#TO BE FAIR i did mention that i cried after episodes 1 2 3 5 and 7

[saintborland]

Hello my love! I am here to let you know I will be suing you for emotional damages. You were the reason I decided to watch the last of us and I just finished the last episode.

I will not recover

hehehe

[jaarimasheng]

My Favorite Grey’s Anatomy Characters (FEMALE)

I vaguely remember hearing my mom talk about Grey’s Anatomy when I was young. I then thought about it as an “adult show” (not in the pg18 sense, but like the shows that adults watch), so when Netflix put the show up, I decided to give it a try. The least I expected out of this show was to get attached to the characters and the show itself. But then it gives me so many emotions every time I watch. I have cried, laughed and fell in love again and again. 11 seasons in, and here I am, dedicating a whole blog post (AND MORE TO COME) to the show.

Not only that but the show showcases some of the strongest female characters in television history. They featured women with tragic and very traumatic backstories, and turned them into very inspiring ones.    ⁽ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵒˢᵗ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵃᶦⁿˢ ˢᵖᵒᶦˡᵉʳˢ ᵉˢᵖ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵒˢᵉ ʷʰᵒ ʰᵃᵛᵉⁿ'ᵗ ʷᵃᵗᶜʰᵉᵈ ᵃⁿʸ ᵉᵖᶦˢᵒᵈᵉˢ ʸᵉᵗ⁾

1. 𝓜𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓖𝓻𝓮𝔂

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

Who doesn’t love a heavily traumatized lead character? Merdith Grey is not only a badass for overcoming her traumas despite ignoring them for years, but she’s also a badass for taking them as her life lessons and learning from her past mistakes. 

Some of Meredith’s traumas:

She unknowingly has seen her mom with her lover (at such a young age)

Saw how ruined her mom got when both her marriage and the extra marital relationship didn’t work out

Suffered the consequences of her mom's ambitious nature

She had to live with her mom’s expectations and had to live in her shadow after following her footsteps

Became a mistress without knowing and was humiliated by Derek’s wife

Has seen her friends on the deathbed

Almost got herself killed a couple of times

Suffered from miscarriage

Got cheated on

Lost her sister on a plane crash she was also in

ABANDONMENT! Literally almost everyone she loved has moved away or died

And many more. But then, she kept going. She proved her mom wrong. She proved her traumas wrong. She went on to build a happy family despite coming from a very broken one. She has forgiven people who did her wrong so many times. She took on the career that had stolen her mom and her childhood away, (and she’s rocking it). She became the mom she never had to her kids and the wife her mom never was. She has done it all with her humility intact.  She’s literally an icon of being a bad bxtch: a badass, tough, and classy queen. 

“𝐹𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓋𝒾𝓉𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒, 𝓊𝓃𝒶𝓋𝑜𝒾𝒹𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓃𝑜 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝓈𝓌𝑒𝓇, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉’𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒩𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃. 𝒩𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓊𝓅. 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅. 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉.”- Meredith Grey, Season 10 Episode 12

2. 𝓛𝓮𝔁𝓲𝓮 𝓖𝓻𝓮𝔂

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

Being raised as an only child, I couldn’t really blame Meredith for reacting the way she did when she first met Lexie. Not to mention she started off as someone who **almost flirted with Derek when he was being unstable with Mer. She isn’t Meredith’s only sister, but they share the same dream and passion: medicine. She was known among the residents as “Lexipedia” because of her photographic memory. Not only am I very much attracted to intelligent characters, but Lexie was also quirky and funny. She easily forgave Meredith and tried her best to understand her. They were able to work past their issues and be the best sister duo in the show, and Derek’s best neuro student. She’s someone who’s filled with so much love, and therefore gave as much love as she had in her. 

At first, I couldn’t understand why she decided to let go of Mark instead of being open for discussion with him in regards to Mark’s children. they were literally perfect for each other and seeing her evade the topic on hand was somehow disappointing. But then, I remember her talking about being young and not being able to accept being a grandma. And it was something she had to accept even though Mark didn’t ask for her to. Because it was a part of who Mark was. And like she mentioned on the show, it’s not something someone so young can process right away. She needed time. Realizing how much she loved Mark and how ready she is to take it all in, she got brave and was ready to try again. I miss seeing her on the show. I wish her and Mark got their happy ending together.  “𝐼𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝓈 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝓏𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒.” - Lexie Grey, Season 7 Episode 16

3. 𝓐𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓜𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓰𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓻𝔂

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

Derek’s legal wife and someone who made sure Meredith knew where she should be standing especially in Derek Shepherd’s life. Other than getting tired of her husband’s passive aggressiveness especially after she cheated on him with his bestfriend, Grey’s Anatomy didn’t show us Addison’s back story much. However, her character made such an impact. She remained classy: she worked with her ex-husband and his “mistress”, and tried her hardest to keep things professional, acknowledged her mistakes which caused her marriage demise and gracefully moved on. I think I’ll be watching Private Practice as well because of her. 

“𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒶 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓊𝓅 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔.”- Addison Montgomery

4. 𝓒𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓪 𝓨𝓪𝓷𝓰

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

We all need a bestfriend that brings us back to the ground when we’ve flown too high, who understands us more than we probably understand ourselves, who won’t judge us based on the decisions we make but won’t also hesitate to correct us when we’re taking the wrong way. We all need someone we can call our other half: our person. Meredith was lucky to have Cristina, and Cristina with Meredith. They started seeing each other as rivals, but grew to love each other more than like sisters. Both are strong, goal oriented, smart and gorgeous. Their opinions may clash at times, they’ve gone through countless misunderstandings, but things will always work out between them because they’re each other’s persons. She proved herself to be a main character on her own. Definitely not your “asian sidekick”.  To some, Cristina may come off as arrogant, obnoxious and a know-it-all. But she’s like that because she has always walked her talk. She knows her capabilities and she’ll stop at nothing for the sake of improvement and expanding her knowledge. She’s an independent woman who tends to forget how much of a bad bitch she is at times, but before things get out of hand she goes right back to her self. 

“𝐻𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝑒. 𝐵𝑒 𝓊𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅𝓅𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒. 𝐵𝑒 𝒶 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒. 𝐵𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒶 𝒹𝒶𝓂𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝓈. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜 𝓉𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, 𝓃𝑜 𝒷𝓊𝒹𝒹𝒾𝑒𝓈. 𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑜𝓌𝓃. 𝐵𝑒 𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑜𝓌𝓃.”- Cristina Yang, Season 4 Episode 15

“𝒟𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝑒𝒸𝓁𝒾𝓅𝓈𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹. 𝐻𝑒'𝓈 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓎, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓃. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒.” - Cristina Yang, Season 10 Episode 24

5. 𝓐𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓵 𝓚𝓮𝓹𝓷𝓮𝓻

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

She started off to be annoying, especially with the Mercy-Westers trying to “replace” our OG residents in Seattle Grace. With her unnecessarily high pitched voice and her obsession with faith, I did have a hard time watching her at first. Not to mention her clumsiness that almost cost the other residents’ job. However, not loving April Kepner is impossible. She grows on you, with her amazing character development.

She’s sweet, funny and kind. And she never forces her religion to other people, instead she inspires others using it. She proves that her charming appearance hides a charismatic strong and opinionated woman who never backs down especially when she knows she’s right. She never lets other people influence her decision and she sticks by with what she believes is the best. It’s also right to mention how well she manages the ER and how amazing of a trauma surgeon she is. She has her fair share of wrong decisions, a fair amount of people she has hurt, but that didn’t hinder her from giving the love inside of her around. She’s an amazing surgeon, an awesome friend and a very inspiring woman.

“𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝒻 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓍𝑒𝒹, 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓀𝑒𝓃.”- April Kepner, Season 12 Episode 11

An honorable mention to this list: 𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓑𝓻𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓼

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

Mousey! My favorite post plane crash intern. She was more of a background character, but she was too cute not to notice. Not to mention she’s always been quirky, weird and pure. She rarely spoke bad against her attendings and her co-intern and Derek Shepherd treasured her so much. She could’ve been an amazing neurosurgeon. 

AND THAT CONCLUDES this list (so far) I have 8 more seasons to catch up on and maybe someday, I’ll be able to edit and add more on to the list. Currently, Amelia and Jo are growing on me. Arizona has disappointed me so many times, Callie is starting to annoy me, Bailey is becoming less of a teacher like she’s always been and I’ve just started knowing Maggie Pierce, hence I didn’t include them. I can’t wait to write more about Grey’s. Weirdly enough, it has been my pandemic comfort show-- along with The Twilight Saga.

UPDATE ON THIS LIST: I have finally finished the 15 seasons in Netflix (still waiting for the last 2 seasons I AM BEGGING NETFLIX TO PLS UPLOAD IT NOW) and I have another addition on the list.

7. 𝓐𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓪 𝓢𝓱𝓮𝓹𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓭

ᵖᶦᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵖᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗ

She’s known as the Shepherds’ trouble child, a black sheep, the disturbed daughter. However, I believe we can all agree that Amelia is an amazing woman who’s misunderstood because of her unresolved childhood trauma, abandonment and daddy issues. Aside from her wit and skills as a neurosurgeon, I think she’s a great teacher and an awesome friend. She wasn’t the best wife to Owen, but I think she knows that she did her best. I have yet to see how her story with Linc unfolds but let me just put how amazing she is out here.

She has the funniest dark jokes and seeing her around is just a joy. Her sisters are truly missing out by shutting her out.

[castielsangel-blade]

So it's taken me a bit of time to get my thoughts in order on the finale and, of course, I did not like it. In fact, it left me with more questions than answers and not in good way that stories sometimes do. This was just... not good.

Below, I'm going to list some reasons why I didn't enjoy it. But, as an aside, if you did like it, then I'm glad! I'm happy you're not hurting about it!

So, the episode starts off kinda, y'know, happy-ish. It's a little uneasy because we have no idea where it's going, or what they're gonna do. Sam's on his run, Dean's waking up, and Miracle jumps on his bed. It's nice. But they only show the brothers, which leads me to my first reason.

1. Eileen isn't there. In fact, no one is.

Eileen was Sam's established love interest, so, surely, we should see her or at least hear her mentioned considering she got dusted off-screen in the previous episode. And Sam's a very caring person, he would definitely go check up on her but we got nothing. No mentioned in passing, no picture in his room, no glance at his phone screen to see a message from her. Just... nothing.

After they're all ready for their day, Sam sits across Dean and Miracle in the library and asks if he found anything. It turns out to be a pie festival or some shit and that shows us that Dean wasn't even looking for a hunt. He was just surfing the 'net while he petted Miracle (I love that damn dog) affectionately. So, they go to the pie thingy and this next part, Dean got a lot of crap for but I honestly get it.

When Sam said he thought about and missed Jack and Cas and Dean replied with that he did too, but then "brushed it off", I honestly think that was on par with his character. Dean this past season (and all seasons, but especially this one) had really grown. He would talk about things bothering him to an extent. In my opinion, mostly to Cas. Sure, he'd eventually tell Sam but usually after some huge fight but it just came naturally with Cas. And it's because it's just easier to talk to your friends and let them see you in a "weak" moment than with your family—especially when said family is someone you've protected for a majority of your life. I think that was definitely in character (although my headcanon is that Dean cries late at night when it's just him and only Miracle is there to comfort him).

So next, a case just falls into their lap and they soon discover that it's a hunt John never completed. And here's my next reason.

2. John was said to be one of the best hunters, but he didn't know that was a vamp nest.

Look, it just doesn't make any sense. Sure, they wore masks and did some other weird shit to throw hunters off the trail, but the most prominent sign points to vampires! Sam got it in one, so, really, what the hell?

So they go and find the nest pretty easily and it's a simple MOTW ep. And the boys have fought some major Big Bad's in their day, so run-of-the-mills vamps should be pretty easy, right? Apparently not, which leads me into my third reason.

3. The actual vampire didn't even kill Dean their usual way. Didn't turn him, didn't rip out the throat or anything like that. In fact, the vampire simply got lucky.

Sure, you could argue that their plot armor was gone, but that's not fair. The Winchester Brothers are amazing hunters and they do know how to actually fight. That wasn't Chuck, at least, not all of it. The vampire did just get lucky and that's the devastating part. Dean didn't go out in some huge, end of the world battle. He went out with a stab to the back (one could argue that that's the network stabbing his character in the back and I'd honestly agree). Dean died terrified. Which leads me into my next reason and also an opinion that I haven't seen anyone else share.

4. Sam could've healed him or gotten him help.

I don't knock Sam for this. Dean was genuinely frightened. But this brings me to my opinion. So, Dean, as we all know, has spent his entire life thinking he's not good enough, that he's meant to die bloody, he's just a soldier, a grunt, that he doesn't matter, not the way Sam does. I feel like Dean was aware that Sam could've helped him pretty quickly considering the fact that Sam was a witch trained under Rowena, and he chose to let himself die at that moment. He figured this was the way he was always gonna go and since he doesn't have to worry about another big bad coming onto the board, I think he felt that it was time to stop cheating Death—it always ended messy. Sure, I do truly think he wanted to live his life (more on that later), but I think in this moment, he actually wanted to die. He'd lost Cas, and Jack was in the wind and dust and rain and whatever the fuck else. All he had was his brother and Miracle and Sam could take care of himself now along with Miracle. In that moment, that's all he could think about.

5. No one else attended Dean's funeral.

Maybe Sam didn't tell anyone so he could just mourn alone, but there's no way, had anyone else known, that they would let Sam be alone after losing the only biological family member he had left. That just doesn't make any sense. It certainly wouldn't have gone over well with Jody and Donna; they'd at least show support for Sam. But Claire, Alex, Patience, Krissy even???? Garth, Bess, and the kids??? Or every hunter in the US of A seeing as, despite causing a lot of the bad shit in the show, they did clean everything up and saved/helped a lot of people. Out of respect, surely they'd show up.

6. From the official looking document sitting on Dean's desk that we see as Sam's mourning, Dean was looking into a job.

This is important because it means that he was getting ready to retire (also why he wasn't looking for any hunts). He wanted to live his life for Cas and everyone they lost, so their sacrifices weren't in vain (and he died anyways, jesus christ).

So after that brief time alone, Sam packs up everything and Miracle and they leave the bunker. This next reason is kinda stupid, but it really did hit me hard.

7. No one knows all that history is down there. And if they do, no one can get to it.

Sam had to have locked it up so all that knowledge didn't fall into the wrong hands. You could argue that he told his son about it, seeing as his son does have an anti-posession tattoo, but we don't know. All we know is what we were shown, which is Sam had a son named Dean and he played catch with him, helped him with his homework, told him something about the supernatural (hence the tattoo) and that's it. We get nothing else.

8. Sam spends the rest of his life with a blurry, unimportant wife (see family photos in which she's featured in absolutely none of them), and mourning the death of the brother, one of his close friends, and his son.

Now people can argue that Sam wasn't a father figure to Jack (or more like an uncle), but he definitely was. Cas, Dean, and Sam were all parental figures to Jack, that's the story. That aside, Sam had this air of sadness around him because we weren't given much else with Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son playing, so we don't know if he ever truly healed even a little. It honestly looks like he didn't. Like, at all.

9. Cas is apparently alive, but he didn't go meet the brothers or meet Dean in Heaven which is OOC as fuck

We're all assuming that the time skip in between ep 19 and 20 is a week, right? Because they stay pretty even with the flow so it's not so confusing. And it was about two weeks since Cas died in 18th episode and a week since Jack became the new god. Dean got there and it was already all reconstructed, so it must not have taken that long, so why didn't Cas, who considered the brothers his family, not go see them back on Earth? Maybe there were terms and he had to stay with Jack to mentor him or something but we don't know. They give us absolutely nothing to go on. And even if he couldn't leave Heaven or something, he must've known that Dean was there, so why didn't he meet him in there. He could have but we don't know. They just said fuck it all and ended the episode before we really got any damn answers.

10. Why did two different versions of Carry On Wayward Son play back to back?

It didn't seem to really go with the flow of anything and it was honestly kinda weird. Seriously. I get that the original was a peppier and that when we see Dean driving and Sam growing older. And it switches to the slower version as Sam is on his premature deathbed and then it stops when the brothers reunite. It was just... odd. All I could focus on was that during the ending.

11. Bobby must've sat there for like 5 seconds if Dean just drove down the road and Sam was already dead.

This one is also not a big deal but I thought it just didn't make sense. Time goes differently. And it wasn't even that long that Dean was in Heaven and Sam was already there. So, like, Bobby must've just gotten a beer and sat down when Dean turned up and he was like "shit, boy. Don't you know how to quit dyin'?!" because, honestly, I would have.

This are all of my big reasons right off the bat. There are more deeper reasons, but this is it for now. I really hope any of this made sense. But, like I said before I started this list, if you liked it, cool! I'm not in the business of telling people how they should feel about certain things. I just wanted to share some reasons why I didn't like it.

[helihi]

Thoughts on RWBY Vol. 7

Quarantine day 20: I finally force myself to re watch volume 7 instead of doing my French homework.

Spoilers ahead for RWBY and How I Met Your Mother (yes).

Volume 7: The Story of a Broken Narrative Kingdom

The day has come where I finally sit down and watch the whole season again. Some of you wondered why I didn’t simply do a The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty review on the last episode of the volume like I did with the previous ones. The answer is the same reason why Ozpin’s speech at the end of the volume encapsulates the volume’s theme as a whole: finales affect the way you look at shows, comics, movies, and books. It provides a framing.

Did any of you watch How I Met Your Mother? For those of you who didn’t, it was a often called the show “which could replace Friends”. Something that you may not know is that fans of the show renamed it something among the lines of “How I should date your Aunt Robin” after the last episode aired. You see, the ending of the show changed the way most viewers see the show in the present.

The show had main character Ted Mosby narrate to his children how he met their mother. However, the story doesn’t begin during the day that encountered happen; no, it starts years before, when Ted declares he wants to settle down and find the love of his life. In that very same episode, he meets Robin Scherbatsky. In the end it’s revealed that the mother (the character we spent years speculating about) is dead (which I expected), and Ted asks his children if they give him the blessing to date their Aunt Robin. Originally, the fans could excuse episode 1 centering around Robin because it was the instance where Ted decided he wanted to settle down, but after the veil was lifted; there were no excuses, this whole story was a Ted’s way of convincing their children he should marry Robin, the main woman in his life during the whole show (even if we spend the last season on her wedding with one of Ted’s best friends).

Perhaps the ending of Volume 7 didn’t destroy the character development of 3 main characters, but it drastically changed the way I felt about the volume.

“The Kingdom of Atlas will remain safe, that’s my promise”- James Ironwood, Volume 7, Episode 1.

If you go back in my blog and read my reviews for most of the volume, you will find glowing ratings and stars. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love a good politics game in the shows/stories I read, so I was really excited when the writing team started developing that during the first half of the season.

Our gang (RWBY+JNOR+Q+M) reach Atlas after finding out that Oz is a fraud, that Salem cannot be beat (by Oz), and that Cinder almost took another maiden’s power. They quickly realize that Atlas is in a state of chaos and Ironwood is consumed by fear taking authoritarian measures, which keep the kingdom divided.

The stage is set:

 Ironwood, Winter, and the Ace Ops.

