#the delivery of that line in the first scene legit had me emotional and i didn’t get visibly emotional at anything else in the movie | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thewickedmerman · 4 years

Text

Zendaya STILL Can’t Act

First of all, I do NOT dislike Zendaya. She is a kind and genuine person that truly has a good heart and is the type of person that more celebrities should be like. I may not be a fan of her due to her not really being that talented, but I have a lot of respect for her as a person (Unless she does something in the future). So before any of you immature Zendaya fans come after me, just remember that you’re just making her look bad because you’re acting like a bunch of immature, annoying babies that can’t accept different opinions.

Anyway, just because she is a good person, that doesn’t mean she can’t be criticized for her work. I’m sorry, but she is NOT a good actress! Before any of you start bringing up her Emmy win, you realize that those don’t mean anything because they have been accused of being rigged and acting more as a popularity contest rather than a contest of TRUE talent, right? Some are even arguing that this year they were trying to avoid being accused of racism with the BLM movement by having most of the winners be black. I don’t agree with that because, apart from Zendaya, all the winners that are black truly did deserve their awards because they are amazingly talented people. However, if the Emmys were truly legit, Lana Parrilla would’ve been nominated and won an award for Best Supporting Actress in Once Upon a Time and Bella Thorne should’ve won an Emmy for her performance in the TV movie, Perfect High. Zendaya is a popular celebrity but popular doesn’t mean she has talent. It’s like how a lot of kids in school that are popular aren’t popular because they are a nice person that people like. Popularity isn’t always deserved. I mean, look at how Viola FREAKING Davis, the most talented actress EVER, didn’t get a nomination this year, despite receiving and winning a lot of Emmy’s over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure colorism played a part there as well, but Zendaya is NO WHERE near the level of an Emmy worthy actress and did not deserve to win against the likes of the other nominations that are FAR more talented, versatile, and experienced.

However, let me explain the flaws of her acting. I’ll be fair and pretend that I acknowledge the bullshit argument that Disney Channel acting is supposed to over-the-top and bad as a “legit” argument, because critiquing that nonsense is a subject for another post on another day. Lets focus on her acting in things outside of Disney Channel. Well, her acting still sucks. While she was over-the-top in Disney Channel, she takes a new extreme by being absolutely emotionless. I know people are gonna say that her reason for acting like that in Euphoria and Spiderman is that it’s part of her character. Okay, while I think she still performs those type of characters poorly, I will be fair and accept that for now. However, what about her performance in something like The Greatest Showman?

What was her excuse in The Greatest Showman? She wasn’t playing a Daria knock-off or a drug addict there. She was playing a character that required a lot of emotion in order to make the audience feel for her struggle. I won’t mention how her being white passing (And YES, she is white passing because she’s going to be staring in a movie called A White Lie about a woman who was white passing and pretended to be white in order to attend college, so she admits she’s white passing) made her miscast for the part. I will just be talking about how bad her acting was. Ignoring the scene where she’s crying by Phillip’s bedside (Which admittedly was really good), her performance is always so wooden and emotionless. She goes around with a blank look on her face most of the time with the occasional smile and confused look on her face. Her line delivery is almost always so flat, she’s always monotone unless she’s singing, she sounds like she’s reading her lines off cue cards, and sometimes she says her lines in a hammy tone.

I’ll describe some examples of her bad acting in the movie, since I can’t show clips due to how Youtube is always taking videos down that are clips from movies. When she asks if they were all invited to see the Queen, she says it with absolutely no emotion. She comes off as though she doesn’t care and I don’t mean doesn’t care as in acting like she doesn’t care so that she doesn’t come off as vulnerable; it’s more like she just doesn’t care like how a kid in a school play just doesn’t care and is putting in no effort at all. And the way she makes a pause in the middle of the sentence makes it come off even worse. “Are we all... invited?” Come on! Put in some effort!

Another example being when Phillip touches her hand during Jenny Lind’s performance. Zendaya just has a blank look on her face and all she does is take a breath. This should be an emotional moment for Anne. The man she... loves? I mean, the character and the romance are so underwritten that it’s hard to tell how she feels about him at this point. Anyway, the man the loves finally does something to display his affection for her in public, so she should be having a surprised look on her face that grows into a smile and trying to hold back tears of joy. Unfortunately, all she’s doing is just acting the way she did before he touched her hand. We don’t see how she feels about finally holding his hand or even him touching her finger with his. At that moment, she should show some slight hope but also skepticism by brushing it off as him give trying to make her happy by doing the bare minimum, which would transition to emotional happiness as he holds her entire hand. But all we get is a slight deep breath and the same blank look she always had. When he took his hand away from her after people are whispering about them, this should be a moment where she looks shocked, as well as hurt that she let her guard down because she let him make her believe that he truly cared about her enough that there was a glimmer of hope for their love. But she just looks at him with a blank and emotionless look on her face. She’s not displaying all the many emotions that the character should be feeling. When she walks away, she doesn’t look hurt but rather looks like someone who just tooted a little. What made her or the director think she was doing a good job there? Where is the emotion? The complexity? The depth? She showed about as much emotion as the characters in that terrible “live-action” remake of The Lion King.

Another scene being where she’s at the theatre, which she ruined with her performance. The way she talks to the ticket man was so wooden and robotic. She should’ve came off as someone who was clearly trying not to be scared but you can tell that she is. Why? Because she is a black woman (Or rather is supposed to look like one) and is out of her element because someone that isn’t white wouldn’t normally be in a prestigious place like the theatre (Unless you were white passing like her, but the movie is still trying to ignore that she’s only slightly darker than Zac Efron). She should be frightening about how people will treat her but trying to be brave because of how she wants to experience this world that is like a fantasy in her mind. She’s just emotionless as always. When she sees Phillip, she should be shocked and upset because he tricked her but also is willing to be seen in public with her among all of the people from his high class world. But she just gives a blank look. When she’s looking up at the staircase leading to the theatre, she should be having a lot of emotions welling up because of how she always wanted to go to the theatre, most likely since she was a child. Now it was finally happening and what does she do? Just gives a blank expression again after biting her lips. That doesn’t come off as a young woman that is finally going to have an experience she’s always dreamed of happening. It comes off as being indifferent, especially with her monotone line delivery of “I’ve always wanted to go to the theatre.” SHOW SOME EMOTION! Imagine how bad a Cinderella movie would be if that was Cinderella’s reaction to being at the palace.

When she and Phillip run into his parents, she should be doing more than just having a blank expression on her face. She should be showing some fear because of how it felt like nothing could go wrong, but then it does. She’s being referred to as “the help” and being seen with her is considered a bigger disgrace than being associated with Barnum, who was considered to be trash to begin with. She is also giving up on her dream of going to the theatre by just leaving and doesn’t show any emotion. All of this should be having her full of emotions that she’s embarrassed that she let break through. She should be having a few tears escape, a quivering lip, and her voice whimpering and cracking as she’s running away after having a childhood dream crushed. What does she do instead? Just casually leave with a blank look on her face. She doesn’t even come off as someone trying to leave before someone sees her cry. It comes off more as just being indifferent and the speed she’s running isn’t out of desperation to leave because she was hurt but more like a “Oh! I didn’t realize how late it was. I gotta go before I’m late for being early to curfew.” It ruins the moment. She can’t even run properly in a scene! How bad at acting do you have to be to mess up running?

I won’t go into the problems of her acting in Rewrite the Stars because I covered that pretty well in my review of the movie, so I’ll just provide a link to it.

My Review of The Greatest Showman

She may be able to get away with this when she’s in Spiderman and Euphoria, but that doesn’t work for every character. It shows that she is really a one trick pony when it comes to acting. She’s not versatile and doesn’t have a wide range. Her acting is just going around with a blank look on her face with a monotone delivery, even when it doesn’t work for the scene. Until she can prove she can act outside of the types of characters she plays in Spiderman and Euphoria (And even then I think she plays the deadpan character type very poorly), she still isn’t a good actress. Maybe she’ll be able to prove herself in her movie A White Lie. I want her to improve and I wanted to love her in Euphoria but she just felt more like she was going through the motions. Playing a deadpan character isn’t as easy as people think. You need to be able to have just the right amount of being emotionless and still deliver the dry wit with a bit of smugness and sass instead of just being bored. A deadpan character is a lot more complex a character to pull off than people think. You need more than just being emotionless, monotone, and breathing to pull it off. The body language matters, which Zendaya doesn’t try to add to her characters and is just her going through the motions instead of becoming the character. In Spiderman she comes off as a stoner rather than a Daria type character, which you’d think would work in Euphoria but she really doesn’t portray that. And her eyes don’t portray Michelle as snarky, smart, introverted, or skeptical but rather just either having her eyes look relaxed or squinting like the sun is in her eyes. She feels more stiff and wooden than is necessary for the character. The emotional scenes feel half-assed. The door scene made me cringe because her voice was more whiny than desperate and and her face when she was begging felt more like she was constipated or something. I actually kind of laughed at how insanely flat her performance was in that scene, despite people praising it.

Something that is critical with a deadpan character is that, while they do have to be limited in their facial expressions, they still need to have their eyes be able to portray something. For example, Daria Morgendorffer’s eyes always showed how annoyed she was with the stupidity of her surroundings and wanted nothing to do with it (I can relate) and Raven from Teen Titans had her eyes show how she has a snarky nature and can’t express her emotions like others because her powers are dangerously driven by emotions, as well as her having a bit of mystery behind her that we learn more about in season 4. And before you say that they are animated characters so it’s easier to have them appear like that, there are actresses that manage to do that as well. Lana Parrilla managed to portray that as The Evil Queen/season 1 Mayor Mills where her facial emotions were more reserved but she managed to show how menacing she was with the look of her eyes. She made you happy that looks couldn’t kill. There was also Danai Gurira’s performance as Michonne from The Walking Dead (A show that I am NOT a fan of AT ALL) where the character had a deadpan attitude but also managed to show how serious she is with her eyes and body language instead of just having a vacant look in her eyes and uninspired body language like Zendaya did in Euphoria.

