#i have been waiting for this callback since the moment it was introduced in episode 6 i feel SO VINDICATED now

[ardentlytess]

episode 6 » episode 11

WAITING FOR YOU in VICE VERSA (2022)

[variousqueerthings]

I think -- sexism aside for a moment -- that the big thing that frustrates me about m*ffat's era of doctor who, and something I hope doesn't continue into chibnall or rtd2, is that it feels like there's never a plan for where things are going

and technically one doesn't need to build an era with an overarching idea as such, classic!who seems to be taking it season by season (or even serial by serial, since it's the 60s-80s an season-long arcs and character developments weren't the big thing they are today)

but then he keeps teasing that there is a plan for where things are going. there's a big prophecy, it spans across the galaxy, look an alien bar with a bunch of callbacks to doctor who and new, cool aliens, look, the shadow proclamation throwing out cool words like "suicide moons," look a religious cult with big plans and all these things are leading us... somewhere...

outside of standalone episodes I feel like I'm watching a bunch of concepts for a completely different show, thrown together in a montage (yes, another montage is happening, if I'd remembered it was so many, I would have counted them, and it's always a montage showing how cool the doctor is or how someone is looking for the doctor because of how dangerous and cool the doctor is)

and I know it's not going to go anywhere

the thing so far that has gone the most somewhere was teasing the return of the Master via Michelle Gomez (which, I had other problems with how that was done if I ever finish my rating of the s8 finale, but it wasn't with the idea of the Master's return itself or with Michelle Gomez' portrayal outside of some of the dialogue this poor woman had to make work) and that worked because it wasn't some big prophecy about anything, it was the Master popping out of their box again going "notice meeeee!" which is, yeah, that's a thing that happens on dw a lot, and I quite like some of the way it spells out a bit of the quiet part of their relationship (although we have Questions about Pacing amongst other things)

but nearly every season some random alien has been introduced going "ooooh the doctor, we've got personal beef" and it's cut together like a star wars sequence (side-sweep transition and all) and I know it's meaningless random set-dressing

people worried about how having too much money might affect rtd2, but to me the worst use of dw money has already been, because it created a show that wasn't so much dw as it was hanging onto the coattails of other scifi series without knowing how to build its own identity, so it just threw money at designs and explosions and wrote quippy dialogue spoken too fast to fool you into thinking something was going to happen eventually

and so you wait and wait and wait and then it ends

[respectthepetty]

Hi hi! I was just doing a rewatch of last week’s episode of Bed Friend and kept noticing tiny things I unwillingly zeroed in on and need to shout about, and since you’re the ultimate Enjoyer of Details in Fictional Worlds, I hope you don’t mind if I send my thoughts your way.

First of all, and most importantly, and the thing about this episode that is the weirdest and most disconcerting to me: why the hell was the shirt Jade was wearing when he showed up at Uea’s place on his birthday the exact same one Uea was wearing during that flashback as he watched that child (is it a random child? Not gonna lie, at first I automatically thought it was King) celebrate his birthday while his mother abused him again? What is this show trying to tell me?!

Then—and I think this every time I come across this scene—I think it’s such an interesting choice that the very first time we see the Evil Uncle, he’s coming out of the one room Uea probably associates the worst things with in that house—the bathroom. What a way to introduce us to his character.

In that same scene, I also love the choice of having Uea knock over and destroy the picture frame showing the Evil Uncle, the mom and his sister. Without Uea. Because a) that tells us Uea isn’t really considered part of the family and they would rather be this happy family with the mom, the dad and the nice, sweet daughter and without the embarrassing homo son (at least when it comes to his mom), and b) this is exactly what Uea is destroying (both literally and figuratively) in that moment: the happy family they desperately try to pretend to be. (I can’t really speak for his sister here because she genuinely seems to love Uea, but this is definitely true for his mother, and at least to some extent surely also for the Evil Uncle.)

But also, because I study linguistics and Thai just keeps giving me new linguistic fodder to sink my teeth into, the way Uea talks to his sister fascinates me. Because when they talk to each other on the phone, Uea uses kha with her, not khab. Why does he do that?? I am frustrated, I am delighted, I am perplex. The only uses of kha by a person identifying as male that I knew of are to express queerness and to flirt with girls.

Anyway, you have reached the end of the rant. Congratulations! I am impressed you made it this far. Now I’ll let you get back to your regularly scheduled programming of thinking about colors. Thanks for reading!

(P. S. I was dumbstruck, not to say horrified, to find out you watch most shows on mute and I have Thoughts on it because you’re missing out on so much good stuff and musical choices and voice acting (all of which I might come back to at some point), but I get your reasoning and respect that not everyone is the same. I am still astonished, though.)

Anon, this took me a second because you mentioned such great details in Bed Friend that I've been seeing others discuss, and every time I was going to hit respond, someone wrote something else and I had more thoughts.

I loved your linguistics lesson because I know nothing about Thai. It is interesting that Uea uses that term with his sister, and I would like to know more about this. In a language enforced with honorifics, his intentional use of the term fascinates me as much as you if it denotes queerness. Anyone else feel confident in educating us more on this?

This show is doing a lot with the tiny details, including the full-circle moments and callbacks (which gives me hope that King is that kid from the very beginning even though several people have told me that is not how this works), but if you thought reading your comments was a feat, which it was far more of a treat, just wait until you see the dissertation awaiting you.

It's Uea's Birthday & He'll Cry If He Wants To

The shirts

Before I get to business, let me tell you about the business - ZARA! This shirt was part of its 2021 Playmobil collaboration, and the figurine is a tourist. There's even a black version, but he is wearing the opposite; he has the blue and white stripes on and his little person on his shirt is in the yellow rain jacket.

Now, to the shirts: My big-brained mutuals have thoughts about the shirts and the color yellow in Bed Friend. They believe Uea is actually a Yellow/Orange Oddity like Jade, while I think yellow represents happiness, and Uea's trying to cling to happiness even if he has to fake it.

Knowing that it's a Playmobil figurine (regardless of the date and the store) reinforces the child aspect of the shirt, but knowing it's a tourist, to me, puts a new spin on it. Uea is constantly being reminded of his childhood even though he keeps running from it, but Uea is also a tourist in his own life, merely observing what is happening rather than living. Even in the past, he is observing the kid celebrating his birthday with his parents instead of celebrating his with his own family. Perhaps this is another reason we see Julia Child's My Life in France in his house which recounts her time observing and living in other countries.

Jade is a source of happiness, but he is reminding Uea of his childhood, not just with the shirt, but with his entire presence. Jade is happy and innocent (of what we have seen so far), which is something Uea never got a chance to be. Jade brings happiness to Uea's door, but he also brings up memories that Uea is desperately trying to block out.

The Smiley Faces

Jade shows up in the Playmobil shirt of birthdays past, but also with a smiley face balloon, and we, unlike Jade, know what Uea's connection to smiley faces is:

Uea covers up a lot of his pain by acting fine and happy, but when he is alone with his thoughts, the smiley face is another vicious reminder of all the times he was robbed of happiness.

After the incident with King, where King's closeness to the back of Uea's neck triggered Uea, King apologized to Uea, yet even that apology was laced with a reminder of why Uea was bothered. A tiny handwritten smiley face shows up at the end of the message.

Jade and King don't see what Uea's sees. This is another layer to the "Uea is robbed of happiness" onion. Jade and King are sincerely trying to make Uea happy, but that vile smiley face reminds him of the insincerity of his stepfather and every other man who has just wanted to harm him.

The Family

@malepresentingleg gifted all of us with a comparison of the series versus the novel, and within it mentioned:

Uea's sister, Tonkao, is the biological child of his stepfather and mom

Whenever Uea's mom would lock him in the bathroom, his stepfather would try to get him out for the apparent reason

We already understood, as you mentioned, that the bathroom is a place for punishment and trauma for Uea

So for the stepfather to enter the scene by freely stepping out of it, something Uea could never do, when Uea is looking at a drawing of what his sister considers a happy family (just them), is a visual beatdown.

People are upset about the editing of this series, but when it is done well, it's a sucker punch. I actually paused the episode here because I was so disgusted when this bastard opened the door.

But we had a similar situation when Uea's mom first appeared on screen. Everything leading up to seeing her was a rush. Uea was panicked and worried. He was running out of his office and into the hospital with King hurrying after him. And then we got a slow-pan of this...

The Lion, The Witch, & The Audacity of This Bitch. She was chilling with the most disgusted face once she saw her son.

The first time we see her, not in a memory, but in Uea's present life, her introduction serves us an entire narrative before she even utters a word.

The next time Uea is in the hospital, he goes to get tested with King, and we feel his hesitation and anxiety. Not only is the situation stressful for him, but the last time he was in the hospital, he was being humiliated by his mother. The bathroom and the hospital aren't just places with bad memories; they are places of constant and current degradation.

And on top of that, we have Uea's sister calling him back home, a place drenched with his pain and shame, for his birthday. From the above master's level thesis I wrote, we already know what his birthday means for Uea (the biggest theft of his happiness), but he also hates when men try to hit on him through Jade, so I'm guessing he is just as bothered that his mother is requesting his presence (to ask for more money) by using his sister against him.

Tonkao considers him her family. Her drawing depicts that, and the picture on the table of them together is the only picture of Uea in the house, yet he is covered up with the other pictures.

For his stepfather, Uea is an object. For his mother, Uea is an ATM. They might be a family, but they aren't a family to him. And ironically, the cracks start with the mom, who abused her son for being gay.

And if there is one thing that this show is trying to tell us, it's that sometimes family ain't shit.

Can't wait to mute these men again and not hear one more dumb ass word out of their mouths in a few hours.

This office better start feeling French and overthrow their leadership while cutting off toxic family members or heads will roll!

👨‍👦‍👦HEADS 👨‍👦 WILL 👨 ROLL💀

[teresa-moyocoyotzin]

short recap of my thoughts on 5x09

okay so i was gonna rewatch the whole episode and do a blow-by-blow reaction post but i’m not sure i’ll have time and i kinda wanna focus on watching my fave scenes from the show before tonight. also, everyone else’s reaction posts p. much sum up my thoughts lol 

nonetheless, i just wanted to give my main takeaways on the episode a week later, in case anyone cares where i’m at going into the finale! gonna go over the things i liked first, anyone who wants to just remain positive and not see any salty takes might wanna just stick to reading the first part b/c i definitely rant a bit at the end lmao. we’re still having a fun time tho 😂

THINGS I LOVED

- i mean... i think we know LOL

- obviously. i loved james and teresa’s i love you scenes, and kisses, and OOF THAT SEX SCENE. if someone had told me we were gonna get that scene back in like 2017??? i probably would have started literally floating. i totally respect that people had very specific ideas of what they wanted out of those scenes and could have different feelings about it but NOT ME BABES I AM ECSTATIC!!! i did go into the episode with a ~feeling~ that we were gonna get at least one ILY in the episode, and i just had a feeling it would be james, or at least that he would say it first. i’ve already explained in my meta about the scenes why i think it makes sense that he said it first and why i love it that he did, so i won’t go into that here. but i went in having really no expectations for it other than that it was gonna happen! i was debating about whether it would happen really casually while they’re talking, or in like a big action scene, or really dramatic or what, and what i would prefer, and i came to the conclusion that i would love it no matter what lol, but i was really into the idea of james just. fucking. saying it. while they’re just talking about something really casually. so therefore i was pretty happy with it when we got sort of a mix! they’re talking about teresa’s insane death trap of a plan so there’s that drama of “i don’t want to lose you esp. not before saying ILY” kinda thing, but it’s also just. so simple and sure! and then teresa’s i love you is like the perfect scene for me where one character is super focused on something else (in this case, trying to protect the woman he loves! agh!) and the other is just like.. i love you!!!! SO GOOD

- let’s see, what the hell else happened in this ep?

- oh okay i really liked james and teresa’s vibes this episode, they were so focused on each other and had this very ride-or-die feeling about them like they knew that each of their plans was increasingly stupid and desperate and might not even get them where they wanna go, but they were IN IT TOGETHER no matter what 😭i wish we had gotten a callback to that line but at this point, i’m p. sure they Know they’re in it together, and we do too. so it’s okay. i love that teresa still asks his input and considers his opinions even if she does her own thing anyways haha 

- oh on that note, i LOVED the moment where their plans to kill Kostya aren’t working and Teresa says something like “If I can meet with him in person, I can kill him myself” and James just has this LOOK that just is the epitome of the “I am in love with a women who is DESIGNED TO STRESS ME OUT” meme lol, it made me giggle, v classic QOTS moment 

- oh and of course, I LOVED that scene with devon and james at the end!!!!!!!! i was also confused about how james was showing all his emotions in that scene esp. since he tries to be stoic about his feelings for Teresa around Devon, but now that i’ve read a few people’s thoughts about, it i’m fully on board w the theory that james and teresa already knew this was coming, b/c they’re smart, and b/c james knows devon wouldn’t have let him walk away to save Teresa at the beginning of the season without motivation (like having him in place to kill her when she’s no longer useful to the CIA) and THEREFORE james was sort of “overacting” to make it believable to devon (and the audience lol) that he didn’t know this was coming, didn’t want to do it, but felt like he had to, rather than the fact that they were already plotting a fake death. that makes a lot of sense to me and makes me really love all the layers to that scene. it does give me a little bit of hope that the finale ~teresa’s not really dead~ reveal will be at least a little well executed and not just shoved in at the very end. we shall see though! 

- alright i think that’s what i loved about the episode, if u don’t wanna hear me bitching about the little things then u should probably stop here!! just have to get out some of my saltiness lol 

THINGS I WAS ANNOYED ABOUT

- i’m just gonna get it out of the way, yes, i too was supremely annoyed at the amount of KA and Pote take suburbia; it was all 1000% predictable down to the raccoon and the cookies, and the point could have been accomplished in exactly 1 scene, maybe 2, certainly not like 10 or however many we got. whatever. ugh. 

- okay. OKAY. chicho. we need to talk about chicho. i for one, am not mad that he called pote, my boy was stressed. I AM HOWEVER, mad at the writers for making pote come back after saying he trusted chicho to take care of teresa now. like. it totally devalued THE WHOLE THING!! imo, pote shoulda stayed his ass at home where we had to watch him settle all episode, and chicho should have gotten THE HERO MOMENT HE DESERVED (esp. cuz he’s on first name basis w teresa now??) which ALSO WOULD HAVE MADE THE SCENE WHERE TERESA GIVES CHICHO THE DISTILLERY AND THE BAR SO! MUCH! MORE! MEANINGFUL!!!!! or just made it make sense at all? like .... i’m just so confused by that whole plotline like what was the point? chicho does nothing but call pote and gets T’s whole legacy in NOLA? 

- and don’t even get me started on how it makes ZERO sense that pote would have had to charge in at the last minute to save teresa when JAMES THE SNIPER W AMAZING AIM WHO IS LITERALLY. IN LOVE WITH HER. is standing outside like. ur telling me james and chicho (who again, is supposed to be her #2 after james now) just stood there like “oh hey pote yeah you go ahead we’ll wait here good luck” like WHAT also.. how did pote get past all the guards that made james stay outside? are we meant to believe pote is that sneaky? y’all. it just. doesn’t make sense. this whole plot situation maddens me more than anythings tbh UGH JUST MAKE IT MAKE SENSE 

- oksana’s daughter..... what’s her name again? idk b/c we only MET HER THIS WEEK....okay this amuses me but i’m also annoyed b/c like. there were so many other women who could have taken that spot in the opening sequence... Lil T, Castel, hell even Isabela??? Like idk how they could have done it but they put so much effort into her plot in the first seasons that i really thought she was gonna end up w/ Teresa in the end.. idk that would have been kind cool, Camila’s two “daughters” eventually working their way out of the life together..again idk how they could have realistically done it but i really do wish it had been someone we met before. if it had to be someone new this season, they could have introduced her earlier instead of one of the seemingly dozens of random guys we knew for 1 episode before they died... like.. give her some depth please. is she even gonna be in the finale? honestly she better be after making us listen to pote welcome her into the family... like the family u were supposed to leave so u could have an actual baby pote? the family that’s literally dispersing as we speak? also.. since when did pote love oksana so much anyways? also...... just.. if teresa’s gonna have some sort of daughter figure or whatever she’s supposed to be, wouldn’t it make sense to have her be the one to give the big welcome to the family speech? idk y’all..... i’m amused but also baffled at the sheer lack of planning behind this. did no one realize they needed someone for the opening scene until like. halfway thru the season? did they plan to have it be castel but they couldn’t get her for filming (hence all the weird castel plots?) INQUIRING MINDS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW. it’s whatever tho lol 

- i just hope that what’s-her-name gets a lil bit of plot in the finale esp. since otherwise it might just be pote running around being pissy (i don’t actually think that haha but i am a lil nervous that teresa won’t come back until the last few mins and i’ll have to spend all episode looking at boaz and devon and pote and KA.. i haven’t looked at any spoilers tho so i’m still hopeful! i will probably make a post about my hopes going into the finale a lil later, both realistic and unrealistic :) 

[mymostimaginaryfriend]

QoTS 5x02 Reaction Post

My brain has basically been Jeresa airhorns since the episode aired lmao but I’m going to try to add some Thoughts to my liveblog from last night.  Here goes:

First of all thank you to @gild-and-fire​ for making this tag meme for me that is ALREADY coming in handy.

Iiiiiiiinteresting that the moment James’ name is cleared the Ice Queenpin of last week thawed quite a bit, right?  Sure the trademark cool under pressure business dealings were there for Teresa (including a bit of ruthlessness) but in very calculated, ultimately successful way rather than terrifying.

James is back like what? 48 hours and already throwing up speed bumps for the descent of Teresa’s soul.  It’s gonna be a tough job, but if anyone can do it....

How to say I love you without saying I love you: Some guys bring you flowers, some bring you a personal army.

This episode was a Jeresa Callback All U Can Eat Buffet

There were SO many from the greatest hits: Take Care of Yourself, You too / “Smart” / You Deserve That / I Want You to Stay etc.  to even visual cues from past Jeresa scenes - the talk outside about going to NYC / 2x04, the lunge into the kiss from 3x09.  And of course the cigarette scene that @medievalraven​ goes over in her great meta.  It was an episode tailor made for parallel gifsets. 

I’m kinda shocked they didn’t add a driving together scene for old times sake.  Still holding out hope for a S5 Jeresa adventure episode too.

These two, as ever, are so so soft and so so stupid lmao.  But even with the interruptions of their private scenes, they packed SO much in. And I loved how you could both tell they’d learned from their past miscommunications.

They were a little rusty at first - doing that thing they do approaching it from an angle instead of head on - T: “You didn’t have to come back.”  J: “Yeah I did.”   T: “Are you staying?” J: “Do you want me to stay?” But right out of the gate James is like this is what I feel, I need you to verbalize what you want from me. Which by end of the episode Teresa does.

But then he says “these Russians are animals” and you can practically SEE Teresa visualizing his death in her head so she’s like "you should go”.

