#coke rant

[somethingcatholic]

to me, nat truly is the only yellowjacket who truly respects jackie after her death. everyone else has such a skewed view of her but i believe nat sees her for who she truly was, their captain. she’s the only one to still view her as that, she may have taken on the role of leader yet she emulates jackie’s actions every step of the way.

even as she’s eating her, this respect is still so sickeningly present. she sits at jackie’s feet — which is seen as one of the most respectful things to do within multiple religions (also there’s some jesus washing the feet of his disciples thoughts that i can’t fully word coming to mind). the feet are also one of the parts of the body with the least meat, it’s as if she respected jackie too much to devour her entirely despite the fact she had to in order to survive.

she’s the only one to give her a true “burial” after the bacchanal, bringing her back to the plane and actually thanking her for keeping them alive. even after jackie has been practically dehumanised by their actions, nat still attempts to treat her with the respect she believes her captain deserves.

[lockingthedoors]

Sighhhhhhhhhhh. Take me and lock all the doors lowkey call and response

Take me now before it’s light

Get down on the floor turn all the lights off inside

take me if you think I’m sweet though my life feels incomplete

Standing lost and lonely on the shore

Was it me or was it you

You know it’s mine

[theventsoflux]

I always come back to this thread because I find that the hypermarket concept in general never fully lived up to its full potential in North America, and gave us the duller American superstore

Like European hypermarkets had cafes or restaurants, full bakeries butchers and a full deli inside, which is sadly a thing that’s dying aswell but not too uncommon,

And things like these were present in the us European hypermarket boom of the 90’s, but after low ROI or just overall French directives not understanding the us market was what effectively killed them,

Another thing was the overall design philosophy the French had, hypermarkets compared to the American superstore feel like caves, despite the fact that most have a similar footprint than an American store, Walmart noticed this in their “hypermart USA” concept stores which were a joint venture with Tom Thumb, and therefore developed the supercentre concept which featured a similar footprint but was designed to feel less cavernous, actually let me pull up a picture of a super k mart to compare to compare alongside the picture provided by OP

The Kmart feels no less different than your average American grocery store while the leedmark feels like a warehouse

Just me being a nerd and coming back to an old thread sorry

396. Three French Stores That Came to the United States and failed

(reference – whenever I think in threes, I think of Jenna Marbles and her three looks)

In the late 80s to the early to mid 1990s, three French stores tried to set up shop on United States shores, and all three failed miserably.

When I think of the term “hypermarket”, my brain automatically begins playing the song, “I Just Can’t Get Enough”, and I begin to picture flashing lights and arcades and stupid kids screaming. Not a giant white box that is the size of three football fields that sold everything from groceries to fridges. Certainly nothing something inspired by the French.

But that was Carrefour. (which, when I first saw the name years ago I mistakingly read it as “carrie-four” at first–I believe its pronounced “CAR-four”) The Philadelphia location which opened in 1988 was so big that people who were assigned to do price checks wore roller skates to get around the store faster. Now that I’m thinking, my hometown WalMart tried doing this in the mid 90s when they had their Super Center renovation, they had a guy on rollerblades. My newspaper even did an article about him. I can’t imagine he lasted very long at WalMart due to liability reasons, having a guy rollerbade around a crowded store. Carrefour didn’t have this problem because … nobody came. This place had 60 registers and nobody came! It lost $29 million in its first year. 3

(A rare interior photo of the Philadelphia location. I found this on on Reddit [archive])

One problem was, they didn’t advertise as well as they should. 1 I’ve been searching off an on for the past week about more info about these stores, and I’ve only found one newspaper ad from their short foray in Voorhees, New Jersey, and one commercial.

(Another rare color interior photo, this one from New York Magazine) 

From what I’ve been reading, at the time, Americans just were not ready to go into a store that sold “radios and radicchio”. 2 This quote from the New York article: 

I feel like Chris just descried a modern day Sam’s Club. See, too ahead of their time. 

By September 1993, it was over. The Voorhees New Jersey location had only been open a year. These giant vacant stores were cut up into smaller stores. 

The second store, didn’t last nearly as long as Carrefour.  Leedmark, opened by the French hypermarket company E.Leclerc had one location in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The rough translation on the photo above: 

Michel-Edouard Leclerc In the United States Michel-Edouard Leclerc opens the first Leclerc Center in the United States named Leedmark on May 31, 1991 in Baltimore, USA. (Photo by Alexis DUCLOS / Gamma Rapho via Getty Images)

Michel-Edouard was livin’ it up in Glen Burnie. I mean check this out: 

The dude walking by is like, “why would I want a shirt with my own country’s flag on it?” 

