#and with that we have finally reversed every single thing we did in s2 great job everybody

[vvitchering]

I don’t actually have it in me to review today’s episode so I will simply post an image that conveys my feelings the best

[mmikmmik2]

If you were to sort the Infinity Train cast(s) into the Major Arcana a la the Persona games, which Arcana would you give everyone?

anon I had SOOOOO much fun thinking about this, thank you so much for sending me this. I sorted all the major characters, plus a few other entries, based on a mix of Arcana symbolism, Persona series character archetypes, and general vibes. I came up with answers I feel pretty good about for all but four of the Arcana. (Was really tempted to say Strength is every human character who doesn't board the train because they can handle their problems on their own lol.) This is going to be a long-winded post, so I thought I’d post just the list as an image (which hopefully won’t be too blurry!) rather than wrestle with Tumblr formatting trying to make a short list, and put a big text wall under the readmore talking more about my picks.

If this list does end up illegible, the same info is under the readmore as text! Plus some characters for Magician, Strength, Justice, and Death that I didn’t want to add to the “official” list because they’re more based on headcanon. (Although my reasoning for some of the “official” picks is pretty weak lol.)

One-One as 0. The Fool

Oh my gosh, what am I?

IT is great at fleshing out character backstories and families, so One-One at the beginning of S1 is one of the few characters who really feels like a blank slate. He's got a lot of his baggage back by the end of the season, and I think One and One-One are more similar than they seem at first glance, but S1 does seem to have been very formative for One-One and how he thinks about what he's supposed to be doing and how he relates to other people. So it does kind of feel like his fool's journey.

Alrick Timmens as I. The Magician

The magician begins the journey... by beefing it on a dirt bike, dying, and sending his wife flying off the deep end. Rip.

Alrick was an engineer like Amelia, so I could see him suiting some of the themes of the Magician, like conscious thought and manifesting ideas. His apparent playfulness and insecurity are similar to the Magician characters in Persona.

Kez as II. The High Priestess

“We can’t make this decision for you, Kez.” “You know what to do.”

I thought really hard about making Kez the Magician because just like every Magician since Persona 3, she's dumb, horny, and insecure dlkjasfdkl

(and also her showing up at the start of the story arc and being helpful but also super needy is very Magician)

But the idea of "intuition" really does suit Kez. Sometimes her intuition is as bad as her conscious reasoning, but I think that's a lot because she's so confused about what happened with Jeremy, and Morgan making Kez feel like she did a bad thing by helping him.

Tuba as III. The Empress

She made me feel like I was warm all the time.

Tuba's a mom. Sorry, this one's not that deep, haha.

Simon Laurent as IV. The Emperor

Highest number! I'm the leader now.

Simon has a lot of issues, but the one that felt the most prominent to me was his unhealthy relationship with power, authority, dominance, and rules. Another quote I considered using here was what he said in Grace's memory of meeting Amelia: "I never thought I'd get to see the Conductor with my own eyes. He's perfect! Everything finally makes sense again." In his emotional crisis, he thought everything could be fixed just by the existence of a huge, scary, powerful, male authority figure, even if they weren't doing anything helpful or informative.

Atticus as V. The Hierophant

I like to think that our stones are sturdy and handsome, like the Corgis that crafted them.

Atticus is a figure of traditional authority who deeply loves the history, society, and culture of his people. He often provides spiritual wisdom and encourages Tulip to get out of her own head and engage with the world around her. Also in Persona, Hiero is the Dad Arcana so it's very funny to me (a) to make the little dog be Hiero and (b) that the little dog really does have the strongest Wholesome Dad Energy of the whole cast.

Jesse Cosay as VI. The Lovers

Don't tell me what to do. I'm not going to be a part of anything like this, on or off the train.

This was my first and easiest pick lol, Jesse is sooooo Lovers. Like, the focus on choice and personal values and relationships? Yep, that's Jesse. It works on an "actual meaning of the Arcana" level and a "vibes with the Persona characters" level lol... popular, upbeat, and having such an identity crisis.

Lake as VII. The Chariot

I'm my own person, who is getting off this train!

I don't know if Chariot captures all the ways Lake grew over the course of S2, but I feel like they had the most externally focused conflict of all the IT characters, which suits Chariot. They've been fighting to stake out their personhood from start to finish, and they took action and used their willpower to achieve that goal. Also they have at least a little jock energy which is a prereq for Chariot tbh.

Frank as VIII. Strength

I dunno, I kinda imagine him as a simple man and easily underestimated, but with a lot of heart. The Cat may say they're keeping things casual but I don't think she'd take him with her on her private vacation unless he had some kind of inner toughness that would let him stand toe-to-toe with her.

Morgan as IX. The Hermit

I need to be alone right now. Kez... maybe... we can talk later.

I like that Morgan embodies toxic self-isolation and stonewalling and rejection, but that she seems to be moving towards the positive aspects of Hermit and taking some time to calm down and process and think. I like it when characters can embody the best and worst of their Arcana.

Tulip Olsen as X. The Wheel of Fortune

We have to adapt to the changes in our lives. It's the only way things can get better.

Tulip has a lot of themes and conflicts, but this one is a clear standout as the most important. I also like it for Tulip because, while she has to handle a lot of difficult and even traumatic situations, some of the change that challenges her isn't as unambiguously bad as e.g. the death of a loved one. It really is just change itself she's struggling with, and that's Fortune babey. Also, from the perspective of the train itself and lots of other characters, by reversing Amelia and One-One's positions again and changing how One-One administrates the train, Tulip is the one giving the wheel a spin. That's fun.

Lucy as XI. Justice

One of my friends once described the Justice characters in Persona as "the ones the player character is ultimately accountable towards", and I like to think of Lucy as kind of being that for Grace (...since Hazel has excused herself). Lucy is the Apex kid we see Grace interact with the most, the first Apex kid Grace admitted to herself that she had harmed (see Grace very briefly showing distress and then regret when Jesse points the harpoons at his face and she stops him), and the first person to confront Grace when she came home in The New Apex.

Min-Gi Park as XII. The Hanged Man

I don't know if we'll sell a single album, but we'll figure that out as we go.

Min-Gi sacrifices his "realistic", "sensible" goals for a more personally (spiritually, even?) enriching life that's beyond his control and outside of the expected norm. Like the Hanged Man, who dangles foolishly upside-down, but as a deliberate choice and in a state of serenity and enlightenment. I also think this arcana suits a reading of Min-Gi's character development as starting off going slower as a way to stall and live in denial, but then going slower with deliberation. Compare his arrogant insistence on refusing to act in The Astro Queue Car to his patience and care in The Castle Car and The Train to Nowhere.

Jeremy as XIII. Death

This isn't about the death of his family - I'm thinking of his reluctance to admit his number was going down. He cared about Morgan and Kez, and it's possible both that he may have really wanted to stay with them despite his exit and that that might even have been a healthy choice - they're real ass people with feelings and everything, not holodeck characters. But I also think Jeremy was using his life with them to avoid moving on out of that fog (because it was hard and it hurt and he didn't want to think about what that would mean for him and Morgan) and Morgan was enabling him.

Ryan Akagi as XIV. Temperance

Maybe the experience is the point. I wasn't just rushing you. I was rushing myself.

I think this one speaks for itself. Also, the other quote I considered putting here, from The Art Gallery Car: "You told me I can't appreciate the song without taking in the rest of the album. I need the whole package."

The Cat as XV. The Devil

I always do the right thing.

Honestly, this is one I really wasn't sure about. The Cat isn't a great pick for a lot of the meanings of Devil. She is definitely consumed by material comforts, and the short-term rewards of ignoring her issues at a long-term cost, though. This is more of a "vibes with Persona characters with this arcana" pick... Devil characters tend to start off being somewhat exploitative or even antagonistic towards the player character, and gradually showing a more conflicted and genuine side.

Amelia Hughes as XVI. The Tower

There's a hole in the universe where Alrick used to be.

Amelia's life is defined by catastrophe and upheaval - both those she's suffered and those she's inflicted on others.

Hazel as XVII. The Star

I'm going to keep loving you like you're still here.

When I think of "The Star" as a small but inextinguishable light in the darkness, Hazel seems like the obvious choice. Although we left her deeply wounded, I think she still has a flicker of her hope, faith, and purpose.

Grace Monroe as XVIII. The Moon

But it's unfair for me to tell you how to understand yourself. I mean, I don't even fully understand me.

Grace is probably the most complex and dynamic character on the show and hence one of the most difficult to place. I considered Empress, Strength, Devil, and Judgement for her... I think ultimately, lies and illusions are the most unifying theme of her character arc. Also, from a Persona angle, her pursuit of status out of a lack of true self-worth reminds me of Ai and Mishima.

Alan Dracula as XIX. The Sun

Brought together by the majesty of a superpowered deer!

I'm sorry dkjasfklads this is largely because I thought it was funny to have this completely inexpressive dead-eyed deer as Sun akfk but also... like... it kind of works okay!!! Think about the genuine joy and comfort and positivity he brings to Lake and Jesse (and me)!

The New Apex as XX. Judgement

"Then what are we gonna be?" "Guess we'll have to figure it out?"

This is kind of a Persona mythology gag again because of Judgement being a group social link near the end of the narratives of P3 and P4, when the protagonists have pierced through the lies and actually figured out who the villain of their game is and are ready to really start making progress.

0 as XI. The World

Ah, train does it again!

It's an ending and the completion of a journey, but also the beginning of a new one. And the world is literally what the passengers receive at the end of their train journey. Welcome home.

[suckishima]

suckishima’s hq!! 30 day gif challenge masterpost

I’m doing the 30 Day Haikyu!! Gif/GFX challenge! But I’m slightly modifying the rules so it’s more fun for myself.

Link to the prompts here!