LOL at James playing the emotional game of chicken with THE master of the game Teresa Mendoza.  Him being like “Okay I’ll pack...this is me walking to the bed slowly...packing...to leave...this is me leaving....and I’m going to wander around the house...slowly... in case anyone needs anything...just in case...do a shot with Pote...get to know Chicho...oh hey, I’m already packed let’s go to NYC” lol.

“I’m a quick healer” If only, my friend.

The laugh!!! the smiles!! the heart eyes!! the “people who you love” meaningful eye contact!!

The KISS - THE LUNGE - THE WAY JAMES CUPS HER HEAD WITH HIS HAND AND THEY TILT THEIR FOREHEADS TOGETHER - THE WAY JAMES TOUCHES HIS LIP AFTER LIKE WE’RE IN GODDAMNED PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

The smoking scene.  Poor James was probably thinking of a victory celebration a la 3x09 like “will my stitches hold for that?? Lets find out” and then

Teresa comes out with a CLEAR “I want you to stay”!!!! growth.gif

Only to  drop the (albeit heart eyes included) hammer of “You and me can’t happen.”

I love how James didn’t technically agree.

Can’t wait to see if Teresa caves physically or emotionally first....

Just gonna leave these lines here: “I thought we could be like normal people” / “Get lost for awhile, get these hands clean” / “[change] is the only way to survive in this life” / “we can’t happen...maybe in some other life but not this one.”  Mmmhmmmmmm.  

Non Jeresa stuff:

I really like Oscar the Dominican so far.

Teresa’s “We can double our business or go to war. These are my terms.” CLASSIC Teresa smarts with Queenpin power...I loved it.

The judge: “You’ll be the next Mexican I set on fire”. He can’t just die now, his death better top Cortez’s death by chainsaw b/c this had me ready to drive to NOLA and do it myself.

I loved the expression on James face when Oksana said “[Kostya] wasn’t sure you’d save my life.” LOL like saving other ppl’s lives is kinda what Teresa does, if only I could get Teresa to save her own.

Is the Oksana stuff legit?? It felt really convenient that the “sleeper cell” was dead before Teresa could talk to them.  Were they really rogue or did Oksana just kill off everyone who knew otherwise?  We’ll see. Kostya agreed to her new terms for now.

I loved that of all the many conflicts introduced in the first ep (James, NYC Russians/Dominican rivalry, waterfront $$, the kill team, etc) so many had some sort of resolution or solid movement FORWARD in this episode.  That’s something I really missed from the earlier seasons: mini conflicts that had a 2-3 episode arc instead of *cough* dragging out all season (s4).

Speaking of which, Boaz’s sixth sense of when things are going too well for Teresa remains unparalleled lol.  But I can’t wait to see what JT does next. He’s killing it. Maybe literally...

And now.....the baby news.

At first I was too happy to get an extended James and Pote conversation to care but is anyone else kinda irked that it was POTE who shared the Tony story? I get it story wise w/ his own Tony redemption opportunity on the horizon with KA’s pregnancy they wanted to get that “this world is not for a child they make you weak and vulnerable” ominous foreshadowing in there but oof.  I wish it had been a Teresa/James convo first. 

A baby can be a catalyst for a lot of things (as if Teresa isn’t already feeling the pressure to get legit fast) but what I’m wondering is this:  If it comes down to protecting pregnant Kelly Anne or Teresa, in the heat of the moment, who will Pote choose? He violently reacted to the incarcerated teen boys and that was before he knew KA’s news.   

I’m glad James stayed.  Teresa needs someone who is focused on HER safety alone and as evidenced many times this episode, she definitely will need it.

CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE MARCEL BACK NEXT WEEK!

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About “Separate Tides” from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who most likely won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...>A-hem< F**KING CALLED IT!

I said that the earliest that The Owl House would return would be late June and early July. And some of YYYOOOUUU sons of witches doubted me by saying it would be fall or winter. Well, guess what! "Separate Tides'' has come and gone, the show is back and better than ever, and we are all happy about it! You see how it pays to be optimistic, you persistent PACK OF PESSIMISTS!

...Sorry. Got a little hot there. I'm just so happy it's BACK!

10 MONTHS! It's been nearly 10 months since this show began its hiatus, large in part because of the pandemic. It was painful. BOY, was it painful. But I can already tell that the new season is going to be well worth the wait just by this episode alone.

But beware you mangey sea dogs! Thar be spoilers ahead when discussing such a premier.

And I swear to you that it's only spoilers for "Separate Tides." I haven't seen "Escaping Expulsion" either, and I promise you will be safe from anybody ruining it for you. But maybe don't read any responses from this post. Thar may be d**ks in these waters. So let's review, shall we!

WHAT I LIKE

Mirroring Season One’s Opening Scene: First off, this is a neat callback to what is the perfect first impression of the series. That scene perfectly introduces us to the type of show The Owl House is, while this one acts as a reintroduction to the world we left for way too long.

Second, this is also a well-hidden character moment. Luz is finally living the life she dreamed of, but it isn't exactly all that she expected. It's a great showcase that despite literally running away to a fantasy world, Luz is still getting a regular dose of reality. And I still love the irony in all of that.

(Plus, King eating the bounty is just funny).

The Recap Recording: This is a smart way to recap events from the season finale. It might be weird that Luz says things that the audience already knows, but she's not talking to us. She's talking to her mom. So she's going to explain all that she can in a way for Camila to fully understand. Besides, not every fan had repeatedly watched The Owl House Season One over and over again like a bunch of frickin' lunatics...You know who you are.

Plus, as an upside, Luz gets to explain new events and concepts for how she and the rest of the Owl House are making a living. In no way does it feel like forced exposition because, again, she's trying to describe as much as she can to her mother. It's a reasonable and natural way to talk to the audience in order to catch them up while also showing what's been happening since we've last left this show.

Luz Can’t Send Texts to Her Mom: ...Well, Texts to Home, it was fun while it lasted, but the current canon has decided that you're done. I'll miss you and appreciate all that you've done for me, but, yeah, this is the end. Sorry.

Alright, now that I got my jokes out of the way, allow me to explain how this is really a heartbreaking moment. Because the fact that Luz is forever cut off from her mother, even through texts, is an idea that just twists the knife in your heart when you really sit down to think about it. Luz's little goodbye at the end of her video does nothing but makes it worse.

On the upside, we get some solid character development as Luz doesn't even hesitate to send the video to Camila, learning her lesson from "Enchanted Grom Fright" about being more honest. She finally faced her fear, even if it was a fruitless effort.

They’re Doing Odd Jobs Now: This is a smart workaround for how the Owl House residents are making money. Some fans guessed that maybe Eda had so much junk piled up that they wouldn’t worry, but this seems more of a logical direction. Even if Eda had enough garbage to sell, she’ll can and will eventually run out at some point, meaning that they will all have to take the odd jobs anyway. So I appreciate the writers used that plot point sooner rather than later, as a fun romp as bounty hunters is something you want to do early in the season instead of later on. Especially with how Dana Terrace confirmed that s**t’s gonna go down in the future.

Lilith: ...I'm still willing to hold off--What the f**k did I say his name was? *looks up past review* Frederick Ulis--Frederick Ulisinsburg!

I am willing to hold off Frederick Ulisinsburg, for now, because Lilith is...sort of on the right track. I mean, I don't like how quick she was to playfully mock Eda or rudely yell at Hooty. But I do think that there is potential for her character. She feels genuine guilt for what she's done, and there's a chance that the new season will explore that further if the writers are smart (which they are). On top of that, there's a possibility that every time Lilith tries to act cocky or full of herself, she will be treated as a proverbial punching bag because of it. Like how her poster got burned down after boasting how impressive she looks. Or how Golden Guard's poster magically sealed itself to her face when Lilith tried to throw it away. It's the latter that primarily got me cackling like a madman due to how deservingly hilarious it was.

And, well...she happily clapped like a schoolgirl! Which was adorable! I can't hate characters who have the potential to be adorable! It's not in my nature!

So, while I am a little hesitant in liking her, I think there's a chance for improvement in her character in the future that I look forward to. We just have to wait and see if the writers pull it off.

(By the way, to the person that came up with Lilith wearing a "battery low" shirt...you're a genius in visual gags/storytelling.)

Greg’s List: Have I ever mentioned that this show is funny?

Who's Greg? Why does he organize a list of perfect bounties?

I don't know, but the idea of some random person in the Boiling Isles is putting it on himself to set up a list to make bounties...I'm sorry, but that's funny to me. It's also probably for how Craig's List was made, but when you really think about it, Craig's List is a funny idea as well.

Eda Isn’t Feared Anymore: I sort of guessed that this would happen, but seeing it is a whole different level of sympathy to feel for the character. Eda's main schtick was being the most powerful witch on the Isles, and that's gone now. She's forced to adapt to this new normal, which she's quick to do, but still. Tt's got to be a rough kick to the ego now that no one even cares about who she is anymore.

It's a low moment for her character that hopefully sets up her own arc for the rest of the season.

Luz Feels Like She’s a Burden: I will demolish her with love and kindness if she even CONSIDERS talking so poorly about herself again! Because Luz is not a burden. She is a beam of light that literally brightens up the lives of nearly everyone she meets. Eda already explains how her life is better because of Luz (through a heart-tugging speech that almost got to me, by the way), but it's not just Eda.

King now has his first real friend who admires him and treats him like the king he wants to be.

Willow has become much more confident and cheerful because Luz was always in her corner.

Gus learns more about the humans he appreciates with his whole heart while also having a friend that treats him like an equal rather than a kid.

And do I even have to say ANYTHING about Amity?

The Boiling Isles wouldn't be better off without Luz. It's better because of her. And shame on this girl for thinking otherwise...even though I fully understand where she's coming from.

I'm about to get personal for a second, so strap in. Because I am a twenty-somthing-year-old who is currently living with his mom. It's as pathetic as it sounds. But it's because I'm still attending college, and she says school comes first and jobs and apartments come second. Despite that, I feel like trash for just...living here as she still takes care of me and pays for the food I can't afford. She says that I shouldn't worry about it, but I still wait for the day I can finally pay her back for everything. Not some things, but everything. And that's Luz's mentality in this episode. The overwhelming guilt she's feeling for thinking she's inconveniencing Eda's life is something that hits really hard for me. It doesn't matter if it's true, but that she believes it's true. It's a heartbreaking character arc she's forced into for this episode that also adds more to why she's one of the many characters I heavily relate to.

Lulu and Hootstipher: Whoever thought of this idea...I f**king love you.

This is similar to when Noah and Owen became friends in Total Drama World Tour. Seemingly one-sided at first, you see a cute friendship that you would have never expected, but it works! Hooty is this happy and naive character who hardly understands what's going on half the time, and Lilith is...Lilith. Their chemistry is instantly fun as their dynamic is quick to understand.

This also shines with potential for character growth, for it could give Lilith a chance to be more caring and Hooty a chance to be more than just the comic relief. If you were to tell me that this is what was going to happen when the season premiered, I would have thought you were crazy. But now, after seeing it in action, I'm genuinely excited to see where this cute friendship between these two goes.

(As long as it doesn't involve fans shipping them. Because Hooty can do better)

Luz Getting Better with Her Magic: Our little bisexual princess is growing up! And, man, is it awesome to see. Luz going from just barely knowing how to do magic to full-on using her spells like second nature just warms my heart with all the character growth it presents. Now, some people might want an explanation for how she's able to do said spells, to which I say: "Who the f**k cares?"

If you ask me, Luz's magic is one of those things that doesn't need a direct answer because it doesn't matter as much. But if you're going to be a baby about it, here's what I can offer: As far as I can tell, it's equal parts having the glyph and mentally picturing what the spell should do. It's much like how Willow draws a spell circle and can either make giant jungle vines or a patch of flowers to land on. Luz's glyphs are her own spell circles. As long as she concentrates hard enough, she can make the glyph do whatever she wants it to.

There. You have your explanation. Now let's just all appreciate the fact that Luz can now throw fireballs and make vine whips like the superpowered teenager she most likely fantasized of being. Ok? Ok.

A Pirate Losing His Head...Literally: ...And I'm gonna go ahead and add that to the list.

I mean, for f**k's sake, WE SEE BONE! He puts his head back on, but we still see the bone!

Eda in a Pirate Outfit: ...That is all.

The Golden Guard: This guy shows up for only a few minutes, and I'm already beginning to like him. He seems just as threatening as Belos while also coming across as a guy who loves his job and being a ton of fun to watch because of it. I adore villains that find that balance of being funny and terrifying. The result is a character who makes me laugh on top of making me scared of what they could do to our protagonists. So far, that's the Golden Guard in a nutshell, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store with him. Whether it involves seeing him play with food as he did with Eda and Luz in this episode or seeing him getting kicked in the crotch like a little punk like him deserves, I am all for it.

(Bonus points if it's Amity who does the crotch kicking if he ever makes an advancement on Luz)

Eda Wanting to Protect the Selkidomus: I love this. It plays into the idea that Eda cares about things being wild and free and despises how Emperor Belos would want to control everything, including the most insignificant of animals. It shows just how kind Eda really is rather than someone motivated by greed...even if she does end up filthy rich in the end.

Emperor Belos’ Brief Cameo: Yup, still terrifying!

And if it turns out that Belos can see the Scrying Potion that Lilith made...we're going to have some problems.

Much like the actual problems that I have with this episode!

(Like that transition?)

WHAT I DISLIKE

King Being Stupid: King has two different personalities in this series. Either he's a pathetic wannabe ruler who seems intelligent or an idiotic Disney comedic sidekick. That latter version of King is what we get in "Separate Tides," and I don't like it (obviously). I don't care how cute it is to see him cling onto Luz's leg and exclaim how he won't let her leave. The same character who helped Luz break into a prison to save Eda shouldn't be the same one who falls asleep when a sheet covers him like a dumbass parrot! King's at his best when he's as intelligent as the rest of the characters. And not as dumb as someone like Hooty.

Eda Being Too Nice Around Lilith: This one bothers me the most. After being cursed for thirty years and having her life ruined by the person she thought she could trust the most, Eda is still all smiley and jokey when talking to Lilith. Yeah, sorry, but I don't buy that. No one in their right mind would be that cool with a person who did all of what Lilith did. It's a major misstep that squanders what could have been a fantastic overarching story of Eda learning to forgive her sister and Lilith trying to earn it. We'll at least get Lilith's guilt, but as is, I feel Eda showing genuine anger towards her would elevate that story by a lot.

IN CONCLUSION

But that's about all the bad things I have to say about "Separate Tides." As is, it is a well-earned, solid A of a season premiere. It introduces new concepts and characters I can't wait to see more of, continues old storylines and character development instead of ignoring them, and still proves that The Owl House is as charming and funny as it always was. Maybe the rest of the season could continue to be great, or maybe things might get worse. Time can only tell. For now, all I can tell you is that "Separate Tides" is a great and fun episode that makes me excited as we set sail to this new season.

(And Scared. Mostly scared)

[lovelivingmydreams]

A might have been part 4

Alright! Final part for now! @kingcreativityau au part 4. Please enjoy! More might come later!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Acting and singing became a wonderful additional coping tool for Thomas all throughout his school career and even after College. Which was when Thomas tried to get a grip on his personality for the first time and actually connected with them. Everyone was very excited and nervous. But Patton gladly took charge. They didn’t tell Thomas their names, Deceit said he wasn’t ready for them to be more than caricatures yet, so they stuck with their titles. Deceit and Remus stayed behind for the same reason. “Okay, so my morality, logic and my creativity… Is there… I mean…” Thomas bit his lip nervously. There was one part of his personality he’d been treating like a person in his head for years. Had he actually known about his sides on some level since middle school?

“You called?” Virgil popped up with a teasing smirk, making Thomas jump in surprise.

“Kiddo! There you are! Thomas this is your Anxiety,” Patton grinned brightly. “What’s up?” Virgil asked with a two fingered salute. “Oh… Hi?” Thomas smiled tentatively. “Now Thomas, remember, he’s a bit of a Debby downer sometimes but he has good intentions,” Roman assured him making Virgil roll his eyes. Thomas nodded. “Yeah you’re right,” he nodded. Then he smiled carefully at Virgil who gave him a shy smile back, which was somehow reassuring to Thomas. The young man relaxed, easing the pressure Virgil had been struggling with all day. “Well… Um it was nice meeting you all. I’ll… See you guys around?” “We’re always with you kiddo,” Patton assured Thomas. “We are aspects of your personality after all,” Logan pointed out. “And we shall always strive to help you to be the best you can be!” Roman declared. “Or, you know, keep you alive at least,” Virgil shrugged. After that Thomas would occasionally converse with them directly when he was struggling with something. Then Vine came along, Patton's brilliant suggestion actually, and they became characters. Even Virgil got skits both as anxiety and as the villain/best friend to Roman’s prince. The fans insisting he and Roman were lovers got a laugh out of all of them. And then they appeared as themselves on youtube and Thomas started to have group discussions with them. Virgil was reluctant at first and only made a brief cameo during the first two episodes. But the fans demanded more so he got his own episode and somehow the fanders lost their minds. Jan, Remus, Roman and Virgil had a good laugh when Logan learned he and Patton were paired up almost as often as Virgil and Roman were. Patton just thought it was cute. Roman was delighted with all the attention of course. Virgil though, couldn’t help but wonder if he was really helping or making everything harder. His and Roman’s best friends/mortal enemies banter carried over from the vines, and he knew that none of the jabs and insults were sincere or meant to be hurtful, but some hit too close to home regardless of their intent. And Logan sometimes made good points to shut him down. And even Patton tried putting him on the sidelines. And maybe that was where he belonged. They all had their own room now. Remus and Janus’ being near the willow, Roman, Patton and Logan at the front of the mind and Virgil was in the middle. And maybe he shouldn’t be. Maybe he shouldn’t even be here to begin with. He should just leave. Before he did something he couldn’t take back that hurt the others. This had lasted too long already. He shouldn’t be pushing his luck. So he ducked out. Or he tried. Apparently he was needed. And everyone made that very clear. And things were good for a while after that… until Janus showed up.

“What was that?” Virgil demanded after he had made sure the others were doing alright after the whole theater ordeal. And it was Roman’s condition he wanted to talk about. “Virgin! How ya doing!? You’re so busy lately we haven’t gone monster hunting in forever!” Remus grinned as he popped up from seemingly nowhere. Virgil allowed himself a moment to smile at Remus. He couldn’t help that his best friend was being a dramatic jerk. And he had a point. It’d been too long since Virgil had taken the time to hang out with Remus. He could make excuses all day, but fact remained he’d been neglecting him. An issue he could still make right.

“You're right. How about we go nightmare hunting later? You, me and Roman. Like old times?” Virgil suggested.

Remus grinned widely at that. “Promise?”

Virgil nodded. “You go tell Roman to get ready. I'll be there in a sec,” he assured him. And so he was left alone with the yellow clad side.

“Well?” he demanded.

“Thomas is simply at a point in his journey where it was time he got to know me. Your little dilemma just presented a good opportunity to introduce myself. Nothing more,” Janus explained patiently.

