#greg is so boring this season it’s really frustrating

[cowboysmp3]

succession s4 is actually very good and fun if u like every character OTHER than tom and greg,,, the shiv people are also not winning atm

[watchfuldeer]

the thing about tom and greg is that yes, the nero and sporus scene in 3.04 for instance is homoerotic, tragic and heartbreaking, yes it says a lot about tom’s neuroticism/his unhappiness in his marriage/queerness, and greg’s ability to fend for himself/ability to see tom for who he really is etc but it is also one of the funniest and strangest scenes in the entire show.

tom and greg’s subplots have always been a vital component of succession - their dramatic function being primarily comedic does not make them inessential. this is after all a show that was developed by a comedic writer, who is also the showrunner, and is written by a core group of people who have long careers in comedy and satire. some of their finest work across the seasons has been with tom and greg, who are an incredibly popular aspect of the show for that reason.

i really love kendall, roman and shiv but while they quip and squabble and lie to each other and grieve, they don’t have the comedic truth of a dynamic like tom and greg. comic relief does not mean some inconsequential sidebar on succession (i would argue that it rarely does in anything, but that’s a different post), it’s necessary to the plot. it’s where the big dramatic themes are played with and mirrored, made absurd, even whimsical, and above all honest.

having to stuff so much plot into season 4 now logan has gone has absolutely decimated the show’s internal structure. not because they haven’t written subplots, we know they exist, but because they simply don’t have space to include them. succession used to be many things, and for three episodes now has been mostly one thing, because there is no time for B plot - it’s all A plot, all the time. it feels weighed down, as opposed to mercurial - like, i was just getting bored last episode. i was bored during a succession episode! we the audience need relief: it enhances the A plot significantly and always has done. now, it’s getting cut for time and without it the show is suffering. the shift in editing has made the drama mawkish, and the comedy insubstantial, neither of which are particularly enjoyable effects.

i’m really, really hoping they can find that equilibrium for these last four episodes. this post might sound overly critical, but i am still enjoying succession. i’m more frustrated by post production decisions, as it just feels like a different show in ways that seem to be a product of foiled writing ambition and time constraints rather than actual creative intent.

[transmutationisms]

what are your criticisms of the show? are there any creative decisions you disagree with or think could have been handled better?

succession has long had issues with sacrificing certain long-term plots in favour of episodes that are really tight internally. so, you get 'safe room' or 'connor's wedding', but you also get the disappearance of lawrence/vaulter, dropping nan/pgm, naomi and tabitha vanishing, sandi's board seat kinda being nothing, &c. relatedly, there are some characters who are underwritten or shortchanged (lawrence, stewy, marcia, lisa, josh, berry, &c). i think these are my biggest creative frustrations; again, there are some really tight episodes that are almost more like one-act plays (or, more to the point, classical tragedies with unities of time/place/action), but in episodes where that doesn't land, it becomes even more obvious when there are these dropped elements. i also think greg's writing has been persistently weak, especially relative to how much screentime he's had (this was VERY noticeable in s3), and there's the related comfrey mess. generally i am a s4 enjoyer and thought it did certain things way better than s2, but there were a few moments that didn't land for me (some of the tomshiv music cues, a few lines where the deliberate shift to more direct speech wasn't executed elegantly). tom was mostly stagnant in s3 in a boring way, and shiv's writing was on-and-off for the first 3 seasons really. other than that i think my creative criticisms are mostly local issues (the editing in 'dundee', the ken writing in 'too much birthday', &c)

[lambourngb]

he’s got a smart mouth but a good heart - Michael Guerin

It’s Day 2, celebrating characters, and much to my own surprise, at the end of season 2, Michael Guerin decided to move into my brain and take up residence. Obviously I still love Alex Manes (He lives first and foremost in my brain since 1x08), but there was something about how Michael buried his own pain about his mother to help everyone in season two that rang pretty true to my own life right now. I didn’t always like what he was doing in season 2 but I understood it.

Anyway, when I find a story that celebrates how complicated he is, I cheer and rejoice- so here’s a few of the stories that I have gone back to again and again.

Truck stop knives and other assessors of childhood @angsty-aliens (13,200) I can’t lie, I love a good trope story, and I especially love a good sci-fi trope story, so this story hits all of my buttons. It takes our two science nerds, Liz and Michael, mucking around, and accidentally creating a version of Michael- but not just any version, but the child who hitchhiked to Fosters ranch, completely over humans and desperate to find his family. The kid who was feral from neglect and abuse... he was the cutest thing and the most mortifying thing that ever happened to Michael to be displayed and shown. This story takes the de-aged trope and turns it on its head, and oh yeah, there’s a sweet backdrop to Michael and Alex getting together.

Implicit Memories of You by @ninswhimsy (3464) - So this is an amnesia story canon-divergent story set after 2x11 basically, where they use the mind erasing drug on Michael. I know, I’m reccing this about Michael characterization, but it’s so solidly him after all the memories are stripped away and he’s acting on instincts, locked in a room to torture Alex with before death. There’s so much going on in so few words, something that Nin is a master at, especially the ephemeral remembrances of his mother that Michael has- oof right in the feels.

Maybe this time (he’ll stay) by @hannah-writes​ (7700) This is a sequel to one of my favorite stories I recced last year, dealing in alternative timelines where in one world, Michael is lost and alone and has pushed Alex away, and in another world where Alex came home from Iraq in a flagged draped coffin. It answers the question, what about Mikey? Where’s his happy ending? The confirmation of the multiverse means there’s an Alex out there who needs him- and through trial and error, Michael finds him. The world building in both stories is top notch, because for every action, there’s a reaction and reason shaping Michael.

Constant as the northern star by celzmccelz (53,000) - don’t know the tumblr here - This is an Mpreg, and it starts solidly after 1x13 and goes AU from there. But what if in the 100 mile drive home from Caulfield, Michael and Alex share a grief-induced moment of insanity where they fall back into their oldest language- sex for comfort, and then Michael does everything he does in the finale, including turning toward Maria, what if there was a souvenir? Despite the trope of mpreg, this is just how I see Michael, deeply in love with Alex but unable to trust that Alex feels the same depth in return. The friendships in here are also top-notch, from Kyle being a baby-doctor, to Isobel having her own Max-related spiral unable to let go of her brother only to refocus on Michael, to Liz fucking off with Rosa for the first half of the story because she’s caught up in her own grief (which turned out to be canon!). And there’s a whole plot here! With Jesse Manes being the worst.

Leave the light on by @sabrinachill​ (36,900) - Confession time- I love fake dating as a trope, I know, shocked right? But I especially love it with RNM because Malex are exes by 1x03. Mattie nailed the dynamic of pining and the assumption of unrequited love so well in this story. Although the POV switches here a bit between chapters, (and Alex is fabulous) what I really really loved was how she wrote Michael, in love but convinced that he’s messed up too much for Alex. Aware of his faults but not in a sullen way, but an acknowledgment that he was in a bad place and Alex hasn’t always been the best remedy him in the past. It was a very mature take on the “give me another chance” trope in Malex reunion stories, where both sides had a share of blame. The plot was suspenseful and tight (how do people do that???) with a climax that honestly shocked me! I really enjoyed rereading it while I prepped my rec-sets, and I won’t be surprised if this story isn’t mentioned by everyone doing ‘Creators Week’. It’s worthy of all the love.

Temporary wounds by @prouvaireafterdark​ (7800) - How many times can I rec this story? Hopefully you’re not bored by my adoration of this Lynne.  So even though it’s set post-season 1 with the assumption that Michael/Maria will fizzle out while Alex/Forrest date- it’s actually perfectly set for season 3 (an author who is psychic??). As a rule, I hate jealousy as a trope, but this story has the only type of jealousy I want to see on screen- where Michael wonders what was missing inside of him that Alex didn’t want to be public during their long affair (even with the acknowledgment that Alex was too scared before)- like that type of sad pining is my catnip!

The first who ever did by nostalijinks (33,000) post season 1, but really it also stands pretty well after season 2.  There was an interview during season 1 I think that talked about how all Michael really wanted was to be a hero to Alex (the way he stepped in front of Jesse as a kid)  but he thinks he failed at it since Alex enlisted. That failure soured him in ways but he never stops trying, for Alex. This is a really well done 5 times plus 1 story, with an overreaching arc of reconciliation between Alex and Michael, starting as teenagers, then as adults while Michael is with Maria, then as friends, real friends, trying to support Alex as Alex dates. The whole emotional journey of maturity that Michael takes here is so well done, where there’s no real villains in the friend group. I just love it. I wish the author had written 100 more like this one, but as a standalone work it’s epic.

The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger by @iwontbeyourmedicine​ (25,000) Ly has a very large body of work, that you could spend days paging through on AO3 or tumblr, but this one hits two of my kinks hard- the amnesia story line and true love conquers all. So three fandoms ago I was huge into Steve/Bucky, that iconic moment in Cap 2 where Bucky breaks through the brainwashing has never left me. This story takes my love for that moment, and makes it Malex. Alex gets programmed by his family and set loose on his friends, on the aliens and it’s a shitshow bloodbath since he’s really fucking good at kicking ass. Michael is caught between keeping everyone safe and trying not to hurt Alex, and the tension is just top-notch. I love how it’s not an immediate fix either, the way they circle each other in the aftermath, wanting to come home, but home would be a totally new step for both of them. Just chef’s kiss good at joining action, angst, and romance together.

Into the palm of your hand by @haloud​ (5900) hal is a treasured friend, so I am admitting some bias here, but we both enjoy talking about how wonderful and sad Michael is and how desperately we enjoy poking at that softness and then wrapping him up with love again... so this story was written pre-shamegate (and if you know what that means, I’m sorry) but it matches my head canon of what the history of hiding does to someone. The internalization of believing maybe there’s a reason behind the hiding that has nothing to do with homophobic townies. Alex has an ex boyfriend come to town, and he doesn’t tell Michael. And omg the journey hal takes us on with Michael’s spiral and Brave Little Toaster act was so wonderful and painful and real. The communication between these two was top notch as they worked through a road bump from the past, and let’s face it, once we get our malex back, these things are going to happen, and it will either tear them apart or bring them closer together- I prefer to believe it will be closer together.

There is beauty in a failure by @jule1122​ (2400) There’s been a few Greg and Michael stories to pop up on my radar after 2x10, and this one was one of my favorites. This is a Greg who pulls no punches in exposing his brother’s past to Michael, but also gives Michael the space to work through what he wants. It’s an AU from 2x12, that allowed Michael to break up with Maria for basically the same reasons that Maria used on him in 2x13. The way Michael is able to what he wants and communicate it Alex in the end- so good! We can only hope to see something similar in season 3.

I don’t know what to think (but I think of supernovas) by @queersirius​ (3900) This story is a delight from start to finish- I mean frustrated cursing turns the console on into a hologram who then takes the most pleasing form to Michael’s eyes? SIGN ME UP for those shenanigans. I fucking loved how Isobel saw it first too. And then the comedy of Alex discovering it? And what happens afterwards? Oh it’s so delicious. Now of course, full disclosure, this light-hearted romp through the feels also inspired me  to think up a much much sadder version of Michael building an AI for companionship considering how isolated he ended up being at the end of Season 2 and we all know Michael needs friends, badly.

Innuendo by the Roswell anon (6000) written for @bisexualalienblast​  the roswell anon is my favorite treasure in this fandom, I could pretty much list all of their stories as examples of some very fine Michael Guerin characterization. This one was one of my favorite post-season 1 fix-it fics though, because it has some of the most real 28-30 year old guy dialogue I’ve come across- from the crude jokes, to the sharply self-deprecating observations- this is Alex and Michael stripped down, all edges but what’s left is fatigue and love. The resolution at the end, where Alex observes that yes, Michael has tried the last 10 years but this is their first chance to try together- to pull in the same direction? It just lays me flat on the ground with how true that is to canon.

Whenever You Want to Begin, Begin by @foramomentonly (3200) - this is a sequel, and the first story is dynamite- don’t get me wrong- but it moves from the hopeful side of an ending to legit Happily-Ever-After here, and I devoured every word. First of all, having Michael turn to photography as a way of self-improvement is fucking genius. Photographers are always at the center of every happy event, but never the focus, and that screams Michael to me, the way he lives on the outskirts of the 9-5 job and literal outskirts of town in his trailer. The other thing is photographers are revealed by their work, and that’s also something I head-canon with Michael just in the mundane- he’s good with his hands, he wants to leave a car better than he found. Anyway, this story is gorgeously written, moves a bit like a really good bottle of wine- heavy but soft, as you watch Michael become Alex’s friend, and even more importantly, Alex becomes Michael’s friend. Fantastic- I’ve read it about four times now since it was published.

[kadomoni]

I always thought I might be bad, now I’m sure that it’s true…

I really can’t tell you what to think of Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz. I can’t. It’s something you have to decide for yourself, but I’m going to explain why she’s one of my favorite characters of the show, but I also think she is the villain.

Now, I know what Pink Stans are saying, “She’s not the villain! She’s morally grey and trying to change!” And, to that I say, yes clearly. She’s an incredibly well-written, nuanced, and complex character. But, as much as she has done good, she has also done very, very bad. And, I’m here to explain why I think Pink is not evil—she’s just bad (and she knows it).

There is no doubt about it that Pink was raised in an abusive family. White is a pretty typical narcissistic parent (over-reliance on perfectionism, wanting people to please her and be like her but no one ever living up to her expectations, trouble with empathy, ect.). Yellow and Blue love Pink but have no idea how to raise her. That’s pretty typical of dysfunctional family dynamics. None of them had a good role model, so they can only replicate a bad role model.

I understand this dynamic. I had a “mother figure” who was very emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive. My parents were nice and good parents but they had anger issues. I went from being petulant to shutting down, but I think I fit more into a Pearl archetype because instead of acting out my pain, I kept it inside and felt like it was me that was wrong. Pink does this, but not before causing a lot of issues, and often exploding outwards.

((Major Steven Universe/Future Spoilers under the cut))

We’ll start with what we know about Pink, which is very limited.

The first “memory” we have from her is the astral projection dream Stevonnie had where she threw a tantrum about wanting a colony. It was childish, yes, but Yellow response was no better considering she just yelled at her. They both threw tantrums, and no doubt, she was going to get locked up in her tower after. Pink got angry, she punched a mirror (hopefully, she’d only punched mirrors, please, Rebecca, don’t hurt me like this).

Secondly, we have the dream Steven had about Blue, who begged Pink to stop being combative and letting her “organics” loose, but ultimately just ended up admonishing her further. It’s also implied that she had her stay in the tower room.

Also, that tower is even more fucked up than just isolation. @singlepalerose​ explains this in her meta that Gems need light to live, not food. Rebecca says in an interview when asked that she “can’t say” what would happen if put in a place with no light. But, @singlepalerose​ comes to the conclusion that this might be literally akin to starvation, which is torture. There’s a good chance that Pink was literally tortured by her care-givers.

And, poor Pink Pearl. I don’t know what happened, but whether it was a scream or some physical altercation, it was frightening enough that she broke her pearl so badly, it couldn’t be repaired, which as seen in RS’s concept drawings, Pink is really fucked up by this. She becomes more introverted with her feelings because of this.

                                                          Don’t Break This One.

I’m not going to comment on whether these actions make her “bad” or “abusive.” She was clearly a child in an emotionally maladaptive environment, and she did decide to change and to keep her anger and frustration internalized at the risk of harming the people around her.

But, unfortunately, the information after this is where I begin to feel disturbed by Pink’s actions.

She got a colony. At first, she liked it, but clearly, she either grew bored or disenchanted with managing it. I feel as though she was expecting some sort of freedom, when really, the extra responsibilities probably just weighed her down even more.

The events of ‘A Single Pale Rose’ come into play now. Pearl suggested they go down to Earth, and Pink felt her first taste of unrestrained freedom. She liked interacting with other gems, liked interacting with humans, and finally decided that she didn’t want to destroy the Earth. And, she did beg all the Diamonds to let her give up the colony, but not only had Pink kinda shot herself in the foot with this one because she begged so hard for a colony and made so many big scenes about it, White and Yellow are incredibly steadfast in tradition and rules, and this wasn’t going to fly.

So, she decided to take drastic action.

I personally think that the idea to fake her own death was…weird. And, pretty extreme. I understand her reasoning, but this was the first time where she made a decision that benefited her far more than it did others (and I’m not talking about the planet right now because that’s a whole separate thing). This action traumatized Pearl to the point where she doesn’t eat, won’t shapeshift, and can’t talk about it. Yes, I know she commanded Pearl not to talk about it, but this caused significant emotional distress for her later on in the series.

This also traumatized the whole gem race, specifically the Diamonds, because she’d framed it as a terror attack. It would be way different if she stood up to White herself publicly, but there was so much deception going on that it fundamentally changed the course of Gem Culture and the fate of the Earth. Mostly what bothers me here is how manipulative this action was and how unnecessarily complex it was. Pink did everything she could to wipe her slate clean, be seen as a martyr of Gemkind, and also live freely on Earth.