I’m skipping a few prompts because I felt like it lol. So I’m doing 22 of the 30 *shrugs*

I’m not allowed to repeat any characters, because if I did, well, basically the whole challenge would just be Tsukki gifsets and as much as I love him, that wouldn’t be much fun for me or for anyone else lol. This also works out for me because I’m generally bad at choosing definitive favorites, and now most everyone gets a turn.

I’m only choosing moments from the anime and therefore doing gifs only, because it would have just taken me too long to add colorings into the mix. Maybe one day I’ll do the challenge again but with only gfx/manga edits. That does sound fun lol, especially since a lot of my favorite moments haven’t actually been animated yet.

If I’ve done my math/timing right (and I stay on schedule) there should be one set every day from today until the second cour of Season 4 airs on October 2! So it’s kinda like a countdown event? idk lol

See which ones I’ve done so far here!

I’ve listed why I chose what I chose for each day under the cut if you wanna see me ramble on some more!

(I’ll update each prompt with a link to its post when it’s uploaded)

Favorite character: Yamaguchi Tadashi. Tsukki is probably more of my actual favorite, but he fits better for the character development category for me. So, I went with my second favorite, Yamaguchi! I love him so much, he’s such a sweetheart and I really like how we get to see him slowly grow more into his own. His big moments are some of my favorites of the entire series and I just really relate to his drive to just get to play with the rest of the first years.

Character first fell in love with: Hinata Shoyo. This one was easy peasy lol. Hinata is the light and love of my life and I’d honestly be surprised if anyone picked anyone other than Hinata for this prompt. He’s just so *clenches fist* good. Hard working, fun, determined, a little dumb, and so so caring and compassionate. And I’m so proud of him too tbh. I don’t care how cliche and overrated it is to say this, he is a ray of sunshine and I love him.

Character gradually warmed up to: Tendou Satori. Again, this could easily be Tsukki lmao since I didn’t like him at allll at first until he slowly began to grow on me in s2. Anyway, Tendou also grew on me. I tend not to like characters that feel chaotic just for the sake of it, and that’s how I felt about him at first. But as the Shiratorizawa match goes on, and especially in the Ball Boy arc as we see him interact with his teammates more I realized he just wants to have a good time and shame on me for wanting to be down on that. He’s funny, fun, doesn’t give a fuck what people think, and is a supportive friend. Nothing not to like tbh.

Favorite karasuno ship: Tsukkiyama. I mean, it’s my two favorite characters together lmao, it was bound to happen. Especially since a lot of the reasons they’re my favorites is because of their interactions together. I feel like each significant interaction between them isn’t just development for them together, but for them individually and I love that. There’s like this silent building each other up. They’re both there for each other without having to say anything, but then when they do voice it, it makes it that much more powerful. I just love how strong their friendship feels by the end of nationals arc, it feels so earned and genuine. I love that Tsukki is proud of how far Yamaguchi has grown, and that Yamaguchi is proud of not just Tsukki with volleyball, but Tsukki’s relationship with Akiteru. They’re both just so proud. I’m cool with all ships being just platonic too, but if we’re talking non-canonically, them being together just makes me happy. I’m a big ol’ sucker for friends to lovers.

Favorite episode/chapter: Illusionary Hero. Sensing a pattern yet? ha ha haaaa. The relationship between the Tsukishima brothers is one of my favorite in the series (i still cry over the peace signs), and this episode is where I really began to not only fall in love with Tsukki but the writing of the show. I too had been wondering “what IS the point of them working so hard,” and I loooooved how Furudate addresses that question through Tsukki’s backstory. Great stuff. (favorite manga chapter is 298 when yams and tsukki do their successful serve and block for the first time, if you were interested lol).

Favorite team: Karasuno. This was another easy choice. I love every single team in the series, truly. But I can’t just abandon my boys lmao. Karasuno is the heart and soul of the show, and they are also now my heart and soul.

Favorite position: Setter. “The setter is the information tower of the team” is the “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” of volleyball. Okay, not really, that quote was just repeating in my head while I made this set. I don’t have any cool meaningful reasons for this one. Setters are just cool.

Favorite wing spiker: Ushijima Wakatoshi. Ohhhh how I love Ushijima. At first you think he’s just big huge muscle baddie (and, like, he kinda is) BUT he’s also some of my absolute favorite comic relief in the whole series. He is so frickn earnest and blunt and doesn’t give a Fuck what people think and I love him.

Favorite middle blocker: Kuroo Tetsuro. This was a hard choice lol, because my top three favorite characters (tsukki, yamaguchi, and hinata) are all MBs, so I was like uhh which one do I choose? Aone was a close second to Kuroo too.

Favorite libero: Nishinoya Yuu. He’s just so dang cool.

Favorite setter: Kageyama Tobio. My boyyyyyy. God I love Kageyama. I’m not sure I can put into words how much he means to me. His character arc of shedding the King mantle only to pick it back up again with a new context is one of my favorite character developments of all time. His arc is all about learning to communicate and not only relying on others but learning to be relied on and I just ah - and the stuff about self care??? i love him.

Favorite captain: Sawamura Daichi. He just, is The Captain ya know. He’s got the vibe down pat. We love a good solid foundation for our team. He’s integral and Karasuno would have never made it as far as they do without him.

Favorite manager: Yachi Hitoka. I love Shimizu too, I do, but Yachi’s very unique brand of crazy is just too much fun lol. The first season feels so empty without her, and she brings so much joy to the team and to the show.

Favorite match: Shiratorizawa. Of the whole series, my favorites in order are actually, Nekoma, Inarizaki, Kamomedai and then Shiratorizawa, then Aoba Johsai 2. But since most of those aren’t animated yet, we get to focus on Shiratorizawa. Which I do still love, the hype is SO real the entire match, I still get chills at the end and during Tsukki’s Block.

Favorite non-match scene: BAR-BE-QUE!! Lmao tbh it was a close one between the fun of the bbq and heartwrench of the meal after the lose to Aoba Johsai in s1. Furudate said let them eat.

Favorite arc: Tokyo Training Camp. I love to see them improving and practicing and growing and ah it just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Favorite underrated character: Tanaka Ryuunosuke. I LOVE HIM. HE IS SO FULL OF LOVE. And he’s so slept on I feel like. He is one of the most supportive characters in the show. He is always positive and is a great morale booster and is just an overall Good Boy. Yeah yeah he’s a bit intense with his crush, but he’s always respectful and I’ll fight anyone who thinks he’d do anything that makes Shimizu uncomfortable.

Favorite character development: Tsukishima Kei. Ah, we’re finally here lol. The top two reasons Tsukki is my favorite character is 1 because I relate to him sooo so much and I’ve never seen a character written in a way that feels so much like just how I personally think about and see things. 2, because of just how amazingly earned and cathartic his development is. I could ramble about this forever so I won’t. But when I found out he was still playing volleyball after the time-skip, I actually cried. Like, after everything, he’s still playing? He WANTS to play?? godddd.

Favorite non-player: Tsukishima Akiteru. Ah, I gotta say I relate to his struggle. Plus I love how expressive he is lmao, crying over like every little thing.

Favorite friendship(s): The Tsukishima Brothers. They are so important to me okay. The admiration, the falling out, the chasm for years that affects how they both interact and even see the world, the slowly piecing things back together, and then the reversal of the peace signs in the Kamomedai match, wow. (kageyama/hinata is a VERY close second, i’m bad at favorites)

Favorite pairing(s): Kageyama/Hinata, Bokuto/Akaashi, Shimizu/Yachi, Ushijima/Tendou. There’s so so many more tbh, but I had to narrow it down.

Favorite rare pair: skipped

1st, 2nd, or 3rd years: First Years. They’re my babies. I love them all and they way they all interact and I need them to be friends forever thanks.

Girls: skipped

Most relatable: skipped

Most like to be friends with: skipped

Most heartbreaking moment: skipped

Most heartwarming moment: skipped

Stage play day: skipped

Your choice: skipped

[zeravmeta]

Ok so, my thoughts on the VR ending and VR overall as the 6th entry.

Also because most of my thoughts aren't...complimentary im editing the names so they dont appear in the general tag. This also got LONG so readmore.

The Good:

- A//i's character still managed to be the one thing that saves VR as a show for me. Even with all the weird...contradictory plot issues, A//i still manages to be a compelling character who brings up the question of the right to live. I actually do like how he made it so itd be an ultimatum that he loses in either way, even if the ending kinda ruins the weight behind the action (which I will get to in a bit).

The meh:

-the ending was left somewhat open to interpretation which for a show as...empty as this was works out but honestly it was so vague as to A//is fate is that it may as well not exist.

The Bad:

-The main conflict behind the entire show is...simulations. No joke. Every conflict in the show can be traced back to someone doing a simulation and deciding to lose it. Even if they gave the (rather stupid) explanation that AI experience simulations like actual life (which btw the first villain wasnt an AI so this reason doesnt work), the fact that Yu//sa//ku took a bullet for one of A//is robot bodies that he literally has millions of is...just stupid and there solely for the "uwu drama".

-They actually killed A//i off but wait hes actually alive, so like the final duel literally had no purpose aside from...drama??? The episode is called Compromise and yet A//i had to lose just to keep Yu//sa///kus win streak and theres no compromise whatsoever. Yu//sa//ku litetally destroys the CompromA.I.se card so its just, no comrpomise in any way.

-This....wasn't a happy ending??? I have no idea why both the show and the fanbase frame this as a happy ending bc think about it in context: A//i pretty much loses everything, so does Yu//sa//ku who just isolated himself from everyone else for 3 months in order to comb the network for whatever remnants of A//i exist.

