#but I need to do a full rewatch to really dissect and see if what I'm feeling is correct

[kmze]

Thoughts on 1x12-1x22! Tbh I'm happy to be done with S1 while I liked the nostalgia, I have some gripes with this season and IMO it's really not one my favorites in the overall series (I know that's controversial). The mythology was great and I loved the magical macguffins but it's just so dramatic all the time I felt. My memory of this season is terrible and I had forgotten a lot of movement in the plot so sometimes I felt like I was watching something new. S2 will probably be easier for me to get through. More under the cut and remember these are all my opinion and I am not here to argue about them :)

Yeah I completely forgot it was Anna who turned Logan and her dumb henchmen. Will miss her, she knew how to use minions to not get her hands dirty.

I really felt bad for Jeremy. His relationship with Anna was cute but tragic and then he has to deal with his sister lying to him all the time. Then giving him sad eyes to please forgive her she was just protecting him *rolls eyes* he should have gotten the chance to kill Damon at least once.

I love how uneasy Uncle John makes Damon. He's the only one who is unmoved by his attempts at charm and you can see how much it annoys Damon that he knows EVERYTHING. I also appreciate that John doesn't care that everyone hates him. Just a man on a mission.

It was jarring how long Bonnie was gone but could not help but clap at how she was like 'fuck y'all' when she returned after what happened to Grams. I did not remember this and was very pleased with the development! I also forgot the awful wig they gave her when she returned (thankfully it looked much better in the finale) Kat should have sued.

I swear there was a founding-family-mystic-falls-event every single episode in the second half of the season and that plot device has really started to run it's course for me. Unfortunately I've got at least two more seasons of it I think *deep sigh*

My god do I hate Matt and Caroline, I hate the way they frame EVERYTHING with Caroline having to be ‘notElena’ with him. I especially got annoyed in 1x14 when she had to keep giving him “speeches” to apologize for BEING HERSELF. Especially apologizing for the hand holding like Matt doesn’t constantly make her feel inadequate next to Elena. Matt telling Caroline he just needed to be alone after they found Vicki's body and then when he sees Elena he hugs her is just cruel.

The overall treatment of Caroline this season was honestly the worst part for me. The fact that they have her say "I'm a terrible awful person but I'm working on it" ?? In what context is Caroline an awful person especially on a show where characters are literal serial killers. This is exactly where the "Caroline was annoying in S1 but got better" nonsense comes from. When really she was just a 17 year old girl with a type A personality. This is probably the biggest reason I struggled watching this season. It just all felt very deliberate in the way it was written, to make the viewer think Caroline is annoying.

Stefan was better in the second half of the season but it was so LOL that the moment he started being a little fun Elena was like "what's wrong with you" HA! Of course something was wrong and kudos to Paul because the Stefan-blood-addiction storyline was really well done . I always liked how it was played as an addiction (and even better in S6 when they confirm it was a genetic thing with Lily as addiction is usually genetic). I have seen most of those scenes tons of times but watching them in succession again made me appreciate it again.

I truly don't like Damon :-/ his only purpose for me currently is he makes me laugh. I can't stand how he acts like he knows everything and is orchestrating everything when really he's kind of a moron and extremely impulsive. Genuinely what was his plan killing John and throwing him off the roof at the 8th straight founding family function? I wish Bonnie had kept her energy from 1x22 and killed him.

This is probably just bias and age but I don't care about the triangle at all. It's just kinda there doesn't move me. Stefan and Elena are very serious all the time (there is so much hugging). Then there's Damon and Elena who just eye-thing each other in every scene they share. Though I will say her wishy-washiness made it easier to believe she actually kissed Damon.

Katherine's reveal is still one of the best moments of the series (best part of season by far!) It was so funny watching the scene too knowing it's Katherine and how she just looked all moody as Damon gives her all the details she needs with zero strain on her part. Then when she says to Aunt Jenna "I don't want to talk about it" like a moody teenager LMFAO. I love her.

Lines that made me laugh:

Damon: Let's not kill anyone tonight. Your words. Just pointing that out. (ah the good ol' days when I enjoyed the Damon/Alaric friendship)

Stefan: You mean we did all that dancing for nothing (I know I keep saying he’s too serious but he is funny in a self-deprecating way)

[santacoppelia]

The HUGE analysis - This season starts and ends with a discussion, doesn't it?

Ok, my loves. This was one of the really long metas I've been working with, and probably the one that has taken me the longest (because it depended a lot on rewatching the season time and again).

I couldn't help to notice that the fist interaction Aziraphale and Crowley have in season 2 is a fight, really. Yeah, we have the beautiful “in the beginning” sequence, with both of them being angels and happy and all the such (oh, how lovely, Neil Gaiman planting the seeds of why it will matter to us that Aziraphale will not be fighting the idea of inviting Crowley to Heaven, because he remembers that happy, careless guy). But after the intro, we see them having a big disagreement… And we end the season in the biggest disagreement they have had, probably, in 6,000 years.

I love over-analyzing and dissecting narratives and characters, and more so if I can use only what we’ve been shown in the screen. Therefore, I believe that the first fight of the season tells us a lot of the things we will need to know to understand the final fight of the season between them. Let’s take a look, shall we?

The first fight is motivated by having an amnesiac Gabriel in the bookshop.

They see the same circumstance: Gabriel in the bookshop means trouble with Heaven. He is also an individual risk, because he has menaced Aziraphale directly (well, Crowley under the visage of Aziraphale).

It affects each of them differently: even when they both panic, Aziraphale feels compelled to be kind to Gabriel (gives him a blanket and hot cocoa) while Crowley has a full-on panic induced reaction and gets defensive.

They propose opposite solutions: Azi wants to do the Good thing, taking the “higher road” (help Gabriel), while Crowley wants to do His Own thing: “Protect the precious, peaceful, fragile existence I have carved for myself”

At that moment, Aziraphale corrects him and marks a “we”, which is very interesting. But immediately after that, Aziraphale gets all "my way or the highway".

Crowley asks for clarification, with a well-leveled tone of voice: “Is this how it is going to go?”

Azi clarifies "no, I want you to help me!" But then he does the passive-aggressive thing: "if you won't, you won't". (oh, Aziraphale, how you triggered me here, my dear chap. I was angry at the character the first 6 times I saw this)

Therefore, Crowley is out. He marks a clear limit: “I won't. You are on your own”, and then storms out. No Eccles cakes would help him: he needs a breather and counting to 10. That doesn't help either.

Crowley only comes back after gaining an extra perspective: the "extreme sanctions" talk with Beelzebub.

When he comes back, Aziraphale will stand his ground: he feels he deserves an apology, which is delivered via a “I was wrong, you were right” literal admission (even when he probably wasn't "right", but that's their way... And they've been doing it since 1650, or so they say). Then they are able to work together again.

Now, let’s see how this dynamic plays out in their last discussion of the season:

They come from different sides of the same experience: Crowley went to Heaven to investigate and learned about the plans to continue with the end of the world, while Aziraphale stayed defending the bookshop. Then Crowley saves the humans, while Aziraphale solved the Beelzebub + Gabriel affair.

They haven’t had time to talk, as they get interrupted by The Metatron. While he takes Aziraphale, Crowley receives a visit from Maggie and Nina.

Each one of them gained an extra different perspective: Azi, the Metatron proposal (and veiled menace); Crowley, the pep talk/scolding from the couple they were trying to get together.

This makes them develop different solutions:

Crowley wants to finally admit what Azi has been saying all the season: they are a "we" (Azi said so when Crowley talked about his “precious, peaceful, fragile existence”; he said it again when talking about “our car” and reinforced it with the bookshop)

Azi wants to take the "higher road": go to Heaven, reinstate Crowley as an angel, so they can still work together.

Crowley sees the “usual dynamic” of their disagreements coming: it will be Azi’s way (or the highway). That has happened before, in front of our eyes, and not only in this season: it happened also in season 1, but we have already attested that it is still happening, and it is even “worse” (Aziraphale being a little “petty” with the “if you do, it is fine, but if you won’t, you are on your own” in the Gabriel discussion).

Crowley gets indignant. He asks, tentatively, if he told him where to stick it… And then he reinforces his belief. We are better than that, YOU are better than that, you don’t need them, I don’t need them; then he makes the first mention of the offer of getting back to Hell (which he hadn’t shared with Aziraphale), and makes a new point: I said no, neither should you!

Aziraphale goes back to the “you are the bad guys!” thing. Heaven being the side of Truth, of Light, of Good… It is not the propaganda Crowley needed for this move.

Crowley then clarifies the fallacy in his logic: when Heaven ends life on Earth, it’ll be just as dead as if Hell ended it.

Aziraphale then sees the "undesirable result" coming: Crowley is not going to accept, not with that argument.

Crowley makes his plead grow in urgency: Tell me you said no.

Aziraphale’s pitch of voice goes high (usually used as a sign of distress): “If I’m in charge, I can make a difference.”

Crowley understands. This is his “my way or the highway” moment. That’s why he comes up with the courage to make his half-proposal-half admission.

Crowley never gets to state out loud the “I want us to be together in a formal way” part. His voice breaks before he does so. He mentions all of the reasons they have to stay together, which Aziraphale already knows: we have been together for a long time, we’ve been a group (“our own side” was the way he always said it before) and we’ve spent our existence pretending that we aren’t (Azi also knows that! He has been working hard into making Crowley notice it!)

You can see, when they shoot Aziraphale’s face, he squints a little during that moment: maybe questioning, a little disbelief? As usual with Michael Sheen, it is a blink it and you’ll miss it moment.

After the grunt, Crowley proposes his alternative solution: going off together, using Beelzebub & Gabriel as an example that they could.

Therefore, what Aziraphale has just listened is what he already knew: yes, they are a “we”. Crowley wants to run away (he had proposed it twice during the Armageddidn’t, another pattern they have already established).

The next step is the usual way for Aziraphale: he reinforces his proposal: come with me, to Heaven. Ill’ run it, you can be my second in command. This idea has rubbed me wrong since the first time I watched this scene. Why remark the hierarchy? (not to say that I’m in Crowley’s side in here, but… It was weird and uncomfortable to think of them in a vertical power structure; they have always been equals).

Then, he goes back to making a difference, only it is “we” this time. Crowley is noticing he won’t back down… But Aziraphale usually doesn’t.

“You can’t leave this bookshop” works as a representation, a figure of speech. “This Bookshop” is “This life we have been building”, and they both understand it as such.

“Oh, Crowley… Nothing lasts forever…” For Aziraphale, it means he can leave this for something greater. For Crowley, it means… Actually, the same. But without him. Because he knows the “my way or the highway” side of Aziraphale, and none of them will budge. Aaaaand… that’s Crowley heart breaking. The rest of the scene happens with Crowley in “breakup mode”.

Aziraphale is used to “the discussion dance”. He Insists, “Crowley! Come back, to Heaven, work with me! We can be together, Angels! Doing good!”. He promises all he can: “come back, work with me, we can be together”, which have always been Crowley’s triggers to change his mind. However, the problem lies within the “angels doing good”. That’s the part that Aziraphale would need to let go before getting back to Crowley.

And then, he breaks down: “I need you!!” That has always worked! Aziraphale knows that Crowley loves being needed, he won’t leave his angel when in need, right?

And then, he gets angry. And he questions if Crowley has understood what he is offering, which transforms in an “I don’t think your exactly and my exactly are the same exactly” all over again.

Crowley is already brokenhearted, so he answers truthfully, as far as he knows. He understands how terrible the offer of going back to heaven is for both of them, and is not aware of the veiled threat in Metatron’s offer. He knows that going back to Heaven is a non-negotiable boundary, and Aziraphale is absolutely determined to cross it.

Aziraphale, then, does his passive-aggressive shit again: “I guess there is nothing more to say”. My guy, my love, you need to become better at negotiating with your loved one.

This is where Crowley decides to show, don’t tell, the hurt: no nightingales. And then… The “You idiot. We could have been… us” (no, you couldn’t, it was always too late!!! First the pandemic, which I’ve decided to treat as canon, then Gabriel. They never stood a chance).

In this context, Crowley’s kiss is a desperate way to say good-bye to the person he cared most for the last 6,000 years; also an angry way to regain some semblance of control and affect Aziraphale; and a final way to get some “closure”. Is there desire? Is there love? Maybe. But they are lost in a cocktail of emotions that have been stated during the rest of the discussion.

The angry “I forgive you”, which is also a usual dynamic for Aziraphale when he is angry with Crowley, gets there too late for Crowley to react to. He has already “checked out”. That’s why the “don’t bother” feels almost like an afterthought and comes after a small sigh.

After watching this 16 times, I’m pretty confident that the first thing Aziraphale mouths is a “no…” and then… he sobs a little. Michael Sheen, you’re a beautiful actor. The rest of it is a masterclass in using microexpressions to convey a whirlwind of emotions in under 2 minutes.

Sooooo... Did I hurt my own emotions while writing this? Yes. Did I absolutely need to do so? Also yes. Even when I like doing intertextual readings (and that's why I like bringing some theology to some of my musings), reading what is in "the text" (in the scenes we have watched, in the dialogues we've been shown) gives me an enormous amount of pleasure, and I find a lot of comfort in believing that most of the things that I'll need to understand and enjoy a great piece of media are being given to me inside it. And I believe Good Omens is a great piece of media!!

I have no Shakespeare to offer you this time. Let me know what you think!!

[lenaboskow]

gay!eddie is happening in the near future, a post brought to you by someone who spends way too much time dissecting queer media (and usually ends up being at least half right)

bear with me, it's a long one under the cut

i have a longer, more scene specific post that i will finish during the break if nothing happens tonight but i am a full believer that eddie's big arc this season (or next season, depending) is that the reason none of his past relationships worked out is because he's gay (not bi, gay)

disclaimers: i fully believe eddie loved shannon, just not the way he wanted to. you can also be gay and still enjoy heterosexual sex. sometimes sex really is just sex. this post is purely about romantic attraction.

