#one of them in the pilot is fine; you obviously need plot and conflict

[coles-scythe]

Ngl ever since I watched TADC, Pomni has been rotating in my brain like rotisserie chicken. Feeling silly, might make her an F/O.

[sparkles-and-trash]

You asked for modern atla headcanons. I am usually not that into modern AUs for ATLA, unless they’re set within the world of ATLA - unlike in other fandoms, I find it really weird when I can see a person’s highly regional lived experience stamped all over these characters. But I die for modern AUs where, for instance, Ba Sing Se has outgrown its original walls into a full-on megacity, or the Sato-style mecha - now piloted remotely - are being used by both the benders and non-benders of Republic City (non-benders trying to level the playing field, benders using all tools at their disposal to keep that from happening).

I was really disappointed by the weird political messaging of LoK and in many ways I feel like my desire to see the Gaang translated to that era or an era more similar to our own is a wish for a fixit where Toph’s not a cop and Sokka is around to push back at the assumption of bender supremacy in their society. If I wrote fic I’d write one set in a world similar to our own, with a similar anti-colonial plot as the first ATLA but with some of the conflicts of LoK season 2 added to the mix. I like the idea that the Gaang would at first be fighting an imperialist fire nation, but that Sokka (and Suki) would suck them into a more complex conflict with the world’s current power structure. They’re all in their early 20s instead of their teens - like maybe Sokka’s an engineer who ends up being scouted and initiated by a group of non-bender freedom fighters, and he has to manage his conflicting relationships with them and the Gaang. And maybe Aang and Katara don’t actually get it at first - like Aang’s like, how can you talk about supremacy when I’m literally the last of my people, and Katara’s like, all the Southern Water Tribe benders are dead or (more hopefully) imprisoned stfu, and Sokka’s like - what does it say about our world that benders are so powerful that the fire nation didn’t even consider us when they attacked the SWT - nonbenders still had to pick up the pieces though, and your life is still considered more valuable and important than mine. And Toph’s basically an shameless bender-supremacist that has to have this shit explained to her repeatedly despite the fact that she has experience being condescended to as a result of her disability. Like I want the Gaang to have a serious conflict around this but then actually come around to the idea that defeating the fire nation isn’t the only thing they need to accomplish.

Zuko would actually get it way more quickly, because he knows first hand the intimate damage bending can do, and I love to imagine Ty Lee surprising everyone by leaving Azula for this non-bender army, rather than for Mai or (tangentially) Zuko. She’d be like, yes, I will teach everyone chi blocking, and then they’ll never be as afraid of their “loved ones” as I have been. But Zuko would still be a shitty imperialist at first - just with differently shitty hair. He’d be doing more more intelligence-style stuff (basically Ozai would be like, you’re not even worthy of being called a bender, or being in charge of benders. Go sit in submarines and offices and geotag possible locations for the avatar and spy on the earth kingdom, and maybe if you find the avatar you can come home).

And at 22 Zuko would be mostly going through the motions, totally emotionally stunted, having spent all his time alone or with people he’s been taught to think were really beneath him, but he’d be slowly getting the idea that Ozai’s absolutely full of shit. “Spying” (he’s not very good at it) and spending all this time with non-benders has a)allowed him time to move in circles Azula never would (nobody but the royal family and a fire nation few nobles know about Zuko’s scar, so he’s not clocked as anything but a victim of the fire nation) and b) allowed him time to appreciate his non-bending skills (he’s still really into swords because Zuko’s always going to be a nerd) and the non-bending skills of his underlings. He starts wondering why these people are even working toward the fire nation’s goals, and then slowly realizing some of them actually aren’t - there’s a whiff of low-grade sabotage around a lot of fire nation missions, and Zuko begins to realize specific non-benders are responsible. He doesn’t immediately expose them - instead he (inexpertly) tails them to a meeting, and is promptly kidnapped by chi-blocking non-benders. Ty Lee obviously knows who he is, and while most of the leaders of the non-benders want to use him as some kind of bargaining chip with the fire nation, she nixes that idea on account of Ozai not giving a shit, and instead says, “shit, we’ll just have to imprison him.” Meanwhile Zuko’s like… this sucks but also I think you guys are onto something. Sokka (in glasses, because I love Sokka in glasses) keeps visiting him to gather intel (which he could just get from the more advantageously placed Ty Lee) and stare at him. And bring him food and films, and complain to him about the fire nation’s drone technology. And accidentally little bits of the non-bender’s plans. Eventually Zuko’s like you shouldn’t be telling me any of this, but since you are I’m going to help you with this stupid thing I think you might be planning that I know won’t work for reasons and tell you what to do instead. And Zuko saves a bunch of non-bender lives that day, so they begin to trust him more and more.

Of course this turns into yet another conflict with Katara once she and Aang are brought in on the fact that Sokka and his movement are working with the literal heir of the Fire Nation’s dictatorship. Aang is totally fine with it, and Toph (still a bender-supremacist, though humoring her friends in this new cause of theirs) is like, no, this is great, we need as many benders as we can get (Toph would be a sardonic goth if she could see colors well enough to avoid them - instead she’s just a very loyal asshole with dirty feet and a lot of brutal/abstract blackwork tattoos. She’s likes how much they scare people).

Anyway eventually they do all work together to no only unseat Ozai from his imperialist dictatorship but also begin an equalist uprising out in the open. Aang toys with taking everyone’s (and I mean everyone in the whole world’s) bending away but realizes the whole problem is benders having the power to make decisions for other people, so instead he throws himself behind the equalist cause (literally behind the leaders of the equalist cause) and says he’ll support their mechanization and their right to protect themselves (and agitate for laws wherever they live that support justice and protection for non-benders) with all the powers at his disposal. In the end they build republic city, which is envisioned as a multi-national city with non-bender representation build into its governing structure. Toph doesn’t become a cop. She goes around building literal bridges and tearing pavement out of places that shouldn’t be paved, and has three kids by different unnamed fathers and one of them is a non-bender that gets really into metallurgy but also talks a lot of loving shit to her mom.

Blah blah bah. I have overstayed my welcome in your ask box, but you got me thinking. If only I actually knew how to write!

my dude, you straight up sat down and wrote a whole ass one shot and sent it to me on anon???? you have to be an actual godsend???

nobody ever overstays their welcome in my ask box (if they're nice!), but this is above and beyond, I am blown away by how cool this is????????

I don't even know what to say tbh, and if you ever write this, or want to talk more about it, please feel free to hit me up, in any way, and I'd be stoked to hear more about it!!!

share your fav modern au head canons with me ~

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Me, throughout the entirety of 6x05:

And I suppose I could just leave it there but NO, we’re doing a LIST. Of all the excellent things from “Prom Night!”

SPOILERS!

AV Club reviewer giving this episode the first ‘A’ of the season: :D

AV Club reviewer still insisting that “Midvale” was filler: D:<

Forever destined to disagree with the AV Club reviews in some way or another...

Okay, so! We begin with a very helpful reminder from Alex that things are different, in this Post-Crisis World!

(I mean, on the one hand, am I slightly distressed that key aspects of the Pilot and the WHOLE of “Midvale” are now gone, along with Earth-38? Yes. 

On the other, Kara remembers her lived-experiences of everything that had transpired in the Earth-38 timeline, so they still sorta happened and have informed her characterization. 

So...it’s fine. It’s fine. This is fine.)

I do love that, ‘Kara punched a meteorite out of the sky’ is now a Thing That Happened, though. 

(Well perhaps NOT ANYMORE but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

KENNY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES!!!!!

“Scooby-Duo” listen, as someone who has already imagined all these kiddos in Hanna-Barbera cartoon style, running around Midvale, solving crimes and saving the day, I loved this description.

Alex being like, ‘DO. NOT. SCREW UP. MY PAST.’ ahhhhh we love to see that scary Older Sibling energy on full display.

And then Brainy and Nia are off to the past!

The only thing that could’ve made the utterance of ‘totes’ worse would’ve been the addition of, ‘magotes’. Thank goodness they exercised restraint in the writers’ room.

FORTUNATELY the terrible ordeal of reliving dated slang is offset by some truly excellent lines and line-reads throughout the rest of the episode.

For instance! Loved Brainy’s, ‘the perfect optical illusion’ and ‘off the dash, please.’ So great.

Other honorable mentions: ‘Damn it, Mitch!’ ‘That’s a LOT of exposure’ and I forget the line itself but when Cat’s like, ‘normal town my a--’ and then the cut to commercial break AAAAAHHHHHH so good.

Okay, back to the episode, Nia and Brainy, on the Legion Cruiser, AND THEN!

AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN!

OUR KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDS!!!!!

I love them. It won’t happen, but gosh, I want a Midvale spin-off so bad. 

Like, the Crisis retcon made some space in the girls’ past for a spin-off to actually...kinda work. 

(But sustaining the premise across multiple episodes/seasons would be tricky and there would always be the threat of running up against like. The current show’s continuity.

But hey! They could just ignore it, I guess! That’s what the Superman show is doing!) *insert frowny emoji here* 

So the kids have gathered with Alex for milkshakes, which is delightful.

But ALL IS NOT WELL! As Alex reads about the ‘luckiest town’ and is like:

(Except with a lot more anxiety and frowning)

I feel as though we already knew Alex went to Stanford but I can’t remember if Kara’s (terrible) resume revealed that she went to National City University?

*Checks* Yes it did.

Another thing I LOVE is just. Alex as the Responsible One, whose anxiety is perpetually cranked to a 9.5, driving the Scooby-Duo around in the suburban mom van for super-ing jobs.

Also, ‘super-ing’ is an excellent verb, 15/10

Young Cat Grant! ....More on her later.

Nicole and Jesse did such a great job with the comedy in this episode--their initial attempt at a cover story/lie is so good. 

And the masterful transition into an actual good lie that Nia knew would win Kara over...VERY NICE.

Kara being so obviously thrilled that there are OTHER ALIENS! WITH POWERS! HERE, IN MIDVALE! RIGHT HERE!

Fandom has ruined the whole ‘Kara has golden retriever energy’ as is their way but I must say...very much getting ‘excited puppy energy’ here. 

Nia and Kara comparing powers was so CUUUUUUUUTE!!!!

As was the picture on Kenny’s desk of him and Kara. D’aaaawwww.

(But OH NO SADNESS...BECAUSE A BREAKUP IS IMMINENT.)

Okay in addition to all of the incredibly adorable content we also get lots of FAMILY FEEEEEEELINGS, which: Yes, good, yes.

But Eliza is only here as a PICTURE on Kara’s nightstand and a NAME on Alex’s badge, I am sad. :C

(Hope Helen Slater is in this last season at some point...need that soothing mom energy after all the Phantom Zone angst)

I think I’m out of order now but Kenny wanting to help Kara help people is just. The most adorable thing. 

Spoiler alert: I use the word ‘adorable’ a lot in this list. Sorry...but also not. 

The Brainy music when he’s in the school computer lab watching the printer is really great. I think we’ve heard it before, but it meshed so well with the whole vibe of both the character and the episode, just stood out nicely, I guess.

Okay, so. Do we think that Jesse could always do the baseball bat tricks, and the writers wrote it in, or do we think that he learned them for the show? My money is on the former.

Either way, very impressive.

And now for the truck situation! I kinda thought it would turn out that it was Cat’s doing, as she was trying to suss out the ‘super’, but nope, it was the blue dudes.

(Which makes more sense, since they have no qualms about endangering other people.)

And ON THAT NOTE, the blue guys! They are the perfect level of ridiculous, and they are wonderfully straightforward in ways that the Phantoms are not.

Also, I love that one of them is named Mitch?

Nia and Kara save the day!

After Kara busts the brakes and is like, ‘uhhh....they’re not working’

I noticed the Metropolis license plate and while yes it’s a little strange that plates are...apparently city-based in this corner of Earth Prime, stranger still is that Cat presumably drove clear across the country to check out this story. Right? Like, that’s the only way she has that plate out in Midvale?

Wait, wait. Totally forgot to mention Kara and Nia’s EXTREMELY OBVIOUS ‘don’t be suspicious’ sunglasses gambit at the Midvale College campus you absolute DORKS.

Right, so.

Remember those FAMILY FEELZ??? WELL!

We’ve got Nia’s call to her mom, which, oof. OOOOOF. 

And then we have even MORE FEELINGS aka: The garage talk.

Okay. OKAY. So even though I’m a little sad “Midvale” no longer occurred in Earth Prime’s timeline, I am fascinated by the ways this new series of events have impacted Alex, Kara, and their past. (Also thrilled that Kenny lives, natch). Alex’s resentment and the burden of ‘protect Kara, PROTECT KARA’ have been left to simmer while Kara’s determination to help people has led to some...earnest but slightly careless secret hero work. The building blocks of the conflict introduced in “Midvale” are still there so while it might at first seem a little...repetitive, for Alex to lay all this out to Kara, it’s really just the reveal of a new boiling point; a post-crisis update on the scene in Midvale where Alex is like, ‘I had two parents before you showed up.’

AAAAAAAAAHHHHH IT’S EMOTIONALLY DEVESTATING I LOVE IT. 

And then like. The new, but also not-new angle, of Alex leveraging her world-weariness against Kara’s youthful optimism/somewhat reckless desire to help, and then Kara throwing BACK that she’s explored other solar systems. 

The LAYERS.

Also that Alex is like, ‘we need weapons, let’s tell mom and also call the DEO,’ classic Alex.

The garage talk ends with Kara determined to come clean to Kenny...BUT OH NO, THE HERO HIDEOUT IS SO CUTE, AND KENNY IS SO DEAR. 

And the reveal that the almost-kiss in “Midvale” actually happened d’awwwww these kids. 

Like. I am legitimately torn, here. I totally understand and support Kara in being honest with Kenny about the whole college situation--but also GAH. KENNY IS SO NICE AND CUTE AND EARNEST. 

You know what ELSE is nice and cute and earnest?

Nia singing “9 to 5″ to Brainy to cope with stress and boost morale.

Heckin’ adorable, gosh.

Aaaaaand some other stuff occurred as the episode closed out but I don’t have them in my notes and BASICALLY I want the next hour like, now. Right now. Because this was WONDERFUL. FROM START TO FINISH.

So some Overall thoughts!

I said we’d get to Cat ‘CJ’ Grant later, so here we are: I...think I liked her? Overall? It was a performance that gradually won me over, is how I would describe it.

Absolutely wild that Cat built a media empire in a mere six years. 

Also her whole, ‘I am going to find this extraordinary being and name them and kick Lois Lane into the classifieds’...I mean she eventually gets two out of three, there.

As I already started to mention, sad that Eliza wasn’t here! But it makes sense, since a lot of this, Kara is trying to keep on the DL.

Obviously, I am ALWAYS down for these flashback situations with the young Danvers. But it was also nice to take a break from the Phantom stuff. The plot here is simple/streamlined in a way the Phantom stuff...isn’t. I love the emotional character stuff coming out of the Phantom Zone arc but wow, the Phantoms are just. Needlessly complicated. 

The little episode recap where Lena is explaining that Phantom Prime is like a bloodhound was like, ‘oh right, they do that too...in addition to all the other stuff that they apparently do.’

So, yes. Welcome change.

The change of scenery + type of action was nice too!

Though RIP to everyone’s hair, fighting against the moisture.

This episode also handled the Brainy/Nia relationship really well, IMO. Like, due to the whole, ‘trying to fit so much in, always’ approach to Supergirl episodes sometimes results in a bit of...one-sidedness, for various characters. Think for instance of Kelly needing to cheer everyone on in episode 2, but not having space for her own feelings/emotional needs in that episode.

I’ve felt that a bit with Brainy and Nia thus far--one will sort of take up more narrative space, so the relationship feels a little lopsided.

NOT SO HERE! They are both going through some stuff, they are both struggling to cope, they both come to rely on one another for help. 

YES. GOOD. YES!!!!

Something I’m loving about season 6 overall is that so far, it doesn’t feel like the plot is stepping on character development too much. Like, it still isn’t a perfect balance, and some episodes manage it better than others, but compared to season 5? Leaps and bounds.

Everything was so nicely tied together and the dialogue was witty, the humor was delightful, EVERYONE WAS ADORABLE AND EARNEST AND DID I MENTION ADORABLE?* but they never lost sight of the themes and emotional through-lines and GAAAAAHHHHHH MIDVALE EPISODES ARE THE BEEEEEESTTTTTTTTT!

