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taylorkellyreporting · 2 years

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i hope no one minds if i liveblog this bitch: pllos from 1x02-1x05

surprise, bitch. i bet you thought you’d seen the last of me. it’s been a hot minute since i’ve done one of these so i thought i’d hop on here and lb pllos! i already started the first ep and i really like it so far and hope it doesn’t crash and burn like og did lmao anyway! let’s get started on the episode.

wow for a hot second i thought imogen was drinking while pregnant and thought ‘damn, she really doesn’t want that baby’ 😭

greg is an asshole and karen is fucked up for not believing imogen

really wanna know what karen’s doing in the video

the 4th wall breaking is a little cringe to me i’m ngl

i like how they’re all convinced karen is the one harassing them. it’s very different from og where everyone was a suspect what seemed like every other episode

i have a bad feeling about this screening

ohhhh shit. i knew this wasn’t gonna end well

damn karen was GONE in that video

‘namaste, sloppy bitch’ the comments on karens post are taking me out 😭😭

hmm. wonder what karen’s planning

they’re gonna ‘carrie’ her…why am i not surprised

sheriff beasley looks so much like wilden it’s creepy

noa using what she saw as leverage to get her ankle monitor off for the night is such a boss bitch move

the girls look so good!!

kellys earrings are hideous

mouse saying ‘did you think this was my first time smoking pot?’ and immediately breaking out into a cough is making me lose it 😭😭

i know it’s too soon but i really like shawn so far

‘may we have this dance?’ they’re so cute 🫂

oh God this is gonna be so humiliating

OH FUCK

well that was definitely more traumatizing than a can of paint

well that was fucking crazy

imogen really went into an old abandoned warehouse…has she never seen a horror movie?

i’m guessing angela is the one who died in ep one

A is a whole ass murderer and imogen still decided that going to that warehouse was a good idea and now she’s scared shitless in some broken down van

something about wes is off…i don’t trust him

it’s a bit fucked up for them to throw imogen and tabby under the bus

‘we tried to befriend her’ didn’t look that way to me

‘no one was kinder to angela than your mother’ didn’t she make sidney ignore her at the rave? lmao

i really, really don’t like wes

THE DRUGS WERE HER MOMS???? what the FUCK

so glad tabby got the fuck out of there

‘may your child be taken from you like mine was taken from me’ damn

the entire beasley family is insane

i really hope we have some concrete answers by the time the finale is happening

damn i kinda feel bad for kelly

‘i didn’t like you, karen’ dkfjgjvjfjs she’s so real

A’s so fucking creepy i love it

oh so noa’s mom has been a user for a while

THE FUCKING BEAR???? woah

mouse and imogen holding hands while walking 🥹

oh hell no is kelly gonna try to become karen?

i still can’t believe noa’s mom let her take the fall for the drugs like what the hell

baby imogen was so cute aw

‘hello?’ imogen really is the classic horror girl 🤦🏻‍♀️

not even gonna lie, A standing under the stairs scared the shit out of me 😭

LMFAOOO imogen’s messed up

i love tabby sm

and now kelly’s quoting karen…so weird

‘it’s kinda like i’m dancing with karen again’ well now i’m thinking my theory is correct

oh God i wanna give imogen a hug 🫂

the friendship the girls have is something that can be so personal

‘what are these?’ ‘they aren’t mine!’

greg’s so stupid 😭😭

hmm. i wonder who ripped out the pages from the journal…davie or A?

oh what the hell why is A chasing noa

GOD that chase has me on the edge of my seat

‘punish the guilty’ ‘guilty? who’s guilty?’ ‘your mother’ somehow i’m not even surprised

poor noa ☹️

wait…does farran think A is kelly?

wow, okay. what she actually thinks is way crazier

davie and her friends seem like horrible people

not at all relevant to the plot but imogens butterfly earrings are so cute

‘it’s like your attic is a fucking spider airbnb’ pls 😭

‘thanks for moviesplaining that to me’ lmfaooo

love faran but it was kinda stupid of her to go to their dance teacher so early

‘fuck. you’re right.’ ‘damn straight.’ i love tabby sm

no way mouse is only 15??? i thought they were all like juniors

hmm. idk what to think about kelly.

faran makes a gorgeous, gorgeous poison ivy

why the FUCK is mouse pretending to be that mans missing daughter?????

A having the same pumpkin mask angela had is odd…how would he even know she wore it?

i really wanna know wtf mouse is doing

not kelly hooking up with greg

okay now i’m even more curious about mouse

not at all surprised faran lost the role

wow, that scene between tabby and imogen was so powerful. it brought me to tears.

this is super long so i’m ending this here and starting a new lb for the rest of the eps!

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richardsphere · 2 months

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Leverage Redemption Log: The Tower Job

Episode title reminds me of the Tarot card, representative of destruction and calamity. (Dont quote me on it, but I've been told the card represents the tower of Babel?) Which then reminds me that in episode 2, Harry's old boss mentioned a client that worked in construction and cut safety regulations and cut safety regulations. Could be this episode? --- Episode starts: Man is yelling at his employees at a construction site that they're not cutting enough corners for his liking. (I smile smugly) floors start shaking, lights are flashing (I stop smiling, but remain smugly) The building collapses, workers inside while asshat overseer hides behind a taxicab (I mourn... smugly) --- Three years later the guy still has his company, a girl is standing outside with flyers trying to tell people about how 4 workers died in the collapse. (this is not believable. The upper floors were crowded with workers, Only the boss is seen getting out and the entire thing collapsed quite completely. The death-count is unrealistically low for the incident depicted.) --- In defense of the prosecutor dropping the case, its taxmoney and the bar of evidence requires a crimescene where evidence is... preserved, and a building collapse tends to, shall we say, destroy all evidence at the scene of the crime. (basically: I dont think this is going to be a case of bribery.) Sophie, you are lying your ass of. you dont usually let your clients find you. Hardison puts feelers on the web and tracks down billionaires with shady actions, investigates further and then finally you contact the clients for a meeting to check if they might have any evidence that's been covered up/not found online. (I understand a show altering the way it shows the process for purpose of narative structure, i do not apreciate a show lying about its process)

Breanna's shocked face when she realises that, publicly available information is in fact publically available. She thinks that Hardison was hacking secret databases (and in her defense he often was) but the realisation that she just had to leave the house and ask.

"Hardison bet me I couldnt learn the language. He lost" Look Elliot, at this point you need to stop denying you like a lot of the stuff Hardison likes. (bet he also speaks whatever the LOTR elf language is called) --- Male Mark is doing breathing exercises (might be legitimately traumatised from his near-death experience at the tower he cut corners on) female mark claims there is "Nothing they could find" which meanst there is definitly something. --- Breanna asks a valid question on the audience behalf, Harry gives a valid explanation.

Glass is soundproof (ominous detail), mention of a spiral-based fire escape on the roof. (eventual exit strategy for the final heist) and a fire supression sprinkler system.

On the way out Harry meets Male!Mark, and it dawns on me we're about to do one of those "Harry didnt tell the team this is one of his old crimes" story. (this is nonsense, the team did an entire heist all about getting a list of his crimes in episode 2, so having this be a secret that takes them by suprise breaks the established facts.) --- The mark is taking meds for his trauma. (so that means its Chemical Warfare time!)

"Something you forgot to mention?" Yup we're apparently doing this... Like, why go through the effort of establishing that we've stolen his old client list to then have it suddenly take Leverage Inc by suprise? This is shoddy writership. --- Oh we're doing an "Elliot does not get art" joke... Should've been Parker (I know there was an entire episode in which trying to learn apreciation for art was a thing, but i'd rather have flanderisation of established traits then this which is entirely OOC)

Good Old "operation fomo"

Ok, Harry's sneaky contract skills are cool. And now he's being asked to help make the contract with their new funding partners... I cant believe Harry himself doesnt realise the opportunities involved there. --- Ok you just gave Parker a fainting gun. (i think this tech seems a bit stretch-y, but also the explenation makes enough sense to seem theoretically plausible)

It seems like they're trying to go for a "Harry didnt mention the wall-safe to Sophie" thing in this scene, but also he's mentioning it RIGHT NOW, in the scene that IS the planning/briefing so if they are trying it falls flat. --- Elliot is inside, the rumblepacks are in place, and the Mark has an envelope that definitly doesnt contain photoshopped evidence of him cheating on his wife. (Because his true source of power is his wife's money. Destroy the marriage and render him powerless) ---

Minor note to the mirror scene, the use of "our" in "our Mr. Wilson" feels creepy.