I also tried to leave as much out about buck as possible (though that's hard, the man is obviously an integral part of his life) because gay!eddie diaz will happen no matter if buddie is endgame, and people need to realize that. their sexualities are more than just about each other.

anyways, on to the post-

it's canon that eddie will put christopher first when it comes to deciding relationships, and i think we first see that with shannon. rewatching season 2, i didn't get the impression that he wanted a romantic relationship with her, but he wanted her back in his son's life, and to eddie, those two go hand in hand.

and, if we're being honest, i think eddie's habit of putting other people first is the whole reason he got with shannon, because his family taught him that he was supposed to find a nice girl and settle down. who better to do that with than his best friend? my theory is further proven when shannon gets pregnant and eddie marries her out of a sense of duty, and then immediately ships off to afghanistan under the pretense of "providing" (and isn't it something that he picks a profession where he'll be away from his family for months at a time)

the only reason eddie returned is because of the helicopter crash, to which shannon immediately started talking about moving to california. while i believe that wanting to rest after the crash could be part of the reason he was hesitant, i think there was also a fear of what would happen when he was no longer near his family he was trying to please.

of course, eddie eventually moves to la after getting a job offer from both lafd and chicago. carla mentions that it is only thirty minutes from shannon, and while that could be because he wanted to reconcile, i think it was more to do with wanting to have his son's mother near. that, and lafd is the best in the world (according to eddie)

eddie only kisses shannon in 2x07 after she does her family interview for the school. this specific fact coupled with the absence of the eddie diaz heart eyes™️ (which, despite his closing off at the beginning of the series, we'd already seen in 2x01 when he and buck call truce) makes me believe he realized he could trust her and wanted her back in his son's life, and the way to do that was to get back together.

"but they hid their relationship for a while" eddie was still scared. comphet is a real thing, and causes people to act on things they necessarily don't want. i believe he pursued a romantic relationship with shannon because that's what she wanted, and if he kept her happy, she wouldn't leave again. this is why i wish we could've seen divorced shannon/eddie instead of her dying immediately, and i wonder if maybe it would've sped up the whole deconstruction process for him.

the next time eddie dates, it's with ana. on paper, ana is the perfect wife for him. she's a teacher, knows how to handle kids, is latina, the whole package. eddie tries so hard to make it work, that it actually does, and this causes him to panic. both carla and buck tell eddie not to take just chris into consideration, but to make sure he wants it too, and after some time, he breaks it off with her. the way ana reacted to the breakup makes me wonder if she could also sense the reason for the breakup.

marisol is where it starts to get tricky, but i feel like we've seen enough (or not enough) in these four episodes to piece some information together. chris is the one who encourages eddie to call her, and that makes me wonder if that's the reason they're still together. before the promo of the bucktommy date eddie and marisol crash, we only got two mentions of marisol, and both times was in relation to her helping with chris. at this point, eddie has spent more time with tommy than he has with marisol, as far as we're aware.

the synopsis of tonight's ep says that eddie and marisol "take a closer look at their relationship" and given that we haven't seen much of them on screen, it makes me wonder what this could be about. does it maybe have something to do with them crashing the bucktommy date?

obviously, i wouldn't be mad if eddie turned out to be bi. however, to me, all of his relationships seem be a big case of comphet. speaking from experience, as someone who's pursued relationships with men purely because that's what i was expected to do, not because i actually wanted to be with them. and just like eddie, there was a time where if my best friend (who was of the opposite gender) had asked me out, I would've said yes and married him had it come to that, because it would've made my family happy. i've gotten to a point where i don't care what my conservative family thinks or wants, and i truly believe that this season, we'll see eddie get to that place to.

if you've made it this far, thank you for listening, and here's to hoping we get gay!eddie tonight.

tag: @queeredmundo

[mulderscully]

been rambling in @chasingfictions inbox about this for like days and i can't shut up abt it so i'm making everyone else part of it too.

i rewatched fool for love (again) and i am always struck by william and what his last night as a human was before he was turned. i really just love to pick him apart like a little bird i am dissecting in biology class.

just thinking about how the last thing he ever did as a human being was walk down the street, crying. sat in an alley alone, crying. william was made to be so small as a human. he was made fun of for his soft heart and his sensitivity. he was william the bloody awful poet. people would rather have spikes in their head than listen to him. he was laughed out of the room, he was laughed out of humanity.

william gets turned and he reclaims william the bloody, he reclaims and becomes spike and wears it as an armor. he's the Big Bad now. he's not only a vampire, he's a slayer killer. he is someone frightening, someone important. he can kill the slayer and he can protect all of vampire-kind. becoming a vampire made him feel powerful for once, and he could shove little tear stained william all the way back and pretend he isn't him anymore.

and he succeeds.

then he meets buffy. the slayer. he kills slayers, and he plans to kill her until angel decides he wants to destroy the world and spike likes the world. for selfish and evil reasons he loves the world - but he loves it. and he has to team up with buffy to do so (and buffy needs him too) and that encounter changes his worldview in a way he couldn't have expected, doing good and being around someone good reminded him of who he is, deep down. william is still there, he was always there.

but that's embarrassing so he represses it for years, doubles down on being evil until he has the chip in his head and CANNOT be a killer, and the true version of him claws it's way to the surface the more good he does. there is william and there is the actual, physical demon inside him. but demon is losing. it's still there and he can't express his love the right way and the part of him that is still good knows that which is why him falling in love with buffy is so sad obsessive and frenzied. and he's not even happy about it, he's horrified.

but that porch scene. that porch scene where he walks up so angry, so intent on killing her. so much bravado, so much anger on his face. but he can't do it! he walks up to her and sees her alone, crying just like he was 100 years ago and he recognizes himself in her. he sees her: he sees himself.

he too had a dying mother once, he too felt all alone once. you SEE him understand her and reconnect with william in that moment and embrace it. he puts the gun down and tries to comfort buffy the way no one ever comforted him.

throughout s6 we see buffy struggling with her own darkness, her feelings of disgust and complete apathy that present themselves in how she treats spike and how their relationship is. spike wants her to stop fighting this darkness and learn to embrace it. but on the other hand, spike also has to accept and love his own light before their relationship can reach its full potential. their relationship is about becoming and you cannot be whole while ignoring either part of you.

spike has spent 100 years pretending william doesn't exist. even his "love isn't brains" speech is off. he's wrong there, as we see when he gives his speech to buffy and says he understands exactly what she is.

he has furthered himself from that part of him as much as he could, by choice! but by falling in love with buffy he realized that he cannot outrun who he really is. she had revealed him and it's so frustrating and embarrassing for him because this was the ONE thing he ever had. the one thing that made him powerful and revered, killing slayers! and he's in love with her and he wants to help her, he wants her to be free and happy and have what she deserves in life and in order to do that he has to let this version of spike that he carefully created go. and he knows that when he gets his soul back william will surge forward again. he knows, to a degree, what will happen. and he still says "make me what i was, so buffy can get what she deserves." because william may have been made fun of, he may have been soft but he was a good man. he CHOOSES to become that again. he chooses light, he chooses trying to make amends.

yes, he goes into it angry because it's not a choice that was easy or happy for him, it was simply what he had to do and that's what makes it so profound. he spent a century pushing william away and it took buffy one encounter to drag him out, just by trusting him to do good with her one time. the mortifying ordeal of being known 1000x.

[callsign-relic]

wow!! thank you for writing such a comprehensive response- i love hearing other peoples opinions about things, it's always fascinating to see what people pick up from the same piece of media!!

i agree with a TON of your points, even if they didnt detract from my personal enjoyment of the movie shfjdbdj (i. genuinely could not stop talking for about 4 hours after watching it ;-;)

i especially agree about the fast pacing and the way B and Elita didn't do much in the story; the same can be said for a lot of the other non-main characters, which is somewhat understandable because the movie is framed as being focused on Orion and D-16's relationship and the destruction of, but still!! As a Jazz and Soundwave enjoyer I was. both delighted and dying. I want to see more of the High Guard/Decepticons! What little we saw of them was... compelling, but I would have LOVED if they dug into that more. The reveal of the High Guard sorta came out of nowhere for me (especially the fact that they ALSO saw Sentinel's betrayal???????)

Like you said, if this were a show it would have given more time for emotions (and concepts!) to feel more impactful and- with what they did with the characterisation in the short amount of screentime each character had?? I WANT THAT SHOW. I want to know MORE about the world and the characters!!!!! Also Shockwave was a whiny little bitch in this and I love him.

I actually think that D-16's turn to anger and violence was pretty well foreshadowed and played out nicely in terms of seeing how his views got turned around, but I also EXTREMELY agree that his constant anger gave the climax less of a punch. Again: pacing TuT!!!

I'm actually planning to watch the movie again, but for the opposite reason LMAO. I feel like I got TOO hyped and now I want to go back and dissect the movie now I'm calmer 😂 Evidently I am. still pretty excited, considering the length of this ask which im cutting off now because you can't put a readmore on these oh my god AHHH

- init

Ahhh ofc! It means a lot that you wanted to hear my thoughts!!!

Omg the brainrot hit you hard HAHAHA. My sister and I were talking about the movie the entire way home!!

I agree about this tbh! The movie was indeed focused on Orion and D’s relationship, so it makes sense that that was the main focal point. I just wish the other characters had a little more time to shine since they were there anyway you know? And about the High Guard, right!!! They came out of literally nowhere HAHA. Literally jumped out and kidnapped the main crew. We needed to learn more about them to truly understand their impact and role! Oh and little sidenote, the fact that D choked Starscream so hard his voice box started glitching was such a good detail.

And YES right! Honestly feel like this should have been a show. Of course that would’ve meant slightly lower quality animation and score and everything, but from what we saw from the movie the writing could’ve saved it from that. I really just wish we had more time to get to know the story more in full.

Yeah, pacing!! And actually I do agree with you there, we do see his dedication to Sentinel well beforehand, I do agree that the buildup and foreshadowing was great. It was just— his anger felt like a punch in the face. On its own, would be great. But the fist never pulled away from my face, and kinda just. Stayed there smushing my face. And they’re like “does it hurt??” By the end and im like “yeah I mean you punched me in the face ofc it’s gonna hurt. But you could’ve pulled back, gained more momentum, and punched me again”.

Hopefully that metaphor makes sense LOL

And YEAHH REWATCH!! And pls be assured I don’t mind the lengths of your asks at all! I love hearing your thoughts and really appreciate that you want to hear mine! It’s a fun discussion :D

[justafilmfan]

August Movie Reviews

I haven’t been in the mood to do full reviews for a bit so here is a list of everything I’ve watched in August and what I thought!

Re-animator (1985) dir. Stuart Gordon: 5/5 ⭐️ this movie was so much fun! A really campy and beautifully done take on Frankenstein, two grad students (with homosexual undertones) brings people back to life with beautifully done practical effects. Will definitely be rewatching soon.

Bride of Re-animator (1990) dir. Brian Yuzna: 5/5 ⭐️ I can’t decide if which of these movies I enjoyed more, they were both so entertaining but personally the design of the undead bride is absolutely breathtaking and one of my favorite designs of all time. I can’t recommend this movie enough, such a fun watch.

The Truman Show (1998) dir. Peter Weir: 5/5 ⭐️ I am dumbfounded that this movie is classified as a comedy and not a horror comedy, the plot of this movie is genuinely one of the most terrifying things I can think of. (Heed caution watching this movie if you struggle with de-realization) This movie terrified me, made me cry, and had me clapping and cheering at the end. Fantastic movie.

The Return of the Living Dead (1985) dir. Dan O’Bannon: 5/5 ⭐️ As a huge lover of zombie movies I’ve got to classify this as my favorite zombie movie of all time. It’s super funny, the characters are awesome, and the zombie design is fantastic. The Tarman is my favorite zombie design ever and I LOVE how we get a reason for the brain eating from the actual zombies themselves. If you love campy 80’s horrors and zombies this is a must see.

The Evil Dead (1981) dir. Sam Raimi: 5/5 ⭐️ I am a huge evil dead fan so I am biased when I say I love all the evil dead movies. I love a gory horror movie that does not take itself serious at all. It’s so funny and campy and is just a fun watch if you can enjoy a movie without needing to dissect it. The gore and practical effects are so gross and awesome and the demons are a great time.

I Saw the Tv Glow (2024) dir. Jane Schoenbrun: 5/5⭐️ Everyone should watch this movie but if you are transgender you HAVE to see this movie. It portrays the horror, damage, and suffering that living your life in the closet can do to you. I could spend hours dissecting this movie and relating it to the trans experience but I guarantee if you relate to having grown up in any capacity as the wrong gender you will be bawling by the end of this movie. An absolute must watch.

Sleepaway Camp (1983) dir. Robert Hiltzik: 5/5 ⭐️ I love a fun slasher movie that takes place at a summer camp and this one does not disappoint. While trying not to give too much away if you haven’t seen it, some people believe this movie to be transphobic, and while I understand where they’re coming from I completely disagree. I consider this movie to be a trans allegory showing how dangerous it is to someone’s mental health to force them to be someone they’re not and the damage it can inflict to them and others. Great movie with a great ending.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos: 5/5 ⭐️It took me two watches to really appreciate this movie and I can’t fully talk about my thoughts without spoiling it, but this is a great psychological horror with such weird characters. If you’re watching this movie and wondering why every character is SO strange, talks weird, moves weird, and acts weird then just know that is absolutely intentional! Great watch and I recommend a few watches to really absorb the movie!

House of 1000 Corpses (2003) dir. Rob Zombie: 4.5/5 ⭐️ My boyfriend called this movie a love letter to horror and I have to agree. This is a fun campy horror that really has a lot of fun in its character designs and creative kills. It’s both very comedic while being disturbing and bizarre. (And Captain Spaulding is obviously queer coded, just how I like my favorite horror characters to be). A fun watch for any horror fan.

Blackfish (2013) dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite: 4/5 ⭐️ I know I am 11 years late to watching this movie, and although not the best documentary I’ve ever seen, it got its point across very well. I had known about a lot that was in this doc but I still learned a lot that I hadn’t known. A very heart wrenching story about animal abuse at Sea World but with must know information. Even though it brought change (sea world is no longer allowed to capture or breed Orcas) I’m still distraught that Sea World is still operational to this day.

Lisa Frankenstein (2024) dir. Zelda Williams: 5/5 ⭐️ this movie is absolutely fantastic. Campy, funny, aesthetic, and romantic all wrapped in one. The characters were written in such a fun and in your face way. If you were ever “the weird girl” this movie is absolutely made for you. I love Lisa’s character so much and I love how throughout the movie she worked to be herself despite everyone BUT a dead guy wishing she were “normal”. Cinema is so back, this is the kind of movie I want to see.

