#like that is a really really complex story to have set up in s1 but it was so obviously intentional and the duffes pay so much attention to

[wibble-wobbegong]

so fucked up that i can’t lay in bed today and talk about wheelclair and mike’s relationship with el in s1. it’s like god is against me or something

[love-byers]

I was never on board for m*leven as a ship because of season 1, what do you mean you’re gonna throw a super powered girl, who escaped from a lab, that knows nothing about the world into a romance???

It’s not healthy for her, she didn’t even know who she is as a person and only started exploring her identity season 2 on wards. Idk the shop never sat right with me because of that.

yep i 100% agree and i was only 12 when s1 came out

byler was not even in my stratosphere when i first saw s1, and i felt the same. completely honestly, i was hoping mike would be gay just because at the time i was tired of straight people and just wanted some queer rep. idk why i picked mike but i did lol

but i got over that quick and didn't hate mlvn or anything, i thought they were cute. but still i felt like their kiss came out of nowhere, like it genuinely shocked me. and i really don't know why, but i just didn't like the scene. something just felt off about them.

and overall i felt the same, that el literally knew nothing about the world or relationships and was jumping into a romantic relationship after being free for a week. it just didn't feel healthy. and at the time, i didn't like the scene where el asked mike if she was still pretty. i mean im not saying HORRIBLE TOXIC ABUSIVE like of course its not that, but in the long run for their relationship i just didn't like it. i didn't think el seeking validation from mike like that was setting up a long healthy relationship. like we see el see nancy's picture and call her pretty, and later she goes in nancy's room and looks at all her pictures from throughout her life, and it makes her sad. she wants to feel that way--like a normal, pretty girl.

then when mike dresses her up to go to the school, she feels pretty. she asks mike if she looks pretty, and he says yes. she's seeking validation from him. and later when her wig gets messed up and she looks at herself in the waters reflection and tries to put it back on, it infuriates her, because she doesn't feel pretty anymore. and when she sees mike again, she once again seeks out the validation. she was worried that mike wouldn't think she was pretty anymore. it really makes me think that el did not love mike, or the other way around. she latched onto him because he was the first person to show her kindness and make her feel normal. they kissed after a WEEK. thats not love, thats attachment. jumping into a relationship because of complex trauma and attachment without having time to consider their actual compatibility as a couple.

and yes yes yes i know they're 7th graders, they're not going to be perfect, but this is a television show. we only get to see a sliver of these relationships in the long term, so what we do see needs to be building them up and making them likable. there is no time to break them down and build them up again. thats just not how you write a love story.

[sapphicscholar]

Hacks Episode 3x09 Thoughts

Okay, so back during S2, I wrote up my thoughts about each pair of Hacks episodes as they dropped – partially for sharing but largely as an archive for myself of my own thoughts/feelings to revisit when I watched the episodes later to see how they held up, how it compared to watch them serially vs. as a whole season, etc. Anyway, I was incredibly stressed out and busy for much of this season (after over a year of that being the key set of words to describe my life), but I wanted to throw out my thoughts about the finale before they grow too stale! And maybe I’ll come back and revisit the prior episodes in posts later when I have the time (hopefully in just a couple short weeks!) to enjoy them properly

As always, disjointed bulleted lists are the name of the game, going from the big picture to the detailed:

Overall, this felt like a very solid episode in the vein of season 1 in many ways! It brought us back to the interpersonal as the primary ground of conflict after many episodes (here and in S2) of the new hour, the special, and the Late Night host gig quest being our main plot drivers (which, at many times, made for weaker storytelling for reasons that exceed the scope of this post!). In particular, I felt like this episode hit its stride around the halfway point, and never really faltered after that in impressive ways!

That being said, I had two somewhat significant critiques of the finale (both of which reflect larger trends about strands of the show that continue to leave me a little disappointed)

We should have seen Marcus' conversation with Deborah about the new job. Period. I'll get into what could have been cut in my second critique, but even if there weren't weak spots in the episode, I still would have been deeply disappointed in the show for this oversight, especially since they apparently filmed it. Although Hacks is clearly a show with a leading duo, it once had a core ensemble, but S2 saw them moved more and more to B-plots and bit roles, and now S3 has seen many of the characters we know and love eliminated almost entirely--a point that's particularly galling given that it's almost entirely characters of color (many of them canonically queer) who have been cut in favor of new white characters. Moreover, this scene would have been SO IMPORTANT - I could have seen it going 2 ways: a) Marcus quits after the convo where Deborah tells Ava she's willing to lose her, and Deborah has a reaction that is so utterly outsized because it's the terror of losing the person she's had with her the longest now compounded with the reality setting in that she's also driven away the woman who gave her new life when she most needed it; or b) Marcus shows up to quit, and Deborah immediately launches into a rant about Ava's leaving, which puts Marcus in the awkward spot of adding to that at a pivotal moment in the career of the woman he's spent much of his adult life with or giving up something he needs to do for himself; it could have been a lovely callback to S1 when he shows up with his whole speech prepared but then accepts the promotion without ever telling Deborah how he feels - only this time Marcus would have changed so much, and he'd have the opportunity to showcase that growth by insisting that he needs to do this for him. So many lost opportunities...

re what could have been cut because imo it did NOT work: Kathy Vance's return. Now, I love Hacks in large part because it insists on the complexity of its characters. No one is purely the victim or the hero of the story, and Deborah's "click" moment showcased that better than anything. AND YET the writing here did not work. Back in the Christmas ep, I messaged a friend saying I was glad that they brought Kathy back but seemed not to ask us to side with her - after all, she comes crashing back into Deborah's life, doesn't take ownership over her actions and in fact insists she was in the right because it only happened a few times, because Deborah wasn't sleeping with him (very "you weren't playing with it, so it's mine now" little sister energy that is deeply unappealing in a grown ass adult), and because they were the "better couple" which is, I'm sorry, NEVER the fucking thing to tell someone whose marriage and life you destroyed. I joked then that I'd take back my compliments if her role in the finale suggested that actually we should be on Kathy's side here. And lo and behold... What's a real bummer is that there were ways to do this better! Because you can have sympathy for an imperfect character--this show is a testament to that fact!--but not like this. We as an audience have no reason to side with Kathy when she insists that Deborah will be worse than ever and berates her for cutting their weekend short. Instead, we see a woman with a large sense of entitlement she's done nothing to earn and directorial choices that don't make it a smooth transition. But what could have been lovely is, for instance, treating the Christmas and finale reunions as these deflationary moments of anticipation and disappointment because they are, after this many decades, essentially strangers to one another. Had we seen two women who longed for the deep affective ties of their childhood relationship only to be confronted with the cold hard fact of their estrangement from one anther, it would have been so much more powerful. And here you could ACTUALLY garner sympathy (some) for Kathy by having it be this moment of "I lost my sister" partially through her own actions "to Late Night once, and now, right when I have a chance to try to build something with her again, I feel like I'm going to lose her again before I can even really try to do right by her this go around." THAT could have worked. This was just too much time on something that did almost nothing in the grand scheme of the plot (because we didn't have the emotional connection to feel it as another compounding loss for Deborah in an episode where Ava's "and you're going to die alone" could have landed with even more force)

Okay so it turns out this is getting hella fucking long, so some shorter praise and giddy feelings things:

I LOVE how often Ava got to say the things we've all been squeeing about for years during this episode - especially that the material is good because of their relationship, not the other way around; their dynamic is not incidental to the work, and that's so important to me personally.

