#renee speaks.

[z-eusie]

i finished blood of zeus and i'm going to try and formulate some of my thoughts on it here. i'll preface this by saying i really enjoyed the first season (it had some flaws, and there were parts i didn't like, but overall the story was interesting and i liked most of the portrayals). spoiler warning for season 2 ahead!

i had quite a few gripes with the show this season. it very much so felt like a set-up season (which is fine), but it also made the show feel very slow. one of my biggest complaints was actually about heron as the protagonist - i didn't mind him in season 1, but in this season, he felt so flat, boring, and irritating that i genuinely tuned out most of his scenes. his role in the story made sense in the first season, but now, everything feels much bigger than him and he has no reason to be involved in all of the godly drama. get him out of there lol. he has no understanding of the politics of olympus and is mortal, but he can shoot lightning and zeus liked him so he deserves to be a contender in who gets to lead them? HUH? (an oversimplification, i’m aware)

my second complaint was ares. i've seen a lot of people reiterate my feelings, that it was frustrating to see him portrayed so negatively, that his storyline with persephone was bad and that his antagonism was infuriating. which i also agree with. i think my biggest issue here is not that he was an antagonist, but that his motivations for antagonism were weak at best. ares sided with hera in season 1. he should NOT be able to parade himself around olympus the way he did this season - hera had to go into hiding and even poseidon was removed from the overall plot because of their deeds. but there seems to be no repercussions for ares, which is flaw number 1. flaw number 2 is that his reason for hating heron and being a general jerk is that he isn’t a bastard and deserves more renown than any of the others. i think it would have been FAR more interesting to make ares’ storyline centered not on his sense of superiority, but actually his jealousy (kind of the way wrath of the titans did it. in that film, he was jealous of perseus and the love zeus had for him). ares being jealous that, despite being zeus’ ‘heir’ in this context, and one of his few legitimate children, he didn’t have his father’s love, and he loathes heron for it. you don’t really get that sense from him in this show, and i think it would have been far more compelling for his anger to have come from envy instead of pride. the persephone stuff i just can’t even touch on because why.

my third complaint is actually about demeter and persephone - demeter in particular. her being the villain is so frustrating, but i can’t exactly be surprised. i knew the moment that this show portrayed hades and persephone as a loving couple with a romantic origin that demeter was going to be villainized. but the way they did it is ridiculous. she’s not a grieving mother - she’s pure evil. the storyline with the cordyceps was fucked (and also… really insignificant, somehow). but i think the part that aggravates me the most is that it completely ignores why demeter froze the earth the first time. she did not do it to be spiteful, or out of anger. she didn’t do it to punish anyone. she was a grieving mother, a mother who had lost her daughter and no one in the world seemed able to help her, and her grief manifested in dying crops. in this show, she’s just vindictive, cruel, and genuinely terrifying, and i cannot stand that she is once again being villainized in one of the FEW greek myths that actually centers a woman’s emotions and does not belittle them.

fourth - i love hades and persephone, but their little scheme was so wishy washy. hades as an antagonist felt half-baked, and the fact that no one on olympus actually saw this coming is a miracle because everything hades did felt really dumb and obvious. i feel like there were a hundred different ways the two of them could have gotten what they wanted. i also loathe the idea that zeus cheated his way onto the throne - i’m glad the show didn’t actually blame him for it, that hera took the fall, but i think that the fates work a little more powerfully than that - and that cheating wouldn’t be possible in this circumstance. zeus did earn the throne and he deserved it, and i will die on that hill. (my other complaint is hades and persephone’s design. blond persephone is the bane of my existence lol and hades looking like an older ares was… sigh).

a few other things i didn’t like: the way the story of typhon unfolded. at first i thought they were implying that typhon was just. plain old defeated by all the gods together, and i was frustrated, but they sort of fixed it by stating zeus was the only one who stayed to fight him. however, the lack of focus on zeus in this story means that they’re ignoring the personal stake zeus had in needing the eleusinian stone under his control. it was also weird that they implied then that there was no king of the gods until AFTER typhon, which is… a long time, actually.

the gorgo plotline also felt kind of unnecessary. seraphim’s arc could have easily been about his mothers instead and we could have felt the same level of sympathy but alas.

there were some things i really did like though! and those are as follows:

athena and hestia. zeus trusting the two of them with the very stone that gives him his power was beautiful, and i love how hard the two ladies fought to keep it safe. hestia wrecking the keres was incredible (and also hilarious to me. anyone who read my fic ‘mnemosyne’s curse’ will know that hestia scorched the keres in that story.. and then did in blood of zeus which was amazing haha). the inclusion of hestia in the story was nice. and i really loved the way the show portrayed athena’s intelligence - not just in combat or in solving problems, but she was quite emotionally intelligent as well which was a nice touch.

i liked hera’s attempts at reconciliation. i think they could have been more detailed, but her defending zeus at his trial broke my heart and i loved the way she handled the conflict. poseidon as well - his willingness to admit that zeus should have been king, and him backing out of most of the conflict for the throne was a very interesting touch i didn’t anticipate but really enjoyed.

zeus in tartarus. i mean, i didn’t actually like it because it broke my heart but him repenting and still ending up in tartarus was painful and i cried a lot i’m not gonna lie.

zeus kid solidarity - watching them work together and fight was incredible, and i adore all of their character designs so much.

melinoe and zagreus. if you know me you know i’m a fiend for the underworld family and seeing them was so cute. i just wish melinoe’s design was spookier, but alas, all of the gods seem to be very ‘pretty’ so i get why they didn’t.

every scene with zeus. his leadership shining through, his quiet acceptance of his fate, his humbleness. y’all can say what you want about him, but he proved in this season why he deserved to be king, and his absence clearly drove everyone else to some horrible acts as well - meaning what they condemned him for is not something only he is guilty of (what gaia said at the end). i will defend that man to my dying breath, and it pains me to see him this way but it’s also so good.

i am very excited to see typhon as the villain next season. i’m hoping this means they will set zeus free to help them defeat the foe only he was brave enough to stand up against uwu

[kermit-coded]

hello wolf 359 fandom.

