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butterflydm · 8 months

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wot deeper dive 2x4: daughter of the night

This specific post I am going to avoid any spoilers from the books! I will be doing another post later today that includes those spoilers and related thoughts.

I feel like I can safely call him 'Ishamael' now. The information is all there in the episodes.

I do like this initial 'calling' scene, though we got a lot of it teased to us before the season aired, so I've talked about it before. But we hear the word 'Lanfear' here, though it's followed by a lot of Old Tongue, so it might not have stood out too much to people who didn't already know that it's someone's name.

Given what we saw of the flashback last season "3000 years ago", I feel safe in saying... yeah, looks like Ishamael is among the ruins of that older civilization. Probably brings back some memories. Also, time-stamp note: it looks like he's wearing the black buttoned outfit that he wore last season, not the blue with the gold tie-clip-like design that he's been wearing this season.

3. The bloody woman! I wonder if she's bloody (and naked) because that's what she looked like when she got sealed up or if it's something that happened due to the process of unsealing. It looks like the seal was already partially damaged, so maybe that's why Lanfear was bloody when she woke up.

4. I loved Anveare's plotline through this episode. I really enjoy what the show is doing in showing us the downside of being a channeler -- outliving your friends and family, watching them grow old and die. Having children is a crapshoot -- if they're a girl, and they can channel, then it's a relatively normal parental relationship. But if they're a boy or if they're a girl who can't channel, then they will inevitably die before you. We're introduced to Anveare again by showing us her signs of aging -- she looks at the lines on her face and puts on an elaborately-styled wig to cover how white her real hair is.

5. Here's a question: given the age of her butler and how she talks later about needing to ask friends for food (and the general vibe of the manor house itself); it sounds like their house truly is fallen, as Moiraine mentioned in s1, and is having serious money issues (though in the way that nobility has money issues rather than the way that the people in the Foregate do -- she's not poor, she lacks funds) and Anveare seeks to fix the problems both of money and of her house's image by marrying her (unnamed for now) son to the Cairhienin queen (also unnamed for now). The interesting thing to me about this is that it means that her conversation with Rand in the last episode probably did have an element of genuine sympathy for the Foregaters in it -- it sounds like she's also felt like she could lose her home and her place in society. And it's implied that she's an artist! I really loved seeing the sketches and paintings in her study.

6. The conversation between Lady Anveare and Moiraine is so painful! Moiraine is NOT here to engage emotionally with her younger sister -- she is here to find Rand and to try to keep Lanfear away from him, and she has no time or patience for anything else (as we saw with her behavior with Lan as well). It's clear how frustrated Anveare is with Moiraine's behavior. I'm assuming that she guessed straight-away that Moiraine's appearance here had to do with the mysterious redheaded boy who visited Logain and made an appearance at a party (because it's also made clear in this episode that Logain being sent to Cairhien was not 'business as usual' with male channelers but an oddity, which means that Anveare has probably been keeping an eye on the sanatorium ever since he arrived) -- if Moiraine actually had been willing to slow down and take tea with her here, I wonder if Lady Anveare would have just told her about Rand. But Moiraine "my loyalty is to the Dragon Reborn and him alone" Sedai does not have the patience for such things. I like that we're really seeing the damage that Moiraine's singlemindedness has been doing to her relationships with the people around her. It's not targeted at Lan! It's everyone who gets in the way of what she thinks she must do! The way Moiraine sweeps back into the house and just immediately starts giving orders!

7. Guilty Rand and Selene ready to take advantage of it (twisting the knife by blaming herself for the fire when of course she knows how it really started). She's so manipulative! I love how effective she is as a villain here. She's good at finding weak spots and exploiting them without giving away that she's aware of what she's poking at. And the facial expressions are just... on point, always. But Rand is worried that he'll hurt anyone if he's around them, and the more he cares, the more he worries.

8. Poor Nynaeve. The Accepted testing really put her through the wringer. I like that we only hear the flashback here and that we don't actually flash back to the test. It just happened last episode! We can remember it fine. They did a good job of showing why Nynaeve is currently feeling more emotionally connected to Liandrin (who also has a child, like Nynaeve has the memory of having a child) than to Egwene, who has not experienced anything like what Nynaeve has gone through. And Nynaeve needing to take that moment to remember and go back to put her ring on. Egwene is trying to hard to connect with Nynaeve but Nynaeve just... she was essentially 'trained' by her time as a Wisdom not to want to burden 'the kids' with her troubles (we see that in the very first episode when she launches her Bel Tine lantern separate from the rest of the village, not letting them see her mourn the people she's lost).

Also: the Accepted rooms are a big upgrade from the novice rooms!

9. We transition from Nynaeve feeling out of place to Lan feeling out of place. He has his hair down, similarly to how he had it in her vision of her AU future, but the quiet happiness that was on his face in that future isn't here now. This is a slower-paced episode for Lan and he doesn't get a big reveal at the end of the episode like we get in most of the other plotlines but if I think of it as an Alanna-focused plotline rather than a Lan-focused plotline, there is a reveal -- the poem and, potentially, the worry that Lan and/or Moiraine might be Darkfriends (we'll maybe find out next week if that's where her thoughts went or if she instead assumes that Moiraine is hunting Darkfriends or something similar).

I mean, thinking about the information that Alanna has:

a. discovers this poem which references the Daughter of the Night -- she doesn't even want to believe that Lan knows who it's referring to! Because of the Implications.

b. talks about how Moiraine changed twenty years ago, very abruptly (this is also likely when Moiraine and Siuan had their very public falling-out) and became colder "like ice".

c. Moiraine was willing to use Alanna to threaten Lan with a forced bonding, which Alanna went along with because Moiraine is her friend, but she may now be thinking about that in a different way -- why would Moiraine want to push Lan away that hard? (this would be leaning into the idea that Moiraine is a Darkfriend and Lan isn't)

It's pretty suspicious, when you think about it! So... if I think of this plotline as less about the show trying to tell us about Lan and more about Alanna: Investigator (mirroring Moiraine: Investigator in Cairhien) in Cairhien, then I feel more patient about the slower pace. And Alanna: Investigator has two co-conspirators that she trusts absolutely, which is a big contrast to Moiraine, as is her relationship with her family! Where Moiraine is cold and pushes away her only relative that we meet, Alanna is warm and teasing and clearly has maintained strong bonds with her large and loving family.

We get three very distinct and different types of ways that Aes Sedai deal with being Aes Sedai and how that affects their family: you can be the cheerful guardian angel of your extended family, like Alanna is (and Maksim and Ihvon are clearly fully part of the family as well, and adored by the children); you can cut them off entirely, like Moiraine has; or you can keep them a secret so that your enemies can't use them against you, like Liandrin has.

10. Alanna always being hungry is such a great character choice. I think I may have read that it was initially the actress's idea? But they are definitely playing into it this season and it works so well, on so many levels. She is a woman of strong appetites, who isn't ashamed to show it. And, like she did with Egwene and sex in 2x1, she's assuming here that Lan also has large appetites (for food, in this case).

11. This scene with Alanna does feel like it gives us a lot of information -- Maksim and Ihvon are on suicide watch for Lan (suicide is a big theme in this episode, actually), but Alanna doesn't think that's the issue here. We learn that Alanna plans to return to the Tower the next day, and we get the info drop about Moiraine's abrupt change twenty years ago. We also have Alanna feeling Lan out about his current plans. Despite what other characters say, Alanna herself doesn't much behave like she's planning to bond Lan imo. She mentions Nynaeve to him here and presents Nynaeve as the potential new option for him. But Lan was just told in 2x2 by Moiraine that he failed her as a Warder and he felt that too -- he wasn't able to protect her just by himself and so he's doubting himself.

In... certain ways, what Moiraine did to Lan over the last few months is not dissimilar to what Liandrin did to Mat, in terms of making them doubt themselves as a person. Their motivations were different but the results appear somewhat similar -- both Lan and Mat are adrift and not certain which direction to turn. "Where would I go?" seems to be the question on both their minds. Lan doesn't feel he would be any use to Nynaeve, just as Mat doesn't feel he would be any use to Egwene.

12. Moiraine looking at all the little pieces of her youth -- the dollhouse, the mirror, the books, the music box, the... cigars? And I love her silhouette her in Cairhienin dress. It's so distinctive. She allows herself some softness here, when she's alone, that she doesn't allow when she's around Anveare. Moiraine: Investigator is now out on the town! This scene is even more interesting knowing that Celestin (head of the sanatorium) sends reports to Lady Anveare. I wonder if Lady Anveare has already guessed that the redheaded boy is a man who can channel, given who he was interested in meeting and that Moiraine went to speak with him too.

13. Loved Moiraine and Logain's scene but, wow, very sharp and intense. She tries to bribe him with the wine and fails, but she does successfully bribe him with the promise of being allowed to kill himself if he does want she asks (which really puts it into perspective how terrible it is to lose the One Power). We get our explanation here of why the gentled false dragon was in Cairhien instead of Tar Valon (bait for Rand) and it's so good! Definitely a joint venture between Siuan and Moiraine -- I imagine that Moiraine penned her a desperate message as soon as she was able to, after realizing at the Eye that she'd screwed up by letting Rand leave. I imagine they also probably made it very public gossip that the false dragon was in Cairhien, explaining how Rand found out about it in the first place.

14. It does sound here like Moiraine's current plan is to stay in Cairhien so that Rand can learn from Logain, but it's very possible that discovering Lanfear in bed with Rand at the end of the episode has changed her plans. We will see!

...also I love Moiraine's pockets.

15. Poor Egwene trying to sort through her feelings, while Elayne does her best to be supportive. Elayne is very sensible-head here, which I appreciate. This isn't a situation that Egwene can 'fix' for Nynaeve, no matter how much she wants to help. It's a lovely and sweet moment between the two of them that shows their growing friendship, and we also get to see them doing chores at the same time, which shows us that Elayne is settling with the White Tower routine. Egwene feeling small and useless in the Tower. Baby. *hugs*

16. And then we get the flipside of things and see Nynaeve's discomfort in the Tower and with being Accepted. She tries to go to the Warder's training ground to find Maksim and Ihvon, but only finds a friendly Warder-in-training who has heard the hot gossip about her skills and is interested in presenting himself as a potential bonding option for her. We do see here that it's the specific friendships that she'd formed already that she was seeking out in the earlier episode when she sparred with Maksim and Ihvon, and not simply sword training itself.