“I don't give a damn about you talking to Thomas! It's how you went about it!” Virgil demanded. Then he took a deep breath to reign in his temper. “Listen, I get that it’s been frustrating for you and Remus to hide away like this, but just… remember that we’re your friends okay? That’s all,” Virgil pleaded. “I get where you were coming from today. I really do. But Joan is Thomas’ best friend. And trust between friends is so important. It just wasn’t the right call today,” he explained more calmly. He missed the haunted expression that flashed over Janus’ face. The master of deception had his face back under control in a second. Even if he didn’t have a grip on the stinging in his heart or behind his eyes yet. “Of course Virgil. I’ll keep that in mind,” he promised. And he felt slightly moved when Virgil just took his word for it and bid him goodbye to go see Remus and Roman. The fanders going wild over Deceit with theories and cosplays and art and all the ships was a topic of happy conversation amongst the sides and it was decided to just let bygones be bygones. Dee had his introduction and next time he was needed he’d help Thomas see him in a less black and white way. Jan made a cameo at Halloween where he reminisced on the Halloween pranks the ‘dark sides’ used to play on everyone when they were kids in vague terms that got the fans theorizing on Remus’ identity like crazy. And then… The callback. “How could you?” Virgil demanded when he found Janus after being shut out of Roman’s room with little more than the explanation that he was busy. Patton insisted he was fine, which he was not and Logan insisted that he was ‘not in need of any assistance at the moment’. So Virgil was left with only one thing to do and that was confronting the cause of all this.

“It’s not my fault Roman insisted on pleasing Patton rather than fulfilling his purpose,” Deceit argued bitterly. “Roman was doing his job perfectly fine. If you hadn’t meddled we might’ve actually gotten to something… I mean what were you thinking when benching Logan? And bullying Thomas in the stands like that… Did you even care that you hurt Princey? Did you notice we were all miserable when you were having your one man party? Or did you just choose not to see?” Janus was taken aback by Virgil’s passion. He'd only wanted Thomas to… he'd done that so everyone would be happy. It just hadn't ended how he thought it would. Roman wasn't supposed to be selfless. He was the ego for heaven's sake! King would’ve never…

Oh no… that was his mistake wasn't it? He'd predicted Roman's actions based off of Him. He didn’t know the lighter creativity as well as he knew his brother. They'd been pleasant acquaintances, casual friends even. But they never got as close as Roman as with any of the others.

Janus' scales itched as if to remind him of their part in this. And yet Janus had selfishly insisted on keeping them as a guard against the others. If he hadn't, maybe he could've seen more of this noble side to Roman. Seen him grow from the self-centered, attention seeking, dramatic into… well still all of that but with a true desire to improve. To be better than his worst impulses for his friends.

He'd almost forgotten he wasn't alone. But Virgil was not done. “So congrats Janus. Thomas knows he’s a liar. And everyone in the mindscape feels miserable. But hey, at least you were right. That’s all that matters right?” Virgil bit and when the serpentine side still failed to answer it somehow made him even angrier than if he had tried to defend himself. At least then it would show Virgil was wrong in his thinking somewhere. He needed Jan to say he was magnifying , or jumping to conclusions or whatever. Just something. “You better hope I manage to clean up some of the mess you made,” he warned. “I can’t believe I ever believed you cared about us. About anyone but yourself,” he scoffed as he turned around and left. That finally made Janus snap out of his frozen stare. He started to follow, ready to grab Virgil's hand and explain himself. “Virgil wait…” “Save it Jan! An apology from you means nothing!” Virgil was just mad. He probably would’ve been willing to at least listen once he’d calmed down… But those words… Janus felt as if he was punched in the gut. And the way he chose to deal with this was… Well… “Kiddo? Where is Roman?” Patton wondered as he saw Virgil head to the dreamscape, followed by a litter of shadow kittens. Sadly that last bit wasn’t a startling sight anymore. Everyone was having so much stress and thoughts, Virgil could not keep up. Ignoring them, Logan said, wasn’t going to be less draining than facing them directly in the long run. And Virgil knew he was right. But with the aftershock of Janus’ brilliant performance still echoing through the Thomassphere, Virgil didn’t have the time to acknowledge them, let alone face them. He had to help Patton out so he wouldn’t overwork himself in trying to cheer everyone up. Make sure Logan felt helpful and listened to. Most importantly he had to show Roman that he was there for him, no matter what.

Roman couldn’t even stand the color yellow at the moment. Even his interactions with Remus had gotten strained. That was another thing. Since Roman couldn’t bring it up to spend time with his brother due to his closeness with the snake, Virgil had also had to assure him that he was still important to them. It was just a weird situation right now.

In the past, Virgil would have dragged them both to the imagination to talk things out, but in this instance Roman wasn’t angry with Remus. It was just that none of them could really deal with his antics right now and that meant that hanging out with him would very soon lead to Janus being called to them and… Right. Virgil was exhausted and surrounded by physical manifestations of everyone’s stress and worries 24/7. Good job Jan. “I had him rest up, I’m going to take the night shift today. He’s been working too hard lately,” Virgil explained, thinking back to the grateful smile Roman had given him as he went to bed. It made him feel slightly better he‘d done that right. It had even made a kitten or two disappear. Patton glanced down at the dozen kittens that were left. “So have you,” he pointed out. Virgil chuckled lamely. “Guess we all need a break,” he sighed. “Break what? Your skull?” Virgil nearly jumped out of his skin and Patton wasn’t any better. “Remus? Dude what are you…?” “Just coming to hang out with my good ol’ buddy! But if we are going to crack skulls, can I go first?” Virgil, in a panic, shoved Remus against a wall and clamped his hand over his mouth. “Shush! If you talk like that in here Thomas’ll hear you!” he reminded his chaotic friend. Then the blood drained from is face and he jumped back with a look of disgust. “You licked me!” he exclaimed as he looked at his hand. Instead of saliva there was some sort of slime or mucus dripping from his palm. Gross. He grabbed a towel to white it off. Normally he'd laugh it off, because what did he expect to happen? But now he couldn't handle another thing going wrong.

“Well you surprised me Virgie! I didn’t know you liked it that way. But I’m going to have to decline. Romie would kill me if I took his man,” he teased Virgil rolled his eyes. Remus loved the ships and liked bringing them up whenever possible. “But about that skull breaking…” Suddenly Patton and Virgil recoiled at the images Remus’ train of thought had wrought. Patrick, Thomas imagined he’d… No. “Thomas don’t! What the heck dude!” he exclaimed as he held his head trying not to add to the litter. He was getting close to a break down, he could just feel it. This was all too much.

“You can’t be thinking like that Kiddo!” Patton agreed. It was a long restless night. The only good thing that came out of it was Logan managing to take a huge weight off of Virgil’s chest and in doing so allowing Thomas to breathe a little easier as well.

“You sure you’re okay?” Virgil asked once again as he finished taking care of Roman’s head once he got him back to his room. “I told you I’m fine Virgil. Thank you. For looking after me now and trying to protect me earlier. It is much appreciated,” he smiled tiredly. “Of course…” Virgil shrugged. Picking up a shadow puppy and petting it. Letting the guilt be for a bit. “I just wish-”

“None of that!” Roman insisted with a wave of his hand. “You have been working yourself ragged trying to protect us all. Remus showing up just was too much for all of us.” “I’m sorry about that,” Remus offered sheepishly making both men jump. “Dude!” Virgil hissed as he recovered from his surprise. “Remus! Would it kill you to use a door?” Roman asked as he clutched at his racing heart. Remus' sheepish look was so unexpected that both of them forgot about their annoyance instantly.

“Rem, you good dude?” Virgil wondered.

“Did I hurt you for realsies?” Remus asked his brother carefully. Roman had always been able to handle rough housing just fine. But during the discussion it had occurred to Remus that his brother might not be at full strength right now.

Roman gave Remus a reassuring smile. “Don't worry Remus. This,” he gestured to the bandaging on his head, “is just Virgil being overly thorough. I'll be back to dragon slaying in no time,” he promised. Virgil gave Roman a glare and a shove for that.

“Hey! I am injured! Have some compassion!” Roman whined.

“Either you're fine or you need to be handled with care. Can't have it both ways Princey,” Virgil  pointed out with a teasing smirk.

Roman pouted at that, making his audience laugh which was the point. He was delighted to see the puppy and a few kittens disappearing. He loathed seeing them in such numbers around his friend.

“I did have a lot of fun today though!” Remus grinned.

Virgil let out a sigh and smiled. He didn’t, but if the twins were okay, then that was all that mattered.

“Well, now that Thomas knows I suppose you'll be out and about more in the future,” Roman told him, making his brother grin from ear to ear.

They relaxed and talked for a while, no one mentioning Janus or his part in today's events. Even Remus knew not go bring that up. Or perhaps he was too distracted by a million other things to do so.

“Well, nice catching up! But I’ll let you lovebirds have your privacy,” Remus announced as he got up from the bed.

“Where are you going?” Roman asked.

Remus snickered. “My room. Did I scramble your brain Roro?”

Roman ignored the charming visual, tugging at his sash and frowning.

“You don't have to go back there… Just because Deceit said that's where you are supposed to be… he lies… he does whatever it takes…” He clenched his hands into fists around the sash. He was trying so hard to keep composure that the hand on his shoulder made him jump. He looked up. Virgil was smiling at him, not reassuring, but understanding. He gave him a squeeze and turned to Remus.

“If you want we can move you next to my room. You don't have to of course,” he told Remus.

The resident gremlin grinned back at the two of them. “Aw, that’s disgustingly sweet of you V. But I’ll stick with double d in the back. I don't want to catch the sap bug you all suffer from up here.” He made a gagging sound and turned to leave.

“If you change your mind, we'll be here okay,” Virgil reminded him.

Remus gave them a dismissive wave and left.

“Shouldn't we stop him? Who knows what that snake'll have him do next?” Roman worried ready to chase after his brother.

“I’d love to, but that’s not how Remus works,” Virgil sighed.

Roman hated that he was right. He just hoped his brother wouldn't get burned the way he was.

The tension in the mindscape calmed down, somewhat. But then… the wedding came.

Long before they even got there, Virgil was exhausted. Roman could see that and the event did not give his hooded friend a chance to rest. So Before Thomas got home, Roman took a page out of Virgil’s book and forced the anxious side to sleep. He brought him to Remus in the back of the mind.

“Keep him safe until I come to collect him alright?”

Remus nodded knowing that ‘safe' actually meant away from Deceit.

Or as he was now known publicly, Janus.

Remus was shaking. He'd heard every word. He thought Janus was his friend. He'd sworn that he wasn't bad… but then of course… what made him trust the word of the master of lies?

He wanted to scream, to hit something, to… then he looked up and saw Roman staring at him. A wild look in his eyes.

“Just Listen!” Patton's voice came from the distance.

“Guys?” a groggy voice from behind Remus. Virgil… “What are you doing?”

Remus and Roman were still staring. Having a silent conversation with just their eyes. They'd promised, but this was different. Virgil would be happier with his old friend back rather than two bad copies he had to split his time between right?

It was like their thoughts were synching up. They could see every bit of hurt they had caused Thomas, Virgil and the others by being apart. Together they might be able to fix everything. They reached out their hands.

“Wait! Please don't!” Virgil pleaded. The twins cast their one true friend one last grateful look and then they were gone.

King grinned victoriously as he as once again one. He was different, he could already tell, but that didn't have to be a bad thing.

His eye landed on Morality and he grinned cruelly. The blast of his rebirth had brought Morality to his knees before him, as he should be.

“There you go,” he praised as he held his sword out, daring morality to try something.

“Bow before the king,” he commanded.

He took a moment to commend Morality for his clever ruse. Even bowed to him, relishing in how each word and gesture made Morality shrink and tremble. And he hadn't even begun to play yet.

Suddenly there was a soft gasp behind him. He looked back and spotted fear. Oh good. In all the commotion he'd almost forgotten he was here. He stared up at him in wide eyed disbelief. It was a lot to take in he supposed. Him being back with this brand new look. He should probably greet him properly. “Ah, Fear,” he smiled, showing he remembered him. There was no need for him to worry that he would have to start from scratch with him yet again. He knew everything.

They were going to have so much fun together!

“How are you doing my old friend?”

[sleeplessandstubborn]

Emily in Paris, season 2, episode 1, or why our heroine must brace for consequences (at last).

Ah, Emily in Paris... it's been a while since I last reviewed/done a recap one of its episodes. So much that I never completed reviewing of Season 1. Meanwhile, there was the premiere of the second one, every single time I wrote a draft Tumblr ate it, and I became frustrated. So instead of picking things where I left them I decided (today) to attack season 2 without finishing the first one. But no problem, I'll do a callback now and then. Without further ado, here we go.

First of all, I must congratulate our main lady because she's finally running with adequate clothes. Not congratulations, on the other hand, for her attention span because, as she runs, she remembers the hot hot night of hot hot sex with her neighbour Gabriel, who incidentally is also (or was until a few hours before they ended together in Miss Cooper's bed) her friend Camille's boyfriend. The first consequence is Emily is almost run over by a car (surprise! Paris has now people, cars and public transport! Isn't that an improvement?); fortunately for her a pedestrian saves our main character from death. She's too consumed by guilt and bad manners to say even thank you. Not nice, Miss Cooper, not nice.

In the appartment she now shares with bestie and much better character Mindy - who is trying an spectacular outfit for her new job in a drag bar -, Emily finally opens her heart. Mindy's first reaction is a You go, girl! moment which her roomate disapproves, arguing she's now the new Pam Spicer. Who is Pam Spicer, you wonder (just like Mindy does)? A girl from Chicago who slept with everyone's boyfriends when she was drunk. Our main lady realizing that she had sex with Gabriel when both were very sober, by the way.

Communication skills, unless Emily's wardrobe is a sort of code message, are really bad in this series, but at least she says clearly to Gabriel, during the next scene, that she felts like they were vviolating the first directive the other night. Thanks to this little conversation we discovers her father was a trekkie and that Gabriel feels no remorse at all. One starts to suspect they deserve each other when Antoine appears. It turned out, las season, that Monsieur le Creepatractive had decided to make an investment in Gabriel's restaurant. Also starring in this scene: Gabriel still having the guts of disapproving Emily going on vacation with Pierre Cadault's nephew, Mathieu.

(Note/callback to the first season: I am more scandalized by the fact the writers decided to introduce Mathieu as love interest and guy who dated Emily a couple of time without having the slightest amount of chemistry, but one of S1 premises was that the whole male population of Paris had the hots for Emily).

I am also judging her, oh Godess among the Godess, supreme Queen, my Muse, my precious divinity, oh Sylvie.

Did I mention that, Camille being also a client, the whole thing is a bit unprofessional? No, I didn't because, since I never completed the reviews/recaps of season 1, the thing with Savoir now handling the campaign for her family's champagne for spraying at parties (don't ask, the whole thing seems a sacrilege for me) were never mentioned, along with other creepy things that happened there (but we'll back in the next episodes, be reasured). Well, it's unproffesional. Camille, precisely, is waiting for her friend with a fabulous jacket that make her look like she just attended to the inauguration of the Opéra Bastille in the 80s and sunglasses that won't allow her to watch what the writers will do to her character.

(My poor poor girl).

A meeting ensues where Champére - that's the name of the product, ew - is advertised with a soft-porn-esque vibe, Emily can't help but remember her night with Gabriel, everything becomes supremely awkward and a lunch break is proposed. Emily begs Sylvie to come with them and serve as third, judgamental wheel. All of this with the backround of the Louvre's Pyramid, to name another mitterrandesque landmark.

Probably the judgmental third wheel wasn't part of Emily's desperate plan to flee from her guilt, but it happens anyway. Of course Sylvie guesses our young American is having an affair with the chef and tells her so while Camille and her 80s jacket are at the restroom. You are becoming more and more French, Mme. Grateau argues. In the name of an allied nation, I protest.

But back to job! One of the aspects of this season is that they tried to flesh up a bit Emily's coworkers, even if little of it can be seen as she tries to recruit them with invitations to see Mindy perform at the drag bar. An invitation Luc accepts willingly because it's something he loves to bits and that Julien refuses because it's not his cup of tea and, besides, he has to do a presentation for Rimowa in which, for some reason, a Sebastian Kurz wannabe is present. Judge for yourselves.

But Julien fails to impress his clients, who want something more tacky like the collaboration Savoir or rather Emily did with Pierre Cadault. Emily proceeds to, unvoluntarily, take the wind out of Julien's sails. He doesn't take that well, and rightly so.

(Note/callback to season 1: Cadault was very present during its last episodes, when he first considered Emily was tasteless and ended considering her a sort of inspiration. In the meantime, she had a brief fling with a snob called Thomas who must be right now writing a book about semiotics)

Meanwhile at the drag bar (la Nouvelle Eve), Mindy, like the side character she is, is confronted with real life. I repeat that this series would be better if Emily wasn't the protagonist. Suming it up: Mindy hasn't yet fixed her work papers so the only job she can really have is bathroom attendant and she can only receive tips. With the possibility of singing a song in exchange.

(Callback to season 1: good that Mindy, who is the daughter of a millionarie, overcame her scenic panic which had been caused by a talent contest. It's true that it required one of the cringiest scenes back then, but anyway the struggles of Mindy who has gone from having everything to nanny then to bathroom attendant and who has to do a considerable, I guess, paperwork to just have a job and earn money are more intersting than Chicago girl who is afraid of becoming Pam Spicer).

Camille shows up to pick up Emily, because of course she invited her to go and see Mindy at La Nouvelle Eve. Seriously, Emily? What are you playing at? Camille sees a frying pan who seems suspiciosly similar to Gabriel's and I guess there is maaaye some subtext there, but we'll have more of that later. Seems Emily is focused in trying to fix things between Camille and Gabriel without telling her friend what happened, because of reasons.

But in the meantime Mindy, bathroom assistant or not, does a great performance at La Nouvelle Eve, even if I missed, I don't know, something in French or/and from Eurovision. On their way home, Emily insist Camille should have a conversation with Gabriel. I wonder, along with Mindy, if she knows what she's doing.

Next day at Savoir, Rimowa send their tacky suitcase with M. Cadault's face on it. It's as tacky as expected, and Julien is, again, furious because Emily just invaded his territory and announces they will be rivals from now on, which would be the logical thing to do. I love Sylvie's outfit, reaction and her whole being. Rimowa's promotional stuff comes on handy, tho, because Emily is supposed to go to her romantic weekend with Mathieu.

So, as she packs her colourful wardrobe inside her hideous suitcase (I like her dress, but her shoes are a mistake for traveling; pick something practical, girl) we assist to an attempt to conflict between Antoine and Gabriel when the former invited some friends to his freshly adquired restaurant and both men have creative differences. Of course Gabriel wins over him. It's not the last time we'll see this in the season but will be equally boring, in my opinion anyway.

So finally Emily, Mathieu and the horrible suitcase meet at the train station, on the point of boarding a train that seems a theme park or the fucking Orient Express. If Camille's jacket is reminiscent of Mitterrand, this train is... René Coty?