*Okay Alex was mainly stressed out but that’s to be expected.

TL;DR - Best episode of the season thus far? Best episode of the season thus far. 

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Why I think Barchie Needs To Happen.

Well I’m bored so I figured I would pass the time by rambling on about Barchie. So I figured I would explain why I not only think Barchie will happen in season 5 but why it needs to happen. Obviously these are just my own thoughts, feelings and opinions on it, totally fine if anyone disagrees. 

One of the biggest reasons why I think Barchie needs to happen is one I’ve made no secret of in my previous posts. I’m bored with the current couples. That’s not to say that Jughead and Betty and Veronica and Archie are necessarily bad couples. It’s just that they’ve become too repetitive. To be honest I don’t feel like those relationships are progressing anymore. They’ve become stagnant. All Betty and Jughead do is investigate crimes and all Archie and Veronica do is get into conflicts with Hiram. It just keeps going round in circles. In the first two seasons their relationships were still progressing and growing but in my opinion the relationships haven’t really developed any further in season 3 and 4. Shaking up the couples would change that. 

Another problem that I think occurred from keeping the same couples for so long was with character interaction. It seemed like Riverdale had gotten into this rut where only the same set of characters would interact with each other. For example most of Betty’s scenes were with Jughead. Most of Archie’s scenes were with Veronica, pretty much all of Toni’s scenes were with Cheryl. It became very rare to see these characters interacting with anyboby else. Which again, this becomes boring and monotonous. But if you look at season 4 with the plot of Jughead’s fake death and the Barchie plotline we immediately started to see other characters interact with each other. We saw Veronica with Cheryl, Jughead with Charles, Ethel and the Stonies. We also saw Betty interacting with Donna. Toni, Reggie, Kevin and Fangs all had a storyline together, admittedly a terrible one but it was still a group of different characters interacting, the thing I loved about the last episode was it was a large group of characters together and that was fun to see. By breaking up the core four you open it up for other interactions and the possibilties are really interesting. It was one of the best parts of the blackhood storyline. We got to see Betty and Archie investigating a mystery instead. We got to see Jughead more involved in the Serpents and hanging out with Toni. The same again when Archie left. We started to see Veronica have storylines with other people like Reggie and the Pretty Poisons. Even getting mixed up with Gladys Jones. It was something different and that made it exciting and interesting. Season 5 is going to be introducing some new characters and this is one of the things I’m most excited for because we’ll be seeing something new and new interactions between characters. There are so many possibilties for new conflicts, new friendships and new love interests. Obviously I don’t think B*ghead and V*rchie are the sole reason why there was so little interaction between all of the characters but I do think it was a huge contributing factor, I feel like the writers just got too comfortable if that makes sense. 

Reason number 3 why Barchie needs to happen is because I feel like they need to be properly explored. Because of the way they were set up in the pilot and then the following seeds that were planted over the following seasons if they don’t get properly explored then they will always be a what if, a loose end if you will. I know some people feel like Barchie came out of nowhere but I personally think it was pretty obvious that they were laying down the paving stones for Barchie in pretty much all the seasons barring season 3. I mean the pilot episode established their backstory of childhood crushes, and made it clear that Betty was in love with Archie. The way the rejection happened in my opinion very much left the door ajar for them. In my opinion it wasn’t a straight forward rejection on Archie’s part. I just think he was confused and conflicted and wasn’t ready to start a relationship with Betty at that time. But later in the season it was obvious Archie had some jealous feelings towards B*ghead, Veronica even called him out on it. Then there was the whole ‘A little part of me always thought.’ Jughead’s voiceover about the boy next door looking at the girl next door as if for the first time. The kiss that they didn’t talk about, the fact that they didn’t talk about it very much again left that door ajar for them. They have never ever completely closed the door on Barchie. Whilst all of these were small moments they were all little stepping stones that were being laid down leading up to the events of season 4 where you got this perfect storm of situations, the stress of Jughead’s fake death, the fake dating, the fact that with graduation coming up it felt like everything was changing. All of this contributed to all of Barchie’s oppressed feelings coming back up again. But this time Betty is the one that’s not ready to commit to a serious relationship with Archie. But once again the door hasn’t been completely closed. Again I know some shippers feel like the cheating storyline in season 4 means Barchie has been explored and thats it now. But in my opinion with the unfinished song and the unburned diary Barchie’s story still remains unfinished. In order for them to really be done with the Barchie storyline they need to fully explore them. That means having them in a relationship, going on dates, sleeping together, having fights, making up, being domestic with each other and all that jazz. Otherwise they will still be that what if. I think post timejump season 5 is the perfect time to explore them. Enough time would have passed for the hurt from their breakups and the betrayal from the cheating to have healed somewhat. Both Jughead and Veronica are going to be in other seemingly serious relationships. Veronica will be married and Jughead has a live in girlfriend. With them in other relationships it would make sense for Archie and Betty to feel more comfortable starting a relationship then right after they all break up. Also they are older and more mature so they will be able to work through those emotions better. 

Why I think they should be endgame. 

Ok so I’ve put this in a separate section because its slightly different from them being explored. I 100% think they will be explored but whether they will be endgame is another question. I know there’s alot of talk about Barchie having a relatively short lived relationship and then the original couples coming back together. Most are comparing it to Spaleb from PLL but here’s the thing the two situations are completely different for one very good reason. Spaleb were not explored at all before that timejump so they really did come out of nowhere. However as I’ll talk about more later Barchie has already had romantic moments a set up before now, basically Spaleb had no foundation Barchie does. I personally think its too early to tell what will happen. There is still a possibilty that Barchie will end up together in the end. 

The first reason why I think they should be endgame is because I am a Barchie shipper who is obsessed with all things Barchie so naturally I want my ship to be endgame and I think I deserve to have my ship become endgame for a change otherwise I’m going to think I’m bad at this whole shipping thing. Basically I’m biased but I am aware of this and have no shame in it, like that’s sort of part of shipping everyone has their favourites and they want their favourites to be endgame. 

All jokes aside though one of the most common arguments I’ve seen against Barchie becoming endgame is that they are the childhood to lovers troupe and that troupe is overused so it would be too predictable. However this is actually the reason why I think they should be endgame because whilst I agree that the troupe is popular in tv shows from what I’ve seen it’s actually kind of rare for those couples to actually become endgame. I mean maybe I’m watching the wrong tv shows but some of the couples off the top of my head, Joey and Dawson from Dawson’s Peak not endgame, Willow and Xander from Buffy not endgame, Vanessa and Dan from Gossip Girl not endgame, might be wrong about this one but I think Hanna and her boyfriend Sean were childhood friends but not endgame, the only couple I can think of off the top of my head who were endgame were Navid and Adriana from 90210. Like I said it could just be the shows I’m watching but it seems to me that if Barchie do end up together it would actually be more of a twist than if they didn’t. It would be nice to see that troupe actually work out for the couple for a change. 

Another argument I see alot is that it wouldn’t be realistic for them to be endgame. Some say it wouldn’t be realistic for them to date their best friend’s ex, some say it wouldn’t be realistic for them to last when they were childhood sweethearts. The thing is realism in tv is a bit of a tricky thing because is some instances I do think its ok to complain about the lack of realism but other times its not. What I mean is that you have to look at realism within the boundaries of the show. And it can be different for each show. For example if a monster jumps out at a character in Supernatural that’s realistic for that show, you know its what the show is about. However if you were watching something like NCIS and a monster jumped out at a character that wouldn’t be realistic at all. An example of this in Riverdale is when thugs break into the Maple club and then Veronica apologises to Penelope. To me this was completely unrealistic for Veronica’s character to be apologising for putting Penelope, the woman who had recently tried to kill Veronica and her friends, in danger. But something like dating your friend’s ex or high school sweethearts getting married and becoming endgame happens all the time in this type of show, its not only realistic in the show but expected. Also if you go the realistic route then none of the couples should end up together. In reality only 2% of marriages are between couples who met and dated in high school and alot of them don’t last. For me within the boundaries of the show I actually think Barchie would be very realisitc. Like I said it is way too early to really know at this moment. But I could see Archie and Betty becoming sources of comfort for each other in the dark world that is Riverdale. They are each other’s constant the person they know will always be there, whether that’s as a friend or a lover. No matter how mad they get at each other they’ll still be there. I said in one of my reviews that I think part of the reason why Betty rejects Archie is because she knows that he’ll still be there even if she tells him she doesn’t want to be with him romantically. She was very worried about losing Jughead but she knew that she wouldn’t lose Archie, because Archie is always there and has been since she was a little girl. However I do think Betty will get a scare while he is in the army and that will be what pushes them towards having a relationship. Bascially I can see them being each other’s rock in the crazy town of Riverdale. In my opinion they have a more mature relationship with mature feelings towards each other and at the moment whilst in high school I don’t think they are ready for those feelings but after the time jump and as adults I think they will work really well together. I think they needed the relationships with Jughead and Veronica, they grew through those relationships, they learnt through those relationships but I think as they get older Archie and Betty will be more suited to each other. I know Betty has had some, hmm how to put it? Spicy scenes with Jughead but to me I feel like Archie would be more into that kind of thing than Jughead. I feel like while Jughead doesn’t mind it he more goes along with it because its what Betty is into whereas I feel like Archie would be more of a match to her if you get my drift, for some reason I’m picturing fireman roleplaying. Also I am still conflicted about the whole erasing asexual Jughead. I did read something a while back, think it was like 2017, where Roberto touched on the subject saying that “I think all of the kids are discovering themselves, and a big part of that is discovering their sexuality, their sexual selves. Rather than have everything fully formed — for instance, we’re not going to start with Archie’s band or Jughead’s asexuality or any of the things that have become canon — those are all stops on the way to the journey until the show catches up to 75 years of Archie history.” Also around the same time Cole said “The entirety of season 1 sets the pace for a character’s narrative arc. Because of the fluidity of sexuality and how oftentimes a person discovers who they are after a series of events – like those told in our origin stories – this is an ongoing conversation.”  But bascially I am hopeful that they might still explore Jughead as asexual. As time has gone on that hope has dwindled a bit but its still there. Again I think the time jump is the perfect time to start exploring this. Obviously this doesn’t mean that Jughead can’t fall in love or wasn’t in love with Betty of course he was but I would like to see a Jughead who is asexual because I do think this is something that needs to be more explored in popular media and if they are going the route of Jughead discovers his sexuality over time then this is the perfect moment for them to introduce that. Again this is just my opinion don’t come for me with pitchforks. 

Anyway that’s it for now I have a lot more thoughts but no one wants to read a novel on my non sensical ramblings of barchie. Also I’m sorry if this post doesn’t make much sense it’s nearly 2 am where I am and I’m having trouble sleeping so... Anyway what do you guys think do you think they’ll explore Barchie in season 5? Do you think they could be endgame or do you think they will unltimately end up back with the original couples?       

[laufire]

In depth fandom ask: the last fandom you joined bc I can't remember it now

Well, I guess the last fandom I’ve properly joined --making a few edits, starting yet-another-WIP etc.-- is Black Sails, so. Plus I want to talk about it a little, spoiler-free, in case you decide to watch it ^-^ (I’ll leave that to the s3 post I need to finish...).

Top 5 favourite characters: Max is my number one, without a doubt, and of the rest of my faves Silver has an edge... but the remaining positions are a tough fight between Flint, Jack, Madi and Miranda, and I honestly can’t choose DD:

Other characters you like: Mr. Scott, Anne, Idelle, the Maroon Queen, Billy, Eme, Abigail... This show has a lot of great characters tbh.

Least favourite characters: I still loathe Peter Ashe with every fiber of my being. Alfred Hamilton is obviously The Worst(TM). And though it hasn’t grown into hate (yet), I don’t like Woodes Rogers one bit ¬¬

Otps: Flint/Miranda, and the combos in Flint/Madi/Silver and Anne/Jack/Max (in no particular order at the moment because I just HAVE TONS OF FEELS ABOUT THEM ALL).

Notps: I don’t have strong NOPE feelings towards anything, but I’m not into Eleanor/Max (which is a dynamic I actually really like BUT that I’m glad it doesn’t return to shippiness LOL); Eleanor/Rogers (I might be indifferent towards Eleanor most of the time but I haaaaaate Rogers for her. RUN GIRL), Flint/Vane (booooooooring).

Favourite friendships: Max & Silver (THE duo I swear), Jack & Max, Flint & Silver, Idelle & Max (I might not have said so before but I guess I like a little conflict LMFAO), Billy & Flint (NOT a friendship, but their relationship absolutely cracks me up I swear. “Who’s Billy?” XDDD).

Favourite family: Madi’s family, which is all I can say without getting spoilery. I just. *lies down on the floor overcome with emotions* xDD

Favourite episodes: the problem with binge-watching (okay, I’ve taken s3 more slowly but) is that they all kinda blur together LOL. Hmm. The season finales are all *chefs kiss* so far (sometimes in a very painful way... I’m looking at you s2. Though the ominous Flint/Silver moments in the s3 were A LOT too); any in which I get to see Max & Silver scheming together ofc. And the first handful of eps in s3 were particularly enjoyable to me because I was drowning in PURE ANGST and Flint & Silver feels xDD (I can’t NOT believe the fandom seems to call one of those “the shark date” asñldfjasdfñl).

Favourite season/book/movie: oof. I honestly can’t pick; s1 is probably the “least” because the others include better moments for some of my secondary faves, and because there’s a plot that’s really hard to watch... BUT it has things on it I adore to pieces too. s1-2 doesn’t have Madi (major drawback xD), and s3 is after one of my faves’ death... but frankly they’re all neck and neck so far.

Favourite quotes: “I am ruined over you” always comes to mind DD: “Liked is just as good as feared”; Max combo with Eleanor about sand (typing that down made me think of Anidala LMFAO. The scene itself is very different though! xD) in the s1 finale; “in another time, in another place, they would call me a queen”; “this ends when I grant them my forgiveness, not the other way around”, Mr. Scott’s “No. Only YOU.”... honestly, this show’s dialogue is just too good(TM), I could just quote it all back xD. And of course, I HAVE to mention “WHO’S BILLY”. It’s the law.

Best musical moment: the score is perfection all around, but given that I never skip the intro just to listen and watch it... yeah, the intro xD

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: well, I *might* have lost it the moment CAPTAIN FLINT COMES OUT TO LONG JOHN SILVER OVER A BONFIRE, IDK XDD

When it really disappointed you: the fact that I won’t get to see a fully fleshed out Mr. Scott-Silver dynamic is MAJORLY disappointing, let me tell you. That Flint’s actor didn’t somehow get his mother (aka Maggie Smith aka Professor McGonagall aka Lady Violet) on the show too ¬¬. LOL.

Saddest moment: character’s deaths of two of the characters listed on “top 5”/“others you like” xD.

Most well done character death: the hanging in 3x09 was well done and served its purpose.

Favourite guest star: for a value of “guest star”... I’m going with Idelle.

Favourite cast member: Jessica Parker Kennedy is the one that I know and love for other projects she’s done.

Character you wish was still alive: THE ONE WE TRAGICALLY LOST IN 2x09.

One thing you hope really happens: I’m cheating because I know there’s some of that in s4, but I want to watch more Flint/Madi interactions pls.

Most shocking twist: well, I wasn’t spoiled for Mr. Scott’s plot in s3 so I was (pleasantly) surprised by that xD

When did you start watching/reading?: a little over two weeks ago; I watched (devoured) s1-s2 and 3x01-3x04 in a few days because I wanted to meet Madi, and then I tragically had to slow down :(((

Best animal/creature: I will always love Treasure Islands’  parrot that Silver named after Flint LMFAO.

Favourite location: Nassau aka Max’s ~domain xD. And Miranda’s house.

Trope you wish they would stop using: noooooone. I love the tropes this show reuses LMFAO. Romantic Betrayals(TM), triumvirates, “good things happen in the dark/away from civilization”, the power of narratives, social climbing and revolt... bring them oooooon.

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: quite a few xD. But one that really stands out to me is the dialogue; both the ~deep and sorrowful type (there were so many quotes where I had to take a break to freak out properly lol), and the humorous ones.