17. Liandrin spots this conversation and then receives a message. This is where we get our discussion between Liandrin and Leane about the invaders on the western coast. The conversation is very vague with Leane, but then when she talks to Nynaeve later, Liandrin suddenly has a bunch of information about a specific group that was captured by the Seanchan. Given that we do find out in this episode that Liandrin is working with Ishamael (from the Mat & Min plotline), it's easy to guess where she got her information about Perrin and Loial's capture.

I love Leane's little shoulder wrap thing. The fashion in this show just vibes with me. I enjoy it. We do learn here that sisters were sent to investigate the attacks in the west.

I am very curious about what explanation they'll give for where Siuan currently is. They've made it a mystery and pointed out twice now that it's a mystery (both here and in 2x1, in the conversation between Egwene and Nynaeve).

18. Aw, wolves! This scene is great. Perrin gets some answers from Elyas, we learn about how the wolfbrother business works, Perrin learns that he isn't a werewolf, and we meet Hopper! What a cutie! I really liked the visualizations and the sendings of the wolves. We also learn that the wolves have been seeing Perrin's dreams.

I love how Elyas clearly is trying to help Perrin but his idea of help is just kinda... off from what Perrin thinks of help as.

I really like how seriously the show has taken Perrin's grief over Laila.

19. Lan has been obsessing over the poem, and Maksim catches him putting it away (explaining how Maksim knew where to look in the later scene). So... if I'm thinking about this storyline in terms of Alanna: Investigator, then Maksim talking to Lan here is just as much about trying to get information out of Lan as it is about trying to 'help' Lan get over his 'broken' bond with Moiraine.

"Have you ever known a marriage that is exactly the same another?" I do like that they are establishing that Warder bonds can come in all different kinds of ways.

20. Now we are back with Moiraine: Investigator, who is trying to figure out where Rand might have gone after the inn that he was staying in burned down. (I assume this conversation was also reported to Lady Anveare, lol)

21. Lanfear admits a small lie to Rand here (to get him adjusted to the idea that she can lie to him and it's okay?), saying that her family never came here, that it was actually her and her ex. Lanfear constantly talking about her ex with Rand: haha, I understand why he's just ugh, "Ugh, idk he sounds boring [aka I don't want to talk about your ex-boyfriend 24/7]" especially since we know from the conversation later that Rand has caught feelings for 'Selene' even though he was trying his hardest not to. He's likely assuming that the ex was older and more sophisticated and it makes him feel young and unsophisticated in comparison when she keeps bringing said ex up.

The music here is so good.

22. Mat and Min! This is a cute interaction, though it's colored by the fact that the viewers know that Min is working with Liandrin. Mat is so so adorable here and I'm glad he was able to shed the coat for this scene. Also, Min paying the bartender to get Mat drunk (so that he'll sleep through her 'meeting' later).

23. This conversation with Nynaeve and Liandrin is so good and so manipulative. Liandrin is able to take the information that Nynaeve discovered (about her son) and use it for her own benefit. I do think there's a certain amount of regret for her that she's pulling the trigger on the plan that she was given to follow by Ishamael (from her apology later) but there's no hesitation. We know from the conversation with Min in a little bit that Ishamael makes promises. "I couldn't risk losing the only thing in this world that's truly mine." A reason to make a deal with Ishamael? And she offers the carrot here for Nynaeve to take -- people you love are in danger. She knows Nynaeve well enough to know that Nynaeve will take the bait, and likely assumes that Egwene will get swept along with Nynaeve (she saw how much Egwene cares about Nynaeve last episode).

It's only Elayne that was a 'complication'.

24. So, again, in the context of Alanna: Investigator... Ihvon trying to work out why Moiraine left Lan behind (and being the distraction), while Maksim and Alanna snoop in his stuff. We do also learn here that Alanna and her Warders all agree on their top priorities: the Light winning out over the Dark (and then dessert).

25. Genuinely enjoyed Anvaere successfully playing Moiraine. This is her city! She's the one who stayed! She knows the place and the people. And it's a good reminder to Moiraine that people who can't channel can be just as capable as those who can. She left Lan behind to protect him, but Lan is willing to risk his life for this, just as Moiraine is. Anvaere has been doing the hard work of re-establishing their house and family after their uncle did something that destroyed their reputations (unspecified). And Anvaere got what she was after from the beginning -- for her big sisters to sit down and have tea with her.

26. Elayne and Egwene's conversation here is very cute. Elayne has lived with duty all her life. She's just perfect in this scene (she's perfect).

Nynaeve not expecting Egwene to come with her has to be SUCH a blow for Egwene to hear. That Nynaeve has misunderstood her so badly, that she's believed that Egwene is after power for power's sake, rather because she wants to use that power to help people (and especially the people she loves).

And Elayne following them. So cute!

Of course, then Liandrin shows up. But it was very cute until then!

27. "No one escapes their fate. You know that better than anyone." This dream that Ishamael pushes on her, so that she'll be more receptive to his offer, really is so heartbreaking. No wonder she wanted to escape and travel and go as far away as she could. The show has done such a good job setting up believable emotional stakes for the characters.

The second that Min realizes who she really made a deal with, she wants to break it. And here is where we officially find out where Ishamael wants Mat to be led: to Cairhien.

Of course, Rand is in Cairhien. And Min had that viewing about Mat stabbing Rand. But she doesn't know that Rand is in Cairhien. Interesting puzzle pieces.

28. Once we know that Lanfear is a Forsaken, I feel like we can guess that she set up this entire scenario (ex. why are they sleeping outside? Selene said she wanted to, probably, to set up the scene properly) -- she brought the Fade here, she wanted Rand to use the One Power so that she could act out the part of Distressed Girlfriend Struggling With Learning Her Boyfriend Can Channel. She does such a good job, too. She really plays on his fears and how desperate he is to still feel like himself. You can really see how his heart his breaking when she pulls away from him.

Natasha and Josha are so good in this scene. There are so many levels. She also manages to continue to give surprisingly solid life advice, which is somehow incredibly hilarious to me. But I feel like Rand is, uh, probably going to believe all that advice is terrible now.

We also see that Rand is learning the sword but still isn't very good at it, as the Fade quickly disarms him and he needs to use the Power in order to protect himself and (probably more importantly to his mind) 'Selene'.

29. There is definitely a part of me that wishes that this had just been a romance scene. Rand getting tied up (and liking it)! 'Selene' literally thumbs open his mouth for their kiss! The way she kisses down his body and the expression on his face! It was a very very sensual scene, very well done. "You are the first woman who's seen me as a man" he tells her and I think he means that pretty precisely -- he loved Egwene but he still felt like a boy with her.

But instead of being a romance scene it's, you know, a deeply traumatic moment for Rand and will hamper his ability to engage in emotional intimacy (which will also potentially lead to other delicious angst in the future, though, I hope). We've definitely been getting a lot of trauma for our youngsters set up in recent episodes and we're only half-way through the season, so plenty of time for more trauma.

So far, we have:

a. Mat has been, essentially, emotionally sabotaged by months of Liandrin picking away at his brain; and we know that he's been set loose to follow a plan laid out by Ishamael which is not likely to lead to rainbows and puppies (I will have some theories in my later post with book spoilers).

b. Nynaeve suffered the trauma of the arches and now has been betrayed when she finally had come around to trusting and respecting Liandrin Sedai.

c. Perrin watching one of the men that he's been traveling with killed in an incredibly brutal way and being helpless to do anything about it. He also was told that what he is brings him closer to the Dark One.

d. Egwene has been the main target of all the 'fake-out deaths' in the show -- Nynaeve in episode 1 (which she believed until episode 6); Rand in the current season; and then Nynaeve again last episode.

e. After struggling with his identity all last season, and making the choice to abandon his friends for their own safety, Rand has built himself a new life but couldn't help himself from caring for the new people in it. Just as he'd given in to his emotions about Selene (who he has potentially been sleeping with for months at this point) and she appears to have accepted him as a male channeler! ...he learns that she's essentially a super-charged version of Dana (to simplify things). He literally gets covered in her blood while he watches helplessly, gets hit with incredibly distressing news that he can't question because he knows the person saying it can't lie, and then has to abandon this woman that he's come to love while she's lying dead on the floor and his sword still has her blood on it. Formative trauma centering around emotional intimacy and sexual engagement, table for one!

30. Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon also realize here that one of the Forsaken is loose, which is gonna confirm their belief that the Last Battle is at hand. Alanna doesn't want to believe that Lan knows he's been carrying around a prophecy about one of the Forsaken, aww.

31. Lanfear reveal! This ending was so intense. Moiraine attacking Selene but explaining that she couldn't kill her and then that blink at the end. So good!

#butterfly watches wot #wot #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot show spoilers #wot prime spoilers #wot 2x4 spoilers #wot s2 spoilers #wheel of time s2 spoilers

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snapscube · 1 year

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i'm kinda hyperfixed on mlp at the moment so watching you talk about your watchthrough is really cool!! (and also really brave some of those episodes i never want to sit through again)

what would you say is your favorite/least favorite episode(s) per season so far?

ooh, per season is a helpful format haha! let’s seeeeee

s1 fav: Friendship is Magic (kinda boring i know but it’s so so so nostalgic for me, it has such a warm vibe)

s1 least fav: A Dog and Pony Show (it just is not remotely interesting to me)

s2 fav: A Canterlot Wedding (shocker!!!)

s2 least fav: Dragon Quest (ironic!!!!)

(god season 2 is such an incredible season. i love this episode list so much)

s3 fav: Sleepless in Ponyville (found sisterhood makes me go crazy)

s3 least fav: Keep Calm and Flutter On (sorry i’m a Redeemed Discord hater)

(i am now realizing that i straight up skipped “Spike At Your Service” when I was watching S3 and haven’t watched it to this day because the premise was so uninteresting to me and i could play out almost exactly how i’m certain it would go in my head LOL whoops)

s4 fav: Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 (god i forgot how much i liked this episode until looking at the full episode list!!!)

s4 least fav: Daring Don’t (possibly one of the most confused and undercooked moral lessons the show has ever given)

s5 fav: Amending Fences (yeah!!!!)

s5 least fav: Slice of Life (yeah)

there are too many good episodes of this show…. so many i wanted to mention…. god ESPECIALLY in Season 2. writing this really put into perspective again just how much S2 was lightning in a bottle for this show imo. maybe it’s nostalgia but no other season really comes close to how consistently great 2 is.

