#and i had kinda planned out my next shows to rewatch

[florida3exclamationpoints]

For some reason this Taylor situation has thrown me back into a Grey's mood???? I've been resisting so far tho 🙏🙏

[zoe-oneesama]

On a serious note, why do you not like Derision? I mean, I can guess why, but I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts (if you want to).

What have they done to my boy?!

I guess we'll start with the whole "trauma" thing since that's how the episode starts - with Marinette going on a date with Adrien at the pool but constantly getting heart palpitations at the very idea of it. And not good lovey-dovey crush ones like Sabine thinks. The Actual Panic Attack kind.

This just feels unnecessary AND too late. Unnecessary because there are plenty of pre-established reasons why Marinette could be hesitant to go all in with Adrien (Being Ladybug, the 354th other times going for Adrien has failed or left her humiliated, Being Ladybug). So I don't know why they invented a trauma for her in the final hour and didn't think it was worth talking about before now?

They really came up with this whole scheme to explain why Marinette does Marinette things, like learning Adrien's schedule, planning out everything before she tries to make a move, needing to know everything about him, as if the show hasn't been mocking her for these exact traits and allowing them to blow up in her face over and over again. But NOW it's due to her TRAUMA. So...retroactively when her friends laughed at her or slapped their foreheads in frustration or the show framed her failures as a joke...we know it's actually from a tragic place and can't laugh anymore.

I mean, I was never laughing, but you get what I mean. They framed it like it was part of the comedy and now they're pulling the rug out from under themselves. How are you supposed to laugh when Adrien brings Marinette constipation medicine, or when her pictures of him are blasted all over Paris Television, or the *ugh* Statue Scene plays out and now you know that this is just adding to her pre-existing trauma? They have shot the show's rewatch value.

I never thought Marinette needed a "reason" act the way she was because those were always just kinda The Things Teenage Girls Do when they have a crush. I've admitted in the past to learning my crush's class schedule just to orchestrate running into each other in the hallways more often, and if their crush had public interviews and magazine pictures, I'm pretty sure most kids would also cut out their pictures to keep and would read and remember the interviews. I never really saw her behavior as that weird for a girl her age with a crush and recognize some cartoon exaggeration.

...Stealing his phone was a little weird, though, I'll give them that though Alya is the one who suggested it first...

SO, we enter a long flashback to One Year Ago (with Marinette now on her third Almost-Akumatization, good lord) and learn what life was like for Marinette pre-Origins, and oh boy. It's hell. She's making up illnesses to avoid school, avoiding all contact with anyone in the courtyard, having cockroaches put in her locker, having the Principal catch her "late" for class (after she had to clean herself up from a water prank), gets yelled at by the teacher for being late, sits in paint, mocked in class and then yelled at again by the teacher for pointing out the person mocking her probably planted it, and gets Saturday detention. All in one day. And when anyone tries to talk to her or even glares at the person responsible, they get threatened too.

The main reason this is hell is because Marinette is being let down by every single adult in her life. Sabine just laughs and tells Marinette that she only has a few weeks left with Chloe and it's not like she'll be in the same class as her next year.🙃 Well, why don't you make SURE she doesn't?! Maybe this is just an American vs French school thing, but where I come from, it's totally within your rights to request that your child not be put in the same class as someone else, they could at least put in a throw away line about her parents TRYING to move her, but Chloe's not allowing it JUST to keep Marinette close to her. And maybe take this a little more seriously, Sabine- your daughter is faking illness to avoid One. Girl. That should be concerning, not "lol my daughter is so silly for trying to get out of class."

Damocles finds Marinette and yells at her for being "constantly late" and praising the "anonymous notes" (signed by Chloe -_-) for always alerting him when she's behind, and then later gives her Saturday detention for...someone clearly planting paint on her desk chair? He sees a victim of bullying and punishes her for it. At the end of the episode he even suspends Socqueline for something that happened outside of school, yet in "Jubilation" she's pumping him up as The Best Principal?! Does this show thinks we're stupid or something?!

Mendeleiev also yells at Marinette for being late. She allows Chloe to make fun of Marinette for looking depressed when she comes in and allows Chloe to mock Marinette for sitting in paint, but when Marinette doesn't even stand up for herself but just accuses Chloe of putting the paint there, THEN Mendeleiev has something to say, and it's to Marinette? For "groundlessly" accusing the only person in the room laughing at Marinette, the one who was just making fun of her, the one who kept her eyes on Marinette so she could watch her sit in the paint?

Marinette tells Socqueline that all the adults are scared of Chloe, but that's not what I saw. Sure, at the end of the episode Damocles is afraid when Chloe pulls a "Lady Wifi" to force him to punish Socqueline for smashing Sabrina's phone, but the sequence of events played out more like the adults participating in the bullying. It wasn't like Damocles was sympathetic to Marinette and then Chloe cleared her throat, so he straightened up nervously and started berating Marinette. It wasn't like Marinette accused Chloe and then Chloe glared at Mendeleiev, forcing her to finally intervene. All the adults see what's going on and are either completely oblivious or don't care.

Also, Chloe totally unprompted says this:

GET A LIFE, what is your PROBLEM?! Like, why have a flashback episode and not have it explain what Chloe's fixation on Marinette even is?! It doesn't have to be big or anything! Like, have Marinette trip and spill something on Chloe in art class! Just do something!

And like, I totally get that irl bullies just choose their targets for no real reason and this is just another example of that, but to this level?! Just...get a hobby!

And then there's the big thing they did in this stupid episode. The unforgivable. The reprehensible.

This fucking guy.

It's been so long since we've seen Bully Kim that I was pretty sure he was left behind entirely on the draft floor. Sure, Kim is still capable of being insensitive or not thinking long-term, but he was a good kid. He roots for his friends and wants everyone to have a good time.

Hell, I could even buy that Kim was dumb enough to believe Chloe when she claims what he did was a funny practical joke that they'd all laugh about later...until Socqueline came up and yelled at him that he should be ashamed of himself.

And Ondine yelled at him in the present that he should be ashamed of himself.

And it's a year later and he should have realized by now that he should be ashamed of himself.

Kim is dumb, that's just a fact, but the way he doubles down and is so sure of himself that NO it's everyone ELSE who has a problem because they can't take a JOKE? Like...why?! Why did they co-sign on this character assassination?!

Just make him become akumatized because he's A S H A M E D of what he did now that he's finally sitting down and thinking about it a year later! He can keep the same look and motif, just have Monarch stroke the part of him that doesn't want him to be the jerk, the old Kim! It's totally normal, especially for a kid, to want to believe that they're not the bad guy even with all the evidence pointing to it, so I could even see the akuma being exactly the same.

But naur, it's KIM who talks like a right-wing podcast douche bag, complaining that you can't just speak your mind these days and everyone needs to get a sense of humor, they just don't GET it man, this is just how he IS brah, take it or leave it! His akuma's even named "Dark Humor", like edgy losers on reddit who make racist/sexist jokes and then get mad when he's downvoted and boo'd out of a forum. God, we just CAN'T TAKE A JOKE I guess.

I'm glad this is resolved by Ladybug gluing a toilet to his head.

I just...I feel like this could've worked in Season 1, or Season 2. Like...put it before Dark Cupid or before Syren or something. That way, Kim being a total douche is the starting point of his character arc, not the Season 5 Post-Hero Run point, ugh.

It'd also make this stupid line make more sense:

I'm sorry, the girl who got you akumatized after she humiliated you in nearly the same way you humiliated Marinette? I guess that was "just a prank bro" too, right?

Establish Marinette's problems with romance early, so she can overcome them or at least give them the proper context. It'd at least make the show look better if they hadn't made fun of her for 4 Seasons only to drop this bombshell on us at the end. You know...the thing that they just did.

This episode just isn't fun. I hated "Illusion" because all you get to see is the bad guys winning and outsmarting the heroes, but "Derision" is a marathon of seeing the absolute misery Marinette was put through, just to jump forward to the present to destroy a character that I really liked.

Would a kid even like this episode?

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition) 2x8

So this post is gonna have some casting and location spoilers about s3, as well as book spoilers through book 14: a memory of light.

Thoughts about Egwene as the modern-age counterpart to Lanfear really get into spoiler territory because I think a large part of it is going to come out in Egwene's reaction to Rand moving on from their relationship vs Lanfear's reaction. Lanfear could never get over Lews Therin, but Egwene is going to move on and seek new paths and new relationships of her own. We will probably even (my guess) have Egwene be the one to initiate the 'final breakup' at the start of s3, just like she initiated the breakup in 1x1. I am definitely intrigued by the angle that they'll use for the breakup in s3. Maybe being able to protect Rand here in this episode is going to heal the part of Egwene that has been feeling so guilty over not being able/allowed to protect Rand in 1x8 and she might also then have some anger/frustration that Rand made choices that made it impossible for her to help him. And she wants a partner who isn't going to make choices like that on her behalf.

That they tied in Egwene's striving so hard at the White Tower in with her wanting to protect the people that she cares about also makes it easier for her not to go back to the White Tower next season (as I suspect that she will not; though we'll see - but I suspect that we'll get the arrival in the Waste in ep2 or maybe even the end of ep1). Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne have all seen that there is a bigger fight that needs them right now and going back to train at the White Tower might well be at the bottom of their priority list, even before they hear from Moiraine about what happened in Cairhien.

2. I also feel like the Ishamael-Mat comparison is kinda foreshadowing the Mat-All the Forsaken Who Are Jealous of LTT comparison that we get in a lot of the middle/late books, which we may still get when Sammael and potentially Demandred come into play. Unlike the Forsaken with LTT, Mat is not envious of Rand's high status and title. He doesn't mind being 'in Rand's shadow' and is baffled when Melindhra keeps trying to push him out of said shadow and into seizing the spotlight. He doesn't want it!

Hmm, Forsaken round-up/confirmations. Obviously, we have Lanfear and we had Ishamael. Lanfear will continue to be a presence in s2, I'm currently assuming.

Confirmed:

Moghedien - likely going to be involved in Nynaeve's plotlines, for the most part, I'm guessing. I think she may also take over at least part of Mesaana's plotline. Since all five of the ta'veren are acknowledged as important by the Shadow, she'll even be acting within orders to get obsessed with Nynaeve!

Sammael - Illian is in the picture; I'm guessing we'll get some strong Mat-Sammael compare/contrasts once he's 'on stage'. I'm wondering if Mat will actually be allowed to finish out the Illian plan in the show instead of being yanked away prematurely, and only going to Ebou Dar afterwards? I'm not sure how much we need Mat-in-Salidar in the show. Too soon to really speculate. If we have Sammael... I'm not sure if we get Demandred. They kinda fill the same 'niche' in the Forsaken ecosystem.

Graendal - she just needs to handle chaos somewhere; it doesn't have to be Arad Doman. I think @markantonys suggested the idea of her being the Forsaken who takes over Caemlyn, which is interesting! Both Rahvin and Graendal are big into Compulsion. Not having Rahvin does potentially mean that we don't get Rand balefiring him in order to bring back Aviendha & Mat (and briefly Asmodean, lol), which would be tough to lose. Though they could put that in somewhere else, against a different Forsaken. If they are keeping Rahvin, then Graendal might end up being the Forsaken that gets attached to bothering Perrin, narratively.