- So many of the supporting characters are just...there. Like, there is no side/supporting character who actually has a character arc in this show. Lets go through the list: Ao//i is pretty much the same character as when she started and goes through 2 unnecessary costume changes for a character growth that isnt there because she has literally ONE victory against an opponent that was stated multiple times to be weak and faulty and have her lose and tortured multiple times for no reason whatsoever, G//o had this weird deterioration that may have lead to something but ultimately didn't, Ak//ira is pretty much the same, J//in has ALL HIS TRAUMA ERASED SO THERES THAT, literally the only side characters who have some sembalnce of an arc are Sho//ichi (the best one anyways) from his "betrayal" in S2, and E//ma with her reconciliation with her brother. Outside of that, nothing. Yu//sa//ku, Re//volv//er and Ho//mu//ra are pretty much the only characters with an arc and even then they're not too solid? Which brings me to-

- Yu//sa//ku has been so wildly ooc since the end of S1. Ive seen so many say that his enphasis on bonds and friendship are character growth but actually looking at the sequence of events he suddenly just like. changes completely around his first duel with Ea//rth. Plus, the message of "revenge is good" was always so weird? Like, he got his revenge so all his trauma is ok now and never brought up or explored again aside from within the first 20 episodes. Theres nothing about it after that and its never built upon. The whole point of a revenge arc is to show that its BAD and yet he starts preaching that revenge is wrong AFTER he successfully gets revenge??? And even then its not exactly a revenge as it is more lashing out since it was Ko//ga//mi who was behind it all. Yu//sa/ku was definitely at his strongest characterization in S1 where we see how badly the Lo//st Incid//ent hurt him but S1 had its own share of problems that led into S2 and so many random plot threads that never went anywhere (such as the Anot//her Incid//ents, the Cy//berse deck being irl despite that A//i didnt have a physical body before then, The Bl//ue Mai//den meetup that was repeated by Nao//ki like 10 times in S2 which seemed to be leading up to something but never did, and the fact that theres 4 recap episodes in S1 already spelled some early problems). So much of the supporting cast function to just say "he turned this whole situation around...with ONE card..." i kid you not watch back every Yu//sa//ku duel I GUARANTEE you'll see someone saying hes a great duelist and serve only that purpose. ALSO THE END OF THE SHOW IS JUST MORE DRAMA?? They make him suffer for no reason other than that they can??? What purpose does his suffering at the end serve aside from just "uwu...poor baby..."???

-Re//volv//er is not a good rival. At all. He's so incredibly bland because much like Yu//sa//ku he was at his strongest characterization in S1 where he actually had some solid motivation in continuing his fathers work and being unable to accept that his dad was evil, yet most of that just flies out the window with all the collateral he's willing to inflict with the K//O//H?? All his character amounts too post S1 is "yeah i told you robots are evil and YOU didnt believe me". The most we got of him growing out of this mindset was calling A//i by his name exactly one time and nothing ever again. Also the fact that in the end we see him and his crew working for S//O//L despite the fact that they were gonna turn themselves in for their crimes just. leaves a rotten taste in my mouth. hes not a good rival at all. All he proves to me is that a good design can get anyone to like a character.

- Ho//mu//ra is...there. I literally cant say anything about him because he absolutely has the strongest motivations of the three but then the show jumps through hoops to push him to the back of the other two. He also has a bunch of early victories I do feel are undeserved (ESPECIALLY the A//oi duel that one pissed me off so much). Also the fact that the show just made him Yu//sa//kus friend immediately whereas it took Sho//ichi several months to get Yu//sa//ku to warm up to him just had me :/.

-The speed duels were a cool concept but they just became these huge cheat fests? Seriously Play//Maker uses StAccess literally every speed duel to pull out a new monster from whatever plot holes the writers need to patch up. I am not kidding. You can go back to every single speed duel Yu//sa//ku was in and youll see this. Skills just werent a good mechanic because when a protag pulls a new card its supposed to be representative of some growth/characterization but he stays the same pretty much throughout the entire show up until S2 where he wildly just switches personality. Plus the fact that Que//en could literally use a skill whenever just shows that it was cheating???

- The villains were overall lackluster. Boh//man was the best because Re//volv//er is just flat whereas A//i struck me more as an anti hero. And again: simulations are the enemy. Light//ning ran one and decided to go ham. Kog//ami ran one and decided to go ham. A//i ran one and decided to go ham. The conflicts are all the same and it just makes things happen rather than following a consistent plot thread? I will say that Boh//mans characterization of a hive mind to become perfect does strike my tastes but thats more my personal preference in villains rather than any merit he has.

- This is a bit of a personal pet peeve but I've seen some of the praise to this show about being the "darkest Y//G//O to date so therefore its good" and im just...no? Edge does not make a good show and just because they lightly focused on the tragedy in Yu//sa//kus life (and it IS lightly because its barely touched upon after mid S1) most of the stuff that happens in this show is pretty tame in comparison? The most that happened here was an attempted global hack of everyones minds from S2 and destroying the internet in S1, with a few references to the torture that happened during the Lo//st incid//ent. To compare: the previous series had this huge interdimensional war that, even if they could reverse the carding of people (which makes Den//nis' attempted suicide even more tragic), ended with an entire dimensions full of brainwashed soldier children, a dimension with huge class inequality that was still being heavily worked upon since there were canonically slaves, and a dimension that was savaged by a genocide and total global destruction. Hell, the series before that had a huge war where the arc actually did focus on the tragedys the characters faced and held consequence (even if they pulled a dbz revive everyone at the end). And as far back into the very first series there were even more graphic depictions of war and death? Idk i feel like people are overplaying the edge here just to find a way to complement this show.

Overall:

I'm...genuinely dissappointed. VR really had so many strong starting points but it all just fell apart at execution. Really the only reason I even bothered to watch it as kong as I did was because Im a longtime fan of the series and wanted to give it a chance rather than jump on whatever love/hate train the show has. Its been rated poorly on the JP side and most of the approval is a vocal minority. Just to be clear: this isnt me bashing the show, my opinions are mine and you can agree or disagree to any capacity, and even if a show isnt well written you can still find a reason to enjoy it despite the flaws.

But if Im being perfectly honest? I do not like this show. It's rushed, choppy, has no consistent or clear plot threads, most of the genuinely interesting characters are wasted for the protagonist to look better and he never really does because he ALSO has an interesting idea behind him but it never goes anywhere. It started strong but ended so poorly. Id be angry but im more dissappointed because Ive watched this show from day 1 and wanted to see the good things it has rather than focus on the negatibes but. yeah. This show really had potential and yet it just fell flat.

[puppetmaster55]

Thoughts on S6

So. Season 6. I want to say that this won’t have my own biases, that I won’t go off on salty tangents or let my emotions get the better of me. I really want to say that this is my unbiased thoughts on the season (and on how it connects with s5, and how it acts as the conclusion of the narrative arc begun in s3).

But I can’t.

Anyone who’s followed me for the last… nine months, I think, knows how I feel about clone theory. I’m sure I’ve been vocal enough, especially in the months between s5 and s6.

And I still don’t like it.

And I really don’t like how it was handled.

See, any clone storyline has to feature an in-universe reason for there being a clone of a specific person. You can look at Young Justice as a major example of how to handle a clone storyline (Superboy is, naturally, a clone of Superman and it’s explained why he was cloned—for the day that Superman starts to move away from “the big, blue boy scout”—alongside the other clones all having a reason why they were created). There has to be an in-universe explanation for why the clone exists.

Which is what upsets me the most about s6, and Operation Kuron, is that… there isn’t one. There is never once given an in-universe explanation of why Shiro was cloned, or what purpose the clone was made for.

Well, that last part isn’t true. The purpose a clone was made, from a meta perspective, was purely to act as a new host body for Shiro’s disembodied spirit. That’s it. That is entirely why Kuron existed.

Which, since that’s the only reason Kuron existed, means… Naxzela wasn’t Haggar using Kuron to lure everyone into a death trap as means of revenge from the s2 finale, or to infiltrate Volton and deliver it to the empire, or to infiltrate the rebels and act as a spy. Kuron amounted to a total net loss for Haggar, and for the Galra Empire.

Kuron ultimately amounted to giving Voltron back their Black Paladin for the better part of a year, completely losing an entire one-third of the empire because of it and resulting in Zarkon’s death and the dissolution of the Galra Empire.

Kuron did more for Voltron than he ever did for the Galra Empire.

Not even to mention the absurdity that this is what Haggar was referring to back in s1, saying Shiro “could have been the empire’s greatest weapon.” What? Him? Him, the original, specifically? When you’ve already got like a hundred copies of him in cold storage?

No. Just… no.

And perhaps the worst part of it all is… now we’ll never know. We killed all the clones, every single one, destroyed the lab where they were created so all the data there is gone, and Honerva looks to be done with that and moved on to better things. The clone, in the meta narrative, did exactly what it was created to do: be a new host body for Shiro.

Wait. No. I just realized the actual worst part of it all.

Kuron ended up a braindead body for Shiro to inhabit, basically. That’s the worst part of it all. Because not only have we gotten rid of an interesting dynamic in having Shiro interact with a clone of himself, but that all that development Kuron had with the team in s4 and especially in how he opened up and trusted Lance in s5?

All of that is now gone. It’s dust in the wind as we return to Shiro and Lance’s relationship circa s2 (AKA, workplace colleagues who have never shared a tender moment opening up to one another or built up trust to share their worries about themselves)

As much as I would love to believe that Shiro inherited Kuron’s memories, I’m not holding out hope that Shiro will ever remember his bonding moment with Lance. The creators themselves called Kuron a “Shiro husk” in an interview, which doesn’t lend itself to meaning Shiro has or will have any of those memories that Kuron built up over the last 4 seasons.

MOVING BEYOND THAT.

I liked this season. It was nicely plotted, very tense over multiple episodes, and despite my having no emotional attachment to Keith, his battle with Shiro-Husk in the clone lab was wonderfully animated and really drew me in. Lotor too was great this season, being pushed and pulled so hard that he finally snapped. Romelle is really lovely, and I am surprised that she no longer looks so much like Allura or is related. Krolia too, was incredible, her love story with Texas Dad (which, I’m really sad that we never got a name for him and now I am forced to forever refer to him as Texas Dad) really tugging at my heart.