Robyn, the Happy Huntresses, and Mantle.

 Watts, Jacques, and Tyrian.

I thought the way everything was set was fantastic, I loved the political drama, and I thought the writers were taking their time properly. Even now I give huge kudos to the Schnee storyline, which is my favorite. The volume showed us how flawed Winter’s coping mechanism is, how Weiss is still susceptible to her father’s gaslighting and manipulation, and how the household isn’t just broken by Jacques (Willow apologists, pls read this).

However, the cracks started showing during the first episodes and I noted that on my reviews. We have characters used for exposition dump: from the Robyn supporter, that explains what we could’ve learned by the normal progression of the story, who gets killed as soon as he returns home, and other characters like Maria talking about Pietro while he’s standing right there.

In contrast to that, we get wonderful montages which show the passage of time. The kids interact with one another and the Ace Ops, they train, they help with Ironwood’s plan. It seems weird to have 2 different tools one after the other.

Also, it it weird for anyone that Qrow and Winter only interact 1 time during episode 2 when in Volume 3 a clear rivalry was established? Winter’s storyline was supposed to follow Penny’s, while Qrow was supposed to grow attached to Clover. Because these 2 characters had to reach a certain point in the story, they are not allowed to deviate from the interactions needed for the plot to advance.

Another thing occurred to me while re-watching the season again... Why is Ironwood so fixated in protecting Atlas when it’s floating in the air away from Grimm? Yes, we know that some Grimm can fly, but by the many times we see Mantle in chaos, you would think Ironwood would repair Mantle’s wall to keep it safe?

That’s the theme, guys, girls and nonbinary folks: a kingdom divided.

Just like the Atlas kingdom falls apart, the narrative of Volume 7 has a specific breaking point that marks the decline in quality (you can see that in my reviews). The moment everything went downhill starts in Episode 8, with the dinner at the Schnee Manor.

We spend much time developing the political tensions of the volume for Jacques to be promptly arrested and taken away from the scene in a second.

While Ironwood, Winter, Penny, and Clover are shown doing plot relevant stuff, team JNOR does that ridiculous gag to get Whitley out of Weiss’s hair.  The rest of the team do jackshit, and we don’t hear anything from them until everything is over. Again, the writers reached the plot point and forgot about everything else.

Also, Ruby looks sadly at Weiss when Whitley mentions that Klein was “let go”, yet Weiss has never talked about him to Ruby on screen. Claiming Weiss could’ve done that off screen strips away the possibilities of Weiss bonding with Ruby the same way she did with Yang when talking about their pain during Volume 5.

Such a large table, and only 4 council members, isn’t that kind of stupid? I mean, if Ironwood had 2 seats, numbers wise it makes sense, but who are those other 2 supposed to represent? Why haven’t we seen them before?

Robyn is told by Yang and Blake that Ironwood doesn't know who to trust. She proceeds to pressure him in front of people he clearly doesn’t trust. This is the first instance of OOC Robyn.

The walls crumbled, and everything became obvious as a viewer. Some other notable flaws:

Tension jojoing. The people in mantle will revolt! Except they aren’t. This happens in Episode 5, 6, and 9. The only real uprising is the last one. The other two were silly cliff hangers that make no sense when you watch the show again. (they didn’t make sense before either  and I complained).

Hey there, Watts! You may have an interesting backstory, except it’s only implied you are pissed off Penny got chosen as a major project instead of whatever yours was. Also, Paladin incident? What? If he is the main villain of the Volume, why not expand on him? I shouldn’t be surprised, Hazel and Tyrian are not that complex. And Cinder? It’s been 5 volumes and we barely know anything about her haha.

Robin! I love how civilized and smart you are when the volume started, choosing to observe and talk instead of acting against the main characters. How awful is it that you forget to keep your calm when a Serial killer is on the loose. It would be a shame if someone were to... die.

I already gave my 2 cents over Clover’s death, and I’m not going to repeat myself. I am sorry to all the Fair Game fans, I’m afraid bury your gays is till alive and well.

The nail on the coffin is the final episode: after making a speech about how Salem wants to divide people and how the only way to go is to remain united, James does the exact opposite thing the moment something doesn’t go according to plan. Don’t get me wrong, his PTSD regarding the queen chess piece was foreshadowed, but the moment team RWBY offer an explanation and identify the person behind it, he’s to far gone. Then, Salem shows up, and goes for Team RWBY when Ruby gets under her skin. This shows that Salem has a weakness and that Team RWBY can be trusted when it comes to defeating her, yet that is promptly ignored.

Also, Ironwood might be hurt about Yang and Blake talking to Robyn, but after everything, they were proven right: Robyn is to be trusted, Ironwood was making a mistake.

The whole setting up a trap to attract Tyrian wasn’t Ironwood going “mad with power” or something. Robyn knew he has lying and allowed Ironwood to catch someone who could hack everything. Not only that, but the camera zoomed in on Ironwood, so nobody could see Robyn’s handy Semblance going red. Or... maybe I’m looking too much into it and the writers expected you to forget.

Sorry, I guess James Ironwood had to take a bunch of stupid pills.

“I wish it didn’t have to end this way.” - Clover Ebi.

“It doesn’t have to, but the writers need that Branwen angst.” - Qrow Branwen.

Volume 7: Part 1 of the Atlas Arc

Have you ever heard of Checov’s gun? It is a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Elements should not appear to make "false promises" by never coming into play. Let’s play a game called the false promises of the volume that may carry over to volume 8?

Renora: Nora sides with Robin, Ren sides with Ironwood. They do not communicate with one another and the tension builds throughout the volume. They kiss, nothing gets resolved. Ren cries when Neo turns into Nora.

Training: Ren is shown to throw himself into the enemy as a flaw, he repeats the same mistake when fighting with Neo. Oscar’s Semblance is questioned, nothing comes out of it. Ruby’s Semblance is questioned, nothing comes out of it.

Cinder got beef with Atlas? For some reason, Cinder talks about Atlas hoarding power when speaking with Winter. Bitch, where the fuck do you come from? Who are you? Do I know you? Sorry, the writers forgot to write a growth arc for you. My bad.

Nora, daughter of Atlas? Can someone explain to me why she became a SWJ (/s) during this season? We never get a backstory of her previous to Kuroyuri and for some reason Nora is super attached to the people of Mantle. The daughter of Atlas title was thrown around, why?

It’s so nice to see tea FNKI back! Too bad they are there for 5 minutes and never show up again, not even when Mantle is supposed to be defended by all huntsmen. I guess this was fan service.

What’s the purpose of the Happy Huntresses? Isn’t it funny how the only one who got wounded by Tyrian is the only character who could see in the dark, but didn’t tell Robin that Penny wasn’t guilty? Hi Fiona, I don’t know why you exist.

Marrow: the butt of the joke. Since the first episodes, Marrow is shown as the outsider inside the Ace Ops: his teammates don’t take him seriously, Ironwood doesn’t think Marrow is up to the challenge of some missions, and he’s the only Faunus, the only one that seemed to sympathize with Robyn at the end. Too bad he wasn’t allowed to break his mold.

The World Building looks pretty, but it doesn't play the part.

I have to praise the art direction of this season. I was blown away by the aesthetics of Mantle clashing with Atlas, the details in the backgrounds, the world building by back messaging, screens, and posters. My favorite scene of the volume is the penguins in the tundra.

However, you have to walk the walk, and the writing team failed to deliver.

Racism: hey, I know you guys kinda messed up the White Fang’s internal struggles and opportunity to expand on Adam’s power grab and Sienna’s leadership, but maybe don’t skip the racist elements of Atlas? All we get are Faunus mine workers looking angry, that drunk dude who yelled at Blake and Marrow making a simplistic comment about politics. What...? What’s the point of acknowledging u are bad at writing racism and then do nothing about it? Did none of the new writers know how to tackle this?

In-World Continuity: Hey, wasn't the Vytal festival broadcasted to the entire world? When I saw that camera focusing on Yang on episode 1, I thought there would be a call back to what everyone saw her do during the finals, but nope. Let’s not bring that up again. ever. The only important thing about the Vytal Festival is the tower, move on.

Weapons upgrade: We were told that weapons were an extension of each huntsmen; too bad none of our gang actually work on them. Pietro makes all the modifications and repairs. I remember the bumblebee fans eager for a scene of Blake repairing Gambol Shroud, don’t tell me you’re not disappointed.

Atlas ball: not found. Hey! We have Jacques Schnee celebrating his fake victory on the elections! It would be a perfect moment to showcase the disconnect between what’s happening in Mantle and what the people in atlas thing. Too bad we didn’t wanna make extra character models.

--

Closing thoughts

I wanted to re watch the whole season again to see if the bitterness left on my lips after watching that chaotic finale went away, but it only grew. There are so many character choices that made no sense, so many scenes where characters stood around in the background doing nothing.

WHY THE FUCK DID OZPIN ONLY APPEAR AT THE END?

Oh, I’ll tell you why: he needed to give a speech about themes to justify the stupidity that happened during the last episodes to get to that cliff hanger.

I am disappointed in volume that seemed to be doing so good at the begging, but hey... at this point we shouldn’t be surprised, should we? Interestingly enough, the people who dreamed about the ball and the scenes of Blake fixing Gambol Shroud grew quiet after the episodes aired... 

Almost as if criticism wasn’t allowed on the RWBY tag.

AN: The titty window isn’t justified Salem, your ex is now a child that’s PEDO—

[subukunojess]

Courage

AO3 Link

Bad Things Happen Bingo @badthingshappenbingo​ Trope/Prompt: Touch Starved Fandom: Courage the Cowardly Dog Main Character: Courage Triggers: Slight mentions of Animal Abuse/mistreatment Word Count: 1,487

My next entry for the angst bingo I signed up for years ago. Hopefully it'll help me with my writing and get me to practice more. When I searched for Touch Starved, it took me a while until I realized that the only character I could think of that could fit that category would be a character from my childhood, Courage the Cowardly Dog. I remembered how the episode "Remembrance of Courage Past" moved me and I wanted to write a short but sweet one shot of that memory in Courage's point of view. I have not written for Courage before and I found it challenging to keep with the prompt while also keeping in character. Hopefully this is okay. Story under the cut:

What did he do?

What did he do?!

The little pink dog scrambled out of the dumpster he was dropped into, his mind and heart racing as he tried to calm down. He found himself in a city alleyway surrounded by brick walls and trash cans. As he stood up in worry, he suddenly froze as he heard a countdown  blaring in his mind and the sound of something big opening nearby. He turned his head to the direction of the sound, only to gasp as the roof of a building opened up and a rocket started blasting off into the sky. 

Now the puppy remembered. 

He was at the Vet's office with his parents after getting his head stuck in a metal fence while playing catch. Everything was normal at first; the veterinarian got his head unstuck and gave him a lollipop, then went to talk to his parents. The puppy, although scared, assumed that the man was going to ask questions about him and give advice before he and his family left for home. That seemed like a normal thing to do when talking to a doctor. 

Until he heard his parents scream. 

The world came to a complete stop when the little dog turned and stared as his parents dangled inside a large net with the vet carrying them behind his back to another room. What was happening? This was supposed to be a veterinarian. A doctor. Someone you trust with your health. How could a person like that kidnap his parents?

He had no time to think. He ran after the human, determined to save his parents no matter what. He went through several doors until he snuck into an office where the veterinarian was taking his family to an actual giant rocket on the other side of a window. The puppy remembered watching rockets on television screens. He had seen scary films about aliens and news reports about people flying to the moon. This man was sending his parents to outer space? Not if the puppy could do anything about it. 

He saw the man throw the two dogs into the rocket, shut the door, then walked back to a control panel when the countdown began. 60. 59. 58...

Quickly, the pink canine rushed towards the rocket and jumped towards the door where he could see his parents through a little window, scared as they were calling for help and looking for a way out. He saw their big worried eyes making contact with his and his heart broke. He tried opening the door. He really did. But there was nor knob or key. 

"Hey, what are you doing there?!" The veterinarian boomed as he entered the room and loomed over the pup. The puppy screamed in terror and ran away in circles, trying desperately to avoid the large intimidating from catching him and throwing him into the rocket as well or something worse. He noticed red arrows pointing to a metal drawer, so he ran and clambered into it, sliding down a chute just as ten gangling fingers almost grabbed him by the waist. 

5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

That was how the pink puppy found himself surrounded by trash as he waved goodbye to his family from beyond the clouds with tears welling up in his eyelids until they trickled out to the rough pavement. 

This wasn't a bad dream he could wake up from. This was a living nightmare. 

This was his punishment for getting into trouble. For not being brave enough. For choosing to survive rather than help his parents or join them so they could still be a family. For not knowing what to do at a time like this. Before, his parents always forgiven him whenever he had made a mistake or got too scared. They would kiss him if he hurt himself and give him big hugs. They would encourage him to do tasks by himself, congratulating him when he did them and reassuring him when he didn't. His father would scratch him behind his ears. His mother would curl up around him with her body when he had a nightmare. His parents always knew what to do. And now they were gone.

The pink dog didn't know how long he was in the alleyway. Minutes? Hours? Days? 

He wanted someone to scoop him up in their arms, hold him close, and tell him that everything was going to be okay. But who could he trust? Anyone could be a monster willing to hurt him. To turn on him and do who knew what. He sat huddled by trash cans as he trembled, squirming around and hugging himself to quell his craving for contact. No family. No home. Cold. Hungry. Guilty.

The puppy wailed at the top of his lungs, almost hoping that his sobs would be loud enough to travel to outer space so that his parents would hear him. For anyone to hear him. 

And someone did. 

"Oh my! What are you doing out here all alone?" A mature feminine voice called out, dripping with concern and an accent. The young dog glanced to see a large woman walking towards him. She had long brown hair and circular glasses on as well as dark boots and a large dark green coat that reached her ankles. He whimpered, trembling as the woman got closer to him. A part of him didn't want to stay. For all he knew, the human would lead him to a secret lair or something. He couldn't trust strangers. And yet, a part of him sensed that the woman was not evil or scary. A part of him wanted comfort no matter the danger. So when the woman loomed over him, he simply stared at her and raised his paws to be scooped up.

Warm plush hands soft as wool held his sides and lifted him into the air. If he weren't so weak and wary, he would have snuggled into her arms or lean closer to her touch. But he couldn't. Any moment now, she would see how pathetic he was and drop him. He stared at her and waited with trembling wide eyes and dried tears.

Instead of a scowl, a tight grip to make his bones pop, or his face smacked against a brick wall, he was met with a soft grin as the woman gasped, "What courage you have!"

Courage? This woman must be mistaken. There was nothing courageous about him. Period. He ran away when his family needed him most. He cried and ran away from anything nearly everyday of his life. 'Coward' was the more appropriate word to describe him. 

And yet, she seemed like an honest woman. Her face looked round and gentle like the fluffiest pillow in the world. Her hair seemed like a mix of chocolate and cotton candy you'd find at a county fair. She smelled of home cooking and blankets sewn by hand with care. Most of all, the eyes that hid behind the protection of her glasses glimmered in truth and positivity. He didn't consider himself a special creature, but at that moment, he knew that his keen senses were telling him to trust her. 

"My name is Muriel." The woman introduced herself, "Would you like to come home with me?"

It was because of her touch and gaze that made the puppy smile as he hugged the closest arm to him. Muriel's smile grew as her arms wrapped around his waist in a firm embrace. 

"I'll call you 'Courage'. We'll have a grand time!" She promised him before heading off to take him home in a green pick-up truck across the street.

Courage let himself get lost at the touch of Muriel's arms, sinking into the warmth even when she got into the truck and gently placed him to her side. He never stopped touching her lap for anything. Although no one could replace his family, this woman was a welcoming close second. He thought about the days he'd spend with his new owner. Perhaps she'll feed him good meals and they do chores or crafts together. Maybe they'll spend their quiet days rocking back and forth with him curled up on her lap. They would grow old together and he'll help her around the house. He'll protect her. If there were monsters out there in the world, he was determined to protect one of the good humans in the world even if it meant his life. But he didn't think too much of it for now.

Courage lifted his head up after a while and watched as acres of sand and dirt zipped right by before his eyes. It was just miles of nothing. He glanced to the front to see a little house and a windmill coming over the horizon. A house in the middle of nowhere away from people? Yes. This was home to Courage. 

[tessatechaitea]

Justice Society of America #10 (1993)

Fact: Golden Age heroes didn't have penises.

I was starfished on my bedroom floor tonight staring at the ceiling and thinking about how in my teens and twenties, I could revel in it, thinking, "Who am I? Who will I become? What does life have in store for me?" But a grown ass man doing that simply thinks, "This is it, isn't it?" At least I can lose myself in reading comic books I've already read and which I didn't really enjoy that much the first time. It might sound like a waste of time but it gives my life meaning! The most shallow of meanings, sure. But at least I'm not growing old watching conservative news because I need anything at all to light my passion. I'll say this about Fox News: they understand how old people are so bored they'll watch the dumbest shit and then get mad about it. I know other people who aren't old also watch Fox News. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with them. I guess they have fears and hatreds I hope I'll never truly understand. I just don't understand watching Fox News (or any of the other non-propaganda 24 hour news sites). People do understand there are channels which show programs that make you laugh or feel merry or that simply entertain the other non-lizard parts of your brain, right? How do you pick Fox News when you can watch Sci-fi or Buzzr Comedy Central or the Ru-Paul's Drag Race all day channel? I just realized that the people who watch Fox News basically use Twitter the same way. The majority of my feed are funny people so even when they're discussing politics, it's always entertaining (or fiercely intelligent because witty people are smart. Dumb people think they're witty (see Mike Huckabee)). But when I check out the Twitter feeds of conservatives I know, at best they'll retweet a sports tweet sandwiched between forty retweets of Ben Shapiro and Dinesh Souza. Maybe they think some of the right wing pundits they follow are funny. But calling somebody a mean name or tagging everything "liberal tears" isn't funny. It's the kind of funny that the bully's weasely sidekick guffaws over and then says, "You tell 'em, Jimmy!" Speaking of things bullies would say, it's now time for me to criticize Len Strazewski's Justice Society. Previously, some old fart named Kulak made everybody in the world begin to hate. But they aren't just randomly hating everybody else. They really seem to be bonding over their hatred for the Justice Society of America. Is this story a metaphor about me and my hatred of this comic book? Because that would be a terrible metaphor seeing as how I don't really hate this comic. I wish I did though! I'm old and I need to feel passion! I bet if I hadn't dropped cable eighteen years ago, I'd be addicted to Fox News too! No, I wouldn't be. I'm as liberal as you can be while still making offensive jokes. So not really that liberal, I guess? Maybe I'm socially, economically, and politically liberal. But I'm a complete asshole when it comes to punchlines. Don't get me wrong! I don't make offensive jokes at the expense of people different than me. I make offensive jokes about myself and those Goddamned fucking babies. Fuck those parasitic monsters. This issue begins with Starman finally reappearing.

It really wasn't exciting enough for an announcement of his return. He's just another half-balding old guy. But it lets me talk about the DC Universe show, Stargirl!

