#just stuff i read that i just TOTALLY loved and thought wasnt completely ooc

[dhmis-autism]

my yellow guy playlist is my longest and also best one, and it also CANNOT be on spotify bc its missing half the songs for it! sad!

[sillylittlelemon]

HELLO!! ok sorry I’m not sure if ur still doing match ups so u can just ignore this if u want but could I get a saiki k and a hazbin hotel matchup <33

- I’m a certified yapper and I will ramble on about my interests for hours

- Im a big people pleaser and I try my best to make everyone around me feel comfortable and appreciated

- I tend to tolerate toxic behaviour just to avoid abandonment

- Im a romcom enthusiast and a bit of a film buff

- I like loads of music and singers but lately I’ve been loving my bloody valentine , salvia palth , alex g and Tyler the creator.

- My love languages are probably acts of service and physical touch.

- My humour is kinda all over the place and Im a sucker for dad jokes and well thought out dirty jokes

- I’m a hopeless romantic and I would probably fall head over heels for anyone who shows the slightest amount of interest in me

Okay- i wasnt sure about your sexuality (or gender) so ill do short headcannons for two characters i think youd fit with (seperatly not poly)

Sorry to my other requests im working as i go- right now tumblr is a passion project so ive gotta feel like- i dunno 'the spark' to actually get it done, but i promiseim trying

ALSO just a warning to anyone who reads/requests saiki k stuff, its been a bit sincei watched the show and also i donthave anywhere ican watch it currently so characters areprobably atleast a little ooc

This chick-

(I make a vauge reference to a little spice in her part but nothing explicit or bad)

And this guy-

YES. I know they have totally different vibes but hear me out.

He gives such 'im a big tough guy, but please love me in secret and call me your favorite boy'

she gives such 'im a brat but im your brat and actually i just want love and attention because i look like i would have major mommy issues'

And i dunno it just works

He would def be a cuddle bug once the walls are down and yall have bonded more and your in private(read: MUST be in private bc bb boy is defensive and dont f with pda), i feel like hes the type to hold you on his chest and rub your back (yall are laying on his/your couch or bed) and when he thinks your asleep he starts murmuring under his breath about how he's so glad you got past his walls- about how it means so much to him that you put up with his bs. This def lead to you pretending to be asleep more often so you can hear in words how he really feels, because lets be honest, words dont always equal feelings, and sometimes (i.e most times) he doesnt say it how he means it.

Now HER on the other hand-

All. Over. You.

Like..

Lowkey her?

Shes just so happy to HAVE you, right? Like- soulmates or not, youre hers. She adores you. Worships the ground you walk on, praises you breathless in more ways than one. Shes so confident- like... even if she isnt ACTUALLY, she portrays it so well, and she Hypes. You. Up. 24/7, 365. No matter if youre short, tall, heavy, skinny, freckled, dark, pale, or anywhere in between. She is making sure everyone knows youre her girl (or boy or whatever but based on your sentence structure im guessing female?) [NOT MEANT TO BE OFFENSE I SWEAR I JUST IMAGINED YOU BEING FEMALE?] -oh god im gunna get cancelled-

N-E-Ways

Same here but itll be just generally better bc im more caught up with this fandom lol

He is this

But he wants to be this so bad

Sir precious for my darling precious

And

His love lmao

Sir Precious is 100% angel material (take that sera you bitch 🤟😝) He's just.... precious. Lmao. We've seen how flustered he gets with Cherry and imagine that but like- in an ACTUAL relationship with pda and shit. Like- stuttering, panicking, but also completely soothed by the hand currently resting in his? So many conflicting emotions, y'knowwww... he might need a kiss to get his head straight? Or maybe two? Hmmm, no that didnt work- lets try three, third times a charm right? *cue pentious sly+nervous smile* Would 100% bury his face in your tits/chest (under much encouragement and reassurance even more now that his minions spill the tea that hes been talking in his sleep about this very moment)

-can we talk about the smooth bass in the finale?-

-poor husk, man was singing and smiling like his soul was free-

Why do i feel like this is right up her alley?

Onto Miss Bomb,

She's a lot more brash in her affections. Not afraid to tug you down to her level and suck your soul out through your lips. Def had an emo phase when she was alive (if shes not still in it) She just.. loves you. Like her and angel you guys bicker, but i feel like while youre bickering she has her chin resting on your chest/tits, staring up at you with the slyest smirk and biggest heart eyes known to demon AND man kind.

[jaimetheexplorer]

I brought down by niks latest interview.Saying "J never needed redemp.He was a guy who certain circumstances in his life e.g. Kingslayer so then he needed to redeem himself bc he did this horrible thing when killing the Mad King. Then N said the redemp arc where he had to be good guy, stay with Bri etc that's not GOT.You cant erase ur prev life.Jaime bel that redeem urself meant redeeming his past and he couldnt. He can't cut off who he was.The idea of leaving C alone is impossible to him" Wtf?