Did I hate this season? No, not at all.

Did I love this season? Hardly.

I liked it. It’s ranked either third or fourth on my list of “most to least favorite seasons” after s5 and s1. It’s a very “upper middle” ranked season for me.

But I did not love it. Mostly because of how it handled Operation Kuron, and also because of how it handled Lance.

…..I did say that I wished I could keep my biases out of this.

Lance… felt like a regression. Like we had him be so built up as a person, that s6ep1 then had it all get reversed. How, you ask?

Well, Lance had a near-death experience and Allura brought him back to life. Along with his life, Allura seemed to have resurrected Lance’s old romantic feelings for her, which is what I hope happened, otherwise it horribly colors a good deal of Lance’s distrust of Lotor in s5 and relies on tropes I don’t think any of us want to see (just visibly moon over the girl for long enough and she’ll eventually grow those same feelings for you! What a surefire romance this is!)

Not that I have anything against any ship, but that Allura might run into Lance’s arms because of her failed love story with Lotor just… rubs me the wrong way.

Outside of that, I’m not surprised with the lotura becoming (for like twenty minutes in-universe) canon. They shared a number of moments growing closer and closer and both showed some romantic interest in the other.

But back to Lance. Season 5 built him up as the only one who took notice of something going on with Shiro, and even had a number of scenes focused on Lance, and had all the narrative build-up that Lance was going to play a major part (he even came across worried about Shiro in s6ep1, asking over the comms about Shiro’s well-being).

But then, as I said above, Lance had his feelings for Allura rekindled and that took over his entire purpose in s6.

I knew, ever since we were shown the promo poster at the end of s5, that Keith “as many times as it takes” Kogane returning to Voltron meant that Lance would get the short end of the stick re: Operation Kuron. I just didn’t know that it meant that Lance wouldn’t even get the stick at all. I should have, though. Lance always gets shown up by Keith dropping in five steps ahead of him, after all.

I could craft a meta on how Lance’s reaction to seeing Kuron’s braindead body means that he’ll take it as reason for him to step down for good when they reach Earth but… nah. Not now.

I think I’ll just conclude this section by expressing what little shred of hope I still have that Lance finally has time in the spotlight in the coming seasons.

And now… Keith. I feel no emotional attachment to Keith, and this has been something slow going ever since s2 happened. His character archetype doesn’t appeal to me, and I felt whatever lingering interest in him die off when he failed to in the s4 finale. Because that was the perfect set-up for someone to die, someone like a major character, but… he didn’t. So when his life seemed in danger in s5 I didn’t believe it, and when he nearly got hit by spaghettification in s5ep2, I didn’t believe it. Keith, out of every character, is the one who will never be put in real life-threatening danger. Even when he is (s4 finale), Keith still makes it out unscathed.

So… about the only emotional connection I had when watching the Keith vs Kuron fight, was with Kuron. And even then it was tenuous because of how the clone thing was handled.

I dunno what to say about the whole 2-year age-up thing, beyond… that sure was a quick way to mature Keith away from his impulsive nature.

I am not emotionally attached to Keith, or interested in him enough to weigh in on that.

….I do like space wolf though.

I didn’t like that Keith is set up now as The Black Paladin, unlocking Black’s wings in a mirror of both the s2 finale where Shiro did it, and the s4 starter where Kuron awakens Black. That whole sequence very obviously was Shiro letting go of his place as a paladin and Keith stepping up to the plate in full, after the symbolic return by summoning the Black Bayard. I’m not going to get into how I feel about Shiro stepping down as the Black Paladin, because it’s been better said by others (notably, zilla I think said it all best), but I am saddened that he’s no longer the Black Paladin and that Keith now is in full.

Keith being the Black Paladin is still not something I’m on board with, but if the writers can pull it off without making the show all about him again then I can live with it.

If there’s one major plot issue, outside of the clone and Lance, that I have to take up it’s… Acxa. Apparently she’s been on Lotor’s side this whole time, and been leading Ezor and Zethrid to the other side because… Lotor wanted her to? IDK, that felt like a messy retcon done so that Lotor could have all three Sincline ships together.

Honerva being cleansed of the rift corruption from Oriande was interesting, I admit. Really interesting. And even more so that Acxa mentioned that it was Honerva who sent the generals to retrieve Kuron and Lotor. Which makes Honerva (who Lotor said, like two weeks before in the s4 finale, was his mother) doing that “I am your mother” reveal and them being shocked so… off-putting. But Honerva seeming to have no love left for her son in the wake of learning about what he did to the Altean colony is… fascinating. She sees the worst of Haggar and Evil Emperor Zarkon in Lotor.

Romelle was really interesting too, as was the colony. I liked that it was addressed that the Alteans who were off-world survived and went into hiding. I liked that we’ve got a source of meta to look into with the colony, and with the source of Lotor’s refined quintessence. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere, not entirely, because Lotor has always admitted to being the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice a few if it meant a great reward (he was fine with Voltron being potentially destroyed or lost in another reality when they were collecting the Sincline Comet, and didn’t care about the loss of systems to the coalition and Voltron, and willingly threw Throk into the lion’s maw, so to speak, just for the reward).

This whole season felt like the second half of what was set up in s3, felt like the endgame that those seven episodes were building up to.

But… it didn’t feel like it connected back to s4 or s5 all that much. The coalition isn’t featured at all after we spent all of s4 building it up and bringing it back up in s5 as being firmly against the empire.

Which brings me to the conclusion of a 26-episode arc. It didn’t feel like one, unless the arc was “Lotor’s arc”. I expected Sendak to play a part, but he only appeared once and then vanished entirely to raze the empire and build up his “Fires of Purification” group.

And where we left off with Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid was… disappointing, almost. I’m not sure if I should expect them to return, considering the likelihood that they were pulled into one of the rifts, and even if they managed to avoid all that they have no ship to get away on, since they abandoned Honerva’s ship (which left to go to the colony of Alteans, I suspect).

I LOVED the DND episode, so so much. That is exactly the kind of filler we’ve been crying for. I laughed, I cried, I didn’t cringe away in second-hand embarrassment, and I had so much fun. The best episode of the season, and one of the best of the series.

I loved Hunk in the opener. He’s getting better at taking charge (compare that moment with when he sat in Black’s cockpit in s3ep2) and growing into both a fine diplomat and a courageous paladin.

I loved Coran, and Pidge, and Allura this season.

And I still love Lotor. He’s such an incredible villain, right up there with Azula. I fully expect both him and the Sincline to make a return in the future, considering that he’s now left behind in the place where the Rift Creature exists and the Sincline is just… there waiting for it to take possession.

I dunno. I liked the season, despite how Keith returned and was reaffirmed as The Main Character We Should Care About Above Everyone Else (yes, yes, this is a salt mine I need to get out of, I know that). It was a good season. Not great, not hardly the best season, but good as ever. It connects well with s5, and continues parts of the set-up we got there, that I can almost see how they would’ve existed as a 13-episode season. Where the series goes from here, I can only guess at bits and pieces.

What would I have changed? I’d remove the clone plotline entirely, for starter. I’d keep it as Haggar using Shiro’s arm and that nanovirus from s5ep3 to mindswish Shiro into the perfect soldier. I’d have had Lance realize Shiro’s been mindswished and do everything he can to break Shiro out of it. I’d have removed that whole “Acxa was really on Lotor’s side all along” thing, because it changes her actions in s5 and sours the “For Narti” moment. Instead I would have had Ezor learn about Operation Kuron and realize that Lotor slaying Narti was because of this, and the generals leaving Honerva all alone while they take their Sincline and run. I’d have featured the coalition’s reaction to Voltron siding with Emperor Lotor, and how that strained and blurred the moral lines even further. I… am not sure I would change much with Lotor’s arc, beyond having increased his paranoia both bc of Haggar and Sendak but also bc of the rift affecting him. Push him with that paranoia, so that when Allura says that he’s just like Zarkon it really causes him to go full Azula and say all that.

So that’s it. That’s just about everything I wanted to say about s6.

[themostrandomfandom]

Hi! How would you personally rank the seasons of glee from your favourite to your least favourite & why?

Hey, @sitandsingtoyou!

Since I watch Glee almost exclusively for the Brittana, it’s probably no surprise that their narrative treatment is the single biggest factor that determines how I feel about any given season. 

If Brittana have a prominent, well-wrought arc from season premiere to season finale, then chances are I’ll like said season no matter what shenanigans are going on with other characters or storylines. 

The same is also true in reverse. 

That said, for the purpose of answering this ask, I also considered factors like the overall storytelling (beyond the Brittana of it all), the music, the presence of any standout episodes, general cohesion, etc., when making my rankings.

The final list appears after the cut.

WARNING: Here be strong feelings about Glee and more than a little bit of negativity about its writing and production. Note that the views expressed in this post are the author’s personal opinions based on her preferences, and they may very much differ from your own.

___________

In order from favorite to least favorite:

S6: As I discussed in this post, in addition to providing our girls with the happy ending they always deserved, S6 offers much of the best-written, most fully-developed, adorable, emotional, poignant, and narratively-satisfying Brittana we get throughout the series. We’re talking fanfic quality stuff, and not just in bits and pieces here and there but basically across the board in every episode in which Brittany and Santana feature. While there are a few things I’d change, on a whole, I can’t think of a more enjoyable canonical culmination to Brittana’s journey. As for the non-Brittana stuff, while there are, admittedly, some really low lows—many of the middling episodes of the season are an affront to screenwriting—there are also some suprisingly pleasant turns. Don’t tell anybody, but I actually love most of the New New New Directions and find the storylines that focus on them (as opposed to the adults of Lima and alumni advisers) kind of delightful. While the series finale itself somewhat underwhelms me, the flashback sequence at the end of episode 6x11 totally makes me cry. A lot of this season is about getting back to what made Glee fun and likeable in the beginning: good tunes, camp gags, and stories about a ragtag group of underdogs overcoming adversity through love and music. In general, I feel like S6 does a nice job tying up the loose ends for glee club members old and new and fulfilling the main thesis of the show (“Something is special because you are a part of it”).