I decided to watch Stargirl because what else am I going to do with my life? Finish reading Gravity's Rainbow? I mean, I am going to do that now that I'm done re-reading those awful Lando Calrissian books. But I can't spend all of time reading Pynchon! Just too much of it! I mean, I'm only 18 pages into Gravity's Rainbow (which is further than I've ever gotten on my previous three attempts!) and I'd estimate I don't understand 5% of the words he's used. And that's me being an English Lit major who has been a voracious reader his entire 48 years (minus the ones where I couldn't read yet. Like ten or something?). I was in bed reading and didn't have a dictionary at hand so I just powered through. But I think I need to go back through and learn all of those words so I can impress the local Starbucks barista! Or are people not impressed when you use a word they have nearly zero chance of knowing and don't know you enough to keep the conversation going by asking you what that means and instead just smile and nod and glance occasionally at the tip jar? Anyway, so I've watched three episodes so far and I'll tell you how I feel about it after I mention how I've actually watched four episodes. The first episode I watched, I was impressed with because Courtney was already palling around with a bunch of legacy JSA members and the Injustice Society was trying to tackle the "Who is Stargirl?" problem and I watched it thinking, "This is really impressive how they decided to start in the middle of the story like this. I like it!" Then I went to watch episode two and I was confused because it didn't seem to follow after the previous episode. So I kept thinking, "Maybe this is a flashback?" And then eighteen minutes into it, I thought, "Maybe I didn't watch the pilot episode. I'd better check." And I started watching the first episode which I totally hadn't seen. So I guess I started with Episode 7 or something. Here are some of my tweet-thoughts on the show for those who don't follow me on Twitter (why don't you follow me on twitter? What is wrong with you? Is it because you don't know I'm @GrunionGuy?): Tweet #1: "Sometimes you think maybe you're having inappropriate thoughts but then you check to make sure the actress playing a fifteen year old Stargirl is actually 21 and then you breathe a sigh of relief and think, 'I won't be cancelled today! Unless I tweet this experience, probably.'" Tweet #2: "Sometimes you think maybe you're having inappropriate thoughts but then remember it's okay to fuck a car that's been converted into a giant robot with Luke Wilson inside of it." Tweet #3: "3rd episode of Stargirl begins with a dying white woman's final wish to her white husband that he make the world safe for their white son. She dies and he goes out into the enormous hedge maze garden of his mansion to scream into the sky about the injustice of it all. All in all, a pretty good villain origin!" That third tweet was the only one that really makes any sort of socially acceptable commentary on the show. Saying things like "Stargirl's butt doesn't look like my mouth should be inside of it because she's fifteen although the actress is twenty-one so maybe it actually does look like that?" aren't the greatest things to admit even if you're just joking (which I am but just adding this statement makes it sound like I'm not but I totally am (that "totally" doesn't help but I assure you, I'm joking (did the hole just get deeper?))). I mean, sure, her body is super fit because she's a super hero (or will be?). But she has such a baby face! And even at twenty-one, she's just a baby! If I were younger, I'd totally have a crush on her. But I'm 48 and I just don't consider young women proper targets for my sexual deviance anymore. The only interaction I should have with young women these days is warning them against going out to the summer camp at the lake where that boy drowned so many years ago. The girls I had a crush on when I was younger (Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy), Winona Ryder (Veronica Sawyer), and Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin Ryan)), I have even more of a crush on now. Judging by the crushes I've had my whole life and not society's stereotype of women, women definitely get better looking as they get older. And probably as I get older. I'm sure that's part of it although I like to think that fifteen year old me would still look at these nearly fifty (or maybe fifty? I'm not so obsessed I know their ages but they're all around my age anyway) year old women and think, "Holy fuck mommy." I'm sorry for that last comment. But I'm only sorry to God not anybody who was reading this. Oh, I forgot to mention that Joel McHale is the original Starman (I mean original in the show although he's Sylvester Pemberton who was never Starman but only Skyman although in the show he was at one point the Star-Spangled Kid and Luke Wilson does mention Ted Knight at some point). And he's funny in his death scene just like he should be because I've obviously decides Sylvester is Jeff Winger's new superhero secret identity alias. Starman heads off with his Cosmic Buttplug to stop Kulak in Gotham City. He doesn't know it yet but the rest of his pals are currently battling Kulak and probably losing. Although Kulak is even older than they are so maybe it's a fair fight. I'm just surprised that a comic book where old men battle other old men has made it ten issues.

I think some editor was fired last issue and the new editor's only job was to make sure it didn't look like Thunderbolt had been speared through the asshole.

Although this editor seemed to think it was okay to have Hawkgirl fucked from behind by Kulak.

I hope this isn't a terrible conservative take on women that exposes how terrible I am at sex but even mind-controlled, I can't imagine licking a woman's shoulder would elicit that response. Although she could be "Ummming" from his pee-hee in her bee-boo.

I know conservative talking points are generally fucking idiotic but Ben Shapiro somehow thinking women can get "too wet" from sexual excitement might be the most hilariously idiotic. I don't think I've been with a woman who was all, "Yes! Yes! Lick my shoulder blade!" and I then I got super into it and then suddenly she was all, "Nope. Too wet. This isn't working for me anymore. I need a doctor, I guess?" Who am I kidding? I know I've never been with a woman who did that because that would mean I've had to have been with a woman! Also, women get wet down there? What's that about? Is it because the vagina cries at the sight of the penis? Kulak takes away all of their super powers but I guess he forgets that Wildcat doesn't have any so I'm hoping Wildcat just punches him in the face soon. Although that Starman bit probably was a hint at how the coming fight might end. You know, with Starman shoving his Cosmic Buttplug into Kulak's third eye, if you know what I'm saying. You probably do because I called it a Cosmic Buttplug. I should try to be more subtle. Kulak's entire purpose is to get revenge on the Justice Society for defeating him way back in 1940. Can't even one super villain just accept defeat and move on with their lives? Or are writers just always going to be so inherently lazy that they'll never give up the crutch of the villain attacking the hero directly out of revenge for that one single time they tried to actually commit a crime and were stopped? The JSA puts up a fight that helps to drain Kulak's power but it isn't until Starman arrives and does that thing I mentioned with his Cosmic Buttplug that Kulak is defeated.

This is the grossest orgasm I've ever seen and my computer is riddled with viruses from all of the previous ones I've watched.

After Kulak's defeat, Jesse Quick wraps up the issue with her super hero dissertation which is less a dissertation and more of a thorough cleaning of all of their asses with her tongue. She's all, "I didn't really do much research or define heroes too good but the Justice Society of America are my heroes so I deserver a degree, right?" Justice Society of America #10 Rating: B. This comic book was as average as they get. I suppose that should garner a C grade but a B grade just seems to say decent but mediocre. By the time I get down to a C grade, I feel like the comic book needs a lot more faults than "I don't really care about stories with heroes who are having strokes during the battles." It's a valid criticism but it's probably too subjective for a critical review. I know, I know! When has that ever stopped me before? Well, I feel charitable today. It probably has something to do with Mars being so close to the full moon earlier this week. My blood is all riled up and wacky!

[astudyinsarcasm9]

Battle of Heart and Mind - Review - Beware of Spoilers

Before I dive into the review I just want to make a list of things that were left unanswered, just to get it out of the way. Here it is: 

- How did White Diamond know that PD was Rose? It was never explained. 

- How did White know what a child is. 

- How did White know what a mom is. Blue and Yellow had no idea what a mom was or even what a child is. Why would White know? 

- Who made White or how was White formed? And if she was the first gem in existence how did she know what was she supposed to be?

Feel free to add more. 

I’ll split the review into parts so it’ll be easy to follow. 

Part 1: Blue helping Steven and her and Yellow fighting. 

While I liked the tender moment between Blue and Steven and the fact that she helped me I still think her giving in happened a tad too quick. All Steven had to do was point out how she locked PD in the same prison. he was in and how she must have cried so many times because of how Blue treated her. I understand the guilt Blue feels and because of that her change of heart seems a bit more believable. 

Next. And I can’t believe I’m saying this but how did no one notice that Yellow was sitting in a room full of bubbled forced fusions: 

That is incredibly messed up. And I am willing to bet that those were all experiments that went wrong and they were bubbled to study them on how to possibly make the cluster? Could be. Either way it was so so wrong. 

The fight between Yellow and Blue was nice albeit short. I would’ve like to see Blue poof, just for a bit, just so we can learn a bit more about Diamonds. She could have reformed quickly afterwards. Anyway, Steven managed to stop them fighting and Yellow agreed to help him escape. But during the fight Blue said something that I think is very important: 

”She was suffering in silence for ages, just like our gems, just like me”. This line is the ONLY reference we get to the fact that Homeworld gems are oppressed and unhappy. No one mentions it again. And I get it there wasn’t time but at least show the Homeworld gems reacting to the battle, to what was happening. The world felt so empty without them. 

Anyway, after White gets in the way of Steven leaving Blue and Yellow’s ships return and we see Bismuth, Period and Lapis are piloting them. 

And let me just say that Lapis and Peridot’s new forms are really nice. Peridot is so cute. I only wish she would have done something with her hair, but I guess that’s just how Peridots look. 

I kinda like how Lapis doesn’t have an obvious star on her outfit.  She is a CG but she’s not fully there yet. I guess the half star counts too. 

After this, there comes another important line that I think deserves some talking about: 

”No, I won’t go. Pink Diamond ran away from you. Rose Quartz, my mom, she started a war with you. But I don’t wanna run, I don’t wanna fight, I just want to talk”. 

It’s a really...interesting line if you think about it. It shows how PD, RQ and Steven differ and how each had a different perspective about things. And again it shows how Steven is just a pacifist who wants to talk things out. I suppose it s only fair because at that point a battle with White would’ve meant doom but then again, at least try. Sometimes talking is not enough, that’s just how life works. 

The special goes on to say how Steven and the Diamonds have to fix their broken family and Connie even steps in and says how her mom use to enforce a lot of rules on her which made her feel miserable. But that once she told her mum how she felt things got better. 

That’s all cute and sweet but...we’re talking about a race of beings that conquer worlds and commit genocide like it’s nothing. And White doesn’t just make rules for the Diamonds, she makes rules for everyone, and if anyone disobeys them she outright shatters or posses them. I’m pretty sure Connie’s mom would just ground her and that would be all. I mean one can not just put a ”=” between these two instances and call it a day. 

Anyway, Blue and Yellow’s decide to talk to White about how they feel and Blue has this to say about it:

”White, we used to be close, don’t you remember? Pink would make us laugh, all those silly things she did for no reason. But there was a reason: she wanted us to be happy together, but we weren’t and we’re still not. I know my purpose is not to be happy but I find it harder and harder to enforce your rules when they make me miserable, when they make us all miserable”. 

Btw, Yellow’s speech was so corny. I get that she was terrified of White but it sounded so weird. 

I could have gotten 100% behind Blue on this if it weren’t for the fact that...we were never shown that enforcing White’s rules made them miserable. All we saw is them doing their jobs as Diamonds and showing no remorse for it. Blue wanted to shatter Ruby. Yellow is willing to poof or shatter anyone that doesn’t fit in. We were never shown them having a moment, after, let’s say, ordering a gem to be shattered. Maybe it could’ve worked. To show them torn apart by their roles as Diamonds. But nope, none of that. 

And sure they were close and Pink made them laugh but in the grand scheme of things they were still dictators, they were still shattering gems, conquering planets and so on. And even if they were happy together Im pretty sure that White would’ve wanted them to keep Homeworld as it is. 

Part 2: Steven’s fusions and getting into White’s head. 

Steven’s fusions were so cool. My favorite was Rainbow Quartz 2.0

I like to think it’s a male gem even though they’re genderless. But just because Steven is involved. Anyone is free to see them as they want. It’s still a really nice fusion. 

I liked Sunstone too but her design was so-so. But that wasn’t the problem for me, the problem was breaking the fourth wall. It took away from the tension and the seriousness of the moment. 

And that’s another problem of this special: it juggles with the tone. Sometimes it’s dead serious, sometimes it is over the top silly. It wants to be both but the two don’t exactly mix well. It reminds me of Disney’s Hercules where they did just that and the result was just a mush of silly and serious. 

Keeping the tone consistent would have been a big plus. Not make it totally grim but just let the serious moments feel serious and urgent. 

I think my favorite part of the special is when Steven is in White’s head/room. It was intense, it was serious, it was dark and most of all there were stakes. 

Obsidian was wicked cool. Though I thought she’d look slightly different than the temple because Rose was involved in the fusion. Steven was. 

Just one question: What was White waiting for while the gems were dancing to fuse into Obsidian? 

Part 3 - Removing Steven’s gem aka the best part of the special with the best animation. 

I loved, loved, loved this part. Everything was perfect. 

The animation? Top notch. The music? There was music when the gem was removed - Great. The atmosphere? Great. 

What I loved most was that PD/Rose did not reform. Everyone speculated for so long as to what would happen in a scenario like this and now we have our answer. It’s a confusing one but a beautiful one nonetheless. 

Steven is not his mom at all. He is the literal fusion of PD and Greg. I viewed that scene as White ripping off PD’s genes from Steven and Steven falling apart because he was left with the Greg part of him. PD is gone because she literally fused her genes with Greg and passed her gem entirely to Steven. She made sure she was gone and she practically delivered and empty gem for him to make his own. It wasn’t PD or Rose powering Steven it was Steven powering Steven.

Brilliant. 

Part 4: White and her realisation that she herself is off-color. 

The animation on White was fantastic I need to say that. I liked that she was proven wrong, that she saw with her own eyes that Steven was Steven and that PD was gone forever. It turned her world upside down, sure but it told us that she is not all knowing as she wanted to be seen. 

I can��t say I liker her sudden change of heart. 

People who abuse and who are as toxic as she is will not just change because they are told that their ways are bad. Sure some of you might say she still seemed reluctant when she was on Earth. She seemed but the fact that she so quickly accepted to go on Earth and fix the corrupted gems, shows that she got  over it quickly.  

It is nice to see her facial expressions while on Earth and I get they were trying to show us how she is not comfortable with what is happening but come on, what dictator turned around so quickly?

Though, White being off-color was brilliant. 

Part 5: Healing the corrupted gems 

I was so happy to know we were gonna see the corrupted gems be healed. 

But then I was so angry that it was just a montage. I mean it’s better than nothing but we waited for so many seasons for this. I understand there was a lack of time - 44 minutes - when they marketed it as an hour special - but come on. 

I wanted to see Centy interact with Steven. I wanted Jasper to talk and find out about PD not just to see her all flustered after seeing everyone around her. We can assume Amethyst told her very briefly what was going on but still. 

I felt cheated out. 

Also, Lars was back and while the off-colors delivered my favorite joke from the special I feel it wasn’t worth their showing up. It was rushed as hell. And it felt awkward as the Diamonds were just standing there assisting to this little human reunion. 

All in all it wasn’t bad but it was, as with all big SU episodes, incredibly rushed. The story is there, the characters are there but it was all cheapened by the terrible pacing and by the fact that, at the end of the day, Blue and Yellow were absolved of all their wrong doings because they were doing all those things to please White. 

Again, I feel the need to reference ATLA and how there Zuko’s family, a royal family, which the Diamonds can be inferred also are, was also broken and messed up but the show acknowledged that it was a family beyond repair, that it was too toxic to even go there and that while YES they did have happy times, as Zuko tells us they had, even in those happy times Ozai was still the toxic person we know and they were still part of a system which oppressed the Fire Nation people. The fact that they were family and that they had happy times did not take away from the important aspect of Ozai being a dictator. Also, Azula was also doing all the terrible things she did to please Ozai yet the show doesn’t excuse her but it tells us it was messed up. 

Why is SU excusing the diamonds? 

[spnjediavenger]

Chapter 5.5: “What do I do?”

A/N: I had more I wanted to add to the episode i used but chapter 5 was already so long so i decided to do a mini chapter.

Disclaimers: I do not own Supernatural, or any of its characters

Time frame: set mid S5

Warnings: Season 5 spoilers, MAJOR FEELS

Co-written by: @sarimaposthumous

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! And much love to those who have liked and/or reposted!!! <3

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

             Sam and Dean had stopped in the middle of the night to let Kali out, and stopped again during the day once they were a fair distance from Elysian Fields.

           Elliana was still curled up on Sam’s lap, so he placed a kiss to her temple and rubbed a hand over her arm to wake her up.

           “Ellie, we’re pulling over for a bit,” he said softly.

           Ellie opened her eyes, not feeling any better than she did hours prior. She shuffled off Sam’s lap and exited the car with the boys, Anaya following her.

           Dean pulled the DVD from his coat that Gabriel had given him before going to fight Lucifer and Sam placed his laptop on the Impala’s roof.

           “Let’s give it a look,” Dean said.

           Ellie blinked the tears away that quickly began to sting her eyes. “I think I’m gonna go for a walk,” she said, trying to cover the emotion in her voice.

           “Do you want one of us to come with you?” Sam asked, worried for the girl.

           “No, that’s ok. I just need a little time alone,” she answered quickly, walking down the short hill next to the car and signaling for Anaya to follow her.

           The boys shared a concerned look but played the video Gabriel left.

           After about 20 minutes of walking, Elliana found herself at a small lake. She whistled to Anaya and they sat down on a large flat rock close to the water and Ellie pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged her dog close.

           “I can’t believe it, Anaya,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes yet again. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

           The dog whined slowly and rested her head atop Elliana’s knees, looking up at her with big eyes.

 “Gabriel! Gabriel! Guess what!”

“Ellie! Ellie! What?!” Gabriel mimicked the girl’s excitement.

“I finished my 7th grade classes with 2 B’s and the rest A’s!!!” Ellie replied excitedly. “That’s the best I’ve ever done!”

Gabriel couldn’t help but smile at her. The girl’s enthusiasm put a spark in his chest. And he loved the things like this that she shared with him; even though he wished it could be a parent she was able to share it with.

“That’s awesome, little wolf! High five, kid,” he said, holding up a hand.

 Gabriel touched two fingers to Elliana’s forehead, sending some of his grace through her body to heal the broken bone in her leg and the cut on her shoulder. She let out a sigh of relief when the pain flooded away.

“Alright, for these bigger things, I’ll always try to be able to come and heal you; but let me show you some basic things in case I can’t, ok?” Gabriel said. He snapped his fingers to make a book appear in front of them, teaching Ellie the basics of first aid and eventually how to stitch up a wound.

Elliana listened to him intently, taking in every bit of information and appreciating her guardian’s care for her. She loved every time he was around and cherished every second.

“Hey, Gabriel?” Elliana asked as she was leaned into the archangel’s side. Her head, which was rested on his shoulder, turned up to look at him.

“Yes, ladybird?” he said, looking down into her eyes.

“Why did you pick me? I mean, out of all the prayers that are sent and everything…and you said you kind of avoid heaven-y things…why did you decide to help me?”

Gabriel smiled lightly at the girl’s question. He looked forward again to continue watching the sunset. Though he didn’t stay in one place long, like Elliana, he always tried to come back and have a good time with her. Give her some normalcy that she needed and deserved. Let her act like a kid for a little bit.

