#bc this is in relation to s1 and I hope we can all just have a good time again this season

[o-wild-west-wind]

A Biracial Reading of OFMD, ft. Iggy’s Revenge Izcourse

a.k.a. I typed out a sentence that turned into an accidental essay of meta, whoops!

Y’all…I love this fandom to pieces, but I don’t think some of you realize why not all of us love Izzy/may be critiquing him. And major disclaimer—I am in NO WAY telling anyone to stop enjoying him as a character. This is NOT an anti-Izzy post (I will go into more detail on why I in fact encourage you to keep doing so later, and to the people who are sending unsolicited hate mail to Izzy fans & haters alike: please don’t!)—I’m just tired of seeing vitriolic hate against the people writing about him as an antagonist, or critiquing his actions based on canon, or post after post of “why don’t people love Izzy like I do!!” and then aggression when people explain their honest opinions. Look: we all have our skrungly little bad guys. I get it!! I’ve got my own collection!! I too have become a consumer and enjoyer of the Izzy fanon!!! PLEASE don’t take this as an attack—I just want to provide some personal, potentially fresh context from at least one (obviously non-exhaustive) perspective for those who want to know why Izzy isn’t universally adored, and also to make a plea for a safer fandom space where we can talk about our perspectives on these fictional characters without escalating to unnecessary vitriol, especially as s2 be upon ye (bc holy shit fandom is supposed to be fun, we’re having fun and that’s an order 😤)

(Oh, and I know I’m potentially stirring the pot with this post, but this should go without saying: don’t send each other death threats. What the fuck. Nobody do this?!)

So now that the legalize is out of the way: I want to share that the reason I initially imprinted on this show—and on Ed specifically—was because I’d never seen an explicitly biracial character treated with such complexity, nuance, and grace. While our ethnic makeups are vastly different, I too am half-white & half-brown—which means we’re absolutely nothing culturally alike, but our worlds view and treat us as pretty much the same regardless. And like Ed, my dad resents my mom and my racial makeup, and is prone to what I like to call “white violence.” Not going to overshare on the internet, but let’s just say that all this compounded makes Ed feel highly relatable to me (although for legal purposes I promise I have not krakened my dad 🙃).

When I first watched the show (and honestly also until my 3rd or 4th rewatch), Izzy IMMEDIATELY made me think of my dad. He also immediately made me think of Ed’s dad. Their mannerisms, word choices, and tones of voice; the obsessive need for control; the default of violence; the gradual dehumanization until an ultimate kraken-ifying breaking point—it all read to me like an intentional parallel. A shadow of white violence following Ed around that he hasn’t been able to shake, and mirroring to him the things he fears the most, including the things he fears within himself and feels forced to become (he is half-white after all, and this is a whole other post, but tl;dr there can be a lot of baggage that comes with being half-white/half-poc in regards to grappling with your toxic relationship to that white side of yourself, and especially if your white parent was racist and/or violent). And you can claim a different reading of all of this if you want (I genuinely mean that, like I’m in favor of meta & I think it’s great to analyze these things) BUT. that does not change the fact that I felt what I felt as a result of what was portrayed on screen and combined with my lived experience. Because fictional characters are just that—fictional—and are vessels by which you can process the world; we will always bring our personal lived experiences to anything we consume, and that’s okay—that can be the point, even. Art imitates life imitates art. Interpretation is the name of the game!

(more under the cut)

So when I watch this show, it’s a helpful tool for me to process my own feelings of being victimized by the white violence that’s followed me around my whole life, as well as the ways in which I’ve rebelled against it/tried to make peace with a non-toxic version of whiteness (in parallel to the more overt theme of masculinity, which is—ding ding—inexplicably tied to whiteness and western colonialism) via chaos, love, hurt, and sometimes giving up and giving in—and in this process, Izzy is a safe target. And you know why that is? Because he’s FICTIONAL. I can feel rage towards him because he’s NOT REAL. I can better understand and process the pain I’ve felt and rarely seen societally acknowledged by watching it paralleled on screen via actors and writers who have likely also grappled with similar feelings (I mean, I genuinely have made more progress with my personal biracial trauma via this show vs. years of therapy), and if I want to assume the worst of Izzy based on my interpretation of canon to help me through this? That’s fine! Because I can’t hurt his feelings and he can’t hurt mine!! Because he’s not real!!!

And here’s why I still support the Izzy-enjoyment: I am sure that many of the people who love Izzy and defend him to the ends of the earth probably feel a similar way that I do about Ed. It’s why we get all riled up and protective of these characters, why we might take attacks on them as attacks on ourselves; recognition of the self in the form of the other, and all that. Izzy is a vessel by which to safely work through the dark feelings and the pain you’ve bottled up—and he’s a safe way to do that because he’s FICTIONAL. And that’s a beautiful thing imo!! That’s truly the beauty of art—it is what we make of it, and what we make of it helps make ourselves better. It’s good to be open to interpretation.

HOWEVER: that does not give you permission to discount my relationship to this show (as I will not discount yours), and more importantly: that does NOT give you permission to reject the notion that canonically in s1, Izzy is literally and thematically (emphasis on thematically) an antagonist who is purposefully written to cause harm that can be interpreted as a hate crime, especially to those with lived experience of homophobia/racism/ableism/bullying/etc.—and you cannot harass people about this when conversing about theories of canon. If someone sees Izzy’s dialogue as cutting, degrading, and even triggering, that’s extremely fair of them to do so—clearly Ed was written to feel it that way! Con himself has paralleled Izzy with Judas! And can interpret it all differently? Sure! But you CANNOT assume that everyone else will, and then get upset when people don’t. I can’t believe I need to spell this out about an angry white guy in a show about toxic masculinity, but if someone does not like Izzy, it is likely due to a personal history of harassment (or worse) that he is reminiscent of; by making a point to defend him to someone—even if you are well-intentioned—you are very much putting salt in a wound.

I want to take this opportunity to further emphasize some tenets of fandom in general:

you can like characters who do horrible things without needing to jump hoops to argue their morals as pure 👏

conversely, you can critique their actions and still like them (encouraged, even) 👏

you can like characters who do horrible things simply because they’re cool and hot and interesting—don’t worry, we know it’s not the same as liking people like them irl 👏

your liking a villain archetype says nothing about your own moral virtue 👏

you can like horrible characters and see reasons for why they are the way they are/view them as tragic/note sympathetic dimensions of their personality/root for them to have redemption arcs while acknowledging that said redemption arc may not have happened in canon yet and that these are implicit, not explicit, readings of canon 👏

and you can also reimagine canon and change their contexts in fan works so that they ARE morally virtuous 👏 but PLEASE just be mindful and accountable when you do this in a context where not everyone will see a character the same way as you, and where multiple of people of marginalized identities have spoken out about the harm not doing so can cause. Just be honest, sincere, and kind, listen and learn, and don’t harass people for understandably needing space from a character that symbolizes something different to them than it does to you.

Also: blocking tags or people just because they have character opinions different than yours is totally okay and does not mean anything other than “I am curating my online space to have a better time,” it’s NOT personal

And most importantly: FANDOM IS FOR FUN! This isn’t our day job! We come to fandom to decompress. Don’t ruin people’s safe spaces!!!

Like I said, I’ve grown to enjoy Izzy over time thanks to fandom and fanon, and I think it’s fantastic that fandom can have such diversity in the way it interprets canon. I can’t wait for his probable redemption arc (it will likely be a healing thing to witness for many of us) and I’m truly glad that we can all have different relationships to the same characters. But please—when some of us need Izzy to be a punching bag, just let him be a punching bag. No, it’s not homophobic and DEFINTELY not misogynistic to view him as an obstacle in Ed and Stede’s relationship (baffled by the amount of times I’ve seen this take—it’s a funny joke but if you actually think Izzy is treated the way female characters related to other mlm ships have been treated, the point is very much going whoosh). You don’t have to engage; it’s not personal. It’s not about YOUR relationship with him—it’s about MINE. Please let me feel and even discuss rage towards him when I think about episode 10. Please let me throw as many sandwiches at his head as I need to. Because I PROMISE, it won’t hurt him—because he, and none of these characters, are real; and yet we, the fans, very much are.

[hexhomos]

S2 mega spoiler asks/answers. don't click readmore if you're avoiding it.

That entire thing really did not land for me and took me extremely out of the episode ngl. The way it is framed and later on referenced on warwick's delusion flashbacks (IN MY OPINION) seemed to suggest that their mom was embroiled in an unrequited love triangle with these two and i could feel my brain leaking out of my ears because, to get back to a previously mentioned problem; it makes the world feel really, really limited. Like there's 10 real people surrounded by a population of NPCs. The idea of silco/vander as singlehandedly responsible for a 'revolution' that has no lineage beyond themselves is already laughable but?? they frame it as if vander could legit have been vi's dad?? he picks the name?? and that he is maybe seething in rage at silco because he was the reason she died??? huh? whuh? what in all of the wattpad fanfiction. not to mention... it makes silco constant attempts to kill vi in s1 seem contradictory and nonsensical. His motivations???????????

In some ways.. it is still resource exploitation now but Worse and in a time-ticking bomb sort of way that absolutely breaks the idea of Piltover using hextech for decades at a time. Im curious to see if that will be referenced in game content now bc it legitimately has shattered the timeline. I think its once again unnecessary and sacrifices a lot of good stuff for mid hand-wringing. But yeah. P/Z as presented in arcane has had so much personality sapped out of it. a whole roster of characters who might get completely rebooted for no good reason.

stole his whole flow. Disgraceful.

TBH i wouldn't really worry about this because i think if anyone is getting a new sex scene its going to be cait/vi makeup or hatesex. Sky is a plot convenience; her existence for the show's entire runtime is an accessory that they couldn't even bother fleshing out. The definition of the not-gays.

