sacrifice" (Getting Emilie back and his image remaining unsullied in both her and Adrien's (and all of Paris's) eyes) and also making it the load-bearing weight of the new utopian Paris so that undoing it or telling Adrien anything about the truth regarding it is out of the question.

After all - only a complete and utter monster would want to undo the paradise Gabriel gave up his life to create for Marinette and everyone, *hint hint*

[scorbleeo]

Drama Review: Stay with Me (哥哥你别跑)

Source: Google Images

Su Yu, a high school student who lives a simple life with his father, faces a major change when his mother remarries a wealthy man, introducing him to his step-brother Wu Bi. Despite their initial differences, Su Yu being a cold and arrogant top student, while Wu Bi is an unreasonable underachiever, their relationship takes an unexpected turn after an accident. As they gradually warm up to each other, their bond grows stronger. However, when a heated fight arises, their true identities are revealed…

Source: MyDramaList

A Swift And Fun Time

Before we begin, I did not read the novel nor did I watch the first tv adaption. And, I am not planning to do either of that any time soon.

So, regarding Stay with Me, I really appreciated how fast-paced this show was. Honestly speaking, I would have finished it earlier if not because I was not rushing to that last episode. For a drama like this, it's actually very dramatic and if not for the fast pace, I probably might not have enjoyed it as much as I did. Although (I know what I said), because of how much was happening in those 24 episodes, the drama did feel kind of rushed as well.

I understand the events in the last episode did happen in the novel too and in it, it was around the half way mark? However, this is probably an unpopular opinion but even if the events were actually the final chapter in the book, I don't hate it. Sure, I would like an ending where the two of them end up together living their lives happily but I've been hurt by sad BL drama endings before, at least the "state of Wu Bi" was ambiguous in this.

Moving on, Wu Bi's cousin. You know, I thought I would hate this character by the end of the show but I don't. Yes, his little bun is extremely infuriating (it plays no part in anything at all except annoy the hell out of me), and he needs serious help with his possessiveness if we have to label his issue. However, forgo those flaws, he really does love Wu Bi a lot and seriously, if you look at Wu Bi objectively, this boy makes it so hard for his family to love him. I don't know what will happen to the cousin if the second season gets made but I will not be mad if he has a redemption arc. I mean...if he doesn't have one, I am fine with that too.

Last but not the least, I am still very confused with how much I like Su Yu. I guess because I'm more of a Wu Bi person, Su Yu did piss me off a couple of times. Especially when being such a smart person, he's not very smart when it comes to Wu Bi. Like think about it, if he was smarter, he would have listened to Wu Bi's warnings about his family and never go for that appointment because come on, Wu Bi or his stepfather could very well help him find another doctor and make another appointment.

At the end of the day, as much as I have some issues with Stay with Me, ultimately, I still enjoyed watching the show. I've heard that a season 2 has been confirmed so now I guess we just need to pray nothing happens to stall and/or stop production.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)

P.S.: If and when season 2 comes, we need more Han Bo Kuang scenes and because I do not know what's in the novel, I am just going to sit here and hope there's a Mao Chong-Bo Kuang pairing even if it's just bromance.

[langernameohnebedeutung]

what did you think of the izombie ending?

I thought the resolution of sticking all the zombies on a segregated island was not great, and I kinda wish blaine and don e had a better ending than just dumping them in a hole and leaving them there together, but what do you think? also if you could change the ending what you make happen instead? sorry for autismdumping izombie thoughts on you,,, have a good day !! +also sorry if you’ve already talked about this one

!! I mean, we're...I think in year 2 of my absolute hyperfixation on this show and me rambling about it so you have nothing to be sorry about!! I love talking about iZombie!! (and I don't think I've talked about the ending before bc...I only watched it one single time, went 'duly noted' and then...proceeded to care a lot more about everything that had been going on before that. So it's also that part of the show where I'm the least immersed)

(Which, in the defence of the show, isn't entirely their fault. I have a way of trying to repress the fact that my favourite shows are over by not thinking too much about the endings).

And I also know there were some budget issues, personnel issues, CW issues so I also cut the show some slack for all that stuff affecting the writing. I also think that with everything that happened since the season 3 finale and season 4 only beginning to set up New Seattle, it would definitely have taken more than season 5 to unwrap all of those plot-points in a really all-around satisfactory way. Especially since s4 also spent a significant amount of time on the whole Brother Love plot which then ended with the season finale, meaning it gives season 5 barely any material to build on BUT also stealing a lot of time they could have invested in starting to set up a satisfactory finale in s5. I heard a lot of people say that the ending was rushed ...and yeah IT WAS - but honestly, I don't see how you resolve a zombie-Seattle under the control of a mercenary army being threatened with nuclear destruction in just 12 episodes without breaking a few eggs.)

What I don't understand is that they knew they had this time problem and then...spend a lot of time introducing so many new plot points and focussing on new ideas and elements. For example, I think the whole Dead-Enders plotline was not very compelling, rushed and...I don't know, I just didn't feel particularly intrigued. Especially since it was introduced so late in the show.

Or Liv's father being Beanpole Bob - for one, I didn't really care about Liv's father up to that point bc...she never really seemed to care. I didn't even really take much notice of the fact that she didn't have a father around and it didn't feel like something we were supposed to be invested in. Honestly, up until that point, Liv didn't seem to care much about her father at all. There was no significant journey to find him, and I wished they had dedicated more time to exploring her relationships with her actual relatives and their falling-out after the season 1 finale. Maybe even really dedicate an episode just to the Moore family. Hell, give me Evan Moore as a narrator, talking about his feelings over the last few years. It would have been better if they had delved into those dynamics earlier instead of cramming them into the last season.