Even a member of the French Government - who every single Wednesday posts a video about rural life and there's a rooster crowing in it - was quite amused at the scene. They have barely boarded the train when Emily receives a call from Gabriel. Of course our heroine has the worst possible idea as she talks very loudly about how their night was incredible but was a mistake. This is overheard by Mathieu who jumps off the train as it starts to move, the end. Emily's clumsy attempts to explain Gabriel isn't her boyfriend fail to preven him from -almost - running away from her.

Note: now the French characters speak French to each other when they are alone, which is an improvement, as I said.

However... however throughout the season I - unpopular opinion - missed some of old Emily's failures with language. And, if - spoiler - the best scene in the whole series is about her complete failure to write French, there's something missing.

For me, anyway.

[punz4lyfe]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 48. Let’s review:

1. I’m honestly confused on why Ash and Goh didn’t bring Dragonite and Greedent with them to Unova. Greedent was the mon responsible for getting them the all-you-can-eat pass and while Dragonite lost, they still helped out as much as they could, so where’s the credit?

2. That Pretty-Much Pikachu / Hikachu mech was Tails Doll level creepy in its inactive state. Eugh. And the fact that it can behave pretty sentiently when active honestly does not help matters.

3. This is an issue for the entire episode, but why is Cinderace trying so hard to be friends with Lucario? While it’s appreciated that he’s actually trying to bond with a Pokemon that isn’t smaller than two feet, with how much he’s putting into in making friends with Lucario, it just seems..... forced in order to establish the comedic theme for this episode. It especially doesn’t help that this is actually the first time Lucario and Cinderace have interacted in a non-battle manner, which makes this whole plot point come out of nowhere.

If they’re trying to establish the two as future rivals, then that shouldn’t work either because of their trainer’s different goals and the fact that if Cinderace ever tried to take on Lucario in a no-holds-barred battle with their trainers without any plot-induced stupidity, Cinderace would get absolutely bodied. Lucario has already done so much more impressive things than Cinderace, that in a fighting sense, it wouldn’t be a contest. Not to mention, Goh’s goal is about catching while Ash’s is about battling, but why set this up if Goh and his Pokemon are somehow just as strong as Ash? It doesn’t make sense and, like I said in an anon ask, it ruins the power balance of the show.

4. And here’s a problem I have specifically for Lucario: Why is he now suddenly acting like he’s too good for anything? Now only is this hinted in the new opening where Dragonite basically has to force him to appear on-screen, but in the episode proper, when Ash offers him a snack, he just coldly stares off. Ummm, why? He has no qualms following Ash’s directions in battle, they never had a previous spate to warrant this behavior from Lucario, Lucario showed no hesitation to cheer with his friends after defeating Eternatus, and he was completely loyal to Ash as a Riolu both inside and OUTSIDE of battles to the point he was basically a 2nd Pikachu.

If they’re trying to make him a stern and stoic type, that would be cliche because we’ve already had those Lucarios with Sir Aaron, Maylene, Ryley, and Korrina in the past. It wouldn’t be original or anything, it would be completely boring. Heck, as much as it pains me to say this, freaking CAMERON’s Lucario had more personality than this! Plus, the anime has established that baby Pokemon usually take more of their trainers after hatching, and since Lucario showcased more of that as a Riolu, it honestly feels like his character is taking a step back in development, it especially doesn’t help that we JUST had the whole “stoic-guy develops more” stuff with Raboot. Writers, DON’T reuse past elements. Try new things!

5. While the snacks Ash and Goh get do look good, it honestly would’ve been cooler if they got snacks pertaining more to the signature of Iris and Cilan as a little callback to the Best Wishes series, like maybe an Axew Chocolate figure or a Mint Pansage treat. The anime did one with Dawn and Brock with the Piplup and Croagunk episode, so why not here?

6. Also Goh only prefers plain vanilla and that’s just too relatable to me cause I love vanilla.

7. Another issue with the overall episode, but Unova just seems so dead. There are no additional people or Pokemon at the park nor at the city. This is a problem because, not only is it important to keep your worlds alive, but this is UNOVA we’re talking about, and it doesn’t help that the episode takes place in the Pokemon World equivalent of New York City.

8. And now Lucario hates getting his fur dirty? When and why??? He had no issue going his fur scorched a billion times over with Eternatus and Mewtwo and this is also a repeat of Lycanroc’s whole thing with getting messy. While I doubt this will become a big development thing that Lycanroc had, it’s just disappointing they’re reusing past gags for Pokemon instead of trying new ones.

9. Apparently Cinderace’s time as a Raboot never made it learn the value of personal space.

10. ANOTHER overall issue with the episode is how choppy the animation is. There are just some parts that look very poorly put together. Examples being Lucario and Cinderace flying around the city and Team Rocket blasting off. It literally just looks like a bunch of different frames grouped together without proper transitioning. C’mon animators, you’re better than that! Literally almost every battle scene we’ve received from this season alone so far is proof of that.

11. I do love the canine-esque sounds Lucario makes throughout the episode, something I don’t believe other Lucarios have done.

12. I really wish episodes like this where it’s the Pokemon with the most focus had either subtitles (like in OG’s Island of Giant Pokemone) or the narrator translating for them (like SM’s Pikachu’s Exciting Adventure). It would be a good way to know their characters more and help build connections. Heck, not even Meowth bothered to translate for TR when Lucario and Cinderace started arguing. Missed opportunity right there.

13. The gag where TR, Lucario, and Cinderace started swinging around the city right behind Ash, Pikachu, and Goh lasted WAY too long.

14. Nice touch of TR’s rental Pokemon of the day being Sawk and Throh.

15. Wait, so it was Cinderace, the lesser experienced of the two who’s owned by the catcher, who thought of the idea of using their glued-together palms to their advantage? Not Lucario, the one who’s been through more battles and owned by the battler? What the what?

16. Defeated by two mons who were on a basic handicap and didn’t had their trainers on their side. Further proof of how absolute jokes Team Rocket are.

17. I’ve said this for past regions, but plump Ash can either be really blessed or really cursed.

18. Hahaha Lucario got dirty again and he’s chasing Cinderace now. Can I please be done with this review now? I can? Cool.

Overall.... yeah this episode wasn’t good imo. Weird animation, forced and/or inconsistent character moments, an environment close to dead, and unfunny gags that lasted longer than they should have. Hecks, not ever TR made me laugh in this episode. I’m seriously hoping they aren’t trying to establish some kind of “ace rivalry” between Lucario and Cinderace. I’ve already discussed this issues and problems with that, so I’m not gonna repeat myself.

Sorry fellow fans, but I gotta score this episode a 3/10 for all the reasons above.

Looks like next episode will introduce us to Chloe’s leaked Eevee, so here’s hoping we can get some character development! Please please PLEASE some character development!!

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References

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This article contains Loki episode 5 spoilers.

Marvel’s Loki episode 5 is a big one. Yes, we know…last week felt like that. And the one before it, too. But this one really IS, with the entire episode taking place (as DoG’s Kayti Burt put it) on top of a literal “trash pile of MCU and Marvel Comics Easter eggs.”

With that in mind, let’s have some fun with all the incredible Marvel references they managed to sneak into Loki episode 5.

Journey Into Mystery

You probably already know this, but Journey Into Mystery was the book that first introduced the Marvel Comics version of Thor, with Loki following shortly after. The title eventually was just renamed Thor since the Asgardians had become the primary focus of the book for years by that point. However, Journey Into Mystery was revived a few years back, with its primary focus being on the adventures of Kid Loki this time around.

Thanos Copter

The Lokis pass a helicopter with “THANOS” on the side. This is a reference to Spidey Super Stories #39 from 1979. The all-ages comic featured a story of Spider-Man and the Cat (Hellcat) taking on Thanos, who was on the hunt for the Cosmic Cube. He flew around New York City in his own helicopter with his name on the side. The reference comes up as a joke here and there, including an issue of Deadpool. Even Thanos’ giant two-sided blade weapon from Avengers: Endgame has been considered by many to be a sly reference to the Thanos Copter.

Ecto-Cooler

While the Lokis are all drinking wine, Kid Loki is shown drinking Hi-C Ecto Cooler. The Slimer-based citrus drink was a tie-in to The Real Ghostbusters cartoon of the 1980s and lasted into 2001 due to its popularity. Afterwards, it became a fondly-remembered relic to time. Ecto Cooler made a brief return in 2016 to coincide with the Ghostbusters reboot. Sadly, there’s no news of it coming back for the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie.

Speaking of Kid Loki…

Kid Loki

Kid Loki seems to be wielding a flaming sword, which looks an awful lot like Laevateinn, the sword he wielded in the Loki: Agent of Asgard comics.

Polybius

In the background of the Lokis’ lair, we see a Polybius arcade machine. Polybius is a long-running urban legend. Supposedly, back in 1981, an arcade machine was set up in Portland, Oregon, watched over by various men in black. The game was so addicting that it caused fights to break out and horrible side-effects to its players. We wrote more about the decades-old mystery of Polybius right here.

Pretty sure there’s an old Williams Space Pinball machine in there, too but that’s not as wild as Polybius.

The Void

Fittingly, the realm where all the pruned victims end up is called the Void. In the comics, the Void is a dark, inexplicable, and possibly biblical entity that acts as the evil side to the Sentry. During the storyline Siege, the Void murdered Loki, which facilitated his rebirth as Kid Loki.

Alioth

Alioth first appeared in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1, the same 1993 comic that also introduced Ravonna Renslayer to the world…and one that features Kang as its central villain. Hmmmm…

Oh, and Alioth was co-created by Mobius M. Mobius inspiration/model Mark Gruenwald, who gets another shout later in the episode.

Vote Loki

The “politician Loki” who we see leading (inasumuch as they can/want to be led) the loose coalition of Variant Lokis is modeled almost exactly on the version of Loki from Marvel’s Vote Loki story by Christopher Hastings, Langdon Foss, and Paul McCaffery. In it, Loki ends up running for President, with his ridiculous campaign built on the “honest” deception of openly lying to the American people inadvertently aided by a credulous news media. It’s a good read and you should check it out.

This episode also engages in the old MCU/Star Wars tradition of someone getting a hand cut off…in this case it’s our pal, “Vote Loki.”

Frog Thor

A frog resembling Thor is shown in a jar labeled “T365.” Wouldn’t you know it, Thor #365 is the issue where Loki transforms Thor into a frog. Yes, it was a whole thing. Walt Simonson’s run on the Thor comics is really spectacular.

“Frog Thor” also got a mention in Thor: Ragnarok, during the “play within the movie” seen as “Loki” apologized to “Thor” for turning him into a frog.

You know, there’s even an independent wrestler with a Thor Frog gimmick. Life is beautiful sometimes.

Classic Loki

So it appears that Classic Loki is basically what would have happened if “our” Loki survived the opening of Avengers: Infinity War, which he did by allowing Thanos to kill a duplicate while he disguised himself as some debris. Classic Loki went into hiding and developed a taste for brighter greens and yellows, and aged into Richard E. Grant, before he was pruned by the TVA and found himself here in the Void.

Classic Loki’s line about “the god of outcasts” comes from 2019’s Loki #5, by Daniel Kibblesmith and Andy McDonald:

“I am Loki. God of outcasts. They see themselves in me. And I in them. All of us, alone together. It’s why my stories always end with someone trying to put me in a box. And begin with my spectacular escape.”

Later in the episode, Classic Loki and Kid Loki literally “exit stage right,” in what feels like a very deliberately “stagey” moment that plays on the Shakespearean overtones of all of this.

The Living Tribunal

On the ground in the Void there’s a large severed head…and it’s that of The Living Tribunal, a cosmic entity created by Stan Lee and Marie Severin back in 1967. The presence of a Living Tribunal (even one who is dead at this present time), whose entire purpose for being is predicated on the existence of a multiverse, means that the TVA is trying very hard to cut all ties and any evidence of the fact that the multiverse is already out there.

U.S.S. Eldridge

The USS Eldridge was a real Cannon-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy in use from 1943 to 1992. It was supposedly sold for scrap after it was decommissioned but Loki posits that perhaps it was an unwanted Variant in the Sacred Timeline. Perhaps this is because the ship was rumored to be subjected to the “Philadelphia Experiment” that was supposed to render it invisible to the human eye. The story is sadly probably a hoax.

There’s a not exactly great 1984 movie called The Philadelphia Experiment which adds time travel to the equation, making this little callback even more Loki appropriate.

Is That Stan Lee?

At about 9:38 there’s a mural in the TVA headquarters. On the right there’s a guy in prescription shades, with a familiar moustache and salt-and-pepper hair. We’re not saying that’s Stan Lee, but…

The Castle

Yes, we know, that ominous castle sure looks like Doctor Doom’s  home of Doomstadt, but…it’s probably not (or is it?). More likely, this is Castle Limbo, home of Kang the Conqueror (or…is it?).

We unpacked these possibilities some more here.

The Music

The “heroic Loki” theme at the end sounds like it’s about to break into Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Speaking of, the regular Loki theme is very similar to the part of the Delfonics “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)” that was sampled for Missy Elliott’s “Sock It To Me.” The original (also sampled for the Fugees’ “Ready or Not” and Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”) was about the inevitability of love, and Missy’s song was about sneaking into somebody’s house to get your back blown out, so basically the same thing. Could have some bearing on Loki and Sylvie’s story.

The music that plays during the “Loki brawl” is this show’s equivalent of Scooby-Doo chase music. That’s a good thing, by the way.

Pixar, is that you?

Was that the Pizza Planet truck? Mobius’s ride, a station wagon with a slice of pizza on top, immediately brought to mind the popular Pixar easter egg/elaborate timeline mcguffin that has appeared in every Pixar movie to date. Also, very nice touch having Lightning McQueen himself drive it.

An even nicer touch is the license plate on the car Mobius is driving: GRN W1D. As in “Gruenwald.” As in (say it with us, kids!) Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel writer and editor who Mobius is based on.

Ant-Man

At one point on the ground in the Void we can spot a gigantic Yellowjacket helmet. Yellowjacket is the codename for several size-shifting superheroes in the Marvel Comics, but is best known to MCU fans as Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross from the first Ant-Man flick. 

Guardians of the Galaxy

There’s lots of crashed spacecraft, one of which kind of looks like the Dark Aster (Ronan the Accuser’s ship in Guardians of the Galaxy), and there may be a Helicarrier hanging around. There’s also a flying saucer that vaguely resembles the ship from John Carpenter’s The Thing, and a pirate ship that if Doctor Doom were actually the villain of this show (he isn’t…or…is he?) would make us think of that character’s very first appearance in Fantastic Four comics, where he sent Ben Grimm back in time to become Blackbeard. No, really.

Miscellaneous Time Variants

The fate of the Lokis is reminiscent of What If? #12, otherwise known as What If the X-Men Had Stayed in Asgard? At the end of the story, after tasting defeat yet again, Loki begged Those Who Sit Above in Shadow to allow him to rule Asgard. They agreed by sending him far into the future at the end of time. As reality started to break down, Loki went out laughing in the face of oblivion.

The bus ad at the beginning is for Calum Ross, who is an editor on the show. 

The shot of all the Lokis walking as the camera swoops overhead is very much reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

Loki and Sylvie are cold in The Void. But wait a minute, aren’t they both Frost Giants? Why then would Loki conjure a green blanket? Unless he wants a convenient excuse to cuddle up with his Variant…

Loki is drinking “RoxxiWine” pinot noir…out of a box…which is a nice touch.

Is that weird, very large plant in the bowling alley hideout supposed to be a Variant Yggdrasil? Or wait…what if that’s Plant Loki?!? He’s green, isn’t he?

Next to Alligator Loki’s kiddie pool there’s a copy of The Mystery and Lore of Monsters, a 1930 book by Charles J.S. Thompson.

The tower we all keep thinking is Avengers Tower is in fact Qeng Tower, the headquarters of Qeng Enterprises, the company that Tony Stark (mistakenly) sold the old Avengers tower to in the comics.

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Spot anything we missed? (Probably, right?) Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[travllingbunny]

The 100: 7x04 Hesperides

The first quarter of season 7 is kind of like the first quarter of season 2 on steroids - everyone separated in several groups in different locations, looking for each other and having no idea where the others really are, while the show is doing world-building and introducing information about the main threat, setting up the main story that will really kick into gear later.

The main difference is, of course, that in season 2 we saw all of the characters, pretty much in every episode. But now, Bellamy has been missing since his disappearance early in 7x01 (which, of course, is mostly due to external reasons), and we have been in the dark about Octavia’s fate since she was pulled back to Bardo in 6x13, and have only seen her in flashbacks. Clarke, Octavia and Raven have had episodes centered on them (the first, second and third one, respectively), but there has been no or very little of Octavia in the other three episodes, and even Clarke has taken somewhat of a back seat in the last 3 episodes. 

In the meantime, the B-list characters from the main cast - Echo, Gabriel and Hope - have taken center stage and gotten their own great stories. Hope, in particular, has been the character with the most focus in these early episodes - which isn’t that surprising as the show has to quickly give her all the fleshing out, backstory and development that other characters have had seasons to build. And we’ve gotten new characters - guest stars developed over just one episode or one scene - who have been given enough characterization and sympathetic qualities to make their deaths feel tragic and emotional (Hatch, Dev, Orlando).

No, I don’t think that this is a sign of the show focusing more on supporting characters and sidelining its protagonists in the final season, as some fans have been complaining and freaking out about. I’m sure that the mains will soon take center stage again, which is why their storylines this season are just starting or have been set up - while other characters have been given this early stage of season 7 to shine and get a lot of the story now. Another way those smaller stories feel relevant is that they are full of parallels and callbacks to the bigger stories from previous seasons.

I’m still not sure what relevance the title exactly has for this episode, and I’m not convinced that it is just supposed to be about 7x04. Yes, Hesperides were three maidens in a garden - like Octavia, Diyoza and Hope, and it was the topic of a cute exchange between Octavia and Hope (another Blake sibling teaching kids about the Greco-Roman mythology), but what are the “golden apples” that Hesperides were guarding and that Heracles/Hercules had to steal as one of his tasks? The only really valuable object on Skyring is the Anomaly Stone. But if that it what it’s about, that’s not something that has happened yet. Or do golden apples stand for something less tangible, like family, love, trust? Were Gabriel, Echo and Hope a new Hesperides trio (even though calling Gabriel a maiden in any sense of the word is a bit of a stretch), with Orlando as the dragon guarding the garden, or they thieves? I have no idea. I’m going to wait for the rest of the season to maybe give an answer. Maybe we’ll come back to the story of Hercules stealing the apples. That story also includes Atlas (who literally carries the weight of the world), and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is referenced, too.

Worldbuilding

The biggest takeaway from this episode for me were the really strong hints supporting the theory - which I’ve firmly believed in - that the Disciples are an off-shoot of Second Dawn and that their leader, the mysterious Shepherd, is Bill Cadogan. We learn that Disciples have different levels and that the highest one (?) appears to be “Level 12″ - which is reminiscent of the Second Dawn’s “12th seal”. Orlando prays to the “Shepherd, who delivered us from the fire that consumed the Earth”.