2/2 Downhearted anon. Just that interview makes no sense. In prev season interviews, wasnt Nik wanting Jaime to escape Cersei for good and be with Braime forever, like he was the biggest Braime shipper??? I dont understand. Does he think ppl don’t remember stuff? Its a shame theres no way to ask him about this.

Dear Downhearted anon,

I have to admit I read only a short excerpt from that interview, so I might have missed some of the other content, but, from what I read, this is what I can say.

There are different layers to his comments, IMO. One is the take on the story, and the other is the justification of the writing choices. And, as much as I might vehemently disagree with the former, what I take issue with is the latter.

When it comes to the take on the story, we have to remember that he has to talk about the actual content of the show. The show, unfortunately, did go with the idea that Jaime is essentially doomed to never escape his past. I do not believe that is his arc in the books for many reasons, and I think it was extremely underwhelming, nihlistic and unsatisfying even just taking the context of the show into account. But, unfortunately, nihilistic and unsatisfying is what we got. The show was aiming for romanticizing incest and abuse romantic tragedy with JC, in the end (I actually think there was a far more disastrous chain of events at play, which required multiple OOC developments for multiple major characters just to arrive to Jon killing Dany - but that’s a longer story), and it is what it is. He has to talk about the reality of the episodes, not the alternatives.

If you take most of Nik’s comments, and go back to read D&D’s and Cogman’s interviews from the past, you’ll notice that it’s mostly stuff that’s lifted straight from their quotes, even down to the language: “good guy/bad guy”, “he doesn’t have a redemption arc”, “it’s just life, and he has made some mistakes”. I don’t know whether this is because he had a “final season” briefing with them and came around to see things their way and agree, or because he was told this is what he was supposed to say about the story, or because even though he doesn’t agree with it, this is what was written in the end and so this is what he talks about. His reasoning for saying these things is anybody’s guess and kind of beyond the point. But, where before he used to have his own take on the character and his arc, he’s now basically regurgitating the party line.

For my part, I never completely disagreed with the idea that Jaime does not need redemption per se. Jaime doesn’t need atonement for slaying the Mad King, for sure. He needs recognition for that. He needs atonement for a other horrible things he’s done, but even those (e.g., pushing Bran, the incest) are more about moral gray areas areas than villainous behaviour per se, since he’s never committed atrocious acts just for his own selfish gain, or for power, or because he enjoyed hurting and killing. More importantly, I have always seen Jaime’s story as more of an identity arc, where redemption is just one component. In that sense, I can agree with the take that that he is a “complex character who, at times, has made some terrible mistakes”. Jaime is not, and never was, a straightforward villain who needs to atone for his sins. He’s a much more complex and layered mix of sins and honour, and goodness and idealism turned bitterness and cynicism, and a messy product of living most of his life in toxic and abusive environments who, in some situations, has committed some horrible mistakes that he needs to own up to and face the consequences of, and who is trying to redefine and reinvent himself in the aftermath of some life-changing events such as losing his hand, meeting Brienne and growing disillusioned with Cersei. 

The problem is that, while D&D preach about Jaime being a complex character who does not need a ‘cheesy’ linear redemption arc, they also, in the same breath, justify an ending that shoves him precisely into a clear, black-and-white, simplistic category (”he just accepts he is a hateful man”) or display the psychological depth of a 5th grader (go check out their take on the sept scene in their Oxford Union Q&A and their inability to think in any more complex terms than “good guy/bad guy” or to understand that not all “bad” actions are equal). They’re not deep writers, and that shows painfully in their execution. But I can understand the “no need for redemption” arc, from a theoretical/philosophical perspective.

What I take far more issue with is justifying writing choices by attempting to play the realism card, or the adult writing card, or the “this is GoT” card, basically implying that everyone who dislikes or criticize it is being unrealistic, immature or unsophisticated for not accepting the only inevitable outcome to a story (I wrote a twitter thread about it this week). Just because your story has decided to depict things in a certain way, it does not mean that that is the only realistic option for the story, and that people who expected/wanted/hoped for something different were fooling themselves, let alone that it had to be written that way because that is how life works.

Sure, there are people who fail to break away from their (abusive, traumatic, toxic, what have you) past and move on, but there are also plenty of people who do, and who end up thriving. One outcome isn’t any more realistic or true to life than the others. And, while some might think this is a hyperbole, it is highly irresponsible, IMO, to say that being unable to escape toxicity and your past is “the way things are”, when there might be people out there who do struggle with trauma, toxic and abusive relationship (or know people who do).