“There’s a lot wrong with this world, kiddo,” he said. “And when I happened upon your neighborhood, well…I noticed your house wasn’t exactly an exception. But you,” he continued, turning back to her. “You had something in you that piqued my interest.”

“What was that?”

“Kind of a combination of things. Kindness, strength, good sense of humor. Lighthearted,” he continued, poking her side and making her yelp but smile. “You have heart. You’re something this world needs. And I’d have been damned if I let you get hurt anymore.”

 The sound of fluttering wings broke Elliana out of her flashbacks. She looked to the side, not bothering to turn her head, to see Castiel standing beside her. Elliana sniffed a bit and wiped the tears away that ran down her cheeks.

“Hey, Cas,” she whispered, not bothering to hide the sadness in her voice.

“Hello Elliana.” Cas stepped forward and awkwardly patted her shoulder in comfort, trying to think of how humans usually showed such gestures. He sat down next to her and pursed his lips a bit, thinking of what to do. He knew he should say something but wasn’t sure what best to say or do to ease the girl’s pain, still a bit unaccustomed to human emotion.

“Ellie…” he started, turning a bit to face her. “What happened was tragic. But Gabriel knew what he was doing. And he died doing what he believed was right – protecting you and the Winchesters. I know my brother cared for you, Elliana.”

Ellie shook her head lightly and squeezed her eyes shut. “He was everything to me, Cas,” she said, sniffling again. “I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for him. He was always there for me and now-“ A sob cut her off and she hugged Anaya closer, burying her face in the dog’s fur. “He was everything to me and now he’s gone,” she cried.

Cas hesitantly reached out and put a hand on Ellie’s shoulder.

“I understand. I’ve lost people I’ve cared about in the past.” After a moment, Cas spoke up again. “Here, I have something for you.” He reached into his coat and pulled something out. “When Lucifer left the motel, I went back and retrieved Gabriel’s blade for you. I thought he would have wanted you to have it.”

Elliana choked out another sob and took the blade in her hands. Anaya sniffed it and let out a quiet whine as well.

Ellie finally looked up at Cas with watery eyes, her lip quivering a bit. “What do I do, Cas? I miss him so much,” she cried. She leaned her head on Cas’ shoulder and lightly grasped onto his trench coat, not noticing him tense up under her.

The angel hesitated before wrapping an arm around her. “We keep fighting. We make sure that Gabriel and everyone who has died in this war hasn’t died in vain. We keep fighting until Lucifer and Michael are stopped.”

Elliana nodded but still couldn’t push away the hurt inside her. “He was my family, Cas,” she whispered, tears still pouring from her eyes.

“Sam and Dean and I are your family too, Elliana. It will take time to heal, but we will be here for you,” Cas said, feeling slightly more confident now. He had taken quickly to Ellie when they had first met; her enthusiasm to learn from him and her spirited personality were precious to him. And he would make sure he would be there for her, as his brother was.

Ellie nodded again and continued to softly cry into the angel’s shoulder, feeling his arm tighten around her just a little bit. Soon, another presence sat next to Ellie and she turned to find Sam sitting on her other side. She gave him a weak smile and he pulled her into a hug.

“Here, kid,” Dean said as he stepped in front of her. She looked up as he knelt down, holding out a small box. “Gabriel mentioned in that video that he put this in the car and told us to give it to you.”

Ellie pulled away from Sam just enough to grab the package and open it up. There were three items in it along with a note.

Elliana

I know you’re gonna be hurting for a while. But I had to protect you. You’ll be alright though, you’re strong – and I know those two idiots and my brother will keep you safe. The amulet in the box will also protect you. And in a most dire time, it’ll lead you the right way. Next is a guitar pick, because I know you’ve been wanting to learn how to play. Lastly, something for my favorite husky ;)

Stay strong. And remember - I love you, little wolf.

-Gabriel

 Ellie pulled out the items from the box, inspecting each one. The amulet was just like the one that belonged to Dean. Elliana wasn’t there to see him throw it out, so she didn’t recognize it. The boys and Cas gave each other a look, but decided against saying anything to her. The guitar pick was white and had a cross on it, making the girl smile fondly. And Elliana giggled a bit as she pulled out the last item; it was a stuffed dog toy – a white wolf.

The boys couldn’t help but chuckle too as she held it out to Anaya, who excitedly took it in her mouth and ran off a few feet with it, bowing down to squeak it. Ellie giggled again at the dog and looked back to the other items in her hand. She flipped the note over to realize it was written on the back of a picture. She had no idea how Gabriel had it, or how it was taken, but it brought a smile to her face.

“You gonna be alright, kiddo?” Dean asked, noticing the smile on her face.

“It’ll take a while,” she admitted. “But I think so. And I have you three as well,” she said, smiling at each of them.

“Damn straight,” Dean said, giving her a hug before they all got up to head back to the Impala. Ellie called to Anaya, who followed joyfully with the toy in her mouth, and walked with Sam and Dean, staring at the photo in her hands. It pictured Elliana hugging Gabriel, both smiling. Ellie smiled at it and thought back to that day.

 “I gotta say, kiddo – I’m really proud of you,” Gabriel said, smiling fondly at Elliana. “You’ve been doing an amazing job. Taking care of yourself. Taking care of Anaya. Hunting things and saving people. You’ve been so strong and smart; you still have so much hope. You’re really doing awesome.”

Elliana smiled bashfully as she looked at him. “I haven’t done it by myself,” she said. “I have you.” She smiled wider, throwing her arms around the archangel. He wrapped his arms around her as well and she melted into him a little more, closing her eyes as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“I love you, Gabe,” she whispered.

Gabriel’s heart fluttered at those four words – way more than he would ever admit.

“I love you too, little wolf.”

Chapter 6 ->

[clarislam]

My Reactions to “Emerald City, Episode 10/Series Finale:”

1. Tip/Ozma and West storm Emerald City! YAY!

2. “Bring me his family.” OH CRAP ARE THEY GOING TO KILL EAMONN’S FAMILY!? O_O NOOOOO

3. NOOOOO EAMONNNNN!!!! NOOOO!!!! T_T I understand he deserved to be punished but STILL. That’s even worse than death! 

It makes me want to give Eamonn a hug, now. I know he betrayed Ozma’s family by killing her parents and siding with the Wizard, but he also owned up to it in the end (albeit seriously late). I just kind of hope things get better for him? This makes me want to write a Hurt/Comfort fix-it fic of sorts.

4. YAY JACK! KILL THE WIZARD! ...wait, no, that might not be happening. Aw shucks. -_-

5. Glinda is here and is sketchy as ever. So, so sketchy. HENCE WHY I’M GLAD DOROTHY SMASHED HER TEMPLE/PLACE/THING THAT AFFECTS HER POWER! 

6. NOOO JACCKKKK!!! I...can’t describe in detail what happened. It’s just heartbreaking to see.

7. DID THEY ALL JUST RISE FROM THE DEAD!? O_O Looks like only a witch can kill a witch, after all... Also, the Wizard is totally toast.

8. “I’ve never forgotten my king.” “Have you forgotten his daughter?” OOOOH. 

9. JANE AND DOROTHY ARE REUNITED! ...And then Dorothy had to go back home. Without Jane. T_T

10. ROAN/LUCAS CAME BACK. HE’S ALIVE! ...and unfortunately that leads to a cliffhanger ending where the Beast Forever has Jane held prisoner! Noooooo!!!!

OVERALL THOUGHTS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES:

1. I can understand why it got cancelled. Ratings just weren’t good at the time, and the slot the show originally was put in just didn’t help. At all.

I argue it also doesn’t help that the main couple (DorothyxLucas/Roan) was less convincing to me compared to the beta couple (JackxLangwidere). Also, given how elaborate it is, I doubt it’s cheap to produce such a show, either.

And then there are also the spliced-up scenes as I complained about in Episode 1. The pacing of scenes was just a tad too choppy for me at times, honestly. That did not help, either.

2. JackxLangwidere was totally the best ship in the whole show. As mentioned earlier and in past reaction posts for this show, I just wasn’t as convinced and invested into DorothyxLucas/Roan. Jack and Langwidere, despite getting together after Dorothy and Lucas did in the show, just had better chemistry together for me.

3. EAMONN. OH MY GOSH EAMONN. My heart cries out for him. His family might be alive, but he’s all alone now and in exile! I’m glad Tip/Ozma didn’t kill his family, but still. What’s even worse is that we’ll never know what happened to him afterwards, because the show was cancelled after Season One ended.

It’s also very fair for me to say that he was my most favourite character. Anna (killed off in Episode 5 or 6 if I remember correctly) was my second-most favourite. Tip was a close third.

4. I didn’t like West individually, but I did like how she was intertwined with so many characters. Her shaky relationship with Glinda and the bond built with Tip was just so interesting.

5. I wish we saw more of Anna and the Wizard. Honestly, I knew that the Wizard had clearly crossed a couple lines, but without Anna he basically has close ties to no one. If anything, Anna felt more like she was the last person that could act as his conscience of sorts, so it’s a shame they killed her off.

6. Do I wish there was more Jane and Dorothy interacting? Heck yeah! There should have been way more of Jane and Dorothy. I honestly think it should have come in much sooner for them to interact than just the finale episode, because...I mean, the scenes we did get of them together in this episode was great, and I’m glad they had them reunite (albeit temporarily), but the way they finally ended up only getting screentime together in one episode of this season (excluding the parts where Jane cares for her as a baby obviously) made it feel a bit rushed. 

Favourite Episode(s) in the series: Episodes 5 and 6. I can’t choose between either one of them. This is mainly because of the large amount of Eamonn I got to see in those episodes, though.

Least Favourte Episode(s) in the series: Episodes 7 and 8. Too much Glinda. Too much DorothyxLucas. Not enough Eamonn.

Did I enjoy watching the show overall?

Overall, yes. There are some things I didn’t enjoy as much (Episode 7 for instance, as well as the nightmare fuel that was in Episode 8) and they totally should have used certain characters more than others in this season (Anna and Eamonn for instance) because their plotlines and relationships with other characters were more interesting than the main ones. 

Is this a show I would want a Season 2 of?

Heck yes. Mainly for resolving certain plotlines, such as Eamonn in exile, Mother South’s whereabouts, and The Beast Forever returning to Oz. But mainly for Eamonn, as he’s my favourite character and I’m horribly biased towards him compared to everyone else. The cliffhanger ending just leaves us questions that, unfortunately, will never be answered.

Thank you to those who have followed these reaction posts. I’m glad you enjoy reading them! And it’s also fair to say that this fandom will not go without at least one fanfic from me, too! XD

[tekka-dan]

I watched this Youtube video today regarding the topic “Anime That Made Me Who I Am” which turned out to be intriguing. At first, I immediately thought he was going to speak only about early 90s classic anime, then he mentioned some that I watched only in my teenage years and it kind of dawned on me..how other people view anime. What anime says about them that influenced their ideals of who they are today. What are yours?

Interesting. What video was it, out of curiosity? And what youtuber?

This was sort of tough because I resonated with so many superb animes over the years. Hm. I’ll give it a shot though.

These aren’t in order of best/better or anything.

1. Inuyasha

As a child this was the very first anime that I watched, loved and kept up with. I remember setting my alarm clock to wake up at 4:30am to watch it on adult swim and I would sit so close to my television because the volume was on low and I didn’t want to get in trouble. Inuyasha was an obsession, I was drawn to the ideals of Naraku, I was invested in the time Inuyasha spent with Kagome and I was enamored with the humor mixed with surreal themes throughout the show. As a child I didn’t understand Kagura’s rebellion and I didn’t care about Kana’s devotion. I was intrigued by Sesshomaru’s determination though and Rin’s ability to humanize a demon. As a child this anime was my entire world because it opened my eyes to wanting more of it. I wanted to see more anime like Inuyasha. I have to also add that being as young as I was, Inuyasha for many people like myself was the first anime we all probably understood. It was simplistic and it tackled the audience in a damn good way of who was watching.Inuyasha was also my very first surreal disappointment of a bad ending though. The love and obsession for the show as a whole doesn’t reconcile the pain and agony I felt after that anticlimactic ending.

2. Clannad After Story

Clannad was one of the animes I watched out of sheer boredom. Yes, I heard the sob stories for years and no that isn’t what intrigued me to watch this anime. Believe it or not, I used to be interested in romance animes, I kind of was drawn to how the boring every day school life could be riddled with romance, something I lacked throughout my entire school life. Diving into Clannad you’re not really expecting what comes next to happen..well, next. The anime does a damn good job of execution and plot twists where your attention can focus on multiple things going on and still have an overlaying theme that’s going to hit you like a boulder at the end. It did really well distracting you from the moments where you knew you were crying but you couldn’t hold back smiling either. It knew all too well that you were invested for the characters..the story though, is what damn near killed me. Not just once though, fucking twice. This was the first anime that I actively cried in. That I actively couldn’t believe happened. So let me tell you something—it wasn’t just what happened that made me cry, it was the dialogue given and portrayed that really resonated with me. There’s a crucial scene of Tomoya speaking to his father and if you’ve watched the anime you’re aware of the relationship they had during his childhood and after Tomoya’s tragedy, it is mirrored (fucking PERFECTLY) what his father went through during Tomoya’s childhood that as an adult he faces the same situation in..this scene had me on the floor balling my eyes out because my father and I have the same relationship and it..tore me in half to know after all those years, Tomoya’s father lived FOR Tomoya. And Tomoya damn near ended his life knowing he too had someone he needed to live for. The flashbacks, the music, the dialogue, EVERYTHING about that scene tore me to pieces. It was the way Tomoya said “I’m so sorry, dad” by the way he said “Take care of yourself.” It was the way “Goodbye” wasn’t a goodbye, it was a “Good luck.” It was the way Tomoya had to find it in his cold, angry and distraught heart that he had to realize he was not the only one who was allowed to suffer and be in pain, and that he was selfish as a child to ignoring his father’s pain and dismissing him as a drunk, not as a recovering sudden single parent. That scene is the epitome of brilliance. I watched that anime during a critical time in my life and even while thinking about it I’m reminded of the moments I couldn’t stop crying. It helped me speak to my dad in a different way. It helped me understand him as a person, not only as a parent.

3. Fruits Baskets

I watched this anime as a child, early teenage years and it could not have been at a better time in my life. Getting older this anime actually remains in my top 5 animes to ever exist in my book and I wish more people knew about it, talked about it. Fruits Baskets was the second anime that made me cry. But not just one episode, through most of the damn season. Whether it was a background story or sheer brilliant dialogue delivery and emotion from characters—this show hit on every single milestone as a teenager growing up in the world of misfortunes. The second main character not only is believable in his disdain towards the rest of the cast, but the humor doesn’t take his anger away from him as a character. One of the characters does so well at being his polar opposite, it’s damn near hard to believe he was the reason behind the second main persons demise and embarrassment. The entire cast of characters have unique quirks, they aren’t downplayed and they aren’t over shadowed. As a teenager growing up, there was one episode that changed how I am today. I used to believe there was nothing special or unique about me, I believed I was just on this earth to outlive my parents and that was it. One episode was the true embodiment (to me) of living for the sake of yourself because you owe yourself that, to make something of yourself while you’re here. This episode to this day remains in my top 3 nest executed episodes to date by far, I haven’t seen such a brilliant scene that comes close to it in my twenty one years of a lifespan thus far. This anime changed the way I viewed others, viewed myself and how I became of age. It’s very, very dear to me.

4. Assassination Classroom

I regret not finding this anime sooner. I regret not being obsessed with this anime during my earlier years of high school or later years of middle school. I regret it so much.This anime changed my entire world, from the way others see me up to the very aspect of my being. The character that resonated with me far better than anyone was Karma Akabane. It was the way he was introduced as an antagonist and ended up being the exact direction the show needed to mold around. Karma’s character struck me as interesting from the second he appeared on screen, but it wasn’t his appearance or sinister personality. It was how real Karma was and how afraid he internally was as well. Every obstacle Karma faced and overcame was due to his over confidence that he was just GOOD at everything he tried and does. When he failed the one thing he was confident about, it wasn’t just a strike to his ego, it was his entire nature as a person. The reason I loved his character so much was because life was just life to him, he wasn’t really interested in the outcome, barely even the trail and error. He just wanted results and he didn’t do anything to better them, he knew he was good. When I watched this anime during the year that I did I was at a loss of..direction. I didn’t have motivation and it seemed like life couldn’t hand me a single..reward for all of my wasted effort I was putting into everything. This anime changed my life because it gave me the hope I needed and it helped me understand myself so much more. This show is littered with humour but behind every single smile on the show there were cruel lessons that I just wish could’ve been driven into my head at a younger age than when I stumbled upon it.

5. Naruto

I thought I’d regret adding this to my list but I think in all fairness it deserves to be here. Everyone knows the disastrous ending this anime had and we could debate for another ten years, it won’t change the lessons it taught us that we embodied and will carry with us throughout our life spans.When I stumbled on this anime I wasn’t even in middle school yet. As a child, it seemed like something an average person could enjoy and achieve. I bought naruto stuff, even the book of hand signs and I sat in my room learning the fire style technique hand signs to show off to my brothers for weeks. This was just something as a child I do not regret diving into. It taught my harsh lessons regarding friendships and it taught me lessons regarding hardships and endurance. I was at an age where I wasn’t really appreciative of very many things and as a young kid becoming a teenager, there weren’t many lessons a parent could teach a child without saying “I’ve been there, I know what I’m talking about” because as true as that was, it didn’t help being a child and feeling like your parents were trying to keep you from maturing into your own being with your own views and opinions. Naruto as a child helped me embody those morals and helped give light to what was important throughout life and a massive theme was friendship.As an adult and looking back on those friendships, I’ve learned some of them were one sided and overall toxic but I still don’t regret having them, otherwise I wouldn’t appreciate the ones I have now thanks to knowing what to avoid. Naruto was the anime that drove home “No matter who you are or where you come from, always believe in yourself. And never let friends down.” You’d play the naruto battle theme song while walking to class in middle school and it still probably wouldn’t resonate with you in this day and age how important those lessons were and still are.It had a terrible cluster fuck of an ending but it still remains of the animes that undoubtedly changed my entire life and made me who I definitely am to this day.

[owlaholic68]

Fic Writing

Since I’ve just (almost) finished writing chapter 9 of Au-Dela/Beyond the Stars, I thought I’d do a lovely little retrospective of my writing and translating experience!

The most obvious thing is that my writing speed in French has improved dramatically. I just busted out over 1000 words today, which is not bad compared to my English writing speed, and is way better than it was when I started. 

My random thoughts on chapters I’ve written:

Chapter 1: there’s apparently an “entertainment officer” on Lucky and I have no idea why their job is important enough to be mentioned. 

Chapter 2: I literally forgot that Lily was in this fic for some reason, don’t worry, she’ll be back. Also, I imagine Arcade’s lab to be like a Studio Ghibli greenhouse/science room. 

Chapter 3: I literally don’t remember coming up with the plot for this chapter, it just happened. Also, Julie is very good friends with both Christine and Veronica, I hope that was clear. 

Chapter 4: This was like the Bachelor, but less dumb and also less romantic? Also, Arcade was supposed to be in this somewhere, I don’t know where he went. 

