#jessi liveblogs sort of

[henghost]

Twig Liveblog for Arc 14

lots of crazy shit happened in this arc it was so good!! first of all it's so psychedelic. the lambs talking about sylvester in the third person while he just sort of mopes around, barely alive--really a terrifying section. the city of new amsterdam provides quite the psychedelic backdrop too, with pulsing walls and living buildings.

and it's got so many cool nobles!!! i love the infante so much, you all have no idea. greatest wildbow character of all time. and then my second favorite wildbow character of all time (the god mauer) shows up too... and then the two queens face off... we're truly spoiled. this arc has probably some of the best Mauer Moments™ so far. he fucking slits syvette's throat what a badass. his encounter with augustus the noble was kind of beautiful--we see mauer's drive and doubt and determination in one fatal moment. even if mauer commits the most evil acts of all time i'm still ride or die for him.

the time spent as evette was insane--sy's psyche, which has been splitting since the death of jamie, has its most dramatic fracture yet. i find it fascinating the way sy's identity exists only in relation to the other lambs. sy is sy only insofar as he is not helen, gordon, lillian, etc. and when the equilibrium is disrupted, sy cannot really be himself. the lambs are like one organism it's so evil to split them up!!! i think the sequence where evette has her heart outside her body is a metaphor for this idea. i mean they did it to themselves here lol but i guess it's just part of sy's Journey. twig is so existentialist. sy must create himself.

my favorite part of the arc was mauer taking evette to The Block. it felt like something out of true detective. we get a kind of answer at the end of the arc, but there is still so much mystery. i'm such a sucker for conspiracy thrillers involving the abuse of children. such haunting context, too.

and then right after they talk about the child trafficking jessie comes out lmao. so sweet!!!!!!!! the love between jessie and sy is so pure and beautiful it makes my heart race. they understand each other so deeply and fundamentally and intimately. they must kiss imminently!!!!!!!!!!

the interlude with lillian made me want to be an academy student so bad even though it seems so awful lol. it's like "the magicians" i just want to escape into the evil fantasy school. then the infante shows up again let's fucking goooooo. he's very mean to lillian and the lambs but that is his right. i'm also very intrigued about the idea of giving wyvern to the duke, but i would root heavily against him in his quest to harm the infante. i only liked the duke before i knew about the infante, and now that i know there is a larger, more powerful noble, the duke is basically a stupid maggot to me who must be squished more.

[goatsandgangsters]

I’m doing shadow and bone ep 5 on a Monday like some kind of rebel

bc I’m always like ~~ooooh I have to make an Occasion out of things, I have to make it Special, I can’t watch new things on just any old Monday. OR, I COULD STOP NOT DOING THINGS I WANT TO DO AND DO THEM. anyway, let’s proceed, I Want More Content Goddammit

previous liveblogs

AND A SHARP HORNY INHALE WAS HEARD ROUND THE WORLD FROM THE DARKOLAI CONTINGENT AT “LITTLE PRINCE”

I’m fine. it’s fine. I’m fine. I can cope. I can deal. I’m fine.

“we have to keep our demons at bay” WELL GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. I did cackle out loud like the dramatic-irony-loving bitch I am

also how come every time Alina gets a new boyfriend, one his family members tries to kill Mal? (I sense that this is more a. a plot-required relocating of the Mal and also b. Vasily is an idiot, but personally if I was a conniving little weasel I’d have gone with the angle of “oh look my bastard brother is going to have more bastard children because his fiancee is already having an affair” instead of like, relocating the evidence. just my two cents there, Vasya)

….this was NOT the bed that Wylan and Jesper were in last night, where the hell did they wake up

“Ravka needs saving” is the funniest possible way to intrude. like, there are characters that would DEFINITELY WORK on, but poor Wesper just like “and why the fuck do we care!!”

That’s a bold statement, Tamar, when you absolutely know he IS going to start reciting epic poetry to Zoya. it’s not even a question. it’s GOING to happen

sdkjkhsdkjghsdkg Baghra like “oh you’re all pathetic, nvm maybe my son should kill you”

LIKE. IS IT THAT DOMINIK? IS HE?? ALIVE???? OR IS HE JUST SOME RANDO NAMED AFTER NIKOLAI’S DEAD CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART?? I mean, happy for you Nikolai if your boyfriend’s alive, but him dying in your arms was kind of a formative moment for you so—oh. oh no. is it that dominik but he’s not DEAD YET?? are we about to have some nikolai’s-boyfriend on nikolai’s-boyfriend violence?