On top of that, it is rather silly to imply that we were expecting some unrealistic, too-easy scenario, where Jaime flipped a switch and totally erased his past overnight. That implication is misguided, at best, and dishonest, at worst. We put up with four entire seasons of show-only “non-linear” storytelling when it comes to Jaime, and were incredibly patient with it. Wasn’t the point of those four seasons precisely to show that life is complicated and he couldn’t just let go of his past so easily? We watched that. It happened. Nothing about this was easy or unearned.

Had we been shown a Jaime who was 100%, stupidly and completely devoted to Cersei at every turn, cruel, evil, selfish and not caring about the innocents, of course expecting an outcome where he just leaves it all behind for a honourable wench or what have you would have been a ridiculous expectation to have. Indeed, back when Jaime did come across as that kind of character, nobody was expecting anything from him. He could have died with Cersei under those bricks and most wouldn’t have cared.

Instead, for years, we were shown a Jaime that did struggle between his toxic past/Cersei and his honour and, far more often than not, we saw his honour win out. While I can see an argument for saying that didn’t guarantee an outcome where he did break free of his past for good, it’s not like like there was no buildup or seeding for the more positive, less nihilistic alternative. So I don’t find it so far fetched to have expected the events of S7 to be the last straw that finally tipped the scales completely to the other side (especially considering how 8x02 was written very heavily to imply just that or, at the very least, did not seed any doubt).

By Nikolaj’s own admission in TONS of interviews, he had been fighting with D&D for years because he expected things to move in a certain direction and kept getting frustrated when they didn’t, or when they confused him. He wanted the exact same things we wanted for Jaime and in his relationships with Cersei and Brienne since SEASON 2. He might have resigned himself in the end to having lost the battle, but he behaved exactly like us for years. So, assuming he believes what he is saying, if I could talk to him, I’d ask him how is it that he got the same feeling of “expectation” for something that in the end never came? Maybe because the seeding for both options were there all along? Maybe because, if the seeding for both options were there all along, the alternative isn’t so far fetched and inconceivable after all? Maybe because if the alternative isn’t so far fetched and inconceivable after all, then what we got isn’t the only inevitable way this could go down? Food for thought.

Of course, I want to believe that he isn’t that tone-deaf and unsophisticated as an actor (and a writer) not to realize that the only problem with the way Jaime and JB were written in S8 was not the fact that they didn’t get a HEA. Ignoring the writing quality, for a moment, and just focusing on the writing choices, there were literally dozens of ways of writing a story that ended even in a similar tragedy (EVEN with Jaime dying with Cersei), that would have been far better and more satisfying than what we got. The problem isn’t that Jaime didn’t declare his everlasting love for Brienne or that he didn’t stay together with her. The problem is that we patiently waited through all the buildup and seeding mentioned above, for years, for a relationship that ended up being butchered within 30 minutes, destroying literally everything it ever stood for (first and foremost trust and respect - I am not going to list everything, but Jaime trying to sneak out without so much of a goodbye and being completely indifferent to her pain after she vouched for him and saved his life multiple times was not only OOC, but completely unnecessary to the plot, unless it aimed to destroy the foundations of their bond, way beyond the romance).

To conclude, I’ll leave you with GRRM’s own words, when asked about Jaime’s redemption arc that he, unlike the show, has explicitly stated he wishes to explore:

“I want there to be a possibility of redemption for us, because we all do terrible things. We should be able to be forgiven. Because if there’s no possibility of redemption, what’s the answer then?”

The show decided that the answer is that we don’t escape our past. We are doomed from the beginning and any attempt to change and move on is eventually futile (and that ended up being true of nearly every character in the show, not just Jaime). But that doesn’t seem to be at all the stance GRRM has on this whole thing, and I would dare anyone to tell me that GRRM’s vision and his writing are inferior, too easy, or less realistic than what we got from the show.

There’s no guarantee that Jaime will survive in the books, or that he and Brienne will get a HEA (although I do not rule it out at all).  But the fact that the man who invented these characters and this world has a different stance on Jaime and redemption automatically invalidates any nonsense show people can say about how this was the perfect and only way it could end, and that expecting anything different from this series was wishful thinking.

[shanascarlett]

Thoughts on Hasbro Universe after Revolution

Im big fan of G.I. Joe/Transformers. But when I heard that there are more than 2 franhises in one universe, it blew my mind. So I decided to check out them. One of them I heard when I was kid.

Revolution was big. For some it was epic, other think it was mess. I understand why ppl love and hate it. Personally I love it. There’s conflict and how heroes unite against evil. It was the beggining of massive universe. So, how it turned out?

To be fair.... not so good.

Its my own opinion. You can disagree with me. If you love aftermath of Revolution, thats fine. I just want to tell about the conclusion of Hasbro Comic Book Universe.

Optimus Prime.