Before you say she is playing a drug addict and that’s how they act, first of all, I’ve sadly had some drug addict family members and they still didn’t have a vacant look in their eyes like she did. Her eyes were just wide open and relaxed rather than in a daze from the drugs. Secondly, and I know I shouldn’t be comparing them, but Bella Thorne has played a drug addict in Perfect High and on the show Tales in the episode “XO Tour Lif3” where she managed to come off as a genuine addict that is in a daze but still comes off as human. You can see her struggles and emotional turmoil in her facial expressions, voice, and body language that make it more believable that her character felt that she needed to turn to drugs for comfort and escape from her issues. When her character is high or drunk, she is so convincing to the point that it is flawless. Zendaya’s performance in Euphoria is just so hallow and lifeless. It also really makes me sad that Zendaya got an Emmy win at her age when Bella, who has been busting her ass in the acting business MUCH longer than Zendaya (Who didn’t start acting seriously until Shake it Up) and has dreamed of winning Oscars and Emmys, despite people saying that she would never make it as an actress because of her dyslexia and has to work extra hard just to be able to read a damn script doesn’t have even one Emmy nomination (Let alone a win). Bella is the one who has been acting since she was six-years-old! She has even shown she can play the deadpan character better in her movies Amityville: The Awakening (Mediocre movie, though) and I Still See You than Zendaya ever did in Euphoria and the Spiderman movies.

Anyway, I gave Euphoria a chance and viewed it with an open-mind that REALLY wanted to like Zendaya’s performance but she fell flat and showed that acting isn’t her strong suit. If she gets better in the future, that’s great and I wish her all the luck in the world. But I’m tired of her getting praise that isn’t deserved or earned, especially when there are actresses that are far more deserving and have worked a lot longer and harder than her but still don’t get their recognition. She has a good singing voice, is decent at modeling, and her strong suit is dancing but she’s not phenomenal at any of these things. She doesn’t deserve to be called a Queen when she doesn’t have the talent that is required to earn that title. Maybe she’d be at her best if she was exclusively a talkshow host. People mainly love her for her personality and having her own talkshow would be able to make that aspect of her truly shine.

I have also learned, thanks to following the AWESOME @angelicdiamondbabys that Zendaya’s new role in a movie called Dune was something that is based in Middle Eastern culture. So not only is Zendaya contributing to gingerism by taking redhead roles (Gingerism is a thing and it even a problem with white people that are non-redheads, so look up gingerism and educate yourselves) and taking the role of a full-blooded black woman in The Greatest Showman, but NOW she is taking roles from Middle Eastern actresses? But of course people are sitting on this because it’s Zendaya and people fancast her as every brown character even if it’s not racially correct! I don’t know much about Dune or the situation, so I can’t really say anything about that. But still, this might show that Zendaya isn’t as nice and mature as she appears to be. However, I still can’t say much on this.

And before you say that I’m a white guy, so I can’t have an opinion on Zendaya or call me a racist, my new friend angelicadiamondbabys is a full-blooded black woman who also shares my views on Zendaya. So take a look at her page and be warned, she is brutally honest, which makes her awesome, so if you don’t have a thick skin, be warned lol.

This is just my opinion. Be respectful.

96 notes · View notes

soft-sunflower · 4 years

Text

Flower of Evil Thoughts: Part 1- Episode 11

OKAY. FIRST OF ALL. WAS I RIGHT OR WAS I RIGHT? ABOUT MANY THINGS. I KNEW we were in for a massive emotional blow from Hyunsoo. I KNEW we were in for getting our hearts utterly wrecked by him and Jiwon. I know mine is. I KNEW who the accomplice was. I just... KNEW. I love that so many of my theories were correct from the get go. Alright, on we go to this week's episode thought post made by yours truly.

Alright so, we begin our episode at the hospital. OMG!!! Our little baby girl Eunha had just been born!!! Jiwon is overcome with all kinds of emotion. One of the things she says is "I'm grateful that she made it." It makes me wonder if there were complications during Eunha being delivered? Hyunsoo is trying to understand the reason for his wife's tears, and expresses to her that he's worried when she asks what's on his mind. I have a pretty good idea of what he's worried about, but obviously he cannot say this to Jiwon.

"What if she doesn't like me?" Translates to

"What if she resents having me for her father? What if she ends up like me, unable to express or understand emotions? What if she ends up like my father? What if she doesn't have your personality? What if I fail her the way I was failed growing up?"

Of course he can't say this because he doesn't even really know nor understand it himself. Then their baby girl starts to cry. Hyunsoo looks curiously at her and asks Jiwon

"Why did she suddenly burst into tears?"

Jiwon explains she probably shares their feelings.

"There's a lot she wants to say, but she can't put it into words yet."

I feel like this is important to pay attention to. A lot she wants to say, but can't put it into words and this is why she's crying. Hmmm...

Alright, so back to Haesoo discovering the green bracelet back when the hospital opened, and she hears a strange sound outside. I have to admit, when she ripped open the curtains, it gave me a jumpscare haha. I thought something BAD was gonna be out there waiting for her! They sure do a good job at keeping the suspense up! I wasn't sure what was going to happen. lol You never can tell in this drama. It's always got me on my toes. Haesoo is getting closer and closer to the accomplice. She can feel it. I can too, but it has me worried.

OKAY so, we finally pick back up at the scene in present-day for Jiwon where last week's episode ended with Detective Choi Jaeseop confronting Jiwon about Do Hyunsoo's identity. I felt a very strong, almost brotherly aspect from Detective Choi here with Jiwon, but he still frustrated me unbelievably. I get it, he's a cop. Just doing his job, but still... please use your brain on this rather than taking a cold case at face value. There's A LOT more going on he does not know. I have to give him props for covering smoothly for Jiwon. I know he isn't doing this to hurt Jiwon. That this is his job, but I don't have to like it. I just hate how he acts on his gut feeling and what he's "heard" or hearsay rather than working with Jiwon to uncover the truth that Do Hyunsoo did not kill the village foreman.

Also excuse me?? I'm sorry, Detective Choi, but her emotions are VERY VERY real. Whether you want to believe that or not. Jiwon knows so much more than you do about this entire ordeal and you should stop riding on your own emotions for a moment and work with your teammate rather than telling her she needs off the case. Such as, finding out the real Heeseong is NOT dead. He's been comatose for 14+ years and now he's wide awake and talking. This is one case she HAS to be on no matter what. Because he is so dearly misinformed. I'm getting a little tired of this "He's deceiving you" crap about Hyunsoo because we all know this isn't the truth. Yes, he kept his real identity secret, but he never faked anything around her. He showed her openly who he really is and can be. He was NEVER Baek Heeseong. He was ALWAYS Do Hyunsoo. A good person.

When Jiwon fell to her knees pleading (Moon Chaewon's delivery of "Sunbae, please!" and "I'll put my life on the line to prove his innocence!" hurt so much that if I had been standing, I would've went to my knees too *sob* Well done, girl) to him. I do like how he wanted to try and protect her by saying "You don't know anything." I have to give him some credit for that.

"It's obvious how the world will see him. Everyone will throw rocks at him and taunt him indefinently."

Oh Jiwon... he's already been through that. LITERALLY. *glares are freaking Moojin* But we definitely don't want that happening to him again. He's a GOOD man and he deserves for the world to see that he's good and he's innocent. You are going to be the one who can prove who he is to the world. And no, Detective Choi... she won't thank you. Not now or ever for arresting any innocent man that also happens to be her husband. I'm sorry, but no. She won't.

We cut to Hyunsoo and Moojin together in Hyunsoo's car... I knew from the start that this operation was too well put together. There's no way that transaction was gonna flow as smoothly as Hyunsoo hoped it would. Though I'm glad that Moojin did come along for help and I'm glad that Hyunsoo had a plan B if things went south, which they ALWAYS do because hello? This is Kdrama world haha. The bugging device was clever on Hyunsoo's part, and I'm glad he was thinking ahead on that one. This stuff is never bound to go right. And once again, clever clever with turning on the switch AFTER he'd been ran over with the detector. Nice one.

Alright, Detective Choi earned more redemption from me here when he smoothly lied to their fellow teammates about "Eunha being sick and in the hospital." I will give him more credit here. Credit where credit is due, but I am SO proud of Jiwon for not backing down on this, stepping in and taking charge. Girl, GET. IT!! Protect your man!!!I LOVE her fierce determination here. You aren’t gonna stop her, sunbae.

YES!!! Moojin has the address to where the people captured by the human traffickers are waiting! I'm so glad for this honestly. I'm really glad Hyunsoo bugged that bag. Jiwon gets the call from the "informant" (Moojin pretending to be Hyunsoo, which YES she IS needed on this case THANK YOU very much) and now they know where they can rescue those kidnapped people while busting the trafficking ring.

"You want me to just stay in the office and wait!? What would you do in my shoes?"

And it seems Detective Choi has a moment of conscience here because what WOULD he do? He's got a wife too, right? What would HE do if this were HIS wife that he so dearly loves??? That's right. He'd be just like Jiwon. Who wouldn't??

Ahhh, just as Yeom Sangchul is about to hand over the photos of the accomplice to Hyunsoo, his phone rings... and guess what it says on the screen? BAEK. Yep. That's right. Freaking BAEK. And it's the unfather. It's Baek Manwoo calling to not only put a hit out on Hyunsoo but to tell the trafficker that he's working with the police to catch them and offers him TWICE the money he's already giving them if they kill Hyunsoo... I mean REALLY??? WTF you shady bastard! I had a BAD feeling from him since the very first episode and those bad feelings just continue to be confirmed to me. This whole Baek family are nothing but creepy, shady, untrustworthy assholes covering up some major shit such as WORKING WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKERS. Down to the point that Yeom Sangchul called him "Sir." UGH. DISGUSTING.

Heeseong is "scared" of Do Hyunsoo? Oh please... Why I do I feel like a lot of this that he's pulling off is a big act? I dunno. I could be wrong but I do not trust him in the least.