And perhaps this is a personal preference, but as someone who is also fatherless and okay with it, it's a bit irksome from a feminist perspective how just HAD to give us a father to Liv. It feels as though we were suddenly supposed to care deeply about the identity of our female protagonist's creator and rejoice in this revelation. Like they thought we were watching this entire show wondering desperately where Liv's father is and why she doesn't have one around. Especially since the Moore-family is very well-situated and successful and is clearly managing just fine - while the media often likes to make deadbeat dads look like a problem specific to precarious living situations. I think it would have been good to show a family that is well-off, successful without a man around and no, you don't have to ask where the father is, just be normal about it. And yes, Liv's mom is toxic in many ways - but I genuinely think that this is something that never really is resolved, for better of for worse because suddenly we have a father for Liv to care about. They spend so much time on Blaine and Angus horrible father - son dynamic that it feels a bit annoying that they never fully explored the disturbed mother - daughter dynamic between Liv and her mother.

Also, the whole twist of discovering that Liv, who became a zombie simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had no involvement in drugs or related activities, happens to have a father who was connected to the creation of the zombie virus and the Boat-Party Massacre felt just too contrived. It didn't sit well with me; it felt forced.

(sorry, I know this isn't really about the ending itself but I got carried away)

As for zombie-island - I feel like pretty much everything has already been said about the issues with that entire solution. The biggest problem I see is...with eternity. It doesn't really feel like much of a resolution to me.

Take the idea that you now have terminally ill people getting infected and living on the island. This is going to get very crowded very soon - not to mention the rise in brain demands - this would mean over time, it would really difficult to keep this place working without once again giving power to brain dealers and brain smugglers (also, again: eternity. Islands aren't exactly getting bigger these days, with the oceans rising). And if the good-will and brain donations depend on people being a lot more pro-zombie because they're helping sick people, then this sentiment can also turn sideways very quickly when they start rejecting people because they cannot feed them anymore. It would be the same problem they had in Seattle. Moods change, governments change, problems change. It feels unrealistic to me that just because there is a cure now, people are just going to be fine with this for the rest of time. (This is part of the reason why I at least made it a government secret in one of my fics)

Not to mention what it means for the main-characters. Again, this is a bit of a personal opinion but...I never really liked stagnant endings. The kind of endings that are 'well they're living in small house in the countryside now and have 5000 kids and don't work anymore'. That kind of Peter Fox Haus am See ending. Especially not if it's for all eternity. Because that's...not really a happy ending to me, unless e.g. that person was always shown to have really longed for that or maybe they spent their entire life without having peace like that. For example, Liv and Major taking care of kids together is something I enjoy because this was something they both wanted - Liv wanted kids and Major was a social worker who lost his job because of this situation. But especially Liv was always an extremely driven person - she was always in motion, always chasing that feeling of accomplishment. And a big deal in the show was her realisation that she was chasing things that weren't actually making her happy and that she wasn't doing what she did because she believed in it. She had to learn to do what she thought was right and important over what others thought was right and important. She had to learn that she wasn't taking the time to rest and look around and take in the sights and live.(In fact, one of the many things I consider zombism to be a metaphor is - at least in the early days - Liv suffering from burn-out). And the ending feels like it's going into the opposite extreme and I don't think she would be happy, spending literal eternity living in secret on an island. Like...what's going to happen to her? It still hasn't really been answered.

(don't get me wrong! I'm excited that Major apparently got to live his dream of building outdoor furniture like he said in season 1).

The problem was never that Liv WAS a driven person or active person - the problem was that she applied it to the wrong things in the wrong measures. Her drive is one of her best traits and while she certainly deserves a few decades of peace and vacation and relaxation after all the events of the last 5 years, I don't think that would work for her for the rest of eternity. What will become of her? That question still hasn't been fully answered for me. The lives of the other main characters went on. I like that - even though I'm a bit sad that their group is kind of separated now and to be back together, they also have to live in stagnation.

So yeah, this is kind of my biggest reason why I'm not over the moon enthusiastic about the ending. I'm also not like...super-angry about it but I'm also not thrilled. It just wasn't one of those endings that are brilliant, for me. It's just...an ending.

As for Blaine and Don E:

Honestly, I'm going to out myself here ... I think it's a fitting ending for them. On the one hand, I think it is intentionally a somewhat ambiguous ending. Blaine and Don E were fan-favourite characters but they were also pretty awful people AND especially Blaine also had some parts of the audience that really, really hated him - so it's a bit hard to find an ending for those two that works for everyone (and I mean, this one also clearly doesn't work for everyone).

But...the well-ending, even more so than the zombie-island ending, leaves room for speculation. Maybe they're down there for the rest of time, going Romero. (something that would be a giant fucking biohazard btw). Maybe the main gang just leaves them down there long enough to scare the shit out of them, before having someone fish them out, cure them and put them in prison. Maybe they climb out on their own (they're not weighed down like Angus was and it IS a pretty narrow well) and kill each other. Maybe they escape and play some Catch Me If You can and finally make up again. Maybe one of them kills the other and gets away, maybe they both kill each other, or maybe they were killed by the fall. The opportunities are basically endless so everyone gets to have their cake and eat it.