One of the most interesting parts of this episode was learning about the planets connected to the Anomaly (which we have a bit more info on than the characters do, thanks to the opening titles!) - which I’ve covered here. (Yes, the planet which was offline is Earth.) 

There are thousands of Disciples, highly trained soldiers, guarding the “fortress”, as Orlando called it. They are highly trained and dangerous - better fighters than pretty much anyone we’ve met. However, they have apparently never been in a battle - at least not the current generations.  They are preparing for something they call “the last war that mankind will ever wage”/”the war to end all wars” (?). Now, who could this war possibly be with, and why do they think they need Clarke as a weapon to win it? It sure can’t be anyone on Sanctum - Wonkru has dwindled to about 400 people, and everyone from Sanctum (from Prime guards to CoG) are pretty incompetent and terrible at fighting. Unless the war is just metaphorical, there must be some other people on one of the planets... Maybe the Eligius people and the Second Dawn are two different factions after all?

The Disciples are incredibly technologically advanced (which may not be so surprising, considering the fact that - if Bardo time is faster than Sanctum, and I think it must be, their society has existed for much, much longer than 230 years - and they have an amazing SciFi technique called memory capture. Which explains how they knew about Bellamy, Echo and Gabriel in 7x01.

The layout of Bardo - drawn by Orlando - provides a lot of info about the life there: there are living quarters, a galley/mess hall (it’s interesting that they use the word “galley” - which is normally used for the kitchen on a ship, train or aircraft), cell blocks, training quarters, arboretum, and so on; we see the first mention of “conductors” - presumably people who manage the travel via the Anomaly Stone - and the most interesting part: there are cryo labs, and “Shepherd” is mentioned in relation to them. Like everyone else, I immediately thought about it being a way for Cadogan to be still alive. 

Because of that, I’m starting to revise my earlier theory about Cadogan being on Etherea (which I speculate to be the planet closest to the black hole, with the ‘slowest’ time) - but now I think that maybe some other people are there, who may be seen as enemies of the Disciples? 

The Skyring trio and Orlando

The first 3 episodes have had the “Previously on” spoken by different cast members (Eliza, Marie and Luisa), which I feel is going to happen throughout the season. But this is the first episode of season 7 with no “Previously on”.

Instead, the episode opened on Hope’s 7 minute backstory scene. If this was an earlier season and some of the main characters we’ve known from the start were involved, it would take at least an entire episode. But this scene was a really well done montage, with little dialogue and done through visuals and a well chosen song (”Hymn” by Joel Porter), representing 10 years that Hope spent on Sanctum, her budding relationship with a Disciple/prisoner Dev - the first male and only the third person she’s ever met in her life, who became something of a father figure for her, and the one who trained her to fight and taught her about Bardo. We have met Dev before - as a corpse, and it was easy to guess from the state he was in that he was killed by Disciples while letting Hope escape. We don’t know anything about his life before he was sent to Skyring for a 10 years sentence - such as, what he was punished for. Maybe Dev (who was Level 7) was never such a true believer as Orlando. And in that case, it would have been easier for him to decide to devote his life to helping this child find her family. Of course, family bonds forged that way - as the only two people, an adult taking care of a child who’s been left alone - must be incredibly strong. 

One of the reasons why this scene worked so well and created so much sympathy for a character we see for only a few minutes, is that it told a story similar to stories we have seen before with the main characters. It was a lot like Madi and Clarke, especially the part where the child was initially hostile and the adult had to break the ice (Clarke did it with a drawing of Madi, Dev ate the paint berries that aren’t good to eat - probably intentionally, since I think he must have heard Hope yelling he shouldn’t eat them - so Hope would take care of him). And Clarke’s relationship with Madi was, in itself, something that paralleled Bellamy’s pseudo-paternal relationship with his younger sister. Octavia’s relationship with Hope was also something that made her understand her brother better. And Dev was reminiscent of Bellamy, especially with the knife throwing scene, which is reminiscent of Bellamy and Charlotte. Except for the fact that Hope was not murderous - unlike Charlotte, who was already incredibly damaged. In fact, Hope not being able to kill, freezing and not joining the battle (unlike Madi, who was able to kill to save Clarke - but Madi had been taught to fight and defend herself against Flamekeepers as enemies) that she had been preparing for, was the reason why Dev got killed. 

We still need to see one final part of Hope’s backstory - what happened when she got to Bardo, how she found a “friend on the inside”, how she made a deal with Anders, why the Disciples have orders to kill her on sight. Until then, we don’t know if killing a Disciple to save Echo was the first time Hope has killed someone. But I think it probably was, because it was an important moment for her - a replay of her old trauma, with her not hesitating this time and being able to protect a friend she’s spent years with. Hope has been trying to be tough, but we already saw in 7x02 that there was a lot of vulnerability, insecurity and lack of experience behind that. Echo called her out on not being able to be a killer in 7x02. Based on her experience, Hope would probably agree with Echo’s mantra that “Hesitation is death” (which it was, for the original Echo and not for AshEcho). Her mother probably wouldn’t be too happy for her, since she wanted - pretty unrealistically, unless Hope was to live away from the human race - to keep her away from the kind of life she used to have. Diyoza even kept her past a secret from Hope - before Gabriel put a foot in his mouth in more ways than one and mentioned Diyoza’s past as a Navy SEAL and terrorist (or “freedom fighter”. PoTAto- poTAYto).

As it turns out, the main plot of the episode was a replay and ironic contrast to the opening scene. It was a bit weird that Hope suggested getting close to Orlando, saying “Trust me, I’ve done this before” - as if she had deliberately manipulated Dev to become close to her, which I really don’t think was the case. (I’d also say that it’s weird that Echo - a spy - was not the one thinking along these lines, but had to be convinced by Hope and Gabriel. But the show has always portrayed Echo as a fighter/assassin rather than an actual spy, who gets close to people and gathers intel.) Hope. Echo, Gabriel and Orlando spent 5 years together, and must have gotten at least somewhat close to each other and to him. He trained them, like Dev trained Hope. But they started to get close to him on purpose, as a part of their plan, pretending to be a happy family and hoping he would want to join in. Which proved right. Orlando also felt protective of Hope, like Dev, which they also used as bait. However, he realized he was being played - proving smarter and less gullible than they had assumed - but agreed to everything anyway, somewhat out of loneliness and desire for human contact and relationships (maybe the same kind he had on Bardo with the people he trained). Maybe he was hoping that he could influence them enough, just like they were hoping - or at least Gabriel was - to be able to change his mind and make him less devoted to his faith. Gabriel’s points about false gods and blind faith seemed to strike a chord, but he still stuck to his faith - maybe because this was all he had ever known.

But after 5 years together, at least some of the bonds must have been real. However, everyone kept their own agenda, and the prior bonds remained the strongest - including Orlando’s attachments to the Disciples he had trained. Echo’s main allegiance remains Bellamy, Hope hopes to save her mother and Aunty O, and Echo thinks that they are still not “his (Orlando’s) people”*.   It’s interesting that we saw these people spend time together on screen and get closer, with funny and warm moments, the kind we don’t often get in this show, but they do not seem to be a real family at the end - in contrast to Spacekru: with them, we were told multiple times hat they had become a close family unit, although we never saw that process on screen. So it would seem that bonding worked better during the 6 years of peace and boredom in space, than during the 5 years of peace and boredom on Skyring. (Or did it? I would argue that Spacekru being “close family” was never quite convincing and was only used as a plot device to create conflict between Bellamy and Clarke or Bellamy and Octavia, but that it’s the relationships that pre-dated the Ring that proved to be the strongest.)

* Out of the 4 people on Skyring, Gabriel is the only one doesn’t really seem to have any strong emotional attachments at the moment, after Josephine’s death, and is there apparently mostly for his scientific curiosity about the Anomaly. We only see Gabriel react emotionally when loses his temper, to the point of becoming physically violent to Orlando. (Which is in character - remember that he killed Eduardo in anger?)

Let’s talk a bit more about Echo.

One of the things that struck me about Echo’s interactions with Hope and Gabriel this season is that she has more chemistry with them than we have seen her have with anyone before, especially a lot more than she’s ever had with Bellamy, and that she’s also showing a lot more personality: we see her joking, showing some sass (I would think it’s the new writer - Niylah has also suddenly became sassy and made snarky remarks in this episode - but she’s also had those moments in 7x02), she is perceptive of Hope’s emotional states. Now to be fair, though she never really glued so well on screen with the Spacekru, we did see her joke around with Monty and banter with Murphy or Raven. But, since they have become an item, always becomes incredibly bland around Bellamy - as it his presence turns her into her role as a follower/soldier/servant. It’s not something that Bellamy does on purpose, it’s just the fact that Echo has picked him as her King and gravitates towards him that way. 

In 7x01, her own subconscious was telling her (just as it did in 6x02 during the red sun eclipse) that she needs Bellamy because she wouldn’t have anyone to follow without him, and questioned if her devotion to him is really about love, or about her need to have a purpose (reminding her that she was so loyal to Queen Nia that she betrayed “the man she now claims to love”). In that context, her single-minded focus on saving Bellamy (”I wouldn’t know what to do without him”) sounds less romantic and more unhealthy, something she needs to learn to grow out of. This is the second season in which she has a lot of interaction with a character whose main trait is blind faith and devotion to a master - in season 6 it was Jade, now it’s Orlando. Echo’s words to Orlando - “It must be hard to dedicate your whole life to something that may never come" sounds ominously like something that may apply to herself.

A comparison between Echo and Finn in season 2 has crossed my mind, but to make things clear - I don’t think their actions are similar. Finn became deranged and killed a lot of unarmed people for no reason; Echo is just being herself, once again, repeating old patterns. But the similarity is in the fact that they are obsessed - in a way that may not be too healthy - with saving a love interest, who may end up being not too happy about it. I don’t know if Echo’s actions at the end of this episode will be brought up between her and Bellamy and if he will learn about them - but the facts are that a) he has consistently shown he cares, loves, needs Clarke more and values her take on morality (or her at her best - because Clarke has not always stuck to it in the past, but has started off that way and has been trying to live by it since the end of season 5) as something he tries to live by, and b) he has been committed to “doing better” and not repeating old mistakes since season 4, while Echo is usually suggesting solutions based on killing and violence, which Bellamy almost always rejects, and Echo falls in line, because Bellamy is the leader.

But left to her own devices, even after spending 11 years in peace, whenever trouble arises, Echo tends to fall back to her upbringing by Azgeda and Queen Nia: “Hesitation is death”. While her circumstances have changed so much since season 4, she has remained fundamentally the same in many ways. It’s not that she doesn’t feel compassion (when she has to hurt someone she has some connection to - she looked sad when she was leaving Orlando. Just as she looked sad when she thought Octavia was dead and had to bring the news to Bellamy in S4), but that doesn’t change her fundamental belief in what should be done. Did she need to kill the four unconscious Disciples? That’s debatable. (It depends on whether you think they could have used the Anomaly Stone to jump back to Bardo - even if they had taken or destroyed all their suits - in time to catch Echo, Hope and Gabriel. But this possibility wasn’t even mentioned by Echo and the others.) What’s certain is that she thought she had to: she knew she had to leave Orlando, because he was too upset by the death of someone he had trained (even though, to be fair, Echo had told him something like that might happen); he could have told the Disciples about them; when there is a threat that can stop you, you must eliminate it. She only left Orlando alive because of their bond, but what she did was even worse as it made him commit suicide. 

Again, I don’t know if Orlando could have used the Anomaly Stone to jump to Bardo, or if he really would have had to spend years alone, again, as Gabriel assumed. But I think the main reason for his suicide was the fact that, because he had let himself trust these people - maybe out of loneliness - he had indirectly caused deaths of Disciples he had trained and cared about. In any case, the show managed to make this character sympathetic in such a short amount of screentime, and make his fate really tragic, in a dark twist after an episode that often felt lighthearted. (I felt really sorry for the guy - kudos to the actor, Darren Moore.) Echo, Gabriel and Hope did not anticipate this, so they will probably feel terrible when they find out. And Hope and Gabriel are responsible, too, because, in spite of their objections, they went along with it.

If Hope killing to save Echo was a replay of her trauma with a different outcome, Echo has replayed her own trauma with the same outcome: she had to kill her friend to save herself. And all she has learned from it is that she has to do the same, every time. Only, we can’t blame her for what she was forced to do to save her own life as an abused child. This time, however, she did not kill in self-defense or battle, but afterwards, when the Disciples were already unconscious. Her betrayal of Orlando also recalled her betrayal of Bellamy in season 3. She had not spent more than a tiny amount of time around Bellamy then, but he considered her a friend he could trust, and she used his trust and got people he cared about and people he felt responsible for killed, causing him to feel enormous guilt. 

Now, I’ve seen the argument that Echo doesn’t need redemption, because her story is about finding independence instead of being a follower. But it can be about both. Her story may not have so far been about “doing better” - although she has heard Monty’s message together with everyone else, and repeated the words “I guess it’s time to do better” during the battle in 6x13 (only after Bellamy has made his decision what to do). But that makes her stick like a sore thumb in a show where the last two seasons have been based on that idea - doing better, not repeating old mistakes. It means that she needs not just to find her independence, but to rethink her methods and world view. I don’t subscribe to the idea that being a follower absolves one of every responsibility for carrying out their master’s orders. The Nuremberg defense, “I was following orders”,is not considered a good defense in court. It’s even less so in terms of morality and personal responsibility. Now, it’s true that a lot of fans hate Echo and tend to judge her more harshly than the other characters - but at least a part of the reason for that is the fact that the show has done very little to have her face the consequences of her actions, as opposed to most of the other characters. Characters who held a similar view of “kill or be killed” have been reviled and killed off (Charles Pike says Hi). In the show, Bellamy has been called out on, physically punished, felt enormously guilty and had a long redemption arc for participating in the killing of an armed, experienced and dangerous army (who may not have been a threat, but it’s understandable why he and Pike considered them a threat), which was considered incredibly evil just because said warriors were killed while sleeping (which makes no sense, but OK) - even though he also was not in charge, Pike was. And Bellamy never used the “following orders” defense and instead felt responsible and did his best to change and do better. In season 5, he was the one who opposed to idea of killing Eligius prisoners who were in cryo sleep (while Echo, like Murphy, supported the idea). Echo has now killed Disciples while they were unconscious. Back in season 3, Echo facilitated and supported a mass murder of civilians done not because of any threat or misguided wish to protect her people, but as a part of a scheme to give her clan more political power. 

Now, it may be argued that Echo didn’t have a choice to disobey - but we later saw, throughout season 4, when Nia was dead and Echo did not have to answer to her, that Echo was still constantly opting for violence and killing as the first option, often as a preemptive strike: killing a leader from another clan for just opposing her plan in public, egging on Roan to kill Clarke and the rest of the Sky people, when they haven't done anything to her or Azgeda and they weren't threatening her or them, telling Roan they betrayed him, kidnapping Bellamy and killing another Arker who was captured with Bellamy - for no reason. She didn’t even need to kill Ryker in season 6, either, regardless of whether we think he deserved it or not. And we have never seen Echo renounce Queen Nia’s legacy (which, lest we forget, is the legacy of someone who practiced genocide - including killing children - and slavery.) In season 4, she was always telling Roan he should be more ruthless, more like his mother, and she was still repeating things learned from her in season 6.

There was a character on Agents of SHIELD that Echo reminds me of (I won’t say his name for spoilers, for AoS fans should easily guess who I mean). This character also had a very tragic backstory - traumatic childhood, abuse, an evil mentor who was emotionally abusive to them but conditioned them to be blindly loyal and commit all sorts of crimes out of that loyalty, career as a spy/assassin who gets close to people and betrays and kills, pathological need for a leader to give them orders, or for some sort of a purpose, a tendency to resolve problems with violence. This character had a passionate fanbase who argued that, as a victim of abuse, he deserved a second chance, but the writers and most of the fandom was adamant that it was not enough to absolve him of responsibility for his crimes as an adult. The 100 is a show that is much more likely to give characters second chances and redeem them. But it’s also a show that normally makes characters work for it. To make Echo the one exception to the rule and give her a get-out-of-jail free card, declaring she doesn’t need to be held personally responsible for her actions, and that she doesn’t need to work to change and do better, would be both inconsistent with the overall themes of the show. and a huge disservice to Echo as a character.

Clarke & co. at Sanctum

It’s kind of funny that, before this season of t100 started, people thought/were worried Bellamy would recklessly jump into the Anomaly after Octavia - but instead, he was taken, and everyone else is recklessly jumping into the Anomaly without knowing where exactly they'll end up. Immediately planet hopping without any supplies or suits with oxygen wasn’t the wisest decision! I was wondering, like many people, why they did not at least take the suits from the dead Disciples. But someone on Twitter has pointed out that the suits probably got damaged by the blast from the energy weapon Raven took from the dead Disciple, which makes it all make more sense. For the rest, I can explain it by the urgency of the situation - they knew that more Disciples would be coming soon. (And the urgency turned out to be very justified - as a Disciple turned off the Anomaly Stone shortly after.) And I have no problem believing that Clarke is that desperate to find Bellamy “her people”. 

..Who are we kidding? If it was just Octavia, Echo and Gabriel, she’d still want to save them, but I don’t think she’d be immediately hopping to another planet without knowing for sure if it’s even survivable, and without saying goodbye to Madi. Some people were bothered that Clarke’s choice wasn’t played more emotionally and that she didn’t specifically mention Bellamy - but I disagree, because this is nothing new. For so many seasons, we’ve seen Clarke talking only in terms of saving “her people” or “her friends” even when everyone knew that Bellamy was the one she’s most emotionally attached to by far. (Going back to season 2 and “You care about him” - “I care about all of them” - “But you worry about him more.) I don’t need this spelled out right now. Maybe the show could have immediately delved a bit deeper into everyone’s reasons for planet hopping, but maybe they didn’t need to because we hopefully will see more of their emotions in the upcoming episodes, especially when they get stuck on the ice planet with a really nice name that kind of means “Hell” or “Purgatory”.

I didn’t take their cavalier remarks like “why not” and “this planet sucks anyway” seriously. What makes a lot more sense is if Niylah mostly wants to save Octavia - since we know how devoted she is to her. Miller may in particular feel he owes Bellamy to save him now, since he did not in season 5, which he felt guilty for and apologized about. And maybe that argument he had with Jackson in the previous episode (aka a few hours earlier) opened some wounds from Blodreina days, since Miller reacted by saying he isn’t just a follower. For Jordan, I suppose it may be a chance to participate in the heroic adventures of the group he’s only heard stories about. Raven has all sorts of reasons,  from saving her friends, to her scientific curiosity and love of space-faring adventures, to the fact that a part of her would probably want to be as far away from Sanctum and ‘the scene of the crime’ right now. 

