#lenas witch arc-- the way it should have been

[fazedlight]

How I think the Supergirl seasons should've gone...

Season 1: Leviathan

Hear me out. By far the biggest screwup of season 1, in my opinion, was getting rid of Kara's status as the Last Daughter of Krypton so quickly. I want to see more of her angst as a character, as a refugee from a dead planet, coming into her own powers. Give me the complicated emotions of missing her family, of feeling like she is honoring their memory, of wishing she had more guidance from her culture and values.

Starting with an Earth-based villain is a good scope for season 1. I think Leviathan could be reimagined to be remaining an Earth-based villain (none of this "technology" plot). What if they want to decimate all humans via increasing natural disasters? How would she stop them, when destruction is so much easier than creation?

Season 2: Rhea & the Daxamites

Season 2 was actually a great villain setup (Mon-El aside). I don't have many complaints here from a Big Bad perspective - Rhea was interesting and compelling, and it was fun watching her manipulate her way into a world invasion.

(I will say, if they wanted Mon-El to be a vaguely compelling character, they either should've made him some sort of freedom fighter rebelling against his parents, or they should've made Daxam a less terrible planet to begin with - with Kara learning how much propaganda she had been fed on Krypton.)

Season 3: Worldkillers (feat. Villain Alura + Worldkiller Kara)

There are hints that the original plan for season 3 was to have Alura amongst the Juru witches and Kara as a worldkiller (I may have written a fic on that). We could've combined the worldkiller arc, with Kara's angst about her parents' flaws and her existence, with Kara finally learning that she wasn't the Last Daughter of Krypton.

Her people would be alive - at a cost. Suddenly she'd be thrown into this conundrum... what did it mean to be kryptonian, and what did it mean to be human?

Season 4: Lex (and xenophobia)

Much like season 2, I really liked the existing plot of season 4. I'd make some minor changes, but overall it was a strong season.

Seasons 5 & 6

The Lex redux is kind of weak (and Lena's villain era, if she had one at all, should not last an entire season). Nyxly and Lex were the worst combination ever in my book. Not a fan of these seasons' big bads and I don't want to reuse them. But there are a few other options:

Bringing in Astra and Non at this point might be interesting. After the Daxamite invasion, the first solution people would think of would be "what if we spread kryptonite in the atmosphere?" with obvious angsty implications.

I would've loved to see Brainiac here. Perhaps he's mad that he didn't get to bottle Krypton before it exploded, so he wants to bottle Earth since it has the last kryptonians left. (Would've been an interesting arc for Brainy, too.) Or maybe he bottled Argo City.

Nyxly could've been a better solo villain, I think. I'd remove her backstory with the king/etc - make her some unhinged imp who somehow got around the usual limitations on 5th dimensional magic usage.

There are other great classic villains, like Darkseid.

As a final aside, I really loved the Red Lantern Kara arc in the comics, and wish they had done that on the show. It could've been...

A solution to the Astra/Non/Myriad problem. I thought the season 1 ending was kind of cheap, in that Kara only won because all of the kryptonian criminals were asleep on Fort Rozz when she was fighting Non and Indigo. Having Kara go red lantern and wipe them all out instead would've been immensely satisfying.

It could also have been an angsty response to Lena's betrayal, perhaps combined with the above.

Overall, the point is that there should be increasing stakes as time goes on. Moving from physically destructive villains (with increasing emotional cost) to something more vague and existential (the risk of being frozen in time, brainwashed, or fighting an unknowable magic) would've been a good escalation path for the show.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week ?

Superman Lost #7 - Giving people cancer has become Lex’s “crowbar” and I love it. Such a smug asshole, knew Priest would write a great Lex . Priest did a fakeout with Superman cheating but I hope he actually follows through on Lois dying. Probably won’t, but it would be a stronger story if he did. All the people going “THIS IS HOW YOU GET INJUSTICE” reminded me that we need an Elseworld story with the guts to kill Lois off and not have Clark go batshit insane.

Superman #7 - The Chained is whatever, there’s potentially something interesting in him being Stryker like I suspected and Williamson hinting that he’s the reason Conner has TTK, but I am intrigued to see Lena II return to continuity. All you need is Lena I getting fished out of the fridge underneath Lexcorp and we can have a proper Luthor family reunion. Brainiac’s motive turns out to be pretty mundane, he wants a family I guess, but the why and how of it may still prove interesting. Least Brainiac is still a bastard, wipes out a planet as a means for doing a test run. If nothing else the Superfamily throwing down with the Czarnians should be fun.

World’s Finest #20 - Waid’s found his footing again! Strong start to the KC arc after two lackluster arcs in a row. Enjoyed seeing Clark and Bruce have different orders at Planet Krypton from what their Earth 22 counterparts did, nice way to demonstrate the differences between them and their counterparts. Am I reading too much into it, or is KC Superman ordering milk while our Superman ordering coffee intended to show that KC Supes is pretty childish as opposed to our Supes being more “adult”? And we will get a proper Superman vs. Magog fight after all, excellent!

Nightwing #107 - Boring. I don’t care about Bea since I dropped Nightwing during the Ric era, and without Redondo to cover for him all of Taylor’s usual weaknesses are starting to grate on me. Would drop the book but Redondo is coming back at some point so I might stick it out.

Green Lantern: War Journal #2 - First time the two Johns have ever interacted I think, would be cool to see Stewart put his architectural skills to use in rebuilding Metropolis. Plug your plotlines anywhere you can PKJ, I’m here for it, but Genesis popping up here makes me wonder if the Revenant Queen will be revealed to have a connection to Aethyr? He did turn people into monsters in that Annual PKJ did about the FS House of El traversing the PZ.

JLvGvK #1 - Not as strong a start as I hoped, truthfully it was boring. Funny that Toyman was the one to bring the Kaiju over to the DCU, most relevant he’s been in years. Going to pick up the next issue now that the setup is all done and hope it improves.

City Boy #5 - Cameron is really teetering on the edge of morality here, Pak is riding the question of which side of the moral divide he’ll ultimately fall on all the way to the ending it seems.

Incredible Hulk #5 - Foreman’s depiction of long haired Hulk is actually pretty good! Hulk’s fully in his DGAF mode and it adds some black comedy amidst the horror. Betty finally shows up, and in Red Harpy form to boot! Eldest likely has used that body manipulation power Betty mentions to force Betty to serve her, hope Bruce can see that and isn’t stupid enough to take the obvious honeypot.

Scarlet Witch #9 - What a shame that Orlando has to compress all these interesting adventures into one issue, because he doesn’t have the sales to tell them all in separate issues. Ah well, looking forward to the final issue and fight next month.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Here's what I would have liked to see. We got a long shot of Lena driving through town-- we see the exterior of the quaint shops and business, and then we roll up to the inn, and the innkeeper is all smilely right up until the moment she gets a good look at Lena's face, at which point the innkeeper freezes, with maybe a little fear in her eyes. When Lena checks on her, the innkeeper recovers with a flustered smile and says, "Oh, never mind dear, I thought you were someone else!"

She's friendly right up until Lena's about to get her room key, which is when Lena reveals she's come to investigate her mother, Elizabeth Walsh. The gates go down, walls go up, do not pass go for $200. Lena's left in the lurch. She decides to explore the town then, and the chill of the autumn air eventually sends her into a pub, where she meets Peggy. Having learned from the innkeeper, she doesn't immediately reveal her purpose in town. She simply explains there was a mix up at the inn and now she's out of luck.

"Well, we have a couple rooms above the bar," Peggy says, friendly now that Lena's chatted with her over a couple drinks. It's clear they could be fast friends. "You're welcome to one of them, while you're in town."

Lena takes her up on it, and so Lena stays, and they chat every morning. Lena knows better than to ask directly about her mother, so she asks where she might find old newspapers and birth records. Peggy directs her to the library and old town hall, but despite the hours and hours she spends, she can't find any information about her mother. It's like she's been purged from all the town's records.

In a fit of frustration, she takes to walking the town. This is where she notices the large raven that seems to follow her as she makes her way through the town's streets. She eventually stumbles upon an old cottage, and though there's no name on the mailbox, there's faded scars on the wooden gate where a name used to sit in woodblock letters. Walsh.

She picks her way over the gate that's rusted shut and through the vines covering the path to the front door. Inside she finds moss and mold and detritus. But then a door in the kitchen slowly swings open, as though beckoning her down the stairs within. In the basement, she finds books of healing herbs and tomes of words left illegible by years of damp and mildew. But there's one she can't resist hugging to her chest-- one with the symbol of Acrata on its cover. Inside she finds her mother's handwriting, detailing her life in the town. Meeting the coven, exploring her power... it's all there.

When she returns to the bar, she's elated, and maybe, after a couple of drinks, she lets slip that she's going to try to track down her mother's friends. She mentions the first name, and Peggy, now off shift and drinking too, darkly mutters "good luck with that."

"What do you mean?"

"My mother's dead."

Lena blinks, and realizes she's speaking to a true counterpart, someone in the same boat as her, but with more answers. "Really?? My mother was--"

"Elizabeth Walsh, aye, I knew that the moment you walked in," Peggy replies. "You're the spitting image."

Lena's brow furrows in confusion. "But, if you knew, then why--"

"She killed my mother."

And her father, Lena soon learns, but it's her mother's passing that hurts Peggy more. Hatred burns under the surface, but surprisingly, none of it is directed at Lena.

"I'm not in the habit of blaming the child for the sins of the mother."

When Lena describes what she found in the cottage, Peggy brushes it off. "You don't really believe in that pish, do you?"

But one thing is for certain-- Peggy is glad they've met. She promises to share more of the town with Lena, and share what she remembers of her own mother.

The next day, Lena begins a quiet search for Florence. The raven appears again, and when she gets close to the hovel where Florence is hiding, it croaks at her then flies off. Lena follows it, and finds the cave. There she finds Florence, and learns the truth about her mother. Instead of Florence being her mouthpiece, Elizabeth manifests in front of Lena, and in that moment they're on the sunny hill again, and Elizabeth wraps her arms around her in a fierce hug.

"I am so proud of you, Lena. And I love you so much."

Before they can truly spend time together, however, a raven's call cuts through the air, and Elizabeth stiffens in alarm.

"Something is wrong. You must go--"

"No, I want to stay with you--"

"Go!"

Elizabeth thrusts her hand towards Lena, banishing her daughter from the vision and returning her to the cave, where she finds Florence in a stand off with Peggy-- whose aura is swirling with dark magical energy.

"Peggy? What are you doing?"

"What we should have done years ago," Peggy growls. Her eyes glow with power, yet her gaze is malicious and hungry for blood. "I knew you would lead me to the witch, Lena. Thank you."

"Whatever you think happened that day isn't true," Lena says, only for Peggy to send a warning shot of energy towards her.

"Don't spread her lies--"

"I saw it!" Lena snaps. "Your mother was as guilty as mine."

"Shut up!"

"She died of guilt, not grief!"

"Enough!"

Peggy unleashes a wave of energy, only for Lena to instintively throw up a shield of her own when she lifts her hands to protect herself. A warm hand settles on her shoulder, and when Lena looks over, a shade of her mother is there, nodding in solidarity. She will protect Lena, through Lena's own gift, as best she can.

"I know what it feels like to lose everything," Lena says, appealing to Peggy's better half. "Trust me when I say killing Florence won't bring back what you've lost, and it won't make you feel better."

"You don't know what it's like-- you don't!"

"I do. Trust me, Peggy, I know."

"I'm alone because of her! My whole life ended when my mother died, and it's her fault!!"

"You're not alone," Lena says. "Look around you. We are the only two people in the world who know what you've been through. I lost my mother too, and Florence... she lost them both."

Peggy's rage eases, clearly losing strength, but not quite subsiding completely. Lena pushes further.

"I know what it's like to lose everything you love most in the world. Sometimes, it feels impossible to recover. And vengeance... it feels sweet for a time, but it won't fill the hole inside you. Trust me on that."

"Then what will?" Peggy asks weakly. This time, when Lena reaches for Peggy's hand, their palms meet in a collision of sparks, but then seal together in a bloom of warmth.

"Love," Lena says simply.

Peggy blinks, and her eyes fill with tears. She sags into Lena, who embraces her fully.

"I miss her so much," Peggy whispers into her shoulder.

Lena nods. "I know." She looks at the fading apparition of her mother, her gaze drinking in the faint smile. "So do I."

[black-coffee-and-sugar]

Listen, I actually couldn't finish this episode. Like I lost brain cells, got ingestion and finally KO-ed because I could NOT grasp the plot. Not even seeing Lena again made this enjoyable for me. But here's what I got:

- I wonder how many takes Thomas took to say Nxyly's full name without biting his tongue off

- also I am so sorry Thomas that they had you sing. And yet somehow that wasn't the most cringe thing to happen in this episode

- Nia and Kara desperately assigning blame to themselves instead of just, idk, working together to fix the problem. Who cares who's fault it is??

- Alex jumping in front of kara when mxy brandishes the PZ projector is the only thing I liked

- Kelly's absence felt so odd after 2 back to back episodes of her front and centre

- Nia thinking that Kara would drag her for making a mistake makes me wonder if these characters even know each other

- kara: "I should've told you guys about Nxyly". Yes you idiot you absolutely should have! Like I get that they don't wanna bring it up but like how is ignoring what happened to her any better? Do they not do any Intel sharing?

- the fucking zookeeper is still here?!?!?