Another reason I'm fine with the well-ending is that I'm a bit obsessive about the symbolism of the well (I'm going to make a really long post about this one of these days and will be legally declared insane) but long story really, really short: I think the well is a symbol of how Blaine never managed to truly define himself outside of his own upbringing and trauma. Despite how much he resents Angus, he also defines his own worth by the way Angus defined his (lack of) worth as a son: Angus is all about power, selfishness, capitalism, how feelings and compassion are weak and pathetic etc. Après moi le déluge. And his entire life, Blaine ran after those values, trying to accomplish something in this framework. His efforts to do something else were very brief and dishonest (like the amnesia-thing where he tried to live a lie with Peyton).

His only idea of changing was being seen differently by others - but never to actually work on himself. He could never bring himself to commit to the idea that if his father is such a horrible person it doesn't matter if he thinks that Blaine is a failure - that it is, in fact, a badge of honour for a guy like Angus to consider him a failure. (I think this is at least partially because Angus is the only person left from Blaine's childhood. He could never even really bring himself to kill him, he just freezes him or dangles him in a well and talks to him).

Blaine never found friends of his own other than Don E, never went to therapy, he could easily have moved to a new city, found a job there, gotten married to someone or done whatever the hell he wanted with his life that WASN’T mass-murder and become a fully self-actualised person. And sure, he would probably always have carried that trauma and pain with him - but we can't change the pain we carry within us. But we can do is decide whether we're going to do something about it and grow - or whether we're always going to venerate what was done to us and try to climb into a shell to keep that from happening again. A very important aspect of Blaine's storyline was always that he felt entitled to act the way he does in order to get rich and reclaim the privilege he was born into and that he feels he's owed. And for me, the well and his relationship with it, his talking to the well, throwing his father in there (even instead of killing him!) really symbolises how much he's a prisoner of his own pain and of his own stunted self-image and that's why in the end - he ends up being devoured wholly by the well. The more unhinged he becomes, the more he becomes part of the well.

And...as for Don E - and I know this is probably the even more controversial point bc I know a lot of people wanted a redemption arc for him: As it stands, I'm also fine with him going down the well. The reason I stand with that is specifically the exchange he had with Peyton when he found out that Blaine had killed Darcy - he was absolutely fine, even amused with everything Blaine did UNTIL he learnt that it affected him this time. His response to learning that Blaine had killed some girl was literally "well we all have our hobbies". And that's really always been his thing, honestly. Yes, he did less genuinely awful things than Blaine - but he also never really spoke up against them. He was always happy to profit from Blaine's bullshit and sit on the bandwagon as long as it got him forward. So him getting the same ending even if he's not directly as bad as Blaine - I feel fine with it.

Now, mind you, I'm not entirely against Blaine and/or Don E getting a redemption arc if it had been done right (and it would have had to be done early enough). However, in Don E's case, it would have required more than just falling in love and caring deeply about another person like he did with Darcy. I think it should have required some initiative regarding something that isn't just him protecting something or avenging something or someone he cares about.

I understand that many people view Blaine as beyond redemption, but honestly, the point of no return for me would have been if he had simply become friends with the main gang, especially if someone like Peyton or another female character did all the work to fix him (as he intended with the amnesia arc). If he had shown personal growth and started establishing moral boundaries on his own at some point and chosen something like compassion or idealism or morality over profit and personal power, and if it had been handled intelligently and with care, I would have been okay with that. Nevertheless, I'm not upset or saddened that they didn't go that route, because it's a delicate matter that could have easily gone awry, and I prefer him not being redeemed over a poorly executed redemption arc that mishandles his character.

Things that I would change:

Small thing I think about a lot: I would have made Al Bronson the relative or former teacher or friend or maybe a girlfriend (I guess she's a little too old for that) of one the kids Blaine killed in season 1. I liked that he got his comeuppance for what he did to those kids and that he got outed as a child murderer but I feel like the fact that she's the niece of Mr Boss cheapens it a little. For one: Al Bronson is the one who manages what no one else previously could do - she really brought down Blaine. This would be a lot cooler if she was e.g. the sister of one of the kids from season 1. By making her Mr Boss niece, her accomplishment kind of falls onto a male character and Blaine's punishment suddenly becomes more about the gang war he started in season 2 rather than the kids he exploited in season 1. He openly admits that he killed those kids because no one was going to notice or care or investigate for long - so someone genuinely caring about them and THIS causing Blaine's fall would have been great. But now it's just...part of another scheme in the endless scheme-war these guys got goingand Mr Boss gets away with everything and doesn't receive his due punishment despite also being pretty awful.

In the grand scheme, I would have avoided introducing so many new things in the finale, like the Dead-Enders.

I wouldn't have introduced Liv's dad. I genuinely don't care about meeting Liv's dad. Instead, I would have wanted more episode with her established family.

I really didn't like that they killed Michelle

maybe an ending where the main gang is a bit closer together

and I mean, if I had all the power ever to make changes, I'd have...maybe dropped a few cases of the week in order to stretch the resolution over a few more episodes.

Heck, if I had all the powers in the world ever (and budget, I'd just have made a season 6)

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Okay, I just finished Wednesday and I have a couple of thoughts. Spoiler free (well, there's a minor one on point 4 and 11), but they're gonna be a little whiny because it's my blog after all

1. That was really good. I was so invested in it even though I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it since I'm so fed up with hetero stuff.

2. The boys are so ugly. They're supposed to be heartthrobs? The only thing throbbing is my fucking head.

3. They're SO weird with Wednesday. "I thought you liked me" why? She gives you literally no special treatment. What is wrong with you? A girl talking to you means she's interested?