Almost certain:

Asmodean - training Rand. I'm hoping he lasts longer in the show than in the books, lol.

Semirhage - taking over Ishamael's place with influencing the Seanchan. But we won't get introduced to her until Tuon also arrives, I'm guessing.

Ishamael died here, so that does imply to me that we're going to get Moridin. I would guess in s5 or s6, to give the rest of the Forsaken time to play on the board for a long while.

Maybe:

The last spot is, for me, a competition between Demandred and Rahvin.

If Demandred - I'm hoping that the show does Taimandred. We haven't seen Taim on-screen, so there's plenty of time for Demandred to kill him and take his place. Taim essentially behaves obsessively jealous over Rand's status in the exact same way as Demandred, just with even worse vibes, lol. They can be combined.

otoh, they already have one of the 'incredibly jealous of LTT' Forsaken lined up for the show, so they might want to bring in another who doesn't really care much about LTT, and do Rahvin instead.

If Rahvin - then he'll go to Caemlyn, but I suspect he wouldn't go there until after Elaida & co have all left the city. Keeping Rahvin in would mean that we would probably be getting Rand balefiring him in order to bring back Mat, Aviendha, & Asmodean.

We do have a pretty healthy variety of motivations among the Forsaken that are lined up for the show, I think. In the books, Semirhage had an alliance with... Demandred and Mesaana, I think, but Mesaana is definitely out and Demandred might be as well, so she might be flying solo.

3. I really love the implication in this scene that Rand is going to potentially design the Asha'man uniforms based on what he was having the male Aes Sedai (including himself) wear during the War of Power.

4. Now that I'm rewatching, I wonder if we're gonna get Rand being treated as a political leader in Falme at the start of s3! Since it may be echoing how Tear was used in the books, as a fulfillment of prophecy.

I love my idea about Caemlyn subbing in for Tear, but Falme really does work for most of that. Maybe something more like... ep1: Falme; ep2: the first split, where Elayne and Nynaeve head off to try to hunt down... idk something, and the rest of the group heads east, ending up in Caemlyn where they meet Gawyn, Galad, & Elaida, ep3: the waste/rhuidean, ep4: tower coup, ep5: alcair dal & capturing asmodean; ep6: battle of two rivers; ep7: nynaeve vs moghedien; ep8: battle of cairhien & the door incident

5. The people of Falme getting saved by Rand in this way also leaves them open to the influence of Masema, who definitely looked like he was Finding Religion at the end of the episode. So Falme may end up being the headquarters of the Prophet of the Dragon. That storyline kinda dragged on in the books in a very annoying way but the bones of it are genuinely fascinating and I think there's a lot that the show could do with it. Because there are two main threads of people who are dangerous due to the Dragon arriving specifically -- there are the people who will hate and fear him but there are also the Dragonsworn who believe that his arrival has broken all previous ties and take it too far due to religious zealotry.

6. Lanfear's full plan, from what I can piece out and with some speculation:

a. Write out a prophecy in blood on the moondial and sell the shattered pieces to Doman, knowing that Moiraine is a likely buyer. She may have done other things to arrange said purchase as well. What I love about this is that it means that she was poking at Ishamael when she asked why he hadn't killed Moiraine, even as she was figuring out how to use Moiraine for her own purposes.

b. Set up an inn in Cairhien and arrange for Rand to stay there. Figure out a way into a relationship with him by taking advantage of his vulnerability. I'm even wondering if all of Rand's bad dreams this season have actually been Lanfear and not Ishamael. I'm pretty sure that the one in 2x6 featured a fake Ishy.

c. I think that Verin & Tomas have potentially been under Lanfear's orders for most/all of the season, given that Lanfear has been invested in Moiraine. And Lanfear being invested in Moiraine makes it... more likely that Selene being a Moiraine cosplay was 100% intentional on her part which is... fascinating. A fascinating look into Lanfear's psychology. I mean, she really did cultivate a very sugar mommy dynamic with Rand.

d. Get most of the pieces in motion... and then her plans get screwed when Barthanes's mom tells Moiraine where Rand went, and Lanfear gets stabbed and temporarily loses her boy. But it's okay! She can adjust her plans! (Theory: I think this is why she had Liandrin talk to Barthanes; she figured out what happened and wanted to punish the Damodred family for ruining her plans -- there really wasn't any actual way for Barthanes to even get to Moiraine to kill her, so that wasn't the real plan; I think it was petty revenge on Lanfear's part)

e. So, Rand goes to sleep and she's able to start working on him. She gets him to agree to go to Falme! Yes! She's so close to her Happy Ending with Lews Therin Telamon Rand al'Thor!

...and then Rand gets captured by the Amyrlin Seat of these new Aes Sedai and Lanfear needs to break her future devoted husband Rand out of jail, ugh, he asks so much of her. (secretly, she wishes he would ask more)

f. So, jailbreak time! With a brief pause to ship Mat Cauthon to Falme. With Lanfear maybe suspecting that Ishamael is wrong about Mat and that things aren't going to go how he expects. She uses Verin to make sure that Moiraine & co are going to go to the Waygate, because she's figured out exactly where she plans to dump Moiraine so that she can play her part of the plan.

There is also some speculation that Maksim may be a darkfriend as well. If he is, then he was also used as a pawn by Lanfear to get another Aes Sedai to help with the plan.

Lanfear also takes this opportunity to further poison the White Tower against Rand, by having his escape tied to a Forsaken rampage on the Foregate.

g. Lanfear has complete faith that Lews Therin Rand is going to successfully take care of Ishamael! That's her man! He can do anything! She just needs to clear the way for him and get him in the right place at the right time, and he'll do the rest. She even makes sure to deliver the Horn of Valere to some of his friends! He's got this in the bag!

h. ...then she makes the mistake of stopping in to say 'hi' to Ishamael and gloat about Rand being in Falme, tipping her hand and causing Ishamael's decision to release the rest of the Forsaken. Oops.

i. Well, Rand has been proclaimed the Dragon (yay!) but now the rest of the Forsaken are free and she's been told she needs to stay away from him (boo!).

j. ...time to come up with a new plan.

6. "I know who kills him. And what he uses to do it."

The wild thing here is that, iirc, it's his unhealable wound that kills Rand's body at the Last Battle, right? Which would mean Min's interpretation of her viewing was absolutely correct -- Mat DOES 'kill' Rand in this episode. It just takes a while before the death actually takes effect. So one of my theories -- that Mat was taking the place of Alivia in being the one who 'helps' Rand die -- that I dismissed because we're way too soon for that... is kinda true?

7. I have to admit, it confuses me when I still see people arguing that Mat is going to need to go to the White Tower to get healed from the dagger. The show made it very clear that he was Not Touching the dagger. His entire plan centered around using the dagger without touching it. And Mat has already spent a lot of time in the White Tower and worked his hardest to try to escape -- why would he go back? Plus, the people making these arguments already know that we're doing book 4 next season. Mat doesn't go anywhere near the White Tower in book 4. And his WT stuff hits some 'rule of cool' buttons but it's not... narratively important (especially if Rahvin didn't make the cut).

Going to Rhuidean and getting his medallion is key to Mat's future developments. And the show has put so much work into his relationship with Rand, so it just seems likely that they would want to build on that in s3 rather than abandoning it so that Mat can doink around the countryside with a variety of companions (it's so bizarre for me to see people prioritizing Mat's book 3 plotline over "Mat enters an alternate dimension to get a special medallion and special weapon that are key to his narrative" - but it's probably the same people who spend, like, ten books hating on the Wondergirls for not being grateful enough to Mat at the Stone of Tear).

8. I do think that we're going to skip Lan's bond having a stop-over at anyone else and have him go straight from Moiraine to Nynaeve. I feel like this stressful period here between the two of them in s2 was standing in for a lot of the tensions that they faced in the books (and that broke them apart in the books) but in the show they are now both on the same page -- they're both committed to "protecting Rand, guiding him" and we know that Moiraine approves of Nynaeve (and that LAN knows that she does) from the end of s1.

They may have some friction next season over the best way to help Rand, potentially, as Rand may be frustrated with Moiraine proclaiming him as the Dragon without his permission, but I don't think it'll get as bad as it does in the books (especially since I kinda feel like we might be 'losing' Moiraine at the end of the season).

9. The fact that we did not see Turak's room of curiosities makes me even MORE curious about whether or not a certain redstone doorway is there. That we ended the episode at the climax of the battle rather than getting any downtime after makes me feel like we are going to have at least one episode at the start of s3 where everyone is together so that we can establish the new group dynamics. That could take place in Caemlyn, like I've speculated, or it could take place here in Falme. They also might have left it open because they weren't sure if they could get this location back for s3 filming, so didn't want to commit to where the doorway might be located.

Given what Rafe & co have said about s3 being a 'closer adaptation' of bk4, I am leaning towards us getting a lot of those early 'book Tear' elements in whatever city we open with next season.

10. I suspect that we may get an Ingtar-ish storyline with a different character in the future. In the books, it is a cool moment, but it's cool because we had time to build up Ingtar's relationship with Rand and Rand was able to offer him a kind of absolution. If we hadn't needed to recast Mat and then restructure the entire s2 plotline, then maybe we would have had that kind of time, but that's the realities of working in television, especially in this, our time of Covid.

We've had a lot of complex Darkfriends on the show so far (while in the books, we only really get Ingtar and... Asmodean, I guess? Literally can't think of any others, lol) and so we might see this plotline pop up again once we have the time to spend with one of our mains bonding with a character who ends up being a Darkfriend.

Potential candidates: Lanfear ("Light help you, Rand al'Thor" - calls upon the Light to give him aid?), Asmodean, Liandrin (via her relationship with Nynaeve)

11. "Lanfear, Lews Therin, and Ishamael were inseparable before the War of Power" kinda implies to me that... Lews didn't meet Ilyena until after the War of Power had begun? I really am curious about what they're planning to do re: Ilyena. She was LTT's main focus in the books, but hasn't even been mentioned by name yet in the show. I mean, in the books, she was one of the classic Fridged Wives ever tbh, so I certainly don't mind some adjustments, but I am VERY curious. And with what the precise timeline of it was, in this version of the story.

12. I'm thrilled that Seta and Renna were killed off, tbh. I'm hoping it means that the second circus plotline is just as dead as they are. It was... genuinely one of the Worst Times that I ever had reading any PoVs in the entire series. But Egwene wanted to kill Renna in the books too! She only didn't because Nynaeve stopped her! And Nynaeve's not here. So all that felt pretty in-line with the book characterization.

And it gives Egwene a big moment here, which is good because... honestly, she doesn't do that much in TSR that I can think of? She... trains, mostly, lol. She doesn't get any huge moments like this, as far as I can recall. That is maybe the one reason that I can think of for sending the Wondergirls back to the White Tower, to give Egwene the Big Moment of her Accepted test. But Egwene's next big thing is really becoming Amyrlin, from what I remember. Am I forgetting some stuff from TSR or TFoH?