#mlp

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decepti-thots · 2 years

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ok so. i have now had a chance to skim through both volumes of the mtmte notebooks and instead of posting the entire thing one blurry photo at a time, i am going to do a quick post with my initial reactions/stuff that stuck out to me/etc.

if you want to keep things a surprise for when you get it and read it yourself, just ignore this post, haha! and i really do recommend getting this if you can. this is a very very fun thing to have for a comic. it's WILD to have this kind of stuff for one as niche as MTMTE, like the fact this exists is honestly kind of absurd (admiring).

it is amazing how many things from late game stuff is right there in 2010 notes. the rewind transformation sound thing that is in LL #23 (iirc)? THAT'S IN THESE. repeatedly. he has a whole thing about rewind having old transformation sounds and rung's transformation sound, it comes up and is iterated on several times. so though these notes are from "pre-production" and the first "series", there's a ton of stuff that goes right through to the end of the run.

one thing that LEAPED out at me is related to my opinion that mtmte series one is in part a slightly tilted LSotW sequel in its way. because it turns out two of the characters jro originally wanted for MTMTE were impactor and guzzle, who would have showed up later. like. holy shit i did not see that coming. that's wild to me. like it makes sense because again, a lot of mtmte s1 is indirectly a follow on from parts of last stand. but it's so far removed from that context that just seeing jro like 'yeah i want impactor and guzzle here' is. weird.

this guy wanted prowl for his book so fucking much folks, there are so many bits where he's trying to worm prowl in, LMAO rip

jro was not lying about how the plan was for chromedome to be the surrogate re: the baby. but by surrogate he meant instead of GRIMLOCK, chromedome was going to ADOPT THE BABY. i am losing it.

the rung situation is interesting. rung WAS suggested as being primus right from the start of these notes, but it wasn't the only idea he was throwing around- he wanted something to be up with rung but hadn't 100% settled on any one thing for ages here (though the primus thing comes up the most). other possibilities included him being the hivemind scraplet concept that got reused for Silent Light (yes, really), and him being one half of an unstable combiner. there's a lot of different stuff re: the primus concept too. so it's not WRONG to say the primus stuff was planned from the start per se, but it was in no way a sure thing.

in general there's looooads of stuff in there about religion. lots of different concepts for the guiding hand, for rung, for the knights. the early notes especially talk a lot about quintessons, there's various ideas for how to incorporate them, and unicron. which is vindicating because i have said FOR AGES i always got a vibe that jro was writing a universe in which 'the quintessons' was at least one plausible possibility for 'who made these guys', and while there's no actual discussion in here of the quintessons as direct creators (though yeah, there's talk of them as the knights), i wasn't far off. unicron too, he has various concepts including 'a small mech like rung as primus'. also one time he was like 'what if unicron was an idea' and the 2022 annotations are just 'oh dear' LMAO

oh and TONS about the concept of whirl being super religious in a 'fire and brimstone avenging' kind of way??? like this is something he returns to a lot, he liked the idea of the irony with rung, haha. (also, they were gonna have wayyy more of a prominent antagonism, i think. that's the vibe i got.) there's an issue pitch he mentions about some 'witchfinder general ft extreme violence' type coming on board and whirl hero worshipping him. it's interesting stuff

brainstorm was straight up gonna be bad. he was an actual decepticon double agent, and the quark plot originally had nothing to do with him- he was developing time travel, but jro literally says at one point he needs to come up with like. actual motivation for him. the quark plot was originally chromedome stealing it and going back in time to save the person who died after overlord.

who was… swerve. no joke. swerve and CD were originally the ones he was pitching as "best friends" before rewind replaced swerve (and then later on they're made married instead obviously, but that was wayyy later that was decided). also, one idea jro puts up before he makes said swap is that prowl is paying swerve to keep an eye on CD, but he starts to feel guilty and actually grows to like CD… which THEN jro would swap so CD was doing that to rewind before dropping it partway through actually writing the series, ofc.

oh man there's so much chromedome shit in here btw. AND rewind. those two get a lot of iteration and attention. originally CD's abilities were gonna be an outlier thing, it might have been implied he was in part a prisoner AT the institute, there was going to be a thing where he regretted having the opportunity to shadowplay megatron and didn't take it… also, i thought this specifically was VERY interesting:

surprising absolutely none of you. i am sure. yes, there's a lot of stuff hammering out cybertronian reproduction in here. lmao. (there is a point where the phrase 'birthing fields' is used.) but! specifically one thing of note, it goes into quite a lot of detail about ye olde concept of quickswitch being created (from what cd/prowl/etc learned from overlord, as a new phase sixer), and what that plot would have looked like. which is very very neat as i have always been SUPER curious about that. a lot of stuff re: nature vs nurture seems like it cropped up in that concept, plus the ethics of creating new life during wartime which feels like it became a foundational thing for MTOs conceptually.

drift! there is A LOT of drift stuff early on in here! fun fact: there was originally a plan to have rodimus want to detour to investigate his dead duplicate and drift got mad and refused because he was 100% desperate to find the knights, and they would have split up and the comic would have alternated between them/their crews. i can see why this was dropped in favour of exiling drift because that sounds like a structural nightmare in a monthly comic, but MAN i didn't expect that to even have been conceptualised. there's also LOADS about drift like, being someone who is very deliberately manipulating rodimus in series one. i'm just gonna show this whole character breakdown, because imo it is VERY interesting and puts to rest a lot of 'how much is deliberate, how much is it fandom overanalysing him?' stuff. while most of this didn't actually happen, it's clear a lot of thought was being put into drift's internal contradictions right from the start, they're definitely present.

god i have so much more shit i could say but i should probably stop here for now. LMAO. but it's just absolutely wild. a lot of the stuff here was definitely cut for a reason. many of the ideas are 'interesting, but near impossible to execute in the format', many more are 'buckwild but not necessarily good', some are genuinely like 'ah, yeah, not surprised you dropped THAT immeditaely', but just the sheer AMOUNT of conceptual STUFF going on here is fucking wild. there is so, so much just. raw STUFF he's poking at right from the start. you'd think they had told this man he had to create a continuity from scratch. it's an incredible document of just how much work went into this comic before issue #1 was even written.

#idw #meta

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vole-mon-amour · 1 year

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3x10, part 2, Roy x Jamie edition.

i very much doubt that, Jamie. Colin? Sam? but then again, he's besties with half of the team, so maybe?

the faces he makes.

the bickering with Roy. the thing, being their relationship and love for each other, they share.

"it's dumb (i don't know yet how to feel confident with the people i care about very much). i brought it for you anyway. it made me think of you."

THE TONGUE. thank you for your service, Phil. i missed that gesture.

i'm gonna have a sore throat after all the screaming. it's one of the must beautiful ways to say "I love you" I've seen. that soft music playing. the look that Roy gives him. Jamie mumbling, suddenly becoming shy and awkward aka a boy that rarely receives genuine affection, a boy raised in an abusive poor household, learning to show gestures of genuine affection and and trying to live through it without embarrassment.

like, he KNOWS how much Roy's career meant and probably still means for him. it means a lot for Jamie, too, because he's there next to Roy exactly bc he had Roy's poster above his bed in the first place.

i have so many feelings about this and Jamie. so many. i also keep thinking about Phil's, "there's gonna be a moment after which people might think that Roy and Jamie have a wild affair. i wouldn't exclude that but yeah." is this it? "you talk about him all the time" or is there going to be something wilder? like when Roy and Keeley talk and Jamie walks into the room?

bc even Roy's sister knows how much this gesture means for Roy and how much it shows Jamie's feelings for Roy (not to mention the fucking bantering with Roy Kunt, those repressed idiots). the look Jamie gives Roy. *deep sigh* yeah, i'm staying here. i'm going down with this ship. you can pry them away from me from my cold dead hands.

not Roy actually saying how he feels to Jamie, but Jamie being so close to Roy's family and inside his house and then later Roy and Keeley are inside Jamie's childhood bedroom. you guys?? the dots are connecting? the math is mathing???

the boy is so happy and so genuine, I can't get over it. the essence of being genuine.

those faces, lol.

are you telling me that in the year 2023 this billionaire still carries ANY kind of cash? for real?

i'm honestly still amazed by how good Jamie is with kids. Henry, Phoebe. maybe it's his way of pushing back after the way his dad treated him but also, to my current understanding, how his mom also tried to be good to him. with me absolutely hating kids irl? characters that still recognize the pattern and how kids needs encouragement and kindness and understanding in order to bloom? there's no denying Jamie's personality. i love his soul. the boy has my heart.

Jamie Tartt being besties with Roy Kent's sister and niece: unlocked. i dislike that I don't know/remember Roy sister's name.

Jamie can perform whatever useless comment about "your sister is fit" bc this? the boy is in love. but if i'm being honest, I hate that they're always trying to nudge us in the direction of hetero Jamie so we wouldn't ship Roy and Jamie. thanks, i'm holding onto them so hard, they're gonna have bruises if you'll try to pry them away from my hands. they are IN LOVE. period.

even Jamie snickering after that comment gives off s1 vibes where Jamie did everything he could to get Roy's attention. it sounds more like a joke just to get one more comment and interaction from Roy. sometimes Jamie does things not bc he believes in them but because attention, and it usually is about Roy's attention.

#natiswatching #ted lasso #roy x jamie #jamie tartt

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adhd-merlin · 9 months

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Merlin S1 rewatch: episode 5

here we go! again!!

today we are watching the Lancelot episode. just a few random comments because. I am so very sleepy and I deleted the first draft by accident.

A nice little episode all in all. Nice set up for an incredibly sexy recurring character. Some nice foreshadowing. What's not to like?

• I like how this episode opens. Merlin picking mushrooms, looking so baby. Eyes full of awe and wonder. Looking like... like he's never seen a mushroom in his life, in fact. Anyway, something very cottagecore about this. Fairy vibes.

