#i have the whole episode i'm not sure if the show is streaming anywhere

[theparadoxmachine]

Paul Michael Glaser as Brett Hanson in Numb3rs, Season 5 Episode 9 “Conspiracy Theory”

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam, hope you are having a fine day. Not sure if this is a weird comment to leave you with, but when I saw the trailer for “Red, White and Royal Blue” I immediately got excited because it felt like maybe one day Shivadhverse could get its own cinematic universe, and I would really and definitely enjoy that. Thank you very much for writing and sharing your stories, they have been a comfort to me for a decade now and going.

I've seen the trailer! It looks fun, I'm going to try and catch it. (And if folks reading this haven't read my books but are into Red White and Royal Blue, I think you may enjoy them. They're available free as PDFs!)

This particular film is being made and distributed by Amazon, but I think it's a good opportunity to discuss the genre and the way it's shifting, which means circling back around to Hallmark Channel for a minute. The OG "light-romance" channel as a whole is beginning to lean just slightly more liberal, and a lot of actors left en masse to join a more right-wing channel, and I'm hoping Hallmark...hasn't really missed them. And I think everyone in that orbit -- not just Hallmark, but the production companies that make Hallmark movies and also off-brand "Hallmark" movies that show on Netflix and Amazon and Paramount and such -- have realized that a) the permanent loss of viewership over simply having a gay romance is either minimal or has already happened, and b) if you make it gay, THE GAYS MIGHT WATCH. And anyway it's not like Amazon has the same viewer base, so there's less risk regardless.

Fete For A King was originally written as a Hallmark script, full-on. It had two versions -- the original "Eddie" version and a halllmarkified "Edie" version where Eddie was a woman (pretty much nothing but her pronouns changed). That didn't go anywhere, which is fine, the odds of something like that going anywhere are quite small, but it meant I could develop it into the books, which are a satisfaction on their own. If Hallmark (or any other film distributor) came knocking, sure, I'd love to see the Shivadh novels as films and I think they're pretty cinematic in the specific way Hallmark movies are.

There's a Hallmark movie director who gave an interview once where he said, "You don't find Hallmark. Hallmark finds you, if you're lucky," and I think that's pretty true -- you can't like, submit your novel to a production company and be all "Hey here's a movie idea". But you know, the more these novels circulate, the more word of mouth the readers give them, the better odds that someone'll see them and think, "Hm."

Anyway, I stand and wait. There's enough material in what's published to make four to six movies or at least twelve bingeable episodes of streaming TV, should anyone want it.

(I would hope it goes without saying but to say it anyway, I'm not volunteering this to happen while the writer's strike is ongoing; my mother didn't raise a scab.)

[darlingdivasworld]

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 9 EPISODE 14

I previously mentioned that I wasn't a fan of weekly drops and Season 9 Episode 14 has unfortunately proved my fears. I was going to post this yesterday but I was too angry to formulate my words.

So the episode starts off with Anthony dancing a solo, and when the team walks in on him doing so, I can easily predict that he is going to be dance captain. I don't necessarily have a problem with this as he was appointed head choreographer, so it makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is the whole A plot of this episode. A-Troupe find out that an anonymous complaint has been made against them that they're not dancing to "Internationals standard." Last time I checked, you qualify for Internationals by winning your Nationals, which The Next Step did! And the fact that this complaint is taken so seriously that TNS has to requalify is ridiculous. You're telling me that any dancer from anywhere can make a complaint about a studio not being "up to par" and Absolute Dance will just make them reaudition...huh?

Anyway, Anthony is really stressed (and bless him honestly) as his first challenge as dance captain is to get TNS back into Internationals. Unfortunately for him, our 'Internationals Consultant' is here and takes charge of everything. I'm actually lying because our Lord and Saviour Eldon over here waste A-Troupe's precious rehearsal time by showing off how many pirouettes he can do and his past Internationals stories.

And I'm well aware that his stories from Internationals are for those OG fans, but it was so grating. Eldon, to me, was like those fans who, no matter what, insist "s1-s3 A-Troupe are elite and the new seasons are SOOOO bad. Also, when is Jiley going to have their wedding in Studio A???"