Chapter 5: This is where Arcade went. Sorry, man, your job sucks. Also the king does...literally nothing ever... Oh right, my big reveal! I’m not sure why I tacked it on to this chapter, but I hope it was a nice cliffhanger!

Chapter 6: This is like the Boy who Cried Wolf with all these darn fake medical emergency messages. Also, almost kissing, ugh my weakness. 

Chapter 7: This chapter was supposed to almost 4000 words long, I don’t have any idea how that happened, so I split it two bc i’m back in school next week. 

Chapter 7 part two (Chapter 8): Oooh this isn’t up yet, but it’s a lot of fun! Veronica’s in there, Christine’s in there, Dmitri gets some time in. I also wrote this to the angstiest songs for some reason?? Also, not to spoil anything, but some scenes go better when I just knock Arcade unconscious. I just like giving the man head wounds. It happened in She Packed No Star (in the last chapter he got a concussion), Silver Stars (knocked himself out while teleporting to Julie’s temple), and this chapter too! Sometimes I get stuck writing, then I knock him out and everything goes great!!!!! Sorry!!!!!

Chapter 9 (just mostly written): I learned a lot about old Moroccan (Marrakech specifically) ruins and architectural elements. It was a lot of fun. That’s all I’ll say. 

Sometimes I forget what words I’ve used, and I always have my previous chapters open. Recent example: the word “stretcher” has two different words in French, and I just jumped back to Chapter 1 to find exactly which one I’d used. I have a weirdly good memory for exact times that I’ve used certain words or phrases.

Oh, the agony of decisions concerning formality of language...Christine just started using “tu” with Lynn and I’ve just been screaming internally the whole time I’ve been writing.

WHY do I use the present participle so much?????

THANK GOODNESS I made a stylistic decision a long time ago to write in present tense, because this would have been a lot harder if I would have had to write in passé simple or in another past tense. 

Forgot the spelling of the word “emperor” in french, jotted it down in English on my document, went to go look up the word and forgot how to spell it in English, had to go back to what I’d written. I should’ve just looked at my other chapters. It was in chapter One. It would have taken half as much time.

*word* *looks up French/English equivalent* *while page is loading, I think of the right word in French/English, now I just have the dictionary page open for no reason*

“La main” or “le main”? I’ve used the word for “hand” about 30 times a chapter, still second-guess myself on the gender of the noun. 

*writes romance interlude* *interlude is longer than my normal chapters* *interlude also contains important plot elements, so it’s basically just another chapter*

I actually have to set aside specific time for romantic interactions, bc sometimes I just forget...that that’s one of my main plot elements...Also (for example) bc of plot restraints, Veronica often can’t be a big part of the other chapters (yet), so she needs a little bit of designated Lynn Interaction Time. And since this is my first time writing a poly thing, that little bit of extra relaxed time will come in handy later.

While translating into English, I go to look up a phrase. After reading the dictionary definition, I don’t like it. Then I somehow remember the exact phrase that I had wanted to say while writing it originally in French. 

Translation is great bc I know EXACTLY what the author was trying to convey, because I AM the author. 

Finds errors in my French version while translating it into English.

WHY aren’t there as many descriptive words for saying things different ways in French? Ughhhhhh there’s basically no difference between scream/yell/shout/say loudly/squeal/squeak, they’re all just “crier/hurler”

WHY do I have all these weird sentences that are just “she stood up.” Why did I feel like I needed to write these in French? 

stuff that sounds better in French

stuff that sounds better in English

stuff that doesn’t sound good in either

I have to translate right at the end, bc otherwise I’ll change/add things in my French draft that I then have to go change/add in my English one and it’s a huge pain

PRONOUNS. Example: Technically Dmitri should use the feminine “elle” because the word for plant is feminine, but he of course uses “il” which I’m not sure exactly conveys that Arcade is saying “he” not “it”???? Also Arcade uses “tu” with Dmitri, fyi.

Also PRONOUNS between all these women are killing me.

Speaking of Dmitri, I have no idea why I picked that name. I think I looked up French nature-related names, and something similar to that came up? I just really like the name. 

I either write a whole paragraph without looking up a single word, or I have to look up every word in a single sentence. The former results in fast writing of quick-action scenes that I go back and edit, the latter makes for some lovely poetic descriptions. 

Lynn is always hesitating for some reason. She’s also making lots of eye contact too. Julie is always smiling. Christine is always showing lots of nonverbal affection. Arcade always has something in his hands. 

Speaking of Christine, I did toy with the idea of making her unable to speak, but ultimately forgot about it and dropped the idea within 0.5 seconds of writing Christine dialogue. I don’t regret it one bit. 

The king was supposed to be House?? And now he’s not, but he still kind of is?? Oh well I don’t care about him anymore...

I had the first story arc mapped out pretty detailed, this second one is going to be about 95% done on the fly, I pretty much just know what’s going to happen at the end. It’s going to be very character driven. There’s going to be an overarching plot with Star-Trek-style episodes thrown in.

I can’t decide what the ship’s hierarchy is?? Definitely (in order): the king, Lynn, Julie, and then I think Christine and Boone, then Fantastic and Reyes, then other minor officers? 

Somehow tropes from Silver Stars (Greek Mythology AU) are trying to creep into this story. One Big One is coming in Chapter 9 that I kept bc it still feels right, but I realized halfway through that this particular story element is kind of familiar. There’s also a lot of mentions of stars and the night sky that I don’t know why I’m still using in this fic, but it does still paint a very lovely picture. 

I’m definitely describing a lot more in french, but also describing things less in some ways. Sometimes I go to translate certain parts, and I’m shocked by how little time I spent describing scenery. But other times, I realize that I’ve gone into detail about the diplomatic structure of peace treaties in my AU. 

Uhhhhh a lot of times I write fic on my phone, and I just can’t do that with this, because I always need at least one dictionary tab open, and usually another couple tabs with music or research. However, it’s easier for me to edit my French drafts on my phone because I have a french keyboard option, which I can’t get a handle on on my desktop. 

I try to listen to French music when I write in French, but anything’s fair game when I’m translating. I always come up with ideas when I’m in my car listening to either Bob Dylan songs or Woodie Guthrie protest/pro-union anthems. 

I can’t believe I’ve written so much, and I’m still probably just under halfway through (if even). Also, I can’t believe that I’ve actually have consistent updates of decent lengths, every single week! This fic has been so much fun to write and translate, and has definitely been the slowest burn romance I’ve ever written!

I hope that everyone reading has enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed writing! 

[sheikah]

In the books wasn’t there 3 treasons, and one of them was a treason of love or something? Maybe daario will be danys final treason? I guess it could happen but honestly daario and Cersei just sounds odd to me. Even if he’s bitter and wants revenge, he knows exactly what dany is capable of and knows he’d be on the losing end.

Hey, anon. I’m going to use this ask to make a post about all of these “leaks” in general. Hope you don’t mind. The supposed leaks can be read here. More of my answer under the cut. 

Yes–in Dany’s book visit to HOTU she is warned of three treasons and one is “for love.”

Because of that, I agree that the idea of Daario working against her to be possible. But if I’m really analyzing it, I think that Daario leading the Golden Company would be the betrayal for gold–because he would be getting paid by Cersei/Euron/The Iron Bank, and I don’t think he would fight Dany “for love” of Cersei. It doesn’t add up. And I also don’t believe Daario was genuinely in love with Dany, so I can’t see his alliance with Cersei as like a spurned lover’s revenge. 

So to answer your question, Daario could be the final treason. But I think he fits better into the treason for gold than for love. 

Anyway, I also agree that it seems odd for this Daario plotline to be legitimate at all. So I’m going to address first the reasons I think the “leaks” are suspect. 

1. Tyrion and Varys are not mentioned. To be fair to OP, OP claims to only know details of episode 1 via a conversation with a source, and a few scattered details about the rest of the season thereafter. So possibly episode 1 is not heavy on Tyrion or Varys activity. However, OP didn’t mention this (at least not at the time that I read the leaks. He/she could have edited. I haven’t checked) which tells me Tyrion and Varys slipped their mind, which tells me that they just made up this episode plot and left them out. Say what you will about D&D and their flaws this past season, but Tyrion would be part of an episode they wrote in which everyone gets to Winterfell. He’s a mediator and would certainly be involved in the Jon parentage conflict, as well as some sort of interaction with Sansa at the very least. Tyrion is one of the big 5. He’s going to be around. 

2. The way OP described certain parts of the plot sounds “fanficy.” For example, they are vague and not very detailed when it comes to several plotlines, but they described in great detail how Jon supposedly kisses the tears away from Dany’s face when she cries about the Night King taking over Viserion. 

It also sounds overly cheesy and oddly detailed that Jon tells Arya that seeing her again feels better than coming back from the dead. Not to mention that Jon didn’t seem to enjoy the feeling of coming back from the dead at all. 

3. Certain parts of this don’t make sense considering what we know of last season. My understanding of the final shots of 7.07 is that Bran used ravens to spy on the Night King again, and that he was able to see the Night King riding Viserion and blowing a hole in The Wall near Eastwatch. You can see the scene again here. 

Based on this, the leaker’s claim that the season opens with Bran seeing this seems a little odd. We should believe that Bran already saw it, and instead begin the season by dealing with the aftermath. With only 6 episodes left, I can’t see a re-hash of this scene, a scene which already delivered its emotional payload and would be a weak opening for the final season imo. 

Furthermore, the leaker claims this revelation disturbs Bran and that he is so bothered by it, he is distracted and doesn’t address Jon’s parentage with him right away when Jon returns to Winterfell. I can see why from a writing perspective they would hold off on this revelation for tension, but it shouldn’t be because of Bran’s supposed emotional turmoil. Season 7 did its best to convince us that Bran no longer experiences emotional turmoil. This would be very inconsistent. 

4. Why would Jaime swear his sword to Dany upon arriving at Winterfell? We already know that Dany has abandoned the mentality of demanding oaths of fealty considering all that is going on, so we must assume Jaime does this of his own volition. But it doesn’t make sense. Jaime is disillusioned about Cersei, yes. But disliking Cersei does not equal respect for Dany. Jaime tried to murder her in 7.04. I’m not sure he’s going to be kneeling to her any time soon. His oath is to help in the war against the WW. That doesn’t require an oath to Dany personally. 

5. Speaking of Jaime, I think his death is more likely than Brienne’s. I see Jaime finally redeeming himself as “Kingslayer” by possibly slaying the Night King himself and maybe dying in the process. I know this is a long shot but I would love for him to be the one to deliver the final blow to NK as the true Kingslayer and one the realm would remember fondly forever. I do think it’s likely the Jaime/Brienne romance will proceed and that one of them will die. I just think it’s more likely to be Jaime than Brienne. 

6. Daario leading the Golden Company seems odd to me. How would he become the leader of this group when last we heard, he was maintaining peace and freedom in the former slave cities? When Daario was a mercenary, he was a Second Sun, not a member of the Golden Company. This seems strange to me.  

7. OP claims to know nothing of the ending. I think this is awfully convenient. OP claims to know that Jon and Dany stay together despite Jon’s angst over parentage reveal. OP claims to know the ending of Jaime/Brienne storyline. OP claims to know that Jon and Dany are likely to survive because Melisandre dies to save them. But OP doesn’t know specifics of Night King’s death? Doesn’t know for sure who survives the series? What kind of scenario exists where OP is told all of these super specific details but doesn’t actually know the ending? It seems like OP just didn’t want to write that part because their “tidbits” remain easier to swallow without the finality of the series’ end there as part of them. The other “leaks” presented ludicrous endings and were immediately shut down for it. Without presenting an ending at all, OP seems more credible in some ways. But it also makes me doubt them. 

8. OP never mentions Dany’s pregnancy plot until prompted in the comments. Again, just like Tyrion and Varys, this strikes me as odd. If there is indeed a Targaryen baby, which OP says there is, this would be a huge plot point. So for OP to know this, as they claim to in the comments, but leave it out of their description of the plot in the post itself, makes no sense. This tells me again that OP is making all of this up, forgot about the Targ baby, and had to cover their ass when it was brought up in the comments. 

All that being said, of all the leaks so far, these were some I was most inclined to believe. Full disclosure: that might be because these leaks are the only ones so far that don’t give us a sadistically horrible ending for Jonerys. So maybe I was ready to accept these simply because of my Jonerys obsession. But I do think there are other reasons to give these a little more credit than other “leaks” we’ve seen thus far. 

1. The Greyjoy plot makes sense. I’ve seen other fake leaks that present Euron as the real threat and villain of season 8, as the last man standing after Night King and Cersei fall. In these theories, Euron is some sort of evil mastermind that manages to kill many principle characters. I just don’t see that. So this leak sounds closer to the mark. We can already see that Cersei’s agreement with Euron is fragile and that she is using him. When he discovers that, he might very well go back to the Iron Islands to protect what’s his or gather his forces to retaliate. 

We’ve also now seen the beginnings of Theon’s redemption arc that I personally believe will culminate in saving Yara. Theon saving Yara wouldn’t be that significant if Euron is still in King’s Landing with Cersei instead of at Pike posing a threat to Theon’s rescue mission. So all of what the leaker presents in this regard sounds right to me. 

I also think that Yara ultimately dying despite Theon’s efforts is in keeping with the tone of the series. We can’t have everything we want and I would be sad but not surprised if Yara is killed. It would also be the final straw to shake Theon out of his indecisiveness and inaction–his rage over this could believably compel him to kill Euron, providing a fitting and satisfying end to that subplot. 

2. I’ve always thought that Arya would admire Dany, and the leaker says as much. Arya is canonically aware of Visenya Targaryen and even the name of her sword. It’s not a stretch to think that Arya would look at Dany–a Targaryen woman who is brave enough to ride into battle alongside her men, a woman who tamed three dragons–and see her childhood hero, Visenya Targaryen, a warrior queen. It also fits with Arya’s character to trust someone based on Jon’s opinion, and according to OP, Jon still defends Dany to the Northerners, and Arya would see that. 

3. Even though I question it above, I don’t think the Daario plot is as crazy as others seem to think. Everyone is happy to constantly remind that there are only 6 episodes left. That being the case, I would be very surprised to see a host of new characters introduced as the captains of the Golden Company, because no matter who the writers choose, they will be a new character to show!canon. Having Daario lead the Company doesn’t make sense, especially to more invested fans like us. But the GA would probably enjoy the angst of him landing on Westeros to oppose Dany, and would also like a familiar face instead of a new character as the leader of the GC who only shows up briefly to likely be killed off a couple of episodes later. 

I also don’t think it’s that surprising that Daario could sleep with Cersei. One of the things that Dany always lamented about Daario in the books is that he clearly loved her for what she was, not who she was. Daario is arrogant and enjoys a challenge. He loved Dany because she was an impressive conquest–the Mother of Dragons, the Queen of Meereen. She was formidable in every way. He admired her power as much as her beauty. 

Dany on the other hand, was taken in by Daario’s persistence and charm. In other words, he’s good with women.

Now take Cersei. Despite her inability to truly oppose Dany’s and Jon’s forces, she is still Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She is still a beautiful woman, the Light of the West. She is exactly Daario’s type. She is also no prude. Cersei has slept with inappropriate men besides Jaime before, and in the book she even subtly propositioned Ned Stark in an attempt to save herself when he revealed that he knew the truth about twincest and the illegitimacy of her children. So sleeping with a man casually, or with a seemingly unlikely man, is not OOC for Cersei. I don’t think that after suffering the loss of Jaime and the miscarriage of their last child, that Cersei would be in a position of confidence. She might crave the attention and comfort of a man like Daario who is 1. attractive 2. charming and 3. (assuming he really is the leader of the GC) a powerful ally. 

And of course, these two sleeping together would explain why Euron ditches Cersei, which I fully expect to happen.

4. The Melisandre story works. Sort of. I don’t really know what “army” she could pull together from Volantis but we know she’s leaving Westeros, we know there must be a reason. We know she knows about the WW and wants to prevent their destruction of humanity. We also know that according to what she told Varys in 7.03, she will return to Westeros and die there. 

Considering all of this, her dying in some way to save Jon and Dany after bringing aid doesn’t strike me as crazy. I think it’s fitting, actually. She’s another dynamic character who has changed a lot over the seasons and who has seen the error of her prophecies and her assumptions, but I think her belief in Jon and Dany and what they could do for the realm is genuine. She also said she had been ready to die for a long time. So her dying to save them makes sense. 

And of course, no one is kinder or a better judge of character than Dadvos. I am totally on board with him forgiving her in the end, after seeing that she gave her life to try and right her mistakes. 

5. As I said above, it does make sense to me to hold off on Jon’s parentage reveal immediately upon seeing Bran, so that part sounds in keeping with a good plot structure for the final season. 

OP’s descriptions of Jon’s reaction are also in line with what I’ve been saying–that Jon will handle this revelation the way he advised Theon to handle his own identity crisis. I think it sounds very in-character for Jon to accept his heritage from both families and to ultimately embrace Dany and their love despite the complications. Overall, I don’t believe this is a true leak. But parts of it sound okay, and we need to keep that in mind if we are interested in a potential real leak in the future. Because if one were to come about, it’s entirely possible that some of this information might overlap. After all, some fan theories have been correct in the past. 

So we can disregard this leak and we should. But I’m not going to dismiss the whole thing outright because to do so might be to dismiss or overlook a future, genuine leak the way many people did with Lads. After all, the wight hunt sounded ridiculous–and imo it kind of was. But it was real. Who knows what D&D are capable of lol?

[babygirl06301]

Buffy moments that made me cry

Oi! This post contains spoilers, read at your own risk or whatever.

So, this is gonna be a fun, happy time. 

Sike, because I’m gonna crush your hearts. And keep you here for a long time, because damn is this long. It’s important to understand that, when making this list, I was going off of memory so that could be a reason as to why not every terribly sad scene is in here. Another reason a scene could be left off is because I don’t like certain characters, so their sad moments didn’t cause me to emotionally explode like these did. For example, I’m not a huge fan of Faith, Joyce, Dawn, or Riley. I like them all, but I wasn’t invested enough in them as characters to warrant their hard times breaking my soul. Make sense?

Also, you will notice a common theme here, and if you’ve been following me for a while, this will come as no surprise (and neither will me talking about scenes I’ve already talked excessively about a million times): Spike, Spike, Spuffy, Spike. Spike is my all time favorite character from any show. So, it stands to reason that I feel his pains and woes more heavily than the other characters. Building on that, Spuffy is my ultimate ship. Ergo...you get it. In fact, most of this post will be about Spike, Spuffy, Twillow, and Xanya (is that their ship name?). You’re probably tired of hearing about the same scenes everyone (me) talks about, for example, a lot of the stuff from S7. And honestly, I’m getting a little tired of talking about them, but this list wouldn’t be complete without it, so bear with me.

So, I’m also gonna rate these by level of tears and soul-breakage (whether for happy or sad reasons). A scale of 1 to 5. Allow me to demonstrate with Dean Winchester gifs. 