I had guessed that Ava would be offered head writer and quit her current job, only to have it taken away because Deborah was too scared to rock the boat, but I did NOT see the end coming! In fact, I kind of thought Ava might end up suing Deborah for intellectual property theft (using material Ava wrote outside of her contractual appointment for the new show because, surprise surprise, the writers who sucked when she was a guest still suck now compared to Ava!) In fact, I sort of thought that end scene might end up being a return to the car scene, and was relishing the thought of Ava's mimicking Deb's "It'll be fun, honey." But the blackmail as a form of love/devotion was soooo much better. Truly chef's kiss.

Also the way this rewrote the S2 finale even as the underlying message remained the same is so special to me - I'll stay with you even when it's bad for me (sacrificing my career -> sacrificing my morals) because it's good for you and more importantly it's good for us and the work. JPL know how to write a finale, and I'd give up a kidney to have that same energy be there throughout a whole season again (not that the eps are bad, but they lack some of the sharpness in writing and emotional depth that JPL do so well with finales and also often with the first couple eps of a season too)

Lastly JPL going on the record that Deborah was turned on by that final scene + Ava's "I would, wouldn't you?" and "Let's begin" - truly some of the hottest TV. We're so back babyyy. No more half naked superheroes with all the eroticism of a desk chair. Give me messy women determined to fling themselves into the air because they know the thrill is worth everything good and safe they're leaving behind, even if they hit the ground with no parachute!

I have many, many thoughts about S3 and what's to come, but I'll save them for another post because phewww this got long as fuck

[skyler10fic]

In the Tyler Family panel, Billie recalls the 2000s fashion as a strange time in fashion history but loved Idiot's Lantern, and they agree Jackie would have shared Rose's clothes to be the Cool Mom. 🤣

Shawn says he was surprised to be asked back at first since his character died, but it made sense for him to come back in a multiverse story.

He says it was easy to come back and Camille adds it's the quality of writing makes it easy because you know who you (the character) are at that point because you can trust the writers are guiding it.

Billie says she struggles with how much she didn't understand how it was going to take over her life before s1 airs. Before social media, even though everyone hated it and the idea of her doing it, but it wasn't the constant stream of trolls the new actors have to hear about now with social media. She says with RTD, Julie, and Phil, there was so much confidence and joy, it was easy to believe it would be good.

Camille says her neighbors and friends were surprisingly fans. She didn't realize how many people she knew who loved it and knew about it.

They talk about how cold it was filming the Cybermen. Billie says her jaw locked because it was so cold!! The trick to getting through them was "youth" and she doesn't do night shoots anymore if possible because of that experience.

Camille talks about how Jackie "grew a pair" lol

Billie: "She's a boss!

Camille: "It's Russell, really."

Billie: "No, it's you!"

Love that Jackie's speech and situation in Love and Monsters got a shout-out. Especially going off on Elton for taking advantage of her: "Many people can relate to that moment, I think."

Talking about Pete not being the perfect husband:

Billie: "Why did they break up again?"

Shawn: "Because I died!"

Billie: "I forgot!!!" 🤣

They banter so well! Total family vibes between them all.

Fun moment where Shawn thought Billie was saying "old Pete" when she was saying "alt Pete!" Lol

Rose having the "rose-colored glasses" taken off: Billie says many can relate to realizing their parents are flawed people, and things are more complicated than you thought.

Camille says the Tylers spoke a language people understood, making something fantasy into a relatable story that was relevant to the audience.

Mod jokes that Rose "parent trapped them" across multiple universes!

Billie talks about how she enjoyed the overall romance and human element of their series, as opposed to the more sci fi feel in other later seasons.

Camille says Chris's intensity helped launch the reboot, but David's "Labrador" energy was different and special too to keep it going.

Billie says there was a totally different energy after they knew it was a success, allowing for more playfulness with David's Doctor and in general on set.

Billie says she always thought there was something complex about the romance with the Doctor, it's weird for a 19 year old to just take off in a box, and maybe wasn't written with Chris but it was there in spirit, and then was written in more explicitly in their relationship with David. Hard to keep that intensity of awe and adoration platonic! Camille adds the chemistry between them was a big element as well.

Billie says it was always a thrill to get the script, eager to read the script as soon as she got it to see what new world they were building with each episode. She says she didn't want to go to set when shooting Tooth and Claw because she was riveted reading the Doomsday script! Haha

Billie says the costume tricks can help body language shifts when changing character, like with Rose possessed by Cassandra, the push-up bra helped develop a unique physicality for the previously (literally) flat character!

Camille says they got in trouble for talking a lot because they got on so well!

Billie says she loves the new episodes, especially the dance numbers and theatrics now, and that's exactly where the show should go. "It's super fun again." Sitting down and watching a family show with the kids, an event for everyone to watch together.

Camille said it was good but it would be better if the Tylers were there! 😁

They love Ncuti as well. Excellent casting.

Billie praises RTD's heart and rooting for all walks of life. Everyone can feel represented. Camille says he is so good at pulling heartstrings and "that's what we want as Doctor Who fans." They also love his joy but also his power if they are being unkind. He defended the actors from stupid questions from the press and "told it like it was" when he needed to be the man in charge.

[dangermousie]

Top Dozen 2023 drama MLs so far

It's August, so not the end of the year, neither it is at halfway year mark, but why would I ever do anything like a normal person? Here my very very subjective list. I have limited myself to one dude per drama or LYF would be half the list. No order except alphabetical.

Chen Wende (Sun Yizhou in Gone With the Rain, China)

The epic troll lord stole the whole drama as competently as he stole the FL's heart. He was competent and adult and oh-so-amused by but also gone for the heroine.

Gu Jiusi (Bai Jing Ting in Chang Feng Du/Destined, China)

CFD lost steam for me halfway through but Jiusi's character remained a delight throughout and BJT gave a great performance as a golden boy who went through a bunch of hell and grew up but remained goodnatured at heart.

Han Dong Jin (Kim Young Kwang in Call It Love, Korea)

You know, he and Jing (from LYF1) really fit the same mold even if one is in a mellow realistic modern and another in xianxia - lovely traumatized people from monster families who win over heroine with a metric ton of baggage through sheer unswerving decency. I have a type.

Jang Uk (Lee Jae Wook in Alchemy of Souls s2, Korea)

I loved Uk in S1 and S2 continued that love - he's so intense, so grieving, so still in love with Naksu. LJW is always a good actor so it's such a pleasure to see him in a good role.

Kim Do Ha (Hwang Min Hyun, My Lovely Liar, Korea)

The year of surprises - Minhyun, who I found utterly wooden in AoS stole my heart here as this hopeful, traumatized sweetheart of a man.

Kim Moo Chan (Park Hae Jin, The Killing Vote, Korea)

Yeah, we are only one ep in but who said anything about this list was objective? PHJ brings his usual unsettling intensity to the role of a cop who breaks all the rules and teeters on the edge and now is set to catch a killer who really only differs from him in a matter of degree.

