#i think this might be a season of television i rewatch immediately after it ends

[leafcrunch]

andor is a show that is simultaneously saying “let’s take the worldbuilding of star wars seriously and apply critical theory” and “let’s take the visual and tonal language of star wars and make a good television show out of it” and motherfucker they are doing both incredibly

[addictedtostorytelling]

When did you realise gsr was a thing in first viewing?

I have just rewatched the first season and it’s fairly obvious Sara is carrying a torch from the get-go. The Grissom side of things is a lot harder to figure out. He flirts a lot with her for sure.

1x10 sex, lies & larvae was my first big hint that he had deep feelings for her. By 1 x16 I was convinced, and from the start of season 2 I was willing them together.

It took toooo looooong!

hi, anon!

so my first viewing experience with gsr happened all the way back during the original run of the show's first season in the year 2000, when i was thirteen years old.

because i was a kid back then, my perception of the show at that time was very “surface-level.” i accepted anything and everything that happened on screen as it appeared to be and didn’t read into any subtext (or, indeed, even realize that there was subtext to be read-into). while i understood the crime solving and larger plot points parts of show well enough, i didn’t understand a lot of the finer details of what was going on with the characters and their relationships. 

though i watched the show every week, i was very much a casual viewer, not yet savvy to how television dramas tended to work or educated on the ins and outs of storytelling.

all of that so, my initial perceptions of gsr were honestly a bit unusual, as, on the one hand, in my naïveté, i assumed that they were going to be a couple right from the get-go, but on the other hand, in my naïveté, i also didn't comprehend a lot of what was actually going on between them, and i didn't really properly ship them until much later on, when i was older and could understand their story a bit better.

as a thirteen-year-old, i saw grissom and sara's first flirtatious interaction in episode 01x02 "cool change" and took it at face value. my little thirteen year-old brain saw smiling and head-bobbing and heard quipping and banter and recognized that there was twitterpation going on. i said to myself, “those two are definitely into each other,” and because i was a kid, i didn't think to question the nature of their relationship much beyond making that observation. when in subsequent episodes (like episode 01x03 “crate n' burial” and 01x09 “unfriendly skies”), i saw more flirtation occur between them, i felt even more assured that grissom and sara would be an item someday.

since my mo at the time was just to accept whatever the tptb chose to do on the show without question, when i saw what i thought was evidence of tptb leaning toward romantic gsr, i got on board with the idea immediately.

i liked both characters individually and liked what i saw of their interactions together, so in theory i supported them being a couple and would have been happy to see them get together (even at that early point, without either one of them having undergone any significant character developments) had the showrunners decided to go that route back then.

in that very superficial way, i guess i technically “shipped gsr” from the beginning.

however, i also wasn't incredibly emotionally invested in them as a couple at that point—or at least no more so than i would have been any other potential pairings that tptb might have raised—and certainly i didn't understand them or their dynamics or their history well at all, so it wasn't as if i was actively willing them to be together or anything.

i was just along for whatever ride tptb were going to take me (and those characters) on, you know?

grissom and sara seemed to like each other, so i figured that they'd have a romance play out, much like other tv romances i'd seen before (i.e., they'd flirt, build rapport, and eventually, perhaps after some dramatic turn of events, end up kissing before a “fade to black” moment, and from then on, they'd be a couple), and if they did, then i'd be pleased, just like i was pleased by basically everything else that happened on the show.

given that i was still a kid, it really didn’t occur to me that there were potential roadblocks that could possibly prevent grissom and sara from ever getting together at all. from my limited vantage, i had no clue that there was a significant age difference between them—to me, they both just seemed like “grown-ups”—or that the fact that they worked together could actually forestall them from having a romantic relationship, to say nothing of the fact that grissom being sara's boss added an extra layer of complication to the whole affair.

the only other major tv drama i’d watched to this point was er, and on er, coworkers dated each other all of the time.

also, the flagship couple on er, hathaross, consisted of a silver fox somewhat older man and a dark-haired woman who was younger than him, so i was already primed to accept may-december couples.

it also didn't really occur to me that when they didn't end s1 getting together in the familiar way, their romance was “taking a long time” to be consummated.

on er, hathaross had taken three whole seasons to get together, so in my mind, slow burns were the norm for these kinds of things, i guess.

i also didn't really know enough about storytelling or tv tropes to understand that if grissom and sara’s relationship was meant to be a romance, then it wasn't following the usual beats.

i had no clue what to make of grissom's hot-and-cold behavior with sara—why sometimes he seemed so into her and sometimes he seemed so averse. it was completely lost on me when sara experienced mounting frustration with him.

by the time sara eventually ended up dating hank and tptb were teasing grissom possibly having a ~thing~ with heather in s2/s3, i just sort of went along with those developments, feeling neutral about them because, in all honesty, i didn't really get what the big deal was.

again, my only major point of comparison to csi at this point was er, which i'd been watching with my mom since i was seven, and on er characters tended to switch romantic partners and take part in midgame ships a lot.

by s4, when grissom and sara experienced their period of narrative estrangement, i likewise just sort of rolled with it, still seeing enough evidence of their couple-y nature in episodes like 04x07 “invisible evidence” and 04x12 “butterflied” to continue on in my assumptions that theirs was an inherently romantic dynamic, even if it still hadn't been officialized.

all of the above said, it wasn't really until s5 that things really started to “click into place” for me with gsr—in part because that's when their romantic storyline kicked into a higher gear and became more overtly visible again and in part because that's when i finally was old and aware enough to really get with the program on what they were.

by this point, i was eighteen years old and had seen more tv and was just generally more informed about storytelling, so i was better able to understand and interpret what i was watching.

i had, though my er watching, experienced my first major “the writers killed off my favorite character and sunk my favorite ship” heartbreak—not with hathaross but another er ship—so i was no longer just “along for the ride” with my general tv viewership; i had become somewhat more critical and discerning. i was more aware of the many “invisible hands” (i.e., the showrunners and writers and backstage politics) that shaped the narratives of shows than i had been in the past.

so i started picking up on threads—still not with any great degree of insight, but at least with a basic level of understanding that i hadn't really enjoyed before. i caught onto the flirtation, like i had originally (“i bet you were a pretty smart seventh grader,” “it's a good make-out spot, too, so i've heard”), but also the subtler longings, the lingering looks, and, of course, the fact that, come mid-season, sara confided her biggest secret in grissom, marking a significant act of trust for a character who was, by her nature, generally distrustful; and that he, in turn, had gone out of his way to defend her and secure her job, even at great professional risk to himself, marking a significant act of potential career sacrifice for a character who was, by his nature, otherwise married to his work.

and by s6, when i was in college and had the good fortune to live with a roommate who was also herself a huge csi/gsr fan, who indulged me by talking at length with me about the show and our favorite geeks and why it was taking them so damn long to get together, that's when i finally really got gsr, i think, and full-on fell in love with them as a concept.

—and, of course, to my delight, at the end of that season, they were revealed to be a couple.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[vvivacious101]

Regarding Cas and Dean

I’m falling down a rabbit hole so deep less than 33 hours before Season 15 premieres. I was thinking about Cas and Dean and then I was rewatching Season 1 and then I was reading this amazing meta about season 5 and then 7 and then I was fast-forwarding through season 7 and 8 to go through all the Dean and Cas scenes while then getting bombarded with truly delicious speculation regarding season 15. It’s too much I can’t bear it. It was so much that for a brief moment in time it was my absolute reality and the best feeling in the world. God, this single season a single moment in this entire season will define it in its entirety and I have no idea where the pendulum swings. Though in the deepest depths of my heart I’m a true believer, I still need to keep my head a little sceptical if I don’t want to go bat shit crazy. It’s even crazier to realise that by this time next year I will know everything there is to know about this story and I have no idea what my heart will be filled with then and it will be too much if it is regret. It’s making me crazy.

I wasn’t even thinking about the premiere till like the 5th when it suddenly became the only thing I could think about. I feel like I almost want the time to get here already when I get to watch it because once I do atleast that will be one thing less to worry about and we can finally get settled for the long haul when this feeling will probably return with full force in March. I know I said this before when they announced that this would be the last season and I felt bereft like there would be something missing from my life when this show got over even though at the time of that announcement season 14 wasn’t even over yet. That feeling is hitting me hard right now, it’s killing me.

Especially the question that is Destiel. I have been thinking a lot about these two because the resolution to this single relationship is going to define television history. We will finally know once and for all.

Supernatural loves Dean and Cas because it can’t seem to figure out a way to break the dynamic but it also loves yoyoing with these two and their feelings. It’s almost like for some reason every time Dean and Cas seem to be headed towards the same page somebody changes the book and they have to repeat the process all over again.

So, let’s go back to the beginning the very beginning.

Season 4

Dean and Cas meet for the first time at the end of Lazarus Rising that is episode 4x01 in what will go done as one of the most iconic scenes in television history. You might not remember the details but you can still remember the way that scene made you feel. It was gloriously intense and there is just so much happening in it. It was the scene that launched a thousand ships. On a deeper level, this scene is already laying down the foundation of Dean and Cas’ relationship. But for my purposes, we don’t need to go very deep. On the surface what this scene really is, is antagonistic. Dean tries to kill Cas from the moment he lies eyes on him then he proceeds to deride him and not believe him only for Cas to then hit a nerve. Dean is caught off guard and clearly has no faith in Cas because he spends the very next scene arguing against the existence of angels with Sam.

In 4x02 Dean and Cas again meet at the end of the episode. This scene is different in a way, Dean is so caught off guard that he is extremely raw and vulnerable and he is also being extremely true. This scene ends with Cas threatening Dean and taken together with the previous scene seems to depict a trend of rising antagonism between Dean and Cas. It becomes increasingly apparent that things can go one of two ways weather Dean yields or Dean breaks.

Then comes episode 4x03 “In the Beginning”. Dean and Cas share 5 scenes in this episode. With the first three scenes ending on the same note with Dean asking a question and Cas metaphorically hanging up the phone on Dean. The fifth scene of this episode ends with Cas threatening Dean were it hurts - Sam. These three scenes at the end of the first three episodes of season 4 showcase a trend with Cas being increasingly aggressive towards Dean. But 4x03 doesn’t have 4 Dean and Cas scenes it has 5. The fourth scene is just a few seconds long but it is the most significant moment in Dean and Cas’ history. This is the moment that changes the trajectory of their entire relationship. See for yourself.

The moment when Dean and Cas look into each others’ eyes is a moment that is truly indescribable because in these few second there is so much happening. Dean is vulnerable and he is looking for assurance and he gets that assurance and support from Cas who has the gentlest expression on his face. This scene is significant because following this Dean starts calling Castiel Cas and the next time Dean and Cas see each other Cas will be the one expressing doubts. When I said I saw this going two ways I didn’t anticipate the fact that Cas could be the one to yield.

This scene is significant, it is a turning point for Dean and Cas, for the season and for the entirety of Supernatural. 

But, you see Supernatural loves to muddy the waters so it follows this milestone of an event by a threat which has immediate repercussions. It takes your focus off but still when you see Dean and Cas in 4x07 you don’t question the fact that all of a sudden Cas is no longer aggressive towards Dean. There are two scenes between Cas and Dean this episode. The first one is special because in the first nine scenes Cas has on this show all nine also feature Dean and eight of them feature no one other than Dean. But, the first scene between Dean and Cas in 4x07 also has Sam and Uriel. In a scene in which Dean and Cas constantly forget there are other people around. At one point of time, Cas steps up to Dean and reminds him that his decision could result in Hell on Earth and Sam replies offscreen because the focus is still on Dean and Cas. Dean’s expression seems like he was caught off guard but Cas he doesn’t even move his gaze off Dean like during the entire time Sam is speaking up Dean atleast flicks a glance at him and Sam is behind Dean so it’s not like looking back is convenient but the guy it is convenient for doesn’t flick a glance. At another point in the same scene, Cas talks to Uriel without moving his gaze off of Dean’s face. And this is were association comes in by this point we have started associating Cas with Dean to the exclusion of all else there is already a bond forming between these two characters. And the next scene in this episode showcases just that, Cas has doubts, has questions and he reveals this secret to Dean. Cas is an angel for an angel displays of emotions are tantamount to treason and Cas is committing a crime but he already trusts Dean with his deepest darkest secret, a secret that will later in this very season result in torture for Castiel.

The next time we see Castiel we see SPN at work trying to dissociate Dean and Cas as they are now in direct conflict in a scene that starts at the end of 4x09 and continues into the beginning of 4x10. They try to do this by bringing in Anna who is an angel and also a love interest for Dean. As Anna comes into the picture all of a sudden Cas and Dean don’t seem to have much to share especially in the face of a canon love interest and this is were the show seems to contradict itself, because at a point when Dean and Cas’ relationship seems pretty insignificant we have Uriel tell Dean this.

Dean: Don’t normally see you off leash. Where’s your boss?

Uriel: Castiel... Oh! He’s... He’s not here. You see he has this weakness, he likes you.

Then in a later scene in the same episode, we have the awkwardest exchange in all of history. Anna kisses Dean in front of Sam, Cas and Uriel. This kiss is really weird especially because Cas doesn’t avert his gaze the entire time they are kissing. This kiss makes you uncomfortable. Anna and Dean feel wrong.

Now, this is where I am going to say this SPN does seesaw on Dean and Cas but it never consistently tries to rid itself of the dynamic thus invariably becoming the very reason it exists. So after a while, it seems pretty implausible that the creators have no idea what they are doing, even if Cas is seeing Anna kiss Dean why is the focus solely in Cas’ face there are two other people in the room. It doesn’t end here we have Cas at the mercy of Alastair and all of a sudden Dean who is in on the plan of letting Heaven and Hell fight it out suddenly risks his life to save Cas from Alastair. This is significant both ways Alastair is Dean’s tormentor and Cas is Dean’s saviour so he is literally choosing to save himself from all the torment he has faced. Secondly, Dean might be repaying his massive debt to Cas by saving him but the fact that in doing so he has to stand up to a demon who tortured him makes this rather off-focus scene significant. Thirdly, maybe at this point, we can safely say Dean likes Cas and is willing to save him even when their goals don’t align.

There is a little season featuring these two in a small scene in 4x15.

Dean: What the hell?

Cas: Guess again

Dean: It was you. If you wanted our help, why the hell didn't you just ask?

Cas: Because whatever I ask, you seem to do the exact opposite

Dean: These are good people. Don't you think you could make a few exceptions?

Cas: To everything there is a season

Dean: You made an exception for me

Cas: You're different

It is not significant from their relationship’s POV but I would like to point out 15 episodes into the season and there isn’t a single Cas seen that also doesn’t feature Dean and with the exception of just three scenes these scenes haven’t featured anyone except Dean.

4x16 is the first time Cas grows as a character and shares scenes with other characters for the very first time. This is also a Cas-centric episode. The episode starts with Uriel ordering Cas to torture Alastair for information but when they get to the location Dean wants to talk to Cas alone. This is the first time we see Dean express concern for Cas and Cas manages to convince Dean to torture Alastair something Dean does with a very heavy heart but something he also does because Cas and specifically Cas asks him to. The last scene of this episode is absolutely heart-breaking because I don’t think that Dean has ever been this vulnerable in front of any character before. Dean is a tough guy who believes the motto “fake it till you make it” and for the first time, that facade is stripped clean and revealed.