- look I wasn't expecting Lena to be talking to kara on the phone, I know better than that, but I had hoped it would at least be Nia considering that Lena and her have been bonding over their moms and it just makes sense??

- andrea's titty window sans kara or Lena to see it. What was it all for?

- I understand Lena using Andrea's resources to help her out and shit and I'm actually surprised the writer's remembered she doesn't have access to the LuthorCorp jet anymore. I honestly wouldn't have batted an eye if she did tho.

- the way we haven't had ANY scenes of dialogue between kara and lena aside from 6x01 and only ONE line from kara to Lena since then. Like are they actually going to brush everything under the goddamn rug? We heard from Alex that they've forgiven each other and it seems that way too but we haven't actually had the chance to judge that as an audience and it's (checks notes) 11 episodes already???

-Kara is back and yet Lena doesn't seem full. Kara is back and yet she hasn't been vulnerable with lena or with anyone really. Or was that all a lie?

- Nxyly is actually kinda hot in this episode. Interesting development there

- the team actually fighting a giant pussy cat and more brain cells have died. If they were hoping it would be amusing like the Legends fighting a giant Beebo, spoiler alert - it was not

- mxy and Nxyly and even the king has some keysmash names but one imp is actually named Jared? Just fucking Jared. Christ

- Lena being bullied by a bunch of Canadians is hilarious and I say this as a Canadian. Like Lena has stood her ground against Lex, Lillian, SG, an interrogation room filled with judgemental pricks, fucking Reign and yet, she looked two seconds from crying when denied her hotel room by some fucking Newfies. Get the fuck outa here.

- not a single Tim Hortons run in this entire episode. Are we sure she even went to Canada???

- at one point, I was rooting for Nxyly to win.

- so not only did they bring back that god awful wig that they actually had the audacity to make footage with it? That thing needs to be snatched and thrown into the sun like the trash monster.

- Katie looked so done in this episode and I don't even blame her. I suffered second hand embarrassment on her behalf. Those lines, her behaviour. It's like what the fuck happened to the Lena from the past 4 seasons?

- the mean bartender says "I've seen you on the news running arm in arm with a bulletproof alien" and the places my mind went is probably why I didn't pay any attention to the rest of the episode.

- so lemme see if I have this right. Lena's mom visits the cave lady in her dreams but never once thought to visit her traumatized little daughter?

- am I supposed to be upset that they killed an abuser? Because I'm not

- so much porn shots of the town car driving up and down some sketch and lonely road

- did Google maps really lead Lena to some random cave?? Bruh

- Lena's scenes felt so disconnected for a minute I thought I was watching a completely different show.

- aluminum foil on the props lord did they just say fuck it and made a Dollarama run for the cheapest 200ft roll they could buy?

- Kara being a mentor to Nia for the first time since that Nia centric episode last season. God I hate it here.

- they do remember J'onn is a shape shifter right? Why do we need an image inducer? I get the little Lena is still with the team crumb but it's stupid.

- still no word on M'gann huh

- yo since the Luthors are technically perceived on Earth-Prime as "good", what trail of bodies is this bar lady talking about? This isn't public knowledge and Lena's mom only killed 1 dude who frankly deserved it.

- sigh. We're really doing this witch Lena thing then.

- kara stop trying to reach the good in people! Just stop. When has this bullshit EVER WORKED? Some people are just too far gone. Accept it.

- stronger together has truly lost meaning on this show

- Alex and Kara being so willing to hold much less use the PZ projector is utter bullshit. Also they just have that thing lying around for any grabby hands to take?

- what the actual fuck is Kara's arc this season? Or Alex? Or poor J'onn. The man has been seriously neglected.

- kara is supposed to be the most powerful being on the planet and yet this show continues to nerf her abilities. God I missed the days of S1 when Kara looked like she could fuck shit up.

- also when is kara going to be the focus of her own show again? Are we ever going to properly address Kara's issues? We got two episodes of James processing his trauma and only 5 mins of flashbacks in 6x08 for Kara and a few fleeting moments sprinkled across the last 5 seasons. Ridiculous. Like it won't diminish her as a character to seek professional help, it won't make her any less of a hero. Think of how impactful that would be and the message that could send about the importance of mental health.

- glad to see a promo for this important episode next week (I honestly can't wait - Kelly in a head wrap is so personal to me y'all) but please I'm begging you, do not make the issue of race come at the expense of kara's intelligence and awareness. She's a journalist, she's seen xenophobia and written about it, she's been friends with James for years. Kara knows about racism. Please show that.

Needless to say I did not enjoy this episode at all. I was happy to see Lena again but all her scenes were just hard to watch. I feel like so much of their very limited time is being wasted and there's still so many things they haven't touched upon yet. When exactly are we gonna get to it? Better question, will we ever get to it? Probably not.

Like I wanted to see the super friends communicating, leaning on each other, character growth, being truly stronger together but no. They're giving us literally anything but that and it's frustrating.

[swashbucklery]

I stopped watching SG years ago (due to lack of time not bc I didn't like it) but I have to ask - is Lena really becoming a witch? Are they going full Morgana again?

I've been enjoying SG a lot, anon! You should catch up if you have more time later.

Look. LOOK I am going to go on a tear here because like. Yes YES allegedly Lena is a witch do I know what that means NO all I know is that she went to Canada and a lady in a cave in Newfoundland was like LENA YOU LOOK EXACTLY LIKE YOUR DEAD MA YOU'VE GOT THE GIFT and the gift is apparently witchcraft.

(Except that she didn't say "ma" she said "mother" and I think this is my one main grievance vis a vis the Newfie accents in that episode but that's a different post.)

And this is very polarizing on the internet, because people - this may shock you - have opinions about this storyline, which are various. And look. This show has uhhh not very many episodes left the crux of this season WILL BE everyone finding the magic MacGuffins and making a Beebo together and also apparently starting a Jane Jacobs book club you can accept that or you can be mad forever, you know? Life goes on.

But I think the reason I'm so into it is - yes yes on the surface level it's objectively very funny and also Canada. But also it's actually a very interesting arc for Lena, and a neat way to give her a storyline that actually pushes her to work through a lot of the unresolved baggage from S5 on her own, without her driving motivation being Winning Kara's Affection or Kara's scenes being totally monopolized by her relationship with Lena. Because: look. The unresolved thing for Lena is and has always been her struggles with ego and hubris. She's very smart and that's never been in question, but its how she uses that intelligence and the ways that, when she's hurting, her emotions often push her to weaponize her intelligence and do really hurtful things. And last season was, in a lot of respects, a wake-up call to the fact that like - she's done harm before but it's never had consequences the way that the Hope/Non Nocere project had visible consequences. Which I think Lena needed to see to understand that she can sometimes be at real risk of hurting people she loves if she feels they've hurt her first and that's like - not great!

And magic is such a good trope for a character like that because the themes that go well with it are often the interplay between power and ego and self and control. Magic is science elevated to another level, and just like science a very clever person can do very real harm - even if they don't mean to - by inventing the wrong thing or giving a great invention to the wrong person. Which Lena in 6a coped with by just like. Divesting herself of LCorp and removing the temptation of Accidentally Getting Mad And Doing Evil Science, but that doesn't really address the root issue of like. Lots of people get mad and don't accidentally do evil science, you know?

(This is also nearly-beat for beat the Willow late-series throughline in Buffy and I'm going to make a million references about it ok I cannot be stopped.)

I'd argue that it's not "full Morgana," but in a lot of ways Morgana is the archetype that Lena is pushing herself not to be, you know? Morgana is a very hurt, very lonely girl who uses magic to hurt people who have wronged her right back, and there's a part of Lena that really could go there, always.

So what I love about this arc is that this is kind of baking that potential into her as a character. She has to think things through, because there's much greater risk that she could Accidentally Get Mad And Magic Murder A Guy To Death since it's a part of her! It's a way to give Lena the chance to learn for herself how to work with those parts of herself and be the good person she keeps trying to be and that's cool. That's so much cooler than just the surface-level trope of like. Floaty pencil magic book aesthetics and I want to dive into it a lot!

[lipzlipzlipz]

Supergirl is ending tonight and I am sad. She’s a superhero that’s been one of my favorites since I was a little girl, and this show had so much potential. And yes, one of those potentialities was making Supercorp canon. The chemistry between Melissa Benoist and Katie McGrath is undeniable. Which is good. There should be chemistry between cast members. Makes for great tv. But what we watched were seasons full of chemistry between Kara and Lena that could’ve lead to one of the greatest slow burn tv romances ever. It could’ve been canon for Kara to fall in love with a woman who had become her best friend. With someone who inspired her, supported her, and challenged her, but not in a way that belittled or ignored her. The fallout/breakup of s5 was exaggerated to soapy comic book levels but that’s a superhero show and it could be forgiven if they had followed that up with the epic reconciliation Supercorp deserved this season, as well as with a character arc deserving of Kara Zor-El. Sigh

I don’t know what the ending holds for Kara, whether Supercorp becomes canon or we get an ambiguous open ending or just plain nothing, I don’t know. I’m not optimistic, to be honest. Even if it isn’t canon, it’s frustrating that I can’t feel confident the show will do right by her, and I’m sad but I won’t stop hoping for a worthy end. For this hero who loves her found family on earth, who wants a fulfilling career and to help people, who wants love with a partner she can have fun and be herself with.

Are we going to get an ending that lines up with the Kara we’ve come to know? I hope so. I hope the Dansen wedding is as wonderful as the promo pics make it look. I hope Brainia survive but if not, I hope their parting is full of love without regret. I hope Lena is happy with who she is while being a badass scientist witch bettering the world. I hope I hope I hope.

I’m sure I’ll cry either way.

[shadowdianne]

Fic writer review [Or a fic writer tag game if you prefer]

I was tagged by @naralanis and I can already see her grin all the way from where I am xd Thank you, dear, for the tag, let’s see what are my answers, shall we.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

*bursts out laughing* Adding both pseuds I have… 535 according to the account info but by counting them all I’m reaching 541 so I’m guessing it’s counting some drafts I need to re-find.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

I seriously hated you for this one xd I was going to do it by hand by I decided one-third there that I value my mental stability a little bit more xd according to the stats page back at a03 that number would be 1257884. It may be wrong. I think there should be a few more numbers up there but the majority of my works are one-shots so *shrugs* There’s also the fact that counting my ao3 things only is shaving off like half of it Xd Anyway, can we laugh at the fact that I’m a pain in the ass and that I’ve written a lot? More than I should have, that’s for sure

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Trick question because I haven’t crossposted everything I wrote back in ffnet and I actually erased some fics from my account back there so the numbers are a little blurry there.

When I had the entirety of my work posted both in ffnet and a03 I had written for: Twilight (Bella/Alice) Glee (Faberry and there were a couple Pezberry and I don’t fucking remember the pairing name for Santana and Quinn), Harry Potter (Hermione/Ginny, Hermione/Narcissa, Hermione/Bellatrix) OUAT (SwanQueen and several oneshots focusing on the mad hatter and the blue fairy solely back at ffnet that were written in Spanish and never translated), I actually had a veeeery old au prompt of Frozen (Elsanna in where I wrote them as non sibilings), Rizzoli and Isles (Rizzles), Dishonored 2 (Emily Kaldwin/Alexi Mayhew), Lara Croft and Wonder Woman, Supergirl (SuperCorp/Supercat) I had a 100 one -or maybe two??- (Clexa), The Shannara Chronicles (Amberle/Eretreia [Or Princess Rover], Rwby [Blake Belladona/Yang], The Worst Witch (Hecate Hardbroom and Pippa Pentangle), The Half of it, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Madam Satan/Zelda Spellman) and… I think that’s it(?) I may be forgetting some but probably nothing important if I’m not remembering it lol.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Ah, we are going to go there, uh? Xd My works are not the kudos and comment getting type Xd So I was quite surprised when I went to check this.

1: Cracked it I wrote this one back in 2017, it was a prompt done by an anon: Lena is nerding with one of her projects at home, mumbling mostly to herself because she’s stuck and Kara casually mentions how to solve the problem like it’s nothing. I really had some fun with this. It was back when some us, SQeeners were fully doing the jump between OUAT and SuperGirl (I mean, there had already been some crossover as for fandom is related but this when the girls were actually getting their conjoined voice within the fandom)

2: Dateless I honestly needed to check what this one was about but I think I can see why this one shot has the amount of kudos it has. It’s a short and sweet idea and responds to the Teachers Au that went SO well with SQ. Everyone thinks they hate each other and try to set them up with other people whilst they, in truth, are dating. I don’t remember if I wrote them as married rather than dating but despite being from 2017 as well is one cheeky enough to be cool Xd I probably would edit some lines now *shudders*

3: After you I truly didn’t expect this one to be top 3. Makes me think of a lot of things, if I’m being honest Xd. After you was a one shot written almost feverishly as an answer to the fabulous drawings that Sejic did of both Lara Croft and Wonder Woman back at 2018 or something. It’s just Lara and Diana being himbos but not at all with each other.

4: How about… How about is one I remember perfectly, it was my answer to the ending of the Half of it film. I had SOME thoughts about it, let’s just stop there Xd I really liked the film itself but I think and I thought at the time that my response to wishing for a final scene at the very end of the credits responds to me being in a different personal moment than the characters. I really wanted to explore my feelings about it and so I wrote about them finding each other again after some time passes. It was also something I wrote after quite the hiatus so I took it as something I could write about without focusing too much on the why.

