#i like my men seasoned (traumatised)

[teabutmakeitazure]

random tangent zuri, but what do you think of the childe fan -> aventurine fan pipeline. i feel like it is a thing but i am wondering what the #1 childe fan thinks /lhq

i honestly have no idea and don't have the 2D man expertise to give a professional comment on it so this is my answer:

dead eye twink with traumatising things happened to them and fluffy hair and cute smile

thank you for coming to my ted talk

also, i rly don't know how this came to be. i saw a random amv of aventurine on instagram one day and was OBSESSED. i didn't even know who he was or that he was from honkai. i heard his laugh from the time he talks to topaz on the phone and i was sold. he now sits in the "2D men I simp for" room in my mind palace with the others.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

one of my batfam hot takes is that alfred having a very kind and understanding grandfather-like role is a boring spin on the character and lacks a lot of nuance around his backstory.

like he is a classically trained british butler which means he very likely comes from a working class family. and like, as a working class brit myself, i sometimes find the kindly, well-mannered grandfather thing grating because, a lot of white, working class men his age are unfortunately not nice people. some of them are like my great grandad was a really great guy, but hes really the only one i know who is or was not awful.

because their generation werent as exactly raised with ideals about mental health and emotional regulation. a lot of them were traumatised due to ww2 either because they saw it firsthand when they were like 15, they were old enough to remember things like rationing and the blitz, and a lot of them lost their dads in the war.

i dont expect american writers to understand how much ww2 affected britain (modern britain is still so steeped in it, its insane) and that generation specifically, BUT id love to see that explored more with alfred. like depending on where he grew up, he would likely have been separated from his family during the blitz and sent off to the countryside like most of the kids in cities were, (this is how narnia starts) and like, a lot of them were horrifically abused or used as free labour. a lot of them also lost parents and never got to say goodbye to them. many came back to destroyed homes. some kids also remained in the city or their parents requested them back so theyd experience the blitz first hand and would know the sign of air raid siren meant they might die that night.

you can see how a lot of that generation were permanently scarred. and for a few decades now, alfred would have been part of that generation.

plus he was also a secret service officer which is just like more opportunities to be traumatised and more reason for him to not be this gentle old man whos in touch with his emotions.

and like, as a classically trained butler, he would likely be more reserved because you know, thats how he was trained. also british men that age would also likely be very hands off in regards to emotions.

but the biggest reason as to why the gentle, kind grandfather take doesnt really make sense is that he raised bruce wayne.

like bruce has a whole slew of emotional issues and problems, and obviously some of that is going to come from alfred raising him because you know, thats kinda how that works. i know a lot of batfam folks want bruce to be this great dad, so i guess their take on alfred fits that, but canonically, bruce wayne is an emotional mess and not the best father figure at the best of times.

you cannot look at that bruce wayne and tell me alfred did a good job.

listen, this shouldn't even be a hot take. it's just an opinion that differs from the most popular interpretation of Alfred as an endlessly giving grandmotherly old man.

the thing about Alfred is that more than anything you have to recognize that he's an enabler. and I love the man to pieces, but at absolute best he was extremely negligent in Bruce's upbringing, if not actively encouraging the world's worst coping mechanisms.

I hate to give Gotham credit for anything, especially when it comes to Alfred since I hate their Alfred, but the show was bang on in its insistence from day one that Alfred should not have been Bruce's primary guardian. it's painful to watch how often Alfred encourages Bruce to tough it out and suck it up, and it never really stops. in one of the latter seasons (four, I think) he hits Bruce hard enough to give him a black eye during an argument, and this is ultimately written as a situation in which Bruce needs to apologize to Alfred for being a bratty teenager, rather than Alfred owing Bruce an apology for hitting him when he's a grief-stricken teenage boy cracking under stress.

and like, listen, I understand there are Watsonian and Doylist layers to this. Alfred fundamentally can't have been a good enough guardian to stop Bruce from channeling his trauma into fursuit vigilantism, because then there's no story. I get it.

but jesus christ.

I don't think characterizations of Alfred as a stoic caregiver are wrong, but I do think people don't want to think about how he got there. when I see the aged Alfred patching up Bruce's wounds and nagging him to eat, or doing his best to offer advice to the kids who have gotten mixed up in Bruce's crusade, I see a man who realized a long time ago that he dropped the fucking ball and has dedicated his life to doing as much damage control as possible. okay, so, completely failed step one (raise a well-adjusted child). can we at least make sure that this basket case adult man doesn't go completely over the edge? can we make sure he doesn't become a killer? can we encourage him to take off the mask and be Bruce Wayne sometimes? can we keep the children safe?

I do think Alfred loves all of them, for whatever its worth. his care for Bruce is real, that is his son, the Batgirls and Robins are his extended family. he'll cook their uneaten meals and clean the entire, massive house himself and stitch them up every night forever. he would die for them. hell, he'd kill for them. he loves them. but none of that means he raised Bruce right.

that's kind of the thing I like most about the Bats: they all care so, so much. but the way they love is terrible.

[humanpurposes]

Thoughts about Aemond in episode 2 and the Greens as a dysfunctional family (spoilers).

Preemptive apologies because I feel like this is a very ranty post. At the end of the day, none of this is real, it's not that deep, but I have a lot of thoughts. I actually really liked this episode overall, it was a huge improvement from last week for me! :)

There’s something unnerving and uncomfortable about the childlike state Aemond reverts to in the brothel, the way he's curled up in the woman's lap, the way he's trying to brag that Daemon sees him as a threat. The addition of the warm milk was a bit too on the nose for me, yikes.

As we've seen with Aegon and Helaena, Aemond doesn’t get a lot of emotional support from Alicent, especially with the tensions between them after he killed Luke. She obviously cares about her children and wants to protect them. She's the only one who defended Aemond on Driftmark, she tries repeatedly to comfort Helaena, she put herself between Aegon and Meleys, but as we can clearly see, the Green faction fundamentally struggles to connect with each other. Alicent’s failure to offer emotional support to her children has trickled into their relationships with each other. That scene of her walking out on Aegon crying as a mirror of Aegon and Helaena hardly able to speak a word to each other on the staircase… pain.

Just as Otto used Alicent as a pawn for his own political advancement, Alicent's children take on their own roles, Aegon as the heir (now the King), Helaena as his Queen, Aemond as the second son, the fighter.

There's a lack of connection with his family, even with Criston Cole, the only other person Aemond seems close with, he can't fully let go of this facade, which is actually why I love his insane little smile when he talks about Alicent usurping the throne, it's like he slips into saying what he truly thinks but he's still holding back.

What we're seeing in the brothel scene is Aemond seeking intimacy in the only way he thinks he can. It's not sexual, he doesn't seem to desire this woman. He wants to voice his inner thoughts to someone who won't hold it against him.

I do question why the showrunners chose to portray Aemond's vulnerability in such an... awkward way. There are plenty of viewers who already sympathise with Aemond having seen his trauma as a child, just as there are plenty of viewers who despise him for the things he does, so what purpose does this scene really serve?

I wonder if this is an attempt on the part of the showrunners to expose the Greens as hypocrites. Aemond has his "decent men for no taste for depravity" line in 1.9, then PLOT TWIST he likes to be babied by his favourite prostitute. Aemond is my favourite fictional boy, I support him being an edgelord, twink, war criminal, but I can't take this character seriously when his nephew has just been murdered, his sister is traumatised and he's like "omg Daemon wanted to slay me in my beddd 🥰 he's so scared of me 😌😈" Actually, I find it interesting that Aemond doesn't have many moments with his family, even when Jaehaerys has just died, it makes me think that Aemond fundamentally sees himself as an outsider. Maybe he's never brought himself to trust Aegon for bullying him, he has to be protective of himself.