In 4x18 we have Dean pray for the first time and Cas sees it as a sign of faith personally it seems more like faith in Cas then in Heaven as a whole and this is exactly when you know things are different. Dean is more invested in Cas then in the entire concept of Heaven. Also, this episode is where we have Cas slyly helping Dean which is so amazing because it starts cementing Dean and Cas as a team.

So just when they establish Dean and Cas as a team guess what the next episode these two characters star in is about. Of course, it’s about breaking the dream team. This episode is significant because if Dean had just gotten to Cas on time a whole lot of pain could have been averted but of course, that’s not the story. Dean and Cas are back to their starting points and that’s exactly what I meant by Dean and Cas relationship just yoyo-ing all over the place. In season 4, it has always been two steps forward and four steps back. This is going to change in the season finale with Cas taking a stand that is going to cement this relationship but season 4 while amazing isn’t the perfect Destiel season. That’s coming. Also, given what we learn in season 8 it is apparent Castiel has undergone re-education.

In the very next episode, we again have Dean express concern about Cas’ wellbeing and we have Cas recruit Dean into Heaven’s service the very thing he was going to stop but we don’t know this at this time.

Season 4 starts something that is going to define Cas and Dean’s behaviour and that is the held gaze. Cas and Dean hold gazes for seconds on end and in 4x21 they break their own personal record.

4x22 is EPIC. It is. It is an amazing episode but let’s be honest I only care about Cas and Dean at this point. This episode has Dean convincing Cas to betray and disobey Heaven and he does it not two episodes after he was severely reprimanded for his emotions which apparently are doorways to doubt. Cas literally blasts the script and throws about the pieces. At this point, you can’t argue how much of an impact Dean has on Cas like convincing an angel to rebel. It’s not even about what he does but how he does it. Lots of eye contact in this one. There is this one particular moment when Cas has his gaze turned away from Dean something that I really think hasn’t happened till this point and Dean dips his head to catch Cas’ gaze and kind of makes him turn his head os that they are making eye contact again and it is such a subtle thing but it is so there. What does it even mean? I don’t think I have ever seen two characters behave this way then when Cas decides to do the deed he comes barging in and knocks Dean into a wall covers his mouth and just holds his gaze. I couldn’t get a single thing from Cas’ eyes but apparently, Dean learns an entire plan from looking into them. I mean I guess he has had a lot of practice. One more thing I would like to mention is that when Zach reminds Dean he swore obedience to Heaven and its angels and Dean looks towards Cas, at that moment it is pretty clear Dean wasn’t thinking when he made that oath because he literally made it to Cas and only to him when he sees his oath extrapolated to include Zach he isn’t happy in fact you can almost say he feels betrayed. Then in the last scene of this episode that they share together, we have Cas say that he is making it up as they go along and Dean looks at him with like so much awe. That was definitely something.

Season 4 is a lot of fun to revisit because well it is the season that gave birth to Destiel and it is fun because these two share a lot this season. It was the first time Dean is in so much conflict with Sam and he is actively kind of embracing whatever he and Cas share as a crutch to hold himself up. But this is still the baby stages, there is a lot of fun to come.

[swordsandrayguns]

Riker’s Beard And Family Time: Looking Back At Star Trek: TNG

I write science fiction and fantasy novels… so I am no stranger to things dubbed “nerdy.” The last few months, though, I have been doing something that pushes the boundaries of nerdy even for me. I’m watching all the Star Trek properties in the order of their release. Yup, an epic binge watch covering over five decades of television series, cartoons and motion pictures. Look, I can try to explain and rationalize this a couple ways. Truth is, I travel a great deal and have to fill the time I spent in airports and on planes (preferably with things I can download as oppose to stream). I am also, as an author, studying some of the great examples of “universe building” and epic story arcs. Still nerdy, though; I admit it.

Obviously, I started with the original series and jumped into the animated series. I timed this all so my viewing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture coincided with the the special 40th anniversary showings in theaters. I followed through the next couple of movies into The Next Generation, alternating in movies and even the original series pilot The Cage (which was originally made available to the public as a pay per view offering between the first and second seasons of The Next Generation) as they fell in the original release timeline. I am getting to the end of the fifth season of Next Generation now and very much looking forward to alternating between episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and even the occasional film in the near future.

Just in case you are wondering, I am pretty dedicated to sticking to the timeline but I am not strictly adhering to it. As I find myself, for example, in a hotel with channels such as BBC America or the Heroes and Icons channel I will only turn on episodes that have already showed up in my series overview… so no DS9, Voyager or Enterprise (yet) but the adventures of Kirk and company are fair game, as are Next Generation episodes up to season five. On the other hand, I am still watching Discovery’s Short Treks as they come out and I am definitely watching Picard as soon as I get a chance (meaning on my big screen at home instead of streaming it on my laptop over shaky hotel wifi). 

Even though I have not finished the complete rewatch, I find that I already have some new thoughts and ideas about I have seen so far starting with Riker’s beard.

Star Trek The Next Generation has generated a basketful of memes from “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” to “I am not a merry man” but undeniably the greatest is “Riker’s beard.” Just as the Internet has given us “jumping the shark,” the phrase to mark when a show is never quite as good again named for a really stupid moment when Fonzie was in Hawaii, it gave us “Riker’s beard” to mark the opposite. To this day, I know people that will immediately turn off an episode of The Next Generation if Jonathan Frakes turns up clean shaven (or if Wesley is in it, but that is a whole different story and, honestly, my harsh view of Wesley softened a bit with this re-watch). My first revelation from my Next Generation binge is that while season two, when the beard shows up, is better than season one, it is not when Next Generation really hits its stride.

First of all, let me defend season one of Star Trek The Next Generation. Twenty one years after the premiere of Star Trek, after three seasons of a pioneering science fiction drama, a year of the animated series and four feature films, Star Trek The Next Generation had to take up the incredibly difficult challenge of continuing one of the world’s beloved stories without a single character from the original series. Even more difficult, the real world had changed. Where the original Star Trek was making a statement by having a Russian, an Asian and an African woman on the bridge The Next Generation would not have made any statements with this type of casting. After all, when Picard met his crew and first face Q at Farpoint the biggest show on television focused on the an upper middle class African American family, something that was absolutely unthinkable when Kirk boldly set forth with his crew. 

The first season of Star Trek The Next Generation not only introduced Q, the Ferengi and Data’s not so lovable android brother Lore it killed a main character. Star Trek The Next Generation took a major step that not only the original series never tackled but most shows avoid. Sure, other shows tease it and even then it was usually on a season ending cliffhanger. Even the original series backed away from the only death of a major character they ever portrayed with an entire movie dedicated to reversing it. Star Trek The Next Generation killed Tasha Yar completely out of the blue with three episodes left in the first season. This incredibly bold move cast a shadow on the entire series, adding a real threat to future episodes. 

Is season one perfect? Oh, no. Not at all. Not even close, but like I already mentioned it had an amazingly difficult challenge facing it. The fans were expecting… well, everything. Next Generation was trying to stay true to the essence of Star Trek while making itself something new. They put families on the Enterprise to emphasize it was a vehicle of exploration, not a military ship. They made sure there was not a Vulcan to be found and put the odd man in a kilt wandering the hallways. They put a Klingon on the bridge! But then they had to deal with it all.

Season two was better. For one thing, the anticipation and the expectations were gone. The show made it through the first season and when it came back with its second season it was coming back as Star Trek The Next Generation not “the new Star Trek.” Ironically, due to a writers’ strike, season two actually started off with a script recycled from the ill-fated Star Trek: Phase II series. In addition to the first officer’s facial hair, the second season brought Whoopi Goldberg on board as the ship’s bartender and saw Diana Muldaur (in her third Star Trek universe role as Dr. Pulaski) taking over the sick bay from Dr. Crusher. Geordi La Forge also migrated from the bridge to take over engineering. It was always a bit odd, somehow, in season one to not have the chief engineer as a major character, if only because the chief engineer would seem to play as an important of a role in the operations of the ship as, say, the ship’s counselor or a teenager doing his after school work study program as an acting ensign.

While season two was an improvement, it had its issues. Dr. Pulaski, playing a role meant, no doubt, to help humanize Data, came across as abrasive and (in my opinion) mean spirited. Gates McFadden had been fired, apparently because the head writer did not like her, but Gene Roddenberry resisted killing her character so Dr. Beverly Crusher merely transferred off the ship. When the head writer left the popular character of Dr. Crusher returned in season three. Whoopi Goldberg, although an interesting character, was the ship’s civilian bartender which is just kind of weird. Did the ship have a food court, too? The season was also shortened, because of the aforementioned writers’ strike, and it actually ended with (of all things) a clip show. A clip show!

As a final defense of season two, it did introduce the Borg, one of greatest science fiction villain races of all times. But was it really that much better than season one? Well, season two saw five episodes get a total of six Emmy nominations and won two (both technical Emmy awards related to the sound department). Season one’s premiere was the first television episode to be nominated for a Hugo Award in 15 years. Another season one episode was the first syndicated television episode to win a Peabody Award and six episodes gathered a total of seven Emmy nominations, winning three (for makeup, costume design and sound editing). If you place your faith in the numbers, it seems season one might have actually been better (at least if you go by its awards).

So by now, if I may be so bold as to make a prediction, you are probably thinking “This guy has put way too much thought into Star Trek The Next Generation” and “Okay, so if season two is not when The Next Generation gets great, when is it?” First, I said as an author I am studying Star Trek so cut me some slack. Second, I am glad you asked.

Star Trek The Next Generation, in my opinion, really hit its stride is the fourth season. Season four swept onto screens with the second part of season finale cliffhanger The Best Of Both Worlds. The Federation was facing the awesome might of the Borg and the crew of the Enterprise was desperately trying to save Picard, who had been taken and turned into Borg mouthpiece Locutus, so the season started with big action and drama. This quickly led to a series of episodes focusing on character relationships, particularly family relationships. 

After he is rescued, Picard is left a broken man and returns to his family’s vineyard in France. Although there had been several stories about Picard’s history, this was the first to address his family and his entry into Star Fleet. Data’s Day not only explored how the android navigated through his duties and relationships, it introduced Chief O’Brien’s new wife Keiko. The O’Briens are the focus in the very next episode, showing not only the natural difficulties they were having adjusting to their new life as a married couple but also O’Brien’s past Star Fleet career and the psychological wounds left by his service in the war with Cardassia. To me, Riker’s beard does not signify when Star Trek The Next Generation really gets good, it is when Keiko O’Brien appears.

Family was a major theme of the fourth season, as Worf discovered he was a father and worked to regain his family’s honor in the eyes of fellow Klingons. Luxanna Troi re-appeared as did the ghost of Tasha Yar when the crew encountered her sister. Data’s brother also made another appearance, as did Data’s creator. Data also grew a great deal, even being shown to try out a romantic relationship with another crew member. The true strength of Star Trek The Next Generation, as of season four, was that it was well established enough as a series to feature stories based on human relationships instead of action or the “alien of the week.”

It should also be noted that season four also brought more episodes which were a part of longer storylines, such as Worf’s dishonor and the political intrigues of the Klingon Empire. There were also many returning minor characters and new characters being set up for multiple appearances. It is only after three seasons Star Trek The Next Generation finally had established enough of its own universe for this to happen. Also, though, by season four plans were in motion for a second live action Star Trek series, one to run concurrently with Next Generation. It could have been that the introduction of multi-episode storylines were a result of the producers consciously attempting to expand the Star Trek universe while starting to differentiate Next Generation from the upcoming Deep Space Nine.

Ironically, season four also marks Star Trek The Next Generation outlasting its predecessor in terms of seasons on the air. While this did not actually influence the formation of my opinion season four is when Next Generation really gets good, it does really make me wonder what Star Trek may have become if it had a season four.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey Lovely! I was wondering how you first became a part of the fandom? When did you start watching the show, at what point did you feel John and Sherlock might be(come) a thing, what made you start a blog on these two? I just want to know it all ^^ Hope you don't mind sharing a bit :) Thank you for everything you do for this fandom, love you lots!

Hi Lovely!

Oh gosh, what a nice question! I think I’ve talked about this in snippets in various posts, this post being the one talking the most about it, but never as a whole! Apologies if this turns into a long ramble, hah hah!

So I remember exactly when I got into the show SO CLEARLY. It was July of 2013, just a few months before S3 was to air in January 2014. I was over at my friends’ place, and they suggested the show to watch, since we always watch movies together whenever I visit. I remember asking, “Is that the show with Martin Freeman and that Khan actor from Star Trek 2?”. We finished Season one all in one go, and immediately fell in love with Ben and Martin’s portrayals and their chemistry. And then I had to head back home. I was ANGRY because OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT and my friends just laughed.

So as soon as I got home, I downloaded S1 and S2 and watched them ALL the way through. I needed more. So, because I already had a Tumblr and knew it was for fandoms, I decided to see what it had to offer. 

Oh boy what did I get into???

So I lurked for a bit, and then I discovered something called “meta”, back when the TRF theories were the prominent meta in the fandom. So while I was getting deep into meta, I started switching my fanart from Ninja Turtles to Sherlock, because I was warming up to Ben’s ethereal face and I wanted to draw it. And I wanted to be a Sherlock fanartist. I briefly shipped Sher1011ie for a week or so, until I rewatched the series again and it just didn’t jive like it did the first few watch-throughs. I was too invested in John and Sherlock’s friendship – I saw them as bestest friends ever, too devoted to each other.

Now, at this point, y’all need to remember this: I was naïve, have never been exposed at length nor ever heard of subtext, was and am not part of the LGBT community (I grew up in a different time and in a conservative city, so being “gay” just wasn’t a thing), had a very heteronormative view on my life, and I just had always just insisted that in all of my fandoms, when I liked two male characters together, it was because “bestest friends ever!!”. I didn’t know I was ace and I’d never read smut up until 3 years ago (yes hi hello I’m so old and so innocent LOL).

Okay, so I was just lurking for a bit, learning my way around fandom, reading meta and just generally dipping my toes quietly into the fandom.

Then came Season 3. 

As many of my followers know, a lot of my fondness for season 3 stems from this being the season that LITERALLY opened my eyes to EVERYTHING: subtext, Johnlock, my own sexuality, and my meta-writing career. 

So, season 3 aired and I decided to dip my toes into “reviewing” the episodes as my first “meta”. They were posted onto my multi-fandom blog here, here and here. I was so proud of them, because it reinvigorated my love for writing (I used to be a pretty prominent Sonic fan-fic author back in the 90′s… I never finished my stories because my interest in the fandom died before I finished them), despite how laughably bad they were, haha. I got a couple compliments on them, but nothing beyond that, especially since I sat down and wrote them for HOURS after each episode aired.

Sometime between TSo3 and HLV, I discovered loudest-subtext-in-television (aka LSiT) and deducingbbcsherlock completely by accident and I was FASCINATED. I ate up everything they wrote. The first time I watched TSo3, something was niggling at my brain but I couldn’t quite place it. It was one of LSiT’s meta that twigged at it. That’s when I learned about subtext, heteronormativity and the queer community. And suddenly, just like that, something in my brain clicked.