Edit* yes technically the truman show is classified as a comedy *I* don’t consider it a comedy but I didn’t make the movie lol (well i guess technically a psychological comedy drama but yeah)

[borreloadsavagedragon]

Guess whoo, our butterfly girl Droite/Dextra for the ask meme 👀🦋

DROITE!!!! I'm so sorry this is so late omfg, I have the attention span of a squirrel gdjsakljkg

First impression: I'm the worst so when I first saw her, I was like 😳😳😳 Oh she's gorgeous Her design and color palette both are impeccable I needed to know more about her immediately

Impression now: Oh my god I love her, I was not disappointed for what we were shown, in fact I'm rage-induced because of how LITTLE we saw her One, her design is SO good, I've considered cosplaying her before omg I love how strong-willed and all business she is, I know it's like trope-y that the one woman is the voice of reason between all of the just unhinged members of the Heartland government but she also gets things done, she's got a coldness to her, I really vibe with her gjdsklaj I'm also so unbelievably salty she only got so much screentime to show off!!!!! Like honestly the Zexal girls were too strong and got shafted too quickly for the plot's sake bc it would be 100 episodes lighter, but Droite especially felt cruel because she was shown to be SO smart and cunning, but she wasn't allowed to show it off more and of course one of the duels where all of her tactics were on full display had to be against the main villain of that season, agh In a perfect world, she put Tron in the hole <3 Also she can just casually fly a helicopter? Sign me UP

Favorite moment: God, her duel for Gauche is just so touching, genuinely that tag duel is one of my favorites in all of Zexal, and the Spartan city episodes in general are some of my favorite to rewatch anytime I feel like throwing on some Zexal because you see how far the pair of them both come from their backstory, their shared trauma being under Heartland's training, and then also the stress of being put under government operations It's her push that is the first true crack in Alito's hold on him The only thing I'd change is having her win, but it's a yugioh show so we can't have that, aggressive side eyes at gallop

Idea for a story: I'm a sham and I don't have any ideas for her specifically at the moment BUT I need to find an excuse to put the three of trainees somewhere..........

Unpopular opinion: I think we all agree she was shafted and underappreciated so I'm not sure omg I guess I as a person am afraid of butterflies and therefore am creeped out by her deck so that's... a thing We're not gonna dissect that today GJSDAKLGJAGK

Favorite relationship: I LOVE her dynamic with Gauche, I absolutely love them, I love that she went with him and how much he cares about her in return, I love how clearly you can see what they've endured as a pair, like they're the definition of soulmates and that's without giving a romantic context, while I'm also on board with them as a pair, I also love that without needing to label anything, they're just two people who will find a way and will stay together in any lifetime I also like where her and Kaito end up after the fact, I wish they'd somehow squeezed one last private conversation into the Spartan City episodes like in the WDC when she calls him out, but I do love he came around on her and Gauche both and how he recognizes her strengths and her spirit, like even vocally defending her skill to Rio and Ryouga is a huge step for him since the last time we saw Kaito consider Droite, he was relatively in different, because even when he was playing the part of the aloof, distant soldier who didn’t need help, he was watching and taking note of her in his own little gremlin way However I'm also beating Kaito with my bare hands for his initial treatment of her, he literally fumbled the bag

Favorite headcanon: Oh you KNOW she keeps in contact with Kaito, she'll video call him when she knows he's working long hours in the lab, sometimes to vent about Gauche, sometimes to make sure he's not spending his entire life working

[mizakikimoto]

I really hate the Internet now, and don't know what to do about it.

Spoilers are constantly being posted everywhere for all sorts of stories, by "fans" and the companies themselves. People are fake as heck, and overuniform memes. There's always something with a million sound effects and quick cuts flashing in your face. There's always an ad being pushed in your face. Websites are basic, and aren't fun to go to anymore. There's a crap ton of censorship. Conversations are arguments now. AI is suggesting how people should finish their sentences, and people probably use the suggestions. The loudest voices are super privileged, and also caught up in this dumb liberal/conservative culture. Everything has to have a star rating or percent or count attached to it for its worth, and you can't even look that thing up without seeing that number. So much is about trying to work with an "algorithm". So much is pushed by it. Et cetera. I can't even watch a YouTube video without suggestions, comments in my peripheral vision.

It's like computers are programming humanity, and we wrote the program. We created this thing to ruin us.

This used to be a sincere, global portal to interact with the world. It used to be full of us. The best of us. Now...it's just a mess.

I just had a part of X-Men 97 spoiled by an artist I followed onlined. I blocked him. He did it so casually.

I remember when I was 18 I was able to experience Watchmen fresh, the movie and comic. No reviews, ratings, images. Not really. I had to seek out spoilers, opinions, dissection. I had the option of not seeing those things.

When the Watchmen TV show came out someone at Collider, I think, ruined a big part. People came after him. He said like "The episode came out days ago. It's your fault if you haven't seen it." I've had that said to me when someone posted a spoiler to Guardians of The Galaxy (the movie) on Tumblr years ago.

But then days, weeks ago an official DC page posted a spoiler about the same thing. Casually. In the name of "engagement", "content".

Nothing has any value. It's just digital noise. Quick consumption and throw away. Nothing settles, sits, affects, changes a person's life.

My plan was to rewatch the old X-Men cartoon, and the rest of the other 90's Marvel cartoons. Then get to X-Men 97 on my own time.

Ever since I started living in Chicago full-time 24 years ago...it's been hell to try to do anything. An extreme. Something a lot of people will never deal with. But shouldn't I be able to experience things on my own time? Shouldn't I have a choice? Why is it forced on me now? Can't I open a book by choice? Why are the pages forced on my eyes now?

And if I avoid the Internet altogether I can't learn about new stuff. I'm out of the loop, as people say.

But the Internet used to be limited, with who used it. It's terrible to say, but it really did get ruined when "everyone" started using it, and bringing thier BS here.

That earlier group of people online were so much better. Very specific.

I don't know what I'm saying.

Y'know...if I could get back to what was stolen from me years ago, I wouldn't have to be online so much. But still...

I don't have Threads or Twitter installed.

I want to get off of this thing. I need to. It didn't used to be this way.

-Chris

[lesbian-in-leather]

Okay so I'm fully aware that this film doesn't deserve the amount of thought that I'm putting into it but. The stepmother's song was heartbreaking like... I'm choosing to pretend my version of Vivian from my previous post is canon so the way the song was musically written as almost a villain song but not quite, combined with the way Idina acted it genuinely hurts and I've already rewatched it several times. And some of the lyrics in particular really stand out to me (so naturally I decide to dissect all of them)

I don't care, this is life

It's not fair, it's not right

Okay first of all we have the fact she she just believes this is how life has to be. She's a woman who has been completely destoryed, and she know it isn't right or fair but she genuinely thinks this is how it has to be, that this is the only was to live

All that hope and that pride

It's a waste, it's a lie

Anyone who thinks the concept of hope is a "waste" and a "lie" is clearly a victim of something like sorry this line hurts me

All you want is to breathe

Little girls should run free

But your corset's too tight

And your heels are too high

She clearly sees so much of herself in Ella and, I mean... look at this. These are the words of a woman who feels so trapped and has just given up and let herself be convinced that this is how the world has to be

The treasure you found? Bury it!

The only way out? Marry it!

That shadow of doubt? Carry it!

Carry it down to your grave, oh...

She feels like she has to hide anything that brings her joy, and that the only way to be safe is to marry. She doesn't even feel safe voicing her true feelings - and she isn't even wholly convinved by this system but she thinks that that means she's wrong. And that she has to carry that doubt to her grave, and just continue with the way things are done. And the really interesting thing is that, at this point in the song she leaves Ella's room. But she doesn't just walk out, no, she runs away with a face full of grief and regret for what she's forcing Ella into

The world doesn't need another dream girl

The world doesn't need another dream girl

She sings the first line alone, looking almost regretful. Like she's convincing herself that what she told Ella was right. And she repeats it into the mirror. She's tearing herself down, burying the doubt deep inside so she can save her daughters (all three of them, but especially Ella, the one who is the most like her) from the pain she felt

You're too dumb, you're too young

Full of heart, so naive

You're so blind, you're so green

You'll give up, just like me

After convincing herself that she's in the right she goes on with her tirade, berrating all of her daughters... by comparing them to herself

The wings are ornamental

They have no intention of letting you fly

First of all, this links back to the corset and the heels being a cage women are forced into, but also, she acknowledges that the temptation and illusion of freedom are right there. But women aren't allowed to try. Which is so obviously about how she was allowed to persue her dream by going to a music school, only to be torn down and insulted by her own husband for doing so. Her use of "they" shows that she isn't the one enforcing these rules - they are being imposed upon her just as much as the girls

Don't be sentimental

During this section, she's holding a butterfly. A green butterfly, so not Ella's magical godmother. Perhaps it would have been her own. But she waves it away after this line, getting rid of the oppurtunity for her life to be changed, because she's been given that chance before and it was a trap

Some legends are born in the wrong time

She knows she could have been great, but she also truely believes that women in this time aren't allowed to be. That neither she, nor Ella, nor any other woman can achieve anything but heartbreak and disappointment in the society that they live in, and that there's nothing to be done but wait. And it echoes so true for so many real women born throughout history and even into the modern day

This treasure you found? (Bury it)

The only way out? (Marry it)

That shadow of doubt? (Carry it)

Carry it down to your gravе

Her daughters join in, and she's clearly been teaching them this from a young age because, despite the sadness and almost fear they show, they don't fight her like Ella does. She truely believes she can never be great, and that she'll have to live with only the broken hope of who she could have been

(Bury it. Marry it. Carry it)

Proving further that this isn't a true villain song, other female character join in. The maids in the palace feel they must bury their individuality. The queen feels she had to marry the king and, in doing so, forfeited her right to an opinion. Gwen feels like she'll have to carry her ambitions to the grave, because she'll never be listened to or even taken seriously by the people with any power

Carry it down to your grave (Bury it)

Your grave (Marry it), your grave (Carry it)

(Bury it) bury it, (Marry it) marry it, (Carry it) carry it

More and more women join in, and Vivian just looks so sad. And the repitition of "grave" shows that she really thinks that this is her life, and that she'll die how she's lived - unfulfilled and ignored

(No, no, no, no ah!)

Bury it! (Bury it!)

Marry it! (Marry it!)

Carry it! (Carry it!)

Bury it! Bury it! Marry it! Marry it! Carry it! Carry it

Carry it down to your grave!

Your grave! Your grave!

This bit gives me chills every time because they all go absolutely feral. Every woman, even Vivian, is just kicking and tearing and screaming because it's so blindingly unfair and there's nothing they can do but they all have the same pent up rage, from the queen to the servants to the women in streets. And if reason won't work then they'll tear the whole goddamn world down. And internally that's what every woman there wants. But they all hold it in because, like Vivian, they've been punished and controlled and stepped on so many times that they've been convinced they're the problem, that everyone else is content with the system so why can't you be?

[Piano Instrumental]

And then finally. Finally Vivian is alone again. And her hair is dishevelled and she looks like she's trying not to cry and she plays the piano so beautifully and so loudly and so wildly that she's like an entirely different person. And then she almost does cry but she shakes her head and smiles a little and I have to applaud Idina's acting because it feels so real. There are no singers, and there's no other music. Just Vivian, and everything she could have been. All the parts of her she's been repressing, finally allowed to be seen for one honest and heartwrenching moment

And it reminds me so much of the final scene in the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler (which happens to be one of my favourites). Where the controlled character of Hedda just lets go and play the piano we've never seen her touch, and she plays wildly and loudly and it's so different to how we've ever seen her before. And her husband tells her to be quiet and she says she'll never make noise again - and then she commits suicide to ensure that she doesn't

The world doesn't need another dream girl

And then this. This line breaks my heart. Because she just sings to herself in the most broken voice, in a quiet, croaked whisper as if she's afraid someone might hear. And it shows how much she's hurting, how much she wishes the world could be different. This song was never directed at Ella. She only sung it to try and save her from the life that Vivian herself lived. Vivian is the dream girl, and that line is always, always directed internally. No one else ever sings it and it's never sung with anyone else on screen. It was always about her, and it was never a villain song

[theyarebothgunshot]

I’d be very interested in your thoughts on the JIB8 cockles panel. just a suggestion for your rewatch 👀

i’ve seen the jib8 panel so many times, because it’s honestly one of the wildest things i have ever seen and i just never get tired of it. 

first of all i want to give you my take on the overall vibe, and then second of all i will get into the details and link to certain timestamps in the video. 

disclaimer: i am not gonna be linking to every single thing i talk about, but i will try my best to link to the moments that stand out to me the most. i have read long posts about this panel before, so not everything in this post is gonna be original or said for the first time ever, simply because there is a good chance that information has stuck in my mind and has subconsciously formed my view of this panel. this is also in no way, shape or form gonna be coherent, unfortunately. i’m just gonna hope that the cockles hivemind will be able to make sense of this regardless. love and light. and lastly, this is all in good fun, so don’t come at me if you think this is too out there please and thank you.

fun fact: i was today years old when i found out that the airbnb story took place one day before this panel. what a sexually charged weekend that was for them dude (gn).

the vibe that i get from this panel is that their moods were off before they got on stage, and where misha kind of looks tired and not 100% enthusiastic about things, jensen apparently decided to get drunk and is trying to make it look like he is thriving. yet, a little while into the panel we learn that it has been an emotional rollercoaster of a day for him, which might have something to do with the overall mood. then again, it could be that something else happened in between the autographs and that panel, who is to say?

i have talked about the d/s subtones in their interactions before and this panel makes my radar ping like nobody’s business. if my interpretation of their dynamics is right, then one could assume that jensen was being very bratty on purpose, trying to stir up a reaction in misha, and i think he probably got what he wanted (more or less. maybe he thought misha would find it more amusing than he did, or but honestly, at that point they have already known each other for nearly 10 years so odds are he knew what he was doing and how misha would react to it. it would surprise me greatly if these two didn’t work out their mutual frustrations with the day and each other after this panel ended- in the bedroom.)