S2: Brittana’s S2 storyline is one long, amazing roller coaster ride of emotion. It’s hard to describe exactly what it felt like watching it all play out for the first time as the episodes were originally airing; I hate to use the word “special” because it sounds so quaint, but it’s kind of the only term that really fits. Because the “Sex is not dating” line in episode 1x13 was initially treated like a one-and-done deal, going into S2, no one in the fandom really expected to see a fully developed Brittana romantic storyline—and yet that’s exactly what the Back Six gave us, and each successive Locker scene brought elation, heartache, fear, hope, and continued anticipation. Nothing beats S2 Brittana angst, and especially not the Hurt Locker, which is far and away the ship’s pièce de résistance. Then beyond the Brittana, the rest of the season is generally high quality, at least as far as Glee goes. There’s some nice tongue-in-cheek comedy, iconic scenes, and heartfelt character development, plus episode 2x19 is one of the show’s musical high points overall. As always with Glee, some pitchy moments sneak their ways in and a few episodes beg to be forgotten, but for the most part S2 is Glee in its stride, and it’s held up well over time.

S1: Since Brittana are not yet main characters, they don’t have a main text S1 storyline, per se. Still, when you fill in the gaps, there’s a lot going on with them on a subtextual level, enough so that rewatching S1 knowing what will eventually happen in later seasons will provide a strenuous cardio workout for any serious Brittana shipper. There’s plenty of excellent Heya improv to go around, and the classic “Brittana on the back row” can’t be beat. Plus, Brittana’s mini-arc with Finn between episodes 1x14 and 1x15 is heartbreaking. Still, the reason why I rank this season so highly has less to do with Brittana in particular than it does with overall quality: Simply put, I think that Glee had a better idea of what it was about during the first thirteen episodes of S1 than it did throughout much of the rest of the series. While later on the show would struggle to balance comedy and drama, realism and camp, trying and failing to be all things to all people, in the beginning, it was just an earnest, theatrical little show about nerdy choir kids trying to find their places in the world, and it didn’t take itself too seriously. Though many of the S1 storylines were schlocky—hello, fake Schuester pregnancy!—there were more than enough heartfelt performances and excellent character moments to balance them out. For instance, for as much as I generally dislike Finn, the “I’ll Stand by You” scene in episode 1x10 is so well done on every level. Whatever Glee became in its later seasons, in S1 it was at its core still good. It hadn’t forgotten what it was all about yet.

S3: Now we’re getting to the bottom of the barrel. I rank S3 fourth on my list not because I really enjoy it all that much but because it’s less terrible than S5 and S4, at least imo. The season’s biggest issue is that it’s all over the place in terms of quality. Sugar was a blessing, but Rory not so much. Likewise, on the Brittana side of things, there are some really high highs—our girls officially start dating! they share their first on screen kiss! they have a fabulous time at their senior prom together!—but there is also the giant bugbear that is Santana’s “coming out” arc, which is awful on so many levels. The writing and characterization for Brittany and Santana vacillates wildly throughout the season. In some episodes, like 3x04 and 3x13, it’s really great. In others, like 3x16, it’s utterly headache-inducing. And it’s not just our girls who suffer from spotty writing throughout the season; Quinn’s storyline is a complete mess, and Sue is an unbelievable Yosemite Sam caricature of herself whose exploits are so exaggerated that they make it virtually impossible to suspend one’s disbelief enough to enjoy her scenes. While the Troubletones are a musical highlight for the whole series—and the “Rumour Has It/Someone Like You” mashup is the best musical performance in all of Glee, hands down—a good soundtrack doesn’t make up for some of the season’s more glaring deficiences, and especially not the way Santana’s storyline was treated both inside and outside the universe of the show. Though there are a handful of S3 episodes I will rewatch for my own personal enjoyment, there are many that I’d prefer not to recall. S3 was the first season of Glee to bring in new regular writing staff beyond RIB, and with all its inconsistencies and the disuniform quality of the episodes, unfortunately, the inexperience really shows.

S5: With the exception of episodes 5x12 and 5x13, I hate almost everything about S5—and, yes, that includes the majority of Santana’s NYC episodes. I get that Heather Morris was largely off the show during this season, so it’s not that I blame TPTB for pairing Santana with Dani or making her Hummelberry’s sidekick. It’s just that it breaks my heart watching Santana repeatedly throw herself against a brick wall as she tries over and over again to win Kurt and Rachel’s friendship and trust, always to no avail (see here and here). In theory, Hummelpezberry could have been a really fun brot3—god knows that myriad fanfic authors have been able to pull it off to great effect—but in canon it never really worked, largely because the writers were reluctant to stop using Santana as a convenient heavy whenever they needed to generate synthetic conflict in an episode, even though she had long since ceased to function as an antagonist in terms of her narrative arc. While there were plenty of zingers and jaunty musical numbers in the Loft, I could never really enjoy them because the happy times never lasted. Santana was made to feel like an outcast in her own home, and for someone who loves that character as much as I do, it hurt to see her feeling so lonely and ostracized. Once she ran off into the sunset with Brittany, things took a turn for the better. Still, there were really only a handful of bright spots overall. Anyone who’s read TKTD knows that my second favorite ship on Glee is Samcedes, and I did truly enjoy the cute little romcom that was their 5B storyline. I also loved the Sancedes and later Brittanacedes friendship moments on the tail end of the season. But in general, everything felt strained and disjointed, and my ultimate sense is that the tragic early loss of Cory Monteith proved an insurmountable hurdle for the season’s creativity and writing direction on a whole.

S4: I liked the production of Grease, but otherwise this season was one long fail from start to finish, and there is not a single episode out of the twenty-two that I at all care to revisit. Though I’ve been able to rationalize and justify and meta my way through the Brittana arc, doing so is just more intellectual and emotional trouble than it’s worth. Throughout S4, the depiction of every established character including our girls seems OOC, some to an incredibly noticeable degree. Sam Evans, whom I loved in S2 and S3, absolutely gets trashed, going from a goofy, lovable dork to idiot Finn Hudson Version 2.0. Episode 4x04 represents one of the worst and most misguided writing decisions I’ve ever seen made on a primetime TV show. That a group of professional screenwriters would sit down and say, “Let’s break up three of our flagship couples not for any good or compelling narrative reason but simply because we want to ‘spice things up’ and see how our heavily-invested, emotionally vulnerable, primarily teenaged and young adult audience reacts!” boggles the mind, as does the fact that they were then surprised when their viewership numbers dropped off dramatically thereafter. I do want to say that I liked Marley Rose, Unique Adams, and Kitty Wilde, though I otherwise found the New New Directions kind of meh. Overall, this season is the one that seems to stray the farthest from Glee’s original premises and spirit. There isn’t much that’s fun, triumphant, or satisfying. There’s just a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, cultural insensitivity, bad writing, and miserable story arcs in scads.

Thanks for the question!                                  

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

6.21/22 The Final Battle

Well, here we are. I can’t title this “the final write-up” because I still have to go back and finish six episodes in S2, but we’re certainly getting close.

My feelings about this show are large and complicated. My feelings about this finale are of overwhelming disappointment. Read on for large quantities of salt, like we’re talking “Visitors Guide to Hallstatt” here, maybe put on a helmet.

In the Enchanted Forest: Some but not all of the Storybrooke residents are returned to the Enchanted Forest castle, while others remain in the LWM. (???) They can watch events in Storybrooke through a mirror. Zelena arrives from Oz via magic hat (???) to let them know that there is another problem: the realms are disappearing. Additional refugees arrive, including Aladdin and Jasmine.

Regina is determined to find a magical solution, and poofs everyone to her own castle. Hook is just as determined not to wait on her efforts, and sneaks off on his own. Charming follows him to the beanstalk, which he plans to climb in order to look for a magic bean to get back to Emma. They essay the quest together, find a bean, and exit pursued by a random dragon (???).

Meanwhile, the other Regina shows up back at the castle, having abandoned the Wish World with Robin due to her being wanted for regicide there, and joins the effort.

In the other world, Emma burns the book. As the Enchanted Forest comes apart, the beanstalk sways. Hook falls off, and Charming rides the falling stalk down to the ground. Snow realizes that her husband is missing. She and Jasmine go to find him. They find Hook (unhurt somehow), and Snow stays to look for Charming while the other two take the bean back to the castle. She finds him, thinks he’s dead, and kisses him, which wakes him up somehow IDK.

The bean has already begun to wither, and Regina’s magic is insufficiently speedy to revive it in time to use it (??). Her evil half buys them time (??), sacrificing herself to hold back the oncoming destruction. Everyone else takes cover in the castle.

The erosion of the realms stops when there is only a small patch of Enchanted Forest remaining.

In the LWM:: Henry wakes up on the rooftop alone, and quickly finds that Storybrooke has been re-cursed. Fiona is his mother (???) , and Emma has been in an asylum for the past two years, ever since Henry ate that apple tart and poisoned himself in an effort to prove that magic was real. Neither the storybook nor the symbols that he wrote while in an Author trance are convincing. Fiona shows up to reinforce the fake reality in which they dwell and attempt to convince Emma to destroy the storybook as a final act of healing. 

Fiona pays a visit to the pawnshop to visit Gold and Gideon and make sure their new story is in place -- that Belle ran off and abandoned them, and Fiona looks after them as best she can.

Meanwhile, Henry breaks Emma out, hoping to jog her memories with a trip to the site of her recent wedding. She does have flashes, but considers this part of her ongoing problem with reality. Henry determines to steal Emma’s car keys so they can leave town, but Fiona catches him and pushes down some stairs, breaking his arm. She uses this incident to convince Emma that the storybook needs to go, for Henry’s sake.

The worlds’ disintegration accelerates as the book burns.