The little TVs at the registers were supposed to “entertain” people in line. I suspect lines were never long enough. 5

(highconstruction.com)

The store opened in May of 1991. Two years later, in October of 1993, the store was failing just like Carrefour. Nobody wanted to shop in such a giant store. 4 It was announced that the store would close by January of 1992. 6 The building was cut in two, one half was a WalMart and the other half was a Mars grocery store. From what I’ve seen on flickr, it looks like in the last ten years Mars has closed and the entire store is a giant WalMart. 

The final store is Galeries Lafayette, which is not a Hypermarket, but a high end department store from France. Opening in the old Bonwit Teller department store at Trump Tower, the store was announced in the Summer of 1991, and opened on September 28th of the same year. The French company took a giant risk of opening an unfamiliar store during a retail slump. 7 So many stores pooped the bed in the early 90s. I mean just in my area of Hampton, Virginia, Miller & Rhoads, Thalhimers, Hess’, Bradlees, Builder’s Square, all gone in the early 90s. 

aw, why does this ad look like Gilda Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna character? If she was French. “C'est toujours quelque chose!”

On opening day, shoppers gathered around the Bourjois display and marveled at the brightly colored French makeup. 9

The following Summer they had a Bastille Day celebration. They also lost 17 million dollars that year. 8

Two Summers later, it was over, on August 31st, 1994 it was announced that operations at the store would wind down.  There wasn’t enough in the store to make it different from the other stores on 5th avenue in New York City. 10 It was soon replaced by Nike Town. 

Honorable mentions, because they actually lasted until the early 2000s: 

biggs  biggs actually lasted in the U.S. until 2010. While Bigg’s wasn’t a chain in France, it was owned by the French company Euromarché. I asked around on twitter, and this was the first biggs that opened in the Eastgate area of Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s now home to a giant Jungle Jim’s grocery store. 

Auchan While the Illinois store flopped early on, Houston Texas held on to the French Hypermarket chain Auchan (pronounced “O-Shawn”) until 2003. Check out this commercial. Look at the kick ass bird logo flying through the store and letting us know about the deals on soda pop and sun tea jars. 

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1. Wise, Deborah, “French Hypermarket Adjusts to U.S.,” New York Times, February 20, 1989. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/20/business/international-report-french-hypermarket-adjusts-to-us.html

2. Kanner, Bernice, “Really Big Business,” New York, October 7, 1991.  20, https://books.google.com/books?id=4ugCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA20&dq=Carrefour,+New+Jersey+store&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZlM-h6bzkAhUto1kKHd94Ab4Q6AEwCXoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=Carrefour%2C%20New%20Jersey%20store&f=true

3. Sternquist, Brenda, European retailing’s vanishing borders ( Westport, Conn. : Quorum Books, 1994), 113. https://archive.org/details/europeanretailin0000ster/page/112

4. Dresser, Michael, “Huge Leedmark store may close doors soon 2 ½ -year-old Glen Burnie ‘hypermarket’ pressed by creditors, starved for cash,” Baltimore Sun, October 27, 1993.  http://archive.is/f9lkt

5. Thomas, Kevin, “Huge store opening in Glen Burnie Leedmark officials refuse to call store a hypermarket,” Baltimore Sun, May 22, 1991. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-05-22-1991142230-story.html

6. Grimsley, Kristen Downey, “LEEDMARK TO CLOSE MARYLAND MEGA-STORE,” Washington Post, November 2, 1993. http://archive.is/XOJdr#selection-1295.0-1402.0′

7. Barmash, Isadore, “ COMPANY NEWS; A Store on Fifth Avenue Will Be 'Totally French’,” New York Times, May 30, 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/30/business/company-news-a-store-on-fifth-avenue-will-be-totally-french.html

8. Strom, Stephanie, “Executive Leaving Galeries Lafayette,” New York Times, April 27, 1993. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/27/business/company-news-executive-leaving-galeries-lafayette.html

9. Trucco, Terry, “BEAUTY; Bonjour, Bourjois!,” New York Times Magazine, November 3, 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/03/magazine/beauty-bonjour-bourjois.html