My reasoning is that if they were going to do any of that we would have already seen her do these things, more things, in the scenes she already appears in; but as always she is a static 3D model lounging in the background. (Related: this might be because she is Literally Not Real and the hexcore is just making up a faint mimicry who can only say 1 word.) Their time budget is really messy this season and i just don't see them wasting More time like that. They don't care for sky. never did! She's just a way to avoid letting viktor be an ideologue glorious evolutionist.

We already know internally some of the animators & art team like jayvik & there's even a few for-fun outside of the company interviews w/ crew expressing a preference to jv on a personal level ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the more the script tries to push it as nonromantic the more coded these scenes get. In terms of actual interaction i think a lot is going to depend on whatever the hell happens in episode 6 because their screentime is REALLY low and im unsure act3 can pull off another timeskip. So much left dangling.

IDGAF about meljay and i've never cared about meljay i think it is the culpirit of not-gays #1 so its hilarious how that shit literally didn't matter. The entire noxus storyline is a can of worms i would have thrown in the garbage and have no interest in. Still, in realistic terms, there is a 50/50 chance this season ends with jayce married 2 kids 1 dog 1/2 parrot moving out to noxus and saying 'heh, i never liked piltover anyway' and they'll play it like we're supposed to clap because nothing matters

if i was in charge we'd get full frontal jayvik stigmata scissoring write that down. I still hope if we can manifest 1 thing it is a good fight scene with some choking on it

[birdbrainedboy]

I’m obsessed with this show and fear a hyperfixation anyways here are my thoughts on every character in the show

Edwin Paine: forever my favorite, even back before the show when I read the comics! I think it’s funny that basically every man in the show wants him? I’m intrigued by his character arc throughout the story regarding his sexuality as despite dying in 1916, he seems to have had time to slowly become more accepting of gay people (I’m guessing in part due to Charles, who is pansexual), to the point where there’s only mild internalized homophobia if at all, which just exhibits itself in him denying any possible feelings for Monty. I love how face-value and logical he is while still being a sweetheart

Charles Rowland: he has a pan flag pin on his jacket which confuses me bc can ghosts only wear clothes they would’ve worn when they were alive, or how do ghost clothes work? Because he died in 1989 and I’m near positive he didn’t wear that pin back there. Anyways I do love him but I wonder about some design choices, like the one earring (not sure why it just kinda annoys me). That was more a rant abt his design than his character, which I have nothing notable to say abt since I LOVE HIM he’s so real

Crystal Palace: sometimes she was a bit annoying the way she was trying way too hard to pry into everyone’s lives, but honestly that was just momentary annoyance since nothing could make me hate her. I love how her past was slowly revealed (as someone who already knew it from the comics) and how she came to terms with the person she used to be vs the person she is now. She’s so cool!

David the demon: honestly kind of caught me off guard at first bc the person I’m dating is named David but I actually enjoyed his character. LOVED when Crystal dealt with him in the end. He was very interesting

Niko Sasaki: I love Niko, but I have some problems with her character. First of all, I feel like ditsy anime-loving cutesy Asian girl with dyed hair is a weirdly common trope? But whatever my main issue is that it feels like characters who normalize the fetishization of gay men are so common. Like if Niko had been a guy obsessed with lesbian manga evb would be weirded out, so why is it different? If we ignore all of this tho I absolutely adore her and I’m actually praying she’s in the next season bc she was one of my favorites (esp her relationship w Edwin)

Jenny: She is so hot and cool and funny I’m in love with her

Esther: oh my god words cannot come close to describing how much I love her character. She felt powerless and weak in the past and now she’s become obsessed with making sure nobody has that power over her ever again. She was so fun and I loved her attitude! I’m sure she won’t show up next season, as she was the main antagonist of s1, and while I love her, I kind of hope she doesn’t since I think her arc was finished.

Monty: His personality was like 2020 “soft boy” who acts nice and dumb but is lowkey a manipulator. So obviously this kind of made me like ☠️ bc why is he acting like that… but I still love him to bits because he’s just a crow guys he didn’t ask to be human,, Anyways yeah his personality annoys me but also I love him so much so? It’s confusing. ITS COMPLICATED. I will cry if he’s not in s2

Kingham and Litty: I honestly thought they were annoying but I can’t lie they were so fucking funny. Every time they were on screen I laughed.

Cat King: oh my god. He is so camp. I love him. There’s honestly not much to say he is simply iconic. Love how he’s afraid to be alone so chases after other people, he’s so real AGHH I love him

Night Nurse: Ruth Connell the woman you are… 😍 she reminds me of Muriel from Good Omens, in a way, and I love her! I really hope we get to see more of her in relation to the guy in the fish, and see her get to better understand human emotions and why they choose to cling onto the human world rather than pass on!

[noangeleither]

"fixing" the panic attack scene to be more platonic ™

im extremely active on twt and have been noticing a sydcarmy tweet go viral multiple times a week (like w thousands of interactions its crazy), and its really great to see how much people love and see it for this ship. recently carmys panic attack scene went viral again, and naturally, some ppl gave their piece about how we are all dumb for interpreting it as romantic. that sydney represents his love for his job or his duty to the restaurant (*sigh*).

this scene imo, is the most concrete proof of this ship. i can excuse (not really) interpreting every interaction between them thus far as platonic but this scene....i just refuse. this is gonna be a long post, not analyzing the scene per se because i can't possibly say anything that hasn't already been said but more "fixing" the scene to fit the narrative of antis, and i hope in doing so really shows there's no other way to interpret this scene as other than romantic. again its gonna be a long post bc im just ranting and i think i will lose my mind if i dont type this out.

lets go.

so first off i like to think of this scene as an equation/experiment. simply a problem that needs to be solved.

problem/reason of panic = ...we will discuss this...

solution # 1 = claire -> failed

solution # 2 = sydney -> worked.

Problem/Reason

s02e09 opens up with carmy and claire finally consummating their relationship, with an interesting song choice might i add and carmy dissociating, looking sad, or broken (???) after. because many have said carmy pulling memories of sydney from his psyche to calm down have to do with work i always remember that, it really doesnt make any sense?

carmy is clearly having a panic attack due to him not being "fixed" as soon as he made it official with claire. he felt pressure from his family both currently and in the past to date claire because she is amazing and perfect. add mikey also being a part of that crowd, and carmy so desperately trying to connect with him when he cannot, is why i think he looks so despondent after that scene. i truly think he thought he would be a changed person after everything with claire and when that didn't happen he flipped...

we know this is the reason bc his panic attack starts with their sex scene and the lyric "I dont know" from strange currencies by REM.

this isn't to say that he isn't nervous or stressed about the soft open but its clear that he's not having a panic attack about work nor have we ever seen him have a work-related panic attack (correct me if I'm wrong). in s1 he has one or two due to him greiving his brother.

platonic fix: To make it about work I would have added scenes like when Carmy started that stove fire in braciole, his meltdown in review, some scenes of his horrible time at EMP, and him grieving his brother. i think these would represent his fear of failure, falling back into old toxic habits pertaining his career, the fear of fostering a toxic work environment like the ny chef and also the idea of "failing" mikey

but theres a reason why none of this occurs bc its not about his job or the opening of the bear. this is explicitly about his personal and romantic love life.

Solution # 1 : Claire

carmy proceeds to try and calm down by thinking of claire through literal rose-coloured glasses...

the music is distorted, he's thinking of his abusive family, he remembers every one pushing him to date claire bc shes a #goodthing.

again...this is not about his job and wouldnt make sense to think of sydneys place in his work life as a soultion to his clear personal problem....

platonic fix: in the story of carmys love life claire and sydney act as narrative foils. they have been compared and contrasted for all of s2. my platonic fix for this would be making the NY chef this first "solution" of a work-related panic attack. he represents a horrible time in his life but also represents a time when carmy was at the height of his career. when carmy gets locked in the walk in and has his monologue, its alluded to that he will revert back to that mind set in order to not let everyone down.

NY chef abused him for so long, it makes sense that carmys psyche would readily go back to his insults and the time he himself was an isolated 'psycho' bc it yielded results.

nothing is black and white and i DO think sydney represents a healthier approach to the toxic mess that is the culinary world and does represent that for carmy. if the show was invested in that, sydney and the NY chef could be overtly contrasted like sydney and claire have been.

BUT again this isnt about his job and dedication as a chef...thus why he tries to think of claire to solve his personal problem, and it fails.

Solution # 2: Sydney

LMFAOOO.

carmy then in a crazy plot twist starts thinking of his platonic work bestie sydney adamu....the love song dedicated by the show to his relationship with his girlfriend is then made clear highlighting some pretty damning lyrics about desire and love.....all platonic btw. yes you are dumb if you think otherwise (*wink*)

I actually have two platonic fixes for this...

platonic fix # 1: if we only wanted to focus on sydney as a person who calms carmy down because shes his work bestie who represents his responsibilty to the bear and the postive change they are trying effect in the culinary world, i would add scenes where they are...you know actually cooking???

i think its pretty crazy how the memories carmys immediately jump to are ones that have little to do with their jobs. when they first meet (would also like to note that when carmy first laid eyes on Sydney, he forgot she was there for a job, so this is his raw reaction to seeing a pretty girl lol) and when she comes back after she quit and their break up fight.

i would add their scenes in carmys kitchen (even tho this is extremely damning bc they were flirting DOWN - they don't make this easy at all). this represents their collaboration skills and the way they WORK and bounce ideas off of each other seamlessly. specifically the scene about him wanting to give her a star, representing his duty to her and the restaurant.

