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lesbianrobin · 3 years

Note

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?

ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.

also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!

season 1

strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)

nostalgia and authenticity

this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!

the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.

utilization of existing tropes

almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.

in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!

finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity.

distinct plotlines separated by age group

this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!

casting

obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.

strong visuals

the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.

atmosphere and setting

this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.

the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)

this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.

weaknesses

pacing/timing

ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax.

okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.

like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3

weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)

gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.

lighting and saturation/color grading

i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind.

horror

i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.

season 2

strengths

the possession plot

i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”

tone and aesthetics

halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.

actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.

also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective.

“babysitter” steve

by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3

the lucas/max plot

so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.

balance between the normal and abnormal

s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow?

the el and hopper dynamic

go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.

weaknesses

flashbacks

okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally.

you know i gotta say it... the lost sister

this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.”

i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.

the nancy/jonathan sidequest

once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.

season 3

strengths

starcourt mall as a setting

while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway.

willingness to experiment and go against expectations

gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.

the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)

this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.

in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.

the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.

timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale

i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.

emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)

this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season.

weaknesses

tonal dissonance

so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still.

newspaper plot

once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.

briefness of group reunion/separation of groups

remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered.

i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.

general ridiculousness

i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.

soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!

#asks #em talks #lesbianrobin.canon #stranger things #if u actually read all this i love u and im sorry #these r just my opinions!! and im sure i misremembered some shit my brain is swiss cheese #i did my best tho

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doomonfilm · 3 years

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Ranking : David Lynch (1946-present)

Film is definitely an art, and yet, it seems to be distinct from other forms of visual art such as painting or sculpture. Perhaps that is what makes David Lynch such a fascinating director, as he has the ability to tap into the surreal stimulus often found in the most famous paintings and transform it into brain-bending moments on film. Whether it his fear-fueled fascination with fatherhood present in his debut film Eraserhead, his ruminations on Hollywood society present in Inland Empire, or any of the stopping points in-between, it’s safe to say that David Lynch sits in the rarified air of directors like Ingmar Bergman, Alejandro Jodorowsky and the other few who can turn film into something deeper, more visceral and more meaningful.

With one of the most unique collections of films credited to his name, including a couple of curveballs in the early portion of his career, ranking the films of David Lynch is as perplexing as it is entertaining... so, without further ado, we attempt to climb that hill. I’m not even going to pretend that I can break down all of the symbolism and meanings of these films, but I can give my honest opinion about them.

10. Dune (1984) For a film that is supposed to be such a science-fiction gem, it’s a bit funny that nobody can seem to make a coherent, entertaining version of Dune. After nearly 15 years in pre-production hell (and three iconic names attached to versions of the production), the film landed in the laps of Dino De Laurentiis and Ridley Scott, but after another extended period delaying production, Scott bowed out, leaving the door open for David Lynch to step in. For what it’s worth, he did bring a huge list of names to the project, but the fact that the directing credit for Dune belongs to the throwaway pseudonym Alan Smithee should clue in any perceptive viewer that the project may not be one that Lynch cares to stand behind.

9. Inland Empire (2006) David Lynch isn’t the type of director that revisit ground he’s already covered, which is what makes Inland Empire (the seemingly final film from Lynch) such a confusing choice. Had this film not been released after a five year gap between it and the stellar Mullholland Drive, another film that focuses on the dark underbelly of Hollywood, fame and the tolls of the acting craft, perhaps it would hit a little different to me. That’s not to say that the film isn’t good, as it is definitely a slight adjustment from the style that Lynch basically trademarked, but when a director like Lynch experiments on what feels like general principle, it makes experiments that feel like a step backward lose impact.

8. Lost Highway (1997) Technically, you could count all of the Lynch “mystery” films as noir in some capacity, but Lost Highway feels like a direct skewing of what we know as the traditional noir structure. At its core, the film is a simple murder mystery, but it doesn’t take long for the Lynch signatures to begin appearing in every form from a mysterious, unnamed character to our protagonist literally changing into another person with no base explanation provided. Perhaps the latter choice was a look into split personalities and the disassociated nature that can come with brutal crimes... as I said before, I’m not here to try and decode the David Lynch mystery. While Lost Highway serves as a good entry point into the David Lynch catalog, it sits on the back half of the rankings due to no fault of its own... it’s more of a situation where the other mysteries are so stellar, that even the strange seems simplistic by comparison.

7. The Straight Story (1999) If you played a game of “one of these things is not like the other” with the films of David Lynch, it would not be difficult to make a winning choice, as The Straight Story is clearly the most accessible and standard of all the Lynch fare. What the film lacks in oddness and style, however, is more than made up for in terms of heart and performance. The use of a lawnmower as the main source of travel allows for some beautiful landscape cinematography, and the sheer force of will exhibited by Richard Farnsworth pays off in spades when he is reunited with Harry Dean Stanton. If you’re looking for something creepy, eclectic and mind-warping from Lynch, there are plenty of other films to choose from, but if you are looking for an excuse to shed a tear or two, this is the film for you.

6. The Elephant Man (1980) It’s funny to think that if not for The Straight Story, the Joseph Merrick biopic The Elephant Man would serve as the most normal film of the Lynch canon. This sophomore film dialed back on the abstractions present in Eraserhead, but it brought some extraordinary makeup and costuming to the table, not to mention it gifted viewers with a powerfully moving performance from John Hurt. Though memorable in its own right, the film really made its mark by tying Raging Bull at the 53rd Academy Awards, garnering eight nominations (and sadly losing in all categories, going home empty-handed). The backlash for the Academy’s lack of giving The Elephant Man special praise for its makeup effects also led to the creation of a Best Makeup award for the Oscars. It is quite possible that the combination of shock from Eraserhead in tandem with the skill and prowess shown in The Elephant Man opened all of the creative control doors for David Lynch, as not even Dune could derail his career and artistic oddness.

5. Blue Velvet (1986) While Twin Peaks is where I first heard the name David Lynch, it was Blue Velvet where I first got a taste of why Lynch was held in such high regard. The suburban paradise presented in the opening credits is immediately shattered by the discovery of a random ear, and the weirdness rabbit-hole gets deeper and deeper from that point on. The classic look of the film stands in powerfully beautiful contrast to the extreme darkness of the narrative, and Dennis Hopper turned it all the way up to 11 for his performance in the film. If Lost Highway serves as the best introductory film for those curious about Lynch, then Blue Velvet serves as a good midpoint to determine how much weirdness, abrasiveness and shock you can handle in a Lynch film.

4. Mulholland Drive (2001) I really and truly do not know where to begin with this insane rollercoaster ride of a film. The first time I watched this film, I thought I had everything figured out, every mystery solved and every bait and switch identified, but upon repeat viewings of Mullholland Drive, I’ve determined that I either had a brief moment of harmonic brilliance or I was fooling myself. The film makes sense at its root, if really and truly dissected, but when taken at face value and in real time, it’s almost impossible not to get completely lost in the sheer immersive nature of everything thrown at you. Naomi Watts is brilliant as the viewer guide through the film, and it’s good that she is so powerful in her lead role and guiding task, because Mullholland Drive is not afraid to get downright bonkers on more than one occasion. While films about the trappings of Hollywood and stardom are nothing new, I’m hard pressed to think of another film that approaches these in a manner even remotely close to that of Mullholland Drive.