5: Come to me

Ahh, SuperCorp Xd I remember this one actually. A friend of mine and I were talking about descriptions, and she mentioned quite off-handedly how she wanted a fic in where Kara’s back was described. I complied… more or less.

Fun tidbit, despite the big volume of my work is obviously set in ouat there’s only 1 SQ fic there as you can see, the others are either SuperCorp or the random one shots I created for Wonderwoman/Lara Croft and The half of it. *sighs in deep thought* I’m also not going to look too much into how almost all of the fics were posted and written back in 2017. Nope, not at all.

*Small voice screaming you peaked in 2017 and everything else is garbage jumps back and forth*

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I tend to always respond, yup. I truly value comments. I might have gone for spells of time in where I didn’t have the mental capacity to check in old fics because I truly didn’t know what to answer but I treasure every single comment and you all who comment know that I can start to ramble in the answers xd -sorry about that- I really really REALLY love interaction.

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending:

Ok, Nara, come on, this one is a catch for me. I’ve written angst in far too many fics to remember the angstiest one :P I have the most recent one, though, that is the easy one to think about: Goodbye.Written for @delirious-comfort. I’m just going to say “Kisses with their last dying breath” as an idea of what awaits inside but I’ve written about death and loss and angst quite a lot. There were some I wrote back to SQ with Regina needing to kill Emma during the Dark Swan arc that, to this day, I still love and some others in where Regina is the one that dies, again and again, trapped by magic while Emma watches. I have the loss in mental destruction form and… I REALLY like my angst y’know xd

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not counting Lara and Wonder Woman not really! I think it comes from the fact that I loooove worldbuilding as a whole and some pairings would require all my focus into making the world perfect which in turn would make me self conscious on the OOCness of it all.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

*snorts* I’ve received hate due to the pairing I’ve written about, how I’ve written about it, the amount I’ve written, how slow or quick I can be, the usage of some tropes, the lack of usage of those same tropes… Let’s just go with: yuuuup.

9. Do you write smut?

I’ve written smut, yeah! But I can already see the pointed looks of some so let’s elaborate Xd I write smut when asked and sometimes when not asked but there’s a part of me I like to call a terrible tease that prefers writing the beginning of a scene, taunt it, focus on what happens before the sex scene per se as I find it more enjoyable to write. The process of escalation is always the best for me to see what can I do it by using both dialogue and descriptors tbh, so I tend to tease more than show.

9. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

A few weeks ago I’d have said: Maybe(?) But trying to follow the trail of some other fics that had been stolen from some friends -I think it was me trying to find more about the page that stole something from your Nara!- I found some pages in where my fics had been reposted. In some it was stated that the person posting the fic wasn’t the author but I had never been contacted in order to see if I’d say yes to such a thing and in some others the page was locked up but I could still see someone was pretending to be the author. I did the thing and got some of those down.

Pointed note: Ask me if you want to post or translate or anything. I will look into you and answer you if you seem honest about the thing. But despite every joke and self-deprecating comment those 500 and then some fics represent MY time so very kindly I say fuck off to those who wish to steal from me and if I catch you… you don’t really want to see me angry, trust me.

10. Ever had a fic translated?

I’ve given permission to some, yeah, but never heard it back from them so I’m guessing it didn’t stick.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I’ve written series alongside other authors as @stregaomega for example. And some others that are unpublished -looking at you @carsonnieve - I’ve also done collabs… but fics co-written in the sense of two authors same chapters I don’t have anything posted I’m afraid :P

13. All-time favourite ship?

*snorts*, I guess the obvious answer is SQ uh? And I do think they were the ones that allowed me to read and write SO much. The one I feel more strongly about, however, is Bering and Wells from Warehouse 13.

14. WIP you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

All of them counts as a valid answer? But if I only could finish one that would be Arcadia. With A forgotten Promise second and the one I did as an Assassins Creed AU third. (I don’t remember the name so there’s no link, sorry xd)

15. Writing strengths?

Uhhhh, you REALLY want me to say that? I don’t fucking know!! To me everything I write is garbage. I always try to go for the feelings so I guess. Dunno xd I’ve been told I’m good at worldbuilding and to be honest is what I enjoy the most.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Everything Xd Pacing? What I hate the most sometimes is dialogue, I would count it as a weakness but I’m always far too focused on description rather than dialogue. I don’t think it’s a bad thing per se but it’s something that I don’t do as much.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I’m conflicted. Always. Majorly because I think that having bilingual characters in fanfiction is portrayed and expected in a way that I don’t feel it’s honest with how bilingual people -us- talk. So if I go by what I know I do I think it’s not what readers hope to see when it comes to that and if I go for how canonically is hoped to be found I don’t think it’s logical. But that’s me and my overthinking Xd If I have the option I like to do it.

18. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Belice! Or Bella/Alice. Worst first fic ever but oh, well, I’m always saying that :P

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

Uhh… Don’t make me do this XD Agh, I don’t know. I’ve always been very vocal about Metallic Ink because I let myself enjoy the process of creating a magic system almost out of zero and that was fun. Despite hating some of the writing process and that I’d do it differently now I think I’m going to stick with that answer. Or anything that had any steampunk-based undertone. To be honest I like more thinking of concepts, I had one in where Emma was a thief and it involved the robbery of a ring that was Regina’s one way ticket to freedom I then later repurposed that I adored thinking about so let’s go with…. Yeah, I love having the option of changing things up a little and focus on how characters would fit in different aesthetics for this one Xd

Annnd… these are four pages, gods. I’m just going to tag @waknatious @carsonnieve @stregaomega here and see what they do- Enjoy the questionnaire ladies :P

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - The Least Best!

Well, here it is, the second to last article of this project, and it's one that's going to be controversial. I'm sorry, I have to do a worst list along with the best list, but I decided against actually calling it the worst list. Simply put: calling it a worst list implies these episodes were bad. Do not get me wrong, there are episodes I feel qualify for that, but not more than 10 of them. Alas, it has to be done.

I must have some rules for this list, and here they are:

It has to be an episode of DuckTales 2017. No shorts, even if the shorts combined can make up a full episode. I am also not putting in anything from This Duckburg Life, either.

I have to say something good about each of these episodes. Does not have to be the best thing about the episode, but a good thing nonetheless.

This is my opinion and my opinion alone. I am sure there are fans of these episodes, I just disagree with them.

Let's begin with #10, and I can already tell I'm going to lose some people over this, but I am not sorry.

10. Beaks In The Shell!

I did get some flack for giving this a 2 initially, and I did walk back on it simply because there are worse episodes I have given 3s or would have given 3s, but I just did not think of this one as highly as everything else in the third season. I do not hate it, as it has some clever moments here and there, like Louie's shock about GizmoDuck's identity.

She has a great design, and I do like how she's the hacker girl as a counterpart to Fenton. She just seems to do a complete 180. In the last episode she was in, she was not above blinding children in order to keep her job, and now she just wants to leave F.O.W.L. just like that? I do not really buy it, and I never really found her that interesting in execution, at least in the show itself.

Good thing: Out of all the flack I've given this episode, the ending with the character's individual Gizmo suits is top notch. I like how everyone has an ability that either fits them or is a reference to a previous episode.

9. New Gods on the Block!

This is another "not really one of the good ones, but not really one of the bad ones" episode to me. My decision to put this one below "Beaks In The Shell" goes more with me thinking the Gizmo suits were a little more creative, and how I think this episode could have done better with this idea. Plenty of scenes with Storkules and Donald being a little too close, much to the chagrin of the latter.

There is also this plot where Scrooge wants to make a different team, implying that the kids are not good enough. This may have been a misinterpretation on the part of the kids, making this one of those "misunderstanding" episodes, but it is really vague here. It seemed to me that Scrooge really was trying to get a different team that did not involve his family for the most part. I am not going to say him being called out by Della when he's climbing the Titan is not a powerful scene, but I feel like it goes against the series entire arc of family being the best adventure of all. This isn't a Season 1 episode where Scrooge had to learn that, this is in Season 3!

Good thing: It was cool to see this plot expand the pantheon of Greek gods in this series. The DuckTales 2017 version of Hades, their reaction to Zeus being depowered, it’s all good.

8. The Split Sword of Swanstantine!

Unlike Gandra Dee, or any of the Olympians, the Sword of Swanstentine ended up being a major part of the finale. It is a shame that the hunt for that sword is the least best of the three shorts episodes. The first part with Dewey and Webby features the aforementioned child blinding plot that leads to a couple of cool survival scenes and a clever use of the big fight between Black Heron and Scrooge that happens throughout the episode, but is mostly just okay. The second part with Louie and Violet is a little weak, it's a one-idea premise with a character that I felt needed more development, period.

Huey and Lena's part may have been the highlight of the episode, but it only leads to an ending that is a bit predictable as soon as it comes up. Oh no, the villains have the sword! Nah, just kidding, the heroes have it because of a technicality that they certainly did not remember in the finale. I am a little glad they did not remember the sword's ability to not be used by people who have not earned it, actually, but that's not something that pertains to this episode specifically.

Good thing: As mentioned before, Huey and Lena's part is good. It's mitigated by The Duke of Making A Mess never really appearing again, but that is also not something that pertains to this episode specifically.

7. Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!

The crew of the show have shown their disdain for the original Doofus. They could have just said that Doofus wasn't indicative of the kind of messaging they wanted to show, much like the original Burger Beagle, or the witch doctor stereotype who first summoned the Bombie, but no, their response to a character that was hated in the original was to make an even less likeable villain out of him! He was alright in "Day of the Only Child!", his debut, and I think that might be because he only had a third of the episode rather than more than half. While the ending is good, and there are some funny scenes with some of his other party guests, there's a lot of awkward scenes to work through here.

There is a plot that does not involve Doofus, but it does not do much good. The B-plot is pretty much shoe-horned in here, with no real connection besides involving characters that are not trying to crash the party. It is about Huey learning to step out of his comfort zone, and we know this because he goes into a video game world and having to learn how to step out of something that is outright called a "comfort zone". There just is not a lot to this plot other than some really cheap references. There's certainly nothing on the same level as Dewey Dew-Night, which is what "Day of the Only Child!" gave us. I guess I decided to put this episode in the Honey Bin after all.

Good thing: Glomgold's scheme involving his puppet son is a good Glomgold scene, and this is the episode that gave us Boyd, so I can't hate on it too much.

6. The Rumble for Ragnarok!

When I decided to re-rate Beaks in the Shell to a three, I was also specifically thinking of this episode as one of the worse episodes that I gave a three. This is a problem with having a series as consistently good as DuckTales 2017 is; there's a little to like in almost every episode, and this episode really knows how to handle pro wrestling as a setting while also making it fit in with the universe. I could see something like this happening in the old comics.

However, lots of neat references to pro wrestling can't hide that the way they implemented this plot is just flawed to me. The plot to me seemed to go with the moral that one should follow with what is right even if it does not lead to popularity. It does start well with Scrooge, as the villainous Millionaire Miser, telling Dewey to "embrace the boos" of the people that want the world to end. Then they decide that the crowd doesn't like Jörmungandr anymore because...he was being too harsh on a kid? They did not have a problem with Hecka beating up two kids, but when Jörmungandr ties him up with his tail, that's a heel turn? Conveniently, Dewey did not have to learn anything! I can appreciate that they didn't go with what any other cartoon would do and make a farce out of the form of entertainment, but I can not shake that off.

Good thing: Not only does this episode do a great job with wrestling jokes, it manages to throw in a reference to the original that seamlessly fits in with the wrestling jokes. It's too bad the Shield Maiden didn't get to do much, but it's still a positive.

5. The Richest Duck in the World!

I did say I wanted to only rate episodes, but if I was rating DuckTales 2017's arcs, the Louie one from Season 2 is definitely the lowest. Do not get me wrong, the Louie Inc. arc did have some good episodes, Storkules in Duckburg being a highlight, but it is definitely the least memorable arc in the series, and its finale is the worst of that arc. Sure, it was a big shocking moment in "GlomTales!" that he was able to swindle his own uncle's fortune, especially an uncle as sharp and smart as Scrooge McDuck, but the way this episode follows up on that is to make a hundred jokes about Louie being a lazy billionaire until he learns his lesson in a way that returns everything back to the status quo as soon as the real arc of the season comes back in the last minute of the episode. The finale of the entire show made this even more worthless, and I would rather not get into any more detail than I already had in that review.

I think what really gets me about this is how well Scrooge takes this plot, especially when compared to an episode that is coming up in this very list. I know a part of this is because of the villain of the episode, but there was also a feeling that Scrooge just knew that the status quo was going to come back. That just made this episode's conclusion just that much more foregone. The fact that the Tenderfeet had to show up to remind us that he exists does not make this any better. There is another plot about Della trying to call Penumbra, who is not answering her phone calls for reasons she could not have known. Revealing why she can't before kind of made the conclusion of that plot just that much more foregone. For an episode that comes before a major, major finale, it is so unmemorable to me.

Good thing: When Bradford was talking about "magical defense" in the first episode, I was thinking it was a reference to Magica, but this episode does a great job of retconning that into something less predictable. Retooling the Bombie, a villain with origins that are not necessarily acceptable by today's standards, into something more akin to a force of nature is great.