*and no shade to carmy but if his responsibility to the bear/syd as a co-worker was bothering him this much and calmed him down wouldn't he have just immediately called the fridge guy.....anyways*

platonic fix # 2 (the best one): if i was chris storer and joanna calo and i REALLY wanted to sell it that carmy isnt in love with sydney then i would put every single member of the OG beef crew + Nat to calm him down not just Sydney.

im talking to them laughing at family, carmy giving tina his chefs knife, richie in his new suit, carmys one on one w Marcus/trying his donut, nat telling carmy shes pregnant (signifing rebirth/wanting to rid all the toxic abuse from his family), carmy trying sydney risotto, and her face when he said it was tremendous etc etc...you get the gist

and honestly?

even as i type this out im tearing up a little bit bc that would have been really beautiful. carmy is changing. he can and is getting rid of old toxic habits from his family and the mess that is the culinary industry. things are changing for the better....that would be beautiful....IF his panic attack was about any of these things lol.

and to even look at this scene without this need for symmetry and we entertain the idea of carmy thinking about his job as a solution for his personal problem...carmy has said himself (s02e01) that this isnt fun for him. i dont think that means he hates cooking i kinda disagree with the ppl who think he isnt passionate about it. i just think currently its something that doesnt bring him joy but i do think its something hes starting to or at least could have started to enjoy if he just committed to working with syd...

conclusion

theres a lot of....delusion? denial? straight up bias? yes all of that, going on.

idk what is happening bc this show is really great at being subtle. but i dont know whats more in your face, dumbed down, even a toddler could understand, than this scene. if you dont come out of this understanding that carmy is falling in love/currently in love with Sydney...and i hate using this term..but you just arent media literate.

bonus: bc it makes me laugh and connects the purpose and solutions.

i think we need a Snyder Sydcarmy Cut™ of bolognese and omelette.

the start of the episode is when sydney and carmy fight over claires inclusion in the menu, and also when sydney randomly asks him to define his relationship with Claire. the episode would continue until we get to the table scene.

i think its WILD how as soon as Sydney asks him to define their relationship, carmy starts calling claire his girlfriend. then the show proceeds to insert sydney in their romantic montage, shows her tattoo about heartbreak and someone getting in the way of your relationship...THEN proceeds to have carmy compare these two women in his mind and only calms down after seeing Sydney.

i could talk about this scene for AGES. wheres the straitjacket....

[shesnake]

just finished watching s2 of the newsreader bc of you and i'll tell you, i think that i might need a rewatch to understand exactly where dale jennings wronged all these people the way i've seen some comments. besides tim, i think that helen was equally to blame at points with him - they just feel like they'd be great friends but bad partners - and the gerry thing is super complex because i genuinely don't see where else the tim thing could have leaked from and it's a shame they turned on each other when dale had managed to get him air time prior to the gossip columnist's calls. and with tim, i feel like the conflict really just maintained itself at the same scale it was at the end of s1. anyway, the only thing dale sees as valuable from himself is his journalistic skills, he's clearly more lost than ever in relation to his bisexuality and i feel for the guy. the day he unlocks it he's going to be unstoppable.

Hey there! Very glad you watched the show ❤ and you've kind of answered your own question with that last paragraph. Everything following is a (hopefully) more cohesive version of this post I made when season 2 finished:

Dale's professional ambition leads him to wronging everyone. Over the course of season 2, we can see him slowly shedding his principles and journalistic integrity, hoping to reach the status of a newsreader like Geoff Walters. His number one priority is to maintain his public image. He no longer fights for The Story, only for damage control.

When he sees a problem coming, he works harder to save face than he does to help fix the actual problem, leaving Helen to scramble around. He prepares a little joke and practices his laughter in the mirror so he can be unfazed when her interview with Lynus about his Aboriginal perspective on the bicentennial gets cut. On a public level it's incredibly racist!!! And on a personal level he's fucked Helen over. He "handles" Helen by dismissing her bipolar swings as "migraines", treating her mental illness the same way every other man has.

And with Tim... it hurts to admit, but Tim is just a very handsome plot device. A pretty vehicle for Dale's bisexuality to enter the plot. Tim exists solely for Dale to fumble. Sorry Tim.

In season 1, Dale's internalised homophobia becomes the story when his shitty interview skills leads to NA6 platforming homophobic AIDS rhetoric. Dale's delivery of misinformation was an accident, then Geoff comes in purposely to deliver the death blow. Dale throwing Gerry UNDER THE BUS was season 2's death blow. Regardless of whether it could've flipped the other way. He's so cold when he finally speaks to the gossip journalist. HE is the one offering HER the deal to stay silent about his bisexuality, because he knows he's made it.

Dale has always felt inadequate, as a journo and as a man. His clothes have always been too big for him. But by the end of season 2, after sacrificing all these personal relationships that made him more vulnerable, he's reached a point of privilege where the benefits of appealing to his public image outweigh exploiting his hidden truths. He is now The Newsreader. He gets on camera and delivers his bulletin, solo, in a black suit that fits him perfectly.

[ca-suffit]

for some thoughts on the Louis "pushing" Lestat + Armand. Should go without saying that Louis did not deserve either (though unclear if Louis or Lestat started the fight that lead to dropping like if it's true Lestat wasn't fighting back. I blame writers and confusing unreliable narrations however I digress) being dropped by Lestat or left in pain by Armand (or screwed over several times by Armand).

So anyways I want to look at the *why* Louis has this pattern that isn't because he's the abuser or bad guy or the one in the wrong. As cheesy as it is, we accept the love we think we deserve, right? Louis has always had lower self worth and has struggled with his image, who he is, especially as a vampire. he dealt with all the complex + intersections problems of being a black semi closeted gay man in the timeframe of America it was set in (20's¿) socioeconomic status, the family problems. I mean even to book!Louis he was always like straight up depressed dude. And it's the whole like people search for red flags for the thrill bc they're used to the chaos hurt and pain? I view Louis very similar. Idk you see this self sabatoging behavior with a lot of trauma+ abuse victims, and it doesn't mean they're a bad guy but often I think Fandom is the place for nuance to die lol.

But I hope they carry on and have more of Louis on the show than the books did, and I hope they continue the character growth where we can see him actually heal and like gain a sense of worth. S1 he appeared to but in reality it was mostly fabricated lies. I hope they don't waste Jacob like that. But yeah I think just on a side note of psychiatric people like are so wrapped up in why mental illness and trauma effects lestat and Armands actions but do seem to demonize and ignore how the same shit effects Louis.

"people like are so wrapped up in why mental illness and trauma effects lestat and Armands actions but do seem to demonize and ignore how the same shit effects Louis."

this is exactly the problem and then it's usually followed by ppl's antiblackness jumping out. then if anyone points that out to them, they usually double down bcuz they don't want to feel like they're racist. the thing is tho, if u always double down when things are pointed out to u, who are u ever gonna be but that person? it's uncomfortable to face ur own biases but it's the only way to overcome them. we're all raised in societies that fill our heads with all kinds of crap we have to unlearn. u *have* to unlearn it tho or else ur just replicating it forever.

stuff dies in fandom bcuz environments are created on purpose for it to be like this. look how impossible it is to even talk about race or racism here (or any fandom). this account has to be anon and rely mostly on other anon asks in order to talk about anything. the fandom stays ignorant bcuz ppl fight hard to keep it that way.

the fandom used to be all about louis and coddling louis when he was white. it's only dropped off since the show started. lestat, armand, and louis have always been the three main characters in this fandom that ppl relate to the most. suddenly louis is the only black character and usually has a lot of black fans posting meta about him aaaand....here comes the lestat and armand ppl reframing it all as "actually if u look at *their* trauma......"

and, I mean, it's *not* technically wrong. like u wrote and like the show is saying too, these cycles *are* cycles. this is real life! nobody was talking like this before tho. character's trauma histories were not dragged up as much as they are now. anne rice didn't write her stories like the show is doing so ppl are not used to critically analyzing anyone's behavior. she glossed over a lot of conflict as the books went on. taking into account most ppl read these as kids too, a lot of fans coming from the books just don't know anything but their own connection (thru trauma too, usually) to these characters, who they have seen forever as "not doing any wrong" (or doing wrong but it feels "justified" somehow or they said they did wrong so it's "fine"). then the show is saying they do a *lot* of wrong and now here we are.

for brief comments on the fight again....arguments happen and shit gets out of control v easily. no fight is a play by play of which side did what thing and who "deserved" what. there won't be a real answer to most fights like this. but for 1x5 the show has already said lestat is the one who crossed the line. that's all that matters. it's also not damning for life, especially an immortal life. ppl have a hard time understanding any of this bcuz the society's we live in don't allow for anything but punishment forever when we break social rules. that's kind of all anne rice put into her vampire society too, so again....if u come from the books, it's not gonna prep u for the show.

I also don't think S1 was mostly "fabricated lies." I don't think the IWTV book was either, the way most book ppl weirdly believe. I think that's the other part of what makes ppl uncomfortable. ur version of who u think u are is not gonna be what others always see, especially ex partners. it's just something u have to accept. ppl aren't gonna have the same perception of the same events, even for stuff u would think would be the exact same story no matter what. louis and claudia are black and lived with a white man who was family but also literally controlled everything, intentionally or by default of being a white man. everything in S1 is accurate to that relationship in that way and tbh the only reason most ppl want it to be a lie is bcuz most ppl aren't used to seeing whiteness portrayed like that. they want the black man's perspective to be revoked somehow in whatever way so they can stop feeling like they have to take it seriously. it should still be taken seriously, it was saying a lot of real shit. I also believe emphasis was prbly added but as an overall commentary on a lot of things otherwise? S1 does *not* need to be forgotten or written off for *any* reason.

idk if I covered everything I was gonna say but this is already long. ur going in the right direction tho. a lot of ppl aren't asking these questions bcuz they don't want to see louis as a person, then white fandom intentionally makes it feel like u will be attacked if u say anything "racist," so ppl are afraid to say anything, look for attacks or attack otherwise themselves first when nothing is even there. even if there's stuff here I disagree with, it's still fine to have a conversation about it and look at our different perspectives. fandom has ppl in this mindset that it's all who is right or wrong instantly, but that's not....real. this show isn't telling a story of who is right or wrong anyway but ppl's racist's perspectives def hold a different weight that needs to be examined. most ppl just don't want to.