I think the writer put a lot of his view on life: disappointment on every religion. I really didnt like how he made that Optimus Prime is always wrong. Even when he listens and he does what he was asked to do, ppl still angry at him. “You should listened to me!” and “You shouldn’t listen to me!”. I love that they put Joes, but here’s the big issue: OOC of Mainframe and Flint with his daughter look similar the same age.

Remember when Trasnformers had the mystery of their religion and mythology? Mix of Sci-Fi and Cosmic Fantasy. Yeah, forget about that. It was all Shockwave’s evil plan. Another big disappointment for me.

I like how they described the ghost of Bumblebee, but Shockwave being one of 13 Primes looks very... confusion to me. 

Lost Light

Lost Light deserves to be called a weak sequel. Remember when in MTMTE was magic mystery, adventure, gore and development of characters and relationships? Here I found nothing. New characters for me are not interesting. And yes about them being “trans”. Im not transphobic and sorry if my opion might hurt you or offend. I just dont see transgenders in Transformers.  I dont see transformers suffering of gender dysphoria. Hell, I doubt they suffer of homophobia, bc they are totally fine with mlm and wlw. If you dont know, hetero relationships are for the population of Earth. And Transformers managed told that they can love each other, but their love is not like Earth’s bc they dont have to have sex to create life. They have strong emotion connection to each other.

Speaking about love. I love Chromedome/Rewind love story bc it was developed. We saw the birth of connection, loss, pain, reunion, fear and happiness. Same with Cyclonus and Tailgate. To be fair I dont ship the last two as romantic couple, but as platonic couple. For me they dont have that emotional connection like Chrome/Rewind but they care each other. In Lost Light nothing. You just accept that a lot characters are couple to each other. Why and how? Just accept it. This is why I dont feel emotional connection to Lug and Anode. To be fair I thought they are friend and Lug looks a lot like a boy. If they’d develop her more better, I think I’d like her. The whole Lost Light is just comics of couples. I was thinking when they’re gonna do the Orgy like in Ancient Rome.

Also here’s another disappointment in religion. Everything was lie. As I told earlier - I didnt like it. I’d rather to rewatch TFP, Bayverse or G1. BC I felt emptiness. MTMTE is masterpiece.

G.I. Joe

Where do I begin? Was written by socialist who doesnt know anything about military, ruined Quick Kick who was nice and gentle, made Scarlett an idiot, turned charasmatic Shipwreck into fat vegan, new characters have no backstory or reasons why they joined to Joes. Also: huge hypocricy. Scarlett says that G.I. Joe is now international team, but they refuse to work with USA. I get it they tried to turn G.I. Joe into Overwatch, but OW was working with every country. Including USA, where they had one of their headquarters. American G.I. Joe was more progressive bc they were helping every country who had deal with Cobra or any threat. They even teamed up with Russian soldiers.

The huge disappointment was no explanation about Snake Eyes rebirth (and no love story of Snake/Scarlett) and Quick Kick being an ass. Just check G.I. Joe ARAH show. There Quick Kick was nice. I miss that one....

The only good stuff was about Rock n’ Roll nightmares and guilt for shooting Grand Slam, grumpy Grand Slam and Doc being half-alien. Thats alll.

Revolutionaries

It was a bit better bc its literally crossover with conflict and backstories. Here they at least tried to make story interesting. And brought a lot interesting references. Especially to 90s: KLAW, Slaugther and even to original Action Force.

M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand

At 1st they tried but then it all felt down. I wouldnt call it horrible. You can check out 1st issues. I can say that only villains were interesting. While main heroes...  here’s the problem.

Original Matt Trekker was an engineer, millionaire, helped ppl and white. Why the last important? BC in reboot he became boring black guy who seeks vengeance for his father death and the main bad guy is white man. Im not racist bc I like how it was done in Spawn, but it wasnt so obvious who is the bad guy who just wants to take over the world. I get it you hate Trump. He is a clown.

Also original Trekker raises his son alone. So he is widowed. It could play in reboot: lost all, but tries to keep his son safe. So much potential for drama of lonely father. But we got what we got. I just go to rewatch Spawn animated series.

If they wanted “diverse” why they didnt put more poc characters from MASK? You know there are actual canon black man and indian man? Even native american man?

ROM

It was boring. 1st issues were interesting and brutal bc of alien invansion. You wouldnt know who is the enemy and who is the friend. But drama...

Whole Rom’s drama was about losing his humanity. At 1st we see him as cold-hearted alien. Then they all forget about it. Original Rom from Marvel was losing his humanity until he met brave girl Brandy who made him to remember his loss of homeplanet and love of his life. He was afraid to be alone and to be complete machine. And yes, in reboot his old girlfriend is alive. But I felt nothing with this. I prefer to read original comics bc I felt sorry for Rom.