10. Zuckerman, Laurence, “Galeries Lafayette to Close Its Doors,” New York Times, August 31, 1994. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/business/galeries-lafayette-to-close-its-doors.html

[mioakem]

dream stream so far

[saysbruh1]

it's the tight tshirts it's the messy post fuck hair it's being able to see his dick print slip through the gap of the botw table dont get me wrong i love long hair jay and 90s haircut jay and chubby jay but nothing will ever taste as sweet as the lemon sorbet that is a man that looks like that and is a total freak dork happy fucking valentines day to me

if I can make a potentially #controversial post I really don't get people whose favorite jay style is like, 2014 matt hannon interview era. WAY too dudebro-y. he looks like he's going to try and sell me dick pills for alphas

[lockingthedoors]

They’re playing wonderwall in da açaí bowl place no one in this room knows this is a brother loving anthem

[canisthelupus]

if i have to see one more fucking person mischaracterize javier in a very clearly racially motivated way (intentionally or not) im gonna fucking tweak out. "music is life hermano 😝" HE WOJLD NOT FUCKINF SAY THAT SHIT!!!

[mara-xx]

“I love Oscar but-“ shut the fuck up then?

[sacredhyacinth]

Oc lore

[lockingthedoors]

everytime I have no thoughts in my head it dawns on me how ridiculously. Narrative? Thematic? THEY are even though they’re real people and all. Why are they living irl movie with acts and core ideas and motifs. Does this make sense. Or is this art/life imitating life/art

[dewdoll99]

ok a lot of discourse on this show, but i just needa say that danny didn’t lie about anything!!!! 1) she states that she didn’t lie in her claim when telling harper she withdrew it 2) we literally see danny and xander’s relationship unfold, his shameless suggestive behavior? that’s sexual harassment! he constantly makes space to be alone with her, giving her special treatment, then this special treatment and an opportunity to learn is taken away from her when she rejects him. that’s manipulation. deadass he “youre the only one in denial” his way into a relationship. sure they share smiles, have sex, she says that she loved him, but she also talks about how suffocating the relationship was for her, reporting him/ending it was freeing for her! i #personally don’t think the duration of their relationship invalidates her claim or experience, but im not the chro soooooo…✌🏾

unfortunately the reaction of her peers and seniors are expected and realistic 💔. danny didn’t take the responsibility of chef resident away from him because she reported, she is given that title in his place as retaliation. camilla (it’s literally her first day, so she has no attachment to the guy) and harper (her fucking sister) are the only ones who don’t blatantly call her a liar or guilt trip her. cole is disgusting from beginning to end and almost ruins a man’s life because he want to antagonize danny for reporting his mate. jealousy got the best of elijah and he showed his ass QUICKLY. the way he was flip flopping was so terrifying man. dr cruz? dr soriano? luis? the rest of the staff? we all saw who they choose to consult with during the hurricane.

and then the cherry on top. xander said that stupid ass “you’re afraid to love me” shit like someone isn’t actively dying and the entire er can’t hear (def intentional btw). so xander confirms (he doesn’t) she’s a liar to a group of people who didn’t ppl that didn’t believe or support her in the first place. these ass eaters double down on icing her out, her anxiety/stress is through the roof, dr cruz threatening her cuz mama phillips wants her fired…yeah she drops the claim. how could she possibly thug this out?

[cheruv-ii]

Ben Pincus:How he and his paranoia are portayed in Chaos Theory, from the viewpoint of someone with paranoia.

Ben and his paranoia has both pros and cons in CC/CT, in this I will be focusing more on CT, but I will be comparing it TO how it was handled in CC to highlight certain points. I'm going to try to separate this into specific points so I don't ramble but also, it's me, I'm gonna ramble, lmao.