I guess the mention of the sound-proof windows was to justify the need to set up a controll-room on the upper floor? --- The safe's papers are workman's comp? Medical benefits for the survivors? Not a smoking gun, but also out of character. Wait is my suspicion of the number of survivors being incorrect correct? Fraudulent survivors used to pocket money from their own health insurance benefits?

The envelope is actualy feigned proof of shoddy workmanship on the new tower. Female Mark and her Financiers are in the elevator. Breanna has already hacked into the elevator back during during phase 1. Stop cheering on Elliot and stop the elevator.

Suicide fake-out before a cut-to-commercial. Honestly, as far as cliffhangers go that one is particularly shameless. --- Yes Parker, the Chute Thing is real (he would not have lied to you in that roll, as you could've just asked to see it)

Ah the classic tricked-confession. ---

#leverage #leverage redemption #leverage redemption season 1 #the tower job #tw suicide mention

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laurelismyblackcanary · 4 months

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Doctor Who Rankings: Moffat Era: Eleventh Doctor

It's been almost a year I think since my last ranking, but here I am, I'm determined to complete all of them before May.

Season 6

The Girl Who Waited I love this episode so much, it's one of my all time favourites. I love how rough and hardened by time Amy had become after 36 years on that planet running for her life. The way the hope of being saved was so strong at the beginning and then we saw how it slowly died. She was certain the Doctor would come and then she just stopped believing. It was understandable why at first she didn't want to be saved. What young Amy tells older Amy about Rory is one of my favorite quotes in the entire show. And in the end when the Doctor closes old Amy out of the TARDIS it's heartbreaking and I admit the first time it was a shock. Then thinking about it it was obvious that it was going to happen.

A Good Man Goes to War The beginning with Rory blowing up a Cyberman ship to find out were Amy is one of my favorite Rory's scenes in the whole show. The episode is full of twists and surprises and seeing how the Doctor was played was interesting. Usually he's the one that has all the answers, but not this time. And the revelation of who River Song is was well done and emotional

The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon First things first Mark Sheppard, I saw him as Crowley in Spn for the first time and then in Leverage and I love the guy. He makes everything he's in so much better. Plus the episode was really good. The Silence are really tricky villains, how can you protect yourself from someone you forget? I also liked the clues about Amy, her seeing Madame Kovarian. Small things that suggested that something was wrong. Also the fact that the baby they were trying to rescue was River Song.

The Wedding of River Song As far as series finales goes it probably isn't the best or the most emotional and action packed. But it was good. I liked the fact that somehow Amy and Rory are connected even if they don't know who they are.

Let's Kill Hitler Melody who regenerates into River Song. The Teselecta trying to kill the Doctor. River giving up her regenerations to save his life. (I admit this was a bit rushed but still). And they closed Hitler in a cupboard. What else can I say?

Closing Time I'm actually sad I couldn't put it higher on the list. I know most people don't like the episode, but it's my guilty pleasure, my season 6 Boom Town. It's fun, a little predictable and I love Craig.

The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People These episodes set up the whole "Amy was replaced" storyline and kick off the whole let's go save her drama, still I don't like them. The moral question they raised it's interesting which is pretty much the only thing I cared about in this episode

The Doctor's Wife The TARDIS turned into a woman was fun and it was sad when she lost her human appearance.

Night Terrors The dollhouse is creepy, but the kid is kind of cute and the fact that in the end the kid stayed was really sweet

The Curse of the Black Spot Boring. I barely remember it. Amy as a pirate was the only relevant thing.

God Complex I watched it just once, that's how much I disliked the episode

#doctor who #eleventh doctor #amy pond #rory williams #river song #moffat era

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lirenel · 3 years

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Watching Leverage

So thanks to giftsets and incorrect quotes about Leverage from people I follow, I decided to give Leverage a try, despite the fact that I have pretty much given up on fiction tv shows and mostly watch documentaries. And so far - two episodes in - I’m glad I gave it a shot! So my main thought, again having only watched two episodes:

I hope Eliot continues to be the Mom Friend, it’s adorable. I mean, first episode he’s like “I can break all the bones in your body using only my pinkie” and also “Don’t you dare point a gun at MY SON” and “How are you feeling? I don’t think you should be using alcohol to deal with your grief.”. Second episode, again “That’s an entire bottle of alcohol, Sophie take it from him”.

If it keeps going this way, in a few episodes Parker will be running to rappel off a roof and Eliot will be running behind her yelling “You need to be wearing a helmet, concussions are a real thing!”.

Or, it could be one of those things that gets put by the wayside. But I hope not.

#leverage #eliot spencer #thank goodness for the library who has all the dvds #and the fact that I work at said library so it's easy for me to get them

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vizowrites · 3 years

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“We” vs “Me”| or “Why BlitzStrike Works So Well For Me But Stolitz [as of episode 6].....Doesn’t”

Alright my Loves, so I said that I was going to talk in further detail about my feelings regarding Stolas and the multi-layered portrayal of his relationship with Blitz in the new episode, and today’s the day where that happens!! First of all, though, before I really get into my feelings about things, I want to just make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I’m not trying to sway anyone from one side to the other, or trying to shame anyone for shipping two fictional characters. I’m fully in the boat that you are completely entitled to ship whoever you want, but I also think it’s wise to at least be able to recognize the faults and flaws in a pairing--and especially to be able to recognize them in the context of an IRL relationship. In this analysis in particular, I’m specifically focusing on these two relationships within the realm of the Helluva Boss universe [......Hell] and within the specific context of their characters as they’ve been portrayed in the show thus far. And, my biggest disclaimer of all: I’m doing this for no other reason than I felt like putting my jumbled thoughts together into a cohesive post so that they don’t have to stay bouncing and buzzing around in my head. Please keep that in mind that this is just pure personal opinion and interpretation before anyone comes at me with torches and pitchforks. <3 <3

SO WITH THAT LONG ASS DISCLAIMER OUT OF THE WAY

Let’s finally get to the good stuff. And the not so good stuff. :D

So I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone who follows me here that I’m a huge BlitzStrike fan. What I think fewer people know is that when I first entered the fandom a few months ago, I actually was on board the Stolitz train like so many others that I’ve met here in the fandom. Naturally Stolitz was the first major pairing I was introduced to, and I did find both the characters of Blitz and Stolas incredibly interesting and compelling in their own rights AND saw the potential in how they could really come to grow into one hell of a relationshp over time. I was honestly really excited to see it happen, too.

And then I watched Episode 5 [still my favorite episode, btw] for the first time and had this sudden question hit me like a truck that even now is still relentlessly burning in the back of my mind because I still haven’t found a legitimate answer for it: Why in the FUCK wasn’t Blitz falling head-over-heels in attraction to Striker throughout this fucking episode??

And I don’t mean that in a “They’re so hot and I ship them now why didn’t they get together?? DX DX” kind of way--I mean that in the genuinely perplexed “I don’t understand based on what has been presented to me thus far about Blitz as a character and the storyline overall why he’s reacting so nonchalantly to this whole thing”. To Note: This is me wondering this from the context of what’s in the show itself, not from any extra fan materials like the Instas or Twitter or just straight up knowing that the most likely answer is that there are people on the creative team that ship Stolitz really hard and realistically wouldn’t have probably written Blitz as being attracted to Striker because that would just be--to quote Jack Sparrow--blowing holes in their own ship. No, this is me disregarding ALL of that and trying to rationalize this with myself from the perspective of a fan whose entire knowledge of the show and its characters comes exclusively from what’s in the episodes themselves. .....And that’s where I just can’t find my answer, except for the Stolitz positive “He’s not attracted to Striker because he’s in love with Stolas” answer. Which really doesn’t even feel like a satisfying answer, because the entire vibe I’ve gotten from Stolitz in the show has just felt.....strangely.....off. Like, the framework is there and the elements are there, but I’d felt as though they had so far to go still that it would be entire SEASONS before they got there.