Micronauts: Wrath of Karza

It was boring. The only thing I can remember is Larissa being Baron Karza’s daughter. I dont compare reboot with original series bc I havent read yet. I liked the new one bc of Baron Karza and his wife (and their fetish).

First Strike

Hoo- boy. It was bad. Preety bad. Not bc villains tried to destroy Cybertron. Not bc TF thought its gonna be war of humans and TF. No, it all was good. The main villain is Joe Colton who wants to destroy Cybertron to save Earth. And that he was bad from the beginning. His motivation sounds like Miles Mayhem from M.A.S.K.. That shock effect of surprise villain doesnt work here. It looks like disrespect to Joe fans. They managed to ruin Scarlett’s character who was turned into G.I. Joe not bc she was the best. She was in Joes bc she didnt do 50 push-ups. If you dont know, G.I. Joe is elite guard where they take the best men and women bc they do a lot dangerous work. So the whole story arc is full disrespect to Joe fan. I dont know about you, but I was offended by that.

Was there smth good? Team up of villains and the easter egg of Visionaries.

Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor

I almost forget about the plot bc it was boring. Rom was rude like every commander (yeah, for someone “losing humanity”). New character was boring. So everythng was boring. Even Autobots didint save the situation.

Rom & the Micronauts

Well, they at least tried with characters development. I really liked how characters interact with each other. But the whole story was “meh”

Scarlett's Strike Force

It was very short and cancelled. BC that writer Sitterson wrote offensive tweet about Nine Eleven. I get it what he was trying to do: to make comics based on cartoon G.I. Joe. This is why Quick Kick and Spirit fight against Storm Shadow. Personally I thought it was racist bc “only asian fight agains asian”. And Storm Shadow has the worst redesign I’ve ever seen. Theres nothing to talk about the comics bc its unfinished and cancelled. So theres nothing.

Transformers vs. Visionaries

This comic had potential. But the ending ruined it. The story is about colonization to save living race. But it will kill another nation. Its interesting theme. And how they managed? Nothing. For some reason everyone in peace and safe. The ending is just weird. I think writer didint know how to end that conflict so she wrote “everyone safe and in peace. Colonization is bad”. Not the ending is the problem. Main characters: Leoric and Virulina redesigned very strong. Leoric looks like total different character (why not to create new character? He looks good). And Virulina looks like student from art-school, not the villain. The redesigned I like are Cryotek and Arzon. And the art was very good.

The last 2 ones I havent finished yet. I can tell this: TAAO isnt look so bad, but I’m ready for disapointing ending, like TF Unicron.

In conclusion:

I dont tell that it was done horrible. Its just explains why IDW decided to reboot TF and G.I. Joe. Low sales. BC I’ve noticed a lot easter eggs in those comics for future story plots. I think they’d made it good if IDW would give them chance.

If you love them, thats fine. I’ll enjoy my own version of Hasbro Universe.

[thepringlesofblood]

thoughts on stranger things three  (spoilers. so many.)

this is just me yellin into the void as usual, but I like recording my opinions on things even if no one will read them 

good:

- every single scene w/ the robin, steve, erica, dustin gang, especially!!! the coming out scene. scoops?? iconic. steve and dustin’s secret handshake? transcendent. the drugged out back to the future scene? perfect. 

- eleven and max say fuck the patriarchy. love el’s new look 

- more competent women is always a win

- funhouse fight!!! carnival fight!!!FIREWORKS??!??!

- the destruction of the mall (sadly the only anticapitalist symbolism I could find)

- the scene after jonathan and nancy get fired where they’re angry about their separate marginalized identities making this loss worse. I really liked how it went into the ways it will impact both of them, and I especially liked when nancy got home and talked to her mom. 

- joyce going buckwild and getting shit done. 

- the portrayal of hypervigilance as a symptom of PTSD. All of these characters have seen some shit, and all of them pick up on the littlest things the second they present themselves because subconsciously, they’re always on edge, always aware of bad it could break. 

- most of will’s character arc. not all, but most of it. the queer experience of watching all your friends get dates and feeling like you’re missing out on something? trying to regain their interest because you feel lost and left behind? worrying that you’re not “growing up” because you don’t recognize romantic interest in yourself? not realizing you’re falling for your best friend until they get a romantic partner and suddenly you hate the partner even though they haven’t done anything wrong? a poignant, beautiful, very painful portrayal of queer teenhood. I really, really wish there was a moment that the audience realized will was in love with mike though. Like, it’s been building for a very long time. Also, a more thorough confirmation of will’s queerness would’ve been nice. I think they meant mike saying “you don’t understand bc you don’t like girls” to be that confirmation, but I want to hear it from will. Robin’s moment is so so so good though. 