I certainly hope that we delve more into everyone’s emotions and psychology in upcoming episodes, especially Clarke’s. She tends to try to keep her emotions inside, until they explode (and she beats up Russell and burns down the palace), and this has especially been the case this season. The Bellamy-shaped hole In the show has affected her - she isn’t able to be fully vulnerable with anyone the way she was with him (as recently as their hug in the season 6 finale). In this episode, it felt like she was mostly seen from the outside - we can take a good guess how she feels because of her actions, but it feels like she is seen from other people’s POV - whether her friends’ or the Disciples. From Niylah (who knows her well) saying “of course she is” when people were surprised she would go and risk her safety and freedom and maybe life when she was told they have her people, to Captain Meredith saying their intel on her is “smart, brave, willing to risk her life, not willing to risk the lives of her friends” (that must have come from Bellamy’s and Octavia’s memories), to Jordan announcing “Ladies and gentlemen, Clarke Griffin has left the planet”. (She is, after all, a legend for him especially, he was raised on stories about her. Raven is another legend for him, so he announced her the same way “Ladies and gentlemen, Raven Reyes”.)

But let’s go back to the beginning. I’ve seen people criticize the episode for “not showing the moment they realized Bellamy and others were missing”. I don't know why anyone thinks they would have realized they were missing before. This episode takes place very soon after the end of the previous one. (Clarke even hadn’t seen Raven after she had been beaten up by Nikki.) Bellamy, Octavia, Echo and Gabriel have been gone for about a day and a half at this point. Maybe they would have wondered “when are they coming back?”, but I don’t think they would have seen a reason to be worried - before a foraging party found a dead body of an unknown person with a mysterious suit and helmet. Which was followed by the mysterious people showing up and asking to talk to Clarke.

Raven is haunted by guilt throughout this episode (which makes perfect sense to me, as she has never really had to deal with being directly responsible for deaths in this way, let alone of people she knows), including a hallucination of irradiated Hatch, and Lindsey’s acting was really good.I loved her conversation with Clarke, where Clarke gave her a simple advice, from her own experience, which says a lot about how she has been able to go on: you will not forget the faces of those you’ve killed (we’ve seen Clarke be haunted by hallucinations of Finn and see dead, irradiated Maya in her mindspace), but think of the faces of all the people you have saved. I’m looking forward to more of Clarke/Raven bonding in S7.

I know I sound like a broken record, but one character whose characterization I don’t know how to feel about is Jordan, because of the way the show has been skirting around the issue of whether he has been brainwashed or not. But that may just be me being influenced by the fact that so many people are arguing he is not brainwashed, just because he doesn’t believe in the divinity of the Primes. But 1) he has undergone the process, 2) become weirdly attached and close to his brainwasher Trey and the other ‘Devout’, 3) formed a strange attachment to Priya’s mind drive and started blaming people for her death - seemingly forgetting about his actual dead girlfriend Delilah and her death, 4) is hanging out with people who worship his girlfriend’s murderers, while seemingly paying no attention to her grieving parents, and 5) did a 180 from despising the Primes as murderers to defending their society as “peaceful” and “happy” and spouting similar Prime propaganda BS (which we had previously heard from Josephine), blaming Earthkru for destroying that fake paradise. He does it again here, in an off-hand comment (“before we screwed up”), which sounds like he blames his friends for... what? Not being OK with Clarke being murdered and bodysnatched and trying to save her? Apart from Madi - who was under Sheidheda’s influence - all the others did was try to save Clarke and try to save themselves from getting burned at the stake, while also trying not to kill people. And now, we see Jordan happily plan to save Clarke from getting captured and having her memory extracted, or Miller, Niylah and Gaia killed, by having Raven kill 8 people, which bothered her a lot (especially with her recent experience getting Hatch and 3 other people killed), but didn’t seem to bother Jordan. Now, I’m not saying it should - it’s defending your friends - but how can he do that and at the same time blame his friends for trying to save Clarke from a much worse situation? He’s like two completely different people when he is with the Devout or says anything about them or the Primes, and when he is away from them (when he suddenly stops being annoying and saying absurd things). Either he is showing consequences of brainwashing by the Devout, or he is a terribly written, inconsistent character.

I wish we had seen a scene between Jackson and Miller (which must have been deleted, going by the promo pictures), before Miller abruptly left. He probably didn’t know he would be going to another planet, but he knew he would be risking his life, so some sort of a goodbye could have taken place. At least, with the fact that Jackson was present when they discovered the body of the Disciple, at least someone in Sanctum has some idea what happened, now that Gaia got kidnapped and would not be able to go and tell Madi, Jackson and everyone what happened to Clarke, Miller, Raven, Jordan and Niylah, in addition to Bellamy, Echo, Octavia and Gabriel. But the people in Sanctum are still going to be wondering what happened to all those people (now including Gaia) who are just gone. 

Did Clarke get to take the note? It wasn’t clear in the episode itself. If she had it, I wonder what Orlando wrote in it and if this would give her more info or just be more confusing. If he just said something like, there were three of them, two women and one man, she could assume those were Bellamy, Octavia and Echo - but she was already finding Meredith’s info hard to believe and thought he was lying. Everyone thought Bellamy shoot the Disciple they found, because he was the only one with a gun - which Echo actually took in 7x01, before losing it in the trip to Skyring - but all that happened doesn’t sound like something he’d do.

As I expected since the trailer came out, Gaia offered to be the one to stay behind take care of Madi and warn the others. (The show had to build a friendship and trust between Clarke and her to make it believable that Clarke would feel Madi would be safe with her, and so people wouldn’t criticize Clarke too much for leaving. Not that this is helping much, since she’s already getting some criticism thrown at her in the Facebook group.) But her getting kidnapped by a Disciple means that 1) Madi would have to face Sheidheda without the help of her former Flamekeeper, 2) people in Sanctum would have far less idea of what’s going on, and 3) Clarke and co. had no idea about it when they left, thinking that their people are relatively safe in Sanctum. At least Gaia didn’t need to warn them about the Disciples coming for them - since the Disciple has deactivated the Anomaly Stone. So, now Sanctum is offline, too.

Where is everyone now?

Octavia was pulled back to Bardo at the end of 6x13 and we still haven’t seen her in the present

Bellamy was kidnapped and taken to Bardo in 7x01 and we haven’t seen him since

Diyoza was already on Bardo as a captive

Echo, Hope and Gabriel jumped to Bardo from Skyring

Gaia has been kidnapped by a Disciple and taken to another planet - maybe Bardo, but maybe not (and I’m not sure how the Disciple even could have taken her to Bardo, when the Anomaly Stone had been set to Nakara, and the Disciple just turned if off, as far as I could see?)

Clarke, Raven, Jordan, Miller and Niylah jumped to a random planet and ended up on Nakara, the ice planet

Murphy, Emori, Madi, Indra and Jackson remained on Sanctum, together with Russell!Sheidheda, broken Wonkru, about 400 of them (including the Sangedakru - who worship Sheidheda), angry and hurt Nikki and 31 other Eligius prisoners, the Devout who still worship Russell and the Primes, and the Children of Gabriel, who want him dead.

Timeline: The 100 writers are indeed bad at math, or aren’t too bothered about making the timeline fit, and this is also clear in this episode.

Meredith, during his first meeting with Clarke, only told her "Your people killed 3 of mine" and told her to hurry "Where your friends are, time runs much faster. Every second counts". Which sounded like he only knew what they did on Sanctum,  and made it sound like they were still on Skyring (I'm sure time runs faster on Bardo than on Sanctum, too, but the time differential is not as extreme, so "every second counts" is a bit too dramatic. They'd only be a few hours older if they were on Bardo.)  

Which only makes sense from the Doylist perspective - the writers didn't want the audience to be spoiled on what happens in the Skyring storyline. But it makes no sense from the Watsonian perspective - Meredith should already know that they killed 5 more of his people and jumped.  Because those 5 years were about 2 minutes on Sanctum - so, it all happened a day earlier, in the timeline of 7x01. Logically, Meredith and his team must have known everything and then have been sent to Sanctum.

Body count: The Disciples are really dying a lot this season: 3 in 7x01, and in this episode, 5 more killed on Skyring (1 by Hope, 4 by Echo), 8 including Meredith killed on Sanctum by Raven, Orlando (reportedly) committed suicide. 17 dead Disciples since the start of the season.

In the flashback - 4 Disciple dieds: Dev killed 2, was mortally wounded by a third, but managed to detonate a grenade and kill his killer.

Rating: 8.5

[moonlightreal]

Winx Club  Season 8/18

You’re right, all the episodes were gone from Raiplay!  Dang, now I wish I’d watched til the end when they were all up.  This was the last episode I have; now we’ll have to wait until the next batch drops on @winxclubcomics. Go send her a nice note wouldya?  She is a true load-bearing member of this fandom.  And I hope her sources deliver the rest of the season soon!

Shameless plug: I also write fiction.  Very long fiction.  If y’all need more Winx while you quarantine, I’ve got a story that’ll probably last you ‘til we can all go out again!

In the meantime...

In which Palladium teaches a spell and some lumens lay down the law.

18 Valley of the Flying Unicorns

Yay flying unicorns!  Bloom seems just as enthused as I am when she voiceovers the title.

In Palladium’s class.  The girls take notes.  Bloom draws a picture of Sky.  Love it when the writers remember that she draws.

Palladium announces they’re going to learn to make a perfect hair and makeup potion! He sounds totally thrilled about it, heh.  Is that how Palladium keeps his hair lookin’ so good?  Is it normal in elf society for dudes to be all about the perfect hair?  Or is there something we should know about our favorite elf?  Well in the comics he has a girlfriend, Athris, so I guess the only canon we have for Palladium in love says he’s straight.

Stella is enthused too, of course.  She squees about how she adores cosmetic potions, and leaps to be Palladium’s assistant for a demonstration.

But these potions are very delicate and require “maximum concentration and minimal excitement.”

Stella deflates. Dang, there could’ve been a callback to season one where we hear Stella blew up the potions lab trying to create a new shade of pink.

Palladium decided Bloom is a better choice for assistant.  But she’s distracted by mopily drawing Sky.  Tecna pokes her and says, “Are you offline?” which I have never heard to mean that but I think it’s great.  Like Tecna’s “achievement unlocked” thing I think Rainbow is trying to get her back to a unique (nerdy) way of speaking.  I kinda would have preferred the real season one’s “I am logical and don’t understand normal stuff” Tec rather than “Nerd is the new cute!” Tec, but either one is an attempt to make her unique, so props to Rainbow!

Bloom mopes. Palladium growls.  Bloom pops up and has no clue what she’s supposed to be doing.  She drops things in the cauldron.

Ingredients: five drops of liquid beauty, three petals of a young lily, and a teaspoonful of lunar essence.  Hmm, so if I were going to make this… the lily petals are easy, and for lunar essence you put a quartz crystal in a bowl of water and leave it in the light of a full moon. The “liquid beauty” is a red liquid in a test tube, so… lemme get Cunningham’s… where the heck is my Cunningham’s?!… well, none of the plants listed under” beauty: to attain” are plants that would create a red liquid.  So I’d use some kind of pomegranate juice drink, because pomegranates are associated with Persephone whose beauty was so great that death himself fell in love with her.

Next Bloom has to visualize the final effect of the spell.  But since Bloom is distracted there’s a poof and then Palladium’s hair is a bird’s nest, with an egg and two parent birds in it!  He is very grumpy, but still cute!  The rest of the class laughs and Bloom apologizes. Stella snarks that her excitement didn’t turn out to be the problem here!

So it’s not a potion for drinking, so you could totally cast this spell.  Just not if you have cats; lilies are toxic to cats so they shouldn’t be in the same house just in case.

Great outdoor shot of Alfea.  In the courtyard the girls ask Bloom what has her so distracted.  It’s Sky, of course it is, he hasn’t been in contact for days!  Bloom knows he’s on a secret mission, but she can’t stop worrying that he’s in danger.  A rather sensible worry with the Trix and Valtor out there.  But Bloom was worried about Sky getting caught by “Eraklyon’s royal condors” which resulted in the bird nest.

Bloom shifts to the next worry: either Sky isn’t able to message, or he’s choosing not to.  Flora rather shallowly tells her not to think about it, but here’s Twinkle to shift the scene by crashing into Bloom!

There’s no trouble, Twinkle just came to visit.  But then the star case appears. “The third prime star waits on Monocerous, not far, look beyond the clouds and higher, you’ll find the trust that you desire.”

Monocerous?!  I- I- That is a dumb name!  Yeah I know it means one-horn, it’s still dumb sounding!

Stella doesn’t know the place, but Twinkle has visited and tells them about the unicorns.  She’ll take them there!

Valtor’s watching.  He sends the Trix out.  Darcy says following the Winx is getting annoying.  Stormy says the riddle was about trust and she trusts—herself!  She wants to go alone!  can’t say I disagree, Stormy, with sisters like yours.

Icy jumps on her about how finding one star doesn’t make her the strongest witch in the magic universe and how SHE’ll get the star just time.  Stormy snarks back.  Lovin’ Stormy this season!  Valtor gets bored with this and snaps at them but he does show off his green star, he’s keeping it in a bubble with a sort of pink thorny vine grown around it.

Cut to winxboarding over a green land of lakes and rainbows and waterfalls, just the kind of place winged unicorns like to live.  This realm also has floating islands, what I think are called “earthmotes” in D&D, they’re a terrain feature I’m fond of.  The girls enjoy boarding.  Twinkle says it’s “starsome” here.”

Tec says she’s read that winged unicorns don’t trust strangers and maybe they should “prepare some kind of speech.”   but Stella and Flora are sure they’ll be fine.

And then Diaspro plummets out of the sky.  Wait, what?  It looks like the same world but clearly not exactly where the Winx are.  Sky is flying with his Specialist suit and Disapro has similar metal wings-- NOT her fairy wings—and she’s flailing around unable to fly straight.  “I hate this flying gizmo!  Sky, can’t you just carry me?” she asks in the most smarmy voice ever.

Sky says that’s not an option, in the most utterly done voice ever.

Why isn’t Disa using her own wings??  Is she for absolute not a fairy since the timeslide??  

Sky says they need to get past the floating rocks to reach the lost locket of Eraklyon, which they’re apparently still looking for.  Was that temple on Monocerous?  Why would the locket be on an uninhabited world that’s so out of the way Stella hadn’t heard of it even though it has unicorns and I’m sure Stella went through a phase when unicorns were the greatest thing ever, since every girl goes through that phase!  I’m not sure I ever left that phase!

We see some flying unicorns, white with wings and colored manes and tails.  I think the sight of them does Sky some good because he questions if they’re really going to find the locket—but Diaspro’s walked away.

Then she… startles a unicorn and it tries to take off but Diaspro floats into the air for no discernible reason and she falls on Sky.  Did her wings malfunction?  Do the unicorns have a flight field around them that she got caught in?  It was a very weird little moment.

Because this is not an anime, she does not land with her boobs on Sky’s face but I’m sure she wishes she had.  Sky gets up, growling, and Disa says, “I can’t imagine what I’d do if I were alone, among such fierce creatures!”

“Yeah.  Very fierce.”  Sky says with all the skepticism we’re all feeling.

He flies off into the sky with Diaspro wobbling after.  He asks Diaspro if she’s sure they’re in the right place.  She unrolls her ‘map’ again—still emojis of her and Sky in a heart!--and says the medallion is on one of the floating rocks.  But there are a lot of them.  Sky suggests splitting the party but Diaspro is too scared.

But they’ve got company!  Unilumens!  With pink hair and unicorn horn headbands. They say the floating rocks are just for unicorns and their friends.

Sky starts to ask about the medallion but Diaspro says, ‘We’re on a special mission for the king of Eraklyon so we can go where we please.”

Disa, these lumens are not Eraklyon subjects…

The lumens attack! Ahahahaha!  Yay unilumens!  They shoot pink blasts and Sky and Diaspro jump into the air to dodge.  Diaspro drops her map, which unrolls on the ground.  Sky sees it!

Sky: “But this is not a real map!  it’s a fake!”

Diaspro; “Um, uh, I, I can explain, well actually...”  she admits she made it up to keep their mission going as long as possible.

Sky yells at her.

Eventually he realizes there is in fact no medallion to find.  Disa admits to this too.

Lumen: “I think she deserves to be punished!  Can we handle this?”  She sounds delightfully eager to lay some karma on Diaspro, it’s a wonderfully delivered line.

But Sky says, “No thanks, lumens.  We’ll just go back home.”  He throws the map at Diaspro’s feet and walks off, leaving the crowd of lumens disappointed.

Diaspro: “Ooooh! My plan has failed!  And it’s all your fault!”

Unilumen kicks the map and sticks her tongue out at Diaspro.  Ahahahahaha!  Love it!

Back with the Winx, more boarding, gotta sell those toys!  They land and watch the three unicorns, but every unicorn they approach flies away.

They’re talking about looking for the prime star when up rumbles… a stampede of unilumens!  

“More uninvited guests!  Are they all coming today?”  Heh.  Unilumen attack!

But Twinkle stops them.  The unilumens recognize her as a fellow lumen and she explains the mission.  Unilumens consult each other and decide to trust the Winx.

Cute scene of everybody sitting on the grass as the unilumens give them flower necklaces.  The head unilumen introduces herself as “Esteria, leader of the Monocerous lumens tribe.”  I would’ve gone with “Epona” because I’ve always liked that name, but Esteria is prettier.

Bloom tells them about the mission, and Esteria says the prime star may be in “the horn” but only the ubnicorns can fly there; a magic barrier blocks anyone else.  Stella despairs.

But Esteria says the unicorns just don’t trust them yet.  She whistles and color-coded unicorns fly down.  Purple, blue, pink, green, more-pink, and yellow.  They’re… boring designs.  Your basic winged unicorn, nothing special.

Esteria says winged unicorns are kind, but they choose who can ride them.  Stella’s keen to give up after just being snubbed by a few unicorns, but Aisha gets her back on target for the mission.

Esteria says they just have to walk slowly through the group and the unicorns will choose them.

Bloom steps on a twig and it scares her unicorn, but they make friends anyway.  The other girls and unicorns pair up in short order.  Aisha is adorably enthusiastic, I knew she’d be the most keen on riding.

Stella is the least interested, which is weird. I’d think she’d love everything about unicorns.  Her unicorn takes a bite out of her skirt and sniggers at her.

Then the unicorns grin in a way unicorns should never do, and their horns light up and the girls get new clothes!  Cowboy wear!  With short layered skirts that are super cute but probably not practical for riding, boots, and cowboy hats.  The unicorns gave themselves hair decorations at the same time, heh.

Esteria confirms that the girls have made another bond, I guess the new clothes are a sign of it.  Could this be a transformation?  Without wings, because a transformation granted by a winged creature wouldn’t need them. We shall call it… Cowboyix!  ...or maybe we won’t.

Everybody mounts up, the unicorns kneel to let them, except for Stella’s who makes her chase it.

Now the unicorns will take them where they want to go… if “he” allows them through.

Everybody’s off! Twinkle stays with the unilumens.