i genuinely think i have never seen jensen flirt more openly and aggressively with misha, ever, and i have never seen misha in the state he was in during this panel either: tired, a little annoyed about the fact that jensen was going off the deep end and that he was not able to stop him, to the point where he just gives up and says things like ‘when in rome’ etc. let’s get into it. 

the mood is set from the very first second: misha is kinda subdued, and jensen is being a bit of a clown, coaxing misha to join him in the madness, which he does to a certain extent. 

we are off to a great start with not just one [0m15s], but two [0m20s] moments in which i just know in my bones they wanted to hold hands. how do i know? because i have been there my fucking self. wanting to hold hands with your crush when you are drunk and acting silly is a love language okay.

as soon as they sit down, misha tries to make conversation and jensen just starts pushing him and pushing him, [1m11s] saying ‘shut up’ and ‘yeah it’s really stupid and it embarrasses me’, but misha tries to ignore it at first and just marches on through. which is probably why i never see people talk about that little comment. it embarrasses jensen when misha sits like that? why would he need to feel embarrassed by his friend’s actions? kinda weird tbh, sounds like husband behavior to me. i have a feeling that when misha said ‘by which he means it’s an innie’, jensen REALLY had to bite on his tongue not to go all ‘you weren’t complaining this morning’ or something like that. look at his face bro [1m55s]. 

and then jensen opens up his legs like the little tramp (affectionate) that he is and when misha tries to stop him he just TURNS to misha with said open legs like a mad man and goes ‘here’s the thing. pick a leg.’ [2m05s] LIKE? who DOES THAT? that is insane people behavior!!! admittedly i am a cis woman and i don’t have conversations with male friends about their bodily anatomy all that often, but i legit cannot phatom that this is a normal thing to talk about with your platonic buddy. pick a leg for me to rest my dick on, old buddy old pal. NOBODY DOES THAT. it’s not even something that i would consider flirting because even though i am into men, i would not find that arousing? so it’s either an action to provoke annoyance in misha or it’s something they have discussed before or both. because misha immediately understands what he means, starts shaking his head in frustration, and actually turns to jensen as if to say ‘are you fucking kidding me right now? really? you are really doing this?’ followed by a ‘this is making me feel so uncomfortable’ aka one of the phrases they both like to use even though they never mean it. 

then when jensen actually goes up to do his ridiculous mating dance and sits back down again, he automatically sits down with his body turned towards misha. 

quick side note: if anybody understands what the joke was about when they talked about ‘cas has big dolls’ i would love to hear it, because that has never made any sense to me, but it’s probably a me problem lmao. 

when misha goes ‘could you watch your language please’ i think that’s a sign that he is genuinely getting a bit frustrated [4m53s] with jensen even though he is obviously playing it off as a joke. right after he says that, jensen puts his fingers against his mouth, as if to shut himself up. i know that a lot of people don’t wanna read too much into body language but hey, i am writing an analysis here so work with me for a sec: i think that could be a subconscious decision to listen to what misha is telling him to do, which ties into the d/s dynamics i’ve mentioned earlier. 

i know people always go crazy when misha goes ‘what did i tell him’ [5m19s] and jensen whispers in his ear. i personally think misha probably told him about the fact that they booked kansas the band, but it’s still pretty telling that that is how misha would react to the question if something he told him is public knowledge. evidently that goes to show that there is enough that misha tells jensen that cannot be shared with the public, which i thought is interesting. 

now that i am watching it again, the ‘j*red would have just said it’ comment kind of stumbles around in my brain asking me to dissect it. let’s just say that i wouldn’t be surprised if they were both thinking back on the many, many times that j*red put his foot in his mouth and made a suggestive comment about jensen and misha’s relationship. 

god i just cringed [6m14s] watching jensen interact with that first girl who asked a question and he just goes off on her about how twins are cool and misha is shaking his head lord oh lord and that is the minute daniella decides that hey maybe they need even more alcohol lmfaoooo it’s a lot. poor misha i genuinely feel bad for him.

and then he goes ‘real men have twins’ and looks at misha and misha is still not having it so he goes ‘it’s just a shirt’ like girl (gn) pleASE that’s husband behavior, yet again, why else would he feel the need to clarify it. ‘look babe don’t be mad or jealous i don’t mean anything by it, it’s just a shirt’ i hate him. 

i just know misha would have wanted to take the apple juice away from jensen lmao. 

one of the moments [9m35s] that always stands out to me is when they go ‘that’s why we don’t bring steven’ ‘that’s right, that’s why he’s not allowed’ idk how to explain it but the way that just flows out of them so naturally feels very coupley for some reason.

i think we can all agree that jensen’s reaction [12m22s] to misha’s ‘i always wear orange underwear’ story is completely fake, right? because there is no way he didn’t know that, and his reaction was very exaggerated. plus, the little gesture to make misha show his underwear? bitch, please. whipped. there was also exactly zero reason for him to come that close to misha in order to inspect the color of his underwear.

the one thing that i wonder about, though, is why misha didn’t know jensen was wearing the famous underbear briefs? but as i am writing this i realise that even if they slept in the same hotel room, there are obviously a few different possible reasons why misha didn’t know what underwear jensen was wearing that day: either jensen showered and changed in the bathroom, so by the time he faced misha again he was fully dressed, or misha had to leave their hotel room earlier than jensen, or jensen changed while misha showered, etc etc. 

in any case……. jensen dropping trou in the middle of this fucking panel? absolutely batshit insane, 10/10 thank you for your service nesnej. 

this [13m54s] is where shit really starts to hit the fan. jensen is OUT OF CONTROL. the long stares??? the ‘rawr’s??? ‘you didn’t even get the full picture’??? (sidenote i would love to know what misha whispered to him right after).

OKAY so. when the girl mentions j*red and jensen goes all Knowing What’s Up and says ‘oh he has had a rough time today. misha kept us up way too late last night. *glances at misha* rrrrrrr’ listen. the only reason i am not reading too much into this is because i do not believe they had a threesome with j*red but also the way he said it was very sus and my mind can’t help but wonder if they were disgustingly flirty and way too touchy feely in front of j*red whilst drunk and honestly that’s probably the case.

of course this is followed [15m15s] by the insane man saying ‘by the way they go down to here’??? and the potentially whispered ‘i’ll show you later’?????? sir i have a lot of questions. number one: how dare you? 

bless this next person for this question, because she starts her sentence with: ‘people who have been together for a long time…’ i actually already made a post about this once so i implore you all to read that because i still stand by what i said in there.

it is of course followed by them both not being able to think about ANYTHING appropriate to say to the question if there is anything they only do in front of each other that doesn’t involve pants. and then misha goes ‘why don’t i just share a private moment that we had’ and jensen’s first instinct is to say ‘shit’. i mean. i am merely perceiving. 

this is the moment we realise that it has been quite The Day for them, but especially for jensen, because he has been emotional earlier in the day. which, again, could explain his demeanor during the panel. trying to distract himself. notice that he gets up and shakes his legs again and goes for a drink the second misha starts to tell the story: coping mechanisms aka distraction, just like he did at the start of the panel. 

the moment where he goes ‘it’s hitting me now. shit.’ really solidifies this theory for me, that he has been acting like a goofy drunken guy all panel, in order to drown out the emotions he felt that afternoon, but alas. once he started to talk about it, it still all came back to him. 

i will say this though: it kind of warms my heart that he was so touched by the fact that the fandom spawned something good. makes me feel slightly less dumb for forming parasocial relationships with that man. only slightly, but still. 

misha going ‘god he’s so grouchy’ [25m32s]? say it with me, folks: husband behavior. once again misha tries to talk jensen down and jensen listens (sort of). say it with me, folks: d/s behavior. and RIGHT after that jensen walks towards misha with this intense fucking stare in his eyes that makes me feel like i am intruding, and then after he gets another drink (nesnej, why?) he just. gently massages misha’s neck and shoulder before draping his arm around him? and his hand lingers when he goes to grab the keychain? okay. 

insert the famous ‘when in rome’ debacle lmao misha was so done with jensen by then it’s so hilarious. the funny thing is that misha says ‘what i mean is show each other our underwear, nothing weird. you can’t look at me like that, because of what you did’, while the question was ‘what would dean and cas do in rome’ and not ‘what would jensen and misha do in rome’ but clearly, once again, the actors cannot make a distinction between the two. interesting :) it also wouldn’t surprise me if jensen has told him to tone down the dean/cas answers but now that jensen decided to fully flash him on stage misha is like ‘sorry but i am not playing by your rules after what you did’ lmao. of course, jensen’s reaction is to go back to parting his legs for misha, like he is challenging him. i mean. you can’t make this shit up. 

am i the only one who thinks that jensen might be thinking dirty thoughts when misha repeats ‘what would dean and cas do’ [27m50s]? because like. that’s quite a face he is making.

when he says ‘i don’t know how to answer that’ and misha agrees, idk, for some reason i get the feeling that that’s in the sense of ‘i don’t know how to answer that in a way that won’t get our fans’s hopes up because we know what they would want and we know what we would answer but we can’t go there’. 

i really feel like the final straw for daniella was the way that jensen reacted to that last question like he was gonna have another breakdown lmao and that’s why the rest of the cast and crew were pushed onto the stage prematurely. because when you think about it, it’s a pretty rude thing to do when somebody is still answering a question? but okay. 

listen - the last 6 minutes of this panel are so chaotic sdjfhsjh the only thing i can conclude from it is that jensen is hella drunk but we’ve been knew. his mood changes by the fucking second. i love him and his little dance and how he sits down on the stage. i feel like i might be jensen coded when i am drunk. i too get slutty and unpredictable. 

so anyways long story short: jensen was hella drunk and wanted to provoke misha, it worked, they had hot sweaty sex after this panel, and the fact that jensen got drunk enough to entrust misha with taking care of shit during the panel makes me very emotional for some reason, and i just love them a lot. thank you for coming to my ted talk. 

[snowpiercer-recaps]

Season 1, episode 7: Be Bi, Do War Crimes

Spoiler alert!!! This is a rewatch recap of Snowpiercer s1e7: The Universe is Indifferent. Naturally, it is full of spoilers for that episode. However, it also contains spoilers for some other episodes of season 1 and season 2. You have been warned!

In this episode’s monologue, LJ gives us a little speech about how everyone’s a narcissist at heart. I think it’s probably a lot less common than she thinks, but okay! The scenes running behind the monologue show Miss Audrey performing, Lilah and Robert Folger being ostracised by their neighbours, Till and Jinju having some of the most awkward-looking sofa sex I’ve ever seen, Melanie giving some instructions to Jackboots, Josie and Layton waking up together in Dr. Pelton’s apartment, and Zarah looking at a print-out of an ultrasound scan.

That’s a nice timeline clue! Let’s dissect that for a minute (or, if you don't care about the timeline, skip the next couple of paragraphs!)

If we assume that Zarah is holding a scan of her own embryo, that the episode two sex scene is how she got pregnant, and that Snowpiercer’s obstetrics tech is similar to what we have available now, then the embryo has to be at least about three weeks old (that’s when it’s big enough to start showing up on scans).

Therefore, Layton was in the drawers for at least two weeks. Which is a bit longer than I expected, but not entirely unreasonable! In that case, Osweiller’s probation was also about two weeks (which also seems fairly reasonable), and LJ spent at least two weeks in the lockup (which seems fairly hilarious - did Roche have to deal with her all that time? No wonder he’s taken this episode off!)

After the opening credits, we check in with the engineers. Javi is very worried that Layton knows the truth, and, as usual, he’s very pissed off with Melanie and Bennett. Melanie is relatively confident that Layton will control the secret until he knows how best to use it - which, luckily for her, is almost exactly what he told Josie yesterday! Melanie thinks she can stop Layton. Javi doesn’t seem convinced.

The morning announcement comes next, and we find out exactly how Melanie plans to stop Layton: she’s going to use Miles as bait! Miles will be the new engineering apprentice, taking DiMarco’s place after yesterday’s fatal accident. She’s evil, but she’s brilliant.

When the announcement is over, we get to meet day-off Ruth! Well. Kind-of day off. She’s quickly popped in to work to tell Melanie that Miles is being pushed up the apprentice ladder too fast. In the flirtiest way she can, Melanie tells Ruth to mind her own fucking business.

Layton and Josie are together to hear the news that their adopted son is getting his dream job, which is very sweet! They instantly recognise that it’s a trap - but also getting a tailie into the engine is undeniably pretty great. Layton tells Josie that she can’t see Miles, and the glare that she gives him in reply says, “I can do whatever the fuck I want, actually.”

The reason Josie can’t see Miles is supposedly because she and Layton need to spend every spare second turning Third to the cause. But given that we’ve already seen two clocks this episode showing that the time is 9:45am, I’m gonna go ahead and bet that Layton and Josie aren’t spending every spare second on the cause. (Not that they need to! They can nap and fuck as much as they like until their Airbnb checkout time! These two both really deserve some fun!)

Finally, Josie points out that if Miles is gonna have a clue what to do for the revolution when he gets to the engine, then they need to make contact with him asap. You can just tell that something bad is gonna happen in this episode.

In the drawers car, Creepy Klimpt has taken inventory to make sure that no other prisoners/trial participants/abducted children escaped. Everyone is accounted for! However, a bunch of suspension chemicals are missing. Melanie knows exactly what to do next: threaten Terrence-Never-Terry!

Terrence-Never-Terry starts off sarcastic and cocky, asking Melanie if there’s a janitorial problem. She responds by dragging her metal chair across the room like someone who has watched far too many crime thrillers. For once, a character doesn’t offer up incriminating information without even being questioned! Melanie and Terrence-Never-Terry sit knee-to-knee, and she reminds him that the punishment for drug trafficking is taking a dominant arm. She accuses him of helping Layton escape the drawers in exchange for Kronole ingredients, and he denies all knowledge.

She continues to threaten him, and in doing so we get a shot of Terrence-Never-Terry’s right hand. If anyone reading this knows more about flagging than me, please let me know what painting the two last nails of the right hand means! He’s definitely signalling something, right?

Then, we’re treated to more timeline information:

Terrence-Never-Terry tells Melanie that he met Layton once, five or six weeks ago, on Fight Night. So that’s how long it’s been!? Layton must have spent over a month in the drawers! Which also means that Zarah’s embryo is five to six weeks old, and LJ spent over a month in the lockup? HAHAHA WHAT??