So to split this up, little table of contents:

-The PROS of Ben's paranoia

-Ben's paranoia in CC vs CT

-The Class Clown-ism of Ben's paranoia

-Ben's Trauma and how it affects his Paranoia

-How other Characters treat Ben's paranoia

(Those last three are all gonna overlap lmao)

Okay so to start, just so this doesn't feel like a total Hater™️ post, I will give the pros of Ben's paranoia in CT. As someone who does have major paranoia, I do appreciate seeing rep in media, it's pretty few and far between when it comes to characters who actually HAVE paranoia vs characters who just experience paranoia once or twice, so I appreciate when it is done. The basis of CT literally stems from Ben's paranoia, if it weren't for him deep diving DJR and getting those messages, the camp fam would be Atrocikibble, and CT wouldn't have happened. His paranoia plays a major part in the show no matter how you look at it, and I do appreciate that it's done in a way that you really cannot erase his paranoia, sure, you could say he was right and therefore “it's not paranoia” but also, no you cannot, lmao. Yes he was correct in the long run, but that doesn't negate the fact that all of his fears STEMMED from his paranoia, the way he handles things STEMS from paranoia, Ben very clearly HAS PARANOIA and has since day one. One moment in CT I really appreciate is in s1 ep2, specifically the scene where he and Darius have that conversation about his fears and how he immediately assumed Mo was after them. The line “Don't you think I want to? But I can't!” Really got me in a slash pos way, having paranoia is a lot of knowing the things you're afraid of aren't worth the fear, it's wanting to stay calm, whether the situation you're in is GENUINELY dangerous or just a manifestation of your paranoia, but being unable to control it because no matter how times you or anyone around you tells you that you're okay or what you're afraid of isn't real, your brain will STILL be convinced that YOU ARE IN GRAVE DANGER or SOMETHING is going to go wrong, and I appreciate how that was shown in that scene.

Now, the unfortunate part of this, the cons, which is what most of this post will be.

To start, let's compare how it was handled in CC vs CT. Imo, CC Ben's paranoia was taken SO much more seriously, not even in the sense of the class clown-isms, which I will get into later, but in the way it was actually written. In CC, yes, Ben's paranoia is poked at, especially by Kenji lbr, but it's realistic, it's other teenage kids being shitty, and that happens irl, a lot. HOWEVER. As the camp fam gets closer, as they experience these traumas together, they learn to take his paranoia more seriously, as does the actual plot. The dude went from heavily sheltered to being thrown into an INCREDIBLY dangerous situation, got torn out of a moving monorail which lead to him nearly FALLING TO HIS DEATH, and then on top of all that, had to survive assumably around a month alone as someone with, lbr, next to no survival skills. When he came back, yes he was different, he was “tough” and not that paranoid little dude from s1, HOWEVER AGAIN, you do see multiple moments where his paranoia shines through, the entire plotline of him wanting to stay on the island was a major part of that, to him, the island was—ironically—a safe place, not only because he found himself there, found a way to escape his paranoia, but because he wasn't being constantly invalidated for having those fears. Ben was ALLOWED to be afraid on the island, and while I could be reading into it too hard, that feels like one of the reasons Nublar specifically was a safe space, aside from the typical self exploration plotline. Then in s4, you have the plotline on MC, where Ben's masking starts to falter, because that's what the Jungle Boy™️ personality is/was, a mask, that paranoia comes back now that he's been taken from his safe space, he doesn't know how this island works, he's not knowledgeable on it the way he was with Nublar, he's lost the control he had on Nublar, and that allows the paranoia to take that control back. The other's see that, clearly, esp Darius (which I will get into, once again) and they take it seriously, they help him, they don't belittle him for it, because they understand. His paranoia is handled through the entirety of the show, it shows itself both in large bouts and little trickles throughout the plotline, which is realistic to paranoia, it doesn't ALWAYS show itself but it's always there. Plus, CC takes it seriously, yes they crack a few jokes here and there, but its a kids show, they've gotta, fuck they crack jokes about Kenji's abusive father nothings going without a crack being made, but even with the cracks, it's not made out to be a joke.