• Also he's scarfless? For much (most?) of the episode? It looks like early in the series they weren’t so obsessively attached to Merlin’s neckerchief as part of his character design

• I love how Merlin doesn’t even try to use magic against the Griffin. He just falls on his back, shuts his eyes and goes, “Welp, guess I'll die”

• HOW DID MERLIN CARRY LANCELOT BACK TO CAMELOT

• “Ever since I was a child I've dreamed of coming here. It's my life's ambition to join the knights of Camelot.” -> Guy who's spent his whole life dreaming about becoming a knight of Camelot doesn’t know the first thing about the job requirements

• (No but really, the funniest thing about this episode for me is Lancelot’s utter shock at finding out only noblemen can be knights. That's, like. The first thing about the knights of Camelot, it seems like. You’d think he would have done some basic research beforehand. But that's also how I apply to jobs so I won't make fun of him too much)

• Merlin is such a hype man, “LANCELOT THEY'RE GOING TO LOVE YOU!!” This is literally what he says! He’s adorable.

• Merlin's acting like a kid who's found a stray puppy on the side of the road and is trying to convince his dad to keep him. “He’s great, you’ll love him, I promise. He won’t be any trouble I’ll walk him every day”

• MERLIN: “He's saved my life” / ARTHUR: “That's blown it for starters” -> ARTHUR IS FUNNY. I just feel the need to point out that Arthur is funny, actually. Especially when he’s being a cunt.

• MERLIN: “You're not a nobleman by any chance, are you?” / LANCE: “haha, good lord, no” -> someone didn’t read the job description 👀

• The way Gaius pointedly glares at Merlin after telling Lancelot he’s sorry he can’t be a knight… Like, he knows his son might be tempted to do something stupid about it (commit crime)

• I did not remember Lancelot’s tragic Origin Story!

When I was a boy, my village was attacked by raiders from the northern plains. They were slaughtered where they stood, my father, my mother. Everyone. I alone escaped. I vowed that day that never again would I be helpless in the face of tyranny. I made sword craft my life. Every waking hour since that day, I devoted to the art of combat, and when I was ready, I set forth for Camelot.

"Every waking hour since that day, I devoted to the art of combat" -> Yeah that sounds like a sane and healthy way of dealing with the trauma of losing both your parents and your entire village in one go, well done my boy

• Merlin looks SO proud of his little fraud scheme! BE GAY DO CRIME

• Seriously he is such an instigator! He says, “DAMN THE RULES, THE RULES ARE WRONG”! But he can see Lancelot’s obvious reluctance so he’s like, “We're not breaking the rules, we're bending them” HE’S SO SNEAKY I LOVE HIM

• This is such a basic narrative trope (if it even is a trope) but I love first meetings of characters who are going to become famously important to one another. I'm talking, like, Holmes and Dr. Watson. Or yes, Merlin and future King Arthur. There’s just something about it that I find delightful. "They don’t even know!! They have no idea. But I do!" This is about Gwen and Lancelot.

• Such a cute Meet Cute™. I love the way it plays with what we know is going to happen. Even if we don’t exactly know how it's going to happen in the series, Guinevere and Lancelot’s romance is the stuff of legends. I love their obvious and immediate mutual attraction. The slight awkwardness. The foreshadowing! “I'm not a knight yet, my lady” / “And I’m not a lady.” NO YET, BUT YOU WILL BE!! AAAAAH

• I didn’t pay much attention to it the first time I watched this episode but Lancelot speaks in such a formal, lofty way compared to everyone else. He literally sounds like he walked out of a book of chivalric romance. "I faced it myself, Sire. Some days past. I struck it full square. I wondered how it endured"; "Arthur stands in mortal peril", like WHO TALKS LIKE THIS. BE NORMAL. But it never crosses the line into being obnoxious, and I love how his character is defined through his speech as well as by his behaviour. Well done, writers.

• LANCELOT: "Are you two...you know" -> Lancelot wastes no time in checking if Gwen is on the market. GOOD FOR HIM. (I like how Merlin finds the idea of dating Gwen literally laughable. Bit harsh, that).

• “She seems lovely. Guinevere.” / “Oh, yeah. Yeah, she is. And the best seamstress in Camelot, I promise” -> MERLIN THIS MAN DOES NOT CARES ABOUT GWEN'S SKILL AS A SEAMSTRESS OPEN YOUR EYES YOU SILLY CHILD

• (But no, to be fair to him, he did notice)

• Arthur just... just BITCH-SLAPPING Lancelot out of the blue is actually hilarious. He's a comedian and he doesn't even know it.

• Merlin still acts like a bit of a teenager with Gaius in this ep. When Gaius discovers his forgery of the seal of nobility, Merlin tells him, “if you wanna punish me for it, go ahead” and then walks off! I’m sorry, this is a teenager acting out against his dad.

• Merlin does seem to be still testing boundaries with Gaius, but in a way that's an obvious request for reassurance, too – later in the episode he asks him: “Do you even care what happens to me?” (!!) And back in episode 1x02, when Gaius said, "What do I do if you get caught?", Merlin asked: "what would you do?" Insecure teen behaviour. Please Gaius just tell him you love him!! (He does tell him here, thank God).

• The broomstick fight scene. Much has been said about it already. The rituals are, indeed, intricate. Something so homoerotic about Arthur’s attempts to poke Lancelot in the chest with his stick. What I want to know is – did they know? Did they know when they were filming it that it would look like this. Like, was it deliberate

• @sapphickittykatherine it’s not much but there are some hints of Morlance in this ep. During Lancelot’s knighting scene, Morgana looks at him with obvious interest and asks “Who is this man?” And also later at his celebration (I’ll get to it).

The celebration scene! I love it! I’m gonna break it down into parts:

• “You played God, Merlin" -> I like this line. I think Gaius put his finger on an important character trait of Merlin’s here. He always means well, but he can be manipulative and controlling. Not so much here, perhaps, but it does emerge more in later eps.

• Not Arthur looking at Morgana with incestuous intent 💀💀💀

• “Tell me, do you think her...beautiful?” / “Yes, Sire. I do.” -> Another favourite trope of mine – two characters talking to each other but having two entirely different conversations. A bit like that cursed scene in the Disir, and with Arthur just as much oblivious (actually, could someone tell the poor guy what's going on. just once)

• Meanwhile, Morgana’s making sexy eyes at Lancelot while biting into a… cherry? I can’t tell. Some kind of sexually-connoted fruit, that’s for sure. I love how she also looks murderous while doing it. Praying mantis energy.

• Merlin and Gwen’s conversation is so cute. I’ve said it before but it’s giving girlie-and-her-gay-best-friend vibes. Look at them! They are a woman and her gay friend sitting in a bar, exchanging notes about the men around them. Over drinks. The way Merlin encourages Gwen to commit mischief too! “OH YOU ARE NO FUN GWEN. COME ON, JUST PLAY ALONG. WHO WOULD YOU RATHER F—”

• Arthur or Lancelot? I think I know what Merlin’s answer would be. At least at this point in the series. (Hint: it's not Arthur).

• “I think our Sir Lancelot might have eyes for you, Gwen” -> Merlin playing matchmaker already. I love that he’s noticed, and that he’s trying to push these two together because LOVE MUST TRIUMPH. He’s such a romantic.

~ END OF THE CELEBRATION SCENE ~

• Oooh no, Lancelot’s ruse has been discovered, SIR YOU’RE UNDER ARREST

• “You are not worthy of the knighthood bestowed upon you. You never were. And you never will be” -> possibly the worst thing anyone could’ve said to Lancelot, SIR PLEASE STOP YOU’RE BREAKING HIM. CAN’T YOU SEE HE’S ABOUT TO CRY.

• All I can think about when I see gifs of Merlin talking to imprisoned Lancelot is, “it’s okay hun”

• It’s interesting to see S1 Uther so unwilling to accept that the creature they’re trying to defeat might be magic when later in the series he will relish the chance of accusing anything and anyone of being magic. ...Growth?

(The bisexuality of this scene. Off the charts.)

• It seems to me like they were setting up Lancelot to be more of an important character that he ended up being? I mean, he was important, just by virtue of being Lancelot, but he was in a grand total of 6 episodes. But, I love that we can see Arthur’s obvious attachment (for lack of a better word) to him already. A bit like with Gwen and Lancelot, it hints at what’s to come – he is destined to become Arthur’s favourite knight (I know people like to say that it's Leon, but I think it was Lance. And after Lancelot's death it was Mordred, eventually. If you must know.) I love it, foreshadowing. You can feel the future hanging heavy in the air.

• I didn’t remember that Gwen and Lancelot met again and she begged him not to go and I think they should have kissed here

• It’s so funny that while Merlin’s trying to master the spell to defeat the Griffin, Gaius goes, “Don't worry Merlin, we have plenty of time” GAIUS NO YOU LITERALLY HAVE LESS THAN 2 HOURS

• Actually this is a thing Gaius does a lot, telling Merlin he can make it when the chances of success are pretty slim, which on one hand is very sweet, like I get it he's being a supportive dad, but on the other hand it's also... setting Merlin up to be HUGELY DISAPPOINTED if he fails? I don't know, just something I've noticed in other eps.

• The scene of Lancelot killing the Griffin is actually pretty cool? I like the glowing blue spear (how did Merlin think Lancelot wasn’t going to notice) and THE SOUNDTRACK!!

• Merlin's PURE JOY after Lancelot's killed the Griffin is SO adorable, you just feel so happy for him. YES BABY YOU DID IT!!

• I love the parallel “You did it!” scenes with Arthur & Lancelot, Gaius & Merlin, and Arthur & Uther. Very nice, big fan of symmetry

• Gaius’s pride when Merlin comes back victorious is so heartwarming. I’ve said it before but I'll repeat it, Merlin and Gaius’s relationship is possibly my favourite in the show. I think Gaius doesn’t get enough credit for being Merlin’s main source of love and hugs during his Camelot years.

• “The Code bends for no man” / “Then THE CODE IS WRONG!” (!!) -> SAY IT LOUDER MY MAN!! S1 Arthur is so vocal with his father about what he believes is right and wrong, we love to see it

• Lancelot saying he must prove himself worthy of being a knight – of course, he might have been holding the spear that killed the Griffin but he wasn’t the one who actually defeated it, and this will not do. He must now abandon his life-long dream of being a knight and go fight strangers in a cage for money. It’s the only logical next step.