4. The Depths of Cousin Fethry!

The very first Disgusted Donald I have ever given, and, to be honest, it's because I have learned to raise my standards for this show. Don't get me wrong, this show's version of Fethry Duck had a bit of potential, especially as a sort of mentor to Huey, and the idea of the episode could have went to places, but I just found this episode boring at best. At worst, it just exaggerates Huey to an unimaginably nerdy level, up to licking trees to find out what their resin level is and kissing giant plant monsters. Outside of one particular monster near the end of the episode, that is all this episode has: grossout humor and boredom. As much as I get the joke that Launchpad's journey was just so awesome that it could not have been animated, I still stand by the running gag I made in that review.

Good thing: One good thing about the payoff is the camerawork. The viewer never sees that giant krill "monster" in full. They forgot about that in Moonvasion, though I can see the argument that the Moonvasion would make anything look small.

3. The 87 Cent Solution!

The second Disgusted Donald I have ever given, and also the last. Was I afraid to get the wrath? Well, I am certainly not afraid now, as I rate the episode where Scrooge gets "gold fever" over 87 cents getting stolen from him as the third least best episode. I mean, I get it. Scrooge did not get "gold fever" because he lost money. He lost plenty of money trying to fix his own mistakes. He got "gold fever" because someone outwitted the smartest of the smarties and the sharpest of the sharpies. However, I just couldn't find Scrooge's descent into that madness funny. It's not like the "sea monster ate my ice cream" scene from the original that the reboot decided to mock in a different episode, I just feel sorry for him in a way that just does not fit with the rest of the series.

Having the ending be Mrs. Beakley saying "oh, I would have dealt with those silly manchildren by myself" just felt bizarre compared to the rest of DuckTales 2017's endings. It felt more like an ending to that other reboot. It certainly had that "ugh, men" vibe.

Good thing: One scene that one might think I hated was the dance scene with Glomgold set to DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win." Not only is Glomgold the best part about this episode, that scene is among the best Glomgold scenes ever.

2. Terror of the Terra-firmians!

This was the episode I considered giving the first Disgusted Donald to, or in the new ratings terms, a 1 Scrooge, but I decided against it because it just was not as bad as the worst that I have seen before I took on this project. I was sure there was going to be an episode worse than this one, because every cartoon is going to have that one episode that does not measure up. Turns out, this was the one episode. The major plot of this episode is Huey and Webby just bickering over the existence of magical creatures who are clearly causing all of the problems of the episode. All this really leads to is the same ending one gets with the M&Ms Santa commercial, except the build up is not as funny. That's not a good sign when this episode is much longer than a commercial.

They throw in a part with Lena and Mrs. Beakley that ends up becoming a major piece of development for Lena. I'll admit: this was the part that made me not want to give it a Disgusted, but now I realize what happened. Lena's plot does not really interact with the Terra-firmian plot, with only the train crash being the only real interaction. It's like they knew this episode would not amount to much in the overall arc nor would it be particularly funny, so they put in this awesome Lena part. I will not get fooled again.

Good thing: As mentioned before, Lena saving Mrs. Beakley is better than the rest of the episode combined.

I was really hard pressed to consider putting in dishonorable mentions. It was hard enough picking 10 episodes for the actual list.

The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks! - I just never really liked Mark Beaks as a villain. Smartphones may be around for a long time, but YOLO certainly will not.

Raiders of the Doomsday Vault! - The worst of Season 2 is already on this list, so I really stretched to find another episode that was any worse. This is just a case of Della Duck having better episodes than this.

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks! - In a series that had good season openers, this was decidedly not one of them. Other than introducing Webby 2, er, Violet, it was only good for starting the "Missing Mysteries of Finch" arc.

And now, the absolute least best episode of DuckTales 2017. It's plot important, very much so. It's an episode with Lena in it, usually a bright point of any DuckTales 2017 episode and a very beloved character. It's an episode I felt that was not good at all by DuckTales 2017 standards. That episode is...

1. The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!

I know this is the one with that hugely emotional scene of Lena seeing her best friend die in front of her eyes. Of course, neither Disney nor the overall arc of the series would ever allow that, as this is merely a dream sequence that shows that Lena is afraid of her aunt and what she will do to her new best friend, which clearly hasn't been shown in every one of her last appearances. Clearly, we needed this over-the-top dream sequence to really show the kids that Magica is the bad lady and Lena is the good girl. Everything good this A-plot did was done better in "Jaw$!"; they could have just tacked on this episode's ending to that episode, and it would have worked.

Oh, and the B-plot is the dreaded devil in plain sight plot. Huey, Dewey, and Louie befriend a Tenderfeet, the Tenderfeet turns out to be a jerk who tries to sabotage Louie, Louie gets blamed for it to the point where Huey, the usually sensible one, punches Louie in the arm as apparently bullying the Tenderfeet is the worst action he has ever done, and the cycle repeats. After reviewing a reboot that, despite all of its flaws, never managed to fall into it, I was shocked that DuckTales 2017, the reboot that really could, toyed with the worst plot in any cartoon ever and played it straight. I could see the argument that this is one of the better implementations of the forsaken plot, as Louie is already an untrustworthy person even among his brothers and he does manage to solve the problem in a way that fits with his scheming character, but, I am not sorry, it's still a devil in plain sight. Next. Oh wait, there is no next!

Good thing: At least I can admit that this show doesn't pull any punches. Oh no, I'm not talking about the dream sequence, I'm talking about the ending. At first, I did not really like it, as I thought it was another way for the villain to just snatch everything away at the last minute. However, once we learn more about Lena in the next episode, it makes a lot more sense.

And that's the least best! I really did not want to leave this negativity up for too long without its opposite, so the best list will be up on Wednesday rather than next week. Stay tuned!

← The Shorts (Part 2) 🦆 The Absolute Best! →

[happymeishappylife]

DC CW Shows

I finally caught up on all the DC Universe shows. Quite an accomplishment for me considering I was 2 seasons behind. It feels good to finally get caught up to speed, but some of them are starting to feel like chores getting through them, rather than fun entertainment. A concern that gets amplified by the fact that the producers want to add on 2 more shows to the line up. So I felt like it was a good idea to breakdown my thoughts on each of the shows and what I liked/didn’t like. Plus then I will break down my thoughts on Crisis, because I have a lot of them. I’ll also rank these as I go as far as which ones I liked best, beginning with least to best. So let’s begin:

#7 - The Flash

I used to love this show so much. The first two seasons were a lot of fun and I loved all the characters so much. Thanks to the writing though, I can’t honestly say I don’t like this show much at all anymore and that’s kinda sad. Part of the reason is it became soooo angsty. Like the reason The Flash was great, was it was the antithesis to the angst on Arrow which made it so refreshing to watch. Now it’s like everyone must suffer some sort of pain over the tiniest things or worse, they become entrapped in characters and situations like its been haunting them for years when it only got introduced a couple episodes ago. At this point the only characters I care about are Caitlyn/Frost, Joe and Cecile West, Wally (when he’s on, which is like never), and Ralph. And that’s painful that Hartley won’t be returning to fill that role anymore because he was the only one who still could joke and laugh around like old Team Flash.

Season 5: Overall season 5 had a pretty solid storyline despite some of the angsty writing. After a while though I got pretty sick of fighting Chicada over and over again, especially Grace’s version. My one big pet peeve with it though was the relationship of Nora to Barry and Iris. I’m sorry. I can’t honestly picture any 20-30 something meeting their adult daughter and automatically assuming the role of an actual parent and treating her like a preteen. That always felt super weird and uncomfortable. Not to mention it happened almost automatically with little to no hang ups on ‘is this really our kid? Should we trust her?’ Plus then it created angst between Barry and Iris which I’m really over at this point in the series because their relationship was never my favorite to begin with.

Season 6: A hot mess. Granted, because of Crisis and Covid-19, the season probably didn’t get a fair chance to play out to it’s full potential. But cutting the season into two arcs didn’t do it any justice. Especially because instead of having character growth, I felt like a lot of the characters regressed. Take Barry for instance. The whole first part of the season is him prepping/training the team to take over for him after Crisis since he believes he is going to die. Only when he doesn’t, he assumes the role of leader still without actually leading. He stops telling his team members key details and putting aside the fact he killed the speed force, he stopped being a hero. The whole fight scene with Mirror-Iris, was so bizarre to watch. Yes, Barry would never hurt the real Iris, but she’s not and instead he just stands there and gets stabbed over and over, crying at the end that she’s not there. It’s really hard to watch.

#6 - Arrow

Arrow used to be in my top 3 slots as last I left it. The storylines were still on point. But leading up to Crisis and the show ending, there were some things that worked for me and some that didn’t. Still, kudos to the team for standing their ground and saying that we’ve told all we can tell, let’s put this show to bed and give it a close it deserves. It made the ending super emotional, but at the same time satisfying despite, Oliver’s death in the universe. My only complaint is the fact that the producers can’t put it fully to bed and now want to reboot Arrow all over again with Mia and the canaries. Don’t get me wrong watching strong women take more of the leading roles is awesome, but not to tell and retell the same storylines.

Season 7: The first half of the season when Oliver was in Iron Heights was not my favorite. Mainly because as it continues to develop it was like all the reasons he got put in Iron Heights to begin with no longer mattered. Diaz is still on the lose, he’s still playing his games in prison, and really what was the point? Now the second half of the season where we focus on his rehabilitation into society and working with the SCPD to track and take down his sister Emiko, was actually good. Too bad it got horribly overshadowed by a time travel flash-forward storyline to introduce and make us care about Mia.

Season 8: Obviously this season was the closeout season and the season leading up to Crisis. But I liked the way they treated it. They gave cameo spots and guest starring spots to former faces like Thea (she’s still freaking awesome), Tommy, Moira, and even Merlyn came back. My only complaint was that all of sudden we did have another time travel situation on our hands to meet our future kids. Thankfully I felt Arrow overall took that development better than the Flash, which since that was only a couple episodes and not a season, says something about the writing. Plus the post-Crisis pilot for the Green Arrow and Canaries felt a little out of place given everything that happened and a little insulting.

#5 - Supergirl

There’s parts of Supergirl I still absolutely love to pieces and the writing that are still doing it the justice that started the show by telling storylines of not only heroism, but commentary on today’s events to help push for progress. I love the whole cast of characters and think the acting has been great. My only complaint is with Season 5 and the fact that the show is beginning to find its tipping point of being less than stellar. I mean, I still enjoy it, but it’s beginning to show its where and tear so I’m worried what’s going to happen as it continues forward. Especially as it gets hyperfixated on Lex Luthor, who don’t get me wrong is a fabulous villain, but isn’t that Superman’s arch nemesis, not Supergirl’s?

Season 4: What a great commentary to tell throughout the season that parallels the feelings and conversations being had about immigration in our own world. I thought the idea of the Alien Amnesty Act squaring off against Ben Lockwood and his Agents of Liberty was not only great commentary but great story telling. I also loved that we got to introduce Nia Nall into the series because she’s fantastic and has become one of my favorite characters. I even love the twist reveal of how Ben Lockwood isn’t the enemy, it’s really Lex Luthor and his communist Supergirl clone. Plus Jon Crier plays an amazing Lex Luthor.

Season 5: Don’t get me wrong, the stakes and the storylines with Leviathan and Obsidian North, I do think are important and worth telling, but they detracted from the main storyline that developed at the end of last season which was Lena and Kara’s new relationship. Yes, it was still hit on and explored, but by far that was the storyline I was interested in seeing the most, not Ramah Khan or Virtual Reality horror stories. Also, while I like Lex, thanks to his antics during Crisis, the second half of the season felt hijacked and became this witch hunt. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see what he and Lillian are doing, but I wish it played out more in the shadows and less of the actual screen time. I’m also glad Lena is back on Kara’s side again. But Brainy better not be dead! He’s one of my favorites even if his motives during this season were hard to watch.

#4 - Batwoman

I actually really, really, really liked Batwoman’s first season. Getting to know the badass that is Kate Kane and watch the horror’s of Gotham play out week to week was such a refreshing change of pace. After all, The Flash and Supergirl are undeniably heroes and must carry those burdens(?) as they fight for truth and justice. And Oliver was a vigilante, but while he took down drug lords, weapons dealers, etc. the stakes of being a vigilante in Star City is nothing compared to wearing the cape in Gotham. I loved the cast and seeing the stories play out of their past and how they connect to each other and also how some of them discover who Batwoman is, was fantastic. Even as creepy as Alice is, I enjoyed seeing the performance of the completely unhinged and psychotic villain take the stage to play out her twisted fantasies. I also appreciate the openness that Kate brought to being an out and proud lesbian, even revealing her super identity to a teenager to prove that it does get better and lesbians can be awesome is super freaking powerful. I even like that with the shortened season, it didn’t feel like we got robbed of an awesome storyline, but now we get to why this ranks fourth on my list instead of higher: Ruby Rose left the show and we get a whole new Batwoman. I get that this is out of the hands of the producers and the writers and I am super sad to see her go. But its hard not to feel like we lost a whole season of introduction and development to just reset and begin again. I’m not sure how they will handle it, but I do hope that a lot of the cast stays and stays in their roles. Especially Luke and Mary who are a great team. Mary is also like my all time, instant-favorite character because not only is she super wicked smart, but she has so much humanity in her so I hope she still continues on the show.