Rumple asks Fiona to “reopen the investigation into Belle’s disappearance.” She offers him some hilariously bad Photoshops of Belle off seeing the world, blissfully alone.

Emma leaves for Boston (where, in the single least likely occurrence of the entire episode, her apartment is still there -- it’s not even dusty). She finds a version of the storybook that Henry made for her (when did he do that?).

Henry goes to Gold, who admits that he still has his memories because he did not entirely trust his mother, but also that he has no interest in being helpful; he just wants to find Belle. Henry borrows a mirror and a sword and goes down to the beach. He announces to anyone who might be watching via mirror that he’s going to fight the Black Fairy himself. 

He’s all ready to do so when Emma shows up -- she came back! Even though she doesn’t remember anything, she read his story and she believes him.

Rumple concocts a potion and locates Belle, only to find that she’s agoraphobic in her new, cursed life. Fiona comes to the shop looking for her wand and reminds us that she has Gideon’s heart and can command him, because that will be important later. She uses the wand to translate the symbols Henry wrote in his trance, which are about the Final Battle. Rumple returns and confronts his mother, who promises to lift the curse from Belle and Gideon just a soon as she’s done with this fight.

Oh, and she’ll also have ultimate power by then, could even bring people back to life, if that was a thing he was interested in. He could have everything! But, no deal. He takes the wand. Fiona has one last trick, however; it’s still Gideon who’s going to kill Emma, carrying out Fiona’s final command to his heart, because “Darkness can’t snuff out the Light… only light can snuff out light.”

(What the everloving fuck? This plus that final line in the storybook is why it took my poor li’l English major ass a solid month to get around to rewatching this thematic dumpster fire.)

Anyway, Rumple goes ahead and kills her, with 20 minutes left to go in the episode.

(Wait, I thought killing people -- even bad people! -- was supposed to be BAD. Wasn’t that like half of S4.)

But this time it’s okay, I guess, because the curse breaks, and everyone gets their memories back. (So Snow and Charming could have just killed Regina’s no-magic ass in their flashback a few episodes ago and broken the curse themselves instead of letting Emma go through hell to save them. Good to know.) Everyone comes back from the Enchanted Forest as the sun sets. Gideon finds his sword, and Emma.

Belle finds Rumple, and on Henry’s direction, the two of them head to the mines in search of Gideon’s heart while Emma locks Gideon in the mayor’s office. Belle - and I can’t believe I am going to fucking type these words, give me a second - TWISTS HER ANKLE AND CAN’T GO ON because it’s not like her husband is the FUCKING DARK ONE AND COULD HEAL HER IN LESS TIME THAN IT TOOK TO TELL HIM TO GO ON WITHOUT HER.

But oh no, they had to give Rumple a tete a tete with his Enchanted Forest self telling him to just give it up, let the Final Battle go on, take all the power for himself teehee! This could have been a neat moment if it had been, oh, I dunno, built up in any way at all in the entire preceding season instead of just flung at us out of nowhere. Rumple decides to do the Right Thing, but his attempt to command Gideon to stop has no effect, because of… something the Black Fairy did, apparently.

Meanwhile up above, Gideon finds them again (natch). Regina gives a Hope Speech™. Emma fights Gideon but refuses to kill him, so he stabs her. There’s a lot of light. Emma appears to be dead until Henry kisses her.

For reasons I don’t understand at all, Gideon becomes an infant again. The storybook is finished. The Enchanted Forest is back where it was - Evil Queen included, and it looks like she and Robin are expecting. Snow and Charming get a farmhouse and a dog. Emma and Hook drive off in the bug to fight crime together. Regina gets to be queen of Storybrooke. Everyone gathers at Granny’s for a weird-ass homage to Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

(I have blocked every gifset that includes that scene that crosses my dash, because what the actual fuck.)

In sum, happy beginnings all around.

Also: In some wrapper scenes after an unspecified time jump, we meet a plucky young girl named Lucy and her fairy godmother, Tiger Lily. Lucy has a storybook and a sword and says she’s Henry’s daughter. Henry (now an adult and living in Seattle in our fade-out) has no memory of her. A grave new threat has overcome the Enchanted Forest and their family.

I didn’t pay much attention to these, as I am not planning to watch the season.

Parallels: This episode consisted of (depressingly) little else but direct callbacks to other episodes -- which is not nearly as effective as parallelism, unfortunately.

Fiona = Regina, obviously

The now-magicless Zelena travels by magic hat (1.17); apparently in his years off-screen, Jefferson made a new one

Emma’s pullup scene is a reference to Terminator 2 (another sequel, see earlier this season)

Operation Cuckoo’s Nest is a twofer, as the entire “operation” business is now several layers deep in self-reference. Unfortunately.

Killian and Charming climb the beanstalk from 2.06

Her Handsome Hero makes an appearance in 6.21 and then again in 6.22, when Rumple uses it to find Belle.

Fiona giving Belle an agoraphobic personality is reasonably close to Regina having locked her up

Snow kissing Charming awake was a callback to, well, rather a lot of their scenes since the S6 curse.

Fiona’s final plan as she explained it to Rumple - no more laws of magic, bringing people back to life, making them love - was lifted wholly from the OUaTiW spinoff, where it made a hell of a lot more sense.

We got one last reference to the price of magic, although it’s hard to see any rhyme or reason to how that’s applied these days.

Henry kissing Emma reverses the S1 finale.

Six seasons’ worth of material, magic items, and emotion to draw from, and this random grab-bag is what they came up with.

On a cheerier note, Lucy means “light” which I feel is appropriate for Snow White’s great-granddaughter and the granddaughter of a Savior.

Wardrobe Department:

There was nothing new or interesting here.

In Hindsight: The villains on this show have gone steadily downhill in capability for the past few years. Regina enjoyed most of a decade as the tyrant of the Enchanted Forest, and 28 more years with Storybrooke in her iron grip before Emma broke the curse for which Regina had murdered her own father.

Rumple was the Dark One, holder of unmatched power, for centuries, came thisclose to living forever in a world specially designed for his happiness (S4).

Pan had absolute power in Neverland for centuries. Cora held sway in Wonderland for years, and got the better of Rumplestiltskin once (very nearly twice). Zelena ruled Oz for something like forty years, if my timeline is anywhere near correct.

Fiona lost her wand ten seconds after turning evil, and was defeated by a fairy who regularly gets herself nearly-dead and doesn’t even show up in the town’s magical ranking these days. She was imprisoned for centuries, sulking and plotting in the Dark Realm, before she made it to Storybrooke, where she spent a week romping around, finally cast her curse, her great work of villainy -- and it got broken and she got killed THE NEXT DAY.

What a loser.

I did a rare thing for me and asked Adam on Twitter what was up with this episode, given that most of it was clearly written for Regina, not the Black Fairy. I did not get an answer, and I suppose we’ll never know what caused this change in direction -- maybe it was as simple as the fact that JMo was leaving and Lana was staying next season, and they didn’t want to end the show. It seems inarguable to me, however, that this change was made, because absolutely nothing about Fiona’s actions makes sense in light of her character.

Fiona’s Dark Curse was (retconned to have been) intended to protect her son (Rumple) by taking all of the Enchanted Forest children to the Land Without Magic. Her later actions were fixated on Gideon as substitute for Rumple. The Dark Curse as enacted in the finale didn’t appear to have anything in particular to do with Rumple or with Gideon. They were both supposed to be cursed and oblivious, so how would that have been a happy ending for Fiona? Was she going to spend eternity watching their family from outside? Storybrooke under her curse had plenty of magic, too, ignoring what was supposed to have been the entire original point.

The new Dark Curse did end up having a lot to do with Emma, with whom Fiona had no relationship at all beyond the inescapably lame “you’re a Savior so I have to kill you” thing. It separated her from her family and drove a new wedge between her and Henry. Fiona had no reason at all to be interested in Henry -- but in this new world she adopted him? -- or in any of Emma’s family for their own sake -- but she made sure to send specifically them away, and no one else? She has literally never interacted with any of these characters, and it makes no sense that she would care about their whereabouts.

(And why for the love of Pete was Henry immune to the curse? I don’t think they ever addressed that. He wasn’t under the first one because he was brought to town later on, but there’s no obvious reason why he should have kept his real memories this time around.)

(While I’m at it, how in hell did she still have Gideon’s heart? She and Rumple were supposed to have been allies as of a couple episodes ago; there’s no way he would have made any deal without securing that.)

None of what Fiona did makes sense for the Black Fairy, but it would have been very much in keeping with Regina’s past actions. (Yes, even down to harming Henry. This is a woman who killed the thing she loved the most.) Even Fiona’s costuming was identical to Regina’s look in S1.

I’m too irritated by it to even really discuss Regina and Rumple’s ending for this season. Suffice to say that they got everything they ever wanted -- twice over in Regina’s case -- and I will never stop being bitter about it. What was even going on with Rumple here? Is being the Dark One irrelevant now? Because if he’s been 100% able to make good decisions this entire time, curse or no curse, and just couldn’t be arsed until this very moment, that blows up another enormous piece of show mythology.

Moving on before my blood pressure kills me.

In my opinion, most of this finale’s mess comes from chickening out with Regina. The rest of it falls out as a consequence of that decision. Having slotted the Black Fairy in for her at the last moment, having decided to make this a metaphorical battle and not a literal one, they had the problem of what do with all of the other characters. I suspect the decision went like “leaving them in Storybrooke would mean re-establishing their cursed identities for viewers who haven’t seen them in five seasons, and it would mean creating all new curse identities for some of them, so let’s just send them off to the EF and, um, they can do absolutely nothing useful there.” The Captain Charming scene was cute as far as it went, but it was also useless, and that dialog was flat-out terrible.