[stanlunter]

hi i'm the anon who asked you a couple things the other day (you may be able to figure out who i am after reading and that's okay). i guess i just didn't see the posts you were referring to in both cases despite spending a while scrolling through your blog and just reading.

for some clarification about the wlw question, i didn't care about canon or fanon, i was just curious about how your opinions work since i personally do like many of the ships you don't, as well as some we mutually share, and i'm the type of person who wants to learn about differing viewpoints to understand them better despite that.

i'm also wondering how you like scorptra if you're a catradora anti since catra has been verbally abusive to scorpia at the very least, though i'm aware that's arguably better than her treatment of adora but still not healthy until the very end of the last episode.

i hope it's understood that my intention was not to challenge you as a gotcha but simply just to know you a bit better. i may have stopped feeling comfortable being mutuals with you (or just following? i don't remember tbh) for various reasons related to fandom but i still respect you as a person and your opinions so sometimes i come back.

also big W on harlivy and korrasami btw, i love our bi4bi queens

lastly i agree with you 100% on the lunter tiktok video, i love voidpitws' edits very much so i still follow on instagram but i don't support the superiority complex all the canon sibling truthers have when they're wrong 🤷

Hi!

Yeah, that's fine, I understand that a lot of people can have different opinions with me, since a lot of mine are controversional, even if you agree with some

I would love to answer your question about Scorptra and Catradora tho

First of all, catradora being abusive isn't even the only reason why I hate this ship. I talked about it before so I don't wanna fully describe everything again, I will just call them: it ruined s5 and both of Adora and Catra's arcs and that's basically a canon incest, since they werent even just portrayed as adoptive sisters, but even the whole crew, including Nate, have admitted it multipe times. You can try to find some posts about it in anti tags, there is actually a lot of information, if you're actually interested

Now, about abusiveness and Scorptra. Tbh, I really don't understand how can people even compare these two, when these ships are so different, but anyways. I will talk about Scorptra s1-3 and s4 separately, since the whole portal arc has changed so many things

Let's see. Why I consider Catradora as an extremely abusive relationship?

Let's compare Catradora to s1-3 Scorptra

Catra hates Adora and tried to make her suffer as much as possible. Every time she saw Adora, she did everything to hurt her either physically, or mentally, by making her self-hatred stronger than it ever was and used every opportunity to do this. And no, It never was "bc they were at the war". Catra did it bc she just personally hated Adora and wanted to make her feel pain, no one made Catra do this, it was always her personal desire. And even when they were kids, she was the same. And the reason why It's rather "abuser x victim", than "enemies" is bc Adora never treated Catra the same. If in case with Glimmer, It's at least mutual, than with Adora it never was. Catra was always the one who tried to find a fight with Adora. Adora never tried to hurt Catra and never tried to offend her. All she was doing was self-defense. And claiming self-defense as smth even near to abuse, is just horribly and a victim-blaming. Also you can see, every time Adora "hurt" Catra (even tho it was never Adora's fault and was always on Catra's victim complex) she immidiatly tried to apologize and to fix it, just bc she cared about Catra's feelings, even tho it was never her fault and responsibility

What about Scorptra? Well, Catra just never tried to make Scorpia hate herself and feel awful and didn't tried to physically hurt her. We can say Catra did say smth offensive to Scorpia, but it was never bc she wanted to hurt her, but rather bc Catra didn't care about Scorpia yet and Scorpia's love to Catra was confusing to Catra, she didn't even understand that Scorpia loves her, for her Scorpia was just weird and kinda annoying, especially bc for Catra It had to take a lot of time to love someone, so after s2 (White out episode) when she realized that Scorpia actually cares about her and isn't just being annoying, she accepts Scorpia and starts caring about her back. And after that episode she stops thinking about Scorpia as about just someone weird and starts thinking about her as a friend who cares about her like Adora did once

So, after that Catra starts developing her trust and careness to Scorpia. She desides to be honest with Scorpia and lets her in, by letting Scorpia help her. And then, when she realized that Scorpia isn't even "just" care about her, but also is ready to sacrafice everything she had to save Catra, Catra does the same to Scorpia and puts Scorpia's life before her own. And that's her most selfless action, which, Imo is much more selfless than Catra ever was in s1 or s5 with Adora. Bc, if Catra never thought Adora actually cares about her and thought Adora cares about SW and her role much more, with Scorpia it was the first time she saw someone who cares about her more, than about anything else. And when she realizes it, she desides to do the same for Scorpia, bc she values it so much.

And then they spend the happiest day in their life in a Crimson waste, being mutually respectful to each other and mutually loving being around each other

So I genuinely don't understand how can people say Scorpia was abusive there just bc it was a slow-burn for Catra, bc she has the clearest attachment-issues and couldn't believe someone can actually love her due to her life experience. But I think that's what makes their relationship with Scorpia only more important, bc Scorpia managed to "deserve" Catra's trust, love, respect and careness, even tho Catra was actually such a selfish person who is afraid of being used and left and didn't believe anyone can actually care about her. Scorpia was the first person who has shown Catra that she doesn't have to deserve love to be loved (like it was with SW) . And that she's not alone and that there are people who care about her and are not gonna leave her. For who Catra isn't just an "another friend" to use and leave, who doesn't worth staying for (like from her perspective she was for Adora. Which, again, I obviously don't blame Adora for, she didn't have to care only about Catra, It's just what Catra thought about Adora). Even if we compare Adora and Scorpia's leaving:

Adora left the Horde despite Catra, Scorpia left the Horde because of Catra

Adora showed Catra that she doesn't worth staying in the Horde. And Scorpia showed Catra that the only thing that could make her leave the Horde is Catra

Also, every time Adora tried to help Catra or just did something well, Catra was jealous and envy, bc she saw Adora as a competitor, which isn't healthy, especially considering the fact that Adora never saw Catra the same way. And when Scorpia helps Catra and does her job well, Catra sees, respects and thanks her. That's why her in s4 saying Scorpia she's useless was a straight up lie

Here we go to another thing: Catra always saw Adora as her enemy or a rival, not just as a friend. Which created a super unhealthy dynamic between them. Catra was always the envy friend to Adora, who can't be happy for her and always finds a way do downplay her achievements like we've seen in ep1. Catra was not only envy of Adora's achievements and respect, but also of Shadow Weaver's love. Which was a sibling jealous of a mother or a mother figure, their whole "Golden child" and "Scapegoat child" dynamic with an abusive mother figure

And so Catra's envyness lead to hateness and the hateness lead to unhealthy obsessesion Catra had

She made her whole life and whole goal to make Adora "lose", bc she couldn't handle Adora winning her. She was ready to destroy the whole world just bc of it which isn't healthy in any way. And if you're gonna call Scorpia "obsessed" with Catra, remember that Scorpia was the one who was against activating the portal bc of the risks and tried to make Catra change her mind even despite loving her, while Catra still did it bc of her obsessesion with Adora. Catra was litterally addicted and I do not think giving an addict their addition in the end as a praise is healthy. Catra should have been learnt to let her obsessesion go, to get a life, to find other reasons and goals to live, besides hunting Adora. It could be anything. But giving her just what she was so obsessed with is the worst idea Nate could possible choose

And what about Adora?

Even tho Catra was her best friend, Adora never cared about her as much in the first place. Basically, unlike Catra, Adora always had her own life that wasn't only about her love interest. If the only thing Catra had in the Horde was Adora, Adora did have a lot of things besides Catra: she had Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio, she had SW's admiration, she had the Horde's respect and she had her own goals. Catra was in her life too, but she was never the first for Adora. Which is absolutely okay. What is not okay is Catra's life, since she decided to dadicate it to Adora and when Adora left, she became lonely. I can't blame her for that, but Catra's life is Catra's responsility and making it only about one person is just stupid and never ends well. So, that's true that Adora never wanted Catra as much as Catra wanted her. Tbh, Adora never even recalled Catra in a good way after s1, so, as someone who was never a catradora shipper, before s5 I had no idea and no thoughts that Adora actually cares about Catra, not even to mention that she "loves" her and this ship never made sense to me bc it. It was always so one-sided. And the way Catradora shippers are trying to call Scorptra one-sided, makes me think they just skipped the whole s3.

So , for Adora Catra was always just an ex friend who for some reason (since Adora didn't understand it) decided to hate and fight her, just bc for some reason she didn't want to go with her. Catra's behavior never made sense to Adora and that's also strange to me that they didn't want to mention it in s5.

And the worst thing is not even that for Adora Catra was always just an "ex friend", but that she also was a cruel enemy, who made Adora go throught so much trauma, made her hate herself and think that she should die and that her life has no worth, that she only makes things worse and doesn't deserve anything good, while in reality Adora is the most selfless and kind person out of the whole show. Catra tortured Adora, killed a mother of her best friend, terrorized the planed and took away homes and lives of so many innocent people. Adora didn't just despise Catra, but she hated her for everything she has done and s5 has completely erased that fact. And it wasn't the "love-hate" type of hate, It's a hateness people have to terrorists, murderouses and war criminals that take away people's lives and make the life horrible. And that's ridicilous how so many fans really think that's just bc it wasn't directly shown in a kid show means It's not true, while It's very much is and was so heavily implied. Like they think a "war" is when two lesbians are arguing, not when people are losing their homes and families and die. And Adora, as someone who can't stand cruelty and injustice, has litterally left the Horde to protect those people. Making Adora suddenly "love" someone who has done all these things makes no sense and was so stupid and horrible.