#3 - Stargirl

 Yes, yes, this show is still airing which is why I can’t speak to the overall season arc in finality yet, but I absolutely have been loving this first season. Again, what a refreshing new reality to step into and what a great new storyline to pursue. This rag-tag group of teenagers becoming the new Justice Society of America is a fun telling and already, the stakes of the Injustice Society are so high! Like I was expecting that it was going to be like the other shows where slowly by slowly we meet all the bad guys in different seasons, but instead it feels a little flipped since we don’t have all our new heroes on the stage yet. Still I love Courtney and her relationship with Pat as she discovers these secrets of his past and their new home of Blue Valley. I love her recruiting reasoning to bring Yolanda and Rick into this crazy plan and even her acceptance of Beth becoming the new Doctor Midnight. Plus, the show keeps surprising me because on one hand, giving these teenagers these powers to help them redeem their self esteem is a great storyline, which is why I was expecting them to force us to like Cindy since the beginning of that episode was leading up to maybe becoming friends with her, but no. Turns out she is the super bitch and super villain of the show and that’s kinda awesome. Also I like how because their teenagers, their secret identities aren’t really that secret, which makes it’s kinda fun, but also dangerous. We’ll see how the last 3 episodes play out, but I can’t wait.

#2 - Black Lightening

Talk about real gritty, dark, and powerful storytelling. I enjoyed the first season, but these last two have been a real punch in the gut in good ways and the writers have been outdoing themselves to provide heartfelt, real, honest emotions and discussions to the world of superheroes, compared to the other shows. And it’s hard, but the gruesome nature of the show also highlights some of the real struggles going on in the Freeland Community which of course highlights the issues in our own world around the Black Community. The whole spinal chord ripping scene will haunt me forever and not only because they keep replaying it, but because of how insane that was. The cast is also great and I love that at the end of Season 3, it’s not just a family of super heroes, but a group of powerful metas squaring off against the government and the most dangerous threat of all so far: Gravedigger. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.

Season 2: Now that the whole family knows the stakes of what they have gotten themselves into with Tobias and revealing the girls have power, I love the way we got introduced to the ASA and the pod kids as a menial threat while still struggling to take down the perceived ‘bigger threat’ that is Tobias. Jennifer also having trouble coming to terms with her powers and how to use them I think was a great way to explore that not everyone wants to be a superhero, especially in antithesis to Nyssa who is a full on badass as Thunder and Blackbird. Watching Khalil’s story in this go from obedient lap dog to a runaway and finally a victim of Tobias’ violence was hard, but I felt was justified throughout and made him that character you want to root for, even when not everything he’s done has been great.

Season 3: What a harsh turn of direction. A full on occupation of Freeland, house arrest, killings on the street, and an underground railroad of metas or suspected metas completely changed the tune of this show. Watching each of the Peirces struggle to find out who the ASA is, what their doing, if their actions are justified and if the Marcovian threat was real was really fascinating to watch. The showdown with the Marcovians too with a whole team behind them was also a nice change of pace, even if their mission didn’t end the way they expected. I think the amplified stakes though of what happened and what’s to come will continue to develop into an incredible show, minus one now big problem I have, but I will detail that out below when we talk about Crisis.

#1 - Legends of Tomorrow

You can fight me, but Legends of Tomorrow is the best goddamn shown on this network for one simple fact: They don’t take themselves seriously. There is no real angst and because of that it makes the adventures so fun and so hilarious that its such a great break from all of the other shows. Plus, because they keep swapping new and old cast members into the show, it always feels new. Kinda that Doctor Who spirit, which I love. That and because there are hardly any rules to a time travelling group of heroes who don’t really want to be heroes, you get ridiculously themed episodes like Bollywood Musical or TV Crossovers. It is what makes the show a total blast.

Season 4: As the team gears up to track down magical creatures throughout history, you get the introduction of permanent team member, John Constantine who I freaking love for his cool, aloof character and yet sarcastic and sassy contrast to the sunshine and bro-squad that is Ray and Nate. I also love that the season not only was about capturing these magical creatures, but fully rehabilitating Norah Dhark into a good guy now accidentally turned fairy godmother. To be honest, I definitely did not see that one coming. I like that fighting the demon lord also helped transition the show from Season 4 to 5 to fight hell spawn creatures. Quite a leap from the original Legends concept, but again that’s what makes this show so fresh.

Season 5: Part of the other fun of Legends is getting to see old characters get reinvented. I loved the storyline with Charlie and her reveal to be Clothos, one of the 3 fate sisters and the reason the ancient loom got destroyed. I also loved Tala Ashe’s portrayal of Zari in a different timeline because the difference between tech-geek, super smart Zari and social influencer extraordinaire Zari were well done. Plus we got another awesome bro-squad member in Behrad who I hope sticks around for a while. The only bummer was saying goodbye to Ray Palmer. Ray has been one of my favorite characters in the Arrow-verse and seeing his exit was sad and partly because I think it could have been handled better. Like don’t get me wrong, seeing him have to get approval from Damian Dhark to marry Nora was entertaining and I’m glad he isn’t dead like Dr. Stein or Leonard Snart, but I just feel like the exit was a bit rushed. The good news is, it opens the door for Ray to return and I hope we get to seem in the future.

Alright...... To end this long spiel, let’s talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths and what that now means for all these shows. Because unfortunately.... it can’t be ignored. And I’m sorry to sound pessimistic, but to be honest, Crisis wasn’t my favorite story and was too hyped for the end result.

The only show who came out better for Crisis, in my opinion, was Arrow. Mainly because the story of Oliver’s last sacrifice to reboot the universe was the only one that made complete sense and doesn’t complicate the show after it happens. Granted it could be because it was used as the show’s exit, but still. I used to love crossover episodes and getting the whole team together, but now because there is soooo much going on in each show and such a large cast, these big multi-night and multi-universe shows just feel scattered because you are constantly hopping around and between each of the characters and all the individual storylines don’t matter. Like remember when Barry and Oliver would actually talk about what they were up against? Miss that. That and Oliver, Barry, and Kara stole the show even when it was other shows turn to shine. Like Kate was hardly in it, even in her own episode and the Legends weren’t in it at all. It was just Sara and Ray which was disappointing because as Crisis was their season opener, you missed a real chance to have the Legends save the day. Don’t get my wrong, there were some great moments during crisis and I liked the nod to past versions of the DC characters, including Brandon Routh getting to play Superman again, but overall it just made chaos for things that don’t make sense post-crisis.

Like yay, all our favorite heroes are in one place and created the justice league to help each other, but once Crisis is over, nope sorry, no one can be bothered to borrow a hero friend. Like that makes sense for some shows, Batwoman for instance isn’t that close to everyone and her storyline is so rooted in her own family drama, that ignoring the other supers made sense. The Flash’s stakes weren’t high enough to involve anyone else, so fine. And Legends of course travel through time and so aren’t around, fine. But Supergirl’s takedown of a longstanding secret group of people capable of bending Earth’s elements to create catastrophic events, isn’t enough to at least reach out to Cisco or Luke for help tracking them? That seems underwhelming. Plus where are the aliens in all the other cities now? Or the metas in National City? That’s a pet peeve, but more so because of the biggest twist in Crisis:

Pulling Black Lightening into the Arrowverse. Like the shows writers and producers, I think Black Lightening works better outside the Arrowverse which was the intent and goal from the get go. Pulling Jefferson Pierce’s family and world into the same Earth as all the other shows, no longer makes the shows storytelling as strong and maybe it was because this was a last minute decision, but there is just no justification post Crisis as to why they had to come in. I mean, The Flash and Black Lightening have metas related issues, you would think that alone would be a prime source of teaming up. Especially when Cisco goes out on a worldwide quest to document metas, you’re telling me skipped over Freeland? And where’s our favorite Kyrptonian to fight for truth, justice, and the American way as Freeland is being occupied by the ASA? Oh, what too busy going after Lex Luthor? Sorry, I’m not buying that Kara Danvers ignores racial injustice. Like I get that maybe it was a way to be able to use Black Lightening later in cross-over events, but the fallout from bringing them in this season with everything going on is a huge mistake in my opinion. And heck, having shows exist outside each other is probably a good thing. Too many and these crossover events don’t feel fun anymore, they just feel chaotic. I think I’m with the Legends on this one: the crossovers aren’t worth it anymore.

[templedragon]

Supergirl 5x16 Alex in Wonderland

Chyler shines in her performance. That's the highlight of the episode, along with Kelly's relevance. It's an episode that is good by numbers but somehow sidesteps a lot of heart. Instead of prioritising Alex's emotional turmoil in losing a parent, the episode seems to use it as a plot point to progress the Leviathan arc.

While there is still a lot of 'telling' about Lex in relation to Obsidian North, we are shown more detail about how people are trapped in VR. You enter grieving and it gives you a life you wouldn't want to escape, and creates scenarios (fake exits) to keep you inside. Sixteen episodes in, Kara is still ignorant of the Leviathan plot, whereas Kelly, Alex, William, Andrea and Eve are aware something is up.

William continues to be a plot convenience that takes away other character's roles. How can William give emotional advice to a mental health expert on what to do in her private life? More to the point, how did Kelly and William get this comfortable with each other, to the point he'll casually mention an NSA contact to a non-reporter? To the best of our knowledge, William only got to know the superfriends when Kara invited him to games' night. He's supposed to be newly free from VR (told, not shown), having mourned his friend Russell for two years. Last week, he got to write the article about violence against trans people, when it was Kara who knew the story. It should be Nia investigating the warehouse of missing VR users this week as she is a journalist. We can't even say he's acting out of character because he just exists. His interest in Lex seems glib, given he thinks Lex murdered his best friend.

There's a lot of women brought back this episode - Eliza, Psi, a Kryptonian witch, young Alex, Eve. And yet, only one of those has a key role in helping Alex or the plot. Ideally, this should have been a two-parter rather than Winn in 5x11 and 5x12, as there is rich material in the dynamic between Kara, Alex and Eliza regarding their upbringing. Did Alex really dump her soul onto a stranger in a virtual bar? Isn't that a reach for the woman who is usually so stoic? I know that a theme this season is people reaching their limit, but was this true to character? Why hasn't Kara reached her limit, as she's lost her biological parents numerous times and her adoptive parents recently in COIE.

The synopsis for this episode said Kara receives difficult news. I may have blinked and missed it. Kara is irrelevant this episode, as she has been most of 5B (she saved Andrea as her bodyguard and talked Nia out of murder and that's it). Also, if the show wanted to explore Alex's issues about her parent, then a better way would be her being a parent to adoptive children, one vulnerable, and seeing if she'd make the same choices as her father. Instead, the show went with the seasonal theme of characters getting costume changes. I'm not surprised the showrunners have ignored that Cadmus can't exist as we remember on Earth Prime, as Lilian went to prison for being anti-alien and yet the Luthors are seen as good so far.

Is Lena so irrelevant to Alex that she could think of no role for her in VR? She could remember a Kryptonian witch, but not the times Lena has saved the day and the people that she loves? Whatever happened to this season being a fight for Lena's soul, when characters seldom think of her?

[ruffiorocks]

Long post on people's misconceptions about Lena.

Sooo I'm reading a pretty good fic on AO3 but some of the comments people leave are just as bad as the stuff posted on here, Twitter and Instagram. It's mostly people hating on Lena, but they are so hypocritical about it and they make stuff up. I'm honestly convinced that half of them didn't watch the show and only go off of what haters have said happened. Either that or they have regurgitated the same nonsense for so long they have convinced themselves it actually happened.

1. Lena did NOT steal Harun El! Please go back and watch the show, listen to the dialogue and try and watch it without instantly waiting for Lena to be bad. I saw a comment that said that Alura requested all the Harun El back after they defeated Reign. Yeah, whoever commented that didn't watch the show. Kara and Mon El were given a small percentage of Harun El, it was used against Reign. Lena then MADE more Harun El. She figured out how to do something an advanced society of alien scientists weren't able to do. RAO the bloody witches were able to create Reign but not Harun El?? Anyhoo, Lena then produced enough to keep Argo City functioning for a long time and for good measure she threw in the recipe. Alura did NOT request all of it back because what Argo gave was gone. Alura did state that she was glad none would be left on Earth because they didn't know the extent of what it could do, but she didn't explicitly forbid Lena from making more and there was no law in place saying she couldn't. The same commentor even said Lena should have some kind of galactic authorities on her ass, for what? Creating a substance that will keep an entire planet and it's inhabitants alive and then using some herself? Yes I can see how that is a terrible crime.

2. Lena is fully entitled to feel pissed at Kara for not telling her her secret. All I see is the comments saying that Kara did it to protect her, she can't tell the people she cares about in case they get hurt. Yeah... That excuse only works if other people don't know. But the fact of the matter is EVERYONE but Lena knows. If you go back and watch it all you'll notice that a lot of problems could have been avoided if Lena knew. In fact her not knowing Kara's secret is neither here nor there since she's always in danger anyway. So that excuse is redundant.

3. People are still harping on about the alien detection device. RAO, wasn't that like in her second episode? Kara made the decision to destroy that device and probably millions of dollars and a long times worth of work because she didn't like it. I get why, but she could have just refused to use it. Kara already made it clear she didn't agree with it, anyone who doesn't agree with something would just say the aren't using it on principal. Kara even changed her stance a bit and began to see Lena's point of view at the end of the Episode. Plus if that was still an issue Kara wouldn't still be friends with her 3 years on.

4. Lena is still being called xenophobic and that's a reason Kara shouldn't of told her. oh all that xenophobic behavior of hers. Outside of the alien detection device, something that was addressed in the Episode where is this so called Xenophobic behavior? Do you know what I remember?

