#but i am saying that garth and donna have a very beautiful friendship

[floralovebot]

If Donna and Garth got together how would you like their relationship to play out whether as adults or teenagers?

well,,, i don't like donna/garth, so i would prefer they don't get together at all.

i don't wanna leave you hanging,, but just know that everything i'm about to say is going to be said from the perspective of Not liking that ship. so if you do like this ship, honestly i'd recommend maybe skipping the post and asking someone who does like them adjkhg

while i don't like garth's characterization in this newest world's finest series, i do think the way they handled their relationship was probably the best way it could've gone. essentially, the two of them are in a "situationship", but they're having troubles because their personalities are so different and they don't mesh well in a romantic setting. they end up having a mutual break up that is extremely chill! here's a post if you want to see the pages

garth and donna having different expectations and needs in a relationship and casually agreeing that they can't be what they need to be for each other is the best way to go about them having a romantic relationship (if they Must be together). i'm glad that it was a healthy break up with zero drama too - that's exactly the way it should be if it's them. and it would be this way regardless of age. but also they just shouldn't get together in the first place adlghlgda

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

what does this have to do with clownfish?

i know this was a mostly sad episode that ended on a rather disquieting note, but i was grinning from ear to ear by the end, you guys. I LOVE THIS SILLY SHOW SO MUCH, and i want to tell you why, so let’s talk about titans 2.04:

SPOILERS ahead

1. i get why we’re getting a flashback episode now--the titans’ ~sordid past~ with deathstroke has gotten a fair bit of build-up, and now that slade has jason, we need the history between him and the og team to contextualise the upcoming confrontation. still, i was really looking forward to having kory reunite with the team, goddamit! 

1.5. i like the convivial, almost collegiate vibe that the original titans have about them--the idea of them getting together both desperate to prove that they are more than what their origins and youth might suggest, and to dick around (pun not intended) and just... be, in a way that their individual circumstances wouldn’t allow them. costumes on, in mission-mode, they are trained and hyper-competent, but in their downtime they apparently like adorably warbling off-key at each other and re-enacting 90s/00s cheesy rom-coms. it’s great! i would’ve loved to see these kinds of flashbacks drip-fed to us right from the beginning of the season--putting it all in one episode, from aqualad’s introduction to demise all in forty minutes, not only screws up the pacing, but also robs us of more of garth’s genuinely warm chemistry with the rest of the team. 

1.67. besides, the immediate contrast between this and the way dick conducts the titans now would’ve been funny and quite impactful.

2. for all that dick seemed standoffish and genuinely frightened of himself in s1, the slightly less filtered look we get into his mind in this flashback--well before his existential crisis--is somehow even more disquieting?? the way he talks about batman and his relationship with dawn and even his friendship with donna smacks of an alarming emotional disconnect; a space where his sense of self has fallen and been replaced by a role that he has been trained to play. he smiles more in this episode than probably all eleven of s1 combined, but he’s far more reserved, afraid of vulnerability, and completely unwilling to express any emotion that would come in the way of him being who he Needs To Be.

2.45. this episode puts into sharp relief just how far dick has come to make peace with bruce in 2.01. here batman is a glowing symbol against the night sky; a shadowy figure promising justice is vengeance and not the other way around; a hulking figure that he can hate and love without reserve, that orders him to be better no matter how exhausted he is, even while standing between him and incomprehensible evil like a bulwark. at the heart of the titans tower--a skyscraper on the opposite side of the country from gotham--is another batcave, a sign that how no matter how far he goes, dick’s perception of himself and his relationships is still inextricably tied to batman and his ways. 

it’s the missing link between the angry, grieving boy we saw in flashbacks last season, and the man rapidly spiralling into crisis at the beginning of season 1. he’s internalised batman’s mission before he can decide for himself what he wants to be, and he’s been like this well into his adult years (unlike the comics). no wonder when the moment he goes Too Far finally comes, when he’s so burrowed into himself that vengeance becomes an end rather than a tool, it’s such a violent upheaval, and one that he hasn’t quite been able to put to rest in over a season.

2.65. honestly the matter of fact way he talks about being dawn’s rebound relationship after her breakup is haunting me?? dick grayson--robin, batman’s partner, the First Sidekick, leader of the titans, friend, brother, lover, a valuable asset with trackers in his arm and neck--is so utterly subsumed that his feelings, his self, automatically comes second to the role he’s playing. i wonder if he had found that he’d had a tracker installed in his body without his knowledge at this point, he’d have accepted the cold logic of it (of course batman needs to keep track of him), instead of the visceral reaction he has five years later, when he immediately picks up a knife and cuts it out of his skin.

2.95. (retrospectively it lends so much more meaning to the opening scene of 1.08??? where dick says he needs to go off on his own to get his bearings right instead of staying on to be the Leader after their traumatic time at the asylum and kory and the others are quietly accepting of it?? where’s that ‘that’s growth’ gif when you need it)

3. donna! it’s interesting that her role as a titan was always meant to be a pitstop before she moved on to Greater Things, and her struggle to reconcile that with her growing attachment to the team came across really well. jillian’s never really pressuring her to leave immediately--six months! two weeks! idk, forever! really, it’s your pick!--but donna tells dick she needs to leave that very night, either because she’s hoping that he’ll protest and ask her to stay, or that she’ll fall for garth and lose her wavering conviction to leave if she stayed any longer, or both. 