It was a very good way to get her freedom, but it was also extremely harmful to all parties involved.

The War only escalated at this point. They had to fight Homeworld as a full-on army, and countless of gems were shattered.

Now, yes, of course, these actions saved the Earth, which is good in our perspective because we live on Earth. Earth is essential to us because it is our only frame of reference. But, something that continually complexed the Homeworld gems was why someone would fight for one measly planet at the cost of so much. It makes sense to us because we would sacrifice a whole heck of a lot to keep our planet from being invaded by space aliens, but the gems were colonizing tons of planets and destroying them for energy. It was obviously horrible as colonizers are horrible, but it’s sort of like how different armies will invade other countries, but because we’re being told that it’s for good, most people don’t really care.

From the gem’s perspective, this was all a horrible disaster—a loss of countless life, resources, and pride.

And, for The Crystal Gems, the “loss” of the war meant that all of their friends were corrupted, except Rose’s closest friends (which I’m personally unsure if this is completely truthful. I would hope it would be, but it’s also very suspicious because letting only the people that trust her the most survive would make it easier to control her own story).

Speaking of which, wtf is up with her bubbling Bismuth? It just feels like it would be easier to hide her away instead of trying to explain why she doesn’t want to shatter the Diamonds. But, Rose shattered Pink, anyway? I personally believe Bismuth was too close to figuring out her story, and she didn’t know what to do. I can’t think of any other explanation that would explain her actions and make sense with telling the Crystal Gems she’d been shattered. It feels very manipulative and selfish.

All of this obviously traumatized Pearl (we see it in her Pearl within a Pearl within a Pearl), and it had to have traumatized Garnet considering her reactions to mentions of the war and the “fusion” experiments. It was especially bad on Garnet’s end because she thought the war was actually what Rose said it was, which is why she freaked out when it wasn’t.

She kept secrets from everyone, even Her Pearl. But, Pearl didn’t know that she didn’t know everything. You could call Pearl delusional, but I think this is more proof that Rose never did something in front of her that made her feel like she was being untruthful.

And, I said y’all don’t want to get me started on Rose’s treatment of Pearl because I go feral when I get worked up about it. I would like to personally thank @theroguefeminist​ for their meta on Rose/Pearl and Fandom Ableism. It’s super good, and it was the meta that made me finally sit down and watch all of SU way back in the day. But, it illustrates the point that fandoms tend to look down on characters that act “bitter,” “weak,” “jealous,” “depressed,” or “neurotic.” It’s even more sinister because the reason why Pearl acts the way she does in the first two seasons is because she’d been manipulated by Rose.

She was Pink’s Pearl, her partner in crime, her renegade. They were the Heroes of The Rebellion. Pearl admitted she had feelings for her, and Rose’s response was enthusiastic (“Don’t ever stop!”). From what we’ve seen, the disregard of her feelings only began when she started dating Greg, considering Pearl didn’t see “the men who came into her life now and again” as threats because they “didn’t really matter until [him].” But, the treatment that we see of Pearl in “Story for Steven” and “We Need to Talk” is dismissive at best and cruel and uncaring at the worst.

After Greg was trying to flirt with Rose, Pearl said defensively, “I can sing!” and they laughed at her. Even Rose beamed. They were basically making fun of her when Pearl was only reacting that way because she loved Rose and felt threatened by Greg, even at this point.

I do want to add that I think Rose was trying to be a good person by telling Greg to go away. She made a good point that he shouldn’t give up on his dreams to be with her (especially considering that she knew that nothing would become of him in a place like Beach City). But, she was wooed by him. She laughed and gave into her instincts to surround herself with people who look up to her (even Vidalia said something about how Greg worships her).

But, I find Rose’s treatment of her in “We Need to Talk” to be unnecessarily flippant. Obviously, Pearl was very upset during the whole “What Can I Do For You?” song, and her last ditch effort was to show off Rainbow Quartz and try to belittle his efforts, but Greg was rightly defensive. This doesn’t mean Pearl was being “salty” or “abusive” or “bitchy.” She was reacting negatively towards the emotional neglect that Rose was showing her. Of course, we don’t know every interaction that Pearl and Rose had, but it’s very heavily implied that Rose never communicated with Pearl how their relationship was developing.

I do not, I repeat—I DO NOT—think that Pearl was owed Rose’s love. What I think is neglectful about this situation is that Rose didn’t either apologize or properly explain the nature of their relationship. It’s implied that Rose made her believe they were an item and then proceeded to sleep around and eventually find an alternative partner. No one is owed affection with someone who doesn’t want to be romantically involved, but to lead someone on for thousands of years is horrible, and the idea makes me nauseous, especially since the fandom is more likely to blame Pearl even though Pearl was literally her glorified slave and only able to break out of that thought process years after Steven was born.

Pearl was so emotionally fucked up by Rose’s possible emotional neglect that she had several traumatic episodes starting from “Indirect Kiss” and culminating in her “Cry for Help.” She literally believed she was powerless and felt so weak that she thought the only way to feel agency was to manipulate and extort affection from Garnet. I’m also not defending Pearl for doing this, but it’s clear that she did this because she was mentally ill and not because she was knowingly or maliciously disregarding Garnet’s feelings to fulfill her own needs. Trauma episodes often cause you to act in destructive ways towards yourself and others, but it’s also very different from how Rose did disregard the feelings of others to get her way, or have fun, or “play” with people.

It also reminds me of her treatment of Spinel. Pink was having fun with Spinel until they decided to give her a colony, and then, instead of bringing Spinel with her or sending her back to the Diamonds, she told her to stay there, and she abandoned her for 6,000 years with no plans of returning for her. To be fair, it would really mess up the Crystal Gem dynamic if she suddenly returned with a Spinel who was gifted to Pink Diamond. So, in Rose’s perspective, I get it, but as myself, I don’t think it’s right.

Greg, even, I think was taken advantage of. He’s so sweet and trusting and good that she would easily have been able to get him to do anything. I’m not going to go too much into this because there’s not too much evidence besides her behavior towards him in “Greg the Babysitter” and how she laughed at him in “We Need to Talk.” I just have the feeling that Greg knows something that no one else does and that his perma-sunburn might have something to do with Rose and/or Steven’s conception. Don’t take my word for it since this is just a theory, but I do think there’s something we don’t know yet.

Alright, now that most of the character stuff is out of the way, let’s talk Rose symbolism. In almost every episode, there’s a shot of Rose’s portrait with her eyes covered or something obscuring them. This is classic anime imagery of a suspect character, and it’s foreshadowing of her suspect actions. All of her organic experiments eventually go rouge without constant maintenance from Rose (see: the moss in “Lars and the Cool Kids,” the thorns in “Indirect Kiss”). We don’t know why this happens, but it points to the idea that there’s something malignant lurking underneath Rose’s creations.

Rose’s Room also has disturbing implications. The fact that it gives Steven whatever he wants, but more often than not, it turns into psychological horror is telling. It may be that Steven just doesn’t know how to use the room, but also, the Gems didn’t want him to go in there. (“It doesn’t know how to handle a task like that!” What do you know, Pearl????) The creepiest one, in my opinion, was how the Fake Connie he made in “Open Book” eventually turned on him, attacked him, and basically physically forced him to admit feelings he wanted to keep hidden. I’m not saying this is the intended purpose of the room, but I find it troubling that it can be used in this way and defaults to it when there isn’t anything stopping it. It could also be that when the illusion the room makes is broken that it reverts to an angry (and dare I say Pink Diamond-esque) temperament.

My final point is how her decision to have Steven, even though eventually for good, hurt many people, Steven included. To make the decision to die and have a kid was confusing to everyone, but more so, the gems. They don’t understand human reproduction outside of a biological level, and the fact that gems normally can’t sexually reproduce makes the concept even more foreign. It seems like she explained that she was doing it and would die but didn’t fully prepare the gems about what that would entail. I think this is most clearly seen in “Three Gems and a Baby” because the Crystal Gem’s behavior towards baby Steven reflected Pearl’s response to emotional neglect, such as acting impulsively and dangerously just for not understanding the complexities of the situation.

Their whole dynamic was screwed up, and they all felt deeply hurt by Rose’s death. If you compare how they act at the beginning of the series to the end, they were basically all at each other’s throats because they couldn’t communicate properly due to all the undealt with baggage that had been left behind. It ended up becoming Steven’s job to emotionally support the gems when he should have been the one being emotionally supported. This imbalance of “the parents being the child” and “the child being the parents” is a huge reason why we see Steven in such emotional distress during Future. He’s internalized the idea that he should be the leader, the supporter, the helper, and he hasn’t properly been able to find his own identity because Rose looms over all of them (see: “Rose Buds”).

It’s hard to say whether Rose intentionally left Steven to clean up her mistakes or if she just felt like he could fix it all when she couldn’t, but there is no denying that Rose’s actions have seriously messed up our boy. This is the clearest theme presented in the show, so I’m not going to go super hard on this topic because basically the whole show is Steven angsting over his mom.

So, the point of all of this is that, yes, Pink was abused. There is no doubting that she was very badly abused and developed her personality and coping mechanisms due to this trauma. However, Rose has hurt her friends, family, and gemkind due to her actions. A lot of abusers have been abused. I know my abuser was abused in the same way I was, but that doesn’t give her an excuse to enact that abuse on me. It’s the same as Rose. Her bad upbringing gives context about why she turned out the way she did, but it’s incredibly short-sighted to say that Rose acted in mostly good ways towards others.

And, she knows she’s bad. Whether or not Rebecca will outright admit what the song is about, we have enough context to know that “Love Like You” is Rose talking to Greg (if not the other gems as well).

“I always thought I might be bad Now I’m sure that it’s true ‘cause I think you’re so good And, I’m nothing like you

Look at you go I just adore you I wish that I knew What makes you think I’m so special”

Rose is admitting that she thinks she’s bad and isn’t special and doesn’t understand what Greg sees in her. She knows she’s done bad things, but in my opinion, she didn’t do enough to fix her problems. She made Steven instead. It was her final act of avoidance. Maybe she gave up on herself. Maybe she knew she couldn’t “Love Like You.” I don’t know the answer to that. I just know that Rose’s actions were abusive. She’s not good. She’s morally gray. She did good things, but she did many bad things as well. She’s not evil, but she is the series’ antagonist. She has good things about her, but she has many bad things as well. People can be two things. But, saying she’s not an abuser is making excuses for her behavior.

Here are my answers to a few common complaints on my shitpost meme.

Q: Rose didn’t want to cause war! She just wanted to free the planet/have freedom/save the gems, ect. A: If she didn’t want to cause war, she very well could have…not started the war? There are much less destructive options than pretending to be a rebel when she really was a Diamond. The double life thing is so ridiculous, no one in the show could even guess it. Q: Don’t discredit her Rebellion! A: I just think she cared more about herself than she actually did the Earth. The Rebellion did save the Earth, but not without crazy death and destruction. Q: Pink was good compared to Japser, the Diamonds, Lapis, ect. A: All of you saying that those other characters are bad while Rose is good totally misses the point. All those characters did abusive things. So did Rose/Pink. Pink is good and bad. It’s really showing your ass that you hate x, y, z but will cape for Pink even though she’s probably caused the most harm of the entire series. Whatever happened to all those morally grey arguments?

Q: This take is bad! A: soz bruh cry harder Q: This is black and white thinking. A: I shouldn’t have to explain every aspect of a character in a shitpost. This meta is my full explanation, so here’s my morally grey meme uwu

Q: Blue, Yellow, and White are colonizers and also really abusive. A: Yes. It doesn’t negate Pink’s actions, though.

Q: Pink Pearl was an accident! She changed after!!! That’s not abuse!!!!!!! A: Abuse isn’t always intentional, and we don’t canonically know it was an accident. Pink Pearl said that it was, but she admitted she was making excuses for her. But, accident or not, hurting someone deeply can be abuse if it’s not dealt with. Pink Pearl was not dealt with. She was brainwashed for 8,000 years, instead. Pearl-Pearl helped her deal with it. The continual explosive anger from Pink was abusive, hands down.

Q: She’s not a villain! A: She certainly is framed as Steven’s villain. Regardless of what you personally think of Pink, Steven is deeply disturbed and harmed by Rose’s actions. It’s literally the whole plot of the show! If Pink is eventually redeemed, I won’t mind, but she’s irredeemable in my eyes.

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark- Review

One incredible story is not enough to make this mostly uninspired Clone Wars themed anthology worth picking up.

(Review contains minor spoilers)

It’s been a big year for The Clone Wars. Twelve years after the cult favorite animated series started, it finally came to a conclusion earlier this spring on Disney+. Lucasfilm Publishing smartly capitalized off the hype for this long awaited finale with an anthology comic series released through IDW Publishing and a young reader collection of short fiction, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Stories of Light and Dark.

On paper, the idea of a collection of short stories centered on the heroes and villains of The Clone Wars sounds incredible. I personally love short stories and From A Certain Point of View was maybe the most creative Star Wars book of the last decade. (I can’t wait for its sequel this November.) The talent assembled for this project is similarly impressive. You have veteran Star Wars writers like Jason Fry, Zoraida Cordova, and Rebecca Roanhorse alongside standout science fiction and fantasy writers such as Yoon Ha Lee and young adult stars like Sarah Beth Durst and Preeti Chhibber .

It’s disappointing then that Star Wars: The Clone Wars Stories of Light and Dark feels like a mostly phoned in endeavor. The editorial decision to make each story a retelling of an existing episode of the television series does a lot to hamper creativity to begin with. Rather than finding new tales to tell with these iconic and beloved characters, the writing talent assembled is forced to recant existing narratives and hopefully inject some life into them in the process.

The level of creativity in tackling this limiting editorial decision varies from writer to writer. Lou Anders, Tom Angleberger, and Rebecca Roanhorse opt to tell their stories in the voice of their characters through smart uses of first person point of view. Anders manages to inject his take on “Dooku Captured” and “The Gungan General” with the indignant haughtiness that made the series’ take on the Count Dooku so fun. Angleberger and Roanhorse have their characters (Bane and Maul respectively) recount their stories to another character and it’s fun just seeing the inner monologues of these different villains.

Others opt for more direct rewriting of their assigned episodes. These by and large make up the more boring or frustrating reads. While Jason Fry manages to turn “Ambush” into a discussion of Yoda’s relationship to the Force in wartime and Greg van Eekhout peppers in new bits of dialogue into the already jampacked “The Lawless,” most of these revisitings are unimpressive. The most frustrating proves to be Yoon Ha Lee’s take on season four’s incredible Umbara arc. Lee is a talented writer of military focused science fiction so his taking on this story makes perfect sense, but “The Shadow of Umbara” can’t help but feel phoned in. It feels less like an adaptation but instead a heavily truncated transcription of four episodes of content. The complex character dynamics are stripped down. The emotions are lost. The horrors of war are nonpresent. It’s beyond disappointing.

The most inspired take of the collection comes from Sarah Beth Durst who reorients the point of view of season five’s “Young Jedi” arc to Katooni. Katooni was already a standout character in this story and getting to step into this fledgling Jedi’s thoughts and really get to understand her fears, hopes, and insecurities adds a nice flair to the narrative. There’s also just a certain joy in seeing the next generation of Jedi in awe of Ahsoka. Very relatable.

It’s a bizarre product and it leaves you wondering who exactly this collection was targeted to. The stories feels so disparate and also dependent on the continuity of the series to make sense for a new reader and fans of the show are unlikely to get much out of this book due to the familiarity of the source material.

And then there is “Bug.” The final story in this collection is somehow a must read despite it all. E. Anne Convery spins an original Star Wars fairy tale out of the traumatic aftermath of “Massacre.” Centered on a nameless young girl forced to work for her abusive innkeep parents on a backwater planet, “Bug” feels instantly compelling in its deft weaving of familiar fantasy tropes with Star Wars back droppings. When a strange old woman arrives fleeing the war, our protagonist’s world begins to expand and strange magic seems to spill from every corner. Convery writers her Dathomiran visitor with the right amount of wonder and fear and she feels right at home alongside any number of fairy tale witches and sorceresses. “Bug” proves to be an incredibly enjoyable genre play but also a blast of a story in its own right. It feels like the kind of bedtime tale you could read to an adventurous child at night and it hints to a larger world just outside its doorstep.

It’s a shame then that I have trouble recommending paying for a $17.99 book just for one stellar short story. If the entire collection had showcased the same level of freedom and creativity as its final piece this may have been something really special. But unfortunately, what we are left with is a mostly forgettable collection with one diamond in the rough. I guess I have to wait until FACPOV in November after all.

Score: C

[underthewestway]

Rose Quartz Was Always Pink Diamond: An Essay

Wowie! What a bundle of information we got regarding Rose after A Single Pale Rose aired...yet I've seen a lack of discussion/writing on it around the Internet. This is most likely due to the fact that SO MUCH was given to the fans, especially during Change Your Mind, an hour long special, that it was easy to shift focus onto other, new things, like RQ 2.0, WD, and Pink Steven.