I think I feel a similar way to this scene as I do about every scene with Alicent and Cole. It's not unexpected per se, it seems like a logical progression in their characters and I like the idea in principle, but the execution in both instances hasn't hit the mark for me. Alicent and Cole's sex scenes have cheapened the connection that was clearly there between them in season 1, and the brothel scene to me feels unnecessary.

[tleeaves]

Folks going "WHAT they made a show about the Fallout franchise?? I've been hearing people say Bethesda messed it up, but I haven't watched it myself, so I'm going to trust the word of other people -- some of which also haven't finished watching it" is driving me insane.

Being a hard core fan of something obviously brings with it a lot of passionate feelings when adaptations come into play. Of course, there's going to be people going "but in 8 episodes of the first ever season they made, they didn't explore Theme C or D, didn't introduce factions E and F and G, and because the source company is notorious for its scams, we and everyone else who's a TRUE fan should hate it".

The Amazon Original series Fallout follows the videogame franchise of the same name. It is a labour of love and you can tell by the attention to detail, the writing, the sets, and YES THE THEMES ARGUE WITH THE WALL. It's clearly fan service. I mean, the very characterisation of Lucy is a deadringer for someone playing a Fallout game for the first time. She embodies the innocent player whose expectations drastically change in a game that breaks your heart over and over again. Of course, she's also the vessel through which we explore a lot of themes, but I'll get to that.

There're some folks arguing that the show retcons the games, and I gotta say... for a website practically built on fandom culture, why are we so violently against the idea of someone basing an adaptation on a franchise that so easily lends itself to new and interesting interpretations? But to be frank, a lot of what AO's Fallout is not that new. We have: naive Vault dweller, sexy traumatised ghoul that people who aren't cowards will thirst over, and pathetic guy from a militaristic faction. We also have: total atomic annihilation, and literally in-world references to the games' lore and worldbuilding constantly (the way I was shaking my sister over seeing Grognark the Barbarian, Sugar Bombs, Cram, Stimpaks, and bags of RadAway was ridiculous). Oh, and the Red Rocket?? Best pal Dogmeat? I'm definitely outing myself as specifically a Fallout 4 player, but that's not the point you should be taking away from this.

The details, the references, and the new characters -- this show is practically SCREAMING "hey look, we did this for the fans, we hope you love it as much as we do". Who cares that the characters are new, they still hold the essence of ones we used to know! And they're still interesting, so goddamn bloody interesting. Their arcs mean so much to the story, and they're told in a genuinely intriguing way. This isn't just any videogame adaptation, this was gold. This sits near Netflix's Arcane: League of Legends level in videogame adaptation. Both series create new plots out of familiar worlds.

Of course, those who've done the work have already figured out AO's Fallout is not a retcon anyway. But even if it was, that shouldn't take away from the fact that this show is actually good. Not even just good, it's great.

Were some references a little shoe-horned in to the themes by the end of the show, such as with "War never changes"? Yes, I thought so. But I love how even with a new plot and characters, they're actually still exploring the same themes and staying true to the games. I've seen folks argue otherwise, but I truly disagree. The way capitalism poisons our world, represented primarily through The American Dream and the atomic age of the 45-50s that promoted the nuclear family dynamic -- it's there. If you think it's glorifying it by leaning so heavily into in the adaptation, I feel like you're not seeing it from the right angle. It's like saying Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck glorifies the American Dream, when both this book and the Fallout franchise are criticisms of it. If you think about it, the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout is a graveyard to the American Dream. This criticism comes from the plots that are built into every Fallout story that I know of. The Vaults are literally constructed to be their own horror story just by their mere existence, what they stand for, what happens in each of them. The whole entire show is about the preservation of the wrong things leading to fucked up worlds and people. The missions of the Vaults are time and again proven to be fruitless, unethical, plain wrong. Lucy is our brainwashed character who believed in the veritable cult she lived in before she found out the truth.

So then consider the Brotherhood of Steel. I really don't think it exists in the story to glorify the military. We see just how much the Brotherhood has brainwashed people like Max (also, anything ominously named something like "the Brotherhood" should raise eyebrows). Personally, I don't like Max, but I am intrigued by his characterisation. I thought the end of his arc was rushed the way he "came good" basically, but [SPOILERS] having him embraced as a knight in the Brotherhood at the end against his will -- finally getting something he always wanted -- and him grimly accepting it from all that we can tell? Him having that destiny forced upon him now that he's swaying? After he defected? If his storyline is meant to be a tragedy, it wouldn't surprise me, because Fallout is rife with tragedies anyway. And a tragedy would also be a criticism of the military. That's what Max's entire arc is. It goes from the microcosm focusing on the cycle of bullying between soldiers to the macro-environment where Max is being forced to continue a cycle of violence against humanity he doesn't want to anymore because a world driven to extremes forces him to choose it to survive (not to mention what a cult and no family would do to his psyche). Let's not forget what the Brotherhood's rules are: humankind is supreme. Mutants, ghouls, synths, and robots are abominations to be hated and destroyed. If you can't draw the parallels to the real world, you need to retake history and literature classes. The Brotherhood is also about preserving the wrong things, like the Vaults (like the Enclave, really). They just came about through different method. The Enclave is capitalism and twisted greed in a world where money barely exists anymore. The Brotherhood is, well, fascism plain and simple.

Are these the only factions in the Fallout franchise? Hell no. But if you're mad about that -- that they're the main ones explored, apart from the NCR -- I think you're missing the point. These themes, these reminders, are highly relevant in the current climate. In fact, I almost think they always will be relevant unless we undergo drastic change. On the surface-level, Fallout seems like the American ideal complete with guns blazing that guys in their basements jerk off to. Under that surface, is a mind-fuck story about almost the entire opposite: it's a deconstruction of American ideals that are held so closely by some, and the way that key notion of freedom gets twisted, and you're shooting a guy in-game because it's more merciful than what the world had in store for him.

I mean, the ghoul's a fucking cowboy from the wild west character he used to play in Hollywood glam and his wife was one of the people who helped blow up America in the name of capitalism and "peace". There are so many layers of this to explore, I'd need several days to try and keep track and go through it all.

The Amazon Prime show is a testament to the Fallout franchise. The message, the themes? They were not messed up or muddled or anything of the sort, in my opinion.

As for Todd Howard, that Bethesda guy, I'm sure there's perfectly valid reasons to hate him. I mean, I've hated people for a lot less valid reasons, and that's valid. We all got our feelings. But the show is about more than just him. My advice is to keep that in mind when you're judging it.

[bl00dlight]

THOUGHTS ON S2 ALICENT AND HOW EVERYONE IS WRONG ABOUT HER.

Now that I've had some time to process and review. Here are my final thoughts/ hot takes. Some of these will probs conflict with my initial reactions to thing.

It wasn't a mischaracterisation of Alicent to abandon Aegon and Aemond, considering she never liked them to begin with. Which is literally the reason behind Aegon and Aemond being dysfunctional; her love was given conditionally. She only ever defended them against Rhaenyra, meaning she didn't bother to actually form loving relationships with her sons outside of projecting Otto's ambitions onto them.

She was ALWAYS a hypocrite. Her fucking Cole, even though yes it was annoying as fuck - is pretty in line with her characterisation. She literally let Larys wank to her feet in exchange for his loyalty/ her having more subliminal power. Remember how...she ostensibly gave Larys the green light to like murder Ser Harwin... and then attempt to murder Mysaria... yea...