Funniest moments: I know I’m repeating myself, but I recently rewatched the pilot to edit some scenes and I keep remember the WHO’S BILLY one xDD (which I maintain it was Flint trolling him. He could give Abigail a rundown of Billy’s whole life story AND he shamelessly checked him out that one time. Flint knows who Billy is, he’s just an asshole xD). Really, all the scenes between Billy and Flint in that episode are comedic gold lmfao. Billy’s “oh dear I fucked up” expression when he tells Flint the crew has started to think him weak and Flint looks half a second away from murdering him right there, his WTF face at Flint’s antics with the stolen page... Gold, seriously.

Couple you would like to see: I meannnnnn. I would’ve been very happy if the show had decided to go with Flint/Madi/Silver, for one. Bonus if Miranda could’ve been included. Or just explicit Flint/Silver in poly arrangements (THEY ARE IN LOVE, IT’S JUST ~COMPLICATED XD).

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: MAGGIE SMITH DAMMIT.

Favourite outfit: literally everything Max wears in s3. Eleanor’s s1-s2 outfits were things I’d love to wear too. Flint’s ~dramatic coat. Miranda’s collection of supposedly-puritan-but-showing-the-goods dresses xDD (and ofc her London clothes), Jack’s clothes (he’s Nassau’s fashion icon lbr).

Favourite item: the books!! Especially when Flint gave Miranda “La Galatea” as a gift (given that sometimes he reminds me of my OC Latoya, you might understand the freakout I had when he gave the other member of my OTP a book titled like that xDD).

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: no, but I kinda want to. I did have a Treasure Planet computer game I tragically can’t find... it was about collecting money in increasingly difficult scenarios LOL. And I probably have more pirate-y/Treasure Island theme stuff. I had a long pirate phase xD

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: Max’s because I like being on the winning team, thanks xD (though I do ~align more with Flint and Madi’s lbr...).

Most boring plotline: Eleanor and Vane’s ~romance is not at all badly written... but the fact that I find both of them boring kinda ruins the whole thing because I always wish that time went to someone else xD. Also, Blackbeard. Meh.

Most laughably bad moment: n/a.

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: the London flashback where Miranda goes to Flint’s house unannounced to take him to an art gallery, she finds him half-naked and he gets all awkward about it lmao. And then they hook up in the carriage :DDD

Most layered character: we get to explore Flint and Silver the most. Silver’s development in particular is something that never ceases to impress me ngl.

Most one dimensional character: except the one-note characters I wouldn’t really call anyone completely one-dimensional, tbh. Though I do think the fandom attributes more complexity to Thomas than it’s seen in canon? Like, I like what I see; I think he’s functional, he works well, and he adds wonderfully to Flint’s (and Miranda’s) story, but I don’t see him as a full character in his own right. Which is perfectly fine for the narrative so far, but I fear it might fall apart for me at the very end.

Scariest moment: I never know what to say in this... I mean, I guess Flint killing a man with his bare hands in the pilot Like That was scary xD. I understand why Silver freaked out LOL.

Grossest moment: any of Max’s interactions with Vane tbh. Stay away from her ¬¬

Best looking male: Flint has that ruggedly handsome thing going on for him, if you’re into that (and sometimes I do appreciate his ~aesthetics... very sad he shaved his head in s3 though. Like, I get you did it for the Angst, honey, and trust me, I Feel U, but still). I feel like I might be forgetting someone, but seriously, none of the dudes in this show so far do anything for me LOL. I can honestly say I love them for their personalities xDD

Best looking female: I have a weakness for Max, but Miranda, Madi, Anne, the Maroon Queen, Idelle, Eme... all of them are gorgeous in their own way. This show is good for sapphic women’s enjoyment in that sense xDD.

Who you’re crushing on (if any): I could crush on any of the women mentioned above tbh.

Favourite cast moment: I have literally only seen this post about an interview where Flint’s actor says he’s too old to party with The Youth of the cast and just wants to chill on the weekend... with bonus Max and Eleanor’s actress talking about how Vane’s once climbed the side of a building up AND back down. I’m with you, Toby Stephens, you don’t need those shenanigans xDD

Favourite transportation: the Walrus, for sentimental reasons LOL. I liked stolen Spanish warship too.

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): lots of good ones, though I think my fave might be the one of Miranda sitting by the window in London. Or the one of Charles Town burning down, I liked that :))) (I remember thinking “Flint better go full Daenerys on them”. And he did! It was nice xD).

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: n/a, so far.

Best promo: n/a.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: I liked it from the word go, but the moment that TRULY cemented it for me was in 1x03, with Max making a decision that I... frankly didn’t expect. It made things worse for her in the short-term, the storyline itself was difficult and disturbing to watch and I still have some mixed feelings about it. But what it said about her as a character and how her journey goes after that... I was in awe of her, and of the show.

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

You know what? I know I only did Hunted yesterday, but March of the Oni is only four episodes long so heck yeah I blitzed that too. 

A little background before I actually cover my thoughts; March of the Oni feels just as much like old Ninjago before my entrance into the fandom as the other seasons. The truth is that it isn’t; I got into LEGO again because of watching TLM2 about mid-late February. I then went nosing around other LEGO branches a month later in March, which covered things like Friends, Clutch Powers, LCU, Nexo Knights and Ninjago. By the time I reached that, it was around the time March of the Oni was airing, so I got to see the reactions to the season in real time. Of course, I couldn’t really join in because I didn’t watch it with them.

But now I have, and it’s honestly rather fun, if not a bit weird. There is one obvious issue, but I think we can predict what that is. But enough of a history chat, I’ll get into my season note write-up!

-The characters are pretty on point even with the lighter tone. At its heart this is a focus on Lloyd to wrap up his plot, and Lloyd is just fine here. He obviously spends a lot of time in a downer mood here too (because circumstances), but he’s got more of his spunk back, the conflict between him and Garmadon in the Oni land is some nice banter. The FSM scene was kind of out of nowhere though. -The other ninja characters have their own small stories (bar Zane. Even the plot tries to excuse that when it doesn’t make sense) and they are all pretty enjoyable. Shout outs to Cole and Kai this time, they’re finally stepping up to take the entertainment mantle from Jay (well, when they’re not depressed in this special. I’ll get to that). Also, Pixal gets more time to show off here than in Hunted, which was a full season. What? -I didn’t even mention Garmadon in Hunted despite being a big player because there he was basically just a destruction machine. For some reason (which I know) he has a lot of sass this time. It means he’s a lot more fun, but after the last two seasons this feels like a very different direction. -Nobody else was worth mentioning aside from Garmadon’s epiphany being from talking to...a random cameraman? What? Even Dareth, Faith, Wu and Misako were basically just cameos.  -Omega and the Oni were actually kind of interesting. I mean, to start with, they’re supposed to be hell-bent on destruction by nature, so them being one-note is a lot more forgivable than more human characters being the same. For another, the plot used Omega to highlight something Hunted never really did anything with. When we saw the resurrection ceremony in Sons of Garmadon, the ninja appeared to interfere with it while it was still going on. The aftermath of SoG and the entirety of Hunted basically went along with the idea that this ended up a flawless resurrection anyway, and that the ninja interfering did nothing. Omega basically offers a counterargument that it was in fact botched, calling out this supposedly totally evil Garmadon as still wanting to connect to his human side. That’s why I’m actually fine with how it ended; Omega’s words have him conflicted, and he feels he can’t judge how to react to Lloyd in this state, so he ends up backing off to see he can find some answers for himself. Leaves the Omega’s words room to resonate and have payoff.  Plus he seemed so done with the family feud shit down below.  -Speaking of, I have seen people question why Cole was needed to fall anyway when he survived just fine and came back in the span of one episode. It seemed to be two-fold to me; to be the straw that broke the camel’s back between Lloyd and Garmadon (thus driving Garmadon’s possible road to redemption, since him and Lloyd are the focus of this season) and being the impetus that eventually leads to the idea of forging the Golden Weapons, and thusly the Tornado of Creation. Plus Kai was depressed pretty much the entire time until Cole came back (I’ll get into this one later).  -The whole premise of this special has a weird foundation; it was supposed to finish off the brand spanking new Oni trilogy, but was made to promote Legacy sets. That being said, it was nice to see the callbacks. From the aforementioned Tornado of Creation, to the Golden Master armour (NOT the Dragon Armour), to Possessions’ Sword of Sanctuary, and even Kai’s profession from the pilot play a pivotal part.  -As one may expect, the big thing about the season that holds it back is the pacing. With only four episodes to cover story as opposed to ten, a lot of beats end up going by very quickly without having time to really mull properly. Biggest offender is probably after Cole’s death, everyone is down, but as soon as Kai forges those golden weapons Jay and Zane are just stoked like “YEAH” and “COOL”. Like, come on. 

Okay, for this one I’m getting on a soap box about Cole and Kai again. I did it for Possession, but I need to do it here even harder. When I started this watching of the older Ninjago material, I thought, based on how everyone else talked about it, Cole and Kai stopped having meaningful interactions early on, only to come up again much, much later. It seemed that way when I started, being way down for season 2 compared to season 1 and the pilots. But no, season 3 picked it up again, and it persisted. It persisted so long, only season 6 could be argued to have dropped it again (and that has the excuse of them only appearing for half the season in Kai’s case). It was there, but it was on the low, left to simmer. March of the Oni feels like someone got drunk at the wheel and messed up the ratios of character interaction, because this season was just chock full of it. Like, it even comes to a point where Garmadon is looking at past photos of Cole after being admonished for his inhumanity about his “death”, and the shot just could not cut Kai out of the closeup of Cole. Between this season, and what the DHX seasons have done, it’s no wonder Lava seems to be snowballing.

Also can I just point out that this is some weird bizarro universe where Jay is being pushed by his girlfriend’s brother and his former romantic rival to propose when Jay’s the one not ready to do so? And that it gets even weirder for said girlfriend? 

Overall, I actually quite enjoyed March of the Oni, in spite of its reputation. It’s certainly very bizarre when taken as the follow-up to Sons of Garmadon and hunted, but I think it achieves what it set out to do, and in a satisfactory way. The deaths may have been a bit too cheesy, but everything has a narrative purpose, so none of it feels like fluff. Yeah, I think it’s pretty good. 

Well, it’s nice that the series has picked up again after Hunted. But next time, we get to see if it can...oh, wait, that’s it. I saw Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjutsu when it came out, and I really enjoyed that one. And Prime Empire is my favourite season of Ninjago altogether. 

So I guess for overall, I’d say this; Ninjago as a show isn’t without its issues. It especially seemed to have teething issues for the first four seasons, but aside for some clunky bits (decisions made in S6, S9) and some shaky characterisation that wasn’t quite ironed out, it’s been an enjoyable ride. I’d say I’d watch eight of the twelve seasons willingly again, and that is definitely not a bad ratio for such a long lasting show. 

This isn’t the end of my thoughts on old Ninjago though. Next time I get to do something more off the cuff and digging into my more nuanced thoughts; unpopular opinions!

[ggdeku]

Iron Blooded Orphans broke my heart [SPOILERS]

I finished all of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans last night, but the show I once loved made me feel hollow and unsatisfied.

I quickly fell in love with IBO and that feeling persisted through the whole first season. The journey of Tekkadan from Mars to Earth, and that amazing conclusion in Edmonton had marked it solidly as one of my all time favorite Gundam series ever. The strength of IBO to me was it's characters and world building. I was invested in the group of kids taking control of the private military company CGS to help fight for the betterment of their lives while forging deep family bonds. While most of the members of Tekkadan didn't get all that much screen time, I really enjoyed the personalities of the primary characters. Mikazuki and Orga's longtime, co-dependent relationship was really compelling, you could really feel the longtime emotional bonds between them. Kudelia's lofty goal of independence for Mars, combined with Tekkadan's underdog nature made it a group I was really engaged with and emotionally invested in. The antagonists weren't the most compelling, but the dynamic between McGillis, Gaelio, and Carta gave the opposing side some more depth beyond their immediate goals. You got a good sense of what each of those three Gjallarhorn officers were like as people. I also really enjoyed the political struggle of the series, the fight for independence from Earth is a common theme of Gundam, but I thought it was portrayed well here.

I deeply loved this show throughout all of the first season, but the direction taken in season 2 slowly beat me down until I could no longer pretend I was enjoying it. The last four episodes really kicked the wind out of my sails and felt cheap. IBO season 1 had one focused plotline that made sense and felt cohesive all the way through. Season 2 is a bunch of loosely connected mini-arcs with no clear focus, vision, or message. The way character death is handled in this season is one of main reason why I'm upset. It's not just because almost all of the primary characters are killed off, it's the way in which it occurs and the way the epilogue plays out. It doesn't lead to, or accomplish, anything. The ending feels stolen from the characters in a really sick way. 

Biscuit's death in the first season had a ton of build up, and we really got to know him as a person and learn about him through his relationships to Orga and the crew. His death informed the decisions and actions of Tekkadan in a meaningful way. In season 2, it felt like the writers just wanted to kill everyone to seem sad or intense, but it doesn't work. By the time Mikazuki and Akihiro are killed in the final episode, I was numb to impact of their death. I didn't feel sad because of their circumstance, I felt sad that the writers drew out this whole series of characters deaths to the point where it felt formulaic and predictable. The deaths of Naze,  Amida, and Lafter was unnecessary but drove the plot forward by having Tekkadan take revenge of Jasley Donomikols, which ultimately led to nothing.

Shino, Orga, McGillis, Hush, Akihiro, Mika. They all die losing. Tekkadan utterly loses, but is able to protect the lives of the rest of their crew.  If through their sacrifice they were able to create the positive future for their friends, that would be one thing. But they don't and Gjallarhorn wins. Julieta holds the Gundam Barbatos' head on her sword triumphantly, and Rustal Elion maintains his power and influence through successful corruption, controlling the media message on the truth of Tekkadan and McGillis.

The loss and following epilogue really made me angry as I watched. For some reason, despite being shown to be a corrupt leader who crushes everything in his path, Rustal Elion decides to dismantle the Seven Stars system of leadership in Gjallarhorn and reform it as a democratic organization (he, of course, is elected to be it's first leader). Rustal lets Kudelia becomes the chairperson of the newly independent Mars Union and works with her to abolish Human Debris (slave) trafficking. The antagonist won and through his power let the rest of Tekkadan live, all knowing that he unnecessarily killed their friends and tarnished their names as a scapegoat to punish McGillis. The only reason they still live is because of Rustal and they just have to accept it. It's embarrassing and degrading. Yet, everyone seems fine with that (with the obvious exception of Ride).

Watching the epilogue made me to realize that much of the character work throughout the series really didn't make much sense. Rustal Elion specifically. As the main antagonist of the series, we know nothing about him or his ideals. We only see him act as a mustache twirling villain throughout the whole series, but for some reason he ends up enacting McGillis' idea of reforming Gjallarhorn. We have no reason as to why he has done this. It feels really unearned and like a desperate attempt to make a comment about there not being a difference between good and evil, just different pathways for change. This explanation feels extra hollow because the whole show absolutely depicted the different factions as good and evil.

Julieta and Gaelio's ending was ridiculous as well. These two awful characters get a "Let's go eat meat! Anime! lol XD" ending after a whole season of being half-baked uninteresting grunts. Julieta in particular has no character at all. "I need to get stronger" to the ultimate cliche degree. She is a consistently annoying presence that has almost no connections to other characters and offers nothing meaningful to the story through the entire season. While Gaelio wants his revenge against McGillis, their confrontation ends in a rather anticlimactic showdown. Iok Kujan is a ridiculous cartoon clown that only exists to ruin everything. His presence actively made the show worse at every turn.

McGillis' mysterious intentions were interesting in season 1 but once he started to realize his plans, and they started to blow up in his face immediately, he showed no signs of recognizing his failure and this rapid loss of control. McGillis was a frustrating idiot to watch every time he was on screen, an incompetent Char clone. We never really knew what his plan to reform Gjallarhorn was all about outside of removing the corruption from within. But as soon as he got his hands on Gundam Bael, he demanded that the entire organization follow his every order like a dictator. He didn't use his platform to expose corruption, he used it to gain power and forgot everything that led him to that point. He had no plan to counter Rustal, who was obviously going to oppose him. The show wants to portray him has some sort of scheming puppet master, but the writing consistently fails to demonstrate this in any way. Why is Bael some sort of icon of leadership? Why does McGillis think that as soon in as he pilots it everyone will obey him somehow? 