Lee Jang Hyun (Nam Goong Min in My Dearest, Korea)

If I had to pick a favorite ML from this list, it would be between him and Jing (LYF). This is basically if you took Rhett Butler and took out slavery and rape but gave him a sword. The character is complex and nuanced and NGM is giving his usual incredible performance.

Lee Rang (Kim Bum in Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938, Korea)

I was not a Rang fangirl for most of the original (even if he was well-acted; and he did win me over by the end) but I fell for him head over heels in this sequel/prequel/spin-off. I am so happy the man who believed he had nobody and was abandoned by everybody ends the story with his beloved brother and his beloved woman, both.

Moon Seo Ha (Ahn Bo Hyun in See You in My 19th Life, Korea)

A lot of MLs on this list have serious trauma and haunted by it and can't let go of their past love (I have a type) but even by those standards, Seo Ha was such a lovely, quiet person slowly healing.

Tantai Jin (Luo Yunxi in Till the End of the Moon, China)

Abuse victim/monster/praiseworthy king/xianxia saint/man on the brink - LYX portrayed a character in multiple timelines and many different complexities and did it amazingly. Tantai Jin may or may not win my favorite place on this list, but his performance was hands-down the most glorious thing this year.

Tushan Jing/Ye Shiqi (Deng Wei in Lost You Forever part 1, China)

If before LYF aired someone would have told me that a character played by Deng Wei, an actor I've always found eminently forgettable, would make it on this list and be in the running to win the whole thing actually, I'd have wondered what weird reality they came from. They somehow managed to make someone genuinely good and kind not in the least boring; I am ridiculously invested in the man who managed to keep his soul after all he's been through.

Yun Xiang (Chen Xiao in The Ingenuous One, China)

A schemer on a revenge quest, smarter than anyone else in the room but helpless in front of love. Yun Xiang was an adult in an adult story for adults and it was glorious.

[notashadowbutawave]

i almost posted this on the true detective subreddit episode thread but thought better of it:

I've gotta say… I feel like a lot of complaints people are having about this season of the show don't pass muster objectively when held up against Season 1. Melodrama, "unrealistic" dialogue, complaining about being shown too much about people's personal lives and not caring about the characters…

There is so much unrealistic dialogue in season 1. The way Marty and Rust during their video interviews just come in talking about some big philosophical idea or "life wisdom" nugget in the middle of the episode (nobody talks like that IRL). The scene with Marty's daughter and the princess crown, for example. Marty cheating on his wife multiple times isn't like, objectively "more interesting" than Evangeline's sister having mental health issues or Liz being sexually promiscuous and a mess.

I've seen season 1 probably 10 times and I adore it but a lot of the angry comparisons people are making to S1 kind of just come off as straight up misogyny at a certain point. Like it rubs people the wrong way because it's women. Complaining about Liz and Evangeline going to the dredge without backup but when Rust and Captain America Marty Hart do something like that it's believable?

I don't think anyone's obligated to like the season by any means but you can just say you aren't feeling it as opposed to trying to make these apples-to-apples comparisons to season 1 that really don't hold water; I think people are just a lot more willing to accept this type of storytelling when it's about men and kind of has a fetishization/shame angle with masculinity in general. Like S1 is very masculine but it's also a love story. idk. I'm gay so I should probably stick to Tumblr for talking about this show, ya'll are wild.

----

idk watching people who are probably white dudes complain on Reddit that we are seeing too much "native culture" on the show strikes me as really icky.

i recognize that these are reddit comments and not like, actual media criticism but i think it says a lot about how people are conditioned to understand storytelling in general. like there's still so much fucking misogyny and white supremacy in our mainstream media and i realize a lot of people wouldn't say it out loud but i think they genuinely just find it exhausting that they're being asked to contemplate the interior lives of native alaskans and women by watching this show lmao

(that's not a value judgment about how well it is doing at depicting  Iñupiat culture because i'm not the person who gets to make that judgment but it REALLY rubs me the wrong way that people can't STAND even seeing it depicted)

(i think the fetishization of the American south also has a lot to do with it, like people are very willing to accept the aesthetic style of the American south as a vehicle for crime/mystery/possibly supernatural storytelling because it really doesn't challenge any conceptions they might have about the genre) (it helps that Woody Harrelson and Matthew McCounaughey are native southerners with great acting talent and natural screen chemistry who really took Season 1 to a higher level, in no small part thanks to their uncredited script doctoring. with lesser actors I think the story falls flat as hell because you need them to sell a rich relationship and complex inner lives with their performances because SO MUCH of their relationship is subtextual) (so when people see these great acting performances in the context of a police procedural set in Louisiana i think they're very pre-conditioned to elevate it to an almost mythical status in the genre because it doesn't present TOO many challenges to a conventional worldview about who has power and agency in stories)

like I said i've watched season 1 probably 10 times. it's very good. but it does MANY of the same things that people are complaining about regarding season 4/night country in terms of showing a lot of relationship/sexual drama for the leads and their Tragic Pasts. they just don't like it. which is fine. i just think it's a disingenuous angle to approach criticism of the show.

like if any actor other than McConaughey were doing Rust's monlogues in S1 it would not have been very good because it would have come off like self-serious edgelord shit, which is what it actually was (pizzolatto sucks) before it ended up in the hands of competent producers and performers. instead it really comes off like a man who has suffered and developed this worldview genuinely, within himself, not as a way to wield power over others but to protect himself from harm.

anyway....

for my part, i wanna know what the fuck is up with the spirals and the bad CGI polar bear visions and i'm going to be disappointed if it's not just some massive red herring designed to freak people out a little because that's what we deserve.

but in terms of like, the characters' lives, i generally find them very interesting. the opening scene of episode 3 with annie genuinely moved me to tears. annie seems like a fucking cool person and i would love another flashback about her.

i love that liz is a fucking asshole who is constantly being forced to confront her own behavior as racist, self-centered, impulsive, etc.

i love that evangeline is a very lonely person just barely keeping it together. kali reis is putting on an amazing performance. also, for the record, i'm VERY gay.

i wanna know more and there are only 2 episodes left and i hope it sticks the landing so i can write a big actual essay about what it did well from a storytelling perspective!

gosh i just love serialized fiction on the television

[horizon-verizon]

Hate to use this phrase but media literacy it’s truly dead. People saying Rhaenyra doesn’t care about losing Daemon when Emma delivered Rhaenyra’ sadness over this possibility in a heart wrenching way…

She spent 6 years married to him and had 3 children in those years, to say she didn’t have romantic feelings for him and wasn’t happy with him it’s just deny the obvious. And clearly one of those feelings in succumb into a vulnerable and intimate position with Misarya, the only person who’s saying to her exactly what she needed and wanted to hear, she’s feels she’s losing everyone and Mysaria brings her a feeling that she’s still believed and capable. Rhaenyra sharing that moment with Mysaria doesn’t exclude her conflicted feelings with Daemon, she can love him and resent him at the same time. Right before kissing Misarya, she literally tells her that she and Daemon are “two halves of a whole.”

Wow, I just got off talking about this...

Huh...I didn't watch the episode, but my hunches are shared? Noice.