And now Noona!? Girl what are you DOING!? Haven’t you ever heard the term Stranger Danger? Well, these are strangers and this is danger! Watching her go behind those iron gates just gives me this creepy "point of no return" vibe. You know? She is far far too trustworthy... Was it smart to tell them her name?? And that Hyunsoo is her brother?? The look on Heeseong's face SCREAMS guilty when he hears Haesoo speak her name. I'm JUST saying. He's fucked. He KNOWS who Haesoo is after all.

YESSSS!!!! So gratifying watching the cops BUST that trafficking ring! Thank you, Hyunsoo!! Your tip off just saved A LOT of lives. I really hope the cops so eager to imprison him realize this too on top of his innocence. Jiwon and Jaeseop's chase of the bartender on the bridge was awesome. I loved watching Jiwon switch directions with both her and Jaeseop have him surrounded on that bridge. When I saw Jiwon get stabbed I screamed. I really screamed. Because I thought for sure she was hurt, and thank GOD she had protective gear on. I love how she reemed Jaeseop's ass for not wearing his. HAH! And you didn't want her on this case! My girl is a legit badass.

Then when Jaeseop told her not to butt in in the future, and asked if she knew how scared he was (awww like a big ole brother protecting his sister), Jiwon tells him "I have no future." Oh god... *chokes* Yes you do, baby girl. Yes you do. You just don't know it yet. They capture the guy, are about to head back and she tells him "I still have something to do." YESSSS Queen. Go get your man! He's still wearing his watch. You'll find him so go get him out of that dangerous place!!!

Annnnd now the big moose trafficker guy working with Yeom Sangchul is beating the holy hell out of our Hyunsoo. I knew this was bound to happen. NONE of these things ever go properly or smoothly in Kdrama and of course it's for dramatic affect, but still. It's hard to watch him get tossed around and beaten like a ragdoll. Hyunsoo tries to fight back, but it's almost like no will is there. He's just going through the motions. He throws Hyunsoo into a shelving unit and slams his head off of a glass bottle, shattering it and busting his head open. And then he slams his head through a glass cabinet door. Again... another head injury. (This poor man seriously needs to get thoroughly checked and evaluated for head injury, fractures, contusions, concussions, etc... because with how much he's hit his head... goodness!!!)

Awww, Moojin... you tried really hard to save Hyunsoo, didn't you with the fire extinguisher act? That's definitely a redeeming quality for you here. I'm grateful you did that, even if it wasn't very effective. He can't get out, Moojin.. he's had the shit beat out of him and now he's tied up. But I so appreciate your efforts in trying to rescue our protagonist. Why does Lee Joongi have to be so incredibly gorgeous, even when he's got bloody head wounds and is all tied up. Gosh. My brain is thinking lots of things. Okay let's FOCUS.

THIS WHOLE BAEK FAMILY IS A SHADY, FAKE, LYING SACK OF SCUM. PLEASE, Noona... PLEASE do not fall for this. HAH. Well, their son isn't comatose anymore. He's wide awake. Also, took pity on Hyunsoo!? No they didn't. Not even CLOSE. They used him to their advantage. They're worried Hyunsoo will get caught up in it? HAHA! BULLSHIT. And you KNOW he isn't a criminal and yet you treat him like one!? Why not just leave the him TF alone. He doesn't want your son's identity anymore. You're putting hits on him with a human trafficker and you're gonna act like he matters? Noona, please... PLEASE don't fall for their act.

Oh she's telling them too much. WAY too much. She's giving them too much vital information, and I'm really afraid that this is going to be somehow used against her... especially in regards to the accomplice... who I believe is also CHEWING HIS NAILS ON HIS LEFT HAND. JUST LIKE I SAID HE WAS DOING IN THE PREVIEW. WHICH IS ANOTHER LEAD TO HIM BEING THE ACCOMPLICE. Those left nails. Chewed off. Nervous habit obviously, but STILL OBVIOUS OKAY. The real Heeseong IS the accomplice. Look at the way the whole Baek family behaves. They're a horrible, scary, shady family trying to cover their murderous son's ass.

Ohhhh CRAP, Moojin!!! He is getting the holy HELL beat out of him and he's getting it on video on his phone too! Like WOW!!! People are seeing this stuff live!!! This is absolutely crazy!!! No good stomping the phone, bro. All of that was just broadcast live. Good luck getting out of your lil trafficker ring hideout on time. You're gonna burn Hyunsoo alive??? Seriously??? That's pretty cruel. At least Hyunsoo tries to be clever by also trying to weasel the name out of the guy that ratted him out. Oh if ONLY Hyunsoo could find out!! That's MORE valuable information to help clear his name! That the shady unfather put a hit out on him. He deserves to know that this man is out for his blood.

YASSSSSSSSSS JIWON!!!! GO QUEEN!!! GO AND SAVE YOUR MAN!!!! GET HIM OUTTA THERE AND BLOW THAT TRAFFICKER'S HEAD OFF!!!! Obviously this isn't going to happen. Jiwon wouldn't kill unless absolutely necessary is what I believe. She is a police officer after all, but there was NOTHING like watching Jiwon have her gun to that piece of garbage excuse for a human being gang punk bastard's head while looking at her husband saying "Sweetie, are you alright?" It's a whole.fucking.ass.mood. I'll reiterate my statement from earlier. JIWON IS A LEGIT BADASS. She is such an amazing lead female. The look on Hyunsoo’s face... It’s like he’s in a state of shock.

YAY!!! The victims are FREE!!! Thank god In Seo is okay!! And yes, sweet precious baby boy. You can go home. You most certainly can go home and don't ever EVER run away from your mother ever again. You stay next to her and both of you need to protect each other and keep each other out of any dangerous situations, y'know, like showing up in shady places that involve a human trafficking ring. No more trying to take on fake jobs that will "make you lots of money." That's the first sign it's a dangerous situation and non-legit. Also, I love how the team leader knows Jaeseop is lying to him, but that he wouldn't do it without good reason. And I'm glad he's still keeping it up. I like that he's still protecting Jiwon. Even if that means lying to their team leader. He's going to make his arrest in the morning, but he's going to let Jiwon and Hyunsoo have the whole night together... oh god, my heart. Please don't imprison an innocent man...

Oh, Hyunsoo... oh honey. You can see emotion beginning to brim the surface here as he stumbles out Jiwon's name saying "You knew...?" Yes, sweetheart. She's known for a little while now, and she was completely unsure of what to do or how to tell you until she got the truth of it all. And here she is. Getting you out of there. Rescuing you and protecting you. Jiwon is your fiercest protector. That much is clear. And OMG DO NOT PUT YOUR GUN AWAY JIWON. GET YOUR CUFFS BUT DO NOT... OH NO!!!!

Gangster piece of SHIT is attacking her!!! And Hyunsoo is LOSING it because he's tied up and he can't get to his wife! So what does he do while he watching this nasty bastard try to kill her? ADRENALINE SURGE! He literally BUSTS the handles off the cabinet with tied up arm strength alone because the idea of his wife being choked to death in front of him has sent him into a frenzy, gets his hands free and beats the ever living deserving SHIT out of Yeom Sangchul, to the point that he's seeing RED and he's going to kill this son of a bitch for daring to lay a hand on his wife. He's in full blown protective husband mode and it's actually pretty hot. I can't help it. It is. Whenever JG fights, he is like fire hot sexy af, and I LOVE every moment of it.

Okay, so Jiwon pulls him off of Sangchul and here we go... she's telling him. He's telling him she knows. She's telling him that Detective Choi has evidence that he's Do Hyunsoo, and the way she tells him he can't go home (omg his FACE at this words...) keeps telling him to go, slaps his chest and shoves him back, tells him to run and never come back to her again, and the look on his face breaks my heart, because I feel like this tells him she knows and doesn't want him anymore. She knows your real identity and this is why she wants you gone. She doesn't love you anymore, she wants you gone. The person Do Hyunsoo is not worth the love of a woman like Cha Jiwon.

“You’re good at running and hiding!” Ohhh ouch, Jiwon... I truly believe that this is how he feels because that's how he's lived all of his life. Believing himself unworthy of love because of all the adults who failed him in his life, the adults who didn't help him, teach him, show him what it's like to be loved, what love feels like, what the emotions that accompany love feel like. He's emotionally shaken. It's written all over his face, his eyes, and his body language. The man who supposedly can't recognize emotion is getting very emotional. He's lost. He doesn't know what to do. Jiwon is just as equally crushed. She doesn't want to lose her husband, but of course Hyunsoo does not know this. He believes Jiwon doesn't want him anymore. So he does as he's told and leaves the room with his head bowed. All Jiwon can do is cry over her retreating husband. That was hard to watch...

Moojin rushes in to find Jiwon on the phone asking for backup and Yeom Sangchul unconscious on the floor...

To be continued in Part 2

#flower of evil #lee joon gi #moon chae won #do hyun soo #cha ji won #lee joongi #moon chaewon #do hyunsoo #cha jiwon #joonchae couple #episode thoughts #flower of evil episode 11

29 notes · View notes

x-nephophile-x · 4 years

Note

3, 11, 12, and 13 for the ask thing!!!