Her idea of virtue was literally only ever used to maintain the idea of superiority over Rhaenyra/a justification to usurp the throne. It was never a real value of hers. It makes sense she'd abandon it when she is rendered powerless. Because it makes no difference either way to her.

Alicent may be a victim of the Patriarchy, but equally she is 100000% an abuser and an enforcer of Patriarchy. I won't elaborate. It's clear.

It also isn't out of character for her to not give a fuck about Jaehaerys either. Considering she massively projects her own trauma onto Helaena, and in general projects herself onto Helaena. She hasn't spent much time at all with the kid... like ever. And hardly even spends time with Helaena? She also like... willingly ignores Daeron.

It makes sense that Alicent probably feels little connection to Jaehaerys by virtue of the fact she seems to struggle with connecting to her sons. And Jaehaerys is an extension of Aegon and also of the crown.

Alicent has to an extent been traumatised by Targaryen men. All of which lean in to their "Targaryenness".

Helaena who, doesn't ride Dreamfyre (which annoys the fuck outta me that they made this choice). Seems to have little interest in her own House, thus is the most removed from being a Targaryen and to Alicent, is more aligned with herself.

So all in all, it makes sense why Alicent would basically be like "fuck them all but Helaena."

I think Alicent is deeply traumatised by the male dominated world. And in order to survive she had to adopt the qualities she knows men expect of women in order to maintain a level of power/control she had. Her entire life has been gaining power through the proximity of men and being used by them. She used virtue as a way to protect herself and maintain a level of power. That's why she opposes Rhaenyra, because Alicent has convinced herself that this is the reason she has cultivated her position. Because she is righteous. And Rhaenyra (whom is not righteous or virtuous) does not deserve to rule because of it.

However, once Aegon is on the throne, she realised that it was never her virtue which gave her power but her PROXIMITY TO POWERFUL MEN, WHICH DID - this entire farce collapses. She realises that the mask she wore means nothing. The entire identity she built herself around means nothing. She was never a good mother and she knows it. That's why she can turn around and abandon Aegon and Aemond. She made monsters who she can't control and she doesn't even want to. She'd rather abandon the Targaryens altogether and dissociate herself then face the fact SHE FUCKED UP. And... she legit did that throughout season 1 to... so....

Remember how Helaena said she didn't want Jaehaerys to be King? It's because even Helaena is aware of the dangers being on the throne causes. She knows her son would constantly be under threat and also living a life of despair. She just wants him to be happy because she loves him.

Alicent? On the other hand, literally hears Aegon SAY he doesn't want the crown. Literally hears how miserable he is once he has it. And basically doesn't give a fuck because her ambitions come before his wellbeing. She literally has never been a loving mother. She may have loved Aemond and Aegon deep down. But she wasn't loving. People for some reason think the two are mutually exclusive and they aren't. Abusive people can love you. But they can only love to the capacity they know how.

To Alicent, abandoning her sons is probably the most loving thing she can do. That way they can be free of her, and she can be free of them.

Think about it this way, if your sons were like... genuinely lowkey diabolical, would you stand by them without question?

If the first was a known rapist, enjoyed watching kids being beaten, treated his wife like shit, neglected his kids, spent most of his time drunk and having sex with prostitutes, tormented his younger brother etc; how positive would you feel about him?

If the second was a known maniacal edgelord who killed his own nephew, then tried to kill his brother, then also killed his cousin and then..... also lowkey committed genocide, etc; how positive would you feel about him?

Oh and they were both kinda misogynists?

In the real world, the mothers of fucked up men won't stand by their sons. Some do, but society has agreed those mothers are fucked up for being enablers.

Why do we expect Alicent to love her sons unconditionally, when she literally never did?

The problem isn't her arc, the problem is that the writers didn't actually explore the Green properly this season in order to allow us to understand Alicent. We saw so little of the Greens interacting with each other and so little of their dynamics that... in contrast to S1 Alicent, yea it does feel like they fucked up her character. But they didn't. They just sped run through her arc.

People comparing Ceresi to Alicent are greatly missing the point of Ceresi too. Whom was a raging narcissist - though yes she loved her children. She loved them because they were an extension of her and Jamie entirely. And her love for them meant she enabled Joffrey to become a fucking psychopath. Which again, is what the Patriarchy expects of women. It expects them to stand by men regardless of what they do. It expects them to be good and loyal. But Alicent is neither of those things and she never really was. Alicent is ALLOWED to be a bad mother. And she is ALLOWED to subvert our expectations of what a good mother should be. It's not anti feminist to let Alicent

I don't think it's a bad choice to have Alicent slowly start to develop reservations about the war. The only person who shouldn't of had those reservations is Rhaenyra.

The problem truly was, everything was so rushed, we didn't get the time to spend to see Alicent's arc develop properly. But all in all, like... I think people just be mad because, they are projecting their own ideals of womanhood and motherhood onto her. She is a victim, but she is also the abuser. And that's pretty much standard with the Greens. Both Aegon and Aemonds are both both victims and abusers too. That's legit what makes the Greens SOOOOO interesting.

[peachysunrize]

I’m so disappointed with Aemond’s storyline this season. It’s been so rushed and none of it’s really made sense when you compare it to season one (which was only ten days ago in episode one of s2!)

The first thing we should have seen is Aemond telling Alicent about accidentally killing Luke. Her being the only one that he admits to that it was a mistake and he regrets it, but Alicent is naturally horrified and rejects him, causing him to start to close himself off. He tells everyone else it was on purpose, putting on a front.

Then B&C happens. He finds the coin in his room but he keeps it to himself that he was the original intended target, because he’s afraid of being rejected even more by his family, who are already pissed about Luke. He goes to Helaena and attempts to apologise for Jaehaerys, but Helaena is too lost in grief to hear him out, making Aemond close off even more and become more stressed as the guilt builds up.

Rook’s Rest happens, and instead of purposefully trying to kill Aegon, Aemond is fully trying to take out Rhaenys and Meleys alone, thinking that if he kills them, it would help redeem him somewhat with his family. Only it’s bittersweet because while he did succeed in getting rid of Rhaenys and Meleys, he also accidentally gravely injured his brother and Sunfyre (like in the book). Now he’s fucked up again, and he’s spiralling. His mask becomes outwardly colder, but inside he’s a mess. 

He’s Prince Regent now, but the guilt inside from his mistakes piling up is making him act out harshly as ruler in order to try and regain control, but it just makes things worse and the smallfolk riot against him, which his mother and sister get caught up in. He’s messed up again, and caused his family members to be traumatised once more because of his actions.

He finally decides to take Harrenhal, like Aegon originally wanted. He hopes this will finally be a win for him and Team Green, and earn back his family’s love and trust. Only this turns out AGAIN to be a failure. He captures Harrenhal, but King’s Landing falls without him and Vhagar there. His mother and sister are now prisoners of the enemy, his grandfather and uncle are executed, and his brother and niece have disappeared.

After an entire season of build up, where we see the stress and guilt and pressure build within him, he finally snaps. He executes all the men and boys of House Strong, and fully becomes book!Aemond. 

I’m not saying any of this would be perfect or even good. I just think something like this would have given us more characterisation, better screentime, and his descent into ‘villainy’ would have felt more earned than what we got. And we wouldn’t have to rely on the actors to tell us what’s going on half the time, because the writers didn’t bother to show us on screen. 

(Thanks for listening, feel free to ignore. I just needed to shout into the void.)

Oh my lovely anon this is so good!!! I don’t even need to add anything, this is what we deserved to see!!!!!!