Especially considering the fact that her whole arc in s3 was about learning that she's not responsible for Catra's actions, that Catra decided to live like this herself and that Adora doesn't have to baby sit Catra and what SW did to Catra wasn't on Adora either and that she didn't have to be responsible for it. Adora did a right chose to leave an abusive environment and she actually did ask Catra to go with her many times. Yet what do we see in s5? Catra is a victim of everyone. Catra opening the portal and abusing every is now SW's responsibility and not Catra's one, Adora is also blamed for leaving Catra and not for chosing to love some days with Catra over saving the whole world and Adora has to baby sit Catra every fucking minute

It has completely destroyed everything that had been building for 4 seasons and that's terrible not only just for Adora, or even Catra, but for the whole ending and finale season.

So now about Scorptra in s4

While I do agree that their relationship obviously wasn't healthy there and Catra treated Scorpia and everyone around really bad, I don't think their relationship can be called abusive bc of that like catradora during their whole relationship.

First of all, when we talk about characters relationship, we should consider all of their relationship during the whole show in general, not just take out of the context one arc and run with it. If catradora was toxic and abusive on every single stage (when they were kids in the Horde, when they were enemies and when they became friends - couple), Scorptra, like I've already described it, wasn't. They mutually cared about each other and Catra didn't treat Scorpia horribly. S1-s3 was the default of their relationship and s4 wasn't what Scorpia and Catra's relationship is normally, it was what they turned into due to the stress and the whole shit that has happened in the finale of s3. Which doesn't justify Catra ofc, but it does show that Catra actually cares about Scorpia and what was in s4 was rather an exception, than what their relationship actually is. During it, Catra hated herself for what she did, she became like a "full" villain, she was angry on herself and on everyone else and focused on her goal to destroy the rebelion and started ignoring everything else that was and still is important to her, like Scorpia. So, after such a huge action, that has changed the war so much, that Catra had more things to care about than ever. What Im saying is that Catra's anger in s4 wasn't aimed at Scorpia. Scorpia just happened to be a scapegoat of Catra's stress and guilt. While with Adora, Catra did aim her anger exactly at her. And in this case the whole "they were at war" excuse fits much better, since Catra's anger at Scorpia was caused by the stress at the war and the portal, while dor Adora it was just a pure haterd. So, does it make it okay? Absolutely not, it still was unhealthy. But does it change everything and make Catra's relationship with Scorpia and Adora incomparable? Absolutely yes.

And what confirmes this fact is Catra's reaction there:

First of all, Catra didn't realize how much her words hurt Scorpia. Like I said before, Catra didn't mean to hurt her in the first place, she just wanted to be left alone and to put her anger on someone. And when Scorpia says Catra is a bad friend, she immidiatly realizes it and feels bad about hurting Scorpia, feels guilt. Something she never felt while hurting Adora. When she was hurting Adora, she was enjoying it and didn't think there was her fault, she put it on Adora. However with Scorpia, just when Catra realizes she hurt Scorpia, she immidiatly gets that It was her fault and that Scorpia didn't deserve it. And as we see later, Catra immidiatly stopped acting like this towards Scorpia and started treating her better (for example, sharing her thoughts and feelings with her, as a friend), the only problem is that it was too late.

When Hordak asked Catra where was Entrapta's recording, Catra lied to him, saying she didn't find it, bc she knew if Hordak found out Scorpia has damaged it, she would get in troubles.

So she takes Hordak's aggression on herself, instead of letting him hurt Scorpia. Just like she did in the prison scene, when she didn't let Scorpia help her get out bc Scorpia would have troubles bc of that. This shows us how much Catra actually cares about Scorpia, even when she is in the wrong and acts toxic.

And the saddest thing is that they actually could be together, happy and in healthy relationship, if only the creators decided to let Catra let go her obsessesion with Adora, for example, in the Crimson waste. I really love the idea of them staying there in s3, instead of returning to the Horde. It seems like it would be much better for everyone. Or at least, if s5 was written better and Catra actually had at least some screen time with Scorpia, they also could leave others and return to the Crimson waste as they wanted to.

So, It's not like I look at Catra yelling at Scorpia in s4 and think "ohh, that's so cute, they should kiss now", It's that their whole relationship was beautiful, complex and dramatic. Bc Catra could be happy with Scorpia, but her obsessesion was stronger and it ruined everything. I'll dare to call it "doomed yuri", bc of how tragic Catra's issues made it

Well, I think that's all, hope I did answer your questions

[chirpsythismorning]

I feel like a big part of the reason Anti Bylers are so aggressive is because this is the first time in mainstream media where there's a chance that the main couple of the show may end up being mlm.

Not only is there a likelihood that the main couple will be gay, it will come after years of these fans assuming that the cliche, safe straight ship was going to sail from start to finish.

If you look at the "predictions" these individuals have for season 5, which honestly have less to do with narrative direction and more to do with what they want, you'll always catch a certain undertone to what they're saying:

"The heterosexual, white male audience is the default for media. We will allow the wlw ship, so long as it has limited screen time. We will accept Will surviving, and even allow him to have an acceptance arc. But you will not receive queer rep at the expense of a ship that we are nostalgic for. The straight male audience is the one that matters, and we will be represented by the main couple in the show."

My favorite is when they’re asked what they hope for Mike and El in s5, only to list off qualities of Mike and Will’s dynamic. I legit saw someone say that they hoped they finally took the time to talk through their problems (oh so you’re admitting they never do..) and that we’ll actually get to see them be a team…

Like, do you hear yourselves?

I would actually like to read off their play by play of how they imagine s5 going down. Not just their wishes but like what they literally imagine happening over the course of the season, episode by episode.

And I’m talking the confident milkvans ones that are like super hostile about it. I wanna see what they hypothesize will happen in early s5 related to Mike and El… I don’t think I could keep it together if it is anything along the lines of them instantly making up and being happy for the rest of the season… 😳🤣

They just don’t realize how dumb that sounds.

S4 created conflict and hasn’t settled it. It was considered the beginning of the end, meaning those parts are going to fit perfectly together. If Mike and El were lacking romantically more than ever before in s4, don’t expect that to change much…

And gentle reminder that rewatch value is everything. If milkvans have to skip 3 eps in s1 bc they’re not together or fighting, skip all of s2 bc they’re separated, skip most of s3 bc they broke up in the second episode, skip most of s4 bc they separated in the third episode…. What does that fucking tell you?? They are not being prioritized for rewatch value, that’s what. Whereas byler is. (Bylers also are capable of watching milkvan scenes religiously… I can’t say the same about milkvans being capable of handling more than one second of rewatching a byler scene. And it’s bc they know if they watch it the mental gymnastics they gotta go through to convince themselves nothing romantic is going on is near impossible…)

Byler endgame is going to make the rewatch for the entire series hit, while milkvans, even with a hypothetical endgame would probably watch s1 and s5 and say the rest doesn’t matter. Do they think that’s how the show is supposed to be watched?

With one season left, they should have been hoping that monologue wasn’t in s4, but instead s5. Bc now how can those two one up that? They simply can’t. It was put there to show that they’ll never progress beyond this point. Nothing will ever top it. This is as good as it gets and yet, they still lost. What should that tell you?

What are they gonna just repeat that monologue in s5, but have mike say it 20x and THIS TIME it works?? Yay? Like there’s literally nothing satisfying about that in the least.

Can’t say I wish bad for ppl that simply like Mike and El and are bummed that they’re starting to lose hope. That as a basic idea is like whatever. I don’t like seeing ppl sad. Even if I told off a milkvan directly, seeing them like feeling depressed afterwards, does make me feel bad.

But when it comes to the hostile ones, people literally resorting to harassing directly with complete strangers unprompted and threatening to dox, over people merely theorizing? Like?? Was it ever that serious?

If we’re so delusional and we’re just setting ourselves up for disappointment, why not wait to say I told you so when it’s all said and done, if you’re so sure? Why dedicate so much of your time trying to discourage people on the other side? Unless it somehow qualms doubts you have?…

What makes this whole situation such bullshit, is that if this were a queerbait situation, you still shouldn’t be out here being hurtful like literally spouting off how you can’t wait for people to experience getting queerbaited? Like it’s fucking weird? The prominence of queerbaiting is literally referring to show runners taking advantage of fans, making them think it’ll happen, even encouraging it, and then ripping it away, usually ending in a bury your gays situation. That is the norm in the industry and it’s only now within the last few years starting to change in mainstream.

The hypocrisy of it all, is that they think we should just accept what they believe is the only possibility, queer-bait. But you know if the roles were reversed, which they inevitably will be when s5 drops, they’re going to be playing the victim, saying nonsense like if queerbaiting is bad then so is straightbating!! and it’s just going to be so out of touch and pathetic.

It’s not the same. Whatsoever. And the fact that they can’t see that, that one result is lazy writing and one is epic subversion, and are literally making a mockery out of the situation, convinced they’re right bc they have history on their side and gays should just be used to never getting their way and THATS okay to them?

Like it’s almost painful to watch. Especially knowing the 180 they’re gonna pull when they end up in the situation they convinced themselves we were gonna be in.