(already did 3 in my first for these things so I’m gonna skip to 11) 11: What’s your afterlife drink? Mmmm tough one. I’m not a big connoisseur of alcohol (I can drink it legally). When I wanna’ get drunk, my go to is Tequila though (I’d honestly love to try a Johnny Silverhand, it sounds delicious). I’d say I’d probably be some take on bloody mary but with tequila and lime, cuz listen, Tequila goes great with tomato or CLAMATO juice and I like a thick drink that makes me forget I’m drinking because if I can taste the alcohol, I’m gonna’ look like a baby. I can do shots but the first 3 go down HARD. I legit sit and gag and shake my head like a child tasting something bitter for at least 5 minutes after each shot. Granted, I’ve never had top shelf or even near top shelf liqour so maybe I’ve just had nasty ass, low tier tequila. I am also a notorious lightweight so there’s that :D If Vera got an Afterlife drink though, she’d be some type of strawberry daquiri with a little umbrella. Just for the shits and giggles of it all. When you drink this, remember the woman who could hack your circuits and wipe out your entire crew without anyone being the wiser. Remember she could also punch you right on your ass. Don’t you dare mock that drink. 12: does the rocker lifestyle (either as a rocker or somewhere behind the scenes) sound appealing to you? This one I’m gonna’ apply more to my V than me. Vera could definitely see herself in that line of work; Johnny’s influence has only made that interest stronger. She gets it, losing yourself in the music, the power of being on stage, the performing, the rush of the crowd, but she also kinda finds herself romanticizing the touring, being on the road, seeing different places. Me personally, I hate being the center of the attention, I have anxiety, and I’m naturally shy anyways, so I’d much rather work behind the scenes. I have interest in how tech works, I like the idea of learning tech based skills from programming to soundboards and video editing, so doing something that like for concerts would honestly probably be pretty fun. 13: what quest/sidejob/gig fucked you up the most? (TW: suicide, fictional and real situations discussed) So previously, I answered it with The Sinnerman quest (long story- im religious and didn’t feel comfortable finishing it but I watched it on Youtube so I know the gist of what happens). This time around, I’ll go with Both Sides, Now. (The Evelyn Mission). This one is just... it is what it is. Dark, macabre, gruesome. Judy’s VA did flawless with her delivery of lines during the entire game but most notably here. The girl sounds like she just got done doing those raw type of screaming sobs, the ones that make you feel like your throat is going to give out, and I hate imagining Judy have to do that upon coming back home. I’ve never witnessed something like that to a full extent but I had a neighbor who was found who’s mother came home to the mess of it all, and, well, when she saw her (adult age) kid, the screaming sob she let out seemed to deafen the neighborhood. It stuck with me for weeks after, that loss and the pain in her voice, and I think that quest hit some emotional beats that really drove the entire quest home. It made me feel like I did that night with my neighbor; I didn’t know Evelyn that well, I didn’t know my neighbor at all, I was just a witness to a person’s worst nightmare, and it just had me fucked up for a while. Thank you for the ask, I appreciate it!! Sorry to end it on a really dark note aofkeoaf

#tw: suicide #Cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #Cyberpunk 2077 asks #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers

6 notes · View notes

elizabeatrice · 5 years

Text

Walking Blind + Thoughts on The Little Mermaid Being Episode 12

Let’s Talk About JSHK Anime #2

Warning: Manga spoilers up until Tanabata Arc (basically that + the entirety of season 1 + the skipped arcs)

I’m gonna talk about how the anime keeps proving my predictions wrong with skipped arcs, and later right, with consequences. Due note that this isn’t me hating the anime (because I love it). Just my funny experience attempting to Sherlock my way through the anime, plus my thoughts on The Little Mermaid being the finale.

No deduction works when it comes to predicting this series.

It all started when episode 5, The Confession Tree, came out. I was looking forward to it ‘cause I’m hananene trash af. Legit thought the entire episode was gonna be about Kodama.

But then the episode preview pics came out and I was like, “Sakura wtf are you doing here you don’t show up again until three chapters later?”

My first prediction was ep 5 would be entirely Kodama, and then ep 6 would be Young Exorcist. Seeing that these arcs serve to build up Nene and Kou wanting to know more about Hanako, I thought it’d be nice that we set aside two episodes just for that.

But then Kodama finished somewhere around the fifteenth minute mark, and we started Young Exorcist Part 1. Which was, you know, fine. But then instead of continuing, they jumped right to the end of the arc when Nene met Sakura for the first time, and then kept going to No. 5′s rumor and revealed Tsukasa early. Next episode’s title preview confirmed it, too. Ep 6 was gonna be 4PM Bookstacks.

Okay. I still had hope. Maybe they just rearranged the order.

On the other hand, the lack of ‘Part 1′ in the title was alarming. And it came true. They packed four chapters into one episode. A lot of things got cut. There wasn’t enough room for the op, and they had to run the credits while the episode was still ongoing. Though, tbh, other than Tsuchi’s line about him being able to change the books (with dire consequences), I didn’t have much problem with the cut scenes.

Then this thing showed up.

Before ep 5 I didn’t think we’d get Donuts until around episode 9-ish. But nope the No. 7s would meet each other in ep 7 (lmao see what I did there?). Again, I was fine with it, but I was a bit upset about Young Exorcist.

Someone said it may be moved to the finale, and I didn’t like that idea. Mostly because Yashiro, our main audience POV, isn’t in the arc. And it just sounds weird having a finale without your main audience POV.

They could put her there, sure, but that would mean adjusting Nene and Teru’s every future interaction. Even without shipping goggles or Nene’s romance-colored glasses, do you think Nene would still act the same towards Teru if she saw him hurt Hanako like that? ‘Cause that was brutal. Like she wouldn’t run and protect him like she did when they met Kou.

They put Kou and Teru’s resolution from Young Exorcist into their convo in episode 7. This kinda makes Teru a bit useless, though. I mean, he still doesn’t do much in the manga but the tension between him and Kou was supposed to set up this badass fight. Since it didn’t happen, and Young Exorcist isn’t gonna be the finale either, then he’s pretty much useless.

Anyway, the thing about Teru being onto The Broadcasting Club?

Not from the manga.

I’m not sure if Manga!Teru is really onto them. As far as I remember, it wasn’t hinted anywhere in the manga. Do correct me if I’m wrong. So what was the point of that change?

I didn’t get pissed until halfway through episode 7 and suddenly Mitsuba was there, but no fishes.

“What is he doing here, where’s that puffer fish, where’s his murder? Hello?”

I was very neutral about Mitsuba from the very beginning but when he showed up where The Little Mermaid (and my fish murder!!!) was supposed to be I kinda began to grow undeserved resentment toward him (I’m cool now though!). Totally, totally undeserved, because it wasn’t his character’s fault.

I was happy because Mitsuba stans got to see him animated (he was cute, and his VA was so good). But putting him in episode 7??? I mean they just left Hanako and Nene’s tension unresolved like that. That makes the episode really choppy in my opinion. They could’ve had the coolest final shot of the season of Tsukasa murdering that fish to scare and excite the anime-onlys. They missed that chance.

We got to episode 8. Pretty solid. Still would’ve preferred if its first bits weren’t in Donuts, but solid.

Preview title basically confirmed they’re skipping The Little Mermaid too. That was when I lost hope in Young Exorcist. But I tried to compromise. If they weren’t animating The Little Mermaid, then they have to put Hanako and Nene’s conversation and pinky promise in The Little Mermaid at the end of ep 9.

Episode 9 turned out to be my favorite. It was all thanks to Natsuhiko. He really cheered me up over our loss of two arcs. And my prediction was right for once. Hanako apologized for ruining the donuts. That’s definitely not the point of their tension (Tsu-ka-sa and trust), but it was still nice and I’d take what I could get. The hug. The hug was very nice.

I was mostly content, excited to see my boi Akane the next week. But then I thought, wait, we only have three episodes left. And we’re definitely reaching Hell of Mirrors, ‘cause No. 3′s silhouette is in the OP. Then the horrifying thought hit me.

They were gonna skip Searching.

But! The freaking post-credit showed up followed by this:

“They skipped Searching AND Clock Keeper??? Why on earth would you highlight Akane, with Teru of all people, in the OP then?! Paralleling Mitsuba and Kou no less!”

Due notice, yet again, the lack of ‘Part 1′ in the title preview. Before the episode actually aired, this was my train of thought: “Okay so they skipped The Clock Keeper and Searching, and decided to outdo episode 6 by packing 6 chapters (yeah, I counted “Reach Out Your Hand”) into one episode. Ahahaha ... what?”

Thankfully, they proved me wrong. Kay. Good. Thanks a bunch for fooling me with that title preview.

But then it freaking hit me. You got one episode left. The finale. Sure, Clock Keeper as a finale will be perfect. It’s a good hook for season 2. However. You can’t do Clock Keeper without doing Searching. It’d basically be almost the same as doing Donuts without doing The Little Mermaid. The finale wouldn’t feel resolved this way, because, again, there’s tension between Hanako and Nene (and Kou too) that isn’t resolved yet.

Not that Searching addressed the cause of the tension, but at least it brought the trio back to their status quo (well, with a bit of kounene and hananene development haha). Also, without Searching, it’ll only end like this:

Clock Keeper itself is 5 chapters. They can cut and modify. Sure. But y’all saw ep 6.

So that’s why I was sure we’re definitely not getting No. 1 this season. To me, that leaves three options for the finale.

A. Delivery + Tanabata Arc

Best pick in my opinion

It’s the direct continuation to Hell of Mirrors

The main trio are all there, especially our audience POV

More glimpses of Amane is always a plus point

The ‘getting hit by a bull, waking up in the past, and seeing your boyfriend before he died’ is just so random I think it’d be a pleasant surprise for the anime-onlys

Just wholesome in general, leaves the audience feeling good

The-ma-tic!!! You begin the series with Nene’s wish and end it with Amane’s isn’t that just asdfghjkl wish wish wish, everything’s about wishes in JSHK

B. Young Exorcist

Classic boss battle finale

Just Teru’s badassery *chef’s kiss*

Hanako getting emotional (something we haven’t really seen before)

Getting deeper into Hanako’s motive (episode 8 would’ve been more impactful had we had Young Exorcist before it, what with his view of disappearing/exorcism for ghosts being salvation)

Kou’s character development

^ counter argument: he already got the character development he went through in Young Exorcist in episode 6 and 7, plus, he and Teru already resolved their disagreements - though, not as impactful as in the manga

Also wholesome, HanaKou is great I love their friendship so much *sobs*

C. The Little Mermaid

@emee-ems pointed out here: “it started with the mermaid so they’ll end it with the mermaid” and I agree

Yashiro being persuaded to leave Hanako, while their friendship was what began the whole series? That’s some good conflict right there

Seeing Hanako worried about Yashiro leaving him? Good shit

Also wholesome (extra shipping content never hurts, either)

Hanako willingly opening up to Yashiro for the first time!!! That’s a big milestone for them

Yashiro accepting that he’s just not ready instead of not trusting her like she’d thought is *chef’s kiss*

That pinky promise! Starting the series making a bond due to unfortunate circumstances and ending the series making/staying loyal to a bond out of choice??? Good shit

Aaaaannnnddddd the verdict was:

Mmmmmkay.