Flying!  Stella’s unicorn bucks her off but then catches her.  Stella screams a lot in general.  Stella really doesn’t like riding, or unicorns.  Do we have any precedent for her not liking horses?  I don’t remember her having any trouble riding Shiny in Tynix form, and they all ride horses in season 4, right..?  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen season 4.  So maybe not being good at riding is a new quirk the riders gave her, or maybe it’s just part of her general Usagi-ish comic relief-ness.

On the other side of wherever, Sky is giving Diaspro some well deserved grief.  Good grief Sky, just haul her home and dump her already.  Diaspro sits and pouts while he rants about how she noticed his fight with his father and sprang the mission knowing Sky wouldn’t check with Erendor since they were on the outs.

Diaspro: “Oh, lay off!  Was it really so terrible to take a tour of the magic universe in my company?”

Sky: “Of course it was terrible!”  Heh.

Sky rants how he hasn’t been home and hasn’t seen Bloom, Disa says if Bloom really cared she’d understand it was an important mission, Sky points out that it was not in fact an important mission.

A scary wind blows! “He” is coming!  Unicorns and unilumens, who were totally watching Sky and Disa fight, flee!

It’s… it’s…

The baddie from the My Little Pony movie?  

(which I haven’t seen since I didn’t get around to getting it out of the library.)

It’s a big black unicorn with a silver horn that’s broken off halfway up.  He rears and trumpets, then dives at the two humans.  Sky drags Diaspro out of the way.  The black unicorn chases them!

Sky leaves Disa on a small floating island and flies off, leading the black unicorn away.  Oh no, he went the wrong way!  Dead end!  The unicorn blasts him with fire from its horn and he falls down, his suit sparking.  No more suit powers!

The unicorn advances menacingly… cliffhanger!

Hmm, this unicorn has fire colored eyes, just like Diaspro’s.  I’m glad we got more from Diaspro this episode, I was so looking forward to seeing more of that “map.”  Hehehe.  

[wellntruly]

FLEABAG Notes - Season 2, Ep 6

I hung on to these notes almost this whole week, editing little bits, not really wanting to post my last one quite yet, but y’know what? Phoebe taught me how to say goodbye, with love. ❤️

Season 2, Episode 6

the way she gently brushes her fingers down the back of his head... tenderness....

the first thing the Priest does upon waking is ask her what she’s thinking. has any man on television since Raúl Esparza in Pushing Daisies been so interested in the content of a woman’s thoughts!! Fleabag, Or ‘What Is Hot’, by Phoebe Waller-Bridge !

she’s so soft in this scene, I’m all broken up. my gentle doves!

the fukafkjakfdjsf painting, FUCK, it’s so ON. my friend Jen wants to know who the artist is they had make it, so she can specially commend them on getting Claire’s big panicked eyes just right

Claire’s fake ponytail actually doesn’t look all that bad, quality-wise. well, it’s Claire, she only gets good stuff. Martin being the GLARING exception.

“Where’s Claire?” god. “he says things like ‘Where’s Claire?’ and ‘Where’s Claire?’”

I’m so glad Fleabag and Claire are tight again because can you imagine trying to get through this wedding without your sister

Dad: “Do you need me to say anything, emotional, about today?” Fleabag & Claire: “Naw no. I think we’re alright. We’re good. Thanks.”

Godmother introducing all her Interesting Friends she’s collected, good lord, Emily and I DIED. and it’s just, so, I don’t know, right and poignant that upon reflection, the Priest was the latest prize in her collection? he is such an Interesting Friend. she’d introduce him like “And this is my fascinating alcoholic priest friend, isn’t he handsome? Too bad he’s sworn himself to God, aw [pouts]”

THE SHOW CAN’T SAY THEIR DAD’S NAME BECAUSE HE’S JUST “DAD” ON THE CALL SHEET AND SO GODMOTHER GETS TO FORGET IT IN HER INTRODUCTIONS AND IT’S MAYBE THE BEST LAMPSHADING I’VE EVER DAMN SEEN??!!!!

I think Godmother might be genuinely touched that Fleabag brought her the sculpture back. Olivia Coleman is so good that she can do this thing where she can let Godmother forget to have her Face on for a split second.

Godmother: “Do you know, I often thought it strange that of all my pieces you chose to take her.” Fleabag: “Why?” Godmother: “She was based on your mother.”

it gives me goosebumps, this moment

yeah you’re gonna need to fucking steal her back

Fleabag turning a corner and accidentally running into the Priest and they’re both like AAHH WTF, oh jesus, is a nice summary for their relationship

also: him thinking she was a fox, but “You’re not!” he happily declares. why is this making me so emo. maybe because it could have been easy for him to think of Fleabag as another of his foxes, a gamboling long-limbed godless mischief-maker whom he doesn’t understand and keeps showing up at windows---but she’s not. he understands what she wants, he can share that.

Priest: “Wait ’til you see me in the full…shebang, you’re gonna lose your fucking mind.” Fleabag: [laughs strainedly] Me: [also]

seriously the longer her laugh here hangs in your automatic memory the more it sounds like a cry of pain. V GOOD.

I know I’m always like maybe the magic of the Hot Priest is--, but maybe the magic of the Hot Priest is that when he’s all restrained want it’s extremely hot, in the classical manner of pining, but when a priest finally gives in we’ve only swapped Pining for the STILL extremely hot ~Transgression~. so no matter what he’s extremely hot, because you’re not supposed to be doing him!!!

Andrew Scott’s whole performance in this scene is just pure “Overwhelmt™”

and her callback to their exchange outside the restauraaaant, the “Fuck you then” while leaning against a brick wall as the other walks away, SOB. he chuckles weakly. not like he’s weakly amused, but that he’s just weak, weak at the knees.

his robe is indeed lovely but this shot is actually for Claire’s "ey ey? ha ha” smile at her sister

ah in reality Godmother introduces him as “our very chic priest.” also good & right. what is being chic but good dress sense coupled with alcoholism.

Claire’s coupe glass was full all of 20 seconds ago, and now it’s completely empty as she holds it in two hands laughing tipsily and admitting to the miscarriage being hers—that’s GOOD PERFORMANCE DETAIL RIGHT THERE

when Claire throws Martin’s “like a goldfish out of the bowl” line right back at him!!! and Fleabag’s like ooooooo with the eye squintchies

adore Fleabag sharing part of her thrilled smile with the Priest as she scurries after Claire to the kitchen. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a preternaturally expressive face, but she has a pretty good complement in Andrew Scott and his open astonishment at her family’s goings-on in front of him from the dinner party on makes him feel like he also has a pretty sizable investment in the Claire/Martin disastership. The Priest Approves of the Dissolution of this Marriage

when ur stayin right here

I’m weeping

Me: “Those drinks look STRONG.” Emily: “Ohohoho yeah.”

“I’m not a bad guy, I just have a bad personality!” this is a really wonderful line. like it’s not true, Martin, you make bad decisions and that’s what it takes to be a bad guy. but still, wonderful line.

“I’m a douche but I make you laugh, you said that was the most important thing!” so glad we have just fully eviscerated this sentiment by this point. a) you don’t, b) you can’t just have that to offer! stop defending terrible guys by saying they make you laugh, ladies! and gentlemen!

Emily pointed out to me that Claire too gets down on her knees to pray for release this season. THEMES & SYMBOLS. kneeling to ask for what you want, now transformed into a whole different kind of release, amaazing

Fleabag’s “Fuck you” toast acknowledgement to Martin’s is transcendent

but ah, AH, this time Fleabag helps Claire up off her knees, this time FLEABAG is the one offering support, a literal steady hand, clasped in love. Fleabag is growing, becoming someone others can rely on, who can offer guidance and light. she’s becoming her own Hot Priest! her own Best Woman In Business!

Claire and Fleabag snarfing snacks all close together, god I love them, god, this is a love story

Fleabag literally asks her Dad for “one full sentence.” no you’ll kill him! when he finally utters a complete sentence he will vanish into the wind!

“You’re not the way you are because of me. You’re the way you are because of her. And it’s those bits that you need to cling to.” I think this is an underrated beautiful bit from Dad? because I am 😢

this is the episode of Fleabag delivering callbacks, as now she’s giving her Dad his “Buck up. Smiles. Charm. Off we go” pep talk from the funeral. and once again she’s offering her hand to lift someone up from the ground! Fleabag has learned how to help others, and that will include herself. this show, oh lord this show.

it is so charming that Jake is actually a pretty good little bassoon player. this song is sweet! it’s very mellow but it’s not sombre.

Claire: “The only person I’d run through an airport for is you.”

break & rebuild my fucking heart

Jake’s original bassoon piece….is called ‘Where’s Claire’. I’m so happy.

Claire: “There’s something wrong with your priest.” uh oh someone broke the priest

but you know what Leonard Cohen says---the cracks are what lets the light get in:

Priest: “I was taught if we’re born with love, then life is about choosing the right place to put it.” ah? ahhh??? Fleabag didn’t know where to put it, her love for her mom! Boo saying she could give it to her! cryyy, oh my god? this season, it’s just six episodes and yet everything gets the most cathartic, beautiful last note, the resolving chord

Priest: “Love isn’t something that weak people do.” This is a love story. this is a story about discovering love you didn’t know you had in you, and the strength to share it.

Priest: “Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope.” this is a story about choosing HOPE, even if it hurts

go! Claire! go! aw honeybee I’m so happy for you, go get your Finn

seriously Phoebe, your legs in this dress 😘

she knows. that’s one of the most remarkable things about this. I think she knew at his upturned face at the end of his homily, his voice echoing in his own soul: “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” so “It’s God, isn’t it?” she asks with a teary smile, before he’s even said a word. she’s developed a great sense of perception outside of just what’s going on in her own head. she’s been sympathetically awareness of what’s going on with the people in her life all day: her father, her sister, and now her Priest.

MY DARLINGS 😩 that particular bright pain of the breakup where you’re still making each other laugh, ahh don’t touch me

and she just tells him, tells him what she’s thinking: "I fucking love you. I love you.” Fleabag wants to give her love to the Priest, that’s where she wants to put it, but god god he can’t take it, because he knows that through him it all goes to God. he is a Priest---he is a conduit to the Lord, bringing love through himself to the people on Earth, and letting it travel through him up to Heaven. it’s lovely, really. it’s agony.

and again, she knows it, she doesn’t even need his response. gently: “No no don’t—no let’s just leave that out there, for a second on its own.” she just needed to say it out loud (aah)

“[brightly] Uh, see you Sunday? [seriously] I’m joking you are never ever allowed in my church again.” it’s still a compliment the second time. still an expression of such affection.

but then he tells her, oh god, then he tells her "I love you too” and, 

oh fuck,

fuck, no, god, gorgeous, yes. he’s crying, but he can’t have this, he’s for something else and that’s beautiful, and this is beautiful, I’m so glad she gets this because oh the pain but oh the beauty. it’s not unrequited, he loves you back, he loves you, you’ve given and received love, you’re just not going to be together like that. sometimes life is that way. especially with priests.

but love is hope, and love is strength, and living is figuring out where to put it. you’re still figuring it out. but you’re only 33, and you’re not Jesus.

I guess because Fleabag winds up sitting at bus stops a lot, but I look at this and just think, gosh we’ve come so far, and we’re still heading on. hope.

“He went that way.” I just, I love it. imagine her becoming like a saint figure to his foxes, coming to her hoping she’ll pls point them in the right direction? pray pls, the Girl Who Knows the Priest? and then the foxes come scattering up at him like “hé hé! Saint Fleabag points us true, hé hé!” and he’s like “AAAAH” and “goddamnit, she fucking would” and “:)”

I feel like I can’t even sketch how powerful the sculpture of her mom is now, what it means to see Fleabag pull her out of her bag again, rest her under her chin, quiet and feeling

the moment where she says goodbye to us, as the Alabama Shakes sing about knowing you’re gonna be alright, the sad hopeful healing painful beauty & strength of this.....I don’t think I know a better ending

so long, Fleabag ❤️❤️

***

Fleabag Notes

Season 2: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5 | Season 1

Tarra’s Fleabag Tag

[im-the-king-of-the-ocean]

3BP2 Episode 4: Mother’s Day Liveblog

...and we’re back with Whirl Does a 3Below Liveblog Thing!  My apologies that this one took so long.  I’ve had a lot of life stuff going on.  But I will try to get through the entire second season of 3Below :)

I do 2 watches of favorite shows when they first come out.  The first, a single binge-watching session through all new episodes, so I can feel all the emotions I’m gonna feel.  The second is slower, to fully take in the new material and sort out my thoughts.  This time, with 3Below, I’ve decided to liveblog my second watch through.

Episode 1.  Episode 2.  Episode 3.

Beneath the cut, thoughts on 3Below Part 2 Episode 4: Mother’s Day

>I tend to like episodes like this that are framed from the perspective of a side character who usually doesn’t get too much attention.  It makes the world feel more developed past the main characters, like the writers have given thought to their entire cast instead of just the protagonists.

>That’s not to say I like every narrative choice in this episode, but the framing is something I’m ultimately glad they decided to do.

>holy crap is this show beautiful.  Since my last liveblog I’ve gotten a new computer with better graphics and man is everything absolutely stunning.

>Mother checking in on her family as they sleep is so very cute 👌

>tbh, I feel like this episode would have been a better introduction for Toby this season.  Right off the bat, we have him in a familiar setting, the dentist’s office, as a callback to Trollhunters.

Toby becomes aware of a potential threat (Tronos), later meets up with Arrrgh!!!, and then goes to confront the threat.

Starting with Toby here would have re-established him as a competent Trollhunter/reminded the audience of his involvement with Trollhunters already.  Instead of appearing to just go along with Eli in ep. 1, Toby would have been shown to have a more active role.  He hasn’t just been sitting around like ep. 3 seemed to imply and he does take threats to Arcadia seriously.

Also, not introducing him until a couple episodes in would have heightened anticipation for his return.  Instead of just giving the audience him immediately, the writers could have gotten us excited to see him again by making us wait until a very exciting moment, which the beginning of this episode is.

>Tronos’s introduction here is great.  Mother’s narration over him going through the power lines and then appearing in the dentist’s office is fantastic, suspenseful and gets the viewer hyped for the episode.

>Have I ever mentioned that I love Tronos’s voice? cause I love Tronos’s voice 😻 

>Mother’s development is so so good 😊 it hurts my heart to know where things are going with her this season 😢 but I love her comments to Krel as he’s trying to do repairs.

>I like that Zadra distrusting Vex is a plot line.  It shows that past events have lasting effects.

>If this were Toby’s introduction episode, then he and the Tarrons wouldn’t know each other as well as they do, and Toby wouldn’t call them about Tronos.  This would circumvent the awkward phone call moment.  Plus, the Akiridions could have easily found out about Tronos some other way (like him appearing on their censors like he did on Area 49B’s).

>First mention of Gaylen’s core.  Interesting.  I’m looking forward to exploring this more in later episodes.  Also, I love the music here, it’s wonderful.

>Man, I love the interrogation of everyone in Arcadia.  Just 👌stuff right there.

>Zadra training Aja is a nice scene.  I like the little sound effect when she ever so gently taps her boot against the building and her smirk when she says “advanced tactics”.  Give me more Zadra pls.

>Zadra’s line about compatriots betraying a warrior and having to fight alone read as emotional to me.  Like she’s recalling how she had to fight alone at the beginning of Part 1 to prevent Morando’s forces from stopping Aja, Krel, and Vex’s escape.  That was an experience she endured and overcame, but it did lead to her capture.  This strikes me as Zadra not being unaffected by the experience and that fuels her anger at Vex.  Even more so because he was someone I think she mentioned trained her and she trusted in the past.  His betrayal hurt her because she trusted him and because of the experiences she had to go through because of it.

Just, I’m reading a lot of depth in Zadra here.  Whether it was intentional or not, I cannot say.  But it makes me love her character.

>I love love love Aja’s introduction to Arrrgh!!!, that entire scene, and the fact it happened in the museum (another TH callback!)

>I so want to see more of an Aja & Arrrgh!!! friendship, just that friendship.  I have been sold on that friendship in less than a minute.

>Bonus points for the Arrrgh!!! vs. Tronos fight.

>See the call back to lightning in a bottle just convinces me more that this should have been Toby’s introductory episode, since we’re reminded of Trollhunters yet again.

>I haven’t mentioned this so far, but this was a really good episode to bring Kubritz and her Area 49B guys to Arcadia in.  Also this introduction of Costas, nice to see him before he’ll get a little more significance later.

>The beginning of Morando’s snap commands to the OMENS.  I don’t know why I like this, but I do.

>Kubritz’s later working with Morando is foreshadowed here by how she strikes a deal with Tronos.  I don’t think that comes out of the blue.  Kubritz has set her objective at protecting Earth.  She’s found out extraterrestrials have more advanced tech than mankind, so she’s focused on acquiring that tech because without it, she can’t complete her protection objective.

Her goal and the way she goes about it are contradictory (she wants to protect Earth from extraterrestrials, yet she works with extraterrestrials).  I don’t think she, as a character, has realized this yet.  She’s gotten so caught up in her objective that I don’t think it’s occurred to her that her actions betray her values.  At least not until the very end of the season.

We the audience can see her contradiction for what it is because we’re not her, and we have an outside perspective.  We also have an emotional connection to Aja and Krel and, because Kubritz is antagonistic to them, we won’t agree with her.

Kubritz only has her own perspective.  She doesn’t have to listen to her subordinates if she doesn’t want to (I believe, later, she doesn’t really listen to Costas when he begins to point things out).  Until the final battle, where Arcadia is literally being destroyed and she has the evidence that she’s wrong in front of her, Kubritz doesn’t manage to get out of her own head.

I don’t think this makes her a bad character, but a character with flaws.  To me, that makes her fascinating.

>“Dinner Family” is great.

>I like the ending conversation between Vex and Zadra.  It works really well.

[neverwatchedonepiece]

643-644: "Shaking Heaven and Earth! Admiral Fujitora's Power!" and "A Blow of Anger! A Giant vs Lucy!"

Brutal.... :(

Were I to sum up 643 and 644, it would be: unexpected feels and reveals.

The feels came from poor Brutal. It was all going so well! Luffy found a new pal and then, BAM.

The reveals? Well, we have the “return” of Norland from Skypeia, for one thing. Flower Field also seems to be the location for the next Big Showdown. 

The Donquixote Family have also made some moves. Diamante has put Bellamy in an uncomfortable position and an... artistic new character has been introduced. As for Doflamingo himself, he revealed a past working relationship with Trafalgar Law (I knew it! I knew there was something there!)

Oh, and we have yet another ridiculously powerful Admiral. :D

Fujitora is My New Favourite Admiral

This entire scene escalated quickly. It went from Dodgy Dealings to Dragon Ball in the blink of an eye. Not exactly an exemplary lesson in conflict resolution, but I am not complaining. 

Because it was awesome.

Law was understandably pissed off at being duped by Doflamingo. It wasn’t really Law’s fault. He’d planned the best he could with the information he had to hand. Unfortunately, it was just as Vergo had foretold: not knowing about Doflamingo’s past would be Law’s undoing.