1 - Prickly eyes, very deep feeling of sadness

2 - Eyes brimmed with tears about to spill over

3 - Tears fall

4 - Tears won’t stop falling

5 - All hope of composure is lost

Fair warning: there are only two 5s on here. So. And keep in mind that a 1 doesn’t mean it’s a bad scene. Think of 1s as very good scenes and 5s as mind-blowing, fuck me up scenes. Also, they’re just how I reacted. I know some of these hit harder with some or fell flat with others. And of course, there’s other scenes that were very sad to watch but didn’t quite make me tear up. For example, when Willow first sees that Glory took away Tara’s sanity or when Spike tells Buffy he’d risk his life to go after someone that hurt her. Okay, let’s get into it.

Okay, before the Buffy, I want to start with a few scenes from Angel that really got me. Not a lot in Angel did get me because I wasn’t as invested in it, but these were hard. 

Doyle dies

The episode: “Hero” 

My rating: 1/5

The moment: There’s a magical bomb about to explode so, Doyle decides to sacrifice himself to save everyone.

Why I cried: Doyle is one of the few characters on Angel that I had a really protective attitude with. Much like I did with early seasons Willow or with Tara, sort of just a sweet character that I want to keep safe. So, because we see Doyle struggle since the beginning with his identity as half-demon, this heroic last act means so much for his story. Not to mention, his last goodbyes with Angel and Cordelia were very heartfelt and sad.

Buffy forgets Human!Angel

The episode: “I Will Remember You”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Angel had become human for this episode and was able to spend a whole day with Buffy, consequence free. However, realizing he couldn’t protect the world as a human, he opted to erase the previous day. This moment is Angel explaining to Buffy that only he would remember their day together.

Why I cried: This scene got me for a number of reasons. One of the primary reasons is the behind the scenes information surrounding it. Sarah couldn’t hold herself together, David whispered her name (that you can hear in the scene) to calm her. That proves the power of this moment. Additionally, understanding that Angel will have the bear the memory of this day, cut me pretty deep. So did seeing Buffy so broken and panicked. All together, a gut-wrenching scene.

Fred dies

The episode: “A Hole in the World”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Fred has a run in with an ancient coffin containing the Old One, Illyria. She kills Fred by cooking her organs, causing her to slowly fade away while being watched over by Wesley, her current love. 

Why I cried: Fred is another one of those pure characters that doesn’t deserve the fate she receives. Wesley and Fred spend so long dancing around each other, being with other people before finally connecting...only to have it violently ripped away from them. Requited love resulting in immediate tragedy is something Joss Whedon is a master of, and this certainly isn’t the last example on this list.

Wesley dies

The episode: “Not Fade Away”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Wesley fights his final battle for Angel and the greater good, resulting in a serious wound that took his life. In his final moments, Illyria transforms herself into Fred to give Wes peace as he dies.

Why I cried: Honestly, the main thought running through my mind with this scene is that Wes and Fred will finally be together. His end is bittersweet for me, as he struggled so much in Angel. Adding on to this, seeing Fred weep over Wesley and knowing that it was equal parts Fred and Illyria feeling grief for him hits home as much as anything else. 

Okay, that’s Angel done. As I said, I wasn’t as invested so I don’t remember all the intense scenes, for one, and I also didn’t care about the story as much in general. Let’s move on to Buffy.

Buffy quits

The episode: “Prophecy Girl”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy overhears Angel and Giles discussing the prophecy that Buffy is to die if she faces the Master. She makes her presence known and decides to quit her role as Slayer because she’s afraid of dying.

Why I cried: This is the first time we see Buffy terrified of anything. Really terrified. And understandably so. I think the thing about this scene that gets me the most is that Buffy is supposed to be this tough girl, not afraid of anything, least of all dying. Which is quite unfair to ask of anyone. So here, we see the rational reaction to dying that we don’t expect her to have. Hearing her tell Giles that she’s sixteen and doesn’t want to die is almost shocking because she’s right, but that’s something we don’t totally register before this scene. And it’s almost made sadder by the fact that we know she doesn’t really have the choice to walk away from her calling. No matter how hard she fights, it doesn’t matter.

Buffy and Giles cry together

The episode: “Passion”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: Right after Giles goes after Angelus for killing Jenny, Buffy pulls him out of the burning factory and screams at him for risking his life.

Why I cried: It’s just the combination of knowing Giles’ pain is so real and seeing Buffy’s fear of losing him. Giles, being a Watcher, hadn’t really had the opportunity to live a life outside of books and Slayers. Jenny was his chance to do that, and he lost her. He lost her right after he’d decided to take her back after the whole Angel/Angelus debacle. Remember that requited love turns to tragedy thing? On top of that, it isn’t often we see Buffy express her affection for Giles. This rare moment of vulnerability, for both of them, makes this scene crushing.

Buffy kills Angel

The episode: “Becoming: Part 2″

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Buffy resigns herself to killing Angelus, as it appears they won’t be able to ensoul him, and he plans to release Acathla and destroy the world. At the last moment, after the door to Hell is opened, Angel regains his soul. Unfortunately, the only way to close the portal is to the kill the one who opened it. Buffy, then, is forced to kill her love.

Why I cried: The acting. That’s what it is. Other than the fact that it’s terribly tragic that they have to lose each other after so long apart,--*coughs* requited love--it’s just the fact that I can see it all on their faces. And Angel is so confused by what’s happening, and Buffy doesn’t explain. She just says goodbye, a goodbye cloaked in loving words. And then Angel’s confusion turns to shock, and Buffy’s expression of responsibility overrun with pain...it’s all a part of why this scene is so, so sad.

Buffy cries in Willow’s lap

The episode: “The Prom”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Just after Angel breaks up with her, Buffy confides in Willow. She conveys that she’s trying to keep from dying, that she feels like she can’t breathe. Willow holds her head in her lap while she cries.

Why I cried: On a personal note, for me and I’m sure many others, this spoke to me. It related almost exactly to one of my break-ups in the past. Because of that, it was more than just watching these characters bleed and cry on TV and trying to understand it. This, I did understand. And it hurts. And seeing our hero weep like this over something so...mundane...that’s pain.

Willow and Oz break up

The episode: “Wild at Heart”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Oz has made the decision, after a few nights with a fellow werewolf, that he will leave Sunnydale to try and tame the beast inside of him. As a result, he has to initiate a painful goodbye with the woman he loves.

Why I cried: This is the ever-present struggle with relationships. You want to be together, you want to be with them, but when it comes down to it, sometimes you need to take care of you. And that’s a tough choice to make. The thing about this scene is that neither of them fell out of love with the other (despite Willow asking Oz if he had). Oz had to tear himself away from the one thing he’d loved all his life so that he could better himself. Which means, for me anyway, that you can’t blame Oz. And an ending relationship where neither party is to blame, well that’s a hard blow. 

Oz’s final goodbye

The episode: “New Moon Rising”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Oz returns to Sunnydale, hoping to reignite his flame with Willow. Upon returning, he realizes that Willow has fallen in love with someone else--Tara. In his final scene, he says a tearful and final goodbye to Willow.

Why I cried: You know that feeling when you’re watching something and you just know that this is the end for a character? Like, you feel the deep sorrow that this is the last you’ll see of them? That’s what I was feeling. And I’m sure that’s what Willow was feeling. Because Oz didn’t fall out of love with her, it’s saddening to see him so wilted because he wasn’t able to get back together with Willow. But at the same time, it’s amazing to see how understanding and caring he is regarding Willow’s love for another person. Happy goodbyes can be just as tearful as the sad ones.

Willow chooses Tara

The episode: “New Moon Rising”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: After leaving Oz, Willow goes to Tara’s dorm room. Tara worries that Willow is coming to tell her she’s chosen Oz. She assures Willow that she should be with the one she loves, to which Willow replies, “I am.”

Why I cried: Oh my goodness. Tara is just so happy in this moment. And so is Willow. After all the confusion, after all the concern and tiptoeing and worry, Willow and Tara finally choose each other.

The gang defends Tara  

The episode: “Family”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Tara’s family comes to take her home because they claim (falsely) that she is part demon. She’s prepared to leave to spare her friends the shame of knowing her. In a twist, the Scoobies--even Spike, to an extent--defend Tara and protect her against her family.

Why I cried: This is the first time Tara is ever officially welcomed into the unofficial family of the Scoobies. And we get to see characters come to her defense, not because she’s connected to Willow, but because she’s connected to all of them. It’s a very warm family moment that gives me the warm fuzzies.

Spike comforts Buffy 

The episode: “Fool for Love”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: After a long night at each other’s throats, Spike vows to kill Buffy despite the complication of the behavior chip. Upon arriving at her house, Spike finds Buffy crying because of her mother’s worsening illness, a fact unbeknownst to him. He asks what’s wrong, if there’s anything he can do and ends up sitting silently with her in the moment.

Why I cried: Why would I cry so much over such a small thing? Well, because of the little things. Spike looks...curious. Instead of this big, swanky, know-it-all vampire, Spike is intrigued and curious concerning Buffy and how he feels about her. It’s almost like Buffy is this magical, foreign creature that he can’t look away from lest it run away, never to be seen again. And when he pats her back, he’s so gentle with her, somehow understanding what she needs without knowing the situation. And it helps. You can see Buffy’s face, see that she’s comforted to have someone to be with her there. It’s a very serene, tender moment.

Buffy finds her mom dead  

The episode: “The Body”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy comes home to find Joyce lying on the couch, dead. In a panic, she calls 911. After that, she calls Giles. All the while, moving from confusion to alarm to shock.

Why I cried: This is a very real reaction to death. Especially the death of a close loved one. And it’s very strange for us to see Buffy this shattered, even with all the pain she’s gone through before this moment. It’s a hard scene to pick at, but we feel the same sort of surreal blankness that Buffy does.

Buffy tells Dawn about Joyce  

The episode: “The Body”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy goes to Dawn’s school to tell her about their mother’s death.

Why I cried: It’s just...I didn’t and don’t care for Dawn very much...so that alone should tell you why this scene made the list. Seeing her that sorrowful and knowing that she still feels, if only in this case, like a little girl that still needs her mommy...it makes this scene heartbreaking.

Willow and Tara embrace

The episode: “The Body”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Willow worries over what she should wear to the hospital to meet Buffy and Dawn. Her sadness and cries escalate until Tara goes to her, and they share their first (on-screen) kiss.

Why I cried: For one, it’s a good reminder that Joyce touched more people’s lives than Buffy’s and Dawn’s. Also, it’s a good moment for us to be there with Willow and Tara and feel their love and compassion. Just the way that they hold each other and breathe into each other’s embrace...it’s beautiful. 

Anya asking why Joyce died

The episode: “The Body”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Tensions raise between Willow and Anya, as Anya doesn’t completely understand the actions taken by humans when a loved one dies. Anya soon breaks down and exclaims that the mortality of humans is nonsensical and stupid.

Why I cried: Anya is meant to be this confused, blunt, and uninformed character that never really grasps the spectrum of human emotions and mannerisms. But here’s the thing: in her ramblings about the stupidity of death and her confusion over why Joyce had to die, she makes the most sense of all. The beauty of her confusion and bluntness and uninformed nature is that she hits on the exact thought that everyone has when someone passes on: why? 

Buffy cries with Dawn 

The episode: “Forever”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: After Buffy stops Dawn from resurrecting their mother, she hears a knock on the door and runs to it, hoping it’s her mother. Dawn tears the photo of Joyce up that was used to bring her back in the first place, cancelling the spell. Realizing that they are truly on their own now, the two break down in front of the door and cry openly together.

Why I cried: It’s some of the first common ground we see with the two of them, especially since Joyce’s death. It’s horrible yet heartwarming to see Buffy and Dawn, at least for the time being, come together as sisters.

“I know you’ll never love me.”

The episode: “The Gift”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike and Buffy return to her house to pick up some weapons for their fight against Glory. Upon arriving, Spike offers to take the weapons over the threshold, having been locked out of Buffy’s house previously. Buffy invites him in for the second time and tells Spike she’s counting on him to protect Dawn. He replies that he will--“’til the end of the world,” even if he dies doing so. He then tells her that, even though he knows she’ll never love him, he’s grateful that she treats him like a man.

Why I cried: Oh my God, so many reasons. From the top, Spike’s willingness to cooperate with Buffy’s wishes to stay out of her house and then Buffy’s subsequent invitation to enter back in says volumes about how far they’ve come in such a short time. Spike’s facial expression when she invites him back in began the trail of tears for me. When Spike proclaims he will protect Dawn “’til the end of the world,” that solidified the notion that he’d really changed, which overwhelmed me with emotion. And finally, when Spike says “I know you’ll never love me. I know that I’m a monster, but you treat me like a man and that’s...” That moment really touches me, firstly, because of the respect you can see on Buffy’s face. Whether or not she even likes Spike, she respects him now, after it all. Secondly, Spike is expecting to die. Whether by himself or alongside everyone, he’s expecting that this night is the end for him. And his final words to Buffy tell her: it’s alright that you don’t love me, I’m just happy to be in your life. He doesn’t try and convince her one last time, doesn’t try and persuade her. He’s a complete gentleman, and that’s the best part.

Willow finds Tara 

The episode: “The Gift”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Willow is finally able to get Tara back after so long without her because of Glory’s magic keeping Tara from being in control of her own mind. In a rush of joy, the two embrace, Willow telling a previously lost Tara that she’ll always find her.

Why I cried: The happiest tears come from this scene. Can you imagine being separated from your true love for so long without ever actually being physically apart from them? Having to see them every single day struggling against their own mind? That must be the hardest fate you could have. But Willow stuck with Tara, and it paid off in the end. The found each other in one of the happiest moments of the show’s run. 

Spike sees Buffy dead

The episode: “The Gift”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: After a long and hard fight against Glory, Buffy sacrifices herself to close the portal opened up by Summers blood. Her friends and family show varying signs of grief for their loss.

Why I cried: So, Willow and Spike had the two strongest reactions to seeing Buffy dead. Dawn was crying, but she’d already talked to Buffy and knew she would be dead when she reached the bottom of the tower. Anya was blank, seemingly because Buffy dying was almost expected. Xander and Giles showed emotion--sadness--but didn’t cry. Willow and Spike were sobbing. But why does specifically Spike make me cry? Two reasons. First: Willow is known to be very sensitive, so it’s expected that she’d break down immediately and not need time to register that Buffy had died. She went instantly to grief. Spike is known to be sensitive as well, being a poet and often shedding a tear when Buffy rejects him. But this. Spike doesn’t do this. He doesn’t absolutely break. His body doesn’t heave and convulse with sobs and sorrow. The reason Spike reacted so violently leads into my second reason, a reason James Marsters himself has stated: Buffy wasn’t just a loved one; she was his only loved one. The only person he had. That’s why what I said earlier on comes into play: Spike expected to die alone or die with everyone. He never expected to be left alone in a world without Buffy. Never. 

“Be brave. Live. For me.”

The episode: “The Gift”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: As Buffy is preparing to sacrifice herself to save the world, she gives her little sister, Dawn, some final words of advice to live on with after she’s gone.

Why I cried: I think it’s safe to say that this scene is one of the most remembered scenes from Buffy. And rightfully so. The reason I found this scene to be tear-inducing isn’t because Buffy is leaving her little sister or even because she’s dying willingly not only to save the world but to save herself from life. The reason this scene is so powerful is because it speaks to everyone. It tells everyone that they can be strong and live in a world so prone to kicking us when we’re down. It tells us that we can all choose to be like Buffy--a warrior. So, when I watch this scene, Buffy is speaking to me. And hearing something like that come from one of my greatest heroes, that’s a dream come true.

Spike sees Buffy alive 

The episode: “After Life”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike storms into the Summers home, frantic to see if Dawn made it home safely. After scolding her for running off previously, Dawn draws his attention to a newly resurrected Buffy walking down the stairs. 

Why I cried: Two words to describe his expression: shocked and elated. It is so phenomenal the amount of emotion communicated through Spike’s eyes here. As soon as he sees her, you can see so many things pass over his face. Joy, disbelief, the effort not to cry, the urge to touch her, the need to be careful with her. All of that combined makes these few seconds something to talk about. No words, just...them.

“147 days yesterday. Uh, 148 today.”

The episode: “After Life”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Buffy asks Spike, who is examining her bloody hands, how long she had been gone for. Spike replies, “147 days yesterday. Uh, 148 today. Except today doesn’t count does it?”

Why I cried: Let’s just...he counted the days. He counted the days. Not weeks. Not months. Days. And the way he’s looking at her. His expression screams that he’s so happy to see her...but also that he’s not going to hurt her or push her. Which is the very first time this season that Spike does something for Buffy that no one else can or could. This man was so broken when he saw her lifeless body, and yet he’s able to compose himself enough to make sure Buffy is comfortable and safe. That’s love right there.

Spike blames Willow

The episode: “After Life”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: Spike corners Xander after a pointed comment about Spike returning to his days of stalking Buffy now that she was alive again. Spike expressed anger that no one told him about the plan to revive Buffy. Xander, unable to come up with a reason as to why they didn’t tell him, is baffled when Spike proposes that Willow kept it from him on purpose. Spike suggests that Willow knew Buffy could come back from the grave other than herself and they’d have to send her back. However, since Spike wouldn’t allow that to happen if any part of it was still Buffy, he guesses that Willow kept him in the dark to keep him from interfering in the case that Buffy’s reprieve was brief. 

Why I cried: This is a little moment, I understand. But the fact that it’s implied that Spike, of all people, wouldn’t allow the gang to get rid of a rabid Buffy, that’s pretty impactful. In fact, I would’ve guessed that Spike would be the one to opt for putting Buffy back in her grave, that he wouldn’t want Buffy to live and suffer. The shocking revelation that Spike wouldn't do just that is what rocked my emotions enough to include it on this list.

“Every night, I save you.”

The episode: “After Life”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Buffy visits Spike in his crypt, likely looking for a break from the Scoobies. After an attempt from Spike to make small talk, he sits down and begins telling her what it’s been like since she died. He tells her he blames himself for her death and that ever since that night, in his mind, he never stopped saving her. 

Why I cried: Aside from character deaths, I’d put this scene in a top 5 list for Buffy’s saddest moments. He reminds her that he never stopped protecting Dawn, but then he backtracks on that idea, talks about the night she died. The way he blames himself...he erases everything else and only sees that he should’ve died protecting Dawn so Buffy wouldn’t of had to jump. And then he tells her he did save her, like it’s a sure fact, before saying he didn’t save her when it counted but he has every night since. This part is so easy to imagine: Spike laying in bed at night, maybe thinking, maybe dreaming about doing something different. About finding some other way to save Buffy, about pretending the last 147 days didn’t happen. He loses himself in his explanation, finally assuring Buffy, “Every night, I save you.” 

Giles and Tara’s duet 

The episode: “Once More, With Feeling”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Willow and Giles share a song, both expressing the need (but not desire) leave the one person they love the most. Giles, singing as a father; Tara singing as a lover. Both grieving the future loss of a relationship they wish they didn’t have to let go.