3. Wild at Heart (1990) Quite possibly the most enjoyable of all the David Lynch films, despite some downright brutal moments of celebratory violence sprinkled throughout. The combination of Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern is nothing short of electric, and the presence of Willem Dafoe as antagonist is the perfect spark to ignite an already volatile mixture of leads. The energy level of this film starts on ten and only continues to rise as the film progresses. If/when I ever get the chance to program theater showings, I am putting this film on a double bill with Natural Born Killers immediately. While I can’t say that Wild at Heart is my favorite David Lynch film, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it’s my favorite Lynch film to gush about with other fans.

2. Eraserhead (1977) More often than not, directors the caliber of David Lynch have stunning debut films to their name, and Lynch certainly exploded onto the scene with a gamebreaker in the form of Eraserhead. Upon first viewing, there is enough “WTF?!” going on to confuse most people, but for those brave enough to watch the film more than once, it becomes painfully obvious that all of the madness and shocking imagery on display is a clear metaphor for Lynch’s fear of fatherhood. The simple act of taking a fear that resonates with most humans and turning it into the equivalent of a black and white bad drug trip works perfectly, and Jack Nance’s iconic look and performance are almost recognizable enough to know without knowledge of the film. Eraserhead is one of those films that leaves you different than you were prior to watching it.

1. Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me (1992) In all honesty, was there every any doubt that Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me wouldn’t be in the top spot? Of all the properties that the David Lynch name is connected to, none of them have even come remotely close to touching the sheer size of the lore and fandom that has emerged from this modern day masterpiece. The story of the high school princess with deep, dark secrets to hide is not new territory, but the way that Lynch handles it all with Twin Peaks takes the familiar to all new realms of weirdness, including the creation of iconic places and characters like the Black Lodge, the Log Lady, the production mistake that created the infamous Bob, and the eternally iconic Laura Palmer, and oh yeah, the film’s not half bad either. I doubt that David Lynch ever had any intention of reaching the heights of fame that Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me afforded him, but it would be dumb to think that he isn’t impressed with the magnitude of the world he created based on that single idea for a film.

#ChiefDoomsday #DOOMonFILM #DavidLynch #Eraserhead #TheElephantMan #Dune #BlueVelvet #WildAtHeart #TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe #LostHighway #TheStraightStory #MullhollandDrive #InlandEmpire

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jcmorrigan · 4 years

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im curious (again XD); do you have any favorite mozenrath headcanons/or headcanons in general ? :D

I mean, I see him as a very anti-social person most of the time - his ideal fun day is just reading in his library all day - but I do think if you met him up with people who shared his lack of moral compass and ambitious fervor, his walls would come down a bit. (I mean, I have a whole crossover fic about this, and then I got into a Disney villain RP where I wrote as him and the exact same thing ended up happening with a different group of characters entirely)

I think it’s pretty canon at this point that his favorite color is blue, but in case it isn’t - he loves blue. Everything must be blue. It’s an AESTHETIC.

I’ve modified my backstory for him a few times, but it usually boils down to: he was one of Cassim’s children (I used to have him as Aladdin’s twin but now he’s a half-brother who peaced out of that house when Aladdin was a babey), he felt his father was an absolute jerk who didn’t understand his intellectual pursuits (and really, his instincts were kinda right, since Cassim ran off), he set out to find the most feared man in the Seven Deserts on purpose, Destane was impressed that a kiddo had managed to make it all the way to the Black Sands without dying, too bad Destane was more in the mood for a personal servant and test subject than an actual apprentice, but don’t get me wrong, as horrible as he was to Mozenrath, Mozenrath had actually fantasized about world domination BEFORE turning up on his door - and then, finally, Mozenrath got a lucky shot and managed to suck the life out of Destane.

Also, Destane at least kept the people of the Black Sands human while he subjected them to his iron-fisted rule. Mozenrath was the one who decided they should all be shambling undead

He doesn’t want to talk about the actual two weeks he spent inside Dagger Rock. I’m thinking Mirage let him out for a lark because she knew the playing field was just that more evil with him on it

Mozenrath can literally necromance - the Mamluks aren’t just drained of life force; they were killed and brought back intentionally half-souled. He’s a one-in-a-million case for having this ability; however, necromancy =/= healing and therefore he cannot extend his own life force with his own magic, nor can he resurrect himself once his own soul hits the afterlife

He isn’t a Muslim but actually closer to a Zoroastrian/Mithraist. This ties in to how I am pretty sure the Black Sands is Persia/Iran (but this is a more common larger headcanon). He may have been born into a Muslim family, but the moment he turned his back on Destane, he decided to adopt a practice that made more sense to him. However, in Mithraism, the belief is that Mithras, the good god, will defeat Ahriman, lord of evil. Mozenrath wants this to be the other way around. I actually like subbing in “Ahriman” for him for expressions where we might casually use “God” - “Oh, goddammit” for us = “Oh, Ahriman curse it” for him.

He also has a thorough knowledge of the other gods of the world. Just in case.

It’s canon that he knows about at least one other world, as he pulled the Thirdac from it. If you like thinking about Mozenrath in the Kingdom Heartsverse, nobody needs to explain to him what a Keyblade is; if Sora drew one in front of him, he’d just be “Oh. One of THOSE. All right, you’re a world-hopper.” He might’ve even toured a few.

This is more of a general Agrabah headcanon - ever notice how in the series, there ALWAYS seems to be a new sorcerer whose time has passed but left a MacGuffin lying around? Wizard Khufu, the Witches of the Sand, Khartoum, Shamash, Destane...I have it that before the generation Aladdin is set in fully took hold, there was an “Age of Sorcery” where these sorcerers controlled all. Jafar was basically the end of it; Mozenrath is a one-man revival who takes his cues from the sorcerers from old and studies their legacies. (Well, okay, Ayam Aghoul is another example in his own way)

Mozenrath and Ayam Aghoul are the two most compatible Agrabah rogues; we were robbed when they never had a team-up episode. Most of the folks at the Guild of Thieves, such as Amin Damoola, Abis Mal, or Mechanicles, Mozenrath could not STAND. Aghoul GETS him, though. They both have morbid fascinations with death and ample collections of magic. Total bros.

Mozenrath isn’t afraid of death. Well, mostly not. What happens is that when the gauntlet starts to burn him too fast, he panics and realizes this might not be exactly what he wanted. But usually, he doesn’t mind spending a lot of his life force at a time because he feels it’s worth it, and sometimes, when faced with a near-death experience, he’s just...ready, only to be glad when he finds himself alive. His actual greatest fear is of dying sick/old/weak in bed. He wants to die going out with a bang: using up his last life force on some amazing spell that lets him get the last word.

The gauntlet has his affected body in constant pain - wherever the edge of his flesh is. (I used to think that around the time of the series, it was only his arm; then I saw an AMAZING fanart of him with his skin stripped from half his upper body so you could see through to his beating heart and I LOVE THAT so that’s where I place him.) However, it’s comparatively mild; just incessant. His pain tolerance is slightly better than most, but not completely (the Mukhtar’s ropes backfiring on him were significantly a different beast than the eating away of the gauntlet).

Gay, but during the time of the series, has never really cared enough about finding a partner to even wonder what his sexuality is. When your company is countless rotting undead, you don’t really have much room to find your type (though Ayam Aghoul would disagree and say that’s the BEST place to find your type - incidentally, to follow up, I don’t ship Mozenrath and Aghoul. They’re just bros. Aghoul is pretty straight and also incredibly not Mozenrath’s romantic type - though I did once read an amusing AU fanfiction that suggested Mozenrath was the person who Aghoul tried to “marry” with the enchanted pendant and also the one who turned it to backfire on him).

Don’t give him coffee. Just...don’t. He doesn’t handle coffee well. He gets incredibly hyperactive (read: destructive) and then just crashes unconscious.