Anyway, back to the interrogation: Terrence-Never-Terry continues to deny all knowledge, but promises to turn Layton in, if he sees him.

Back at Dr. Pelton’s Airbnb, Josie and Layton are, for some reason, still getting dressed. They make smalltalk and he calls her beautiful and they kiss. I guess the drawers are partially designed to help you get over your ex? Cool! They get ready to leave, and Layton tells Josie to be careful. She wants him to be careful, because she’s not the one Melanie’s looking for. On rewatch, the dramatic irony is almost too much to bear.

The allies have come up with an ingenious way to transport Layton around the train: Clay wheels him around in a laundry cart. In one of my absolute favourite scenes in the whole show, Clay rolls the cart through the Nightcar, and Miss Audrey stops it with a single, high-heeled foot. She stands, puts one hand on her hip, and dramatically pulls the sheet off the cart to reveal Layton.

It’s entirely ridiculous and I love it.

In the primary school, Bennett is moping around at the back of the class in a leather jacket. Why is he so grumpy? Does he just hate kids? Is he pissed that Melanie put him on babysitting duty in a deleted scene? We never find out. Miss Gillies explains to the class that Bennett is here to help Miles transition to Engine Apprentice, and he’s a moody little bitch about it.

The class has got Miles a special surprise to celebrate his new job. It’s a drugged tangerine! His favourite! Miss Gillies goes kind of over the top encouraging him to eat it, but Bennett doesn’t notice: he’s too busy trying to look cool to a room full of nine year olds.

Talking of stuff that induces nausea and vomiting: Commander Grey bumps into “Ruthie” in a corridor. He compliments her on the announcement during the crisis, and asks her out on a lunch date. Nope. I’m not discussing that further. Next scene!

Jinju catches Till before she starts her shift. Till is pleased to see her wife, and gives Jinju a cute little kiss on the cheek. Jinju, however, looks very unimpressed. She gets straight to the point: Layton got out. We discover that Brakeman Till is a fucking terrible actor! She gasps, clutches at her chest and swoons to the floor in surprise that Layton is out of the Tail! Not the drawers - because he was obviously in the Tail the whole time! It wasn’t weird at all that she didn’t see him once during an entire month of bug bar room service shifts!

Jinju isn’t taking any of Till's shit. She immediately asks Till where she was when she skipped out on their wedding night. Till claims she got nervous and stayed at home. Jinju shows that she's been spending too much time with Melanie Cavill, and she condescendingly but cryptically tells Till that there are things going on that she doesn’t understand. She makes a final attempt to get Till to reveal where Layton is. But, luckily, Till genuinely doesn’t know at the moment! If she'd had to lie again, Layton would probably be dead by the end of the day.

Back in the primary school, most of the children are treated to a lovely story about nepotism. But Miles has to sit alone at his desk and do extra physics homework with Bennett breathing down his neck. This just seems cruel: why keep him in the classroom where he can see the fun, but not take part?

Miles tells Bennett that he isn’t feeling well. Bennett tries to cheer Miles up by telling him that, once he’s an engineer, he’ll have no friends! Who the fuck decided that Bennett should be the person to collect the new apprentice!? He’s so bad with kids!

Miles then vomits on his desk. In another nice little detail about life on the train, the children quickly jump into well-practiced disease containment protocol. We then discover that Miss Gillies is as bad at lying as Brakeman Till! She explains to Bennett that she has to abandon the whole class to take Miles to the clinic. Bennett wants to go with her. She reluctantly agrees, and gives him a mask to wear. And this is where we find out that Bennett Knox is an anti-masker! Wilford’s engine doesn’t sound so biosecure now, does it?

Next, we catch up with the revolutionaries. Clay is working security on the soundproof curtain while Audrey and Layton, in true leftie fashion, make plans for how to make plans for how to make plans for the revolution. They have a bit of an argument, but the main take away is that Layton needs Audrey to bring him leaders. And, in yet another hint that Audrey strongly suspects who is really running the train, they have this interaction.

After that, we catch up with Miles in the clinic. He’s still reeling from the time he heard Grey say “Ruthie”, and vomits into a bucket. Me too, kid. Dr. Pelton is, thankfully, a much much better actor than Miss Gillies or Brakeman Till. She comforts Miles, then tells Bennett to put his fucking mask on and stay the fuck outside. I don’t know why more people don’t look at Bennett the way Dr. Pelton does in this scene, but I’m so glad she does it.

Surprise! Josie has sneaked into the clinic! She has a cute little reunion with Miles, and gives him some revolution instructions that we can’t hear.

Meanwhile, Miss Gillies is doing an awful job of keeping Bennett distracted. I think she’s trying to flirt with him? But she’s far too gay to make it convincing. Bennett notices Josie talking to Miles, and enters the treatment room - without his mask, of course. In her most suspicious move yet, Miss Gillies desperately tries to get him to come back by repeatedly asking him to tell her about the engine. Bennett ignores her. Dr. Pelton gives the teacher a death glare, and Josie escapes out through the side door.

Up in the aquarium car, Ruth’s anaconda very much does! She’s all dressed up in a snakeskin dress for her lunch date. Grey and Ruth only chat for a minute before the Folgers turn up, but Ruth sure manages to pack a lot of questionable conversation topics into that time! She starts by telling Grey that it’s been a long time since she last got laid, then proceeds to say she’s only dating him because there aren't a lot of other options, then finishes off by asking about his dead wife. Girl! Slow down!

We also get a bit of Ruth backstory in this scene. We learn that she boarded Snowpiercer alone. She used to own a B&B in the Lake District, and that’s how she met Mr. Wilford. Apparently, Mr. Wilford turned up to her B&B in the middle of the night, alone, soaking wet and with no luggage. I really want to know how and why that happened! Did Bennett try to murder him on a camping trip or something?

Grey reveals that they’re actually not really on a date just as the Folgers turn up, arm-in-arm. Ruth tries to hide her disappointment, and even though she’s a serial arm-freezer I feel kind of sorry for her. Grey and the Folgers fill Ruth in on their plan to petition to change management (i.e. overthrow Melanie), and offer Ruth the Head of Hospitality position in their new regime.

Down in the Chains, Zarah returns home to find yet more uninvited guests in her container! Melanie has dropped by to bask in Snowpiercer’s best bisexual lighting and ask Zarah about Layton. Zarah clearly attends the same acting class as Till and Miss Gillies, and unconvincingly pretends that Layton is in the Tail. Melanie just wants to know how Layton escaped. We don’t get to find out whether or not Zarah would have given Josie up freely, because Melanie goes in hot with a threat to terminate Zarah’s pregnancy if she doesn’t cooperate!

Back in the Nightcar’s secret revolution planning den, things are tense. It’s not relevant to the plot, but I would like to take a second to point out that Dr. Pelton is rocking the shit out of a waistcoat. The Thirdies are worried they’re going to lose out in the rebellion, but Layton is keen to assure them that they won't. We also get some interesting facts about the train, namely:

Then why does everyone go on dates in the aquarium car instead of the bowling alley???

The other Snowpiercer facts we're treated to include that there are 300 brakemen and Jackboots, the train is ten miles long, Layton thinks he can open all the doors, and the Tail’s army comprises almost 400 people. Understandably, the people at the meeting want to know what Layton’s big secret is before they consider risking their lives for his plan. Layton looks to Audrey, and she gives him a tiny nod (she totally knows about Melanie!!). He has to build more mystery and intrigue before telling everyone, though.

Next up, some Jackboots, Brakemen, Melanie and Till are entering the Tail to conduct an inspection. Melanie makes a vaguely threatening speech as she walks down the middle of the cars. She pauses just after she passes Josie, then beckons towards the door. Despite the fact that Layton and the apprentices were identified by simply asking them to step forward, and the fact that Melanie took a good look at Josie through the window ‘five or six weeks ago’ on Fight Night, Melanie has brought Zarah along to identify Josie. She’s evil, but she’s brilliant. It’s the most effective method she has to try to turn the Tailies against Third, and thereby prevent the upcoming revolution.

The moment that she recognises Zarah, Josie realises she’s fucked. She shares a quick, worried glance with Till, before they both return to feigning ignorance about the situation.

Zarah identifies Josie, and Jackboots immediately come forward to gag her and take her away. Big John tries to go to her, but Lights, Santiago and Patterson hold him back. There’s some tense eye contact between Zarah and Josie that I can’t read. Is Zarah Apologetic? Smug? Still trying to figure out the timeline, too? Then, Melanie calmly follows Josie and the Jackboot out of the Tail.

They travel all the way uptrain to the torturey hospitality room. Josie has been given a new outfit, complete with a bag over her head. The Jackboots strap her to the chair, cuff her to the table, remove the bag and gag, and then leave. Melanie also dismisses Brakeman Till. Uh-oh. That’s not good.

Next, there’s a series of events that again don’t really matter much to the plot but that I, personally, find fascinating. As she closes the door, Melanie’s Wilford badge is the correct way up. We then briefly catch up with Brakeman Till outside, who mumbles “Fuck” for Netflix audiences, but apparenly doesn’t swear on American cable? Then, when we return to the interrogation room, Melanie’s badge is upside down.

How did that happen? I can only assume that Melanie stood against the door and slowly rotated the badge while menacingly telling Josie, “It’s Milford Industries war crime time.”

Melanie tells Josie that she doesn’t want to hurt her. She just wants to know where Layton is. I can’t help but think that, if that was true, Melanie probably would have at least tried asking before kidnapping Josie and cuffing her to an interrogation table? Josie seems unconvinced, too. She keeps her mouth shut. Melanie then says that Zarah is going to be rewarded for her cooperation. More lies! Melanie didn’t bribe Zarah, she threatened her! She offers to “reward” Josie, too. Josie keeps her mouth shut.

Melanie drops the act slightly, and tells Josie she still has time to save herself. Unfortunately for Melanie, Josie has absolutely no intention of saving herself. She demonstrates this by immediately telling Melanie that she knows there’s no Wilford. And because she knows that, Melanie definitely won’t let her go. It seems like half the characters (Ben, Audrey, Boki, Terrence-Never-Terry...) at this point at least strongly suspect there's no Wilford, but I suppose the difference is that they haven't rubbed Melanie's face in it. Also Melanie hasn't kidnapped them.

Anyway, Melanie only displays a tiny flicker of surprise at Josie’s revelation, before recollecting her calm and reiterating that she’ll do whatever she needs to do to find Layton.

They talk about Miles for a bit, and then Josie starts to challenge Melanie about all the awful things she’s done. Melanie must have had her reasons, but she must also know that it’s not right. And then, we finally hear how Melanie has been excusing her actions these past seven years:

“Mr. Wilford engineered Snowpiercer to function in a certain way. If I had created it, I would have created a more just world. But I didn’t. I inherited someone else’s creation. People seem to think that those in power answer to no one, they’re free to do as they choose. It couldn’t be further from the truth. The person in power answers to everyone. I make choices, not because I want to, but because everyone demands it. The train demands it.”

Damn.

To set up for episode ten, Josie asks, “What made you like this?”, but Melanie doesn’t answer. Instead, she gets on with Milford Industries war crime time! Specifically, finger-freezing torture. She blasts cold air at Josie’s little finger for a while, then opens a drawer that contains nothing but a hammer (!! has it always been like this, or did she clear out a bunch of stationery to make room??) and asks once more, “Where’s Layton?”

Once a finger is that frozen, surely it’s already numb and unsalvageable? Josie still screams when Melanie smashes it off, though.

Down in the Nightcar, Audrey and Layton don’t trust Terrence-Never-Terry. But they need him.

Terrence-Never-Terry warns the fugitive and the madam that the war will be bloody. Thanks for that! Then, he warns them he promised Melanie he’d tell her where Layton was if he saw him. He doesn’t think that the classes will unite, either. He doesn’t believe in the revolution, and he’s not going to take part in it.

Uptrain, Melanie has righted her badge and gone back to the bunk room. Torturing is hard work, and she doesn’t have the stomach for it. Meanwhile, Till sees her chance. She gets the Jackboots to chip her in to do Brakeman’s business and check on the hostage. She walks in to find Josie, quivering and whimpering, next to a pile of frozen finger chunks.

After a brief bit of shock, the Brakeman asks what she can do. Josie just wants a little chat! She asks Till’s first name, and Till is suitably confused for a moment before deciding to just go along with it. Josie assures Bess that she didn’t snitch: Melanie doesn’t know that Bess is one of them. Little puppydog Bess cautiously responds, “I’m one of you?” in a way that makes me SURE she has no actual friends on the train. Can she hang out with Sykes in season three, please?

But, Bess is still a Brakeman! She only broke the law for Layton because drawering him was wrong! Josie tells Bess that’s the only reason she needs - she just has to decide what’s right and wrong. It’s a simple speech, but Bess is a simple girl - she’s on the side of the revolution now! She doesn’t have the keys to free Josie, but she promises to do what she can: find Layton, and tell him that Zarah is a traitor and Miles is ready to make the next move.

But just before Bess leaves, Josie gets an idea. She calls Bess back from the door, and asks her to do one more thing. Season one Josie is so. fucking. HARDCORE.

Melanie returns for more Milford Industries war crime time, but Ruth catches her just before she heads into the torture chamber. Ruth urgently tries to warn Melanie about the impending Grey-Folger mutiny, and Melanie is so rude to her (“I don’t give a shit… just do your job and fix it!”) that Ruth appears to decide, there and then, to join the other side! Incredible!

Melanie’s badge remains the right way up as she gives Josie an ultimatum: it’s Layton or Miles. Then, Melanie’s eyes grow wide as she notices that Josie’s forearm has grown ten whole inches! Or, as were supposed to believe, she’s surprised to see that Josie’s entire hand is already frozen. That takes all the fun out of Milford Industries war crime time - Melanie was supposed to freeze each finger one by one!

As if it’s not plainly obvious, Melanie asks what happened to Josie’s hand. But Josie isn’t about to start answering Melanie’s questions now. Instead, she smashes her own fucking hand off to escape the handcuffs, and elbows Melanie in the ribs. Lights wasn't kidding when she called Josie badass!

Melanie, like all Snowpiercer Engineers, can’t fight for shit. She calls for the guards to help, but unfortunately she designed the torturey hospitality room to be soundproof! No one outside realises that Josie has pinned Melanie against the door to show off her arm bones to the camera.