Oh. My god. This show is gay, and I actually SHIP these idiots like I did in the Mother Ship (ie. The X-Files Mulder / Scully). That’s why I was SO ANNOYED with Irene. Why Molly was slowly grating on me. Why Mary’s introduction kind of annoyed me but okay I guess I can deal with it. Why everything seemed really romantic but it just couldn’t be, could it? 

I rewatched the series. And it was gay. Y’all, those rainbow-coloured glasses were suddenly GLUED to my head, and I saw gay EVERYWHERE.

So, after HLV, I discovered The Johnlock Conspiracy and I was eating up all the meta about Johnlock I could. Around this time, I also was learning a lot about the LGBT community, its history and sexual fluidity from wsswatson. It was also around this time I discovered asexuality, and I started reading a lot about it. 

In February of 2014, I started this blog because I wanted a place to reblog Johnlock meta. This was the first post I made on this blog, and looking back at it now, I am DYING because wow I never imagined I was going to be this deep into the fandom the day I wrote that. I don’t even remember writing it, to be very honest. I just shake my head, HAH. I think I really started understanding Johnlock because of this post here. It’s still one of my favourites and is one of the ones I credit for helping me understand what I was watching was actually a romance, not a “crime show”. 

Anyway, after learning how to read subtext from mostly LSiT (they wrote a meta about how to read subtext and it was super informative) and other Johnlock bloggers, I wanted to try my hand at my own little Johnlock meta. It was more of an observational post, as my way of trying to interact with the fandom. I am a terribly nervous and shy person, so I never tagged anyone in anything. It was an overwhelming fandom, and it was terrifying to interact. A few bigger bloggers noticed me and were nice enough to comment on a couple of my posts, but I mostly stayed in my little corner, and interacted with my small little group of other smaller fans. I dabbled in both fanart and writing, just plopping my thoughts and art into the aether, hoping something would interest someone enough to start a discussion. 

I started getting braver, and I was “moderating” some of my favourite posts that weren’t mine, but had my additions to it. Mostly, the Phones and Hearts post. I didn’t want to impede, but it was one of my favourite posts, so I went and copied all of the comments in the notes and put them onto one post. I don’t honestly remember HOW I ended up moderating it, but I just did because I was FASCINATED with symbolism, and I was excited because I could finally read subtext and understand it. I still had a small following, and a few people I regularly interacted with on my blog.

So, during the hiatus between S3 and TAB, somewhere along the way I suddenly had a sexuality crisis, when I suddenly realized I wasn’t broken and there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, and damn it, there’s such thing as split attraction model and asexuality?? Mind was BLOWN. I was also slowly becoming obsessed with Mary’s character, and at the time I couldn’t understand why (inevitably, it was because of events happening in my own life and me trying to understand them), but I really enjoyed just psychoanalyzing her. It’s something I’ve ALWAYS loved doing – character studies; I’ve done it in EVERY fandom I’ve been in – and I was doing it for her, Sherlock and John’s characters. 

So yeah, nothing much really happened to me during the S3 hiatus, except my entire world view flipped on its head and I was completely Johnlocked beyond repair. I became known for some painful posts and some lovely revelations and writing a lot of character study posts on both John and Sherlock. I’m very proud of some of my earlier meta, just sad they never really got seen (some of my earliest meta can be seen on my Ao3).

Then came the announcement for TAB in 2015, and the start of my “Tumblr Career”. I put a lot of my energy into my fandom life. I was OBSESSED with TAB, and became known for it. I put my moderation skills to use and created the TAB Starter Pack, which started gaining me some followers because OMG some loser is taking the time out of their day to compile all the news about this new series! AWESOME. I remember, it was around this time I was excited because I got to 1895 followers and it was one of those milestones all Johnlockers like having, hahah. 

In October of 2015, I lost my job and was unemployed. Conveniently, this is also the time when the promo season for TAB started, because we now had a name and airdate. I devoted a LOT of my time, when I wasn’t job hunting, to working on this blog. I was just writing a lot, and obsessing about the upcoming episode.

Then the trailer aired.

And immediately after that trailer dropped on October 24, 2015, I made this post here, which, some would probably say, was the beginning of everything for me. As I was writing that post, with a cracking headache, something clicked in my head, and several hours later, I had written and posted the original Mind Palace Theories of TAB at 2AM-ish, and went to bed.

When I woke up, my post had suddenly gone viral and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it just kept expanding from there, and I made sure to include everything I could onto it, because WOW something I wrote was gaining traction, and interaction, and I just wanted us all to have a good time with it. And as the time for TAB drew closer, suddenly I was gaining followers, and more people interested in what I had to write. I welcomed everyone to continue to predict the outcome with me.

January 1st. Was a complete and total mind fuck. I was liveblogging the episode, and inadvertently created another viral post with my Mycroft’s Death post because FUCK ARE THEY KILLING MYCROFT OFF?? kind of freaked people out (sorry loves!), which gained me some more followers, and at the time, my top post was my December 31st reblog of my Mind Palace Theories post, so anyone who came to my blog, it would have been on the first page of it.

After the episode aired, suddenly, EVERYONE had questions for me, about EVERYTHING, but mostly to scream at me that I was a mind reader, LOL. No, I’m not, I was just a sad, unemployed twat with too much time on my hands and was avoiding job hunting. But good god, all DAY on Jan 1, I was replying to asks, gaining followers like crazy, and pretty much just stating my opinion on anything that someone wanted to know. 

I became known as the unofficial TAB blog, and the one to come to with questions about my interpretation of the episode. I was SO obsessed with TAB, studied every nuance and narrative structure I could. 2016 was “my heyday”, and it was fun. I found my niche, and meta-writing is what I became known for. And until I got a job in April of that year, I was a pretty solid presence in the fandom, if I understand some of what I’ve been told correctly. I still ran my blog as full-time as I could having a full-time job, and still do in some ways, but yeah, 2016 is when I produced a LOT of meta, mostly Mary meta because, as I said above, I was and am obsessed with her character arc. I was learning about myself a lot more by writing meta, and my “original” meta turned into “asks” meta, which was fine by me, because I do like a good prompt to get me going.

Somewhere in there I also somehow became the blog new bloggers came to, which I didn’t and don’t mind at all, because being new in a fandom is scary and I wanted to be a friendly face because I like meeting new people. 

Then we got an announcement for S4, and like TAB I also kept track of anything and everything S4-related, so once again I was sort of the “go-to” place for everything S4 because I compiled all the stuff from setlock bloggers and listed them all for easy-access. I kept track of everything promotional, and I reblogged some of my favourite pre-S4 meta here.

Essentially, I LOVE organizing things, and people liked that I LOVED doing it, so that’s sort of how I kept my following when I wasn’t posting as much new meta. I did make a few original meta before S4, and I made a 68 day video countdown to the series which is cringy AF and I’m not linking it (lol you can find it if you look hard enough). 

We all know what happened in S4. I took a bit of heat after S4 aired, because I got people’s hopes up. I was discouraged for a bit, but then I started receiving asks that weren’t really asks, but “I need advice” and “I need support”. 

And I started answering life questions, and realized people LIKED my responses, liked my little personal anecdotes in each of my replies, and felt comforted by it. So, after S4 aired, I became an eclectic mix of life advice, meta, fics, music and TJLC / tinhatting blog. I have a “no judgement” approach to my blogging, and I think that’s why I’m still gaining a steady dozen or so followers every couple weeks, rather than losing. The only time I took a big hit was the Tumblr Feedpocalypse, where they fucked up the algorithm and I’m not getting nearly as many hits on my posts as I used to, but that could also be because we lost so many people to S4, especially after Jan 1, 2018 when people were hoping for another episode.

I personally don’t think I’m popular, but I suppose I am by Tumblr standards. I dunno, I think we all have that “starry eyed” view of popular bloggers, and I just can’t picture myself as someone anyone would fawn over. I’m just me, and you can take it or leave it.

I think where I’m at now and what I’m known for is a good place to be, to be honest, despite how S4 turned out. I’m not certain, but I FEEL like I have a positive reputation here, but don’t quote me. I know I have people in this fandom who hate me, and quite frankly it saddens me that they feel they need to expel energy on me that way when they deserve to just be happy and forget about me. 

ANYWAY, sorry that got long and rambly, but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for awhile, but I was waiting for the prompt to come because *shrugs* I dunno, self esteem thing, makes me think no one REALLY cares until someone actually asks, hah.

And if you made it all the way to the end here, Love ya Nonny, and thank you for asking and thank you for being a follower of my blog

[a-baleful-howl]

This is Not a Love Story: part 2

Check out or refresh with Part 1 here.

To tell a good love story on screen, scenes, dialogue, camera angles and shots are important. Usually you have lots of quiet "get to know you" moments. Or single shots showing one of the love interests reactions. You need to give obvious and believable reasons for them to be falling in love. Television caters to the lowest common denominator for exposition. Usually its the big plot twists and mastermind moments that are subtle little easter egg hints.

When you compare the scenes between Jon and Sansa in S6, to the Jon and Dany scenes in S7, there is a big contrast. And the audience picked up on it, and thats why we now have a lot of Jonsa shippers after S6. People speak in body language, and movie language helps audiences to pick up on that. If you surprise your audience with a romance that wasn't well built up, you're audience will be colder to the idea and it will not feel believable. Or, the love story will not be the main focus, instead perhaps the conflict and the repercussions of it will be. It would not be a love story.

I am not sold on really anything right now. Ive said it before and I'll say it again. Im not sold on undercover!Jon. I'm not sold on horny!Jon. I'm not sold on Jon being in or out of love right now, either. It could go so many ways. But, after months of doing research on how to write romance for my own books and stories, I know when I see a well written romance vs a bad one. And I sure hope this badly written romance isnt the victim of a rushed season or cocky writers.

I definitely got the feeling from S6 that Kit was given direction that he was slowly falling in love with his "sister" and super conflicted about it. I know Kit can do it. I know he can - so why are we not seeing it here? He could be fighting against the idea of a relationship because he has bigger things to worry about (See: Night King) but what would he be falling in love with?? Right now, the only conceivable answer would be "her looks" - which is just....infuriating. Enraging. Just... jaw droppingly maddening.

Looks can be a starting point - yes. But once Jon sees more and more of who Dany really is, theres just no way he would fall in love. They have totally separate goals. Old, pre-crow Jon would have looked at Dany and just laughed.

So have the scenes theyve shared so far shown us how they would possibly fall in love? Let's see.

Directly after the power-struggle cave scene, we have Jon and Dany exit the cave onto the beach where Dany gets some bad news.

She flips out. Jon and Davos stand awkwardly by while mommy Dany and daddy Tyrion fight at the dinner table. When Dany turns around to bite Tyrions head off, Jon steps several steps back. She is frightening everyone else on that beach. This is a display of Dany's temperamental behavior. She is angry and turning against someone who was supposed to be her most trusted advisor. Her loyalty and diplomacy is hanging by a thread. She is not as calm and level headed as everyone would want you to believe. She will turn against anyone, at anytime.

She accuses Tyrion of being too attached to his family. Who else thinks family is super important? Jon, of course. He sees Dany basically say "fuck family" and threaten Tyrion, her hand, for putting family over her. Apparently, the only one allowed to be sentimental towards family is her?

She is worked up in such a rage over starting to lose her war that she immediately goes into the "dark place". Fire and blood. Tyrion tries to calm her down but she bites his head off more.

Emilia says in the BTS, "Every time that things go wrong, more Targaryen comes out. More fire comes out."

She's being rude to Tyrion, embarrassing him in front of others, disrespecting his advice. We have seen this in the past - Dany DOES NOT like being told what to do. More often than not she completely disregards her advisors advice, does what she wants to anyway, and it comes back to bite her in the end. Every season highlights a direct piece of advice she ignores and how it fails horribly. Why hasnt she learned her lesson by now? Because she never admits when she fucks up and learn from her mistakes.

Then she turns her attention to Jon when Tyrion doesn't tell her what she wants to hear.

Dany has shown Jon little, if any, respect since he arrived. Being cold, distant, imprisoning him, not calling him by his appointed title, only offering to help if she gets something in return, etc. So why does she ask him for his advice? Its surprising and makes little sense. And Jon does not want to get in the middle of this. This isn't his war, thats not why he came, and he just saw how she treats her advisors. But she's insistent. She wants advice from someone different.

Back to the dragons. He uses them to take a stab in the dark about how/why she has so many followers. He makes that great speech that boils down to "don't be more of the same. Be different." He's also taking a little bit of his own story here. He came back from the dead, did something impossible, and is trying to be a different ruler for his Kingdom than what they've seen before.

What's odd is that Jon visually calms her. She doesnt bite his head off for saying pretty much the same thing as Tyrion. She's a little more receptive to his advice. She already likes him more than Tyrion. Her eyes soften, she doesnt yell.

But as we see later, she didn't really take the advice to heart. Yes, she didnt storm Kings Landing with her dragons and kill thousands of innocent people - but she does go off immediately to kills soldiers, burns loot and frightens people into bowing to her. Thats not what Jon said to do, either.

So we see Dany softening to Jon. He made it about her dragons - and *whew boy* is that a way to get to her heart. He praised her to be this savior she wants to be. So, this is another hint that Dany is coming to like him and respect him. But where are the signs for Jon feeling the same?

He is frightened of her when she has her tantrum. He only answers when she insists. He wants no part of this. He sees her basically say "fuck family", turn on her most trusted advisor, flirt with a dark place and do what she wants anyway. Not attractive qualities for Jon. They are still opposites. She is still preoccupied with her quest for power.

She flies off, and then we see Jon and Davos walking around on Dragonstone, probably relaxed because Her Grace is gone for the moment.

Davos makes a comment about how Jon has been staring at her "good heart."

1. What have we seen yet, that would make Jon think she has a "good heart"? Shes been cold, uncooperative, prone to anger and entitled.

2. When have we ever seen Jon look at her boobs? In the cave, he keeps his eye line at her face/eyes. On the beach they were too busy backing away from her yelling to even look at her chest. In the throne room, any attraction he might have felt when first seeing her was eclipsed by her personality and attitude.

3. This is weird exposition to try and force the audience into thinking Jon is attracted to her. You should not have to spell out a romantic attraction. Looks and camera angles and dialogue should do it for you. We're watching film, not listening to a radio show.

Maybe this was a way of the writers spelling out why Jon is avoiding an attraction? "Theres no time for that". He is single-minded with the fight against the Night King. He's not open to the idea of romance.

Then, Jon reenforces this idea that he doesn't trust Dany at all. He is hesitant to believe she respects her subordinates because that is the opposite of everything he's seen so far. He's a King and she has imprisoned him against his will.

But Missandei's response gives him a little bit of insight into why people love and follow Dany. He had not seen it himself before Missandei spelled it out for him. He's been imprisoned, he's seen her be cold when he asked if she believed him, and he's seen her turn against Tyrion. He doesnt necessarily believe it, but he listens to Missandei.