And THEN the new episode [Episode 6] came out and I’d heard a handful of fans going crazy because the show was finally addressing Stolitz in full, and I thought to myself, “Well, maybe if the show really is going to go with saying that the reason Blitz wasn’t interested in Striker is because he’s in love with Stolas.....sure. I’m curious to see how they finally establish it in an episode, especially since there’s only two more episodes left in the entire first season.” And then I watched the episode. And then it hit me why Stolitz just does not do a damn thing for me but BlitzStrike does despite the fact that we’ve had 4/6 episodes [5/7 if you count the Pilot] of Stolitz but only 1/6 [1/7] of potential--not even canonical--BlitzStrike:

When Striker talks about Blitz, or interacts with Blitz, he always talks about them as a “we”. As a team. A partnership. OR he just straight up puts the entire focus on Blitz and his accomplishments and keeps himself out of it entirely.

When Stolas talks about Blitz, he always talks about them within the context of “me”--of himself--of what Blitz does or should do for him. Even here in episode 6, in the most “selfless” instance we’ve seen yet, where he does ask about Blitz’s safety first BEFORE going right back into how Blitz’s actions affect him and what Blitz should be doing in response for him. Stolas’s focus is always automatically set to himself--and even when it comes to the people he supposedly loves the most.

To explain what I mean here, let me give some examples directly from the show itself, starting with the Stolas side of things:

Episode 1

Blitz, in the middle of trying to hide so much that he actually clamps both of his hands over his mouth just to muffle the sound of his own breathing, knowing damn well that this psychotic bitch who already shot him once won’t hesitate to do it again if she finds him.....gets a call from Stolas. Stolas, who we clearly see from his leisurely hang out time in his bubble bath, is literally watching this happen and is fully aware that calling Blitz right then was potentially putting him in danger. But what does he say when he gets Blitz on the phone? He offers--not help--but Blitz the use of his book in exchange for monthly sex. Stolas literally uses Blitz’s peril as leverage here--consciously or not, though given the fact that he knows the situation at hand, I’d find it very hard to argue that he didn’t do this on purpose--just to get him to agree to be his bootycall until further notice.

Stolas not only doesn’t lift a finger to help Blitz once in all of this--even at the moment where he and Millie are about to be shot in the face--but instead continues to stay on the phone talking about all of the things he wants for their upcoming future rendezvous. He already got exactly what he wanted out of this and he still just continues to go for more for himself.

Episode 2

.....There are honestly so many fucked up things that happen here as far as Stolas and his relationship with Blitz goes but honestly the thing I want to draw the MOST attention to is actually Stolas’s storyline with his daughter, Octavia. I know it’s a little left field, but bear with me--this is actually something I want to use as comparison for Stolas’s relationship to Blitz as we go along:

When Stolas first decides that he’s going to take his daughter to Loo Loo Land, he does so while completey setting aside the fact that she doesn’t want to go. He just offers her assurances that it’s going to be so much fun because he remembers that she loved it so much when she was a little girl--effectively putting his memory above her wishes even as she’s sitting right there and telling him that she doesn’t enjoy the idea of going now.

Stolas doesn’t actually notice just how uncomfortable he’s making Octavia throuhought their entire trip by spending his time sexually harassing paying more attention to Blitz than he is trying to cheer her up. This tells me that Stolas--though I do believe he genuinely wanted to do something to make her happy--still wasn’t able to completely overcome his own self-centered tendencies at first even when it’s for her. And this is the person that Stolas loves more than anyone or anything else in the entire world. It still wasn’t enough.

It’s only when Octavia runs off and completely breaks down that Stolas finally gets the much needed slap-to-the-face of reality to understand just what he’s putting his daughter through--and, for the first time in the entire show, he actually puts someone else’s needs and well being above himself. It’s the one solid honest display of love that we see from Stolas in the entire show--and it’s how we as the audience come to learn that that’s how Stolas shows that he loves someone: When he puts their needs above his own with no strings attached or expectations of something in return. A true selfless act just because he loves them. **Keep in mind the parallel of Stolas carrying Octavia out of Loo Loo Land at the end, and how it compares to Stolas carrying Blitz out of D.H.O.R.K.S headquarters.

Episode 5

The. Fucking. Cigarette. I had no idea that something so small and quick would be able to infuriate me as much as it did, but the fact that Blitz used the post sex cigarette to free Stolas from his wrist bondage but then Stolas turned around and put the cigarette out on Blitz’s horn which is literally a part of Blitz’s body just.....honestly it sums up exactly what I’m trying to get across in this entire huge ass post: Stolas only ever thinks of himself first and anything pertaining to anyone else just doesn’t cross his mind at all unless you blatantly put it there in front of his face. And the fact that he’s still at this point with Blitz all the way here in Episode 5 is not.....promising for their relationship.

The fact that Stolas literally cannot stop himself from calling Blitz “Blitzy” or talking to him in such a condescending way no matter how frustrated Blitz gets and how many times he asks him to stop. I just--how is that supposed to be interpreted as someone talking to a person that they love? There’s no respect or dignity given to Blitz at all on Stolas’s part, and the fact that it seems to be presented as a “Oh teehee it’s just their cute couple thing” is just.....I really, really don’t like that. It also doesn’t match with the Stolas in the very next episode which I quite frankly think is because the creators have been listening to the feedback from fans and were like “We need to SHOW THEM that Stolas actually does speak to Blitz respectfully!!” but that’s just my personal opinion there and, also, it still didn’t happen.

Episode 6

Keeping in mind that THIS is finally the episode where we see Stolas actually save Blitz from danger and demonstrate even the slightest inclination towards his well-being.....I think that honestly makes the next few things here even more fucked up

First and foremost: “WE”. The second after Stolas asks if Blitz is alright and gets the assurance that he is, he roughly grabs his cheek and points out that “If you get in trouble, I get in trouble! WE don’t want that”. The fact that this is the first time that Stolas ever talks about Blitz in the context of “we”--when really what he’s really saying is that him [Stolas] getting in trouble is going to be a bad thing for all of them--is just.....so, so disappointing. At least with this I could hope that perhaps the idea here is that Stolas is genuinely afraid that if he gets in trouble, he won’t be able to protect Blitz from the undoubtedly much worse trouble that he would be in as an imp, but still. The fact that Stolas immediately reverts back to his self-centered perspective so quickly after supposedly being so worried about Blitz’s wellbeing, really makes it seem as though it’s just his own ass that he’s trying to protect. And that.....isn’t exactly what I’d been expecting from “the episode that confirms Stolitz is canon” feedback I’d been hearing.

"Am I going to get ANY thank you for the rescue Bltizy?” This for me was kind of what actually lead to me having this whole epiphany over Stolas’s selfish perspective in the first place. I realized that even here--even when he’s just been the most “romantic” towards Blitz that he’s ever been in any previous episodes up until now [and yes this shift in his character was incredibly jarring for me because of that]--Stolas still goes right back to thinking about what he’s going to get out of this now that he knows Blitz is safe. Let’s take this back to that thing I was saying about Episode 2 and comparing how Stolas rescued Octavia and how he rescues Blitz. Obviously they’re going to be different because it’s Stolas’s daughter vs his hook up BUT just think about where the focus is for Stolas in both of these scenes. With Octavia, Stolas is entirely focused on making things up to her--taking her to do something she wants to do--even if it’s something that he himself doesn’t fully understand or isn’t fully into. That doesn’t matter though, because the entire point is that he’s doing something just for her. It doesn’t have to be about him. But now go back to the scene where Stolas is carrying Blitz out of the room. What does he do? Ask what Blitz is going to do for him. That just takes the idea that this scene was a confirmation of their love and throws it right out the window. Stolas--as we’ve been shown before--would never ask for something in return from someone that he actually loves.

Now let’s take a look at the one and only episode we have of Striker and Blitz interacting together, with an honorary shout out at hallucination!Striker’s appearance in Episode 6:

Episode 5:

Striker knows Blitz’s name.....and he uses it. He’s literally the ONLY other character that we’ve seen so far refer to Blitz as “Blitz” instead of “Blitzo” or “Blitzy” by someone who wasn’t a member of I.M.P.. Aka someone who wasn’t a member of Blitz’s family. He shows Blitz respect at that basest level, and only builds on that from there going forward.