Law refused to hand over Caesar. Doflamigo had reneged on his side of the bargain. “The deal’s off!”

Then Doflamingo said something interesting. “Is that how you talk to your boss after ten years of silence?”

Boss? Really?

I freaking knew it. I knew there was something between Doflamingo, Law and Vergo. It was the way Vergo spoke to Law back in Punk Hazard, calling him a brat, acting as if he knew everything about Law, about how he had improved but not enough. Doflamingo treats him in a similar way. Law is from North Blue, a territory in the New World. Dressrosa is in the New World. Was Law born in a territory claimed by Doflamingo?

I wonder what caused Law to go radio silence and desert Doflamingo? It must have been something horrendous. Maybe Law knows Doflamingo a bit better than he lets on.

Whatever the case, Doflamingo was adamant in retrieving Caesar. (Caesar’s starry-eyed moment was hilarious. I’d say he’s totally in love with Doflamingo, but the only thing I’d ship Caesar with is research funding).

There was a quick, “Yeah, I’ve heard all about you” exposition moment. Just to bring any viewers up to speed on Fujitora in case they missed that awesome episode when he sent an unfortunate bunch of fodders to a hole in the ground hell. “You were appointed as  Marine Admiral through the World Military Draft,” Doflamingo said. “I’ve heard a lot about you. They say you’re a monster who wields unquestionable power as well as Ryokugyu.”

First thing: World Military Draft? That’s a new one to me. Was Fujitora plucked from obscurity to become an Admiral through a military draft? Or was he retired in some capacity and they brought him back? Whatever Fujitora’s deal is, I’d be interested in finding out.

Second thing: what the hell is a Ryokugu?

Caesar’s presence at the Green Bit beach was of great interest to Fujitora and his Marines. Fujitora knew who Caesar was, which implies he has been briefed on all the Big Criminals or he does have prior experience working with the Marines. He is also familiar The Way Things Are, as he admitted they couldn’t arrest Caesar if he was working for Doflamingo (the perks of being a Shichibukai). He knows Doflamingo is a nasty bit of work but, as Doflamingo said, he has to be able to prove it. (I wonder if Fujitora is trying to do just that?)

Interestingly, it seemed like Fujitora also tried to throw Law a similar lifeline. Law is still officially a Shichibukai. His movements are crucial to the success of the Marine’s mission. If the Strawhats were working under Law, Fujitora was prepared to ignore the alliance. However, were it an alliance of equals, it would go against the Marines’ interests and Fujitora would be forced to arrest Law.

Law made some quick calculations. His original plan had failed. Even if he selected Fujitora’s Option #1, he would have to take the matter to Dressrosa and that would only make matters worse.

He chose Option #2 and fessed up to the alliance with the Strawhats.

“Welp, guess I’ll have to arrest you!” Fujitora said.

And a beautiful, big kaboom moment happened. Not only can Fujitora fire folk into holes in the ground, he can also crush them from above. A mighty meteorite came screaming down onto Green Bit. Caesar and the Fodders scarpered. Even Doflamingo was like, “FFS, is that not excessive?”

When the smoke cleared, only the three main fighters stood on conveniently preserved pillars of ground (hilarious, classic shounen trope. Love it).

Doflamingo was not pleased. “How did the Fleet Admiral train you, you damned stray dog!”

Fujitora remained supremely unfazed. “Thank you. I just wanted to test your skills. Now I’m going to arrest you, Is that okay, Law-san?” 

He’s such a polite guy. I like him.

But there’s just one thing. Doflamingo wants Law too. I don’t think he’ll let Fujitora get his hands on Law. If that happens, Law might spill the beans (I doubt he would but it’s possible). Then all Doflamingo’s secrets will be out.

The plot chickenz.

Flower Field Rendezvous Crew

Well, I think I know where the Strawhats will reconvene once all the subplots have run their course.

Flower Field is the place to be, folks!

I’m kind of relieved Sanji is back on track again. Once he realised Law was in trouble, he called Franky to update him. I love how Franky was like, “Yo, Sanji. What’s up?” and Sanji was like, “Well, I’m in love,” and Franky just said, “That’s nice. Btw, I think I can find the factory but we can’t just destroy it and get away. It’s a much bigger task than we thought! Oh yeah, and I read the newspaper. Doflamingo sure fooled us!”

Even Franky was trying to steer Sanji back to the plot, lmao.

Then Franky mentioned he was heading to Flower Field with Sol and that Sanji should meet him there to catch up.

Sanji finally caught up with Plot and mentioned the ominous fact that he couldn’t reach Nami or any of the others on Sunny. Franky replied, “You still think she’s weak? Anyway, Brook and Monster Chopper are with her. She’ll be fine!”

I kind of think Sanji had a point here. It’s not about thinking Nami’s weak. It’s the fact she’s not answering the DDM. If I were Franky, I’d be like, “Yeah, something’s not right. Let me try and see if I can get her to answer.”

Violet then exited the plot stage left. Before she ran off, she handed Sanji a very useful piece of intel: a map to the Smile Factory (it’s disguised as a Toy House). Sanji told her to take care of herself and also where the Strawhats’ final rendezvous point is (Western Harbour). I’m still a teeny bit suspicious of her because there is still time for her to be caught by Doflamingo and sell out the Strawhats.

Then Foxfire interrupted (lmao) and announced Sanji had to accompany him to a place called Toy House right away. Turns out that’s where Kanjuuro is also being held.

Am I right to be suspicious about how easily this is all working out for the Strawhats at the moment? I feel like Doflamingo knows what they’re up to and is leading them into a trap.

Norland’s Back!

Oh, how I missed your resplendent, chestnut barnet! That’s two sneaky Skypiea callbacks now (more on that later).

And why has Norland cropped up again?

Turns out he visited the Tontatta Kingdom four-hundred years ago, as a botanist. A crew of Evil Big Humans were destroying the Tontatta Kingdom and Norland, being an Absolute Lad, fought alongside them and helped them defeat the evil Big Humans. 

Usopp, being a smart guy, noticed the statue of Norland and totally took advantage. He had a chestnut-shaped helmet on and claimed to be Usoland, a descendant of Norland himself. The Tontatta people totally believed him and now they’re waiting on him hand and foot.

Robin was like, “Usopp, you are a terrible person,” and Usopp shot back with, “Well, it saved you too!” Fair point, Usopp!

It sort of backfired on him, though, because the chief arrived and announced Usopp’s presence on this most auspicious day must be fate. Why was that? Well, today was the day the Tontatta people vowed to fight the Donquixote Family! At Dressrosa, they will fight. The commander and fellow soldiers of the King Riku Army are expecting them at Flower Field. They begged Usopp to stand at the forefront of the charge and lead them. With Usoland, the Tontatta would be unbreakable!

I wish I could have seen Robin’s face at that moment.

But Flower Field, eh? I wonder if Sol the Toy and the Resistance movement have been working with the Tontatta People to muster up this rebellion? Signs point to yes, since Wicka was super keen for Zoro to take her to Flower Field.

At any rate, that’s Franky, Zoro, Usopp and Robin all headed for Flower Field. I bet they end up caught in the crossfire. So much for remaining undercover, eh?

Not the Worst Installation I’ve Ever Seen

So... Giolla’s a bit of a character, isn’t she?

It’s like meeting Miss Goldenweek’s eccentric art teacher.

To be honest, I think Nami, Brook and Chopper got the raw end of the deal being left behind on Sunny. They’re the first ones to face off against a Donquixote Family member. And one with a pretty bizarre but cool power too.

Giolla’s introduction was pretty cool. Screechy violin harmonics hinted something sinister was afoot. Nami, Brook, Chopper and Momo peered into the dorm and were like, “wtf is this lsd nonsense?”

Then came footsteps; shoes oddly similar to the ones Doflamingo wears (there must be a Donquixote Family dresscode). A cloud of colourful smoke turned the place into coloring book land.

The Strawhats reeled back, horrified. Chopper wondered if it was the work of a Devil Fruit user.

“Bad Taste Fruit?” Brook suggested. (Lmao, Brook!)

The door creaked open and Giolla appeared in all her art-teacher glory.

Nami was like, “Who the hell are you and what have you done to Sunny?”

Giolla shrieked at her to shut up. The goons she brought with her answered Nami’s question. “This is Giolla-sama of the Donquixote Family!”

Uh oh, I thought. This could be a problem.

“I don’t like people with no artistic taste!” Giolla declared. “My soul is swinging. I see an image. My mind is about to erupt! It’s going to explode! An image of liberty and beauty.”

Then she transformed Nami, Brook, Chopper and Momo into 2D versions of themselves. Nami demanded Giolla turn them back, but, interestingly, Giolla countered she would only do that if they handed over Momonosuke without a fight. What is that all about? Hmm... I’m starting to think there is something going on with Momonosuke. Why would Doflamingo want Momo? I guess he was caught up in all the Punk Hazard stuff. Maybe it’s a “no witnesses” situation. Or maybe Momo ate a really good fruit meant for Kaidou and Doflamingo wants to sell Momo to Kaidou to make up for the cool Dragon fruit disappearing?

Whatever the real reason, the Strawhats obviously refused. Negotiations broke down. Giolla attacked again. The Strawhats hatched a plan to lure her away from Sunny but for all Giolla acts like an eccentric art teacher, she is no fool when it comes to battle.

Poor Sunny looks pretty... different at the moment. 

Nami, Brook, Chopper and Momo are also surrounded by Giolla and her goons. Have no idea how they’ll escape but I love how Brook is most concerned about how mad Franky will be when he gets back.

Press F to Pay Your Respects for Brutal

F

Oh, the unexpected feels.

It was all going so well in the Colosseum. Luffy made friends with Brutal Bull when it challenged him in the ring. They had fun for a bit but once Luffy decided it was haki time, the fight was over. To my ABSOLUTE DELIGHT, Luffy did not punch out Brutal or finish him off.

No.

They teamed up! Luffy made a new bull friend! It was so adorable watching them mercilessly mow down the other fodders. They were having such a great time.

Until Hajrudin, the Giant Fun Sponge from Elbaf totally ruined it all.

Brutal accidentally got his horns stuck in Hajrudin’s boot. Hajrudin’s big hammer came down. I gasped. No! Luffy was fine but Brutal had been crushed.

“His little bull back legs. He needs them!” I wailed.

Luffy knelt down beside Brutal and touched him gently on the shoulder. Without saying a word, I knew revenge was imminent and inevitable.You know when Luffy’s eyes shift from one to two circles that shit is about to go down.

Cape blowing in the wind, he stood up, sized up Hajrudin, and executed a haki-filled beatdown worthy of Brutal’s name.

I can’t help but wonder if this scene with Brutal was a sneaky anti-bloodsports commentary from Oda? Maybe if you squint? I mean, instead of torturing an innocent bull for fun, what Luffy did was be friends with the bull; fight *with* the bull. The one who did harm the bull received a Gear 2nd Armored Haki punch right to the face.

I kind of hope Brutal is okay. I have visions of him recovering from his injuries and spending his days trampling people in Flower Field for years to come.

Things aren’t looking quite as simple for Luffy, though.

It seems everyone on Dressrosa is trying to kill him! Diamante slipped Bellamy a note in the Donquixote Family private backstage room. Said note contained orders from Doflamingo: Bellamy is to assassinate Luffy. One last chance at promotion. Obviously, Bellamy is now conflicted about this, as Luffy cheered him on in the ring and inspired him to travel to Skypiea. (I’m leaning towards Bellamy attempting, then regretting and betraying Doflamingo.)

Cavendish Banana is also on the warpath (him fending off Bartolomeo’s food-thieving hands with a fork was hilarious. “MINE. MY FOOD. NO.”) Obviously, Cavendish’s reason for wanting to kill Luffy is profoundly shallow. “Luffy stole muh limelight, wah!”

Bartolomeo said, “Well, my connection with Strawhat Luffy is much deeper.”

I gasped. 

Yes, I thought. This is the moment. 

What is the history here? Because I have watched this show since episode one. I have a goldfish memory but I’d like to think Bartolomeo would have stood out.

But do you know what?

BARTOLOMEO LEFT IT THERE. WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD.

BLUE-BALLED.

FREAKING CLIFFHANGER.

Shaking my head, man. Bartolomeo, you are so rude. Such a meta character.

And by the way, there is also something up with Ricky and Rebecca. Don’t think I missed that little scene. I bet it’s something to do with Kyros. That whole thing about everyone forgetting why the statue is there is so suspicious.

[murphystartedthefire]

Conageddon - Richard & Luisa Panel

This is all out of order but finally sharing some notes and memories from the GLORIOUS Memori panel. I got my people. <3

UPDATE: The panel is now online! 

Firstly, they used this Memori fanvid as the intro, giving us all the feels - glad I was able to track down the song and video!

- My general thing that I said to @doortotomorrow is that honestly the whole vibe of their panel was so sincere and supportive and sweet. A lot of people commented what a switch it was from earlier in the day when Richard was being really silly with Bob and Zach, all messing around and could barely give a straight answer to a question on their panel -- which was enjoyable for other reasons! (a.k.a. Richard had just been handed a bubble maker and just spent 2/3 of the panel releasing a steady stream of bubbles and distracting Bob with it until he ran out.) But here they were talking really thoughtfully about their characters while still having funny moments. GET YOU A MAN WHO CAN DO BOTH etc.

- Re: The beer pong games from the party the night before, he was so proud of her for winning with him and she credited him for teaching her. Richard calls her his “masterpiece” lol.

- In season three when Murphy was "courting" Emori, Richard would be cute between takes and give her things like a little leaf as a gift. And then she threw it away when she thought he wasn't looking, and Richard was acting all offended. (Confirmed Soft Boy Murphy.)

- They share Memori songs with each other and listen in one earbud each while preparing for scenes. Before the rocket scene in "God Complex" they were listening to "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie, she ran to him like you *have* to listen to this. Another one Luisa introduced him to was ”Scared” by The Tragically Hip ... Richard started singing it softly. I apparently willed this panel into existence with my mind. (sobs) EDIT: Thank you to @dailymemori for pointing out, Richard’s Memori song recently was “Here I Am” by The Boxer Rebellion.

- At one point Richard started talking about how he has such a close relationship with her but never felt like there was a danger of fiction blurring with reality... like Luisa is so beautiful and smart and kind and yet they never think about each other that way (romantically) and would be like "god no" if someone suggested it, she's just Lu to him. <3

- They talked about how Murphy and Emori saw something in each other immediately, that they were kindred spirits, Richard: "I get your crazy and I like it." Their first episode together, Richard said it was a test, they didn't know if a love interest could ever work for him. He emailed Jason to say how great she was and that they had to bring her back. Luisa remembers the moment where she has the knife to his neck and he looks up at her, she saw the look in his eyes like "damn."

- They were asked a question about how they come down from doing intense emotional scenes, Richard said it’s easier for him when he knows he did a good job, he’s amped up and feels good about it. Luisa said that Richard is hard on himself and his own worst critic when he thinks he's not doing well in a scene. "He can give 100% and be upset he didn't hit 101%." He was jokingly like "Well yeah, that's just one more percent, I could've done it!"

- On that note, one scene they struggled with at first was the rocket/shock collar scene in 5x06 "Exit Wounds", because they knew how important it was to the season, it's basically the time when they actually do communicate about their breakup and the reasons for it. Their timing felt off, and the people on set knew to leave them alone and let them figure it out together.

- It was just... super validating to hear them talk from their perspective about Memori's S5 arc centering on that scene. Richard placed a lot of it on Murphy’s demons and headspace and with her thriving in space it felt to him like she was pulling away so he had to faster and harder.

- I’m cheating and editing this in because I’d forgotten about it, but there was a question about Emori and Raven’s relationship and Luisa tied that into talking about Emori’s disability and how she doesn’t really sit in her feelings about it; it’s actually their abilities that drew them together, them both being really capable and Emori being so amazed with what she could do with tech.

- I believe this also came up at the meet & greet but Richard is so sick of Murphy being called a cockroach, heh. It's not the animal HE associates with him... to him from the very beginning, Murphy has been a feral dog who was kicked and abused too many times, and is one who will snap back at everyone because of it rather than cowering.

- In the same/opposite way, Luisa saw Emori as a cat. (She talked with me about this a little bit at the autograph table too!) She has a workbook of things that inspire her and help her get into character, and in it she had a picture of a black jaguar or panther. It's alone and skittish and colored dark like her soul -- and now next to it, she has another picture of a lioness with her pride and that's Emori now. <3

- There was one particularly hilarious callback to the boys’ panel earlier. The guys were asked an odd question about which 3 animals they'd put together to make the most dangerous animal. Bob, Richard, and Zach were getting *extremely invested* in the question and arguing with each other & defending their animal choices. Richard had centered his answer on a hippo and kept going on a rant about how scary hippos are, even bringing it up after they moved on to the next question....

- So fast forward to the Richard/Luisa panel. I forget how it was brought up exacty, maybe moderator Jo was like "at least we're not talking about hippos anymore" or something to that effect. And Luisa immediately reacted like "oh no, hippos are the worst. They're so scary." and talking about a violent hippo video she saw. And Richard just STOOD UP, so shocked and vindicated, like, YES. THANK YOU. This is why he loves her! Lmao.

- Luisa mentioned the backstories that they come up with for their characters but nothing is canon until it's canon. Richard echoed this and said before the reveal of what Murphy's crime was, he always used to say he peed on the last tree. He figured Murphy was just a pee-er because of the scene in S1 where he peed on that kid. Luisa being snarky: "When I met him I thought, that's the man for me. A pee-er."

- One audience member brought up the point that Murphy & Emori mirror each other, like he did better as a Grounder and Emori did better in space, the places they were always banished in. They were like "whoa!" and marvelling at that idea, Luisa said she thinks they may have talked about that parallel before but forgot about it. After that insightful comment came a surprisingly simple "what superhero duo would you be" question. Richard to Luisa: "I'd be Robin to your Batman any day."

- Question: Octavia used Lincoln's tattoo as her war paint, would Murphy ever wear war paint based on Emori's tattoo? Richard whispered with her as if worried he might give away a spoiler, then cryptically said "wait and see". O_o

- Luisa said she would’ve liked to see Emori and Pike interact with her distrust of authority. Richard would’ve liked Murphy to meet Lexa since the only time they did was her death scene. Jo said Emori and Lexa would’ve been interesting too; Luisa thinks if she had reached out to bringing the mutated Grounders back Emori would be wary and not want to trust her.

- Another audience question that I *have* to give a shout-out to for its creativity, someone pointed out that if Emori had been given the nightblood & survived, it could have led to Commander Emori & Flamekeeper Murphy. Again they had no real answer because it was just like "huh I have no idea what they would do with that power, that sounds like a bad idea for Murphy." :p But I am very into this AU idea.

- What would Murphy and Emori do if they switched bodies in a Freaky Friday situation. Richard: "I'd go find me. Emori's got a cute boyfriend." XD Luisa said very innocently she'd challenge someone to a race, she wants to see what this body can do.