I think that’s all I can think of for now. As soon as I hit “Post” I’m going to realize something super important I forgot, I KNOW it

Well, okay, this one is not really relevant to canon-compliant works but his drag name would be Brandisia Black it’s a long story

#mozenrath

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nothingadventured-nothinggained · 5 years

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OitNB Character Updates

Ready to binge the new season of Orange is the New Black but dont want to binge the last season to remember where at your favorite characters are at?

Under the Read More there is updates on where most of the characters left off in the last season. I divided them based on which cell block they’re in when they were in minimum. Also there’s a section on the COs and staff.

Not everyone is covered, specifically none of the new characters we met this season, but I think I covered the majority of them! Also forgive any mistakes; I tried to do my research but any mistakes pointed out will be updated! Enjoy!

‘The Suburbs’ Inmates

Piper Chapman: She’s out of here! After finally getting prison married to Alex in a beautiful ceremony, Piper has gained early release. Cal came to pick her up from prison and brought her back to his home where Neri is making something with chard. She is last seen in Cal’s car, with him asking her what she’s going to do now.

Alex Vause: Alex made a deal with the devil, or more specifically Carol, to get Badison to stop trying to steal Piper’s date. In exchange, Alex would be on Carol’s crew. No clue how things are going to change now that Carol and Barb are dead. She put in an application to law school but got rejected. She is last seen out in the yard playing kickball.

Galina “Red” Reznikov: Red’s been recovering from a rough last season. She got 10 years added on to her sentence for being a riot instigator, after being named by Piper, Freida and Nicky. Thus begins her revenge scheme against Freida. She gets frustrated with Carol because Carol is more focused on inter-block fighting than getting Frieda. Eventually, Red’s family came to visit her with the grandkids for the first time in years but she ruins it by trying to choke out Frieda and gets sent to the SHU. She is last seen joking with Gloria in the SHU.

Tiffany Doggett: After leaving Donuts in the woods, she turns herself back in. She gets to join the ladies in B-Block (”Florida”) after making a deal with Linda. While in Florida she gets close with Suzanne and tries to get her to be more social. She convinced Suzanne to join the kickball team and go out to the yard to play. She is last seen playing kickball outside.

Nicky Nichols: Nicky named Red as an instigator of the riot in order to get out of drug charges (since she took over minimum’s pharmacy during the riot). Red forgave her, however, because she was upfront about it unlike others. Nicky joins Barb’s crew, but she tries to be the voice of reason and peace. Once the moment of the attack happens, she convinces the D-Block girls not to fight. She is last seen playing kickball outside.

Lorna Morello Muccio: Lorna got fully into gang warfare this season but then realized how stupid it was after Piper and Alex’s wedding. Nicky has her hide in a closet in the laundry room so she won’t have to go to the bloodbath of kickball, but Lorna goes into surprise labor. She is last seen in agony being dragged to medical by one of the guards, with blood between her legs.

Frieda Berlin: Been in hiding in B-Block. Super paranoid since Carol, Barb and Red are all after her. Crazy Eyes was acting as her bodyguard, but Frieda told Suzanne that she wasn’t her friend and pushed her away. She was last seen in her cell, smiling and eating a pudding cup.

“The Ghetto” Inmates

Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson: After pleading guilty of being a riot instigator, she went on trial for the murder of Piscatella and was found guilty. She is last seen re-entering into Litchfield, but it is unconfirmed what the sentence will be for the crime. There’s a worry it may be the death penalty, but it’s “extremely rare”.

Cindy “Tova” Hayes: Cindy deals with a lot of guilt because she testified against Taystee, in exchange for immunity for riot charges. After talking with Flaca, she realizes she needs to move on. She is last seen acting as an announcer for the kickball game.

Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren: Suzanne was put in B-Block and develops a close relationship with Frieda and Pennsatucky. She struggled with going out into the yard for fear of the gang war, but ends up joining the kickball team. She is last seen on the field playing kickball.

Sophia Burset: Ends up in B-Block. She decides not to sue FCC since they bribed her with a whole lot of money and early release. She is last seen reuniting with her wife on the outside.

“Spanish Harlem” Inmates

Gloria Mendoza: Gloria got no extra time for the riot, but told the investigators that it was Maria who instigated it. She doesn’t like all this gang warfare, and tries to tell Luschek so he will stop it. Instead, she finds out about Fantasy Inmate and threatens Alvarez to tell everyone about it, so he sends her to the SHU. She is last seen talking with Red in the SHU.

Aleida Diaz: Aleida is currently worried because Daya is getting hooked on the drugs she and Hopper are sneaking in. She eventually decides to give up on Daya in order to save her other kids. It’s unclear if she and Hopper are actually romantically together, or just together until she can get enough money to get her kids back.

Marisol “Flaca” Gonzalez: She is working as the radio DJ for the prison. She and Tova become very close as co-DJs, but she still misses Maritza. She is last seen acting as the announcer for the kickball game.

Dayanara “Daya” Diaz: Daya took a plea for murdering CO Humps. She is assigned to C-Block and starts dating/hooking up with Daddy. She eventually starts to take drugs, initially for the pain of being beaten by guards but then because she becomes addicted. She is last seen in the yard playing kickball.

Maria Ruiz: Maria is still struggling with everything that happened in the last season. She tries to turn to religion, but realizes that no one still forgives her for what happened in the riot so she joins the gang life. Eventually after a talk with the Mormon guard, she realizes she can still be a good person. She gets McCullough to make everyone choose kickball teams so the teams are mixed. She is last seen on the yard playing kickball.

Blanca Flores: Blanca tells the investigators that Maria instigated the riot, in exchange for immunity for riot charges. She learns she’s running out of time to have a baby, so she tries to sneak some of Diablo’s sperm into the prison to get prison. It doesn’t work, but she learns she is getting early release. On the day of the release, she doesn’t leave the prison but is instead put back in cuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Poor Diablo is left waiting outside of the prison, flowers in hand.

Management/CO’s

Joe Caputo: After the riot, he was put on leave and ran out of things to do. He tried to get his warden position back, but is transferred to Missouri. While packing to move, he starts to get close and invested in Taystee’s case and begins to work with other inmates to file suit against MCC, which causes him to be fired. During all of this, he is strengthening his relationship with Natalie Figueroa. He follows the case and even investigates the CERT team leader who, unbeknownst to him, covered up Piscatella’s murder. Once Taystee is found guilty, he confronts the man who punches him in the nose. He then goes to an MCC party and reunited with Fig. He is last seen getting taken care of by Fig.

Natalie “Fig” Figueroa: Fig finally admits that she is Joe’s girlfriend in this season, while still appearing in public with her gay husband for appearances. She fights with Joe about how he is so interested in the female prisoners even though they have done nothing for him. She is last seen taking care of Joe, who was punched in the nose.

Linda Ferguson: As the new senior vice president of MCC, Linda seems to have learned nothing of her time in the riot and how terribly inmates are treated. She talks about stuffing as many inmates as possible into a prison, uses bribes to stop a lawsuit and makes a completely fake commercial promoting MCC (now PolyCon). She is last seen announcing to a bunch of fancy rich people that the newest moneymaker is in immigration detention centers.

Sam Healy: Healy meets with Caputo at the beginning of the season. He is out of the psychiatric hospital, and now much more mellow. He tells Caputo that he needs to move on from the riot and put Litchfield behind him.

Joel Luschek: While at Max, Luschek becomes commissioner of the Fantasy Inmate team, as well as running the rec class. While teaching rec he gets close to Gloria. Throughout the season Luschek seems to really just not care about anything. He feels guilty that Gloria was put in the SHU after finding his Fantasy Inmate score sheets. He is last seen in a DeLorean (he’s collecting Back to the Future merch) driving away scared that the kickball game will end in a bloodbath.