Striker first recognizes Blitz for being “the bold imp that started his own killin’ biz”. Not his hotness, not his skills in the Harvest Moon games because at that point he hasn’t seen them yet.....but for his accomplishment in starting up his own successful business down in Hell. He treats it as an accomplishment. With the kind of respect that comes with acknowledging another person for their accomplishments. Right there, within two seconds of meeting him, Striker demonstrates more respect for Blitz than Stolas has yet to do in the entire show.

The Harvest Moon Festival Games. Now this is something I find fascinating to think about from Striker’s perspective in particular. We as the audience are shown pretty early on that Striker has a strong desire to be the one who comes out on top. He likes the idea of being superior and he openly relishes in the praise and attention he gets for being better than everybody else. ....Except Blitz. When they tie in the games, Striker doesn’t seem bothered with sharing the spotlight with him at all. If anything, he--again--respects just how skilled Blitz is in rightfully earning his place beside him on the stage. That, to me, is HUGE. I’m not going to go so far as to say that Striker necessarily sees them as equals because I think that might be going a bit too far for his ego but he does still fully acknowledge that Blitz is in the same general class as him: that is to say, better than most. Worthy of the same kind of acknowledgement and praise that Striker gets. I literally can’t get over just how big of a thing that is for what we’ve been shown of Striker’s character, and I think it’s unfortunately something that’s incredibly easy to miss or gloss over. :(

And now--for what I personally think is the most significant thing of all--we have: “We”. How many times does Striker suggest during that final scene between them that he really wants Blitz to join forces with him as equals? He never demands that Blitz join up with him, he doesn’t threaten him into joining up with him--Striker barely even hurts Blitz at all during their fight scene compared to how he tried to straight up murder Moxxie--and, most of all, Striker continues to acknowledge that Blitz deserves better than his current arrangement with Stolas. And he’s right. But instead of putting it as “I’M right and this is why you should do this”, he always puts his focus on Blitz himself, or the two of them together as a partnership: “You are so above sucking on a a digusting rich pompous Goetia” | “We could be the most dangerous beings in Hell, Blitz” | “You could partner up with me and klll the unkillable--starting with the one that treats you like a plaything”. It’s just--I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put together why Striker appeals so much more to me as a romantic interest for Blitz, but really breaking it down episode by episode and comparing the differences in wording between Striker and Stolas’s dialogue when it comes to Blitz is just.....holy shit.

Honorary ShoutOut of Episode 6:

The fact that the only thing hallucination Striker has to say to him is “But you don’t want to do things alone Blitzo!” is really, really interesting to me in the fact that he’s.....not......wrong?? Like, To be fair, Striker, RoboFizz, and Verosika all spill their harsh truths, but the thing is.....Striker’s is markedly different in that his wording really isn’t harsh or aggressive at all the way the other two are. He’s just kinda stating a fact in an overexaggerated way because tripping balls hallucination sequence. It’s very interesting to me that that’s the worst that Blitz can imagine him to say--as well as the fact that halluci!Striker calls him “Blitzo”, which is really weird considering that Striker’s never called him “Blitzo” once in the entire show. Makes me kinda wonder where that came from tbh.

Alright so, in conclusion of this very long and rambly styie post: I want to take things back to where I started by reiterating that this is not me trying to convince anyone that BlitzStrike is “right” and Stolitz is “wrong”, or that you should stop shipping what you’re shipping in the fandom. This was just me honestly getting way more excited than I should’ve been over having my “Eureka!” moment for realizing why this new episode didn’t put me back on the Stolitz train like it did for so many other people--and why, in fact, it actually made me think even more favorably of the idea of Blitz and Striker being together.

Thanks for sticking around with me for this very long read, I hope you found it interesting, and I really really hope that it didn’t piss anyone off or rub too many people the wrong way. Like I said at the beginning, ship who you want to ship!! That’s part of the fun of being in a fandom. I’m just hoping that this might help make it easier to understand at least one perspective on why Stolitz is seen as being so problematic as a ship [as of where they are right now].

Here’s to seeing where things go from here!!

#vizowritesthoughts #BlitzStrike #Stolitz #Helluva Boss #hahahahaha I've been dreading posting this because I know it's going to lead to shit even though it's all just personal opinion :'D #but since I went to the trouble of writing this entire thing up I figure what the hell #might as well post it now #anti Stolitz

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palms-upturned · 2 years

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if you’re still doing that ask meme, nanami :)

YEEEEEEEESSS THANK YOU

character ask meme

What I love about them

where’s that post that’s like oh nanami my poor baby my daughter my little gremlin bitch… i love her so much she’s literally awful 😭 but she’s so important to the story, like the other rgu material out there without her just isn’t the same… i think it’s so interesting how the anime depicts all these different responses to trauma/abuse/oppression and nanami is just so… SHES SO… the way she lashes out in the same ways that some of the absolute worst characters do, by leveraging what power she has to make other people feel small and make herself bigger by comparison, and does such heinous things and yet you still Get It… nanami who feels like a space alien or a freak of nature or something pretending to be a girl but isn’t and she’s so terrified of being seen for what she is UGGGHHHHH NANAMI…

What I hate about them

ndsgxjxb i can’t really bring myself to hate nanami but GOD the dress incident in episode 3 was like so fucking heinous, my stomach drops thinking about it

Favorite moment/quote

oh god idek how to pick one… she’s like possibly my fav character in the show SHSGSJDBS i guess the moment that always stood out to me most was when she punched keiko, like i was so stunned and sick and my heart just shattered bc like… that’s when you Get It… even before that moment, she’s always been lashing out like a cornered animal because she’s so unloved… she doesn’t have anyone to genuinely rely on to help her… she can only trust people who she has power over 😔 the only way to protect herself from violence is to strike the first blow 😔😔😔 and yet the violence she faces from keiko is mostly nanami’s own violent actions rebounding back on her and GOOOOOODDDD NANAMI!!!!!! AAAAAUUUUGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

What I would like to see more focus on

i do sort of wish that we saw more of nanami and anthy interacting directly but that’s more for my own curiosity than me thinking that it would have improved the story dhsgdjxbxb it just sort of breaks my heart that nanami’s response to what she saw was just to tell utena not to trust anthy but well… that’s the point isn’t it, to everyone but utena, anthy is just an allegory, not a person in need of help 😔

What I would like to see less focus on

errr… i dunno if this really fits the question, but i HATE nanami’s epilogue SJSGSJDBXB WHAT DO U MEAN SHES HANGING AROUND TOUGA AND SAIONJI… ABSOLUTELY NOT… nanami was literally the first person to attempt to leave ohtori of her own volition and would have succeeded if akio didn’t intercept her transfer request (or maybe touga did? i mean he’s not actually in the student council anymore at that point but that wouldn’t stop him from snooping ig) like she literally tells touga in that episode that she doesn’t want to see him anymore FOR GOOD REASON… so when the epilogue showed her hanging out at the dojo i think i actually yelled “NO” out loud 😭 like ik people say it’s just to show that she’s not ready to break the cycle yet but she’s the character who put forth the most effort to do exactly that so im like [gnashing and biting and weeping] WHY…

Favorite pairing with

WAKABA… whoever keeps giving the two of them duets in the stage musicals, i will kiss you on the mouth

Favorite friendship

juri and miki and nanami best friends forever… i think they repurpose the stuco balcony for weekly uno games… also that nanami and miki briefly date and have the most middle school comphet romance of all time and juri suffers through it in silence even tho she’s internally screaming the entire time

NOTP

just… the obvious one i guess hdgsjxbxbx actually i also saw saionji/nanami content once and i was like… no puede ser…

Favorite headcanon

i lov autistic nanami hcs…

#asks #anon #rgu

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mr-chatterboxs-column · 2 years

Text

This is... a review of the first half of Burn Notice, I guess?