With such a large focus on the Gjallarhorn side of things this season you would think we would get some sort of new insight as to the ideology or internal conflicts of the organization, but that doesn't happen.  Everything presented is so shallow. Also the entire character of Almiria goes absolutely nowhere. 

Tekkadan also saw some new recruits join the team this season, but they remain underdeveloped hangers-on in most cases. Hush, the most prominent of the new recruits, gets almost nothing to do and his relationship to Mika is not well developed at all. His death felt like it should have had a strong emotional impact, but because he was so underdeveloped I felt nothing. He didn't have that much interaction with the other characters this season, spending most of his screen time as Mika's assistant. He says he wants to learn from Mika, but we almost never see the two of them talk. We never get a chance to care for him or understand what he adds to the group dynamic. 

The treatment of Atra and Kudelia was awful. In season 2, they are given nothing to do aside from fawn over Mika. Because it's not anime unless every woman in the show is somehow in love with our antisocial, quiet protagonist boy. Atra and Kudelia are most often seen talking to each other, and it is always about Mika. They only ever talk about him and about loving him. This does a real disservice to the characters who had so much potential. As the Founder/President of the Admoss company Kudelia could have been playing politics to help Tekkadan through the entire season. Atra could have actually helped out with the Tekkadan crew in person and had her own independent goals. Kudelia’s love for Mika was not convincing at all to me. Atra has the benefit of knowing him for most of her life and their relationship goes back the longest outside of Mika and Orga. Their romance wasn’t too out of place. But I don’t think IBO ever made a convincing case for Kudelia’s love for Mikazuki outside of his role as the “main character.” I think Mika and Atra having a baby and Kudelia becoming the step-mom after Mika’s death is a cool idea on paper, but it’s execution in the show was brutal to watch.

Season 2 felt like the writers did not know where to take the story so they threw everything they had on the page. It resulted in a muddled mess of themes and story lines with not enough time to give any characters their due. None of the deaths made much of an impact on the main crew at all. Everyone got over each death extremely quickly. You get one scene of brooding then you move on.

There is a part of me that's just angry about seeing characters I liked die, but it only serves to back up my opinion that death is often a lame way to create drama. The removal of a character is not interesting. You are eliminating a person from your story that (hopefully) had relationships, motivations, goals, and hopes. The interactions between your characters is what gives depth to your story and shows how they each grow individually and as a group. Removing all the characters removes possibility. You can show pain and suffering in other ways. Killing off almost every single one of the primary characters was a boring move.

And it makes me sad.

[kainosite]

Les Misérables 2018, Episode 2

Welp, Anthony Perkins is not going to be knocked from his pedestal of “Most Brick-Accurate Interpretation of Javert Despite Being Far Too Attractive for the Role” any time soon.

The Good:

• Finally we get an adaptation that will force both us and Valjean to confront the question “Does Petit Gervais deserve the protection of the French criminal justice system, and if not why not?”  The miniseries kind of had to do this because it made Valjean’s theft of the coin so much more deliberate than in the book, but it has done it, and not before time.  Les Mis fandom has been willfully avoiding this question for years.

• The Thénardiers were superb.  I know Olivia Colman is contractually obliged to appear in every BBC production ever, but her ubiquity is entirely justified here because she may be the best Mme. Thénardier of all time.  Thénardier was good too, and that brief flash of violence against Mme. T when she challenged him was a valuable addition, both because it explains a lot about her character and because it foreshadows what he’ll become in Paris.  So far we’ve only seen him as a corpse looter, a dodgy innkeeper and an extortionist, but he’s more dangerous than that, and we caught a glimpse of that here.  There were some nice subtle touches: the Sergeant of Waterloo sign and the story of Thénardier’s heroism, the fact that the girls only have two good dresses between them (Azelma immediately gets Cosette’s; when they’re showing off Cosette to Victurnien she’s wearing Éponine’s), the inclusion of unloved, adorable baby Gavroche.

• One consequence of Colman’s excellent performance is that Fantine’s choice to leave Cosette at the inn appears quite reasonable, as it should.  Fantine did exactly what a young woman traveling alone is supposed to do: she gravitated towards the mother playing with her children because that’s the person who is supposed to be safe.  Mme. T was welcoming and sympathetic, though still with a bit of a Thénardiery edge, the little girls played together like sisters, and Fantine’s decision to leave Cosette in this stable, apparently happy environment seems entirely natural.  She had no way to know that wholesome surface was wallpaper over an abyss.  The people who can afford the diligence get a recommendation for the other inn, but she had to walk.  (The Vimes theory of Yelp reviews.)

• Having Fantine walk in on Madeleine’s mayoral inauguration was a clever way to handle that exposition in theory, although slightly clunky in practice.

• Madeleine is so awkward.  His speeches are so bad.  His hat and coat are so ugly. <333

• I love every OC in Montreuil.  I love the bourgeois who is super excited about Madeleine becoming the mayor (I hereby dub him “Robert”).  I love Fantine’s factory friends who gossip about their sexy boss and his bedroom grotto and then run to get him to rescue their fallen coworker from  evil cops.  I even love the public letter writer with his creepy but pragmatic advice.  I imagine he’s been witness to a lot of human misery and has developed that cynicism and dark humor you often see in people in frontline emergency services.

• I don’t love Mme. Victurnien, but that’s her, all right.

• This adaptation is doing an excellent job with Fantine’s illiteracy, and has been since the first episode.  The skin-crawling awfulness of having to conduct your most private, personal business through the public letter writer and have him know and comment on all of it really comes through.

• The police are all in plainclothes and basically look like a gang of thugs.  This adaptation has really grasped the 1820s French police aesthetic.  I also appreciated how hostile and judgey everyone at the Prefecture was towards Javert.

• I don’t know what it says about Davies that the characters he can most consistently write well are the asshole fuckboys, but Bamatabois was great.

Also I don’t think I’ve seen a Fantine beat up a Bamatabois this bad since 1934 when she put his head through a glass window.  As in the 1934 adaptaion, this creates a minor problem with the narrative because it means she really is guilty of a serious assault and Javert is right to arrest her, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to enjoy seeing Bamatabois punched repeatedly in the face.  I do not have a heart of stone.

• I’m choosing to believe that Javert’s handshake following his resignation is a little nod to readers of the novel, who know as well as he does that a legitimate magistrate has not taken the hand of a spy.

• Nice fake jet manufacturing process in Valjean’s factory: they even included the gum-lac.  The flag at the Prefecture of Police is the white fleur-de-lys, not the tricolor.  They really are putting tremendous effort into getting some of the little details right.

• This adaptation’s sense of place continues to be excellent.  Montreuil-sur-Mer has its steep hill; during Madeleine’s inauguration you can even see the Canche.  The soldiers from the garrison are a ubiquitous background presence. The Prefecture of Police in Paris looks like the old headquarters at the Rue de Jérusalem, which if it wasn’t a happy accident shows a truly remarkable degree of historical research and commitment to accuracy.  (They then proceeded to cover it up with that hideous red font, truly the ‘YELLOW’ of this adaptation.)

The Meh

• If you must go with a “Javert immediately makes a positive identification of Valjean” plot their first meeting wasn’t a disaster, I guess.  There was some decent dramatic tension.  I appreciated Madeleine’s initial cunning plan to stare out the window for the entire rest of his life so that Javert couldn’t look him in the face, before realizing that this probably wasn’t going to work.  The little slip where he called Javert ambitious and betrayed his prior knowledge of him was good.

• Why does every person in this adaptation have a ridiculous and implausible horse?  Why does Javert have a horse to ride to Paris, which is far enough away that you’d need to change horses and you should probably just take the diligence, but not to Arras, which is within riding distance?

The horses are elevated from “bad” to “meh” by the fact that Valjean’s palomino is gorgeous, though very unlikely to exist in northern France in 1823, and if he must ride an implausible horse it might as well be an anachronistically pretty one.  Also by Valjean and Javert’s fraught moonlit horseback encounter, which is obviously what an adaptation should do with its ridiculous horses if it insists on having them.

• The Chief Inspector in Paris was neither Chabouillet nor attractive, nor did he have any fun hierarchical tension with Javert.  Boo.

• This adaptation is sure going hard on the Valjean/Fantine vibes, huh.  I don’t hate it, which probably counts as an enormous accomplishment for the miniseries.  I think it manages not to come off as gross mainly because Madeleine is so incredibly awkward that it’s impossible to imagine it ever progressing to the point of a sexual relationship.  Fantine smiles at Madeleine because she’s so relieved to have found a safe harbor.  After an internal struggle Madeleine manages to smile back because that’s what you’re supposed to do when people smile at you, right??? and she’s so powerless that she’s the only adult in Montreuil he doesn’t find threatening.  In a decade or two they might progress all the way to reciprocal “Good mornings” when she comes in to work.  That’s as far as this is going to go.

• Sadly this vision of social harmony and human connection will never be realized, because Fantine got fired.  Specifically she got fired by Valjean for added drama.  I know people are up in arms about this, but honestly I think it’s fine?  At the end of the day it is Valjean’s sexist policy that costs Fantine her job and his chosen supervisor who implements it.  The franc stops with him.  Having him fire her himself just makes his responsibility a little more apparent. I don’t think it’s necessary to depict it this way, but it’s fine.  Adaptations do this sometimes.  In 2012 something very similar happens, where Valjean is too distracted by Javert to deal with the Fantine Baby Drama and lets a malicious subordinate call the shots.  The Original French Concept Album has Valjean fire her directly without any excuse for his behavior at all, and nobody thinks the musical is a irredeemable character-ruining travesty of an adaptation– well, one guy.

• Shouty Valjean is not doing anything for me but he’s not catastrophic either.  It is unfortunate that most of the people he interacts with in this episode, and therefore most of the people he shouts at, are female, but we know from Episode 1 that he’s equally happy to shout at bishops who have just saved him from a lifetime sentence of forced labor.  Westjean is an equal opportunity shouter.

The decision to portray Valjean’s saintliness as a constant effort that slips whenever he’s stressed is an unusual one, and certainly not Brick-accurate (Brick Valjean’s saintliness is a constant effort that almost never slips), but I don’t think we should dismiss it out of hand.  Television needs to externalize internal conflicts in some way, and I can’t say this is a less artistically valid method than eg. I Miserabili’s tendency to have everyone monologue all the time.  We’ll have to see where they go with it.

• Valjean didn’t refuse Javert’s resignation.  The resignation scene is so weird that I’ve decided I’m actually okay with this, because it’s really very unclear what Javert’s is resigning over.  Is it the “false” denunciation?  Is it the argument over Fantine, which he also apologizes for?  Has all this turmoil just made him reconsider his life choices, and he’s decided to emigrate to America and become a paddleboat pilot on the Mississippi?  Who knows!  Valjean has a moral responsibility to stop Javert falling on his sword over the denunciation, but not to keep him on the police force.  If Javert is going to be this vague, it’s his problem.

• The Burning Coin of Shame was so melodramatic Hugo’s ghost is presumably kicking himself for not making Valjean pick it up in the novel.  I don’t hate it, but when you’ve out-melodrama’d Hugo it may be time to take a step back.

The Bad

• That red font looks worse every time I see it.

• Valjean’s godforsaken ponytail.  WHY.  It’s not even attractive!  Who the fuck decided to lift every aesthetic decision from the 2012 movie except for the period appropriate hair!?

• Speaking of period appropriate hair, your prospective employers might be less likely to assume you’re a slut if you put it up like a respectable woman instead letting it flop all over the place like a prostitute, Fantine.

• I don’t love Fantine’s intake interview.  There are ways they could have depicted the factory’s morality policy without making Madeleine come off like such a nosy sexist asshole, and Davies should have found one.  Being the nosy sexist asshole is Victurnien’s job.  Madeleine is meant to be the paternalistic, well-meaning sexist asshole.

• The Brick glides over Marius’s childhood in a few sentences, so I appreciate there is a difficulty in finding incidents to fill the Pontmercy sections in these early episodes.  TOO BAD.  You decided to merge the timelines, Davies; it was self-evident that this was going to be the major problem with that approach when you did it.  THIS IS THE LIFE YOU HAVE CHOSEN.  Go over the novel with a fine-toothed comb or make some shit up, but it was your responsibility to  fill this gap somehow.

Killing off Georges Pontmercy ten years early is not a solution.

a) You gave us Hot Sad Dad Pontmercy and then tore him away from us two episodes before you needed to.  HOW DARE.

b) The Marius timeline in the Brick makes sense.  His father dies, he finds out Georges loved him from Mabeuf, he starts researching his dad and Napoleon and grows estranged from his grandfather, Gillenormand kicks him out of the house, he meets Bossuet and Courfeyrac.  Marius’s internal growth, the timeline and the plot all work together as a cohesive whole.  Fuck knows how any of that is going to work out now.

c) Marius is still going to be a child next week, so killing off Georges didn’t even solve the problem, it just postponed it for the space of a single episode.

d) The gap wouldn’t even have been that hard to fill!  Georges could have fought with the prosecutor about his decoration and spied on Marius at church or something.  It would have given us a chance to meet Mabeuf properly.  Fuck this bullshit so much.

• This is a minor thing, but there should be women at Gillenormand’s table.  Ancien Régime salon culture was run by women; the exclusion of women from male political and social life in France was a nineteenth century invention.  The Brick is very clear about this – Gillenormand generally hangs around with Baroness T.  History has enough sexism in it already.  There’s no need to invent more.

• I have no objections to Valjean firing Fantine in person, but the toy bird introduces a pretty serious flaw in Victurnien’s “She’s a callous whore who doesn’t care about her child” case, one you’d think Valjean might notice.  There’s no reason for it even to appear in that scene!  Have the Tories cut the BBC’s budget so much they can’t afford script editors?

• Gosh those are some bright, white street lamps they have in Montreuil.  I wonder what sort of oil burns with such a constant flame?

• If Davies wanted to dissociate his adaptation from the musical, a good first step might have been to spend much less time with the campy tooth and wig guy.  Fantine’s plot arc was actually fairly good up until that point, but after that it really did devolve into misery porn.

• Oyelowovert has a very pretty face.  What he does not have is any coherent motivation for his behavior in this episode.

Javert’s plotline was such a fucking disaster in this that I gave it its own post.

• If Davies insists on doing this stupid Arras entrapment plot, the least he could do is give us a Robert and a Genflou to make up for it.  Well, we got a Robert but not a Genflou, and I’m mad.

This episode was a mix of the sublime and the grotesque, and therefore, in a certain sense, truly worthy of Victor Hugo.  But Gavroche is going to have a lot of work to do at the barricade to make up for this mess.

[thegooddoctorheadcanonsarchive]

‘Sup

Alright, so. I guess this post has been a long time coming, and I’ll try to keep it as succinct as I can. But with the constant messages in my inbox and the comments on my fics (Do No Harm in particular) I’m just gonna put this here.

From the moment The Good Doctor came out, I was in love with it. I loved its message, its story, its characters. And for a long time it was amazing. I found my inspiration to write again, you all seemed to like my work, people were even recognizing me and asking for me. The second half of season one, when it came back...it wasn’t as great, but it was okay still. I just figured I had to wait for it to get out of its dry spell.

But that dry spell’s still going on.

The Good Doctor's potential is being wasted. Because the writing is so bad. Not even from a personal, opinionated viewpoint, like “Oh, I don’t like how Jared had to leave, I miss him and the show’s not the same.” No, that’s not it. From the technical, fundamental viewpoint of writing, it’s bad. As I see it; you may not agree and that’s fine (I am not going to argue with anyone on this post). This is just me explaining myself and my absence from the fandom as of late.

The show...is not a show. It is episodes. Separate and disconnected, there is no flow from one to another, no overreaching plotlines (save for the one about Glassman’s cancer that is so often added more as an afterthought and somehow has little to do with Shaun) no motifs no lessons no building. You tune in for one episode (maybe the plot stretches to two if you’re lucky), you watch it, and then afterwards...that’s it. A plot/plot point wasn’t wrapped up or explained in that timeslot? Sucks, fill in the blanks yourself. (Ex: Claire’s ‘determination’ to bring Coyle to justice that was immediately dropped. Shaun leaving out tuna for the cat trying to draw it in, only to never see it again. Lim’s ticket nobody cared about in the first place; we didn’t even see where that out-of-place plot went. What happened to that lawyer guy? Andrew’s wife? She’s not important anymore, you don’t need to find out what happens even though we spent so long detailing the issue to you. Jared and the patient that liked him? What patient that liked him?)