Artesian McCullough: McCullough is really having a tough time with what happened in the prison. She’s struggling with anxiety, paranoia, insomnia and depression. She snaps at inmates sometimes, and whenever she loses control she is seen putting out lighted cigarettes on her thighs as a form of self-harm. At the kickball game, when Maria tries to put a stop to the bloodbath, McCullough trusts her and seems to slightly get over her fear of inmates.

Charlie “Donuts” Coates: Coates tried to make it work with Pennsatucky on the outside and wants them to escape to Canada, where they can hide out. She ends up leaving him because of his violent nature. He is last seen sleeping in a forest.

Lee Dixon: Dixon joins Coates on his road trip because he thinks Coates is suicidal. Once it is revealed that Pennsatucky is there as well, he actually accepts it and joins them at an amusement park. Once a warrant is put out for her arrest, Dixon leaves. He returns to Max as a CO. He still holds resentment towards some of the inmates for the riot. He agrees with another guard saying that the inmates are animals, but says that “there are some good ones”.

Ryder Blake: Blake returns to Max as a CO, and gets involved in Fantasy Inmate. At the opening party, he smokes pot, eventually saying “What if Joseph Smith made it all up?” After the party he drops out of Fantasy Inmate. He gets close with Maria and works with her through her anger and helps her grow in her religion. He is last seen helping Lorna to medical.

Locations of Others Not Mentioned

Unknown: Miss Claudette, Stella Carlin, Allison Abdullah, Janae Watson, Brook Soso, Maritza Ramos, Mei Chang, Brandy Epps

Inmates Transferred to MCC Cleveland: Norma Romano, Gina Murphy, Yoga Jones, Anita DeMarco, Big Boo, Leanne Taylor, Angie Rice, Shelly Ginsberg, Stephanie Hapakuka, Kasey Sankey, Brandy Epps, Skinhead Helen, Carmen “Ouija” Aziza

Released: Jane Ingalls (compassionate release), Judy King

Psych: Lolly Whitehill

Deceased: Poussey Washington, Maureen Kukudio, Miss Rosa Cisneros, Tricia Miller

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madamrogersstorytelling · 6 years

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Day 5: Three favourite movies/series

This is quite easy, actually. For change. After suffering for two days with extremely hard topics, I’m very happy about this. I had my answers ready already.

I haven’t seen all his works yet. I’m kinda new to his filmography anyway, but I’m going to watch everything (I tend to do that with all my favorite actors). So this list may change some time later, but let’s not care about that yet, let’s focus on his works I actually have seen.

1. Jackie & Ryan (2014)

Directed by Ami Canaan Mann

Starring Katherine Heigl, Ben Barnes, Clea DuVall, Emily Alyn Lind

“A modern day train hopper fighting to become a successful musician, and a single mom battling to maintain custody of her daughter, defy their circumstances by coming together in a relationship that may change each others lives forever.”

I’ve said it a few times now, but Ryan has a special place in my heart. I said in my post ‘Madamrogers Storytelling’ that I had this one moment I realized many things; that moment was after seeing this movie. It was a little over a month ago.

Ryan made me realize that if there is a thing I want to do, something I want to accomplish, something I hold dear... I should not get stuck. I have to go towards it, no matter what. I think I somehow can identify with Ryan; I don’t write songs or play music, I write stories. There is still the same agony, the same will to succeed and being able to do what you love. And I’d love to have that same kind of courage as Ryan has, that same way of approaching life.

There are two moments that make me cry. They always make me cry; I’ve watched the movie like five times now and those moments still make me cry. They’re both because of Ryan’s words. In the first one he says to Jackie: “He is not going to take Lia from you. Because you won’t let him.” He sounds so sure, so strong and reassuring that I take it. Something happens inside me. The other moment is when Ryan says: “I always ask myself where am I gonna go next, how am I gonna get there.” I’ve taken that. I ask myself that quite often now. And it helps. I can tell you, it truly helps.

I love Ben in this film. Ryan is so kind, a bit shy, helpful, strong and inspiring character, and Ben’s way of portraying him goes right into my heart. I realized his talent during this film. He tells so much without even saying a single word. I can feel all the emotions he’s showing. And don’t even get me started with his singing voice! I’ve always loved men who sing and play an instrument, especially a guitar. There is something about the way a guitar changes a person; they may be this nice person without it, but when they take a guitar, they change completely. They become deeper, more tender, there is something extremely beautiful in them, more than before. I love all the songs in this film, but Southbound. I fell in love with it during the first note and never stopped falling.

I cannot say that I’m a friend of romantic movies. Especially romcoms make me feel quite bad because they often show love and life so wrongly, like both of them were full of roses and laughter all the time. I’m a bit cynical, to be honest. The reason may be that I’ve never actually been in love. I like honest, meaningful movies that have no fear of showing life and love the way they really are. I have nothing against romance in movies, don’t get me wrong. I just want it to be realistic. And in Jackie & Ryan, this ugly and cruel side of life is shown. Not exactly so clearly, but it’s still there under all those layers. You can see it. I like it how friendly and kind this movie is at the same time as it’s honest and shows you that if something bad happens, often something good comes after it. It’s like when winter dies and spring begins. People’s choices matter. This movie is not just a romantic movie. This is, like Ben said in an interview, a movie about people. I’ve seen that people don’t like it because nothing happens in it. In my opinion, quite a lot happens. This is one of my Go To movies and I’m happy that I found it. It always makes me feel better. I believe in myself. Would probably need someone like Ryan in my life, someone so inspiring and someone who isn’t afraid of telling me the truth. But, for now, this movie’s Ryan will do.

2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Directed by Michael Apted

Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter

“Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.”

I’m actually glad that I watched Narnia films as an adult. I knew what Narnia was as a child, I probably got to know it around the same time as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings but never really watched the movies or read the books. I remember getting this book with a movie cover from a book club. I forced my mom to let me keep it, and gladly I succeeded because I found the book a few weeks ago and it made me so happy. There were happy tears involved. That was the moment I remembered I had wanted to see the film. I also remembered looking at Caspian when I was just a girl and thinking ‘there is something in that one’. Never saw the film, sadly.

But a while ago I sat down and watched these movies (with my mom, actually) and I just fell in love. Especially with this third one. Why am I glad that I watched these films as an adult and not as a child? Mostly because nostalgia hurts me instead of actually making me happy. I remember how much better life was back then. (It hurts to look at Ron Weasley sometimes... He was my first fictional crush.) And because now I have a place I can go, the place I got to know as the person I am now. I have Hogwarts, Middle-earth and all the other worlds I’m not letting go of, but this feeling that there is a place for me. It’s funny, really. The ending song of this movie is just so beautiful. There is a place for us. This movie reminds me of that; there is a place for me. I just haven’t found it yet.

I also love Caspian’s character. I find similarities with myself. Funny enough, my mom even calls me Caspian sometimes (that’s because I have similar hair as he had in Prince Caspian, but mom said once that we’re quite similar in a way). He seems like someone who could make you feel better in mere seconds. The way he speaks, the way he is, and also his hugs must be the best ones in all Narnia. I could go for one of those right now. He is exactly like a person I’d respect. And I respect him, even when he’s just fictional. But he’s a King anyway. And Ben as Caspian, so beautiful. I could say the same things as I did when talking about Ryan, but he has so many emotions in his eyes and body. The way he holds his hand could tell more than a sentence.

We’ve had this common joke “let’s go to Narnia” with my mom long before we even saw the films. But now, after watching them, the joke is even more common. It’s not even a joke anymore. And I know that till the end of my days, these movies and Caspian will remind me of my mom.