I watched a bunch of the other USA Network procedurals as they came out, but never really saw much Burn Notice (although I knew my dad loved it, and we frequently had similar taste in TV) until recently. I think it actually hits more of a CW niche for me than USA, with a pinch of Leverage? In that while the genre, kind of semi-retired freelance spy antics, is not essentially reassuring, pretty much every episode contains at least three utterly unpredictable and deeply entertaining plot elements. E.g, the episode I just saw:

"Client" character of the week is an estranged friend of Bruce Campbell's character, with the estrangement described almost exclusively with lines that would imply they had a nasty breakup if heteronormativity weren't doing some heavy lifting. Every other character’s reaction still makes perfect sense or possibly more sense if they are also assuming this.

The main character's cover persona during the job is basically just "the devil." He wears a red and black suit, speaks in a strange ominous monotone, and snaps his fingers (to signal to his friends) to set off seemingly magical intimidating explosions. No real reason for this except to make it less obvious that he's a hopeless do-gooder (there's this British creep who keeps quoting King & I lyrics at him & then tailing him who needs to believe he's a deeply mercenary guy)

Episode ends with him taking his kind-of gf to a hotel room implying it's for a job, where she gives him a whole speech about how he works too much while *fully assembling a sniper rifle* (apparently she just assumes she'll need one) before he tells her the room is basically for a staycation and the job isn’t until the next day

The plots are ominous morally grey thriller fare but because it's USA all the characters have a few wacky sitcom-type gimmicks that may or may not be spy-oriented, like the main character really loves those little pre-packaged yogurts! and his gf wants to solve every problem with C4! It's like a parody of an '00s USA show except it genuinely ran for 7 seasons and appears to have used the network's entire budget for classic cars during that era. (A *stunning* Buick got utterly trashed on screen in what looked like a single-take no-tricks stunt.) I'm pretty sure I'll have finished the entire run before Christmas and I will still have no idea if it's "good." I have no thesis here, I guess I'm just trying to describe a particularly strange media experience. I think it is a confused recommendation? Yes.

#it's basically Bruce Campbell's only non-Sam Raimi major role? so maybe his contract was just like #must contain non-sponsored cars and have real fight choreo or he walks?#i wrote this whole thing out to try to figure out what i actually think of this show #and i still have more or less no idea #i feel like later usa shows that touched on espionage went harder in the military propaganda direction #and this one is trying to hit some balance of 'these characters are ex-cia or military and think they are or were doing The Right Thing'#with context clues that emphasize that The Right Thing is always subjective #but also they're trying to make the main plot of each episode a pretty cut-and-dry ''help this innocent person''#it's like it's not regular aggrandizing TV but also isn't going to change anyone's opinion of the CIA if they were vaguely in favor before #a compromise i can live with for now but there's the potential for the season arcs to get very sketchy

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vickyvicarious · 3 years

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what do you make of Eliot's pre-show reputation for working alone? it makes sense for Parker and Hardison, who've always worked that way, but Eliot has a history of working as part of a team in various contexts

Yeah, it's definitely interesting! Really, Sophie never gets that label of 'always working alone' (and in fact later we see her bringing in Tara, which supports that she has friendly contacts still). It's just Parker, Hardison, and Eliot. And like you said, it makes complete sense for Parker, and even Hardison's hacking is just typically more suited to be done alone even if he is a social guy on a personal level. Eliot is different, given his history.

One thing I noticed a while ago, which is also interesting, is that Eliot's job by its very nature depends on other people. Sophie, Parker, and Hardison all steal what they want - as retrieval specialist, Eliot had to be hired. That's not to say he never just took something he wanted, necessarily, but his role majorly depended on people a) knowing of him in the first place, b) trusting his reputation enough to hire him, and c) being able to get in touch with him to hire him. I highly doubt he was handing out business cards left and right, so he had to have a network of contacts to at the very least pass his name along as an 'I know just the guy for the job' kind of thing. In fact, we see him bring in a friend on a con early in S1, and he is in contact with/does jobs for old military contacts throughout the show. (Once again, in the first episode Parker and Hardison were successfully recruited for someone else’s job, so it's not like that never happened for the others. But the general trend was that they picked their own heists; Eliot was hired on by other people.)

So we have a guy here who has a history of working on teams, a reputation as a loner, and yet still actively works for people who he has to keep on good enough terms to keep hiring him. How did that happen? In my opinion, it all comes back to Damien Moreau.

Eliot's timeline goes through some distinct phases:

Rural teen with a relatively poor family, I think they mention he played football; very all-American.

Joined the army with "a flag on his shoulder and God in his heart" or however that quote went.

Highly trained military operative involved in very classified operations.

Working for Damien Moreau.

Working solo as a retrieval specialist.

Leverage.

It's easy to track him through 1-3. He was recruited into the army with promises of heroism and glory, excelled at what he did, was eventually disillusioned. Getting from there to Moreau is a bit more of a jump, and likely didn't happen immediately. Given how protective Eliot gets over people he's working with, and how vigorously he hates betrayals of trust from his team, I think it's not unreasonable to assume that part of the reason he left the army had to do with whatever unit he was in getting very hurt. Likely in a way that made him feel he failed to protect them; maybe he was the only one who made it out of one specific situation. Maybe just a bunch of people he worked with got whittled down, or maybe it wasn't anything so deadly but he saw how little their lives mattered in the grand scheme of those in charge, saw how amoral the missions he was given were, and it was more of a gradual slide into illegality. There's also the detail that as he got into more and more classified work, he might be less and less likely to have a large group of people he could talk to/be a regular team with. Either way, I think Moreau didn't completely hire him straight out of the army, but there probably wasn't a tremendously long time between him leaving that group and joining up with Moreau.

*I originally thought Eliot didn't meet Toby until after he left Moreau, but a helpful anon corrected me on that! 'In the French Connection Job he says to Nate "I was out of the service and working for my 2nd PMC", doing wetwork.' He 'should've' killed Toby but instead stayed with him for months, 'learning how to cook and how to feel'. It certainly seems like he had gone some degree of numb after his experiences in the army and even since leaving it. His second private military contract/company... still implies he was working for organizations of some sort, though I get the impression he wasn't sticking around for terribly long times. Still, even if he then works solo retrieval type gigs for a while, I don't think he was nearly as insistent on working alone/had such a clear reputation about it, not yet.

Eliot no longer believed that he was doing good. He'd lost his naive patriotism and seems to have lost his religion for the most part as well. He didn't trust the system, but for the most part he still seemed to have faith in individuals. He still kept in touch with some old colleagues, he'd learned from Toby; he still wanted to be a part of something, even if that something couldn't be the US Army. He's a self-motivated criminal now but he still isn't averse to working with others.

Then comes Damien Moreau. Whether you read their relationship as romantic or not, it was undeniably important and personal. They knew one another well. Damien even still liked Eliot years after he'd left. There's good evidence for them having an emotionally abusive relationship where Moreau took advantage of Eliot's tendency to do things for those he cares about (I reblogged a great meta on this a little while ago). But essentially what we see here is that in all his time working for Moreau, no one else made such a strong impression on Eliot. Moreau definitely seems the type to play favorites and emotionally distance Eliot from other goons - Eliot isn't just another goon after all, he's the best. He's worthy of Damien's time and attention and specific assignments that only Eliot can be trusted to get done right. Whatever process of estrangement Eliot's superior skills may have begun, Moreau quickened until there was only one person who was the most important to him. Eliot didn't just work for him as a part of some vast criminal network by the end - no, he worked directly for and with Moreau himself. He was part of a team of two for all intents and purposes, regardless of how often he may have cooperated with others on specific jobs (though I suspect that got less frequent over time as well).

And when Eliot realized how deep he'd gotten, how terrible he'd become? He left, and left Damien Moreau specifically behind. Maybe he took a break for a while, went underground... it certainly doesn't seem like he had a conversation with Moreau and resigned so much as he just ran. And when he returned it was as a solo act. What this tells me is that not only did his time with Moreau break Eliot's trust in himself, it broke his ability to trust others. Not everyone necessarily, but in a working capacity. It probably was not the first time he'd experienced betrayal (in some form or another, his time in the army definitely qualified) but it was the most personal. Eliot trusted and liked Moreau - and he did the worst things in his entire life for him.