That leads into the Class Clown-isms of CT Ben's paranoia. While there are parts of CT that takes Ben's paranoia seriously, like in ep2, so many scenes that involve Ben's paranoia are turned into the butt of the joke. The entirety of s1 leans off the “We're being hunted!” Gag, which sure, in itself is funny, but when its repeated over and over again, and even being played as a joke after they know they are. Quite literally. Being hunted. Kinda feels off to me. One part in s1 that stands out to me is the “Your favourite” line, yes on surface level, it is just a haha funny dark joke between friends, but at the same time its one of the lines that really shows to me just how— unseriously? They take Ben and his trauma. We need to remember, Ben wasn't just flocked by pteranodons at some point where he got a lil scratch or something like that, after finally being brave and facing his paranoia, he was RIPPED OUT of a MOVING MONORAIL that was multiple metres off the ground, TOSSED AROUND by those pteranodons, in which he thought he was about to become their FOOD, before being dropped, where he probably thought he was going to fall to his death, mind you, HE NEARLY FELL TO HIS DEATH. Not to trauma olympics the camp fan, but arguably, that event in itself puts Ben pretty far near the top for most traumatized in the group, and that's not even taking the month he spent alone on murder lizard island into consideration. From the looks of things, Yaz is the only one who really got therapy, yes Ben helped Mae on MC, but that doesn't count as actual therapy. So let's take this dude, with major trauma, on top of already there major paranoia, with zero therapy, and suddenly he's just— totally unphased? It'd be one thing if it was just that one off joke, but they do it again in s3, when he gets dragged by the Dimorphodon. No he wasn't getting flung around like in CC, but you mean to tell me that wouldn't be a little triggering? I mean, in CC he has the tablet run in with the pteranodons and the way his panic attack is handled and shown is SO well done to me, down to the little details like the way his hand trembles when he hears them calling, but in CT he's just gonna make a little joke to Davi like “haha yeah man getting dragged by carnivorous flying reptiles amirite?” WHAT. They make SO many cracks at the monorail incident but NEVER address it in a serious manor, even the joke about the pteranodon stealing a freshmans backpack was a crack at it. While the other characters’ traumas are taken seriously, Yaz’ ptsd, Sammy's family issues, Kenji's— life, Brooklynn's arm and near death experience, and Darius finding Brooklynn, well what was left of her, Ben's traumas are always played down to a joke. Any time Ben experiences negative emotions it's played down to a joke. Look at the panic attack in s2, my guys was very clearly tweaking out, but the only one who noticed anything was legitimately wrong was Yaz, while the others made.. potty jokes? Okay.

On that note, the way the characters treat Ben's paranoia is another things that's changed so heavily since CC in an UNBELIEVABLE way. Sure, you could say “oh 6 years dif!” time doesn't change that your supposed best friend has a debilitating mental illness that should be taken seriously, but okay. Imo, a lot of the character writing and relationships were.. fumbled, in CT, but that's another rant for another day, this is SPECIFICALLY about Ben. The characters treat him like he's a comedic punching bag, from the whole we're being hunted thing, down to him having a gf, so much of it is just— cruel and ooc? Darius used to match Ben's freak hard and you're telling me he's gonna sit there and mock him for every little thing he does? The girls, who BEN HELPED GET TGT, and used to be so supportive of him, even made jokes. I will say the way the lead up was written added to it, because wdym Ben hadn't told anyone from probably at least a year that he had a gf, and then when he DID, he gave them the most sus “She lives in… europe?” And called it a day, it was yet another thing that was inserted despite it making zero sense just to fuel an unnecessary plotline, but I digress.

Now Gia, oh Gia. Listen, I don't want this to come off as a “Let's shit on Gia!” Thing, because that's not what it is, as I've stated before, Gia's writing definitely leaves things to be desired (Like yk, a character outside of being “Ben's girlfriend”, but that's neither here nor there), but I don't think she deserves hate. Character criticisms and hate are very different things, especially when it comes to women in the media. However, let's talk about her and her relationship to Ben and his paranoia rq.

Tl;dr, it doesn't. Fucking. Work.

The WORST thing to do when it comes to a person and their paranoia, is to reinforce those fears, it's one thing to reassure people that what they're feeling is valid, but to outright tell them that “yeah so everyone is after you and you're in constant danger” IS BAD. Starting out their relationship with them making a silly little quip about phones and being traceable does not sit right with me, at all. All that scene tells me is that their relationship is based off fuelling that paranoia, reinforcing unhealthy habits, and just— terrible writing decisions. Which is so funny considering how ignore Ben's paranoia is in s3. To put it simply, imagine your partner having a paranoia induced hallucination, are you going to a)reassure them that it's not real and they are safe or b)start screaming and going “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?”. If you chose b, maybe cozying up with someone who suffers from any sort of psychosis is not for you.

To give a rundown of all this, yes, I am glad paranoia is being represented in the media, and no, not all of the writing surrounding Ben's paranoia is bad; However, a lot of the writing, specifically in CT, runs off ableist stereotypes surrounding paranoia and utilizes them to make Ben, a character who DID have incredible character writing in CC, the butt of the joke. So much of Ben's character in CT is dumbed down to be comedic relief, whereas the others are taken so much more seriously, yes, there are jokes made with them, but it's not their. Entire. Goddamn. Character. It's clear that the writers of CT can write trauma and fear and take it seriously, but they missed the mark with Ben, hard, which sucks because CC Ben is genuinely one of my favourite instances of paranoia represented in media.