3.5. donna and garth’s relationship followed so many wonderfully cheesy conventions, with all of their attendant adorableness and Problems. the scions of two different royal families of two different races falling in Forbidden Love! garth clumsily flirting with donna even as she keeps turning him down! (not cool, garth!) bonding over reminiscing about quirky childhood memories! consulting a put-upon mutual best friend! the last minute reconciliation and confession of love at the airport! garth dying right after celebrating his birthday! (that cop was just a day away from retirement!) PERFECT

like. i have NO IDEA why people still insist on calling this show ‘dark’ and ‘edgy’. don’t let the weird lighting and occasional blood spatter distract you from the goofy, well-intentioned heart right at its centre, you guys!

(but man, dick and donna’s quiet heartbreak at the prospect of separation was harder to watch. for a moment, dick really let himself feel the burden, sinking onto his haunches, his head in his hand like he was about to cry. just a moment.)

4. the others’ reaction to garth’s death is very telling. donna is devastated; hank and dawn are upset, but in a distant way that suggests that they didn’t really know him very well or for very long; and dick... well dick is hard at work in his batcave, because that is how he knows to react to disaster. 

4.5. i know that i spend quite a bit of my reviews harping on and on about dick, but he is more than just the team leader, or the one with the most well-defined arc so far, or the connective tissue between the old and new teams: the titans is HIS, in ways both subtle and insubtle. batman is funding the whole thing; their resources, their tech? all wayne enterprises. by extension, this shindig is dick’s idea, dick’s operation, something he shaped after himself--serene, beautiful, somewhat impersonal on the surface and batman-the-symbol, batman-the-phantom, right at the centre. 

4.65. so when the burden of morality-bending vengeance falls squarely on dick’s shoulders, it seems natural. it also seems entirely natural that when dick does follow through on what the team wants from him, the fallout is also put square on him: he’s the one that’s gone completely off the rails, the one that would sacrifice anything for a mission (like hank implies in the previous episode), the one haunted by his own darkness. this, of course, is patently false, as trigon demonstrated earlier this season.

5. the opening scene of slade wilson doing the Thing He Does Best was so fun to watch. i love that this show is always trying to do interesting things with the camera. (tho i wonder, who hired him to take out donna troy in san fran? was that even his original objective? was it dr light? i am Confusion)

5.5. ... even tho the villain-confrontation scenes seemed hampered by low effects budgets and a lack of... kineticism. i can’t figure out how dr light works even after two episodes of seeing him do his thing. he can apparently implant light bombs in people but never seems to use this awesome ability again, when it can actually help him against the titans? 

6. the moment i saw joey wilson’s profile through the window of his home, i knew he was going to be my favourite character on this show. i love him and his enthusiasm and his cute shoes and his love for vintage records SO MUCH! i know it’s been hinted that he died, but i can’t bear the prospect for even a second. HE’S ALIVE AND WELL SOMEWHERE HAVING TEA AND LISTENING TO GREAT MUSIC WITH AMY ROHRBACH, I JUST KNOW IT

6.5. dick (and the others) wouldn’t be so horrified with themselves and think about shuttering the titans for good if they hadn’t felt some kind of attachment to jericho. dick especially i think is going to fall into an actual honest friendship with joey and is going to extremely disgusted with himself when it all ends in tragedy anyway. 

6.75. we’re probably not going to find out what actually happened to joey for a while, but here’s hoping the Unforgivable won’t happen.

7. on the brightside tho, KORY’S BACK NEXT EP! can’t wait. 

[ialwayscomewhenyoucall]

Some of My Favorite Ladies

I was tagged by @fangirlingtodeath513 to share some of my favorite female characters...and wow, this was hard. If I could just pick ten, it would be easy as pie, but the rules say from ten different fandoms and I am a good girl who never breaks the rules. ;) I managed, but it was a close thing. (Honestly, I wanted to pick nearly all of them from Doctor Who...!)

Anyway...

The rules are to list ten of your favorite female characters from ten different fandoms and then tag ten different people.

1. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Battlestar Galactica) - I may be 39 years old, but I still have days when I say “I want to be Starbuck when I grow up.” Yes, she is deeply flawed. But she is strong, and she cares deeply, and when she has a task she throws herself into it with her everything. She is my patronus, my spirit animal, and I will always cry when I think of “Maelstrom” and the BSG finale.