. Lena gave Kara the location to the fight club and stated very clearly she had no interest in that sort of entertainment.

. She directly requested help from Supergirl at the Gala and was really happy about a Luthor and Super working together.

.She screamed at her mother not to hurt Supergirl.

. She switched the isotopes saving all of the aliens in National City, including Jonn and Kara from choking to death.

. She helped Kara track down the aliens that were about to be shot into space by Cadmus.

. She helped and developed a bond with a Daxamite queen who convinced her all she wanted to do was get back to her home

. She left the choice to poisen the Daxamites completely in Supergirls hands.

. She saved Supergirls life more than once.

. The moment she found out one of her closest friends was an alien and didn't know it she didn't immediately turn her in out of fear for what would happen to her. She immediately set about trying to help and cure her dear friend.

. She had an anti Kryptonite suit ready to go the moment she was called and told Supergirl needed help.

. She was immediately against Lockwood and his xenophobia. She didn't want her company associated with them and was pissed James was giving them the time of day.

. She created image inducors to protect aliens

. She saved all of Argo City from extinction by manufacturing Harun El.

. She saved Argo City again when she stopped Lex.

So tell me where her xenophobic behavior is? Tell me why Kara couldn't tell her because Lena is apparently against aliens?

5. Lena has no right to be mad at Kara and she should remember all the times Kara has saved her and should be grateful. OK, but that goes both ways, Lena saved Supergirl several times, and at times thought she was protecting Kara. So yeah it wasn't just Kara doing the heroics here.

6. Lena created Kryptonite doesn't she know how much it could hurt Kara? She should have told her! Ok, but you're all convienently forgetting why she made it. She had it to keep Sam contained while she tried to cure her. She didn't tell Supergirl because then she would have had to explain why she had it leading to exposing Sam and given the DEO track record and the fact Sam was Reign I wouldn't have wanted them to know either. Lena didn't think about Supergirl when she made it because Supergirl was never meant to be in contact with it. Why does everyone including Kara forget that this was all for Sam? It wasn't just a Lena and Kara situation. Sam was the important one here, even Kara failed to give much though to her.

7. Lena made anti Kryptonian tech. So we're all just going to convienently forget the power ranger suit? That cell she kept Reign in and the forcefield were once again to keep Reign from killing people and to help Sam. Kara got pissed Lena dared to make something she couldn't see through. Lena even told her she couldn't see through it, it was to keep Reign from knowing what was going on a s it would hurt to use X Ray Vision. So the very first thing Kara does upon being told this is try to look through it.

8. Lena lied about the Kryptonite. Well I would have as well, look at Kara's reaction when she thought Lena only had left over Kryptonite. Imagine walking into a secret government facility and revealing you know and have made the one substance that can hurt their most important asset? Add the Luthor name to that and you're already f**ked regardless of reason. Turns out they needed Lena's expertise in making Kryptonite anyway.

9. Lena and Kara only ever talk about Lena and her issues. Ok this the fault of the writers. But the fact is Lena talking over her issues is what drives her arc forward, we need to know her inner thoughts and circumstances. We already know Kara's, we as the audience know what she's been through, what she's thinking. The fact is Kara can't talk to Lena about her issues because she hasn't told Lena she's Supergirl so what issues would they discuss that are relevant to the plot moving forward?

10. Lena did NOT take advantage of Kara. If you watch it properly, you should notice that it's actually Kara that comes to Lena whenever she needs information or if she needs her to spend millions of dollars to keep her job safe. Lena asked Kara for stuff friends do, like asking her to go and see Jack. Lena didn't abuse her position as Kara's boss, she was actually way more tolerant with both Kara and James than what they deserved. Rightfully she could have (and in James' case) should have sacked them.

11. People say that Lena didn't tell Kara and the others about her experiments so why should Kara tell her about the super secret? Well basically because Lena was directly involved in regards to the super secret. Kara and the DEO actually didn't have any right to know what Lena does at L Corp. The writers glossed over a lot of the process on the Harun El experiments, but that didn't directly concern them. Actually Lena already told the gang at Thanksgiving her ideas and they were immediately shot down without any consideration. But just because they don't approve doesn't mean Lena has to stop, the super friends aren't in charge of Lena and what she does. Let's not forget that James was against it the first time, convienently when he was pissed at Lena, then he was for it when he realized she had nearly figured it out, then against it again when the government got involved. Lena's Harun El experiments weren't actually illegal, she had a government contract. Where Adam is concerned is a moral grey area, but it still isn't anything to do with Kara.

12. Lena's killed people? Lena only shoots people to protect herself or others, same as Alex. Plus Alex, Jonn and Kara have all killed to.

So yeah, don't make stuff up. If you're going to hate on Lena at least let it be for legit reasons and not just ones you've regurgitated from haters on here and convinced yourselves actually happened. Lena isn't perfect, she makes major mistakes but you know who else does? Kara does! Jonn does! They all do.

Lastly fanfiction is someone's version of what happened, they can change it all they want. You don't have to like it, you can say you don't like a direction a character is going in. But dont comment essays on stuff that you think happened in the show and start massive debates about it when it has nothing to do with the fic.

[kallypsowrites]

Are Adapted Characters Seperate from their Original Counterparts?

So here’s a post that has been on my mind for quite some time, partially because, after being in the Game of Thrones fandom pretty regularly, I see people compare the book and show characters a lot. This is understandable as changes through adaptation are inevitable and sometimes a character can be changed for the worse or for the better, depending on your preference. But today I want to address the question: should adapted characters be viewed as an EXTENSION of their book character or should they be able to stand on their own?

Before I get into the weeds of this argument, imagine you are me. I’m a seventeen year old high school student and my brother has decided to show me this rad new show which has already aired two seasons and is several months off of airing the third season. Game of Thrones. Naturally, I am excited and I dive right into watching with him. And of course I love it. I’m a fantasy nut and there’s magic and dragons but also POLITICS and really intriguing character dynamics and dialogue and moral grey areas. All the stuff I like! I know there are books of course, but I want to experience the show and be surprised as it comes out, so I hold off reading the books. In fact, I hold off reading the series all the way through until after season seven airs (in an effort to make the long wait for season 8 less painful. It didn’t work. I read too fast).

What’s important here is that for several years, the show was my ONLY CONCEPT of all of these characters. The book versions, to me, didn’t exist. All I had access to was the characters on the screen. And that’s all many of the GA has access too. Let’s face it, the books are bricks and, for that matter, dense. A lot of people aren’t going to take the time to read them, especially the strangely paced and structured book four and five. So what does that mean? The characters on the screen have to stand on their own. And therefore, you can easily argue that the onscreen characters are seperate entities.

There’s been a lot of talk in the fandom about the show creators white washing male characters and ‘greying’ female characters. That is certainly an issue worth talking about and I’m not trying to discourage that conversation, nor am I trying to say that we shouldn’t talk about adaptation changes and focus on the books and tv show as different entities. They are in conversation with each other. But I do want to address the fact that just because something is present in the book does not mean that watchers of the tv show have to acknowledge it as ‘canon’...especially if the show never mentions it. They are, in many ways, seperate, particularly since the TV show has moved ahead of the books.

Conversely, this means the TV show can’t rely on the books as part of their ‘canon’ to take short cuts. Because if it isn’t made clear in the show and can only be understood by a book reader, then the show has failed in some way. The TV show has, in fact, dropped the ball on a couple of prophesies in this way. The fact that they did not include the ‘valonqar’ section of Cersei’s prophesy takes away from her reasons for hating Tyrion and, for that matter, doesn’t guaruntee either of her brothers will be her killer. It wasn’t in the prophesy in the show, so it really doesn’t matter if it was in the books. Its not part of show canon.

Even more egregious is Mirri Maz Dur’s prophesy to Daenerys. In the books, she says that Daenerys will never bare a living child again. In the show, she does not say anything of the sort. And yet Dany says to Jon that ‘the witch who murdered her husband’ said she would never bare a child again. That’s the show straight up making something up for cheap forshadowing and if the casual watcher went back to view the first season they might be understandably confused. Even if it happens in the book IT MUST BE PRESENT IN THE SHOW in order to effect the show.

This applies to character interpretation as well. And as an example, let’s talk about Tyrion.

The Moral White Washing of Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is one of the most commonly cited characters in the conversation about moral white washing, and with good reason. Tyrion is never the best person, but he’s certainly not the worst. Being born a dwarf, he is an underdog who has been ridiculed all his life. But he’s also his father’s son and spends much of the series manipulating people in order to gain power in King’s Landing or elsewhere. It just happens that he is a better person than a lot of the other characters surrounding him. It’s not that he’s not sympathetic, but he’s not an angel.

He, however, has a much darker character arc following the death of his father and his Essos stuff, in particular, really delves into the dark corners of his mind. His father’s cruelty shows itself more than ever and being in his head is almost difficult. In the show, this Essos arc is effectively deleted. Tyrion never meets Young Griff, never meets Illyrio, spends much less time wallowing in the darkness, and actually meets Daenerys pretty dang quickly. And, considering the fact that we’re not in his head, we’re not really exposed to any of his thoughts. It’s left to us to decide how he feels about the situation based on Peter Dinklage’s acting.

But the most contested aspect of Tyrion’s character is his relationship with Sansa and how he treats her throughout the books vs the show. In the books, Tyrion  thinks often about how he is attracted to her. Honestly, it’s uncomfortable at many points, considering that Sansa is like...twelve. And he straight up molests her. He doesn’t rape her on their wedding night, but I don’t think we would call him person of the year for that. He sees an opportunity in being married to her and he’s not completely repulsed by the idea.

In the show, it’s a very different story. Tyrion protects Sansa from Joffrey before their engagement (and even from the Hound in a deleted scene), and his kindness to her does not seem to be motivated in any way by attraction. When he is engaged to her, he is very clearly repulsed, and it is painted much more like him being forced into it. He does not make any physical advances on her and in his scenes with Shae, he makes clear that he sees her as a child and is therefore not interested. Again, because we are not in his head, he are able to interpret this at face value if we prefer. That he isn’t attracted to her and is only doing this to satisfy his father.

At the wedding, he prevents the bedding and, while making a few very crude comments in order to play off threatening the king, does not touch Sansa. Does not even let her undress all the way before he says that they don’t have to do this. And he really doesn’t seem all that bitter about it. Because we don’t have access to his thoughts, we never hear him lamenting that his child bride will never want him.

All of Tyrion’s interactions with Sansa on the show, especially after their marriage, are that of someone trying to make a girl’s life slightly more tolerable even though she is a prisoner. He sympathizes with her and is genuinely horrified by her situation. And he never makes a move even once or complains about it. Because she’s a child. It’s easy for show only watchers to come out of watching this relationship with the opinion of: yeah. Tyrion’s a decent guy. Even though it would be expected and accepted in this society for him to press Sansa, he doesn’t, and that’s cool of him. I’m in NO WAY saying that this means Sansa owes him anything. He’s a Lannister and the Lannisters destroyed her family and if she doesn’t want him, she doesn’t want him. End of story. But Tyrion is, overall, a more sympathetic and better person for how he is portrayed in the show. And you can’t blame show only watchers for seeing him in that way.

Of course this is a double edged sword. In the books, it seems that Tyrion is headed toward some sort of dark/tragic end, and his darker personality earns this. But if the show wants to give him the same ending it might seem very jarring. Because the show has not earned making Tyrion a villain. It has not given him an arc that makes that narratively satisfying because of the white washing. Now maybe Tyrion will get a perfectly find ending or at least remain as a hero. It’s possible that he could have some sort of redemption in the books as well. But we’ll have to wait until season 8 to see how that ends up.

There are a lot of characters that have diverged from their show counterparts. Lena Heady has imbued Cersei Lannister with some very genuinely sympathetic moments and the pathos she brings to her role has moved me on multiple occasions. She also plays Cersei as more in control than she seems in the books, very much her father’s daughter. The book, again, has Cersei’s thoughts and we get a view into her increasingly unstable and paranoid brain. The two characters feel very seperate from each other so conversations and interpretations may vary depend on the version.

The whole ‘lack of thoughts’ thing also makes Jaime easier to stomach in the show. Many of his thoughts are shocking and kind of vile in the books. Nikolaj gives Jaime more pathos and softens him. Again, maybe it’s moral white washing, but you cannot blame a show only watcher for that (like me, who fell in love with Jaime long before I even touched the books). I know people like that Jaime got away from Cersei in the books but that was much more motivated by his own jealousy as opposed to any moral problems he has with her actions, and abandoning her to suffer at the hands of the high sparrow always left a sort of sour taste in my mouth. And I say this as a JaimexBrienne shipper, which I’ll talk about later on. But first--

The Greying of Daenerys

@rainhadaenerys made a pretty extensive post on the differences between show and book Dany which I’ll link here . It’s highly show critical so bear that in mind, but one of the things she mentions is that Daenerys is consistently made more impulsive, less competent and ‘greyer’ as a character. There is a more of a sense, especially in season seven, that she must be ‘controlled’ by her advisors and she rarely makes plans of her own but rather listens to other make plans and decides based off of that. Lots of valid points made in this post.