I'm assuming the writers thought the audience would find this amusing thinking along the lines of, "Oh Eldon! He's such a silly doofus!" But I, alongside the 4 members of A-Troupe, are begging him to stop talking. Side note, why isn't the whole team here for this? Like, I'm pretty sure all your hard work is on the line here???

After a while, they trick Eldon into finding lucky coins and begin the live stream. It goes well until Eldon comes back and takes away Anthony's authority, but its totally fine because they're back in! Also, Team France have to compete again simply because they're sister studios with TNS because that's completely fair.

And now, we get the most infuriating dramatic twist yet! It turns out Eldon put in that complaint for funsies! Precious rehearsal time wasted just for the fun of it. When I tell you, I'll be rejoicing when Kenzie returns (this team has been in shambles ever since she was shipped off to France).

Yeah, all this episode did was cement my hatred for Eldon. The only good thing about this episode was Adele and Ariana. Probably the worst episode of the season so far, and I'm praying they don't drop the ball like this ever again.

[magentagalaxies]

ok so i checked and the stitcher premium app doesn't block screen recording (and the audio is fully in tact with these recordings too) so i'm thinking with the app being shut down a month from now + the unknown future of if ptsdiva is gonna be available publicly on another platform maybe now is the time for me to just screen record as much as i can just so this podcast doesn't become lost media

the only issue is idk if my phone would have the space for hours worth of screen recordings, but maybe i can upload them to a google drive or something? or maybe even if i just did some of the comedy segments (i.e. how scott would either begin or end each episode with a character monologue) i could put them on tumblr as audio posts? would people be into that?

idk i'll be back in toronto at some point before the app is taken down so i'll ask scott about whether he knows if it's backed up anywhere, but considering he didn't even know the app was being taken down until i alerted him, i might be the number one person on this media preservation case

ugh it's very disheartening how throughout my buddy cole research + being a fan of kids in the hall in general i'm realizing so much of their stuff is genuinely at risk of becoming lost media. like the original tv show, brain candy, death comes to town, etc. those are pretty well protected against that fate bc of physical media and just the popularity of them. but fuck, even 2 levels deeper on this hypothetical iceberg and you start getting to passion projects that might not have had a widespread release but are so important to the story, stuff that was literally made for the internet like scottland and ewe, and sure parts of ewe are still up (the only truly lost pieces are the videos which were uploaded via flash) and scottland's homepage is on the wayback machine, but literally the only thing keeping half my buddy cole timeline from being lost media is the fact that someone bought paul bellini a video camera in the 80s and he made archiving things his whole personality for a time.

and like it makes sense on some level that scottland or the lowest show or the buddy cole sitcom would be at risk bc they're all over a decade old, never officially released, etc. but like.... ptsdiva was released in 2019. it's not even four years old yet. it's not just a half-made project that got stalled in development, it's a full piece that had a major impact on my life

and i just look at this. and i think about how last time i saw scott irl he asked bruce if there was any way to get a physical version of their amazon season. bc streaming services make things vanish all the time, and if amazon one day decides to just drop their kith stuff altogether, an extremely important piece of the kids in the hall story, literally their entire sixth season, could get the same fate as scottland.

[heartsbreaking]

okay weewoo show season finale thoughts spoilers obviously please use your eyes because im not spoiler tagging this because i dont want it to breach containment if you haven't seen the finale simply do not click the read more

i missed ravi and may more than life itself it wasn't a great tv finale but it wasn't anywhere near got s8 (i know its not the end of the show but this is my point of comparison okay)

first of all the daddy kink debate going on in the tags is so funny to me as if this show ISNT MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE THAT MADE FUCKING GLEE! GET A GRIP! there was NEVER going to be a time when this show is dead serious tm. there is always going to be a level of camp garbage to it, but y'all aren't ready for that discussion. actually this point doesn't just apply to the daddy kink thing, but the whole show. this isn't prestige tv. we're not watching succession here, we're watching a prime time soap opera set at a fire house.

acab. i love athena as a person but i'm honestly not a fan of her character arc in this show.

loved being right all along about amir. i knew in my heart that man could not hurt a fly.