I think that the disconnect is that Rhaenyra also says she never trusted him, not "truly". Without the Dragonstone-family scenes I have said should have been included and expanded in S1, we can only rely on the picture of happiness and teamwork we got in episodes 7 & 8. And no, even episode 10 has some serious faults with how Rhaenyra calls it "Daemon's war", as if she wasn't the one who enlists him and marries him with the words (paraphrasing) "I cannot stand against the greens alone", knowing exactly what sort of dude this was. Which included knowing he still would always support her, not his own nonexistent ambitions for the throne. There is a diff b/t one's ambitions to become king, and one's willingness to be largely obedient to one's orders or anticipate their desires well, as what I think the writers were trying to convey in that argument but failed utterly and made it more about Daemon wanting the throne for himself. None of this "those who don't want the power are the best leaders" crap...and no, Viserys did not have any points about Daemon's loyalties, the man cut open his own wife and he decided he should question Daemon's loyalties?! Ha! When have we started validating Viserys' stupidity?!

So, to some in the audience, it is jarring for Rhaenyra to doubt him or feel miserable by his actions even under the context of a war breaking out and her doubt of getting support from those outside of Dragonstone. Which still doesn't make sense bc Aemond should rather be feared and reviled for his kinslaying, but apparently Jaehaerys' death is the only death that matters and suddenly Westerosi lords care for "compassionate" payback over oaths of loyalty. It appeared as if Rhaenyra forgave Daemon for the brothel thing, and yes completely bc the show didn't give us anything to think otherwise--again, they might have if only the show had shown us life at Dragonstone before the war. The writers play a game of tug of war with the point of their scenes and pass them off as "complex" when they are just piss-poorly written as a chain of scenes linking a story/particular arcs together.

Anyway, yeah, that's the disconnect, most likely. To set up other things, the show contradicts itself even though the scene by itself is conveying a very clear plotline AND can be connected to another moment from another episode. I don't really blame people who think this way at all.

[perexcri]

fic recs!!

i woke up to being on a couple of fic rec lists and really appreciated it, so i wanted to capitalize on the nice energy and make a list of some of my own favs that i've read recently that i didn't necessarily see on the other lists :D check these out because they have some of the best prose/plots/characterization that i've read in the fandom :] 💜

one soft infested summer (M, 18k+, 3/7 ongoing) by @wheelersboy - this one is perfect for all the highler fans out there! it's got stoner byler of course, a music festival, lots out camping, and some really amazing writing! i started it just for the fun stoner vibes because Why Not, but i'm staying for the beautiful writing and the really complex and delicate relationship mike and will have in this one

Light Sleepers (T, 15k+, 2/6 ongoing) by @helioleti - WillEl-centric fic set during the time gap between the end of s3 and the beginning of s4 that explores their dynamic and their respective problems with mike, all while trying to cope with moving across the country from everything they know. each chapter is meant to reflect a certain stage of grief, which fits so well with all the complicated emotions everyone is going through!

drank my poison all alone (T, 4k, one-shot) by silverluminoqity - mike gets vecna'd and has to face his past self who's ashamed of who he's grown up to be, and my dudes the writing goes SO HARD. by far one of the best mike gets vecna'd fics i've read with such a good take on his character

star eater (T, >1k, one-shot) by @lowlightt - another fic where the writing does not play. honestly if you have a few minutes, READ THIS FIC. it's mostly just a confrontation between will and vecna, but it's so so powerful and impactful. and again, i cannot state it enough: the writing is AMAZING

tell me again (you said yes) (M, 32k, 3/3 complete) by @willow-lark - hey remember when cleradin was like a Thing for a brief second a few months ago? well if you miss those vibes, or if you just like great writing and some of the best weaving of canon into a fantasy au i've ever read, please look no further than this fic (and it's first part, fireball him! (cast protection)). i love this one dearly and enjoyed the wonderful ways Lark wove canon (specifically s1) into such a different setting, plus it was nice to see many of the other characters play a role in the events. beautiful, astounding, heart-wrenching - and did i mention there's an elopement 👀

In Undertow (M, 17k+, 3/6 on-going) by @souverian-are-we - this and one soft infested summer have become my summer byler reads~ when i say i love this fic, i mean you will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands 🥰 we've got estranged byler, jancy engagement with some stoncy going on in the background, and most of the characters still reeling from the consequences of their final battle with the upside down. it's all set at a lake house, which provides some breathtaking/atmospheric writing that this author uses to their advantage. it has some of my favorite scenes i've ever read in fic too, ones that have literally taken my breath away

california show your teeth (T, 77k+, 10/19 on-going) by @fireflywitch - what if the Byers and Hopper families were from Lenora and moved to Hawkins? this fic takes this one simple premise and turns it into one of my favorite fics i've ever had the pleasure of following along with. it essentially functions as a retelling of s1 and s2, gives almost every main character that's been featured in the show thus far a lot of time and space for their own plots, all while culminating into one larger story underneath. i don't think i've read a fic quite like this one in terms of its scope, plotting, and characterization, because there are a lot of moving parts, but this author goes above and beyond. i cannot recommend it enough

all i know is pouring rain (and everything has changed) (T, 3k, one-shot) by @willelfanpage - i think i read this one at the beginning of my workday while i was running some report on my computer and had to go about the rest of my day as if everything was fine ahah :'D seriously though, it's 3k words that pack an emotional punch all while examining will's relationship to rain. the writing is just gorgeous, and it's a character study that i haven't really seen done before, which was quite enjoyable~

Chasing Heartlines by (T, 7k+, 1/2 on-going) @cherryisgone - if you liked Tip-Toeing on Lilypads then may i direct you to its sequel, which features so much pining mike that he might as well be a tree? again, if you like cleradin/fantasy aus, then Cherry my beloved has you covered 💜 it fits so neatly with Lilypads and provides some fun contrast between will and mike~

Touch Me Like You Know Me (M, 15k, 4/4 complete) by @starsarefire824 - this exists in the rare pantheon of fics that actually made me cry. imagine an estranged byler reunion with all the emotions turned up to an eleven, and lots of lingering on lost time and how life sometimes takes us places we never thought we'd go. it's absolutely beautiful and is a classic to me :]

come back to me and forgive everything (T, 78k, 18/18 complete) by @howtobecomeadragon - i saw a lot about this one when it was on-going but am only just now getting around to reading it, and all i can say is why did it take me so long to get to it :') this author does such a good job of writing will and mike's relationship with a lot of nuance and complexity while still managing to make them feel like the teenagers they are. basically, will has to spend every july at lonnie's house in indianapolis, and for this summer in particular, the event is a lot more emotionally impactful for both mike and will. there's lots of emotional depth, the complexities of coming out and/or realizing you're queer, and, at the heart of it, how two friends try to mend things between each other. it's so soft and sweet

that's all i've got for now!! i'm quickly running out of time on my lunch break :'D also haven't been writing as much, but it's been fun to read more and relax a bit. hope you guys enjoy these because they're genuinely some of the best stuff i've had the pleasure to read in a while 💜💜💜

[thereisnolumos]

darklina thoughts: I wanted to get into the shadow and bone Fandom(books and show) because of the amazing gif set of the darklina kiss I saw

Like who are these two that are sharing such a beautiful kiss. And look so aesthically pleasing together with the darkness and light vibes. I was so excited to find out who these two were because these kind of ships are my everything. Than I find out and 😨😱😤😠🤬!!!!! It was like running full steam a head with tons of excitement and crashing face first into a wall when I find out everything about this Fandom. Both about the books and show. The author and this beautiful ship. And I'm like God why do authors do this ship. Tease us with everything we want and the full potential. But than do a completely one 80 and waste are time on things we don't care about, or find insulting or toxic, and tells us are tastes are dumb and toxic. So now I just read fics and look at beautiful art of Darklina and the potential they could have been. It's just so annoying because this stuff happens all the time!!! And don't get me started on what I heard about the author. I don't know if their true. And wish I could find out real stuff about her. But if it is. God she is so messed up for doing this to us.