However, being as sad as I am, I am completely enthralled by Rose's character in the series, and also at how well written she is. I can safely say that I have rarely seen this character archetype displayed on mainstream television during my lifespan so far, therefore I thrive in analysing and piecing together information that the show gives us about her...and let me tell you, we got a LOT in those bunch of recent episodes. More than we can handle. It is particularly odd and refreshing that, after a wide stretch of seasons with a severe lack of context/detail on the Crystal Gem leader, all this explanations are thrown at us near the end of the fifth season. So, lets talk about it!

  In Now We're Only Falling Apart, Pearl explains why Rose held her identity secret forever, and why she decided to rebel and reinvent in the first place. We find out her intentions were not those of malice, or as a twisted 'game', like Sapphire suggests, but rather impulses and eagerness for freedom. There is no denying Rose greatly cared for the Earth, we see her and Pearl playing around in the environment and admiring its inhabitants, until she realises they were here before gems, and the gem's colonization is going to impact them greatly. Rose's almost irritable excitement and glee for a new colony turns to large regret, guilt and maybe self-loathing. This is a new thing we learn about her, her emotions and actions tend to be that of wide extremes, rushing to go to the Kindergarten, hurriedly grabbing Pearl, jumping around, happily playing along with the new quartzes-like a child. Fans never came to this conclusion before because we were never shown this aspect of her, Pearl never mentioned that she could be reckless and erratic, and because Amethyst was scolded so coldly for it by Pearl herself, it was never a thought that someone she admired so highly could act the same, maybe even worse due to her power.

After, Pearl states PD fought relentlessly with Yellow and Blue, trying to reinforce this idea that this method of expanding their colony was wrong and damaging to innocent species of life. Now, this already known fact about RQ protecting Earth is under a new light. Her determination could somewhat be fuelled by guilt, as well as a moral feeling. Pearl too. Another new fact is that Yellow and Blue, although loving and caring to Pink, do not respect her at all. Maybe this is Pink's fault, maybe it is theirs, or maybe both, but in their eyes, she is a kid, and not an admirable leader of anything.

 I really, really love this, because the representation of Rose is a COMPLETE 180 degrees flip of that viewpoint. RQ, as seen by others, was a magnificent leader, brave warrior, and selfless mother figure, winning a war, who was all-knowing and largely respected by CGs, and detested by Homeworld. On the other hand, PD, as seen by others, was a selfish, reckless dictator, cowardly failing a colony, and a mindless child in the eyes of her Authority- never taken seriously and admired repetitively by other Gems on Homeworld only for her status, and not her actions.

Rose's intentions for saving Earth then morphed because of Garnet, learning that gems of two different types CAN fuse, a desire for experimentation and discovery of gems fuelled within her, and she wanted to now fight FOR gems, and for all life, to be free of judgement and conformation. This idea is a beautiful one, but for the idea to become reality, there were some reprocussions, as we learnt in A Single Pale Rose, and additionally with Jasper, Bismuth, Eyeball, the Diamonds...countless people were affected by PD leaving the empire and starting a war. In fact, the Great Gem War had a lasting impact on every character it seems, even those who were born/created after it. So, Rose had started a major bad influence in this story, as well as a major good one. Which can leave many feeling largely conflicted on how to feel about her.

Furthermore, in the Diamond Days Arc, we discover that Pink was hugely oppressed by the other Diamonds for behaving the way she does. As punishment, they would lock her away in a chamber, until she said sorry. Now we are given reason to why she began keeping so many secrets, and resorted to being overly flippant and ignorant of other gems/humans real feelings, as suggested in We Need To Talk. Her family has encouraged this method of bottling up any true feelings or thoughts that could upset/shock/confuse someone, and could also risk changing someone's viewpoint of their character and ideals. The Diamonds are the ultimate figure heads, idols, leaders, striving to fit one ideal, and Pink just was never meant for that ideal. White herself, saying ''You're a part of me, a part I always have to REPRESS'', strongly infers Pink was created as a form of all White's, or a person's, faults and hidden behaviours. So it only seems natural that she would feel like an outsider, I mean her peers are many feet taller for goodness sake, she was literally always looked down upon.

 White took this enforcement of controlling Pink even more when she mind-controlled Pink Pearl, and took her away from PD permanently. I feel as if though this forever left a mark on Rose, and may explain the complexities of her and Pearl's relationship as well. Also, this explains why we never see Rose or PD even mention WD in flashbacks, she speaks of YD and BD- never White. Her determined avoidance of White is highly likely to be because of what she did to Pink Pearl, and her anger/shock towards this may have been the final straw to no longer being open and honest towards the Authority. We see she is completely furious and DONE with being repressed and mistreated in Now We're Only Falling Apart, and her willingness to utterly lie to them with the new Pearl and abandon her previous life is a bit more understandable.

In 'Familiar' it is found out that PD kind of lived in a sort of 'limbo' of toxicity, and my oh my was she BORED and FRUSTRATED. Like Steven in early episodes, Pink was left on her own a lot of the time, and always eager to impress her parental figures when they were briefly around her. Except, unlike Steven, this never changed, and the Diamonds never let her grow out of it, because it is a stigma that gems aren't supposed to grow. It is hinted Pink most likely wanted a change of pace with having her own colony, and killing two birds with one stone, she could also prove her worth to them by doing what they do. Although, with the issue of giving Pink so much time to herself, she began to reflect and think a lot, and become obsessed with doing something new, to the point of begging the Diamonds to give her something to achieve.

 This is ultimately really tragic, and relatable for those who constantly are wanting to impress their peers in a repetitive environment. Pink seemed to never be allowed outside of Homeworld without another Diamond, and anywhere she goes outside her rooms is to be with an escort, and the pressure of being a figure. This pent up fascination of freedom, new things, and expression is everything Rose Quartz represents as a result of this.

This follows up to my main point about Rose - her obsession with ideas, which is highly ironic due to the fact that everyone who remembers her is enthralled based on purely the idea of her, and seems to forget her faults/other aspects. Most likely because of the Authority's encouragement of such a thing, Rose's interest in other people seems solely based upon the idea they support, rather than them as a being. A great example of this is Greg. When Rose met Greg, she loved the idea that his song represented, freedom and being a lonesome rebel. She then states in We Need To Talk, ''That's what I love about humans, you're all so funny!'', to which Greg shuts her down upon, claiming she isn't talking like a real person. This is because she is trying to live up to her name and reinvention, and be this happy, loving Quartz, who knows the most about humans and is the most caring of others, which we know she isn't.

It is very clear with Greg that Rose understands very little about humans, and it is very clear with Pearl that Rose understands very little about being empathetic. However, it is displayed with Garnet that Rose was interested in learning about fusion and love, and with Amethyst, Rose experimented with the idea of bringing up a gem without the prejudice of Homeworld's society, and the fluidity of growth. In the end, Rose chose to be with Greg, and give up her physical form to give gem life to Steven. Personally, I believe this is because RQ was utterly enamoured with Greg's, and most humans, capability of empathy, love and persistent reinvention, which is everything she wanted to have - at least the IDEA of Greg's relatability towards others. Rose was achieved a respectable status because of her well-known SYMPATHY for comrades during battles; sympathy and empathy can be completely different emotions under different perspectives. In RQ's case, she evidently possessed bountiful sorrow for hurt loved ones, although I see it as something she could never relate to, being as strong as a Diamond is, or at least, she wouldn't be willing to share her own sorrow.

Throughout her journey, we begin to see her transformation from a selfish alien dictator, to leading a damaging war, to wanting to settle on Earth and become a better person. We even see this through her design, as PD she possesses vibrant and hot pinks, lots of magenta, as well as with almost-impossible hair, and a princess/jester outfit.

 As she shapeshifts into RQ, we see she has peachy/pale skin, more natural curly hair, sad walled eyes and a dress with many dark layers... with soft, pastel and earthy tones in her palette. It is very much apparent that she wanted to fit in with humans, no longer be alien, and kind of BECOME an organic being.

 Yet, with being a Diamond, she severely struggled to empathise and relate to gems, let alone humans, because she was brought up to put herself first. Consistently, she tried to be loving, tried to understand, maybe a little too hard, and I don't think she ever got to learn some people don't want to be understood. I see Rose as one of those people who tends to sympathise with loved ones, and feel strong pity for them, but they cannot ever relate or realise the depth of the experience that person is going through.

 So her solution to making people feel better isn't like Steven, which is helping people by talking and facing their problems, it is avoiding them. This is why she left the Diamonds, even after the Corruption, and left the Corrupted Gems in bubbles forever, and left Bismuth in a bubble; she literally tended to have 'lived in a bubble' of a farce life, being extremely flippant and ignorant to the underlying problems she faced within herself and with others. All the wrong actions she had caused originate from this issue.

In conclusion, it is very difficult to decide whether you like RQ as a character or not. She is very much morally gray, and created a major amount of conflict within the show's story, however, her ideas and values were those of moral good and happiness for all life. Rose was different, and complex, and very determined, yet she was still always Pink, just out of reach of humanity, and repetitively trying and changing, which I think a lot of people liked about her, she asked things gems never usually ask, and viewed all gems as equal. On the other hand, she lied, all the time, creating fake rumours of herself, convincing CGs that a Diamond could never love, or listen to them, so therefore they never tried doing that, resulting in full blown war. What ever way you feel about her, her impact was lasting, and there would be no Crystal Gems without her.

  But what she did to Pearl really sucked.

 Like - seriously a douche move, Rose.

[gracekraft]

Steven Universe - Punching Up

It’s the end of the year and I wanted to spend time reflecting on the Steven Universe comics that I spent the better part of the year writing.  I feel like they come out so fast that I don’t have time to properly talk about them.  So as the volumes have started coming out, I thought I would take some time to talk about each of the stories featured in each collection!

Issues #5-#8 are collected in this Steven Universe Punching Up, #5-#7 are stories I wrote while #8 was written by the incredible Melanie Gillman!  The stories featured in here were some of the first stories I came up with when I pitched them to Boom.

Issue # 5 - A Day in the Life of Lion

Illustrated by the stellar Meg Omac! ( @magecom )

I always thought it might be fun to make a story featuring the kind of mischief Lion gets up to when Steven is around, which seems to be like 80% of the time.  I also remember there was a Steven Universe panel a while back where a little kid asked where Lion was, so I thought kids might enjoy a Lion story too.

I was honestly a little surprised I was allowed to do this since it’s a departure of the Steven’s point of view only that the show goes for.  I normally try to keep to that in writing the comics but thought it might be fun to deviate away from it slightly.

This story is essentially a series of vignettes about Lion’s day, so pretty much exactly what the title says.  I always love those episodes in a show where they deviate away from the usual story and story-telling format where we get a glimpse into the life of a character we don’t see as often but their POV on events is refreshing.  I also love those stories about the secret life that pets lead when their humans aren’t around a la Hamtaro.  Sadly Lion does not have a fun crew of other magical lions to go on adventures with, but he still gets up to some innocent mischief around Beach City.

Lion and cat Amethyst’s shenanigans were definitely inspired by a super old comic I made about them interacting.  I always thought it would be cute if Lion was curious about cat Amethyst and took care of her like a little kitten.  Cat pals!

Lion messing up the things in Pearl’s room is definitely taken from many an experience of my dog doing the same.  He gets into anything that isn’t behind a closed door or out of his reach, and it’s not unusual to come home the a grand mess.  Sadly no matter what you say he won’t understand you, only act innocent and leave the scene of the crime.  Thus Lion is no different.

Lion’s adventures on the boardwalk were fun.  Sadie and Greg are some of my favorite humans, so I enjoyed giving them a little spotlight, especially with their wariness yet acceptance of the magical pink lion that inhabits Beach City.

I thought a short detour to Rose’s fountain would be a nice peaceful, introspective moment within the comic.  But even when it seems a little deep, Lion still has his cat antics and moves on.

I also wanted to give Lapis and Peridot a little spotlight since I always enjoy their barn life shenanigans.  I’m really happy with how Meg captured each of their personalities in this scene, it translated very well from the script!

Lion finally gets his lizard prey after traumatizing Peridot.  Honestly I still have no idea what those lizards are.  Tiny gem mutants? Gem-infuenced fauna?? Whatever they are Lion eats them so I continue to add them in.  And of course I had to end these adventures with a brief encounter with Garnet, who has a silent understanding of Lion.  And then bookending it with Connie and Steven’s return, blissfully unaware that Lion even moved from the spot they left him.

Peach Panther and Purple Puma

Illustrated by Rii Abrego! ( @riibrego )

My inspiration for this was Amethyst’s line to Pearl in “Back to the Barn” when she says “Hey Pearl, you should come wrestling with me sometime!”  I thought it would be fun to revisit the wrestling ring once more in the comics, Tiger Millionaire was one of my favorite season 1 episodes and we pretty much had seen the last of it in the show after “Tiger Philanthropist.”  Thus, this is supposed to take place later in time than it appears based on Amethyst’s season 1 attire in this issue, but sometimes miscommunication happens in the higher management.

I wanted to write a story where Pearl gets out of her comfort zone and lets loose for a while.  When I first wrote this story, I was still dealing with burnout and insecurity after my previous job ended, and I channeled that frustration into this story.  At the same time, this is also one of my more self-indulgent stories in that it’s filled with a lot of things I like (Beach City Underground Wrestling, Pearl and Amethyst having a fun time together, cute character shenanigans etc.) so it was great expressing my feelings in a story I especially enjoyed.

Inventing Pearl’s wrestling persona was really fun and I’m grateful to have had to chance to add something fun like that to the comic canon.  Between Purple Puma and Tiger Millionaire, I figured Pearl’s persona should match the cat theme, and I really liked the sound of Panther (goes well with Puma).  Pink Panther already exists so I tweaked it to be the Peach Panther.  I’m super happy that Rii captured the exact look I was going for with Pearl’s outfit.  Pearl is not a fan of shapeshifting (and now we know why) so I figured she would be able to at least give herself an outfit and Steven would help jazz it up with the silly pink cat ears.

I’m not the most knowledgable about wrestling so I did a lot of research to get the names of moves right for Mr. Smiley’s commentary.  I also had to go back to see what the names of the Beach City wrestling team names were and what the individual fighting names were.  It was fun getting to pick my favorites to feature in the comic!

I loved writing the last page because it has those cute, wholesome interactions I am all about in Steven Universe.  I’m also super happy with how well my script translated to the final pictures!

The Crystal Gems and the Sea

Illustrated by Meg Omac!

I love revisiting tiny details from the show in the comics, and this one is no different with the focus on the Gem Sloop from “Cat Fingers.” I thought it would be fun to have the Gems and Steven go on a mission where they couldn’t simply warp there, a fun sea-faring mission!  There’s definitely several stories in addition to this one where I figure out a scenario that I’d like the write and then work backwards to figure out how the characters end up there.

Steven and Onion stories tend to involve G.U.Y.S or G.A.L.S one way or another, so I thought it would only be fitting to start the story off with them.  While Steven has matured quite a bit from the earlier days of the show, he still has a childish wonder about him, and I figure he still does that thing where he sees something in the spur of the moment and thinks about how fun it would be to also do that thing, and then he finds a way to do so.  While he won’t go to the extent of jeopardizing a mission to have fun, if he can still fit some games into a less dire mission then where’s the harm?

I’m really happy with how the character acting came out for the Gems’ and Steven’s interactions.  It warms my heart to see how the Gems have grown to trust him more and more as the show progressed.  I wanted to add some moments that reflected this growth and had fun writing it in.

Also I have to share the description I wrote for the eel monster because this is the kind of stuff I actually write to give an idea of what I’m trying to describe.  She also ended up looking like an aquatic cousin of Centipeetle, and Sea-ntipeetle if you will.

I see some folks picking these comics apart for details that hint at something in the show, but I’ll be completely honest, while I do my best to write close to what’s believable for the show, nothing ties directly to it.  Any monsters or instances that seem to hint at something greater are usually just completely coincidental!  But it makes me happy that folks enjoy what I add in the comics.

The action panels for the fight are some of my favorites.  They came out nice and dynamic are really convey the type of action I was hoping for.  Fun and exciting!

I always see some folks complaining about how “townie” episodes are boring filler, but I just can’t disagree more!  There’s definitely some townie eps that are among my favorite episodes, because even if they’re not about epic Gem adventures (though some still are) they feature important lessons for Steven to learn from his human half.  I thought it would be fun to have Onion and his Dad be integral to the mission because townies and the human half of Steven’s life is just as important and valuable.

And that concludes the issues I worked on in volume 2 of the Steven Universe Ongoing series.  I still really love this first batch of comics.  Rii and Meg really hit it out of the park and added their personalities to the comics and made for very fun reads!

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 123: Room for Ruby

“It's sunny now, but it can always rain later.”

