#losing in a love triangle really is a great way to build character LOL

[bmpmp3]

i know love triangles are a contentious topic but sometimes a love triangle shoujosei manga will create the best most pathetic wonderfully embarassing little man BUT he's only this good Because theres a love triangle that gave him that character arc. or sometimes they'll give you the greatest gal pal on earth but only after she tries to kill the main character because they both have a crush on the same guy. i understand love triangles can be frustrating but sometimes they are. a necessary evil

[nat111love]

You can’t write the perfect foundation for a scorching love affair then try to pull a will they won’t they on your audience, you can’t make your character acknowledge and accept their feelings and then make them act as if nothing happened between them and expect your audience to buy into that story you’re telling and to like it, no, you can’t.

If Thony saying  “not everything” after arman asked her if she wanted to forget everything that happened in vegas , her kissing him again after that and them staring intensely into each other’s eyes while holding hands in a room full of prisoners isn’t them acknowledging and accepting their feelings for one another then I don’t know what the words acknowledging and accepting  mean.  

 Thony and arman having sex the first time they kissed would’ve made sense, them having sex the day after they first kissed would’ve made sense ,them indulging in great sex when they were in mexico, or even after arman was released from prison would’ve made sense because there was a build up to that moment...thony losing it after she saw arman and isabel kiss, their intense and lustful glances, their endless flirting, their scorching makeout session in arman’s office, their inability to not stare at one another’s lips lustfully,  arman’s I’m not saying I want to ripp your clothes off and take you now but I want to do you now and make you mine in this room look when thony was checking out his bullet wound...Everything was designed to lead to that moment where they would’ve just forgotten everything and satisfy their sexual urges with each other.

I don’t know if the writers needed a love triangle , but if they really needed one to move the story forward this season, they could’ve made thony and arman have an affair ( yeah yeah yeah, I know y’all know I’m team cheaters lol, but I’m not saying this because I love a good cheating plot, but because it would’ve been in character and it would’ve moved the plot. ) and use nadia and arman’ dynamic to create more drama, angst and tension between thony and arman and not the other way around, because nobody cares about arman and nadia’ marriage ( mmm, ok maybe this cheating plot part deserves its own post lol) . 

My problem with this season is that the writers wrote a fascinating rich complex and messy dynamic in season 1, then proceeded to destroy/undo everything they established in that season because they didn’t want to “turn” thony and arman into  cheaters  and homewrekers. I think the writers didn’t have to impose their will on these characters, because the fans are able to separate their real feelings on the issue from the narrative enough to enjoy the cleaning lady without them having to jump through hoops to make everyone look like an angel....if thony and arman still had their own agency they would be together or they would be having an affair...they didn’t kiss once but twice in season 1 !!! TWICE!!! and they wouldn’t stop flirting !!!... arman was married and it didn’t stop him from flirting and kissing thony!!! and thony knew that arman was married and it didn’t stop her from flirting back and kissing that man back not once but TWICE !!! TWIIIIIIICE !!! TWIIIIIIIIICE !!! do I need to mention what happened during their last scene in 1X10  ?!!! these were their choices, and if these characters were still making their own choices they would be cheating...

 The writers refusal to let them have their own agency and the fact that they barely  interacted with each other during the first 6 episodes weakened the story and cheapened their dynamic this season...How can you make them share several scenes per episodes and flirt in every episode during the first season, and then reduce their screentime and make them act as if they were just  friends during the first 5 6 episodes of season 2 without addressing what happened between them in season 1..it doesn’t make sense !!!  

 I’m more of a nonverbal communication person because not everything needs to be said...show us affectionate gazing, intense eye sexing ,hand grabbing and holding, kisses, sweet smiles, sex...if you can’t give us good nonverbals the least you can do is make them address what happened or is happening between them!! CONSISTENCY IS IMPORTANT !!!! so you need to give us something !!!!

Arman and thony  are supposed to be deeply connected, on a very deep level... almost on a soulmate level but we don’t see them bonding, building and strengthening that connection... 

Where are the scenes in which they share personal information with each other...THAT IS HOW you bond with a person right?...SHARING PERSONAL STORIES is how you bond...so where are thony and arman’s bonding moments !!! The writers could’ve enhanced certain aspects of thony and arman’s relationship since they slowed the pace this season but they didn’t !!!! they decided to reduce their screentime together and give more screentime to robert x nadia, nadia x arman , fiona x chris, garret...

Now, how is the audience supposed to believe that thony and arman have this deep and profound personal connection if we don’t see them interact?!

How can the audience believe that arman and thony have strong feelings for each other if those moments where they are both overwhelmed by their untameable feelings and the ones where they missed each other terribly aren’t shown?! how can we know that their attraction to one another hasn’t changed if their sexual tension and those stolen glances are not written and shown !!! how can arman go to I want to save my marriage to almost apologizing to thony for sleeping with his wife when they haven’t acknowledged what happened between them and when they have been acting like friends for weeks or months (in less than 48h)?! Listen...you can’t go from we’re friends to I’m sorry for sleeping with my wife please don’t be mad at me I only did what you asked me to do !!!!No you can’t... because it feels forced and inorganic !! you can’t just slow your pace then speed it back up again when you feel like it !!! no you can’t. Not if you want your audience to buy into your characters’ romance. These “moments” need to happen gradually and not suddenly, the scenes between them in this episode felt forced when they should’ve only been laced with angst, and subtext and converstations withing conversations, hurt feelings etc...because we didn’t get a build to those moments!! Tha’s why consistency is important !!!

I saw this melissa’s quote “But we wanted that simmering, sexual tension, but that romantic tension, and also that kind of soul connection to continue. That’s always there in their relationship.” and I smile because this is not what we’re getting and seeing !!! if we were getting everything she mentioned above concistently I definitely wouldn’t complain because the things she mentioned are the things this season is lacking 

[alexhziee]

Review: Go Ahead

“Is a short relationship worth losing a good friendship?” - Ling Xiao

STORY

So the drama follows the story of “siblings” Li Jian Jian, Ling Xiao and He Zi Qiu from childhood to adulthood as they face trials and challenges in their lives and with the guidance of their two dads Li Hai Chao and Ling He Ping. 

Ling He Ping is a police officer who moves with his son Ling Xiao and wife Chen Ting to an apartment building in the city where they met their downstairs neighbor single dad Li Hai Chao with his daughter Li Jian Jian. With the Ling’s complicated and stressful family, 

Ling Xiao is often alone in the stairs of their apartment building while his parents shout and fight so bubbly and friendly Li Jian Jian finds a way to bring Ling Xiao to their home for dinner and eventually becomes close friends. The father-daughter Li becomes He Ping and Ling Xiao’s close friends more so when Chen Ting decides to abandon them. 

Single dad Li Hai Chao is then set up on a date with He Mei, a beautiful single mom with her own son He Zi Qiu. They both hit it off but when He Mei moves to another city and in dire need of money, she borrows from Hai Chao before leaving but didn’t come back, abandoning her son He Zi Qiu. 

With Hai Chao’s kind and generous personality, he adopts Zi Qiu as his own son and so the family of five lived together in two separate apartments but still as one family. 

I don’t really know how to properly explain word per word just how good this drama is but I’m gonna try to make it more understandable (lol). As an asian I could totally relate the family issues as well as their social pressures even though we're from different parts of Asia but the similarities are extremely close. So the mother’s being tyrant and controlling of their children is definitely not exaggerated in the drama (though not all Asian mothers but a lot of them are).  

I just absolutely love the progression of each character from the children in their childhood to adulthood and even the parents as they also realize their mistakes and try to amend them. I love that the writer and director really put justice to the story of each main and support characters. 

One of the things that I just absolutely love was that even though there is a sense of love triangle (at first) they didn’t make Zi Qiu a pitiful sad second male lead and I think that makes the drama more mature than most at least. I love that the drama, the storyline and each character felt so real and relatable. Well, not everyone can have really hot neighbor/brothers but I’m pretty sure the struggles each character faced is very relatable. The director and writer really let each character shine. 

The progression from childhood to adulthood between the trio is so good. From as-close-as-real-siblings reduced to mere acquaintance because their time apart feels so real, I mean we all had friends before that we have spent time apart and when we see them again, they feel like a completely different person. And the drama really made a good point on this when the trio met again in the present time.

Then the two dads who had lost their love had come to rely on each other and it was really nice to watch. I love the maturity of these two men. Even though after watching the whole thing, I was kind of left a bit unsettled that the mothers on the drama are ALL not great, some are much worse than others. I guess it does feel very realistic, cause I also had a mom who was really traditional and strict but couldn’t they have at least one mom who was not a failure? Lol. 

I love that the drama also showed the struggles and pain of the parents, I love that they also gave time to show the point of view of the parents and that they are not all that bad, they make mistakes and may have been most of the time outrageous in our eyes but they have their reasons. It may not be always or mostly right but it is what they “think” it's the best. And you can’t really judge them for doing things based on their instincts ‘cause we also do things based on ours. 

We also have the friendship between Qi Mingyue, Li Jian Jian and Tang Can. These three girls with their stories and struggles. I love that the drama didn’t forget about their storyline and their struggles. The insecurities and pressures that they have felt so realistic and I really applaud the writers for making their story really good. 

Tbh, I had wanted to watch this drama ever since it was released but I just didn’t have the guts to watch it ‘cause I was expecting that it would be too family oriented or just too drama than what I usually watch but I did not expect the comedic and wholesome scenes. I was expecting to have my heart slowly being ripped to pieces so I did not expect that I would be LMAO in most of the scenes. 

CHARACTERS

Li Jian Jian

Jian Jian is the youngest of the “siblings” and the only daughter of Li Hai Chao. Her mother died giving birth to her and it was mentioned that she looked like her too. She is extremely close and spoiled by her brother but she doesn’t let it get into her head. She is hardworking and mischievous. She is a woodcarver and has received awards and great recognition for her works. 

Ling Xiao

Ling Xiao is the eldest of the “siblings” and the only son of Ling He Ping. He is quite distant with his mother but still does his filial duties as much as he can even though it often times just destroys him. He has 2 younger sisters (not including JianJian). He majored in dentistry and works as a dentist after returning from Singapore. 

He Zi Qiu

He Zi Qiu is the middle child and Li Hai Chao’s adoptive son. His mom He Mei left him when he was young with his grandparents but due to poverty he worked in the fields with his grandmother before Hai Chao adopted him and brought him back in the city. He is very loyal to his dad and would do anything for him. He studied in Britain and went to a culinary school but mainly focused on pastries. He comes back home to China and opens his dessert café.

Li Hai Chao

Li Hai Chao is a single dad who lives on the second floor of their apartment building with his daughter Jian Jian and adoptive son Zi Qiu. He is very kind and compassionate, sometimes too kind and too compassionate. He is an excellent cook and owns a noodle shop. 

Ling He Ping

Ling He Ping is a divorcee who lives with his son Ling Xiao on the third floor of their apartment building, exactly on top of Li Hai Chao’s apartment. He Ping is a workaholic police officer who has little time to be at home. He is often not on good terms with his ex wife Chen Ting as he doesn’t agree with her way in raising his son. 

CAST

Okay Seven Tan, Song Wei Long and Steven Zhang in the same drama is such a dream. I love them individually but together, I love them from Heaven to earth. They are soooo great together.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Rating: 10/10

The drama really deserved the hype and the praises it got. I can’t repeat enough just how much I fell in love with this drama. Production, acting and storyline is definitely spot on. This drama is perfect for anyone who is just starting Cdrama or to those who want to watch something new. It has good drama and enough comedy and romance that completely balances it out. You’ll definitely fall in love with the characters and their stories. 

ABOUT THE DRAMA

Synopsis:

The story revolves around three troubled youths who find solace in their common experiences to become the best family that they can be for each other.

Growing up in dysfunctional households, three individuals who are unrelated by blood treat each other like family as they yearn for the love that they cannot find at home. Eldest brother Ling Xiao, second brother He Zi Qiu, and youngest sister Li Jian Jian grow up together, experiencing life’s joy and strife as they support each other’s chosen paths.

 As Ling Xiao and He Zi Qiu graduate from high school, they return to their original families. Nine years later, the three are reunited, but the heartaches from their complicated family past become a shadow that constantly lingers. Can they finally fix their personal issues to become better versions of themselves?

Episode:  It has 2 versions; 46 episodes (TV version) and 40 episodes (online version). 

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Youth, Drama, Family, Melodrama

Source: https://mydramalist.com/40911-go-ahead and Google

WHERE TO WATCH

I watched it through iQIYI, WeTv and Dramacool. Subs were really good but I personally prefer watching through WeTv.

[jonroxton]

as for clois, the writing choices made little sense to me. why did they wait so long to make them explicitly romantic? i swear they were still writing clana in s8. at times it felt like lois was in love with the blur & not clark & that she really started falling for clark when she realised he was the blur. and that's fine, i don't mind it tbh, but they should have started writing clois in s5-s6 so they can get that aspect out of the way with enough time to write lois being in love with clark

love these. gonna tackle ‘em one at a time.

1. why did they wait so long to make them explicitly romantic? 