I really hope at least some of this is addressed in s4, but I don't have high hopes, for now I will simply run with canon CC and the canon CT I have created in my head 🙏

[umathurwin]

Omg hi! I feel like I’m the only sofia hater out there bc all i see are people loving her character is so boring to me and her and rafe relationship seems so forced to me like she is supposed to help him reconcile with his sister but instead, she spent all season doing nothing apart from the hollis plot

being called a sofia hater cracks me up because i feel like i never talk about her, in fact i usually forget she exists 😭 but i’ll accept it, because i really do hate the way her character (which had a great premise) was totally wasted

a youtuber i really love once described pansy parkinson from harry potter as “an original character wearing the skin of a minor character” and i think that perfectly encapsulates sofia. they make these moodboards, these stories, these elaborate headcanons about a character we know little to nothing about. do i respect it? hell yes. it takes a lot of work. but to have these intense convictions and arguments about a 0.5-dimensional character… WHY?

i went and rewatched every scene in s4 where she even just appears and wrote down my thoughts on them (despite how tedious this was… the action really does rely on the pogues) and like… wow. where do i start

her s4 introduction is the scene where rafe scatters ward’s ashes on the boat, and it’s awkward but in a fair way. i wouldn’t really know what to do either. in the same episode, she’s at the enduro cheering for rafe, but she is inexplicably standing TOTALLY by herself. i still have no idea if this was just filmed oddly or if it was deliberate but this photo kills me… girl why are you alone? at no other point is she physically excluded from the kooks like this. wtf

and after that? nearly every single moment she and rafe share the screen? he’s awful to her. he verbally mocks her in the bar when she tries to calm him down. he flirts with hollis right in sofia’s face and abases her for feeling hurt. he dismisses her every time she tries to express her opinion. rafe does not respect his girlfriend, nor does he care about her thoughts and values. how do i know?

because she knows. how exactly did she convince him to take the deal, again? well, first she says she thinks it’s a good idea, which merely amuses him. then, she makes up a lie about other club members denigrating rafe and how this deal could improve his social status—i believe this to be a fabrication because it easily could’ve and should’ve been explicit on screen if true— and this causes him make up his mind. she knows rafe’s insecurities. she knows what does and doesn’t entice him. and yeah, i’ll be honest, sometimes it makes me sick to think about how deeply she knows this man, and how little he knows/cares about her

rafe brings up marriage, living together, a future with sofia. but do you notice anything about his big grand speeches? ever notice how, when he’s describing his fantasy, it revolves around material things he can own and show off— and sofia has always been one of them? rafe never has anything to say about what she specifically does for him, what he likes about her. bc… what does he like about her? rafe is unfortunately, at the end of the day, selfish. he focuses on what he’ll be able to give her, and what having a pretty wife says about him. the occupant of that role is, well, interchangeable

when rafe “proposed” to her and she did not confess the scam, i knew it was over. this is rafe cameron we’re talking about, a man who values loyalty more than anything in the world, and that was her last shot at coming clean before it was too late. committing a betrayal (well…in the eyes of the narrative…more on that in a sec) and hiding it from him? guys there was zero chance of him learning the truth and forgiving her. i watched the premier with my mother and i even turned to her and said we just watched the final nail go into the coffin. and it did!

(also, not to beat a dead horse, but even after he gives her the ring and he leaves to morocco, he dismissively excludes her again! “i have to go” “what are you doing?” “don’t worry about it, bye!” and she just takes it?! STAND UP!)

fundamentally, sofia’s “betrayal” plotline was weak or, at the very least, not very well thought-out. it’s like the idea of sofia going behind rafe’s back was pitched, but they were unsure how to integrate that into the season. the explosive reaction that rafe had when groff revealed the plot seemed contrived, like the show wanted to put more of the blame on sofia than was warranted. rafe had all but made up his mind by the time sofia had been paid off; to claim that she was the big catalyst in his decision is unfair and literally just wrong. sure, he liked her giving her blessing (because he already wanted to say yes), but i have a really, really genuine question for all of you.

if she had said no, would he have called off the deal?