This is why his speech on the beach made no sense to me. Why have him give that speech before he talks to Missandei or another one of her followers? Where did he get that speech from? Its almost an identical speech to Missandeis. And if he believed that, and came to that conclusion before talking to Missandei, then why is he doubtful of Dany's "good heart" in letting Missandei leave or Dany giving hope to her followers?

It would have made more sense to have him talk to a follower first, before his speech on the beach about Dany making "impossible things happen." Unless he came to that conclusion on his own - but then why ask Missandei? Why look so reluctant to open up to her? It makes no sense.

Immediately following is the Theon scene. Honestly, the more I rewatch this scene, the more I realized I love it more than the LF crypt scene. Oh god, the nuances. Jon's quivering rage voice. His dead eyes, which are more expressive than we get to see lately. Holy crap I love this scene.

But this, I guess, is also important to show Jon what kind of rag-tag gang Dany has as her allies now. Theon was such a little shit - growing up and when he betrayed Robb. It speaks to the type of person Dany is that she has this guy on her side.

Kit says in BTS "I think he's willing to forgive anyone if they are willing to help fight against the Night King."

But Jon explicitly says he is only sparing Theons life because of what he did for Sansa. Theon helped her escape. He sacrificed himself to save her - to take her away from that awful place. I'm sure Sansa and Jon have had many conversations since her escape about what Theon did. And not only did Theon tell Sansa that he didnt kill Bran and Rickon - that he murdered two innocent farmer boys, instead - but they got the proof in Rickon on the battlefield and Sam seeing Bran beyond the wall.

But Theon still did horrible things. He's still a slimey person in Jon's eyes. And here he is, on Dragonstone, fighting for Dany. What does that say to the company she keeps? That shes allied with morally questionable people? Or that she's a forgiving person, with a weakness for "cripples, bastards and broken things"? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Theon asks where she is, and Jon does not look happy or okay with the answer.

So far, we're in episode 4 of 7 and there is no reason for Jon to be attracted to Dany. He has seen bad sides of her. He has given her a few chances to show any good side, and she doesn't.

Dany is intrigued by him. He's kind and different. She asks for his opinion. His advice seems to calm her. He's played to her good side. So we can see her starting to soften.

But Jon is not really intrigued by her. He wanted to go home. He's been held against his will. She is stuck on this quest for power. She is hot-headed, selfish, and short sighted. He has seen very little redeeming qualities to warm up to her. He just wants his dragonglass and to GTFO. So far, she has only agreed to help IF he bends the knee. She wont help simply to save people. She wont help because of her "good heart". She wants his power and his kingdom in return. Not what he was hoping.

So then we have Dany coming back to Dragonstone after scaring people into bending the knee. The Tarlys dont, so she burns them to a crisp. She aint playing around.

Jon is just standing out on a cliff, in his cloak, probably brooding some more? Waiting for her? Welcoming party? Why is he out there?

And then we have a moment between him and her dragon. This is a moment ONLY between him and her dragon. Dany is just a spectator here.

He is frightened of the dragon, but YOLOs and faces his fear. He is literally facing his fear. Testing his own courage. Proving his own strength to himself. This moment has nothing to do with Dany, but everything to do with him.

He is awestruck. Dragons were a thing of legend. And now he is connecting with one. His adrenaline must be off the charts. Its a magical moment.

Now Dany is very attached to her dragons. She believes she is the only one with a connection to them. Most people would scream or run away. Her dragons have reacted violently to those who have ever threatened her or wished her harm in the past. They are one with her. And here is Drogon, a dragon which is aggressive and unpredictable, acting so gentle and different towards Jon. And shes just an outsider to this moment.

Another check mark that would make Jon attractive to her. Her dragons didn't scare him. Her dragon liked him. And Jon seems to like the dragon. Thats different. Thats new. Thats on the same level as her. He's surprised her yet again.

Now, Jon looks up at her as if "this is yours? This magnificent beast is yours?" But as soon as she comes down, he's all business again.

His moment with her dragon warmed her up to him a little. She wants to talk about her babies with someone else who probably has the same unhealthy admiration for them like she does. But he's not quite on the same page. Now, what word was Jon thinking instead of "beautiful"? Frightening? Terrifying? This sets off another one of Dany's "fire and blood" looks which scares Jon back into submission. She's a firecracker just waiting for a match. Dont want to get on her bad side. She's mama dragon - and hes seen that quite a lot.

Now, here is The Look(TM). Arguably the only time Jon seems to really look at her without thinking. In the scripts, the stage direction is "He watches her watching her dragons and wishes that he could keep looking at her and forget about the world events weighing on his shoulders." And dear god, was the impact lost.

In contrast, look at how Jon gets lost staring at Sansa in S6.

honestly, this scene is just ripe with Jon looks.

Focus shifts, single shots, close ups, and lingering on him lost in thought with no context. If you want to point out a look or reaction - THIS is how you do it. There are focus shifts, to highlight Jon's face. To bring attention to it. You can't miss it.

Him watching Dany in 7.05 is actually so subtle you might miss it. Its not the focus. We arent supposed to be honed in on his reaction. If it was oh-so-important, there would have been a single close-up, or a camera shift for us to see that he was distracted watching Dany.

Also, this is related to her dragons. Her relationship with those dragons is important to Jon. Jon only seems to show thought and softness when her dragons are involved. And it is over before you know it.

Back to business. He brings up what she left to do. And it's not good.

He's conflicted. She did the opposite of what he hoped she would do. He can understand why, but it's disappointing. Not a turn on. Not an attractive quality. Not something that is winning him over. Another chance she had to show him she was good, and she chose not to.

She has dragons. And shes not afraid to use them.

Then we move on to the talk and walk. He is still acting reserved. Shes in charge of the "get to know you" talk again. Shes standing closer. She's warmed up. She's talking much more like an equal and not like a cold ice-queen.

And she grabs his arm. But there’s no close up. ;)

Then she tries to get more acquainted by asking a more intimate question, in a more intimate way. Why is she so stuck on this knife in the heart line? And why is he still so insistent on not telling the truth? He still doesn't trust her. He is still on the fence about her. He lies to her face. And she just wont let it go.

This is not level playing ground. This is not "getting to know each other". Dany is trying but Jon is resisting her getting to know him any better. Why?

It looks like its about to get uncomfortable - that he is upset by lying and she might press the issue. But thankfully Jon is saved by Jorah. Dany looks so happy she might cry. Jon is confused by her sudden change in attitude. Who is this guy shes much more agreeable towards? Thats not the Dany hes seen in his time there.

Then she introduces him. Jon knows who he is.

Now, some say Jon looks "jealous". Um - why? Why would he be jealous? He trying to avoid a connection between them, as evidenced by his lie right before. He's simply clicking the pieces in his head - figuring out her relationships.

He sees her embrace and welcome this man who he was raised to think as a traitor, a bad man. Someone who his father had sentenced to death for doing unspeakable things. A coward who ran from his sentence. And here Jorah is, acting noble and completely loyal to this girl who has been cold to him and her other advisors the entire time he's been there. He sees more of her misfit rag-team, first Theon and now Jorah, and how she treats those who are loyal to her.

He's only clicking the pieces and starting to figure her out. His "good heart" line would have fit better after this scene, too. It made no sense where it was before.

This is the first time we see any hint that Jon might be able to warm up to her. The way she cares for her dragons. The company she keeps. How warm she really was to Jorah. But thats overshadowed by her action towards her enemies. Her look when he almost dare speak ill of her children. The fact that he still wants to keep his own secrets from her, whatever his reasons may be.

Its now episode 5 of 7 - and just now his side starts to come into play in this "supposed epic love story", and it's shaky at best. He is still wary of her.

Jon is staying very mysterious. Honestly, ever since he showed up in Dragonstone we are not shown much of his POV. We see a lot of Dany's POV - her talking with her people a lot. Her talking in her war room with Tyrion. We don't see a lot of Jon talking with his people, or talking about his wants and plans. He is staying a big mystery. Davos and him talk a little about how "theres no time for that." Jon and Theon have a Sansa moment. Gendry and Jon have a bonding moment. But do we ever see him talk about his plan for bringing Dany to his side? We really only see his actions through Dany's eyes or someone else's.

These non-focused looks are very mysterious. Why does he get lost staring at Dany? Why does he keep lying about dying? Theres no exposition. Which is really odd, because Dany has quite a bit of it.

This romance is shaky, forced, rushed and confusing at best. I mean, it helps explain the backlash and the disappointed fans. How viewers are confused by this outcome. Why everyone is desperate to think there is something else going on besides "true love".

I think everyone can agree that this relationship is doomed in one way or another. But the big question right now is - does Jon actually love/have feelings for her? What evidence is there for that? What has been shown on screen to support a mutual romance? Not much, so far.

I'll do the rest later. Tumblrs mobile update might ruin my current work (it only lets me tag one hashtag at a time because I have to use the mobile browser- blah) - but I'll get onto it! These take a lot more work than I'd expected, and coding from a smart phone is a bitch. Part 3 and (maybe?) Part 4 coming soon.

xoxo

edit: and it keeps fucking up on me. T.T I hate formatting on Tumblr so much...

[stilljumpingback]

(via Black Sails Episode 407 - XXXV)

For an episode all about grief, it is a refreshingly light episode after six hours of dark material.

The scene between Silver and the Queen is so lovely.  They are both grieving Madi, and her mother knows she can trust this boy who claimed to love her because he describes her as, “curious and strong, not made to be hidden away from the world.”

Flint is so tender with Silver!  “How is she?”  “Breathing.”  “How are you?”  It is continually astounding to realize that the rage that drove Flint through the first two seasons and especially the third has vanished.  He has a purpose now, has allies, and this has freed him to care for and trust the people around him.

When Julian balks at the idea of their Caribbean revolution expanding to include all of the New World, Silver is the one to go Bad Cop.  This is the exact opposite of the Quartermaster we used to know who could make Flint’s crazy plans palatable to the crew by selling it with a smile.

Part of me is annoyed that the only female pirate is the one who can’t seem to recover from her wounds, but it also gives us Jack the Nursemaid, so I can’t be mad for long.

Anne is pissed that Max wouldn’t apologize, but also admires her for not pretending.

“You have plenty of time to murder her another day, but right now you need to rest.”

Woodes Rogers is interrupted in blaming Mrs. Hudson for Eleanor’s decision by realizing that Eleanor was pregnant.  I would be sad for him, but he remains an asshole.

Jack mimicking Max’s French accent is A+ delightful.

Featherstone claims that Max hasn’t crossed anyone who didn’t cross her first.  Is this true?  Did Jack and Anne cross her?  Can someone rewatch the whole series real quick and validate this statement?

The Queen:  I once thought like you.  That because I had reason to mistrust the pirates, that it necessarily followed that I must mistrust them.  But it is not so.  For there is also reason to see common interest with them.  I have fought alongside these men. Julian:  I have fought alongside these men, but I did it so that I might find security.  What they are now arguing for does not sound like security to me.  There is no lasting security to be had here. Q:  We’ll fight to change that. J:  Nothing is lasting.  But months, years, that is meaningful, and it can be had here.  … Q:  No one has ever been this close, this near a chance to change the world. J:  No one changes the world.  Not like this.  Not all at once.

I love this conversation between the Queen and Julian!  They both make good points, but I have always been, and still remain, Team Long Term Planning.  And the Queen is sounding quite a bit like Flint at the end there, huh?

Silver is emotionally where Flint was last season, and it’s beautiful to see their roles reversed.  Flint is such a good partner to Silver, laying out their past and their present, warning him that his emotions will cloud his judgment (is he remembering a certain storm?) but that Flint will be there beside him, guiding him.  And when Silver regrets his harsh words to Julian, Flint calmly reassures him that it’s alright.  There’s obviously going to be a significant turn in their relationship by episode’s end, but this moment is really beautiful.

Flint says multiple times, “Trust me.”  Is it crazy that I do?  He’s ambitious, determined, and unafraid to change allies at the drop of a hat.  And yet, if you believe in the same thing that he does, he is hard to resist trusting.

Jack enjoys the notoriety of being identified as a pirate in Philadelphia by a wide-eyed teenager, especially when his name is listed right after Edward Teach.  But his mood quickly sours when he realizes the world wants to sensationalize their stories rather than seeing them as human beings.

“Charles Vane was my closest friend in the world.  He was the bravest man I ever knew.  Not without fear, just unwilling to let it diminish him.  And loyal to a fault.  And in a world where honesty is so regularly and casually disregarded–” “I heard he cut off a man’s head and left it as a marker in the sand to anyone who would cross him.” “It was a little more complicated than that.” “I heard he sometimes butchered his enemies for amusement, made stew of their flesh.  He was truly an animal.” “Stew?  For what possible–I beg your pardon, but do you believe this?” “I read it in a newspaper.” “Charles Vane was a good man.  What I told you was the truth.  Put down the newspapers and read a book.”

This is the whole points of Black Sails, adding layers of depth to the hype of a Pirate Show.

Grandpa Guthrie is dismissive of Jack’s plan, BUT GRANDMA GUTHRIE.  She and Jack immediately bond because they both know what it’s like to be underestimated and to use that to their advantages.

Eleanor fought to create space for her family, but Woodes Rogers destroyed it because he didn’t trust her.  Even if it feels a little out of place for this show, I’m glad Eleanor’s corpse is supernaturally judging him and crying because of him.  It is Very Effective, and he deserves it.

Billy is alive and a defector.  It made me think of Baby Billy who was tortured by the British and swore to fight against them as a result.  I suppose it must be very painful that his own allies wound up doing the very same thing to him.

Jack bought a fancy new coat while in Philadelphia.

Although Jack shows a lot of respect for Max by bringing her to meet Grandma Guthrie, GG demands more when interrupting his introduction with, “Does she speak?”  I cannot believe that this television show about pirates thought, “You know what we should do now that we only have four episodes left?  Let’s introduce another awesome female character!”

I have thoughts about the Cat Cycle at the end on my website under spoiler warnings.

Max:  In Nassau, slaves have seen too many of their own find freedom amongst the crews.  It costs less to pay wages than to replace defectors, or worse yet, to pay guards to watch my door as I sleep. Grandma Guthrie:  That isn’t the only reason, though, is it? Max:  No, it is not.  In my life, I have been bought and sold.  And as I would be no slave again, nor would I be a master.

Max shows both logic and emotion in her decision to pay former slaves wages.  She’s also learning that there is value in vulnerability, and I like her more than ever before.  (Relearning?  It’s possible that she stomped down her vulnerability after asking Eleanor to flee with her in the series beginning and being refused.)

We learned earlier in the episode that the cache no longer matters to Spain, yet Rogers demands its return in order for Madi’s release.  Why?  Out of spite?  Oh wait, he super needs the money.  It’s personal now.

Silver is blinded by his emotion, but the Queen can see through hers. Both she, Flint, and Madi agree that one life, however beloved, is not worth forfeiting the cache and their revolution, but Silver…he just wants her back.  Hmm.

Woodes Rogers goes to Madi for comfort, which is gross.  He tries to convince her to sign the agreement by being monstrous, which is ineffective.  Dude is flailing.

“Eleanor died fighting.  As will I.”

YEESSSSS, Madi!!