Take your time and read this<33

[lokiiied]

this is exactly what i need (more of) from roy x jamie! like, a bit more so from roy because he is so repressed. about everything. and his temper is something that affects all of his personal relationships. we have had three seasons of immense growth from jamie. he is one of (if not THE) most self aware character. it’s roy’s time now. and this moment may have been small, but it was a big step for him!!

@disasterbijamietartt & i had a convo on one of my other posts and if we ARE going to get royjamie (or honestly even if it’s just platonic), roy is going to need to have some major development/self realisation. because jamie deserves better. jamie has been victim to enough anger in his life. and i believe that royjamie could really help both men open up and be more vulnerable with each other and with others.

if we go back, keeley x jamie made keeley realise she deserved accountability in a relationship. and thereafter helped jamie become accountable.

keeley x roy helped keeley to be less apologetic for needing space and embracing her want for a balance of independence & intimacy in a relationship. it also helped roy to realise that he’s had unrealistic expectations of other people and himself — and a tendency to take things personally, which wasn’t fair to anyone. realising that helped him forgive/restore some peace (or truce lol) with jamie when him & keeley were still together.

so, if they continue with keeley x jack and/or actually make roy x jamie a thing…i think it could provide a wonderful opportunity to help roy overcome his anger and how he takes it out on other people. we’ve already seen how jamie’s support has (begrudgingly) opened him up more than once. and with jamie’s lack of judgement and being more gentle with roy — AND the other way round, with jamie spending so much time with roy (i think quality time is one of his love languages) we have seen so much more of him!! his little factoids, how he acts when he’s comfortable around someone, and (sadly) more about his childhood traumas.

which has also made roy start to realise how much anger/aggression has traumatised jamie in the past and also how he is trusting roy with this information. which means roy has an opportunity to reflect, apologise, & work on his temper with jamie.

i think where their relationship is going is so beautiful & important already. i love how comfortable they’re getting with each other and i would absolutely lose it (/pos) if they gave us roy x jamie and did it right. let them be open & communicative with each other!! give us that emotional growth & maturity and peel away that toxic masculinity and repression that is so intertwined with both of them in sports culture & in being queer professional footballers.

(plus then colin wouldn’t have to be a spokesperson cuz he wouldn’t be the only out player on the team.)

[djsherriff-responses]

I desperately need season two of CLH I’m going insane right now

Unlike my Jade and Sarah posts, this one is a lot more speculative as I’ll be discussing my theory regarding what Bullfrog’s backstory is and he’s the character we have the least information to go off of. I may also ramble about other stuff, but Bullfrog is the main focus

We got a lot of Sarah’s backstory in the show already , Dolph had a manga dedicated to explaining his and while Jade and Pey’J don’t have much going on, we do know they’re a close “family” (die Pey’J) and any other details about their lives we can at least make some educated guesses based on information from the show and outside sources. Cody probably has a wiki dedicated to him or something, idk

Bullfrog though, we know very little on him. We only know for sure that he’s the last member of the Assassins Creed, a group who fought for freedom and has been in conflict with the Templars for most of human history

But maybe that’s all the information we really need to figure the frog out

I made a lot of heavy comparisons between Bullfrog and Sarah beforehand in my Sarah post , especially in terms of their colour palette and the symbolism regarding that, but what exactly could Sarah's backstory hint to us regarding Bullfrog's backstory?

Firstly I want to take a quick detour to talk about Jade and Dolph , which will only highlight my theory on Bullfrog's story

While the relationships are very different at a first glance, upon further inspection I have noticed some similarities between the relationship Dolph has with Alex, and the relationship Jade has with Pey'J

Jade/Dolph takes care of Pey'J/Alex's well being , with Jade taking care of Pey'J emotionally while Dolph takes care of Alex physically

Pey’J/Alex sexualised Jade/Dolph , Alex was a groomer. Pey’J , despite knowing her since infancy and basically raised her, has confessed being attracted to Jade. How Pey'J sexualised Jade may just be my theory that he's meant as commentary on fathers who partake in purity culture, I think it's still worth bringing up regarding this pattern

Despite how young they are, Jade and Dolph are also more mature than the older men in their lives. While with Dolph that's debatable considering he spends most of season one dealing with a lot of negative emotions and wanting revenge, prior to the betrayal Alex behaved much more cocky and playful than Dolph who took the heist job more seriously than Alex. I already wrote a huge post about how Jade is basically made to mother her own uncle

Alex and Pey’J died on the same night by gun shots

But the major similarity between Jade and Dolph is they're victims of men much older than them, and those men are fatherly figures that Jade/Dolph trusted to protect them

Jade and Dolph are , possibly not by pure narrative coincidence, both orphans too. Jade's parents are straight up dead and Dolph has no clue if he even has a living relative, nevermind finding out what became of his parents

The common thread between Jade and Dolph's story is primarily focused on non blood related father figures that traumatised them

(I got nowhere else to add this but if Jade is in season two, I want her and Dolph to bond so badly and for them to become friends and help each other heal. They deserve a second chance at a good life)

What does that have to do with Bullfrog?

Let's look at the other ghosts

Cody is a celebrity cameo and isn't really a character with narrative purpose , so can't really pull anything from him. And Pey'J is.... Pey'J

Which leaves us with the one who kidnapped these people to form team ghost in the first place: Sarah Fisher

Now while Sarah is a character whose story is tied to her relationship with an older man , that relationship is nothing like the relationship Jade and Dolph have had with their respective old men

Though the relationship between Sam and Sarah is messy, the two also have genuine love for each other regardless of everything that's happened. Sam , while a human with flaws, was at the end of the day a loving father who wanted nothing but the best for Sarah and her well being. Sarah , as twisted as she has become, wanted nothing more than to have her father be safe

Sam has never been a predatory person to anyone , much less one that's comparable to Alex or Pey'J and certainly not towards his own daughter

Sam is a father who'd do anything to protect Sarah, his own flesh and blood

Since Sarah and Bullfrog are meant to represent the Templars and Assassins as well as the conflict of those two groups, than Bullfrog's story could have a strong focus on his bloodlines. Both groups in the original assassin games have had a strong focus on bloodlines within their respective organisations

Side note: While I’m not an expect on creed lore, being an Assassin or a Templar isn’t always something you’d inherent directly from a a parent or even grandparent. While the memories of past assassins is important to preserve, you don’t need to have any blood relation to join the brotherhood. I think I read somewhere it’s actually sometimes discouraged for assassins to start families (at least while they’re still actively an assassin? Need to look more into it). So while I do think the theme of family/bloodline and their legacies are going to be part of Bullfrog’s story, he himself isn’t going to be picky on who who can join him in (hopefully) rebuilding the brotherhood, it just adds to the already high amount of pressure the guy is under

Based on the deciphering on Bullfrog's mugshot, people have managed to make out that his full name may be "Bullfrog Korvin Jr". While some argue Bullfrog's surname may be "Kermit" instead, the Junior part of the name is easy to make out

Bullfrog Junior implies that there's a Bullfrog Senior for a little tadpole to be named after

I wanna point out as well that hybrid children exist in this universe and are seen along side human children, ( I'm assuming this is a field trip or something?). So while hybrids were created to fulfil a purpose in Eden , they can still get together and start families like any other hard working American Eden couple and if they're lucky their children can be involved in society along with human children, such as school activities

If I am onto something regarding Regan being in the Templar order and her being the reason Sarah has the ideals that she ended up having in the show , than it's my belief Bullfrog's story will parallel with Sarah in that regard and that Bullfrog had an Assassin parent, and that Assassin parent is the person who gave, or at least inspired, the beliefs Bullfrog holds on to in the show

This may be wishful thinking, but I'm gonna believe until proven otherwise that it was specifically Bullfrog's mother that was the Assassin parent

Besides wanting more women in this show I do actually have reasons to think Bullfrog's mother is the parent who passed on the assassin legacy to him, rather than his father

If Sarah and Bullfrog story's parallel each other , and the two are meant to represent the conflict between Templars and Assassins, how does Sam fit into that?