Even with a recently-shattered hand, Josie manages to start choking Melanie with the finger-freezing hose. The engineers should really attend a self-defence class or two! Melanie struggles relatively unsuccessfully for a while, and Josie kicks the hose connection off - seemingly hoping to freeze them both to death. But the tiny hole doesn’t let the freezing air in as fast as she expected, so they continue to struggle and fight while the outside air slowly hisses in. Finally, Melanie manages to break free and run for the door. She shuts Josie inside, to freeze to death alone.

On a completely serious note, this fight is messy and ugly and desperate and it’s very rare to see two women characters fight like that in a completely unsexualised way. Thank you, Snowpiercer!

Commander Grey wants to know why Melanie conducted an interrogation without him. Melanie doesn’t answer: she just orders him to take Josie to compost. Till overhears, and looks ready to cry. We don’t get to see the Jackboots enter the room before the next scene, but presumably they go in pretty fast to set up the season two storyline!

Downtrain, Clay lets a very upset Till into the Nightcar’s secret revolution planning den. Till just says, “Layton… Josie…”, and lets her face do all the work to inform her big brother that his girlfriend is dead. They both look so sad. I hope they get a hug! Audrey? Clay? Get in there!

Uptrain, Bennett is bringing Miles - who is once again dressed in his fabulous train print pyjamas - to the engine. Melanie tells him that, to be an engineer on Snowpiercer, you have to make sacrifices. She’s careful not to mention that she means human sacrifices, such as Miles’ Tail mom. He asks her if she’s happy as an engineer. Of course she’s fucking not! But the needs of the train are more important than getting treatment for depression, Miles.

To end the episode, we return to the opening scene. Audrey is practicing her favourite hobby: obvious foreshadowing via song. She sings Bad Religion, which literally includes the lines ‘It's a bad religion/This unrequited love/To me, it's nothing but a one-man cult’. Incredible!

Also, she's a fucking angel! Look at that headpiece!

Audrey's performance is intercut with scenes of Layton screaming and crying in the hall of mirrors, as well as shots of the crowd. Till hugs herself - which is better than getting no hugs at all, I suppose. Pelton is nodding enthusiastically to the beat, seemingly having a great time! Astrid is looking serious, and Miss Gillies is crying. At the back of the crowd, even LJ seems to be having an emotion!

Clay comes to fetch LJ for her experience, and takes her to the hall of mirrors. Inside the seemingly-empty room, LJ creepily calls out, “Who do I get to play with tonight?” Then, when Layton emerges from the shadows, she promptly shits herself. Layton offers to tell LJ the “dirtiest little secret on the whole damn train,” leaving us all worried about exactly how much of LJ’s bullshit we’re gonna have to deal with in episode eight.

[ressyfaerie]

Dark Tyson fic; during G-Rev, Tyson snaps from stress and feelings of abandonment and joins Team BEGA. (Bonus points for Brooklyn getting close to Tyson to make Kai jealous. Black Dragoon optional, or maybe Boris gives him Black Dranzer...?!)

I saved the best for last. 

I am a big fan of dark Tyson- love it. I’ve been thinking of this prompt for DAYS. I’m very excited to write this- as you know I am the angst queen. For the sake of this fic, g-rev timelines are going to be confusingly switched around, just because it makes more sense for the fic, and also- I’ve forgotten some important plot points and dont have the time to rewatch g-rev LMAO. Anything in * can be Tyson’s or Kai’s private thoughts! 

So I finished writing this, and it's LONG. so I’ve actually uploaded it to archive first, because reading it on tumblr seems like a chore and a half, so here’s the archive link: 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30739397/chapters/75866906

It came out to 50 pages, and it’s 5 chapters on archive. 

And here’s the first ‘chapter’ of the fic: 

So here we go:

It was odd to see Kenny angry. 

He tossed his laptop to the side, picking up spare bey parts in his hand. 

“Kenny! I’m just saying- What are our chances? Without everyone else, we’re useless as a team-”

“I’ve been working so hard Tyson…” Kenny shook in anger, beside him. Hilary tried to place her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but he shook her off. 

“How could you say we’re useless?! When we’ve been trying so hard!?” 

“It’s not enough! You know me and Diachi can’t work together-” 

From the corner of the room, Diachi screeched, “Hey loser! I’m right here!” 

“I know, you shitty little cherry tomato!” 

Hilary tried to be the mediator, “Tyson, are you sure that’s how you really feel?” 

Tyson nodded, “Our team has no hope. Now with BEGA taking over everything we can’t even get any parts, it’s useless-” 

“How could you say that Tyson!” Kenny yelled louder than he ever had in his life, “You’re the one who’s supposed to be uplifting us! You’re the leader-” 

“I don’t want to be a leader! We had a leader remember? And a coach?” 

“You can’t give up!” Kenny begged and shook with anger, Tyson felt horrible, he knew Kenny had been working so hard, but they had lost too much, he felt there was no hope of recovery. 

“Throw out your research Kenny, we’re done.” Tyson stared at the wooden floorboards of the dojo, completely defeated. 

“AaaaH!” Kenny had launched himself forward- landing a strong right hook on Tyson’s cheek. 

Tyson fell backwards, landing on his side and quickly sitting up to rub his cheek, “What the hell Kenny!?” 

Kenny was furious, “you can throw away everything we’ve worked for if you want! Telling me to throw away *my* research?! You need to get yourself together Tyson!” 

Tyson was left speechless, Hilary nodded, agreeing with Kenny, “if we’re going to defeat BEGA we need a Tyson who can hold himself together.” 

“You’re heads messed up dude,” Diachi remarked, “We can’t work with you until you fix yourself.” 

Tyson could feel the anger radiate through his body, “if you guys think I’m so messed up then maybe I should just leave!?” 

“Then go.” Kenny hissed through clenched teeth. 

“Fine! Good luck with hopper-” Tyson slammed his hands on the floor throwing himself to his feet, “Your beyblade that fucking hops- Beyblades aren’t supposed to hop Kenny!” 

He slid open the shoji doors fast, and threw them closed, rattling the old dojo like an earthquake. Outside in the gardens, he cursed. 

“Tyson?” 

Hearing his grandpa’s voice behind him, he aggressively swung his body in his direction, “What is it Gramps? I’m not in the mood-” 

“What’s going on with you and your friends?” 

“Friends!?” Tyson spat. 

“Oh no... Tyson-” Ryu shook his head. 

“What? What is it? Is it something wrong with me?” Tyson’s whole body was stationary, emanating white anger.

“Your friends didn’t leave you to hurt you.” 

“Not my friends- Friends don’t betray each other to go to different teams.” 

“You *know* they didn’t betray you.” 

“Then tell me why Kai went to BEGA.” 

Grandpa stayed silent, he didn’t have a good reason why Kai went to BEGA, and no one knew why. 

“I’m sure like Max and Ray, he just wanted to fight you again.” 

“And Hiro?” 

“He wanted to train stronger opponents for you-” 

Tyson suddenly laughed, “he could have trained *me*.” 

Ryu placed his hands in front of him, trying to calm his grandson down from a distance. 

His Grandpa was more serious than he had been in years. 

“He could have- I know it wasn’t the best thing for Hiro to do, but- he did it because he loves you.” 

“Okay Grandpa, you have an answer for everything huh? Then answer me this- where’s my dad?” 

The garden turned ice cold. 

“I’m sure he’s around Tyson-”

“Does he not have a TV? Or a post office? How can he sit in some country, and not see what is happening to his own son!?” Tyson’s voice bellowed through the courtyard. 

“I don’t know Tyson- he loves you.” 

“No he doesn’t- It seems no one does-” Tyson was holding back angry sobs. 

Ryu took a step forward, “Tyson I-” 

“No!” Tyson screamed and threw his hand in front of him to keep him back, “stay away from me!” 

The doors to the dojo opened, no doubt his make-shift team coming to see the commotion. 

“You guys stay away from me too!” Tyson grasped his head and scratched his nails into his scalp, “Everyone just- stay away from me.” 

No one could say anything, Tyson glanced around at the quiet group, “what? Are you guys afraid of me now or something?” 

“Tyson, you need to calm down-” Ryu tried. 

“No? Don’t tell me to calm down!-” Tyson took a step backwards, trying desperately to flee the situation, then it occurred to him- he could. 

Tyson stared down the gravel beneath his feet, the world felt blurry, and in that moment his vision flashed red, he turned away running at full pace through the yard, and out the gates, flying down the street as he heard his only paternal figure and teammates calling for him. 

Down the road, over a bridge, along the ocean, towards the river. 

The sun was setting now, twilight was blanketing the world. 

At the top of the riverbank he began to head towards the river, not knowing why. He slipped on the smooth grass landing on his back and groaning in pain. 

He placed his hands over his face and cried. 

He sobbed for everything- everything he lost, his friend’s, his reputation, his spirit. 

He pulled himself off the grass and shoved his head in between his knees, still crying. Anger, sadness, regret, he felt it all at once. It was eating him from the inside out.

He let out a frustrated scream while jabbing his fingertips into his biceps, trying desperately to turn to dust, to become one with the earth. 

He didn’t hear the footsteps approach him. 

“I would ask if you’re okay- but I know the answer.” 

“Whoever you are- Just leave me alone- please.” Tyson buried his head further into his knees. 

He felt someone sit beside him, the grass crunched under their weight.

“Everyone’s left you.” 

“I know that-” Tyson could barely make out the words. 

“They left you for better teams, brighter pastures… You must think you’re not good enough for them.”

Tyson shook his head. 

“You are. You’re better than all of them, probably better than all of them combined.” 

 Those words made Tyson perk his head up, wondering who his savior tonight could possibly be. 

The purple hair stood out first, he wore a compassionate smile. 

Tyson locked eyes with his arch-enemy but made no effort to change his expression.

 “You’re allowed to be sad- and angry.” 

Tyson became more frustrated, *why is it out of everyone I know, the evilest person tells me what I need to hear?*

Boris had an interesting voice. Tyson tried to dissect the tone, but he could only detect… Affection. 

“What are you going to do now… World champion?”

Tyson felt his body go numb at the comment, so much was expected of him, but he had no way of accomplishing any of it. 

Tyson tried to inhale before answering, a cough got stuck in his throat, and he answered in a hoarse voice, “I’m not sure.” 

Boris continued smiling, he stared at the orange sun, just about to disappear under the horizon, “Do you want to show your friends how capable you are?” 

Tyon managed to hold his head up for a moment, he slowly nodded. 

“Good for you.” 

His words seemed to calm him down against his will. 

Tyson mumbled, “I won’t join BEGA.”  

“I’m not asking you to. But I do have everything you need to arm yourself. Parts, training rooms, places to sleep, all the food you could ask for” 

Tyson shook his head. 

“No strings attached. Come see my training facilities tonight, if you don’t want to be there, you can leave.”  

Tyson felt cold, the shadow of the setting sun crept over them, an ominous darkness crawled over his face, then Boris’. 

“Or would you rather go back to your home tonight?” 

Boris made a point. Tyson had no intention of going home tonight, but he had nowhere to stay. 

His eyes darted back and forth, deep in thought. 

Boris pushed himself off the ground and stepped to the top of the hill. 

On the road next to them, a fancy car.  

The purple-haired man opened the passenger door and gestured with his hand. Tyson gave him a blank stare. 

“Come on, world champ.” He emphasized the last words just right- reminding Tyson how much was on his back, “what’ll it be?” 

Tyson’s brain wasn’t working, logical thought was too much to process. What he did know was- he didn’t want to sit on this riverbank crying the rest of the night. 

Boris waited, for minutes, holding the door open. 

Tyson sniffed, he rubbed his nose with his forearm, crawled to his knees, and pushed himself off the ground. 

“Good job, champion.” Boris grinned, giving him the unnecessary compliment. 

Tyon was beside him now, he rested his fingertips on the top of the car door, feeling the cold black metal under his nails. 

“It’ll be warmer inside when I turn on the heat,” Boris reassured Tyson, inspecting his skin, covered in goosebumps from the cold.

“O...kay…” 

Tyson crawled into the passenger seat weakly.

He did turn on the heat. The heated seats warmed Tyson’s whole body. He watched the street lamps roll past as he hunched into the leather. 

Boris drove like an old man- but also a maniac. Driving the speed limit, but taking turns at the same speed. 

The BEGA building towered over the whole city. They pulled into a parking garage, the gates rose with Boris’ presence. 

After parking in a special stall, Boris turned off the car and climbed out, he walked to Tyson’s side opening the door for him. Tyson didn’t have the energy to complain that he could have done it himself, and instead, followed the older man to a specific elevator. 

They rode the elevator in silence.

When the door opened, Boris walked ahead, Tyson followed cautiously. 

Inside another heavy metal door was darkness, Boris flicked a switch and the lights invaded the room. 

The room was filled with dirt and boulders, in the center, a beydish carved into the earth. 

 “This room was made to be destroyed,” Boris explained. 

Tyson pushed his hands into his pocket, caressing Dragoon with his hand. 

“You’re welcome to destroy it- if you’d like.” 

Tyson still felt emotion linger in his chest, the frustration was killing him, it was a tempting offer, but he knew if he wrecked his blade in the process, he had no way of fixing it. 

“I’m not recording, I’m not analyzing you, I’ll just step back. You do what you need to do.” 

Tyson pulled out his launcher and loaded Dragoon, he directed his launch to a rock.

“AAAUUGH!” Tyson roared as he put all his anger into letting go. 

Dragoon split the rock clean through with ease, the two halves crashing to the ground. 

Tyson continued to scream and throw his hands giving Dragoons orders at a lighting pace. The room was soon covered in dust from the obliterated rocks, while sand rolled over the floor. 

Tyson was holding his chest, trying to get air into his lungs with fast painful breaths, he realized the amount of air he needed wasn’t arriving, so he continued to destroy the room. 

After all the rocks were annihilated, he fell to his knees. He was out of tears, his eyes were wide open. As he witnessed the destroyed room under his body, Boris began to clap. 

“Bravo! Amazing, spectacular! A performance only one person in the whole world could accomplish!” 

Dragoon obediently arrived at Tyson’s knees, he picked him up and inspected him. 

*Trashed. I’m sorry Dragoon.*

He shoved him safely back into his pocket. 

“Fantastic job, Tyson.” Boris was in front of him now, holding out his hand to help him up. 