It seems to have been a combo of things. there were rules set on lois by the superman offices  irt what she could do, who she could interact with and even how long they had her for a season. this is why you barely saw her with lex or at the planet in her early years, and why clois doesn’t ever move beyond the bantering subtext stage until like season 6. I remember  returns was coming out and the superman offices lifted a few restrictions on how the show could use her, this changed a little when s7 ended and Rosenbaum and Kreuk left and new contracts drawn, but they were more or less constricted in how they could portray clois. always through loopholes basically. the why of this is simply bc the show never wanted to venture too fast into the superman mythos, which is what lois and clois brought them. 

s8-s10 got new show runners and less restrictions, but why still the delay? why have lana return and stop all that s8 build up.  with hindsight and within the context of the complete show, it’s difficult for me to frame her returning arc as anything but horrific for clark/lana, and though I wished they hadn’t beat that dead horse, what they did holds a lot of nuance and pathos for both characters. the writers seem to have wanted complete closure irt to clark with lana before ever pursuing clois seriously. they were never the greatest writers so the result is lost in translation. some see it as forced on them, but I feel this does the whole arc a disservice, since it’s explicit choices down the line that lead to their separation/break up , bottom line is that clark and lana lie to each other and this time the consequences are irreversible, the pattern of the secrets and lies causing all their strife finally broken.  it all seems to move slow or even backwards irt to clois romantically, but the show took clark’s pains over losing lana (again for the billionth time) seriously. going for clois at this point would have indeed been the rebound, the show decided not to and overall is the better for it.

2. this is where the blur comes in

clark is not looking for romance in s8 (neither is lois) and clois is not romantic in that they are in love and together. this has been the running gag since her arrival, with the subtext (if you see it) being that they actually like one another and enjoy each others (biting) company and one day will be married. the fun is in their clashing personalities not being quite who they are destined to be, and we watch it all while clark is passionately in love with his high school sweetheart. this was certainly annoying considering how long it went on, nevertheless, all through both of their romantic entanglements, clark and lois have a strong friendship and camaraderie that works irregardless of whether or not they’re romantically interested (or seen that way). this is the foundation s8 builds on, that they’re good (maybe great) friends and can count on each other. this is actually an anomaly in SV lol, but they’re really the only people the other can depend on completely without fail.

so clark is heart broken yet he’s also for the first time coming into his own. he and lois are in a new environment, more professional, more serious, more superman. the superman/lois/clark triangle and its effectiveness (or lack thereof) has been written about before and by my betters. what I can say as I understand it is: it’s a mistake to differentiate between superman/clark blur/clark as separate people and its not so much that lois falls for one over the other but that she recognizes something in superman that is very much like clark and vice vera and does so at different times. the structure of this narrative is infuriating, but thematically is filled with identity madness. this is always why the triangle ends when lois is conflicted about being in love with both precisely bc they’re so alike. a wider superman running gag is lois lamenting clark and superman are not the same person bc they would be the perfect man. 

superman/blur is the powerful, lonely, kryptonian side of clark and sv clark has never had an easy time connecting with this part of himself (he’s actively fought against it). when he’s speaking to lois as the blur, this is not someone clark has seen before, this serious, introspective, entirely giving lois who wants to listen to him. who doesn’t run away from him and fully accepts his powers. and though she doesn’t know it, she’s connecting with a serious, hidden part of clark. I think another important point about how lois sees clark is that she IS impressed with him because he constantly surpasses her expectations, even without the subtext of being interested in each other, lois does have an appreciation for clark as a do-gooder. 

3. with the foundation of their friendship and history, this leads to a lot of s8 stories where they have to confront their subtext for the first time (that saw episode where they pretend fake married and forced to go through a test. it’s literally WHATS YOUR SUBTEXT?! sv anvil’s for ya). made all the more complex by exes and secret identities.

4. LAST THING I think is important to consider

lois and clark have seen each other go through terrible breakups and have seen each others heartbreak. the last half of s8 very much plays up that notion of not getting involved to not get hurt. hooking them up early on would’ve meant not getting this very careful characterization where lois and clark work hard and seriously on their relationship to make it work. 

5. last last thing: it’s a shame we didn’t see it

I disagree we didn’t see it. s8-s9 was more loophole superman shenanigans but s10 is one glorious clois domestic train! 

[lizacstuff]

Sen Çal Kapımı / Edser ask from episode 43 (2x04)

AKA Serkan’s episode. 

There is also speculation about episode 44 based on the fragmans and a few random asks

 (Asks under the cut)

Anonymous asked: Hey, Liza! How did you like the ep? I still get chills when watching the diary x video scene and the final one.. Finally the truth is out to both Serkan and Kiraz! And that fragman! 😍 but It seems like Aydan filing for custody will be the new drama, do you think it will last long? Because I highly doubt that they will give solely happy edser and Kiraz in remaining episodes..

My full episode thoughts are here,  but I agree the diary and video scene was spectacular. It makes me teary every time. 

I’m also psyched that the truth is out. Truthfully, I was one that wanted Serkan to find out at the end of the first episode, but now I concede that it was better to draw it out a bit to really build everything up to this episode and his journey to letting go of his fears. What a character arc they gave him. They really explored Serkan and what drives him this episode and it was a treat-- a painful treat-- to watch it all unfold and for him to finally admit what had driven him to push her away all those years ago and what was still holding him back in the present. 

As for what’s next, that’s a great question. I agree that it’s unlikely we’re going to get happy Edser family from here on out, there has to be some obstacles and drama before we get to the end. The Aydan custody drama will clearly be the conflict in episode 5, but I don’t see it as any real barrier for Eda and Serkan. We see in the second fragman that Eda is already confronting Serkan about it, so if Aydan is doing something underhanded they can’t draw it out too long. 

I assume that while the custody thing may cause a wee bit of miscommunication between Eda and Serkan, I think it mostly will serve as fodder for Aydan and Ayfer’s relationship dynamic and give the supporting characters something to run around and chase after while Eda, Serkan and Kiraz actually start forming their new family unit. If anything it might serve as a catalyst for Serkan. Picture it, Eda confronts Serkan about it and Serkan is like “I don’t know anything about that, I wouldn’t do something that would hurt you or Kiraz, but I do want her, I want us.” You know, serve to clarify things.  

There are probably a few episodes of family drama in store for us as everyone, including Eda, Serkan and Kiraz adjust to this new reality. I assume once the euphoria of having her Baba back wears off for Kiraz, she might ask some questions that are hard for Eda and Serkan to answer. We shall see. 

Anonymous asked: i don't think i've cried THIS much at an sck episode... in like ever lmao. i was full on silent sobbing at serkan watching kiraz's baby videos.. but the scene i really loved the most was the one where they have it out after that fancy dinner. it was EVERYTHING we needed to hear serkan's POV and i almost can't believe a lot of us got the "can't have kids" theory right. i have loved so much this season how edser have communicated, even when it's painful and hard.. it was sorely missing for them.

I know! The communication! I don’t think they’ve ever communicated like this. Of course their issues were not as deep and nuanced back in the first batch of episodes so going this in-depth wasn’t necessary, but they didn’t communicate like this when dealing with Babaanne or when it was really needed after the amnesia era.  

Honestly, so pleased the “can’t have kids” theory was correct. It goes so far in explaining his actions and thought process when pushing her away, as distorted as that thought process was.  It truly was selfless, because I’m sure all he wanted was to hold her tight and never let go, but it was also so unnecessary. Their love story has just been so tragic, but if you think about how many things were stacked against them, it’s also stunning that their love has persevered. They were so opposite and unlikely to fall in love to begin with and then you add in all the things that stood in their way, meddling mothers, family secrets, Serkan’s father being responsible for her parents death, evil, rich, powerful grandmother using everything in her considerable arsenal to keep them apart, psycho stalkers, kidnapping princes, crashing planes, amnesia, brainwashing and abusive exes, plotting “friends,” tumor, cancer, separation!

To come out of all of that and to see they are clearly still in love with one another... well they really don’t have any other choice. They should get married immediately with no pomp and circumstance just so they are legally tied together. So when the next tragic, catastrophic thing comes along it will be that much harder to pull them apart.  

Anonymous asked: deniz and burak are the most harmless "3rd party" characters we've ever had in the show that it almost makes me laugh when ppl get so insecure about them.. especially with burak, knowing that he's gonna be melo's love interest, even if i don't want it. like, sure serkan is naturally gonna be jealous, maybe possessive, because of "buba" but it's all being shown right now as light comedic relief.. i've seen some people REALLY take it to heart when it really doesn't seem like it's that deep lol.

I know, it’s all so mild. They also aren’t actually even third party love interests, because there is absolutely zero interest from either side of the main pair. Both are there to a) serve plot purposes and b) show that neither Eda or Serkan is interested in anybody else. It’s nice, we get to see that while they both have had options, neither has been able to move on and both have chosen to remain alone. 

As for driving the plot, Burak’s presence was necessary because they needed someone who Serkan thought was Kiraz’s father, and Deniz was necessary because they needed someone who would do whatever Serkan wanted when Serkan wanted to force proximity with Eda. 

Looking at the fragman, the real “triangle” might be Buba - Kiraz - Baba  but I also think that will mostly be played for laughs.  A way to give us some “Drain the pool” and “Burn the flowers” type jealousy moments from Serkan, since that was a hallmark of Ayse’s early writing. 

However, I can see why some folks were put-off by that vibe. Because, yes, if you’ve been standing in as a male-figure for the 5-year-old daughter of the woman you’re tying to woo (let’s not pretend that’s not why Burak takes such an interest in Kiraz) and the father that the 5-year-old has been wanting and pining for actually re-enters the picture, maybe you don’t need to force your way in and have “Buba day” the day after he returns. I’m not saying you can’t have it ever again, I’m saying you let the family have some alone time and figure things out. Anyone with any emotional intelligence would postpone such an outing. However, it looks like Serkan is not put off so easily and we know he doesn’t lose, so it will probably lead to humorous scenes. 

The good thing about this is that it shows that Serkan won’t sit passively by. Here Burak is giving him an out, Serkan can have his day back, go to work, he can slide into fatherhood slowly, but looks like Serkan is going to have none of that and is going to crash their fishing outing. How’s that for someone who said he wasn’t ready for fatherhood a mere 24-48 hours earlier?

Also it’s worth noting that Kiraz doesn’t see Burak as a father-figure, if she did she probably would have joined Ayfer and tried to get her mom to marry him. Instead she’s been almost obsessed with her father, talking about him, dreaming about him, wanting him and was very quick to correct when someone mistook Baba and Buba. Also she wanted Buba to meet her father.  So Kiraz wanting to spend time with him isn’t a slight, in her mind he’s a friend, an uncle and with all the upheaval keeping their plans might feel safe to her. We’ll see.   

 martha0206 asked: Hi! I love your pinned post. That moment was perfect. Also, I loved the sad and emotional scenes as well as the funny ones. The episode was amazing!!! ❤ Serkan made Kiraz dream come true and I've rewatched that scene and cried because it's too beautiful and touching 🥺 K: Dad? S: Happy Birthday, my daughter 🥺😭❤

Ahh... this post that was pinned.  Thank you for the kind words, I also love that scene. I just love it because it’s such an EXTRA thing to do, putting on the astronaut costume and making an entrance like that, but both Serkan and Eda have always been so extra that it works for their little family. 

I love that he made Kiraz’s dream come true in the most dramatic way possible.  But beyond being dramatic, it was the perfect way to signal that no matter what fears or hang-ups Serkan had, he’s committed to getting over them and he’s ready to go all in on fatherhood. A perfect way to show not only Eda that he’s serious, but to show all their friends and family he’s serious. DO YOU HEAR THAT, AYFER? He’s back and he’s going to be her daddy, and there is nothing you can do about it!

Anonymous asked: do you think the writers goal is to make us hate Ayfer and Aydan? because its just a deeper and deeper hole for these two and I don't understand if they're supposed to be a happy family at the end. I actually realized going back that Ayfer never really developed into liking Serkan/Edser, she just accepted him one day and that was that but with Aydan, her character development was top tier up until episode 29 came along and she never recovered. Now I just want them gone.

LOL, I think this is a pretty popular sentiment among fans.  

Personally, I need to see how badly Aydan is meddling in the next episode. If it’s fairly inept meddling that just causes some mild misunderstandings but also serves as a catalyst for an Edser conversation about the future, I probably won’t get too upset with her.  However, if her meddling is more competent this time and she gets them into real trouble or causes real problems, then I’ll get annoyed with her. Although, I have to say if we need a few episodes of drama, I would rather this sort of controlled, family drama (meddling mamas causing a misunderstanding about custody) then, you know, other melodramatic things that certain other writing teams used to do... like kidnappings and obsessed stalkers. 

As for Aydan, I can’t help it, even though I can never forgive her transgression in 29, I feel sorry that she lost out on so much of her granddaughter’s life.  So if she wants to come in and cause headaches and drama for Ayfer (not Eda, Kiraz and Serkan... but Ayfer) then I have no problem with that. As far as I’m concerned those two can run around for the next few episodes playing cat and mouse while Eda/Serkan/Kiraz quietly form a family.

Honestly, I don’t think they want us to hate Aydan, because they give Aydan funny scenes and relationships outside of Serkan with Kemal and Seyfi and even Engin and Piril, but I have wondered if they want us to hate Ayfer. Because Ayfer doesn’t get any redeeming scenes.  I mean we’re talking about a woman who managed to raise her orphaned niece and her niece never wanted for love and turned out to be a strong, smart, confidence, successful woman... sooooo she must be awesome, right!?!  NOPE. I mean to take a character like that, who had to have been so instrumental in Eda not feeling lonely like Serkan did, but then make her so unlikeable... it has to be on purpose.  

Anonymous asked: I loved this episode of sen cal kapimi. I wasn’t so mad at the pregnancy thing. I know lots of fans are but I really liked how they made Eda and Serkan emotional and we could understand them better. I just hate how all the people who don’t like the show anymore have turned into toxic haters. It’s so frustrating. If she show isnt working for you, then why do they keep watching? 🙁

This happens in every fandom where the show keeps going and takes turns that some fans don’t like. My best advice is to not expect others to change or to stop watching or stop hate tweeting/posting, but to take steps to change your own experience so they don’t ruin it for you. I can’t tell you how many people I currently have muted on twitter. Lots. I don’t want to see the cynical, nasty tweets day in and day out about this show, the writers etc. Twitter has always been hard to take because so many people post their knee-jerk responses there and often choose to word vomit their first emotional response which for some people is mostly negative. That is true for every fandom, and has been true for this fandom since I started looking at responses there. 