3. The Punisher (2017)

Marvel

Created by Steve Lightfoot

Starring Jon Bernthal, Amber Rose Revah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes

“After the murder of his family, Marine veteran Frank Castle became a vigilante known as "The Punisher" with only one goal in mind, to avenge them.”

I suck at watching Marvel’s tv series. I’ve seen almost all the movies of MCU and the new X-Men films and Deadpool, but these tv series I’ve pretty much neglected. I tried to watch Daredevil back in the day but didn’t continue. Then, through my dear friend @accio-rogers, I found out about this show and that Ben Barnes is starring in it as a man called Billy Russo (I had no idea who Billy even was). I went to check the series from IMDb and saw that the main role was played by Jon Bernthal, who I had seen before in The Walking Dead. This started to feel like a safe choice, and during the same day I started to watch it. I was also having an awful summer flu back then, so what else could I have done than watch Netflix? Nothing. Didn’t have energy for anything else.

Turned out that this choice affected on me more than I could’ve expected.

This was the series which made me fall in love with Ben Barnes.

I probably have said this before, but instead of hating him, I love Billy Russo. I find him interesting. He is psychological, he has an interesting backstory. And I’ve always been interested in psychology, so I love this kind of characters. I don’t love everything he does or all his choices, no. No, no. I think he really is a bad man, but in this very interesting, captivating way. I’m unable to hate him. I understand why people hate him or refuse to write soft and sweet things about him. But still, in my deepest thoughts, hopes and fantasies (that came out wrong) - and probably headcanons - I can see that Billy really has a softer side. He is a psychopath, but maybe there is a side of him that is a bit softer? Maybe all of this is just his way of protecting himself? We know he had a tragic childhood. There must be tons and tons of armor on him, he has made stone walls around himself. Maybe there is someone else under those. No one, not even him anymore, can break those walls and armors. I’m more than willing to accept the fact that he is just a psychopath, as well. It makes him interesting.

There is something about Ben playing the bad guy. He is so bad, but you cannot hate him. Billy is the perfect example. He is almost like a perfect villain. And the way Ben portrays him is magnificent: so much emotions in a blink of an eye. He’s phenomenal, a masterpiece. Billy Russo is my favorite antagonist of all time; he has this certain energy that makes him a bit frightening but likeable at the same time. He is well written. Full of layers and psychology. I cannot wait to see where Billy’s (or should we call him Jigsaw now?) story goes in season 2.

_________

If I could’ve list four, Westworld would’ve been the fourth. I spent quite some time finding out do I actually love or hate Logan; decided eventually that I love him, that hottie-naughty cowboy. And I’m only in season 1! Yikes.

Happy Ben Barnes week!

@benbarnesweek

#benbarnesweek2018 #ben barnes #ben barnes appreciation week #day 5

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araminia16 · 6 years

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Of Dragons and Pillows

I think I might be spoiling you guys with like a story every night or something. My muse keeps firing up for stuff. I’ll probably have them have some sort of an awkward discussion in my next one or the one after. I’ve got two more planned but more may be forthcoming. I’m just not sure how I want to do the Talk between Mike and El.

However my next one may not be up for two or three days. My husband’s grandmother just died so we will have to do stuff with that and I work full time and have a kid so my free time is only when he sleeps before I go to bed. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

XxOxX

About a month after the Snowball Mike, after much begging and pleading and yardwork for Hopper managed to get him to agree to let Eleven come to his house under the cover of darkness and a hooded jacket and gave them a strict curfew of three hours only.

He was sure that Eleven had done some begging and pleading of her own and they talked nearly every night. Sometimes it was just for a minute or two, just to hear each other’s voices, sometimes it was longer if she had a question or if either of them had a story. Sometimes he called when the party was over and each of them got to talk with her too. Those times he felt jealous, but knew that they cared about her too despite the fact that he wanted her all to himself all the time.

But tonight was a game night and he couldn’t wait to introduce her to his favorite game and he hoped that she would like it. Even Max was coming. The two girls had settled out their differences during the Snowball dance and now they were starting to become friends as well.

As he meticulously set up the adventure he knew that it had to be a short journey for it only to last three hours, especially when he was going to make everyone reroll a new group for an adventure. But he knew that Will, at least had rerolled a Cleric for this adventure. He wasn’t sure about Dustin and Lucas but they could spend a few minutes on character creation as long as it didn’t take forever.

The chairs (including two more) had just been put into place when he heard the doorbell ring and raced up the stairs, brushing past his mom who was talking on the phone and wrenched open the door. Curly hair and a grin announced the arrival of Dustin who waved and walked past him, then he spotted Will getting out of his mom’s car and he could barely hear their conversation, which ended with Will’s exasperated and loud sigh as he shut the door. When he walked up he sighed, “My mom wants me to call every hour.”

Mike shrugged, “Won’t take that long. Maybe we can stretch it out.”

Will sighed with his folder and made his way to the basement.

Max and Lucas came next, not together, but not far apart from each other either. Lucas’s bike was parked next to the door and Billy’s car revved down the street. Max practically had to leap out of a moving vehicle for all the time that he stopped for her to get out but she made it in with a quick smile to Mike and Lucas’s urging to hurry downstairs so they could get started on telling her all the rules.

Mike waited next to the door, feeling more and more crestfallen as the minutes ticked by when he saw the flash of lights and leapt across the room to open the door. Hopper’s jeep came to a full stop and he tapped his foot urgently, waiting to see her again.

The door opened and a small figure exited the jeep, bogged down with so much baggy clothing that if he didn’t know that it was her he would have been very confused.

She raced up and collided with him and he wrapped his arms around her and they stayed like that, in the doorway for longer than they probably should have but it felt so good to hug her again. “Wheeler! She gets three hours! That’s it.”

“Yes, Chief!” He shouted back. “Come on in. You can meet my mom really quick and then we can go downstairs.”

Eleven pulled her hood down and she gave him a smile. Those curls that were styled perfectly at the Snow Ball were wild and errant now and still looked just as beautiful now as she did then. He took her hand and they walked into the house, stopping by his mom who just stared at the girl that her son was holding hands with. “Mom, this is El--. I mean Jane Hopper.”

Karen Wheeler could only really stare but smiled, “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Eleven smiled.

Karen must have missed something deep in her son’s life for him to be bringing by a girl that she hasn’t ever seen before but before she could interrogate her son any further he made his exit.

“Well, now you’ve met. Let’s go.” Mike pulled her away and they raced downstairs to join the rest of the group, who was now arguing over something.

“She can’t be a zoomer. There’s no Zoomer class, Lucas.” Dustin fired at the two across the table.

“Can’t we make up a class?” Lucas shot back.

“No.” Mike broke in as he pulled out the chair next to him for Eleven to sit in.

“Hey El!” They chimed in simultaneously and she gave them all a bright smile.

“Hi.”

“Why the hell not?” Lucas huffed out.

“Because then we would have to make shit up and I don’t want to do that tonight.” Mike huffed back.

“Well what can we do then?”

Mike turned to Max, who was looking really confused. “What sorts of things do you want your character to be able to do?”

“Move fast, jump, talk fast. Stuff I do.”

“How about a thief?” Will spoke up from his notes. “A thief is based in dex and int mostly with some charisma thrown in if she rolls high enough.”

“What’s a thief do in the game?” Max brushed her hair back behind her ear while she focused on Will intently.

“Steals stuff, scales cliffs and down chasms, can hide in the shadows and make devastating backstabs and find traps. We haven’t had one yet.”

“Good idea, Will.”