He couldn't repeat that. He couldn't leave himself open to getting sucked in like that again. And what's more, at this point he really didn't need to. His skills were such that he could get the job done himself (and had perhaps even honed those more solo skills while working for Moreau), and doing so meant that he never had to leave himself vulnerable to someone else like that again. He didn't have to be responsible for someone else getting hurt, and he didn't have to accept that he'd put someone else in charge of who he hurt. Eliot starts being more careful not to permanently injure or kill people, starts getting more selective with his jobs, and makes it a requirement that he works them alone. He still has to accept jobs from others, yeah, but he has ultimate control over what jobs he does accept, and if he operates purely on a freelance basis without getting too involved with any one client, then he can avoid the emotional entanglement that lead to such horrific loss of judgement in the past. It's hard, because he is naturally drawn to other people... but Eliot thinks that letting no one in is by far the safer option for everyone involved. He still builds relationships with others in order to get his name out, and may do repeat work for certain people, but no one is going to own him anymore. He is good enough that he can afford to set the terms like that; when he keeps getting the job done the word will spread that even alone he is worth the money. Eliot relies only on himself and any relationships he has are necessarily shallow. Professional, brief. This extends even to friendships (that seem to involve infrequent contact for the most part) and romantic relationships (he has plenty of sex but doesn't get emotionally close to anyone, does not fall in love). He is alone - in fact he is emphatically and outspokenly alone, because he doesn't want anyone to get their hooks in him like that ever again.

(*Doing jobs like this also limits the likelihood, especially in the beginning, that he's going to end up working for Moreau again in any real capacity. As time passes and Moreau doesn't attempt to bring him back too hard, that may become less of an issue in his mind, but it could certainly be a perk at least as the start.)

Then of course we eventually come to Leverage. It's been a while since Moreau. Eliot has built a solid reputation for himself - and he is being offered a LOT of money for a job that promises to be fairly quick. At this point, he probably feels like maybe he can trust himself as part of a team again without getting too sucked in - he will just keep it to one job and go his own way afterwards. It'll be fine.

...And then he immediately gets sucked in, bonds right away and wants so badly to stay. But even then, it's because of Nate. Eliot knows Nate, trusts him to be the 'honest man', is certain enough of Nate's moral compass that it's okay to get drawn in if Nate is the one making the plans. If it weren't for him, Eliot would have walked right away. Eliot was never going to allow himself to be ruled by others again... but Nate isn't like any of those people, he is a good man. Eliot can trust him not to lead him into anything too morally wrong, and in fact the work with Leverage is a way to bring some good back into the world. Not redeem himself, that won't ever happen, but under Nate's leadership Eliot can do something good for once. He doesn't want to stop.

By the time he moves past trusting Nate's judgement so much, he already trusts and loves the whole team. Parker and Hardison especially, so now he has to stay to keep them safe... even from Nate's plans sometimes, when he gets drunk and reckless. Eliot is secure in his role as part of a team again - and he probably was very lonely without one for all that time. It's not really in his nature to work alone long-term. And a key difference this time is that everyone else gets just as invested as he, and there's a good balance of power and respect unlike all of the more hierarchical teams he was in before (army, Moreau, they would have clear command structures - hell, even high-school football has a captain and a coach). Nate is nominally in charge but they talk back to him and lead where they have the most expertise. They dedicate themselves to him as much as he to them, they change together. And they change for the better, together.

#leverage #eliot spencer #leverage meta #my meta #anonymous #replies

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sakebytheriver · 3 years

Note

You've been making me really want to watch Leverage.

DUDE YES! DO IT!

I promise you, you will absolutely never ever regret watching this show. I have rewatched it so many times I couldn't tell you how many, I can quote along with every episode, I can tell you how every single episode will end and how the plot of each one unfolds right down to the surprise twist where it looks like everything's gone wrong, but I will still end up rewatching it again someday soon because it holds up no matter what.

The show is season after season of a group of broken people coming together as the perfect found family dynamic to collectively say "Eat the rich" every single episode. It's honestly kind of subtle in the first watch of how much this show is leading you towards the conclusion that Capitalism is the problem, but once you see it you'll never unsee it.

The original is an incredible show that somehow keeps its lighthearted tone while never once pulling any punches, there will be episodes where you sit there the entire time and cry, episodes where you'll sit there and laugh the entire time, and episodes where you do both. It's an incredibly well-written piece of media with the perfect cast to back it up and it's one of the only pieces of media that has received a new continuation show that still holds up to the original keeping the heart and feel of the original alive even after losing two of the main cast.

In conclusion, watch Leverage and then watch Leverage Redemption you will NOT regret it

#ignore me #endeavornetwork #ask #leverage #leverage redemption

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blackaquokat · 5 years

Text

Reasons You Should Listen to All the Episode Commentaries for Leverage

--John Rogers is always drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage while doing so. He introduces himself at the beginning, pops the can/bottle open, and it begins.

--The writers/directors/producers freaking LOVED just about every part of the show. They are always heaping love onto the actors/the crew/the writers/the locations they filmed.

--Aldis Hodge starts joining in during Season 3 and always introduces himself as either, “DJ Chocolate Skittles,” “Cookie,” or, with a very specific vocal inflection that I don’t know how to describe, “SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!!” He also always has very interesting tidbits about approaching moments he’s improvised (which is almost all the best moments on the show) and about how he views Hardison.

--The creators also always talk about the Portland actors they worked with, because that’s where they filmed just about the whole show, and how talented those actors were. Very rarely did they bring up L.A. actors because they kept finding incredible talent in Portland, such as Detective Bonanno, Peggy, the Irish Mob actors in Boy’s Night Out, almost all of the clients and security guards, etc.

--Speaking of, they also keep talking about how they could imagine entirely other shows surrounding various characters they didn’t have enough time to dedicate to, such Sophie and Tara grifting together or the FBI Agent in the Radio Job having his own story. They wanted to bring back SO MANY different actors and characters who only appeared for brief times during the show.

--They talk about lots of lore that they couldn’t fit into the show. They say that the assassins from the Reunion Job and the Morning After Job are married, that the cop lady (they named her Officer Rose, specifically for fanfic references, because they hadn’t given her a name in the script and greatly regretted that because they loved this actor) that Eliot flirted with/distracted in Boy’s Night Out dated Rizzoli in the past (John Rogers was apparently very bitter that the writers hadn’t committed to Rizzolie and Isles being lesbians, he talks about it in the commentary twice), John Rogers even outright says that he believes that Maggie and Sophie were involved with each other in canon at one point.

--They encourage so much fanfiction ideas, both about the main cast and about minor characters. John says, and I quote, about the Girl’s Night Out scene where Sophie and Tara are searching that hotel bedroom together, “If this scene does not inspire some very raunchy fanfiction, we have failed our audience.”

--They respect their actors and characters. So much. They made a rule during the first two seasons to NOT sexualize Parker’s character unless she was on the grift and in control of the situation. They realized that the way Sophie and Nate were in S1, they hadn’t developed enough as characters be together during that season, so they changed it up because it was what the characters needed. They were very adamant about giving Parker and Hardison the lovely, slowburn romance they deserved, especially with how broken Parker was. So often, the writers said that the actors were so in-tune with their characters that all the directors did was point the camera at the actors and let them do their thing, because often the actors ad-libbed something in-character that ended up in the show., like Eliot and Sophie’s conversation about what’s under Nate’s bed in the Beantown Bailout Job.

--The big reason Aldis Hodge was casted to be Hardison was because he was the only actor who made about eight pages worth of story exposition sound fun and interesting and enjoyable, and most of Hardison’s dialogue involves exposition. Also, his improv game was STRONG.

--One of my favorite lines in the entire commentary involves John Rogers talking about the Girl’s Night Out Job: “DON’T DISEMPOWER YOUR FEMALE LEADS.”

--They talk about HILARIOUS scenes they wanted to include in the show but couldn’t: Parker’s first introduction to chocolate involving her almost eating through the table, Eliot’s flashback scene in the beginning of S5 involving him coming through Stargate, or Eliot appearing covered in green goo in a flashback in the First-Contact Job.

--There’s also a LOT of really good lessons and ideas about camerawork and set design and costume design and how they write the episodes which I imagine will be very helpful for burgeoning filmmakers.