• LANCE I LOVE YOU BUT WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

THE END!!

next episode is... one no one really cares about, but I really really liked it the first time I watched it so. hopefully it will live up to what I remember :3

#there. i've re-written it pretty much.#*me; tears in my eyes* “I do this for fun”#“actually i can just go” < now lives in my head as a lancelot phrase and it cracks me up #you'll find i go on about merlin and gaius quite a bit in these #that's because i love them #they mean a lot to me *taps own bio*#merlin's body count: still 1 #< disappointing actually. like he killed a witch in ep 1 and then 4 eps of nothing. DO BETTER #rewatch1.jls

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ariesmusingz · 6 months

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૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა ╱ THE OFFICE SENTENCE STARTERS ( created using s1 ep1 of the office. feel free to adjust to fit your muse. )

"how are things going at the library?"

"i couldn't close it"

"so you've come to the master for guidance?"

"is that what you're saying"

"you called me in here"

"let me show you how it's done"

"i'd like to speak to your office manager"

"i'm sorry, my mistake"

"she had a very low voice"

"probably a smoker"

"so this is my kingdom"

"if you think she's cute now you should have seen her a couple of years ago"

"any messages?"

"how many times have i told you that there's a special filing cabinet for things from corporate?"

"people say i'm the best boss"

"i'm boring myself just talking about this"

"he still loves that after seven years"

"was there anything you wanted to add to the agenda?""i'm sorry, what?"

"i didn't get an agenda"

"i faxed it over to you this morning"

"did we get a fax this morning?"

"why isn't it in my hand?"

"a company runs on efficiency of communication?"

"why didn't i get it?"

"you put it in the garbage can"

"that was a joke"

"that was actually my brother's"

"do you want to look at mine?"

"we haven't made any decisions yet"

"it's up to either you or him to convince me"

"this does mean there is going to be downsizing"

"it is a real bitch"

"i certainly wouldn't wish it or my men or women"

"how long do we have?"

"do you mind if i take it?"

"that's not appropriate"

"i don't know what you mean"

"i've been meaning to ask her one question"

"that's horrifying"

"do you think you can keep a lid on this for now?"

"don't want to worry people unnecessarily"

"it will not leave this office"

"guilty as charged"

"right here, my vibe"

"that's a guy thing"

"i don't think it would be the worst thing if they let me go"

"i don't think it's many girl's dream to be a receptionist"

"i like to do illustrations, mostly water colour"

"let me call you right back"

"i can't concentrate"

"it's not your desk"

"one word, two syllables: demarcation"

"safety violation"

"i could fall and pierce an organ"

"i have no problem with that"

"i even brought it up on my interview"

"i say bring it on"

"you still have messages for yesterday"

"relax, everything is under control"

"that's important, right"

"i should run to answer it"

"that would be a good salary for me, don't you think?"

"just be professional"

"i think i am a role model here"

"i think i garner other people's respect"

"please can we have a meeting in the conference room?"

"it's really beyond words"

"it's really incalculable"

"i know there's some kind of rumours out there"

"i should know first"

"can you just tell please?"

"just a whisper in my ear"

"i'm about to tell everybody"

"do you want me to tell them?"

"you don't know what it is"

"you can tell them with my permission"

"permission granted, go ahead"

"corporate has deemed it appropriate to enforce an ultimatum upon me"

"it's my first day so i really don't know"

"it could be out of your hands"

"it won't be out of my hands"

"can you promise that?"

"yeah it is a promise and frankly i'm a little insulted that you have to keep asking"

"she did say that it could be this branch"

"maybe you should stick to the ongoing confidentiality agreement of meetings"

"information is power"

"so you can't say for sure whether it's us or them?"

"you did not see me in there"

"i'm the head of this family and you ain't gonna be messing with my children"

"yeah, he's onto me"

"watch out for this guy!"

"nice to meet you"

"introduce yourself, be polite"

"that is his profit!"

"i've got some photos"

"judge is in session"

"he put my stuff in jello again"

"that's real professional, thanks"

"that is the third time and it wasn't funny the first time"

"people are taking advantage because it's so relaxed"

"you have to eat it out of there"

"you can be witness"

"can you reprimand him please?"

"how do you know it was me?"

"are you going to discipline him or not?"

"ooh discipline, kinky!"

"i'm sorry cause i've always been your biggest flan"

"you should have put him in custard-y"

"yes, the new guy! he scores"

"what i'm most concerned with is damage to company property"

"do you wanna go out at the end of the week for a drink?"

"when are we going out?"

"we've been engaged about three years"

"do you mind if i go out for a drink with these guys?"

"let's get out of here and go home"

"we are going out and it could be a good chance for you to see what people are like outside the office"

"just tell her i'll talk to her then"

"do i think I'll be invited to the wedding?"

"sometimes we play hard when we should be working hard"

"i am a friend first and a boss second. probably an entertainer third"

"you are going to be my accomplice"

"just follow my lead"

"can you come in here for a sec?"

"just have a seat"

"i was gonna call you in anyway"

"you have made my life so much easier in that i am going to have to let you go first"

"what am i supposed to have stolen?"

"what are those worth?"

"you steal a thousand post it notes then you've made a profit margin"

"are you serious?"

"i can't believe this"

#rp memes #roleplay memes #rph #rpt #rp sentence meme #rp sentence starters #rp sentence prompts #rp promts #content: mine #memes: mine

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sundaysplayzone · 7 months

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Hey Sunday I’m a fan of your art and I’m inspired by it but I gotta ask how do you do lineart and sketches I wanna know please thank u

First of all, thank you ;o; But yeah! I can let you (and anyone else) in on how I ink/sketch. I do almost all of the actual art in Sai. I don't even use Sai 2 haha. I mainly draw everything using the s1 stability setting as well. Only really bumping it up to s4 if I need to make some really round circles. I usually keep my sketches pretty rough. I like to discourage people from cleaning up sketches because not only are you wasting time on something no one will see, but it leads to people getting attached to the sketch. Due to this, people often dislike their inks in comparison. In the end though, do what makes you comfortable! That's just what I do. Usually my sketch will look like this. I also never use black to sketch because I think it makes things harder to see when inking. Here's the brush I use to sketch in Sai:

After that I just lower the opacity of the sketch (usually to like a 15%), make a new folder, and make 3 new layers, choosing to ink on the 3rd. This is so you never end up merging your sketch and ink layer on accident haha. Plus keeps things looking clean!

Then I guess I just ink! I don't really have a method. Just lots of practice. I keep my cavasses around 2500 pixels and ink with a 2 point brush. Here's my ink brush and the inks compared to the sketch:

After this I add the colors, and the lines then get smoothed out when I add filters and effects. Mostly it's the lens blurring in photoshop that really gives it that old animation feel imo.

Other than that, all I can really add is try not to be so hard on yourself. Your inks don't need to be perfect. Honestly in my opinion, if you're looking to make art with an animation vibe, the imperfections make it even more convincing. Old animation was riddled with errors and shaky lines, but it gave it charm. That and just have fun!

#art tutorial #tutorial

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echobx · 1 month

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Jiara has done nothing for JJ or Kie's character development. It has actually caused character regression. JJ was a bad friend to Pope last season and he didn't even apologize for the way he handled the whole Kiara situation. Pope deserved better than that. Idc what anyone says their friendship is not the same due to this. It doesn't matter that Pope and Cleo are a couple now. If I was Pope, JJ would be kept at arms length.

As for Kiara, she has a different personality each season so that's why her development is all over the place. The only thing consistent is her loyalty to the Pogues. She deserves a better storyline than just trying to "fix" JJ while he pushes her away until she gets kidnapped. Free my girl from the fans who only see her as their self-insert to ship with the overrated white boys, especially Rafe the Rat!

yeah, JJ didn't feel like himself and more like a bad copy of who he was in the seasons before in like 90% of s3, the only time he was the same as always was ep7-8 when he was with JB.

I don't know if I would say he was a bad friend to Pope, but he was obviously less of a friend to him, and Pope decided to balance it out by spending time with Cleo (which tbh was the one good thing that season) and for selfish reasons I want JJ and Pope to reconcile and go back to being lovesick fools for each other (I'm never gonna let jjpope die. idc about the haters)

the only way I can think of s3 in terms of jiara, is by looking at all of it as sibling vibes (bc that's all they ever had, there was never any romance) and just ignore that kiss that both actors visibly didn't put any work in to make it look like they actually care about the ship.

honest to god, i feel like both Madison and Rudy are probably the biggest jiara haters out there.

concerning Kie, I will always defend her against the writers, bc s1 I actually thought she had such great potential, but then fans wanted her with Pope, so that happened, and then fans wanted her with JJ, and it happened again. wanting a poc woman to be with a white man so hard that you pressure the writers into doing it feels sinister to me. at least she and pope had a tiny bit of chemistry.

but then again, her whole arc is heavily queercoded. and Madison (an actual queer woman) knows this and wants to embrace it, but they won't let her. and I can't even imagine how it must feel to play a character and hope for them to get good character development just for them to fuck you over every new season. s1!Kie was very much a "pick me" girl already, and they could've easily gotten her a great arc and away from this pick me behavior, but instead they leaned into it even more, and then they made her into a bitch who plays with her best friends feelings. her development is literally nonexistent. she stays the same rather shallow girl all the way through.

I watched s1 and hoped to see Kie evolve into a real girls girl, someone who doesn't repeat her dumb hurtful mistakes. but they destroyed it all bc as we have also seen with Sarah, they don't know how to write women.

and I sometimes even question her loyalty to the pogues bc if she was really all in, why would she ask JB to pick her over Sarah. like, I know it makes sense for her as a pick me girl to do that, but i still hate it. and it also seems like most of the time she treats being a pogue like a hobby instead of actual reality and the lives of her best friends. (which is one of the main reasons why her and jj will never work even if they had chemistry)

on Rafe, i do hope they keep Sofia as his gf (even tho RafeBarry is just so much fun) but as much as I hope that they don't pull the "he fixed himself to be with her" I just know that they don't have enough brains to actually know not to do this.

#fanon Kie. and by that I mean lesbian!Kie is a million times better than canon #obx #anti jiara #~ask #~rambles #obx critic #jjpope

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starseneyes · 1 year

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Chenford REWIND- Lucy Chen / Tim Bradford - The Rookie - Season 1 Ep 20 & Season 2 Ep 01

AKA "Tim Go BOOM!"

Yes, both episodes. Yes, for different reasons. I'm starting to get some S1 requests, and this one really felt like it needed the S2 premiere, as well.