I did previously think we’re gonna end the season with The Little Mermaid. But here’s the thing. It only works if everything is in chronological order.

Why? Because the tension that led to this arc in the first place is resolved already in episode 9.

The whole point of TLM is that conversation at the end, really, where:

Hanako apologizes for ruining the donuts (he already did in episode 9)

Hanako thanks Yashiro for telling him that she liked him

Hanako admits that he had a little brother and that he killed him (Tsukasa already confirmed both of this for Nene, both in episode 7 and episode 9)

So having Hanako repeating all this seems kinda redundant. Nene already knows. Sure, it’ll be nice to hear it from him directly ... but it’s too late now, isn’t it? It’s been four episodes. She’s met Tsukasa three times now. However, point number 2 is still available.

Furthermore, since Hanako already apologized in episode 9, I’m not sure if the fishes can use what happened in episode 7 to persuade Nene to leave him. I mean, she forgave him already. Tension resolved. They hugged and all. And it’s been so long since then.

Animating the fish murder scene is also kinda useless. It was supposed to give the audience a glimpse of how dangerous Tsukasa is. But we already know that. We saw him rip someone’s heart out and force-feed it to someone else.

The first half of The Little Mermaid Part 1 and The Broadcasting Club at the end of Part 2 are already animated in episode 7. That leaves them even more room for extra scenes. I hope they take good advantage of that.

Basically, they have to make a lot of adjustments and I’m curious to see what they’re gonna do.

I am happy that we’re gonna see The Little Mermaid. The way Hanako wipes Nene’s face with his sleeve, and then cradles her head? I need it, they make my heart melt. Can’t wait.

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #let's talk about jshk anime #bea rambles

29 notes · View notes

lovelytonys · 5 years

Note

PLEASE GIVE ALL OF YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS AFTER FFH

I LITERALLY DON’T THINK I CAN DO THAT BC IT’S WILD UP IN MY BRAIN RN BUT LET’S ATTEMPT SOME BULLET POINTS

•it was SO fun. Everyone got me so scared to go see it but instead I had a blast. Sure the emotional parts were a little rough but what no one told me is that the movie put the pieces back together too! It felt very healing as far as Endgame sadness and no one told me it would be like that. Plus I thought it was so funny and Peter & his friends & teachers were GOLD

•I love this MJ. GOD do I LOVE this MJ. Zendaya is wonderful. “Awkward teen” is such a common archetype that it never seems to feel real and miss zendaya waltzes in with her impeccable acting instincts and realistic quirks and mannerisms and just nails this teenaged character with complete authenticity.......wig

•in the same vein I’m head over heels for this version of petermj GOD YES I don’t want perfectly romantic high school couples because things don’t WORK like that!! Why did things ever work like that!! Plus like every version of Peter Parker is a big nerd anyway it’s just unrealistic to expect him to have any game, you know? I love watching Zendaya & Tom play off of each other bc they both have SOLID instincts honestly they’re a joy to watch when they share the screen

•jake gyllenhaal man,,,,,jake gyllenhaal,,,,I don’t even know where to go with this. Mysterio was a cheesy level of evil, like he was ridiculously theatrical, and it would have been cheesy and ridiculous in less skilled hands but INSTEAD mr jake SNATCHED my WIG. He was so goshdarn charming in the first half that I caught myself wanting to like him (when I wasn’t mentally challenging him to fight me in a Walmart parking lot for being such a huge jerk) and that was all well and good but once he got to let his villainy loose? WOOOOOO okay first of all that SMILE that goshdarn SMILE the second Peter left the bar haha oh MAN he just, like, flipped a switch, you know? WILD. Riveting. mr jake’s teeth get 20 Oscars ALSO his villain speech? I can’t get into it there’s a lot to unpack but his delivery was so great. SO great. I loved how he was generally reserved and charming even when evil so that the moments when he had an outburst were scary. Like any time when he got angry and started yelling felt like a Moment bc of how he held back for the rest of it. He was always so deliciously menacing too like ugh sometimes I just love a good old fashioned villain, you know? He’s not terribly complicated, he’s pretty much just evil! Simple as that! Woohoo! And his dying line gave me CHILLS it wasn’t even just the line even tho the words are chill-enducing enough but it was his DELIVERY that just SENT ME like the way he’s trailing off and ESPECIALLY that creepy & deranged little smile AAAAHHHHHHH

•while we’re on the last line I get chills when I think about it bc when remembering the moment you fit the mid credit scene in with it and it’s like,,,,so THAT’S what that means,,,,THAT’S what the smile is for,,,,,THAT’S why you’re so pleased that anyone will believe anything,,,,,W I L D

•and I thought it was so cool how they updated Mysterio. He’s a special effects guy, right? That’s how the story goes when you look back at his origin comic, yeah? So to see him working with modern special effects instead of the practical effects of the era of his debut was so cool. Seeing Jake Gyllenhaal walk around in a Marvel movie wearing a morph suit was kinda meta and I kinda dig it. I thought it was all very creative

•if you had told me years ago that Back in Black by AC/DC would be the thing to set off an emotional outburst for me I literally would not have believed you but here we are

•no joke I was doing a relatively good job of holding it together (and relative is good for me) until AC/DC started playing, then I kinda lost it

•TOM HOLLAND SMASHED IT

•HE JUST SMASHED IT IDK

•THE SCENE IN THE PLANE. YOU KNOW THE ONE. 3000 OSCARS FOR MR TOM real talk I would kill to see him do a legit drama piece and I also can’t even imagine what he’ll be doing when he’s older. I mean. He’s pulling this out in a summer blockbuster of all things before he’s 25.....imagine what he’ll be doing if he gets to the point of having, like, decades of experience behind him

•the part when he was building his suit.......I cried

•as far as the plot...on one hand? Predictable every step of the way. On the other hand? I find a weird satisfaction in watching a movie that flawlessly fulfills basic beat structure and yeah it would be boring if every movie did that but it’s okay sometimes

•the first scene. the first. goshdarn scene. I have never truly known what it was like to laugh and cry at the same time

•MJ AND A MACE!!!! YEAH!

•I like how this movie begins with the question “is Spider-Man the next Iron Man” and proceeds to answer it with “no. He’s Spider-Man and that’s more than good enough.” Tony’s shadow is a huge one to live under and I love that the movie explicitly places Peter outside of that shadow. Like, yeah, he’s similar to Tony in some ways but at the end of the day? He’s his own hero. It’s highlighted even more by the fact that Mysterio is his foil and Mysterio wanted to be the new Iron Man.

•I don’t know what I was expecting from the second credit scene but that......wasn’t it. The two credits scenes threw me through more loops than the entire actual movie did

•J Jonah Jameson got a bigger reaction out of me than anything else in the movie by far

•I swear to you the words “pizza time” were uttered in this film I just don’t remember where

•I literally thought I was going to die when looking at Peter immediately after he got hit by the train

•the consistency with the limp throughout the whole second half really heckin Got Me and also how he touched his ribs in the final battle bc they were injured from the train accident. It’s the little things like that that make Peter seem more human & genuine

•WHEN HE SAW HAPPY AND WAS AFRAID OF HIM BC HE DIDN’T KNOW IF HE WAS REAL,,,,THAT HURT MY GUYS,,,,POOR BBY BOYYYYY but then when he hugged Happy I thought I was going to have a meltdown don’t worry I didn’t

•the scene where Mysterio seriously gets in Peter’s head, you know the one, good golly was that overwhelming. Like. I was feeling the need to jump up and start pacing the floor, you know? It was really well done and it stressed me outtt

•Iron Zombie had me feelin a little queasy if I’m being totally real here lol I was not feelin good about that one

•it took me the whole 2 hours to bounce back from “even dead I’m the hero” oh my god that was SO Tony. I can hear it in his voice. I miss him.

•can’t believe Tony is still out here fully protecting Peter with a whole army of drones from beyond the grave wow the irondad JUMPED out

•BUT OVERALL I FEEL SO GREAT AND EXCITED ABOUT THIS MOVIE WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

#far from home spoilers #spider-man #spider-man far from home #peter parker #mysterio #quentin beck #iron man #tony stark #michelle jones #tom holland #jake gyllenhaal #zendaya

386 notes · View notes

cards-onthetable · 5 years

Text

Emotional roller coaster

I just have so, so, so many feelings about last night’s episode. I’m not going to sit here and waste time onhow Maria Baez is too good for this trashcan show, or how ridiculous it is that every damn thing is a huge conflict of interest now (Erin being sent to deal with her dad re: some controversial issue? Frank saying “if I can’t get my daughter to do what I want...” or something like that? Me still watching when every scene nauseates me? Gross x 3). Today I’m just going to talk about Jamko. I went back and forth between (almost) 👀😍 and like, crying in misery every scene so join me on this emotional roller coaster of ridiculousness.

Scene: crossing paths in the precinct between shifts

OMG this scene is actually almost cute.

Eddie in a t-shirt (even if it’s pink)? Jamie in short sleeves? Omg omg 😍

“You look like a partner I used to have.” Is this... an attempt... at old style bantery Jamko?!

I can’t figure out what’s up with Jamie even after watching multiple times (thanks @jamkosarmyoftwo). He looks better/less dead than he has in a while (maybe it’s the short sleeved uniform? 👀👀) But lol his voice/inflection/line delivery is still a little off.

It feels noteworthy that not only did Eddie volunteer to be the decoy driver in this operation to catch the cab passenger — the whole operation is her idea.