[jaskierx]

I was a fan of OFMD S1, like, loved it, hyperfixation central, but didn't get involved in fandom beyond tweeting a load of my own meta, then S2 happened, me and my friends just ADORED it, I came online looking for fandom, and it was like '...oh no what's happening'. Finding a few blogs like yours has been a lifeline because I WANT to do fannish things and talk about the show and do meta and suchlike, but there's this huge wave of 'nope nope nope' I've been trying to navigate and avoid. I've been doing fandom fuckery for like fifteen years, so I've seen a lot, and I've seen a lot of shit go down like this, but it still hurts when you have so much joy and love that you just want to share. One thing I will say, for anyone whose losing hope or feeling down, is that it does seem to be a few people being very loud on the internet - I went to comic con in London with a friend to meet some of the cast, and all of the conversations I had in auto/photo queues with other fans were extremely sensible, rational, people talking about how they loved the show, fanning together, and quite a few conversations that were like 'I don't understand what people on the internet are saying, it's really weird?'. Was chatting with someone cosplaying as Calypso's Birthday Izzy, and the topic of the finale came up, and my friend and I were bracing for what the response would be, and they were like 'oh I really loved it, broke my heart but so good, hope we get a season three!'. It's really stark to see the response in person, the level of love and adoration and joy around this show, that really doesn't match up with the internet experience I was having. Anyway, thanks for being a blog I could cling to as I try to find a place in this fandom, and helping be part of a space where people can express and share how much they love this show (and feel like we're not actually going mad for doing so).

💕 thank you anon i'm glad my blog feels welcoming!

one of the main reasons i continue to engage with shit takes etc is bc of the sheer amount of people who have sent asks/dms saying that they feel unable to post izzy critical content or they aren't enjoying engaging with the fandom bc of the amount of izzy-related weirdness that's going on

and it's important for people to be able to see that they're not alone, they're actually part of the majority, it's just that the minority are very good at yelling and harassing anyone who dares to post stuff they disagree with

(that sounds so wanky. i am fully aware i'm sitting on my couch and typing on the fandom website like i promise i'm not under any illusions that this is a whole Cause or anything i just. want folks to be able to post izzy critical meta in the izzy tag without getting bullied for it)

ofmd is an incredibly special show and the fandom is mostly a really nice friendly space with some great art and fics from some of the most talented people i've ever met and really insightful meta and beautiful gifsets and it's such a shame that the whole thing gets tainted by a few idiots

[silentsockfeet]

tlou hbo s1 ep2 thoughts (w/ spoilers)

the opener for this ep was honestly scarier than the first imo, seeing the woman inspect the dead body and find all the signs of infected were SO creepy, and then the slow dawning of fear in her throughout the scene, the quickness with which she both proposed bombing the city and accepted her death. such a good building of suspense throughout

and then also the way her bomb suggestion was a lead into the later conversation with joel tess and ellie about how the cities were bombed. i love that we don’t actually know if jakarta was bombed or not, the idea that everyone came to the same conclusion without following from example is even more harrowing of a reality

ellie all curled up in the grass comfy and asleep i would kill for her i would die for her i want to hold her in my hands and protect her from the world

“fine i’ll just throw a fuckin sandwich at them” I LOVE THIS GODDAMN KID

joel and ellie’s back and forth throughout the ep is so fun i think it does such a good job of setting up their chemistry without getting them to connect to early

the little giraffe toy in the weeds :’(((

tess basically immediately adopting ellie im obsessed. i love that we get to see a bit more of their dynamic than the game bc it really highlights that tess is a good person at heart even if she says otherwise. she connects with ellie quickly, and the way her empathy and hope slowly starts shining through as the ep progresses (and even as she begins to accept her fate) really says so much about her character

“there’s no boyfriend that’ll come after you?” “…..no.”

the foreshadowing of ellie guessing at the infected types is awesome, i love the fact that she technically got them both right. related but i wonder how they’re gonna do infected types like the shamblers if spores aren’t gonna be a thing

that little frog vibin on the piano what a talented little guy

THE HOTEL SCENE IS TOO EARLY i wonder if they’re gonna have a hotel basement scene now?? probably not which kinda makes sense, it’s a scene better played than watched. but it would’ve been cool to see how they did it

love the expansion of the fungus lore, the interconnected-ness of the tendrils is so cool and so goddamn creepy

the entire clicker sequence was SO GODDAMN GOOD. the way tess and joel don’t tell ellie (or the audience) anything about what’s going on really forces us to put ourselves in ellie’s shoes so that we’re as terrified as her. and the fact that there doesn’t need to be a word of dialogue said to get us to figure out how the clickers work is so goddamn impressive, a shining example of ‘show don’t tell’ i think

am sad that no bricks or bottles were thrown tho

the rooftop scene. i could cry with how faithful this show is

the change in dialogue at the capital building,, “i never asked you for anything… not to feel the way i felt…” i am in so much pain.

on that note it’s scenes like these that really make me love this show bc there really is something for everyone. connecting back to the infected lore from earlier was so fucking cool and felt like such a natural change and the changes to tess’s dialogue make the scene so fresh and still impactful for people that already know the game

i love the specific line “save who you can save” because i feel like it does the perfect job of emphasizing how much tess buys into the cure while also setting the stage for joel’s decision down the road. like at the end of the game, joel really does save who he can save, it just isn’t in the way tess intended. it’s a way for him to still hear her words and connect with them but also have the intention twisted

okay bear with me but i actually liked the inclusion of the cordyceps kiss, it takes something that is so normal and even beautiful to us but then perverts it like that’s textbook horror baby!

general overview: how in the hell was this ep even better than the first

[grimxark]

Ok. Part 3 earthspark was so incredibly disappointing. I feel so sad about it because it’s such a promising show.

I kind of ranted abt this to my friend for like an hour as soon as we finished watching but here’s some of my criticism which I may add on to. Or not

Warning for Earthspark s1 p3 spoilers and overall negativity. So sorry!

1. The writing of this part was sooo terrible. So many plotholes so much drama and so much cringe dialogue. I want to give it slack for being a children’s show but! There’s so much here that’s just senseless. I can excuse cringe dialogue but some of it is back to back to back. Like holy shit

2. Hate what they did to Karen. She was this malevolent evil that was being hinted and teased since part 1 and she amounted to literally nothing. She had no motives other than being racist, none that we know of. Maybe her parents died idfc but there are no real motives that she ever makes outright known. And she was being hinted to being this final boss type. Her death had no impact. It felt like a “oh look this is a child’s show turned dark”. Her death promised everything and it delivered nothing.

3. The last 3? Episodes where Twitch take charge feel apocalyptic and it was nice. Twitch and her older sister curse. The last one standing. The one bearing the weight of the family, having all that responsibility because wether you want it or not she is the older sister of the group. She watches everyone she loves simply disappear. She goes through so much trouble and so many plans and then thrash dies protecting her (which doesn’t make sense?? ill go onto this later). So, after she goes through all that trouble, the humans wake up and fix everything in the blink of an eye. and it undoes all this effort and character thrown into Twitch because she isnt the one who finds a way to fix it. it makes the last 3 episodes totally meaningless.

4. how would Thrash's body protect her from the blast. they were closest, and none of the others were protected the same way despite being in close proximity. why did the terrans even get affected by the blast? theyre not energon based. its like, the main plot of the show.

5. mandroid coming in and being like "interesting! for you ive been gone for a day, but under my calculations ive been gone… a year." was funny as hell. why a year?? why not one hundred. or at least fifty. as a lone human he would NOT have been able to convince the sharkticons in a year. and against the quintessons? and all those bodily changes? its so funny how stupidly underwhelming that time is.

6. Robbie's death was stupid. he does a green lantern oath and power up then still loses against megatron (bc its megatron) and then dies and gets revived. theres no shock, you know hell come back. i hoped everyone going "somethings wrong" meant we were going to get a "he died and came back wrong" ordeal but i guess i was expecting too much. also wasnt he dying in one episode. he said "its getting worse" and then he was fine

7. this entire part feels sooo odd to me with the inconsistencies, i wonder if the writers strike has anything to do with it. it almost feels so random. like on the same episode where robbie dies— why were they like "is that the real megatron?" while being scared as if they dont know megatron as a good guy. why would you be scared its the real megatron.

8. final fight felt so rushed. this whole part felt rushed. i wonder if there were budget cuts or if they used their whole budget on the first half of the season.

9. ill say it. maybe you don’t agree with me but. So much of it feels like fanservice. The starscream episode… why would Hashtag be the one to relate to Screamer? Mind control isn’t quite the same as constant abuse. And the entire episode relied a lot on watchers knowing what that relationship was like. In knowing what Starscream and Megatron are like. If you don’t know anything, it just feels odd. Even as a g1 inspired show, where Starscream and Megatron are awful to each other in damn near equal measures. It was a nice episode, I really enjoyed it, but there should’ve been more build up to that.

10. So many of the deleted scenes provide an extra feeling that was missing from the show. I’m really sad at how much potential this show has and how the entirety of parts 1 and 2 were amazing and built up so much and part 3 was just a huge let down with so many inconsistencies and questions left unanswered right after being brought up.

11.

[breadsandwiches]

Wanted to share my tdp playlists bc i honestly like how they turned out! 💃

Some of these were recommended by dragonprinceofficial! (a, c, v, s)

(Very in depth and thought provoking comments about my fave songs under the cut >>>)

AARAVOS

Time, Stars, Universe Pretty ethereal star god vibes

Play with Fire Whatever his beef with the Sunfire peeps, im enjoying it and am glad he is too. slay queen (literally)

Dishonored 2 Main Theme creepy ominous spider-spinning-its-web vibes ok?

Inside the Cage Listen to sexy mental breakdown song.