That entire half of the finale was pointless. Literally nothing was accomplished there that had any effect. In order to make all that nothing look like a very urgent something, the writers came up with this “Emma’s lack of belief will destroy all the lands” hack at what was obviously the last possible moment, and I say that because it is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION of the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

We literally spent all of S1 and onward having it explained that what we think of as stories have objective existence in other worlds, that these people and these realms are real, with their own long and complicated history independent of our own; we only know of them because of the storybooks. Now all of the sudden they only exist if one particular person believes in them? What about the first 28 years of Emma’s life, when she didn’t believe in anything? What about the worlds she’s never been to, never interacted with? Stuff that happened before she was born? The history of the Authors, Mr Disney included? All of those other storybooks from the last hack job of a season finale?

The idea that the final battle is an internal one is fine in itself, but then what makes it final? Why was the Black Fairy involved at all? Why has it been six years and we’re still talking about whether Emma Swan believes in magic? Shouldn’t the “final” battle revolve around everything that has happened to her SINCE that moment, not take us back to just before it happened? What narrative purpose does isolating her from everyone except Henry - again! - serve?

It wasn’t even really a battle; the curse didn’t capitalize on any weakness in Emma’s character.  We just rewound the tape to the S1 finale so she could make the exact same decision she made then -- to leave -- and then convince herself to come back sans apple tart-induced trauma? Was that supposed to be the big pivotal thing, that she came back on her own? Because that was pretty fucking drastically underplayed, and also pretty far from definitive. Emma could get her memories wiped tomorrow (and given this show, probably will), and we’d do the same thing all over again. The fact that they didn’t even feel a need to show her moment of deciding to act on screen says everything, I think.

And then we have the concluding fight, which defies explanation. One thing this show has generally done a good job with is parallelism, but here of all places it fell flat. Everything about the “climax” felt perfunctory at best. They introduced the vision of the fight with Gideon in 6.01, therefore they had to revisit it in the finale, even if it made no particular sense to do so (nothing about Gideon has made sense). This fight happened because a dead character who had no established reason for doing anything she did gave a pointless character an order that didn’t make any sense in the first place; Emma had to “die” purely because the writers said she would six months ago. As an action and as a scene, it accomplished nothing.

Having previously established that the sword was a real sword that would cut people, they hand-waved that and gave it a magical effect instead, allowing Emma to be struck down and then wakened by TLK. The TLK with Henry at the end of S1 was one of the most hard-fought-for scenes I have personally ever seen in any medium, with an entire season of loving development leading up to it; this one felt like a distant echo through a mile of aluminum ducting. Henry has barely even been in this season, hasn’t had a good episode for his character since 6.08. His relationship with Emma in particular has been on the back burner since “The Other Shoe.” The two of them didn’t even get a good spotlight in this episode what with all of the side action in the Enchanted Forest and with Rumple and so on. That kiss didn’t bring anything new to the story.

And so here we are, if not at the end of the story, at least at the end of a significant chapter.

Adam and Eddy wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes of this show, back in the day. At this point, I have to say that while they might make solid staff writers, they have no business running a show. They don’t care about consistency from one season or sometimes even one episode to the next, their creative toolbox appears limited in scope, their writing is self-indulgent, and they’re apparently not willing to follow through -- of their own accord -- on events that should have significant in-character consequences. The result is a finale that very nearly systematically trashes every piece of moral and magical world-building that was still standing after six seasons -- and which I feel comfortably certain will be ignored when the show goes into S7. 

All of that said, I do want to end this on a positive note. I have over the past few years very much enjoyed the story of Emma Swan, the ugly duckling who thought she would never have a family, the lost princess who gave up on love, the hardass with her box of sentimental treasures -- the mother, daughter, sheriff, swordswoman, sorceress, leader, lover, and all of the other jackets she’s worn across the years, leather and otherwise, in the end a fully realized woman with a whole heart and a happy future ahead of her. That’s a story I will never get tired of, and for that I offer my gratitude.

To all of you reading this, I would like to say thank you as well, for the many hours of diverting conversation, for the moving and hilarious commentary, and for the friendships that have grown up from this unexpected ground. May your supplies of fic never run dry.

[mantra4ia]

Lucifer Season 2 Round-out

Last April, a list began that would soon pervade into every moment of my life: “Lucifer Season 2 and Beyond - Wants and Desires”. It went through various iterations…

Original Post (pre-season) / Updated post (during season 2)

Before I go into my “Season 3” post (and questions!) I wanted to make a quick capsule of my top fulfilled desires of season 2. Please let me know what yours were, or if you have questions and desires yet to be addressed.

Desires Fulfilled / Questions Answered

✔ Does Lucifer have any other brothers/siblings we should know of? While I was disappointed that Uriel had such a brief appearance, it was still very cool and developed the arc of the season a TON! Also, there’s that mention of… ✔ Lucifer should have a sister…(2x05) AZRAEL! The Angel of Death is a she, and I have many questions and speculations about her role, power, manifestation, etc ✔ Who is Lucifer’s mother? Angel, Demon, something else? You know, for a majority of the season I didn’t know whether I liked or hated the Divine Goddess mum as Charlotte Richards. She was a fun character, but very on the fence as to what she wanted and how badly at any given moment. Mostly what bothered me is her lack of seriousness, gravitas. I wanted to see the “Goddess” side of her all season. She was jailed for centuries not just for being powerful, but also vengeful, chaotic, bordering on malicious. And then I got all that in the very last episode, 2x18 “God, Bad, Crispy” and I loved it. All that resentment, brokenness, and desperation, coupled with destructive force so that I could take her seriously. And no sooner did I love her as a balanced character of humor and strength, she (as we know her) was gone! Wot?! ✔ We’ve seen Lucifer’s lifestyle, how is Amenadiel liking his time on earth? Not at all - his poor wings! But I’m really quite glad he’s found solace in, of all places, the improv club. ✔ Who are Chloe’s friends outside the force, will we meet some? Thank Dad for Maze, Linda, and Ella, and girls night #tribe. ✔ Lucifer, Trixie, and Maze on a school’s day out field trip. Trixie and Maze trick-or-treating was 100% wonderful, and as a brilliant bookend so was Lucifer taking Trix to school and them having their own little “deceiving your parents” club. ✔ Girls’ night - Mazikeen, Chloe, Linda. And not only that but a bar fight, which is also what I wanted to see more of (the females kicking butt, which I got from all the core ensemble save Trixie, who instead kicked butt with her words, as Maze said). It’s like the writers have Lucifer powers of desire deduction… ✔ More delving into the themes of what it means to be vulnerable, when it’s good and not, and recovering from betrayal from all the characters’ perspectives. Well, divorce and single parenting are pretty dang vulnerable for Chloe I’d say….and you know drudging up the past and confronting her dad’s murder. And Dan and Lucifer at the comedy club, the openness there gave me new hope for their continued BroTP. Lucifer with Azrael’s blade while Amenadiel watched as his little bro was in pain DESTROYED ME. And even Trixie was vulnerable at that Starford private school, which was super insightful for Trixstar. And Maze and Lucifer throwing down and going to group therapy with Linda. The writers really knocked vulnerability, recovery, and moving forward out of the park. ✔ Is Mazikeen going to make more progress in the friends’ department? First word: Roomies. Second word: wifey. I really, deeply enjoyed Maze bonding with Chloe and Linda (ride or die) this season, and her growing attachment to humans. ✔ Now that Lucifer doesn’t have his Pentecostal coin to play with, does he get a new toy? I never thought seeing Lucifer with a cell phone would be that satisfying.  ✔ We see Lucifer always wearing a ring and Amenadiel always wearing a necklace. Will they come into play? Of course! Although, please props department up your game. I hated that Sumerian text. It looked like a three ring binder spray painted bronze. ✔ What stunts/ fight choreography are you guys thinking about for s2? Maze with a pool cue, a good amount of headbutting, slo-mo riots in a psychiatric ward, jumping off of a pier, some great driving sequences, a sniper/hostage situation, violence with a yoga mat, throw-down in a church (Father Frank’s church?), broken pianos. I can’t wait for more! ✔ Tom Ellis at the piano.“All Along the Watchtower” pleases me to no end. ✔ Scenery changes? I love the addition on the performance club and Chloe’s new apartment.  ✔ New potentially recurring characters? Heavens bless Ella in all her awkward moment, ice-breaking quirkiness.  ✔ Can Chloe effect other celestials adversely, or just Lucifer? Apparently yes she can. She disrupted Uriel’s pattern of destruction (2x05) I think, I could be wrong, but it came across that way… ✔ Seeing Lucifer with wings. YES! Bring on the eleventh hour cliffhanger. ✔  Lucifer’s fall? Maybe we saw a glimpse of it…depending on the context of the 2x18 cliffhanger

Things we got that we didn’t even know we wanted. SO GOOD:

Dan and Chloe are getting a divorce and in so doing becoming an even better team on the force and in life. They can razz each other more at work and be treated as equals, and she can joke with Dan “if you married Charlotte, that would make you Lucifer’s stepdad.”

Amenadiel wallowing about the loss of his wings, and the new BroTP Dandielion (Dan and Amenadiel at the comedy club)

“Cosmos are yummy” and “I like [the shape of] your head” one liners. You deserve all the praise Amenadude.

Ella’s tiny hands comment.”I’ve seen some pretty tiny manhands.” Cheeky.

Ella speaking French.

Lucifer and Maze with a taser. Superb new toy.

Lucifer being mortally embarrassed seeing his mom naked (how does it feel to be on the receiving side of nude awkwardness buddy), her interrupting his foreplay, and him having to drag her off his club stage because of her dancing. He’s essentially a teenager with her around.

Trixie’s defaced doll, and Lucifer’s sinnamon roll behavior getting her a new one.

Trixie holding Lucifer’s hand hostage as he takes her to school and bargains with her to drive the Corvette.

Chloe nearly beating someone to death with a yoga mat. “There’s a special place in hell for women…who manipulate other women.”

A reprisal of Chloe and Maze the tag team. Magnificent.