I only got in the fandom bcs I randomly saw a teaser for the first season and Ben Barnes was there in all his dark glory. I knew nothing about the books, but the way that show was promoted I was expecting the epic dark romance, villain who’s not really a villain gets the girl all the vibe. Plus cool world build and complicated detailed story overall.

I got none of that.

That show was interesting and hopeful for the first 5 episodes (we will always have 1x05🖤). It wasn’t as detailed and complex as I expected, but it had potential and the main pair - the one they based THE ENTIRE promotion on by the way - was having one of the most fiery and spark inducing chemistry I’ve ever seen on the screen, so I kept my hopes up for the overall plot and focused on them. And then… then they backpedaled SO HARD on everything that made that show interesting for the broad audience, I wonder how they didn’t give themselves a whiplash… though considering the horrible quality of s2 they probably did

Though I didn’t like the way s1 ended, I still thought there is hope, and “we need a conflict for our main pair, I guess”. I truly, wholeheartedly believed that creators and writers of the show are not complete idiots and know how to read the room and what the most of their audience is there for, so that’s what they’ll deliver. But oh my, how wrong I was.

The second season is downright unwatchable with how horrifyingly terrible it is. I only suffered through the entire thing for Ben, who, bless his heart, tried his hardest to deliver the complexity and depth of his character, who he only agreed to play if they “won’t make him a cardboard villain”. And they did exactly that in s2, or tried to, bcs Ben Barnes and his talent didn’t let them, despite all their efforts. The rest of the cast I guess didn’t have enough experience to fix the worst writing imaginable with their acting, so most of the characters became absolutely bland and uninteresting and SO IDIOTICALLY STUPUD, I yelled at them constantly, scaring my cat the entire time.

Also, as much as I understand it from exploring the fandom, the creators and writers of the show are die hard fans of the Crows, and they don’t actually like Alina’s trilogy at all. So… why didn’t they just do the books they wanted I’ll never know. Instead, they forced the Crows in the plot they were never a part of (making all of them okay with selling a girl to slavery in the process. Despite one of them being the former slave and the other one being the one who got her out of it… make it make sense, I beg of you), in the second season they wasted SO MUCH time on their plot lines that 1)didn’t matter one bit for the overall story, 2)were absolutely uninteresting to everyone who isn’t the Crows fan beforehand. In the end we got half-assed Alina and Aleksander’s story with half-assed Crows’ story. They should’ve just made the Crows show, without touching Alina and Aleksander

I haven’t read the books, but from what I gathered in the fandom, though still committing the same sin of putting all the promotion and marketing into the Dark romance trope without actually delivering on it, and force feeding the fans one of the worst and most toxic pairings ever with Malina, at least Alina and Aleksander’s characters weren’t made so cardboard and stupid, and there was tragedy in their story, not the shit that they gave us in s2. Though I absolutely DESPISE the fact that Alina looses her powers in the end and goes on to live Mal’s dream life… Like WHAT THE FUCK?? What levels of internalized misogyny do you need to have as a woman, to write this plot line for your female protagonist???? I can’t.

On Mal’s toxicity: at least that made him a fleshed out character in the books. Absolutely horrible one, how could the author make him “get the girl” is beyond me. But at least he had a personality, however terrible one. In the show, I guess understanding, that no one would root for that asshole, they removed his toxicity almost completely, but that made him as bland as stale porridge. There wasn’t ANYTHING left on his character. At all. How anyone could’ve rooted for him I absolutely refuse to understand. Any woman deserved better than Blade😈

I don’t know anything about Leigh Bardugo, except for the fact that she butcher my native language and makes me furious. If you don’t know the language at least on a medium level, perhaps don’t use it in your books. Or at least hire someone who does. The way she butchered it, I’m not sure she even used Google translate…

So yeah, I’m with you on only reading Darklina fanfics and admiring fan art. I’m not at all sad that they cancelled the show, and I’m even giddy that those creators and writers didn’t get their wet dream of the Crows spin off. They didn’t deserve it after the shit they pulled in the second season. I do hope that they won’t ruin any other shows in the future. I am sad for the actors, who deserved much better and who were actually good at their parts, while the writing was okay. Poor Archie Renaux suffered the most, his character didn’t have good writing at all, not for a single scene. I hope we’ll see more of all of them.

And we need Ben and Jessie to do a film together. Preferably a rom com, but I’m not picky. Just that their characters are together. Such chemistry can’t be wasted

[tea-earl-grey]

Prodigy s2 thoughts/review (spoilers under cut)

my spoilerfree tdlr: this was almost certainly the best season of Star Trek and i love it so dearly. while i have a couple of nitpicks, there really was not a single bad episode in the whole season and i think this is the only bit of new Trek that's managed to be serialized while still pacing the series well, keeping up with pretty much all the character arcs (and there are a lot), and including lighthearted and heartwarming moments without sacrificing plot. it's a solid 9/10 for me.

i'll start with nitpicks/critique first since it's a much shorter list:

i think Solum was still a bit underdeveloped as a setting and it might have done better to explore a bit more of Ascensia's motivations for going to war but this could also be the result of me having not seen s1 of Prodigy in a few months and forgetting some things.

i'm someone who really really likes time travel stories and has written complex time travel stories before and even i thought some of the time travel logic was a bit convoluted and confusing. they brush it off in the beginning but i still don't really get how preventing the Solum Civil War (and thus preventing the Diviner from being at Tars Lamora and creating Gwyn) wouldn't make Gwyn and all of the Protostar kids paradoxes? if anyone has an answer here, i'd genuinely love an explanation because i want to like it but i can't work it out.

related a bit to this point ^ i really like including Ilthuran/the Diviner as a sympathetic character this season but i feel like we needed to see a bit more of him to really understand him and why he was so corrupted in s2 and see the Protostar kids (not just Gwyn) deal with how a guy who formerly enslaved them is now a good guy.

i think the set up to a potential season 3 hit the emotions perfectly with the Protostar kids serving as a bright beacon of hope and outreach in a time when the Federation is becoming withdrawn and insular (and that Janeway would facilitate that dream of exploration) but on a plot level.... i just don't buy that Starfleet would let seven kids and a single hologram have one of the fastest & most powerful ships in Starfleet just to train on when Starfleet had just lost so much of their Fleet in the Mars attack.

i think most of the characters had really good clear arcs this season except for Jankom Pog who was just kind of... there. this is a pretty minor critique because i'm probably attached to Pog the least out of all the Protostar kids and again it could also be because i wasn't paying attention to him that much but i wish we could have a bit of a more serious storyline with his character.

but all in all – those are pretty minor critiques because i don't mind if the plot gets a bit wishy washy as long as the emotional and character beats hit.