(spoiler, no. because when she changed her mind after learning of the scam, he dismissed her yet again. the show has countless opportunities for rafe to just care about his girlfriend, and he never takes them!)

while i’m nitpicking, she also never learns any information via her own efforts. every single time she uncovers a new detail, it’s because she’s working around a loud-mouth kook who coincidentally says the right thing at the right moment as she refills their ewers. fuck, can we give her a CRUMB of agency? please?

and yeah, i don’t even engage in any theory that sofia helped rafe reunite with his family. did she ever give any meaningful advice to him? she didn’t even have context—was he ever planning on telling her exactly what he’d done to sarah and her friends? could sarah even pick this girl out of a lineup?! ya, she really is the glue in the cameron dynamic. lol

counter arguments i’m ready to address:

“he takes the deal for her!” funny because,,, he really doesn’t. we even watch the reason he takes the deal— his family. rafe likes the opportunity from the jump but is hesitant because of the investment, and a dreamy montage of him, ward, and sarah is what cements his decision. sofia canonically had nothing to do with it

“but he says he’s taking the deal for him and sofia when he’s alone with hollis!” correct! but you’ll notice he literally only brings her up when hollis starts hitting on him. he’s not attracted to hollis, and her advances make him visibly uncomfortable. bringing up sofia was a way to shut down hollis without explicitly telling a business partner to get off his ass

“rafe brings up sofia’s opinion of the deal with groff!” true, but i actually see this as a display of rafe’s tact and emotional intelligence. rafe is suspicious that he’s been scammed, but it’s genuinely not wise to barge into the office of the man who has $400k of your money and your testicles in his fist to start threatening him— even when he’s not a murderer. “hey… so my gf thinks you’re scamming me… thoughts?” he’s being coy. he’s being smart. he’s not bringing up sofia in a loverboy context. cmon

***

deep inhale. okay, i’m done. i’m sorry i always forget about her. but it’s so much better than the alternative

[sacredhyacinth]

can u pretty please with a cherry on top explain the mina lore to me because im a newgen (derogatory) and only know that shes a ghost and probably had something going on with raquel

DONT WORRY I GOT YOU

Mina (Minako) Ito was brought up in a Japanese immigrant family in Canada, she moved around the U.S. and got stellar grades with an interest in music. She gained some exposure to being on stage by playing at small venues and singing contests—with her experience she was accepted to Organa Academy (prestigious boarding school) on their scholars program. Because Organa offered better programs and more opportunities for Mina to actually perform internationally, she enrolled in the school. However she struggled with moving away from her big family and missed her family a ton. During Freshman connection, Mina’s mother met Vittoria Welton, a popular Italian socialite who recently enrolled her son Roman Welton into Organa’s academy into the scholars track. They immediately became friends, with Mina and Roman being forced to interact with one another

she struggled with fitting in with the school’s atmosphere due to the competitive nature of students—especially Raquel Martinez, an award-winning science Olympiad student whom she was roomed with. However they didn’t talk as much, and rarely interacted outside of school. Roman and Raquel began dating in freshman year, but broke up once Raquel met Vittoria on a spring break trip to Italy—Raquel was viewed as a “downgrade” from Vittoria’s expectations of a good bride, she preferred Mina, and told Roman as such—after they returned from Italy Raquel had a reasonable crashout and ended up breaking Roman’s mirror

far into senior year, Mina and Roman’s parents decide on arranging a marriage between their kids because of how close the family has gotten. Mina refuses this at first, however they convince her that if she does go through with it, the family’s debts would be cleared by the Welton family, and Vittoria Welton would be the best bet for Mina to become a star—Roman didn’t really get any consolation (yikes)

years later it’s going pretty ok (ish), they move to New York, Roman and Mina’s relationship is a bit rocky but they’re trying, to keep up this nuclear family image they adopt two baby twins—Noa and May, (Noa after Mina’s younger brother, and May because Roman thought it was pretty), Mina becomes a well-known pop star, working with her childhood idols (Danae) and basically achieves her dream—but it’s just kinda Empty