A steak sandwich waiting in the fridge after a long night at work? This is like the first Real Evidence that Jamie actually loves her. Let me tell you, I’d pretty much marry anyone who feeds me after a night shift on the spot.

Eddie waving at him is cute not gonna lie. 😍😂

Sidenote: what’s the status of Jamie and Eddie’s relationship at the precinct? We know their superiors know they’re married at this point, but what about the other cops? Are we just ignoring that little detail they spent a year apparently hiding? Yes? Okay cool.

Scene: Eddie and Witten at another cab robbery

😂😂😂 someone else besides Eddie now gets to be the STEP BACK yeller! Amazing! Eddie’s moving up in the NYPD y’all.

Why is it daylight? Is it the next day after the precinct scene? What happened to these middle-of-the-night robberies? I have many questions about this, folks.

I legit cracked up when Eddie goes to check on the victim and he falls forward, dead. Is this meant to be some comic relief? Why do I watch this show?

Scene: Jamie and Eddie’s apartment

Eddie’s making Jamie dinner after he left her a steak sandwich. Again, I have questions about the sequence of these scenes... Eddie’s already had another shift so it has to be the next day right? Nothing makes sense.

I’ll try to ignore Eddie choosing to make Jamie a damn salmon (because that’s a reasonable, quick-ish weeknight dinner before rushing off to work) and apparently only making one (would she not have like, fed herself too???) because omg for a second, they’re almost cute 👀👀

I would’ve liked to see a quick little kiss when Jamie walks in like they’re some kind of normal couple but it’s whatever, I guess

“Aw, you didn’t have to do thaaaattttt!” Again with the weird inflection. Maybe this means he’s trying for something other than ugh-just-get-through-the-scene-without-dying? But lol.

Aaaaand then we go from almost-cute to cringey super fast.

Eddie asks about the decoy operation (reasonable) and then gets weirdly upset about the wrong things when Jamie updates her.

Old Eddie would easily have understood the selection of a decoy who closely resembles the victim profile. Like don’t even with me @ her getting all butthurt over not being chosen for a role where they need a male.

It bothers the fuck out of me that Eddie reacts the way she does to Jamie getting the driver job. Again, objectively, she should realize why she was passed over. And Old Eddie would not have expected Jamie to give her this ~special treatment~ she’s asking for here when she says he should have told the sergeant that she wanted that job. And... she wants it because the last scene “got to her”? And she claims Jamie’s being “overprotective”? God I hate it all.

Talk about an inappropriate ~work-life balance~ when they’re having these emotional Disagreements about work-related matters at home. Gross gross gross.

Oh we’re mentioning last year’s decoy op when Jamie jumped out of the damn bushes to save Eddie (which was totally overprotective and inappropriate)? GOOD LET’S file this away for later shall we?

Now Eddie’s basically storming out. Nice. I hate it. I feel like this ~argument~ was done completely the wrong way and I can’t take either of them seriously right now.

Scene: family dinner

SPOILER ALERT: I HATE EDDIE IN THIS SCENE TOO

Remember that time Eddie waltzed into Jamie’s apartment all “you got ESPN?” And that deleted scene where she tried to win Mets tickets? And the general idea in earlier seasons that she’s a sports fan?

SO WHY THE FUCK does she get this horrified look on her face all “that’s part of the game?!” when Sean says he hit the opposing pitcher with a pitch?

Yes dude. Payback in the form of intentionally hitting opposing players with pitches is a part of baseball. I will withhold my personal opinion on this topic but the point is, yeah, it’s a common thing in the game of baseball. So gross @ Eddie up in here acting like she’s never heard of that before and she’s all horrified by it. I don’t buy it.

“Where’d you get that, G Gordon Liddy?” Lol when I asked @ontherockswithsalt who tf G Gordon Liddy is, she was all “ASK YOUR DAD THAT’S WHO” so cool @ Eddie casually referencing this Watergate dude when she was not born yet when that went down.

0/10 I hate it.

Scene: decoy discussion after dinner

WAIT Tell me more about Jamie’s past sports gambling. 👀👀

Last time we talked about this, Eddie was pissed that Jamie was chosen instead of her and accused Jamie of being overprotective. And here she is being overprotective asking if there are any safer alternatives? 🙃 I’m tired.

Yes please Jamie. Explain to Eddie ~how the job works~. Good good.

They don’t annunciate at all in this scene and I can barely understand what they’re saying. Glad to have you back, Will “just-get-through-the-scene-without-dying” Estes.

Sidenote: Lol @ his short sleeved button down. Dad Look on point.

Scene: DECOY OP OH BOY HERE WE GO 🙃

Jamie picks up the suspected perp in broad daylight with a huge ass black van not at all discreetly following him. Nice.

Eddie anxiously listening to police radio somewhere in her own car. Nice.

“Just drive.” Lol @ everything.

By the way cabs in NY have partitions between the driver and the backseat to protect the driver so this entire premise is bullshit and they would’ve done better to make it like, Uber drivers getting whacked or something. but who cares about realism?

“What the hell are you going?” Like he’s so damn casual @ having a gun held to his head. I’m dying. 😂😂😂

OH NO THE HUGE ASS BLACK VAN LOST THE FEED. WHATEVER WILL THEY DO?! Also highkey dying @ this ridiculous graphic. 😂🙃

The fuck @ this entire car ...chase? Whatever you’d call it when Jamie is driving with his knees for blocks and blocks while holding an armed attacker at bay.

HE’S WEARING CARGO PANTS GOD SPARE ME.

EDDIE TO THE RESCUE WHAT THE FUCK?

The “find my phone app” is more reliable than NYPD technology? Nice.

And then Jamie rolls his eyes before they do this weird jerky grab-each-other thing and I hate it all.

SOME ISSUES: Eddie listening in on a police operation while off duty. Eddie using the fucking FIND MY PHONE APP to interfere with said police op. Eddie shooting a perp while off duty.

Normally this would prompt a huge ass investigation into all of Eddie’s activities, including off duty discharging her gun. This seems like very clear evidence that they can’t safely continue working out of the same precinct. Yet I’m sure there will be zero consequences and we’re just supposed to be all 😍😍 @ Eddie saving the day.

It’s all so ridiculously absurd, y’all. I can’t take this shit seriously. I mean is the show even trying anymore? When I watched this scene live last night, I literally thought “wow this is it, this is where I stop watching Blue Bloods.” And I mean that may or may not be true but like... I hate it so much.

Scene: Eddie and Jamie’s apartment again. Sitting Like This on the couch.

Lol @ this casual transition from watching a cooking show to “that’s the second time you’ve saved my life. Thanks.” 🙃🙃🙃

This discussion that “if we accept the risks for ourselves we have to accept the risks for each other” is actually a great line and it’s a thing they should’ve talked about a long time ago, way before getting married. But that doesn’t mean I’m cool with Eddie taking it on herself to be Jamie’s guardian angel (who the fuck basically calls themselves someone else’s guardian angel? 🙃) for the rest of their careers.

THIS KISS. Geez I’m not here for it. Like every kiss they’ve had since getting engaged has looked just like the 2 kisses they had before that. I need to feel something different in these married people kisses okay?

IN SUMMARY: These contrived Jamko work situations are about to get really old really fast and I need a change if I’m going to keep tolerating this bullshit on my tv every Friday night. They don’t have a healthy coping strategy re: each other’s inherent risks as cops and they don’t have a healthy coping strategy to allow them to work out of the same precinct and constantly be aware of/involved in the other’s work activities. It’s stupid from a marriage standpoint, stupid from a work and realism standpoint, and ridiculous all around. Do better, folks. I hate it.