Rand has Rhuidean and becoming Car'a'carn

Nynaeve has Moghedien (and maybe Egeanin, if they do that plotline - they might have the Seanchan take next season or two off to 'regroup')

Mat has Rhuidean and visiting the foxes

Perrin has the battle of the Two Rivers

But Elayne is mostly Nynaeve's sidekick in Tanchico, from what I remember, and Egwene is mostly just tagging along with the Wise Ones and training. They can get some cool stuff out of her learning to be a Dreamer but there isn't really a 'climatic moment' in that in TSR or TFoH that I can think of.

(I wonder if the Birgitte bonding might happen next season? because they'll want to show Moghedien's threat level and what she does to Birgitte is a pretty good show of force)

13. Talking about how the Mat & Rand relationship is more complex than Mat & Perrin's -- this is very true to the books, of course, (until Perrin became Everyone's Closest Friend in ToM/AMoL) but it also feeds into Mat being a part of Rand's storylines next season (and probably all/most of s4) while Perrin goes back to the Two Rivers for most of s3. Mat and Rand's relationship is going to be more relevant, so it makes sense to load it up with more tension and more complexity. And given how close they've made Mat and Rand, I suspect that their storylines may dovetail even more in the show than they did in the books (and they already did a LOT in the books). And they might even continue to TALK about all the trauma that they have in common instead of being right next to each other and never having a conversation about it.

14. Mat being Rand's only hope being connected to the Horn and connected to the unhealing wound that will eventually kill him in Shayol Ghul... they really have twined Mat and Rand's narratives more tightly than the books did, which is delightful (especially with Mat being a Hero of the Horn in this version of the story, which means that Mat and Rand hang out together in TAR between incarnations).

It does make me very curious if Olver is going to exist in this version, since Mat is now not just tied to the Horn by ta'veren coincidence but by his own nature. Olver is kinda an easy character to cut, since he only ever does two things: a. gets Mat trapped in Ebou Dar so that he can get locked into his fate & b. blows the Horn in the Last Battle. If they're doing something different with Mat & Tuon, then Olver might not be needed for the first thing. And there's no reason for Mat not to blow the Horn himself in the Last Battle.

Narratively, because they HAVE been winding Mat and Rand's stories more tightly together, it would be pretty unsatisfying for Mat and Rand to separate in s4 (or s5?) and then literally never see each other again until they get a five-minute conversation in, like, ep 4 of season 8, so I suspect/hope that the show will find ways to let them reunite sooner than that. I mean, it was pretty damn unsatisfying in the books, let me tell you.

15. The show did such a good job setting up the Two Rivers storyline for next season, imo. I love that they put together Perrin's two "whitecloaks crimes" into the same issue and that Dain witnessed it first-hand instead of going after Perrin based on hearsay. I think we'll potentially see a real exploration of Perrin's guilt over Laila vs his inability to feel guilty about killing Bornhald next season. Plus adding Faile into the mix is likely going to make Perrin feel even guiltier (and I believe that Slayer is confirmed as well? It's gonna be busy in the Two Rivers for Perrin). I think we might get the 'trap' for Faile next season and it'll be what make Perrin realize that he has feelings for her but I don't think we're getting the quickie wedding. That feels WAY too fast.

16. It's hard to talk about Hopper's death without spoilers! Because this is very much not the end of Hopper's storyline. I'm expecting that Hopper is still going to be Perrin's teacher in the wolfdream, so we're probably going to see him just as much next season as we did this season, if not more. What a good actor in that dog, though, wow. Such a good start towards Perrin at the end. Hopper has been so delightful and I've loved what he's added to Perrin's storyline.

17. @markantonys did a really good post on the differences between why book!Mat thinks of himself 'not a hero' vs why show!Mat does, and I just want to link it here and co-sign. But that's really why this moment in the show, for Mat, works for me so well.

All of the characters, while they do have a core that comes from the books, are affected by the changes that the show has made. And Mat has been particular affected, because the realities of television impacted his character more than most due to the recasting, etc.

But even apart from that, Mat is different because he has gone through different experiences: he's known for over a year that one of them would be the Dragon so when he reunites with Rand, knowing that Rand's the Dragon, he's not going to have the same reaction that he did in the books because he has had time to adjust to the idea and it's not a nasty surprise.

Mat has a different relationship with heroism in the show because we lost our original Mat due to the shooting delays of Covid, and we had to leave Mat behind at the Waygate, meaning that he abandoned his friends out of fear. That profoundly changes his trajectory and means that a lot of work needed to be put into building his character back up again. Show!Mat NEEDS to be a Hero of the Horn in a way that book!Mat never did, because it provides external validation for him coming through the pain and loneliness and guilt and shame that he has been living in for the past few months.

18. After checking discussion on the subreddit, it is GENUINELY fascinating to me how many fans misremember book!Mat as getting his own past lives' memories rather than getting a mishmash of (mostly) war memories from the random people who visited the 'finn. I do think it's possible that this moment HAS been meant to replace that and Mat gets to use his own memories for all his general'ing needs, but it's also possible that these memories are going to fade after a while (and maybe that's the drive that makes Mat go to the 'finn, instead of asking for his memory-holes to be filled, he wants his past lives' memories back?). Mat does have some ancient memories that get triggered a couple of times in the early books (before Jordan was planning to send him to the 'finn, imo, and when Mat was going to be the one to go back to the Two Rivers) but those are not the same as the memories that the 'finn gave him.

19. We're also seeing a bit of LTT foreshadowing here, I think, in seeing how Mat remembering some of his past lives gives him access to fighting skills that he didn't have before. So when Rand starts pulling from LTT's memories, viewers can go back to this scene and connect the similarities.

20. Uno is Gaidal Cain! (from what Rafe has said in interviews) Good for him! I wonder if they're going to split up the 'dream conversations' next season and have Uno be the one who talks to Perrin and warns him about things, since they already have an emotional connection, while Brigitte is the one who runs across Egwene & the other Wondergirls (I absolutely do not remember the timeline of any of that, to be frank). I believe also, from what has been said, that this is not the final Birgitte actress, which is why they didn't focus on her much. Maybe we'll get Uno and Perrin hanging out in s3, and then Birgitte's storyline in s4?

21. I really am wondering how they plan to play out Rand's romantic situation in s3. There are still quite a few show-only viewers who are invested in Rand & Egwene as endgame, but also quite a few show-only viewers who clocked what a romantically-framed introduction that Rand and Elayne just had to each other. I don't want the show to rush Rand and Elayne's romance, so I'm still leaning towards them not starting anything next season, with the focus in the initial episode before they separate being on Rand and Egwene's breakup, and then Rand and Aviendha coming together over the course of s3 but... that really was a very disney-princess Romantic (TM) introduction shot, very "Eric meets Ariel" in The Little Mermaid (someone made the comparison using screenshots).

22. Did Suroth die? We don't actually see a body. This may be a situation where it was left ambiguous because they don't plan to have her in s3 and the actress might not be available when they do need their Seanchan antagonist again, so safest to leave her in a quantum state.

23. I am absolutely imagining the rest of the Forsaken watching Rand and Ishamael's encounter and then immediately fleeing once they see Rand take down Ishy, with Moghedien being voluntold to stay behind to talk to Lanfear.

24. Hmm, thinking about Masema. So Masema watches Ingtar get cut down by the Seanchan soldiers, he watches Perrin's friend Mat open the box to the Horn and then rush off to deliver it. And then he sees the dragon on the tower at the end. So he's seeing this huge difference between what a normal lord can do, and what was accomplished by the Dragon and his people. I'm not sure how in-depth we're going to be going with the Prophet of the Dragon storyline, but we definitely had seeds planted for it here.

25. We also seemed to have an interesting progression of who stands next to Rand, where, and when. Because first Rand is up alone on the ledge (while everyone has a group hug behind him), then we see Mat revealed to one side while Egwene steps up on the other. Then Nynaeve and Perrin join together, between Rand and Egwene. And in the final shot of them, we see that Elayne is standing between Mat and Rand.

I'm not going to put any particular meaning on any of that (at least at this time), just noting it.

It's a great shot.

26. I wonder if Ishy gave the others like, a short presentation on What This New Age Is Like.

That was such a good season of television! I'm really looking forward to what they're going to do with TSR, it's one of my very favorite of the books.

[wavytam]

SaNami in Thriller Bark and Whole Cake: How one arc was used to foreshadow the other

In this post I will talk about how Sanji's and Nami's storylines in Thriller Bark were used to foreshadow a lof of elements that played out in Whole Cake Island...

... and might as well foreshadow their dynamic in future arcs.

I decided to write this post after I rewatched Thriller Bark. 

As the episodes went by, having in mind that I had already caught up on Wano in the anime, I noticed some odd… similarities left in Thriller Bark that made me realize how much it foreshadowed future arcs (like Marine Ford and Fishman Island), but especially Whole Cake Island (and Egghead, but this is an analysis for the next post) especially the moments relating to Sanji and Nami.

I also remembered something that was speculation at the time and if anyone has a source for this information, please share, since it's been a while I've read about it and I don't remember where I got it from: apparently, during the time Marine Ford was being animated (and the manga was in Fishman Island) one of Oda's employees lost some type of sketchbook containing concepts and plans about Whole Cake Arc.

If this is true, it means that Oda had a lot of things figured out way ahead of the current storyline of One Piece - which is not exactly a surprise. But after rewatching Thriller Bark, I dare to speculate that Oda already had a lot of things planned for Whole Cake even before Fishman Island and even Marineford, and he actually used Thriller Bark itself to foreshadow it.

Obviously, every arc of One Piece usually leaves hints to future arcs (especially when it comes to Wano and Elbaf - Oda foreshadows both in almost every arc), but I'd like to take a moment to talk about the ones (on top of my head) that Thriller Bark left hints of.

Wano: Zoro's encounter with Ryuma's Zombie and Moria mentions Kaido.

Marineford: By the very end of the Thriller Bark arc, Boa Hancock's name is mentioned, and we also have a scene of Lola warning Luffy about Ace's vivre card.

These are just some of the elements I remember and won't get into much detail, otherwise this post would need two parts lol.

Anyway, with what I said in mind, there's one arc that Thriller Bark strangely foreshadows more than any other and, not only that, but also introduces elements that will later be essential in said arc: which is Whole Cake Island. There are so many moments thrown here and there, especially during Sanji and Nami's moments, that it got me curious to know for how long Oda:

Had planned to write Whole Cake

Had the entirety of Sanji's storyline figured out

Had planned some specific interactions between certain characters

As you can already guess by the title of this analysis, my assumption is that Sanji and Nami's roles and interactions in Whole Cake Island were something that Oda had planned ever since Thriller Bark… and maybe even before.

In this next part, I will show you the reasons why and also why I think that some of their moments in Thriller Bark still weren't mirrored in Whole Cake but might be in Egghead or maybe Elbaf.