2. River Song (Doctor Who) - What can be said about River that hasn’t already been said? So much of her story is some dude saying “you can’t do that” and her saying “watch me,” kicking ass while reapplying her lipstick or flirting with the Doctor. She shot a Silence she couldn’t see (behind her)--or even remember--all because she saw that Rory had a scared look on his face [”Day of the Moon”]. She loved her parents, she loved the Doctor, and she did the hard things even when she knew what was coming after. ((I need a hug))

3. Charlie Bradbury (Supernatural) - Of course. Charlie rules. But I’m not bitter. Clever, funny, adorable, just snarky enough when it’s needed...Charlie is (I refuse to even think the past tense) perfect.

4. Olivia Dunham (Fringe) - Oh Chuck how I miss this show. (And yes, I know I just mixed my fandoms. Deal with it.) Olivia is the perfect mix of strong and vulnerable. She is way badass and can take down any bad dude you throw at her, but she is so soft with Peter, or Walter, or any child who needs help. She takes the insanity of Fringe division in stride, and she survives the alternate universe on her own. Seriously amazing.

5. Luna Lovegood (the Harry Potter books) - Luna, I’ll admit, reminds me of me. Quirky. Unconcerned with what other people think. Fiercely loyal. Bookish. She is, I think, smarter than me, but she’s fictional so I don’t feel too bad about that. ;) I love her. I’ll admit it: when I re-read the series, I find myself thinking, “okay, but when do we get to Luna again??” as I read the earlier books!

6. Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - this one was easy, but also not. Easy because BtVS was my first true obsession, television-wise. It was the first show I watched over and over and over, the first show I could quote long sections of, the first show I actually cried when it ended. But it was not easy too, because I also love Willow with my whole heart. And if you’d asked me to choose fifteen years ago I almost certainly would have chosen Willow. But these days I identify more with Buffy. No, I don’t have a weighty destiny or super powers (I wish), but I do have three children, and that in itself puts what sometimes feels like the weight of the world on my shoulders. Fifteen years ago I didn’t know what it felt like to be truly responsible for the life of another. Now I’m responsible for three (along with my husband, of course). It’s not the same, I know, but since my first son was born just about ten and a half years ago I find myself identifying with Buffy more and more. It’s funny how perspectives change.

Anyway, personal introspection aside, Buffy saves the world. A lot. Do I have to say more?

7. CJ Cregg (The West Wing) - Okay, I know this show has been off the air for ages. I don’t care. I love CJ. She has an impossible job and she does it with grace and courage with the whole world watching her...and then she gets an even more impossible job, and she’s even better. And she’s not afraid to speak her mind to the president, or whoever needs to hear it. Awesome.

8. Alanna of Trebond and Olau (Song of the Lioness quartet and other books of Tortall by Tamora Pierce) - And here’s where I delve into places it’s likely fewer people have gone....but really should. I first picked up Alanna: The First Adventure, the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet, when I was 12. I found it on a paperback rack in my middle school’s library. I was instantly hooked, and I’ve never looked back. Ten year old Alanna and her twin brother, Thom, have a problem. Alanna is supposed to go to the convent to learn to be a lady. Thom is supposed to go to the palace to learn to be a knight. But Alanna wants to be a knight and Thom wants to study magic. So they trade places. Alanna becomes Alan, hiding her sex. (Thom is lucky; at the convent they train boys to use magic as well as training up girls to be young noblewomen.) It is never easy, but the lesson is a good one--not that “boy” things are better, but that one should be free to choose whichever path they want in life, if they are willing to work for it.

I’ve read and re-read these books over and over and over again. It was actually difficult to choose my favorite of Pierce’s heroines (each quartet focuses on a different character but they all take place in the same world and interconnect). Alanna will probably be my favorite forever just because she was the first, but I also love her daughter, Aly

9. Lirael, daughter of the Clayr (the Old Kingdom books, by Garth Nix) - These books are very, very high on my list of all-time favorites, and Lirael herself is a big part of that. For a long time she struggles with finding her place in a world that doesn’t seem to want her, but when she finds her true calling she steps into her place without hesitation. It’s beautiful to “see”. Plus she starts out as a magic-wielding, crossbow-carrying librarian. Awesome.

(Okay, feel free to laugh at me for this last one, I can take it...)

10. Fluttershy (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) - Yes. My Little Pony. I started out watching this with my little girl...but I kept watching it on my own. I’ve seen every episode...more than once. Shh! It’s our secret, okay?? ;) All of the mane six have qualities that I admire, but Fluttershy is my favorite. Again, she reminds me most of myself. She is quiet and reserved, keeping mostly to herself unless she is around her friends. But if you wrong one of her friends or her animals--watch out! She becomes a force to be reckoned with. I love that, and I can so relate.

Honorable mention: Jody Mills (SPN), Rose Tyler (Doctor Who), Donna Noble (Doctor Who), Amy Pond (Doctor Who), Willow Rosenberg (BtVS), Hermione Granger (Harry Potter), Astrid Farnsworth (Fringe), Keladry of Mindalen (Tortall), Aly Homewood (Tortall)

Because who cares about the rules

And now I tag...

@bend-me-shape-me @bold-sartorial-statement @starsinursa @gneisscastiel @aldehydean @nera-solani @heyitsmebee @wanderingcas @magicknightriderjellyfish @allofmystudentsrunaway