“Sure. Why not. Lucas has told me some stuff about the game but how do you make choices and stuff?” Max asked.

“You won’t have to worry too much about that. Each member of our party is starting over for this adventure.”

“Come on, Mike. I thought you were joking. My dwarf has a +2 axe! That’s bullshit.”

“You don’t have to keep the fucking character Dustin. Just for today. Your dwarf will live again.”

That seemed to placate him and he settled back to dig through his backpack and pull out his character folder and put a new sheet out. “What to do. Probably another warrior…what race?” Then he started mumbling while pulling out his dice bag and beginning to roll.

Mike turned to Eleven, who was just sitting and watching them all. “I have a character sheet for you too if you want.”

Her brown eyes darted back and forth between the game and Mike and finally she shook her head. “No. But I would like to read more on it.”

“Sure.” He brought out his handbook, which was actually in pretty good condition considering the fact that he used it so often. “I know it all pretty much by heart now.”

She nodded and took the book with another smile and he returned it, letting his hand linger on hers for a moment before turning back to look at his friends.

Max and Lucas, with help from Will were explaining the basics and handing dice to Max for her stat rolls.

This continued for about ten more minutes before everyone decided they were ready to start.

Eleven had taken up an awkward position with her knees up and back against his shoulder, which hampered his ability to move somewhat but she seemed like she was comfortable so he didn’t mind at all.

“You will start your journey in a small fishing village…” Mike began.

The game went on with each of them making their own mistakes and choices as the game progressed. Finally, during a fight with a wolf, Dustin rolled a 20 and the entire room erupted in cheers and high fives as he beheaded the creature with a swing of his axe.

“Take that you bastards!” He roared and rolled again, landing a 10 causing him to miss the next swing and the next wolf to give him a minor wound to the arm.

Eleven spoke for the first time since they started as her attention was split between the book and the game. Mike noted that she was on the chapter about races, “Is a 20 good?”

“It’s awesome. We play it just a little different but a 20 means that you do the best that you possibly can. Most of the time it’s an instant kill, sometimes we make them roll again for the crit but usually on the low level stuff it’s just one roll.” Mike explained and she nodded.

The continued playing and Will rolled a 20 to heal, healed a severely wounded Dustin to full health which spilled over to heal Max and Lucas to nearly full health as well.

They continued to play and nearly every roll ended up a 20, they were getting it so often that Will started to think something fishy was going on. He had a bit of an inner radar on strange things since his possession and kidnapping into another dimension. Finally though he noticed that Eleven was very focused on the die and slammed the table with a fist. “Ha!”

The rest of the group jumped in their seats and he pointed at Eleven with playful accusation. “You’ve been messing with the dice, haven’t you?”

“What the hell, Will? You can just point your finger at her. She hasn’t done anything.”

“There’s been an awful lot of 20s, Mike.” Dustin remarked.

Eleven looked much like a deer in the headlights, “I….I…”

“It’s okay Eleven.” Will soothed, smiling at her expression to help ease her sudden fear.

“I did. I made it to be a 20 each time because it made you happy. Was that a bad thing?” She sounded confused in the way that she was when they first found her and started teaching her about things and words she had missed out on growing up in the lab.

“No. But the reason 20s are so awesome is because they don’t happen that often. It makes them special and if they happen all the time then it’s less fun.” Mike told her gently and she turned to face them with the book in her hand.

“But isn’t it easier?”

“Yeah. But sometimes it is way more fun to do it the harder way. It makes us use our characters more and learn how to do things differently. We learn from the low rolls.” Lucas chimed in.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” She put the book down and Mike lifted his arm to bring her in for a short hug to comfort her.

“Don’t apologize. It’s still fun.” Will shrugged. “But…since you’ve broken the law of the game we are forced to intervene.” The smaller boy leapt up and grabbed a pillow, launching it at the two. Eleven managed to catch it with her powers before the other boys jumped in and started throwing pillows at each other.

The D&D game devolved quickly into a shouting match peppered by feathers and laughter and by the time Hopper came by to get her she was exhausted and so much happier than she had been since the Snowball.

Mike walked her up the stairs and to the door. “I’m sorry about the game, Mike.”

“Don’t be. It was just a fake game anyway, to help Max and you.” He shrugged and fidgeted anxiously.

“Mike?”

“Yeah?”

“I liked it. Can I play with you guys again?” “Yeah! Keep the book too and read up. Just don’t fix the dice again.” He joked, “And you can maybe even come over for movie night and stuff too. And when you go to school we can share some classes but I don’t know if Hopper will be able to put you in. I could ask him about coming over to catch you up in school.” He was rambling he knew, but before losing his nerve, he pressed a kiss to her cheek, then another peck to her lips and she blushed before giving him a smile and opening the door. Hopper was starting to let off a series of irritated honks from his jeep. She turned away from him with an irritated huff and walked to his jeep and after settling into the seat she waved and smiled at him. And he was still watching her as the disappeared down the street.

He couldn’t wait to see her again.

XxOxX

I wanted to write something lighter, sometimes I don’t get the group dynamic down just right but I think it would definitely be something that she would do to make them all happy.

#stranger things #mileven #d&d #mike wheeler #will byers #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #lucas/max #fanfiction

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eirian-houpe · 4 years

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The Library Beneath the Clock Tower - Chapter 29

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Belle/Gaston (Once Upon a Time)

Additional Tags: Bookshop On the Corner, slightly AU, Cursed Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), Alternate Universe - In Storybrooke | Cursed (Once Upon a Time), Eventual Smut

Summary: Storybrooke has no library, and neither does Belle, not since the library where she worked in Boston discovered her past as an inpatient at a mental hospital. Taking her future into her own hands, Belle travels to Storybrooke where her intention is to open up the town library, but all does not go according to her plan. Obstacles and false starts, and diversion along very wrong pathways interrupt her journey toward fulfilling her dream, as well as taking her rightful place and becoming a part of the Storybrooke community.

Read previous chapters on AO3

Chapter 29 - The Loneliness of Routine

Belle contemplated Paige’s words for several days, while reading her childhood’s favorite novel over again between patrons in the library. Life, for now, seemed to have settled into a routine and it was comforting, and gave her a sense of belonging. The loneliness persisted though, perhaps made more real, or more noticeable by Ruby’s, seemingly, very active love life, and after several days of feeling that way, she took a long lunch break, made her way out of Storybrooke, and to the tree. The note she left for Hunter there was a simple greeting, but she was happy to see that the book she had left for him was gone, and thus began the relationship she and Hunter built. He would leave a note, and she would reply, or the other way around.

Sometimes the notes were long and romantic, notions of what might be… if they would allow it. At other times the notes were short, a simple greeting or response to her greetings, and yet again sometimes there would be little hand made gifts left on the tree for her to find.

Spring blossomed, bloomed and passed into the beginnings of the approaching summer.

“It’s not real, you know?”

Belle blinked as Ruby spoke one morning over breakfast, as she straightened out the crumpled note, the latest that had been tacked to the tree. She looked up to see Ruby gesturing at the paper under her hand.

“All of this… thing with Hunter,” Ruby went on. “You’re pining and mooning around after something and someone that isn’t at all real.”

“Of course he’s real,” Belle answered. “You’ve seen him. You traveled with him from Boston.”

“Not my point,” Ruby snapped, “and you know that. All these notes, and declarations of what…? Love? Get real, Belle. When have you ever done anything other than leave sappy little notes to each other. If he were at all interested, truly interested, wouldn’t he have come here before now? Come to find you?” Belle opened her mouth to respond, but Ruby wasn’t finished. “And what do you know about him anyway, truly know. For all you know he could be using you, setting you up… grooming you to be what… just another port in a storm?”