Nami and Sanji’s roles in Thriller Bark

First, let's remember what happens to Nami and Sanji separately and how both their storylines intersect throughout Thriller Bark.

Nami starts off by getting lost from the Straw Hats along with Usopp and Chopper (the infamous Weak Trio) inside Thriller Bark. Through their perspective we see how weird and macabre the setting is and how there is something wrong with its inhabitants - specifically Doctor Hogback.

Meanwhile, Luffy, Sanji and the rest of the Straw Hats follow the trio's tracks and have an entirely different perception of the place. Through their perspective, everything that scared Usopp, Nami and Chopper is… kinda pathetic and weak? Lol, I loved how Oda planned this.

Once the Weak Trio arrives at Dr. Hogback's Manor, Nami is assaulted (ugh) by an invisible Absalom (mind you, a guy who has lion parts - a symbol that usually is connected to her throughout One Piece) and he decides to take her as his wife. Meanwhile, as the trio tries to escape, and the rest of the Straw Hats are looking for them, Sanji's and Zoro's shadows are taken by Gecko Moria and put inside Zombies. Something interesting happens: because Sanji is not well known like Zoro, Moria underestimates him and puts his shadow inside the body of a weaker Zombie (keep that in mind for later).

Sanji's zombie finds Usopp, Chopper and Nami, and rebels against his "programming" to protect Nami specifically.

That's when Moria's minions realize that Sanji is much stronger than they anticipated.

Later, Chopper and Usopp escape, but Nami is taken by Absalom. She also meets a Zombie named Lola whom she ends up befriending. Through Usopp, (original) Sanji finds out Nami was harassed by Absalom and was planning to force her into a marriage.

He gets so mad, he lights himself on fire and we have these interesting exchanges.

(Posting two translations of the same panel because both translations are so interesting: one of them Zoro says that he might “transform” into something, but the other says he might “mutate” - and considering the things we know now of Sanji’s past once again shows how Oda gives a lot of thought to Sanji’s characterization.

Anyway, if anyone knows which phrase is the closest to the original japanese and what else it could be talking about, feel free to comment or DM! I have zero knowledge of Japanese and I just know how many hints we might be missing because of it). 

Meanwhile, Nami is (probably) drugged by Absalom and is carried to the altar to get married.

Obviously (and under Luffy's orders) Sanji goes to look for Nami and we know how things go after this. He

crashes Nami's "wedding",

fights Absalom as he protects her body against any minor harm,

and ends up talking about his dream to become invisible and how he studied devil fruits when he was a kid (that moment for me is enough to prove that Oda had already planned Sanji's entire storyline with Germa, his siblings and his metal mask - I will talk about it in more detail later)

All of that effort seemed to go nowhere since Sanji was unable to free Nami. Absalom escapes with her and tries to marry her again, only for her to (finally) wake up and defeat him.

That's when we realise that it was thanks to Sanji, who weakened Absalom in their previous fight, that Nami was able to (in a sense) oneshot Absalom so easily.

So, unbeknown to himself and Nami, Sanji did end up saving Nami - this is an interesting motif in their relationship, and something I plan to talk about more in future posts.

Later, after everything is resolved, Nami befriends the real Lola. Lola not only talks about her mother Linlin (the Big Mom, one of the Four powerful Yonkos) but also gives Nami Linlin's vivre card. Only later in Whole Cake we find out Lola ran away from home and Chiffon mentions how she rejected the advances of a prince (Loki - Elbaf foreshadow) whom Nami takes interest upon for being… well, a prince.

Obviously a bunch of other things happen, but I only talked about the points I wanted to explore in this analysis. I'm sure you noticed there's a lot of them to talk about already.

Also, if you watched/read WCI I'm sure that, as I listed what happened in Thriller Bark, you already noticed how there are some interesting elements in it that later become crucial for While Cake to play out the way it did.

As I mentioned, one of the most important things that I think Oda had been planning to write ever since Thriller Bark (or before) was for Nami specifically to participate in Whole Cake.

This part I will leave for last, since the next topics will serve as a way to explain it.

TB Absalom's Invisibility and Sanji's Dream mirror WCI Stealth Black and the Rejected Germa Prince Storyline

Well, this topic is kinda controversial because of the sexual undertones it has and because of how Oda portrays Sanji's perviness. I won't talk about this part here since it's not the focus of this analysis, but I will link you to an amazing post that explores exactly that part of Sanji's character.

Here I will focus on the other part that Oda left implicit: which is the fact that Sanji had the dream to be invisible ever since he was a kid (when he still didn't have his hyperfixation on women) and how, at the same time, it was the exact power he was "supposed" to have as a Germa soldier and prince.

To me Oda not only used Absalom's powers as a way to leave open the possibility of Sanji having invisibility related powers in the future (which he kinda did in Wano), but also to tie it to his past with Germa. 

Only now do we know that the power Sanji was originally supposed to have was invisibility and the fact that Oda put Absalom with that exact power might show how ahead he was on the story (or how good he is with improvising hehe).

Now, this raises the question: if Sanji's mutation was supposed to be invisibility, where exactly did those fire powers come from? (This is something for a future post ;))

TB Nami and Lola mirrors WCI Nami and Chiffon

Through the bond Oda developed between Lola and Nami, the Straw Hats (and we, readers) gathered a lot of important information that would later be used by Nami herself to survive their adventure through Whole Cake.

First, Lola had a twin sister, Chiffon, who, because of the bond already established between Lola and Nami, ended up taking a liking to Nami in Whole Cake (and vice versa).

Big Mom's Family and Political Marriages

Second, as we get to know Lola in Thriller Bark we see that the idea of finding the man she loves and marrying him is an important concept for her. This is later on explained in Whole Cake, where we realize that Big Mom uses political marriages to gain more power and wanted to force Lola to marry prince Loki. That’s the sole reason for Lola to leave Big Mom and, once again, it seems like something Oda had already planned in Thriller Bark.

Big Mom's Vivre Card

Third, the Vivre Card Lola gave Nami was crucial for Nami, Luffy and the rest of the crew to navigate through Whole Cake and control Big Mom's henchmen. A lot of the problems that they were going through in Whole Cake were resolved because of that simple vivre card given around six arcs earlier, Thriller Bark.

Sanji and Nami Wedding Crashing Each Other's Weddings and Bridal Carries

Well, this is the part the SaNami Fandom has already talked about the most and for obvious reasons. It's not everyday a ship has so many wedding motifs, and the fact that Oda chose to parallel a lot of things that happened during the wedding in Thriller Bark at Whole Cake with Sanji and Nami, obviously adds more fuel to the fire.

This topic, along with Lola, is actually the reason for me to write this analysis, since, in my opinion, there are a lot of details that seem too coincidental to be considered unplanned.

First detail: we have the fact that Nami was the main reason for Luffy to ever decide to invade Big Mom's territory and go after Sanji, whilst in Thriller Bark it was Sanji himself who was determined to stop Nami's wedding at all costs and Luffy… well, he just gave Sanji permission to do his thing lmao.

Second: during both wedding ceremonies, Sanji carried Nami bridal style; something that the groom was supposed to do with the bride.

Third detail: both Nami and Sanji were being forced to get married and it was always the other side that would try to save the forced groom/bride. The best part about this is the fact that neither Sanji nor Nami knew about the amount of difficulties the other went to save one another. Which brings me to the next topic:

Nami's Obliviousness to Sanji's efforts mirrors Sanji's obliviousness to Nami's efforts

Okay, this is more of a fact for the entirety of One Piece, but I think it's more evident in both Thriller Bark and Whole Cake. Again, although this is a topic that I want to talk about in more detail in another post, I do think it's worth mentioning a bit in here.

In Thriller Bark, Nami does not realize how important she is for Sanji and the extent of the things he is willing to do for her safety. Not only that, but Nami is also not aware of the things Sanji already did for her ever since Arlong Park.

In Whole Cake, it's more subtle, but the fact that only Luffy truly saw Sanji's breakdown and how much he was sacrificing himself for his crew, shows that Nami still does not know the true extent of Sanji's care and selflessness. 

And it raises the question: why? Why is it that Oda does not let Nami (until this day) know how much Sanji did to his crew and especially to her? To me, it's because, if Nami knew, she would treat Sanji differently. If she knew that Sanji does have a preference for her, that he defended her in Arlong Park, that he tried everything he could to protect her in Thriller Bark, and that he did a lot of things he wouldn't do for any other woman, maybe her view on him would change.

Consequently some type of tension between the two could eventually build up and what Oda has been trying to avoid for years (which was a romance between the crew) would eventually happen, and the entire dynamic of the crew would shift (but this is speculation ofc, it might be nothing and even if Nami knew, nothing could change).

And let's also consider that, although Sanji looks for Nami's validation when she witnesses him fighting, he never tries to brag or tell her about the times he defended her when she wasn't looking.

Obviously, in Whole Cake, Sanji is thinking about the entire crew when he sacrificed his happiness, not only her, but as I said, it's more about the fact that Nami does not know how much Sanji truly works under wraps to make sure the people he loves are safe - and how selfless he truly is for her when she only sees his perverted side.

Now, the same can be said about Sanji, to some extent. It's clear in the manga that Sanji does have strong feelings for Nami, if it's reciprocated, it's up to debate. But no one can deny that Nami does care about Sanji and sometimes, she cares more than anyone else in her crew.

We all noticed how Nami was the most eager to rescue Sanji, always trying to bring the seriousness of the situation to the rest of the crew and dragging Chopper, Luffy and Brook to the right path whenever they got distracted by something else. 

However, when it came to truly knock some sense into Sanji to accept help, Nami was conveniently taken out of the picture in favor of Luffy. 

Keep in mind that I am in no way complaining, the moments Sanji had with Luffy were beautiful, and he obviously would have the focus: Luffy is the main character and Sanji's captain.

But the fact that Oda kept Nami away in one of Sanji's moments of fragility, when he exposed his true nature and showed how caring he really is, can come off as suspicious. As if Oda does not really want Nami to see those moments… yet.

You can say that Oda also kept Chopper and Brook out of the picture, but even when Nami is with them, Oda kind of separates Nami's behavior from theirs. He emphasizes Nami's reactions and gives her serious expressions while the rest are put in more comical situations.

Also, during the Luffy vs. Sanji fight, one of the most emotional moments of WCI, Nami didn't need to be there if Oda only wanted to emphasize the importance of Luffy to Sanji.

In my opinion, he put Nami there, because Sanji cares about her and her opinion more than any other woman’s, even more than Robin’s. Which makes the following moment even more hurtful, especially because that was the only time Nami didn't use the "kun" honorific - showing how she lost respect for him.

Conclusion: the importance of Sanji and Nami in each other’s stories

By looking at these topics, I think it's very interesting how Oda made sure to use parts of Nami's plot in Thriller Bark to gather information that would help her, Luffy, Brook and Chopper to save Sanji in Whole Cake.

To me, the fact that so many of these things seemed to point out something: the interactions that both Nami and Sanji have is something that Oda thinks about carefully. Not only that, but everytime they are having a major moment/development, most of the times one is there to support the other.