Simple: Sam doesn't

While it's entirely possible that Sam could've learned about the existence of the Assassin brotherhood before he died, we know that he had no knowledge of either the Assassins or their conflict with the Templars when Sarah was growing up. If he did, he would've been far more vigilant about the propaganda that was brainwashing his own kid, even if Regan was directly feeding it into Sarah’s brain

At most, we can take a guess the earliest Sam could've learned anything about the Assassins was some time after he lost custody of Sarah when she snitched on the watch dogs, and that's just a guess on the earliest he could've discovered them. Depending on how open they were in their involvement with the wasteland war or if they were even "public" at all in Eden prior to Bullfrog becoming the only member of the brotherhood, Sam may have died completely unaware of the mere existence of the Assassins

In other words, Sam was pretty much in the dark about the Templars and that side of Sarah’s lineage

Going off of this and my theory that Sarah and Bullfrog’s stories are meant to be parallels of one another, it stands to reason that Bullfrog Senior was , much like Sam , left unaware of the Assassin brotherhood and that part of his own son’s lineage

Bullfrog and Sarah inheriting their mothers’ legacies of eternal conflict with each other can be a sort of play on the phase “sins of the father”. At least with Sarah , having it be “sins of the mother” makes more sense since Sam is more or less a good guy in the narrative who doesn’t have any sort of millennial old legacy to uphold, and for Bullfrog? Again , wishful thinking

If I really wanted to push that angle, I can probably make a reference to Eve , the first sinner and mother of all humanity. Bullfrog is technically already the snake offering a fruit of forbidden knowledge to Rayman’s Adam , so the symbolism is already present

“But it’s kinda weird that Bullfrog, a frog hybrid, has a bird themed surname if he’s from a family of frogs and was raised by his biological frog parents” And while the basic answer would be “it’s an Assassin’s creed reference and even if not , surnames don’t always make sense for an individual” the other possibly answer to that is to bring up another old man in Sarah’s life:

Marcus Holloway

I’ve seen a lot of people theorise that Bullfrog was adopted by a bird (usually crow or raven) hybrid and that’s how he got the bird themed surname. It’s an adorable headcanon

But going off of my theory I’ve explained thus far, I believe that a member of the Assassins creed , who happens to be a bird hybrid, was a friend of Bullfrog’s mother (and maybe father, but Senior wouldn’t be aware of the brotherhood’s existence) and was basically the Marcus to Bullfrog’s Sarah

Now, while I’ve said I believe Bullfrog’s backstory will parallel Sarah’s, I don’t think it’s going to be exactly one to one and the two are different characters , and my Marcus comparison here is an example of that

Remember the hero’s journey and how I used that to figure out Sarah had a hero complex?

While this entire post is a ramble of a theory and I’m most likely off the mark on a lot of stuff (besides maybe Bullfrog’s story involving blood lines and their legacy) , based on everything I brought up till now, we can probably take some (wild) guesses on what events Bullfrog experienced prior to the show's events

Having used the hero's journey as a template to explain the events in Sarah's life and keeping in mind that her story is likely meant as a parallel to Bullfrog's, we can use that to estimate what events happened in Bullfrog's life

Call to adventure:

Considering Bullfrog has a French accent and speaks French, his family originated from either France or a country with French as the dominant language

In season one , we do not have any information about what life is like outside of Eden. The only thing we know in this universe is that America was a country that existed when Rayman came to earth along with the rabbids, but soon after that the very concept of America disappeared and slowly became Eden, essentially wiping almost all traces of the country ever existing beforehand

There's a massive desert area called the wasteland smacked in the middle of Eden, with how a large piece of area in the middle of a capitalist nation where every other corner is a city building wanting to sell you something became untouched is not known

With how control is a defining factor in their beliefs and how they're a global threat , the Templars may have control of other countries , or least the more powerful countries (such as several European nations) in similar fashion to how Eden is currently functioning

Alternatively, Eden may be the only place left on earth that's actually bearable for most life , with every other country essentially being wastelands ,less likely due to the Templars and more so the Rabbids doing

Either because France sucks under Templar rule or Rabbids made it a hellscape , Bullfrog's father decided to leave and try getting into Eden to get a better chance at life , much like what Sam tried doing for Sarah

Supernatural aid: The crow hybrid assassin (or some other ally character) helps out Bullfrog and his family

Threshold , beginning of transformation: Bullfrog gets someone arrested

Bullfrog tells Rayman that he used to watch his show as a tadpole. While Bullfrog is clearly disillusioned by Eden propaganda as an adult, it could've been a very different story when he was a child

Maybe even a raykid?

Now obviously if Bullfrog's mother was an assassin, she would've kept her children as far away from Eden propaganda as much as possible

But going with Sarah and Bullfrog being parallels, so are their mothers. Sarah doesn't speak of her mother in the show but it's safe to assume that Regan, while someone who existed, was absent in Sarah's life before Sarah snitched on the watch dogs

It's likely then Bullfrog's mother parallels with Regan in sharing same fate as her, whatever that would be

Another reason I actually prefer for the mother to be Bullfrog's assassin parent is another parallel that can be made with Sarah: their fathers being against their conviction

While Sam wasn't part of the assassin brotherhood, Sam was never on the side of Eden . Sam may not have had all the information, he did know what Eden was doing was wrong and didn't want Sarah to become another cog in their machine

So paralleling with Sam , Bullfrog's father in contrast was pro Eden, at least by some extent, and thus would've encouraged Eden propaganda onto Bullfrog

Especially when his wife was no longer in the picture to say otherwise

So at some point after arriving in Eden proper , Bullfrog gets someone arrested in a similar fashion to how Sarah got the watch dogs arrested. Who that is exactly and under what circumstances I can't really say, but I can say one thing: It makes Bullfrog feel wrong for doing it

While Regan ensured that Sarah knew of her Templar heritage and the ideals that came from that, so that Sarah knew when "to do the right thing". Bullfrog's mother ensured Bullfrog knew of the beliefs of the brotherhood and understood the importance of justice

Bullfrog , despite being surrounded by repeat propaganda and his own father's belief in Eden, knew on a subconscious level something was wrong

I mentioned that I believe that a bird hybrid assassin would be a parallel to Marcus , and I believe that bird hybrid and Bullfrog have a bond that Marcus could've had with Sarah

If only their circumstances were different, Marcus could've been a second dad to Sarah

At some point there'd be conflict with Bullfrog senior being against his son becoming "terrorist" , and thus Bullfrog deciding to distance himself from his father and take on his mentor's name , Korvin

Challenges and Temptations : most likely Bullfrog's assassin training, maybe something to do with revenge (?)

Revelation, Death and Rebirth: Okay either the brotherhood dies, probably in the wasteland war or Bullfrog senior dies

The brother hood dying fits this better, but Senior dying or rather getting himself killed could be the final step from Bullfrog to let go of his past and fully commit to his destiny as an assassin

You can probably make a plot of Senior seeking revenge only to end up getting innocents and himself hurt along the way, and this that's what formed Bullfrog's views on revenge

Transformation: Bullfrog becoming a master assistant, maybe?