--Another big rule was to treat every season like it would be the last one, because Dean and John HATED when show pulled that awful cliffhanger trick to get people to come back and watch more, both for Season Finales and from episode to episode. To quote John, “GIVE THE FANS THEIR F***ING ENDING!!”

--Competence Porn. The creators’ favorite term to use, because they know all fans have a competence kink, and Leverage is a show FULL of Competence Porn. They know what the fans want and they deliver.

--Basically, if you’re looking to write Leverage fanfiction and want to enjoy hearing from creators who actually respected and loved the show they created along with the actors and crews who helped make it happen, I highly recommend the Leverage commentary, it’s so enjoyable, they are all so animated the entire time they talk about it, it makes you excited just listening.

#leverage #kat rants

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eleutheramina · 3 years

Text

Is Scoopshipping Good Writing? An Extremely Long Text Post

This is partially a response post to criticism of the ship and Jack’s development in the Dark Signers arc, and partially my own analysis of Jack and Carly’s relationship--specifically whether it is congruous with Jack’s Fortune Cup characterization and whether it says anything meaningful besides just invoking the Power of Love.

Introduction

It’s been over 10 years since 5D’s first aired, which is surreal. I still remember thinking the whole concept was ludicrous at first, but it eventually became my favorite Yugioh series (though I usually ignore the series post-episode 64 and consider the first 64 episodes by themselves). It was really primarily because of these two fools that I started watching in earnest:

I shipped them big time. Even now, I still really adore their relationship. Most of my ships I end up becoming less obsessed with over time, but Jack/Carly continues even to this day to captivate my heart and imagination.

Recently, though, I’ve been thinking about the question, is their relationship good writing? Especially in how consistent it is with Jack’s characterization in the Fortune Cup arc, and whether or not it works to develop him as a character afterward.

(Of course, my personal stakes in the question is, should I be shipping them? While ships obviously don’t have to be well-written in canon or anything like that for someone to ship them, it’s significant to me because so much of the reason I liked Jack/Carly in the past is because it did feel decent character development, especially in contrast to what came after the Dark Signers arc.)

Why I’m Writing This

This sense of doubt about the writing of their relationship is especially spurred on by this character analysis of Jack:

“A lot of people seem to think that the introduction of Carly and the whole romancey subplot developed Jack as a character and for the better. I could not disagree more. If there's one word I'd associate with Jack prior to his entire development and dignity as a character going down the crapper, I'd have to say it's 'ego'. How did Rex/Jaeger get him to sell out his friends, steal Yusei's stuff and join him? He appealed to Jack's ego. How did he persuade him to stay after his first loss to Yusei? By telling him about the signer and reassuring him, again, that he was special. Overall, Jack just struck me as a very focused and driven character, intent on achieving his own goals on his own. He actively pushed away everyone who tried to get close to him, most obviously Mikage, who is consistently worrying over him but whom he never spares as much as a thought or a kind word for in return. Ever. This egocentric attitude is also, at the risk of over-analyzing, consistent with Red Dragon Archfiend, both in its moving away every defensive obstacle in its way and in its actively destroying any monsters that didn't join it in attacking. I generally don't like going onto this level of symbolism because it so easily devolves into semantic nonsense, but given the parallels here and the similarly fitting effects of Yusei's Stardust, I thought it worth mentioning. This would also lend a bit of further significance to him handing the card over to Yusei before the tournament, not only affirming his egocentric wish to beat Yusei at his strongest (and thus redeem himself for their last duel) but also his rejection of the self-sacrificing/others first mentality that the card represents. His obsession with Red Dragon Archfiend after that duel is also consistent with this interpretation, with Jack pushing himself even harder to prove to himself that his way is correct.

“Overall, I don't object to the notion of Jack learning to be less ego-centric as development, but the way the dark signer arc handled it was beyond contrived and ham-fisted, pushing him into an impromptu romance that was completely inconsistent with egocentric personality thus far and completely glossing over the far more interesting questions of how he'd rebuild his ego after essentially losing his entire self-image as the king in front of everyone. Instead, apparently all he needed was for a crazy lady to abduct him from hospital, blackmail him for the sake of her own career, then give a few lines of generic encouragement and invoke the power of love. From where I'm standing, it was obvious that he was intended to be Yusei's main foil, representing a pragmatic, egocentric worldview to contrast with his idealistic views on bonds and friendship, but equally clear that that idea was quickly scrapped in favor of shipping bait and deifying Yusei.

“Jack Atlus, he deserved a far better closure to his development than Stockholm syndrome.” --Aea (http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=26&pid=735)

Before I get to what I think is actually pretty solid about this analysis, I want to address some points. The idea of Carly being “crazy” is pretty hyperbolic. Calling what she did “abduct[ion]” is just inaccurate--after all, Jack asks her to take him out of the hospital, and he also refuses to return when Mikage and Ushio go to get him. Of course, he tries to leave her place in episode 31, but he also seems to willingly return there at the end of the episode. Because she wasn’t really kidnapping him or holding him at her home against his will, their relationship isn’t Stockholm syndrome.

I do think there’s some validity to the idea of her blackmailing him for her career. She does try to draw attention to him when they’re out in public in episode 31 in order to get him to stick around so that she can get a scoop from him. As comically as it is presented in the episode, that’s nonetheless what she does (and she also tries to leverage his lack of gratitude, too!). But she does ultimately feels remorse for that and resolves to not write any article that would hurt a duelist (even despite the fact that Jack lets her write what she wants about him), which is glossed over in this analysis of Jack.

I also don’t think that the encouragement she gave Jack was super original. Here’s the exact quote (which she says in response to Jack divulging his past to her):

“If you get the picture that much, why don’t you just start your life over again? The old Jack died in that battle with Yusei. Now it’s time for the real Jack Atlas to live. Plus, it’d help you in becoming a real King, right?”

Essentially, she tells him that he can get back up again after his loss and be even better than he was before. Yeah, at face value, it is pretty generic. But I do think that it does speak into a lot of what he was struggling with, at least as it is depicted after his defeat. Now, whether these are things that make sense for him to struggle with is a different issue that I’ll discuss in a later section.

And finally, I do think that Jack/Carly invokes the power of love trope. At least, Jack invokes it himself when he is talking back to Godwin in episode 63: “No matter how much I deny it, I cannot escape from what’s known as ‘bonds.’ And what helped me understand that was one woman’s love!” I don’t think the power of love is necessarily a bad thing, and I think it makes sense for someone who gave up their bonds from the past to pursue his own goal to be able to be moved and changed by someone genuinely caring for them.

Now, whether or not it was a good decision to have love be the driving force in Jack’s character development during the Dark Signers arc is a different question, which brings me to the points of Aea’s analysis that I find really compelling and want to grapple with.

What I read Aea as primarily saying is that Jack in the Fortune Cup arc is depicted as a highly egocentric person, and that his plotline with Carly in the Dark Signers arc is a) inconsistent with that previous characterization and b) not as interesting as a plotline in which his egocentrism could continue to serve as foil to Yusei’s worldview.

I think a lot of that makes sense. I do think Jack was driven by his ego, and I do think that it might’ve been more interesting if his self-driven worldview were able to be given as much validity as Yusei’s idealistic, others-driven worldview, which is ultimately what is privileged. I can also see how Jack being primarily motivated by saving Carly during the latter half of the DS arc may be incongruous with his egocentrism just 20 or so episodes before.

At the same time, though, I think there are a lot of directions 5D’s could have gone which have the potential to be more interesting than the one it actually went, so rather than wondering about what could have been, it would be more worthwhile to examine Jack/Carly’s plotline and see whether or not it is inconsistent with Jack’s previous characterization, and also to see if it has any merit of its own as far as it develops Jack’s character.

Particularly, I am going to argue that a) although perhaps not as well executed as it could be, it made sense for Jack’s character to need to change after the Fortune Cup arc, and the way it changes is not incongruous with his previous characterization. Indeed, Jack’s character development in the Dark Signers arc centers around him reconceptualizing what being a King is.

Also, b) Jack and Carly’s relationship ultimately deals with and says interesting things about the idea of being driven by oneself that, rather than totally undermining the mentality that initially drove Jack to abandon his friends to become King, gives it some nuance.