[aconissa]

René Magritte, L'État De Veille (1958) Philipp Igumnov, Cloudhouse (2013)

[musicoftheheart]

i just watched mean girls (2024) for the first time and the only things ive taken away from it are:

im so incredibly gay

renee rapp

auli'i cravalho

my god im gay

i didnt pay attention to the rest of it tbh, i was a lil distracted

[pezberrywhoreee]

is it just me who hasn't seen this picture?!?! lord she is so fucking pretty

[clarity2electricboogaloo]

“You know what they would call me if I was a boy?”

“Strong-”

“Reginald...Honestly, I’d rather be bitch.”

God, I love Regina George

[meangirls-imagines]

If you haven’t seen already, there is a person on TikTok @/this_is_slim who posted a video talking about how rude Reneè was when she tried to ask for a pic at Coachella.

First off, let me say this loud and clear.

CELEBRITIES DON’T OWE YOU ANYTHING.

Reneè is there to work, have fun, and watch other people perform. She is not there to take a pic at the drop of a hat. She has the right to say no. For you to sit down and make a TikTok talking about how rude she was, commenting about how you feel like since she’s a up and coming artist who OWES you their time and a pic, AND for the whole video, you don’t even call her by her name? You call her Regina George the entire time? Wtf??

Listen, I’ve never been to Coachella, but I know it basically become a place where people go JUST to meet celebs. You go there to watch people perform, not harass a celebrity for pictures and then when they say no, you go on social media and put them on blast.

So allow me to say it again for the ones in the cheap seats:

CELEBRITIES. OWE. YOU. NOTHING.

Do better.

[danopdf]

RENEEEE!!!!! seeing her and Gene together looking actually happy is so odd but such a nice change😭

[strawberrygiorno]

I think way too much about the fact that the check to find out about René being in love with Gaston is only possible for one day. The quest doesn't start until day four, and René is dead by day five. There's nothing to be done about it, not nearly enough time to even start unpacking it. His last words to Gaston are so harsh. They never stood a chance.

True love is possible only in the next world - for new people. It is too late for us.

[mjfass]

She hates him so much

[pezberrywhoreee]

we don't talk about this tiktok enough

[constantly-questioning-reality]

aaron: i left you alone for five minutes and you bought an expensive new car?

andrew: you left me alone with our dead mother’s inheritance. 

[blues-valentine]

It’s the way so many people dismiss HSMTMTS because is from Disney Plus and they associate it to being a kids show and not as deep as the other teen shows out there and it couldn’t be more untrue. The characters are better written and have a more reliable personality than most of the teen shows making the rounds right now that people believe is actual television. Not just the ships are better and are delivering more representation and buzz than Netflix or Amazon combined but the actors from this show are so insanely talented and know how to handle both emotional and comedic beats flawlessly. And the performances are clearing a lot of people from those shows. Put respect on their name.

[missegyptiana]

rachel mcadams and renée rapp finally met. i can die happy now

[meangirls-imagines]

Imagine writing this, and thinking “Yup. This is it.” Like you guys don’t have any other news to write about?

This is gross and invasive.

[honoragreyskull]

have we already talked about jean's 29?

yes 2+9=11, jeremy's number.

but 2 is kevin's number. and 9 is renee's.

and 9 is only renee's after kevin joins the foxes; she gives him her 2, knowing that safety net needed to stay in place a little longer.

anyone who had been paying attention to the PSU foxes before kevin day joined the line would know that dan wilds and renee walker had fought tooth and nail to get that 1 & 2; it meant hard-won respect and bloody hands shaking in solidarity. but the 2 was only ever a number to renee; she knows that it doesn't matter what number she wears, she's still Renee Walker underneath. kevin day doesn't seem to understand that yet, and the boy has been through enough change. she will let him keep this, let him hold onto the smokescreen until he doesn't need it anymore (hello, deadliest piece on the board).

i wonder if renee told jean that when they texted, warming up and getting to know each other. i wonder if he knew he was safe with her because of how she had treated kevin. if he knew she would save him, or didn't even let himself imagine that he could deserve the same treatment kevin got. 1, 2, 3. i don't know if the number had as much of an impact on jean, but i do know he wouldn't have been able to recover half as well if he'd been allowed to keep 3.

he gets a new number that has a different meaning, because the trojans assign their numbers by position played. 29 means "backliner", not "perfect court". if he can shed the 3, the brand on his cheekbone doesn't feel so much like a life sentence. if jean moreau can be 29 instead of 3, he can be a trojan and not a raven. maybe he deserves softness and warmth, maybe he didn't deserve cruelty and pain.

29 is is freedom and 2+9(jeremy) is his future, but 2&9 kept him alive to see it!!!!