In the Palace ~ Agitato Creepy fucked up butterfly beast. For context watch HxH, its fun!!! 😀 (< dead inside) Also soundtrack for Aaravos losing his mind in prison and making his puppets dance till their feet bleed! 😍

Adore Adore The story can change at the roll of a dice babeyy 😎 no fr the lyrics are fire

Throne Wrath and violence on planat earth

Nosk Spider-pulling-in-its-prey vibes. Callum wyd 👁👁

Dark Matter The drama.. the vibes.. "bring me your soul bring me your ~HATE~" *insert elmo fire gif*

Black Train/End Credits ~piano~ Also death etc. etc. idek. damn should this be on viren or claudia's playlist instead? 🤔

CLAUDIA

Restless Year I always imagine her dancing or playing the bass to this. Also this song was literally written about her /lie

W.I.T.C.H. We all know this would be on her playlist in a modern au.

My Zero It's fine, she's just gradually losing grip of her family and also herself, she's losing her beginnings 😀👍 ok

Selfless "You're mucking off, but I will live for you, my selfless love". Screaming crying throwing up etc.

Fireflies Nothing to say here except that it's perfect.

A Victory of Love Objectively a bop. Songs that make me Ascend™

Galaxies Honestly im just rlly invested in the modern au where she's a bassist in a cool band and this is one of the songs theyd be playing. but also the lyrics kinda fit

Spanish Sahara She can have a little vengeance as a treat. Also trauma <3

Young and Tragic sad :( baby magefam feels :((

VIREN

The Unquiet Grave he's a corpse 👍

Werewolf Heart Thinking about Harrow, thinking about Lissa maybe. also those wolves and screams?? sir... 🧍‍♂️ Also sexy bass. what more do you want.

Mohammed Most sexy guitar ive ever heard ever im not joking. leave me alone

LA PAURA DEL BUIO lyrics fit pretty well. also this playlist has a criminal lack of angry rock songs

Fight Like Gods Lyrics and such

Way down We Go idk how to describe it without saying the word sexy again :/

The Sun Pretty 😳

Sleep Oughg (< relates a bit too much)

Ashes to Ashes idk man, its just pretty. like Viren <3 <3 <3

Into Dust damn ok tdpo

SOREN

Beautiful Day idk this just has Soren all over to me. the early sunrise wake up feeling, the hopeful optimism idk man

Uptown Funk Originally wasn't putting this in but it is Sooo S1-2 Soren. Also this

Back Against The Wall A+ rec from tdpo

Ode To The Mets I am so normal about this song so normal i listen to it a regular amount haha *insert one of those feral stick figures with blood all over*

Run Magefam feels 💃

Edge of Darkness Next on Songs that make me Ascend™. "I've got love in my heart for an army apart" :(

Fill Your Heart This is one of my fave songs ever its so joyful i love it and I love Soren

Obstacles This song is already Not Ok on its own, but combined with the Soren-Claudia feels it's an atrocity 👍 Songs for floating away on a river never to return

What's Up Ya boy might not always be the brightest but he's definitely the more emotionally intelligent one also i love him so much hhskvhvhhvhvhbv

[willel]

We don’t know the plot of the play or if it’s relevant to S5 but saying that connecting some current events to the past (and more specifically to the adults’) would be a complete retconning is a bit unfair. I remember watching S1 for the first time and wondering what happened between Joyce and Hopper, between Lonnie and Hopper, why has Joyce such a bad reputation in Hawkins but also such strong intuition, what happened to her aunt, why did Hopper feel cursed, and since it looked like Will was targeted, were all these things connected? I’m sure they didn’t have all the details mapped out back then but maybe a general idea (ala Freddy Krueger possibly). Maybe it’s bc I was less focused on the kids than others that I noticed these things.

I didn't say it was all retconning. I said specifically Joyce knowing Bob in high school would be a retcon when it's explicitly stated she did not know him.

With the play being canon and all, going back on that would indeed be a retcon. Not the worst one ever but it does mess with me a little when even smaller details like that get rerewitten later.

Like, Bob had a whole thing about Joyce being the it girl and he was a nobody in high school and was bullied, but now he's a well adjusted dude in the future dating Joyce Byers and he's content. Ya'know? I guess it still works even if they knew each other but....

I also said I'm confused a bit about the timelines. We don't know their exact ages but I thought Henry was a bit younger than Joyce and Hopper so connecting them directly is gonna be odd. I feel like the best route would be indirectly which I described in my other post. Writing in a personal grudge against them is a bit much. But a curse on the whole town because of something loosely related to them? Makes sense.

I think Hopper definitely knew Bob, he even calls him by his bully nickname "Bob the Brain" in season 2. I don't think Hopper himself was a bully but who knows.

Then you got Lonnie. Still don't think there's a direct connection to Henry at this point but I wouldn't be surprised if Lonnie bullied people in school such as Bob or Henry.

Anyway. It doesn't mean I'm not interested in Joyce and Hopper's past. I'm extremely curious since even Winona and David talk about it all the time. I just hope they keep everything in line since this is supposed to be a canon play. There is much to learn here but I will write some of it off if it starts contradicting the show itself like many of the comics.

While I am expecting to find out Henry's reasoning for all this, I don't expect we'll be learning why Will was targeted. They seem to be saving that for season 5. But I think we can get some clues.

I think we'll discover Henry's "trigger", what made him realize he had powers. We'll find out his moment that made him so sad and angry.

If I were to try and relate this to my own theories, such as Will having powers, it'd be pretty important to figure out what kind of person as potential and how to bring that out of someone in ways besides experimentation.

Finding out about Joyce's past in particular is a curious subject. They've hinted at family issues in the past. When Joyce was so persistent that she sensed Will around before but couldn't anymore, Lonnie immediately brings up, "Maybe it's like your aunt", implying her aunt "sensed" stuff or was generally a weirdo or had mental issues, which Joyce immediately denies.

That could be "connecting things to the past" leading to the reason why Will was targeted if Joyce passed along some potential powers to him or something.

I dunno. We shall have to see~

[winderlylandchime]

I wrote this all out while pretending to work and actually working so it’s a little all over the place. But now I’m laughing reading it back because it genuinely looks like one of the “check up” texts I send to mom/dad about my brother. Minus the qaf related topics at the end. Anyway, hi! Hope you’re doing well and had a good start of the week! And now back to the idiot I’m related to:

Take a guess who has been listening to Lover’s spit sincere yesterday? I’m talking sitting outside, drinking his coffee while it’s absolutely freezing and listening to Lover’s spit like he’s in some sad music video. (Btw the songs he listened to were Lover’s spit, you look so fine (which was in like s1 so he was really going through it), Save the last dance, Here nor there and true faith. And this was on a loop!) And the only thing he has “said” to me so far is just a simple lip smack with a side eye whenever he looks at me. So i’d say he is doing as expected but he’s also upset with me for making him like the show (bc yeah, i did that. I made him have a crush on Brian)

He also has bunch of doctor check ups today and I can only drop him off and later pick him up since my work is hectic since holiday’s are coming up. And ngl i am keeping all the doctors and nurses in my thoughts today. Usually (even tho it doesn’t look like it) i stop him or at least limit his ramblings so i have no clue how today will go. He might surprise me and behaves like an adult. Also he said that he barely slept overnight because he kept thinking about what could happen in the last 3 episodes and in case you wanted to know, he told me that through the cat. As in ‘Brian, guess who didn’t sleep today cause of Justin and the other Brian? That’s right, me’ and yes, it was said in a baby voice. I did also get a text from his friend asking me if he’s doing okay cause apparently he sent him a voice memo “talking about Brian and how he’s really worried about him” and my brother has absolutely no memory of even sending that. All this is just after 5x09. I am mentally not prepared for him after the finale.

But to answer some of your questions since I didn’t have the chance to yesterday: He only watches the American RuPaul. And he watched season 5 because of Jinkx (on Saturday he watched the video they did with Trixie a few years ago so he started to miss them). And yes, he has managed to drag the entire family into qaf although grandma has no fucking clue what or who he’s talking about so she just nods her head and smiles. And grandpa only knows about it through grandma who is even less reliable than my brother. But he is very happy that he found a hobby even tho at first he thought Brian was his friend. So basically: yes, he has made it everyone’s problem.

And you saying he’s just like Debbie if she was a man made me laugh so hard cause I’ve been thinking the same thing! Im glad someone agrees with me. And I’m happy(?) to report that 3 of our cousins and our aunt(!) actually got in trouble with our grandpa because it turns out they had bets going on if he’ll figure out by the end of the show that he might be a little queer. And then during a family dinner last week it was revealed that it was our uncle who was the one behind the bets and it was his husband who exposed him (yes the uncles whose wedding he went to with rainbow hair). And no it was not cause he thought the bets were immature but because my uncle didn’t let him be in charge with him. So I’d say the whole family is kinda waiting to see what happens and also treating it like their personal entertainment since we do tend to be more chill with these topics (which is such a huge blessing and we really are lucky about the fact that they dont even bat an eye at anything queer related including coming outs). Also I honestly have no idea how he will react to the proposal. I keep trying to think about it and I can never pinpoint his reaction. His reaction to the comic book was as if he saw the worst thing ever so we shall see. Which tbh same, i always hated that cover story :/

As for the Gale/Randy/Hal thing: first of, I didn’t expect that people were going to later talk about it to you so i hope I didn’t cause problems for you of any kind. But I do admit that even years later, it’s still a topic that has me curious since we know so little and since the lack of social media meant they (aka hal) was shady in interviews. Who does that omg? But also: i was so shocked when he said that. Wish you could see him cause he really had that look in his eyes as if he was there and saw them arguing every day and had inside knowledge and like I was the one who didn’t know anything about qaf. You could literally see the wheels turning in his head trying to figure out if he was right or not. I do wonder how he will feel about it once I tell him the little info I know about.