SPOILER ALERT: If you aren't into spoilers, you aren't going to be into this. I'm going to spoil every bit of these two episodes where Chenford is concerned, along with referencing everything that has come before. I will try not to use my foreknowledge as I write. I try to write these as though I'm watching them for the first time and have no idea what's coming next.

Everybody clear on how this works? Awesome! Let's dive in.

Free Fall

"Officer Chen, I will take it as a personal insult if you make less than a 93." "Yes sir."

Tim's making sure to put Lucy in her place, show off to everyone else that he's going to have the Boot with the best score, and psych her out.

It's a lot to do in 17 words, but if anyone's going to do it, Tim Bradford will.

"Have you figured out what you're gonna do with all your new free time? Might I suggest a book club?" "What are you talking about?" "You know, after I pass. There won't be anymore daily evaluations to write." "Whether I evaluate you daily or weekly, I will continue to judge you every minute."

Ouch. Tim is making it clear he doesn't intend to let Lucy breath for a minute. Honestly, Lucy wants to feel good about this. She's been working her ass off with him breathing down her next for six months.

Think about that. 20 hours of showtime equals six months for Tim and Lucy. They have a long way to go on their journey, but the ground they've already covered is impressive.

"Try not to tire them out this morning. Just take the easy calls, okay?" "I don't do easy." "But you do follow direct orders, am I right, Officer Bradford?" "Yes sir."

Look, I'm not saying I cheered when Grey put Tim in his place, but I might have done a little dance in my seat.

Tim can put out the macho vibe, and he wants to ensure the Rookies have a little fear of him. It's part of his teaching tactics, but Grey makes it clear that his word holds more weight in the end.

"... I can totally see us destroying my bedroom later."

I love how Tim Bradford is so flummoxed, he doesn't even know what to say. He looks right at Lucy, almost asking her to save him. But she just smiles and leaves him to deal with it himself.

And I love that for her. She's not going to save him from this. He can save himself!

"Everything okay in there?" "Yeah, just stay out there."

Tim's keeping his eyes on Pete because he already has a bad feeling. From the moment he walked in, Lucy stood outside the door, ready to walk through if needed, to cross the threshold to his aid.

The blood smacks against his jacket, splashing up along his neck. The reality of what just happened hits fast, and Tim's instincts kick into high gear. He has to contain it.

And Lucy, sweet Lucy, is thinking with her heart and not her head. She wants to get in there to help him. But he slams that door shut.

"Tim? No!"

Tim seals himself in with Pete. He's already exposed, but if he leave it open she could come in or, worse, Pete might go out.

Tim locks the door to keep Lucy out. But now he has to keep Pete in.

"Nothing to panic about." "Then why'd you lock the door?" "Standard protocol."

Tim can lie when it has to do with work. It's like dealing with classified information. No room for emotions. No room for second guessing what he's saying.

Tim takes off the blood-soaked jacket and places it on a baby changing area. A sweet, living, breathing baby last lied on top of that changing area, cooing and giggling.

Now, a jacket covered with the father's blood rests atop it, carrying with it the condemnation of violent death.

"Right now my partner is radioing for an ambulance. Gonna be here any minute."

My Partner!?! Tim, my boy, did you just call Lucy Chen, who is your Rookie, your partner?

I'm not going to say too much more, but Future Rachel is telling all of y'all in the past to keep an eye on this word going forward.

And, yes, he might not want to tell the infected guy that the other Officer out there is on probation. That's all it could be. But the use of the word "partner" had me rolling for "future" reasons.

Lucy can hear through the door, too. So it's probably her fear and the fact that they're not as secure in their relationship, yet, that keeps her from mentioning it.

"Everything all right out there, Chen?" "Uh, yeah, the CDC's on its way. Hey, you need to come out of there." "That's not gonna happen. Gotta keep this contained."

Lucy either doesn't understand the situation, or doesn't have a handle on the spread of infectious diseases, yet. Or her concern is overwhelming her ability to think straight. There are lots of options.

Tim understands the weight of what's happening and he's fully into self-sacrifice for the greater good. He served in the military before becoming a cop. Being willing to die on the job to protect the lives of others is second-nature to him.

But that doesn't mean he wants to die. He's simply prepared for it.

"Tim-" "It's gonna be alright, Boot. You keep your head in the game, okay? Everything's gonna be fine."

He says this as he wipes the blood off of his neck, trying not to look too long at the cloth. Tim is lying to her. Because, much as we all understand the magic of television and know that Tim makes it past this episode, Tim doesn't believe he's getting out of this alive.

So this lying isn't for him. It's for her. Think of all the times he's called her out, that he's yelled at her, that he's tried to keep her emotions out of it.

But some part of him knows that Lucy leans into the emotional. And right now, she doesn't need him barking at her. She needs to stay focused. And he's going to say whatever he needs to get her there.

"No, I was out here. Tim immediately closed the door." "Smart man."

Yes, he is. He probably hasn't heard it enough. His swift thinking is containing that virus, but also saving Lucy from quarantine and waiting for a vaccine to arrive.

"Chen, I'm gonna turn on my body cam. You can monitor it from out there." "Okay. Please be careful."

I love her telling him to be careful. Look, we're nowhere near romantic for these two. But we saw that even after only a few months of working with Tim, she cares about him. She has a compassionate heart, and much as Tim pisses her off, she's growing more and more used to him.

She might joke about things going wrong for Tim, but in her heart-of-hearts she wants only the best for him.

And Lucy still has that oh, so dangerous thing alive within her—hope. She has the hope that Tim is not yet infected, that he'll be fine, and that this will be one more brush with death that didn't take for him.

"Tim. Tim! Look out!"

From the camera, Lucy spies Pete in the reflection with the chair raised high. She tries to warn him, but Tim goes down. Hard.

Tim. Goes. Boom.

When he wakes, there's a puddle of blood spreading toward him. As we all know, by now, getting things in our eyes, nose, mouth, and other sensitive areas is really bad news with viruses that travel expeditiously.

Tim gets to work handcuffing Pete, but even as he's working, Lucy needs him to answer her. She needs to hear him say that he's okay.

"Tim! Are you okay? Hey. Answer me!" "It's okay. I'm okay. Well, that was fun." "Are you sure you're okay?" "Kind of depends on your definition of the word."

Tim is completely flustered, and he's dropped some of his bravado. It might be the combination of coming so close to this virus, facing his own mortality, and hearing the panic in her voice.

Right now, Tim Bradford is far more vulnerable than we've seen him in a long time because holy shit that was close.

"You need to get that vaccine here right now."

I love how Lucy is literally ordering a doctor around. Like, she's a Rookie who is only halfway through her probationary period, and she does not give a fuck.

In the Pilot, we met Isabel. We saw Tim's distraught face. We saw every ounce of fight he had temporarily leave his body. But when Lucy showed him mercy, he bit back—like a scared, injured puppy in a cage lashing out at the proffered hand offering help.

She knew nothing about Tim, then, but compassion is her default. And now that she's shared six months in the Shop with him, she knows him all the better. You bet your ass she's gonna fight for him.

Back to Back

This is one of the most beautiful Chenford scenes of Season 1.

The composition of it is gorgeous, of course. The staging and lighting and directing heart-breaking. The acting perfection. The writing gets under your skin in the most beautiful way.

But, let's start at the top—it's dark out. Shift's long over. Lucy hasn't left Tim's side. She could be home in her bed. She could be out with her friends. There are any number of places she could be. But she's here. Lucy isn't leaving Tim.

She sits on the floor, her back to the door. And Tim's right on the other side. Yes, there's a door separating them. There's a barrier. It's thick, solid, and locked. But they're together.

There may be a time down the line when Tim unlocks the door to his heart, again—a time when that solid barrier turns more pliable or disappears entirely. But in this moment, we're seeing how two people who are very separated can still be each other's support and strength.

"Hey, I, uh, I just checked with Dr. Morgan. The vaccine's minutes away." "You know, you're good at a lot of things, lying isn't one of them." "You think I'm good at things? Can I get that in writing?"

A small chuckle fills Tim's throat and his lips quirk. He's in the darkest place he's been in a long time, but she breaks through. It's only a little—the thinnest beam of light—but it breaks through.

Before the darkness reclaims Tim.

"How are you doing? Are there any symptoms, yet?"

The camera pans over into the most beautiful two-shot, split right down the middle by the bulk of the door. It's a fairy-tale shot possible thanks to the ability to remove walls from a set, but it's perfect. And I love it.

Because we can see that though they're apart, they're back to back. They will always have each other's back. And yes, I know they're both turning their faces towards the camera. But we can imagine it's because they're having a conversation. They're drawn to one another in this present darkness in a very real way.

They're still facing away from one another. Tim and Lucy aren't yet on the path to what the might become—but they're building the foundation. In the quiet moments between everything else, they're building a trust that will be instrumental to a possible friendship and anything more.

We pan over fully to Tim's side of the door, Lucy out of view. Because we've gone from outside the quarantine to inside. The lighting on Tim is starker than the lighting on Lucy, darker shadows across his face to match the shadows in his mind as he faces imminent death.

"I'm sweating like a pig, but it's probably because it's 100 degrees in this room." "It's gonna be okay."

And we're back at our two-shot. This beautiful shot of two people in different worlds, different realities, different sensibilities and life experiences. But in the stillness of this moment, Lucy tries to slip some hope through an impenetrable barrier.

"I really believe that." "I'm sure you do."

Tim's lip trembles as he says it. Here's this ball of sunshine, this beacon of hope that's dropped into his world. Nothing has been okay in his life in so long. It's easier for him to face the worst and expect it than greet the slivers of light as anything other than false hope.

He used to hope. But when everything went wrong with Isabel, he stopped believing in it. Because he'd dared to believe with her... and it all came crashing down. It's hard to open yourself up, again, after you do it for the first time and it fails.

Earlier he said, "Everything's gonna be fine", but we all knew it was a lie. He knew it was a lie. He could speak it with ease.

But Lucy speaks truth with that same ease... and her truth bears the spark of hope. And he's not yet ready to hope, again.

"But if it isn't-" "Don't. Don't think like that." "If it isn't, I'm not going out the way my man Pete here just did." "What are you saying?" "When the time comes, I'm going out on my own terms."

A tear trickles down Lucy's cheek as she listens. Because she knows he means it. Tim doesn't specialize in hollow words. He speaks plainly and without frills. Tim will do it if he feels he must. She trusts him enough to trust in that.