Atonement: Much like Sarah, Bullfrog's story isn't finished yet and thus, we'll have to see what happens in season two

[itsalinh]

It’s 5:30am here and who needs sleep when we can stay up and talk about s03e06 Jamie and Roy?

Friendly reminder, Jamie used to have Roy’s poster on his wall when he was a kid. To every young kid out there, the one on their wall was their hero, a role model that they strive for every single day. Jamie grew up thinking that someday, he’d be like Roy Kent. You know, the Roy Kent who played for Chelsea, which arguably the most successful club in London, the Roy Kent who won a fucking European Champions League. This precious and reputable UCL trophy is the dream of every footballer. Some would measure a footballer’s success by how many prizes they got, and believe me, this trophy is a rock solid proof.

Jamie is a great player with so much talent, he signed for Manchester City (a real deal in EPL), and he also made it to the team line up every damn time. MC is always known for their squad-depth in every position, and it’s not easy to always be on the starting XI list. I’d like to think that Jamie looked up to Roy a lot, he keeps training and training, with a hope til some day he could win trophy just like his role model.

Jamie finally got a chance to play alongside Roy. He must have been crazy about it. But their early days was not so easy. Jamie came to realise Roy had changed, he was no longer the one Jamie idolised so much as before anymore. He felt angry and disappointed. Jamie became the one in charge of the locker room, directly against the team captain. Things weren’t going well.

Luckily enough, the new manager came and steadily alternated the locker room tensed atmosphere. Both Jamie and Roy acknowledged their own problems, as well as the other one’s. They finally understood each other better. That hug, oi, it was like a big smash to the final concrete wall between them. It was not the action coming out of a spur of the moment. Roy felt the urge to comfort his team member, his younger lad, his friend. He knew a hurt Jamie needed that.

This season saw a further change in their relationship. They trust each other more and more. And this time, they even open to each other about their utmost vulnerable thoughts and memories. Roy and Jamie are not the type of people who would share their feelings to somebody else. Roy hid them under his rage, while Jamie just suppressed them because of his “dad”. For the first time, Roy admitted that he let out all of his anger on Jamie, sometimes for no reasons. And goshhhhhhhh, Jamie did not even question that, he shrugged it off immediately and literally said “For Grandad”. Such a beautiful char arcs from both of them. In return, Jamie also share some of his traumatised and heartfelt memories with his “dad” and mom. I don’t think he ever told that to anybody, even with Keeley or Ted. So this is a positive sign for their mental health, and I love to see men talking about their feelings like true heroes.

These football himbos are taking up spaces in my mind. And honestly speaking, I’ve been really sad and disappointed and depressed while watching an actual football club recently, and another lighthearted fictional football club is making my days a lot better. So guys, say thank you to Ted Lasso!

[thequietesthing]

Ok but now see you don’t understand. The 100 season 2 episode 9 is one of the most well written episodes in the entire season in my opinion for both the progression of the story and also for the construction of Clarke as a character and everything that she will do later. 

The episode begins with the aftermath of her killing Finn and the beginning of the alliance with the grounders. 

In this episode the relationships Clarke/Bellamy and Lexa/Gustus shine through and are the focal points of that storyline: two powerful women in charge, and the men that love them (in one way or another) want to protect them no matter what.

Bellamy wants to go inside M.Weather but Clarke says it’s too dangerous and she “can’t loose him as well” right after losing Finn. (For my bellarke girlies, the look on Bellamy’s face when she says that is imprinted in my mind forever because he was soo not expecting that lol)

They go to Ton DC and the whole debacle with the poison happens. Bellamy is the first one that jumps in front of Clarke to protect her and snatches the potential poison from her hands. After we find out that it was Gustus that poisoned the cups to protect his commander.

Lexa doesn’t care the reasons behind it, but only the action, because “love is weakness” so she kills him.

When Octavia, Lincoln and Bellamy are in front of the fire and L asks to Bellamy how did he know it was Gustus, B says because he would “have done everything to protect her. To keep her safe.” AND AS I’M SURE EVEN THE WALLS HAVE UNDERSTOOD THAT HE WAS ALSO TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF AND CLARKE because as of right now Bellamy has done exactly that: do everything to protect Clarke because he trusts her, sees her as a good leader and generally cares about her. Also very relevant the immediate response that Octavia gives to this statement “look at the thanks he got” which is kinda of foreshadowing of what is about to happen.

Because Clarke, my dear sweet freshly traumatised Clarke, sees Lexa so powerful and capable that she decided to imitate her and adopts her mentality, so she goes to Bellamy and in the coldest voice we have ever heard from her (towards him) she says that he was right and that they need an inside man in MW. Now here is where cinematography comes in to help with the story, because first of all we see the complete and utter surprise on Bellamy’s face at this sudden change of heart that he doesn’t understand because less then 12 hours she told him that he couldn’t loose him (his Heart shows) then his practical side takes over and he regards her also with understanding. BUT THEN then the camera moves to Octavia and Raven. Remember Lincoln is also there but we don’t see him, we only see those two. Why? Because they know. They know the relationship between these two, they’ve been there since the dropship days, they know this is not how things are done. You can literally feel the awkwardness in the air, as Octavia stares between the two like what the hell is going on. Then Clarke leaves and Bell gets ready for his mission.

Clarke, who has also been plagued by visions of Finn, says to his ghost that love is weakness (after all she just implemented the principle with one of the boys she cares about, she’s only fair to say the same to the other in a more clear matter since he’s dead) and the ghost vanishes it.

By the end we see her reject to keep Finn ashes that abby offers, officially implementing this new motto.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN???????? THE GENIUS, THE WRITING, THE EXPRESSIONS, THE PARALLELS, THE ACTORS. 

THIS IS WHEN THE 100 WAS A PROPER TV SHOW AND BY GOD DO I MISS IT.

(yes I'm doing a rewatch, yes is very late at night, please keep your judgement of my insanity to yourself)

Ok I’m done I’m going to sleep now.

[owlphibiansprite]

SO I HAVE BEEN TYPING UP ALL MY THOUGHTS AS I WATCHED HERE YA GO EPISODE 1 COMMENTARY IS POSTED A FEW HOURS AGO and as i watched i got more tired and less wanting to write stuff down

ep3: "burying their feelings"… come on. this whole storyline is just dumb. these kids are actually smart, barring spider of course. like they know by then that the patriarchy is bullshit, right? this whole "men biologically stronger thing", right? this whole "we're men we do this" thing. like c'mon malakai doesn't actually believe this shit…?

(oh also just thinking about ca$h & how darren kinda almost believed chook and how that literally wouldn't make sense cuz he's asexual but also chook was being really traumatising assault-y in that moment so it kinda makes sense if that shook darren and they are prepared to believe the worst of ca$h)

watching this season i am actually full of anxiety half the time. this is rly frustrating. i rly hate this cumlords storyline like it just feels so ooc for many boys the quinni scenes are my only solace

heh! ca$h doing the cook "fuck it" thing with the drugs CA$H ON DRUGS SCENE IS PURE ART

no seriously i rly don't like this season maybe i'm not high enough or maybe i'm not in the right frame of mind but i LOVED the first season but the second one is… idk. giving so much space to boys being patriarchal storyline like i don't fucking care about this ffs

amerie & quinni shenanigans are the best :D these two are such gremlins together

ep4: quinni is literally the highlight of this whole season right now

is no one gonna talk about how timothy is here talking over jojo and interrupting her plans and demeaning her and touching her in a patronising way? what if jojo did this to him. hm?

is everyone seriously that dumb to blame amerie for a recording someone else played during the activity?

ep5: well, i guess jojo is getting roped into this once again and is blamed for this misogynist white man's mistakes. anything else new?