4. Wednesday is so fucking adorable when she smiles. I know I just said that the guys are annoying, but her kisses with Tyler in episode 7 are so fucking cute. When she tilts her head to kiss him? Adorable. Her smile after her second kiss with him? JESUS, bro. Her facial expression and eyes make me want to hug her

5. I'm so sick of hetero crap lmao. Enid is right fucking there. They're parallels of each other. But noooo, we gotta have hetero shit.

6. I'm a little annoyed they threw in "who's the lucky guy... Or girl?" I don't understand why shows do that? I can't quite articulate my thoughts, but supergirl also did the same thing with that one guy being like "oh my god you're a lesbian" when he got Kara on the roof. Kara wasn't a lesbian. She wasn't even bi. Wednesday isn't a lesbian or bi. WHY do shows throw that shit in? It's so odd, and it feels like they want inclusivity points, but... You don't get to claim inclusivity while not making your story inclusive? It's not inclusive to insinuate Wednesday likes girls just to then have her NOT like girls 😭.

7. Enid is so fucking adorable. I feel like I've met girls like her before. She's (literally) a puppy. I love her. She deserves better than some ridiculous boy.

8. It should've been gay. I'm kinda sad it's not. I really am SO tired of heterosexuality. It's so boring, and it's gross for me to watch girls making out with boys. Especially when the boys aren't even good characters lmao. At least develop them.

9. It's annoying that I know wenclair is likely never going to be canon. However, it wouldn't be NEARLY as annoying if the network and the actors weren't doing that annoying thing where they pretend like it's TOTALLY there even though the writers have literally no intention of ever pursuing it.

10. All in all a great show I recommend despite the annoying straight shit. Ten out of ten. It was an enthralling mystery show tbh. The last 2 episodes held moments where I questioned if Wednesday was the good guy. Like, that's fucking amazing and I was actually filled with dread and felt a little uncomfortable watching because of what Wednesday was doing.

11. Why has no one brought up that Tyler was groomed? Laurel was doing some weird inappropriate shit with him and I was so shocked to see it because I hadn't heard it talked about. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but Christ. That just makes the show darker.

12. Excited for season 2 if there is one.

13. The whole mommy issues thing was SO good. I loved it. It felt realistic. That being said, I love that Wednesday and Morticia's relationship didn't feel abusive. They just felt like different people.

I'll probably write more on this as this show settles. I finished it only 20 minutes ago so 😭

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5: Season 1 Wrap-Up

s01 Table of Contents • previous episode: s01e22

OK, so I was mildly spoiled. When I was watching the end of s01's two parter, I looked up Michael O'Hare to see how tall he was and saw that he left B5 at the end of S01 and realized I'd heard of this before, roughly at the time JMS announced O'Hare's mental health struggles after his death. Just didn't lock it into the ole memory storage because B5 wasn't really on my radar in 2012.

This has kinda overshadowed my other thoughts about S01, because I am extremely sad that Jeffrey Sinclair won't continue to be the Commander. I am so so sad. I will have to manufacture my own frothing now! No more unbearably affectionate looks between Delenn and Sinclair! Augh. Maybe my heart will be overfilled during his guest appearances. RIP Michael o'Hare, I look forward to seeing you again in S02 and S03.

Other thoughts! There's a hole in Jeffrey Sinclair's mind and I am very excited to see how any of that shakes out.

The Minbari continue to be my favorite culture that I want to know the most about. Every character that appears, I love. I am still hoping to see more of Shaal Mayan, and don't know that I'll forgive the writers for having characters say she was coming back and then not show her! I still want to hear a poem by her. I don't really have any hopes of seeing more of Draal. It seems like they've locked him into the planet for good, and he didn't give Delenn a visitor's pass that I'm aware of. I do want to see more of the warrior Minbari, and have enjoyed the glimpses I got so far!

I have many questions. How long do Minbari live? Will Londo really die with his hands around G'Kar's throat? What are the aims of the Grey Council, or are there many aims? When does Delenn grow some hair? Why does Delenn grow some hair? Is she going to pop out of her chrysalis fully changed into later-stage Delenn? Is Susan Ivanova a telepath? Is Talia Winters telekinetic? Will Susan and Talia ever be on screen together again?! (I am dyyyyying) Will Jason Ironheart pop back up? (god I hope so, just for the CGI floating incorporeality) How often does G'Kar cook animals whole and then bite their snoots off? Will we ever see a drunk Lennier? Will we get to know any of the militant Minbari? I believe we've only spent significant time with Minbari from the religious caste so far.

Overall I am excited for the plotty goodness I've been promised. Character development! I want it.

S01 brought up healing and panaceas repeatedly. Will we see a return of the theme, and if so, will it be Big Plot important? Is Laura going to pop back up? How's Dr Franklin/Janice doing? There was no follow-up!

S01 was also heavily about social issues, particularly the slow-to-rapid march of facism taking over a society and government. I expect those themes to continue as well!

BESTER MY GUY. I need more PsiCorps dirt and plot, and thankfully I have been reassured that Walter Koenig will be back.

Talia. I want to see more of Talia. And a little less whump. She was s01's emotional punching bag! She had no happy episodes that I can recall! Just PsiTrauma after PsiTrauma with a few little sides of neutral episodes.

Garibaldi was very eeeeeuuuughhhhh my dude, go to therapy. Hopefully they address his police brutality. He did way too much assaulting civilians and overuse of force during arrests, like WAY too much. He is currently only a leeeeetle likeable. Like, barely more than Londo and that's 100% due to how gross I find Londo's *waves hands* you know. Everything sleazy.