“Ruby!” Belle protested, finding herself breathless with her friend’s vitriol. “It isn’t like that.”

“You don’t know that, Belle,” Ruby reached across the table and gripped her wrist so tightly that it hurt. “You don’t know anything about him.”

“I know he’s kind. I know he helped out when he didn’t have to,” she snapped.

“Look, Belle,” Ruby said, her tone softening. “I’m not trying to be mean, I’m not, honestly. I just… I worry about you, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Hunter isn’t going to hurt me,” she said. “And anyway, who are you to talk? You know Gus really likes you, and are you even giving him the time of day?”

“You’ve been so busy walking around with your head up your ass over Hunter, that you don’t even remember I told you he’s coming over… today.”

“Oh, so what is this exactly,” Belle didn’t mean to be so petulant, but her temper was riled and she was feeling defensive, not because she thought Ruby was wrong, but because she feared that she might be right. “You’ve moved in here or something?”

“Ouch,” Ruby said, and the both of them fell silent, aside from the sighs they each made, one after the other.

Belle hated fighting, with anyone, but most of all with Ruby. In the end she was the first to say quietly, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Ruby said, getting up to come around and hug Belle gently from behind. “It’s only because I worry about you. You know that right?”

Belle nodded. “Yes, and I shouldn’t have snapped.”

Ruby shrugged and let go, perching on the edge of the table. “So what does the latest note say, love bird?”

Belle blushed and chuckled just a little bit, before she pushed the note toward Ruby. She watched as Ruby picked up the note and read it. It said, “Saturday… Meet me at our ‘spot.’ no return pickup.”

Ruby handed the note back with a raised eyebrow. “What are you going to do?” she asked, “Make out in the woods and end up covered in mud and leaves?”

Belle spluttered in an attempt to get the words out. “Of course not!” she said. Then she sighed, “Ruby, I moved here to start a new life… I’ve been putting everything on hold until now. It’s time that I embraced what I set out to do. I’m finally feeling at home, the library is working really well but…” she sighed, “I’m lonely.”

“You have me,” Ruby said.

“Not the same.” Belle answered, though she reached over to squeeze her friend’s hand. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Ruby said, “But I promise you, if I swung that way, you’d be the first on my list.”

“Gee, thanks,” Belle said dryly, making Ruby laugh.

“It’s just…” Belle began, faltering slightly before she went on, “It’s just time that I embraced this new life I’ve made for myself, and if that includes exploring this thing I have going on with Hunter, however unconventional it might be, then… that’s what I need to do. What I want to do.”

“Okay, just…” Ruby sighed, “…be careful, all right? I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces.”

“You won’t,” she said. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

Ruby nodded. “So…” she said hesitantly, “You… really mind if I have Gus over tonight?”

Belle shook her head. “No, not really. I’m just jealous, I guess.”

Ruby reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t be, Belle. You’re beautiful, you deserve the best, you know that.”

“Well, that’s as may be, but… anyway, I’ll stay down in the library and give you two some privacy. There’s plenty to do down there,” she said, though it wasn’t necessarily the truth, but if she had to, if she ran out of things to do, she could always take a walk, visit Granny’s for a treat or something, there was plenty she could do… She could even walk out to the tree, and leave Hunter an answer to his invitation.

“You sure,” Ruby said, and she could hear the doubt in her friend’s voice.

“Yes,” Belle said softly. “I’m sure.”

In the end, that evening, Belle opted for Granny’s, ordering an iced tea and a slice of pie, and went to sit in the booth furthest from the door, furthest from everything so that she could sit and watch everyone over the top of the book that she had brought with her and wasn’t reading, and which quickly turned into a daydream of sorts.

She had told Ruby that she felt at home in Storybrooke, and it was true, she did, but she didn’t feel like she really fit in. The only real friend she had in the town was Ruby, and she wasn’t from there. Sure Leroy had been kind to her, and stuck by her, almost like a protective older brother.

Then there was Gold, her landlord, with whom she shared, at best, an antagonistic relationship. He’d never actually done her wrong - though she had learned by listening to gossip that there were many people who couldn’t say the same - and she had good reason to believe that actually he was also sort of looking out for her, at least in a quiet sort of way that was probably more a power struggle between him and the mayor in which she was the pawn. At least that’s what she liked to tell herself, but then there was the book.

She hadn’t told Ruby exactly where it had come from, and she hadn’t not told her either. She simply let her assume that it had been from one of the other libraries and not corrected her when Ruby enthused over it, remembering that it had been Belle’s childhood favorite… and she hadn’t stopped wondering where it truly had come from, and why he hadn’t told her that it was in the box, when she had given him the title of the book.

He took the index card, read the contents of the card, and then slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket, and Belle thought she saw the ghost of a smile on his face.

What did it mean? What did any of it mean.

“I’ll give ye a penny for em, but no more.”

Maggie had suddenly appeared beside her, and Belle gave herself a little shake wondering how she could have gotten so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t even notice when Maggie came in. She gave the other woman a smile, and Maggie evidently took it as an invitation to join her and slipped into her booth.

“So?” Maggie asked.

Belle shook her head. “Oh, I was just thinking,” she said.

“Aye. That much is evident, but I asked what about?” Maggie said.

“Life.” Belle sighed, “How… if I really do fit in here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maggie exclaimed rather too loudly for Belle’s taste. “Ye fit in just fine.”

Belle gave her a smile. “Thank you for that, but I’m not sure I believe you.”

“Och, ye’ve just things on your mind that’s stopping you from going out and embracing your part in the tapestry that is this town.”

“What do you mean?” Belle asked with a frown.

“Well, ye seem to have quite the influential suitor,” Maggie chuckled and added, “Though I never thought I’d ever see the day.”

Belle shook her head again. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

Maggie sighed, and said, “Oh, I’d have hoped you’d realize by now, but since ye havenae, it’d be bad luck for me to say any more, but… well, ye just wait. Summer’s coming.”

“Summer?”

“Aye, you’ll see.” Maggie said softly.

#rumbelle #AU (slight)#cursed storybrooke #angst #eventual smut #the bookshop on the corner

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woozapooza · 7 years

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Black Sails 1x01

Here we go!!! A new show!!! What a good pilot episode. So much happened, I can’t believe it’s only been one episode.

I was apprehensive about starting Black Sails because I’d been anticipating it for months and had built it up in my head. It’s the same apprehension I had starting Wynonna Earp. But once again, I have correctly judged from a tiny bit of information that a show is an excellent match for me. I’m not nearly as good as I’d like to be at following and remembering the events of shows, so after I finished the episode, I recounted as much of the plot as I could remember to myself. While doing that, I realized one thing that made it such a good way to start a show: it’s brimming with the theme of gambling, of making dangerous choices that may pay off hugely down the line or may end in disaster. Combine that with the numerous interesting characters, not to mention the fact that it’s a period drama about pirates I mean come on what’s better than that, and you’ve got the perfect recipe to make me keep watching. I hope everything in the following lil recap/review is factually correct but eh who knows.