- domestic fuckery 

- getting someone on the inside to help them/alexei as a character. not the symbolism or larger ramifications of his character arc, but how his knowledge and personality interacted. 

- mr clarke!!!!

- el going into someone’s memories again

- how prepared everyone is to fight because they’ve seen this shit before and robin and erica are just like ‘this might as well happen’ 

- keeping with the stranger things pattern of having a bunch of different groups of people all in different genres and then together they all meet up and go ?????

- I know every says billy didn’t get enough of a redemption arc but tbh I did not see his character development as redeeming in any way and I liked that. It didn’t excuse his abusive actions, it just explained them. There was no “oh he was secretly good all along”, no dramatic total character reversal on his death bed, just him deciding that he had enough of being controlled. Max didn’t get full closure with him, he didn’t say some big speech about being wrong or realizing the ramifications of his actions bc he hadn’t reached that point yet. he just said “I’m sorry” and died. that could mean “i’m sorry for how I’ve treated you”, “I’m sorry for how many people I’ve killed”, “I’m sorry for not being able to stop the monster”, anything. we don’t know what it means. we don’t get an explanation. It speaks to how survivors of abuse often don’t get to know why, don’t get closure, don’t get all the answers. 

- steve finally won a fight before getting the shit kicked out of him

- the whole no one knowing anything about each other bc no cell phones and/or wasnt there when It Happened. 

- Erica getting the DND set was poetic cinema 

- when joyce sees will on the firetruck and they run towards each other because finally, for once, will is completely unscathed, will isn’t the one who got hurt/possessed. I was already crying but this is the part where i had to get tissues bc I was sobbing. 

Bad:

- the red scare bullshit and glorification of capitalism. this show started out as “the US govt is doing shady shit” and now the big climatic “everything’s alright” is the army getting there?? what the fuck. There’s being accurate to the time period and then there’s sending a message. they could’ve subverted that trope in so many ways, but they just went for straight up “capitalism is great! fuck russia!” and I hated that. also, talk about one-note villainry. there weren’t even any dramatic monologues to make up for it, it just kinda sucked. 

- Hopper’s character in the beginning of the season. the scene where he gets wasted after getting stood up? shitty. not talking to el about his vaguely sexist overprotective actions? shitty. blowing up at joyce for no reason? shitty. he pulls it together in the end but it was OOC for a bit there. Plus I would kill for more “hopper and el work through their trauma together”, rather than “friend group splinters bc hopper did a yell” 

- I don’t know what to think about hopper’s death. It just hurts, and not in a satisfying, last harry potter book way. 

- why the fuck are the byers and el moving?????? did they ever give a reason???? WHY?????? WILL AND EL’S ENTIRE SUPPORT NETWORK, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH AND CAN HELP THEM, IS IN HAWKINS!!!!!

- the ads. omg the ads. lucas idc about your fucking coke. there’s so much goddamn product placement. christ on a goddamn bicycle. 

- previous seasons have had body horror, but it was all black goo so it was removed from reality and conveyed a psychological, otherworldly horror. and I liked that. WHY WAS THERE SO MUCH FUCJING MEAT IN THIS ONE??? THE MIND FLAYER LOOKED LIKE IT WAS MADE OF BBQ SAUCE AND I HATED IT!!! STOP!!!THE MEATS!!!!!

- can el not be injured......for oNCE?????

- also can people stop standing around staring at shit so much? theyve seen it before. it’s not like it’s a huge shock. people stand around for like 5 minutes before Doing Things and it annoys me. with the New Kids like erica and robin it makes sense but like....whenever theres a monster mike just sits there like :o cOME ON DUDE YOU’VE DONE THIS SO MANY TIMES GET A KNIFE OR SOMETHIN!!!

- WHAT. WAS. THE GREEN STUFF?????????????????? IS IT FUCKING PLUTONIUM OR SOMETHING???? WHAT THE FUCK!!! IF YOU NEED A MACGUFFIN BE LESS OBVIOUS ABOUT IT!!!

- idk about you but murray yelling at them about sex kinda rubbed me the wrong way. 

- speaking of, you caNNOT convince me that murray, 4 locks on the front door lives in a bunker murray, would take a goddamn enemy of the state to a carnival and leave him alone for any period of time. seriously????????

- look.....it was adorable.....i’ll give you that.....but.....the song dustin and suzy sang slapped me with secondhand embarrassment and genre disconnect so hard I found it impossible to enjoy. also...planck’s constant??? you could/......idk........call mr clarke????????? you’ve interrupted the man’s life for less!!!! I was also half expecting it to be joyce who remembered it from all the studying she did on the magnets. I did enjoy the whole “i met a girl at camp” story being unbelievable until it was but like I was expecting the thing she wanted him to say to be like a famous star wars love quote or something not an entire song jesus christ 

- if hopper turns out to be alive I will face god and walk backwards into hell. I suffered through supernatural, I will not be caught in a cycle of fake deaths again. 