Jack and Anne’s separation is so sweet.  In exchange for her alliance, Grandma Guthrie has demanded that Jack kill Flint.  When Anne asks how he’ll do it, he lays out a litany of physical obstacles.  But she presses him, asking, “How could you be someone who would do that?”  Anne has been the secret heart of this show!  And this is so sweet, but Jack answers her concerns with the equally sweet, “I do it for us.  That’s how it started.  That’s how it’s going to end.”  I LOVE THEM.

Silver says, “He’s confident in his plan, as am I.”  He’s got a backup, because of course he does, and what’s going to happen next???

[bboiseux]

Twin Peaks: The Return Parts 17 and 18 First Impressions

Twin Peaks: The Return Parts 17 and 18 First Impressions I'm supposed to be working, but I cannot stop thinking about the end of The Return, so let's do this.

Note: This is based on a single viewing.  God knows, I'm not going to have a chance to do much in the way of a rewatch, as much as I would like to

tl;dr: The Return makes perfect sense, it just might not be the sense you want.

Background: I am a big fan of David Lynch's work.  But that doesn't mean I like all of his work.  I'm not actually much of a fan of the original Twin Peaks, but I love Fire Walk with Me.  Actively despise Wild at Heart, but have a soft spot for Inland Empire.  What I'm saying is that I admire Lynch's craft and much of what he does, but that doesn't mean I like everything that he produced.

What I admire in Lynch is his ability to create very specific experiences in the viewer, explore theme as the main point of his films, and create an engaging narrative.  His films are at their best when they do all three of these things cohesively.  I think he succeeded at this in Eraserhead, Fire Walk with Me, Mulholland Dr, and Inland Empire.  Eraserhead and Fire Walk with Me are probably the best.  Mulholland Dr is weaker, I think, because it prioritizes narrative over theme.  And Inland Empire is weaker because it prioritizes themes over narrative.

For the films I dislike, I'm just going to leave this here: I may be one of the few people who loves the work of Lynch and cannot stand Blue Velvet.

The Impression Parts 17 and 18 of The Return are the keys that tell you exactly what Lynch has been doing for the previous 16 hours.  After this first watch I am disappointed, unsurprised, and impressed.  I still love The Return.  It is an amazing 18 hours of television.  But I am also disappointed because until this point what had made it amazing was the way Lynch was merging narrative and theme.  And in 17 and, especially, 18, he pulls them apart.  It is unsurprising because Inland Empire (his most recent film work) is largely theme over narrative.  And it is impressive because I really do appreciate that he is willing to do this, even though it will alienate a large segment of his audience.

Random Thoughts:

First things first: For all that is can be alienating: 18 is a better overall hour of television than 17 because it is doing something very specific, while 17 (for the first half) is ticking off plot beats.

The most disappointing thing to me is the degree to which much of the narrative push of the season feels rushed through.  Although I had to laugh at Cooper not even really being the vehicle for the defeat of Mr. C (which is also thematically connected to everything that happens in the rest of 17 and 18).

I don't care if it was obviously what was going to happen, let's not have one of the few non-white people turn into a white person.

Damn, Julee Cruise did not get her day.  She is clearly just an insert and 17 and 18 are meant to just bleed without interruption into each other.  This leads into . . .

17 felt rough--like it was a bunch of pieces slammed together.  This started with . . .

The sloppiest bit of writing in the season: the Judy revelation that opens the episode.

17 may be my least favorite episode of the season.

Thank goodness that sex scene happened.  When Diane was freed and kissed Cooper, I couldn't believe a show that was about sexual violence against women was ignoring her rape.  And then the sex scene happened and it showed that it wasn't ignoring it.  It was showing the consequences.

Analysis In my last post I said there were four main threads: Cooper/Mr. C; Sarah/Laura; Naido/Diane; and Audrey.  Well, turns out I was right and the narrative threads (Cooper/Mr. C and Naido/Diane) resolved about as expected.  Now the thematic threads (Sarah/Laura and Audrey) turned out to be the core of the thematic turn that started from the point Diane was awakened and ran to the end of the series.  Because they do not resolve as clear extensions of the narrative that has been set up, but create new narratives from the back half of 17 and all of 18, let's look at the meaning of these elements:

1)The central theme of Twin Peaks is sexual violence against women.  This is obscured in the original series, but made explicit in Fire Walk with Me.  This theme is heavily prevalent in The Return with multiple storylines involving violence against women and Mr. C/Bob continuing to sexually abuse women, including women central to Cooper's life.

2) Sarah and Laura appear to be opposing forces, but I think the truth is more complicated than that.  The scene of Sarah in the bar in 14 is both horrifying and set up as cathartic.  That guy was designed to represent a very specific form of threat to women and Sarah's killing him is satisfying.

I highly doubt that Sarah is the girl in Episode 8 because what we see in her in 14 is the source of the bug (what I believe is called Mother?)  @onceandfuturekiki posits that the girl is Cooper's mother and the bug produces Cooper.  I'm not entirely convinced, but it seems to fit what happens in 18.  This means

Laura is the solution to the evil that Bob represents.

Cooper comes from the same source as Bob.

Laura's death is what leads to the destruction of Bob.

3) Audrey and Cooper have always been in close parallel.  In the original series, this goes so far as to involve them both being essentially killed, but not killed at the end of the series, trapped in limbo, and getting crappy replacement romances (and I liked Annie!).  This parallel continues in The Return, which means that Audrey's story is thematically representative of Cooper's.  What we know:

Audrey is fixated on finding Billy

Audrey likes Billy more than Charlie (and is fucking Billy)

Audrey cannot leave her house

When she does leave she is pulled into a replaying of her past, until . . .

She is violently pulled into reality.

What parallels should we see in Cooper?

Cooper is fixiated on finding Laura (Leland tells him to do this in Ep 1/2 and it is repeated in 18).

??Cooper likes Laura more than ??? (and is fucking Laura?)??

Cooper cannot leave Dougie (Ep 3 through 15)

When he does leave he is pulled into a replaying of his past in Twin Peaks (ep 16 and 17), until . . .

He is violently pulled into another reality (ep 18).

Remember how we were told that Audrey would play a key part in the story?  This is it.  She unlocks the meaning of the entire season.  "What story is that?"

Let's deal with the odd point out first.  If there is a sexual element to Cooper's "finding Laura," then it supports the idea that Cooper comes from the same place as Bob.  I don't think this is supported by the series, but the parallel is there, so we need to pay attention to the possibility.

The rest of these parallels, however, are pretty obvious.  The most important is that replaying the past is bad and also impossible (again, @onceandfuturekiki has great posts on this).  Audrey's dance is both a "Yay!" and a "What?" moment that is violently interrupted by the reality of other people's concerns.  She awakens into a harsh reality that we do not really see nor understand.

Likewise, Cooper escapes from Dougie and immediately springs into the classic Twin Peaks action, but when he gets there the result is a combination of "Yay!" and "What?"  The resolution of the Cooper/Mr. C duality is overwhelming, violent, and confusing and only gets more confusing.  Finally, Cooper awakens into the world of Odessa that we spend the end of the series in.

4) The Audrey and Sarah/Laura themes align:

Cooper "Fire Walks" with Mike and is able to go back and try and stop Laura's murder.  This supports the idea that Cooper is of the Black Lodge.  For all that Mike is helpful, he is not benevelent.

During the Diane/Cooper sex scene, the most horrifying thing is Cooper's face, which is Mr. C's face.  We see here that Cooper and Mr. C are not distinct, that there are elements of Mr. C is Cooper.  (It could also be argued that this is just a representation of Diane's perspective in that scene.  I think both are true.  We also see this harsher side in Cooper's scenes from that point on.)  This also supports the Black Lodge connection.

Cooper's success undoes the good that Laura's death creates, including the destruction of Bob.  By trying to change the past and eliminate the bad, Cooper destroys the good.  Both sides are required.

As much as Sarah is darkness, she is also necessary.  Laura is seen in Ep 8 as a golden orb.  This is in opposition to Bob's dark orb, not Mother.

5) Mr. C is Cooper.  I was about to say that I think the greatest weakness of The Return is that we do not get the darkness in Cooper seeded in the season, but that's wrong.  That is the whole point of Mr. C.  Remember, Mr. C is not Bob.  He is the darkness in Cooper with Bob.  We have spent the entire season watching the potential cruelty and violence in Cooper and in 18 we see the goodness of Cooper combined with that cruelty and violence.  Watch the diner scene.  Watch Cooper's interactions with Carrie.  He is driven by good, but his empathy, his connection to others, is gone.

Conclusion

This is all the meaning I can work out right now.  I would have preferred that the end of The Return be more narratively coherent with the threads that were set up earlier, but it is certainly thematically coherent and the deeper I think about it, the more it makes sense.  This is Lynch, the theme is always the driving force of what he is doing, that is always the level of coherence.  Sometimes it leads to satisfying narratives, other times not, but he certainly made something that works here.

Twin Peaks: The Return is fantastic.  It is flawed, it is aggravating at times, but it is also surprising and inspiring.  For every frustration there is a great reward.  I hope to be able to watch it again, although I suspect it will be in the distant future.

[stretchjournalemerson]

916 Northwest B Street

By Clare Jackson

“At age eight, it’s just my mom and me living in Richmond, Indiana––a town known for its corn production and America’s fourth largest high school basketball court. It has a population of around 35,000; it’s not a “small” town by the numbers, but the people that live there make it feel like one.” 

At age eight, it’s just my mom and me living in Richmond, Indiana––a town known for its corn production and America’s fourth largest high school basketball court. It has a population of around 35,000; it’s not a “small” town by the numbers, but the people that live there make it feel like one. They all have deep roots––their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were born at the hospital down the block. My mom is different though. She’s a high school dropout and one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. She jumps around in the job market; she worked at my elementary school in special education, then at the local college as an administrator. But she’s a hard and committed worker. She does each job better than whoever did it before her. My mom loves to talk about theatre, movies, and television. She browses furniture catalogues and tells me what fancy oven she’ll buy soon. We always talk about where the two of us will live one day when we move out of this cramped town. It has to be a big shiny place where we can explore together. She knows that we are better than the cards we were dealt.

After my mom’s divorce from her second husband, Dave, we move into the small, unfurnished home of his late father that is in the process of being sold. It’s a classic old-person house. It has curtains with golf cartoons on them, and the characters say things like, “my wife told me my golf addiction was driving a wedge between us!” In the fridge, we have grape Capri-Suns, hot dogs, and cans of 89-cent Arizona Tea. Every day, we wake up from our air mattress, pick out our clothes from our suitcases (they are pressed against the wall; it gives us a sense of structure) and get ready to head to school. We go about our days, and once we come home, we get right back in bed and turn on a TV show on the red Dell laptop.

The pink CD folder that holds all of our entertainment is cracked on the front; if you run your fingers over the edge you’ll get cut. There are about 30 DVDs inside, most of them collections of episodes from TV shows. We don’t buy movies––we buy TV seasons because they’re longer, but still the same price. My favorite DVD is season one of Tina Fey’s show 30 Rock. My mom and I spend our nights together watching and rewatching the adventures of Liz Lemon, a comedy writer living in New York City.

Mom and I talk about how we want to live in New York someday. We marvel at 30 Rockefeller Plaza each time it pops up onto the computer screen. We watch admiringly as Liz walks in every morning, shoes clicking on the marble-floored lobby, iconic blue NYC paper coffee cup in hand. Then she always goes home at the end of the day alone, greeted by her two-story apartment that has a big TV and a leather couch. In one episode, she buys a $2,000 wedding dress just because she likes it! Even the ugly parts of New York city are glamorous. I daydream of my complaints about subway delays on my commute to work; I daydream of being frustrated that I can’t get a reservation for the oyster bar until 9:00 PM. Those are all pretend-problems, not real ones. Not like the ones we’re having. I don’t tell mom, but I sometimes wonder if Liz ever worries about rent.

Mom and I never talk about money, but I can see what we have in the fridge; I know we don't have furniture or a real bed. It's obvious that we're different from the people we watch on TV. But even though Liz doesn't have the kind of life we do, I still find myself represented in her. I want the things she wants and the things she believes in. Or maybe it isn't that we want the same things. Maybe it's that I see her wanting them, and I want them too. She’s a career woman who also wants a family one day. She loves Star Wars, meatball subs, and all the things that I’m told are unladylike by the other moms at school. I want to be her. I hope I might be her already.

One day at school, I sit in the library while our librarian reads us a book about vampire bats. I’m wearing a blue and green sundress over jeans with a gray newsboy cap because it’s Friday, and I always want my end-of-the-week outfit to be a showstopper. Whenever the librarian stops reading, I overhear my friends talking about a birthday party on Saturday––it’ll be my friend Carmen’s birthday. It’s weird, because my cubby doesn’t have an invitation in it.  

When I ask Carmen why she didn’t invite me, she looks up and down at my outfit, taking me in. I’m expecting her to say that she just forgot, or didn’t print out enough copies, or thought I couldn’t come because I’m so popular that I would be busy anyway. Instead, she says: “I don’t think we should be friends anymore. We all think you’re weird.” When it’s time to go back to class, I walk down the carpeted hallway. I fall and skin my knee. My teacher tells me to be more careful.

After a few hours, the day is finally over, and seeing my mom drive up to the carpool lane in her red Toyota Camry felt like a superhero was coming to my rescue. I jump in the back seat and tell my mom exactly what happened. Immediately after I finish telling her, she reaches her arm back to pat my knee while she drives away from school. It hurts a little. “Honey, I’m so sorry that made you sad. But this is something that might happen a lot in your life.” Of course, this doesn’t do anything to comfort me. But she continues: “You, sweetie, are so different and so smart and special. You’re unique and a lot of people won’t understand you. But the good news is that that’s what going to make you so successful later on. You’re like Liz!”

Then she let me stop at the A-Plus gas station to get a slushie because terrible days are a special occasion, or so I gather. We went home to our little air mattress and she started up the computer to watch our favorite show. The rest of that week, I feel good when I go to school. Even when those girls talk about how fun Carmen’s was that weekend, and how crazy those prank calls were, I wear my rejection like a badge. I’m unique and special and smart! It’s actually a good thing that I don’t get invited to people’s parties; that means I’m different. Liz Lemon is different too. She lives in New York, where she has a nice apartment, can go wherever she wants, and gets to be funny for TV every single day.

Now, I often think about why my mom chose to watch 30 Rock with me. Did she just take a chance and choose based on the description on the back of the box at Blockbuster Video? Or had she read an article on a new comedy about a successful, independent female? I like to think she had a mission when she introduced me to Liz Lemon. She saw my young brain trying to process the events of our lives. It was confusing––one second I was like everyone else, and the next I was the daughter of a single parent living well below the poverty line. Through Liz, my mom showed me who I was and who she was: a woman who overcomes, who’s smart, powerful, capable. Liz was a woman acting like a man in a man’s world. My mom wanted me to take after her. We always took after Liz in that respect, especially my mother. I still believe that in five or ten years, she and I will be living in a big shiny city, just like the one we talked about. 