Examples:

In Arlong Park Sanji defended Nami's actions

In Ennies Lobby Nami had a major fight against Khalifa because she knew Sanji wouldn't fight a woman

Until Nami decided to forgive Jimbei, Sanji was there to defend her

Again, the only exception is during Sanji's and Nami’s arcs in Wano -  but in my opinion it's because Oda’s intentional hiding of Sanji’s story from the other Strawhats will pay off in the future and will be a major factor in the One Piece story.

Well, this is it.

Okay, with all of those topics in mind, there are two main events in Thriller Bark that happened in relation to Nami and Sanji that still don't seem to have been mirrored:

Sanji's Zombie fought his own programming to protect Nami in Thriller Bark mirrors (?)

The underestimation of Sanji's True Power, what it truly is and how will it be activated

I plan to write that part for my analysis of SaNami in Egghead. If anyone is interested, stay tuned!

For everyone who stayed until the end, thanks for reading!! See you in the next post.

[zai-doodles]

In your fairy tail will Laxus be different, guy was too much of a prick to accept his change of heart or that "deep down, he's a good guy", he threatened to kill the entire city just because he had daddy issues.

i have so many opinions ive been avoiding answering this until i had time to write an essay so here you go.

So, i personally, feel like fairy tail has a really weird habit of having characters do extremely irredeemable shit, say several times that the character is enjoying what their doing, then have their character do a 180 several arcs later because after fighting fairy tail they just saw the light or some shit.

Like i was rewatching the Battle of Fairy Tail arc and lauxus is just... so awful? and the way they try to redeem him with the spell shit not working like sir he was going to kill everyone maybe we dont give him a pass?

all this to say heres how I would rewrite the battle of fairy tail:

Ok so i'd keep Laxus' resentment of Makorav over the banishment of his dad, the only thing keeping laxus in ft is knowing one day hes going to inherit the guild. He works his ass off to become as powerful as he can in order to live up to that legacy but also...

He hates it there.

Specifically, the ones who grew up in the guild (ie erza, mira, natsu, gray, etc) because he always felt like makorav embraced them more than laxus.

So he works hard and keeps his head down, picking fights more out of resentment than anything the other guild members did. I think some of the older guild members who remember Ivan are very wary of Laxus but not afraid just... keeping an eye out.

Laxus reads it as pity.

Once Laxus grows up, hes arrogant, entitled, and selfish. He puts his everything into becoming the best and surrounds himself with yes men (the thunder legion im getting to them) who boost his ego.

Then one day he overhears some fairy tail members spreading a rumor that Makorav is going to retire...

And Erza is going to become the next guild master.

And it fucking breaks something inside him.

I think Laxus resents Erza the most because its just so clear Makorav favors her over everyone. Shes so perfect and humble and honorable and...

Everything Laxus isn't.

So he sets up a plan. He's going to take the guild by force.

ok so it happens basically the same as canon right up until the end. Before the timer runs out Laxus demands Makorav hand the guild over to him before all these people get hurt.

Makorav shows up to confront laxus and instead of doing or saying anything, he just quietly walks up to laxus and stands in front of him.

Laxus starts to panic and yells about how the old man has to give up or everyone is going to die. Outside fairy tail is taking down the dome but its not enough.

Laxus grows more erratic but Makorav says nothing.

The timer runs out and nothing happens.

Laxus sighs in defeat. He's been caught.

He was bluffing.

See the plan laxus and the thunder legion made was simple, they'd prove themselves the strongest by beating the entire guild and once everyone was taken out, makorav would have no choice to hand the guild over since no one was left to stop the thunder dome.

the body link magic still hurt any attackers just to make them seem more real, but they were only really there to pressure Makorav into caving.

Laxus didnt account for his grandpa having faith in him.

However the power grab couldn't be ignored, attacking the guild and even just threatening the city leads to laxus getting banished.

The thunder legion decide to leave fairy tail but laxus forbids them from following him anymore, not feeling worthy of being their leader anymore. So the thunder legion kinda just go off on their own as a trio for the time being.

Idk if this feels lame to others but to me its better than having laxus fully believe hes going to kill everyone and go through with it (even if the spell didnt work) only to redeem him later. It just feels weird to me? idk im not a great writer but this is just my lil rewrite.

as a treat have my bickslow redesign

shhh ik its not v good im still work shopping it but this is like, my third attempt so just take it for now

[izzysillyhandsy]

Prince Ricky and Izzy Hands - WTF actually happened there and why?

Yesterday I was rewatching the finale with my first-time-OFMD friend, and she was absolutely baffled by Ricky shooting Izzy with his own gun.

In her words: "Nobody took it off him, that's not realistic! That's impossible, totally impossible, I can't buy that, you don't just forget a gun on a prisoner?!?!?!?"

And on my first watch I thought the same thing (as we all did), and then forgot about it a bit, but now I want to speculate. Because WHY did that happen?

The easiest explanation is, of course: Ricky needed a gun and it doesn't really matter where it came from. The writers didn't think it was important and neither should we.

But I'd like to expect a bit more from this show - I remember that I was taken out of my immersion quite a bit by this obvious "mistake". Ricky is a hostage who was just about to kill every single pirate we know - and nobody notices he's armed? And he's led through the enemy lines by Izzy with only a small knife to his back?

If Ricky still has his gun, that means that they took his sword but noone thought of searching him properly (and to really rub it in, Ricky is shown cleaning his gun in an earlier scene). The gun also seems very accessible later, so it probably wasn't even hidden well.

So why didn't the writers have Ricky take Izzy's (or Black Pete's) gun? I know Izzy almost never carries a gun (which is interesting in itself), but they were all in Navy uniforms anyway. Why not take the weapons too? Or have Ricky stab Izzy with a hidden knife (in a way that the other characters won't notice, like with the gunshot, presumably)?

Or was the whole thing actually deliberate? In a "it doesn't really matter if you take it at face value, but if you look closer there might be another explanation" kinda way?

(that was a really long introduction to what I'm actually here for, I'm sorry)

Who actually searched Ricky and took his sword? Was it the same person who stayed next to Ricky during the cool dressing up montage? Who led Ricky through the woods?

(Hint: it's the guy who's always in the background when these 2 are kissing)

Of course we have no proof that Izzy searched Ricky, but I think it is very probable.

Izzy had just been talking to Ricky. He'd been sitting next to Ricky when he was knocked out.

Izzy had just deeply insulted and provoked Ricky and made himself the spokesperson of piracy - "It's about letting go of ego for something larger." - "Kill me. Kill us all. Our spirit will last throughout your entire fuckin' empire." - thereby almost goading Ricky into killing him.

And then Stede presents his nebulous plan we never actually hear, and Izzy (why Izzy?) is put in the most dangerous position, right at the frontlines leading the hostage. Did he volunteer for that?

And are we really expected to believe that Izzy wouldn't double-check that Ricky was unarmed?

I really don't like where this is leading, by the way. Because the explanation that makes most sense from a Watsonian perspective is that Izzy either didn't mind or actively wanted to be killed/wounded.

The show went out of its way to portray Izzy as older, wiser and more resigned in the last 2 episodes - he looked like he'd aged 10 years in a few days, he moved around slower and seemed to be in more pain (and groaning when sitting down, etc.). Also, he seemed to have made peace with everything and everyone, and he seemed... tired.

(I know he's just been shot here, but he just looks exhausted)

I think there might be a possibility that Izzy let Ricky keep his gun because he did want to go. Stede's "It's only suicide if we die!" sounds almost to fitting in this context. Izzy might have thought that the one conversation Ed needed, the one where Izzy could set Ed free, could only happen on his deathbed (as I said elswhere, Iz and Ed are closest in life-and-death situations).

Or (and this is what I choose to believe until S3 comes around), Izzy took Ricky's pistol while he was unconcious, took the bullet out and faked his death to set Ed and himself free. He very pointedly doesn't want Ed to see his wound, after all (Ed: "It's not even that bad!"). If it's only about the deathbed absolution, and removing himself (and the spectre of Blackbeard) from the situation, Izzy doesn't actually have to die, does he?

This also fits with the song played over the end sequence, panning to Izzy's grave:

And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who that will be namin' For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin'

Yeah. A bit too conspiracy-theory-like maybe. But it was the first assumption my friend made - 5 seconds after the scene: "The gun can't have been there by accident, that's just stupid. Oh no. Did Izzy arrange that? Did he really want to die for Ed?" and I thought - you know what? That was my first thought as well. I just immediately dismissed it for being too dramatic.

So, either Izzy is the most reckless, stupid and negligent pirate ever (which he obviously isn't, quite the opposite) - or he trusted the person who (badly) searched Ricky (oooh, new conspiracy theory - it was Ed! Sorry.) - or there was something else at play.

OR

...maybe it was just lazy writing after all.

[crazykuroneko]

Rewind the Tape – IWTV S102

I'm catching up with @iwtvfanevents now with Episode 2. Repeating my FYI from before: this is my first time rewatching the show (excluding indirect watch through YouTube reactions), and it's purpose for me to refresh my mind and noticing things. So, I won't dwell on certain theories, but I'll take notes about it for myself.

Feel free to reply if you want to discuss. *crack knuckles* Let's go!

• Marius' painting. A clue that Rashid is Armand. But now, IF Justin Kirk is really Marius, it's also a clue that Marius also lives in that apartment building 💡Does that mean there's a real possibility of "Akasha is the groan" theory to be true? Or "sleeping Lestat is the groan"? Because no way these good writers features the groan without meaning even though the groan is indeed a phenomenon that happens to tall buildings. Saving this for later.

• "Is it only work or you (are his fuckboy basically)?" Your prejudice (and lowkey envy, maybe) is showing, Daniel

• "I apologize for my outburst earlier" You're just crying Louis. It's okay. Fuck this discipline life you're doing 😭

• Idc I headcanon Armand bought Louis that top because it looks so great for Ied Fitr. Like, I already have the visual in my head.

• The music turns out to be a diagetic music as well is so witty and memorable. Love that

• The farm. Hmmm. Saving that for later

• "Two vampires walked into the church". The error in this statement is interesting. Does he feel like it's inevitable the moment he walked into that church?

• Blood of the deceased will suck you into death. Okay, noted.

• That priest is still alive???? What?

• The spark shot is beautiful. Iirc, Alan said that's kinda tricky to achieve.

• I don't know, I just love this shot:

• "Are you hungry, Louis?" "Huh-huh" PLEASE HE IS SO CUTE AND PALM-SIZED

• That paw of a hand directing Louis' head. Icu

• Lestat still could talk to Louis telepathically here. Because he hasn't had his first meal?