idc how unrealistic maddie and chimney being approved as emergency foster placements that quick probably is they're everything to me and i really want more of the hen/karen & maddie/chimney joint family next season! more of that and less cop athena plots pls. (i know i'm harping on it but i really can't stand cop shows and as much as i love angela bassett i want less of athena)

i actually think eddie letting chris go with his grand parents was mature as hell. like i'm sorry dude, you fucked around and found out. i feel bad for him for not having processed his grief but i think allowing knockoff shanon (i forgot her name okay) into his house and into his life at all was a dick move on ALL fronts. i'm glad he and chris have a support system sure wished he used it more instead of putting all his grief on a fucking stranger (i also really hated this plot it was dumb and stupid and really ryan murphy core)

anywho favorite moments of the episode were may showing up, maddie calling herself 'maddie han' and jee walking in holding mara's hand.

i'm not going to rant about how much i hate 90% of the people in the fandom who aren't in the rpc. you can unlock that rant by adding me on disco cause jesus christ the people in the tags deserve jail time.

hottest take i just came up with, i think this show should be moved to a streaming exclusive and make the episodes longer. i honestly think the biggest handicap of this show is the amount of time they have. the seasons are SHORT which is the trend now for prestige tv but like i said this ain't it. an hour of 9/1/1 without commercials would really give the show room to breath cause truly when you watch it with commercials you realize how little run time it actually has. there was one point mid episode where there was ONE SCENE and then it cut to commercial again. like thats nasty.

[thefloatingstone]

And also while I’m on the track of High Guardian Spice - seeing how you reacted to Sage, then you would absolutely hate Catra in the She-ra Reboot. She starts off pretty well written as a villain, but in season 5 she’s just granted redemption because the writers wanted her to have it but forgot the whole redemption arc kind of thing. And much like Sage, when our bimbo protagonist wants to do something she doesn’t want, Catra withholds affection to make Adora feel guilty and never has to apologize for anything (she’s only said sorry once in the entire series and thats when she’s about to die). But even when Adora gets upset at her for being shit, she turns on the guilt tripping and is like “oh don’t leave me again 🥺” spiel. And it feels like the whole thing that happened with Sage where the show creator didn’t want there to be development, they just wanted two characters to kiss.

(AND ALSO NOT TO MENTION THE ENTIRE CLIMATIC MOMENT OF SHERA SEASON 5 IS BASICALLY A UTENA RIPOFF MOMENT??? LIKE???)

Anyways just saying if you ever are to check out the reboot, it’s good until season 5 and you will hate the writing by then. If you want a good magical redemption arc to lovers, watch Owl House (ik it’s really popular rn but there’s a reason)

And also also sorry I phrased the last ask wrong you said it better than I could. I’m also wondering if you know anywhere to stream azumanga daioh? I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while but I can’t find it anywhere rn

Tysm for answering my asks tho I know these are all random but you seem like the person to discuss these with properly TuT

Oh I am WELL AWARE of She-Ra and the problem with Catra. To the point I was so enraged by the end of season 5 I had to blacklist "she-ra" on tumblr for a while just because it made me so angry! XDDD

I want to do a more positive video next, even if it's short, but maybe that would be good content to talk about next, even if it's just one longer video and not a series. How She-Ra failed to stick the landing. 🤔 I know it's not a "new show" or whatever but I think there is still enough interest there to turn it into a video.

I briefly wondered if I should make a Utena video as well, not dissecting it episode by episode like Velma or HGS because I would literally DIE, but talk about it as a whole regarding its symbolism and aims and what it does with it's characters and story, and I could then lead that into talking about She-Ra essentially copying its homework but worse. I'll have to think about it because I'm not sure if Utena would be good algorithm wise for my channel as I am still trying to focus on what would help it grow the best. (Not the fastes, just the best).

I will absolutely be doing a video on Sailor Moon Cosmos tho, so that will be something new I can focus on.

I am actually pretty intimidated and anxious about keeping the ball rolling with my channel after Velma in a way where I will keep people's interests and not go TOO niche and end up killing my views. It's kind of terrifying 8'D

Also, I found Azumanga Daioh over on 9anime.to so you should be good to go using that site!