[thewalkingdead-obsessed]

Season 8 (and beyond)

Since season 7 ended, and as I do my rewatch of the entire series, I can’t help but wonder what is to come for The Walking Dead (tv show). This is inspired by watching the youtuber MOVIEidol’s video “The Walking Dead Season 8 - 11 Predictions! COMPLETE COMIC ADAPTATION!”, I highly recommend watching it, as it is very thorough (not saying I agree with all of it, but it’s definitely interesting to see all the comic book events adapted to what could happen the show). **Show and comic spoilers ahead**

TWD is at a really pivotal point in the series. Up until this point, all of the drama on the show has been on a smaller scale (meaning person to person, or group to group). The All Out War is officially underway, and there is so much that can happen that will affect the entire outcome of the show. There are two big choices I believe the show is going to have to make in season 8 (assuming season 8 covers the entire war). One is who they are going to kill during all out war, and two, if Negan is going to get killed.

I’ll start with the first one: who they are going to kill as a result of the war. Obviously there will be numerous deaths in season 8, among them will be people from the Kingdom, the Sanctuary, the Hilltop, Alexandria, and possibly even Oceanside. As for big deaths, I think there will probably be 1-3 main/secondary characters killed. My best guess is one main character and two secondary. For the secondary characters, I hate to say it, but I think it will be Eric, and maybe Jerry? They are big and well liked enough that it will make an impact, but not drastically alter the show. For the big main character death, I think it could be one of three characters. Rosita, Tara, or Morgan. The reason I think they are the most likely to be killed is because their was a focus on their characters during season 7. If I were to make my most educated guess, I would probably have to say Morgan’s going to be the one to go. He’s been around since day one, and I think all out war needs a really impactful death. Season 6 and 7 were huge for Morgan. His journey was highlighted in season 6, and since then he has been involved with other characters (Denise & Wolfman, and Carol) that have also changed the outcome of the series in a huge way. His recent turmoil in the show with Richard and Benjamin, and him going back on his teachings, makes me think something big is coming for him. First I think something on a large scale is going to have to happen to him for him to realize/rediscover what he preached before (some people think this might happen thru Duane still being alive somehow, Beth coming back [read my Beth/Morgan post on this], or something else). He will realize the value of saving a human life, as he has done many times. Perhaps on his death bed, during the end of the war he will convince Rick to not kill Negan, who knows.

That brings me to the other big choice that needs to be made in season 8: is Negan going to be killed? This is a decision that cannot and should not be taken lightly in regards to the tv show. Some people think it’s a no brainer that they are going to keep Negan around (to continue the storyline for the whisperers and stay true to the comics) but I don’t think it’s that simple. First off, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been known to not stay in shows very long, and although this doesn’t have to do with the comic or show storyline, I do think this is an important factor to consider. Next, we must understand the impact that Negan’s introduction, and the two deaths that followed, had on the fanbase. There are many people who are super shook by what happened in the beginning of season 7 and the writers have to think about that. Another thing that adds to this is the emphasis of Rick threatening to kill Negan at multiple different times in the season. I don’t know if there is anything that could convince him not to kill Negan, and perhaps the show is prepping the audience for that (or on the other hand, doing it to make it a profound moment if he chooses to spare his life). Regardless of what happens, I feel like season 8 will probably end with the death of or sparing of Negan (maybe even on a cliffhanger).

Now onto my season 8 thoughts/questions in general. All out war in the comics lasts a relatively short amount of time, so I’m guessing season 8 will be incredibly action packed and fast moving. One questions I have is: what the hell are they going to do about the trash people (aka Jadis’ group, I don’t think they have an official name). This is a HUGE variable to consider in all out war, as this group doesn’t exist in the comics. It’s not as if now that the war has started, majorly due to this group, that they’re going to go unscathed and not be involved in the war. Because of this huge discrepancy with the comics, I think all out war and what comes after that, might take a much different turn than the comics. I think this could be a huge diverging point for the two. Although the show has followed the storyline of the comics fairly well (minus some characters and small plots) in general and things have headed in a similar direction, I feel season 8 could change this all. Adding an entire group filled with dozens (possibly hundreds) of people isn’t just easily adaptable to the direction the comics were taking, so we’ll have to see what happens with this.

Another question I have about season 8 is, how are they going to approach the walker blood covered bullets in the show, if at all. I wonder if they’ll be ballsy enough to do it.. who knows. The reason I think they might not is because that leaves a major hole is what we know about the Wildfire virus (idk if virus is the right word but yall know what I mean). If walker blood gets into someone’s bloodstream/wounds and they die/turn because of it, as they do in the comics, that doesn’t really coincide with what the show has been doing. There has been multiple times that characters have been covered in walker guts, and nothing even happened to them (and these people are survivors, the odds of at least one of them NEVER getting walker guts/blood in any type of wound is very slim). One moment that really sticks out is in season three when Michonne is shot by Merle, and walker guts get all over her. The guts protect her as she gets to the prison, but they zoom in on her open wound with guts all over her. If the guts really turn people, it changes Wildfire and the story entirely, which creates some gaps in consistency.

I’m not trying to get too ahead of myself, but I am already starting to think beyond season 8. Because what will happen in season 8 is going to impact the shows course greatly, it’s hard to tell what may occur after. I really hope they do a two year time jump. I’m not sure the exact timeline of the show, but it’s been approximated that from season 1-7, it’s been two-ish years. For two years, they’ve been through a lot. Generally the same things have happened over and over again, there is a threat (either walkers, a person, or a group) and they face it usually with a few big(ger) deaths along the way, and then the remaining group moves on from their VERY brief stability. I’m not necessarily criticizing this, as I think this was important to do to show the characters adapting to the world they live in now, but after two+ years, I think it’s time something changes. There aren’t small groups where you know everyone’s name anymore. Walkers are not the same threat as they used to be (unless in huge numbers, but even still they’ve managed that before in season 6). People/groups have now become the biggest problem.. What better way to show this than an actual war. So once the war commences, it would be ridiculous if things fell immediately (time wise) back into the same cycle. This is why a time jump seems necessary to me. It makes for bad television for nothing to happen, so the stability period would be off camera obviously, but if we recognized that there was a time where people have adapted to their world and were living and rebuilding, that would create a more realistic show (not to mention we need Carl to grow up a little 😂).

If a time jump does occur, I’m not sure where they will pick up afterwards. Many people assume with the whisperers, but with the sheer amount of bodies they would need, I’m not sure if that’s possible. Some people think the combo of the trash people and the wolves make up for the whisperers, but who knows. Some gruesome things happens with the whisperers, so depending on if Negan is alive, we may or may not see those things. I am not sure how they are going to adapt this because there are a lot of variables involved (Negan being alive, the trash people, Morgan, etc).

This isn’t a very neat post but I’ve been wanting to get my thoughts out on what they are going to do for seasons 8 and beyond. Please let me know your thoughts/opinions/theories/etc!!

[yumi-michiyo]

For You I’d Burn the Length and Breadth of Sky [4/4] - with extended author’s notes

Rating: M for strong language, adult themes, sexual content

Genre: Supernatural/Drama/Romance/Angst/Family/Tragedy/Friendship/Hurt/Comfort/"Romance"

Pairings: Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray, Rachel Berry/Noah Puckerman, Rachel Berry/Santana Lopez, mentioned Santana/Lopez/Finn Hudson, Brittany Pierce/Finn Hudson, mentioned Rachel Berry/Jesse St. James, Rachel Berry/Cassandra July, Rachel Berry/Brody Weston

Summary: She already knows Quinn Fabray is more than just a pretty face; she just didn't know it would take a few lifetimes to find out how much more. Post-canon, AU divergence. A oneshot of epic proportions.

Links: FF.net | AO3

On the writing process:

Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

This was a thought that crossed my mind repeatedly as I worked on this chapter. The plot was labyrinthine, the characters' motivations were all over the place, the timelines clashed, the dialogue was confusing. I keep a writing notebook in which I jot down prompts, ideas, plot threads etc., and this was one of the rare times that it didn't help.

I think one of the reasons for the difficulty was that unlike the first two chapters, 85% of the content wasn't planned. The characters (especially Santana) didn't want to cooperate. I only had an idea of what I wanted the endgame to be, and I spent time trying to herd the characters in that direction.

I have always been a multishipper/non-canon shipper at heart, and this was no exception though it does seem I've gone overboard with the sheer number of pairings squeezed into one fic. This chapter, in particular with the Santana/Rachel, drew a lot of inspiration from the incomparable you're just another song and dance by acid_glue234, in terms of the structure and the girls' interactions. This fanfic, out of all the fanfics in my history of fandoms, came the closest to switching my OTP.

There has been a lot of hints and clues about the setting in Rachel's real life scattered through the entire fic. While readers may enjoy picking through the fic to gather them, everything will be made clear in the epilogue.

The original draft of the story had the entire thing ending with Rachel leaving the voicemail, Quinn picking up almost immediately after, Rachel answering, and... fade to black. I don't know whether it's a good thing or not that I decided that since the entire thing had changed so radically, it wouldn't make sense not to add an epilogue.

I love Easter eggs, and sprinkling subtle references to other works of mine. Besides the obvious recycling of names from my headcanons, there are minute details that come from my other fics. They aren't relevant to any plot twists or big reveals; they're just there for my own entertainment as I go through the long, painful process of editing.

After completing this fic (including the epilogue and the letter written by wheelchair!Quinn), I have one more fic in the works before I officially retire from writing Glee fanfic. Honestly, I've covered all the pairings I like and plenty of Faberry tropes in one story: post-accident, future!fic, college friendships, friends turned lovers, post-canon, unrequited...

On Rachel Berry:

Rachel is, in a word, tired. She's gone through a whole lot of living (spoiler: it'll come back to haunt her back in her real life). She's been in relationships with a whole lot of people, done a lot of things without really feeling the consequences, and for the first time, is feeling stuck. I wrote her as being displaced; she hasn't really let her first two 'deaths' sink in.

This iteration of Rachel is less involved in keeping up appearances than the previous two; the first Rachel was genuinely happy to explore the what if's left by Finn's death. The second was a little more cautious, threw everything into a relationship with Quinn, and was broken by it. In this chapter, Rachel does realise that she's not as concerned about 'playing her part' as the previous times. As a result, she's more reckless, impulsive, and callous; notably in her promiscuity and the cold way she treats Puck.

The feel of this chapter is more of Rachel applying meta thought to her 'life', as opposed to 'living'. She is more detached from her surroundings, especially when things get complicated with Santana. I wrote Rachel with the idea of 'introspection' in mind; the time spent living life all over again has given her plenty of time to reflect on the things that have gone wrong in her real life, and we see that she's starting to change.

Rachel doesn't pursue Santana, like she does Finn and Quinn. She only falls for her after a period of soul-searching, and only after giving herself permission to fall. In other words, she makes a conscious decision to love Santana after clearing her conscience (is Quinn real, or 'real real'? Who knows?).

On Noah Puckerman:

Noah Puckerman has never been one of my favourite characters on Glee - I'm one of those people who think that his impregnating Quinn is equal to rape, the bad boy archetype isn't a favourite of mine, and the rest of his antics aren't particularly impressive (not to mention he's one of the victims of the show's writing). My Noah (and the fandom's Noah) is a simple guy who's rough around the edges but has a heart of gold.

Noah's also gotten the short end of the stick in this chapter. Since the story's told from Rachel's point of view, and she's pretty distant and preoccupied with her own problems (and Quinn), little is known about Noah's feelings. I write him as someone who's in love with Rachel despite her many shortcomings and is unfailingly loyal, despite her ignoring him, and the Season Four!Finn stunt she pulls on him.

On Santana Lopez:

Santana, in my opinion, is one of the great success stories of Glee. She goes from Quinn's backup singer/dancer and henchwoman to one of the main characters (rewatching the show reminded me of how much I hate canon!Rachel). I have always loved the strong woman with a vulnerable side trope, and no one embodies the character type better than Santana (and Naya).

Rachel does note that this Santana is softer around the edges than canon!Santana. It's mentioned in the fic that without Quinn, Santana is the unchallenged queen bee of McKinley, and is more secure in her identity and accepting that she is lesbian. For that reason, she doesn't victimise Rachel, or see the need to reinforce the strict social hierarchy.

Another cornerstone of the fic is the friendship between Kurt, Santana, and Rachel AKA two-and-a-half-gays. There was little opportunity to explore the daily, snarky interaction between the trio in the previous two chapters, so I think I might have gone a bit overboard with that. I do love writing snarky dialogue.

I headcanon Santana as being one of those people Nat King Cole sang about:

When I fall in love, it will be forever...

Another of my favourite tropes are people who fall in love without even realising it, and that's pretty much what happens on Santana's part.She doesn't start to move on from Brittany until she sees how happy Brittany is with someone else, and even then it takes a while before she starts to see Rachel in another light.

Santana, like Quinn, is one of those unfortunate people shafted in the hurriedly-cobbled-together ending of Glee. We don't know what she ends up doing with her life. We have no clue what are her likes and dislikes, or her aptitude and quirks. Based on the scant information we're given, I headcanon Santana to be involved in music production and/or songwriting, otherwise a television actress. In this chapter, I stole Sara Bareilles' excellent song Morningside for Santana. Sadly, there is no awesome slow and sexy acoustic version to link to, but I think it would sound amazing.

On Brittany Pierce:

I'll admit the sole Finn/Brittany fic that I have read and loved is thememoriesfire's duck sauce, meet bear cheese. It not only sold me on this pairing as something not cracky, but also showed a realistic portrayal of how these two would interact.

Generally, I don't write Brittany because I'm not sure I understand her, and thus can do her character justice. But Brittany was crucial to the plot, to help Santana open herself to falling for other people, to provide the catalyst to get Rachel and Santana talking again, and to help Rachel make her decision to fall for Santana.

There are several versions of Brittany in fanon, and this is one of the versions I enjoy best; the one who lives on a slightly different plane of reality that only intersects with the one everyone else lives in.

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/02/10/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-21017/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 2/10/17

Last night, my friend Mike and I went to check out The Lego Batman Movie. Seeing as how we were the only two people in the theater, I’m not quite sure what its weekend box office is gonna look like. I bet John Wick: Chapter 2 takes #1, since that’s where everyone seemed to be heading. Anyway, I LOVED the film. First up, it considers EVERYTHING canon. If you saw it onscreen, then it happened in that universe. The whole thing is kind of surreal, as the movie focuses on Batman’s loner status, while also confronting his complicated relationship with The Joker. On the Batman Beyond cartoon, there’s an episode where old Bruce Wayne and his protege, Terry McGinnis, go to a Batman-themed musical. Bruce can’t get over how goofy the whole thing seems, but I feel like this film is the movie version of that musical. It doesn’t have the camp of the ’66 show, but it’s a movie that never really takes itself seriously. I loved the liberties they took, like making Jim and Barbara Gordon people of color (voiced by Hector Elizondo and Rosario Dawson). It doesn’t hurt the story any, while bringing some diversity to the Lego world. I also liked how it tied in concepts from The Lego Movie, such as the fact that Batman is a Master Builder. I’m not going to spoil the movie for you, but I feel like it’s strong until the middle of the second act, at which point it switches from a Lego Batman movie to a Lego Dimensions movie. Trust me, you’ll understand when you see it, and I think you’ll agree that the story gets a bit weaker at that point. In any case, I can’t wait for it to hit Blu Ray, so I can rewatch it a thousand times to catch all the Easter eggs.