oof feeling quinni a lot ca$h & quinni quality time let's have it

ohhh, i knew quinni was gonna have a moment like this.💚💚💚💚 :'( it was the buildup, i felt that hard (also i love frogs too!!)

ep6: i live how darren is so smell sensitive

LOL 2minute sex love it

ep7:

quinni is everything i am crying

ep8:

darren really out here with the puriteens with a bag that says "god's favorite" i love them

quinni literally just saved two people's lives, three by proxy she literally fucking ran into a burning building and saved lives

annyyyyyways ok that is done

um, final thoughts: there was no sasha redemption arc. she kind of stayed flat as a character, just self-centred. sad, but oh well.

after the whole cumlords storyline eased up i didn't feel so anxious anymore. glad voss got what he fucking deserved.

ca$h & darren endless drama, what else is new BUT all these new scenes give new fodder for wonderful AMVs (that are not anime lol) btw i love them your hunour i still love the love these two share

now i'll go back to my old post and see what parts of the list got ticked off

[envihellbender]

So obviously Roman has a difficult relationship with sexuality, the only time we see him touch anyone sexually who isn’t himself he’s using her phone to get her off, but he doesn’t really have a difficult relationship with kink. So long as he can express it it’s there, he’s just not good at expressing it

And honestly that’s a hundred percent my relationship with asexuality, I can’t get off unless it’s extreme intense kink, and I definitely can’t get off from someone else touching me

And I think that’s actually extremely common among queer people especially when on the asexual spectrum but also when not and it’s important to talk about because damn people should know their not broken

I hate that Roman’s girlfriends all treat him like he’s the freak and there’s something wrong with him and like, yeah maybe it’s a trauma response, or maybe he’s just like that… and sex doesn’t have to be penetrative it doesn’t even have to involve any one touching anyone else’s junk

Maybe it’s cause he’s gay or traumatised or both but honestly? After reading the season one scripts and seeing how he is with his personal trainer and Lawerence I fully think he’s a biromantic asexual with sex repulsion and a high libido that he can’t deal with. He has no idea how to express his sexuality so he tries everything, it’s only when it’s disgusting that he can get off

I do think there’s something in that when he sees Tabitha he says that his dad would love her, nothing about her personally … which suggests to me he prefers men but doesn’t have a massive preference

And like, yeah that’s me, it’s only when it’s disgusting and depraved and wrong that it’s me

But yeah there’s many ways to interpret it but man I relate to Roman so much especially with sex

[hurremsultanns]

I always had issues with MC where they want us to be upset with a character and I just wasn’t.

Like the fire in season 1 where Hurrem gets in trouble for blaming Mahidevran for it. Obviously it doesn’t make sense for Mahidevran to have done it because it would’ve placed Mustafa in danger too. However, Hurrem isn’t thinking rationally. She’s thinking this is the woman who beat me nearly to death and tried to poison me while I was pregnant and taunted me while I was locked up in a dungeon. She’s literally had nightmares about Mahidevran smothering Mehmed so no duh her first suspect is going to be Mahidevran. But then instead of being able to explain her reasoning, Suleyman chastises her for not showing Mahi respect and then ignores her until he comes back from campaign

Another example was when Suleyman fell sick for the first time. The show was making Mahidevran out to be the villain for wanting her son to go to the thrown instead of being upset that the man who had rejected her several times over was on the brink of death. Mahi, as a mother and as someone who knew that she’d never be able to get back into Suleyman’s affections, had to prioritize herself and her son ahead of anyone else. Obviously her threats against Hurrem and her children were wrong but it was legally expected as we can see Hurrem doing to little Mehmed in season 4 and Nurbanu doing to Bayezid’s youngest son with Defne. She blames Hurrem for a lot of things in life so seeing her upset would feel triumphant for her but her children were also genuine threats to Mustafa. Then after Suleyman recovers she loses trust with her previously close allies, especially Hafsa. I wasn’t necessarily rooting for her but I didn’t think she was evil for what she did either

Everything you said exactly neither of those were their finest hours but they're both understandable.

Hürrem is a traumatised and understandably paranoid TEENAGER and Mahidevran literally tried to kill her twice. Once when she was pregnant. It was obviously a wrong thing to do, but it makes sense why she would act in that way.

And Mahidevran is understandable given how as you said Süleyman treated her and also given the context of the fratricide law. Much like with Hürrem, people seem to expect her to be OK with the possibility of her son's death and that is completely unreasonable.

Overall there is a reason why it's Hürrem and Mahidevran in particular who get framed like this in my opinion. And it's because they're women from a slave background. The show is far more forgiving of nobles and men. Especially military men. Look at how forgiving the narrative is of Ibrahim in spite of how much worse he is than either Hürrem or Mahidevran for example. And the fact that so many fans just accept the sexist narrative is deeply concerning.

[tea-time-with-london]

I agree with the Hopper s3 anon. He was absolutely toxic and what they did to his character was out of pocket.

One thing it was shown that he was on meds in s1, which likely contributed to having his anger issues under control, and he might have gone off the meds between s2 and s3.

But still Hopper isn't the best suited father figure for the Byers or El. Their fight in s2 was so hard to watch, I get him frustrated, but El is a traumatised girl who missed her friends. She only knows violence since she was born essentially, and Hopper can't handle a child like this.

He couldn't even talk normally to Mike in s3, which, yeah, Mike was an ass but he's still a child.

Does the fandom really think Hopper would be supportive of Will coming out? Nope, he was already homophobic to him in s1. He doesn't know how to talk to kids or show empathy for their struggles.

Bob was the only person I could have seen been right for the Byers. He cared about Joyce and the kids. Even though Jonathan didn't like him, Bob was never mean to him. He gave him space. Bob was patient and kind. Hopper is the opposite. He's a lot like Lonnie in terms of having a bad temper. He will trigger Joyce and the boys. Like I love him as an action hero, but he is terrible for the Byers family. And now, with more added trauma, he won't process that well idk. He would need therapy, but it's the 80s, and men show no feelings. Men don't cry kinda bullshit.

I love Jopper in theory (childhood friends to lovers), but they made Hopper into Lonnie 2.0, so I can't ship him with Joyce. She deserves someone like Bob, a gentle soul who keeps her calm and doesn't yell at her for minor things.

Confession #119

Hm. So like I partially get where you're coming from but allow me to touch on a few things, if I may. First, let me just say I also loved Bob. He was a sweet, gentle soul who truly did care for Joyce and the boys. (I wish I could describe my dad's reaction to Bob's death. My dad was mortified. He loved Bob.)

As for Hopper...I don't remember anywhere in season 1 where Hopper was homophobic to Will. I haven't watched season 1 in a bit so I could be misremembering, but I can't even name a scene in my head where he was homophobic.

But a genuine question for you is do you not believe he can change? At all? What would be the point of Hopper going through all 5 seasons and remaining exactly the same?

Hopper is re-learning how to be a parent, this is something I think we all have to remember. His only child died at just like five or six years old. As a parent, he was probably feeling so unbelievably helpless because he couldn't protect or save his little girl. This helplessness transformed into the overprotectiveness we saw in season 2. While he may have been overbearing, it wasn't out of malice. He was trying to do everything he could to keep El safe from the people that wanted to hurt her. And sure, he absolutely could have gone about it a different way, I won't argue against that at all because there were times he could have exercised grace and patience and figured out a solution where they were both happy.