“THE PUPPY PRINCE” okay so we got one sobachka from his mother, and one sobachka from his mother-in-law

oh you’ll hammer him will you ;)

look, I know it’s a tense scene, but Baghra and Nikolai SNARKING at each other was my favorite scene in Ruin & Rising, so if I don’t get some quips between these two later on, I will be sad about it

(they’re not..... letting Paddy quip enough? which is really surprising, because my concern going in was that they’d reduce nikolai to “charming funny guy” and ignore his depth. and they’re doing depth in SPADES which I’m grateful about, but they’re not actually letting him do the Showmanship Exterior enough?) (I know this episode is A Particularly Tough Day For Him, Given Events, but just sort of overall) 

I don't hate it, but why is Jesper in a kilt

oh good, I’m glad they kept it in that Tatiana KNEW what the king was doing the whole time and Simply Did Not Care. don’t absolve her. fuck her. 

Daisy and Luke are SO good :3333 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I Am Softe

Tolya Jesper Relationship Advice is so funny

Wylan you can’t just run away holding merchandise, I don’t think you paid for it

Kaz really said “it’s just hot leaf juice” didn’t he

W A F F L E S

this entire cast is extraordinarily talented, but Freddy really is The Absolute Stand Out this season, he’s just incredible

APT!!! PUPIL!!!!!!

oh I see what Jessie meant when they said they borrowed some of Ben’s mannerisms, YOU DO LOVE TO SEE IT

“I’ve feared everything there is to fear,” yes we know, we’re all watching you get hit with the broken dam of 800 years of totally unprocessed trauma and Making It Everyone’s Problem

/KICKING MY FEET AND GO TEEHEEHEE aahhuuhhhhh fuuuuuuuuck we got an apt pupil scene we got an alina making that man’s sub hindbrain kick on the second alina showed him some attention we got a “problem with wanting” we got a version(™) of my faaaave sceeeeeeene

……I love that Mal just like. had this ENTIRE sidequest adventure of being kidnapped and court martialed and escaping, and we never saw a single second of it. it’s. like. a little funny. it wasn’t even plot relevant the way I thought it was going to be. like, all that just happened, off screen 

“You’re barreling through this” you SURE are, season 2. Mal like “I can barely keep up [with what book we’re in] *looks directly into the camera*”

“You just keep eating your walnuts” AND TOLYA LAUGHS awwwwwww he’s fond of Zoyaaaaa

I’m on Zoya’s side in the Nina argument, I’m just ambivalent towards Matthias, I’m sorry

………though Matthias Pekka Hellgate Drama might make things more interesting

Excuse me, I don’t think HE left the wound on the country. Just Fucking Saying. Maybe otkazat’sya should stop committing genocide, idk, how about that. how about that otkazat’sya fix their shit first. like, I’m sorry, your king’s a rapist, you have serfs, everyone lives in squalor while wealth and excess is concentrated in the extreme on just a few, you’ve got a two-front war going with countries that want to see an entire portion of your population eradicated and enslaved via magic drugs and medical experimentation. but sure! it’s the shadow wall that’s the wound in need of healing. okay. sure. I mean I don’t think trying to keep all your friends and your mom from getting murdered when your back is against the wall is like, a wound on your country, I think your country putting your pack to the wall in the first place is the wound, but anyway— 

whatever, I’ll just be over here hoping there’s some Grisha Theorist out there writing a piece called My Words to the Black Heretic Above the Fold: Performing Grisha Rage

iiiif you’re trying to make a metaphor for interpersonal abuse don’t use genocide as a backstory clap your hands. if you’re trying to make a metaphor for interpersonal abuse don’t use genocide as a backstory clap your hands! if you’re trying to make a metaphor, and you want it just about interpersonal shit, if you want to make a metaphor, don’t use sociopolitics-you-aren’t-equipped-to-handle clap your hands (okay, my syllables don’t line up, but you get my melody)

Jack is REALLY good and I’m glad they’re letting Jesper have depth this season and not just reducing him to the comedic sidekick

this is the first episode where I’ve been like eeeeeeeeh. so. season 1 had a rough front half, great back half? don’t tell me season 2 has a great front half, rough back half?