So to protect yourself, seek out people who are enjoying the show and post content that you want to see and mute, unfollow or even block those who make your experience worse. 

You’ll never regret curating your experience. 

Also I don’t really consider this fandom toxic. Sure there’s negativity about the storyline and internal drama about a variety of things, but after you’ve been though shipwars that get hella toxic and include fans trying to destroy actor’s careers and who attempt to use social justice issues to bully their fanon ships into existence on a constant day-after-day basis for years, this is nothing. This fandom is a daisy-lined, sunlight walk in the park in comparison.  

Anonymous asked: For the way they treat their child's SO, I prefer Aydan over Ayfer. Ofc Aydan has been selfish & rude to Eda but Aydan saw her as a respectable foe even when she didn't like Eda. Even now her ire has been directed more at Ayfer than Eda. Ayfer eventually accepted Serkan but never seemed to like him. I get why she thought he was bad for Eda but often her anger has been unwarranted. Ironic how mad she was at him for keeping a secret from Eda for 2 weeks. Even now we see how Ayfer's anger sways Eda

I also prefer Aydan over Ayfer, here’s my recent post on it. 

The problem is not that Ayfer never liked Serkan, the problem is that Ayfer never care that Eda did like him. Ayfer can dislike him all she wants as long as she doesn’t interfere, but oh wait, she has interfered, time and time again. She’s used guilt and manipulation in attempts to control Eda at every turn, to the point, at times, of not caring that she was forcing Eda to sacrifice her career as well as her love. 

It will be interesting to see Ayfer’s response when she realizes Eda is going to let Serkan into their lives. Will she double down on badmouthing Serkan and pressuring Eda not to get involved with him, or will she smarten up and back off? I think we know the answer to that. 

Anonymous asked: Hii! I’m curious what they will come up with for the remaining episodes, I mean, drama-wise, cause no way will Ayse give us 7 episodes of Edser x Kiraz happy family time 🥺 but sure, that is also reasonable since Turks need drama to keep watching

You know, as I said above, I’m very curious about this. To be honest I didn’t really expect Eda and Serkan to be at this emotional place by the 4th episode. I mean they’re not totally ready to get back together, but they’ve both made it obvious that they still love one another, and that is kind of a big milestone in a romantic story. 

Seriously, my assumption prior to the season was that we’d have these initial finding out episodes, and then Eda and Serkan would still be sort of outwardly pretending that they didn’t want to get back together, or still angry at one another, but then they’d be forced together by Kiraz. You know there’d be some parent trapping, and a handcuff episodes and then Kiraz would manipulate them into living together and we’d get all sorts of domestic sexual tension scenes.  Now these things may still happen to some degree, but Edser is starting from a very different outward emotional place than I thought they would be. I assumed we’d get another 4-5 episodes of slow burn, forced proximity before they admitted things and got engaged. But now it feels like their feelings are out in the open and they could decide to get married at any moment. 

So we’ll have to see how the writer’s decide to chart their emotional journey over the remaining episodes. One thing I’m sure of, there are some wonderful scenes coming our way.  

Anonymous asked: I'm back and happy to say that Engin delivered!! THAT is how you use a side character. (Not whatever they were doing with Ayfer for what seemed like half the episode) This was a perfect scene for these two and had no business being as emotional as it was

Oh, yes, as I said here in my episode thoughts, the Engin/Serkan scene is the one that really started me crying on first watch. Anil was really fantastic in that scene and it made me realize how sorely I had missed Serkan/Engin as male best friends who actually talk about their emotions. Where was that guy when Serkan was being brainwashed and manipulated by Selin!?! Oh yeah he was in the hands of inept writers. 

Glad the real Engin is back!

Anonymous asked: Serkan's vehemence against wanting kids, and his dislike of kids in general, make so much more sense with what was revealed.. we just had to be patient! I can't imagine wanting something so much, having it be your "dream" and being told it's impossible.. Serkan's method of dealing with it was trying to convince himself he never wanted it in the first place and trying to dislike the topic altogether. no wonder he was never close with Can either as an uncle... how heartbreaking!

Yes, I absolutely think that was part of it. He dealt with the fact that he couldn't have children by outwardly adopting the attitude that he never wanted it, even though he still knew deep down that it’s all he wanted with Eda. 

Heartbreaking indeed. 

Anonymous asked: i hate to think of more drama when it seems like we have such a fluff-filled episode next week.. but this week's conversations b/w edser have me thinking.. do you think a possibility of reoccurrence of his tumor, or just a scare could be coming as one of their "final" hurdles. except this time instead of making his mistakes from the past, he'll do it right this time. obviously everything will be resolved happily, but i was thinking of the possibility of this when serkan was discussing his health

While anything is possible, I don’t see a reoccurrence of his tumor happening because they had a scene where the doctor said he was in perfect health and that since it had been five years he now had the same chance of occurrence as an ordinary person.  However, I suppose it’s not impossible that they give him some sort of scare so that he can prove he’s changed and that they won’t abandon his family if that sort of adversity comes again. 

Honestly, if I was Eda, I would make him go to therapy as a condition of them getting back together. Make sure he develops some coping skills for the long haul. 

Anonymous asked: the ending of the last episode was equivalent to ep 11 but kiraz version for me.. the whole build-up of serkan initially thinking he can't be her father - a good father - and his fears about leaving them both halfway culminating in him saying kiraz is a miracle, that she's perfect.. watching her home videos to showing up WHEN IT MATTERED!! for his daughter.. ugh i'm so glad there was that build-up, but also that it wasn't stretched out over multiple episodes.

Yes, I agree it was all really well done. It did feel like we had all the build up we needed to truly appreciate the moment and to appreciate Serkan’s extraordinary character arc. 

He truly rose to the occasion at the right moment, and I love that his grand gesture not only made Kiraz’s dream come true, but it showed everyone his growth and acceptance of his role as her father. 

Anonymous asked: can they just bring back Tahir - him and Melo had so much potential. let's just say he finally quit working for Babaanne and decided to come back to Istanbul to find Melo 😊

Yes, please!  He really liked her! Though she never really liked him, lmao. She could have gotten there with time. Though, I guess if she really likes Burak I can get behind it. And by that I mean I won’t bitch about it too much. No promises. We shall see. 

Anonymous asked: Anon here! Thank you so much for that explanation!!!! It seems really interesting, might just have to give it a chance now! Thank you kindly 😊😊

It’s a fun show and I do recommend it. Let me know if you start watching!

[earthingoddity]

so you know how y’all are constantly like: “what’s there to like about season five???”. i decided to make a list *-*

1. the discussion of disability in a teenage show. how many teenage shows can you name featuring disabled characters? and how many of those feature a character becoming disabled in the course of the show and having to adapt to that? i was very surprised when i realized this was the route they were going to take this season and i think it was very well done.

so let’s break that down:

1.1 they actually made sure to talk about other disabilities. i know some people will say they were just doing the bare minimum, but i disagree. that is such a complex theme, they could’ve easily said representing other disabilities respectfully would be a lot of work for only ten episodes, but they did their best with the limited amount of time they had.

1.2 the representation of the deaf community wasn’t limited to their disability. it actually pisses me off hearing people say “wow, for a while there, i even forgot arthur was deaf!” as if he *has* to let you know everytime he’s on screen. disabled people are more than their disabilities, thank you very much.

1.3 overall, it was a positive representation. they could’ve spent so much time going through all the things that would be too hard for arthur, but they actually had an entire episode where arthur was completely deaf - he took his hearing aids off - and it was a very happy and positive episode. he was having fun, clubbing, dancing, laughing with others, and i think we took a lot of that for granted in the midst of everything that was going on, but that was a really positive representation that didn’t limit itself to stereotypes around deaf/disabled people. i actually expected that they’d drag a lot longer the feeling of loneliness and discomfort of the first couple of episodes, but they quickly changed that rhythm, so that instead of focusing on what arthur was “losing”, they focused on everything that arthur was gaining - new friends, a new love interest and a new way to see the world. also, in relation to the whole implants thing, they delivered very in depth opposite perspectives on the matter and never felt like they were shaming one group or the other.

2. SyMbOLisM! skam france is very good at it and they nailed this aspect in season three. but there was a lot of it in season five as well. like the 7am clips in episode 2, that were used to show the lack of progression in arthur’s hearing and his growing frustration and how those clips were incredibly dark, to match his mood. episode 7 also had such an interesting meaning. with arthur taking the chance to explore the world without his hearing aids, he got to explore a whole *new* world, and not a lacking one, which ties very well with what i just said about being a positive rep, but also shows that the entire episode wasn’t about arthur finding a new layer of himself, but rather him just uncovering one that was already there.

3. use of music/sound effects. it can be hard to represent deafness in a media like a tv show, but skam france did it so well. the use of music is always very conscious in this remake; while others really go hard in the soundtrack, skam france hardly ever has background music, unless it means something. another small thing but that i loved was whenever arthur was taking off/putting on his hearing aids, if he was to put the left one first for example, the sound on the left side of your headphone would start first. it was such a small thing but made the experience a lot more immersive imo, as well as the use of muffled sounds, pitching, etc.

4. Arthur. i am always surprised whenever i hear people say that they liked arthur better when they were not in his pov. i completely disagree, but then again, i feel like this fandom has very unhealthy expectations on their mains, as if they haven’t watched already 4 seasons of the main making mistakes over and over again, lol. i loved getting to know more of arthur - he’s loyal AF and protective of the people he loves. he struggles in letting people in, though, and never wants to be a burden or worry others. he’s perceptive and quick to notice when his friends need help. he is also short-tempered and when he gets mad, it is explosive, but he doesn’t hold grudges for long. he was a much more complexed character than i imagined and he totally made this season for me.

5. le gang. this boysquad is the best, sorry. they’ve always been the funniest and warmest, but it was really nice how s5 explored all the sides of that relationship, including the not so pretty ones. they were the relationship i wanted the most angst from, and i am so happy i got it. i loved seeing how chaotic, but supportive they were of arthur though and they brought so many laughs this season.

5.1 the lack of toxic masculinity. i think this ties well with arthur, because it is amazing to me that even though we were following a straight white boy as a main this season, we had no moments of unhealthy masculine competition; le gang could actually talk about other things rather than just porn stars and jerking off (other boysquads Wish!); and arthur would literally flirt with anyone without a care in the world, because he’s certain of his sexuality like that. it was *refreshing* for once not to be confronted with these tropes that have become so common in teenage shows.

7. alexia. i have to talk about alexia separately here, because that’s the most we’ve ever seen from a chris character (not counting eskam cris, ofc), and i loved her so much. she wants to be a videogame designer and she’s creative and adorable. she always knew how to make arthur laugh, but also knew when he needed words of affirmation and she was never shy in telling him how much she loved him. it was also amazing seeing her open up about some of her insecurities, and that her confidence is something she had to work on as well. she was such a great friend & girlfriend and just ugh the best.

7.1 the female characters are badass and unapologetic. i am aware that the love triangle was unnecessary and a mess. but i am not mad about the way both characters were represented, because they were both great characters. i liked alexia more simply because i was already attached to her from previous seasons, but noée was badass as well and teaches arthur so much, and not only about her experience as a deaf person, but about life/love in general.

8. arthur’s relationship with his mom. we LOVE and STAN parents in the skamverse. arthur and his mom had the best relationship ever; i loved how they truly became a team by the end of the season. but since the moment she showed up, it meant so much that arthur could have at least one supportive and loving parent, no matter how much he screwed up or felt lost. his mom was really trying her best and i adored her.

9. *actual* adult advice. i understand why all the adults in the skamverse are a bit cringey and weird, but i feel like this results in these characters relying on each other’s poor advice throughout an entire season before they realize what they actually should do. and the talk with the school’s nurse and his doctor by the end of the season was meaningful AF and i wish something the remakes would explore more often, because it could resolve so many of their issues just talking to someone who knows better, lol.

10. the relationships with the girlsquad. i know this is actually very intentional of skam france - to build a specific kind of dynamic between the main and all the side characters. we saw that in season 3, and i think it’s a lot more evident here, but it still made a lot of sense and warmed my heart so much. arthur and imane were the purest - she was the first one to notice that something was wrong with him and also reached out to give him advice on how medical school could still be a possibility even with his disability when she absolutely didn’t have to, but she’s just a sweetheart like that. arthur and daphné had a lot more tension, which is understandable, because both are protective of their own best friends (bas and alexia) and would defend them to the ends of the earth. i think they honestly have a lot more in common than they think. but my favorite dynamic was arthur and emma. i totally did not expect for emma to have such a part in this season, but every single one of their interactions was Gold. emma could see a lot of herself in arthur and i think that’s why she was so quick to notice that he wasn’t interested in becoming a surgeon at all. that scene when she says it would’ve been nice to have arthur as a brother was the sweetest thing Ever.

11. i’ll finish with the acting. y’all, the guy who plays arthur literally CARRIED this season and i hope his back is doing fine. he was So powerful - he made me cry, and laugh, and feel frustrated. he delivered every single emotion perfectly. i also think that the fact these actors are friends irl (i assume? lol but i think i’ve seen them in each other’s personal IG stories) really helps their chemistry on camera. le gang feels like a group of brothers/best friends and they were always so natural and effortless in their interactions. the new actors also Rocked and delivered so much emotion even if they were using a completely different language and it was awesome.