Let’s start with Flint. The trope of angsty morally dubious loner captain dude, while cool in theory, does not always go over well for me (see Jack Harkness and Mal Reynolds, neither of whom is as questionable as Flint). But I think in Flint this trope (which probably has a name, or at least is an amalgam of a few tropes that have names) may finally work for me, and I’m not just saying that out of ginger solidarity, nor just because aesthetically Flint is #goals. Flint has been “gambling” for months before the show even starts: he’s been going after ships that don’t seem like good targets because he thinks they’ll lead him to the jackpot, the Urca de Lima. The result of him keeping his plan secret from the crew is low morale and the threat of mutiny. Flint has to walk the line between keeping the crew satisfied and pursuing a goal that will more than make up for the toll its pursuit takes. He fails to walk this line, but Singleton’s mutiny gives Flint the opportunity to change tactics while still very much gambling: by accusing Singleton of stealing the Urca’s schedule, he gets to fight and kill Singleton (he also had to bet on Singleton choosing a duel over a trial, but I’m assuming he knew Singleton well enough that it wasn’t a risky bet) and pretend to recover the schedule from Singleton’s corpse. Until he produced the blank sheet of paper, I really couldn’t guess whether he actually suspected Singleton or he was just looking for an excuse to put down the mutiny. I didn’t expect the trick with the blank paper. Flint may be the main character but you can’t always see into his head, so I expect he’ll be a lot of fun to watch. I enjoy his cleverness, his ruthlessness, and his moments of vulnerability. I’m still unsure whether he meant it at all when he apologized to the crew for keeping secrets from them. I’d like to think it wasn’t a complete lie, even though it was also a ploy to get them to like him again, but it’s not like he’s stopped lying to them. He has his crew’s loyalty back—fortunately he was right to gamble that Billy would play along and pretend Singleton really did have the schedule—but it will only last so long before they realize he doesn’t have it. He also has to hide the fact that Guthrie, who was key to getting the ship, is a) under arrest and b) so far, unwilling to help. Will Flint get the schedule for realsies before the crew figures out that he lied to them again?

Lying now and hoping he’ll have the means to make up for it later is not the worst thing Flint does in this episode. It’s the killing of Singleton that really shows that he’s not a straightforward hero. I wouldn’t say mutiny justifies murder, but then again I’m not a pirate. I also wouldn’t say theft merits the death penalty, but that’s how pirates do. What I’m getting at is, Flint may do questionable things (like, in addition to the very fact of piracy), but he’s not the only one. I guess pirates have their own morality and just because Flint does things I wouldn’t do doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some kind of code. He even acknowledges, speaking to Billy, that pirates have a way of life that makes sense to them but not to mainstream people (I know I’m making pirates sound like hipsters but it was the first phrasing that came to mind): “men who keep what is theirs and fear no one.”

Speaking of Billy the boatswain, I really like him as well, and not just because he’s played by Tom Hopper. His type of gambling has to do with how much of his faith and loyalty he’s going to put into Flint. He pretends that Flint was correct to accuse Singleton of theft, but he’s by no means a sycophant. When Flint is brutally interrogating Richard Guthrie and tells Billy to point the gun at Guthrie, Billy has no problem pointing it at Flint instead. So if Billy is playing along with Flint’s scheme, he must have weighed the options and decided this was best. Billy, like Flint, thinks, speaks, and acts for himself. Also, he looks like Tom Hopper.

Silver is a bit of a weird character because he’s to some extent our point-of-view character, but he’s also absent for large parts of the episode. Regarding his role as the audience stand-in, it was cool to show him discovering all the information about the Urca de Lima at the same time that Flint’s voiceover was explaining the same information. Regarding Silver’s personality, I really enjoy his unapologetic selfishness and self-preservation. Everyone on the show has their ways of looking out for themselves, and for Silver, that happens to mean hiding below deck, killing the cook (in self-defense, to be fair), stealing the Urca’s schedule because he knows it’s valuable even though he doesn’t know why, and pretending he’s a cook so he gets to join the crew of the Walrus (I’m looking forward to find out whether he actually can cook). But when Flint kills Singleton, do I dare see in Silver’s face a hint of remorse that his actions might have gotten someone killed, or do I need to be more cynical? Anyway, his main gamble is to hold on to the schedule rather than hand it over to Flint. He also has to make the gamble to trust Max.

Max, who is pretty mysterious so far but very alluring, likewise has to gamble to trust Silver. I like their dynamic—good teamwork from two blatantly self-interested people. Her acquisition of the schedule parallels how Silver got it: he could tell the cook really wanted to hold onto it, she could tell he really wanted to hold onto it. Both of them are clearly good at identifying where profit lies and getting there. Silver says that when he sees an opportunity for gain, he can’t help but take it; when given the chance to back out of a partnership with him, Max isn’t tempted, which suggests that she is much the same. As for another of Max’s relationships, as I have said, one of the reasons I wanted to watch this show was that I knew it had quality gay/bi content and WOW it turns out they hit you with it right in the first episode! I ship her and Eleanor by default (and because of the line “Max is your harbor,” I’ve decided my ship tag will be “all I want is to be your harbor”) but their interaction was mostly sex, so I hope we get to see more depth to their relationship soon. However, one of the episode’s few tender moments was Max’s concern when she saw the bruise Vane left on Eleanor’s face, so that bodes well for her and for the two of them.

I think Eleanor might be my favorite character so far, largely because Hannah New is very attractive when she’s swearing. And in general. She gambles by funding Gates’ efforts at bribery (making their interaction also a gamble for Gates) and oops she almost won that gamble but not quite. She also has to choose between loyalty to Vane and loyalty to Flint. She chooses Flint. We’ll see how that turns out. She is undoubtedly and unapologetically self-interested, but without crossing the line into immorality. (I mean immorality relative to the show’s baseline morality.) Same goes for most of these characters, now that I think about it, including Max. In addition to their similarities, these ladies balance each other: Eleanor is gruffer but more emotional, while Max is more subtle and more sanguine. Ship ship ship.

While watching The 100 I often wondered if Roan was just a boring character or if there was an innate boringness to Zach McGowan. Now I can declare that Roan is just a boring character. Vane is not boring. He’s pretty frightening, really. Maybe ZM should just only ever play villains? I don’t know. Anyway, despite being set up as the antagonist, I’m not yet convinced that Vane is really much worse than Flint. We shall see. He’s got a plan of his own, though it doesn’t really fit the gambling theme: he tried to engineer the victory of Singleton’s mutiny so that, once the crew of the Walrus realized they no longer had a competent captain, they’d defect to Vane’s crew. That didn’t pan out since Flint took down Singleton and made up with his crew, but Vane didn’t really lose anything, at least not as far as we’ve seen. For that reason, he’s probably the character who came out of the pilot looking the least vulnerable.

Gates, like Flint, feels like a character type I have seen before: the practical, long-suffering but loyal second-in-command to the headstrong, risk-taking team leader. The only other example I can think of is Bennet Drake from Ripper Street, but I think I’ve seen it elsewhere as well. Gates is the one who puts into words the theme I’ve been talking about: he tells Eleanor that if she loans him money to ensure Flint retains the captaincy, it will be an “investment in the future.” I’m looking forward to seeing whose investments pay off and whose future wins out.

There’s a lot of conflict already, but there’s a lot of overlap of characters’ traits, I guess because they all know this piratey world quite well and what kind of person you have to be to survive and to thrive. Basically, the first episode sets up a rough world where everyone is looking out for themselves and making difficult choices that they think are for their own good but that might have explosive consequences down the line. We get a glimpse of what these characters want and what they’re willing to do to get it. Also there are pirates. What’s not to love?

WHO DOES RACKHAM REMIND ME OF? I looked up Toby Schmitz’s filmography and I don’t think I’ve see him in anything else but I swear he reminds me of someone!

Best dialogue of the episode:

Gates, to Billy: You’re a highly regarded member of this crew. The captain regards your input more than you know.

Gates, to Flint: Billy’s going with you.

Flint: Who’s Billy?

#x #Black Sails #black sails 1x01 #black sails review #review #this is mainly for my benefit but hey if anyone wants to Engage you're welcome to do so #Anna watches tv #Anna watches Black Sails #I have many thoughts

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