[pinkfloralcake]

morse:  *finds note written in hebrew, right-side-up*

morse: *promply turns it upside-down*

[henghost]

Twig Liveblog for Arc 16

good arc :O getting into the "late game" now. had the quality of a bottle episode or something, as most of the action takes place within small quarters, and it's quite tightly plotted by wildbow standards, though certainly the fighting against nameless soldiers and monsters thing does get tiresome (this is par for the course).

the plague and the tender mercies made for compelling antagonists. the vivid red of blood and plague against the wintry city is pleasing imagery indeed. there are a couple sort of quiet, understated moments that evoke their horror (the baby-killing scene, the mercy left behind, etc) in quite an effective way -- far more effective, anyway, than the lengthy ostentatious Battles that take up so much of twig.

the character of berger was for me the most interesting part. there's an appealing sort of ambiguity to him. he is on one hand the very picture of a cruel technocratic academic. but -- and this is especially obvious when it comes to his children etc. -- he clearly does have his own hopes and fears. that is, he comes across as truly human in a way the other evil professors/doctors often don't.

the shit with shirley is not well handled at all lmao, i suppose that shouldn't be surprising. sy picks her up almost purely and self-consciously as a plot device. after the shit with lillian he needs a kind of girl-macguffin to keep him going. whether consciously or not, he wants her to be captured, endangered, etc., so he has something to do, a thread connecting him to the rest of the world. a more sympathetic reading might highlight the crossover in the experience of a sex worker and the experience of an experiment -- people used in a very direct way for there mere biological potential, their bare life. but i'm not super inclined to be sympathetic lol, especially since shirley gets very little characterization or sense of interiority outside her damsel in distress-ness. she is easily swapped out for mabel or any other woman unlucky enough to encounter sylvester (except for jessie ;_; they belong together).

i thought the ashton interlude was interesting for its discussion of "bare life." he's interesting sort of foil for the other lambs, whose motivations are as complex as they are painful. wouldn't it better to be like ashton! just chilling out, content with eating, walking, drinking, and so on. like if i had to pick a lamb to be it would be ashton because he seems to always be having a great time.

and then the lambs are one again reunited!!! as it should be. ohoho twig really picks up when all the lambs are together. i am sure they will save the crown states together and be happy for the rest of their lives and sy and jessie will kiss :)))

[pinkfloralcake]

burrows says he and fellow walker, binks, did the santiago de compestela together, isnt that the same one hathaway did ? i bet they actually went in, tho.

[pinkfloralcake]

spoilahs for endeavour 5x01 muse

[rock music plays]

lol this was going to be a really cool, chill post and then this face happened:

and this:

this is the effect rock music has on morse

“is this your idea of discreet observation?” lol poor fancy

leave the kid alone, morse

but look at the hair tho

fancy can’t help but notice

[pinkfloralcake]

angel

bonus:

MORSE THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DO FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

[pinkfloralcake]

spoilers for endeavour 5x01: muse, below !

“Why, haven’t you seen her?”

:’‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘((((

then LOL morse’s face when fancy shows up... the more i look at it the less lol it is and the more :( when u find out there’s trouble with your favorite dad

and poor fancy’s face when morse kicks him out of the the pub lunch :(

how could you morse

of course this is the same morse that pulls lewis away from his lunches

look at that face. he dgaf.

thursday needs to have a dad talk with morse on how to dad

[pinkfloralcake]

Strange: I’ll get the cribbage board out once Hughie Green’s done.

not a fan, eh

[pinkfloralcake]

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind

[pinkfloralcake]

spoilers for muse, endeavour 5x01

“very well. carry on.”

creepdude: “the sole proviso of membership is one must be a gentleman of quality.”

morse: *DEATH-STARE*

#great expressions

[pinkfloralcake]

“You were young once.”

“I’m still young!”

my god they really are the odd couple. are they actually roomies now ? i didn’t realize XD  goodness this is too good !!

[pinkfloralcake]

“Just keep your wits about you.”

“What does that mean?”

[pinkfloralcake]

!!!!!!!!!!!!! im just now watching this week’s legends an john constantine just winked at leonard snart !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pinkfloralcake]

i love these two

[pinkfloralcake]

poor morse

i feel squeamish and i don’t even have to look at it