The camera pans down to show Tim already holding the weapon in his glove-covered hands. It throws me into "two by two, hands of blue" flashbacks, frankly. But it also shows Tim's state of mind.

And what of Lucy's? She's keeping him company, staying with him, making sure he is never alone. This is completely on Lucy's brand. If someone she cares about is hurting, she's gonna be there. And even though she's not "friends" with Tim, yet. She cares. So she's there.

"Please tell me that's the vaccine." "It is." "Wait. Stand back. You're not wearing protective gear." "Yeah."

Lucy completely forgets herself, because she wants to get in to see Tim, to know he's okay, to see him with her own eyes.

She's the only one who knows his state of mind. He let her in on that, and she's going to see this through with him, every step of the way.

"Officer Bradford, it's time to let me in."

Tim briefly acknowledges the doctor before locking eyes on Lucy across the way. Lucy spends this scene on the outside—the door now open, but an invisible barrier still separating them.

Tim sneaks glances at Lucy whenever possible, but her gaze rarely leaves him. She flits looks at the doctor, but then it's right back to Tim. "Are you okay?" her eyes ask. But he doesn't answer, because he really doesn't know.

And opening this door to a vaccine means the possibility that Lucy was right to hope. That she was right to believe. And he's not ready for that, yet.

He needs to think that everyone is suspect, that you can't trust anyone but yourself, that there is no real hope in the world. Because he's too afraid let light in. He did that before, only to discover it wasn't light... it was an atom bomb that blinded him as it destroyed him.

Lucy is light. And she's standing right there. And if he lives, she was right. And he's so not ready for that.

"I'd say you might've dodged a bullet."

You. Have. No. Idea. But Lucy does, and Tim's eyes find hers, once more. His jaw clenches.

This is theirs. Another secret. Like the night she saved him from losing himself to protect Isabel. They barely knew each other, then. It's only four months later, and how many secrets do these two share that a Rookie and TO never should?

Morning

Lucy steps through the cordoned-off area outside the house, no doubt decontaminated in some manner before stepping outside.

It's the first time she's tasted fresh air since they went in... because she never left Tim's side. Lucy tries to take an unsteady breath and sneaks a look at the sun. It's another morning Tim Bradford lives to see. That they all live to see.

Her face brightens to see her friends—touchstones of humanity.

"How's Tim?" "I think he's gonna be alright."

Because they all give a damn about Tim. He likes to shirk it and shake it off, but that's because he's too terrified to believe it. Tim, my boy, you are so damn loved.

"Don't you guys have paperwork to finish?" "He's back."

And she smiles at that. Like, this guy is a total pain in her ass, but she's grown accustomed to his grumpiness, accustomed to his brood, accustomed. to. his. face.

C'mon, musical fans. You had to know it was going there. And you know I love Tim Bradford because this is one of my least favorite songs of all time. But, I'll trot it out for him.

And Tim. Goes. Boom.

Impact

"It is the virus?"

First off, Lucy Bad*ss Chen. How did you convince them to let you ride along with Tim? At the end of last season, they wouldn't let you near him, but you said you weren't following along in the Shop (Tim wouldn't want you at the wheel anyway).

No, you've been by Tim's side all day and night and there's no way in hell you're leaving him, now.

"He's going into anaphylactic shock."

I'm cringing in "deathly allergic" at that one. I have an epi pen and am well-versed in how to use it. I've stuck myself with needles throughout my attempts at pregnancy (and successes). However, those pens freak me the heck out.

Through Lucy's camera, we see her right hand goes his shoulder immediately to steady him, her left somewhere near his side. Concern blankets her face.

There's no tension in the touch, here, folks. These two are a long way from that. But there is caring. Lucy is steadying him because she cares.

"Gun!"

No hesitation. Lucy Chen throws herself over her man. The day before, it was him closing the door to protect her from harm. Now, she's the one protecting him.

Because this is what works with Tim and Lucy that will always work—when it truly counts, they have each other's backs.

Big. Damn. Hero.

It's a grim scene, but let me tell you, but when Tim Bradford busts out of that ambulance like, "bitch, this thing can't contain me", I was cheering in my seat.

Look, I was thinking "Tim being in mortal danger" was going to be drawn out a little longer based on the Hulu episode description. But, we already saw that at the end of the last season. No need to rehash. Time to break new ground.

I'm good with Tim being a total badass, busting out of that ambulance like the hero he is to save the day.

"Are you okay?"

Tim's asking Nolan cracks me up. Dude, you spent the night thinking you'd been exposed to a deadly virus, watched a man convulse to death covered in his own blood, contemplated taking your own life, nearly died from a bloody reaction, and now you're the one asking someone if they're okay?

Hero shit, my friends.

"How are you feeling?" "Ready to get back to it."

They made Tim Bradford take two weeks off? Hell, yeah, he's ready to get back to work. I doubt that man's taken a vacation since Isabel disappeared, so losing that much work-time likely drove him mad.

Like, this could be his super-villain origin story if he weren't matched up with Officer Lucy Chen.

"Did you get the food I sent over?" "I did. You shouldn't have done that." "Well, I wanted to, and eating well is crucial for a fast recovery."

I love that she's okay with openly defying him, here. Why? Because something cracked open between them last episode and she's leaning into it. She doesn't know that he's leaning the entire opposite direction.

Tim doesn't let people in. Even his friends. He's so used to being isolated that part of him believes he deserves it—that inviting anyone into his pain is bringing them down. And the last thing he wants to do is get "friendly" with his Boot.

"You look worried." "I have never had a Rookie score that low on the exam." "There's a first time for everything." "No. Office Chen is a natural-born test taker. Nolan didn't even finish college. Plus, Chen had me for her TO. Nolan had Bishop."

Tim is worried. Has he been too soft? Has he given Lucy too many breaks? Did he give her the wrong impression, somewhere along the lines, that they'd become friends after this year-long task was done?

"What are you doing?" "What?" "My Rookies wear long sleeves and ties until the last day of probation." "Yeah, but Sergeant Grey said-" "Grey is not your Training Officer. I have complete discretion of the training of my Boot and that includes uniform."

I hate this for Lucy for a thousand reasons. But I get where Tim is coming from. If this is standard operating procedure for his Boots, then okay. Got it. But he should have told her sooner. Because this is like a slap in the face and she doesn't deserve it.

Is it in character? Yes. Tim of Season 1/early Season 2 would absolutely make a move this toolish and not understand the emotional and psychological ramifications for Lucy—or simply not care. It's his job to be a pain in her ass, right?

Tim is putting that wall back up and hard. Combine him letting his guard down at the quarantine house with Lucy's possible low score and her report (we'll get to that later), Tim is in full hard-ass mode.

"Where are you going?" "To change back."

Look at the heartache of Lucy walking past her fellow Rookies. Tim's now set her apart, made her different, punished her for something she never did wrong. Frankly, he's being an ass.

But Tim worries Lucy's getting too close to him. Not romantically, no, but she looked after him with the concern of a colleague or, dare I said it, friend in the last episode. And in his mind, that shit's gotta go.

Tim Test

Look, I'm not saying that Lucy doesn't still need instruction and whatnot. But, Tim's leaning into his hardass side as a protection for himself, and it's frustrating.

To have his friend mock up this IED for his first day back, that means he was plotting this on his off-time. During those two weeks he wasn't on the streets, he came up with tests for Lucy, for ways to push her away, for ways to put her back in her place.

The vulnerability in his eyes when he looked past the doctor to see her looking back, concern written all over her face. That was hard for Tim. He doesn't let people in like that. He doesn't let them see him emotionally exposed. He doesn't confess how broken it is in his own mind.

But he truly believed he was about to die. There would be no consequences for him to see. He had no reason for pretense or lies because he wouldn't live to see the ramifications of his truth-telling.

And now he has to deal with that mess, and he's not handling it well.

"And you're dead, because radio frequency energy can trigger a bomb. You gonna forget that lesson, Boot?

It's not a bad lesson. As far as Tim Tests go, this could've been a lot worse. He didn't call her out in front of people. He didn't scream at her. And it's a valuable lesson.

But, he's leaning hard into Lucy today, and she can feel it. It's only been two weeks since they last rode together. Two weeks since the Quarantine House. And whatever she thought they'd achieved in that house has apparently been undone. And that is the part that sucks.

"Go get cleaned up."

Lucy turns to him, and I wish we could see her face, because we can see that Tim takes a tiny beat after her glare. He looks back at her, and it's clear he has something on his mind that he quickly dismisses.

"You don't have the experience to evaluate people, yet, so your default should be suspicion, not compassion."

It's not a bad point. Look, I'm not saying Tim's 100% right all of the time, but it's part of the job to keep compassion in check without having facts.

When I worked in news, a reporter friend of mine interviewed the wife and adult daughter of a murdered man. He sat with them, comforted them, interviewed them... and then the police asked for our footage and used it to help them charge the wife and daughter with the killing.

My colleague was in absolute shock. He'd sat there with them and held their hands. He believed them. But the police saw differences in the story these two told us and the one they told police, and it was enough to crack the case.

So bloody heartbreaking. So, I hear Tim's point on this one.

"What are you doing?"

They say this back and forth SO much. I'm surprised it didn't become the ship phrase back in the early days of Chenford because of how often these two speak those four words to one another.

Someday it'll be "I love you, Lucy" and "I love you, Tim". But right now, these are probably their most-spoken four words strung together.

"Why are you treating me like it's Day 1 all over again?" "Because it is. Today was day 1 of stage 2 of your training." "So, what? Does that mean I've lost all the respect that I've earned?"

Lucy. Is. Pissed. She has worked her ass off dealing with Tim. And, not everything he's done has been bad. Lucy has gotten used to his way of doing things, and she never asked to trade TOs. She's determined to get through this year with Tim.

But this is too much. She doesn't have support from anywhere outside of the station. The least she could have is respect within it.

"You lost that when you lied on a report." "What?" "I read your account of what happened at the quarantine house." "Okay." "When I thought I was infested, I told you I'd rather take my life than bleed out. You failed to report it." "That's what this is about?"

Remember how Tim looked at Lucy at the Quarantine House when he came out of that room? He was hesitant. He was vulnerable. He was worried.

And then the consequences never came. If Lucy had reported it, he would have had to deal with it... with all the evaluations and whatnot. Since he didn't, he had time to stew and get mad.