We are expected as an audience just to...accept things in passing without question, which is not what we should have to do. Stories should be shown and explained. Not shoved in our face so quickly all we can do is accept it, or stories so vague they don’t answer any of our questions so we just stop asking. (Ex: Lea’s back from Hershey. We’ll tease you with explaining why she left and why it was such a big deal even though she was only gone for about a handful of episodes before we just brought her back suddenly, but that’s all you get. Kenny’s in jail. Yeah, he stole somethin’ or idk. Jessica’s gone. Don’t ask why, she’s not important. Heck, even Glassman being fired and Shaun being let off the hook and Andrews being made president...just glossed over. Told to us through narration mostly.)

It’s as if they don’t trust that they have enough time to properly build and structure a naturally-developing plot that makes sense, so they try to shoehorn it all into one compact episode and think we’ll still be as invested...which doesn’t work. (Ex: Melendez and Lim should have slept together more than just the once. They should have been sleeping together for some time, we should have seen them slowly round the corner into “Maybe it’s more than just sex” we should have gotten to actually associate and care about them as a couple, and then, episodes later, the quarantine should have happened, which would make the plotline so much more palpable and actually interesting...not to mention logical. Same with Tyler and Morgan. You cannot expect the audience to be attached to a person we met fifteen minutes ago and be sad when they die. Literally, we were smacked going into the finale with: “Oh yeah, by the way, these two couples are a thing, care about them.” ...No, I didn’t care. At all. I was bored. Because I didn’t even actually know that guy’s name until after he died, that was how sudden and odd his character was. There should have been build-up with that too. Even if it was just a couple flirting scenes over episodes!!! Like, it’s not hard!!!) Literally, if you told me the writers had no idea where they were going with the story, and they were writing blind and just seeing where it went episode by episode, I would believe you one hundred percent. Because it just seems unplanned. Worse than unplanned! I never know what’s going to happen in any of my fics when I start them, but I never actually show that...even I can do a better job of planning and connecting...and I don’t.

ALSO IMPORTANT: Not taking the time to build to those things specifically (couples that suddenly have to watch the other part of them die/be in danger and other situations like that) is one thing and one thing only: it is a cheap way to get the audience to be upset. It’s cheap. And that’s what the show is now. All its heart-string tugs, they’re too sudden or awkward, because the writers don’t want to show the growth and the layering to it, they just want you to be sad or ‘interested’ and that’s it.)

The characters we’ve grown to know and love (the ones that are still around...) are not the same. They are different people, and it’s sad to watch them act directly against the traits we’ve come associate with them. (Ex: Claire ‘apologizing’ to Melendez, and being proud that she is willingly making herself look like the one in the wrong just to save his ego. Claire would never do that. She is strong-willed and independent, and she has worked too hard to step down for anyone, especially a man. Glassman and Shaun told each other they loved each other at the end of season one. A moment that made us all scream, a moment that was actually built up to for once, a moment that we were waiting for, that was so important to both of them...and a moment that was immediately forgotten. Throughout season two, Shaun has been significantly detached from Glassman and his treatment for someone that was so distraught before. There have been a couple cute/supportive moments...but only a couple. For a large majority, they’ve ignored one another. Glassman giving up so easily, knowing that Shaun is trapped with a virus and not even calling anyone to ask how he is???? Nope. #NotMyGlassman. Lim yelling at Claire in season one for not supporting her as women in power that need to stick together and show one another respect, only to immediately snap and scream at the judge during her trial in season two, and stroking Melendez’s ego as well.)

Plotlines and conflicts. They are overly dramatic and don’t make sense when you step back and look at them, not to mention there are so many infuriating double standards just to make an issue. (Ex: It’s such an issue Shaun cannot express empathy, but when Park talks down to a patient for having weight loss surgery and outs him to his husband, and when Morgan is...Morgan 24/7, there’s no issue at all. Obviously Shaun is the only one in the wrong. Just like he was the only one in the wrong for Lea demanding forgiveness and calling him a jackass, even though she’s never been shown to be that high-strung especially to Shaun. He’s wrong there, too, nobody else. For reasons entirely unrelated to what you’re thinking about, yessir. These are direct plotlines just colliding with each other because the writers cannot keep track of them.)

Look...there are just so many more things I could go on to say. But this post is getting too long. I don’t want to leave the fandom altogether; some part of me still hopes the writing will pull through and the show will get back to the way it was. So I’ll keep watching and waiting for that. But for now, that is why I can’t bring myself to write headcanons or fics or anything like that, and why it just pains me when people ask me to. The show isn’t as investing, as emotional, as meaningful. It’s degraded, and I can’t be happy with it right now. Or write for it. 

There are other shows that had better writing, had better truer-to-themselves characters, kept the feeling it had from the pilot straight to its final episode, had overreaching/steady/connecting plotlines, was detailed to the very core, kept in mind everything it stood for, but have been unfairly forgotten, and I miss. And I miss The Good Doctor too, but not for the same reason. I miss The Good Doctor because ever since last winter finale, it’s gone downhill and it’s still going downhill. And it kind of pains me to see the difference between those.

Not gonna delete this blog, I’ll still be here the way I have been popping in every so often...but just for the people that ask where I am/comment on DNH/message me and ask why I’m not writing. This is why. Just made a post for them. 

[rowanthestrange]

In which the Terry’s Chocolate Orange Of No Thasmin has been dutifully consumed, and I attempt to order some thoughts.

aka. An Episode Rant and as with all of them, if you super enjoyed Resolution, feel free to not read. There’s nowt worse than being brought down from a high and honestly no-one’s opinions on it are worth that. Scroll and be merry.

*forces down last remaining segment of chocolate orange*

It’s like,

*stomach makes unhealthy gurgle*

Daleks can be scary again. Cool.

*burps and winces*

But I’m tired of watching Doctor Who episodes where nothing really happens.

*finds another segment hidden under the wrapper*

Alien of the week is a boring format. Alien in modern day, especially boring.

*winces and opens mouth for chocolate, before putting it down again*

But we can all agree that the Dalek in 9AD is a cooler story, so if you were gonna do that, then tell me that one. Otherwise you could’ve dropped that story. Excised it. It adds nothing more to the plot than explaining why there’s a Dalek underground. Could’ve done that 1000 ways. Like it’s a good story idea, but functionally you can remove it from the episode, which is bad writing. Tie it in or take it out and save it for later. Or just write that instead.

*takes a deep breath and shoves the last last segment in his mouth*

And characterisation shouldn’t be done in chunks

*winces*

But here it’s like ‘boom we resolve the Daddy Issues’ which is pretty far down my list of priorities for Ryan’s characterisation. Cus he’s shown the ability to familially bond. You explained where the engineering thing came from, but not the more crucial thing - that he obviously doesn’t care about engineering, nor does he know what he wants to do with his life. So points for character work, but then minus a few for doing an area that needs less exploring than the rest, and was already done in a similar emotion-arc with Graham. I now need to know how Ryan is in himself, not by his relationships with other people. Like it’s fine, and I wouldn’t worry if I thought this would be handled, but I’m not sure.

*lies down, feeling nauseous*

And in the meantime the Doctor hasn’t progressed along her arcs. She toes the line of an arc of being willing to let people die for the greater good without telling them - Tzim Sha, the Dalek-piloted-woman, Ryan’s Dad - but there seems to be no comeuppance or recognition of this, except for a look by Mandip which I think is exceptional acting, rather than scripted. Their relationship - mostly carried by acting - no development. That Yaz becomes functionally pretty useless in the Doctor’s presence but resumes a competency when separated? Not developed. The Doctor’s not lack of love, but lack of care for her companions? Nope. That she seemingly doesn’t want to admit to being or possibly even be a Time Lord right now? Cool, not really developed.

*holds stomach*

I’m a writer. But somehow I’ve not really learned anything about the characters in a way that really changes how I write them since episode one. They’ve all done exactly what they were supposed to ever since that episode, with no diversion whatsoever. ‘Oh well Ryan and his ‘Gramps’ changed’ NO, we could guess that, it was obvious. Yaz’s relationship with her Mum I suppose? But even being generous, that’s just the first four episodes that are actually useful. 

*sips tea slowly*

They’re not bad episodes for the most part. But they’re a holding pattern. And with four of the most talented actors that have ever been in the TARDIS, why on earth are you not giving them a run for their money? There’s no tension or conflict or anything necessary to show real growth - or set back - and there have been at least a dozen missed opportunities for it. And we have such limited time with these people (and so many of them) it’s almost irresponsible to have episodes where they’re not developing, even when it’s just tiny lines here or there. Mandip and Tosin have mastered the act of ‘saying it with a look’ when they shouldn’t have to - there should have been time to build their characters. And I know it sounds like a stupid complaint when the entire subplot of this episode is Ryan And His Dad, but chunks of characterisation aren’t the same as slow build-ups, and the build-up of this was already addressed by Gramp-Arc, and the slow build-ups of so many other things are ignored or glacial to the point where I don’t know if it’s going to be handled at all, when it should be being handled now - do you know what I mean? Moffat raced forward at a speed most of his audience couldn’t usually keep up with, and so by the time he summed it up, most people tuned out the simple explanation or didn’t care. But Chibnall is slow to the point where I can’t tell if he’s a good writer who doesn’t realise that the slow format cannot work for this show and audience, or if he’s just. Not. And both of those formats result in an audience going ‘eh.’

So, the episode? A 7/10 maybe. 

Marked down for the reasons I always end up marking his poorer episodes down - he could have done more. New characters brought in well as always, with two characters showing understandable if not novel characterisation, however losing marks for one-dimensional Doctor and Yaz, whose depths were mostly carried by the actors rather than the writing. As viewed alone, a perfectly good Dalek adventure - albeit one that leaves you feeling jilted that you didn’t see the 9AD story instead. As seen as part of a larger whole, dissapointing.

And for god’s sake, TWENTY New Years Eves, a couple’s budding relationship to provide a bookend, or a mirror for a ‘the writer wimped out’ off-screen event, and STILL NO KISS?! 

I’m sorry, that’s just bad writing, and you’re gonna have to accept that.

[beatriceeagle]

Hi there! Hope you’re well. I’d love to hear what you think of 5, 11, 20, 44, and 50 from this TV ask thing! Bonus question: I need a new feel-good show. Grace and Frankie or Schitt’s Creek??

5. what’s your comfort show?

I like to play a game where I go to random.org, pull up a number between 1 and 125, and watch that episode of Parks and Recreation. Or a number between 1 and 77 and watch that episode of Leverage.

11. which TV show has the best musical soundtrack, in your opinion?

Veronica Mars always springs to mind as making incredibly effective use of music. (This is a Rob Thomas/Diane Ruggiero-Wright thing, I think; iZombie also used music wonderfully.) Mad Men was sometimes a little on the nose, but when it hit on the right song for the right moment, it really hit on it. Cold Case was always really on the nose, but damn, you can’t deny the songs were good – they were so good that they’re almost certainly the reason that the show never made it to DVD. The Magicians is doing fun things with music right now, even outside its musical episodes. Russian Doll only has like two songs, but they were a really well chosen two songs. Skam had some sort of nonsense Norwegian music rights contract going on that allowed them to use like any song they wanted in the entire world, and they capitalized on it to really excellent effect. Lost both had a transcendent score and was very good at creating moments out of its soundtrack (including one moment that’s become so famous it’s come to define the song that was used).

That… was not technically an answer. I really like the intersection of music and visual storytelling. The right song in the right place is completely transformative. Anyway, I guess I’ll just say Veronica Mars.

20. Netflix, Hulu, or Prime originals?

I’ve liked more Netflix originals than I’ve liked any of the others, but they make so damn many, that’s pretty inevitable. I’ve never really loved any Hulu original, but to be fair, I haven’t actually tried that many; I don’t find many of them that appealing. I’ve tried a few Amazon originals – I used to watch their entire pilot slate, back when that was a thing – and I’ve found a couple of them that I love. (Which I will plug here, so that you guys can discover them and love them too, please: Catastrophe and Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street.)

But yeah, I guess the answer is Netflix, on the whole, for sheer variety. Which is annoying, since it means their plan is working.

44. if you could replace any actor on TV in playing their role, who would you like to play and why?

I don’t even know how to begin to think about answering this one. Normally when I think about working for TV, I’m thinking about writing for it.

But, okay. I have a very tiny amount of recent acting experience, and it’s in comedy, which has been very fun to explore, so that could be a good avenue for further expansion. What would be a fun TV comedy role to take on?

Oh! I know. I would definitely enjoy playing Janet on The Good Place. (Not that that’s a tall order, or anything…) But I’d want to go back to season one and get to play her from the beginning, so I could have the fun of playing not-a-robot Janet, and also so that I could grow the role on my own and not have to immediately step into the very complicated thing that D’Arcy Carden is doing right now.

50. what’s one TV cliche you love?

When they travel back in time and they’re being shown around Illinois by their tall but unassuming friend Al who lives in a nearby log cabin, and then at the end of the episode they say, “Bye Al, take care of yourself now,” and Al says, “You too, oh, and by the way, I’m just Al to my friends. My real is name is Abraham Lincoln.”

Schitt’s Creek vs. Grace and Frankie

Grace and Frankie is a good show that hits its stride fairly quickly and pretty much never leaves it. But at its best, I would call it nice. It’s fairly gentle and undemanding, for when you need a feel-good show. (There’s some drama, and things don’t always turn out okay on all fronts, but for a show that starts out with divorce, everyone involved is pretty good to each other.) And I do think it’s pretty funny, and it has one flat-out amazing character who I love. But it hasn’t ever inspired much depth of feeling in me, although I enjoy watching it.

Schitt’s Creek, on the other hand, takes two seasons to fully find its footing. There is definitely worthwhile stuff in those two seasons (especially season two), but there is also some really rough going (especially season one). But it will make you feel so good. The improvement and uplifting of its characters is its mandate, and you will get to watch these people blossom, and uncover better parts of themselves, and rediscover each other. And – one place where I think it has a really concrete advantage over Grace and Frankie as a feel-good show – it is almost completely uninterested in conflict. Obviously, characters face dilemmas and choices, and sometimes characters will be annoyed with each other or argue or whatever, but Schitt’s Creek is just deeply averse to character conflict as a driver of plot. It’s actually really structurally interesting because of it – a lot of episodes are just kind of missing a second act, because the point is more to reveal something about the characters than it is to tell a story with conflict, so the story jumps straight from problem to resolution. And some of the show’s best stories don’t have any problem at all, really, just situation: two characters, together, talking until something lovely happens.

And it’s really funny!

So my recommendation is ultimately really up to you: Are you in the mood for immediate returns, or are you willing to push through a couple of seasons of rougher going to get to the good stuff? Because if it’s the latter, then 100% Schitt’s Creek. Go. Watch it now. But if it’s the former, Grace and Frankie is a fine choice.

Ask me about TV!

[parachutingkitten]

Season 4 Analysis

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am going to be applying the concept of criticism to a TV show you presumably love and adore as much as I do. If you do not want your idea that the show is immaculate to be challenged, I would not advise reading past this point.

Mood for the season: It's a SuPeR fUn HaPpY pLaCe!!!!!

You don’t need to, but if you are interested, and haven’t seen my analysis of past seasons, you can find those here:

Pilot

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Hey guys! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Season 4! We are here! I am SO biased with this season. It has problems man. It has ALL the problems! ALL the plot holes! ALL the stupid, stupid stuff, but I LOVE ALL OF IT! okay, let's back up. I'm about to drop some context on you. 