This week, we got a trailer for a new season of Arrow. Wait, what? That was actually for Iron Fist? Huh. Yeah, I was really underwhelmed by that trailer. Finn Jones doesn’t seem like a great actor, there’s not a lot of Kung Fu on display, and it seems like it’s more focused on corporate takeover, as Danny Rand tries to reclaim his family’s business. Since it’s a Netflix Marvel show, there’s also Rosario Dawson and another damn hallway fight. I welcome the former, but I’m SO over the latter. I’ll get around to watching it, but the days of me binge-watching a Marvel season the weekend of its release are long gone. Considering I still need to watch Daredevil season 2 and Luke Cage, I’ll be lucky to get around to it in 2017. That said, I know a lot of y’all will binge it that day, and will tell me if it sucks or not.

In other TV news, it’s rumored that NBC wants to spin Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update segment into a weekly 30-minute show. I guess they looked at John Oliver and Samantha Bee, and realized they might be leaving money on the table. Still, Jost and Che as “polarizing”, at best, and I’m not sure if that segment has the legs to air 30 minutes every week, in the same format. Plus, would it also remain a part of SNL, or would it be excised completely? I think this would’ve been a good idea in an election year, as there’s just so much news to cover, but now that all that is behind us, I’m just not sure this is going to work. And then what happens? If it does leave SNL, would it come crawling back next season, with its tail between its legs? The difference between Last Week Tonight/Full Frontal and Weekend Update is that those cable shows are actually smart, with smart hosts. Plus, they can get away with a bit more because cable. Weekend Update has gotten a lot more biting since Trump was elected, but is it too little, too late? Are the SNL writers up to the task of this project? I just feel like it’s a bad idea that will dilute the Weekend Update and SNL brands.

It was also announced that Viacom will be rebranding Spike TV as the Paramount Network. In my lifetime, I don’t think I’ve witnessed a network go through as many format changes as that one. As far back as I can remember, it was The Nashville Network. Then, to appeal to a wider audience, it became The National Network. Then, to appeal to dudebros, it became Spike TV. Now, I don’t even know who they’re targeting. I also don’t know why they chose this particular name. It’s like they have short memories or something. After all, there’s already been a Paramount Network. Sure, most of us referred to it as UPN and not the United Paramount Network, but that’s what those letters stood for. And it was the definition of “failed experiment”. Sure, it hobbled along for about 10 years, but its legacy is basically Star Trek: Voyager, America’s Next Top Model and Girlfriends. Outside of that, it gave us such critical darlings as Shasta McNasty, Homeboys In Outer Space, and The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. Hey, let’s see how many shitty (that means all of them) UPN shows I can list without looking them up: DiResta, Legend, Platypus Man, Hitz, Good News, Sparks, Dilbert, Marker, The Watcher, The Sentinel…yeah,that’s enough to make my point, which is you probably don’t remember any of these. UPN did NOTHING for the Paramount brand, and its effects are still being felt 11 years after its demise. So why, WHY would Viacom want to go down this road again? Anyway, the early plans for the rebranding call for the network to be a warehouse for hit Viacom programming from their other networks. It’s basically just gonna be the Now That’s What I Call Viacom Channel, posting the highlights from MTV, Nick, Nick Jr, etc. In fact, there are no concrete plans for the future of other Viacom networks, such as VH1, CMT, and TVLand, but reports say that there’s no immediate push to shut them down.

It was also rumored that there are already talks of an American Idol revival, but this time on NBC. Now, keep in mind the show just ended its run on Fox last year. The idea is that The Voice would be reduced to one cycle a year, and then they would slot Idol in one of its old slots. I feel like NBC sees the value in that show in that it actually creates household names – something The Voice has failed to do after 11 seasons. The focus is too much on the judges, and the winners have gone nowhere. Quick, name a winner of The Voice without looking it up. Hell, I watched the first season, and I can’t even remember that guy (I looked it up: Javier Colon. Who? Right). So, there’s definitely something to be gained from acquiring the franchise. That said, though, I also feel like a network only gets one of those shows. Fox had Idol, NBC had The Voice, ABC had Rising Star, and CBS had some show that got canceled that I forgot. Fox hurt Idol by double-dipping and picking up The X-Factor. That show never caught on in the US, and it hurt the Fox singing competition brand. If NBC picks up Idol, it’s going to do the same to The Voice. I mean, how much longer does America want to see Blake Shelton and Adam Levine bicker at each other? Sure, there’s a new dynamic now that Blake and Gwen Stefani are dating and both judges, but unless the show breaks them up, I don’t know how engaging that’s gonna be. And Miley Cyrus as a coach? Now, let me say that Bangerz was a great album. I’ve written about how awesome it was. But I don’t think Miley is established enough as a singer to be coaching anyone. She’s more known for her antics than her music. Then again, Paula Abdul was a has been, judging the talent of tomorrow, but that was intrinsic to the formula. Ultimately, America chose the Idol, and the show brought in established stars as coaches. The Voice has an unnecessary layer. They have talented judges, but then they also have the coaches, and then America. As Idol showed us, ANYBODY cane a judge, which is going to be an important thing for NBC to remember once it comes to for contracts to be renegotiated. Anyway, I think Idol needs to rest a few more years before they dust it off. It was once a powerhouse, but television AND music changed over time. Let the industry figure out its next steps before trying to reenter it.

I don’t know about you, but I grew up with women, which meant I did a tour of duty with soap operas. I started with Days of Our Lives back in the late 80s, then shifted to The Young and the Restless, and then shifted back to Days in the 00s. And besides Victor Newman, there is no soap villain quite as diabolical as Stefano DiMera. Well, the actor who portrayed him, Joseph Mascolo, died back in December, but his final filmed episode aired yesterday.  Although Mascolo had been battling Alzheimers for the past few years, he had portrayed the character for around 30 years. For some reason (I haven’t watched in a while), he was in prison (he’s killed/led to the death of a lot of folks. But they typically come back after contract negotiations), and at the end of the episode, he escapes! What a beautiful ending, knowing that he will be forever “in the wind”, as they can’t really catch him again unless they recast him. Seeing as how the rumor is Days is coming to an end this year, they won’t even have time to do that, with scripts written about 6 months in advance. So, here’s a toast to one of the greatest villains to ever grace the television set. You will be missed, you evil son of a bitch.

Let’s get a little controversial, shall we? This week, comedian George Lopez got in hot water for kicking a woman out of one of his shows when she objected to a racially-charged joke he told. Basically he said, “There are only two rules in the Latino family: Don’t marry somebody black and don’t park in front of our house.” Apparently, a woman gave him the finger after that joke, to which he began to tell her to “sit [her] fucking ass down or get the fuck out.” Now, comedians are on his side because they say he was just shutting down a heckler. Meanwhile, the general public is on her side because they’re offended by the joke, and don’t see why he had to kick her out for objecting. Here’s my take: First of all, he’s told variations of this joke for years. He used to joke about how his grandmother wouldn’t even want President Obama in her house. If you’re familiar with his material, then his joke the other night shouldn’t surprise you. Now, for the folks offended by the joke: was he wrong? All I know is my own life experience. I dated a Cuban, and as polite and Ivy League-educated as I could be, I was still the Black guy who could only illicit grunts from her father. And I don’t know anyone named Esmeralda Jenkins or Manuela Johnson. Growing up where I did, Black guys didn’t get Latinas or Asian girls. Those girls’ families weren’t gonna stand for that! So, this is one of those jokes that’s grounded in truth. It might rub some folks the wrong way, but it’s not necessarily untrue. Where I stand, I don’t think he really did anything wrong. After all, that’s how comedians handle folks who they feel are interrupting their show, and the joke itself was par for the Lopez course. I wouldn’t say it was “haha funny”, but it wasn’t wrong.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

An animated series based on the Castlevania video game is coming to Netflix later this year. Hopefully it will star gay Simon Belmont from Captain N: The Game Master.

Kate McKinnon will voice Ms. Frizzle in Netflix’s reboot of The Magic School Bus

Speaking of Netflix, Love, The OA, and Trollhunters have all been renewed by the streaming service.

Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, announced that she’s retiring after her next album is released.

After 25 years over covering the Olympics, Bob Costas announced he’s handing the reins over to Mike Tirico

Entertainment newsmagazine show The Insider has been canceled after 13 seasons.

Formerly of USA’s Satisfaction, Blair Redford has been cast as the first mutant in Fox’s X-Men TV series

Not to be outdone by Beyoncé, it was announced that George and Amal Clooney are expecting twins. Those Hollywood In Vitro clinics are working overtime these days!

Speaking of babies, Jason Statham proved he’s the Transporter of Sperm, as he announced he’s expecting a baby with girlfriend Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

I don’t like Tom Brady. Don’t like a thing about him. I find it odd that you can be suspended for cheating AND win the Super Bowl in the same damn season. That said, that was a Hell of a comeback during Sunday’s Super Bowl LI. Somehow, the Atlanta Falcons blew a 25-point lead, allowing the New England Patriots to mount an amazing comeback and win their 5th Super Bowl title. It was the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. There was Edelman’s amazing catch. Some are calling it the most exciting game of football ever. But in the end there can only be one winner, and that was the Patriots. So, with that in mind, the New England Patriots had the West Week Ever.

[recentanimenews]

How Naruto Pulled Off Keeping Naruto and Sasuke Away For Almost Three Years

  Over the past year and a half, I’ve watched a lot of Naruto for the very first time. From our collective Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch to going through Naruto Shippuden with a few folks on the Features team, it’s been an accelerated crash course through the series. It’s a lot of episodes, but not having to wait week-to-week makes it much easier. This also made a detail clear in the transition to Shippuden that feels like it would have been an excruciating wait for anime-only fans. They had to patiently wait 1,044 days (2 years, 10 months, 9 days) to see Naruto and Sasuke on screen together in a meaningful capacity.

  To put that into comparison, manga readers would have only had to see 588 days pass or a little over a year and a half to have this fated encounter take place. The anime is almost twice as long in between. Why? Is the wait worthwhile? Does the reunion mean more the longer you wait for it or does it lose its impact?

    Now, it’s important to address that the very first episode of Shippuden is a cold open that showcases what happens nearly a year later when the show finally gets to the reunion. You could count that as the actual reunion, but you don’t really have context of what’s happening, so instead, we’re going to utilize the episode with actual context attached to it. The last time fans had seen both characters on screen together was in Episode 134 of Naruto, “The End of Tears.” That’s where the bombastic fight between Naruto and Sasuke ends and they both go down two separate paths — one leading back to the Hidden Leaf Village and the other studying under Orochimaru.

  The biggest reason anime fans had so much time in between their reunion was that shortly after this episode, Naruto would go into its infamous filler block that would round out the series before Shippuden. The mid-00s were still a time where anime adaptations would come out and eventually reach a point where they’d catch up to the manga. Rather than stop, that’s where you’d get lengthy filler arcs to allow for the manga to continue before the series would eventually go back to the canon material. Today, that’s something that’s becoming less and less common due to shows taking breaks and there being less long-running series.

    By the time you get to Shippuden and see that cold-open showcasing Naruto and Sasuke facing off again, you’re lulled into a false hope as you think that’s going to kickstart this new series. Instead, the show again makes you wait nearly a whole year before you actually get to that moment in Episode 51, “Reunion.” Looking at it in hindsight, that’s a pretty risky move to make fans wait so much longer after they’d gone through a year and a half of filler. Of course, you can’t just skip two big arcs from the manga as that would cause a huge problem for the anime, but it’s hard to imagine folks wouldn't have preferred the show skip all that so they could see what happens when Naruto and Sasuke face off on their television screens once again.

  From May 11, 2005 to March 20, 2008 is such a long time, what could you have accomplished while Naruto and Sasuke were kept apart on screen? You could have bought a PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii and have already amassed a sizable collection of games. Heck, in that amount of time you may have almost finished up with high school or college! You would’ve been able to watch Fate/stay Night, Ouran High School Host Club, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Welcome to the N.H.K., Gurren Lagann, and many others from start to finish. You’d also see the start of shows that would run longer or have multiple seasons such as Gintama, Clanaad, and D.Gray-man. It’s wild to think that there were so many shows that are so well regarded and remembered today that aired in that short time span.

    If we fast forward through those 1,044 days as you can if you binge the series now, would that long length of time have been worth the wait to see Naruto and Sasuke together again? I’m sure fans that were watching at the time might have different opinions, but when I finally got to that moment, it still felt very big and important. However, the long stretch of filler in Naruto has the potential to burn anyone out, and I’d imagine if they continued straight into Shippuden seeing the cold-open and then knowing that there’s a year until that moment happens, it might make them a tad upset. That’s a lot to go through, just to have the rug pulled out from under you.

  On the other hand, having to wait that long allows the show to give you a true slow build all the way to their reunion. It’s certainly not a great slow build since a lot of it is inconsequential filler, but slow builds are something that’s incredibly hard to do. In today’s day and age of being able to have anything available to us at any moment in time, it seems harder and harder to utilize this kind of storytelling because fans can sometimes be impatient. Back in the mid-00s, it was a different time and place. Would a show now be able to make fans wait nearly three years for a big and important moment without some form of revolt happening? 

    Despite the long wait and having to navigate a whole lot of filler, I think this is truly a good moment that the show is able to capture very well. From Naruto and Sakura’s genuine shock of seeing Sasuke for the first time in three years to the way the camera work slowly reveals that it’s Sasuke, you’re able to feel that tense, uncomfortable, and surprising feeling that Naruto and Sakura have. Immediately you want to know what’s going to happen next, how much more powerful Sasuke has gotten, and if Naruto can keep up after being in rough shape from his Nine-Tails transformation. If you’d been following since the beginning and waited all of those 1,044 days, you could at last say, “Finally.”

  Of course, they’re only together for a few episodes before the show splits them apart again to where I’m currently at with watching Shippuden. It's been about a year’s worth of episodes, and they haven’t been on screen together. Naruto sure does love making people wait for inevitable clashes, that’s for sure. While this one was much longer than it ever needed to be (you really don’t need to watch the long filler run in Naruto, trust me), and it took a while to see the two of them together again, it leads to an incredible moment that immediately gets you amped up for the next chapter between these two friends and rivals.

  Were you someone who had to go through the long and arduous wait to see these two characters together on screen again? If so, how did you feel when they reunited? Or, if you're someone who watched the series later, what was your reaction when this happened? Let us know down in the comments below!

    Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[biofunmy]

The Next Generation Will Have a Lot of Aryas

When Katherine Acosta, who lives in Houston, was prescribed bed rest after a miscarriage in 2017, she started watching “Game of Thrones” for the first time. Within a week, she had seen all seven seasons. Then, she watched all of the episodes twice more.

So when she became pregnant again that year, Ms. Acosta knew exactly the name her daughter would have: Khaleesi, which essentially means “queen” in the made-up language Dothraki. It is also one of the many titles held by Daenerys Targaryen, a main character on the show and one of the contenders for the Iron Throne.

“Her character loses the baby and then she gets stronger again,” Ms. Acosta said. “She defeats all the odds. She knows what she wants.”