[hugedwarflover]

I should've said this earlier this month, but I can't believe it's already been 6 fucking years since The 7D came to an end. I hate that I haven't watched the whole show in awhile but I'm still NEVER gonna give up on the show. I feel like I'm one of the only remaining fans of the show. @sneezy-appreciation really gave it her all to make sure that her petition gets the amount of signatures it deserves, but it still doesn't have 1,500 signatures and I fucking hate that. I still wish that those 19 episodes would've aired. If my Wattpad stories were turned into animated episodes, that would be amazing, except they would for sure be more family-friendly if they were actual episodes, unless they were to be on a streaming platform that's nothing like Disney. This amazing show is one of the many shows that made my childhood and teenage years way better and now soon, my adult years. In the future, if I met someone who I would spend my life with, we could watch many shows together that we grew up with and even let our kids watch those shows. I'll never, ever stop loving my dwarf babies and I would really hate the thought of no longer loving them. Ever since the show ended, I've been doing everything I can to keep the show's memory and the fandom alive and if I were to take a long break from Tumblr that would last for months, or even years, that does not mean that I would possibly delete my account. I have had this account for a long time and it's definitely not going anywhere. I love you all and you've all been wonderful friends that I met through this amazing fandom. I'm NEVER going to leave this fandom and hopefully most of you are not leaving either.

[klaineownsmysoul]

hello. i've just started glee (lol i know i'm super late) and i'm obsessed with klaine. could you explain why you don't like season 6 klaine? should i not watch it

First off - welcome to the Klaine fandom!  Its never too late to join. I’m pretty sure as long as this show is streaming somewhere, new people will be discovering it all the time.  I myself am notorious for wandering into a show after 3 or 4 seasons - Modern Family, Supernatural, 24 - are some prime examples of shows I was late to the party to and then lost my mind catching up on. Secondly - congratulations on having excellent taste! 😉  Klaine is really the only thing worth remembering Glee for.  

With regards to your question about season 6?  Well, I’m not sure where you are in terms of episodes and seasons and I don’t want to spoil anything for you if you don’t want to know, so consider the rest of this post as one giant spoiler. I would also never want to dissuade someone from watching, so please keep in mind this is just my opinion on things.  I watched through to the end as did all of my fellow Klainers here so its doable.  Its just not the easiest or prettiest thing.