- i get the whole “we’re growing up now” thing but aren’t they like 13? theyre still so young??? also like i dont rly care for the vague soap-opera-y vibes the core squad gave off. 

- the only people who got flayed were either a. already pretty shitty or b. completely unknown. like. it just made it less scary????

- hopper just fucking standing by the machine looking at joyce instead of running the 5 seconds up the steps into the room. seriously? was that supposed to be slow motion or was that real time??? 

- the whole thing with cerebro not working at the beginning sucked ass. 

- hey does mrs wheeler have eyes??? like??? there were exactly two (2) scenes she had with mike and nancy and both were Big Conversations like they live there right/????tbh i forgot she was their mom until those scenes bc of the whole billy thing, which i decidedly do not have an opinion on but like....do they eat breakfast there??? 

[laracastrowrites]

What problems did you have with the darklings arc in siege and storm?

Basically LB relying on the cheapest and laziest (and maybe the grossest too) tool in order to make him completely irredeemable, that is, relying on none other than violence against women to show how BadTM he is. Which doesnt put her too far apart from writers that uses female character’s suffering to further a male character’s arc (I’m just not that infuriating cause usually these male writers tend to use women’s suffering to further a redemption for the male counterpart, ignoring the victims, which I consider worse than what we got in here, that is, what I call, a downfall arc in which at least the victims are put in the main perspective, but I still consider she ultimately did the same with all the Genya’s torture case, using her suffering to push the Darkling far from redemption, so… I’m still pissed. And I wont ramble nor rant about Genya’s case yet, cause I’ll get there).

Look, at first, I hadnt seen the pattern and I came to realize that there was one just long after I finished reading all the grishaverse books (i mean, the trilogy and the duology), and sometimes I get angry at myself for not getting it fast enough and sometimes I get angry for finally get it, cause I was way happier (or less pissed, depending on the angle you look at) when I hadnt had this one more thing to be pissed about with this trilogy.

And I think ultimately, I (plus lots of people) haven’t seen any fault (and some still dont) in Genya’s torture at first because of the pattern the book followed for his character, cause once you see him attacking Alina with his nichevoya, threatening to torture her, and seeing that he blinded his own mother, it isnt like you doubt he was capable of torturing Genya like that; but the problem with Genya’s case doesnt rely on his capability of doing such a thing, the holes in that plot point relies on his (lack of) reasons for doing so (which I’ll get there in a minute), so we let it pass because of the shock and the sadness (all of us feeling sad for Genya, and other lot feeling sad for Genya and the Darkling simultaneously, cause that was the moment we knew there was no turning back for him) without realizing how problematic all of that was.

So, analyzing objectively his arc in s&s where his bad deeds are concerned, you will see that it was basically focused on torture; but not torture towards any elements we dont care about, it was torture against female characters we care about. Like I pinpointed in the last paragraph already: the nichevoya attack towards Alina, the threat to torture her in order to press Mal to find the amplifier; blinding his own mother as a punishment for betraying him; and last but not least (and the most problematic one), he disfigured Genya because………… because. Or should I say: because ?????

In Alina and Baghra’s case I can get behind cause the reasons were clear, and if we learned something about the Darkling in s&b is that he doesnt do bad shit because; because he felt like it or whatever; I’m not saying what he does/did is justifiable, I’m just saying that he always has his reasons, he always do bad things to gain something, in order to pursue a goal, to punish someone that wronged him etc., this is one of his established character’s traits; so he’s bad, we all know that, but sadism was never one of his character’s traits, and if what he did to Genya wasnt sadism, what was it then? A coercive tactic to win Alina over? But he had tortured Genya long before he knew he was going to meet her, Genya’s scars were already there for a time, so it doesnt add up, and besides, if it was a tactic to coerce her, wouldnt it be much more efficient if he had waited to meet Alina and threat to torture Genya right in front of her so she would join him, like he did to Alina herself in the boat to coerce Mal? Like, it doesnt make any sense, especially considering that Genya was a grisha, and a grisha loyal to him! He wouldnt simply do such a horrendous thing to a loyal grisha just to try to get Alina, he would know it was kind of sloppy and risky and he had already presented other tactics much more efficient; he would know that the threat to torture Genya or whomever in front of her would’ve been much more practical and efficient, he did that before and got positive results, so ??!?!?!?!? And the reason being just coercion wouldnt really explain him dispatching Genya, either.