Londo and G'Kar I'm fine with learning more about at the rate we have been already. Vir, I don't really care about. I am much more interested in G'Kar's aide, Na'Toth. (had to check real quick if she was Na'Toth or Ko D'ath and was startled to see that apparently Ko D'ath died and I either missed it or forgot) It'll be interesting to see if there's more Narn and Centauri intrigue! So far we've been set up to see human/Minbari intrigue as the leading plotlines.

I absolutely loved all the little moments when aliens were getting human things extremely wrong. Off the top of my head - the Hokey Pokey being humanity’s lullaby of choice, and Londo and Vir deciding that cats are the earth animals with beaks and webbed feet. “It’s like being nibbled to death by cats!”

Londo + G’Kar interactions have ever and always been a delight. I also loved Sinclair + Ivanova and Sinclair + Delenn with equal but very different passions. Susan/Talia - duh. I’m obsessed. Lennier + absolutely anyone was always precious, and I hope for more of those.

Worldbuilding has been utterly intriguing and I want more of that. Every bit I get makes me theorize and wonder. For example, I ranked the powers present on B5 with considerations taken for: military might; soft power; technological advancement. - Minbari (they get the top spot due to soft power) - Vorlon (they clearly have the technological edge over the Minbari but have zero soft power) - Centauri (idk why it seems like they have more likeability to in-universe folks since I like the Narns SO SO much more, but there ya have it.) - Narn (I like them SO much more than the Centauri, but considering their diplomatic stand-off with the aforementioned and history of being nerfed by them, I narrowly put them closer to the bottom. Plus they don’t have any  telepaths/telekinetics which would have to make a difference.) - Humans (I assumed the Top Powers were more or less being polite to humans by being relatively chill on their space station, but after Morden That Fucking Fae Asshole destroyed the Narnuan outpost and G’Kar listed humans as one of the races who could have done it, I am really wondering how accurate my perception is.) - the League (they don’t even get their own ambassador with equal powers to the top four so they’re clearly at the bottom of the pecking order).

I do want to know what happens with the future war, but I feel like it must be connected to Morden (ugh) and the powerful beings he’s associated with. And since I dislike him so, I hope the shadows n such can have some plot without him involved.

My top 5 episodes are (in chronological order) s01e01: Midnight on the Firing Line - this episode did a wonderful job setting things up, making me interested in the show, and set my queer heart fucking ablaze with Susan/Talia. I am particularly impressed with it, since I was both extremely high on a pain med it has later turned out I actually metabolize very weirdly so I was WAY high on it and I still managed to follow it and be into the show. and b.) didn’t have my favorite character from the Gathering in it but still made me love her replacement.

s01e06: Mind War - Fascinating eldritch beings, more Catherine, G’Kar showing he has many facets to his character, Water Koenig, PsiCorps dirt, and the absolute gloriousness that was the CGI portraying Jason Ironheart ascending to another state of being. What’s not to love? 

s01e13: By Any Means Necessary - I LOVED THIS EPISODE. It had prime Londo/G’Kar bickering, while minimal Londo sleaziness. It had Union power, Ms Connelly, Susan Ivanova out-bellowing a room full of people, and some of Sinclair’s best use of his superpower: SuperPedantry. Also had the most satisfying-to-hate villain, that union-buster, who I hope shows up again just long enough for Neeoma Connelly to kick his balls in.

s01e21: Legacies - I really enjoyed seeing a bit of Narnuan and Minbari culture through Alisa’s eyes. I absolutely adored Talia and Susan flirt-fighting throughout. Delenn manipulating her way through this episode was fantastic (we’ve seen a lot of her scheming, but mostly in little drips and drabs on the way to the finale! Loved seeing some of her work from start to finish). I was delighted by Na’Toth popping in and out. This was an episode I didn’t want to end.

s01e22: Chrysalis - Gotta be honest, I struggled with whether to put this or The War Prayer or the Sky Full of Stars. Chrysalis won out, because I realized I was comparing it against each of the other two, and not the other two against each other. Those were both excellent episodes and you can consider them to be runners-up to my favorites list! Chrysalis did a phenomenal job of ramping the tension up throughout the episode. I was legitimately furious that I was too tired to click through and watch s02e01. I was entranced and gripped the entire way through. Too much went on for me to feel like I can adequately summarize my favorite points, and it’s also the only episode I want to re-watch before I finish the entire show.

To be clear, these are my personal favorites based solely on how much I recall having enjoyed watching them, and I was post-op and heavily drugged and/or about to fall asleep for quite a bit of - if not most of - season 1. I leave arguments about artistic merits and enduring cultural impact to others!

I will leave you with these B5 S01 articles of clothing I coveted. It's not quite enough to make an outfit, and consists mostly of tops. May S02 bring many cool trousers.

next episode: s02e01

[evilwickedme]

What do all the terms mean? Like what's a tradeback? And any related words you can think of, I know I've heard a lot that I don't know what they mean but I don't remember them right now

hey for sure!