But it's all a blasted facade to push her away. Because Tim Bradford doesn't open up to Rookies. Tim Bradford doesn't get emotional around Rookies. Tim Bradford isn't vulnerable around Rookies.

But for one crazy night, he was. Through a closed door... he was open.

"Suicide ideations by a law enforcement officer are extremely serious and should have been reported immediately." "I was trying to protect you. They would have put you on leave, required therapy. You weren't even actually suicidal."

Trying. To. Protect. You. Like she's been doing since the Pilot. If Tim had half a brain in this moment, he would realize she's been doing it all along.

Lucy understands the consequences of reporting, but she also knows psychology well enough to realize that Tim had a last-resort plan that never came. Not the same thing as planning your suicide and how to make sure your husband finds you and not your children.

"Not your call. You should have detailed everything regardless of the consequences." "Oh, yeah? Like I should have filed a report detailing everything you've done to protect Isabel?"

He stops in his tracks. All of the fire he'd built up dies in a cold wash of reality. Lucy should have filed all of that. But she didn't. And it never occurred to him to be mad about it.

He's spending this entire episode trying to put Lucy in her place, but it's Lucy who turns it around in this scene and throws it back at him—rightfully.

"You know what? You wanna rake me over the coals for the next six months, you go ahead. But don't pretend it's because you've got some code."

I was fist pumping in the air the first time I saw this scene. That is how you call Tim on his bullshit.

Tim's looking past her. He can't even look her in the eye. He opens and closes his mouth several times, but no words come out. Because what the hell can he say to that?

Lucy's been protecting him since the beginning. In the freakin' Pilot, she said she wouldn't tell anyone about Isabel.

Lucy is a kind and compassionate person. Tim's trying to get her to stop being so compassionate to the public they serve, but also towards him. Yet even as he's trying to strip it bare, she's proving that it's always been there and will always remain. It's her super power.

"Thank God."

Lucy sees her name under the 91 and relaxes a little.

She doesn't look back to Tim for validation, this time (she's still salty), but he looks to her and nods sagely. Almost proud. She's a damn fine officer, Bradford.

Lucy, The Fake Cop, And 999982

Okay, that last reference is from Future Rachel, but hopefully Twitter folks who saw a video of Eric Winter floating around late 2022 will get a laugh out of it. But that is the license plate of the Shop the fake cop goes into at first.

"Are you okay?" "Yeah."

Lucy actually chuckles a little, flustered. Tim the ToolBag TO has calmed his shit down and is at a more neutral stance after she flung his own crap in his face the night before.

And, wow, that joke is about 30 years old, so we'll see how many of y'all get it. But I wrote it and it has to stay, now, I'm sorry.

"Went right over after him." "'Course she did. I trained her."

Lucy nearly rolls her eyes at that one. Tim, my dear, you can't take credit for everything she does. You'll get that... someday.

"Tim?" "Yeah, I see it."

Ah, starting to get that rhythm we'll come to love later down the line—the rhythm where very little needs to be said for you two to be on the same page.

Our last image after the shootout is Lucy Chen crushing it as she handcuffs a guy and throws a happy smile towards Tim. She's in her element. She's doing what she knows how to do well. She's a damn good cop.

This pair of episodes is tough for Tim and Lucy because they'd only had six months together, and they're far from friends. But I think these two episodes are the stepping stones to set that up.

We get the vulnerability in part one, and much as Tim balks against it in part two, Lucy calling him on his shit is humbling. He backs off, a little. Much as he doesn't want to let her in, she's got his back.

As always, thank you all for reading, re-blogging, commenting, and just being freakin' awesome about all of this.

Today was the most "me" I've felt in ages, and I'm thankful. Still taking it one breath at a time, but each one is filled with gratitude.

And I'm thankful for you. See ya after 5x14 drops!

#tw suicide #Chenford #Lucy Chen #Tim Bradford #Eric Winter #Lucy x Tim #Tim x Lucy #The Rookie #Meta

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fiendishwinx · 10 months

Note

why do you like rivusa? (i love rivusa i just want to hear your reasons why)

Now, I did say that if I ever got the chance, I'd write a whole essay about them. Like 10 pages, minimum. But knowing me, it's gonna be shitty bullet points again! Yay! Who doesn't love those?

[SEASON 1]

-I know this season's a tossup for them. Rough times, rough times. Musa's feelings are unrequited (or at least appear to be unrequited) throughout most of it, right up until s1e25. Sucks (for me) that it takes him until the finale to reciprocate, but I like to interpret that as S1 Riven, or "girls!...who needs them" Riven, being understandably wary of anyone's sudden, unfounded affection towards him.

-But the thing about Musa here? She's stubborn with it--her affection. He's not ready for it yet, but she's layin' it on him, and she's layin' it on him thick. With reckless abandon, where her whole damn heart's on the line. That's a dangerous and naïve thing for someone to do, and any cagey person (Riven) would keep their distance. Ignore them, even.

And yet:

-And homegirl gives NO fucks about it, either--no reciprocation necessary! Well, maybe a little, because she stops pursuing him at the end of s1e9. He's dating someone else now, and he's being an ass about it, kinda, but she gets over him. To protect herself, as any humbled girl should. In turn, she's a lot more closed off (especially towards him) than before.

-Deep, deep down though?....it's still there. Can't get rid of those feelings, for shit.

-Would've loved some more buildup scenes post s1e9, or between s1e23 and s1e25, showing their gradual apologies, Trix-ocalypse bonding, and then Riven's "oh fuck, she's serious" moment that he starts pacing outside over. Let it rock his world for a bit.

[SEASON 2]

-There's a lot of will-they-won't-they this season, but I don't mind that. Always been a "it's the journey, not the destination" kind of shipper, anyway. But something they will do this season, and a whole lot of it, is touch:

-So many touches, grasps, hugs...shared hiding spots.

-Everyone's roughed up from last year, and Musa can't quite verbalize what's hurting her, much less explain it, but she can sure as hell grunt, unravel, and burst into tears in his arms. Because while yes, her friends are amazing, and give her plenty of advice and support, when it comes to Riven, he doesn't tell her how or what to feel. He just lets her do it. Hics, snot, and all.

-On the flip side, Riven's been humbled, or humble squared. Wouldn't say matured just yet, but he's tamed down his ass-ness, compared to S1. He's quieter, more distant. That's what imprisonment and nearly dying does to you (and it won't be the last time, either). Instead of yelling or mocking someone, he might choose to say nothing at all. It's both a blessing and a curse, though, concerning the both of them.

-Remember the formula, people. You put an avoidant guy in front of an emotional girl, then throw in some death dice. What do you get out of that, exactly? A relationship.

[SEASON 3]

-Less focus on them this season, and I never really vibed with the majority of their scenes being...inflammatory. Small moments like s3e9 (yeah, he could've spared Bloom's feelings more, but we've got two seasons of character development showing why he'd err towards bluntness, Musa...) and fuck-ing s3e19 (like, where? where does this come from, guys?!), that make my eye twitch. Rainbow's type-casted them at this point--they're the tropey, drama-prone "bickering couple" now, and indefinitely.

-If they weren't so serious about it, and had more of a snarky/teasing banter kind of situation? I would've ate that shit up. That's a trope I could get behind, and tbh, it'd make a lot more sense, given the narrative. Like, let them be a fun background couple now, it's fine.

-Shout out to "bACk aWay frOM mY WiFe" Riven in s3e21:

-Say what you want about it, but at the end of the day, Musa sees that he still cares, has always cared in his own way, and will drop everything at any hint of her being in danger.

-From this season's crumbs, I gathered that these two are lines--not parallel or perpendicular ones, but they do cross, and it's at this rare point where their love languages sync, their communication's on point, and they both genuinely see things eye-to-eye. It's somewhere outside of the graphing window, but they'll find it.

[SEASON 4]

-That interaction in s4e2? That's what I was talking about. Some quippy back-and-forth, where nobody's butthurt. Could've been the blueprint for them this season. And last season.

(Keep in mind, S4 makes me tired and delusional. Another jealousy plot? Failed simping attempts? Nope, doesn't ring a bell. W-Who's Jason Queen, again? No clue who that is, babe...must've hit my head on something...)

-But I do like seeing them switch here, where Riven's confronted with his own insecurities, and starts showing emotional vulnerability towards Musa, in different ways:

-Is it unpopular to say that, though S4 Rivusa irks me to bits, I prefer them to their characterization in S3? Because at least here, their arguments seem justified; Riven's threatened by Jason, and in turn, Musa's promising career on Earth, because it sparks the realization that he's stagnating, and might get left behind? And if it weren't for that realization, that fear, I'd think he'd be very supportive of her endeavors (going back to s2e15, and what he did at the concert for her: "everyone sing, goddammit!").

-This could've been their final relationship "bump", so to speak. They'd have all their deeper, more personal issues bubble to the surface ("Support me, Riven!", "I'm not good enough for you", "Please don't abandon me", etc.), which they'd address and come to terms with, then end S4 being that much closer.

Wait! Let's not forget SOTLK:

-This scene, in its entirety, had me levitating off the ground. Straight into the stratosphere, and you couldn't have paid me to come back down. Riven knows what he's fighting for, and Musa loves him, crunchables hair and all. That's the finale, for me. The end! Close the curtains, I beg of you!

Fuck, there's more?!

Anyways, I've always liked the underdogs--the easy-outs, and the least picked poll options. While it's a lonely experience to favor those types of ships (until I joined the fandom here, and found people who either like Muri/Rivusa, or are at least willing to discuss them, critically), it's never discouraged me from making ship content, you know? Some sites will just...never get to see it, though lol. Not that they'd want to, judging from what I've encountered.

I think they're neat, and if no one agreed with me on that, I'd be fine. You'd just see me in that empty section, way up in the stadium's bleachers, waving around some half-powered light stick by myself.

#rivusa #muri #musa x riven #winx club #and I'm not gonna get super crit bc I hate HATE doing that #but seriously #you have no idea how thankful I am of this fandom and its ability to respectfully disagree (compared to most sites)#liking ships don't require (and NEVER require) you to disprove undermine or blatantly bash someone else's ship + the characters involved #instead of 'why A should be with C instead of B (ew)' can't it just be 'why I like A and C together'? why focus on the other character?#*spins in chair*#*spins again*

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