17 notes · View notes

immortals-malec · 5 years

Text

Here we go, comparing the reunion scenes between Malec and everyone’s basic white ship c!ace. Now i talked about how 3x12′s c!ace moment fell under both bad writing and zero chemistry, i decided to expand on it, by comparing how Malec nailed it and how c!ace didn’t. So, the whole build up to the C!ace reunion from 3x10 to 3x12 is just lacking, just lacks, even though Jace believes that Clary is dead, he really doesn’t display the emotions for it, like he throws things around and yells, then goes to see Luke and suddenly believes that Clary is alive, this part falls on the writing and zero acting skills. Because this is supposed to be an emotional thing for c!ace and yet just lacks. Meanwhile Clary tries to get back to everyone and sorta falls flat there as well, because I can’t feel anything from her on that, they kinda show it but never really just made me feel it, when writing you’re supposed to do both so that way readers/viewers can feel it, that’s what I try to nail with my writing and with this, it’s just nothing. Barely any emotion, I felt more emotion from Luke trying to prove that she’s alive. And that’s because Isaiah can just somehow nail the littlest writing he gets. Anyways, to Paris, now this just makes me laugh because what the hell- most romantic city in the fucking world and yet you make it so lacking. I remember this clearly- another thing is laughable, is that green screened scenes of Matt and Isaiah. *clears throat* So they confront incesty burnt toast boy and Clary, she stabs herself he runs off, and Jace goes to her. While Luke and Alec just disappear from view. Now, they get all touchy-touchy and shit, kiss blah blah, meanwhile Paris in the background looks fake as shit, now I don’t feel any of the emotions, it just feels like blend bread, we get lines like “can’t believe i’m holding you,’ “always wanted to take you to paris.”, about how its some how better this way? What the fuck is that. But they fall flat because they can’t do line delivery, chemistry is off and the writing is shit. And also we got zero, and I mean zero feel! Emotions/passion just lack, if the lines lack, than as an actor you gotta do it on your own, Harry and Matt have done it, but Kat and D*m just didn’t do it and can’t. In this scene they don’t even act like they’ve been apart, like I want heavy breathing, sighs of relief, hugs, PASSION, and shit you know? But none of this is there, just nothing!! Like they just did one take and were like “that’s good, that’s a wrap on s3!” I also expected the scene to have some sort of declare for their love, but just nothing, they kiss, touch say some random lines and that’s just it. No emotions, no passion, nothing to show that they’ve been apart for a while and he thought she was dead, gone forever. Compare this supposedly romantic as fuck scene to the Malec reunion scenes? It looks like shit. In 2x09, they had Malec fight, it’s a stupid reason but fuck it worked anyways, so we would’ve that trope of one thinks the other is dead and the last words they said were angry words to them. In 2x10, was an action packed episode from beginning to end (its one of my favorites) Valentine takes over the Institute, and is on his way to getting the soul sword to its full power to kill the downworld, and we have Magnus over here worried about Alec, because he most likely can’t get ahold of him, because either is phone dies or is fucked up from the circle member attacking him from behind or he has it on silent not to alert the circle members that he’s alive and trying to stop them. And Alec’s worried about Magnus too, since the soul sword will kill him. And Magnus doesn’t care what happens to him, as long as he knows Alec’s safe, and we feel their fucking emotions even though the scenes are short, just more effort was put in by writing and the actors. Magnus has got the desperate breathing, feel to him, worried about Alec, which is something that’s failed by C!ace. They’ve got the feels about being worried about the safety of the other. So moving on the soul sword is turned on, Valentine murders half of the pack, vampires and seelies, and like ten seconds later Alec comes running in out of breath, like he most have heard what went down and saw/felt the angelic energy from the sword. (he looks way more upset by the downworlders’ deaths then some others *coughs* another time for that) And then he remembers, that Clary was under Magnus’s protection, and she’s there but Magnus isn’t, and it hits him like a million bricks falling down on him. You can hear fear, worry in his voice when he asks “Where’s Magnus? He wasn’t here, wasn’t he?” While he looks around at the dead bodies making sure that he isn’t here, as he’s told nobody knows where he is, the way he says “oh god” and runs out looking for Magnus?? Emotional bitch there, you felt his need to find Magnus, to make sure that he wasn’t dead, you felt the fear, desperation, you feel it, Matt rarely gets emotional scenes but when he does, he knocks it out of the park. Now you skip forward and it’s fucking like mid-morning, you realize Alec’s been looking for Magnus all damn night into the morning hours, he doesn’t find Magnus dead but you can still feel the fear he has, once they show him rushing out of the Institute, he’s breathing heavily, he looks like he’s on the edge of a panic attack, because Magnus, where is he, than Magnus comes running to Alec and just touches him, the look on Alec’s face seeing Magnus? *chief’s kiss* he’s so relieved and throws himself into his arms, hugging onto him so tightly. You feel their emotions, as they come back together, thinking that the other could’ve been hurt or killed. As we get close to the declaration of their love, we get Alec trying to catch his breath as he explains how not knowing if he was alive or dead, made him more terrified than any of his missions he’s been on, and Magnus feeling the same way, and than the little breathing gasps as Alec says he loves him? Just stab my arm. Than Magnus saying he loves him too? And then the kiss, they have, where Alec keeps his eyes open to make sure that Magnus is really there, and than him closing his eyes as they rest their foreheads together, feeling so relieved as Magnus smiled and then they bury their heads into each other’s shoulders? Fucking top tier, baby. the C!ace reunion was supposed to be like this and yet fell flat, when you’re supposed to be in the most fucking romantic city in the world, and you think that the love of your life is dead, and is suddenly alive, but you just er i can’t believe you’re here. You talk so fucking casually, meanwhile Malec’s is how it’s supposed to be Why did Malec nail that scene? Was it the director? The writing? Or Matt and Harry’s emotional acting skills? Answer is all three. Again compare that C!ace reunion to Malec’s in 3x21? Just lacks! In 3x21, we had that emotional cliffhanger of Alec crying as he watches the love of his life basically just leave after they got engaged (originally Alec and Maryse’s scene was supposed to be in 3x20, but got moved to 3x21), so we have Alec being all desperate and determined to get Magnus back, even though everyone tells him it’s a lost cause because Magnus can’t come back ever. But it doesn’t stop him, he legit stays up until he passes out from lack of sleep looking for a way to get Magnus back. Magnus is over here depressed, thinking that he will never see Alec or his family again, while looking over his engagement ring? Sobbb those emotions you feel, that lacked with C!ace at the beginning of 3b. And then we get him wanting to become a fucking vampire just so he could be with Magnus to face down Lilith, because he thought there was no other way. We get the scene of him getting pissed off to where he loses control over his magic because he wants to find Magnus, then the ring grounds him?? Fucking hell babyyy amazing. The reunion, Magnus looking out at Edom, to hear Alec’s voice, because at first he thinks he’s imagining it, but Alec keeps calling out his name until he reaches him, and Magnus turns around to see him there, with a relieved smile at seeing his fiance there. The way he says “Alexander” as he rushes, actually fuckin, skips to Alec until they clash into each other in hug, the way Magnus clutches onto him, Alec’s smile, as Magnus says he thought he wouldn’t see Alec again, and Alec pulling back to saying it’s only Edom, (boy is basically saying hell couldn’t stop them from b eing together) and that they weren’t gonna let him fight Lilith alone, (lets ignore Lorenzo’s ass always creepin in the background). You got Magnus saying, if we do win, then what and Alec revealing that he’s gonna stay with Magnus in Edom, leave his whole life behind for him and the look in Magnus’s eyes as he said that? *Chief’s kiss*. The whole time you got a beautiful sing playing in the background and the emotions again, the way they breath and shit just they nailed it. Basically the scenes are supposed to be the same type of scenes, and yet Malec nailed it where C!ace failed, they did the emotions where they thought the other could be dead/gone forever/they never thought they would see each other again. You felt the emotions. Meanwhile C!ace just talks really fucking casually during their reunion scene, it’s just like???? And Kat and D*m just couldn’t feed us emotions if the script lacked it. Lack of script handling and just unable to act out emotions made C!ace’s reunion suffer.

#sh couples #comparing scenes #its fun i should do it again tbh

28 notes · View notes

tellywoodtrash · 5 years

Text

Sanjivani - Week 6

Overall Plot

Holy shit, what a fucking week. Lots of interpersonal developments (read: dhamakas!) Shashank ousted Juhi all those years ago (on the request of Rahul) because he was in love with her?!?!? Shashank is also possibly Sid's father, or somehow personally associated with him?????? Rishabh's background is revealed too!!!!! Phew. I am dizzy.

The Medical Stuff

Not that much focus on the medical stuff this week. Neil's dad is quickly diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease and I assume cured (since we didn't see him after that, and Neil happily went along to Sid's for Ganpati.) There's an old friend of Shashank's whose wife had a nasty fall and is showing some pretty bad effects of concussion. Sid's injuries seem to be the priority right now.

The Acting

Dude. Sayantani, what a stellar actress. I could not take my eyes off her in the the scenes where she's at Juhi's house. Her eyes glittering with a strange sort of determination, almost like a suicide bomber, as she presses the button to detonate life as Shashank and Juhi know it. Fucking amazing. She blew (pun unintended!) even Mohnish outta the water, with her ice-cool, unperturbed performance, standing up to him so ably! Gurdeep too, had a nice couple of scenes, alternating between Juhi being disturbed at what she found out, as well as having to take charge of one crisis after the other, and she played it with such grace and poise. Surbhi had a more toned-down week (other than the scenes when Sid gets injured.) I particularly liked the apology scene and the scene where she's praying for Sid. I'm watching YPNTKH rn, and find Namit to be waaaay more polished in that than he is here? How did his dialogue delivery and acting regress a level or two, when he’s so damn steady there? Now I'm legit suspicious of the director(s) of this show, coz if they're not extracting the best out of their two leads, who have proven to be much better performers than they’re exhibiting in this show.... What are they even there for?

The Characters

Sid: Watching YPNTKH has given me a new appreciation for Sanjivani!Sid (he's called Siddhant in that show too!) because he's a much better character here. He's a soft boi who isn't hyped up on ego and toxic masculinity, and I really really love and appreciate that. His admonishment of Ishani (during her apology) underscores his true character; he glossed over her poor behaviour towards him in public and even the fact that she slapped him, to focus on how she was ready to blow up her own career and throw it all away over a past she had nothing to do with. He's an excellent mentor who truly cares for his team and wants to make them the best doctors that they can be. Also, I'm so, so heartened to see how accommodating he is of Ishani's germophobia. Everyone else treats it as a quirk or inconvenience, but he truly takes it into consideration, asking for consent before coming in contact with her (at almost every instance they're close by - not just once for effect and done - I hope they maintain this aspect for good), or protecting her from unwanted contact from others. His crush on her is just so adorable - checking if she’s okay while he’s carrying her, remarking he’s glad that he didn’t punish her for her insubordination because he likes seeing her all soft and contrite; his bashful glee when she gives him a flower, the (mischievously) proud grin as he watches Ishani walk off to give Rishabh what he deserves; gently guiding her to where the best views of the Ganpati fest are, all the while shielding her from unwanted contact from strangers; semi-consciously dragging himself on top of her, to protect her from the gunde!!!!!! What a good, good bean he is. He's truly so beloved that seeing him brought in injured paralyses the whole hospital in shock, and they all unite in both dawa-and-dua ways to ensure he pulls through. Please show, I am fucking begging you; do not ever ruin this character by making him a typical Tellywood hero. Keep him soft and respectful and lovable forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I deserve a male character like this after all the fuckery I’ve been through the years!