When Chloe comes into the picture, she helps manage Roman and Mina’s funds, as well as organizing their schedules and meetings, as well as their only actual friend 😭 but Roman has this silly secret going on—bro struck a deal with Maida way back in high school and he went back on it, because of him backing out he’s been cursed by Maida to die this painful slow death in the form of charring away—the only reason he’s even alive because of Marlas’ pendant (an old form of healing on the island of Organa, used by an ancient priestess of Croix) however the magical blood in the pendant is slowly running out, and he’s just becoming weaker and weaker—Mina realizes this, and when he explains to her his predicament, they reached out to Chloe for help

for context, Chloe grew up on the island of Organa, and she’s a (former) member of these prestigious houses of the descendants of gods—she is related to the god of lava, brimstone and fire, Heath, through the Flos line. She is an educated Organa scholar (basically knows the Deity canon, researched them in high school and told Roman about it and got him hyperfixated lol) while they’re all in New York she contracts people in Organa to dig up old artifacts and asks to extract the old blood of gods or nectar of the oldest honey combs on the island (Context: honey is seen as a form of immortality on the island, ancient tradition). Mina signs a contract with Chloe to fund the Red Rose project so her husband doesn’t gameend

ITS SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL, Roman even gets the choker of Reina through an auction and removes some of the blood of the deities from the gemstone and transferred it into the Marlas pendant. This process was basically repeated until the choker was stolen (explaining at a later date)

However while all this is happening Raquel Martinez finishes medical school and she’s on track to become a psychiatrist—however she feels this unresolved emptiness—she NEEDS to see the insane downfall of Roman Welton like this insane urge to see him in a blender or something, kinda like that study where scientists where like it takes 8 years to get over a ex

sorry I got a soda im locked in again for this SO BASICALLY Raquel at this point is dating this crazy rich hotel heir socialite who pays for her schooling, they move to New York for his business, and Raquel finds her way up in upper east side society—through a ton of rumors she finds out which parties Roman attends (the rare few he does) and runs into him

her plan is like this: she wants to expose his family for being classist, and wants to somehow ruin his weirdly perfect marriage with Mina, and tries to pry into both of their lives by going under a fake name, new nose, hair dye literally everything to become friends with Mina under the name “Aileen Reyes” at a party—the only reason she goes under an alias is to not have this spread to her fiancé and lose her place in society. She attempts to pit Roman and Mina aganist one another, making up shit, recording Mina’s (internalized homophobic) rants, as well as trying to figure out why Mina and Roman are spending millions on “miscellaneous items” in Organa—however the plan becomes too real and Mina ends up hopelessly in love with Raquel—as well as Roman becoming infatuated with her again (he immediately knew who she was)

she has zero clue on how to maneuver this disaster, and it all explodes once rumors spread to Mina that R+R are involved which leads to the ICONIC Roman scar scene

that whole..mess leads to Roman and Mina actually divorcing and Raquel’s place in the Welton-Ito drama is set, Mina moves to Organa, and in a cottage in the woods (Loretta’s new home) and has her cottagecore subplot—exploring Organa’s village and actually making friends, Raquel and Roman/Chloe stay in New York discussing Raquel’s new role in the Red Rose project—Raquel only agrees to work with Chloe and Roman to get more dirt on them + the money (lol)

After finding out Reina’s choker was robbed from the Welton’s penthouse, Roman was frantic and immediately sent Chloe and Raquel to retrieve any artifact from the island (especially Mar’s necklace, and the Flores Star)—Chloe, believed Gold Aveline (the previous owner of the Choker, descendant of Reina) contracted someone to take back the choker from the Weltons—so when they arrived on Organa, Chloe tracked down Gold and went on this whole coke rant to her explaining she’s always despised her

This ends up in Gold’s death by a gunshot wound—Raquel witnesses this and bro is just astounded 😭 they quietly leave Gold’s home as they try and find the abandoned Flores Star somewhere on the island. Theyre unsuccessful in their mission and return empty-handed, much to the dismay of grill charcoaled Roman Welton

long story short Raquel and Chloe do this for a while until Roman eventually moved back to Organa because of the fact Raquel and Chloe think he’s just gonna die in New York due to the long transportation of the artifacts, Roman buys this fuck ass manor and gives up on movie directing, he’s basically unemployed for a good while and lives off his insane trust fund, he’s surviving off of the Marlas pendant by a thread and the insane pain he got from his scar (from Mina) makes the recovery time from the pendant 10x slower

SO YEAH that’s basically it because that’s going into Mina’s death territory and I actually want people to be excited for that scene/I don’t wanna spoil it BYEEEEE

[mioakem]

please don’t ever take the coke away from dream it’s so funny watching his crash outs