(also, this just literally applies to *me*, a lucas lallemant HOE, but it was so nice seeing lucas up close from a different perspective. the fact we could still see so many layers of him: his emotional self, his bratty self, his supportive self, even a touch on his abandonment issues and everything made me so happy. i think sometimes i forget the lucas character was real and not something i made up because he feels too good to be true, and it was really interesting seeing him from arthur’s POV).

i’m not here defending the mistakes they made in s5, i don’t think it’s a perfect season either, but tbh i have yet to find what i consider to be a perfect season in the skamverse, so here’s just some things i liked about this season that i feel like y’all should take into consideration as well. thx

[wherearemyglassesbro]

Mha style quirks for h/etalia characters :) shhh....SHHH...quiet down...SHHH this is a secret

Francis: I think he’d have a quirk similar to Monoma’s where he can copy and use quirks as he fights after touching someone. He can use only one at a time but can ‘store’ five for 5 minutes each. I like to think of him pretending to be hurt in order to touch whoever he’s sparring with *cougharthurcough* to get their quirk. It’s kinda cheating but who cares! The only classmates that can really beat him are those who have quirks where they can shoot things at him or where they can fight from afar to do damage that way otherwise he’ll use their powers against them :0 the worst thing that could happen to him though is that he runs out of time with all of his ‘borrowed’ quirks and now he has nothing to fight with at all...uh oh. If a teammate lets him touch them then he’s fine :)

Alfred: Uhhh Al can hulk out kinda but his quick is called ‘rodeo’ cause he becomes like...a bull. Like his upper half gets huge and he just fuckin bulldozes people down with no mercy. He holds back in training just cause he doesn’t want to hurt his friends cause he WILL cry if he does lmao but if it were a real fight he could easily knock someone out. He can carry his classmates with ease, lift heavy things without breaking a sweat, that kind of stuff! Pretty much the ultimate himbo of his class :) but he isn’t stupid he’s very good at coming up with strategies. You better go see him play football. It almost isn’t fair that he even gets to play cause he’s so strong but he tones it down to ‘play fair’...as fair as it can be :)

Laura: Laura is pretty much made of rubber! If she jumps off of a high surface she’ll bounce, if you hit her she’ll bounce back, if you shoot her she bullet will bounce back too but leave a bruise. She is definitely hero material! She can easily save people from crumbling buildings or from things falling on them cause she absorbs the blow. Her speed and punches arent fantastic but when whoever she’s fighting with gets tired after trying to punch her over and over, she can win with a few well aimed blows! Her weakness is heat for sure, she’ll start to melt kinda which is pretty painful so if fire is involved, she keeps her distance and works on crowd control

Vlad: (tw blood) Vlad can manipulate blood and wounds, which is a very scary quirk to have. If you don’t have wounds he can’t really do much other than lower or raise your blood pressure which is scary either way it if you have a cut or scrape he can manipulate it to turn into a huge gash that’ll bleed out quick. At the same time, he’s good to have on your team cause he can close wounds too and stop bleeding from occurring, it goes both ways. The only downside is that he has to be within a few feet of the person he wants to damage/heal so he has to get a bit too close for comfort. With his friends, he’s very kind and nurturing though!!! If you got a paper cut he’d fix it right up for you!! At the same time, he’s also gotten in trouble for widening other people’s paper cuts or skinned knees on purpose just cause he didn’t like them lmao

Arthur: Art is also dangerous, his quirk is that he can shoot acid out of glands on his wrists. (Yes Spider-Man is my inspiration here). He can shoot it a few meters! And it’s potent too like it’ll give you chemical burns if it touches you. He keeps his wrists bandaged up at all times unless he’s training or fighting just in case acid leaks out by accident. He’d feel terrible if he hurt someone like that, he did it to his mum once and flipped out even though it wasn’t a big deal to her. Art’s little brother Peter made him thick, fabric cuffs for his wrists with minion fabric...he wears them when his family comes to visit. When he fights or spars with classmates he is always annoyed when Francis borrows his quirk cause he’s terrified that he’ll hurt someone by accident. Art himself took a long time to effectively figure his quirk out cause it’s so strange, he knows that that frog slurper has no clue how to use it!!! Ugh!

Michelle: Michelle can essentially melt herself or parts of herself down into a liquidy sludge. She can move around as the sludge too. She can go through cracks in the ground, under doors, through the tiniest crack in a wall to get into a building, through vents, you name it! Her quirk is very helpful!! If an enemy stepped on her while she was in goop form, they’d slip and fall! Or if she gloop-ified her hand and stuck it in their eyes or face they’d be blinded and she could fight like that!! Her quirk isn’t really something she can use for hand to hand fighting but she’s still a useful teammate!! A scary looking side effect of her quirk is when she cries, her tears are just goopy green sludge :0 yuck. I mean- not yuck!!! Cool!! Haaa...

Antonio: Toni is pretty much Mrs Incredible. He’s stretchy and go a big ass so. Uh huh. He is a fantastic fighter, he knows his abilities well and the way he maneuvers himself around in whatever shape he’s taking always looks so practiced even if he’s literally a triangle or a parachute. He tangles enemies in his arms or sucker punches them from meters away (uh huh we’re using meters) and gosh dang!! He’s a hard hitter!! He is excited to be a hero :) he’s also a fantastic friend cause he can reach high places, unlock your car from the inside by sticking his hand in there, he can be a trampoline, dude whatever. His favorite pass time is tapping Arthurs shoulder in the hall from alllll the way down the hall from him with his long elastic arms lol. The amount of pranks this guy can pull is unlimited

Lovino: Lovino inhereted laser eyes from his father. His laser eyes are super powerful, he can cut through metal like cars or a person if he wanted to. He has the potential to be a great hero he’s just afraid of losing his freedom cause as a hero, the public eye is always on you. He joined the hero course with his brother because of the pressure from his grandpa so he’s very cold to his classmates cause he doesn’t really want to be there. Of course there’s a few that grow on him and he makes friends...shocker. Eventually, and you can already see it starting, he’ll have scars around his eyes from his quirk. His grandfather has it and his father had it too. The heat his quirk generates burns his own skin when he uses it so he tries not to use it outside of training and fighting. He wears sunglasses inside so people don’t look at his eyes...He’s a bit self concious about it even though he has very beautiful eyes :(

Feli: Feli did not inherently laser eyes instead he inhereted hypnotism. His quirk is weak compared to Lovi’s but as he’s gotten older, he’s strengthened himself a lot. If you look him in the eyes, he can make you do what he wants for a few minutes. He can only control two people at a time and he has to be close to them to do it but wowie, it can be scary to fight against him cause either you have to close your eyes or you just can’t look at him while you fight. Feli isn’t much of a fighter himself but if he can make others do it, he feels better about it lmao. He also wears sunglasses inside to avoid accidentally hypnotizing someone, he’d feel pretty bad about that

Roma: ^^^ Feli and Lovi’s grandpa who raised them. He was part of an original European pro-hero group. He, and his sons, all have eye related powers. Roma has laser vison, which Lovi inhereted. His other sons had some variant of laser vision amd X-ray vision. Feli’s hypnotizing eyes are a mix of his fathers eye related quirk and his mother’s hypnotizing quirk. Roma trained Lovi a lot but became frustrated with his grandson’s temper so he focused more on Feli. He loves his boys very much because they’re all he has left. All three of his sons are deceased and they didn’t have kids. Feli and Lovi’s dad was the eldest and his wife fled after his death. Roma is always smiling for his boys and the press but inside, he is still grieving. His laser vison is very powerful but it’s given him scars around his eyes, which itll eventually do for Lovi too. Lovi’s power is strong like his grandpas but Roma believes that his grandson is lazy and that he just isn’t training hard enough.

Yao: An original pro-hero who teaches young heroes now. He is more of a college level teacher but he does stop in to highschool level hero academies to substitute teach. His quirk is manipulating the dead. He can bring back three ghosts at a time and get them to use their quirks in a fight however, Yao becomes somewhat powerless as he controls the ghosts and admittedly, it takes a lot out of him to fight. But he’s still insanely popular cause watching him fight is mesmerizing, his skill and technique is so clean and practiced! He does demonstrations at hero academies to encourage students to be confident in their abilities as well as to never hold back in a real fight.

Gilbert: I envision Gil and Lud having quirks similar to Tenya and Tensei Iida. Gilbert has engines in his arms, making his punches bone breakingly hard omfg. He is Ludwig’s biggest fan, he’s always pushing him to be better, to train harder to fight harder. He’s always proud of him no matter what. They’re only 3 years apart and Ludwig is like a foot taller than him but he’s still a big brother!!!! Gil is very reckless so a hero career may not be something attainable for him just because he doesn’t listen and he often makes split second decisions that can/will get himself and others hurt. The plan is to start a hero trio group with Fran and Toni once they graduate but again, who knows how that’ll go

Ludwig: Like his brother, Lud also has engines but his are in his legs, making him insanely fast. He isn’t a fan of fighting hand to hand so he’s more likely to kick the shit out of someone or run around grabbing people to get them out of a dangerous area. Ludwig is only in the hero course because of his brother and he’s slowly coming to terms with the fact that he may not want to be a hero. That’ll change once he gets more experience in the field though! He’s never had so many friends before now, being surrounded by so many wanna-be-heroes encourages him more than anything! As he grows, he gets stronger and TALLER than most of his friends which is a shock to everyone. Ah yes...a growth spurt. Congrats nerd.

[gothiccwhore]

13 reasons why season 4 review

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS!! if you haven’t finished the season yet i suggest you skip this!! :)

also this will be super long because i tend to ramble and i’ll give reviews for each character/most of the storylines! ((half way through reading this i read @jessica-acholas and @analuciacortez reviews and i agreed with a lot of it so you guys should all read their reviews as well!!))

over all ranking:

as a whole, i would give this season a 7/10. i originally was gonna give it a 6 but they get an extra point for all the zalex scenes we got, and i also was thinking of the mess that was s3 so i had to give them that extra point too

storylines/the season as a whole:

my biggest concern/annoyance with this season was how rushed or repetitive it was

every storyline this season was either super rushed or super dragged out- no in between. the fact that we only had 10 episodes as opposed to the normal 13 probably had a part in this, which idk why they cut the episodes short. let’s start off with the dragged out storylines, one of them being clay’s nightmare sequences. i honestly did like his therapy scenes because it was good to see him get help and he was a much better narrator than ani, but his nightmare scenes were so long i literally had to skip all of them i got so bored. another dragged out storyline was jesstin, which i probably will get complains about. i think they have their cute scenes and i do love both characters, especially jess being tied with alex for #1 and justin being in my top 5. but my god their storyline/relationship is beyond repetitive, its been the exact same thing for 4 whole seasons. they break up, have a long speech about how they’re not right for each other, spend the whole season pining after each other, make up in the end and then have another speech about how in love they are. like writers please make up your mind- do you want them together or not?? we also had another repetitive love triangle this season just like every other with justin jess and diego as opposed to the justin jess and alex one for like 2 seasons.

now for the rushed storylines, one of them being alex’s relationship with charlie. i love charlie ever since we saw him in s3, he’s so pure and a lovable guy and i love how he loves alex. however they happened like out of nowhere?? alex went from being in love with jess for 3 seasons to being in love with 2 people in 4 episodes. if you blinked you would’ve missed the “build up” to their relationship, and honestly it felt like they just randomly threw in some relationship for alex because they didn’t wanna have zalex happen. i’m not saying this to be bitter (maybe i am lol) but zalex had 3 seasons worth of build up and could’ve been an amazing slow burn relationship for the whole season, instead they rushed another relationship. zach is also another character who had a rushed storyline with his drinking problem, which literally happened out of nowhere too?? he just showed up this season drunk in the first scene and drunk in literally every single scene we saw him in. this storyline also never got resolved, it just stuck there like the writers didn’t even care to end or resolve it. just like how zalex could’ve worked better for alex, it could’ve worked better for zach too since his drinking problem could’ve been helped by alex. i swear the writers just hate us at this point

characters review:

clay: one of my favorites honestly, he’s in my top 5. sure clay has had his moments where he’s been annoying and extra but so has literally every single character in this show- besides tony lol. like i stated above my main concern was how dragged out his sequences were this season, like i couldn’t watch all of them. also another huge problem i had with him this season was how big of a jerk he was to justin??? for like half of the season he was rude to him and would give snarky remarks/hints like when he was surprised colleges would even want justin, which i don’t blame justin for thinking that clay expected him to just relapse again and throw his life away. the same can be said for when clay said all those awful things to him at the party- his parents not being his and not trusting him like wtf? i felt SO BAD for justin there i was expecting clay to apologize to him. on the topic of the party episode, he literally crashed zach’s car and sent them flying 30 ft in the air just to leave zach all alone to literally die?? then there’s also the part where he and ani outed alex before he was ready to fully come out which sucks, that’s something you should never do but i know he was just worried about alex and didn’t want him to get heartbroken over winston - but why didn’t you tell him sooner??