(the images are just random ones I found on google to demonstrate)

basically when it comes to comics they can come in lots of different forms, and the terms can overlap and be a little confusing.

the original way to get a comic - well, aside from the funny pages in a newspaper - is a single issue. between say 20 to 25 pages, more if it's a special issue like a pride collection, with ads taking up a few pages in the middle. Supposed to tell a full story from beginning to end, although it might tie into the issue before or after.

a trade - or trade paperback, or trade hardback, sometimes shortened to a tradeback - is a collected edition of a number of single issues, reprinted in usually chronological order, to tell a slightly larger stories. usually if you go to a comic book store and pick a book up that actually resembles a book, it's going to be a trade of some kind. most trades getting published nowadays have around 5-6 issues, but sometimes you'll see a trade of significantly larger chunks, especially for classic stories, for maxi series*, if a run is short and you might as well, for an Event(tm) that would be too difficult to read otherwise, or for things published for the express purpose of becoming a graphic novel.

*where a mini series is a pre-planned limited series that is usually between 4 and 6 issues, a maxi series is a pre-planned limited series that's a little bit longer, like 10 or 12 issues

examples off my shelves for slightly larger trades include watchmen (express purpose of becoming a graphic novel); deadpool by kelly thompson (the whole run is ten issues, so might as well); the death of superman (a classic story); spider-verse (an Event); and batman: the long halloween (a maxi series).

trades are usually paperback, although there will sometimes be limited hardback releases for various reasons, such as it being a collector's edition. for some reason my trades of angel: after the fall are hardback, which I didn't expect till they showed up.

for marvel, regular trades for series are printed with the numbers on the bottom of the spine, so you can collect them and not have any doubles; as such as I have Alias volume 1 through 4, easy peasy. dc is weird about this, and sometimes prints them on the side, sometimes on the back, and sometimes you just have to look inside for which issues are being reprinted. it's a nightmare and I don't understand it.

aside from single issues and trades there are also omnibuses, which are just REALLY BIG trades, to be honest. these things are massive, and technically will get you the most bang for your buck - but it's a big upfront expense. they're higher quality than your normal trade (or at least are supposed to be), they're printed on slightly bigger paper so they're easier to read, and also, at least for all of my hardcover omnis, they're actually sewn, which anybody who's ever talked to me knows is a rarity in today's hardback book market, but makes sense because it reduces the strain on the spine. these things aren't printed for just everything. one of the omnis I have is the gwenpool omnibus, which includes all her main titles and most of her appearances to date - that's not nothing! depending on the omni and how long the issues were, this thing can contain several dozen issues, all in one place.

there is such a thing as a paperback omni, but they're rare, and in my opinion, stupid. I have a collected edition of half of season eight of buffy that's supposedly an omni (it says it on the cover at least), and it's literally half the size of the original comics (instead of being a little bit bigger) and it's still falling apart.

generally, if you're reading an ongoing run, you're either going to be following the single issues or the trades - at least for marvel, who publish the trades in a timely manner; dc is, again, fucking weird about trades, and I would love to pick their brains on why they think it's okay to take six months to a year to maybe print a trade, when for marvel it's on the shelf the next month, guaranteed.

thanks for asking and I hope this helps!

[crimsonbreeze]

I recently finished watching Suits for the first time.

I know I'm late to the party but it just never seemed like the kind of thing I would be into while it was airing so I never bothered to watch it. Even this time around when I started it, I went in expecting to find it boring and/or annoying and not even get through the first episode. I don't think I've ever been more wrong about how I would feel about a piece of media lol. I LOVED it. Couldn't get enough. Zipped through the first three seasons.

Aaand then it all started to go downhill from there. I'd already heard that the show really took a downturn later on but that's the case with most long running shows so I didn't think too much of it. But this feels different from other shows.

The plotlines just got more and more ridiculous with every season. The way the characters would react in certain situations that just seemed so OOC, the way they kept wrapping up storylines that left me with a complete lack of any closure (not all of them but a bunch of them). I mean that happens in other shows too but in those cases, I feel like it's usually because it seems like most shows have run out of story to tell. With Suits, they had plenty more story to tell but they didn't focus on expanding what they already had and instead kept trying to bring in new angles and plots while they left other stuff hanging in the balance and I just can't understand why??? SO much wasted potential....

Read about my stupid complaints under the cut. Or don't I just needed to vent a little. I'm gonna go search for gifs of my favorite scenes and rewatch the show now lol.

1.I feel like Mike needed an arc where he was in therapy (no not those five minute conversations he had with the prison social worker). Seriously Mike had a lot of unresolved issues that I don't think he ever worked through.

2. The weird "No homo bro" thing the show kept doing with Mike and Harvey. They're not gay. We get it. Just let them be supportive of each other and be loyal to each other the way they were in the earlier seasons. The weird one sided way Harvey was always missing Mike in the later seasons really soured their relationship for me which sucks cause they were what got me hooked on the show in the first place.

3. I really don't like what they did with Harvey in the later seasons. He comes off as helpless and weak far too often. Constantly asking people for favors and needing other people to come up with ideas to get him out a problem. Too often, I found myself missing the Harvey Specter that would solve other peoples problems.

4. The extremely unsatisfying way that Harvey and Donna finally got together. They're story was done so poorly that even though it was obvious they were meant to end up together, by the time it happened, all I could feel towards the ship was irritation. After all those weird moments and pseudo love confessions, their relationship just comes off mentally codependent in a really unhealthy way. Particularly in contrast to how well Mike and Rachel's story was done. They managed to salvage it with some nice scenes in the last season but it just felt like too little too late.

5. In the earlier seasons they made a point to show that Harvey might dabble in the grey area but that he had integrity and had lines he wouldn't cross. Him hiring Mike was supposed to be something of an exception. By the end of the series, Harvey and most of the other characters are doing illegal things on pretty much every case. I mean really, Faye proved to be a pretty bad person as season 9 went on but they all hated her from the getgo just because she wanted to make sure they weren't breaking the law.