But if we were to interpret the show only and look at Daenerys as a character seperate from her very different book counterpart, it begins to make sense why the dark dany theory became so popular, especially after season seven. I’m not going to argue my stance on that theory here, but suffice it to say there are a lot of show!dany characteristics that COULD potentially lend themselves to a tragic fall from grace. Though you could make the argument that this is just a writing error on D&D’s, that does not make the interpretation invalid. One could just as easily argue that yes, the transistion is clumsy but that George will write an even better and more believable fall from grace. Again, not saying it will happen. I know a lot of people on all sides of the debate following. I’m just saying that you can’t blame people for differing interpretations based on the show alone.

Posts like the one linked above are great for thinking about the show in context of what it is adapted from. But in a New Critical reading (which focuses on the text itself), we could analyze the show only to extrapolate that perhaps Daenerys is not going to be the hero everyone expects. It’s equally possible to extrapolate that she will be the hero and I’ve written a post here on the various interpretations of Dany so I won’t go too in to detail on this post. But it’s just another example of a show character needing to stand on their own seperate from the books.

The Inconsistency of Arya

Sometimes an adapted character is different from their book counterpart. And sometimes they are inconsistent in their own adaptation. Such is the case of Arya Stark. She’s one of my favorite characters and despite the butchering of her Braavos arc, I still took a lot out of her stuff there when I first watched it. Watching Arya struggle to hold onto her name and her very identity is quite emotional. For the most part, show! Arya might be a bit different but she’s consistent with herself.

Except for fucking season seven? Arya’s arc with Sansa featured some truly trash dialogue (from both characters but especially Arya). And I have nothing against these characters clashing. Far from it. It makes sense for their to be tension. But it was very bad tension and Arya literally threatening to murder her sister and steal her face was one of the more ‘what’ moments of the show.

I bring this up to say that while it is valid to interpret a character based only on their show version, sometimes there is still bad writing within that version that one has to...deal with. And it’s important for a character to be consistent within it’s story.

There are other examples of this besides Arya’s season seven stuff. The Dorne bullshit, for instance, is the canon show Dorne stuff and all of the intriguing Dorne stuff in the book is irrelevant to a show interpretation.

And then there was that trashy season four scene where the directors UNKNOWINGLY filmed Jaime raping Cersei?? That was especially out of character for show Jaime and apparently the show runners thought so too because they didn’t even think they were filming a rape scene. Because they’re dumb sometimes.

Anyway, this is just in here to assure you that I’m not forbidding ‘the show has bad writing’ criticisms because it super does. But sometimes you don’t even need to compare it to the book to see that.

In Conclusion

We are ALL going to view media in different way. There is no right way to consume it. And certainly if you want to evaluate the show based on what happened in the books go right ahead. I’m not here to force anyone to read the show or the books in a certain way.

On the other hand, in some way, the show and books are seperate entities that must function on their own. And because they are so different in some ways, that makes for more differing opinions. Some people really like Tyrion because of his show verse self. Some people wonder if Daenerys will go dark based on her show self.

Me personally, I’m a big Jaime and Brienne shipper. The other day I saw someone who didn’t like their ship mention the power imbalance and age gap in the book--something I of course didn’t notice during the show because the two characters seemed close in age and on pretty equal footing with each other most of the time. And that person’s opinion is totally valid! We’re just both viewing the pairing through a different medium.

This got a little long and rambly, so I just want to throw out there that this not anti any particular character. Just another one of those, it’s okay to have differing opinions and biases and stuff. Enjoy your Game of Thrones, nerds! I’ll be right there along with you!

[danawinter]

Now that it's been a week since I've seen DS2, I think I wanna write down some of my thoughts. It will probably get unnecessarily long, so I'll throw it under a cut.

To just give my overall thoughts: I really liked the movie. I don't think it is objectively one of the best MCU movies ever, but I don't objectively enjoy things, I subjectively enjoy them, and this was definitely a treat.

I really like Doctor Strange in this movie. I thought his first movie worked, but it did kinda feel like it was setting up a lot of his stuff for Infinity War, so I liked seeing something that seemed to be a bit more seperate from setting up all these other things. Though I do wish it would've given us a bit more of Doctor Strange struggling with or questioning his decisions he made with giving up the time stone. There were some hints at this with his former collegue mentioning losing his sibling for example. But I feel like we didn't go exactly as deep as I wanted them to with all of that.

I appreciated his relationship with America. America herself felt a bit damsel-in-distress-ish, so I hope in her future projects she gets a bit more agency, but it was a fine enough character introduction I guess. But to see our Stephen be the one to actually give America the faith she needed to do what needed to be done to overome Wanda. My personald theory of why this Stephen could do what no other Stephen could, is because he had Spider-Man. Of course he can't remember Peter Parker, but just like MJ still has the necklace she got from him, Stephen should still subconciously have the lessons he learnt from working with Peter. And we know that there was probably no Spider-Man in the other Stranges' universes where America had been, or at least none that were close to that world's Strange, because America had never heard of any Spider-Man before. So I think that our Stephen's experience with working with Peter in Infinity War and No Way Home, gave him more knowledge about how to treat America in the way she deserved.

When the trailers were coming out, I though (like many people) that the Strange from What If was going to show up. I'm happy that ended up not happening, because the movie was already pretty crowded. But I like that conceptually, that Strange still felt connected to this movie, since the arc he went through in that episode was pretty similar to the arc Wanda had in this movie; lose one or multiple loved ones, reach out to a dark source of magic to get them back, however, when they reach them, their loved one(s) don't recognize them anymore and don't want anything to do with Strange/Wanda anymore. It ties this movie to that show without being over-referential, and it also ties Stephen and Wanda to each other as characters.

Which brings me onto Wanda. My feelings about her are... complicated to say the least. I think Scarlet Witch was amazing as a villain, but part of me wonders if that could've felt even more satisfying if the build up to that could've been even longer. I know that the Darkhold corrupted her, just like it did Agatha and other universe's Strange, so it all made sense logically. But for me it didn't fully satisfy me emotionally, because it still felt like they took a bit of a shortcut. The Scarlet Witch could've been a fantastic villain for an Avengers team-up story, but now that she's been used as a villain in this movie that can't happen anymore (probably).

And maybe part of what frustrates me is that I've seen this happen too much with villains, especially with female villains. My two favorite Katie McGrath characters are Lena Luthor and Morgana Pendragon. But writingwise both of them suffer from starting out as an ally to the protagonist with a possibility to turn dark, but then have their turn happen really quickly and mostly off screen. And this movie feels like it did a similar thing, though to a lesser extent because WandaVision at least gave some context to what's going on.

However, like I said, Wanda as a villain was amazing and got me super hyped. I'm usually not a big fan of horror stuff, but I felt like this movie did a fun job playing around with some of the tropes without going too far to the point where I couldn't enjoy it anymore.

I guess my main gripe with the movie as a whole is that I feel it was so fast-paced that a lot of the emotional beats didn't really hit me as hard. And a lot of times, it wasn't until a few days after I watched the movie until I'd have the realizations about what certain things meant, or what the depths behind some things were. Such as how Doctor Strange was the one to give the time stone to Thanos, which then led to Wanda having to see Vision die twice in a matter of seconds. Or how Wanda wanting to be able to travel to any universe for any cure seems intense, but with the knowledge that anyone who Wanda has ever loved ended up dying, her wanting to take these extreme precautions does make a bit more sense. But by those thoughts not hitting me until after the movie was over, the movie didn't impact me as much while watching it a first time. Though maybe I should just go watch it again.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

It’s Frahn-ken-shteen... [a Season 3 thought experiment]

As we near the finale of S3, I've been focusing more and more on what the season has done well, and what I've noticed is that they've introduced a lot of really cool and interesting ideas-- they just weren’t executed particularly well. 

It’s like they threw all these ideas at the wall of the writers room and just said “okay go”. As ideas, none of them are completely horrendous. With a little more care, they could have been crafted into a really strong season serving Kara's narrative and give it both weight and direction. 

So I gave myself a challenge-- if I dissected the season into it’s main story plots, and stitched them back together to create a more coherent narrative, what would the season have looked like?

Here's what I came up with:

(warning: it’s a long one, complete with gifs)

For me, the load-bearing arcs of the season should have been the Kryptonian cult and Argo City. With those two as the stanchions of the main story plot, everything else would work to support them. 

Coville’s cult would be the main villain of Season 3a. Instead of the sporadic all or nothing that cropped up here and there, they'd be running in the background the entire front half. They don't have to be the focus for every episode, but we as the audience would know that the DEO knows they're dangerous, and knows they're up to something.

Rather than being schooled by Coville in her own religion, Kara knows about Worldkillers-- they’re what people on Earth call urban legends. Spooky stories meant to teach Kryptonian children the value of trusting in Rao and obeying his doctrine.They’re ghost stories, and here the human idiot Coville is trying to worship them (and perverting Rao’s word-- let’s not forget that). This flips their dynamic so that Kara is more secure in her knowledge of Krypton than Coville is in his, and also sets the stage for the cult threat to segue into the Reign threat in 3b.

What Coville does do is spark Kara’s search for fragments of Krypton that might have survived and made it to Earth. We could have one bottle episode where she’s traveling the world hunting for another probe, and maybe that’s how she finds the Legion’s ship. She also finds some troubling records/notes in Coville’s cult that leads to some uncharted area of space that should be empty, so why is there a note? That’s how they find Argo (and Alura) for the midseason cliffhanger.

In 3b, we would take our time exploring Argo and seeing Kara really struggle with all the awesome/awfulness of finding her people again, and being torn between two worlds. She would get a chance to face and address the nasty and complicated emotions that comes with being unbelievably happy her mother is alive but also how could you send me away? Don’t you know I would’ve rather died with you? How could you use me to lure Alura in for arrest? How could you let our planet die??

And while we spend a few episodes on Argo, we’d spend some time seeing what life is like on Earth without Supergirl. This is where we’d see the really powerful arc of J’onn and M’yrnn, Alex slowly coming to terms with losing Maggie and Kara back to back-- and her slowly looking into the idea of adoption, with lots of hesitation and uncertainty. 

We see her feeling like her friends were really just Kara’s friends, and her loneliness just comes crashing down until Lena and Sam come knocking for girl’s night. James runs into his identity reveal crisis, Winn runs into his mom, and we see the final stages of Sam’s transformation. 

Kara starts sensing something is wrong when she starts seeing elements of Coville’s cult on Argo (the priestesses have been in direct contact with Coville for some time). Her suspicions are confirmed when she receives a distress call from Alex at the DEO-- there’s a new Kryptonian in town, and her name is Reign.

Because the nebulous use of “dark magic” to explain anything Worldkiller is anathema to me as a storyteller, the trinity’s origin/purpose would be the biggest actual change I make to this season. The “witches” may still create Reign, but with science rather than magic and it would tie back into the lore because they created her to embody the boogeyman-figure of Kryptonian legend. 

Once her premise is firmed up, Reign’s purpose would come out of that-- either she’s judge/jury/executioner for National City’s criminal element, or she’s a planet-killer. Maybe she’s both: if humans refuse to be ruled in fear, they can perish with the rest of their planet. But it’ll be more clearly developed, and not a sporadic “oh she can tunnel through the earth now just because” (also: Julia wouldn’t die. That was a shitty, unnecessary development)

The season would end with Alura and some choice friends from Argo coming to Earth’s aid alongside Supergirl. Once Reign is defeated, Kara now faces her choice of Argo or Earth. She chooses Earth. It’s her home now. She has family here, and a duty to protect the people who gave her a planet to call home. Alura wishes she too could choose to remain, but she has her own duty on Argo. She failed them once-- she can’t do it again. But they can still visit each other, and communicate via hologram: no more programmed “I do not have sufficient data...” responses from Alura. It’ll be the real thing, whevever Kara needs her.

Now, some addendums:

The Legion of Superheroes - 

As soon as Kara finds them, they’re featured heavily for about 3 episodes in the penultimate climax of the midseason finale, and then they’re sent on their way. Mon-el is happily married and devoted to his wife. Seeing him happy, with serious purpose, is what Kara needs to move on. Yes, it sucks to still lose him, but he’s alive and doing well, and that allows her to start healing.

Sam & Ruby - 

I am 100% okay for Sam’s arc to remain relatively the same. I’ve loved getting to know her and Ruby, and I’m really attached to both of them now. The only thing I’d change is on the back end of stuff-- maybe tailor the promotional material/interviews to keep some of Reign’s development secret. I would have loved to meet Sam without already knowing that she’s going to become Reign. 

I would also maybe tone down the whole Alex-Ruby dynamic. It’d still be there, but not quite so in your face. The perfect fix would be Alex and Sam getting involved, but I would be very mindful of the timing so as not to do any discredit to how important Maggie was in Alex’s development and growth as a person.

Morgan Edge -

Since Morgan Edge didn’t end up affecting Kara’s arc at any point in this season, I would have left him to act as Lena’s foil throughout the entire season. They’re evenly matched in resources and ambition, and I would have loved to see Lena play more against him in their battle of wits. 

For me, her battle with Edge would be a more interesting exploration of her Luthorness than the Great Kryptonite Rift. How would the shifting dynamic between her, Supergirl, and Kara have influenced Lena’s strategy against Edge? Would she become more ruthless as Supergirl’s faith in her waned? Would she rise above, and take some sort of high road in Kara’s absence? Not to mention, what would have happened if Lillian came back into her life AFTER Supergirl bites her head off over the Kryptonite?