Catch and Release really did change everything. I’ve already discussed it as a paradigm shift, transforming the concept of what the Crystal Gems are: before, a quartet with Steven as the rookie, and after, a fluid group where Steven has some seniority. We’re in an era where Connie, a full-fledged human, is a Crystal Gem. Bismuth, who already was a Crystal Gem but got reintroduced and then left behind, will return as a member of the modern iteration. And two former enemies, Peridot and Lapis, have joined the group (the latter unofficially). So who’s to say a ruby soldier wouldn’t fit in?

Granted, Charlyne Yi’s performs a ruby that’s a little too forgiving, and power combo Raven Molisee (of the highly expressive Molisee’n’Villeco) and Jesse Zuke (of the barnmaster duo Zuke’n’Florido) exaggerate her face and words to the point where it’s at least a little suspicious from the start. But Navy, cleverly named for the gem on her navel just as Army is named for her arm gem, has always been friendly and chipper compared to the other rubies in her squad. It’s believable, despite us never witnessing it, that the other rubies are mean to her for this attitude. And because this is a ridiculous character, it was always possible that her ridiculously jolly attitude was sincere.

That Navy is lying the whole time is irrelevant to the wonder of a show that makes us believe that she might join up. Her betrayal might be predictable, but our status quo is as capable of change as the planet our heroes love; it’s a similar sensation to Alone at Sea, where even though nothing drastic happens there’s a real possibility that Lapis might relapse and go back to Malachite. It’s so much better than an episode where we know from the start that the character-of-the-week will depart by the end of the story.

Navy’s chipper behavior is variably cute and questionable, but I love the massive hint that is the rain sequence. Gems become Crystal Gems when exposed to water, so Navy gets her own little baptism as part of the orientation. But because she’s a false convert, we get artificial rain for her artificial reaction. Yi sells absurd joy as well as absurd frustration, but there’s a cloud hanging over this moment that becomes clearer on rewatch. 

Despite beginning with Steven and Garnet, then bringing Navy along for the ride, Room for Ruby becomes a Lapis Lazuli episode as soon as we head back to the barn. Navy is as one-dimensional as it gets before the reveal, blithely accepting everything that comes her way and seeming incapable of feeling negative emotions, so she needs an external opponent if we want this episode to have a plot. Yes, it’d be fun to see this goofball being a goofball for eleven minutes, but thankfully Steven Universe is willing to go deeper.

Peridot’s bossiness and desire to impress makes her an excellent candidate to teach Navy the ropes, and both can bond with fellow shorty Steven over a shared go-get’em mindset. So it makes sense that our wet blanket is Lapis, who first distrusts Navy and then gets fed up with how easy everything is for her. She’s trying, but seeing another foe-turned-friend have such a smooth go of it isn’t easy, and exploring those emotions of jealousy and inadequacy allows for a wonderful last hurrah before Lapis abandons Earth in Raising the Barn.

Lapis has a tricky role to play here, as she’s straddling the line between protagonist and antagonist depending on how much you trust Navy. Our hero/villain is portrayed sympathetically, as we’re reminded of her traumas and her slow but steady recovery process; she might come across as petty, but it’s understandable pettiness when Navy breezes by in areas where Lapis has struggled. And it helps that unlike fellow Ornery Lapis episode Barn Mates, Navy doesn’t seem to get upset at the negativity; this isn’t Peridot trying to win over a stubborn holdout, it’s a spacy ruby who ignores the venom. But at the same time, Lapis is the only protester in the Navy Parade, and her clash with Steven’s goal of bringing in a new friend makes her a huge bummer. 

Which is why I love this episode’s lesson so much: that it’s sometimes okay to be a huge bummer.

It’s okay because everyone’s going through the world at their own pace, and whether you’re clinically depressed, a survivor of trauma, or you’re just plain sad, it doesn’t make you less worthy than folks in a happier mood. Lapis attempts patience and understanding despite her annoyance, and only snaps when Navy’s attitude turns sickly sweet; feelings of inferiority are hard to work through, but it doesn’t make it okay to be a jerk the whole time. Even after the outburst, Lapis is quick to reassure Navy, acknowledging that it’s an internal problem and apologizing. She wants to like the newcomer, but as soon as she senses the forced perkiness it’s hard for her not to notice that something’s off.

A good twist is something that makes you rethink the plot, but a great twist does this duty while being enjoyable as a plot point on its own merits. The execution of Navy’s betrayal is marvelous, even as it becomes more and more obvious that it’s coming. After spending the whole episode geeking out about Earth stuff, Navy not-so-subtly suggests that she wants to go back to her ship. Steven not only falls for it, but is down to press a huge button without asking follow-up questions; it may seem inconsistent with his growing maturity, but it makes sense that an excitable kid is lost in the joy of making a new friend. The stranger area for me is his exclamation that the Crystal Gems “finally” have a pilot, as if Pearl hasn’t been successfully navigating spaceships this whole time, but again, he’s caught up in the moment.

The twist-within-a-twist is that while Navy has been plotting against our heroes this whole time, her demeanor isn’t part of the act. Yi's transition from earnest giddiness on land versus manic giddiness post-betrayal is worth the price of admission, especially as she merrily explains that she opted not to just steal the ship because she wanted to watch the Crystal Gems suffer. 

And of course, this brings about Lapis’s triumphant laughter at being proven right. Jennifer Paz is awesome throughout the episode, restraining herself when necessary for big bursts of energy to hit home, and it culminates in the sheer joy that comes from righteous vindication. We could’ve gotten a somber moment of Steven’s anguish at being tricked, similar to what we got after Peridot’s duplicity in Message Received, but Lapis allows us a sense of relief despite things going horribly. 

In an episode featuring a character as unsubtle as Navy (being tricky doesn’t stop her from being loud and hammy), I love the quieter story we get from Garnet. We only get a nudge that Navy’s story appeals to Ruby and Sapphire, but we don’t need more than that, so I’m glad we don’t get more. Yes, it would be fun to see Ruby hanging out with Navy, but the episode’s focus is elsewhere and we don’t indulge in fanservice that would take away from the plot. The two balloons Garnet brings at the end are color-coded for convenience, so we don’t need anyone to tell us that the optimistic red message is Ruby’s hopes and the apologetic blue message is Sapphire’s realism. It’s not a novel observation that Steven Universe respects the audience enough to not hold our hands, but it’s still appreciated.

(Also appreciated is a soft moment of Garnet bonding with Steven independent of the plot as they make wishes; Steven may be growing up fast, but he’s still allowed to be a kid sometimes instead of spending every episode in teen angst mode.)

In terms of criticisms, I’m a little torn about the pacing: Room for Ruby meanders a bit in that second act, even though I understand its purpose. Lapis needs to have her tolerance for Navy strained to a breaking point so she’s not throwing a tantrum out of nowhere, so we need multiple examples of frustrating glee. But it does get a little boring on rewatch to have the point driven home again and again that Navy is a perfect little angel, even if it’s all building up to the twist that she’s anything but.

Still, I can’t help but enjoy the nostalgia this structure provides, because major plot points aside, the episode fits right in with classic Season 1. We get a simple story that primes us for an obvious conclusion. Steven will find an unusual solution in his cheeseburger backpack. Steven will learn patience when Pearl takes a while to reform. Steven’s beach party with the Gems and the Pizzas will teach the Gems to respect civilians more. Lapis will grow to accept Navy’s differences. But instead, Steven’s improvisation only goes so far, and he’s impatient again as soon as Pearl returns, and the Gems still don’t care about Fish Stew Pizza, and Lapis’s negative outlook was correct. Steven Universe first made its mark by toying with the conventions of episodes with straightforward morals, and it’s nice to see that legacy continue so late in the series. 

The implications of Navy’s actions are soon made clear, as the loss of the Crystal Gems’ only means of space travel (stolen from the very barn where Steven, Greg, and Pearl first experimented with space travel!) makes Steven’s imminent sacrifice that much weightier. But before that shoe drops, we can enjoy one last glimpse of our favorite little ruby.

(I’m kidding of course, our Ruby is the best ruby.)

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Charlyne Yi hamming it up and Lapis’s grouchiness paying off? What’s not to love?

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[grailbot143]

Welcome Back Everyone!

Thank @daiskken for this week's artwork! I really love the style of this picture.

As I was not the biggest fan of last week’s episode and had every intention of wiping it entirely from my memory, this week, we are going to do something a little different. Instead of a recap of last week, we are going to focus on:

Briefcap Beach Party

Consolidated lingering Questions The Steven Universe World Characters Places Things Likes and Dislikes So Far Briefcap from Steven Universe: Beach Party (S1:Ep18)

Beach Party opens with the Gems fighting a Blowfish. Steven throws his boogie board to try to distract it for Garnet. Garnet gets blown into town where she destroys the front of the pizzeria. Amethyst turns into a baseball bat and hits the blowfish out to the ocean. The Gems argue with each other. Mr. Pizza gets upset about the pizzeria. The Gems go home. Kofi tells Steven the Gems are banned. He goes home to tell them because he's so sad.

Steven sets up a really boring beach party to bring the Pizzas and Gems together. The Gems dress appropriately at Steven's behest. He pairs up the Gems with Pizzas for a volleyball game that dwindles into a cheating match. . . . I told some jokes.

The blowfish returns and Nanafua directs everybody through a really ridiculous fight and the blowfish is defeated. Kofi wraps up the episode faster than Dumbledore wrapped up the Sorcerer's Stone and about as haphazardly.

AND . . . Episode Over (thank goodness)

Episode Random Noticings

Fish Stew Pizza never got fixed.

Fish Stew Pizza still sounds disgusting.

Nanafua is commanding and the Gems are oddly compliant.

Consolidated lingering Questions

The Gems:

Where do they come from? How is power derived from them? Are all the gems the same, but act differently according to… something? How is magic embued into the gems? Who is chosen to wear them and why? Why is a pearl considered a gem? What about the gemmed enemies? How do they get gems? Or are they created out of gems? Assumption: each has unique powers, i.e., Amethyst can’t project a plan from her gem_ If the above assumption is correct, what exactly is Garnet’s superpower? What are Steven's powers? s Amethyst's strange relationship with gravity a po Who all can fu?se?w old are each of them? It’s suggested that they're centuries old. Amethyst acts a bit like a teenager. Is she that much younger than Pearl? Where does Garnet fall? Why is Steven the only boy? How many boy gems are there everywhere? Why is Garnet the boss? Is it because she's older and wiser?

The World:

The Lunar Sea Spire was known as the Oasis for Gems on Earth, so I know it’s Earth, but… Is it in the same Earth that we are in, but hidden from us, or some sort of alternate universe Are the gems ONLY on Earth? This would make the nomenclature Oasis for Gems on Earth redundant, so probably notar, everything seems to be happening in this town… are there other Gems in other towns? Like every town has a team of Crystal Gems protecting it? Or is this town some center for universal negativity, so the Gems are focused here? Why do people in anime scream out the names of their attacks? Where did Lion take Steven and Connie for training? Is that place, or a similar one, available to all gems? Do you need a familiar to take you there?

The House on the Beach:

This is more a curiosity, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the fight that took off that statues hands What is up with the living temple inside the house? Beating hearts, waterfalls, a pool for getting rid of evil spirits. Need much more history and understanding here. BTW, it's been more than 10 episodes and none of these have been answered. Why not? The Steven Universe World This is just a quick list of things that make this place unique… no explanations.

Townies:

What's up with Onion and his dad? Are they from some other place? Why would you make a place called Fish Stew Pizza? What is the name of the fry place?

Rose Quartz:

Why does Rose have to die to give Steven his superpowers? Is Rose even dead?? I don’t remember that explicitly being stated What would make her choose that? a prophesy? desire to give Greg a kid? gonna die anyway? Did she give up her gem to HAVE a kid or to EMBUE a kid with the gem? Did she get to KNOW Steven?

Lion:

What all does Lion know? How did he get his powers?

Characters

The Crystal Gems

Pearl Garnet Amethyst (dead?) Rose Quartz Steven

The Townsfolk

Sadie Lars FryMan PeeDee Fryman Rinaldo Fryman Greg Mailman Barb (not seen) Nanafua Pizza Kofi Pizza Jenny Pizza Kiki Pizza Sour Cream Buck Dewey Onion Onion's Dad Guy that runs the Arcade Suitcase Sam? Mayor Dewey

Monsters/Creatures

Centipeedles and their mother Red Eye (offscreen) A giant bird with a giant polka-dot egg The Spirit from the painting that possessed Together Breakfast The Crystal Shrimp (deceased) Frybo Steven with Cats The Eel that liked shiny stuff Lion Starfish Drills and their MOM? Giant Bird from Giant Woman The Geode Beetles from Heaven and Earth The carnivorous moss that turns into beautiful flowers Holo-Pearl Training Robot from the cavern Blow/Pufferfish Blood Polyp (offscreen)

Places

Around Town

Big Donut the fry shop the arcade the boardwalk Fish Stew Pizza Greg’s van the car wash the storage facility the Crystal Gem’s house on the beach Suitcase Sam's T-Shirt store Amusement Park Dock Wrestling Arena Movie Theatre (in town?) Pearl's favorite tree (deceased) Under the Ocean

Mystical

The Temple with a beating heart the storage unit? Greg said it was magical (destroyed) The Lunar Sea Spire the teleporter thing in Steven’s living room The Training Cavern Upside Pyramid in the Strawberry Fields Sand Castles that the Dessert Glass built The cave in Arcade Mania The Sky Spire The Lava place where Garnet retrieved the Geode Beetle of Earth Deadman's Mouth The cloud/Pillar place in Steven The Sword Fighter

Things

Gems

Rose Quartz 2 Garnets Amethyst (not a gem) Pearl Centipeedles’ Mothers gem (pants animating) Gem Shards (maybe? pretty sure) The Lunar Goddess Statue Eel's Gem Gem from Upside Down Pyramid Dessert Glass Starfish Mother Gem The ROC in Giant Woman Blowfish Gem

Mystical Items

Summoned Weapons Laser Light Cannon Red Eye? Lunar Goddess Statue Cursed Painting Replicator Wand (destroyed) Button in the Cavern (and all that stuff)

Food (as it’s seemingly important to our little hero)

(discontinued) Cookie Cats Fry Bits (Cat Fingers enjoy this too) Together Breakfast (offscreen) Pizza (unmentioned) Cupcakes in jars (not food) Cheeseburger backpack Donuts Fish Stew Pizza Giant Strawberries Margarine to slick hair back Sodas that he threw all over the place in Tiger Millionaire Coconuts Sandwich Cereal (Arcade Mania) Steven (for the bird in Giant Woman) Cake Aqua Mexico Burrito Cream Pies (more a prop than food) Bag of Chips Burger for Onion's Dad Seagull's banana peel and pizza Cheeseburger Backpack full of snacks for the movie Popcorn Hot Dogs Burgers (with a ridiculous amount of buns, lettuce, and silverware)

Likes and Dislikes Far

Dislikes

Not a fan of the important role junk food plays in the show I don’t relate to Steven much. He mostly annoys me. Why is there not a main antagonist? Are we going to be playing monster of the week forever? Surely we’ll get one antagonist we can loath… (this is still an issue 18 episodes in. . . ) Season 1: Episode 5 Frybo Season 1: Episode 18 Beach Party

Likes

I like that all the answers to everything are not conveniently packaged in an episode I like Garnet… and sometimes Amethyst… and I often relate to Pearl I like Greg and his super awesome van I like that it seemed like we landed in the middle of a life, rather than the beginning of a story. . . this continues to be true through every episode. I like the most of the townspeople and their relationships with Steven I appreciate that though there are some references a kid wouldn’t understand completely, there is so far no blatantly adult humor or sexuality even in undertones - still true after 18 episodes. . . I like the whole living temple thing - but it is frustrating that we have only explored it once and so many questions remain. I like Connie alot. She is funny and smart and a perfect non-super for the story. I like the random swords sticking up in multiple places. I like arcade games. . . I like that there are so many details in the background like everywhere . . . and it's obvious the creators are nerds I like Sour Cream

I just want to remind everyone, I write these recaps after having only seen the episode once, a week ago, and often interrupted by my whole blogging thing. I mainly do it for myself to refresh my memory for the next episode, but since I post it, I thought I should ask your forgiveness if it isn’t exactly perfect (or even close). Don't forget if you have a submission for artwork for today's episode, submit before Friday using the link above, and I'll pick one to use as the cover art.

[toaarcan]

Sonic X, Sonic Heroes, and IDW, or: How a bad anime from 2004 spoiled a comic from 2019.

Now, I haven’t been following IDW Sonic all that closely. I get regular updates from Nemesis via Discord, and additional info from some of the Tumblrs I follow that are invested in it, but I don’t really have a desire to touch it myself. Here’s why.

There’s a multitude of reasons for this. Starting with the background of Sonic Forces wasn’t really a good place to begin from, and being based on present-day game lore in general was always going to hurt it, mainly because SEGASonic canon is currently a confusing mess of retcons brought on by Iizuka taking the J.K. Rowling approach.