ani: like i said with clay, i hated how she outed alex before he was ready to come out. i don’t understand how her and clay both didn’t think to tell everyone - especially ALEX who literally killed bryce and would’ve gotten hurt the most about winston?? they both knew that winston and alex both knew each other and met at the hillcrest party, so why not tell him winston is gonna be looking for information to clear monty’s name?? alex is literally the only person you guys SHOULDVE told first?? however i did enjoy her this season as opposed to s3, she had a great redemption and i liked that she finally apologized to jess for sleeping with bryce. she also wasn’t up everyone’s business this season and i loved all her scenes with jess, especially the prom ones

alex: HAAAAAA BI KING WHO GOT HIS HAPPY ENDING AND DIDNT GO TO JAIL FOR FLOORING THAT RAPIST!!! HOW DO YOU BRYCE AND MONTY STANS FEEL THAT BOTH OF THEM ARE 6FT UNDER WHILE ALEX IS FREE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 i’m so happy he got his happy ending and became secure in his sexuality, that’s all i ever wanted for him since s1. i’m not saying this because i’m biased and he’s my favorite character, but he truly was one of the only characters who didn’t annoy me this season. he had a great arc even if it was super rushed, we finally got a zalex mutual love confession (i’m still bitter that we didn’t get our endgame but in my head we did), and i love how even if he and justin had their differences in the past seasons he was there for him in the end. i don’t really have any complaints about him besides the whole charlie thing being super rushed and so random?? why did the show put 2 bottoms together like we wouldn’t notice 🤨🤨

jessica: jess is my favorite character tied with alex, both of them have been since s1. i loved how she continued to be her badass self this season but a lot of the things she did/said kinda rubbed me the wrong way?? like i applauded her for calling out ani for judging who she was sleeping with after ani slept with bryce, but when you think about it diego literally is a rape apologist too?? jess tyler is literally your friend why would you date the guy who’s defending his rapist?? also don’t get me started how diego treated clay horribly this season, he was suffering with his mental illness and he played pranks on him and called him a psycho??? clay has always been there for you jess and he’s also one of your friends why would you still hang out with diego?? also in the first episode where justin breaks up with her and she got mad at him i got upset with her, justin made valid points he’s a recovering drug addict who needs to focus on himself not a relationship. i don’t understand why she got so mad at that, it was lowkey ooc for her? overall i still loved her i just hate how the writers reduce her to only a guy each season, but she still was amazing over all and looked beautiful!! her scenes with ani were great and i cried so much at her scenes with justin at the end.

zach: another one of my favorite characters who the writers did so dirty this season. i’ve loved zach since s1 as well, he’s in my top 5 and i’ve always loved how even if he was a jock he was still good hearted and there for everyone. i hated how in this season the writers forgot all of his traits and basically wrote him as a new person?? his drinking storyline was beyond random and had no build up/not even a resolution in the end. where even was his mother or sister this entire season. the show always paid him dirt and never focused on his home life when it was clear he didn’t have the best relationship with his mom. i’m so annoyed at how they wrote him as a “drunk” all season and didn’t even acknowledge his struggles. his scenes with alex were great, and i loved every single one of them. i’m still dying on the zalex hill and saying that they missed the perfect opportunity to make them a couple, it would’ve helped his storyline just like alex’s.

justin: oh my god, when i say my heart broke in the last episode it really did. i remember hating justin in s1, and then loving him in s2 with him being in my top 5 favorite characters. he had the best redemption arc, and i loved his portrayal of a recovering drug addict. i’m thinking now and he also didn’t annoy me this season just like alex, he was great and i’m so sad how they basically stomped all over his arc by killing him. it’s clear the show only killed him off because clay started the show by losing someone he loved, and ended it the same way. him dying by aids was so random and made 0 sense, i honestly thought he was gonna die from an overdose when discussing theories because i had a feeling it was either him or alex who were gonna die. they didn’t have a buildup for his hiv/aids- only added scars/bruises throughout the season which no one noticed if they weren’t closely examining him. i’m so saddened by his death and i will be planning a funeral for him along with zalex’s 💔.

tony: honestly a great character throughout the whole show, never was annoying and always was there for literally everyone. tony has always been a fighter and has been through so much without showing it, and i’m glad he got to go to college at the end and see his sister. i’m also so happy we got more scenes between tony and caleb this season because they are one of my favorite couples and are so underrated in the show and with fans ❤️ i was upset when he didn’t believe tyler, but i understood where he was coming from because he just wanted to be safe.

tyler: he’s so pure and i also loved his arc throughout the show, i’m so happy he has friends who love him and him and estela were so cute! i wish they explored more about him and the sheriffs working together because i honestly was confused about that before rewatching scenes. i also hate how they made him feel bad about monty dying when it literally was not his fault a rapist got killed in prison- monty’s rotting 6 ft under hello let’s celebrate to that!! i also loved how he was so supportive when he found out about winston and alex on the camping trip, he seemed worried about alex when winston said they broke up. i also love how alex was the only one who truly believed in him the entire show.

bryce: good riddance!! when i say i yelled when jess saw him when she was burning the tape why did he smile like pennywise?2@/@20so glad we saw no flashbacks of him this season and that he was just an annoying ghost, but even that annoyed me

monty: just like bryce good riddance!!! thank god we didn’t get that much of a redemption arc because i would’ve lost it- even though i literally rolled my eyes every time his ghost tried to say something that was supposed to make us feel bad for him. he’s rotting with bryce 🧚🏻‍♀️🤩

charlie: i loved him, he was so nice to everyone and so pure. i just wish they let him and alex be just friends because that came out of nowhere. i hope he’s baking more cookies and being happy

caleb: such a supportive bf i love him and tony, wish we saw more of him but i hope he’s living his best life <3

winston: he gave me joe from you vibes the entire season why was he creepy lowkey s:@:&;&!392&-03@3&4 nobody @ me but for a second i thought him and alex were cute during the bowling scene then i remembered who he was. he was a rape apologist which i hated, like dude he’s dead get over it i promise that dick probably wasn’t that good that you have to do a whole fbi investigation for him. the fact that he fell in love with monty and alex after like a week is sending me oddjdkckdkdj but i too am in love with alex standall so i see where he’s coming from, he gets points for not turning alex in at the end but i expected him to be a bigger villain this season but thank god he wasn’t because i would’ve floored him

chloe: my best girl who i wish we saw more of we only saw her for like 3 scenes?? the show did her dirty even in s3 she should’ve had more scenes her storyline was amazing :/ i did enjoy her and zach’s friendship it was so refreshing to see a m/f friendship and i’m glad they didn’t make them romantic. i didn’t expect her and scott to date but go girl!!

diego: literally came out of nowhere where were you for the other 3 seasons? i literally laughed every time he would talk about missing monty like who cares if he got you into football he was a rapist no one cares. i hated how he made clay go literally insane by pulling those pranks on him and calling him psycho?? “why’d you bring a knife” MF YOU GAVE IT TO HIM???? he was nice at the end so i guess i’ll give him some points and he also wasn’t a HUGE jerk i liked how him and justin helped each other when the cop was being racist/a dick and that he seemed upset at justin’s funeral

estela: her and tyler were super cute together and i loved how she acknowledged what monty did and didn’t try to make excuses to defend him. also loved how she wanted to join HO and was completely different from monty

so overall that was my review of the season, i will miss the characters so much and zalex will continue to haunt me every night i cannot escape 💔 jess and alex are my emotional support characters who would’ve thought. selena gomez and the 13rw writers you will pay for your crimes this season!

[xolarajean]

Greenhouse Academy S1-4

Preface: So, I finally have gotten around to writing a review about S1-4 of Greenhouse Academy. I finished over a week ago and watched all 4 seasons in about 4 days haha. Honestly, I’ve been procrastinating this review because I have A LOT to write about. So here we go!

Plot: Eight months after losing their astronaut mother in a rocket explosion, brother and sister Alex and Hayley Woods enroll at a private boarding school, the Greenhouse, for gifted future leaders. Separately, they join two competing houses, Ravens and Eagles, within the school and tension builds up between the two siblings as they adjust. Soon, mysterious events catch the attention of the students from both houses and forces them to work together in order to find out what is happening at the draw the Greenhouse.

Review: 3.5/5

I found the plot really intriguing at first. In addition, I liked the actual events that happened and where the story could head in the future. Though, the execution was not as great. The acting I felt was good for the most part, but the writing seemed a little awkward and cringey at some points. But bear in mind that it is targeted at kids/teens (even though at some points in season 3 and 4 there were some curses thrown around) so it is kind of expected to have those moments. Either way, those moments are bearable to watch through. I personally liked season 1+2 more than season 3+4 for the most part. There is one main issue I have with this show, but I can’t describe it without spoiling it. So, continue reading if you’ve watched the show/don’t care about being spoiled (It’s mostly about season 3+4).

But the main issue I have were the character changes. The obvious ones are the actual cast changes for Emma and Brooke. And the fact that Jackie left... that broke my heart. I still have this naive hope that she will come back though. It sucks that the original actresses could not continue with season 3 and 4, but you can’t really blame anyone since those decisions are based on personal reasons. It’s hard not to prefer the original actresses because well they are what we are used to. Though, I can’t understand why everyone is hating on them sooooo much. I personally think they were fine at acting. The REAL problem was the writing. In season 3 and 4, the personalities of so many characters were switched and the plots were messier. 

To start off, the whole love triangle between Daniel-Hayley-Leo was annoying. I DID ENJOY Daniel and Hayley, but Leo was just being a dick for the entirety of season 3. Obviously Leo was already a bit of an ass with the whole Aspen and LDR drama, but in season 3 the writers just made him 10x that (especially with the whole leading Beca on and straight up insulting Hayley at every chance he got). As you can tell I’m not a big fan of Leo, but the thing that got me is that the writers made Daniel such a jealous boyfriend? It seemed really out of character to me for Daniel to go through Hayley’s text like that and be paranoid of Leo (I mean hello this is the guy that is just straight up insulting your girlfriend and cheated on her. I don’t think you have that much competition or so I thought -- ending of season 4 was annoying). Like I know he was probably scared of Hayley getting back with Leo because of the Brooke and Alex thing, but honestly he knew that his relationship with Brooke was already sinking before Alex came into the picture. Plus, Hayley wasn’t flirting with Leo like Brooke was with Alex in Season1+2. The only good part about this love triangle was how supportive and understanding Daniel was with Hayley at the end. I mean done get me wrong I was thrown off by the huge 180 his personality took, but I’m just gonna believe that Daniel is just that good of a guy to be that mature. Anyway I’m just gonna end it with I prefer Dayley because their relationship felt more real (also I’m so glad that she told Daniel about the button and secret room right away and the writers avoided the keeping secrets to protect you which leads to tension trope because I would have imploded if they did that) and I want to erase the ending of season 4 from my head. 

Next up: Emma and Max. Honestly in the first episode when I learned that Jackie was gone and both Emma and Max started lying about being in LDRs, I knew the writers were gonna try and pair them up. I had hope that they would pull a twist and have Jackie show up in the middle, but NOPE. Like this pairing is just super... boring? Like they are both sweet characters, but they really don’t bring that much to the table in terms of romantic chemistry. I liked them better as best friends who geek out together. And because the writers focused so much about their relationship it left almost no room for actual individual screen time or character development for either of them. Like all they did was use some algorithms and their intelligence to solve some seriously hard problems, but it made them seem more like robots and tools to solve the conflicts in the plot. All I have left to say is that I still ship Jackie+Max.

Now I wanna talk about Alex and Brooke. Tbh I never saw much chemistry between the two characters in any season. Like yeah Alex was a good guy that was with her at the right time when she went to the cave at night in like season 1 where he fought off the park ranger, but still it didn’t feel like a real relationship. This continues into season 3+4 and I was sooo happy when they broke up (but why did she have to do it during a basketball game? Heat of the moment I guess) Also, even when Alex was “trying to be a good friend” to Brooke, it came off that he was still trying to get back together with her even though it is obvious that she is just not ready? And near the end of season 4 after she talks to Jason in the hospital when she and Alex were talking, I cringed so hard when he admitted that he was having trouble being just friends because it felt to me that he was trying to guilt trip her into getting back together with him which is just so wrong?!?! Again, I wish to delete this scene from my brain.

Lastly I wanna share my opinions about Sophie, Parker, and Enzo. Let me start out by saying I think in season3+4, Sophie was my favorite character. I mean come on how could I not love her? She is determined to chase her ambitions like the bad ass she is even with her past (which I’m super mad that they didn’t really delve into her past because that could have made the show a lot more interesting). I also liked the introduction of a character like Enzo since it brings a new kind of person into the show and makes it more realistic because for the most part these kids seemed a little “too perfect.” Though, the writers didn’t use him to the full potential that he has which sucks for the viewers and the actor too and based on what we saw he is pretty good. Anyway I liked how he is actually a softie at heart and does the right thing for Soph. Now I wanna talk about the Sophie+Parker ship. Honestly, are the writers trying to pair up literally all the students together?!?! Again like Emma and Max, I felt that this wasn’t a real relationship; we’ve barely seen these two have any romantic chemistry and I view them more like a good pair of friend (class clown/funny + class president/serious dynamic is something I love). That’s all.

Quick opinion: Louis just felt off since the S3. I mean I get that he wants to better the students, but causing fights seemed wayyyy out of line for his character. So that was weird. 

Anyway that was all of my thoughts (at least for now) about Greenhouse Academy! Even though it seems like I hate the series based on my complaints above lol I actually really liked it and hope for a season 5 (crossing my fingers) where the writers and other staff can hopefully redeem themselves by fixing the problems above. If you have any thoughts about the show, please do talk to me about it because I LOVE chatting about the shows I’ve watched. 

[goforwardgreenwriter-blog]

The Worm Reads: The Assassin’s Blade, Ch 5-6

*long, deep sigh*

Dinner with Sam was silent, and Rolfe appeared at eight to bring them both to the holding facility. Sam didn’t even ask where they were going. He just played along, as if he’d known the whole time.

I say, that’s my smart assassin boy! He never lets the enemy know they have the upper hand, I fucking love Sammy. Can this book be about him please?

Rolfe takes them to a warehouse full of slaves and Celery splooges over how bad she feels for them. Footage not found, bitch!

Aside from some occasional muffled weeping, the slaves were silent. Some of their eyes widened at the sight of her. She’d forgotten how she must appear—faceless, cloak waving behind her, striding past them like Death itself. Some of the slaves even sketched invisible marks in the air, warding off whatever evil they thought she was.

This might be cool if Celery was actually like, a bad ass assassin who deserves to be feared? I’m a thin ass weakling whose never been in a fight in her entire life and I could beat Celery with one fist tied behind my back.