now things i really liked:

Dal's arc this season was so so good. i heard others talking about how he's great ADHD representation (especially for BIPOC kids) as someone who's intelligent and extremely skilled but really struggles in traditional education and despite seeming cocky/confident is often acting out of insecurity that he isn't really good enough or that the adults around him don't really care about him.

and i love how both Janeway and Chakotay serve as such great mentors!! Janeway for actually looking for ways to support him and show that she trusts Dal (and the rest of the Protostar kids) instead of punishing them for misbehaving. and Chakotay for that wonderful scene where he explains how there can feel like a push to always be at the top and be the best but the best thing in life is to find a place where you belong and can grow in healthy ways even if it means waiting to fulfill your ambitions (and what a good representation of healthy masculinity that is!)

and on that front. pretty much all of the scenes with Janeway and Chakotay were so lovingly crafted with how they both existed as mentors for the main characters but also had their own arcs and their mentorship reflected back on their own characters. i'm also not a huge j/c shipper (i like it theoretically, i'm just not that committed) but the loving glances they shared were Noticed.

i also like to think that the reason Janeway and Chakotay were so could at dealing with the Protostar kids was their command of Voyager's mixed Starfleet-Maquis crew and how they both know that despite Starfleet's ideals they often let down people who aren't Perfect enough (whether because of mental health, species, neurodiversity, etc). i'm specifically thinking about Tom and B'Elanna but i'm sure it also goes for Voyager's other crew that we don't see onscreen.

i love Gwyn. so much. i love how this season turned around expectations a little with Gwyn getting to have her Captain-y moments more so than Dal (through the series too, not just at the end) and her confronting her fear over her responsibility for an entire planet of her people who she's never even met before and insecurity that she's not really One Of Them.

i was also a little wary of Zero's arc this season at first because of how Star Trek tends to have "this autistic coded character is missing a fundamental part of existence and that's sad" narratives but i honestly think it was a pretty fresh portrayal of disability in that Zero in their normal metal body is missing senses that other people have and they enjoyed experiencing them in an organic body but going back to their metal containment suit wasn't sad, it was just a part of their life. and they even added a disability aid to their suit so they can still experience touch without all the "they're getting closer to being human" ableist shit that scifi tends to do. also their organic body using a mobility aid for a few episodes was Very Important to me. i might make a bigger analysis post of this portrayal later but i have to think on it.

i don't have much to say about her right now but i love Rok-Tahk so dearly and was overjoyed that she just got to be happy this season. every scene of her getting excited over science or another character commenting on how she's a genius was just so good.

Ma'Jel was also a fun addition and much needed to add a bit of common sense to the extremely chaotic dynamics going on. her and Zero Vulcan kissing at the end was extremely cute.

also every time either the Voyager-A crew would start saying "it's okay. we'll mutiny with you." to Janeway or Janeway got an order from Jellico (hey nice to see him btw! he's played by the same actor too!) that she immediately ignored, i was so happy. now that's my Captain!

i also have mixed opinions on the EMH in Voyager (mostly due to the last two seasons) but i thought he was great in here with a good balance of comedic scenes and some more serious moments. i did chuckle every time he started talking about his awful holonovels.

WESLEY CRUSHER!!!!! i'll be honest, i had a few ideas of characters that might make cameo appearances (i was banking on Harry Kim tbh) but for some reason Wesley never crossed my mind even though it makes SO MUCH SENSE given how his story in tng paralleled/was an inverse of the Protostar kids. instead of being a kid far away from the Federation who dreamt of of belonging somewhere safe, he was a genius kid on track to be a great captain and fulfill the Starfleet Dream TM but became lost and burnt out when he started to question if that was ever what he really wanted. both Wes and the Protostar kids dealt with self doubt and were dismissed at various points as Just Kids but they went in opposite directions.

i also just really love chaotic Time Lord Wes who's kind of forgotten how to be a person but is just doing this emoji 🤠 in every scene. the vibes were so impeccable.

also BEVERLY!!!!! as soon as Wes showed up i immediately made a post about how funny Janeway explaining All Of This to Beverly would be and then i was SHOCKED when it actually happened??? this show quite literally predicts my every want.

just everything about The Devourer of All Things was written specifically for me. the Loom were such good monsters (it's been forever since Star Trek did a straight up Scary Monster story). the explanation of all the different universes and timelines set my nerd brain on fire. the return of Janeway in a tank top. the snappy writing that also had some great character moments. the Doctor Who-ness of it all. i need to rewatch it asap.

the other episode highlight for me was Cracked Mirror for fun parallel universe exploits and getting to see Mirrorverse versions of Janeway and Chakotay. (there was even a Disco reference with the Agonizer!) it was predictable but the throwaway line to "Captain Tuvix" in whatever reality Rok and Zero ended up in almost made me do a spit take.

as someone who does genuinely love Picard (the show) despite its flaws, i am really happy how much was integrated into this season of Prodigy both with showing Beverly with a young Jack Crusher and with the attack on Mars being shown at the very end.

all in all – VERY GOOD SEASON. it gave me everything i wanted and more with only some minor nitpicks. and most importantly, i had fun in pretty much every single episode. i cleared my schedule on Monday because i thought i would be able to binge it all in one day but i simply had too much fun and only got through half of it. if season 1 of Prodigy was the best ever first season of a Star Trek show then this is maybe the best ever season of any Star Trek show.

[odditycollector]

okay, I got around to watching the umbrella academy, 4th & final season

I went in unspoiled and to pass on the favour I'm putting my reaction under the cut.

high level & non-comprehensive thoughts on themes only.

short version: As an ending to the whole of the story, it did not work.

This is not a controversial opinion. It felt unsatisfying! It was Unearned! The moral of the story is now either "broken people have no place in the world and they fuck it up for everyone else just by existing and their attempts to heal are futile and counterproductive" or "please, please let us stop making seasons of this show. please"!

but then i thought about it and actually. the end of season 4 could be a really meaningful part of the story. thematically.

…as long as you didn't stop there.

-

so the umbrella academy tv show is a story about cycles of family abuse and trauma and trying to escape them.

An incomplete list of questions it's explored:

Can the destructive fallout of family trauma simply be suppressed. No. (s1)

If someone had simply done one thing different in the past could the family trauma have been fully avoided and everyone involved would have been happy and functional. No. (s2)

Can we exist as separate from our histories? No. (s3)

Can the cascading effects of complex family trauma be cleanly navigated? No. (s4 - not even with a map)

Can damaged individuals reconnect and despite their individual flaws - if all are truly putting in the effort - form a connection/safety net from which they might draw the strength to forgive and actually find healing? …i feel like we were stumbling towards a yes. (s4, Allison & Klaus, Viktor & alt!Hargreeves)

AND THEN

the ending of season 4 posits:

Since the destructive fallout from family trauma can't be prevented, is it Better(tm) for the world if the traumatized individuals and all their impacts on other people were removed wholesale.

and y'know what? Thematically? this is a powerful question to ask.

but like. the answer has to be "no" though.*** because otherwise what is the point. we've invested years into rooting for these siblings to find recovery!