Wait, no, he’s just saying stupid shit that contradicts previous canon, not trying to score woke points and hoping nobody notices the frankly terrible stereotypes and TERF tweets. Iizuka is taking the Greg Farshtey approach.

Added, as anyone that’s had experience with my opinions will tell you, I started falling out of love with Ian Flynn’s writing somewhere around Issue 200, and moved to outright dislike during Mecha Sally, and to make matters worse I started noticing that some of the flaws in the 200-247 era were also present in the 160-199 era, retroactively making those harder to go back to.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I kept up with Archie for the SatAM cast. SatAM reruns back in 2004 were my Sonic, moreso than anything else, and even now I still have way more attachment to those two seasons of animation than I do to most other aspects of the franchise, warts and all. So Archie providing me with additional content for said characters was a major draw for me. I’d generally put up with a lot just to get myself more SatAM content.

That in itself is a large part of why I fell off the Archie train during Mecha Sally. The entirety of the SatAM cast were removed from the regular lineup, just leaving three SEGA characters with their personalities stunted, even if that didn’t make sense in-universe. But that’s a discussion for another day.

So being written by someone whom I no longer enjoyed the writing of, set in a mess of a canon with a thoroughly shite game as the main basis, without the cast I read the previous comics for gave me little reason to invest in IDW Sonic. It wasn’t for me, I’d just keep reading Transformers and move on.

Then MTMTE/LL ended with a heart-twister and Ex-RID ended with a giant Unicron-shaped fart, and the new comic is dull as fucking dishwater and started by killing off one of my favourites, who was also one of the franchise’s confirmed LGBT characters. So now IDW is getting none of my money. Which is good because I’m broke.

Tangents aside, my lack of interest wasn’t something set in stone. If it turned out that the comic was actually really good, then sure, I’d try it. I was up for being proven wrong. But so far, I haven’t felt compelled by the responses from the internet. If anything I’ve been more turned off.

I could talk about how zombies are really fucking boring. I could talk about how SEGA’s recent confusion over what to do with Amy has combined with Ian’s need to include a Sally-esque character to make IDW Amy into Sally Lite. I could talk about how Ian seemingly fundamentally misunderstood everything that was cool about Neo Metal Sonic and somehow managed to reduce him to a boring Eggman minion in an arc where Eggman was out of action due to amnesia… But I won’t.

Instead I’m going to talk about how the comic has done something that would legitimately make me think twice about picking it up even if the FF were to debut tomorrow.

Yeah, I would pass up a SatAM fix because of this, that’s how much this ticks me off.

Now, I presume that if you’re reading this, you have a favourite Sonic character. And you probably feel pretty strongly about how your favourite character is portrayed. If they get a bad run in a game or two then you probably get a little salty about that. Tails and Knuckles fans in particular, as of late, seem to be the ones getting the short end.

Well, my favourite character in the entire franchise is Emerl the Gizoid. I will take Gemerl as a worthy substitute, they’re basically the same character. And the comics have been doing them dirty since the Archie reboot.

(Sidenote: I will be referring to Emerl with male pronouns from this point on. The Maria-soul thing isn’t as widely known as I’d like it to be, so I’m going to compromise for the sake of keeping the focus on the actual point)

However, not everything about this can be laid at the feet of Ian Flynn. Arguably his portrayal of said character is merely a symptom of a long-running issue that has plagued Sonic storytelling for roughly 15-16 years now.

But before we get into that, let’s get into something important: Why Emerl is my favourite Sonic character.

Part 1: Emerl in Sonic Battle, or “How I learned to stop worrying and love the Gizoid”.

This game doesn’t get enough love.

Now, I totally understand why it doesn’t get enough love. There are game design choices, like the grinding and the repetitiveness of the story mode that really drag it down, and because of that, Battle can become a slow-going and tedious experience, and that’s a real shame, because the story that’s hidden in this game is a thing of beauty.

Like most Sonic games from the 2000s, this game introduces a new character to join Sonic’s list of friends. Unlike the games that aren’t SA2 and Sonic Rush, this new character is actually good (This is hyperbole, Omega, Silver, and Shade were fine too).

Emerl enters the story as a mute, barely-functional robot that doesn’t do much of anything for a while, and only seems to come to life when Sonic locates it and attacks it. However, as the robot absorbs more Chaos Emeralds, slowly a personality starts to form, largely pieced together from other characters’ traits.

Emerl, as he is dubbed, is initially childlike and naive, but as he grows he develops a sassy streak, and his speech becomes a lot more developed. Maturity sets in, as Emerl grapples with his own nature, particularly the legacy he carries from the ARK, and Shadow’s ongoing turmoil with regards to the whole “Living Weapon” deal. Ultimately he becomes a hero, following in the footsteps of his mentor, parental figure, and closest friend, Sonic.

That’s right, Sonic, not Cream, is Emerl’s closest friend. We’ll get to that.

But this heart-warming story of Sonic becoming a dad for a robot doesn’t have a happy ending. Despite Shadow and Rouge finding a way to neutralise Emerl’s destructive Gizoid programming, Eggman has a way to reactivate it anyway, driving Emerl into a berserk rampage. This is kind of the one sticking point I have with the game’s plot, Eggman shouldn’t have been able to do this after Shadow and Rouge neutralised Emerl.

Additionally, while Emerl was on the ARK getting Maria’s soul crammed into him, Gerald also added a self-destruct mechanism that would trigger if he ever went Ultimate again.

So with Emerl quite literally exploding with all the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but his destructive programming forcing him to turn Eggman’s latest Death Star knockoff on Mobius/Earth/Sonic’s World, Sonic races up to confront his mecha-child, and things take a turn for the Old Robot Yeller.

In a moment that really deserves more attention, Sonic confronts his own child on the bridge of a space station, while Emerl is running on the power of the Chaos Emeralds and outputting more energy than he can physically take, and they fight. In the space of thirty seconds, they have a ten-round knock-down, drag-out brawl, and at the end, Sonic stands triumphant. Without using a single transformation. Yeah, that’s how powerful this guy is, that’s not travel speed, that’s combat speed. Looking at you, Death Battle.

It’s not really clear whether Sonic outright defeats Ultimate Emerl, or just survives long enough for his opponent to reach his limit and self-destruct, but the end result is the same. Sonic cradles a robot that became his own child over the course of the past few weeks, someone he raised from a baby-like state into a mature and heroic individual, and Emerl looks up at him and asks “Sonic… am I going to die?” And despite Sonic desperately trying to get him to keep it together, Not only does Emerl die, but he’s aware that the end is coming, and bids farewell to all of his friends as Sonic pleads with him to hold on. Shadow is equally distraught, his only friend with a connection to the ARK, someone he can call a brother, someone who carries the soul of his deceased sister within him, is dead.

Emerl: “Sonic I don’t feel so good.”

Like it’s canon that Eggman basically murdered Sonic’s kid.

And goddamnit this ending hits me hard. It frustrates me that Eggman was able to pull a means to drive Emerl into his Ultimate freakout mode out of his arse, but other than that, it’s so gutwrenching, I love it.

Gamma’s story from SA1 gets a lot of praise on the Internet, but for me, this is even better. It’s like Gamma’s story, but if Gamma was actually central to the plot of the game and the characters other than Amy gave a shit about him, and gave a shit about him for longer than a single cutscene, after which they are never mentioned again. Hell, due to Chaos Gamma being a thing, Gamma gets more love from the other characters in Battle than he does in SA1.

But, unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.

Part 2: (Sonic) Anime was a Mistake, or: “Sonic X ruins everything.”

I’ve made my dislike of this anime quite clear in the past. The characters are flanderized, Sonic is a B-lister in his own damn show, the villains are weaksauce or boring or both, the plot is only remotely close to good when its cribbing from two videogames which told the stories in question better, and for the first two seasons the entire show actually revolves around not Sonic, but the least relatable audience surrogate ever made. The third season would continue to include him, but shove him (And everyone else) to the side in favour of a Pokemon whose only move was “Flashback”, making audiences the world over question why he was even there in the first place.

Oh, and it also near-singlehandedly destroyed the thin shreds of character development that Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Eggman had received in Sonic Adventure 2.

All four of these characters had been significantly enriched by the then most recent console game. Eggman had been revealed to be motivated by an admiration for his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, but in the same game learned that Gerald had lost his marbles and programmed the ARK to smash into the planet and kill everyone on it, probably including his surviving family, i.e. little baby Ivo Robotnik. Gerald betrayed Eggman posthumously, and it’s clear from Eggman’s interactions with Tails during the credits of the game that this is giving him a lot to think about.

Knuckles is a weird case because most of his characterisation in SA2 is conveyed via… the lyrics to his rap music. Yes, really. He gets minor growth through the cutscenes, most notably in his decision to shatter the Master Emerald early on. Having already reassembled it once after it was broken in SA1, he’s now confident that he can do it again, so is willing to break it to prevent Eggman or Rouge stealing it. Via the rap lyrics, however (Yes I just wrote that), we also learn that Knuckles is slowly warming up to Sonic, gaining a greater respect for him, that he is more in-touch with his history and ancestors after SA1 (Though fortunately not in a Ken Penders way), and that he’s also struggling with feelings for Rouge, a plot element that went completely out of the window after this game.

Tails and Amy, however, get it the worst, as both went through arcs in SA1 that are followed up on and expanded in SA2. Amy had come to the conclusion that she didn’t need to rely on Sonic for everything, and that she would make him respect her as a hero in her own right. And while Amy is clearly in way over her head throughout the events of SA2, she still makes a significant difference, not only freeing Sonic from his cell on Prison Island, allowing Tails’ invasion to be a distraction and stealing a keycard to facilitate it, but of course, she later saves the world by motivating Shadow to join the fight to stop the ARK drop.

Tails had a similar plot, about learning to believe in himself as a hero, without having to rely on Sonic, and in SA2 he gets to prove it, not only partaking in the same rescue operation as Amy and fighting Eggman on even footing, but effectively taking command of the heroes and becoming their new leader, and for the first time, Sonic defers to him.

And then Sonic X came along and fucked it all up.

Eggman became a clownish antagonist with no semblance of nuance, and he actually got off the easiest.

Knuckles became a loud, dimwitted loner who got tricked by Eggman constantly, which would go on to be his personality for the rest of the franchise, ultimately culminating in the travesty against all sense that was Boom Knuckles.

Tails was reduced to a wimpy taxi driver, incapable of doing anything without his giant mecha plane to sit in. This was largely exacerbated by the presence of Donut Steele, who usurped his role as Sonic’s best friend and sidekick for two seasons, a problem which only got worse in the third season when Donut Steele suddenly became a genius inventor too, encroaching even more into Tails’ territory. Tails did get himself some more focus in S3, but only to make googly eyes at the Pokemon, a role which frankly could’ve gone to literally anyone else and would have made no difference on the plot. I would say that Tails being involved in a romance story at all is weird, but given the comics and Boom the weirdest thing about this latest tragic love story for the kid is that the Pokemon was actually close to his own age, because outside of this it really does seem like Tails goes for older ladies. Though she did turn into an adult at the end so I guess that counts?

But Amy arguably got the worst of it. Not only was her crowning moment in SA2 taken away from her and given to Donut Steele, but the poor girl had her promising character arc cut short and replaced with an obsessive, unhealthy fixation on Sonic, combined with a violent temper and an eagerness to smash anything that displeased her, Sonic included, with a giant hammer. Her admiration and crush on Sonic were warped into her being a possessive, mean-spirited stalker, whom only got away with it because she was an anime girl and therefore it was cute rather than creepy.

I want to take the time at this point to stress that stalking is not okay, under any circumstances. A girl obsessively following an older guy and threatening him and everyone around him with violent assault if they ever so much as imply that he isn’t interested in her is not cute, it means it’s time for a restraining order. Sonamy is not cute.

Now that I’ve swatted that particular hornet’s nest with a cricket bat, let’s move on!

I’ve always found it ironic that, despite being the adaptation with the most oversight from SEGA and Sonic Team, and the most endorsement from them too, Sonic X had easily the worst characterisation of any of the shows at the time. But, for all its faults, I can’t blame everything that went down in the aftermath on it. It had a comrade-in-arms. Mediocrely-written arms.

Part 3: Partner in Crime, or “Sonic Heroes also ruins everything.”

Sonic Heroes has a lot to answer for. And I mean a lot. It was the beginning of the franchise’s obsession with references to the classic games, it codified the really awkward ages for certain characters, and it seemed to be dedicated to completely unpicking everything established in the Adventure duology.

Shadow’s sudden resurrection is one thing, at least they had the graces to include a means to preserve his sacrifice via having him be an android, the blame for that not taking should be laid at the feet of his own game.

But the rest of the cast? Ohhh boy. Sonic’s still fine, he didn’t change much in the Adventure games, but then there’s Tails. Despite all the development he went through in SA1, in this game he needs to turn to Sonic when Eggman returns, and honestly this whole setup could’ve been fixed if Tails sought Sonic out not for the sake of having him lead the charge, but rather simply to recruit him into the counterattack he was already planning. Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the game Tails is almost as wimpy as his X counterpart, not helped by the voicework he’s given. No offense to William Corkery, who was probably like six when he recorded his lines, but this what you get when you choose actors via nepotism, rather than talent. But at least he does something.

How about Knuckles? As the other side of his derailment, Knuckles just turns up in this game, buddy-buddy with the characters he was only just starting to warm up to before, and blatantly not caring about the Master Emerald until Rouge mentions she’s going to steal it at the end. This will combine with his becoming a dumbass in Sonic X and become basically his entire character for… ever. Even in Forces, where he’s supposed to be doing slightly better as the leader of the resistance… but he’s a dumbass, and even Ian Flynn, who kept Knuckles as competent and intelligent in the Archie comics (Making the best version of Knuckles we’ve had in forever), kept this ongoing in the IDW comic. The Forces prequel portrays him as deciding to become leader of the Resistance (To an empire that hasn’t actually formed yet) purely to be a glory hound, and then goes on to establish that he was basically a figurehead while the real work was done by Amy, of all people.

And speaking of Amy…

Yeah, poor Amy is basically her Sonic X counterpart. But worse. I didn’t think that was possible, but at least X’s Amy seems to care about her friends. In Heroes, we’re treated to an equally violent and stalkerish Amy, who ostensibly starts searching out Sonic because he’s implicated in the abduction of Cream and Big’s pets, but when they actually catch up to him, Amy clean forgets why she is looking for him in the first place and tries to force him to marry her. Despite being twelve.

Y’know when Amy said she wanted to marry Sonic in SA2, she was joking, right?

This is why I find the idea of Amy being the real leader of the Resistance frankly absurd: Because the only time she led anything, it was a team that consisted of herself, a small child, and a man less intelligent and aware of reality than said small child, and she completely forgot their actual objective the moment she set her eyes on Sonic. Add in an unfortunate stint of very poor eyesight that got less and less understandable with every instance, and we got Amy’s rough personality for the next decade.

While Knuckles mostly stagnated at the same level of stupidity during that time, Tails got worse and worse, losing all of his badass traits with every game, a factor only increased by the “Sonic only” mentality costing him playable status, until he reached his nadir in Forces, cowering in terror from Chaos 0, and crying out to Sonic to save him, despite knowing full-well that Sonic was captured already.  Amy, meanwhile, limped along at the same level until about 2014, where it seemed someone at SEGA finally realised that A) Having the only female character you regularly use be a pink-coloured gender-bent version of your male hero whose only function is lusting after said hero doesn’t and shouldn’t fly in this day and age, and B) violent stalkers aren’t cute, and dropped this trait. Unfortunately, this has been more of a lateral move than a fix, as, much like Antoine in the comics, they forgot to give her anything substantial or fitting after she lost her negative traits, leaving her a bland and dull character, and when you’ve had a character be consistent for ten years, even if they were consistently bad, then changing it without cause or warning is still going to be jarring and awkward.

Part 4: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, or “Why the fuck did this happen?”

As I said in Part 2, Sonic X was made under heavy oversight from Sonic Team, and was heavily endorsed by them at the same time. There were promos for the show inserted into Sonic Adventure DX, a few episodes were released on GBA cartridges, and it received a long-running comic from Archie that ran alongside the main book, even after the show had ended. Additionally, characters that debuted in games from 2002-2004 were restricted from appearing in Archie’s main book for years afterwards (Which will become relevant later). The third season was commissioned solely off of the response to the first two, and primarily overseas response, hence why the original sub was never aired in Japan.

Sonic X was huge. And with that in mind, it’s plain to see that the portrayals of the characters in Sonic X were intended by SEGA. Yeah, all that horrible characterisation was intended as the vision for the franchise going forwards, and subsequent games were adjusted to match it.

And unfortunately, not only did this have a serious impact on the main cast of the games, but it had an even worse effect on Emerl.

Part 5: Emerl in Sonic X, or “Emerl vs. ‘Emel’”

Sonic X’s original mission statement was to adapt Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Battle. Why they skipped Sonic Heroes, despite Shadow being a major player in Battle’s story, I don’t know.