So, when you're a military brat you tend to make friends with whoever you can, and when I lived in Germany I had a friend who was fandom OBSESSED. She, at the time, was super into Homestuck, something I managed to avoid being sucked into, though I do know more about it than I would like. Anyway, this was the point at which I started getting sucked into Ninjago. So, I figured that if I could trust anyone with a strange obsession, it was her. I showed her the last episode of season 3, and she decided she was just going to dive head first into it with me. We watched season 4 together as it came out, we talked about it, had a bunch of inside jokes about it, I wrote some very short fanfiction about it, she made some OCs, one in particular that I remember was Stormy, a ditzy cloud master who wore pink, we shipped him with... one of my OCs, I don't remember. She hadn't watched the first two seasons, so I had to fill her in on a lot, but she was the first person I ever fandomed with, and it was over season 4. So I guess you could say season 3 was the grand beginning of my love for this show, and season 4 was the peak of my fangirl experience (at least for that phase of my life).

Plot

This season is a real mixed bag. Coming off the heels of the first season, nothing makes sense. Suddenly there are more elements, completely discrediting Lloyd's supposed power of four powers. And now it's genetic, which brings up the problem of Jay, who... if either Ed or Edna were masters, they would have slipped by now (but also like, how cool would it be if Edna just busted out with lightning powers) and then Zane who... doesn't have genes. It makes the world bigger, yes, but it also discredits the lore of the last two seasons, and brings up the question "Where the hell were the rest of the EMs when the Great Devour attacked? Or the stone warriors? Or the final battle?!" Anyway, it's a bit jarring and sudden to say the least. It definitely was not planned beforehand. There aren't even any hints in season 3. Like wouldn't it be cool if in season 3 we saw them go to the noodle shop, or Wu was really vague about elemental questions. It would make a lot more sense then. Idk. It opens the universe up to the plotlines of most of the future seasons, but it does sort of discredit the first two. This season is also kinda choppy feeling wise. You go from the mood the past season have had in the first episode to this sort of native tribal feel on the island, and then the factory and then back to Ninjago. It's kinda a mess. Overall it was just an excuse to put these characters in cool situations (which I have done before, I understand). Which I get, and it makes for some cool stuff, but I don't think any of it ends up meshing together super well in the end. When I think of this season I think of the tournament. I forget about the whole snake stuff at the end most of the time. I forget about the while Garmadon conflict. The fact that I forget that's there has to be a bad sign, right?

Characters

Character work this season is really pretty good for the most part! There are a lot of new characters. And they all are very distinct and fun, and even when two people you don't know especially well battle, you're still really invested. All of the Cole and Jay stuff is pretty good this season! Major upgrade from season 3. The whole fight scene is absolutely fantastic. Garmadon is freaking awesome this season. He keeps on trying to kill himself, and it's stupid, and the show sort of acknowledges that it's stupid, cuz Lloyd is just like 'dude, what the heck'. Kai's arch this season is pretty good, exploring his darker side and putting that intense conflict in front of him was good. I can tell you one thing, I like it a heck of a lot better than season 7, but we'll get to that when we get to that. So, yeah. Overall improvement in character! It doesn't dive super deep or anything, but it all works and is all interesting.

Skylor

So... she is one of the reasons I call this season the fanfiction season. We have a whole bunch of other elemental masters we've never heard of, and one of them their power is... all the powers. I can not tell you how much this ticked me off! And she hardly ever uses them! She has pretty much infinite power, and she doesn't think to use it, pretty much ever! There are no restrictions on her! This is what I hate Skylor for. And I do mean hate. BUT aside from that, strictly character wise she is done pretty well. She feels pretty fake and overly sassy at the beginning of the season, but there's a reason for that. It's an act. But it's not like she changed her personality to fool him, she intensified her personality to cover her intentions. Her arch feels pretty natural. That one scene where she does the evil laugh... that was weird. But aside from that, it feels okay. She was raised to think that lying and cheating is the norm, so when someone presents her with another option she begins to change. It makes sense. I love the scene where Kai and her look at each other through the prison bars and (even though their freaking legos) you can feel her realization that she's ashamed of what she's doing now. And after she makes the transition, she's just really chill. Like, I would like to hang out with her. I guess it is kinda sweet that even though she had all of the powers of... ever, at the end she's happy to just run her noodle shop. It's kinda poetic. Anyway, she may be a bit overpowered, and she feels like a bit of a Mary Sue, but overall her personality and interactions are enjoyable enough for me to mostly ignore that. I do agree that she is best used in moderation. She doesn't need to be part of the team. I wish we had a quick cameo each season, but whatever. What we have now in season 9 is nice, but she definitely needs to step back out of the spotlight in future seasons (knock on wood) in order to remain as likable as she's been.

Karlof

Love him. Freaking love him. Honestly, I probably relate to him the most. He's the first loser of the tournament, he avoids trouble, he sticks to what he knows, and he says it like it is. I love his interactions with everyone down in the noodle factory. He's like this perfect blend of optimism and pessimism. His interactions with Cole are beautiful. Their chemistry is really great. One of, I think everyone's favorite masters, and there's a reason why.

Shade

So... typical darkness character. Obviously selfish. But once the climax hits, I actually like him a lot. He kinda serves as an antagonist at first and then flips. It's kinda cool seeing a character with moral boundaries that far out. He's purposely suspicious to take attention away from Skylor, which I get. I think he has a lot of missed potential, but nonetheless, a decent character.

Neuro

I absolutely love his power! I love his manor, I love his voice. He may well be my favorite EM. I don't even know what else to say about this guy. If Karlof is who I am, Neuro is who I'd like to think I am. Calculated, calm, reasonable, and much like Karlof again, not too risky. I like him a lot. Cool guy. I like seeing how far he's willing to go for the ninja, and where certain lines are for him. It's kinda cool to watch. He could use a friend though. I HC he and Paleman hang out. Both quiet. Both reserved. Neuro could probably locate him in a room even if he's not visible. Idk. Anyway, I like him a lot! Great character.

Griffin Turner

Classic speedster. Good enough. Not much to say. He's fun. He's cool. He's what you'd expect. Decent screen time. None of it particularly character developing. For what he is, he's good at it.

Jacob

So, let's ignore the part where they made us think he was dead. He's a lot of fun. Good for them getting a blind character in there. Still confused on what his powers can... do? But I like his spunk. I think we all have a little soft spot for him.

Chamille

One of the only girls and she's pretty much evil. Why do girls have to be evil at one point to be interesting? Idk. Don't really care for her, don't really think much about her. Whatever. She's there. She serves her purpose. Fine. Okay. Moving on.

Paleman

Friggin love him. For the master of light to be invisible is a great move, and pretty creative. His voice is kinda obvious, but very distinct. It's a creative background character to have. I like him a lot. Again, I feel he could use some more love. See above Neuro HC. Like him a lot and... yay.

Bolobo

Kinda missed the "mother nature" pun... could have had at least one more female master... that's okay. He's cool enough. Kinda disappointing though. I mean, vines? Is that it?

Gravis

Gravity is a dang cool power. Idk what else to say. He doesn't get a ton of screen time, so it's hard to praise him too much, but yeah. I really like that. Actually had an FC (she was a villain but you know whateves) with the power, so seeing that be a real element they used is really cool.

Ash

I don't like him. He's very strange. He's just got that one laugh. He seems comically over the top a jerk. I like the way his mouth looks though. Unique and kinda cool. I was looking on his Wiki page, and it said he and Chamille kissed in the background at one point? Is that true? I am way curious now

Tox

Okay. She's nonexistent here, no personality. I guess she's kinda tough. Yeah, this gets confirmed later in season 9, when she speaks. But even there she's pretty nonexistent. Here's my idea. Instead of having all your females being 'tough' why not flip expectation on its head? I think it would be way funny and clever if the master of poison was super friendly, and bubbly, and genuinely a nice person. I'm thinking almost like Jay's (lightning... or I guess adopted) mom, levels of talkative and nice. Wouldn't that be kinda fun? Idk. Whatever. It is what it is.

Kapau and Chope

Best villains ever 10/10. 'Nuff said.

Romance

KAILOR

Okay, I freaking love them! They're not my favorite couple or anything, but they work really, really well… under certain conditions. There are a few bumps I can't ignore. Can we have a protagonist in the show who doesn't send googly eyes at their future love interest the first moment they see her? And remember when they made us think Kai and Skylor were related... yeah... why did we need to do that? That was... kinda uncomfortable. BUT other than that, Skylor is exactly what Kai needed. First, he needed a redhead. Duh. Second, he needed someone who would see right through his Kai shmoltz and be real with him. Third, she had to be fun. And finally, she needed to wear the pants in the relationship. And Skylor fills ALL of those requirements! I like that Kai falls for her right away, and I love that she doesn't think she likes him until... she totally does and it's like 'Oh SNAP!'. I love that weird scene where Chen walks around with Kai like he's already his son in law, that cracks me up! I guess I like them more in theory than in practice. It feels a touch forced, and it needed a bit more time. Point being, the beginnings of the relationship are extremely awkward and strange, but towards the end of the season, it gets good! I just wish we could see more :)

The... love... triangle

Alright, by now, you guys should know how I feel about these things. They suck. They're stupid. I hate them. They're pointless. And this season is... quite possibly the stupidest. So... the whole Garma-Wu-Sako... thing this season is that Wu wrote a letter to Misako a long time ago, and Garmadon stole it, and then... Misako *groan* used it to determine which of them she was going to marry... okay. Yeah, Garmadon, that was a crap thing to do. But you know what, he was evil. Wu should have just signed the thing when he wrote it. But also, Misako... WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' GIRL?! Why... would you let a letter... be the final deciding point? I don't get that. And my main problem is that she basically chose her husband based on his writing ability. The thoughts Wu had in the letter obviously directly express what Garmadon wanted to say. In the end, his feelings for her were still the same. The only thing different is that he didn't write it. He's not good with words the way Wu is. But the show treats it like he lied about his feelings, and didn't even like her. Like he was using her for personal gain or manipulation or something. Idk. The whole thing makes no sense. Now, maybe if he did something to make Wu directly look bad or disingenuous THAT would be understandable. But... idk. I don't get it. Misako sucks. Let's move on.

Villians

Chen

Chen is my favorite villain. Hands down. No competition. Any way you slice it. I friggin love the heck out of this dude. And here's why. First off, he's a very comedic villain that still remains extremely threatening, which is an extremely thin line to walk. I mean, think about it. With all the other villains, they were intimidating, and the henchmen provided the humor. Here, I guess you could say they flipped it cuz Clouse is pretty intimidating, but Chen is still crazy scary on his own. And here's how they do it: He's insane. Straight up, he has lost his mind. Nothing he does makes sense, but that's fine, cuz it probably makes total sense to him. You can laugh at the quirky things he does, but also live in fear knowing that he has trap doors installed EVERYWHERE. Why? Cuz he likes them! Is there a better reason than that when you're crazy! That was my problem with people with Pythor. He is so smart, why didn't he ever think that the devourer might eat him too?! There is no explanation. But with Chen, that doesn't matter! He wants to be a snake! Why? Why not?! No flaws in that thinking, right? This is also why I like Ultra Violet so much. She's the only one to rival his position, but because she's more of a side villain, I don't feel that's enough to dethrone him. With insane villains, you never have any idea what they're playing at, if it's smart, or how to counteract, cuz they're just insane. I mean, seriously,

"Chen, the ninja have figured out our plan, what should we do?"

"COOL! Let's tell EVERYONE our plan!"

And it works! I love his voice. Just the way he says things makes me so happy! He's having so much fun, and I have fun with him! 10/10 villain. Great work.

Clouse

I can't get past the voice. It sounds so over the top evil and... it's kinda annoying for me? He has a decent backstory and such, but whenever he's on screen I always find myself wishing it was Chen. He just sucks the fun out of everything and leaves nothing there, so most of his interactions aren't particularly interesting. I don't know. Never really thought much of him.

Humor

Needless to say everything with Chen works! Everything with the EMs works. Jay's whole Positive Thinking streak is amazing! There's not a lot that falls flat on its face. It's really pretty fantastic.

Favorite joke: too many to count. If I had to pick one...

Chen's: the reds, the purples, the super dark purples!

Drama

This season has some damn good drama. It has my personal most sad moment in all of Ninjago. I'm of course talking about Garmadon's death...  JK! XD I WAS LAUGHING ALL THE WAY THROUGH THAT SEQUENCE! But we’ll get to that later. Okay. But for real, my personal most heartbreaking moment is when we find out Pixal is scrapped (of course it's Pixal related) but seriously, watching this for the first time, it broke my heart hardcore. I audibly gasped. They have these conversations, and she realizes he doesn't remember her, and it hurts her because they were comPATABLE GOSH DANG IT! And then he starts remembering, and she knows she can't go with him, so she lies to him to give him the motivation to make it out, and then the reveal, and Zane's heart breaks, and your heart breaks. This whole scenario reminds me of my own writing, it has all these things I enjoy using. Distinctions between fantasy and reality, characters lying to each other to protect them, and an ending realization of total and complete emptiness. Of course, Pixal is added into his head, and all is fine and dandy. It works for this season but serves her worse in future seasons. Regardless, that moment when Pixal says 'scrapped' is the most depressing thing I've ever seen. All of the Zane drama this season works really well. Zane having an identity crisis is something I didn't think the show would handle. When Zane says he's just a clone if himself I was like 'oh, dang! They went there!'. It's almost like he's comparing himself to Cryptor, and it's some heavy stuff. Everything this season is shrouded in mystery. I love that. For the first half of the season or so, I really like the tournament stuff. But as we get Cole, and especially Jay in the noodle factory, that plotline gets much more interesting. I don't get into the Nya and Lloyd and Garmadon stuff that much. The stuff with Kai is okay. But overall, there's some good stuff.

Climax

Okay, so... I... I mean I like the build up. The thing with all the trucks is really good. Most of it was really pretty good with all the EMs doing stuff the ninja would usually do. But the whole ending thing, with getting mini Pythor involved, and you know. The whole Garmadon death thing. He died an honorable death and all that, but... idk, I can't get past Lloyd's voice. As he reads him off I just couldn't stop giggling! It's so overdramatic, they feel like they need to make Lloyd mad at his dad for whatever reason so he can come back at the last second, and it all feels so forced. And then the ending is super overly cheesy for how serious the show wants to take itself at that moment. Idk. I don't like it. One of my least favorite finales.

Spotlight episode

There are some good ones to choose from this season. Some real good ones. But the one I find myself watching the most is Ninja Roll. This episode doesn't have too high stakes, it doesn't make much sense, it's kind of pointless, but it perfectly encapsulates the reason I watch Ninjago. I don't know exactly why I watch Ninjago. I'm not into the action most of the time. The romance is cute, but not potent enough to warrant watching the show. The humor isn't revolutionary, the characters aren't especially deep. No, the reason I watch Ninjago is cuz it's fun. Ninjago is just a good time. It has just enough of all of those aspects to make for something I love. It makes me smile. With seasons 8, and especially 9, Ninjago has shifted into this darker action based, lore-driven thing, which I thought I would like, and I do, but I think it's lost a bit of that fun factor. In my opinion, Ninjago is it's best when it's self-aware, and doesn't take itself overly seriously. When you don't have to end the season on an ominous dark cliffhanger. I mean really. What is this? Chima? No. I just want to go hang out with the ninja and the gang, whatever it is their doing. This episode takes advantage of every situation a roller derby with the ninja provides. Of course Jay roller skates with his mom. Of course, Kai is incompetent at it. Of course, Chen cheats, of course, it all comes down to Lloyd. Of course, there's freaking buggies that Chen releases! This whole episode makes me smile and laugh and it has a good message. This is what I miss about Ninjago, and that's why it's my spotlight.

Misc

I know everyone always teases Jay about his TV show, but what about Kai and his wrestling career? I just feel like that would come up more often

I completely subscribe to the theory that Pixal was scrapped to fix Zane cuz they beat him up so badly when capturing. I'd kinda like to think Pixal even volunteered herself for it... ONE SHOT IDEA

I have to scratch... my face.

I need a number on the trap door to button ratio on the island

This season has my favorite intro of any season. Mainly cuz the remix is FIRE and I hate the fact that they don't have an extended version that sounds more like the opening itself. 

So all together, the word to sum up season 4 is fun. Definitely not technically the best, or the smartest, or the most well done, but it's my favorite because of nostalgia, my inner child, and because it makes me smile. I love this season.