Why I cried: This little tidbit of a song gets me every time. Individually, Giles and Tara singing about losing Buffy and Willow respectively is heartbreaking on its own--but together...they both have to leave but for separate reasons, they both don’t want to leave for separate reasons, they both recognize the ending of their separate relationships. The power in this song is how a father and a lover can sing about a daughter and partner, say the exact same thing, mean the exact same thing, but for completely different circumstances. 

“You have to go on living, so one of us is living.” 

The episode: “Once More, With Feeling”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: As Buffy is dancing, about to go up in flame, Spike catches her. He sings to her about life and tells her that, even though it’s hard, she has to keeping living because that’s the only way she’ll heal.

Why I cried: This is another moment where Spike seems to know just what to say. He’s simply telling Buffy to keep fighting, like she’s always done. He’s telling her that she has to live so at least one of them is living. It’s as close to selfless as we’ve seen from Spike thus far or will see from him until his soul. It’s all for Buffy.

Tara realizes the truth

The episode: “Tabula Rasa”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: Xander accidentally steps on the crystal used to facilitate the memory spell, thus breaking it. Tara, realizing Willow had again cast a spell to affect her memory, cries for the loss of their relationship.

Why I cried: It’s a very sudden moment, and that makes it harsher to watch. Willow had previously fallen on top of Tara and was still there when the spell was broken, so Tara shoved her off and stood up immediately. The jolt of the movement punctuated the possible finality of Willow and Tara. 

“Goodbye To You”

The episode: “Tabula Rasa”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: As Michelle Branch sings “Goodbye To You,” we see two endings and a beginning. Giles flies out for London and Tara leaves Willow. Simultaneously, Buffy and Spike indulge in each other for the second time. 

Why I cried: Let’s start with Giles. So, the saddest part about Giles’ portion of this moment is that he’s alone now. No more Buffy, no more magic shop, he’s totally alone. Dawn feels betrayed by the crumble of Willow and Tara’s relationship. Tara feels guilty about that, but she also feels sorrow for having no other choice but to leave. Willow feels remorse and pain. Meanwhile, Buffy seemingly turns Spike away after he tries to comfort her from the spell being broken, as she was slammed back into her life that she’d described before as “painful”--until she decides she wants him. And Spike gets to indulge in his need for her. Through all of these goodbyes, at least someone got the (albeit brief) happiness that they needed.

Willow’s breakdown

The episode: “Wrecked”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: After meeting with Rack, a black magic dealer, Willow crashes a vehicle with Dawn in the passenger seat. Dawn subsequently is nearly killed by a demon, saved just in time by Spike and Buffy. Spike takes Dawn home as Willow has a breakdown, exclaiming that she can’t stop using magic, that she ruined everything.

Why I cried: When you see a character, especially one you love, completely shatter in front of you, that has an impact. Willow was just so limp and weak in that moment, a moment where she admitted that she was wrong and that she needed help. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her to come to that conclusion, how much the guilt of nearly killing Dawn was eating at her. And yet, in this moment of weakness, she asked Buffy for help. And that is the strongest thing she could’ve done.

“I could never be your girl.”

The episode: “Dead Things”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Johnathan, Warren, and Andrew devise a plan to frame Buffy for the accidental murder of Warren’s ex-girlfriend. After their plan was successful, Buffy planned to turn herself in. Spike, however, wasn’t going to let Buffy throw her life away because of an accident. She began hitting him as Spike egged her on, told her to put it all on him. When she did, he said, “That’s my girl.” To this, Buffy hit him faster and harder, screaming that she could never be his girl because he was a soulless, evil “thing.”

Why I cried: The first part of why this scene is so emotional is because Buffy is trying so hard to deny that she enjoys being with Spike. Combine that with the guilt from “killing” that girl, and Buffy’s portion of this scene is extremely intense. Now, for Spike’s. Seeing Spike get insulted and beat on and emotionally torn up, crushes me. Considering all he’d done in the past, yes, he deserved it. But considering that he was trying, he definitely didn’t deserve it. And even after all that, he still tried to keep her from going into that police station. And Buffy looked horrified when she took in what she’d done to Spike. “You always hurt the one you love, pet.”

Buffy confides in Tara

The episode: “Dead Things”

My rating: 3/5 

The moment: Buffy had previously asked Tara to test her and see if she’d come back from the grave wrong. When Tara confirmed that nothing was wrong with her, Buffy broke down, insisting that there must be for her to let Spike touch her. Tara assured her that it was alright and that she understood. Buffy, not wanting to be forgiven, laid her head in Tara’s lap and begged for Tara not to forgive her.

Why I cried: The small thing here is that Buffy and Tara’s relationship is being built up by this, which is the one positive thing. But, it’s just overwhelmingly sad that Buffy feels so horrible for being with Spike and increasingly more sad that she thinks she should be punished for it. Of course, there’s more in her that’s broken aside from her attraction to Spike, but the sheer shame in her eyes is completely heartbreaking.

“You glow.”

The episode: “Hell’s Bells”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: Spike and Buffy attempt to be civil after their break-up. Spike tells Buffy that it’s nice to see her happy, even if it isn’t with him, because he doesn’t get to see it a lot. He tells her she glows, and then she does.

Why I cried: The thing that kept running through my mind during this scene was that if they had simply treated each other like this before, they would’ve been beautiful together.

Xander leaves Anya at the altar 

The episode: “Hell’s Bells”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Xander, afraid of ending up like the man in his falsified vision or even like his parents, leaves Anya at the altar on their wedding day. 

Why I cried: Anya was supposed to be the one to leave. Anya was supposed to be the scared partner, afraid of getting hurt. Instead, Xander was the one to leave. Because he was afraid of hurting her. Unfortunately, both Xander and Anya did or got exactly what they didn’t want. 

Xander and Buffy catch Anya and Spike

The episode: “Entropy”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Due to a camera put in the Magic Box by the Trio, Xander and Buffy see Spike and Anya having sex. Xander, determined to kill Spike, is chased down by Buffy who stops him. Xander and Anya argue about Xander’s choice to leave Anya at the altar. Xander says he can’t look at her anymore because she’s been with Spike. It’s at this moment that Spike reveals his previous involvement with Buffy, causing a rift between all four of them.

Why I cried: It’s just one of those scenes that all you can do is sit back and watch as it all crumbles in front of you. You want to agree with Buffy and Xander because they’re the traditional “good guys,” but they are the ones who left Anya and Spike out in the cold. A lot of conflicting emotions for the viewer.

Spike attempts to rape Buffy

The episode: “Seeing Red”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike goes to apologize to Buffy for hurting her because of his encounter with Anya. Buffy tells him that, although she has feelings for him, it isn’t love. This is misconstrued by Spike, leading to an attempted rape that is quickly derailed by Buffy kicking Spike off.

Why I cried: I could go on about this scene. The very first time I watched this, I didn’t cry. I didn’t do anything. I just sat there, completely frozen. I felt helpless, hopeless. I couldn’t stop what was happening, I couldn’t look away. I understood fully and entirely what was going on in this scene, what the point was. I knew that Spike instantly regretted what he did, that he didn’t even register until afterwards what it was that he’d almost done. I knew Buffy knew that too. But all I could think was, “This is it. This is how Spike and Buffy’s story ends.” And it just saddened me so much. It made me so empty to think that this was how the greatest love story I’d ever seen before got it’s end. I just felt like the world drained away and all that was left was hopelessness. I remember I had to shut off my computer afterwards and sit in silence for hours, not moving, not thinking, just hurting. And then the tears came. Because of all that I mentioned above, it all hit me and once and I broke. I couldn’t and, really still can’t, touch that scene. To this day, it just brings back the feeling that nothing matters and hope is lost.

Tara dies  

The episode: “Villains”

My rating: 5/5

The moment: After Tara is shot and killed by Warren, Willow weeps over her body.

Why I cried: It’s Tara. It’s Tara and it’s Willow and it’s not fair. It’s not fair that they only got to be happy again for a moment before it was all ripped away. It isn’t fair that Willow has to feel pain like that. It’s just not fair.

Yellow crayon

The episode: “Grave”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Xander goes to Willow, who is bent on destroying the world. He tells her that if she plans on destroying the world, he’s going with her. He repeats that he loves her, angering her at first, but eventually getting through to her as he tells her one last time.

Why I cried: It’s just a very powerful moment coming from Xander. After all both of them have been through: losing their loves together (whether that be Cordy and Oz or Anya and Tara), growing up together, staying together through all the pain. Of all the relationships on the show, Xander and Willow have got to have the strongest one. 

Willow cries in Xander’s arms 

The episode: “Grave”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: After talking her down, Xander is finally able to embrace Willow as she comes back to herself.

Why I cried: He did it. Xander saved the world. Xander, the guy who always considers himself useless. He saved the world. And he saved Willow. How amazing is he? 

The church scene

The episode: “Beneath You”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike reveals to Buffy that he got his soul back. He first tells her that his soul has been torturing him ever since he got it back, that he doesn’t blame her for not loving him, that he feels terribly for trying to hurt her. He then asks why everything isn’t fixed, confused by the fact that his soul is causing more trouble than it is fixing him. He then rests on a cross, burning himself as Buffy watches in the distance.

Why I cried: The whole scene, Spike is saying seemingly nonsensical things that all add up to him telling Buffy about how miserable he’s been since he got his soul back. Knowing the pain he went through to get his soul in the first place and that he’s in pain still is enough to tear anyone up. But my pain comes when Spike says he wasn’t a good man--or rather, a man at all--before he got his soul. That moment when his voice breaks and he tells Buffy he got his soul for her so that he could be worthy of being. And then he lays himself on the cross, a symbol for the fact that he’s still a monster, still worthy of pain and unworthy of love. And Buffy looks to be a combination of horrified and guilty as she stares on at this man that went through Hell for her and can’t find his way back.

“Stay here, and help me be quiet.”

The episode: “Help”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Buffy comes down the basement to ask Spike for his help in saving a girl that is meant to die on that day. She asks Spike if there is any evil in the basement, and he identifies himself as the evil because he hurt Buffy. Once Buffy realizes he has nothing useful for her, she begins to walk away. Spike calls after her and asks her to stay with him to help him be quiet. Buffy replies that it’s worse when she’s there and walks away.

Why I cried: Spike just looks so beaten. When Buffy speaks to him, he uses her voice to ground him and keep him in reality. You can see him trying to think, trying to stay there in the moment. Trying to understand what she’s asking of him. And he says that he’s paying (with the pain from his soul) because he hurt Buffy. He doesn’t want to hurt the girl. Finally, as Buffy walks away from him, he pleads with her to stay there, to help him keep the voices out. She denies his plea and leaves him sitting alone.

“It’s still all about you.”

The episode: “Sleeper”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy accuses Spike of killing the girl he went out with the night before. Spike tells her he couldn’t have, because he got his soul. Furthermore, he’s offended that she thinks he would go to the trouble of getting his soul back just to kill again. He tells her he does go out and talk to women, but only because he can’t talk to her. Spike continues, saying that, unlike the chip, the soul he got on his own, for her. As Buffy’s telling him she knows that, Spike says that he only passes time with other women because at the end of the day, it’s still all about her.

Why I cried: Spike is trying so hard here to make her believe that he’d really, undeniably changed. And he looks so hurt that she really thinks he’d kill someone after all he went through to be better. More than that, he’s so terrified that somehow he did do it. Because he doesn’t want to be the bad man anymore. This whole scene is just pure emotion.

“Do it fast, okay?”

The episode: “Sleeper”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike asks Buffy to kill him in this scene. He mentions that “He” said she would do it, prompting Buffy to ask him what he remembered about the killings. Spike, upon saying that he doesn’t remember anything, begs to forget what he’d done. Buffy tells him that something mystical has been messing with him, to which Spike responds by asking her to help him, and Buffy agrees.

Why I cried: He looks so small. That’s not something we’re used to seeing. This big, bad, 100+ year old vampire is cowering in the corner, begging for death by the hands of the Slayer. And the way his voice breaks when he asks Buffy, “Do it fast, okay?” just breaks my heart. All he wants to do is stop the pain, whether that means ending his life or forgetting it ever happened. 

“I believe in you, Spike.”

The episode: “Never Leave Me”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Spike insists that Buffy kill him before he can hurt anyone else because of the First. Buffy assures him that if he hadn’t really changed, he’d already be dead. She tells him that he fought every evil instinct he had to be the good man standing in front of her. Right before the Bringers break in and kidnap Spike, Buffy looks at him and tells him she believes in him.

Why I cried: During this scene, all I think about is how much they’ve grown, namely Buffy. I think about all the negative feelings she had towards Spike, how she realized that she didn’t need to feel those things anymore. She let go of the hate she had for him and instead put faith where hate had previously resided. Faith for Spike. That’s a damn big change. Just the way Spike looks back at her... He is totally and completely surprised by what she’s said. It’s hard to put that into words, but he’s so taken aback by the fact that she believes in him. In my opinion, it isn’t, “You believe in me?” It’s, “You really believe in me?” That’s what makes it magnificent. 

Spike resists the First

The episode: “Bring on the Night”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: The First interrogates and tortures Spike, who refuses to give over to whatever the First has planned. The First challenges him, asks him why he thinks he’ll be any good at all in the world as something other than evil. Spike simply says, “She does. Because she believes in me.”

Why I cried: So, for one, resisting the most powerful force of evil ever is hard enough, especially since Spike, as a vampire, is supposed to be evil by nature. But Spike isn’t resisting because the First hurt him. He isn’t resisting because he wants to be a good man. He's resisting because Buffy believes he can be a good man. And that’s enough. 

Buffy saves Spike

The episode: “Showtime”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike, becoming doubtful that Buffy would risk her life to save him, looks up to see her standing in front of him with a knife in her hand. Sure that it’s the First playing with his emotions again, he insists she’s not real. Buffy, without a word, cuts him free of his bonds. They look at each other, relieved, and walk out of the cave, free.

Why I cried: Look at his face. He was so scared that Buffy wouldn’t come for him, even though he’d tried to convince himself that she would. When she does come for him, he just looks so happy. Almost in awe of her and his love for her and his elation at seeing her and knowing she cared for him enough to save him. And Buffy. I think upon seeing Spike that joyful, she got overwhelmed herself. Almost assuring him with her eyes that, “I’m here,” but also feeling that heavy emotion with him. All together, a peaceful and beautiful scene.

“I’m not ready for you to not be here.”

The episode: “First Date”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Spike suggests that he leave town in the case that the First wasn’t done using him yet. Buffy tells him he’s not going to leave. Misunderstanding, Spike tells her that with Wood around, she won’t need him in the final fight. But Buffy corrects him and tells him that’s not why she needs him to stay. Spike asks her what her reasoning is and she says, “’Cause I’m not ready for you to not be here.”

Why I cried: Let’s talk Spike first. He looks as though he’s discovered for the first time that Buffy feels something more for him. And I think it confuses him. Buffy doesn’t just disregard the idea that she only needs Spike for the fight, she doesn’t even make that a possibility. She could’ve said she needed him for the fight as well, but also because she just needed him. But instead she implies that the only reason he has to stay is because she needs him. That is...wow.

Andrew closes the Hellmouth 

The episode: “Storyteller”

My rating: 1/5

The moment: Buffy tells Andrew that, unlike other people’s blood, his will close the Hellmouth rather than open it. Andrew fears that Buffy is going to kill him, and Buffy makes him see how horrible it was that he’d killed Johnathan. She holds him over the Hellmouth as he cries, and as his tears hit the Hellmouth’s opening, it closes. 

Why I cried: Andrew’s redemption arc was something that I took very well and appreciated. Knowing the First’s affect on people can shed some light onto why Andrew would’ve killed Johnathan, no matter how bad of a decision it was. So, seeing him repent like this is hard. At the same time, you can see Buffy feels a little bad for causing him pain, even though she was mostly only doing it to close the portal to the Hellmouth. It’s also the first real time we see Andrew gain any acceptance from Buffy. It’s very touching.

Buffy gets kicked out

The episode: “Empty Places”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: The potentials, Buffy’s friends, and fellow Slayer, Faith decide to vote Buffy out of her leadership role. They state that she’s too reckless and controlling and that they’d much rather be under Faith’s command (much to Faith's dismay). Buffy then leaves with one last plea for Faith to protect them.

Why I cried: Here’s the thing, it’s hard to watch because everybody in this scene is right. Buffy is right about the vineyard holding something important to their battle. The group is right that she’s been too brash and bossy about her decision making. Buffy is wrong in assuming that her opinion is the only one that matters, and the group is wrong to throw her out of her house. Just knowing that there’s a better solution to this situation makes it horrible to watch.

Spike gives Buffy strength

The episode: “Touched”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Spike finds Buffy in an abandoned house, saddened by the realization that she had lost herself in her journey as Slayer. As a part of Buffy confiding in Spike, she mentions that he only wanted her because she was unattainable. This prompts Spike to sit her down and tell her why it is he loves her, giving Buffy back the confidence that she needs to finish the fight.

Why I cried: All this scene is, is Spike totally and utterly being there for Buffy. He’s not doing it for selfish reasons. He’s not doing it as a backdoor way to tell her yet again that he loves her. He’s only saying these things to Buffy for Buffy. He only wants for her to see herself the way he does, the way many do. And, for the first time, he tells her why he loves her, not just that he does. Which is something I don’t think he could articulate before his soul. And Buffy is just so touched by what he’s saying, she’s washed away by this man sitting in front of her. There’s nothing better.

Spike holds Buffy

The episode: “Touched”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: As Spike prepares to sleep either in another room or on a chair in the same room as Buffy, she calls to him and asks him to hold her. The two spend the night together in each other’s arms.

Why I cried: It’s just lovely, isn’t it? To see them be intimate? Especially amidst every other character in this montage making love. Spike and Buffy had their turn to be physical, now they get the chance to just be with each other. Spike goes to Buffy with no hesitation after she asks him to hold her, at first prepared to do whatever made her comfortable. It’s another moment where Spike removes himself from the situation, only there to be there for Buffy. Absolutely lovely.

“Terrified.” 

The episode: “End of Days”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy asks Spike how he felt about the night before, the night they spent together. He tells her he’s terrified. He says that the night before was the best night of his life. Buffy tells him she was there with him just before the two decide to leave the rest of this discussion until after they “go be heroes.” 

Why I cried: Goodness, where do I start? Both of them are afraid the previous night didn’t mean as much to the other as it did to them. Buffy finally decides that she wants to lay out her feelings for Spike and know his feelings for her. Spike is terrified that he loves her so much, that he might lose her, that she may not want him. And when Buffy tells him she was completely in that moment with him...oh my God, Spike’s face. He’s just so hopeful. After all the Hell they’ve both been through, they find hope in each other.

Buffy calls Spike a champion

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Buffy comes home, after her talk with Angel, with an amulet that is meant to be worn by a champion to save the world. The champion is meant to have a soul but be more than human, so Spike tells Buffy that if Angel wasn’t staying to wear it, then he should instead. Buffy tells him that it’s meant to be worn by a champion, and Spike’s expression falls just before Buffy steps forward and places it in his hand.

Why I cried: Buffy set that up on purpose specifically to show Spike how deeply she felt about him and to make him happy. You can see in her eyes that she’s trying to convey the way she feels, and Spike glows when she implies that he is a champion. This little moment between them is breathtaking. 