***["isn't it possible for "no" to have been a satisfying answer?" Of course! tragedies exist! there aren't any rules for what is allowed in stories! but the umbrella academy tv show did not set itself up to be a story where that is a satisfying answer. (Source: I Am Good At Themes.)]

Season 4 as an ending point implies the answer to 'healing from trauma is too hard - let it consume and destroy you y/n?' is 'yes', which as an ending note is. well. let's go with sudden and discordant.

[ALSO IT CHEATED! ON A MECHANICAL LEVEL! ERASING ALL YOUR INFLUENCE FROM HISTORY MEANS ERASING THE GOOD TOO! MEANS ERASING YOUR DESCENDANTS FOR WHOM YOU WERE TRYING TO DO BETTER TOO!]

but if this 'yes' had NOT been the end, but had been set up to be a proof by contradiction..

if there had been a Season 5 showing us that actually the world was NOT better for the absence of the Hargreeves family, that they were needed, that a single clean timeline is not better than an infinity of messy possibilities, that if there can exist no perfect version of you that is untouched from trauma the you that DOES exist is still capable of being loved and of healing and worth the effort involved, that you were not wrong to ever try…

That's an ending that could have been satisfying.

[buffyfan145]

I wanted to make another post about some of the possible massive season 2 leaks for "Rings of Power" as I've gotten so many more thoughts about it and need to get them out. 😀 Also I'm hoping this does happen now as my mind has been thinking on this and how much it makes sense to me that I'm going to be sad if it doesn't. LOL

So if anyone didn't see The One Ring Net posted a tons of leaks last week and I've posted another post all about that. But the ones that got to me obviously was the reveal that they're going to give Sauron/Halbrand a son that Adar killed. This was before s1 happened and the form Adar knew (played by Gavi). This would add so much complexity to Sauron/Halbrand/Mairon as him having a child is huge and showing he actually is capable of love despite being a villain. Some of my favorite villains in other shows/movies/books do have families and sometimes the only people they love are their children and partner, so adding this to Sauron would just be a plus for me. It also would prove that he does have feelings for Galadriel and is capable of loving her. We all know he was good in the beginning and like Melian is a Maiar so it's totally possible for him to become a father and fall in love with an elf.

Then it makes me wonder who is playing this boy. Is it someone already announced or is it just someone in one episodes explaining this backstory? Then what is his name and like another fan pointed out could Sauron choosing the name Halbrand actually be honoring his son if the name is similar? Also if he's part Maiar does that mean after Adar killed him the son went to Valinor? That would also explain why Sauron/Halbrand was thinking of just living on his own and even contemplated trying to get redemption as maybe he thought he'd be able to reunite with his son at some point.

Then this all brings me again to Celebrian and if it's possible the show really could make her be Sauron's daughter. Weirdly enough one of the leaks said that Sauron/Halbrand is actually pretending to be Celeborn and that's who really reunites with Galadriel. So we have that possibility and that Galadriel gets pregnant that way, but personally I would prefer if it happens after she finds out it's Sauron/Halbrand and we do have another leak that she gets captured by Adar and then have to make a choice in the season finale and possibly decides to stay with Sauron/Halbrand setting up season 3.

All along I figured Celebrian will be born in season 3 so they could even make it to where Galadriel and Sauron/Halbrand did decide to try to make it work as a couple and she changes her mind to be his queen. We know season 4 supposedly is Sauron/Halbrand going back to Numenor from Charlie's interviews, so I've been wondering what the s3 story for them is and it could be this. Once Galadriel finds out he had a son that died it actually would bond them more as then that connection between them in s1 was real and they both experienced such deep loss of family. Then if she has Celebrian but in the end they're doomed anyway and she eventually leaves him and takes their daughter to Lothlorien.

This would also explain why Sauron never attacked Lothlorien or Rivendell and why Dul Guldur was right next door if his ex-wife and daughter are living there. The real Celeborn would likely be back by this point and Galadriel restarts her marriage with him and he helps raise Celebrian as her step-father similar to some of our fics, including my own "Building a Mystery". Plus there was a version of Galadriel escaping thanks to the dwarves with little Celebrian but she also had a son named Amroth that Tolkien later decided to delete. Now makes me wonder if this is where the writers got the idea to give Sauron a son too.

Then it makes me think too when Celelbrian goes to Valinor if she turns out to be Sauron/Halbrand's daughter that she actually reunites and meets her older brother that's been in Valinor since Adar killed him. That way too besides Galadriel's other family and Melian and Yavanna/Aule, Celebrian would have family there. And then when Galadriel finally goes back to Valinor at the end of LOTR she also meets Sauron/Halbrand's son and promises Sauron/Halbrand that she'll be with their children even though he can't be with them.

It just weirdly works for me and makes sense in a way I never expected. I know a lot of the purists/die-hard LOTR probably would hate these changes but I think it just adds to it and that's not just me being a Haladriel shipper. I now see their relationship as a tragic romance and it just fits with that. But also I'm really forgiving in a lot of my other fandoms for huge changes like this if it makes sense. It just a lot of the LOTR aren't since there hasn't been that many adaptations like those of public domain things like Jane Austen's books and all the "Sherlock Holmes" stories to name two. So we'll see what happens but I'm all for this.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

holy shit nate deserved so much better than whatever the fuck this season was. nick gave us everything and this season really said lmao jason jelly who? i cannot believe after everything all he gets is a fucking ryanair ticket right back to where he started completely off screen my god without a shred of explicit narrative agency what the fuck what the fuck??? i'm genuinely livid - his journey was so well crafted in s1 and 2 and had such potential to be the real emotional cornerstone of S3 and he was jettisoned... and for what???

literally for what????????? what happened in s3 that was soooooo important it merited that level of production cowardice???

something is absolutely rancid with the stench of streaming statistics, focus groups, and studio interference i s2g. now with the whole picture laid out i get a really shitty feeling that apple came back with 'people don't like nate' — as if that wasn't the dramatic point of the story to that point, and as if nick didn't crush it showing nate's complexity and unhealthy relationship with his own self worth setting up a great confrontation and resolution. we know bill lawrence left due to creative differences and there were massive rewrites this season... now seeing the entire thing, i have a big feeling it was around nate's arc being sidelined in no small part due to studio interference...

[ladymorghul]

It's maybe unwarranted, but I am a bit worried that neither Aemond or Aegon will be given the depth and complexity they deserve. Ofc, we've only seen one trailer, but I really hope that Aemond won't be reduced to a cocky, overconfident one liner Daemon junior. Like, even though he barely had any screentime in s1 he was still given a memorable backstory and a good reason to despise and distrust the blacks and especially to be wary of his mother's relationship with Rhaenyra. Also, he is probably the only Targaryen of the era who was actually reminded that the dragons have their own will and cannot ever be completely controlled. The Shipbreaker's Bay incident should have thought him something, like, idk, be more careful, self controlled and not too overconfident? I get that he's still very young and that explains at least partly his attitude, but still. Him being surprised and horrified with what happened at the end of s1 kinda made sense, but I bet that we'll get to see him being all surprised and then angry when Daemon fools him and takes KL, and then we'll have a pattern: Aemond gets all cocky and overconfident, then is taught a lesson and becomes the buttmonkey of the show. And again, and again, until the final duel. We all know how that ends. I exagerrate a little, but the point is there. Just don't make the same caricature he was in the book. As for Aegon, I enjoy his moments on screen, but I hope he won't be reduced to an evil boy king and a lesson for Alicent in a "careful what you wish for" fashion. Just don't make another Joffrey because there aren't many similarities between the two and don't use him as a proof of Rhaenyra's superiority.