For whatever reason, the show took a full season to actually get to the first game adaptation, SA1, and instead spent the first 26 episodes on bland episodic “adventures”, in some kind of strange reverse-Isekai series. However, once it got there, the adaptation work was fairly faithful to the source material, which the exception of Donut Steele’s being crammed in to the plot. However, he mostly followed Big around, and since Big was the least involved in the game’s plot, he didn’t disrupt too much.

Sidenote, after 26 episodes of filler, the actual SA1 adaptation only lasted six episodes.

SA2 was likewise only six episodes, but with the exception of Amy’s big scene, it likewise wasn’t too bad. Tails suffered this time around too, which is somewhat surprising since he was mech-dependent in the anime anyway.  

After some more filler, which introduced the Chaotix and then did nothing with them, Emerl finally made an appearance, albeit they got his name wrong.

‘Emel’ looks like Emerl, and somewhat works like Emerl, but might as well be completely  different. ‘Emel’ stays completely mute for the entire time he’s around, never advancing much beyond Emerl’s initial silent, pre-first Emerald persona. He does get better at fighting, but he’s limited to only absorbing a single skill at once (Except for when he isn’t).

Dispensing with Battle’s interesting, rich, and heart-twisting plot, Sonic X instead has ‘Emel’ linger in ensemble for three episodes, before condensing the entire game’s premise into a two episodes of really bland tournament arc, where Sonic himself doesn’t actually fight and we get two rounds of Donut Steele being a dick to his friend and his father.

‘Emel’ wins the tournament, and is given a Chaos Emerald, and just when you think it might kickstart him becoming an actual character, instead it just drives him insane and he immediately becomes a pathetically weak version of Ultimate Emerl. After kicking the crap out of the entire cast, he is defeated by Cream and Cheese, because even though he can take on Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge at the same time and win, along with Tails, Amy, Donut Steele and everyone else, he… can’t handle two opponents at once.

This is stupid.

You’ll notice that I haven’t talked about Sonic’s relationship with ‘Emel’, and that’s because he doesn’t have one. The wonderfully-written parental bond that these two characters share in the games is completely excised, and instead the focus is put on Cream. Bare in mind, Cream is so inconsequential to the actual game that she doesn’t even get mentioned individually in Emerl’s dying speech like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow do. Instead she’s just grouped in with Amy.

This is also stupid.

And as a result of this, it means that what is arguable base form Sonic’s most impressive feat just doesn’t happen in the anime, instead Emerl dies because he is lightly kicked a bit by Cream. Yeah, unlike the Advance games, Sonic X’s Cream is not an unstoppable engine of destruction, she’s basically just a small child who can sometimes fly.

Instead of Emerl’s tragic speech and Sonic’s desperate attempts to keep his son alive, we get treated to a prolonged scene of Cream crying over the death of her “friend”, something that is probably meant to tug at heartstrings but doesn’t because Cream’s voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

And Shadow isn’t even there! He doesn’t come back until a third of the way through Season 3, and never meets ‘Emel.’

This is really stupid. And, for those keeping track, that means of Sonic X’s originally commissioned 52 episodes, and the full series run of 78 episodes, a stunning total of seventeen of them were actually adaptations of the games that the series was supposed to focus on, leaving us with 61 episodes of what might as well be filler.

And, unfortunately, that franchise-wide initiative had damning consequences for Emerl.

Part 6: Gemerl and Sonic Advance 3, or: “An incomplete resurrection.”

So, Gemerl. I know his name is apparently G-Merl now but fuck that I’m calling him Gemerl. If the comics can do it then so will I.

Gemerl is the worst thing Eggman has ever done to Sonic. Like, there is no contest. Some of his other schemes might be more destructive and generally evil, but in terms of personal pain inflicted, nothing has topped this.

Eggman salvaged Emerl’s corpse, and brought him back to life as a mindless murderbot under his control. So not only did he kill Sonic’s robo-son, but he also brought him back as a weapon.

Come the conclusion of the game, Gemerl predictably betrays Eggman, steals the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic, and goes on another rampage. I have… headcanons about this fight, but that’s something to worry about later. What’s important is that, once again, Sonic is victorious, and Gemerl’s defeated body plunges into the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Tails is able to bring Emerl back properly this time, presumably using the Chaos shard that was left over at the end of Battle’s finale. So, it’s all a happy ending, right? Sonic has his child back, Shadow has his connection to his history restored, and Emerl is alive and well, right?

Wrong.

See, the vile spectre of Sonic X rears its ugly head once more, and sabotages this conclusion. Gemerl doesn’t return to Sonic, in fact we never see him reunite with his father. Instead, Sonic X’s version has enough clout now to take precedence, so Gemerl is now Cream’s playmate.

Bear in mind that Emerl’s idea of a fun game is all-out combat against his friends, and Cream doesn’t like fighting (Even if she’s really good at it in Advance 2 and 3).

And then he never shows up again. Even when Cream is part of the game’s plot, like in Rush or Generations, he’s not there, and most egregiously, in Sonic Chronicles, where Cream is not only an active player in the plot, but so are Gizoids, the creators of said Gizoids are the main antagonists, and Emerl himself is mentioned… Gemerl is not there.

But he did make it into the comics, for better or worse. Mostly worse.

Part 7: Embargos, knock-offs, and misused tropes, or: “Ian Flynn dun goofed.”

For a long while, Emerl/Gemerl was barred from the Archie comics, due to the Sonic X embargo, and when it was lifted, he didn’t appear until the reboot. We did, however, get a suspiciously similar substitute in the form of Shard.

Shard was the original Metal Sonic, but when he was brought back and rebuilt for the Secret Freedom arc, he was given a colour scheme ostensibly derived from Metal Sonic 3.0, but one shared with Gemerl, and a personality that was a lot like a watered-down version of Emerl’s own.

On some level I can understand Ian’s decision to bring back Metal Sonic v2.5, rather than use the character that seems to have been an inspiration for this new incarnation in some way. He’d need a fully-formed Emerl, necessitating a skip over the whole story, since there wasn’t room for an adaptation during the Mecha Sally arc that the Secret Freedom story was framed within. Heck, for all we know, the similarities between them may simply be a pretty sizeable coincidence.

But then the reboot happened and Gemerl finally joined the comic cast. And to say it was underwhelming would be an understatement.

You’ll notice that I said “Gemerl” rather than “Emerl”, because his entire story was indeed skipped. The events of Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3 had both happened already. This wasn’t Ian’s decision, as far as we know, his intention was for the comic to start over from the beginning. However, due to the interference of Paul Kaminski, who wanted a softer reboot, Ian was forced to fill the characters’ active histories with a large chunk of the games’ stories. Battle and Advance 3 were among those that had already happened, so Emerl made cameos in both incarnations via flashback… which unfortunately led to a plot hole.

See, Advance 3 and Sonic Unleashed are rather difficult to keep in the same continuity, because both share a common plot element: The world breaking into seven pieces.

For a long while, it was generally assumed that the handheld games and console titles were only semi-canon to each other. This avoided the awkward question of “If the Gaias were already there, why didn’t they emerge when Eggman broke the planet in Advance 3?”

Ian shoved them blatantly into the same continuity, and gave no attempt to explain what was different about the Advance 3 world-break compared to the Gaia incident, which served as the backbone to the reboot’s three year long Shattered World Arc. Why didn't the Gaias wake up during Advance 3? Because that's now a question we have to ask of the comics' world.

When Gemerl finally showed up doing something other than yard work for Vanilla (Despite allegedly being Cream’s friend, Cream spends all her time with the rest of the cast, and Gemerl is basically Vanilla’s maid), it was to get effortlessly dispatched by a brainwashed Mega Man with a terrible name in the extremely lacklustre Worlds Unite event.

This one was more than a little bit of a slap in the face, considering that Emerl and Mega Man are very similar in concept- robots that can copy the abilities of other characters- but Emerl is demonstrably more powerful. Now, if Ian had established that Gemerl had been nerfed when he was rebuilt, either by Eggman or by Tails, that would be fine. But he didn’t. In fact, Gemerl is given the title bubble “Super Gizoid”, implying that he’s stronger than a regular Gizoid.

Worlds Unite is generally pretty bad for having its corrupted heroes easily curbstomp every other character around, to the point that the only thing that can stop them is each other, but in Gemerl’s case it really serves no purpose.

This is the only thing that he actually does in Worlds Unite. He shows up to get beaten up and make Mega Man look stronger. That’s it.

This is something that TV Tropes refers to as “The Worf Effect”, a trope wherein an established powerful character is defeated easily by a new character, in order to demonstrate the latter’s power. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using this trope, but please note that I said establishedpowerful character, which Gemerl wasn’t.

At the point that this comic released, Gemerl’s last appearance in any Sonic media was over ten years prior. None of the comic’s intended target audience would remember him, and they wouldn’t know why defeating him was impressive. And this was, in addition, a terrible way to introduce him to new fans. Though the worst part is easily that this was unnecessary. Mega Man had already defeated everyone else, and had established his power pretty well just on them, and he was about to get removed from play permanently in the next issue. There was really no reason to throw Gemerl under the bus for this.

He made one more appearance in the event, getting controlled by the Zeti along with every other robot, and after that he got bopped on the head and just flew away.

Later, he’d make another appearance in the Panic in the Sky arc, and while his portrayal was far from the worst thing about Panic in the Sky, it only adds to the issues caused by the previous showing.

Gemerl makes one appearance, and promptly gets pinned down by the Witchcarters and Team Hooligan. Bear in that one of those groups are the joke villains who nobody takes seriously, and the other are a gang that was defeated by Tails before he met Sonic.

Archie Gemerl was a character who only existed to lose to villains in a vain attempt to make them look better, and that’s legitimately all Ian ever did with him, which makes me wonder whether he disliked the character. And it didn’t even make the villains look good, when you think about it. For anybody that was actually the intended audience for this book, Gemerl had no significance. He was just a robot that got beat up all the time. But for anyone like me, who does remember the games he appeared in, it stands out, not as good writing, but as a blatant narrative device and misused trope.

In this situation, I would simply rather Gemerl never appeared in Archie. At all. If Ian wasn’t going to give him time to shine, or at the very least be an adequate member of the supporting cast, he shouldn’t have used him at all.

Part 8: A Fresh False Start, or: “Wait, how did this get worse?!”

And now we arrive at IDW.

The one nice thing I can say about Archie Gemerl is that at least his personality was mostly on point. He read like a generally accurate take on the character that Emerl was at the end of Battle, which is what he’s supposed to be.

The same cannot be said for IDW.

In the pages of IDW, Gemerl acts like the most generic robot. He speaks in emotionless, stilted sentences with little in the way of actual grammar, leaving him to read like a poor man’s Soundwave, or Soundwave in one of those comics where the writer can’t decide whether they want him to speak normally or adopt his speech pattern from the G1 cartoon, so they just sort of do both.

Emerl pretty much never talked like this, as far as I can recall. His speech development is much more reminiscent of a child learning words, and the only time when he did adopt a more robotic speech pattern, it was a clue that he was slipping back into his destructive programming. He only spoke like a generic robot when he was in mindless destroyer mode.

He gets thrown for a loop by a simple logic flaw, unable to reconcile “Protect Cream and Vanilla” with “Don’t kill the zombots”, and has to be talked out of killing everything around him, when the entire point of Gerald’s modifications to the Gizoid was to make him a bringer of hope rather than destruction, and give him a compassionate heart.

The part of Battle’s story where Cream imparts a pacifistic mindset doesn’t frame her as being right. In that part of the game, they are cornered and under attack by hostile but ultimately mindless drones, and when she convinces Emerl to stop fighting, he almost dies. It’s Cream that learns the lesson there, that sometimes fighting is okay.

This character is already compassionate, he shouldn’t need to be talked into not killing the zombots by a small child, nor should he need her to point out that they’re innocent people who have been made this way by Eggman, because he was made into a killing machine by Eggman twice, and the first time he did die because of it. The character that lay dying in Sonic’s arms, scared and bidding his last goodbyes to his loved ones shouldn’t be the one experiencing this struggle when Omega is also in this arc.

That’s it, really. He’s not Gemerl. He’s a second, less goofy Omega. And it boggles my mind that, despite getting Gemerl’s character, if not his combat abilities, down almost perfectly in Archie, Ian is now subjecting us to this travesty.  

Like with the Archie example above, therein lies the crux of why the steady decline of Emerl/Gemerl that began with Sonic X is pushing me away from IDW: I don’t want to read Ian’s take on this character, because, to me, No Gemerl is better than Badly-Written Gemerl,

This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, either.  Way back in 2016, when I complained about Ian’s portrayal of Gemerl in Panic in the Sky, I said that the way he handled characters that I liked tended to make them the least likeable parts of the stories he wrote. As well as stating my dislike for his handling of Gemerl, I also stated that I used to really like Fiona Fox, moreso in concept than in execution, but under Ian’s pen she was largely an insufferable antagonist, little more than a trophy to make his pet recolour look better, and almost every story she was in only added to the “List of reasons she needs to stop lying to herself and just start the redemption arc already”. Additionally, I said that I didn’t want to see him bring back Neo Metal Sonic or Mephiles in any context, and we got the former, and it was exactly as bad as I thought it would be.

So, that’s basically why I don’t want to read IDW. That’s why, even if the aspect that was a big sticking point for me back when the comic launched was to be undone soon, I still probably wouldn’t pick it up. Because I don’t want to see my favourite Sonic character continue to be written badly by a guy that should know better, and has done better in the past.

If he were simply screwing up Gemerl’s personality the first time he wrote him, I would file it away under the same category as “Emel”, but the fact that he’s done better before, in a book where he had greater restrictions on what he could do with the characters, really settles this as an interest-killer for me.

Well done, Mr. Flynn. I legitimately didn’t think you could make me actually miss SEGA’s tighter control, but you somehow managed it. I would be impressed if it weren’t so sad.

[calzona-ga]

Grey's Anatomy looked to its writers' room for real-life inspiration behind Catherine Avery's (Debbie Allen) harrowing cancer journey. In a November episode, Catherine learned she had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and on Thursday's episode, she went under the knife for a risky procedure to remove the large tumor on her spine. While Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Koracick (Greg Germann) weren't successful in removing the entire tumor, like they had promised -- only 95 percent of it -- Catherine persevered through the surgery, grateful to be alive and adopting a new perspective on life.

Catherine's cancer storyline is inspired by co-executive producer Elisabeth R. Finch, who wrote Thursday's emotional hour, and her experience. Finch was diagnosed in her 30s with a rare bone cancer, like Catherine on the show, and continues to live with it. Having a character who wasn't miraculously "cured" of cancer through surgery was an important reality of life Grey's showrunner Krista Vernoff and Finch wanted to convey because it has rarely been portrayed on television.

"Because my illness is chronic, I'm considered a person with a disability, but every time we see cancer stories, they're either life or death, there is very little in-between. I was very interested in telling a story where someone is living with it day to day and still having a full healthy friend life, work life, love life," Finch told ET, adding that Catherine's story is only beginning. "We get to watch Catherine move forward and move through recovery and see what that's like and see how she feels a month from now, six months from now, a year from now, both emotionally and physically. We get to watch a person who is living with cancer on television."

In the same episode, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) paid a visit to her estranged father, Thatcher (Jeff Perry), who was dying of terminal cancer. Their charged reunion was a monumental moment for Grey's, as it had been eight seasons since Thatcher was last seen in the universe. (His last episode had come in season seven.) And though their time together was brief, they managed to air out some of their baggage, connect on a meaningful level (see: the revelation about Thatcher attending Derek's funeral) and a heartbreaking, bittersweet final moment between father and daughter as Thatcher says his final farewell.

Here, Finch spoke with ET about channeling her real-life cancer journey through Catherine, why it was important for her not to be completely cancer-free by the end of the episode, how Thatcher's death impacts Meredith moving forward and a potential new Grey Sloan pairing.

ET: Why did you want to incorporate your own real-life experience with cancer and write it into Catherine's story? Elisabeth R. Finch: I was reluctant to talk about my own cancer, to write a story about my personal experience. I've always been very open in the room; I've been here for five years and they've seen me through every phase of my illness. But when it came to filtering that into an episode of Grey's, I wasn't quite certain what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it until there was one moment in the writers' room where I was having a casual conversation about how much I hated the language surrounding cancer, how much we hear the words "winning," "losing," "she lost her battle," "we have to fight," "we have to beat this." It didn't look anything like my life.

Krista approached me and said, "Why don't we write a story about that? Why don't we write a story about someone whose experience mirrors yours, someone who is living with cancer, and more or less a chronic condition?" It was something that we haven't seen on TV before. Because my illness is chronic, I'm considered a person with a disability, but every time we see cancer stories, they're either life or death, there is very little in-between. I was very interested in telling a story where someone is living with it day to day and still having a full healthy friend life, work life, love life, and so Catherine became the person who took on that storyline.