**********Spoilers below************

I think for me, the word that comes to mind most and sums season 6 up best is waste.  They were utterly and completely wasted in those final 13 episodes. These were going to be the last eps we were going to get with them and my reaction week after week was “tick tock bitches, where’s my Klaine?”   Their storyline - if you can even call it that - went nowhere.  People’s opinions on season 6 varied - some liked it, some like me loathed almost every moment of it, some disliked it as it aired but have mellowed since - but I think one thing we could all pretty much agree on is that no one wanted to go back to Lima.  Doing that erased any forward momentum they gathered during the last half of season 5 episodes when they finally dumped all the dead weight holding this show back and concentrated solely on an NYC arc.   As off kilter as those eps felt Klaine-wise, at least they were interesting and a move in the right direction.  Watching Blaine waste away in Lima alone for all of season 4 and then ¾ of season 5 pissed me off to no end.  It shouldn’t have taken so long to get him and Kurt back in the same place and I’m not going to get off on a rant here about how they never should have been separated in the first place.  I could write a dissertation on how that one decision - de-aging Blaine and making him a junior - was the dumbest fucking thing this show ever did.  And considering the dumbass decisions this show made along the way, that is really saying something.  But I digress.  They ended season 5 in such a good place relationship wise that to decide to break them up again in the season premiere and then have their story grind to a halt for 7 episodes before they got married was a knife to my heart week after week.  Breaking them up in a cold cruel flashback was bad enough.  Having Blaine be so upset that he was kicked out of the school he worked so hard to get into, his so-called friends forgot all about his existence and he had nothing and no one to lean on so he had to move back home to Ohio was terrible.  But the worst of the worst - Blaine and DK.  That was an unforgivable sin as far as I’m concerned.  It goes against everything that makes Blaine Blaine and was nothing but a giant glowing middle finger from RIB to the Klaine fandom.  To bring back a character that was not missed, not even mentioned during season 4 and only once in season 5 and placing him in a romantic relationship with the soulmate of the boy he physically and emotionally abused for months on end was in the most appalling taste possible.  It was deliberately aimed at our fandom by RIB as the ultimate “fuck you.”  Nothing more because they are petty little assholes.  Every single time he was within 50 feet of Blaine or god forbid touched him, my soul died a little.  The Blaine I know and adore would never ever ever in a million years look at him and see anything but the guy who drove Kurt to Dalton because he feared for his life.  And Kurt?  He realized he fucked up, left NYC to come back to Lima for Blaine and then…nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  He spent more time as Rachel’s god damned cheerleader than he did trying to woo Blaine back, which would have been the only redeeming piece of them being apart.  Because it had to come from Kurt.  He was the one who ended things; Blaine never wanted to leave.  So the apology and reasons and the heartfelt declarations of love that we are accustomed to coming from Blaine had to come from Kurt to make this worthwhile.  But sadly, like every other aspect of season 6, they fumbled this too.  Badly.  They danced around each other awkwardly for 7 episodes and nothing was accomplished or moved forward.  I can’t get into an angry rant here about their wedding; I will be here all damn night. I have made my feelings crystal clear about that already during many a rage post, but let’s just say that ep may be the biggest disappointment I have ever experienced tv wise.  Nothing was theirs, nothing about the wedding had anything to do with them as a couple.  They were a throw in and then thrown aside just as quickly.  Their 30 second “reunion” if you can even call it that after 7 eps of pure hell was yet another slap in the face.  Blaine’s “there’s no one else” was everything that he needed to hear from Kurt and a small novel of explanation more.  But no.  We weren’t gifted with one of those trademark heart to hearts that we got during season 3; those convos that separated them from every other couple on this show and made me believe that even though they were so young, they really were meant to be.  And then once they were married, they disappeared.  Sure they were around physically, but that’s it.  Dalton burns down and Klaine is given fuck all to do story-wise.  A place that held so much importance for them as a couple was destroyed as a plot device and their reaction was limited to Blaine’s sad puppy eyes at the beginning of the ep.  We got one sentence from Kurt in some ep I can’t remember about Blaine getting into NYU for the next semester and that was the extent of their future plans.  They never had a conversation about moving back and what they would look like, what that would entail in terms of living arrangements and how they would do better as a couple now that they know what they have and how much they don’t want to lose each other again.  Nothing,  Season 6 should have built upon 5x20 and culminated in their wedding.  We should have gotten wedding planning and vows and honeymoon destination discussions and ring shopping and they should have had a wedding that reflected who they are as a couple.  It should not have been a means to end so Glee could show off their super awesome double gay wedding that managed to unite 2 fandoms that generally don’t get along in their utter dislike.  Congrats - RIB managed to craft an ep where 2 fan favorite couples got married that was panned by both fandoms.  That takes a special level of obliviousness.  

More newbies introduced in season 6 that no one needed and just took up valuable time that could have been put to Klaine or wrapping up the stories from the already bloated original cast.  I wasn’t going to invest myself in characters with an expiration date, so spending endless time on them was time I wasn’t going to get back.  Everyone and their mother propping Rachel up and telling her how great she is, how much of a star she is, and how nothing that’s happened to her could possibly be her fault because she is perfect was infuriating.  Pointless duets between her and Sam when we all knew their weird sudden relationship wasn’t going anywhere.  Having Mr. Schue and Coach Sue getting as many duets as Klaine did during season 6 is a sentence I should never type but I just did.  Neither Kurt nor Blaine getting a solo at all.  My god, how the fuck did that happen?   Why did that happen?  It was like they went out of their way to screw Kurt and Blaine as individual characters and and as a couple.  Having an entire episode centered on some bratty preteen who sang more than Klaine did.  Having 2 episodes without Kurt and Blaine at all and the only reason they threw Blaine into the 2009 flashback was because people flipped the fuck out at the idea of him not being in a 3rd episode out of 13.  

There’s a reason why during 3 @comewatchklaine rewatches, the only full ep from season 6 we watched was 6x13, the series finale.  Some kind soul pulled together the Klaine bits from eps 5 and on and all of that was only about 40 minutes long.  40 minutes.  40 minutes worth of Klaine in like 7 episodes and that doesn’t include the first 4 because those were a complete waste.  The locker scene and flash forward were the only bits that felt authentically Klaine to me.  That is what I choose to remember because the rest of it taints this show to me.   