Ms. Acosta’s own Khaleesi defeated some odds, too. Her daughter was born two months early and spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (where a nurse said she was planning to name her own daughter Arya, after another of the show’s female leads). “I saw her as my little miracle,” Ms. Acosta said.

Since “Game of Thrones” premiered on HBO in 2011, the name Khaleesi has moved from the screen into real life; in 2017, it was the 630th most popular name given to girls, according to the Social Security Administration, making it more popular than Brittany or Britney. By contrast, Hermione and Katniss, the names of two other extremely popular female characters in literature and on the screen, never broke into the top 1,000.

Khaleesi has also been on the rise in the U.K., where some parents are adding creative flourishes. In 2017, Scotland welcomed a Khaleesi-Destiny and a Khaleesi-Grace, and last year, a Khaleesi-Marie joined their ranks.

But the most popular baby name associated with “Game of Thrones” appears to be Arya. It’s not clear how much the show has to do with that; variations of Arya have been around long before the book came out (in India, Indonesia and Iran, for example). But Arya did not break into the top 1,000 names in the U.S. until 2010, and instances of the name before then appear to be mostly for boys. Since 2010, Arya has steadily risen in popularity to 135th place, with 2,156 babies born in 2017 taking the name.

One of those babies is the daughter of Marina Lippincott, the founder of MAKDigitalDesign, a company based in New Jersey, who has been a devoted “Game of Thrones” viewer since the show’s debut. She read the books before the show came out, and has rewatched all the televised seasons before each and every new season premiere. Her baby shower had a “Game of Thrones” theme.

“Some people think I took my obsession with the show too far,” Ms. Lippincott said of naming her daughter Arya. “I don’t really care. Arya knows who she is and that’s who she wants to be. She goes and gets it. Nothing stops her — not even that she’s a small girl.”

Also cropping up on birth certificates is Daenerys, which is less popular than Khaleesi despite the fact that it is that character’s given name. The year 2017 also saw the arrival of 20 Sansas, 11 Cerseis, 55 Tyrions and 23 Theons in the United Statets. Pet parents are joining the trend, too, with dogs named “Jorah Mormutt,” Asha and Tyrion, and cats called Lady and Drogo.

One pair of parents-to-be plan are honoring the show in a less obvious way, and naming their daughter, due in August, Winter. Christina Jettie and her husband, the proud parents to be, often say to each other: “Winter is coming.”

“My husband and I met when season one started,” said Ms. Jettie, an environmental engineer based in South Carolina. “He invited me over to watch it with his roommates. They were the only ones who had HBO. We got hooked immediately. Our first dates were getting together on Sundays and watching it.” For their honeymoon, the couple went to Iceland, where a number of the show’s scenes were shot, and joined a “Game of Thrones” tour.

A name like Winter skirts an issue some parents have run up against: confusion around spelling and pronunciation. Kaylee Finney, mother to a four-month-old named Arya, watches “Game of Thrones” with her family, who are equally compelled by it. “We watched all seven seasons within four days,” Ms. Finney said. “I have seen the first seven seasons at least 100 times. I know it word for word.” But other people she meets in Oklahoma, where she lives, do not know the show that well. “Nobody knows where I got the name,” Ms. Finney said. “They have trouble pronouncing it. They call her Ay-ria.”

Mispronunciation is a problem Jamie Chang also knows well when it comes to her 15-monh-old daughter Khaleesi. “At the doctor’s office they call Kuh-less-ee, or by her last name,” Ms. Chang said. The spelling is tough, as well. “The H throws everybody off,” Ms. Chang said. “Some people think it’s two Ss, some people think it ends with a Y.” But Ms. Chang thinks that in a decade or so, when Khaleesi is a teenager, her cohort will recognize the name, where it originated and what it stands for: “Strength,” Ms. Chang said. “She’s definitely a woman who knows her power, knows what she wants.”

Overall, Ms. Chang said she is happy with the name, despite the spelling errors and some of the backlash she has received. “Someone on Twitter was like, ‘How stupid. You named her after a fictional language,’” Ms. Chang said. “It might be fictional, but everybody knows what it stands for. It means queen. Anyway, who is to say what is a real name and what isn’t?”

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Season 5 of Dexter is the fucking best ok?

I just finished it (2 days ago when i started writing this post) and I’m sad as fuck but I keep thinking about the story and one specific character this season gave me. Like imagine, you’ve been held prisoner for a week while some scums of the earth repeatedly raped and tortured you. Then suddenly you are left alone and when you finally manage to take the ropes off your wrists and try to escape, there comes some guy and he just kills the one who was gonna end you. You think this time you are def next but instead he treats your wounds and brings you meds. Oh my god. Fast forward to a few hours later when you learn that he came there specifically to kill the other one because he knew what was going on (not with you but with other girls that were before you). Then he finds all your things, gently tries to persuade you to leave and move on, but how can you when you are afraid of everyone now? People cannot just forget this hell they went through. So when you gather all you courage and go after the second one of your rapists and shoot him, he comes at your first call and helps you and surprisingly you both don’t get arrested. Then he saves you from the third one of them like his life (not yours) depends on it, teaches you how to kill and clean up afterwards. You realize that he would still do this, would still avenge you even if you weren’t there. The fourth kill is all yours and he watches and he looks like he is proud of you and you couldn’t possibly make him any happier. At this point I was just clutching my chest and probably squeaking a little. So when they finally did the do i was like “this is the most beautiful moment of television!!1″ And it was. Goddamn that Bonnie and Clyde parallel. Thank FUCK nothing happened to her, and her decision to finally leave was understandable and I’m really happy for her but shit am i sad for him. So fucking sad. But anyway this post was about Lumen. The light. I’ve found my new fave female character. And can i just add that when she burst through that door when she watched Dexter kill that bitch, i knew it was Julia, i just immediately recognized her through all the mud and hair and torn clothes. Ah.

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Wrong in Different Ways

“An accurate memory of the past would be depressing, probably.” – David Lynch One of the best jokes in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks occurred when Agent Cooper and Sheriff Harry Truman, at the end of a long day of detective work, return to the Sheriff’s Office to find a mounted deer head laying on its side. The odd response from a minor character (“Oh, it fell down”) underlines a lot of the initial appeal of the series: A seemingly innocuous moment executed with comedic pacing and an absurdity designed to relieve the tension built up from a string of traumatic plot revelations. It’s weird, but not “too weird.” It’s, in today’s language, quirky. The first two seasons of Twin Peaks are full of these kinds of moments. We have the legendary “damn fine” cups of coffee. We have Major Briggs’s extraordinary wisdom. We have Cooper’s played-for-laughs lesson on the nation of Tibet and the mystic knowledge he draws from it. And, as the second season burrows into its bizarre middle and late periods, we get super strength, aliens, and Confederate soldier amnesia. It’s a show whose metaphysics hinge on a dwarf who speaks backwards. These bits have lingered on as a 25-years-running set of passwords. How there was “a fish in the percolator” or how the owls are “not what they seem” or how “it is happening again.” These phrases have been passed along, referenced, parodied, remixed, rebuilt, paid forward into other works that have absorbed the show’s legacy. This tone — humorous, mysterious, offbeat — has been perhaps the most visible product of the show’s brief initial run. Nearly every beloved television series of the intervening generation, from Lost to True Detective to even Glee, has at some point been described as “like Twin Peaks.” But, within these sometimes scattered ideas about what the series may or may not represent, there begs another question: What do we mean when we say something is “like Twin Peaks”? --- Animation: Korey Daunhauer Other things that are like Twin Peaks: Wind blowing through a stand of Douglas Fir. A traffic light changing from yellow to red in the darkness. A ceiling fan turning, frighteningly, forever. When Twin Peaks first aired, I was four years old. I remember sneaking into the living room to see my mom watching the show and, on other nights, hearing Angelo Badalamenti’s music lurking outside my bedroom door. I remember catching a glimpse of Cooper in the Sheriff’s station, his eyebrows up in fear, and hearing synthesizer chords hanging in our hallway, moments that made my mom “afraid.” I remember being up later than I should have been. I remember the lights being off. All mundane, average things somehow made wrong by what was on TV. This, for me, is what I think of as being “like” Twin Peaks. Because when you talk about Twin Peaks, you are also talking about much more than its plot. Because when you talk about Twin Peaks, you are also talking about much more than its plot. There is the TV series, its companion movie, and their various release formats throughout the year. There is the fandom that blossomed around these two pieces of media and their various tie-ins (books, cassettes, merchandising). There is the career of one of its creators and how this single storyworld may or may not speak for the entirety of their body of work. There are GIFs, memes, theme parties, Etsy art, and SXSW pop-up events. There is Log Lady cosplay. In all this, it’s easy to lose track of the show’s plot: the murder mystery of teenage Laura Palmer, the small-town homecoming queen whose private life was (like those owls) not what it seemed. Alongside its endearing cast and twilight-Borscht Belt sense of humor, it was this mystery that first lured a large network audience to the series’s first season. And, as the reasons for the killing became more elliptical and less grounded to Earth (though maybe more poetically drawing from the show’s interest in the earth and nature), many of those same fans moved on to other fictional universes. In the immediate clearing wrought by Twin Peaks, we got Northern Exposure — also a show “like Twin Peaks” that my mother watched at night, though one that made her less “afraid.” Offbeat, quirky. Weird, but not too weird. --- Animation: Korey Daunhauer Also like Twin Peaks: A poker chip. The sound of neon crackling through a bar sign. Rope tied around a wrist. I have a screencap on my desktop of James Hurley — the series’s sensitive bad boy, as opposed to its other criminal bad boys or its demon-possessed bad boys — sitting on a hilltop overlooking the breathtaking view of the mountains bordering the town of Twin Peaks, his motorcycle parked next to him. In the context of the show, James and his motorcycle are sort of a duo (a theme explored with great detail in his much-derided road trip in season 2). In another scene from the pilot, when James drives off from his uncle Ed’s “gas farm,” he slips on a pair of sunglasses before riding away, like it’s no big deal. For a series whose aesthetic can feel so unique, so precisely defined, much about Twin Peaks feels like an echo of something else. James prefigures Nicolas Cage’s words from David Lynch’s Peaks-contemporary feature film Wild At Heart, where he declares, wonderfully, that his snakeskin jacket is a “symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.” Hurley, in his leather jacket, on his hog, wearing these shades, wearing his square jaw handsomeness, speaks just as clearly, and ridiculously, and earnestly, to his belief in personal freedom. For a series whose aesthetic can feel so unique, so precisely defined, much about Twin Peaks feels like an echo of something else. Twin Peaks often feels like it is either making fun of something or being deadly sincere about that same thing, oftentimes both at once. Even from the beginning, the dialogue is corny (“Quit worryin’ and start screwin’, Mr. Touchdown”) and many of the jokes don’t “work” in the way one might like them to. This, of course, is also much of what is “like” Twin Peaks: the gap, similar to irony but something much weirder, between what we expect and what we get. It’s disarming. It makes one pause and wonder. It messes deeply with one’s bearing for what, if anything, we’re supposed to be taking seriously here — and why some of these things might be taken more seriously than others. Why do we allow some of this to resonate and not the rest? What does it say about us if we can’t totally “go there”? What will people think of me if I don’t get it? --- Animation: Korey Daunhauer Another example from Lynch’s pilot that is “like Twin Peaks”: the scene when Laura’s friends first learn of her death in the middle of class. When this discovery comes — illustrated, crushingly, by Laura’s empty desk — her best friend and confidant, Donna, is moved to an explosion of grief. This meme-ready image, of actress Lara Flynn Boyle’s head tilted back in despair, openly weeping, has become an icon of something core to the identity of the Twin Peaks universe: the intrusion of a deep sadness into “normal life.” Maybe more than any violence or supernatural evil, it is this quality — the stuff that brings us to tears — that both disrupts and defines life in Twin Peaks. There are few other television shows or films that allow its characters more frequent and intense displays of things so easily repressed, of actual crying, of more opportunities to react to trauma with not just inner pain but a pandemonium of feelings: terror, rage, screaming. How does James react in this same scene? James, stone-faced, snaps his pencil in half. It’s quirky, and it’s somehow placed at exactly the wrong moment, the timing completely off. Also in this scene, which feels equally “like Twin Peaks” despite its seemingly frivolous nature: a poster on the back wall of Abraham Lincoln. --- Animation: Korey Daunhauer A lot of what we remember about Twin Peaks now is environmental. The red curtains of the Black Lodge and the roadhouse stage, the zig-zag of black and white, tall trees filtered through fog. All of its objects. Rewatching the series, I tried to make a list of every “object” that felt important. Three episodes in, this list began to feel psychotic: ashtrays, gas pumps, jukeboxes (plural). I wrote the word “lumber” a dozen times. Everything — every “thing” — seemed to carry another meaning. Even the most basic details, after a few hours, vibrated differently. Each lamp felt ominous. Twin Peaks has hung around for almost three decades partially for this reason. The lasting mystery of the show is less in the question it was marketed under — “Who killed Laura Palmer?” — but in that question of what, exactly, we’re even seeing. Its audience returns to these episodes again and again, because something about them feels unfinished. That creeping feeling that something is not right here, that things have gone terribly, cosmically wrong — and that it still (as James puts it) “makes some kind of terrible sense.” The lasting mystery of the show is less in the question it was marketed under — “Who killed Laura Palmer?” — but in that question of what, exactly, we’re even seeing. That the series often asks you to largely throw away logic and to be swept up in its senses, “terrible” or otherwise, is also what has given the show its long life. Lynch and creative partner Mark Frost don’t seem interested in telling the story of Laura Palmer’s murder to “say” anything about her death, or about death in general. They tell this story because it feels a certain way. The haze of American upper-middle-class suburbia — caught temporally between the era of the show’s premiere, the 80s, and that of Lynch’s own childhood, the 50s — is used for a texture of banality, the “normal world” terrorized by the show’s supernatural forces. Like much of Lynch’s work, this resonates the deepest as a kind of dream place, perhaps his attempt to rebuild and remake the specifics of his own youth in order to reveal the sensations he felt buried in there. And yet: while Twin Peaks may not be the real world, it’s also not only fantasy. And it’s certainly not universal. It is a specific vision with precise references to an era its creators grew up in: neon diner signs, girls in sweater sets, sleazy rock & roll, wall-to-wall carpeting, cassette tapes, the highly stylized signifiers of a mid-century middle-class American culture. These references don’t belong to everybody, but they do belong to the person who dropped a teenager’s murder into the middle of them. They resonate not because they’re ours, but because we can tell they are somebody’s. Many of us might like the chance to revisit and rebuild our childhoods; Lynch just has the privilege of giving us his childhood back to us. Twin Peaks might not always ask you to think, but it always asks that you feel — deeply, confusingly, uncontrollably. Fitting for a story about spirit possession and a community unprepared to deal with it, when Twin Peaks works, it can seem like a thing that is being done to us, intruding in our own normal spaces, flipping them. Creeping down the hallway. Driving us to host costume parties. Still making us “afraid.” Twin Peaks’s power is that it makes things wrong, but it never makes them right again. The show just continues making them wrong in different ways. http://j.mp/2rc7ghY