Buffy and Spike spend their last night together

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Spike and Buffy look at each other fondly before spending the night--what they assume to be their last night alive--together.

Why I cried: All together, these silent few moments mean so much. They could’ve spent their last night with anyone, but they decided to spend it with each other. That alone shows how much they mean to one another. A happy moment to preface the end of their story on Buffy.

Anya dies

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: In her heroic effort to save Andrew’s life, Anya sacrifices her own.

Why I cried: Anya finally got to be brave. She wasn’t running away anymore, she took her stand and became a warrior. It’s a bittersweet goodbye knowing that she and Xander could’ve come together again, but in the end, Anya died a hero.

Spike and Buffy’s goodbye

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: As Spike’s amulet activates, Buffy rushes over to him. Spike tells her he’s staying behind to finish the job, and Buffy grabs his hand, igniting a flame. Buffy then says a long awaited, “I love you.” Spike responds, “No you don’t, but thanks for saying it.” 

Why I cried: Why did I cry? I cried because Buffy loved him as soon as their hand’s clasped. I cried because Spike didn’t believe her. I cried because they’d come so far just to lose each other. I cried because within this tragic moment, this made me happier than anything. I cried because it’s Spike and Buffy.

Spike dies

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 5/5

The moment: Spike sacrifices himself to save the world.

Why I cried: I was in denial that he was dead up until the end. I couldn’t believe it. Spike’s journey is the single most amazing thing ever to be shown, not just on Buffy, but anywhere. In his final moments, he gets to be a good man--a champion. Spike isn’t just a secondary character. He isn’t just someone Buffy had a relationship with. Spike became so important to the show and to its viewers that he got to save the world in the biggest, baddest final battle. And he didn’t just save the world, he saved himself. And he saved Buffy. He saved his world, and that was enough to give him peace in this final moment. 

“That’s my girl.”

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 2/5

The moment: Andrew tells Xander what happened with Anya, that she died saving his life. Xander bears a sad smile as he says, “That’s my girl.”

Why I cried: Xander didn’t get angry or cry or break down. He was just proud. And even with all the pain Xander and Anya caused each other, she never stopped being his girl.

“Spike.”

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 3/5

The moment: Buffy reunites with the gang, and Giles asks what caused the massive destruction left behind after the Hellmouth was destroyed. Buffy simply replies, “Spike.”

Why I cried: Spike deserved to be the last word said from Buffy’s mouth. And, much like Xander’s reaction to Anya’s death, Buffy looks to be a combination of sad and proud. So proud that Spike saved them all in the end, even if she had to lose him.

The End

The episode: “Chosen”

My rating: 4/5

The moment: Buffy looks on at the remains (or lack thereof) of Sunnydale, her home, destroyed. But, as the gang asks what they do now that the battle is over, Buffy smiles, excited for this end and for another beginning.

Why I cried: Because this is the end. It’s that feeling of punctuation, of finality. You reflect on all that has happened before this point and all it’s done for you. And then you realize that it’s over. But at the same time, you know that nothing ever really ends. 

Okay, I hope you enjoyed this depressingly wonderful post, and I hope I made you cry. Honestly, I do. In all seriousness, it’s everything about this show, not just its sad moments, that made me (and so many others) better than we were. I’ll always look to Buffy because, even in its tragedies, it makes me stronger.

[thenerdyunhealthybrit]

Ugh, Anti-Plec

Honestly, I’ve been anti-Plec slowly for a while, but now....full on.

Caroline “He will be the man that I always loved” This line pisses me off because she didn’t always love him. She had a crush and moved on with Damon (ugh), then Matt. If she truly loved him, she wouldn’t of given up or it would of taken much longer to move on.

Yep, she really loved Stefan when she was getting Tyler’s D.

Yeah, she was really thinking about her “love” for Stefan, here.

Julie Plec has not only disrespected Forwood, but also Tyler. He came back for three seconds only to be killed by Damon and NO ONE IS UPSET! She literally excuses killing Tyler. Then she belittles Forwood. Who are probably more loved that Klaroline. A portion of Klaroliners (like me) also like Forwood but we prefer Klaroline.

I know that a lot of Forwood stans hate Klaroline for ruining their ship, but at least we acknowledge it:

Klaroline don’t dismiss Forwood, we acknowledge it for the greatness it is.

There are a lot of reasons why I can’t buy into Steroline, the main reason is that they are my BrOTP. they had this beautiful emotional chemistry as friends, and fans loved that. I admit I could see them as a couple, but the way it happened just went to shit.

1) They don’t have the physical chemistry or the passion to anchor a show. 2) Stefan was the reason she turned her humanity off (along with Liz’s death). Don’t fight me she said it! 3) They were bad for each other. Ok, on paper, they are fine. But I’m talking character development. Caroline went from an insecure human to an independent vampire, full of snark and sassiness, she showed no fear and managed to attract the Original Hybrid! With Stefan, she cried over a guy, always forgave him too quickly and was insecure again, it never felt like Stefan deserved Caroline. It just felt like Stefan could do what he wanted because he knew Caroline would always be there. If he messed up, like leaving Caroline and travelling and dating Valerie, or sending her to the wrong location of the twins - it was “I’m sorry”, “Forgiven” 1/2 episodes later. I want to see Stefan grovel and beg. He needs to know that he’s done wrong and how to avoid it, he needs to know that Caroline can’t be treated like that, earn her forgiveness. 4) Stefan also suffered. Now, I don’t know if this is down to Paul Wesley, he loves the epicness of Stelena. But Stefan felt more selfish with Caroline. With Elena, you knew that it was Elena and that he wouldn’t stray and Elena was the priority. With Elena gone, Julie shifted it to the brothers, but this meant that Stefan prioritised Damon over Caroline, but at times it would also be other people, he liked to keep Caroline out of the loop. 5) Caroline’s only storyline for S8 was the June Wedding and Stefan. In S7 it was Stefan, the twins were only involved due to Candice’s pregnancy. Julie just didn’t give her a proper storyline. 6) The quick steps: They got engaged just after moving in, and a couple of months after they reunited. Yeah they known each other for long. 4 years as friends, A few months in S7 as a couple, then 3 years off. - but they haven’t dated long enough on to know if they are a stable couple, what if they broke up. Spoiler alert: They did. Then they get married and it wasn’t about them. It only happened because of Katherine and Damon organised it, with Caroline getting no say, she had a Steferine song and Katherine’s necklace. Not to mention they just got back together the episode before. I’d buy the wedding more if it was fake, but then they eloped or agree to do the real thing after Katherine was dealt with. 7) When Enzo died, she went to Stefan and not Bonnie. I believe in ho’s over bro’s and I think she should of gone to Bonnie first, even if Bonnie rejects her and let Damon handle Stefan. I think that if she did that, Bonnie might not immediately reject her.

The last one isn’t about Steroline, it is about the stans. I’m not going to generalise everyone, but one of my peeves is that they claim that KC are a bullying fandom and make themselves sound perfect when I’ve heard worst. I’m not saying that Klaroline is perfect, there is a lot of ugly in ships, especially these days and in current shows. But I remember when Steroline were split and I saw stans give a lot of hate to Julie and the writers on twitter, also getting in a strop if another ship gets honoured or referenced. Also another peeve is when Steroline stans say that Klaroline stans must hate Caroline. But I’ve seen a lot of Steroline stans who like Damon and Daroline friendship and that is worst. He abused her, made her feel terrible and got away with it. Yeah, there scenes are cute but they forget the S1 context. Damon got away with it and Caroline never got an apology, Plec just address it in S8 as if he was always guilty, and she already forgave him. - The big injust is how they handled that. Prime time to approach that was S1 and S2 but they skimmed over it.

On paper, they should work. I love the friends-to-lovers- trope, but they approached it wrong and they created a couple that can’t anchor as a main couple that goes through angst, I’ve seen more people go off it. Trust me I wasn’t against this from the start. I try to love all the ships that happen, I’m Stelena, but when Delena happened I was okay this is the new thing. But the writers did not create an epic story.

Not to mention the humanity switch. It just surprises me, how much people get away with it, especially if you’re a main character. Damon and Stefan do the worst off it and they come of unscathed by the gang. Stefan has an addiction to blood, that changes someone which equates to an addiction to drugs or alcohol. It changes someone, to the point that sometimes they want to switch their humanity off and not care. Vampires can actually do that! It would just be nice for the main characters to go “No! That’s not cool, be guilty for a while” - obviously not for too long, that doesn’t make good TV, but when you compare to when they condemn someone who isn’t in their inner circle it’s shocking.

Now, you may not agree, I expect many not to. But the big fanservice isn’t great. Yes, Klaroline were a little fanserviced - but not completely otherwise they’d be together. But Steroline has been fanserviced all season this year. All you guys are so happy you got your wedding, that it doesn’t even bother you that it wasn't about them and the only reason they had it was to lure an enemy out. Yeah, they love each other, and probably would have eventually have the wedding but it wasn’t their wedding. The wedding will forever be tainted by that. If the wedding happened with no ulterior motive, I’d be upset, but I’d be fair enough and try to move on. But I can’t be happy for Caroline in the circumstances it happened.

Tyler Lockwood deserved better. Forwood deserved better. Klaroline deserve better (if you don’t intend to have them together, don’t lie and bait us).

A note for Forwood fans, if KC weren’t endgame, I would of been happy with Forwood.

[yokaimatsus-blog]

all o f them then

omg thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im glad bc i just wanna talk about oso san all the time so~~~1. Who is your favorite sextuplet?: I actually don’t know if I’ve ever said on here? Huh, i wonder if its obvious? Well, its Karamatsu :^)

2. Who is your favorite non-sextuplet character?: either totoko or chibita, its kinda too hard to pick between those two

3. Who is your least favorite character?: kara’s god damn flower fairy thing, she was barely even in it but her attitude just pissed me off 

4. Who is your least favorite sextuplet?: I honestly don’t have one, it used to be todomatsu but he really, really grew on me throughout the series and now i just love them all way too much

5. When did you start watching the series?: november 2015, the day jyushimatsu falls in love aired!! 6. Do you own any merch?: yeah i literally cant stop pre/ordering stuff i hate myself and so does my bank account and im running out of space in my bedroom lmao ;;

7. Do you play any of the apps?: hesowars and tabimatsu! though I only started hesowars like a month or two ago, for some reason

8. Have you seen osomatsu-kun?: a couple of episodes yeah! i wanna watch more but i cant ever find them ahaha

9. Which character do you relate to the most?: out of the sextuplets id say all of them are pretty relatable for me, oso and todo mostly though

10. When first watching the series, how long did it take for you to be able to tell the sextuplets apart?: I think by at least ep 5 i had them down but I can’t really remember ahahaha, but right away it was easy to know choro bc no ahoge, and ichi bc of his eyes :’)

11. List the sextuplets from favorite to least favorite: my order changes a lot but i guess its something like karamatsu ichimatsu, jyushimatsuosomatsu, todomatsu, choromatsubc i literally wouldnt be able to put any 6 of them actually last LOL

12. Why did you start watching the series?: because it seemed genuinely funny, i really liked the voice actors and the art style attracted me. i dont usually go for comedy anime so tbh becoming so invested was a shocker

13. Have you read any of the manga?: ive read all the ones that are translated as far as I’m aware? And I read a few raws too, I plan to buy them soon but I’m lowkey hoping for official translations someday14. What was your opinion of the season one ending?: I honestly really loved it, to me it was extremely obvious they werent going to end a parody anime on a sad note so I was expecting something really dumb, also i think it was one of the funniest eps to me

15. Which opening theme do you like more?: omg i dont know theyre both such bops

16. Which ending theme is your favorite?: the first one, but the version used for the last episode! bc its cute aaaaa

17. What is your favorite episode or segment?: omg i love so many i could never pick one, off the top of my head I really, really, REALLY enjoy choromatsu cant sleep, fappymatsu, todomatsu and the 5 demons, keresone, and ichimatsu incident... ichimatsus inner monologue of him just screaming is such perfection ahahhaha more ichimatsu internally yelling in s2 pls

18. What is your opinion of episode one?: a true cinematic experience

19. Do you like F6?: ehhh idk. theyre okay? i forget they exist until somebody mentions them most of the time lmfao. there was that one scene with f6 kara drinking milk that was particularly great imo

.20. Have you ever made any osomatsu-san fanart?: yeah!! lots!! but its been a while since i posted anything, plus these days i use twitter more, tbh its what made me want to draw more after I fell out of my last fandom, so i guess thats a good thing, but honestly I’m more a writer considering that was my first major hahaha21. Which episode or segment was your least favorite?: i dont know, I guess I just dont care about dekapan bc he creeps me out a little so I think probably the one with him and dayon driving? somewhere? I cant even remember 

22. What episode or segment did you laugh the hardest at?: omg idk so many literally had my crying bc i find them so stupidly hilarious, i guess the ones that take me by surprise at the ones that make me laugh the most, also when I rewatch I find I appreciate them even more every time so afjdsgs

23. Did you cry at any time while watching the series?: ive only ever cried laughing, which happened a lot, but of course ep24 and jyushi falls in love are pretty emotional lmao 24. If you could make your own osomatsu-san episode, what would it be about?: AAAAHHH i have so many ideas. but tbh i would just love a musical episode. somebody doesnt understand why everybody is singing and dancing. there are pom poms. we’re all in this together bitches. ALSO i would die if they animated some of the manga chapters, e.g. the fashion battle todo and kara have, and mc ichi and mc todo... and when oso and kara get lost in a mountain and when oso asks if kara has anything to burn for a fire hes like “no these are too important” and its just a fucking handful of candids sslkhdjisfhaifadand isnt there one about a knock off version of pokemon with choro as the trainer? please. pls. PLEASE.

25. How do you feel about multiple seasons of osomatsu-san?: i wish it could go on forever and ever and ever. but seriously I feel they could juice some good content for a fair few seasons, I obviously wouldnt ever want it to lose its charm but I genuinely don’t see why it couldn’t be long running... but for now I’m satisfied with what we get, and season 2 finally getting announced is incredible though and im super happy :))))

[k8s8-blog]

8 Reasons Why

I was taking a nice, peaceful nap on the couch when my roommate came in and insisted that we watch the new Netflix show that everyone is talking about, Thirteen Reasons Why. Being a bookseller, I know all about the teen book that inspired it so I put a pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep. But of course about ten minutes in I was asking “who’s that?” and “what’s going on now?” And before I knew it we were binge-watching the show until early morning. 

(For those of you who don’t know, Thirteen Reasons Why is about a teen girl named Hannah who kills herself and leaves behind tapes documenting 13 reasons why she killed herself, all of them placing blame on other characters.)

By the end of the show I was sobbing and could not sleep because terrible images shown in the last episode kept flashing across my mind’s eye. Thirteen reasons later and I was still confused as to WHY. Why does this kind of thing happen? Why did I just watch that? Why did Selena Gomez and co. think that it was okay to put this kind of content on Netflix? Many of my friends suffer from mental illness and this show has been a hot topic over the last few days. Here’s some thoughts I’ve been developing as to why or why not people should be watching this show. I tried to give it a fair shake. So if you’ve been thinking about watching it but haven’t yet, here’s some info from someone who watched all of it. 

Reasons To Watch:

1. The writing in this show is definitely noteworthy.

 I’m tired of reading books like Fault In Our Stars, or watching pretty much any CW show, full of stiff, contrived dialogue between teens that is nothing like what actually comes out of high schoolers mouths today. It’s ridiculous. I was honestly expecting as much from Thirteen Reasons Why but I was pleasantly surprised. Don’t get me wrong, the situation is not exactly realistic and the content being discussed in the show is not commonplace for high school hallways, but the way the teens in the show interacted and talked to each other was actually believable which was refreshing.

2. The acting is fantastic.

I would fully support Oscars going to ANY actor or actress in this show. There was a little bit of over-acting, but that is a given for such a dramatic topic. Overall, every character was multi-dimensional and portrayed phenomenally. The cast drove the show forward, making you want to pay attention and eliciting sympathy for even the most hated characters and anger towards even the most loved characters. There’s no denying 13 Reasons is full of talent.

3. The message of the show is poignant and makes its mark.

The theme of the show is that bullying can have devastating effects yet we are all capable of doing it. Even though it’s easy to basically know that, watching this show makes you BELIEVE it and forces you reevaluate not only the way you see others but also the way you treat others. The message is delivered... again, and again, and again.

4. The show makes depression and mental illness relatable and understandable. 

I have heard some people argue that since the show does not mention mental illness by name most of the time that it is swept under the rug and overlooked. In this case, I disagree. I think that by taking an average teenager going through traumatizing situations that a lot of us have been through and showing her developing deep-rooted reactions to those experiences (which could also be considered undiagnosed symptoms of PTSD or depression), it helps breach the distant way our society tends to look at mental illness. Not labeling Hannah as depressed allows people to better empathize with her symptoms because they are not viewing her as “different” or “other” the way many people view the mentally ill. And I feel like that empathy creates a greater understanding which leads to better and more efficient help in the real world. But I could be wrong.

5. There is relatively diverse casting.

Even though the main two characters were white, the cast was filled with minority actors who did not represent the usual tropes. The best part was that the villain was a straight, white male. This is definitely (at least) a step in the right direction.

6. This show sparks necessary social discourse.

Regardless of how well issues in the show are depicted (that’s a whole other discussion), 13 Reasons undertakes discussing a huge variety of serious issues present in our society, from sexual assault and suicide, to bullying and school shootings, to toxic masculinity and lgbtq+ visibility... watching any episode of this show can begin important conversations we need to be having with each other. I have been engaging in tough discussions with friends non stop because of this show and I believe that anything that creates that kind of social discourse is an asset in some way, shape, or form.

Reason Why Not To Watch:

7. The glorification of suicide is central to the plot.

We all just want to be cared about and remembered after we die. The show presents a girl who no one really understood or cared about until she killed herself and left messages for everyone, making a huge impact and denying anyone the right to forget her. Hell, she’s the subject of an entire T.V. show because she killed herself. You can’t tell me that is not an intriguing concept for many people. But suicide is dark and painful and tragic, not the melancholic yet beautiful subject of the next hipster T.V. series. I appreciated the purpose of the show but worry about the effect.

8. This was hands down the most triggering thing I have ever watched.

There are two graphic rape scenes shown. I can’t explain to you how sick I felt having them on the big screen in my living room. There is no skimming over the details. It was sick and horrible and drawn out in both scenes. 

When the main character kills herself, they show it in detail. You see everything until she takes her last breath, they even show her mother finding the body. This is NOT OKAY. I have never cried so hysterically or sobbed so hard because of a show. It was gross and insensitive and I’m never watching that show ever again.

That’s about all I can think of, folks. 

I hope these eight reasons help you decide whether or not to watch Thirteen Reasons. If I had to sum up in three words whether or not I would recommend watching this show, it would probably be something like NOT WORTH IT, or DON’T DO IT. In the end you’re probably going to watch it anyway, though, so just make sure you 1. have a giant teddy bear with you 2. keep a box of tissues nearby and 3. (most importantly) please make sure you are in the right headspace.