So ok, if it wasnt coersion, it was a punishment then, right? A punishment would explain him doing this a while ago, it could explain him dismissing her too, cause whatever she did that “deserved” such a punishment meant that he wouldnt want a grisha like her beside him, correct? Which lead us to the question: a punishment for what? What could she possibly had done to wrong him so bad that made him take such an extreme action? Had he thought Genya had betrayed him? Cause that would explain, he wouldnt want a disloyal grisha beside him and certainly wouldnt let a betrayal pass unpunished, I mean, he didnt forgave even his mother, so… But the thing is: in any moment, the text back this theory up, the only passage we got that tries to explain the cause of such a violent act is Alina’s nonsensical thought that “Genya had dared to be her friend, to show her mercy” like, what does that even mean???? Like, she backtracks to the boat scene to explain, so what she’s saying is that the Darkling would have punished Genya for not shooting Alina or something??? Didnt she know that he needed her ALIVE and the situation in the boat could’ve gone wrong in many ways if Genya’d had try something crazy? And Genya “having mercy” on Alina and being her friend would never be reason enough to create such an outrage feeling in the Darkling so he’d find himself in a situation of having to punish a grisha that is on his side. Actually, I think he probably would’ve found a way to use Genya’s fondness of Alina in a much smarter way. So back to the boat scene, unless he thought Genya letting Alina go had been a betrayal (but like I said, it isnt like she had too many options there, and besides, what exactly the Darkling had seen and heard (IF he’d heard anything in that chaos, which I doubt he had) of that scene that played out between Alina, Genya and Tolya? DID he see something? Cause he had been shot in that moment, so I think even if he had seen something (which probably would’ve been just glimpses of it), he probably would’ve liked to know more about the situation, he probably would’ve liked to sit with Genya and interrogate her or something, he wouldnt have done anything rushed, neither punished a grisha that is on his side without the certainty that they “deserved” it), there’s still no plausible explanation for that torture. 

But even if he’d thought Genya had betrayed him in any shape or form, he would’ve said it! I mean, yeah, he isnt like those that try to justify himself much (which I personally love it lmao), but I think he would’ve said it in that dismissive way of his, cause he makes sure to point out betrayal, like, always! Or if not through his words, at least LB’s text would’ve made sure to make this clear, or at least it SHOULD HAVE made sure to make this clear, but it havent! There is NOTHING that back this theory up, not in that final scene in s&s, not even in r&r (and at the time I started to analyze all of this more deeply, I read the boat scene and the final scene again just to make sure I wasnt missing anything). At first, despite the shock and heartbreaking, I felt that something wasnt adding up, but at the time, I let it pass cause I thought the full explanation would eventually come in r&r, but well, it never did. And the problem of not having a decent explanation for such an atrocious act is that it feels gratuitous, something that was put there just for shock value and to further the Darkling’s downfall, so ultimately, it feels completely unnecessary (and I dont think I need to explain how ProblematicTM it is to portray violence against women as shock value and gratuitous, right?) and on top of it, it plays as an inconsistency for the Darkling’s character so, in conclusion, gross. A Total Mess.

And to further the explanation on why his arc in s&s rotating in victimizing only women is bad, let me add that I know that the Darkling’s motivation in victimizing characters that happens to be women doesnt come from misogyny on his part or anything like that. We know that in that world, women and men fight side by side in wars, that women can make great warriors just like men, that women can have the same or even more power than men in the military and stuff, and in the Darkling’s mind, people are more separated between grishas x otkazatsya, and him victimizing a person that happens to be a woman isnt a gender based motive, but the thing is: art doesnt happen in a vacuum. His cruelty being directed towards female characters might not be a gender problem in that world, but in our world, it is. His arc in s&s is a little ProblematicTM not because of an “in narrative” problem (maybe just in Genya’s case, which I’ve just covered up), but more of an “outside narrative” problem; it’s problematic considering the damage that poor portrayal makes in our world, especially in Genya’s case, where we can consider something even ooc for him to had done, leading to the conclusion that that was completely unnecessary. And I dont blame the character for any of this, I dont think his arc in that book is as problematic as Mal’s, for instance, he was still the villain, so I dont get frustrated and angry with the character himself, exactly because I know all that was the author’s decision, that the responsibility was entirely hers; cause if your villain isnt a misogynistic peace of crap, why pick just female characters to be deeply victimized by him to further his monstrosity in a whole book, then? Was that necessary? Why not pick male characters, then? WHY NOT KILL MAL FFS? Wasnt there any other ways to do that? I say, of course there was, but considering our world morality and ethics standards, make him victimize women was just the easiest way out, and that’s why I say: lazy. Lazy writing at its finest. And I think I dont need to say how disrespectful to the Darkling and, especially, to Genya’s character that was, right? So well, that. All that. I hope I made myself clear, and that I havent forgotten anything.

Anyways, sorry not sorry for the huge text, I hope you read it till the end. Thanks for the ask anon, now bye cause I’ve already spoken too much!