Tyson wanted to refuse, but his legs were like jelly, he grasped his hand using it as his crutch. 

“You must be thirsty after a performance like that! Come- I have a room prepared.” 

Tyson found himself in an extremely fancy penthouse. Extravagant food was laid out on a table with every kind of drink next to it. 

Boris had gestured to a couch telling him to sit down, when he did, the soft plush absorbed him. The comfort felt amazing on his aching muscles. 

“What do you want to drink, champion?” Boris popped open a wine bottle and poured himself a glass. 

Tyson watched him cautiously, he had never seen an adult drink alcohol so casually in front of him- he was underage after all. 

“Do you want some of this?” Boris gestured to his crystal glass and grinned. 

“No- Just water, thanks.” 

“Any food?” Boris asked as he handed him a glass of cold water from the table. 

Tyson accepted it and began to drink, he stopped for a moment, “not hungry.” 

“You’ve been through a lot tonight, that’s understandable.”

Tyson took another worried sip, “Yeah.” Tyson’s eyes darted side to side.

“You must be wondering about the room?” 

“Is this your place?” Tyson took a good look at the penthouse this time. 

“Actually, it was supposed to be yours, when I finally convinced you to join BEGA, but-” Boris took a sip of his wine, “it seems like that just isn’t going to happen.” 

Tyson felt a wave of exhaustion fall over him. He felt like he had been hit by a truck. 

“Let me show you around,” Boris suggested. 

Tyson decided to follow, he needed to get off the couch before he fell asleep. 

He showed him the kitchen, balcony, hot tub, fireplace, and finally the bedroom. 

“King Size bed, very comfortable, you can lay down if you want.” 

Tyson could sense his eyes closing, it had been a long day, he had never felt this tired, even after training all night. 

Boris sat on the edge of the bed, patting the spot beside him. Without questioning, Tyson was sitting beside him too. 

“It’s okay to rest sometimes. Have you ever seen a champion win on fumes?” 

“I have.” Tyson tried to grin, but failed. 

“Go to sleep Tyson.” 

“No- not here.” 

Boris took his empty water glass out of his hand- he gently pushed his shoulder, Tyson collapsed backwards into the bed. 

“Sleep.”

[alyblacklist]

Hi, Aly! Do you think it really was Megan on that scene?? Bc that was definitely Diego. They didn't show her face.

My inbox is filling up again with people asking about doubles and what was “real” and what wasn’t so I am going to make this ONE post on the subject and after that I will not be responding to any other asks about doubles, mannequins or the like because I am SO DONE.  So I’m sorry if I sound irritable with you, anon, because your ask isn’t really the problem here, but I feel like I am drowning in a heap of complaining asks and negativity in general on this subject from all sides and I am tired of it. I’m responding to this one because some of the others I really don’t feel like publicizing. 

Let me ask you - and the people complaining about or mocking the doubles  - do you watch every episode trying to spot the stunt doubles in the action sequences? Do you stop it frame by frame to see where it cuts from the principal actors to their stunt doubles and back again?  If the answer to that is no, if the use of stunt doubles doesn’t ordinarily distract from your enjoyment of a scene, why the hell is the use of a double in part of a sex scene so problematic or something that needs to be dissected? I understand why the people who hate Keenler will seize on any tiny thing they can to mock their scenes, but when the Keenler fans pile on, it’s really too much.

I can tell you with certainty that It’s been done before, including on this show.  Case in point - that second Keen2 boat sex scene in 3.11? That was Megan’s double at the time, Ashley, for the majority of it, not Megan. You can see her face plainly if you pause the scene at the right point.  (I can’t believe I had to rewatch this for this ask but everyone bragging that Megan and Ryan did all their own scenes is just flat-out wrong, I’m sorry). 

They were fortunate that Ashley really resembles Megan because pregnant Megan sure wasn’t flipping around on that bed with Tom.

I’m not even sure that Megan did the full boat sex scene with Tom in 2.22 herself, but I’ll spare you further screen caps and the scene is super dark. She did the kisses, but you never see the woman’s face for the rest where more of the body is shown.

Here’s another example of Ashley filling in for Megan in S3 - as she put it when she shared the photo, getting a little “intimate” with James Spader.

Yes, Megan did a lot of the above scene in the van herself, but not all of it. I am sure it would not have been very comfortable for her to have to lie on her back for the whole thing while 8 months pregnant.

My point in all this is that the use of doubles shouldn’t make a scene less “real” or take away from it being canon. The big difference this season is that Megan is not performing her own kisses whereas in the past she did. Given that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I am not going to fault her for that. We don’t know her particular circumstances and the fact that other actors on other shows are making different choices shouldn’t require her to do the same.  Nor should she be required to strip and perform a sex scene partially nude even in non-Covid times. We don’t know what her contract terms are, but it is becoming increasingly popular for actors to be very specific about what they will and will not do in that regard, especially women.  (Here’s a link for those who want to read more plus a recent article on why Keira Knightley won’t do nude scenes anymore).  It’s different for the man to be shirtless and Diego performed 95% of that sequence himself (except for the kiss scene in the mirror at the very beginning) and I thought Cort choreographed it beautifully liked a slowed-down stunt sequence.  With the cuts to Megan remembering Liz’s night it was lovely.

Bottom line - if you can’t enjoy a scene like last night’s unless Megan and Diego perform every bit of it 100% themselves, then you’re likely always going to be disappointed.  If following behind the scenes ruins the magic, then don’t do it. We can hope that maybe they’ll get back to performing kisses down the line but if they don’t, I’m just happy they are still telling the story in the best way they can.  And I thought both Megan and Diego did an outstanding job showing Liz and Ressler’s emotions throughout. 

Sorry for the rant, but I really needed to clear the air on this one and hopefully never discuss it again.

[ayankun]

Started rewatching hsmtmts, got through the first 4 eps last night (I like to think of that set as Act I), some thoughts this morning:

If I were to knuckle down and actually investigate the sensation I had of "S1 jokey S2 earnest," my thesis would be that it's a product of the show changing its content rather than visual style. There's no incidental jokes at Miss Jenn's financial state in S2, for example, or jokes about Big Red's reading competency, etc.

(Not a condemnation of S1's comedy style, just an observation of one of the ways the tone changed between seasons. The subjective point I'm making, though, is that, yes, for this and other reasons, I personally find more to engage with in S2)

On the topic of visual styles, though, the whip-pan talking-head transition is still being developed in Act I. In Tamra Davis' episodes (1-3), we would either lead in with VO dialogue and cold cut to the speaker, or just cold cut. Maybe two or three times we whip-panned out of the segment. I appreciated and was surprised to see the leading VO, because it's very documentary in spirit, and I noticed it a lot in the ep of Parks and Rec I studied -- because it stood out -- because later hsmtmts doesn't do this at all. I'll keep an eye on it, but my gut instinct is that the whip-pan transition fully supplants it.

Chad Lowe, director of the 4th ep, did a whip-pan transition into a talking head, but even he didn't do it every time.

These were the only episodes of the show helmed by either of these directors, and I'm curious about the behind the scenes events that lead to this eventually. Like, were they not invited back, and why?*

The director names I associate with the show (because their work stands out) are Kimberly McCullough, Paul Hoen, and Joanna Kerns, who each directed 7, 4, and 6 episodes, respectively.

Looks like Tamra Davis got her start in the New Wave music video scene, so I'm guessing they wanted to make their opening statement using the skills of someone who knew their way around a musical number.

Maybe I was tired or maybe I'm starting to become burnt out on the show, or maybe honestly I've put S2 on such a high pedestal that it's harder to recognize that S1 is also perfect for being exactly what it is, but I wasn't impressed with the Act I cinematography xD. I'm thinking of Paul Hoen's impeccable blocking, or Kimberly McCullogh's attention to visual elements that define the tone of a scene, the details you don't notice at first but can still be dissected for intent and meaning. I'm not sure that I saw anything worth studying (to that degree) last night. I did see some stuff that made me go :///

In conclusion, the visual style of S1 (in its infancy, at least) leans more towards functional than artistic. It is my opinion that S2 episodes (maybe not all, I can be fair!) have a functional and artistic look.

PS, Homecoming is the next ep, and that's the one I was blogging about that one time like "THESE WHIP-PANS ARE V LOUD" so maybe it's a noticeable difference because that technique hadn't really been used yet; maybe this was the episode that made it a standard tool in the show's toolbox. Everybody thank Joanna Kerns.

Oh gosh. The rest of the season is directed by either Kerns or McCullough (or both); the exception being the final two, directed by Kabir Akhtar. The six episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on his filmography are what stand out to me.

*I think to be guild-friendly you have to allot a percentage of your credits to freelancers outside your salaried team. I think this is true for SAG, assuming that it's the same for directing credits? That would explain Chad Lowe as a one-off. After that, they kept it in-house and really let all the flavors come together, and then had a "here's how it's done" framework that subsequent new/guest directors could emulate. That's my guess.

Remind me to go back through sometime and pay attention to the writers and their individual styles. The only one that truly stands out in my mind is whoever was responsible for the dialogue in 2x09. The Gina & Jack and Ricky & Ricky's Mom concepts were expertly conceived and presented, but the conversations Nini had with Kourtney and Ashlyn were so full of under-researched zoomer jargon that I could see that poor Olivia and Dara and Julia were like "what is my character even saying rn?????" So I'd love to dig into different writers to look how they, idk, tackle story structure, or who's got the most authentic character voices, or who does what with integrating the themes of the borrowed musical numbers into the plots that contain them, stuff like that. Or a study of when the jokes stopped being as barbed and/or how the ratio of jokes:touching moments shifted over time!!!!!

Or how often and when is the screaming marching band whistle theme used, and to indicate what!!!! Was it used appropriately to signal the final moments of S2, per the established style guide, or had the show already evolved past that point and they failed to structure the episode accordingly so that its raucous rum-pum-pum didn't undercut the emotional highlight of the season???!!!

This show still has so much to unpack, you guys.

Shame I need to stop watching it and do my annual AoS rewatch instead XD XD XD

[365days365movies]

February 7, 2021: Emma. (2020)

Another late one, people! Tomorrow might be a bit later, too, full warning. Like I said, school’s back in session, and I got students to teach and class to prepare!

When I was a kid, I was a pretty avid reader, mostly due to my mom’s drive to get me to be an avid reader. I read Shakespeare from an early age, which might be why I like it so much, and why I remember it so well. 

I also read Jane Austen’s Emma when I was 10 years old. On a related note, I remember none of Jane Austen’s Emma. On another related note, I’m fairly certain that I saw its most famous adaptation, Clueless, and I don’t remember that either.

I’m tempted to rewatch that one, since I don’t remember it AT ALL, but I figure that I’m going to place a more direct adaptation of the work first on my list of priorities. And so, one of the ONLY movies to come out last year is one my list, starring an up-and-coming “it girl,” Anya Taylor-Joy.

From what I can tell, this is a fairly popular movie on this platform, so I’m looking forward to watching it, despite knowing NOTHING about it, other than the fact that it’s a romance drama, and based off of a classic British novel by Jane Austen. Shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) lives in the 1815 English countryside, with her father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), and her caretaker, Mrs. Taylor (Gemma Whelan). However, this is about to change, as she is to marry Mr. Weston (Rupert Graves) that day.

Emma is a sweet girl, who seems to be ale to predict things to pass. She also set up the present marriage, although she seems not to want one for herself. However, she also seems interested in the whereabouts of Mr. Taylor’s son, Frank. He never shows up, though.

Meanwhile, the Woodhouses are visited by George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), whom her father favors, and whom Emma seems to clash with. And Imma call it now: they totally end up together in the end. I mean, c’mon.

Emma’s trying to replace Mrs. Weston nee Taylor as a governness, despite the fact that her father doesn’t want it. Emma finds Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), a young women whom she goes to school with, and apparently might be the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman. She’s also interested in setting Harriet up, as Emma prides her skills as a matchmaker.

However, Harriet’s already interested in a local farmer, Robert Martin (Connor Swindels), but Emma’s trying to set her up with a local vicar, Elton (Josh O’Connor). They go to meet Mrs. Weston, and Emma introduces herself to Elton, who she believes likes her in return.

The next day, Emma and Harriet go to the store, where the gossipy busybody Miss Bates (Miranda Hart) comes to speak with the VERY unwilling Emma, and the considerably more interested Harriet. Miss Bates is speaking up her niece, Jane, although Emma certainly doesn’t seen to care nearly as much as Miss Bates thinks she does.

On the way home, Harriet and Emma encounter Robert Martin, and Emma's definitely not a fan of that potential relationship. Instead, she regularly puts down Mr. Martin, and talks up Vicar Elton.

As Elton and Harriet begin getting closer, and Emma seems to be vindicated in support of the relationship she set up, Knightley’s...not impressed. In a conversation with Mrs. Weston, he basically says that she gets high on flattery, and while she isn’t necessarily a true narcissist, she still NEEDS approval from her peers and others. That’s why she’s setting up Harriet, who feeds her constant flattery.

In addition, her whole “never going to get married” thing doesn’t seem to fly with George, here, who’d like her to fall in love with someone who isn’t...well, a simp, let’s be honest here. And honestly, this is already an interesting character dissection, and I can dig it.

Knightley complicates matters for Emma, when he convinces Martin to write a letter, asking for Harriet’s hand in marriage. However, due to Emma’s subtle manipulations, she convinces Harriet to refuse the proposal, despite the fact that she clearly wants to say yes. And while Emma might be beautiful, and quite smart...yeah, she’s a bitch. Or, at the very least, she acts like one for her own benefit.

Knightley, pissed off about this whole thing, confronts Emma about her manipulations, and states that Martin might be the ideal match for Harriet. After calling her out, and warning her that Elton miiiiiiight be a bit of a ladies’ man, and that he’s certainly the wrong match for Harriet in the end. Emma admits that she mostly wants to keep Harriet for herself.

Autumn turns to Winter, and Emma’s older sister Isabella Knightley (Chloe Pirrie), and her husband John Knightley (Oliver Chris) (and George’s younger brother) come to visit Emma and her father for the holidays. George and Emma make amends, although Emma still won’t admit that she may have been wrong.

Christmas Day comes, and Harriet is sick, while Frank Churchill once again neglects to appear at the house of his father and new wife. George berates his neglect of his familial duties, while Emma argues in his favor, obviously harboring a crush on him still.