Celaena’s heart pounded faster. Even after all these years, people still defied Adarlan’s conquest. But what right did Adarlan—or Rolfe, or anyone—have to treat them like this?

Funny how Celery acknowledges this but is completely fine with them being slaves for Rolfe........funny....

The men standing around the Eyllwe prisoner parted as Rolfe approached, bowing their heads. She recognized two of the men from dinner the previous night: the short, bald Captain Fairview and the one-eyed, hulking Captain Blackgold.

They sound way cooler than Celery. Can she drop dead and the book be about Sammy going on pirate adventures on the seas with these guys?

“I’d send him to the market in Bellhaven. Lots of rich men there needing strong hands to do their building. Or women needing strong hands for something else entirely.” [Captain Fairview] winked in Celaena’s direction.

Aaaand SJM ruined it. Great. Can I get one male character besides Sammy who thinks about something other than sex for five seconds? Pretty please?

They ask questions about the slaves and it’s just. Making me cringe so I’ll skip the details. The subject of brothels comes up and Sammy gets upset so Celery info dumps his backstory onto us.

His mother, sold at eight to a brothel, had spent her too-short twenty-eight years clawing her way up from an orphan to one of the most successful courtesans in Rifthold. She’d had Sam only six years before she’d died murdered by a jealous client. And though she’d amassed some money, it hadn’t been enough to liberate her from her brothel—or to provide for Sam. But she’d been a favorite of Arobynn’s, and when he’d learned that she wanted Sam to be trained by him, he’d taken the boy in.

Love this trend of YA mothers dying for their family to angst over. Fuck it, Sammy’s mother deserves better. She can join Darrow, Gav, Sammy, and Manon in a better series where she knits sweaters for all of them and her pet dogs. She deserves it.

Celery is like “death is better than slavery” which, okay I understand what she’s trying to say, but then she goes off about it like is she planning to kill these slave to free them?? This writing is off the wall tbh. Anyways she leaves after that and Sammy follows.

“Celaena, wait!” Sam called, panting as he walked after her.

Why is he panting if he’s just walking? He’s not even walking fast, he’s just out of breath keeping a moderate pace. Gg on the writing there, SJM.

So Celery walks down into the water and takes off her mask and cloak for some reason?

Bath-warm waves flooded past her, and she kicked up a spray of water as she kept walking. Before she could get deeper than her calves, Sam grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?” he demanded. She yanked on her arm, but he held firm.

So Sam is literally like “Uhhh it’s like super late, what are you doing?” and she starts to fucking wrestle him?? They’re wrestling in the water??? But why???

“I’m not going to let go until you promise to stop attacking me,” Sam said. His face was inches away, and she felt the breath of every one of his words on her mouth. She took an uneven breath, then another. She had no reason to attack Sam. Not when he’d kept her from gutting that pirate in the warehouse. Not when he’d gotten so riled about the slave children. Her legs trembled with pain.

Seriously what the fuck!!! Celery decides to pick a fight for him for literally no reason, then she splooges about how handsome he is, then she’s like “yeah we have no reason to fight” like what was the point of all this!!! Was this book not edited???

“I might do something as foolish as freeing the slaves,” she said. Sam went so still that he might have been turned into stone. “I knew you were thinking up something—but freeing them …”

So this was just so Sammy could find out her plans? But why?? Why don’t your characters function like regular human beings, SJM?

If I was writing this scene, I’d have Celery stomp off and Sam follow her, asking what’s wrong, and Celery knows Sammy is a good person so she tells him about her plans to free the slaves. There, cut out so much pointless bullshit.

“I have to try,” she said. “Why?” Sam stepped close enough that she needed to tilt her head back to see his face. “We’re assassins. We kill people. We destroy lives every day.”

In theory he’s not wrong, but assassin usually stick to killing corrupt political figures and dangerous people. Slavery is just stripping people of their rights and freedoms and enslaving them. Man, this book is really making me explain why slavery is wrong, isn’t it?

“We kill corrupt officials and adulterous spouses; we make it quick and clean. These are entire families being ripped apart. Every one of these people used to be somebody.”

See, even Celery understands this! Idk what SJM was smoking when she came up with this plot, but she gotta stop.

Anyways, Sammy is obviously not on board for this slavery thing and agrees to help out, only he doesn’t splooge about how that makes him a ~white savior~ or whatever so I’m actually rooting for him.

He groaned. “You already have a plan?” She grinned, then told him everything. When she finished, he only scratched his head. “Well,” he admitted, sitting on the sand, “I suppose that’d work. We’d have to time it right, but …”

Love how we don’t get to hear the plan so SJM can pull whatever she wants out of her ass and chalk it up to “Oh Celery told Sammy off screen so it was all planned lol”

Sammy implies Arobynn has more motives for sending them here than just getting him some slaves and Celery doesn’t believe him and I don’t care. Next chapter!

After yet another miserably hot and sleepless night, Celaena spent the following day with Sam, walking through the streets of Skull’s Bay.

Damn, I was lowkey hoping for a Sammy POV. I’‘d much rather be in his head than Celery’s.

From flirting with the harlots along the main street, Sam learned that every once in a while, Rolfe covered the tab for all the pirates in his service, and the revelry lasted for days.

Not for a lack of trying Sammy, but... what does this have to do with the slavery trade?

Oh, immediately after SJM is like “Lol the harlots have him some other pointers too hee hee” Great. Fuckin’ great. Never mind that he’s what, 17, and we don’t know how old those women are?

Rolfe ran a hand through his dark hair. “Don’t you two ever stop questioning? There’s no way of predicting how many slaves you’ll lose. Just keep them watered and fed.”

Rolfe is tired of this shit like me. Same hat, Rolfe, same hat.

They go to the group of slaves that’s for Arobynn and Celery asks if any of the slaves speak the Common tongue. Only one dude can.

What’s your name?” Celaena asked the slave. “Dia.” His long, frail fingers trembled slightly. “You’re fluent?” He nodded.

This guy is old and can’t be used for porn, so he’ll probably die for Celery’s angst. Ungh. Don’t know what would be worse, this or having a young hot slave speak Common so there can be a love triangle between him, Celery, and Sammy.

The scene ends and the next one starts up. If this had been written in current day, SJM would’ve added a chapter cliffhanger here.

Hours later, no one noticed—or if they did, they certainly didn’t care—when two cloaked figures slipped into two rowboats and headed toward the slave ships hovering several hundred yards offshore.

UHHHHHHHHHHHH I’M GONNA SAY THE FORMER BECAUSE????? Who wouldn’t think two cloaked people heading for the ship with slaves on it was suspicious??? Do all the pirates have mashed potatoes for brains????

It hadn’t taken long for word to get out that Arobynn Hamel’s assassins had opened a celebratory tab at the tavern, and even as they had strode to the docks, pirates were already streaming the other way toward the inn.

Even so, they still have guards on watch?? Rofle specifically said this earlier??? This fuckin’ book.

Celery and Sam make it to the ships and give each other a signal, ending the chapter. I’m ready for this snoozefeast to be over.

[orpelia]

Air: “Endgame”

Eleven episodes and a two-week hiatus later (oops!)~~

My praise, my wishes, and my feelings of the season finale of Book I. 

[Heart eyes.]

Oh, Bo. What would we do without you.

As always, he gifted us with his silly and endearing humor,

but he also starred in some fantastic collabs.

Bolin x Naga

Bolin x General Iroh

Honestly, Bolin x Any Character <--- now that’s my kind of ship.

General Iroh is just as stupidly fearsome and heroic as his grandfather.

This is fact. 

His stunt with the planes?

Cray.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in the future, preferably in the same scene(s) as Zuko because that’s something I desperately need in my life.

My favorite Mako: protective and powerful.

Let’s not forget, he can break free of Noatak’s bloodbending!!!

Korra---the freakin’ Avatar---couldn’t even do that! At least, not at first.

Amon admits it himself: “I'm impressed. No one has ever gotten the better of me like that. It is almost a shame to take the bending of someone so talented.”

I hope Mako’s talents become focal points in the next books. Please, oh please don’t revert him back to a frustrating, lovesick puppy who can’t make up his damn mind. It really doesn’t do his character justice.

Speaking of lovesick puppies...

Without a doubt, Mako and Korra had the most compelling scenes of the entire episode (and not because they were fighting Noatak).

Canon couple or not, these two make a great team. They obviously care about each other, but they’re fiercely protective of one another as well, and that’s what makes their chemistry so palpable.

Although I wasn’t over the moon about dropping the love bombs, even I recognize how heartwarming their moments were.

Take, for example, the penultimate scene of the finale:

Recap: Mako tells Korra he loves her, Korra dramatically runs away with Naga, and Tenzin tells Mako they have to be patient with her, which is old people code for “give her some space.”

If you ask me, that’s shitty advice.

In real life, I want someone to go after me, even if I say I want to be alone or I tell people to go away. 

Yes, I am that person.

So you best believe my heart SOARED when the boy chased after the girl:

At first, Mako’s shocked.

No surprise there. 

He just witnessed Korra in the Avatar State, which means 1) her bending is back and 2) the Avatar State is no joke!! The glowing eyes!! The command of the four elements at your fingertips!! That’s hardcore, bro!!

But then he fondly smiles at her, which I wholeheartedly interpret as “Ah, yes. That’s my girl.”

And look at her face!!

These two aren’t endgame, so I’m allowing myself to savor in the swoon.

FYI: If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I’m a sucker for cheek caresses.

Twirling hugs also make me a lil weak in the knees.

Running to someone and barreling into their arms is just stupid cute.

[Heavy sigh.]

I was really rooting for Asami. 

After Chapter 7, I thought we were going to see how Asami was coping with the reveal of her father’s conspiring nature. Instead, her character seemed to revolve more around the love triangle (or whatever shape you want to call the ridiculous Asami x Mako x Korra situation). When Asami does mention her father, it’s only a sparse comment every other episode or so.

Thus, the showdown between father and daughter lacks an emotional weight, and it’s partly because we haven’t explored enough of their relationship to truly feel for these characters.

That isn’t to say their sequence doesn’t have powerful moments. 

I just want to take a moment to holla at ma boy @Jeremy Zuckerman, sole music composer. 

Your music is always stunning, but the accompanying track in Asami and Hiroshi’s showdown (plus the music in the boat scene and everything in the third act) is what carries the entire segment. 

Your melodies tugged at my heartstrings in ways the story couldn’t.

Their final fight, for instance:

Asami is so caught up in the battle---defending herself against her father, no less---that you think she might actually do it, she might actually hurt him. 

But then he’s looking at her like this, 

and she starts to hesitate (this is her father after all),

which is the exact moment Hiroshi strikes.

In the end, Asami captures her father, but not without remorse: “You really are a horrible father.”

Dear Creators, 

Please give your characters the emotional depth they deserve and explore the nuances of their relationships. 

Trust me: they can lift the weight of their stories just fine.

I am unbelievably disappointed in Noatak’s arc. 

I just---

I mean---

How?

How are you going to build the foundation of a character on a lie?

How are you going to develop that character’s arc for ten episodes, then discredit almost everything with deceit?? 

How are you going to completely undermine your character like that???

And to add insult to injury, Noatak keeps lying, going so far as to reveal a fake, painted scar: 

Here’s the thing: Zuko is my world. 

Of all the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender, I found pieces of myself in his story the most. Scars, then, are sore subjects for me; sometimes, I feel like I’m as sensitive about his scar as he was.

Yes, I jumped in my seat upon first seeing Noatak’s “scar,” but make no mistake---I’d rip that lie off his face in a heartbeat.

Undermining your character with lies is bad enough, but this shit felt like mockery, and while I’m certain that wasn’t the creators’ intents, I’m taking it personally anyway.

However, attention should be paid to Noatak’s last scene:

Again, the music is so beautifully somber, but the dialogue here is probably some of the episode’s best.

From Noatak’s “I had almost forgotten the sound of my own name,” to Tarrlok’s "It will be just like the good old days.”

From the tear that rolls down Noatak’s cheek,

to Tarrlok's decision to sacrifice them both.  

It doesn’t make up for butchering Noatak’s arc, but this was, quite simply, a beautiful ending to a sad story.

Dear Creators, 

Please don’t make the same mistake twice.

You compromised the integrity of your character the moment you sacrificed a fleshed out plot for woaw!shock factor.

Villain or not, he deserved better.

Also, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU.

It was at this moment that I wanted to jump into the screen and rescue Tenzin and his beautiful children myself.

LOOK AT THEIR FACES.

I WAS SO MAD. 

LIKE:

HOW COULD YOU.

It should be said: I loved Korra in this episode.

I mean, she was pretty daft to think that hiding under a table would keep her safe from a bloodbender. A bloodbender (a psychic one at that) can feel your blood, Korra, of course he knows you’re under there.

So just for that:

Yeah, don’t you look all silly and fuzzy.

Aside from this idiotic little slip, she was pretty badass, unlocking her airbending and fighting against Noatak’s bloodbending:

What a crappy screenshot of her airbending, haha. Would you believe me if I said this was genuinely the best I could do?

And unlike Asami and her father, I actually felt for Korra. I was devastated when Katara couldn’t repair her severed connection to the other three elements.

Though I wonder if I felt more for Korra because she acted just as I would. That is, she’s clearly distraught over losing her bending, but she wants to spare her friends and family the trouble of making a scene:

So she waits until she’s alone to let it all go:

:’-(

As I said, I loved and felt for Korra in the finale, and I don’t have a problem with her...

I have a problem with the writing.

Korra’s airbending was very badass, but I completely forgot about her airbending struggles. 

The first four episodes show Korra’s conflict with the element (i.e., it’s literally the plot line of Chapter 2). If anything, these episodes have small moments that remind us of Korra’s airbending training---practicing in the temple’s courtyard or doing exercises with the kids, to name a few examples.