So long story long, that is why I loathe and despise season 6 as a whole. I’m sorry I don’t have more positive things to say.  Please don’t take my words as a reason to skip the end - if you want to watch, go ahead.  I would never want to be why someone missed out on something they might enjoy.   Season 6 could have and should have been amazing; so amazing that saying goodbye to them would have been heartbreaking.  Instead, I was glad I got to see them get married and that they got the happy ending they deserved, but that was about it.  If that’s how little this show thought of them at that point, I was glad to see it end.  I will always be grateful that it gave me Klaine because I will love them always.  I will never forgive them, though, for the appalling way they were treated and its why I make a concerted effort to avoid anything RIB has a hand in now and in the future.

[jade4813]

Jade, how are you? Did you peep TF FB page recently? there is a lot a hate towards Iris there, in every post I saw most of people shitting on her and I honestly think it's even worst now than in the previous seasons 😩 do you think due the backlash the network could made the producers kill Iris off or sideline her? because I don't think the producers would do that but we all know that C*W is trash 😒 since you have a brother that works w television do you think I'm overthinking?

I wouldn’t worry about it. I think they know The Flash’s Facebook page is just a cesspool of hate. And if you look everywhere else - Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. - there’s a lot of love for Iris.The Internet has been around long enough for show runners to learn that one website’s opinion isn’t indicative of the fan base as a whole. To be frank, the Internet’s opinion as a whole doesn’t necessarily speak to the general fandom. Remember, the people online who talk about it every week and dissect and get really into it? We are the outliers. If the show runners wrote the show based off what Online fandom says, they’d be cancelled in a year. If there are 3,000 passionate stans Online, there are ten times that who never talk about it on the computer. They just watch week to week. That’s the majority of the audience. And do they have passionate love or hatred towards Iris? Probably not.I mean, think of the shows you watch casually - the ones you might tune into every week, but you don’t talk about them after or really even think about until the following week. The ones where you might remember all the characters’ names but maybe not. You may have characters you’re more “meh” about than others and some you’re more “aw, I like them” than others but either way, you just kind of move on. You aren’t screaming for them to be killed off. You aren’t screaming for others to get their screen time. You also aren’t yelling about how they need a whole arc about X, Y, or Z. That kind of fan is the one the show runners are writing for. That is the general audience.As far as online, they care people ARE talking but most show runners aren’t caring what they’re saying. Because, again, it’s a small subset of their audience that cares that much anyway, and the way they dissect and the things they care about may not be what the general audience cares about. And even if they did pay attention to what was said online, Facebook is a cesspool, but every other place online has a huge amount of support for Iris. Why would they think one site’s toxic/racist opinion was more important than the overwhelming love elsewhere?So what do the show runners pay attention to? First...ratings. However they measure that figure. For CW, they’ve had to move past traditional ratings and focus on online engagement too. Flash is still #1 for the network - apparently on both. And while it’s true the overnight ratings across all networks and almost all shows have dropped in the last couple of years, 1) they are aware of that trend in the landscape, so Flash falling too isn’t a big surprise or deal, 2) Flash is in its 4th year, and ratings generally decrease over time so that’s not a surprise either (nor will it be a surprise if at some point another show becomes the new #1 for the network - in fact, the network desperately wants and needs another hit), and 3) apparently Flash is consistently a show that about doubles its ratings with streaming views, so it’s still going REALLY strong for the CW.Also, if they pay attention to what people are saying, it’s going to be to critical reviews. Not because they care what EW thinks of Flash, per se, but because reviews can bring in new audience members or drive them away. And while you will never get 100% consensus on anything, there’s been a lot of praise for Candice and her acting (and Iris) in critical reviews.Frankly, I don’t think you have to worry about them being so freaked out by Facebook that they do away with Iris. Here’s the thing. Take a step back and look at the trend of how the marketing and the show has handled their non-Grant cast since the beginning. In particular, look at Candice’s trajectory.When the show started, there was all this buzz about Danielle and Caitlin and how great it was that a woman was in STEM. They patted themselves on the back for it. As for Candice...well, she had several critical outlets outright ignore her and a few others call for her to be fired. Finding a shot of Iris in trailers became like a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. There was a lot of looking but very little finding - and when there was a shot found, it