Sorry for the rant.

agreed!!! i have not much else to add.

i doubt aemond will be more careful. i may be wrong about that. but you are right... having him go through something like that where he completely loses the hold on vhagar and vhagar does what she wants should give him at least a moment's reflection later on but i doubt it will.

aemond is set to go on a downhill path from now on. and i know there were some leaks at some point, not sure whether true or not, that aemond ends up burning some of the greens army in rook's rest and how that's gonna be an issue.

obviously it happens that in dragon fights you can end up killing even allied soldiers (the way it happened in f&b when vhagar, sunfyre and meleys all fall on top of each other and it kills a bunch of people on both sides), but i think maybe the leakers mentioning it (again, if true) might have more relevence to the story than just collateral damage

that being said... i'm gonna be real. i don't think they'll give them the depth you or i expect. unfortunately for you i am a pessimist most of the time and expect the story to still be focused on how all of this affects alicent that in turn is just statement for the viewer that says "if only she stood by rhaenyra's side".

that's not to say that aemond, aegon and others won't have their own plot and we won't see any depth or development but the bigger picture is what i mentioned above.

[fluffypotatey]

Alright, I feel like I gotta ask at this point: What is lmk about? I've picked up a few things? But I haven't actually picked up what the plot is, I don't think? So, uh, what's it about?

so to preface: lmk = Lego Monkie Kid and jttw = Journey to the West

it is a 2D animated show (originally animated by Flying Bark but LEGO switched to WildBrain for s5 and future seasons bc of deadline and union reasons) that is inspired by the infamous Chinese legend Journey to the West, which is a 4-5 volume story about a monk, Tang Sangzang, and his companions, recently redeemed demons, traveling to acquire sacred texts, the Tripitaka scrolls, and bringing them to Thunder Clap Mountain to the Buddha himself (which is where the monk Tang gets the nickname Tripitaka bc it’s the thing he is tasked with retrieving)

now, one of Tripitaka’s companions just so happen to one of the most famous characters of all time: Sun Wukong!!!!! He goes by many names….Handsome Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Fiercest Fighting Buddha. this monkey is one of the most op characters ever and 7 times immortal with a horrible god complex (that he learns to manage while on the journey)

anyway

LMK is set about a millennium after jttw and our beloved main character, MK, is a huge Monkey King fan. MK is a delivery boy of a noodle ship own by a pig demon named Pigsy (who is totally not at all a descendant or reincarnated version of the pig demon Zhu Baije who’s nickname in the jttw was Pigsy) and gets his Monkey King legends via tv shows, video games, and his trusty surrogate father Tang, who is a scholar and totally not the reincarnated monk.

the show begins with MK accidentally finding himself in the middle of a sketchy scenario where two villains are attempting to pull Monkey King’s staff out of the mountain’s peak King Arthur style to free one of Monkey King’s foes in jttw and ex sworn brother: the Demon Bull King

this leads MK to stealing the staff from them and trying to return it to the Monkey King so the guy can save the day, but OH WAIT! turns out the Monkey King has chosen MK to be his successor which leads MK into a life of heroics and episodic villain of the week shenanigans—

BUT WHAT IS THIS?????? A TWIST IN THE WACKY HIJINKS???? THERE IS REAL PLOT?????

so, yeah, by the end of s1, lmk becomes a show that plays with the concept of fate and destiny and what roles do people truly play out in life and the obsession our lives seem fo have with wanting to box us in a narrative of precedents we no longer fit

animation s1-4 is sick af (s5 is good too, but Flying Bark def spoiled us ;-;) the character dynamics are so fun to pick apart, and the writing is really good for a show with only 10 episodes per season (which are only 10 minutes long) not counting the specials :D

so yeah. that’s LMK

[emmys-grimoire]

Nightbringer

Okay, emerging briefly from my hibernation to offer my thoughts on the livestream bombshell that dropped yesterday.

It looks like we’re getting a whole new game with the same characters and the same setting. I’m not sure what this means for the original game. Are they separating the fluff and the actual story now? The trailer is notably grittier and darker than anything we’ve seen yet, befitting the “Nightbringer” moniker.

Here’s a few notable things in the trailer which may or may not be getting attention. I don’t know: I hardly pay attention to most of the fandom.

Time travel shenanigans again

If you weren’t fond of how they handled the time travel in S1, well, you’re probably not going to like this.

In the beginning of the trailer, and at the very end, we get a shot of a bunch of spiraling doors and Barbatos hushing us. Soooo... we’re probably the same MC and we’re deliberately being flung back in time to fix the future, or something along those lines. I would not pin hope on a brand new MC or one of the brothers being a PoV character.

How do the doors relate to Barbatos? Well besides his room featuring them, the devs were so keen on the concept of a room full of thousands of doors that they modeled Barbatos after this concept. They’re finally using it!

The livestream suggested that the story will occur shortly after the Great Celestial War, and there’s several shots in the trailer that support this.

Namely, Satan’s.

We’re finally getting that Satan lore (probably)

One of the first scenes in the trailer is a before and after shot.

We can tell it’s a before-after shot because of the setting (first is the Celestial Realm -- there’s no sun in the Devildom -- and, well, they’re clearly angels) and the fact that Satan isn’t in the first shot.

Additionally, the character reel...

The parallels can’t be any more on the nose, really. Lucifer is in obvious pain and clutching his head, and Satan mirrors him and looks like he wants to gouge out Lucifer’s eyes. Everyone else is just looking cool.

Soon after, we get this scene.

The brothers are filed behind Lucifer/Diavolo in order... except for Satan, who is the closest behind Lucifer. I’m guessing Lucifer just found out he’s a father. Congratulations!

There’s too much here for it not to be a relevant plot point.

Weird Ass (Evil?) Goo

I think one of the game’s weak points is the story doesn’t have any serious threats or big bads, and they don’t have the complex interpersonal relationships to fill in that gap and still make a compelling story -- or, rather, they’re now afraid of portraying our husbandos in unflattering lights for any prolonged period of time now that they’re hopelessly in love with us.

I think they might be changing that with Nightbringer.

Beyond the fact that we’ll need to go back in time for some reason, there’s this weird goop thing in the trailer.

It starts with the moon turning red.

Not a big deal. It looks cool and I’d normally dismiss it as just artistic flair, but this shot follows it right after. It’s some strange liquid swirling around an orb of light (presumably the ‘moon’?)

Weird. Not only that, but...

They zoom in on it and the “moon” inside of it begins to disintegrate. It’s also featured in the background in of each character shot.

I wonder if there’s going to be some evil symbiote messing things up and we’re being sent back in time to destroy it before it gets out of hand lol

Maybe it’s the Nightbringer or something

In conclusion...

I’m cautiously optimistic about this new game but slightly concerned about the old game. This might have been the alternative to writing season 5, but if it gives me the lore and conflict the story so desperately needs, then I’m happy; I’ve stopped logging in for a reason.

I’d like there to be no gacha elements in Nightbringer but hahahahaha that’s not gonna happen