At dinner, Elton makes a remark about snow, causing LITERALLY EVERYBODY to leave the party prematurely, and Emma’s father accidentally leaves her behind. Elton, however, offers to give her a ride in his carriage. And in the carriage, he reveals that not only does he actually love Emma, but that he doesn’t care for Harriet at fucking ALL. Fuckin’ WHOOF.

Looks like Elton’s misread EVERY POSSIBLE SIGNAL, and Emma FUCKED UP SOMETHING FIERCE. Harriet is quite saddened by this, and is about to destroy a portrait of herself that Emma made for her. However, Emma instead keeps it. Elton disappears for a number of weeks, just as the niece of Miss Bates, Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson) suddenly reappears.

At dinner, it’s revealed that Jane appears to know Frank Churchill, as they live in the same place. During a piano performance of Jane’s that’s WAY BETTER than Emma’s performance, it’s also revealed that Emma’s been compared to her all of her life, giving her some fat, fat insecurities!

After an awkward encounter with Mr. Martin, Harriet goes to the Martin household to visit his sisters. Meanwhile, the long-awaited arrival of Frank Churchill (Callum Turner) comes, and Emma is unsurprisingly smitten with him. He asks her for a dance at an upcoming dinner, and she accepts.

Knightley is, of course, not impressed with the worldly gentleman. Meanwhile, someone has apparently delivered a pianoforte to Jane Fairfax, and it’s pretty goddamn obvious that it was Frank Churchill. Although, it’s possible that it was George Knightley, who’s been matched to her by Mrs. Weston.

And it’s at this point that I should point out that GODDAMN THIS IS A SOAP-OPERA OF A MOVIE. The hyper-detailed intentions and events, all happening within the confines of high society and etiquette are both overly intricate, while also managing to be...weirdly enrapturing.

The next morning, after a six-week absence, Elton’s come back to town with brand new wife, Augusta Elton (Tanya Reynolds) in tow. Augusta matches Emma’s passive-aggressiveness measure-for-goddamn-measure, which, yeah, PISSES EMMA OFF.

But it’s still good news on the horizon, as Frank’s appearance has prompted the Westons to hold a ball. While Emma and Frank seem to be getting along, Elton is prevented to opportunity to dance with Harriet, only to refuse LIKE AN ABSOLUTE TAINT. On the verge of tears, Harriet’s rescued by George, and they dance alongside the rest of the partygoers.

Emma shows his appreciation for this, and Knightley returns his appreciation for her friendship with Harriet, who’s way goddamn better than Augusta. The two decide to dance together, and the two basically fall in love RIGHT GODDAMN THERE AND I AM GODDAMN HERE FOR IT.

Which sucks, because I’m, what, a little more than halfway in? No way it’s this easy.

And as Knightley and Emma realize their feelings the next day, they actually run towards each other, SEE each other...and then get iterrupted by Frank carrying Harriet post-her being attacked by muggers GOD FUCKING DAMMIT REALLY?

Plus, it looks like Harriet might be in love with Knightley now, after the previous night. HowEVER, since the previous night, Emma is now in love with Knightley, and believes that Harriet’s feelings are directed towards her rescuer, Frank Churchill. But Frank’s in love with Jane. Like, for sure he’s in love with Jane. And Knightley’s in love with Emma, although Mrs. Weston believes that he’s in love with ane, as he leant her his chariot the previous night, although he DIDN’T do that, and the chariot (and piano) must’ve come from Frank, who’s actually in love with her, not Harriet, as Emma believes. YOU GOT THAT? BECAUSE I’M ASTONISHED THAT I DO

Summer comes, and there seemingly no major changes to the love lives of our main characters. Can’t say that for George’s mansion, as he’s unveiled all of the paintings in the place.

Might be wrong about the progression of relationship thing, as George and Harriet appear to be getting along, and Emma and George suddenly...aren’t. And THEN, Jane tells Ema that she’s feeling super down at the moment, and leaves. Which is when Frank shows up, which Emma appears to not be super happy about.

Later, at a luncheon, Emma takes out her emotions upon Miss Bates who, while kind of annoying during the film, doesn’t deserve the insult lobbied her way by Emma. Afterwards, George DESTROYS her, and she...she gets it. She’s been an asshole.

After a good cry, she goes to apologize to Miss Bates, who immediately forgives her, as she tends to do. It’s also pretty quickly revealed after that that we find out that Frank has ALWAYS been engaged to Jane, since he arrived to Highbury. AND, Emma finally findss out that Harriet’s in love with George, not Frank. Which...yeah, Emma’s not a huge fan of, for obvious reasons.

However, Emma points out that George might have been trying to get Harriet involved with Mr. Martin, but also tries to step back. However, Harriet RIGHTLY calls her out this time, bringing up the fact that Emma fancies George, and that it’s because of Emma that she refused Mr. Martin. And Emma finally gets it. ALL of it.

George, hearing of Frank’s engagement, goes to comfort Emma in her time of distress. And after railing out Frank for his lying ass, he starts to confess his true feelings to Emma. But she tries to stop him, but THERE AIN’T NO STOPPIN’ LOVE BABY

And as he STRAIGHT-UP PROPOSES to her...her nose bleeds and she says no.

Finally, it’s confirmed that George was speaking on Mr. Matin’s behalf, not his own, and Emma pledges to make things right herself. She delivers the painting of Harriet to Mr. Martin, and he proposes to her. Harriet accepts, and has also finally heard from her father, who isn’t a nobleman at all, but a shoemaker. Emma still invites them over to their estate, and the two make up as friends.

And speaking of making up, George and Emma also make up, and the two are officially engaged to be wed. And it’s honestly...quite lovely. Which describes the whole film, which comes to a close.

WHEW. Now THAT...was a Recap. See you in the Review!

[thethirdwheel404]

Med Rewatch Series (#10)

S3 E10: Down By Law.

Episode Description: Dr. Manning sustains an injury while helping a drive-by victim and Dr. Rhodes finds himself in uncomfortable waters.

Connor being in ‘uncomfortable waters’? I can hear Ava bullying him already.

(also i wrote a little thing abt maggie giving ava a red bull so enjoy that little bit of content)

Let’s get into it.

-barry just yeeted natalie against a car holy shit that’s fucking hilarious

-will needs to chill the fuck out

-YESSSSS

-THIS WHERE CONNOR BRINGS THE WOMAN HE WENT OUT WITH UP FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT. AND THEN AVA HARASSES HIM FOR IT.

-this is one of the most iconic ava moments. (it’s first thing that pops up under the tumblr tag)

-ava overhearing connor not knowing his date’s last name. and ava walking over, already getting ready to make fun of him. barely concealing her smile

-the confidence with which she set down the file. she was too prepared and too excited

-this could just turn into a list of ava quotes

-”It must be hard, remembering all their names.”

“You know I read Derek Jeter used to send his conquests home with a gift basket. But a full cardio work up is... It’s much classier.”

-ava bekker secret baseball fan?

-Connor: “Jeter? You a baseball fan?”

Ava: “Oh, no. It’s much too boring. But I love gossip.”

-interesting. very, interesting... is it weird to anyone else to think about ava liking gossip?

-like the idea is fun and all but i hate the idea of ava being suuuper obsessed with gossip. it makes her seem way too shallow in my book. that being said, one of my hcs about women gossiping about all the shit men do to ava bc they know she’ll call them on it now has a lot more precedence

-i know she explicitly says that baseball is boring but i can’t get the idea of ava being a secret baseball fan out of my head. its just so novel

-HER SHIT EATING GRIN

- Connor: “Well, we will get you in and out of here as quickly as possible.”

Ava: “That’s what Dr. Rhodes is renowned for around here. Quick in and outs.”

Connor: *turns to her condescendingly*

Ava: *two finger salute* “I’m Dr. Bekker, by the way.”

-the lesbian icon jumped out

-also the fact that in the previous episode Ava’s mentor did the exact same salute. idk what it means but it’s not that important

-ava trying to hide her smile when asking the woman if she wanted them to contact her husband

-ava overhearing again when latham tells connor the woman he was with was doing cocaine

-ava smirking when connor says that he thinks the heart attack was from his sex and not the cocaine

-connor thinking he’s so good at sex he’s going to give this woman a heart attack

-he really drives All the ladies wild in EveryWay (sex, suicide. he’s the whole package)

-latham asking connor point blank “did you partake in the cocaine?”

-the ct team gives connor so. much. shit. it’s so funny

-also. ava just chillin at her desk looking at scans? that’s the kind of content i want to see. just her just being there. doing her own thing. that’s what i want

-THE GUY WITH A TEENAGE WIFE IS A REVEREND HOLY SHIT

-counting down the minutes til natalie drops dead (passes out but yk a girl can dream lol)

-sarah. back at it again with her rayon jacket and button up and backpack. the coffee cup only adds to the aesthetic

-connor being surprised that latham isn’t gonna let him do surgery on the women he fucked (twice, he might add)

- whatever you do, don’t think of a brown bear. are you thinking about it?

-maggie dealing red bull to people who need it. that’s a very soft idea

- ex:

Dr. Bekker is sitting at the desk in the ED. Well, sleeping, more like it. Her head is resting on her fist, her elbow precariously close to slipping off the the chair armrest, and her eyes open by just a hair.

“Dr. Bekker.”

Ava jolts awake.

“Maggie,” Ava says, strong accent cutting through, acknowledging the person standing over her. Hastily, she adjusts her jacket and scrubs, smoothing them back into place.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this tired.”

Ava shrugs, seamlessly slipping back into easy confidence.

“Rough couple of cases. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Uh huh,” Maggie says, unbelieving.

She sets a can of Red Bull on the desk with a knowing look.

“You need this more than anybody.”

Ava scoffs. “Those things? They are murder on your heart, come on.”

Maggie hums and walks away. Ava watches her leave, and when she’s out of sight, Ava darts forward, grabs the energy drink, immediately cracking it open and downing half of it.

- anyway.

- @punksarahreese that’s on you for making me believe ava loves energy drinks

- let’s continue

- sarah looking at charles telling her not to do something: I am not going to do a thing you said

- go off babe. it was the wrong decision but go off

- all the nurses watching this guy call nat a bitch:  👀 👀 👀 👀

- will being like: god that guy called you a bitch i fucking hate him

- and natalie being like: he is also refusing to let us treat the 14 yr olds cancer but you obviously have priorities

- sarah is so logical. she’s good at talking to people. can you FUCKING IMAGINE IF SHE HAD BETTER GUIDANCE (oh and less trauma)

- this is also the one with that hilarious screen cap of sarah holding a knife

- the way she is so calm about handing this patient a knife gives me anxiety

- THIS SCENE IS SO HARD TO WATCH IT SCARES ME SO MUCH

- sarah just in alone in a room with a man who keeps having visions of stabbing his wife. and her just handing him a fucking knife oh my god i have too much anxiety for this

- rewatching the series and getting completely confused bc norma is 5′7″ but she looks so short next to colin and the guy who plays latham

- AND RACHEL IS ALSO 5′ 7″ BUT THEY BOTH LOOK SO SHORT - WHY EVERYONE ON THIS SHOW SO TALL

- anyway. ignore that that’s not important

- I... the parallels btwn sarah offering this guy the ability to slit her throat (for therapy) and ava cutting her throat... i don’t know what to do with this information

- idk but sarah holding the knife got me feelin some type of way

- the way connor looks at ava with such contempt bc she... does her job (and his but yk) especially during the hug wtf dude honestly just stop looking at her

- this is also the episode where ava pawns off the patient’s hug onto connor. while yeah, it could ava just being annoying to connor by forcing him to hug his one night stand’s husband, but she did give connor due credit. (and something to be said about her being confused and a tad uncomfortable when the patient hugs her, which is why she pawns it off to rhodes)

- she also doesn’t hug the guy back, which is kind of funny, she never moves her arms and just shrugs out of it

- and like after the hug she takes a few steps away from the guy, really not wanting any more physical contact or attention

- there’s something interesting in ava’s expression when connor gets hugged by the guy, can’t quite explain it. i’m gonna go with it’s her trying to keep a straight face while connor hugs a man he just helped a woman cheat on, but that’s not all of it so

- or. okay, I think i got it. i think that that little expression when connor gets hugged is her rolling her eyes at him getting credit when ava did most of the heavy lifting. yes. final answer. i’m satisfied

- and her looking away from them is her stopping herself from laughing, bc connor is obviously not enjoying this

- and he’s so sad and angsty he can’t even play along with the jokes

- and ava smiling at him with pity as she walks in to talk to the patient, bc that’s really what it is. she feels bad for him bc connor is so obviously lonely

- and connor’s annoyed bc ‘dammit she does have a right to pity me i suck rn’

- med pushing the women are tough agenda LITERALLY SHUT THE FUCK UP

- you hate your women characters so much just fucking shut your mouth

- and will being like ‘ i have a lot to learn about women not being objects’

- and nat saying ‘you are way further along than most’ like no, he’s not. the bar is on the ground and he still can’t jump it

- i’m pretty sure this show doesn’t pass the bechdel test. holy fucking shit it doesn’t. you’ve gotta be kidding me. (at least this episode doesn’t)

I can’t believe this episode didn’t pass the bechdel test. The only convo btwn two women were like maggie and sharon and they talk about barry and oh my god this is infuriating god med the bar is so low. And I’m pretty sure most episodes don’t pass the test anyway. Will is literally the representation of med. He gets lots of credit for doing bare minimum things like giving women rights.

Anyway.

This was a good episode. We dissected a lot of unspoken Ava things, which is very good. Ava had a lot of moments where she was there, but didn’t say anything, and when your characters can do that, that’s when you know your characterization is very good.

The moments where Ava isn’t really doing anything to forward the plot of the episode but she’s still just there, doing her own thing, are hands down my favorite. Her sitting at the desk looking at a scan while connor tells latham he didn’t do cocaine could possibly my favorite ava moment in the series, just bc it shows how much of her own character should could’ve been.

I drew an interesting parallel btwn sarah offering the guy to slit her throat and ava’s death. i have nothing for that but go wild

This episode also showed us Ava pitying Connor, another new aspect. she gives him shit but she also pities him. very good ep for little ava moments

as always, thanks for sticking through it

-

read the rest here:

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Extra