And Meredith even says that at the end of the episode -- that there's no winning, no battling or losing when it comes to this experience. Was there a specific moment or scene that was the toughest for you to get down on paper? Writing it was really easy for me because I tend to separate or not recognize how much of myself I'm putting in stories. It's only when it's reflected back to me that I really take it in, and this was no different. But towards the end of the shoot, when Catherine wakes up and is grateful, when everyone's anticipating her disappointment, her fear, her anger or her devastation, and she looks at them and they're all devastated, and she says, "No, this is a cause for celebration! I get to live!" And Catherine starts to list all of the good things in her life she'll get to experience. I sat there and heard it over and over and over again, and that was the first time I took it in because it was the first time I'd seen a version of myself reflected back at me. I'd never seen anything that talked about cancer the way I had lived it, not in any movie, not in any television episode, or book. That was the most difficult day to take in.

In that same scene, Catherine says "miracles aren't always punctuation marks, but they're worth celebrating too." That line really struck a chord because it illuminated the realities of the real world, where not everything is wrapped up in a bow. Although, on TV sometimes, it's presented that way a lot. It is and it can be frustrating. What's nice about having Catherine not be a patient is we can have someone who's lived in our world, we don't have to wrap it up in a pretty bow at the end of the episode. We get to watch Catherine move forward and move through recovery and see what that's like and see how she feels a month from now, six months from now, a year from now, both emotionally and physically. We get to watch a person who is living with cancer on television. I get thrown in a scanner every couple months here and there, I have to go to doctors appointments every once in a while, and in between, I have a full-time job, a family I love, friends I love and a big full life. And so does Catherine. It isn't finite.

What are you looking forward to exploring on the show in relation to Catherine's progress? When we started planning this story, it was always of interest of me to show Catherine make it through the worst of the surgery, and then walk around in the normal world. I am not always at a crisis point. Every once in a while, something pops up, a scan looks abnormal, and I'm curious about it, and I get more tests, and sometimes I go through six months of boring, I go through one month of interesting in the cancer world, where all of a sudden everyone's looking at things closely. I think normalizing what it is to be a person with chronic illness is something we don't often get to see on TV, and Catherine gets to be the face of that and the voice of that, where it's not always about that. It's about her big, wonderful, brilliant life. And every once in a while, there's maintenance and things to take care of.

Switching gears to the other storyline of the episode: Meredith visiting her dad, Thatcher, which is such a big moment for the show. Since it's been a while since we've seen Thatcher, did you have a checklist for what you wanted them to talk out or go through? Meredith and Thatcher have been through so much and not a lot of it together. They've experienced huge losses and they haven't really partnered through it together. They've been separated, either by his choice or by her lack of awareness that he tried and reached out, but the end result is these two people, who clearly care for one another and there's a lot of love there, haven't spent much of their lives together. It could have been different and there's a bittersweet, devastating undertone to that, that they've run out of time, that they have this day and she walks in there with one foot out the door. I don't think she knows what to expect or how she's gonna feel, but she's not going in thinking there's going to be big, lovely, warm moments.

What did you want to convey in the brief time Meredith and Thatcher attempt to reconnect? What happens often in those situations is you try your best to connect to the person in front of you, to try and put aside some of those differences or to work through them as much as you can. There wasn't enough time for them to have real, true closure. I think there is understanding. I think there are moments of grace and they get to laugh a bit, and they get to reminisce about their experiences with Ellis. I love that Meredith learns something new, a side of Ellis that she had never seen, about the day she was born -- something she had never heard about. I wanted these two people to be in a room and do the very best that they can with the time that they have left. It's not perfect and there's no time for perfect, but there's a little bit of time to connect.

Thatcher reveals he was there at Derek's funeral and recounts what happened. Why was it important for that to be a point made in this episode, that he was there in the back and that he was there for his daughter? Thatcher has been someone who didn't fight for Meredith, or she felt he didn't fight for her, that Ellis took her away and he just kind of stayed away and didn't try too hard. Krista Vernoff and I talked a lot about what Thatcher has been up to all these years. Where has he been? Big things have happened; Lexie died, Derek died and it was interesting to both of us to imagine a Thatcher who, as Meredith said, got his head out of his own a**, and stopped behaving like a perpetual victim -- that saw himself as a man with agency and who would get up and do something good for the world, or would hear about his daughter in Greece and would do everything he can to go be there. It's heartbreaking that she never knew it, that he never really pushed more than showing up to make her aware of his presence.

But, that happens sometimes in those moments of grief that you don't quite know what to do, but it was important for us to show that Thatcher had changed, had wanted to change and had made an effort to try and connect and it fell short. There's something really heartbreaking about that because maybe that would have changed things, maybe that would have given them more time together, maybe [he] would have know the grandchildren more. We're not gonna know. But Meredith at least goes there and finds out that her dad did try for her, did try in his own way [to] fight for her and try and go and be there for her when she needed him.

Meredith has suffered so much loss. You mentioned Lexie, Derek, Ellis and now Thatcher. How does Thatcher's death affect Meredith differently than those of her husband and her other family members? She's known about Thatcher dying for a really long time, so she's had some time to process it. She had one complicated, beautiful, big-hearted, strange, heartbreaking day with him, and she had a chance to have a little bit of closure, a little bit of grace. When she goes home to her children and has gifts for them and says that she's going to be OK, I think that that's something that we can feel, because she had an opportunity to know what was happening before it happened. She didn't have that experience with Derek, she didn't have that experience with Lexie, she didn't really have the time to process that grief and to say the things she wanted to say beforehand. This time she does, so that does a lot for a person, to be able to say the things they wanted to when they have the chance.

It seemed like the seeds were being planted for a potential pairing between Teddy and Koracick. Is that something that was intentionally placed in this episode? I can say right now they have a really fun energy. He is so unpredictable and unexpected, and I love how that confounds Teddy and delights Teddy, and I can't wait to see more of that.

[nonbinarysasquatch]

I’m Almost Over You

This episode is a masterpiece. It might be, ignoring the narrative, the best written and directed episode of the entire series. At least in terms of being a single work.

Nathaniel isn’t my favourite character. I’ve never really hated him. I’ve been annoyed and bored with him but I think his characterization has been too weird for me to care enough to hate him.

If in season 3 they had chosen instead to pair him with Darryl and not have him do the things he did then maybe he could’ve been a likable character (in a less complicated way.) He could be the guy they are trying to write him as now but without the fucked up stuff hanging over him. Instead of a rushed journey to have him be nice we could have a nice slow one that delves into privilege and how hard it is overcome that sort of background to be a decent person. Of course, narratively, this would’ve served no purpose for Rebecca so never would’ve happened.

If he’d stayed the asshole he was in the early parts of season 3 then maybe he could’ve been an interesting (albeit repulsive) villain for the show. But then instead they wanted to pay lip service to him having a sad backstory and treat him like a sad puppy… before having him turn around and fire Rebecca for breaking up with him. But then he’s sad again. But then he’s being smug with Josh about deporting his father and telling Rebecca that nothing he’s ever done has been bad because they weren’t his fault.

In early season 4 it seemed like they were doing better with Nathaniel. He attempts to gaslight Rebecca in 4.01 and they immediately called it out. It felt good and realistic. Likewise, the Rebecca/Nathaniel breakup in 4.04 was spot on and said most everything I felt was needed to said about their relationship.

4.06 and 4.07 are where things started to get weird again. After having to stomach Nathaniel being mean to Heather, he gets the weird Heidi thing (which is mostly weird because it contradicts his backstory from 3.08 with Esteban, HOW COULD THEY FORGET SOMETHING THAT BIG.) Which leads into 4.07 and “I’m nice now.” Which obviously felt embarrassingly fake because that’s not how change works in real life. It’s frustrating because in my head I can see how they could’ve done all this better.

Nathaniel’s problem wasn’t that he was mean. His problem was privilege and moral issues.

I’m not sure we’ll ever know what the writers ever really intended with Nathaniel. Sometimes I wonder if he suffers by needing to be in every single episode (which is almost certainly contractual.) He might work if he were like Darryl/Heather/Valencia. (Obviously some would say he just shouldn’t have existed, but what can I say. I’m a writer, I prefer to think of how things could be fixed rather than just wiping them off the board.)

All of that is to say: I love this friggin’ episode. I’ve seen a lot of romcoms for someone who really doesn’t like romcoms. Most of them accidentally or due to boredom. And being a fanfic writer makes me aware of a lot of romancey tropes as well, I think.

This is far and away the best episode they’ve ever given Nathaniel and I think it actually gives some fascinating insights to him as a person and how he sees the people around him. Though as always, it’s debatable how serious we should take any element. But look at the things he imagines Maya saying. She describes herself as an opinionated woman which feels like a very conservative way to look at a feminist.

Nathaniel frames himself as the nerd but can’t help but fall into being a douche to the woman he’s falling for. And of course the countless subtle allusions to his relationship with Rebecca scattered throughout.

And honestly, Scott is pretty good for most of this episode. He plays the goofy stuff much better than the serious stuff. I think that’s probably because it suits his own personality more. He’s obviously nothing like Nathaniel and the less he has to act like him the better he does.

But really, Esther Povitsky overshadows him in this episode. She’s so good and funny and I’m sort of sad that we’re so late into the series because there’s so much you could’ve done with her. And we finally got acknowledgment of Maya’s bisexuality. File that as another thing I thought would never happen.

Complaints? Well, beyond that Nathaniel clearly still has issues that need to be addressed and hasn’t really even begun to deal with his own past… not really. Almost every moment of this episode is glorious, brilliant and hilarious. There are a few tiny moments that don’t work for me (basically any time Nathaniel has to cry feels awkward because Scott doesn’t seem to be very good at fake crying… he really is best at the comedy stuff.) But other than that. It’s borderline perfect.

The Songs:

Gratuitous Karaoke Moment: One of those things that you don’t realise until it’s pointed out to you. A lot of romcoms really do have karaoke scenes. Such an oddly specific trope. This song isn’t great but it’s an amusing scene and weirdly catchy.

Uhhh no summary. And didn’t comment on Greg and Rebecca again. Guess I’ll save it for 4.12.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hi! Do you know any hot bed sharing fics? Also do you know any fics where sherlock is self-deprecating and john just showers him with love? Thanks!!

Hi Nonny! 

I actually currently have a bed-sharing fic rec list here so you can check that out there! Here are some others I don’t have on that list that I’m currently sorting:

Feel your breathing by Mixxy (T, 2,129 w. || Post-TRF, Cuddling, Separation Anxiety, Platonics) – And he was numb yet feeling far too much, he was back on that pavement, and his mind was buzzing far too hard, whispering you didn’t do it in time, Mrs. Hudson is dead, Lestrade is dead, your John is dead dead dead- And then John’s hand was around his wrist, thumb rubbing over his pulse point, and Sherlock’s not sure if it was to comfort him or John but either way it worked.

Turn the key, and come home by TooManyChoices (M, 2,718 w. || Angst/Humour, First Time/Kiss, Happy Ending) – Sherlock and John have been dancing around what’s between them for years. Will John return to Baker Street, and if so, will things ever be the same?

Lie-In by scullyseviltwin (E, 2,540 w. || Bed Sharing, Morning After, Fluff) – “I can’t believe you drank an entire bottle of wine.”

Assurance by belovedmuerto (T, 2,382 w. || Bed-Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Idiots in Love) – It’s not so much the ‘you’re half-dead, you wanker,’ or even the broken ribs, the hairline fracture of the pelvis, the dislocated shoulder and knee, and the wrenched ankle.

Affirmation by jamlockk (E, 3,096 w. || First Time, Dev. Rel., PWP, Love Declarations, Emotional Sherlock, Comforting John, Gross Fluff) – “Sunlight dappled John’s skin, casting a glow across his spreadeagled form as he dozed among the rumpled sheets. Sherlock knew the expression on his face was hopelessly soft but for once did not care about showing his true feelings so openly. He simply stood there, in the doorway, gazing at the impossibly beautiful man currently snuffling softly in his slumber.” Part 8 of All the ways we love

It Was All Right There In Front of Him (A Five Times Plus One Story) by bees_stories (T, 3,191 w. || 5+1, Protective Idiots, Grooming, Bed Sharing, Lestrade POV) – DI Greg Lestrade is a good detective. But sometimes he doesn’t trust the evidence in front of him, until there’s a compelling reason to do so.

Acceptable Behaviour by bbcatemysoul (M, 3,449 w. || Fluff, Dev. Rel., Miscommunication, First Time) – Sherlock isn’t really sure why John wants to shag him, but he’s certain that if he’s careful to behave properly about it, John can be persuaded to keep doing it. In other news, John is a good boyfriend and Sherlock is an idiot.

One Day Like This by nondeducible (E, 4,872 w. || First Time, Bed-Sharing, Romance, Fluff, Virgin Sherlock) – When Sherlock emerged from the bathroom, the sight before him nearly took his breath away. The only light in the room was the small lamp on the bedside table. John’s skin shone like gold, his hair like the purest silver. He was on his side, facing the empty part of the bed, his outstretched hands ready to embrace whoever climbed in next to him. Sherlock could imagine, just for a second, that this was their shared bed and he was coming back to settle into John’s arms.

Bed-Sharing Between Flatmates by testosterone_tea (T, 5,053 w. || 5 and Ones, Bed Sharing, PTSD John, Science, Whump, Insecure Sherlock) – 5 times Sherlock had an excuse to share John’s bed, and the one time he didn’t need one.

A Terrific Soporific by antietamfalls (T, 11,269 w. || Bed Sharing, Sleepy Cuddles, Fluff, Insomnia, Experiments) – Sherlock, a long-time sufferer of insomnia, is forced to share a bed with John at a hotel while on a case. To his astonishment, he finds that spending the night next to John helps him sleep and becomes determined to maneuver himself back into John’s bed.

Winter’s Delights by Kate_Lear (E, 21,173 w. || Holmes Family, Christmas, Fake Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Bed Sharing, Domestics) – Sherlock takes John home for Christmas to meet the extended Holmes family. Part 1 of Winter’s Delights

Knotted by naughtyspirit (E, 23,166 w. || UST/URT, Cuddling, Sharing Body Heat, Confessions, Kissing, Mastrubation, Frustration, BAMF!John) – John has to cancel a date because of Sherlock’s case, which leads them to be tied up in a basement from which they have to escape. They get wet, get tied up close and John has to step up and save them. Because he’s pretty. And hot. And just a little bit of a BAMF.

Bedtime Stories by Liketheriver (M, 34,388 w. || Emotional H/C, Romance, Angst & Humour, Bed Sharing, John First Person, TRF, John Whump) – John’s POV during Season 2 and beyond when Sherlock takes up semi-permanent residence in his bed. A collection of codas and missing scenes wrapped up into one long fic and topped with a bow that takes the story beyond Reichenbach and into happy territory once more. Part 1 of Bedtime Universe

As for self-depricating Sherlock, Gosh, this is something I really like too, but I think when I was sorting I classed it under my “pining” category… Let me see if I can find any off hand (Sorry if there are repeats; a lot of the ones I have are bed-sharing fics). Note that these are the ones that are tagged; I probably have more but haven’t sorted them yet:

Under The Covers by berlynn_wohl (E, 1,221 w. || Est. Rel., Shy Sherlock, Anal, Fluff) – John would have liked to have the lights on and seen everything, but Sherlock was shy, so they did it this way, always.

Apologies by Sherlock Holmes by ad0rably_0rdinary (G, 1,549 w. || Fluff, Worried Sherlock, Cuddles) – Sherlock sends John off with harsh words, and Sally points out that if he keeps it up, John could leave him. Worried Sherlock ensues, and he blunders his way into a cuddly apology.

29 January 2017 by wearitcounts (Sher_locked_up) (E, 1,765 w. || Anniversary, First Time, Insecure Sherlock, Love Confessions, Post-S4) – “That,” John says, “should have happened years ago. Maybe even the first time.”

The Marriage Proposal Negotiation by Goddess_of_the_Night (G, 2,161 w. || Dev. Rel., Possessive Sherlock, Insecure Sherlock, Fluff, First Kiss, Post Mary) – Sherlock hasn’t ever really done anything the traditional way, so of course it wouldn’t bother him to propose to John even though they’re not even dating. And the fact that John is already on a date with someone else when he decides to do it? Tedious.

Affirmation by jamlockk (E, 3,096 w. || First Time, Dev. Rel., PWP, Love Declarations, Emotional Sherlock, Comforting John, Gross Fluff) – “Sunlight dappled John’s skin, casting a glow across his spreadeagled form as he dozed among the rumpled sheets. Sherlock knew the expression on his face was hopelessly soft but for once did not care about showing his true feelings so openly. He simply stood there, in the doorway, gazing at the impossibly beautiful man currently snuffling softly in his slumber.” Part 8 of All the ways we love

Unmissed by 221b_hound (M, 3,235 w. || Est. Rel., Pet Names, Insecure Sherlock, Worried Sherlock) – John enjoys a good brawl during a case, and Sherlock begins to worry - when they retire, will John get bored? Will John get bored and leave. But even if John isn’t a genius about cases, he knows a thing or two about Sherlock’s panic attacks about them as a couple. With only four days till the wedding, he’s not about to let Sherlock continue with this misplaced notion that John will be bored in retirement. Part 20 of Unkissed

Acceptable Behaviour by bbcatemysoul (M, 3,449 w. || Fluff, Dev. Rel., Miscommunication, First Time) – Sherlock isn’t really sure why John wants to shag him, but he’s certain that if he’s careful to behave properly about it, John can be persuaded to keep doing it. In other news, John is a good boyfriend and Sherlock is an idiot.