As for season 3, I also wasn't the biggest fan of how Hopper acted toward Mike, but also he's watching his daughter grow up and branch out with friends and her boyfriend and there comes that protectiveness again that a lot of parents have toward their kiddos. Again, obviously I don't approve of the way Mike was treated. I think Hopper could have eased up on him while also implementing boundaries as a parent.

And remember...Hopper only got to spend 5 years with his daughter Sarah. El is like a preteen/teen in seasons 2-3. This is a whole different experience for Hopper. He's never parented a teenager before, much less a teen daughter who is superhuman as a single father. Parenthood is trial and error.

And then we obviously have to factor trauma into the conversation as an explanation for a lot of his behavior, but of course that's never an excuse for behavior. But Hopper loves El, and Hopper loves Joyce (and though I feel like we don't really see Hopper and the Byers brothers in scenes together, I'm sure he loves them too) then I think that's some motivation to work on his own healing so he doesn't project onto other people. My point in saying all this is that characters grow and change. And I think Hopper has honestly showed a lot of feelings. Just think of the conversations he had with Enzo in Russia. He showed genuine, raw emotion talking about Sarah and El and all the shit he's been through. That's process. That's development.

At the end of the day, you feel the way you feel about it all and that's perfectly fine. Just wanted to open up the discussion a bit :)

[thenanamisimp]

Great Pretender

Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Mystery

Warnings: Sex and nudity/ Violence/ Guns/ Alcohol and drugs/ Human trafficking

I have to admit, after watching a few disappointing Netflix official anime, I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy this. I was, however, proven wrong! This might actually be my favourite Netflix official.

Edamura Makoto, a japanese swindler tries to scam a French tourist - but he ends up being conned instead! He gets tricked into following Laurent to the US where they commit a series of big cons together. A story full of plot twists and chaos and even when the chaos starts to become predictable, you're still constantly at the edge of your seat. With every new case you get to know the characters and their motivations even further and you get attached - seriously attached. Added bonus, EVERYONE IS HOT. (Laurent has joined my list of depressed blonde fictional men I'd fuck. I'd also let Cynthia con me anytime, the term MILF was created for her). Generally, the show has a really good pace, not too slow, not too quick and it builds up well with every new case in my opinion.

As for the one thing that Netflix officials always have - good art, Great pretender does not fall behind. The art style is unique and absolutely stunning, a lot simpler than the popular style right now which is a lot less abstract and a little more realistic. I loved this choice though, it's so nice to see a more uncommon art style being utilised. The characters' expressions and emotions were so cool to see in this art style and honestly I think more anime needs to use more unique art like this.

This was a great watch and I'd definitely recommend watching this if you pay for Netflix (even if you don't). I can't wait for the next season.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Of the 4 cases released, while they were all good, I think my favourite was the art sale con and my least favourite the air racing con. The child trafficking one was so close to being my favourite with all the plot twists and up and downs but it gave me about 50 mini heart attacks. However, it's the one that really made me fall in love with Laurent's character and the tragic ending of his love with Dorothy - ONLY TO DISCOVER SHE'S STILL ALIVE AND LOST HER MEMORIES. I can't believe he tossed her ring away and it ended up with Dorothy again. Talk about fate. They better have the best fucking reunion next season, I want Laurent to be happy.

I also can't fucking BELIEVE Makoto's dad??? He genuinely invented cons, he's a mastermind and he took me through the MOTIONS. He showed up out of the blue, pretended to be remourseful, betrayed his son again, told us why he was charged for human trafficking, told us why he was actually INNOCENT and then ended up being the greatest con artist of all time. And poor Makoto's mum had to hide everything from him even though she knew. Pure chaos and I loved it. (Makoto is your dad open to dating?)

May I also add that for a series about criminals, everyone has their morals and these morals are actually surprisingly *right*? With the exception of some... questionable ones from Laurent but he's traumatised so he's forgiven in my eyes. Plus it ain't even that bad. He's forgiven because he does it all to fuck with the actual villains of the story aka the traffickers.

Overall, everyone had a great backstory but Laurent and Oz's stories were the two that stuck with me the most. I love a tragic man. Give them to me tortured and destroyed. I can fix them. And then destroy them some more. (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

Smallest sidenote because I just can't stop thinking about YOUNGER LAURENT WITH LONG HAIR???? HE IS SO (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠) (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ ♡⁠(⁠˃͈⁠ ⁠દ⁠ ⁠˂͈⁠ ⁠༶⁠ ⁠)

IN CONCLUSION, this anime is a big hit and worth the hype and absolutely, definitely worth the watch!

Thank you for reading another anime ramble! Enjoy watching :)

theNanamiSimp

[thesilverlady]

What do you think of Tyrion ? For me there are 2 of them. The book one and the show one. Show one I hate. Book one I kinda enjoy because he constantly flirts with darkness. I don’t buy show Tyrion poor misunderstood meow meow. And I hate that they did the same with show Aemond. That’s why I prefer Aegon and Daemon. From the beginning you know where they stand, there are no attempts to make them sympathetic bullshit. Stop whitewashing characters in order to make characters more sympathising for audience. The reason why the Joker, Soprano Family and Roy family from Succession are so great is because they aren’t portrayed as some poor people being victims of their circumstances all their life. Aemond wanting to console Jace at Driftmark? What the fuck is that? Also giving him sexual trauma made me laugh. The show made it clear I and everyone else is meant to feel sorry for him but I just laughed at how pathetic they are. Like you have weak Viserys, pedo Daemon, rapist and drunkard Aegon and traumatised and with only one eye Aemond. So yeah, the winner of who should be the fan favourite is clear. Instead of showing the 4 of them as bad and letting people choose who their favourite is, they create 3 of them in unsympathetic light and make one of them #1 victim and the other 3 as monsters or weak men. Sorry but I hate the narrative where I am being shown down my throat who I am supposed to love and who to hate. Especially if 3 out of 4 characters are doing terrible things and only one behaves properly until starting the war. I really can’t wait for Aemond to burn Riverlands, most stans would leave his fanclub and began to see Aegon is not the worst guy out there. I just hope TGC won’t stop playing Aegon until the moment Aemond will show everyone what a legit psycho he really is. And tbh Aemond was my favourite green character in the book but the forced victimisation and the way the fandom act as if aemond is the most opressed character and "feminist" to ever walk in westros when he is the targaryen ver of Andrew tate in reality has completely ruined my enjoyment of him

I don't really have anything to add. I agree with your complains for the most part. I think lots of shows nowadays are painfully censored, the writing has to be simple and the views have to be walked by the hand because they cannot make an intellectual conclusion on their own.

Dunno if you've watched this. But Hannibal nbc was one of my favorite shows of all time. An interesting adaption that was definitely very different from the book material but didn't try to pretend to be better. It was its own thing and was extremely controversial while it was airing due to the violence, themes, and overall subjects. It also remains very much loved despite the years that have passed with an ever so dedicated fanbase.

it seems hard to recreate shows like this. Even GoT's writing was starting to suffering way before the last two seasons but ofc people were trying to be optimistic and we still had hope that one day George might publish another book...

I loved Tyrion and still do in the books. His pov happens to be a favorite of mine, but the show version of him got very bad very fast. It's as you mentioned, there doesn't seem to be a balance about the characters who are supposed to be dark but also possess good traits. It's what makes them interesting in first place.

There's a very weird love for oversimplification in recent times and it kinda sucks out the joy ngl.

As for show aemond, I've ranted so much about him I'd probably repeat myself. I'd only advise to keep expectations low. S1 they managed to make him murdering Lucerys an accident 💀 I wouldn't be surprised if they try something similiar with the burning of Riverlands (perhaps another misunderstanding like the alicent x Viserys one?) who knows. we can only wait and see