- Maya (Parachutingkitten)

[kegisaroused]

The Last Jedi

I have a lot of thoughts. A lot of them are not good. Thoughts are under the cut in no particular order. Probably a little rambling/incomplete maybe I’ll write something more put together later IDK

MAJOR HUGE SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

Okay so first, stuff I actually liked:

-Luke seeing the two suns in his last moments. One of the few moments with Luke’s character that didn’t feel totally off. 

-Luke handing Leia the bauble from the falcon and the old love theme stabbing me right through the goddamn heart.

-Finn and Poe having very few actual interactions and still managing to be gay as hell.

-I love the Porgs and the Crait foxes fuck all y’all. 

-I also liked Rose a lot and would love to see her actually get better character development. Her tasering Finn was fantastic.

-Rose and Finn’s little side jaunt has me so torn because despite it being totally out of place and gimmicky it also had some of the better character interactions/development in the whole movie? Not that that’s saying much

-Luke basically trying to get Rey to leave by purposefully being as much of a creepy old weirdo as possible. 

-R2 playing Leia’s original message. MY HEART.

-Laura Dern ramming the cruiser into the First Order at hyperspeed was really fucking cool. 

-Yoda being Yoda (when he WAS Yoda, but that’s for the next section)

-Leia using the force FOR ONCE (though the how was real stupid, but again... next section)

-Rey being happy to see Finn having a bond with Rose and smiling at it rather than being jealous or something stupid like that.

-Rey NOT giving Kylo another chance at the end. Like... mmkay buddy I tried but you made the wrong choice I’m shutting the door in your face now BYE.

-That said, I was really afraid of the stuff between Rey and Kylo because the shippers with spoilers had been making it seem like the romance angle was REALLY played up but... it wasn’t? At all? Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t shut down that angle but the nature of their connection felt ambiguous. The music cues did not indicate a romance, and Snoke straight up SAYS that Kylo’s conflict and draw to Rey was something he was putting into his head so that he’d bring Rey to him. I also feel like Daisy and Adams acting choices were emphatically NOT hinting at a romantic dynamic. I was afraid the shirtless scene was gonna be some sort of awkward flustered Rey and instead it was her just being genuinely annoyed like STFU and put a fucking shirt on.

Now... on to THE BAD:

-The pacing. HOOOOLY HELL THE PACING. This movie was paced so badly. It felt simultaneously like it went on forever, but also moved so fast there was never breathing room. It felt manic and confused. Also the whole movie seems to take place over the course of like... a day. 

-EVERYONE was out of character at least half the time. Everyone either pulled shit that didn’t make sense for them to drive the plot or they completely rolled back their character development to rehash shit. TFA already dealt with Finn needing to stop running from his problems, why is he immediately trying to run away again? His attempted heroic sacrifice at the end would have been a good character moment... if we hadn’t already HAD that moment in the last movie. Poe was reduced to the “reckless hothead” archetype and not only had to learn a lesson that not only didn’t make sense for him, but he had to learn it twice. In the same movie. 

-The CGI gimmicks. It was treading pretty damn far into prequel territory with the unnecessary CGI animals where practical effects would have not only sufficed but felt much more organic. 

-I’m so happy they finally let Leia use the force but her floating herself back into the ship was SO STUPID LOOKING. I wanted to laugh and I am 100% sure that was not the intent. Carrie Fisher did not die for this. 

-Fake Luke at the end was stupid because it was immediately obvious. He was digitally edited to look younger, he was using a lightsaber that WE JUST SAW GET DESTROYED instead of the lightsaber he actually HAS, it was just... dumb. 

-Speaking of dumb: Luke’s entire motivation was stupid and made absolutely zero sense if you know anything about Luke Skywalker. You’re talking about the only person in the galaxy who believed Darth Vader could be redeemed. Like... that’s literally the WHOLE POINT OF HIS STORY IN THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY. You’re gonna have me believe that Luke Fucking Skywalker was so easily scared by the dark side that he (even for a SECOND) contemplated killing a teenager? No, no, no fuck right off with that shit. If anything it should have been REY who thought Kylo was an irredeemable monster and Luke convincing her to give him a chance. Even if in the end he throws away that chance. You can still make the point of “maybe not everyone can be saved” without committing character assassination on Luke. Like what the hell even was that.

-The dialogue was so clunky a lot of the time. Yoda for example: there were moments where he was perfect (him smacking Luke in the face and being like YEP FUCK IT BURN THE TREE WHO NEEDS IT were very in character actions) but a lot of his dialogue felt like someone doing a bad Yoda impression (important note: I’m referring here to his actual written lines, not the voice acting). Also his puppet was really weird looking I don’t know why but it did not look right at all. 

-Some of the jokes also felt very forced and unnecessary. Star Wars needs levity, but the tonal balance was just off and there were a lot of jokes that felt very shoved into scenes that did not need jokes.

-I didn’t buy the Finn/Rose romance. I don’t actually have a problem with that ship at all. Finn/Poe is obviously my preference but lets be real I’m not holding my breath and I’d be 100% fine if Finn/Rose is where they went. But it wasn’t developed at all? They had a couple bonding moments yeah and were definitely becoming good friends, but not nearly enough to make me believe THEY’RE IN LURVE. It was like they somehow thought her sacrifice couldn’t be meaningful if it was just about saving a friend instead of saving GUY I WANNA MACK ON which is kinda bullshit. 

-There was a continuous trend of showing HEY LOOK WE HAVE FEMALE CHARACTERS. LOOK AT ALL THESE LADY PILOTS AND GUNNERS only to kill them off immediately. Paige’s death I didn’t overly have a problem with as there was at least a reason and a point to it with her being Rose’s sister, and she was given a moment to shine and a heroic sacrifice at least, but with all the background characters it felt like they were so determined to be all LOOK WE HAVE GIRLS that we saw more girls die than guys.

-Also are Poe’s whole squad from the last movie just supposed to be dead now? Like... they got their own comic and everything and are fairly popular side characters. Are you really going to just say they’re all dead? 

-The fight choreography was really lacking. Luke fighting Kylo at the end could have been so cool but it was 90% stupid CGI and just felt silly. Especially comparing it to the Rey and Kylo (I refuse to type their names with a slash because seriously MISS ME WITH THAT SHIT) fight from the end of TFA which was so well done and just... ugh. Also Finn’s fight with Phasma was very anticlimactic and she was so underused.

-Finn and Rose’s side trip was completely pointless. Which is annoying because like I mentioned before it had some of the better character moments in a character-less movie, but it was literally pointless. I get that they wanted to set up some sort moral ambiguity or juxtaposition (OOOH THE ARMS DEALERS SELL TO BOTH SIDES SO IT’S A GREY AREA. OOOH THE POOR PEOPLE AND THE ANIMALS SUFFER FOR RICH PEOPLE’S ENTERTAINMENT. AM I DOING THIS RIGHT? IS THIS HEAVY HANDED ENOUGH?), but even if they had their hearts set on doing that (despite not needing to at all) there are a million other ways they could have done it without completely derailing the plot. Especially since in the end the plan didn’t even WORK an actually made things worse because if they never brought the stupid slicer on board the original plan would have worked and most of the resistance would have gotten away just fine. The slicer character himself was pointless and one dimensional.

-What is the First Order doing? They made sense in TFA because they were a fringe group who had been laying low and underselling their strength while they prepared to attack and overthrow the New Republic. But what are they doing now? Did they seize control and establish a new capital planet? Did they install a new governing body since they literally KILLED ALL OF THEM? What is their end goal? What is their motivation? There’s nothing there and there needs to be. 

-Why on god’s green earth didn’t Laura Dern just TELL POE THE PLAN? Why was she being needlessly cryptic and withholding? She wasn’t protecting anyone by withholding information and was actually making herself look really bad and incompetant for no reason? She didn’t even say she HAD a plan. It was so stupid and made no sense.

-Which leads me to a larger overall problem: the characters were not driving the story, the story was driving the characters. The characters did things because they had to to make the plot happen, rather than the plot happening because the characters did what they would naturally do. As a result almost all the characters felt incredibly stiff and there was pretty much no meaningful character development. 

-The movie wrote its self into a corner. I get that they wanted to push it into a more unsure ending ESB type situation but they went too far. The rebellion was in an unsteady place at the end of ESB but they still had, you know... a fleet? More than 10 people? They were also extremely inconsistent scene to scene with the number of resistance fighters left alive. They act like they’ve got almost nobody left, but then they have enough people to man the trenches on Crait? And a lot of those people clearly escaped back into the base but then when they’re escaping to the Falcon there’s like 5 of them? Am I supposed to believe that the 8 year old Rose gave a ring too is the savior of the resistance? None of it seemed to be done with any forethought to the future of the story.

-Where the hell is the rest of the Galaxy? I’ve never watched a Star Wars film that felt so isolated. Even with Rose and Finn’s B plot the galaxy felt empty and unpopulated. 

Overall the whole thing felt like a bunch of unfinished thoughts slapped together into a story without a proper narrating structure. The whole movie seemed confused about where it was going and what it was doing.

I’m hoping JJ Abrams can reel it back in with Episode 9 because it’s really gonna upset me if TFA was a fluke and the rest of this is just gonna be Prequel Trilogy 2.0

[whiteladyofrohann]

You've seen The Last Jedi? It's not out where I live at the minute. What did you make of it? I've heard mixed reviews

I’ve had this in my inbox since Saturday but I left it because I knew I was seeing Star Wars again so I thought commenting after the second time would be better.

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI UNDER THE CUT!! (Also note that these are my own opinions. People may not agree with everything I say, but this is what I thought)

I have very mixed emotions with this film. It was very disappointing considering the hype around it, but is nowhere near the most disappointing movie I’ve seen. There were some great parts but they were often overshadowed by poor directing and script writing. I’m going to start with the negatives, because it’s always better to end on a positive note.

I hate what they did with Luke Skywalker and I really feel for Mark Hamill. Before I saw the movie and I saw all his interviews, I thought he was being a bit of an arsehole (uncharacteristic for Mark), but after watching it, he was absolutely right and I truly feel for him. He has been Luke for 40 years and in one movie they managed to go against everything he stood for. Rian Johnson ignored Mark’s advice, despite the fact that Mark knows Luke better than anyone ever will and I’m gutted with what they did with him.

Luke IS Star Wars. Everyone loves Han Solo and Princess Leia but for me, Luke Skywalker is THE Star Wars guy. I was more hyped about seeing Luke again than I was the rest of the movie tbh, but it was incredibly underwhelming. It’s not even the fact that he dies that annoys me. I actually thought his death was emotional and quite well done (though it should’ve been in episode 9). But I did see someone say that Luke deserved the kind of final movie that Wolverine got in Logan, a sendoff that truly means something.

I completely agree with Mark Hamill. Luke was the most optimistic Star Wars character but he refuses to go back. In my opinion, knowing his best friend was dead and then having Chewbacca and R2-D2 come for him, saying Leia needs him, should’ve been more than enough for Luke to give up his exile. Luke faced worse odds than this and never gave up and never allowed the Empire to rule, but in this film he seems fine with the idea of allowing the First Order to reign.

Luke spends the entire of Return of the Jedi absolutely convinced that the most iconic and evil film villain of all time has some good in him. Luke refuses to kill him when he has the chance, because he knows that despite all Darth Vader has done, deep down there is good there. Luke cannot kill him because he is his father, his own blood. In this film, Luke takes one look into a young Ben’s mind, sees the possibility of what he will become, and rather than working to stop Ben turning evil, thinks about killing a child, his own nephew. This was a major point for me because the original Luke would NEVER hurt a child, let alone his own family.

I’m sorry but ‘it’s time for the Jedi to end’ should’ve been a Snoke, Kylo Ren or Hux line. Luke should never have said that. Ever.

Luke bashing on Obi-Wan and the Jedi Order for their role in creating the Sith. Again, out of character for Luke. He practically worshipped Obi-Wan.

Snoke’s death. I actually thought the death was well done. I like the thought of Kylo killing Snoke, but again it should’ve been in episode 9. It felt like a waste of a character. We’ve been led to believe Snoke is the most powerful person alive, and the only glimpse we get is a tiny bit of force electricity and getting information out of Rey. Massive waste of a character and massive waste of Andy Serkis’ talents. Unless he’s not actually dead which is entirely possibly. But very anti-climactic.

Speaking of disappointing deaths: Captain Phasma. Another waste of what could’ve been a great villain. Hardly any scenes in TFA, one scene in TLJ, and gets for me, one of the worse deaths in Star Wars. It would’ve been so much better if Finn actually killed her. Terrible death.

I was so excited to see Rose in the movie, but she was disappointing. I kind of feel that if she wasn’t there, the movie wouldn’t have altered at all. I felt like her story with Finn was an entirely different movie and to be honest, bored me, which made me feel gutted because I adore Finn and wanted to love Rose, but I felt her part was very underwhelming. 

The entire casino plot was the most boring part of the film and links to the point above when I said it felt like a different movie. Did not enjoy it at all, any part of it. The three actors did the best with what they had, but it was just a bad plot point.

I enjoyed a little bit of comedy, but there was too much in it and parts of it ruined moments. The bit where Luke rubs his shoulder as if flicking a flea off his robes kind of took away from how much of a badass moment it was.

I will be super annoyed if Rey’s parents are simply ‘no-one’. I feel like I was expecting a lot into Rey’s backstory and they gave us nothing, only disappointment. I refuse to believe the daughter of scavengers can hold herself in a fight against a very powerful and well trained Kylo Ren, can pilot the Millennium Falcon and can speak every language under the sun. I don’t think Rey is a Mary Sue, however, if she is simply no one and can do all of them things, I can see where people are coming from when they call her that.

Not enough R2-D2, nowhere near enough. And not enough Chewbacca as well. I understand that there’s new characters now, but the original characters are what made me excited for Star Wars. I wouldn’t have been as interested if none of them were returning.

I was annoyed when I heard that Lando wasn’t going to be in the movie, but perhaps it was for the best so they couldn’t fuck up another original character (probably best Han Solo was dead too so he couldn’t be messed up, but that’ll probably happen in his movie next year).

On to the positives:

For me, the standout character of the film was Poe. He had genuine character development that you could see from the start to the finish. He actually had a storyline that I could follow and didn’t really have anything to complain about. Some of the other storylines seemed a bit wishy washy.

Finn and Rey had more chemistry in that one hug than Finn/Rose and Rey/Kylo did in the whole movie. 

Obviously once more the music was absolutely spot on. John Williams sure knows how to save a movie. Stunning music from start to finish and my favourite bit of music was the force theme for Luke’s death. Beautiful.

Daisy Ridley was very good, portrayed the confused, needing help student well. Shame her backstory was forgotten, could’ve added a lot more depth to Rey’s character.

My absolute favourite scene was Luke and Leia’s scene. Very beautiful to watch, incredibly emotional. After all the years, Mark and Carrie’s chemistry suppressed every other actor’s chemistry on screen. It was also incredibly touching because Luke is essentially saying goodbye, and this was the last scene Mark would’ve filmed with Carrie, so it was a perfect way for Luke and Leia to say goodbye.

Adam Driver is a fantastic actor. He portrayed a conflicted Kylo Ren extremely well. Showing emotion through the eyes for an actor is such a tough thing to do, and he managed to do it well. You can see he’s torn over killing his father. The silent speech between him and Leia is fantastic, and again you can see in his eyes everything he is facing. Brilliant acting and a convincing villain.

Domhnall Gleeson was brilliant as well. I find it easier to commend villains on their acting because I think they have a harder job. Every scene Gleeson was in I found him captivating.

Visually I think it’s the best Star Wars film to date, even better than TFA. It was an incredible visual spectacle in IMAX and I’m sure the visual effects will win awards.

Was nice to see a familiar face in Yoda. The scene seemed kind of unnecessary, but it did make me smile.

Fantastic fight scene with Rey and Kylo taking on Snoke’s guards. Wonderful two minutes of action and for me, the best Star Wars fight to watch since Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn vs. Darth Maul.

While they messed up Luke’s character, it was wonderful to see him on screen once again and I hope he comes back as a ghost or something (while they’re at it, get Anakin to kick some sense into his grandson)

It wasn’t the worst Star Wars movie. It is by far better than anything the prequels had to offer. However, it is certainly not the best. All the critics saying ‘the best since ESB’ or ‘the best ever’ is not something I can get behind. My Star Wars ratings are ESB, TFA, ROTJ, ANH, TLJ, ROTS, AOTC, TPM, so I rate it in the middle. The highest I’d give this movie is a 7/10.