• "Just to be clear, we're here to talk about tractors" 🏳️‍🌈🤔❓I mean, what this poor soul is assuming to begin with 😭

• Lestat's instruction being an innuendo for oral sex is so 😭. I love these writers

• "You're going to find that difficult". That's "after-the-fact scene" number 2. Yeah, I will call it that. It means that scene doesn't necessarily happen as a fact in the past because it's impossible for Louis to know (he's being super focused on his family, no way he heard that). But it's formed based on an information Louis learnt after the fact, which over the years eventually attached to the memory of that day. Memory does evolve that way; no intervention or intent needed for that to happen. The after the fact information this time is that it's indeed hard, and Lestat must have warned him (see: post almost killing nephew scene), so over the years it evolved to "oh Lestat must find it ridiculous I tried to go back to my family that first day". I LOVE that the writers are doing this. It means they're treating memory in the show as real memory; it's not static, it evolves over the years, formed based on a lot of influences etc etc.

• Love the burning special effects. That's a great way to show it off.

• I can't believe they had their first time with Louis smelling like milk and burnt 😂😭

• Daniel is SO desperate to put some distance and not sympathize with Louis. Though he kinda fails by the end of the episode thanks to Alice

• The fact they gave Lestat's preaching lines from the book to Louis (the having hand in divine plan bits) really tells you that Louis is posturing here. Idk I feel like he's trying to gauge how far Daniel could tolerate. And Daniel is indeed afraid, judging from his face and how he becomes more bitey.

• After-the-fact scene number 3, with Lestat staring as Louis' sex worker's breast. The after-the-fact information is obviously Lestat staring at Antoinette in the next episode which led to his affair. Of course, Louis would questioning when Lestat started to be unfaithful, when his eyes started straying; a very common question for people who are cheated. Is it really from the beginning? (Fenwick's arm hasn't healed yet since Paul's funeral; Google tells me it can take six weeks)

• "It's not cheating if it's with a woman" oh hey best cameo of the year lol

• Lestat's face when he explained about no telepathy is like he just had a war flashback

• I need more Florence vs Lestat cat fight seriously

• "Haven't heard a knock on my door. It's a half-mile both ways" SPEAK IT LOUDER LOUIS. Like, I understand you're grieving and blaming your son, but no call whatsoever from everyone for 3 months after your son just suddenly moved out?? Insanity. (But also not surprising seeing my own big family responding to silent treatment 💀) The homophobia jumps out as well. Paul is Louis' real tie to the family.

• Jacob's expressions during the racist lawyer scene muah

• "If you hide from me this long again, I'll hunt you down..." again, his family knows where he lives 🤷‍♀️

• Grace pointing out the "extra" cash and the fact he lives nicely in the Quarter now 👀👀

• "What can i do to make it up to you?" This whole scene shows Lestat's method in deescalating a situation. He obviously doesn't understand the point of the problem is yet he doesn't try to understand. Louis is giving him a silent treatment (which means he's my bestie, cos silent treatment is my flaw as well lol), but idk instead of showing a good intention by asking Louis to explain to him or something, he asks for a shortcut instead. He needs Louis to verbalize the solution for them. We're fast forwarding, but iirc this is similar approach he has with Antoinette as well. Here, Louis is still willing to verbalize the solution.

• The way Louis' neck moves when Lestat says "How can i stop you?" oh he loves being pampered

• Louis doesn't put "sir" after Tom's name when signing the purchase 😎✊

• The body double throws me out I'm so sorry 😭

• 1912-1917

• This whole thing with Benny feels like a thriller movie. Kudos for the director

• Of course he came to his family bringing money for Grace. It seems it's past bed time. Florence is in her bedroom.

• "It's still Lestat" There's passive aggressiveness into it idk. Like, she expects them to have broken up already

• The last victim in 2000. noting that down.

• Louis really wants Daniel to highlight he's different from the other girls. I mean, the other vampires.

• Daniel's face over the slurping 😭

• He put Benny on the floor so he wouldn't roll down from the sofa 🥺

• "If you love your family, spare them the pain" I believe Lestat is being genuine here. He basically goes I've been there done that, and look at me now it ended so badly.

• "I'm your family, Louis" 😭

• Then he basically makes a perfect summary of Louis aww

• "Maybe there's deaf, blind porter and kill when we get to the hotel." Louis, you're not so different from the other girls (vampires) 😭

• That long ass overture just for two tickets to the opera. Lestat, please.

• The whole "there was present a kind of worship on my part" 🤌 *insert that gif of pen on fire while writing*

• You can see the exact moment when it dawns on Lestat he has fucked up with bringing Louis to a racist opera house. God, what a loser (affectionately). It's never come into his mind how bad it would ruin Louis' mood. Like, he understands racism is bad as a concept, but he doesn't understand how it affects one's self. He thinks that would be a minor convenience to Louis that Louis could just brush off.

• Lestat 🤝 Me, accidentally become manipulative when we're in a pinch. (re: the loneliness speech)

• Louis is so down bad, unfortunately ❤️

• "And this woman sang for us, it seemed, articulating the difficult love we often had troubles exptessing ourselves" So beautiful.

• Misophonia girlies (gn) unite! I will always enjoy Lestat killing Ernesto I'm so sorry lol. Saw a reaction from someone who does classical music and they're ouching as well. So, GO FOR IT SON KILL HIM

• Lestat slowly killing Ernesto while Louis watching his memories to feel the "charge" of connecting to humanity. Oh, they are made for each other.

• The story with Alice, that she felt not good enough for him so she always died his eyebrow brown, but Daniel actually liked it when she didn't do it. Aww Daniel is trying to cheer him up.

• About the question for this week, does Louis really need to maintain the thread and why? Idk, i feel like Louis feels he needs to do it. Maybe to maintain some resemblance of humanity inside him, afraid it will go away over time. But to me, it doesn't really work.

Summary: Okay, if the first episode is about establishing Louis' internal conflicts, about the seduction/hunt and turning, this episode is about what Louis lost and not lost to vampirism. We also see the seed of Loustat's conflicts and how ineffective their method to solve them. And it's about vampirism, it's also the episode where we get the vampire lore the most. Of course over the months after season 1 aired I have kept several theories up about where the Dubai timeline is set based on the books. And the teasers of season 2 have debunked some of them. But this rewatch gives me another theory which I will keep to myself. All I can say though, instead on certain period of time of book canon, I think they're taking elements from different era of the books for Dubai. Can't wait to see the answer in S2 ❤️

[unlikelyjapan]

s2e1 rewatch notes

I had some wine tonight, but by the grace of God I had the wherewithal to wait a few hours to post my notes:

The forcefulness of Fak telling Carmy "It's a facelift AND a gut" is obviously needling us about how the character development on the show is going to roll, to varying degrees. The fact that Carmy is the one to be dismissive about the statement is foreshadowing I guess?

The same foreshadowing goes with Richie & Carmy - "I've got no purpose" and "you're going to wake up and drop my ass" fears are inverted between them by the end of the season.

Marcus and Sydney have honest heat/tenderness/tension in the first episode as she checks in on his mom - her own mother issues make it super awkward as the interaction closes, but it gives me more understanding as to why Marcus erupted as badly as he did in Ep10 (not like it was excusable, just relatable) - he's in a vulnerable state where her inquiries could definitely feel like overt cues.

Cicero totally looks like he knows what's happening between Carmy and Syd as they bicker during the pitch for more cash - Oliver Platt can play a smart (smug) motherfucker like no other, and I'm weirdly attracted to that.

Cicero was really ready/itching to tell them "the story of complete and utter failure" when Carmy cuts him off with the spontaneous '18-months to pay-out" deal during the same pitch. Knowing the Gonzalez/Bartman story was at the ready in episode 1 - and that, instead, we got Claire'd - is going to haunt my dreams for a while.

Syd asking Tina if she wanted to be her sous felt like the first time she was earnestly asking another woman to have a connection with her, and that earnestness was rewarded threefold *tears*

I love Ebra's consistent tenderness with Marcus so much - I hope they explore that bond more in season 3, as they've always been so gentle together. You can tell Ebra is very invested in Marcus' future, even though it's so divergent from the path he sees for himself at his stage in life.

Syd really needs Carmy to take the lead at the lockers when she says "Uh....what are you going to do?" - she lacks the emotional bandwidth to deal with the ambiguousness of "I have no idea", even though it's such a loaded statement coming from Carmy. He also says "I have no idea" to Claire in the next episode, when she asks "how's your life been, Berzatto?" but, of course, Claire DOES have the bandwidth/game to respond.

The exact lyrics when Sydney walks away from the lockers are talking about "transcendental blues" - I am deceased now.

Furthermore, the fact that the episode (at the point where they've constructed the new 3-month opening plan) is the first time we actually hear the lines from Refused's "New Noise" punctuate an episode with "Can I scream? Good frames won't save bad paintings" - ugh.

Afterthought:

Do you think any of anti-hero character development on the show echoes back to "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow? I haven't read it in ages, but it's the most Chicago story ever, and Storer is SO REFERENTIAL about anything literary/cinematic to do with the city that I thought.....maybe kinda.

[prettysymbiosis]

I’ve been trying to get these thoughts out for days but basically I feel like the unifying theory of s16 (as I see it) is a conscious exploration of the dichotomy between sunny as a classically bold and brash pee pee poo poo comedy and sunny as a thoughtful, nuanced and subtle show about flawed people and also about itself, at times (by that I mean the meta isn’t always about macdennis or the other characters but about sunny itself - win an award, clip show, big mo, etc). the trailer actually captures this dichotomy well through the dialogue clips and animations, as well as the pinned comment which said “get ready for a whole lot of subtlety.” it’s still so baffling to me that sunny can simultaneously read as one of the most loud, obnoxious, unsubtle shows ever on television, OR it can be so subtle and allegorical in the writing of later seasons that most viewers would think people like us are crazy for reading so much into it even though we’re really not. this kind of self-reflective flavor is another product of the rewatch/podcast project which has been almost universally agreed to have had a very positive effect on the writing.

anyway having said that, I want to just share my notes on the first two episodes without trying to edit them too much. I’m bolding the points that I personally haven’t seen anyone else mention yet and putting a 😎 next to ones that evoke a Classic Sunny VibeTM because that’s important to the experiment of this season.

the gang inflates

macden fun/domestic/DUMB again 😎

something something never committing to the couch when it was absurd not to and it ended up costing them so much macdennis blah blah

dennis hanging up on dee was so funny to me oops 😎

and the WHOLE dee (as a character and specifically the female character) thing about being minimized to an absurd degree. I like to think the bog was a turning point for dee and the show is gonna do better by her now hopefully by recognizing her plight in a more serious way, like the way the guys have been doing?

are mac and dennis…… you know…… like for real??? as many have said, it could totally be revealed kind of retroactively to undercut the shock and be like “honestly we’re surprised you didn’t notice sooner” I feel like that is something rcg would do. suggestive clues:

“I don’t wanna talk to you about–” “a TON”

or is dennis like well that’s news to me jealous vibes??

“I figured you were man” ??