Then, in Chapter 8, Tarrlok insults her with the “half-baked Avatar” comment, snidely remarking on her less than satisfactory airbending. It’s in this same episode that Korra reminds Tenzin---and the audience---that she’s never been able to connect with her spiritual side. (More on this later!)

And... that’s it. 

After the eighth episode, she’s kidnapped by Tarrlok, who reveals himself as a bloodbender; she’s rescued but then Amon and Hiroshi attack Republic City, separating Korra and the teens from Tenzin, his family, and Lin; Korra decides to take Amon on her own (but not really because Mako decides to tag along) and the two of them bump into Tarrlok, who reveals that Amon is actually his long-lost, waterbending, psychic bloodbending brother, Noatak. 

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. If the creators were prioritizing awe! and shock! and woaw!, then unlocking Korra’s airbending this way definitely did the job. But it felt a little too... convenient? Plus, there was no explanation for why her airbending worked when it did. 

I mean, saving Mako obviously had something to do with it, and they didn’t have time to get into the details because, duh, they were trying to restore Korra’s bending. 

Still, the audience shouldn’t have to interpret everything.

(Or perhaps I’m just being petty, lol.)

For a book titled after the element, I guess I just expected more. 

Ultimately, I wish we saw Korra practicing more airbending; I wish we got an explanation for how and why she airbended when she did; I wish her success in unlocking her final element had not been overshadowed by the loss of her water-, earth-, and firebending.

Which brings me here, to this special moment:

I cried.

100%. 

And the gentle, yet all too familiar Avatar theme playing in the background? Yeah, I was a puddle of tears.

However, as nostalgic as this was, I wasn’t too pleased at how quickly Korra’s bending was restored because it felt like the creators were taking shortcuts again.

For the record, I like that Noatak took Korra’s bending away (though I would have liked a more epic battle?), as it debunked the whole “the Avatar is invincible” concept. But, really? A quick touch of Aang’s fingers and her bending is restored, just like that?

Maybe it’s just me, but I would’ve loved to see Korra struggling to get her bending back. Perhaps we could’ve seen her retraining and relearning the other elements, which is something I still feel we were robbed of. 

Furthermore, as much as I enjoyed seeing Aang and all the former Avatar reincarnations, I didn’t like that this was also the moment Korra connected with her spiritual side. Similar to her airbending moment, I forgot about her spiritual struggles; the issue is last mentioned in Chapter 8 and, before that, all the way back in Chapter 1. But, honestly, I think the ease and convenience of this moment lends to the problematic pacing of Book I as a whole.

Dear Creators, 

While I thank you for restoring Korra and Lin’s bending, please don’t resort to convenient endings. I recognize that you only had twelve episodes, but please, no more shortcuts.

Your story will suffer.

Your characters will suffer, too.

p.s., I’m sorry for being so mean to you. I have a lot of feelings, is all. 

Cheers to Book II, though!

Parting Thoughts

Before sitting down to write the finale’s review, I took a two-week break.

In that time, I rewatched (and re-rewatched) the entire first book.

I even had time to indulge in the fifth season of The Great British Baking Show.

Shameless Plug: 

I absolutely recommend this charming baking competition. 

You learn quite a lot about the science and precision of baking, endure (but also adore) countless baking puns, and witness what true competition looks like. That is, genuine camaraderie, rooting for your fellow bakers to succeed, and sometimes, lending them a hand if they’re pressed for time.

Warning: do not watch late at night. You will reach for a baguette. 

And yet, I still feel meh about Book I.

The season has its share of success: the music is as impeccable as ever and the technological and industrial components of the Avatar-Korra universe are developing and expanding nicely. 

However, it will always come down to the story, and the writing just wasn’t up to par. 

Truthfully, the real triumphs are the characters, who---after only twelve episodes---have built a home for themselves in my heart:

Although, our bright, blue-eyed Avatar still has much to learn.

(i.e., how to stop being an impatient little dumdum)

But take heart...

Her story’s only just begun.

From Beginning to End:

“Thanks for looking out for me, Aang.”

credits

[eirenare]

FFXV: Episode Ignis — My experience (hint: a lot of feels)

Okay, so between me needing time to get out of my happy shock for Episode Ignis (gods, it’s been hard to find the will to write because I couldn’t even arrange my thoughts well enough), certain movie coming out, and the fact that I usually need to wait for nighttime’s peace to write (and often inspiration and/or will are quite picky, not to mention when your brain gets blocked when it comes to writing), I took my time to finally write this, but... 

Here I go!

[22/12/2017: EDITED THIS POST TO HIGHLIGHT NAMES, CHECK PUNCTUATION AND TAGS, AND EDIT MISTAKES.]

I would like to start by saying that Episode Ignis gave me way more than I would have EVER expected. Like, really. I expected for it to be a great DLC, but the experience exceeded that word easily: it was EVERYTHING. And it was everything because it HAD everything.

I’m still not over it, days later. Damn, I’ve even dreamt with it two times (and I remember almost nothing, but I think Ravus was in both lol).

I was sooo hyped for Episode Ignis that I started playing it a little after midnight and I ended up... AT 6 AM. And I had to wake up in theory at, like, 9 AM. But that night, nothing else mattered outside this DLC and, DAMN, what a night. Totally, absolutely worth it to spend so much hours playing it and losing sleep. I had a great time, and oh gods, some parts had me so excited.

I mentioned this already in my non-spoiler comment about Episode Ignis, but... I expected to cry more than I did in the end. For years, I’ve been a person that cried way too easily when watching movies, playing videogames, reading... Like, really, I tended to cry so much. I often was an emotional mess, I would sob a lot and my chest would literally hurt (if you had seen me with FFXV’s ending, oh dear...). But lately I’ve noticed that, in that regards, I’ve become... a bit “numb”. I enjoy the stories, oh gods if I do, and I still get feels (a lot), but it’s like the intensity has lowered some, and that’s something I don’t like. I miss being a crybaby about these things, damn.

During Episode Ignis, if I recall well there was only one time in which I cried, and that was at the end of the original route of the DLC, when Ignis tells Noctis about “sharing the load”. My goodness, Iggy, you’re such a good, great man...

But well, the thing is, I may have not cried much when I played Episode Ignis, BUT the excitement, the feels, the emotion were there. 

I would sometimes jump a bit on the sofa out of excitement, for example when the last scene of that amazing alternative ending was starting... A moment which also had me frantically gesticulating with my hands in the air, much like when I saw Noctis alive and sitting in the throne (I thought Ignis was just like, going to bow before an empty throne and then say something like “thank you” and cry, but OH GODS, I’m happy I was so wrong in that assumption).

I was smiling while fighting with Ignis all around Altissia and collecting items, and damn, my smile went from ear to ear during the alternative ending, ever since I saw Ravus alive in the stairs (and SMILING, Ravus ACTUALLY SMILING, that’s something beautiful and precious — although I have to admit that seeing his beard almost made me laugh a bit, it was between weird and adorable), and up until the very end of it. And what an ending, oh my goodness... That ending was EVERYTHING, and I can’t stop thinking about it. And oh gods, the addition of that camp scene at the official ending, THE FEELS...!

Oh, and I can’t stress enough how much of a “FUCK YES” it was to see Caligo die and, the best thing, by Ravus’ hand. I don’t know if anyone reading this has seen my post about Caligo, but a past trailer had a VERY creepy moment of Caligo cornering Luna when she was a child while a storm raged on outside the building they were in, and ever since I noticed that the man was Caligo I’ve been wanting so badly to see him actually die. 

On the other hand, some moments really made me frown, or be SO sad. Seeing Ravus so broken about Luna, and then lashing out at a protective and understanding Ignis... Man. MAN. And Ignis. Oh dear gods, Ignis. It was sad to see him sacrifice himself to save Noctis (Ignis is such an AMAZING character), and I worried so much that he was going to die in that alternative ending... 

Still, if there’s something that would make you picture just how much excited I was, it’s this: NON-STOP TREMBLING. 

And it was that kind of trembling that shakes all your body and that you can’t stop (it simply couldn’t be because of the low temperature though because I was warm, wrapped in a blanket like a burrito and with the heating on). I don’t know when it started but it just happened, and it didn’t end until some time after I finished the DLC at 6 AM. Basically I spent hours trembling because of my excitement, so... yeah, that was the biggest sign that I was excited, haha

Damn, my legs even were WEAK, although I didn’t notice that until I got up from the sofa. Also, I still trembled as well when I watched a livestream that same day.

But well, continuing on~

Having Ignis and Ravus as teammates was SO AMAZING. They had such synchrony when they executed movements, that was BADASS. 

And the gameplay was SO good, so smooth, so strategic while at the same time being fast! Seeing Ravus execute “Last Rites” (here in Spain the name is a reference to the boat to the othe world, though) is espectacular, and Ignis jumping like that? HELL YEAH. I didn’t use much the “Overclock” in all honesty because I loved to spam the jump, lol. The dagger system felt really amazing, and probably my favourite element for them was ice. The lightning element was exhilarating, and fire did so much damage... But I just loved the ice daggers too much, not only because of how they felt, but because it was kinda beautiful, like seeing Ignis dance lol. 

And oh my goodness, Ravus and Ignis fight together almost feel like a choreography, and I DIED at how perfectly they combine their moves.

Oh oh, and I went absolutely scavenger mode, looking out for items all around the map, haha. Going to cross the bridge to help Noctis? ... Nah, the loot man, THE LOOT. 

And Altissia... Oh my god, Altissia was amazing (although it hurt to see a place that had been so beautiful now destroyed), such a good open place to explore~ I had INSANE FUN with the hook (oh gods when I discovered that as you fall you can still use I went full Spiderman mode hahaha), and taking back territory from Niflheim. As of now, though, I haven’t picked up all the collectibles and average items, or bought these awesome glasses, or fought Noctis in the Friendly Match, but... SoonTM.

I have to say I accidentally discovered that, if you’re out ot combat and press triangle, Ignis removes and puts on his glasses, or checks them, and so on, lol. That was a cute detail. Oh, and I liked that Weskham did that little appearence! Camelia is just... well... it’s... her. I don’t like how Camelia acted, to be honest... 

Buuut well, onwards.

The music was just PERFECTION. Every theme was AMAZING. That’s an aspect I’ve loved about this DLC, it’s so very well executed! Every piece fits to perfection, and... I just have to mention this: Ardyn getting another version of his theme. One that is just SO scary... Damn, the music of this DLC was perfection.

And now, the time has come... The time to talk about characters and story. The time for DEM FEELS.

The story was just SO WELL EXECUTED. It wasn’t very long, but I felt it SO satisfactory.

Seeing Ignis so worried about Noctis really does something to your heart, like... Just how much this man cares about him? It’s overwhelming, in the good sense.

I’m glad that Ignis got to show in this DLC just how amazing of a character he is, because he deserved it. I mean, he’s shown during the game itself that he cares deeply, but in this DLC you can see just how far he’s willing to go to protect Noctis, and it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, albeit tragic. It’s not that he’s so dedicated because it’s his role to take care of the King of Light, no, but because it’s NOCTIS. He does it for the person, simply. This DLC just shows to what extent, and oh dear... The word is DEVOTION. 

Seeing Ignis not harbouring any doubt before putting the Ring of the Lucii to fight Ardyn later on is just... Wow. He goes through so much pain, through such of a sacrifice, risking his life, to protect Noctis. It’s A LOT. And, you’re going to pardon me for breaking the epic of his act, but... Ignis looks so gorgeous with his hair down and so disheveled. Not to mention that aura around him... I think the world would be “feral”.

Ignis is amazing, in every sense. He’s got a fierce, protecting soul. I don’t doubt that he was scared about what he was doing, but he cared so much for Noctis he just did it. It’s sad when he just falls to the ground besides Noctis after fighting with Ardyn, when he asks Ravus if Noctis is alright, with that tone, because he has no way of knowing by himself. I loved that Ravus talked to him like he did (being all understanding, reassuring), you can tell there’s respect after seeing what he just did. Man, I love their dynamic, even if the time they spent as comrades was short. 

And I just can NOT talk about what happened after they landed on the altar.

Pryna... Oh gods, Pryna. I wasn’t expecting that, to see the poor thing dying just before Ignis’ eyes... And sure as heck I wasn’t expecting for Pryna to show Ignis the future. That left me agape and added yet another layer of pain to Ignis... 

Gods, Ignis and Ravus deserved such a hug.

It was moving seeing Ravus so broken at Luna’s death. One sees earlier he wants to protect her badly, but this... Gods, how much of a pain must be to see a dear sibling lying dead before your eyes? I can totally understand why he lashed out like that, thoughts totally clouded by anger and grief that it’s way too heavy because not only is he grieving Luna right there, but also re-opening the wound of losing his mother. Good thing that Ignis was there to avoid another tragedy...

The fight was... pretty intense. I loved that moment in which Ignis pushed Ravus twice to avoid getting closer, it was a nice touch to the scene. And damn, Ravus really was resilient, it took a bit of time to defeat him, although I liked that fight. 

And, gods, the scene of Ravus embracing his sister, begging for her not to leave him... That was truly heartbreaking. It was his dear sister, but it’s not only that, no... With her death, he was totally and absolutely alone, and since the goal of his life seemed to be protect her, that’s gone as well. He had nothing. The poor man looked so lost and pained... 

Oh, and Ardyn. Ardyn, as always, quite the showman (and a scary one, all the more in the alternative ending, when he tells Ignis the truth and they fight). I have to admit that, for a moment, he had fooled me. I’m impressed that Ravus saw right through the disguise so easily. That means he either knows Ardyn a lot, or that Ardyn might have changed his appearence earlier before him. Or it could be he thought that Gladiolus was being way too much of an asshole and suspected of Ardyn... But, regardless of what it is, it just implies that Ravus knew back then there was something off about Ardyn. I really hope he hadn’t used his appearence change for anything fucked up related to Ravus...