Lucifer denouncing cats. “Open box of excrement in your house? Cats,” Makes me wonder what pet Lucifer would have if he could. 

Uriel playing with patterns and probability! Sweet, now help me sail my ship! (2x05)

Lucifer as an action movie fan. Not surprising, since we already know he loves cheesy sci-fi from season 1 interaction with Chloe’s mom. But still another awesome nerdy layer.

Chloe teaming up on a case with her would-be-mother-in-law. Season 2 subtitle: #EveryoneHitsOnChloe

Lucifer in a psych ward. And of course, the Linda/Lucifer break out. Though it probably would’ve been equally fascinating as a break in.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS (TOP 10):

The stunt driving in the corvette and Chloe’s car, and the surrounding circumstances of both incidents. I love the fulfillment of “I’ll never let you drive” comes full circle when Lucifer speeds on to try and save Chloe’s life, and when Chloe has to ride shotgun on Lucifer’s terms, she loses all composure. 

Most of 2x13 “A Good Day to Die” but especially the X-Ambassadors “Unsteady“ montage where every character shines!

“God Johnson” - the whole episode from start to finish, because it revealed so much honesty, meta, and motivation about the Lucifer, Linda, and Mum. If I had to pick a favorite part, it would have to be when Lucifer is wheeling Linda down the corridor and she meets ‘God’ or the celestial parent trap. Linda and Lucifer get to act like fans in their own show, Dr. Martin reveals Lucifer’s hidden desire to see his family back together, and Mum realizes she loves her ex and much as she hates him.

Maze and Chloe on a case as a married couple.

The men #tribe and the women #tribe we clearly establish in the first half of the season through cocktails, bar fights, saunas, improv clubs, etc. It wasn’t obnoxious or super exclusive, it developed naturally and really served the characters.

All of Trixie’s screen time was awesome, and the fact she seems to get more of it. Particularly “you don’t have to speak in code, I can handle adult stuff (she’s very perceptive)” and “wusses don’t get lollies” and her reaction to Lucifer stealing her sandwich.

Lucifer’s final scene with Linda in the hospital, where she has the title line that once again gives Lucifer page turning insight, and he puts her glasses back on and I melt!

Amenadiel being able to slow time for the first time since his powers waned, and using it to save Linda’s life. It made me teary, and brought me back to 2x13 when he helped Lucifer by standing his ground for Chloe. (MVP on the Unsteady montage)

Ella standing up to Charlotte. Her saying “you hurt Dan, I’ll break your legs” at first came off funny, like ‘your East Coast is showing’ but with each episode I increasingly wonder if, instead of just being mellow and accepting and lighthearted, she knows more than she let’s on and there’s another side of her that we’ve not seen.

The made up dinner scene / “you look beautiful” / the trajectory of Deckerstar. I admit there was a faith wobble. I thought that the show was revving up Lucifer and Chloe, perhaps not ‘too fast,’ but too suddenly. A lot was development happened over very few episodes in season 2 (by contrast to the entire season one slow burn) that I was dazed. What the hell was going on? Then they slammed on the brakes and reversed it when Luci skipped town and I thought are you trying to give me whiplash. But now those trials and that zig zag line is actually effective in making their relationship more complex and less doe-eyed, leading up to the capstone line by Chloe about moving forward. It gives the series a Chuck-like nostalgia in that this epiphany frees up a lot of constraint: it doesn’t matter the twists, turns, sputters, or screaming wheelies of the ship, in fact all the better, so long as their eyes are open and the aim is forward.

DIDN’T LIKE (BOTTOM 10):

☒ The “Wobble” episode concept.(2x03 Sin-Eater) If I had to rate it’s strength as a compelling episode, it’s probably second to the bottom.

☒ Poor Uri, we did not know him well, but I wanted to! (2x05)

☒ The “Candy Morningstar“ episode (2x14). I like the resolution, however I thought overall it was a weak return from hiatus. It did not do a very good job of filling in gaps of Lucifer’s time in Vegas - but maybe that’s something flashbacks in season 3 will revisit.

☒ Ella, her brother Ricardo, (2x13) and their Brooklyn roots. At first when I heard Ella came from a big family of brothers - 5? if I’m not making that up - I thought “what rich grounds for parallels” Lucifer comes from a big angelic family and Ella and Luci hit it off quite well where quirkiness goes she practically like a sister, she even got him to go to church, I can’t wait to see where this goes. But then we met one of her siblings, and it felt somewhere between a front and a one-off plot point to serve the events unfolding in the case. Generally, I feel even though I really like her character, she was not used to full potential in the second act of season after 2x8. Part of the hazard of adding two characters in one season. However, I have hope from 2x17 when Ella goes off to accept a call from her brother that she’s been ‘waiting for all day,’ but it’s never revealed why and the call takes place off screen that we’re going to revisit Ella’s family and backstory in a more detailed, impactful way come s3.

☒ The Season Finale 2x18. Before you kill me - allow me to clarify. I LOVED THIS EPISODE, however it was so packed I wish that I could surgically take out some preceding season fluff and elaborate these critical details over 2-3 episodes so that they are more than nuggets. Especially because of three things: 1) The growing complexity of Amenadiel’s relationship with Dan and Mum!Charlotte. Face it: Amenadiel had an extended identity crisis this season. It was planned, and overdue, so it’s fine. But only in these last episodes did his friendship with Dan and anchor to humanity flourish, as though playing catch up to Maze, as well as his more complex, less idolizing perspective of his parents. I WANTED MORE 2) Mum!Charlotte’s relationship with Dan “you were my favorite human.” Writers - How can you drop a line like that and NOT go after it? Are you evil? Mum’s been around for millennia and in all that time humanity has been at best a perplexing annoyance, at worse a target for ire. And in the span of one or two months on Earth, the divine goddess has developed a favorite human attachment not just to manipulate as was her intention, but beyond her reasoning legit. That’s huge. At first it was so weird, and now that I WANT MORE you cut me off! 3) Mum!Charlotte was finally beginning to stand on her own as a character, only to be slightly Sparta’d into the void. Just a few episodes ago, her only significant interactions were he sons and Maze. Now she’s branched out to everyone with the exception of Trixie. (WHY ON EARTH DID WE MISS THAT OPPORTUNITY). Then just two episodes ago, she said “when I kissed [my husband] I knew it wasn’t him, and yet I wanted it to be” - BAM - and then when she discovered Lucifer’s real plan to parent trap her in heaven, and that he was too worried about the repercussions to humanity, she offered to gate crash heaven alone and spare her son - POW. And to top it off, she recognized her own latent identity crisis and accepted an alternative to go into uncharted territory, make a new life for herself without her ex and her children, to examine who she is as her own independent Goddess in a life and a universe of her own. To summarize: metric ton of progress for Mum in three episodes tops, mostly in the last one, and now she is gone to do the most interesting part of her journey off camera. AHHH!

☒ The flaming sword. It got so much build up for so little actual use, apart from opening the void. Plus side: I thought the void concept / how the sword was used in conjunction with the theme of moving forward was EXTREMELY good, but at the same time my inner child wanted more swordplay with at least the three main celestials: Lucifer, Amenadiel, and Mum. You get a sword, you get a sword, you get a sword!

☒ Excessive use of Devil Eyes. I’ll have to count and compare to see how this actually tallies up, but particularly in “God Johnson” and maybe 1-2 other times I don’t recall, I thought it was overkill. I get why Lucifer’s glow-eyes are a handy physicality feature to the story, but overall I think some cues were off for maximum impact. S1 Lucifer used his eyes and true form in 3 main contexts: 1) when it suited him to intimidate or frighten 2) when it suited him for for amusement 3) when he got really overwhelmed by his emotions - possibly because it takes concentration to maintain his image and extreme emotion can blink his focus. “God Johnson” by contrast seemed more like ‘we’re telegraphing the anger.’ Of course Luci is angry, hurt, resentful, and like a kid wants the last word with Dad. However, when you factor in his smarts/cunning, and how long he’s been planning his Dad conversation, it would follow that Lucifer is laser-focused, determined, and knows that Devil Eyes don’t hold any weight with Father. Therefore, I think there are more varied, smarter, scarier ways to show Lucifer’s anger that were underutilized this season, is voice and body language especially. Plus side: I truly enjoyed Lucifer’s form in 2x13 in hell, and 2x06 for his reveal to Linda. The lighting, 5/5 Morningstars. 

☒ The pacing and balance of humor, smart storytelling, and the dramatic elements of the show felt off, probably also on account of two hiatuses. Reflecting over the whole season I’m not as annoyed as I was week-to-week. There were parts of the season where I waited eagerly for Monday only to find the comedy didn’t hit when I thought is this a comedic take on a police procedural or a parody of a comedy of a police procedural. Other times we got all the dramatic in one go and I thought Dang, where was this development when I needed it. But then I saw 2x18 and one scene made it better/sensical: Dan coaching Amenadiel at the improv club. In a strange, probably coincidental way, when Dan says “Amenadiel, that’s a little dark buddy” I felt like the writers were breaking the forth wall and saying “yes, I know, we take you on these weird tonal-emotional roller-coasters from pantomime slapstick to death and crippling guilt. We can and will make fun of ourselves now.” And I felt a burden lift as if replying “thank you for understanding that the struggle is real.”

☒  Celestial telephone tag cliffhangers. I love both of them: clever, full circle, smartly written. At the same time, I love to hate them. Twice is good. If showrunners go for a third time, I’ll take my cue from Maze and headbutt someone.

☒ I like the idea of expanding the universe by playing with the concept of the void. I think that it takes a great note from the comics. However, I’m worried it’ll be an idea that doesn’t go anywhere. As the show stands, Lucifer is so grounded in our physical world that adding a couple characters to the cast is tricky. This kind of world building? By comparison, this is God-level tricky, which is both exciting and terrifying.

Unanswered Questions / Moving Forward

See my Season 3: Speculations, Questions, Desires post.