In summary, I would just reorganize the season to slow the big ideas down and really take the proper time delving into the heart of the characters. Especially with Kara and her search for a connection to Krypton in 3a and dealing with actually finding it in 3b. And then we’d be able to clearly see and understand her personal revelation in the finale: Supergirl is neither wholly Kara Zor-el, nor Kara Danvers. 

She’s both, and all the stronger for it. 

[black-coffee-and-sugar]

What is even happening on this show?

I think I'd be enjoying S6 more if it wasn't the final season. If Kara actually had a storyline. If 6A focused on her fears instead of an escape room adventure with her dad and his issues. If 6B actually unpacked Kara's trauma while still making that personal growth and reflection related to the overall plot of fighting against Nyxly.

What I've noticed?

Only 3/7 super friends actually have some semblance of a storyline - Nia, Lena and Kelly. J'onn has ceased to exist as his own character since S3's touching arc with his dad. I feel like Brainy never had a concrete arc, just sporadic moments. Alex has also had nothing going on since her mindwipe in S4.

And what's kind of interesting? That Alex's longstanding plotline of wanting a kid is only being achieved now, through Kelly's arc as a social worker and becoming Guardian. Brainy's emotional struggle and learning how to deal with them in a healthy way, nearly all of those scenes were tied to Nia who actually has an arc.

Then there's Lena. 6A spent a fair amount of time developing her character. She took responsibility for her part in helping Lex not just with the super friends but the entire world. She walked away from a toxic situation and is now thriving, glowing even. She's learnt not only how to forgive others but to forgive herself as well. 6B with the witch stuff, Kara is the one who constantly brings up her magic potential. Only Kara.

So, is this intentional? It's hard to say. Of course Dansen and Brainia are canon couples so it makes sense to have their stories run parallel (I use the word stories generously). But it then begs the question of why they appear to be doing the same with Supercorp when that's "just a friendship".

If you're not making that canon, why not focus on the Danvers sisters relationship instead? Remember when that was the core of the show?

Dansen is pretty much our main couple outside of the Supercorp subtext. And as much as I love Dansen and I'm living desperately for content (it's upsetting that we barely get kiss scenes), Alex is not the titular character (co-lead yes but her role is still supporting). Kara is and therefore her relationship should be the main focus and she just doesn't have one, despite the fact that every other star hero in this universe does. Why?

There are 4 more episode left but I just cannot fathom how they intend to fix this mess in that time frame. Yes it's longer than most movies but there's a lot going on and they have proven that they're not very good at time management. At least 7/16 episodes that have aired have been 99% filler and that's unacceptable. Then, to make matters worse, Lex is back hogging screentime and then Mon-El, James and Winn are gonna be back, also hogging screentime. So it is concerning when you fact that in.

But then, we should be used to women being sidelined and reduced as characters for men on a show that's supposed to be about powerful women.

[diverseladybookproject]

Amanda Reads - March 2017

Since I revamped my blog this month, I thought I’d do a little survey on Twitter to ask how y’all would like these books rated—should I use my rainbow system from #diverseladybookproject, or should I continue with my wacky number of dogs petted system. Well. The people have spoken. And the dogs have been petted.

A reminder of how the rating system works:

0 dogs petted: DNF. I couldn't get through the book. It's not a good day.

1 dog petted: It was an okay day. I mean, I got to pet a dog. But it could have been better.

2 dogs petted: A solid effort. May recommend.

3 dogs petted: A really good day, tbh. Would recommend willingly to friends and family.

4 or more dogs petted: Best day. Will be recommending to all the people. Pet all the dogs.

March was both a good and a bad month for books. I DNFed two books this month. YES, TWO. It’s a first, both for me and for my time on this blog. Would you believe that I haven’t DNFed a book since I started writing about what I’ve been reading on this blog? That’s almost a year’s worth of books! And these are my first DNFs. I’ll explain why on both accounts, don’t worry.

Well. Let’s get started. You might be here a while.

Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz

After being up late into the night finishing The Last of August at the end of February, I was in a major book hangover. MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER. I was sort of trying to read this book, and I thought I couldn’t get into it because of said book hangover. But then I had the privilege of meeting Brittany Cavallaro and realized, nah. I just wasn’t into this book.

The premise sounds awesome. Two young women tell the stories of their lives in South Korea in the late 1970s. I wanted to like it. And really, maybe I will like it at some other point in my life, when I have more time to devote to a sprawling story that is more character-based than action-based. I haven’t ruled out that possibility. But here’s the thing—I was 15% in, and I still hadn’t met the second young woman that this book was supposedly about. In fact, the first chapter was from the point of view of a guy who seemingly has nothing to do with the story? I was confused and frustrated and bored. So I scrapped it. But like I said, I’m not ruling out trying again when I’m in a different mindset.

Rating: 0 dogs petted—DNF at 15%.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

I got back into fairly regular running and hiking with the dogs after a goofy start to the year and brought Lauren Oliver along with me. (She’s a runner, so I think she’d approve.) This is the second book in the Delirium trilogy, and I was terrified that it was going to suffer from middle book syndrome. And it did, in some regards—Alex was gone, the setting was completely different, and it was sort of like a whole other story, unrelated to the first book. But the threads tied back to Delirium, and I enjoyed the new characters and plot. I won’t say I liked this book better than Delirium, because it was so different. But I did enjoy listening to it a lot. I’m not going to say any more about the plot so that I don’t spoil the first book, but yeah, it was good. I’d recommend that people complete the trilogy.

Rating: 3 dogs petted.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

OH MY GOD.

You’ve already heard me talk about this book some, and it’s worth all the hype. Here’s the premise: Starr Carter lives two lives. She’s the daughter of a former gangbanger and lives in the rough part of town, but she also attends a wealthy, mostly-white private high school. She has a white boyfriend, but is terrified of bringing him home to meet her father. You get the idea. One night, she’s at a spring break party in her neighborhood when shots are fired, so she leaves with her childhood best friend Khalil. On the way home, they’re pulled over for no apparent reason. Khalil is frisked. When he’s checking to make sure Starr is okay, he’s shot by the white police officer, even though he is unarmed and is not resisting. Starr is the only witness, and it’s her word against the white cop’s. Her worlds are colliding, and she has to learn how to live in both of them while being true to herself.

I think I’ve stated that this book was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and it shows on every single page. It bleeds relevancy and politics and everything that we’re not supposed to talk about in books for young adults. But young adults are the ones who are going to change the world. Remember that.

I’m never going to shut up about this book. And Angie Thomas, the author, is lovely and wonderful and deserves all of the praise that she’s received.

Rating: 4+ dogs petted. If you want to read this book and either can’t afford it or don’t want to buy it, I’ll buy it for you. I’m serious. Everyone needs to read this book. I’m all over social media. Find me and I’ll make it happen.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

This was my other DNF this month. I’m wondering if the pattern has more to do with when I’m reading these books than the content of the books themselves, but that’s a contemplation for another time. This is another one that I really wanted to like. Tea is a necromancer, so she has to leave home with the brother she brought back from the dead to train and hone her skills. Also there’s a war brewing, but I didn’t get that far. I found it to be slow and boring. The concept is completely awesome, but I think it just wasn’t for me. Or maybe it wasn’t for me at that time. In any case, I DNFed. Although I promised some Twitter people (hi, Twitter people!) that I’d give it another try down the road, and I will.

Rating: 0 dogs petted—DNF at 20%.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver

As with Pandemonium, I’m not going to say a lot about the plot to this one here. It’s the third book in the Delirium trilogy and the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Lena picks the story up right where Pandemonium left off (that ending, omg), and surprise! We get Hana’s perspective too! That was one of my favorite things about this book—Hana has been cured, so her perspective is different and interesting. Sarah Drew does a fantastic job, once again, of helping me get inside the character’s heads to feel what they’re feeling (because I listened on audio while I was running and hiking and driving in the car). And Alex was back. I repeat. We got more Alex. Hallelujah, because he’s the best and even though I hate myself a little for it, he and Lena are one of my OTPs. Fight me.

Rating: 3 dogs petted, only because the dystopian genre is a little old now and I’m not sure who I’d recommend this one to.

Since You Asked… by Maureen Goo

The way this list is organized is a little confusing, but I started reading Since You Asked… right after I DNFed The Bone Witch. I wanted something light and contemporary, and I had picked this up at the North Texas Teen Book Festival, where Maureen Goo was promoting her upcoming release I Believe in a Thing Called Love. I chose this particular book after The Bone Witch because YA contemporary often helps me get out of reading slumps and I wanted a cute high school romance. That uh… that wasn’t what I got.

Since You Asked… is what I would consider a slice-of-life book. Nothing huge happens in the plot, really, and there isn’t a big arc that takes us to the end. It just sort of exists. It was fine—not knowing whether Holly would ever get with her friend David was part of what kept me reading. (Yeah, I shipped Holly and David HARD, and I don’t regret it.) I finished it in 24 hours and was left feeling a little let down, but I still enjoyed the read. And the cover! It’s got a great cover. I don’t know, I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads right after finishing it, but I think I’m going to downgrade it to 3. The lack of plot arc has been niggling at me. But it was cool to see an entire book told from the perspective of a Korean-American high school student. That aspect reminded me a lot of Lane from Gilmore Girls.

Was that review wishy-washy enough? Ha.

Rating: 2 dogs petted. I loved Goo’s writing style and am really excited for her upcoming release, so I’ll be reading her again!

Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon

THIS BOOK. I’m not sure how I’m going to write about this. I have no cans to even right now. I looked at my review on Goodreads and it’s mostly me repeating “THIS BOOK” in all caps with hearts at the end. Hahaha.

The synopsis is simple enough: Tourmaline Harris thinks she put her mother in prison by calling the cops when she was ODing, and now her mother’s former boyfriend and dealer are after her. This is on top of already living in the dark world of a motorcycle “club,” which her father is the president of. (Yes, there are lots of motorcycles in this book and I WAS THERE FOR IT.) At the same time, Virginia Campbell is given the assignment by her boss to weasel her way into the good graces of said motorcycle club, but won’t tell her why. Virginia’s life is equally dark—she was essentially sold to a drug dealer who moonlights as a lawyer by her mother when she couldn’t pay her legal fees. Said drug dealer (fittingly named Hazard) turned Virginia into a pageant queen and a lower-level drug dealer to pay off the debt. As Virginia attempts her mission, Tourmaline is in need of a friend. Oh, and they both have swoony love stories and I was a puddle on the floor at the end because of the feels.

Bonus points for kickass ladies (Tourmaline and Virginia, plus some), a wonderfully complicated female friendship, complex family dynamics, a POC love interest who actually VERBALLY DISCUSSES WITHIN THE STORY what it’s like to be black in the South and what that might mean for them, and a veteran who has seen stuff and is afraid to be vulnerable but finds his equal and OH MY GOD I’m puddling again.

THIS BOOK. <3 <3 <3

Rating: 4+ dogs petted. I love this book so much. Words are hard. Swoon.

Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles by J.M. Sullivan

Where do I even begin! I’ve been waiting and WAITING for the opportunity to read this book by my lovely friend J.M. ever since I first heard about it. Who can resist an Alice retelling with zombies? Okay, hi, I actually don’t think I would have picked this up at all if it weren’t for my friendship with J.M.—I’ve never been a fan of retellings, for some reason! And zombies freak me out! After I stressfully asked her if I would be scared reading this before bed and she laughed at me (LOL), I dove right in. And oh my gosh, y’all. It’s so good! I don’t feel like I need to dive into the plot too much, since you should all know the story of Alice in Wonderland, and it’s just that with a twist. There’s Alice. There’s adventure as she fights the zombies while trying to save her sister from becoming one. There’s a hint of love, there’s the characters you love (again, with a twist), and there’s a kickass teenage main character. What more could you possibly ask for in fantasy literature! Go read it go read it go read it!! (Alice releases on May 16, 2017—full review to come the week before the release!)

Rating: 4 dogs petted! This was so fun (and not scary, I promise)!

On The Fence by Kasie West

On March 31st, I decided that I should read this YA contemporary novel that was billed as a possible comp title to Something Beautiful because it had a friends-to-more plotline. I figured it would be my first book of Backlist April. I even billed it as such in last week’s Friday Reads! But guess what I did?

… I stayed up until 2 am finishing it in a single sitting. Oops?

Here’s the rundown:

Charlie just finished her sophomore year of high school and has the whole summer ahead of her. She’s looking forward to running, basketball camp, and lounging around, like a typical teenager. But on her first day of summer vacation, she gets a speeding ticket, which prompts her police officer dad to force her to get a job to cover the cost. Working part time leads to less time for running, which causes her to not be able to sleep some nights. So she starts spending some of the hours in the middle of the night chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence that separates their yards about all the things she can’t seem to say to him during the day. Braden is practically her brother… right? OR IS HE MORE???

(Capital letters added for emphasis are my own doing, not the publisher’s. Ha.)

This was the cutest. I was on board with Charlie and Braden from the very first page, and I loved that he (obviously) saw more in her than she ever saw in herself. I don’t know why I waited so long to read a Kasie West book, because her writing reminded me a lot of Sarah Dessen (one of my faves). And, for those who want to know, On The Fence is a great comp title for the first half of Something Beautiful. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Rating: 3 dogs petted. Light. Fluffy. Cute boys and a girl’s journey to self-discovery. Just not, like, a deep book. You know?

Hi. I apparently spent most of March reading. I’m okay with it, tbh.

What have you been reading?

Happy April!

-A.