Rumpled by WhimsicalEthnographies (E, 3,601 w. || Est. Rel., Insecure Sherlock, Fluff, PWP, Proposal, Bottomlock) – Then, halfway through a documentary on river otters that neither of them was paying attention to–how could John, with a gangly, limp consulting detective practically purring in his lap?–Sherlock suddenly bolted upright, looked at John with a perplexed expression and a crinkle above his nose, and blurted, “Marry me.” Part 4 of Longitudinal Cohort

Bed-Sharing Between Flatmates by testosterone_tea (T, 5,053 w. || 5 and Ones, Bed Sharing, PTSD John, Science, Whump, Insecure Sherlock) – 5 times Sherlock had an excuse to share John’s bed, and the one time he didn’t need one.

the lingering taste of orange juice by darcylindbergh (G, 5,824 w. || Pining Sherlock, Fluff, Miscommunications, Humour) – Sherlock felt the familiar heat surge in his abdomen again at the touch: hope strung taut between head and heart as in all the quiet moments between them, when Sherlock sometimes got the clues all mixed up and thought maybe John felt something too. For once, Sherlock is the idiot.

All the Flavours, Cherry and More by cwb (E, 6,274 w. || Est. Rel., Lip Gloss, Lingerie, Birthday Presents, Insecure Sherlock) – Sherlock feels a blush rising to touch his cheeks, more sensual than uncomfortable now that he knows John isn’t disgusted by him. No, John is responding exactly the way he had hoped.

Abatement by WhimsicalEthnographies (E, 6,816 w. || Est. Rel., Retirementlock, Fluff, Sherlock’s Self Esteem, Grumpy Sherlock) – “What’s wrong with you? You love the cottage,” John glances over to the passenger seat, then quickly turns his eyes back to the road. Driving was still not his forte, but considering Sherlock still couldn’t properly bend and lift his new knee enough to press and release the clutch, he had to make do. Not that Sherlock hadn’t tried to argue his way into the driver’s seat. “I love the cottage for a week or two, John. Don’t be deliberately obstuse,” Sherlock grumbles, sinking further in his seat. Well, as best he can with a four-week-old knee replacement. “And that’s all we’re going for, love,” John says out loud. But what he’s thinking is, shit. He knows.

In Which “John” Becomes a Synonym for “Help” by asignoftwo (T, 7391 w. || Injured John, Worried Sherlock, Fluff) –  After the fall Sherlock returns to Baker Street and is reunited with John. When John is injured on a case Sherlock is faced with the reality that he could lose John again, and it tears him apart.

High and Tight, Soft and Loose by cwb (E, 7,429 w. || Jealous John, Miscommunications / Misunderstandings, First Kiss / Time, BAMF John, Insecure Sherlock, Clueless Sherlock, Junk Size, UST / RST) – John pressed the knuckle of his index finger against his mouth and sighed. “So, you’re coiled like a spring and ready to be … sprung?” “If you want to be pedestrian about it, yes.” “Like I said, you should do something about that.” “And like I said, pedestrian. What would you have me do? Take up jogging? Yoga? Oh! Unless you mean –” “I don’t mean anything. Let’s drop it.”

For you, there’s only me by shock_blanket (E, 19,557 w. || Jealous Idiots, Virgin Sherlock, UST/RST, Pining, Miscommunication, First Kiss / Time, Insecure Sherlock, Masturbation) – Sherlock realizes he has fallen in love with John, but believes he is unlovable. Cue lots of pining and jealousy on Sherlock’s part, followed by our favorite cuddly marksman making it all better. Because for Sherlock, there’s only John.

State of Flux by Atiki (E, 24,655 w. || Sherlock POV, Slow Burn, First Kiss/Time, Friends to Lovers, Frottage, Cuddles and Snuggles, Awkwardness, Insecure/Virgin Sherlock, Romance) – John’s marriage is over and he is finally back home (i.e. at Baker Street, where he belongs). Sherlock is awfully insecure and John is awfully hesitant, and they’re both awkward idiots, of course, but they figure it out. Many First Times happen.

a good old-fashioned happy ending by darcylindbergh (E, 32,731 w. || Christmas, Frottage, Comfort, Est. Rel., Fluff, Insecure Sherlock) – For Christmas this year, Sherlock wants to get John something special: something every fairytale deserves. Part 2 of things fairy tales are made of

Bedroom Tales by Junejuly15 (M, 49,950 w. || Friends to Lovers, Through the Years, H/C, Military Kink, First Kiss / Time, Romance, Insecure Sherlock, Voyeurism, Post-TRF, Ficlets, Fluff and Angst, Fix-It Fics) – Bedroom Tales is a collection of John and Sherlock ficletsThey are set at various stages of their relationship and are in no particular order. Some are fluffy, some sexy, some angsty, there is hurt and comfort, romance and love. What unites them is that they all play in a bedroom, but not necessarily the one in 221B.

Breakable by MissDavis (E, 117,627 w. || Established, Fluff/Angst, Depression, Paralysis, Happy-ish Ending) – After John is seriously injured, Sherlock struggles to figure out how to help him, keep himself sane, and maybe, just maybe, get their life back to the way it’s supposed to be. Part 1 of Breakable Not Broken

Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w. || Dev. Rel., Pining, Fluff and Romance, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Fluff, Cuddles) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion.{{This feels complete; the chapter count is listed as ? but I feel like it is done}}

Clearly this isn’t all I have, but I’m always open to having more of insecure Sherlock fics if anyone’s got them! Hope these satisfy you lovely!

[junker-town]

Jedrick Wills Jr. is a 1st-round OL, but he comes with a risk

Jedrick Wills Jr. is one of the top OT prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Retired defensive end Stephen White explains why there’s a lot to like about Alabama’s Jedrick Wills Jr. — and one reason to be concerned.

Jedrick Wills Jr. was a supremely talented right tackle for Alabama this past season. I want to be clear on that point first thing. But while I was blown away by some of what I saw on his tape, I still came away having a few concerns about him as an NFL prospect.

Before I get into any negatives, I want to highlight Wills’ strong points, because there are plenty.

On his best plays, the guy was a damn monster who looked like one of the best offensive linemen I have ever evaluated.

On some running plays, the 6’4, 320-pound juggernaut looked every bit as powerful as Jawaan Taylor was on tape. On some passing plays, Wills’ pass set was every bit as technically sound as Ronnie Stanley’s a few years ago when he came out. Some of his downfield blocks were every bit as ridiculous as the ones Greg Robinson made in college back in 2013.

As a matter of fact, if Wills were just a little more consistent, I wouldn’t have had any problems making a Quenton Nelson comparison with him. Not that they are the same type of player, but they were both good enough to dominate right off the bat in the NFL. Even now, I would still say Wills has a similar type of versatility; I would be comfortable with him coming in and playing either tackle or guard position right away. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could play center, too.

If he can find that next level of consistency, you’re talking about Wills as a potential All-Pro type of player.

What Wills does well: Run and pass block

As a run blocker, Wills was an assassin on the second level. He would bump the hell out of the first guy at the line of scrimmage initially; then, when he scooped up to linebacker depth, that was your ass, Mr. Postman!

I swear, Wills would treat them dudes like he had heard they were talking bad about his mama!

But it wasn’t just the intensity of those blocks that impressed me. Wills showed good technique and athleticism. He stayed under control until he was within striking distance, then took his shot with almost perfect timing.

That’s at least partially why I feel like he could move inside to guard. In the NFL, Wills’ short-area quickness becomes a huge asset. He moves more like a defensive lineman (sorry, not sorry) and with his kind of power and explosion out of his hips, I think he could be pretty damn dominant at guard.

Not that I think his new team would have to do that.

Usually, I associate bumping a guy inside with him struggling as a pass protector, but with Wills, I think he could play either position about equally as well. It’s actually a compliment rather than a diss.

Gone are the days when most good teams would consider drafting a road-grading right tackle who can’t pass block in the first round. When we say it’s a passing league, that means more than just the quarterback and skill positions. If you can’t protect your quarterback for 45-55 (maybe even 60) passing plays in this era, you won’t last very long.

With Wills, I don’t really have those concerns. His athleticism jumped off the screen, but he didn’t try to rely solely on that when trying to keep pass rushers off his quarterback. His kick step was fluent, consistent, and at just the right angle backward, which allowed him to be patient.

He was also frequently able to keep his shoulders square to the line, while bailing out fast enough to turn and force speed rushers deeper than the quarterback at just the right moment.

Waiting like that takes nerves of steel, because if you wait a hair too long, or you don’t make solid contact with the pass rusher, your quarterback ends up on his ass. But Wills literally didn’t give up a pressure on a single speed rush in the four games I watched.

What Wills does well: Switch up his timing

Wills’ punch is NFL ready and a major reason why it’s so hard to get around him. Not only does he have a good sense of timing on when to shoot his hands, he’s also explosive enough to shove guys well off track as they try to run around the edge.

However, where he gets next level is Wills already knows how to switch up his timing on when he shoots them.

I can tell you as an old pass rusher who was coached by one of the best defensive line coaches in NFL history, there is nothing we love more than for a guy to throw their punch on a count that we can pick up on. When someone switches it up like Wills, it can throw your whole pass rush plan off — not only for that play, for the rest of the game as well.

I actually saw Wills jump set a dude one play, then keep his hands back until the very last second on the next.

You know how frustrating that can be when a pass rusher is trying to target a tackle’s hands? There are starting NFL tackles now that don’t switch it up with their punch as well as I saw Wills do it on tape.

Mind you, these were all Power 5 conference players he was shutting down around the corner. While there will be a jump in competition for him once he plays against NFL edge rushers, it won’t be a huge one. He’s ready to roll right away for whomever takes him, wherever they put him.

Where Wills can improve: Effort

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let me express my concerns. Well, it’s kind of two concerns in one.

Wills didn’t get beat often in those four games, but he did give up four pressures, as well as losing on three other plays that could’ve resulted in pressures if not for his teammates’ efforts. I already told you that I didn’t see him lose a speed rush, so that means all of his losses came on inside moves.

Two of the seven losses were on spin moves by the pass rusher.

So what gives?

After watching his tape a few more times, it was clear the issue wasn’t spin moves or technique. The problem started to look like one rooted in lack of effort on those plays.

From everything you’ve read up to this point, it should be obvious that Wills’ tape overall showed him to be more than talented enough to be a top-16 pick in this draft. However, if there’s one thing that makes me skeptical of an NFL prospect, it’s a lack of effort. To the extent that being a “bust” is even a real thing, I would be willing to bet that, aside from injury, nothing derails a player’s career more than a lack of effort. Or should I say a lack of appropriate effort.

And this is where it gets tricky.

For players selected in the first round, it’s almost a given that they have a lot of talent before they ever put on an NFL uniform. It is also safe to assume they’ve been dominant for most of the time they’ve played the game. They are usually guys who can ball out even when they weren’t going quite their hardest.

But I don’t know if y’all are ready for that conversation.

Here’s what it boils down to for me. On several of the plays where he was beaten inside, Wills obviously relaxed at some point during the play. There were also a few plays I saw where he was blocking one guy pretty well, but then after a while he would start looking around behind him, as if trying to see if the ball had been thrown or something.

At the same time, after thinking it through, the reason why those plays stuck out so much to me is because they were anomalies. On probably 97 percent of the plays I watched, Wills’ effort was appropriate, if not always outstanding.

So the question I would have if I were in a position of picking him in first round (especially in the top 16) is: did his motor really run hot and cold sometimes? Or was it just a matter of, for lack of a better term, him being “bored” playing against dudes who he had an easy time of blocking? The answer to that question is what I’d be seeking when I talked to his coaches, some of his teammates, and Wills himself.

If I heard it was the former, I would probably pass if I were drafting that high. Yes, I know how hard it is to find a good offensive tackle these days, but it might be worse to draft the wrong one high and be stuck with him for at least a few years. Your starting quarterback definitely ain’t gonna be happy about it, I can promise you that much.

But if it’s the latter, as I suspect it is, I would give him a pass with the understanding that those days are over. I don’t really think anybody will have to tell him that once he gets to the league and starts taking on NFL talent. You get caught slipping on one play and your season might be over in a flash with your quarterback going down.

But, if he can get his motor to run just a tad bit more consistently, you’re talking about a guy who could be a game changer up front for any team.

Wills’ NFL future: Immediate starter

Wills is talented enough to be in the NFL for a long time at multiple positions. I don’t see him actually getting out of the top of the first round, regardless. And just to reiterate, I lean a lot more toward boredom being the answer to those lapses. So if that is actually the case, then why not take him early?

Wills has the skillset, size, and technique to be at least a quality starter from day one. His 5.05-second 40-yard dash and 34.5-inch vertical at the combine just confirmed what’s already on the tape. With someone like that, I’d be willing to bet that years from now, the general managers who pass on him will end up being the ones getting second-guessed rather whomever turns his name in on draft day. I predict the number of GMs who pass on him will not be very high when it’s all said and done, however.

Be sure to check out my other scouting reports on Chase Young, Jerry Jeudy, and Derrick Brown.

For the purposes of this breakdown, I watched Wills play against South Carolina, LSU, Auburn, and Michigan (Citrus Bowl).

[roominthecastle]

1. Wtf?!? 200th episode??! When did that happen?! Anyway I gotta say I am a bit bored with s9b. Nicky's ep was great but everything else... Idk, this new guys are kinda... meh. Which is strange cause I felt really connected to the whole team by 1x4-5. Even Warrick, though I didn't particularly like him, but I always appreciated him and dynamics of them all. And now I can't even say a couple of words about Riley (just learned her name the previous ep), she seems completely bland, like a cut-out.

2. And this Ray dude? Everyone is running around him like he is some kind of genius and I don’t get why?? Am I supposed to care about him? (this is getting away from me sorry) He got the first name in credits so he is supposed to be a lead but all I can see is that they use everyone to prop this guy. He gets these “revelations” even though last seasons Nick or Greg or even Hodges would have cracked the case half an episode ago by sheer unrelentingness and professionalism. Whatever did they do

3. without his insights and neverending wisdom. Oh and then he gets to be the wisest man to ever wise (completely uncalled for most of the time). I mean his whole character is a big joke! A doctor getting squeamish? Can’t find the time to eat?? How did you go through med school?? He is walking around with two giant cases until they gave him an office his first week? Guys been here for more than a decade and everyone had found a place for their stuff. He gets treated like he’s a new Griss and

4.  he deserved it how exactly? And wow this rambling has turned into a rant and omg I didn’t realize how frustrated I was with this. I didn’t understand Grissom’s fascination with him either but i figured he was just being polite to a fellow academic, not that they would so blatantly shoehorn him down my throat. He is not even bad or anything, but WHY is all the focus on him?? And omg I’m SO sorry if I’m offending you or anyone, this is all imho of course, and perhaps I sneezed and missed some

5. important development, or he’ll become someone truly awesome, anyway sorry for ranting! But for now I really miss Griss, Sara and Warrick, I really fucking miss Sophia, I miss the original characters who could brake a case by lunch time without looking for any guidance

I am SO sorry for blowing up your askbox yesterday! It’s kinda hard for me to stop if I get going but still, uncalled for. I don’t even know why it irked me so much, I’m watching 9x21 and the last couple of eps he’s been completely normal character (I even liked him for a second, when he was referencing some ancient Greek philosopher, dude’s smart I can’t help it…). I guess the clumsy introduction of a character made my dormant non-conformist rear its head and word-vomit everywhere. Apologies)

There’s no need to apologize, anon. I am sorry it took me this long to respond.

I went through this exact same “grieving process”, and the new characters - esp the ones you think are replacing the favs you lost - are always the best targets when you are… well, emotional. It’s okay. This is great, actually. It means the previous 9,5 seasons were def not a waste of your time. Also thank you for making me laugh. I wasn’t laughing at you ofc but at the chain-rant you ended up having. It is quality, my friend. I always love a good rant.

To be honest, I have v little memory of S9b. I did watch it but all I remember is this sinking feeling that “okay, this is now a different show and it is nobody’s fault, really, but I can’t stick w/ it anymore”. So I quit and have yet to see 99% of those episodes btw S10 and the finale.

Which means * drumroll * that you are now ahead of me in CSI watching. ;) So if you feel like it, pop back in and let me know how you like it. I’m toying w/ the idea of maybe finally catching up.