“I’m getting a little concerned about our nut”

“you truly have no reason to be sleeping with frank”

they specifically put a lil reaction shot of dennis after mac says “that’s a lotta blowin” a la the lil grin in gets romantic and, well, I just think that’s a choice that was made

“it’s not homophobic” is that so?????

when mac is like “you think we got rid of our furniture too soon/that the business plan won’t work” it’s kinda like no it’s not the committing to what they have, it’s that mac still has big denial problems and dennis can’t work with that… maybe? but so does dennis tbh

in a show-meta sense it’s like, we should be less worried about whether the gay gay-ass love story will alienate people and more worried about how these characters are too ridiculous to even let the love story play out effectively. they need mental health days if we are ever to have nice things

it’s possible mac denying his reaction to the allergy has to do with his body dysmorphia?

also it occurred to me that maybe part of why rob is clean-shaven this season is so they could do those prosthetics more easily?

those handprints though…. I hate everything

oh also just the bed scene. its existence

the zoomed in neck touch of course

“I’m not going to do it!” “..okay” dennis keepin his cool :)

mac’s shirt! COOLER HEADS PREVAIL

just the sheer silliness of inflatable furniture - is there some metaphor here lol?

in a general sense could inflates be taken to mean flanderizes? also maybe it’s just implied but I noticed I hadn’t actually seen anyone mention inflation as a sexual kink and like, that was part of the intention right? if so, 😎

charlie “uhhhhhhhh… yep.” poor charlie :( he doesn’t want to live in a maze (like a rat)

“well then you’re just like being a predator” :( so here for charlie calling out bullshit with frank and mrs. mac and even his own mom so far in these first two eps

charlie just giving up and yelling in frustration which is kinda what bonnie does in ep2 (and ep3 based on trailer)

the gross horny male objectifying thing 😎

rob put his whole pussy into this episode

charlie saying “I don’t get why he doesn’t take me seriously” and dee saying “that’s gotta be maddening” 🙃

cats in the alley my loves 😎

gluing dee a pillow on the wall <3

“consider it an offering” “of war??” this says so much. must everything be a conflict?

charlie’s hair looks so crazy and good in the sleepover scene and also he’s so smart

charlie asks frank to “return everything to the status quo” by the end of the episode, sitcom style. full reset, no progression. except charlie is asking that frank not endlessly take advantage of the fact that mac and den can’t figure their shit out, not totally push dee out just because it’s easy, not make light of the trauma charlie has from what happened to him. all that stuff IS the status quo! so what is he really asking for? this is one of the bits of writing that I think is also about the show as a show, and how they’ve approached these dynamics forever. 

it’s funny that people are saying this season is such a return to form because it is, but it’s also so much more self-aware of what that form is/was and how deeper elements can coexist within it. they’re really walking with a foot in both worlds here and they’re doing it well. love this for them and for us, the people who know what it’s always sunny in philadelphia is REALLY about

“we’ll take you to the hospital, and they’ll have nuts. and you can– you can die there.” hahahah

[bl-bracket]

7, 9 and 12 for the BL ask game! 💙!

7. Top 5 BL

oh gosh this so hard. In no particular order then:

The Sign. It's everything to me. I love shows that have buckwild premises. A show about detectives who are reincarnated mythical creatures and the main guy has visions of the future for some reason? I know some people felt like they focused too much on the other aspects of the show (like the detective stuff) but I honestly loved it and did not mind that it did that.

Word of Honor. It's my comfort show tbh. I got really into wuxia/xianxia after watching The Untamed but this is the one I have enjoyed the most. I love characters who are kinda evil. and like neither Wen Kexing or Zhou Zishu really go through a redemption arc but more of a domestication and retirement arc respectively.

My School President. In my humble opinion, this is like the quintessential teen romance drama of all time. It hit every metric for me and I love it so much. One of those dramas I wished I had growing up because it would have completely changed the directory of my baby queer journey if I had it. (23.5 is shaping up to be the wlw equivalent for me in this tbh. I wish the show came out in its current form in like 2016)

Manner of Death. Another just overall solid show that hits every bit for me. Iconic for how it like changed the course of the genre. It's only flaw in not going full acab at the end with Inspector M not quitting the police after seeing how corrupt it is (and also it's kinda mid take on abortion, but I'm not familiar enough with the general opinion on that in Thai culture in 2020, so I think Bun taking an even neutral stance on it was probably a big step?), but I can forgive it for how vehemently Bun remained acab despite being just a regular doctor.

My Tooth Your Love. Bai Lang is just like me fr fr. I know some people weren't a fan of the dentist setting but honestly, I don't really mind that. Bai Lang's struggles with his trauma felt so real to me and like I could really connect to it. This was my first Taiwanese BL and it was a great one for me to start with. It's only problem was trying to pair all the spares without enough time to do so, but I don't think that it subtracted anything from the main story.

9. Currently Watching

So I've been quite busy lately and haven't had a lot of time to watch stuff, but I did recently start watching The Spirealm, which I have been enjoying, even though I had to take a bit of a break, I'm planning on getting back into watching it in the next week or two! Not a BL, but I'm also watching 23.5! I'm a little behind because of being busy, but I'm also going to catch up on that one. I have several other dramas that I've only seen part of and will hopefully pick back up again soon, but these are the two I feel like I'm most focused on finishing up (unless I suddenly get a desire to watch another one of the dramas and end up bingeing it but we'll see)

12. Most rewatched BL

answered that here!

[scotchfairy]

s1 rewatch ep3

Yokohama Gangster Paradise.

Tanizaki’s apology: he really sounds like he thinks Atsushi is going to kick his ass. Maybe it’s just that everyone at the Agency is insane…

As that’s going on, check out the background. Dazai is rocking side to side, cooing something in a singsong voice that I can’t decipher. But it irritates Kunikida into sticking a foot into Dazai’s side. What is he doing? Flirting with the waitress? (At least he has an ass in this shot)

And the studio wasted no effort in making it clear what the Tanizaki siblings’ issue is.

But just to be sure, there’s this scene…

Kunikida gets the siblings to chill out some. Just in time to look back and see Dazai flirting with the waitress. “Would you strangle me with these fragile, delicate hands?”

Dude, no wonder Dazai is loopy. How many times does he get hit in the head per day?

And then strangled? The expressions are gold.

Kunikida being reminded that he was a math teacher (at a cram school?) Another winner expression.

And Dazai doing the “innocent, harmless” look. LIAR. He even blushes.

Reward?!vDazai's expression, and Mamoru’s voice acting with it. So done with this.

700 thousand?! Apparently that was enough to get Atsushi into the butt-up position.

I had to remind myself that “boo” is the japanese equivalent of “bzzt” in english.

Silly and cute. "Actor?" "Wrong. But that's so flattering." He's blushing again. Atsushi already has had it with the Cute and Innocent act. [Dazai's kinda like the tshirt my friends made for me: Pure evil and Innocent of murder]

During interview with Higuchi

Holy crap, she used her real name. No wonder Dazai made her so fast. The funny look he has when they all gather up to meet her is him thinking.

Then he propositions her for lovers’ suicide and Kunikida beats his ass.

Turn up your headphones and listen to what the VAs are yelling. It’s hysterical. As Kunikida steps back out of the machine room, a thoroughly beaten Dazai grovels on the floor, groping towards Higuchi and whimpering, “Ee shinjuu ware…” [Good/nice double suicide with me]

Dazai facedown on his desk with the headphones on after Kunikida beat the snot out of him.

Kunikida gives advice: don’t run into this guy. Apparently Dazai’s not too damaged, because he pops up and joins the conversation. No one knows much about the mafiosos, except Dazai (and he's not saying anything)

It’s not an accident that they give us a good look at Dazai being pensive when they talk about how dangerous this guy’s skill is. What’s his name? It’s Aktugawa.

Segue to Aktugawa dropping in at a police neighborhood station. To wreck the place.

Dazai stretched out on the couch, headphones on, singing a pop song about “You need two for a lovers’ suicide.” I love how even when he’s working, he goes out of his way to piss everyone off by acting like he’s doing nothing. “Poster child for Sloth” Kunikida calls him in one of the light novels. He tells Kunikida that he's "waiting for a message on high."

Oh look, he almost has an ass in this shot!

Atsushi still not understanding what he can do if he works with the Tiger.

And Tanizaki showing that he spends most of his time in denial.

Gotta explain everything this early in a series. Higuchi has time to drop her bag, unbutton her collar, put her hair up, her sunglasses on, get out her phone and call Aktugawa before any of the Agency fools think to move. I dunno about you, but I’d be outta there the minute she started saying, “ Sorry, I led you into a trap.” Yeah. Sorry, but I’m not sticking around to see what you had planned. Bye!

[ran out of pic slots. Continued next post]

[yorshie]

Hey Yorshie!

So I was just thinking some random thoughts... big surprise huh?... lol -

BUT - remember you did that little poll a while back about what species the Bay Turtles are? And you cited Sacks referring to them as "itty bitty box turtles" - or if they (I think you were referring to the people who made the film) just couldn't keep their facts straight....

well....

What if this was in fact done intentionally? As a demonstration of just how little Sacks cares about the turtles. To say that he only ever saw them as a means to an end - not as living creatures (the way young April did). And that justifies how Sacks is so quick and willing to tell the lab staff (who look 3000% unwilling participants btw) to drain all of the turtles' blood - "even if it kills them"...

Just randomly thinking about this from a story telling aspect...

Any thoughts? 😜

Oh I have a bunch of thoughts about this! Sorry it took me so long to answer Avery, I was ruminating on it, rewatched the movie just to make sure.

Ok, so this is total conjecture on my part, but I'm going to make the claim that Saks wasn't actually a "scientist" and then site my sources.

So in the movie the first time we see Saks, he's smoozing it up at a Gala event. He talks a pretty big game and then ends the speech by saying he will always be there to put out the fires, whether through Saks Biomed, Robotics, or Construction. He strikes me as a business man, clearly the CEO of the companies, but I don't think he was an actual practicing scientist. Maybe he had a degree.

The next clue is actually from April. She says her dad worked "for" Saks not "with" him. Now, I know, that on its own is pretty weak, but I think it is bolstered by the fact that when we see Saks in the Lab, when April is videoing him, he is only shown administrating the “test”, kinda like when John Hammond comes in to only see the eggs hatch in Jurassic Park. When Splinter talks about April's Father, he mentions he was a good man, and we know that he trashed the place when he learned of Saks plan. Now, If they were working together in the same lab, it would probably be much harder to keep secrets from one another. I think Saks funded the Lab for April's Father, gave him grant money to research things without telling him why they were researching. Yes in his speech he makes it sound like he was an active participant in the lab, but I think he was just pulling a politician moment right then. Him being just the backer would also explain how he doesn't know what species April's father is working with because that info would be on EVERY document concerning the results and experiments.

And that leads me to the scene where Sak has the turtles in the tubes. He's not in lab gear, he is ordering other around to show what happens, gets them to drain the turtles blood, etc. Doesn't seem to care at all that if he drains them they would die which doesn't sound at all like a scientist protecting his work once it comes to fruition.... he even says something like “and we were going to use rabbits” which is wild because that’s a completely different set of parameters, conducting the same experiment on mammals and reptiles. (And splinter I know)

I think my final thought is to agree with you that Saks did not care enough to know. The turtles were a means to an end. He wasn’t even fascinated by what he created, it was only the product of the antidote that he cared about.