6. Lastly, I waited nine freaking season for a flashback scene of Harvey in the mailroom. I wanted an episode of when Harvey met Jessica. Seriously why did we never get that? After all the snide comments multiple people made to Jessica about the mailroom boy... How did Harvey end up as a mail clerk in a law firm in the first place? We see he has a degree from NYU so what happened? I need to know. Jessica paid for Harvey to go to law school but was that her idea or his? What made Harvey want to be a lawyer in the first place? Could he not get a job after college? Was he still in college and working at the firm part time? What made Jessica choose Harvey? Cause she sticks with him until the end the exact way Harvey sticks with Mike. How did their bond begin? This is the mystery that gets to me so much more than the can opener and I will be forever bitter that I never got this backstory.

Anyways, TLDR: I am obsessed with this show and even after nine seasons, I need more and am sad that I can't have any.

[calliecat93]

Alright, first chapter down. I'm not gonna do reviews this year but this was a really good start. We got Team RWBY reunited, and I'm glad we went ahead and got that done. We already did 'Team RWBY apart' back in Volumes 4 and 5 and kind of V8, we didn't need it again. The mice are adorable and OMG Little is voiced by Luci Christian. So that's her third time voicing in the show IIRC. The voice acting was excellent and IDT I've EVER heard Lindsay that bleak in their delivery as Ruby. Damn all four of the VA's have come so far.

Probably my only gripe is not seeing Jaune, but that's not a serious issue. I have so many questions and thoughts and worries, especially after the opening. IDK where it ranks yet and I'm still sad that Jeff has left even if Casey is in charge now, but it's still as awesome as I'd expect, and dear Lord it's not helping with my concerns. I've been waiting for this for so long. Not even counting the near two-year hiatus, I have been waiting for this particular development and storyline for Ruby since at least Volume 4. And now that it's here... yeah I take it back! GIVE ME BACK THE HAPPY PLEASE!

Overall, we have a good start. Not gonna lie, I'm glad that it looks like it's going to be a mainly Team RWBY-centric season. I love Ren, Nora, Oscar, Winter, etc but I REALLY miss just having these four together. They really haven't since... what? Volume 3 more or less? And I feel like we're going to get a LOT of payoffs for a lot of things. Despite how much I've soured on RT, I really want the volume to do well for the sake of the show. But at the very least V9 will hopefully be worth the wait. It looks promising so far, how will the other nine chapters hold up? We shall see.

[echo-bleu]

Tell me about your What You Hear Is Not Silence (mute!Jaskier) fic

azsdfghhgfdf my beloved (that I need to get back to writing ASAP 😅)

So it's a series of shorter fics, the first one is posted already here. Jaskier permanently loses his voice after the djinn, and he has to rebuild himself as something else than a bard...

I have started at least 5 other fics set at different times through season 1 and 2. As this AU mostly parallels canon through the end of season 2, it's pretty easy to jump back and forth in time.

The second part of the series, though, since we left Jaskier off in a pretty bad place, is his crawling back up to the light, so to say. He goes back to Oxenfurt, finds a community and learns sign language. I've been stuck on that for a while now, but I'm hoping to finish it soon.

Among the other parts I have started:

Jaskier and Yennefer, from Rinde to Oxenfurt (or: somewhere along the way, they've become friends, but fuck them if they know how)

Post mountain, Jaskier goes to Cintra (or: Jaskier and Ciri become besties, unbeknownst to anyone else)

Becoming the Sandpiper (somehow, their little sign language group becomes a resistance network)

Prison blues, and a reunion

Post season 2, there is a lot of trauma going around

And the parts I have planned but not started:

Jaskier and Geralt, from Rinde to the mountain (guilt is a heavy weight)

Jaskier meets Eskel, sometime after the mountain

And here's a little snippet of part 2:

“Julian, I remember the lazy and cocky student who somehow got top marks in every examination while barely showing up to classes. You have plenty more to offer the world, even without your singing.”

Jaskier looks away. This isn’t the reassurance it’s meant to be. How is he supposed to use any of his knowledge, if his thoughts are stuck in his head, with no way to express them?

Communication is an issue, he writes, forcing himself out of the daze of grief threatening to claim him again.

“I don’t know how you can be so smart and yet so dense,” his professor chuckles, and Jaskier looks up sharply. “Speech isn’t the only way to communicate. What time is it?”

Jaskier holds up four fingers, the last bell he heard.

“Right. Come with me then. There’s some people you should meet.”

Ask me about my WIPs!

[space-blue]

Have you heard of the LOL/ Arcane theory popular on Twitter right now that Vi so far has been coded as a... wife-beater for a lack of a better term? What's your opinion on this? Do you feel there's any room created by the narrative to consider this?

Yeah ok that's a rough one… Might lose some followers over this lol

I stay far and away from "twitter fandom drama". I don't think the limited word count is very conducive to productive dialogue. Here? Sure. I can write an essay on silly meta and my silly mutuals (affectionate) will actually read it and even reply. So no, I use twitter to reblog art and post some of my own for Arcane, but I'm almost never on it and not interested in whatever "Arcane Twitter" has to chirp. I was completely unaware of this nonsense.