I think as a non Star Wars fan, the movie would’ve been very good to watch. But as a Star Wars fan, someone who knows the movies, it was incredibly disappointing and I hope episode 9 is done a lot better

[atsumus]

Thoughts on Voltron Season 3

I just finished watching, and I want to put out some thoughts.. everything is below a read more because HEAVY SPOILERS if you haven’t seen season three yet!

I remember a lot of people being disappointed in season two while I really liked it.. and while I like season three too, I’m not really satisfied. I’m not exactly disappointed either, but it just didn’t blow me away.

Firstly, I think it’s quite short, and in a way, too much happened within just seven episodes, but at the same time I somehow feel like nothing happened at all. They forced “character development”, lion changes, lost allies, new allies, new villains, Shiro’s return, a huge flashback, and a fucking alternate reality into this season, and I feel like things were a little bit rushed. 

And yet, there was no epic battle or any kind of resolution. The end wasn’t satisfactory at all, but it was no really intense cliffhanger either somehow. I feel a bit like we need to think of it as the first half of a season and this was just the midseason finale. So yeah, I hope for more stuff to happen in season four, but let’s just talk about season three for now. 

The first thing that lowkey bothered me is how predictable everything was after all... Keith takes over the black lion, blue refuses Lance so that he moves on to pilot red, and blue takes in Allura. I even saw people saying that Allura will become the pink paladin, and well, she did. We also got the confirmation that the Galra woman Keith had met in the Belly of the Weblum was going to play a bigger role, and gosh, if she really turns out to be his mother, everything the fandom assumed would be proven. I’ve even read theories of her being connected to Lotor before the season aired. So yeah, in a lot of instances I pretty much already knew what was coming, and that was kind of meh, but not in all instances, of course.

I was hoping for some crazy plot twist no one had expected, maybe even something that would prove us wrong, and well, the alternate reality definitely caught me off guard. We could’ve seen it coming because of Slav and a few other things, but I definitely didn’t, and I’ve never read anything about it before either. That’s a good thing, and I’m glad something that really furthers the plot happened, and I hope they will deal with all that and the comet and Lotor’s plan well in season four. The fact that we finally got the whole backstory of the first paladins definitely helps us understand things better too.

However, character development... gosh, Allura was shown as weak and useless at first, and I really hated it. I understand her helplessness and desperation, but for a major conflict like that, I don’t think it was handled all that well. She went through different stages of her problem as well as her resolution within like.. one episode?! I don’t know, it just felt so rushed to me. I like that she resolved it by trying to think like Lance and deepening her bond with blue, but oh well.. it just happened so quickly, you know? I really felt like she deserved more attention than that. And yes, later on she is called a “worthy opponent” like once, but that just doesn’t make up for it at all. I just.. didn’t really like that.

I think Keith’s issues were handled fairly better, even though it kind of felt rushed too. At least they took the first 2-3 episodes to explain the situation and handle the leadership question, but I don’t know, I can’t even really sort my thoughts, so I’m not sure I can put everything into words that make sense right now, but I’ll try. 

I liked that we saw Keith being emotional, even though he ended up being hotheaded and kind of irresponsible. It was resolved by him recognising his mistakes and trying to do better, which is a good thing I guess. The focus was a lot on how he was struggling to accept a role he didn’t want how he was kind of unable to actually make decisions. It felt a bit like whatever he did, it was wrong. Making a decision completely on his own wasn’t right, but all advice from the others always made it look like they were undermining him (although they weren’t, of course). And once Shiro returned, things obviously got even more complicated. It was expected of Shiro to continue placing his trust in Keith as a leader, but I felt like something was off. I felt like Keith would’ve done just fine making decisions on his own in the end battle, and everyone (especially Shiro) butting in just made it hard to focus for him. But well, that’s less about Keith and more about Shiro I guess.

So let’s talk about Shiro.. just, what the fuck. He just comes back to them like that?! There is one episode of him escaping again, almost dying in a situation where it’s obvious he’s just going to picked up again and then.. he’s just back. Just like that. We didn’t even see how they were reunited or anything like that. It was extremely unemotional and didn’t feel like a big deal at all. Not to mention that something is so off about this and he might be some sort of sleeper agent of whatever now, especially seeing that the black lion rejected him. Also, what’s up with him being so chill? He’s just back, doesn’t remember a thing, does some casual leading but has no problem sitting out. I’m just not sure what to make of it.. I’m torn between give this man a break and holy shit investigate what happened to him?!?!?! I kinda hated this, and I really, really hope the explanation we’ll get for all of it is going to be satisfactory. Things are just way too easy and alright like this, this really can’t be all and it was obviously hinted at too. 

And well, neither Pidge nor Hunk nor Coran really got any screen time or development, but while I was hoping for it, I didn’t really expect it to happen. I expected a bit more for Lance, though. I mean, yes, he showed true strength and greatness when he decided to accept and support Keith, and I think he did very well this season. In general, his relationship with Keith has developed a lot and they both have matured. Yes, there’s still bickering, but it’s just fun, and they get along and work together really well by now. Lance did a good job comforting Keith but also reprimanding and advising him as a leader. And oh damn, Lance giving covering fire, that was good too! The scene of Lance offering to step down was really heartbreaking, though, and I hope that this whole issue of him not being and feeling appreciated enough will finally be resolved instead of just brought up over and over and over again.. I had hoped that it would happen in season three, but well..

And Lotor? Oh Lotor.. I haven’t quite made up my mind yet, but I think I like him. Zarkon wasn’t an intersting villain/antagonist, but Lotor is different. He is smart and cunning, and while he is still “evil”, he is a lot more progressive and really unlike his father. He has been exiled, Haggar sends spies to supervise him, and most Galra don’t respect him at first. Moreover the fact that he doesn’t want to rule by instilling fear in his people anymore and allows females and (partly) non-galry in his ranks makes him more “human” and likeable, however, it doesn’t make him weak. He still manages to get his army to be disciplined. And the story has turned into a conflict of the next generation now. It’s not about Alfor and Zarkon anymore, it’s about their children. That Lotor ended up attacking a Galra outpost is also an interesting development, and I can’t wait to learn about his plan and see more of him and his crew.

And besides all this very plot-related stuff, I really enjoyed seeing the flashback, and baby Allura was so cute! It was interesting to see what Haggar is to Zarkon and how and why everything happened in the past. The altean kitty is super cute but also very interesting, and why is it (or a similar one?) with one of Lotor’s people now? I also liked that the paladins didn’t switch their suit colours and only the lions (and weapons). And uh, well, Keith in Shiro’s room.. Lance in Keith’s room.. important talks and all that stuff. Nice. I was kind of missing the funny moments since the few we got felt a little forced to me.. this season really got dark compared to the first two, but that’s alright, I can live with that.

Yup, these are my first and still kind of unfiltered thoughts after watching. I guess I’ll take a break and do some thinking and then watch it again..

[xfearlessxbritt]

Open Letter to Marlene King

I don’t know if Marlene will ever read this but I wanted to just post and air out some of my feelings after watching PLL last night.

Marlene,

I know you are a busy woman but I would really appreciate if you would take the time to read this. My name is Brittany, I’m 23 years old and have been a long time fan of the show. I have been here since the pilot season one episode one. PLL was a show that got me through some pretty rough times. The show began when I was around 15 years old and honestly that year was one of the roughest of my life. I lost my grandfather, I lost several friends that just grew apart, and it was high school as if that wasn’t stressful enough. PLL was an outlet it was a show that I could turn on and forget about my problems whatever they may be.

It was a show that gave me courage to embrace my quirks. I was the nerdy girl who always loved a good book and who loved school. I was deemed as odd for it but seeing characters like Mona Vanderwaal and Spencer Hastings made me realize that it was okay to be like that. That I wasn’t an oddity that there were strong women characters who were like that in the world.

As I said previously I was around 15 when the show started and had never been apart of any fandom, didn’t know what a ship really fully was. None of it I was clueless but PLL made me experience that for the first time. During the first half of season 1 Spencer and Mona grew to become my favorite characters but just loving two characters changed after one episode in 1B. That episode was 113. The scene where Spencer followed Toby into the ally and watched him cry, in THAT moment I knew that there was something there and I fell head over heels for what would become known as Spoby and they became one of the first ships that I ever loved. I remember after 113 aired saying that I thought they were a good match and people telling me no you are insane they won’t ever be together, then 119 happened. After that I was a goner. I had found my PLL ship. The one that I would be ride or die with until the very end.

I loved the pureness of them, the fact that they were so deep and complicated. I remember during 2B when you used to give fans tidbits and how you basically told us about the 225 kiss outside of the police station before it even happened just to reassure us Spoby shippers that they would be fine. I remember how during 3B after Toby’s A reveal (that literally had me in so much shock that I about threw my remote at the TV) all of us spoby fans would as you if you could give us ANYTHING at all and you telling us to wait for it. Did I mention that I’m an eternal optimist? I didn’t? Well I am, so during this time I garnered the nickname of Spoby Cheerleader of the fandom because when everyone else was so down I would say, we always have hope, Marlene told us to wait for it and I trust her. Spoby is her baby creation she’ll not do us wrong. And the waiting paid off 324 happened and you gave us two amazing parallels with the hands touching with the coffee mug like in 117 with the snow globe and the call back to the motel in 119. That was the moment that I felt like I let the final guard down and fully trusted you as a writer Marlene.

I know for storyline purposes sometimes you have to mislead. I understand that. That’s why when 324 happened I was like okay see this proves my point Marlene won’t betray us. Season 4 was a great season with little to minimal drama and it was nice for a change to be the ship that didn’t have constant drama, but then season 5 happened. The season that I like to pretend doesn’t exist. I understand that couples need to have conflict but having Spencer kiss Colin and Johnny two characters who were in 4 episodes or less just because she was having problems with Toby wasn’t my idea of a great season. But I stuck through it and we got 524, wasn’t happy that Spoby didn’t talk about their problems but I was just happy that they were back together.

Then 6A, the last time we truly saw our ship together. 609 that scene Spencer telling Toby that her speech was about him.. was such a great moment then to come back in 6B and know that they had been ripped apart was pretty heart breaking to say the least. I understand that it was realistic for one of the couples to break up during the jump, I didn’t imagine it would be all 3 of the main couples. I honestly thought that one of them would make it through. Then Yvonne happened.. I loved Yvonne as a character, I love Kara who plays her, but you all as a writing team really did Yvonne and Kara a disservice. Then on top of that Caleb happened.

Before the jump Spencer and Caleb was one of my favorite friendships on this show. Now I can’t stand watching any of their scenes. What was the point in making Spaleb happen? Just to create more drama? Because between that and Yvonne it made a lot of people mad. And all of us spoby shippers had to go through 6B and all of 7A with nothing. Then 710 happened. And I thought there it is, there is hope. There is hope that Spoby will be endgame that they won’t be rushed but boy was I wrong.

Killing Yvonne was wrong on so many levels and I think you and the other writers realize it. I didn’t WANT Yvonne to die just so Spoby could get back together. After the accident I was fearful that’s what would happen, but then Kara told us she filmed for 713 and I thought okay maybe that’s her last episode and she leaves town. It literally hurt my soul watching her die RIGHT after marrying Toby. Because Yvonne deserved better than that. Kara deserved better than that. But after that all of us spoby fans thought okay so this is their way of making the way for their endgame we’ll take it even though it sucks.

Now all of us spoby fans waited.. and waited.. and waited.. Then we got the promo for 718 and we thought FINALLY we are getting our reunion it may be with only 3 episodes left but its better late than never. Then it ends up being a one night stand that obviously never gets talked about. Or so we thought. So we were like okay, well the promo in 720 there is Spoby stuff and we know that Keegan and Troian filmed together so they have to be together right? Boy were we wrong..

I can say honestly that the only good thing to come out of Spencer having a twin was that Troian got to show off her acting chops. I remember a year ago when the twin theories began popping up. I thought cool idea, but I doubt the show will go there and it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. I was someone who thought that it was Wren and Melissa. When Torrey was revealed to be filming for the finale I thought it had to be true. Then to find out she filmed the scene at the stables then just filmed those two black hoodie scenes so that way Mona could peel off a mask of her face.. Just.. wow. In my opinion the finale was a mess. The pacing was so fast that it was hard to tell how much time had passed, the scenes jump all over  the place that my mother who is a casual watcher mentioned noticing it.

I can tell you that I had only 3 requests of this finale. I didn’t have to have all 3 but I wanted to have at least 2. I walked away with one and a half. Those requests were that AD make sense (did not care if it shocked me or not), that spoby was endgame and we saw them reunite on screen, and lastly that Mona got the endgame she deserved, that she got to have a happy ever after and not die. Ironically enough I thought that the last one was the one that I would walk away without.

This is my main gripe about Alex being AD why? I know in the finale it was explained as her being mad about Cece’s death and wanting revenge. Now to start off 6B it seemed like that was what AD wanted but it seemed as season 7 progressed that became less and less the motivation. By the end of 719 last week I had gathered that whoever AD was had strung the girls along saying they would win once AD knew who killed Cece and that would be that. Then why did AD set them up to where they would get caught with Rollins’ body by Tanner and go after them now a year later and not go after Mona? Mona is the one who killed Cece even if it was an accident, so why would Alex hire Mona on as a helper if that’s the person who killed her sister that she was so hell bent on getting revenge for? It doesn’t add up. The girls had nothing to do with Cece’s death. I would have honestly been fine with there being this many plot holes with the twin thing had you not involved Toby. What was the point of that? Having him basically be raped again without him knowing it. And tainting basically half of the spoby scenes we’ve had in 7B to boot. This is my question on some of the scenes where it was supposedly Alex instead of Spencer, how did Alex know about certain things. Like how did she know that Toby invited Spencer to the cabin if it was Spencer in the scene with him at the radley at the beginning of 718? How did Alex know that Toby said something about wanting to try horseback riding with Spencer when it was Spencer in that scene?

Only two scenes saved the final 10 minutes, Toby being able to figure out the correct Spencer and seeing what Mona did with Alex and Mary. I believe it was Keegan who said something about there being one final scene that he filmed with Troian on his last day that was super emotional and that it was just the two of them.. What happened to that scene? Was it cut for time purposes? Instead of doing the final scene as a backdoor pilot type situation for the Perfectionists couldn’t you have given Spoby fans a reunion of sorts? I didn’t have to be long it could have been a minute. Just of them saying they love each other one last time. Instead of that in the last scene of the girls we get one mention of Toby and that yeah they are sorta dating again. And what happened to the Toby script tease you posted about Toby saying “I used to know a girl that says hope breeds eternal misery” was that in the Spoby scene that was probably cut?

I’m normally not a bitter person. I’m usually an optimist, but I can say I honestly I’m mad, I’m sad, and I’m tired. Knowing that I was a long time fan of this show for 7 years and the one ship that I love got the complete shaft in the end. The one that you have claimed for years is like your child. I said above that I had begun to really trust you back in season 3 Marlene but now I feel like I’ve been kinda stabbed in the back. Honestly I wouldn’t be quite so mad if every other ship hadn’t have gotten a little bit of everything that we didn’t. Haleb got engaged before the last jump as well as married and are pregnant, Emison got two beautiful little girls (through unconventional and horrible means I do admit) and an engagement which they rightfully deserved, and Ezrians got an engagement way before anyone else did plus a wedding. While spoby shippers get a hey sorry that half the scenes that you thought were Spencer in season 7 were actually Alex and oh yeah spoby are basically back together mentioned in an off hand comment. I mean if you didn’t want to do a scene then why not have had Spoby sit next to each other at Ezria’s redo wedding, just showing them holding hands or something would have been enough for me at this point.

I hope you and the other writers read this and take it into consideration. And don’t get me wrong I don’t mind open ended endings, I was a fan of the Lost series finale and that is the most open ended finale ever. But after being loyal to a ship for 7 years it would have been nice to walk away knowing that they got to be happy and seeing it too.

Hopefully you all will do a spin off or a revival movie a few years down the road where Spoby can be explored a little more or if there are some deleted scenes you can put them on the DVD. Because we the fans deserve that after this finale.

Sincerely,

A Spoby fan