[terresdebrume]

I think even if Jamie hadn't been a little prick when he arrived at Richmond, Roy still would have hated him. You're right, it is excessive how much Roy rages against Jamie and not Isaac or Colin. & hes still trying to keep up that cover of hating him even now, even when Jamie is trying so hard and really cares for Roy, and I can't figure out why. I just want Roy to admit that he cares for Jamie now, like actually say it because he isn't acting like it & Jamie needs it spelled out for him bless

Gosh, you're describing my dream here, Nonners!

This is a thing I kinda planned on keeping for my Roy-centric rewatch but I think Roy was just really bad at dealing with the impending end of his career. He left Chelsea because he could tell he'd started his downward spiral, picked Richmond for what I suspect might have been geographical reasons (Richmond is a 2h walk away from Chelsea according to google maps) and landed himself right next to the next generation of football superstar.

Like. Roy was already going to be a broody ass at Richmond no matter what, because he only went there to cut his losses ("better to quit than be fired") and went from a high end club with highly competent teammates and coaching staff to bottom-table players and Mr Shows-His-Balls, and only because he convinced himself he had no other choice.

And Jamie...well, Jamie's future is Roy's past. So what I think most likely happened was:

Jamie sees his idol come play to his club, tries to socialize, most likely does it the Tartt Sr way (aka, with a joke that stings at best, or at worst comes off as outright dickish)

Roy, seeing this kid who could be the next him behave like an ass, assumes that Jamie is being an ass in the same way that Roy was (aka: because of bloated ego rather than shit example and influence)

Roy snaps, because 1) He'd snap at everybody (bc aforementioned reasons+a bit if a sense of superiority) and 2) well, Jamie's being a little shit

Jamie's feelings are hurt PLUS his Dad Sense is tingling (since in his mind he just got snapped at for trying to be chummy) so he doubles down on the prick-ness to gain a sense of control over someone who might be all bark or who might start tossing shoes at him someday

Roy sees his suspicions confirmed, dislikes Jamie even more, snaps more, rinse and repeat

As for why Roy's still pretending to dislike Jamie, I think there's a big part of like. Not knowing what else to do. Because having Jamie to boss around when he's angry is convenient!

It leaves Roy free to work on the symptomatic part of his anger without having to dive as deep as he maybe should into the Why of it

It lets him avoid the effort and discomfort of actually trying to change that habit and wondering if he'll even be able to

I also suspect that there's an element of uh. Security kind of thing? Like. Roy changed a lot for Keeley and he did his best to treat her right, and (in his mind) he couldn't do it and he lost her. But so far, he's been treating Jamie a bit like shit, but Jamie hasn't left, and there's something reassuring in that for someone who has a tendency to push people away even when he doesn't want to.

(...and this is the part where I make myself sad because I'm 99% sure that telling off Roy got from Rebecca in 3.9 was a set up for him to go and get Keeley back but oh boy can you imagine how beautiful it would be (and how little but significant of an adjustment it would take) if this led to Roy/Jamie? 😭)

[semi-sketchy]

I did it. I finished Sonic Underground. It sure does exist.

Honestly I don't have any strong feelings towards this one. I like the characters, the overarching storyline, but the actual contents of the episodes are kinda forgettable (tbh that's not hard for me in general). There's nothing I'd hate rewatching, but also nothing making me want to rewatch.

I think the most offensive thing about this show are the songs. Aside from the opening being an absolute banger, the music is just...not good. Although am I nuts or did they do a We're not gonna take it reference in Bartleby the Prisoner? I mean it fits the vibe...

Anyways, it sucks the series never reached a proper conclusion, I actually would've been interested in seeing that.

Out of the old Sonic cartoons, I think this one strikes the best balance. AoSTH is super goofy while SatAM is painfully edgy, but Underground manages to do some comedy while still taking itself seriously. I like that in media. Plus, while it made its own characters, the show does a good job balancing it out and not making me question why it's named Sonic. coughcoughSATAM

Still, it's something I'd probably rate a 6/10. I kind of was getting into it at the beginning, but after I got about half way through the series I started getting tired. Felt like progress on the overarching storyline had stalled and it was just stopping Eggman's plan over and over again. I see why I got annoyed at how many episodes there were as a kid. Still manages to be better kids show than modern day PAW Patrol, though.

Anyways, this means the next show on my list is... THE SONIC OVA. ok I know it's not actually a show, but I've never seen the Japanese version and now I've got my hands on a translation, I wanna watch and see if it's different. It'll be a nice cap on this era of Sonic cartoons. Then I'll move onto Sonic X.

[ardent-fox]

✨ Tag Game Master Post ✨

Hi, all! Catching up on these two games I was tagged in during the holidays 💖

First up, thank you to the lovely @lupeloto for creating and tagging me in this fun Tag Game! 🥰

📺 Favorite tv show? At the moment, Our Flag Means Death (shields self from tomatoes being thrown at her 😁)

🕴️ Favorite character? Oof, this is difficult. Gonna have to go with my precious baby boy, Stede

💋 Favorite relationship in the show? Blackbonnet (shocking, I know)

👯‍♂️ Fav sibling relationship in the show? No blood relations but the entire crew is chosen family, so… all of them?

🎨 Favorite art form? Music, with a heavy focus on lyrics/words

⚡️ A talent you wish you had? Being able to draw would be cool

☀️ What is one thing that can always make your day better? My toddler nephew saying the most hilarious things, he's barely 3 and already the funniest person I know

🎬 Favorite fictional character of all time? Atticus Finch (any works he appears in besides To Kill a Mockingbird do not count)

🌅 Dream place to travel to? Thailand or Ireland (either "land" would do, get it? 🧍‍♀️ ...I'll see myself out)

🎈 You’re planning a huge party, what’s the theme? The Masque of the Red Death, get fancy and spooky, bitches 🎭💀

🍕 Favorite pizza topping of all time? All kinds of cheese and extra mushrooms

🥂 You can pick ONE celebrity to have dinner with… Who? Andrew Garfield, {Marge Simpson voice} I just think he's neat

🎥 Favorite movie that you kinda know is bad but you still love? Rocky Horror Picture Show 👄

👖 How would you describe your style? The "I gained a substantial amount of weight in the past 5 years and haven't bought anything new since, so I now wear whatever I can fit into and lots of dresses and skirts cause pants are uncomfortable and shopping for them is a nightmare" style 😬

🖤 Finally, something making you smile this week? My mom's reaction to a present she really wanted, seeing her that touched was soul ascending ✨

----

Next, I got tagged by @deedala, @tanktopgallavich, @suzy-queued and @lupeloto to complete this round of Weekly Tag Wednesday, thank you my darlings! 💙

Name: Lyds

Location: Unknown location in Europe

Astrological Sign: Taurus squaaaad ♉

What's a TV show or movie you plan to re-watch this year? Hubby has never seen Giant, so I'll be rewatching it soon as well as some other classics like Some Like It Hot and Philadelphia Story, I'm sure I'll rewatch Frankie and Johnny for the umpteenth time as well. As far as shows go, I rewatch Our Flag Means Death at least once a month since it's my comfort show, and might do a Shameless rewatch since I've only seen the whole thing once (excluding all the Gallavich scenes)

What's a book or fic you will probably re-read this year? The entirety or The Menagerie by @crossmydna and Honeycomb by @metalheadmickey with artwork by @heymrspatel 💕

What is a song you will likely continue to play on repeat? I've been replaying One Of Your Girls by Troye Sivan for days and don't plan on stopping anytime soon, also still listening to Hozier's entire Unreal Unearth album whenever I'm chilling

What's a tasty treat you look forward to eating more of this year? Gonna steal Ri's answer here and say cinnamon buns, as well as my husband's homemade pizza rolls that I previously mentioned, as they're our favorite thing to eat while binge-watching

What's a time sink that you will continue to sink time into this year? Scrolling this beloved hellsite

Did you pick up any habits in 2023 that you plan to continue? Only unhealthy ones that I plan on ridding myself of in 2024 👋

What's your toxic trait? Inflexibility and freaking out when things don't turn out the way I've planned

What is a coping mechanism you will continue to indulge in this year? Staying in my burrow with my hyperfixations

Tell me something you like about how you look! My full, rosy lips against my smooth, pale skin

Give me at least three adjectives describing things you like about yourself. Honest, open-minded, creative 🌸

I'm out of the loop (which is about to change since I celebrated the last of the festivities today) and haven't been keeping up with the tags lately, but am still going to tag some peeps if you want to do either or both of these: @heymrspatel, @stocious, @too-schoolforcool, @xninetiestrendx, @krysmiss, @sleepyfacetoughguy, @michellemisfit, @whatwouldmickeydo, @vintagelacerosette, @metalheadmickey, @rereadanon, @francesrose3, @darlingian and anyone who sees this and wants to play! ✨

[butterflydm]

WoT Fic Writing Update!

Current status of Voice*: I have an Interlude that I will be posting next week. The next main fic in the series is going to have 16 chapters and will have major book plot spoilers through A Crown of Swords. I am not entirely certain when I'm going to start posting it, but I think early December. I have a bit of writing done on most of the chapters, but I'm probably going to skim the books to refresh my memory on some things, plus doing a reread of Voice to keep my changes in mind.

(*since I do have some new followers: voice in the back of my head started as my 'put Mat in the polycule' fix-it story that bridges out of wot 1x6 but is essentially an AU for the entire book series now; there are currently 8 main fics in the series and several 'interludes' that focus in on a particular moment)

I also have two multi-chapter fics I've been working on recently.

1. show-verse Cauthor fic that is going to use my recent Rand/'Selene' mini-series as backstory. Looks like it will end up being 5 chapters, 2 of which are fully written and the remaining 3 are partially written. It will contain spoilers for most of s2 of the show.

2. the "Rand takes Ebou Dar" story (Cauthor & Matavirandlayne), fic idea suggested by @essie007 -- this is going to have 9 chapters, 4 of which are fully written, and another 2 are partially written.

I also have a post s2 one-shot that is basically just exploring the potential new group dynamics through the lens of Elayne. Not sure how long it'll be.

On the meta front, I'm planning on doing some metas on each character's journey this season and how that journey ties into the various themes that we've focused on:

We had a couple of main themes that touched pretty much everyone and then several subthemes that impacted a handful of characters each. I'm kinda planning to rewatch each 'storyline' on its own to examine how each theme is impacted so that would be:

Moiraine & Lan

Egwene & Nynaeve

Rand

Mat

Perrin

Ishamael & Lanfear

The themes I'm looking into exploring are:

control (both over yourself and the control others exert over you)

imprisonment & manipulation

isolation=vulnerability; togetherness=strength

betrayal

Every single one of the main plotlines featured elements from those themes, though some were more intense than others.

Some of the subthemes are:

fulfillment of prophecy (and how others try to manufacture it)

what being seen as "special" can mean and the effects it has

the monster within

I make no promises about how much of this I will get done. But I have rewatched the finale twice now and am itching to rewatch the season, lol.