Point A: It made sense for Jack’s character to need to change after the Fortune Cup arc, and the way it changes is not incongruous with his previous characterization. Indeed, Jack’s character development in the Dark Signers arc centers around him reconceptualizing what being a King is.

So throughout the course of one arc, Jack goes from being a man who is motivated primarily by himself and his desires (to the point of being willing to put down others for them), to a man whose main reason for action is someone else’s well being. It does seem like a stark change. Rewatching the Jack/Carly duel, the sheer amount of concern for Carly that Jack shows is pretty astounding.

But I think that it’s understandable for there to need to be a change. For one, the particular reason why Jack lost to Yusei in episode 26 in the first place is because he tried to win using the same strategy as before--he wanted to redeem himself for his first near loss. Clearly there is a need for a change: Jack loses not once but twice to Yusei in the same season, and Yusei also cites Jack’s pride as a King as his reason for his loss.

The drama between Yusei and Jack during the Fortune Cup arc is driven by Jack losing to Yusei and needing to duel and beat him again to redeem himself and prove he’s the better duelist--that he truly deserves the title of King. In episode 6, when Jack realizes he would have lost to Yusei, it’s clear that he’s not driven by how his fans perceive him. While his fans have no idea that he lost, he’s nonetheless still bothered because he, the King, knows. In episode 8, Jack feels like he’s not the King anymore, even though Mikage says he still seems like one. The cheers of his fans sound hollow because he knows he doesn’t deserve them.

Something I find interesting is Jack’s awareness of his counterfeit Kingship revealed through his calling himself a clown. After his initial defeat, Jack asks Mikage if he’s a clown in episode 8, in episode 25 he asks Godwin to release Rally and co as “reward for a clown,” and in episode 31, he also uses the language of a clown when he talks to Carly: “Back then, I gave up everything, and what I gained from it was the path to being a King who continually acts like a clown as he lies about his true identity.”

Because of this, the way I see Jack’s character is that his identity as the King was made counterfeit at almost the very beginning of the series (episode 5). He then spends the entire rest of the Fortune Cup arc trying to regain his original conception of his King identity, only to ultimately fail. From Jack’s own language, I think we’re meant to see this as Jack’s foolishness. While it may have seemed fine for two years, the King identity that he had held onto no longer worked for him. When confronted by someone from his past, his King identity starts to crumble--first he’s defeated not once but twice, then it’s revealed he’s actually from Satellite, etc. In episode 25, he even shows awareness that Godwin baited him with the idea of being a duel king; when Godwin asks if that isn’t what he wanted, Jack says that he wanted to rule as “the King [he] truly desired to be.” Indeed, it’s revealed that he wasn’t even valued by Godwin for himself, but rather as a means of getting to Yusei. It makes sense, then, that his development after his defeat should center around letting go of his original conception of his King identity and discovering something more true.

All of these realizations are those that Jack comes to more or less on his own; Carly even says that Jack already “get[s] the picture.” So I do think it is congruous with Jack’s Fortune Cup characterization for him to need to find a new way of being King in the Dark Signers arc. Hence the need to start over, as Carly suggests. (And which is revisited in episode 37 when Jack talks to Mikage again, episode 59 when Carly does her fortune telling stuff, etc.)

I think it’s because Carly gives him hope after he loses his King identity that she makes such a mark on him and effectively becomes his main motivation in the DS arc. And I mean, Jack in the DS arc is still pretty aloof and pushes others away—he makes it clear to Yusei that he “hasn’t become anyone’s friend” in episode 45, and he really doesn’t rely on anyone else even as he angsts over Carly. No one even knows the identity of the Dark Signer he’s fighting. While Yusei still draws on his friends for strength, we see Jack continue his independent streak. Heck, he even pushes Carly away! (And she honestly probably would have been better off and not have gotten killed if she had just stuck with him, but that’s for another AU...)

An aside - I sometimes read people saying that they think Mikage could have filled the same role Carly did. Maybe, if written differently, she could have. But I think it’s notable that when Jack is angsting about having lost his sense of being a King in episode 8, Mikage is not really able to understand or speak to him in a way that actually meets him where he is. She clearly cares about him, but I think she’s not able to get past the image of the King that she and his fans project on him. I think Carly is able to empathize with his pain more. When Jack calls himself foolish and a clown, Carly doesn’t try to convince him he’s wrong--instead, she says something more like, “Sure, that’s true--but that doesn’t have to still be who you are.”

Point B: Jack and Carly’s relationship ultimately deals with and says interesting things about the idea of being driven by oneself that, rather than totally undermining the mentality that initially drove Jack to abandon his friends to become King, gives it some nuance.

I would argue that this is because Carly’s own character, as well as their relationship in general, deals a lot with themes of selfishness. While not presented as starkly as Jack’s self-drive is, it is obvious that Carly is someone who is self-driven and desires to achieve her goals, not completely unlike Jack. Her first appearance has her going past a swath of reporters to talk to Godwin, and her subsequent interaction with her boss shows that her job is precarious and that the scoops she seeks after are at least in part to keep her job. Like Jack, she came from a lower class background (although “the streets” rather than Satellite), and she doesn’t seem to have any close ties (Angela the reporter might count, but that’s a stretch). And when she goes to talk with Yusei and Dick Pitt after their duel, her concern is not with their wellbeing but about getting information from them for a scoop. “Straight ahead is the only way for me,” is something she repeats, showing that she knows where she wants to go and is determined to get there.

Indeed, Carly would not have met Jack at all if she had not snuck into the hospital trying to learn if he was truly from Satellite. She is someone who is driven primarily by herself, albeit more innocuously than Jack is. This also underlies why she was willing to “blackmail” Jack into going to the amusement park with her. She needs a scoop and is ready to do what it takes to get it.

But, we see how in the same episode, she starts thinking less of herself and more about another--Jack. She thinks, “He’s really hurting inside. And here am I trying to write an article about it. Am I a bad person for that?” She considers what he is going through, rather than just her own needs. When she defends Jack to Angela, she is driven not by her desire to keep Angela from getting her scoop, but a genuine care for Jack. And when she figures out he’s going to the tower to look at Satellite, it’s only by inhabiting his point of view and thinking about what he may want. Yet the question she asks herself--whether or not it’s bad to be writing a scoop about him (after all, it is her job, as Angela points out)--is an important one for her.

As self-driven as Carly is, she realizes she has limits--that is, she would not go as far as to hurt another person to achieve her own goals. Jack, on the other hand, has already done that, putting Rally in peril and taking Yusei’s card in order to get to Neo Domino City and become King.

We see again how Carly can be self-driven when she tries to get closer to Jack after he leaves, and when it is ultimately an illusion of happiness with Jack that causes her to fall back into her Dark Signer persona. Yet even then, it is clear that she does not want to hurt anyone, and Jack repeatedly reiterates this.

This culminates in the conversation she has with Jack before she dies: Carly: I loved cheering people on who tried their hardest like you, Jack. Despite that, because I tried to wish for such selfish happiness, I must’ve been wrong for doing so, huh? Jack: That’s nonsense! Everyone has the right to wish for happiness. If you’re saying that’s a crime, then I’m just as guilty!

Carly says herself that she was motivated by her own desires. Jack, in affirming her desire to obtain happiness, also affirms the ambition that drove him to abandon his friends. However, we see in how Carly is reluctant to hurt others that while it is not bad to want to pursue one’s goals and happiness, it is important to consider the impact on other people. It wasn’t bad for Carly to want to be with Jack, but it would obviously be bad for that to necessitate the deaths of many; it’s not bad for her to want to write a successful story, but it’s bad for her to take advantage of duelists’ like Jack’s pain to tell that story. This allows us to view the Jack in the FC arc in a new light: his desire to escape Satellite and become a King wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t right of him to harm others in order to get there.

Ultimately, Jack and Carly’s relationship is about two people learning how to pursue their happiness and also learning to put each other’s happiness first.

#jack atlas #carly nagisa #scoopshipping #meta #yugioh 5d's #i have way too many thoughts about this card game anime #retributionshipping #carly carmine #yugioh #otp: you can't even ride the monorail

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