was often from the back so we had to analyze “is that her or a random extra?”Then 2A happened. These were dark days. Little screen time. Little buzz. She wasn’t even the one consistently invited to panels and cons. Remember the Heroes and Villains discussion panel where she wasn’t even invited though almost everyone else was? Yeah.If we were still in that position, I’d tell you it’s prayer time. But then look at what happened. Earth 2 Iris. Remember, leading into the episode, it was pretty clear they did NOT expect for Iris to be anywhere close to a draw. They thought the audience would be like “well, that’s nice...but KILLER FROST...” (Also remember that Caitlin-heavy or even centric episodes were getting pre-screened for critics, expecting to generate a lot of buzz.) But what happened? They pre-screened and critics were like “okay, it’s good to see Killer Frost. But IRIS...we have to talk about Iris because THAT WAS AMAZING!” And after the episode, what got an astonishing amount of buzz? Iris.So they were like “oh, maybe we should do more with her” and started playing her up a bit more. Through end of S2 to first half of S3, they have her more to do and critics noticed. Again, there was a lot of talk about her acting ability and how she nails each scene. And the show played her up even more. To the point where it’s Grant and Candice who are consistently talked about at cons and in interviews and who are invited to panels. Weren’t they the only ones invited to something like Paley last year? If you have a show where someone comes in and the EXPECTATION is that they’ll generate a lot of buzz and then they don’t...or if you have a situation where an actor or character is given every opportunity to steal the focus of buzz and attention (by marketing and promos focusing heavily on them, for example) but they just don’t manage to do it...if the show had started with her being treated like female lead but another character kept stealing her thunder and buzz...then you can worry about what the show may do with their character under X or Y circumstance. Or think trolls on Facebook will matter. But Candice has had the opposite. Even CW marketing often ignored her and treated like she wasn’t the female lead (remember the Women of CW banners and such?). Well, DP was somewhat better known at the start. So they treated Candice like they didn’t think she’d be a draw or people would care about her. And then time and time again, when the show expected someone or something else to be the focus of attention and discussion, the chatter has been about Iris. Positive and negative, but she’s a character people talk about. She gets attention. And how many times has it happened that an episode was clearly geared towards getting chatter on something else (or the expectation was that it would) and yet it’s Iris/Candice/Westallen that gets the chatter they expected that other character/plot to get?And you can tell they’ve noticed. Look how they’ve increased her prominence. Look how they focus promos. We had a whole promo teasing the Westallen therapy humor. Could you imagine her getting a promo like that in late S1/early S2? I sure as hell couldn’t.So the people in charge clearly think Iris works for them. They’ve increased, not decreased, her show profile. And not because “well, of course we expect she’ll be popular so we’ll set her up for success at every turn.” They didn’t expect her popularity - they were in fact often surprised by it and shifted THEIR approach to give her focus based off the positive response to HER. Not the other way around (she didn’t get her positive response because they were giving her the focus). So, look. Things can change in another 6 years. But they clearly think Iris and Candice are a draw. And not because they always assumed she would be and are acting on that assumption. But because they came to realize she was and could be and began to capitalize on that. So is one site like Facebook going to overcome the combination of factors that led them to realize that they needed to give her more prominence and focus? That made them realize there was a benefit to treating her like female lead, sending her and Grant to cons, making her one of the main female faces for the network? I doubt it.And also notice that Facebook has hated Candice and Iris for years with a ludicrous amount of vitriol. But every time people call for her to be killed off, what does the show do? “The focus of the season will be on saving her and you can suck it.” “Oh, you want her dead? How about she becomes team leader instead?”They clearly know there are those who hate her. They clearly also don’t care what those people say. They keep doubling down on her because they have reason to believe that doing so works for them. So I’m not at all fussed about Facebook. I suspect the show runners don’t care much about the trolls on Facebook either.(And being honest, most of the time they know that their show IS being discussed but they neither know nor care what is being said. They know Iris generates buzz. Good and bad. But in the new landscape where online chatter is calculated with ratings, WHAT’S being said is less important than the fact that week after week, people can’t keep Iris’s name out of their mouths. Facebook may be spending time bringing her up to say they hate her, but week after week, Iris’s name is being said at least second most on that site. And THAT’S what they are paying attention to. People can love her or hate her...as long as they keep talking about her!)