I liked that you could swap point of view and move the camera during that scene with Ardyn, it was interesting. He wouldn’t have, however, killed Noctis. He needed him alive, after all... and for Ignis to get blinded. He just had to push some buttons. I can’t help but think of Ardyn’s expressions when Ignis was hellbent on putting on the ring, before it happened... It happens briefly, but the look doesn’t seem fake, just like in the train, when he talks about Noctis hurting his feelings. I would have loved to know what was going on Ardyn’s mind in these moments when his performance cracks. 

I have to admit I thought we would have the option to choose the alternative path from the start, but well, better like this, being forced to choose the original option on the first time. It would have been weird to start with the alternative universe.

Oh, and before I forget it... The soldier with Ardyn’s fedora. Gods, I automatically smiled then, it had been a funny gesture that almost made me laugh. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

The confrontation with Ardyn... Ah, yet another hard fight, but I achieved to defeat him (and, omg, that moment when he just teleports in front of Ignis, that was between awesome and scary). As I said, I loved the scene with Ravus back then. Also, Gladio almost reaching for Ignis’ hair when he’s on the ground... Bury me with feels. Bury me even more when the credits, too. Seeing Ignis so vulnerable, with Prompto and Gladio so nervous and breaking... Not to mention the scene of Ignis’ talk to Noctis. Oh, dear... I get that he wanted to protect Noctis from death (what a heavy knowledge to bear, knowing of the future...), but it wasn’t a very logical thing, to suggest Noctis to stop. Uuunless he wanted to cause Noctis to move forward.

Chapter 3 Verse 2 is... ANDLFNGLFNLDNASDAS. Or, translated to English, straightaway my death because it was SO-A-MA-ZING. Tragic. Beautiful. With a happy ending (YESSS I mean I love tragedy in fiction but this alternative ending made me soar and now I can’t stop thinking about it).

I almost forgot to say this, but... That “Mysterious Voice”...? In the credits you can see that the voice actress in every language is Luna’s voice actress, but it’s weird that they would process the voice like that AND not say it’s Luna... Not to mention that the way that voice talks isn’t very much “Luna-like”.Regardless of who it is that is talking, the only thing we know is that it’s a voice coming from the Crystal.

A thing that I haven’t mentioned earlier, and it’s very much noticeable now, is that Ardyn has been VERY hard with Ignis, and it may sound crazy but it looks as if he’s just taking it out on him. He said about speeding the process of Noctis becoming the King of Light, but isn’t Ardyn reaching important levels of aggresivity? And it’s not like his mood is the same as always, no, you can see that sometimes his perfomance craks here too, as it does when he fights Noctis in Insomnia. He reveals to Ignis who he is, though (and gods YES at least we get him explicitly saying it was his brother, something that’s good because a lot of people was still thinking who Izunia was), before attacking Ignis... And, in fact, it’s not just that he goes hard on Ignis, is that Ardyn becomes VICIOUS to unsuspected points.

The music of his 4th theme helps make him look scarier, too, and not to mention the fact that he seems to own every weapon of every descendant of his brother Izunia... The fight against Ardyn was VERY hard and tiring.

An interesting thing: while in English the options are named “sacrifice your life”, “risk your life” and “give up”, in Spanish we have that, instead of “risk your life”, the option’s named “sacrifice your senses” > “sacrifice your body” > “sacrifice your soul”, depending on if you choose that option repeatedly until only “sacrific your life” / “give up” remain.

it was sad and worrying seeing Ignis doing such sacrifices, and I seriously thought he was going to die... But, somehow, Noctis made the Crystal answer to his call in such a way that it would heal Ignis, and that was sooo much a relief. This scene was so tragic, it gave me so much feels... Gods, hearing the brothers voice their grief... And Gladiolus specially reached me. 

When I saw the group going around in the credits scene, talking to other characters everywhere, it was SO nice. I loved it, it was very nostalgic, and I love so much FFXV’s NPCs.

But the best thing was the alternative ending... *internal screaming noises of happiness*

“We walk tall — together”. YES. I loved that new version of the phrase.

Ravus being happy, and with that weird, funny yet adorable beard~ ... And SMILING. After all that shit in his whole life. Give me TEN. PLEASE.

And oh my goodness Ignis nodding to Ravus like “you’re one of us, come”, and Ravus going with them with ANOTHER SMILE. Omg. You can blame this DLC that now I headcanon that in this alternative ending Ravus is friends with the bros but specially with Ignis (I mean, Ravus was totally ALONE, he needed someone around him that could understand his pain, and who better than Ignis, that saw him at his worst). 

And in fact, I’ve started to ship both Ravus x Ignis (both one-sided and loved back), and Ignis x Noctis, apart from liking a lot BROTP Ravus/Ignis... HELP hahah. Nah, I’m kidding, don’t help me, I’m comfortable in shipping/BROTP hell lol.

The last scene... Ah, dammit. I wasn’t expecting for Noctis to be alive AT ALL, yet there he was, all majestic and amazing, with that smile on his lips. As I said, at first I thought Ignis was going to enter the throne room to do something symbolic, like saying “thank you” while crying or something, but... NOPE! And I’m so glad I was wrong.

Pfff... This DLC is PURE BEAUTY. 

It has amazing music, a good scenario, smooth gameplay, it answers some questions while it makes you question other things, but most importantly... it portrays the characters very well and gives them more deepness, and the story is solid. 

I don’t know if I’ve forgotten something, and I think I could have written this way better, or express more feeling, but well, this is what I’ve written for now, haha.

To anyone that might be reading this: thank you for checking the post, and have a nice day!

[princedevitto]

WRESTLEMANIA 33

Live from Orlando, Florida

doc. Wikipedia, Wrestlemania 33 poster

Kick-off show

1. Cruiserweight Championship, Neville (c) vs Austin Aries

It's a shame that Neville vs Austin Aries isn't in main card. Both are great performers and they proof it with this match. The plus side in the kick-off show is they get enough time. For about 15 minutes WWE Universe served with a great back and forth match and both man are so click. Great spot when Neville give Aries picture perfect german suplex and when Aries do 450 splash. In the end, Neville retains after he connect the Red Arrow. 4 stars match, fantastic. Love the Neville attire and heel character.

 2. Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Just dont watch it. You’re gonna wasting your time. Around 33 superstars and they book Mojo Rawley to win, Jesus Christ. I prefer Luke Harper to win this. He’s coming from talked for main eventing WM to be eliminated by Titus O’Neil -__-. Funny thing when Gronk (Rob Gronkowski) come to aid Mojo but the security hold him off. They don’t know that Gronk is part of this match, Lol. 1 star match. Poor executioned.

 3. Intercontinal Championship, Dean Ambrose (c) vs Baron Corbin

Shocked that this match moved to kick-off show. Btw, huge expectation led to huge disappointment. Yeah, i think this match gonna be great but Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin just doesn’t click. It’s shame cause WWE is good developing this match. Lots of miss spot, including Corbin botch Deep Six. Ambrose wins after countering End of Days to Dirty Deeds. 1,5 stars, very boring match like a cemetery.

 Main Show

1. AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon

It’s odd that a match as great as this is placed first. But, hey great match is great match. Remember when people used to disapponted cause AJ gonna face Shane? Well forget it. Shane is a great worker. Interesting spot when he executes lot of submission moves to AJ. Same old Shane, he’s sacrifice his body for us, he connect Coast to Coast with thrash can. AJ wins with Phenomenal Forearm after Shane miss Leap of Faith and Shooting Star Press. 4,5 stars match, should be a no dq match or whatever is. Props to Shane, he always manages to pull it off. Lot of respect.

 2. United States Championship, Chris Jericho (c) vs Kevin Owens

The battle between former best friend. Either Jericho or Owens performs well and exhanging moves one another. Huge props when Owens do The Walls of Jericho. Lot of respect for the greatest of all time, Jericho. He still can delivers lot of great spots, countering Cannonball to Walls of Jericho and Pop-Up Powerbomb into Codebreaker. In the end, Owens wins the US title after powerbomb to the appron. A good match but in slow pace, 3,75 stars match. I prefer Jericho to lose it at Payback right before he left. But well, it’s Jericho he’s always put younger talent up.

 3. Fatal Four Way for RAW’s Womens Championship, Bayley (c) vs Nia Jax vs Charlotte vs Sasha Banks

Suprised that this match going on before SD’s Womens title. What bothering me is the Champ come out first, oh and Sasha make an entrance like a boss, with a ride like Royal Rumble participants. Nia Jax really booked strong in this match, overpowering the other three. But she’s eliminated first after triple tower powerbomb. Banks is the second to eliminated after Charlotte sends her to exposed turnbuckle. Almost think Flair’s daughter gonna be 5 times champion, but Bayley retains after an Elbow Drop. She deserve it, a decent 3,5 stars match. Banks still not turn heel.

 4. Triple Threat Ladder Match for RAW’s Tag Team Championship, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows (c) vs Sheamus and Cesaro vs Enzo Amore & Big Cass

THE HARDY BOYZ MAKES THEIR RETURN, IT’S GONNA BE FATAL FOUR WAY NOW! I DON’T CARE ABOUT THEY’RE NOT USING DELETE GIMMICK, WHAT MATTERS IS THEY’RE BACK, TEAM EXTREME!. Entertaining match from the start, but honestly Enzo & Cass are boring. Enzo always botch and the other only knows big boot. Jeff Hardy legendary spot is coming again, swanton bomb from 20ft ladder to Sheasaro. The Hardys wins after Matt delivers twist of fate from the top of ladder and retrieve the belts. 4,25 stars match, the power of element of surprise. HOLY SHIT I STILL GOT A GOOSEBUMPS WHEN WROTE THIS! 17 years after their lagendary triangle ladder match with Edge-Christian and Dudleys and they still the most relevant and greatest tag team in the world. What a class, what a talent.

 5. John Cena & Nikki Bella vs The Miz & Maryse

A great build for this match, but not a great match. Cena and Miz takes lot of portion caus of Nikki’s neck injury. Miz are getting over but still the ‘super’ couple takes the w. A short 1,75 stars, not worth to watch + Jerry Lawler on commentary are bad. I don’t care about Cena propose Nikki, wtf. It’s a wrestling show not some dream wedding proposal. This match tone down my mood.

6. Unsanctioned Match, Triple H vs Seth Rollins

I actually enjoy this match, but the crowd seems dead. Not a good back and forth match, it constantly about Triple H attacking Rollins’s knees but he still somehow overcome it. Nice motions when both trying to execute Pedigree. Rollins wins via Pedigree after Triple H accidentally put Stephanie through a table. Solid 3,5 stars match, great entrance from both performers. Rollins brought a torch as a symbol Triple H pass it to him.

 7. WWE Championship, Bray Wyatt (c) vs Randy Orton

Bray Wyatt’s great entrance finally arrive in Wretlemania as WWE Champion. Interesting point is there’s projected maggots and cockroach in ring as part of Wyatt’s mind games. But overall this match is boring as fck. Both man exchange signature move outside the ring. The result are disappointing, Orton wins via RKO outta nowhere and become 13 times WWE Champion. The crowd didn’t even react for Orton. This Wretlemania is slowly falling apart. 1,5 stars match.

 8. Universal Championship, Bill Goldberg (c) vs Brock Lesnar

I don’t expect much in this match, i predict a boring boring match with terrible book. Their entrance and introducing are longer than the match. 3 german suplexes and 3 spears under one minute, including one through a barricade. Goldberg then put Lesnar back to ring, hit spear and jackhammer but the beast kick out at two. Lesnar leapfrogged spear from Goldberg and gave him 7 more german suplexes. Lesnar finally hit F-5 and win the Universal Championship. There are only 4 moves in a match under 5 minutes. It’s simple decent match but not good enough, 2,25 stars. I dont know how but Orlando crowd love this match, maybe because the fast pace.

 9. Six-pack challenge Smackdown’s Womens Championship, Alexa Bliss (c) vs Becky Lynch vs Mickie James vs Natalya vs Carmella vs Naomi

Almost thought that this match is nixed, Thank God it’s not. What questioned me is, wasn’t there supposed to be surprise entrants? After all i guessed it right that Naomi wins. The rumours and how she’s got her place in this match talks about it. Also how long her entrance was not like the others. 2 stars match, i think it’s just for bring back the championship to Naomi. I prefer RAW’s match than this.

 10. The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns

Special guest commentator, the good ol’ Jim Ross. His voice add more value for this match, well assuming this is Undertaker’s last match. This is 3rd straight time for Roman Reigns main-eventing Wrestlemania, if that’s not overrated i don’t know what it was. The Undertaker looks so out of shape, he even can’t lift Reigns for The Last Ride, perfectly perform Hell’s Gate, and lift himself up for Roman doing Tombstone spot. Extermely hurt to see The Undertaker like this. Meanwhile, Reigns booked so strong in this match, the big dog kicks out The Last Ride, Chokeslam into the chair, and Tombstone Piledriver. Reigns wins after 5 spears. Oh my, he didn’t deserve this, 3 stars match. The Phenom is 23-2 in Wrestlemania. He even left all of his gear, black robe, hat, and gloves in middle of squared circle, stating he’s retire.

 Overall

Very good Wrestlemania in the first half. The pace, the book, is great, i love all the performersGreatest match is AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon and Fatal four way RAW’s tag team ladder match. Worst are Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton and The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns. The 2nd half was bad, slowly falling apart. Also the crowd seems dead, maybe they’re tired. This show is 7 hours long, exhausting. They’re only loud if there’s a great spot. Thankfully they still has enough gas left in the tank to appriciate The Undertaker.