Btw, im glad to hear you cat is doing well. It is the absolute worst when an animal is sick since they can’t tell you what’s wrong. So please give Emmett some kisses and pets!

Oh and the most important part: your little teasers about your fic are making me lose my mind. Nonbinary Gus?! Older Brian?? I might lose my mind completely when i get the chance to read it.

Anon! I was just texting Europe about your brother. It’s now 12:45 as I start to write this and look:

I’m so glad you wrote because I wanted to remind you and let you make a decision based on whether he’s been paying attention to the titles.

I’m sorry I find it so funny he’s angry with YOI for making him care so much about this show and fall in love with Brian. It’s like when my dogs are mad at me for the rain. (If you’re doing math I have 2 dogs, 2 cats, all rescues because some lesbian stereotypes are accurate.)

Your family is taking bets about whether your brother is going to come out as so form of queer? I love that! Way better than the qaf family taking bets about how long Justin and Brian were going to last.

Don’t worry about mentioning the drama from the cast! I’m still so impressed with how insightful your brother is and how much he’s picked up on everything that the fandom discusses at length. The dynamics between the cast were bound to be one.

Emmett the cat continues to do well and come back from poor pathetic sickly mewmew to absolute bastard of a cat. We love to see it.

I am hoping to start posting my fic next week. I was hoping to have more done but oh well! I need the pressure of readers to focus lol. I’m so glad you’re excited!

[dulcewrites]

Honestly speaking I am so glad you decided to write something about Aegon. I have always preferred him to Aemond even after they made him a rapist. Still, I think he is far more interesting than Aemond, mostly because I am also the eldest child and can relate to him in a way of never being good enough for parents. Well that's a harsh reality, all the parents expectations lies on firstborn shoulders and when they don't meet them well... it's not that we don't want to, cause we want, but at some point you realise it's not worth trying anymore because you will never feel validated. Simple as that. What do you think of show Aegon? They did their best to make audience hate him but as I said I could never since I understand very well where is his behaviour coming from. What do you think will Aegon do in 2 season? Any theories about his storyline? Have a wonderful day 😘

First, I hope you have a great day too.

Aegon… interesting lmao. his arc in s1 isn’t far off from the bad stuff said about him in the book (though the writers def added/compounded stuff). It’s just jarring compared to the way they characterized almost everyone else. I can’t blame people, for the most part, who do not like him bc the writers did him as a character no favors. Even Tom was surprised they’d open older Aegon with the scenes they did

I’ve seen way more interesting prose on him from the fandom compared to the writers. I think they should’ve switched the first meetings we got from young and older Aegon. I think they could’ve given the weird masturbaiting scene to older Aegon (if they just HAD to make sure people knew he was sex crazed or whatever). So it would go like

Ep 6: bulling Aemond with strong boys, “you are the challenge” scene with Alicent

Ep 7: him bored at the funeral/we see him beginning to drink to self sooth. him saying he doesn’t want to marry Helaena (I think we should’ve gotten more outside of ‘she’s weird’. I think showing Aegon’s aversion to this level of incest compared to Rhaenyra being groomed/thinking she needs daemon for legitimization would’ve been super interesting foils), Aegon realizing his mom was right/“just look at them”

Ep 8: scrap the **** scene. Put the masturbation scene here. We can still get the scene of Alicent telling him he needs to behave better especially with team black around, add a scene with Helaena and or kids idc which, him helping Aemond after the speech

Ep 9: I’m pretty ok with how ep 9 went for Aegon minus the weird brothel implication. I still think they could’ve worked in Aegon having bastards outside of the child fighting ring. Nonetheless I enjoy him being very honest/self aware about not wanting to rule

As for season 2, I think his most interesting dynamics will always be family related. I’m still waiting for a scene with him a Helaena or the kids. I do think Aegon’s ability to actually go out and fight his own battles is a strong suit, so I hope we see that. I would like a scene or SOMETHING, maybe a flashback between him and Rhaenyra.. I mean this is all about them. Oh and sunfryre of course. The special affects people better be perfecting the most beautiful dragon in the world!

[eloquentgifs]

I'm going to say things bc that's how I cope.

As a person who thinks that if you're going to do something you should do it right, I can't help it, it bothered me how sloppy this season felt. Of course I fully blame HBO and their cheapness, but it stills bothers me. Not only we got two episodes less than s1, but the 8 we got were shorter, and you can tell. I also blame the budget cuts for the constant yet unnecessary flashbacks, and the weird editing, and the anticlimatic pace. In any case, I want to highlight the things I did like, because I fucking love this show and Im sure that after a rewatch or two I'll be less angry, so let's stay positive:

Since it seems they were having trouble to get the complete cast together in one plot, I do love they kinda let them have their spotlight one by one. Like, Frenchie in the first episodes, Wee John as Calypso, Lucius with his PTSD in ep5... It's not the same as s1, but it's something.

I've seen people complaining about this, but Im happy they didnt invest too much time on the forgiving process. I like it better when everyone gets along fine, and in the end they're pirates and they never seemed to be the kind of people who hold grudges, so yeah lets skip to the nice part.

I did like a lot what they did with Izzy. I don't care if it happened too quick or what, I used to feel indiference towards him and this season I actually enjoy his scenes a lot. I still dont know how I feel about his death tho. It bothered me a little that the whole scene was more about Ed than Izzy himself, but in the end I always saw Izzy as a narrative tool in Ed's arc more than as a character of his own, so I guess it makes sense.

Super happy with the music choices, and also the new outfits.

Really, the first five episodes were absolutely brilliant.

It made me so happy they got Bronson Pinchot as Ned Low.

Huge fan of Zheng Yi Sao and Auntie.

Im so fucking furious at Taika Waititi for his pro-Israel shit that seeing Pop Pop attacking him gave me some sort of inner peace.

Now, things I wished had been done differently: - There were a lot of paralelisms with s1, which is good, but I'd like they brought back more actual elements of s1 into play. Like, the lighthouse painting, the secret wardrobe, the pink robe, a third Badmington (he would have work better as big bad than this prince ricky guy I dont really care about?). Frenchie singing again. This oneis a reach, but I would love to have Mary Bonnet back. And I was really hoping they play with the fact that Stede is "dead". The guy doesnt even mention the Master Fuckery from ep10.

-On that note, I was a little dissapointed on Jim's arc. I was never that invested on them or their plot in s1, but it feels weird how this season it seems like none of that even happened. Even Jim felt like a different character. I feel it would worked better if some of the conflict was related to Siete Gallos stuff, so at least it would feel all of that subplot wasnt a waste of time.

-Little missing opportunities of making me happy: Anne Bonny and Mary Read mentioning Jack (to insult him, mostly); they kissing when the house is on fire; Ed finding not just one letter but the whole pile of them; a better narrative use for Seagull Buttons (well, any narrative use, really); developing the bombclocks thing in a way where Auntie was not deprived of her superhuman detective skills; having Ned Low as bigger villain, with several appearances.

-The general development of Ed/Stede in the final episode... It's just confusing to me. My reading of Stede's mind state was that he was on autopilot since he killed Ned Low, and being abandoned by Ed and having his ass kicked by Zheng would wake him up a little, but this episode he's still in PROBLEM SOLVER mode, zero regrets about anything, still hasn't talked anything through EVER, he's just fine. With Ed I dont even ask for coherence bc he's always been a wtf guy, but I dont understand the "just do whatever you're good at" thing in the beginning of the episode, and he claiming back his leathers and his pirate-self and going on berserker mode and fighting along Stede as equals and blablabla if at the end he's still chosing to be a fucking innkeeper. Also, having a shitty inn in the middle of nowhere sounds too close to the antique shop in ep4, didn't they learn ANYTHING from Mary and Anne? I mean, the innkeeping was a predictible outcome, but the setting up of the episode was really aiming to the opposite, so it feels weird to me. In any case, I'm happy they're together and if being absolutely on their own in the loneliest house in the world doesn't get them to improve their communication, idk what else they could do.

-Still think they should have been lighthouse keepers instead.

-Next season Im totally muting every OFMD tag as soon as they announce the trailer release, because the promo and bts content was absolutely TOO MUCH. Those fuckers had been showing us stuff from the very climax of the fucking last episode since weeks before the season aired. I get it's a me problem, but I do believe it ruined my experience a lot, so fuck that.

And well. That's it. Good season, could have been great. Im happy but sad. Let's just hope that, if there's a season 3, they gave them more money and time to do it properly.

And before I post this and run away from tumblr, Im checking out how much of my wishlist had been fulfilled: - LUCIUS IS ALIVE - Stede Bonnet, berserker era [Not as I imagined, but hey] - The Queen Anne’s Revenge, either being captured or coming back as the ship Ed left behind when he went to The Revenge - The Blockade of Charleston (and make really absurd) [Still might happen in the future?] - Anne Bonny and Mary Read(as middle aged women who kinda mirror Ed and Stede, but they did it right) - Since he was already mentioned in s1, it would make sense introducing Hornigold, maybe as a new antagonist or something. - A rip off of that wwdits episode with the Vampire Council, except this time is the Pirate Council and its members are pirates from other movies and shows [I was really dreaming big here] - On that note, a really weird episode with every person who has played Blackbeard in recent years [Fully tripping] - More women and more asian characters. And more people speaking their mother tongues [So many Chinese gals, not one chinese word :(] - Ed finding out about Stede’s death and believing it [It did happened but not how/when we thought] - Ed meeting Mary and getting along [Never losing hope on this one] - Frenchie adopting a cat (and singing a song about it). - More info about everyone’s pasts. - I would LOVE having Bartholomew Roberts in the show. [YES PLEASE]