Now, to answer you…

WHERE? Where is the proof? The textual, in the show, screenshot to screenshot proof that Vi is even remotely "coded" as a "wife-beater"? Do the little birds provide it? [this is a rhetorical question, don't feel the need to provide links, I've lost as much brain power on this theory as I'm willing to]

Is it that clip I've used myself, that hints at Vi hitting Powder in the Enemy video? Has like… none of them gotten mean to your siblings when they drove you mad? Did they all have golden childhoods? Vi sure didn't. She's an orphan at this stage, just moved in with a man whose nickname is the Hound, who she just saw cave someone's head in with his fists. Her younger sister is basically her daughter, and she's already shown signs of mental illness, probably from before the bridge.

Vi, as a kid, is incredibly disadvantaged. She's dirt fucking poor, her role model rules their criminal underground with his fists, and her sister/daughter/ward is a chronic problem-maker with mental issues and probably her own boatload of trauma. I mean, they both walked into an actual charnel, amid dozens of dead bodies, to find their own dead mom (and presumably, dad?). As preteens!!

I think, by and large, we can cut Vi some slack for hitting Powder. The Enemy video hints she pushed her to the ground. Is that the wife beating coding? I see nothing else. And if that's in, then it's actual bollocks.

Meanwhile, do you know what you get if you type "What Profession Has The Highest Rate Of Domestic Violence?" in google? Yeah, that's right. Non-Fictional Enforcers

A couple between a victim who was falsely imprisoned for 5-to-10 years and is trauma ridden by the way her entire life was shaped by systemic injustice, and a cop… Who has the highest percentage chance of beating who? As you may have guessed, I'm not a big fan of Caitvi as a season 1 ship.

There is NO evidence in the show that Vi would be a wife beater. Slapping your sister for murdering your entire family in a moment of blind sorrow and rage isn't the same as being an abuser. Worse, the show takes insane pains to showcase Vi as being basically the same in act II and III as in act I.

They make such an effort to make her seem to still have that "good heart" of hers. She is precipitated into a relationship with an enforcer mere days after she's let out of prison. It's completely unrealistic. The show is ready to bend itself into a pretzel to tell us that Vi is fine, and she is SO kind actually that she will let one cute enforcer prove to her that her prejudices are wrong! uwu

Do you have any idea what 6+ years in a jail would be like, as a complete innocent, being beaten so many times the warden forgets? And please, it's a mixed prison too, since she's in there with Mek? The show bails out of making Vi as dark and traumatised as she ought to be, by all rights.

The show chickens out of taking the time to make Vi scary. To make her hate and distrust Caitlyn, who is the pretty face of oppression, who didn't even think to release her on her own after finding she was wrongfully imprisoned, and instead needed to be threatened.

They unrealistically sped up their relationship because they wanted the fandom working its teeth on their lesbian romance like a chew toy all the way to season 2.

So no, in my blunt, honest opinion, there's no "coding" for Vi being a wife beater. She's "coded" as an unrealistic goodie who came out of prison emotionally stunted, stuck in her 15 yo self, refusing to see reason when it slaps her in the face—but very ready to see how pretty the enforcer lady is—and otherwise unaffected. She's cool, she's strong, she loves her sister, she's so kind she won't even make a convincing effort at hating Cait… but she lets her ruin things between her and Jinx. Vi suffers the most in act II and III, characterisation wise.

I find it incredibly frustrating because building actual earned trust between Cait and Vi is not actually that hard. There's a few changes to be done in the way they interact, especially early on, and it becomes so much more convincing.

Worse regarding this theory, the one Arcane writer who has been… oversharing… her headcanons, is Amanda, the Caitvi bandwagon driver. You think Riot would let her hype Caitvi as a cute ship for season 2, only to tear them apart with domestic violence?? It'd be like strangling the golden goose. And after they went and took out all the police brutality lines from Vi's LoL character too! No chance.

People who speculate that Vi would hit Cait or be a wifebeater are probably projecting what they want to see and calling it "X-coded" because it makes them sound serious. The doctor's prescription is a whole day at the park touching the grass, and then a whole month watching quality essays on media literacy and analysis.

[mayasdeluca]

Do you think season 5 is the worst season? I think it is BY FAR

I think it has to be for 5B alone. We all know how bad it was and have went over it numerous times. It wasn't really great for any of the other characters either. I did enjoy some stuff in 5A though. 5x07 is obviously an all time favorite and I liked some of the Marina stuff in the beginning. The 5x01 hug, the 5x02 scenes (although angsty I thought we pretty well done) and the conversation at the end of 5x03 and then the cuteness after the engine ride in was really good stuff and then the opening scene in 5x05. But yeah there wasn't really any good storylines or character development.

I do think that the people who die on the hill that the 'earlier seasons were so much better' over exaggerate that point though and it's really not true. Like sure the calls were better and there was actually more fire action and all that but from what I've heard since I wasn't watching Season 1 and 2 live at the time, the ratings were not great, they didn't have nearly as much engagement or fan interaction as they do now and the show was practically on the verge of being cancelled, so clearly it wasn't as great as people make it out to be. Season 2 had some good stuff but hypothetically speaking if Krista never took over and those storylines were continued forward and considered to be the main storylines that they decided to base the show around for future seasons? I just don't see the show lasting very long but maybe that's the bias in me and not liking Maya & Jack one bit lol

I think these same people underestimate how good Season 3 and 4 were and Season 6 was pretty strong overall too. Obviously the show still has its issues (the main one being the sexism in the writing and the show's obsession with men and having them constantly play hero and victim all the time) but I still think they've done some good things in the later seasons with the exception of Season 5 and if they focused less on the men and more on the female dynamics and have them act like a family more and be there for each other there's no reason it couldn't still do well.