Ishani: Ishani finally comes around to seeing Sid for what he is. Even before she learns that he wasn’t the one to blame for the poster drama, she opens up about her emotional issues to him, perhaps the first person she's let in for over 20 years now. Not only him, we see she lets in his mom as well; letting her smear colours on her face, hug her, and feed her sweets from her hand, even asking for more. Really sweet and shows the willingness to make progress on her part, for people who really matter. We also see the side of Ishani that's fiercely protective of those she considers her own; lambasting Rishabh for trying to play with Asha's career, and taking on a whole group of rowdy men who were harassing her, but as per usual, her impulsive side creates more problems than she ever accounts for. Couple that with her tendency to self-blame to a destructive degree, and our girl has a lottttt of work to do, mentally. I really liked the scene where she's praying for Sid, and she says that Sid is her friend, he's everyone's friend here, and they all really need him in Sanjivani. That's all the emotional development that's appropriate for now; what the fuck is this sudden realization of "love" that's coming outta nowhere acc. to the promo for next week???? Please! It's too fucking early for love and all. Friendship, maybe a confusing infatuation of sorts because he’s been her saviour multiple times now, that's it. Not CAPITAL L waala LOVE and all. Also not a fan of how she was just paralyzed and clutching at Sid and weeping after he got injured, instead of doing something helpful. Like, it's hard to believe she's a good doctor when she reacts so emotionally in scenarios like these. I think her skills extend only to diagnosis and she should maybe focus on that, instead of the surgical part.

Asha & Aman: Asha's woes against the patriarchy continue. First with Rishabh threatening to derail her career by bringing her family into the picture, and then those random drunkards at Ganpati. She does pull together nicely though while Ishani is panicking tf out, and manages to insert a chest tube for Sid to alleviate the internal bleeding. I’m glad that she finally opened up to Ishani about why she’s so competitive and bullheaded at work, which in turn leads Ishani standing up for her against Rishabh. A solid girl!love bond growing there and I am thrilled! Aman toh... Lol, continues being Aman. He offers to beat Rishabh up for Asha, roams around the hospital like an errant 10 year old, just generally having a gala time, unlike the others who are there to focus on work. I really cannot read the vibe between these two; are they just really good bro-sis type friends, or is there a romantic undercurrent? I can't tell. Either way, they're good together, and I don't mind whichever way it develops.

Dialogue(s) of the Week:

Asha [when Ishani freaks out that she threw away the literal white flag she was carrying to make up with Sid]: Ab ke ho gaya???? Wapas se teri overacting; dekh, sahi dustbin mein daala hai (iss baar.)

Aman [literally rolling into the scene on a razor scooter, seeing the yellow rose that Asha suggests Ishani give Sid]: Chee, chee, chee chee; itni gareebi aa gayi, ki yo peela phool dene laage tum log? Arre, manne bol diya hota, english waala phool mangwa deta, phoren se. Lekin [scoffs disdainfully] tumhari marzi... [scoots away]

Rishabh: We finally conclusively know who the worst fucking person in this show is so far. Ding ding ding! Winner winner, chicken dinner! This dude is just something fucking else. He threatens to fuck up Asha’s career if she tells anyone about the poster drama. He is a classist fucker who puts down Asha’s background to Ishani, saying she has “gaon waali harkatein.” He doesn’t give a shit if Sid dies of his injuries, to the point that even Vardhan is taken aback with how vitriolic he is. A truly vile creature, this one. We finally find out that he’s the son of the canteen waale chachaji, which explains the confrontation on the day Sid was called in for his investigation (Sid says that only he knows Rishabh’s “asli aukaat”, before Rishabh rudely pushes past him and the canteen chacha who came to offer them both chai.) All his LV belts and fancy car and show-shaa is just to hide his actual economic background and as such, he prevents his father from interacting with him while in Sanjivani. He’s terribly rude and dismissive of him, to the point where the dad wishes it was Rishabh who was battling for his life instead of Sid, who’s always been more of a son to him. Yiiiiikes. Anyway for all his bluster, I am happy that he’s properly terrified of Ishani, who threatened to fuck. him. up. if he steps out of line as far as she and her friends are concerned.

Neil: I was hoping we’d see more of the Neil-struggles-with-medicine-and-his-father’s-expectations plot, but it was done away with for this Ganpati wala track. Maybe next week? Shout out to him for his adorable wardrobe filled with cartoon characters, even a Tweety Bird waala kurta that he wore to Ganpati!

Rahil: Ride or die for Sid, and I’m so glad these two soft boys are best bros. They deserve each other. He seems to be pretty close with Sid’s mom too, which makes me wonder what his family situation is? It was nice to finally see Rahil integrated into the group of residents, teaming up with Asha and Aman to get the truth out of Rishabh. I also like that despite his own terrible injuries, he takes charge of the situation when Sid is injured and gets him the first aid he requires at the moment by instructing Asha/Aman/Neil what to do. Nice progress from that first case where he was panicking and Ishani had to step in. He’s inconsolable when they reach the hospital though, and unwilling to leave Sid’s side to get his own injuries looked at. Best boy, all the love for him!!!!!!!!

Shashank: Lord above, what a week for poor Dr. Shashank. All his children are spontaneously combusting and giving this poor man the worst week of his life (probably.) Anjali unrepentantly blew up his personal and professional relationship with Juhi, Juhi is freezing him the fuck out (I refuse to believe that he has any romantic feelings for her unless he says so himself, out loud), Sid has been brought in at the brink of death, and Ishani is on the verge of a breakdown blaming herself for what happened with Sid. For godssake, this poor man is still recovering from a VERY MAJOR BRAIN SURGERY! Could y’all cut him some damn slack, you terrible little brats!?! He’s trying his best to manage; diplomatically addressing the issue with Anjali, trying to engage in conversation with Juhi, comforting Ishani and friends about Sid, but gosh, he’s really struggling to keep his head above water. Also, the overwrought reaction about Sid......... We’re supposed to think he’s Sid’s father right? But would they really do that to this character???? Make him romantically involved with Juhi AND have an illegitimate child with another woman? Very unlikely that they’d make him such a horndog. So one of these plotlines has to give up, and I really hope that it’s the Juhi one. I can begrudgingly tolerate him being Sid’s dad, but being in romantic love with a woman who was canonically a daughter-figure to him for all these years? Un-fucking-acceptable.

Sid’s mom: We don’t have a name yet, but Aarti Bahl (aka Ekta Sohini) also played Nurse Padma Bansal Gupta (Shashank’s second wife) in DMG after Shilpa Tulaskar left. So is she Padma here too, or a whole new character with the same face? As for why the previous actress was replaced, I have a feeling it was because she didn’t look age-appropriate and/or conventionally “attractive” to be paired against Mohnish for this “is Shashank Sid’s father?” plotline. I’m not sure what to make of Aarti’s acting, she seemed very stiff with that forced smile throughout the Ganpati function; and wasn’t too impressive in the scenes where she was panicking and hiding from Shashank either. The scenes I really liked her in were when she was lovingly fussing over Ishani, and later in the hospital when she remarked how proud she was of Sid for standing up to protect the honour of a woman. She has a very soft and calming voice, and her dialogue delivery is really pleasant and soothing, so I’m hoping I grow to like her in this character.

Juhi: Juhi’s not really having a great week either, but she’s a boss bitch who has everything (mostly) in control and I am so fucking happy to see that. I’m glad she didn’t fall apart over the “truth” or try to leave Sanjivani over it - curtly stating to Shashank that she’s signed a contract and intends to honour it, unless he fires her again. She has a brief confusing moment with him while conducting a motor function assessment to determine his fitness to do surgery again, but other than that, she’s all pulled together. She’s mostly brusque with Shashank, trying to prove that she deserves to be here because of her capabilities, and trying to break out from under his shadow to be a proficient COS in her own right; but she’s also gently firm with him when he emotionally barges in trying to help with Sid, insisting that she has it under control and assuring that she will not let anything happen to him. It’s so great to see her balance both her medical/admin skills as well as the firm-yet-empathizing demeanor so ably.

Anjali: Oh Anjali. I love you but you have some serious daddy issues that you need heavy-duty therapy for. On one hand, I understand why she is so resentful and passive-aggressive the way she is (Sayantani’s portrayal compels us to peek beneath the layers!) but on the other, she really had no right to throw Shashank under the bus like that. But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the way she did it - so bloody spectacularly; unfazed at getting slapped by her father in front of her “rival”, chugging down a whole glass of wine and insulting Juhi’s cooking before she left for the night. So tragic, yet so fucking hilarious. On a professional front, I’m predicting that she’s gonna tire of this Luxury Ward COS post real soon, since it only seems to have her stand around kowtowing to rich assholes like a receptionist of some sort. I can only hope that she wises up to Vardhan’s BS soon enough, instead of serving as collateral damage and falling into the quagmire he’s planning with Rahul to target Shashank/Juhi.

Vardhan: Not much of Vardhan this week other than him entering that secret room he’s built for Rahul in the Luxury Ward. Good. I prefer him in small, controlled doses. And at least we have some clarification that even with all his shady crap, he’s not as horrible a human being as Rishabh - stating that even though he doesn’t like the way Sid operates within Sanjivani, he hopes he pulls through in surgery.

Overall Rating: 4/5

#sanjivani #sanjivani (new)#tt reviews

11 notes · View notes

hoshigomi · 6 years

Text

Elbe//Estrellas- Hoshigumi, 2019

Elbe/Estrellas is a show combo that I was lucky to see [redacted] number of times between the first day in Takarazuka, and the last day in Tokyo (including the Tokyo shinjin kouen performance!), and for a lot of reasons, most of them emotional, I wasn’t able to write up a review of it until after it closed. As much as it breaks my heart to say, the show is now behind us, so without further ado, here are my thoughts and opinions- aged like fine wine over the span of three months.

(Warning: it’s quite long, grab a drink and some popcorn.)

ELBE~

Honestly, and this goes for both Elbe AND Estrellas- there has never been a show that I was more nervous to see. The director talks and cast voices and eventually, rehearsal footage kind of scared me. It looked fun and fine, and like okay, but this show was my favorite actress’s last show, and the stakes were pretty high for me. I went in expecting nothing, and Dear Reader, I cried through the entire thing. I have never felt luckier.*

*I do want to address that opinion on this show is mixed, which, fair, that’s the beauty of theatre, and I wouldn’t want to change that! But I do think that an unfortunate amount of negative feeling is from people who went in expecting Benigumi to fail at something serious, a Takarazuka classic, and refused to be open to the experience, which, your loss. In any case, I’m so glad I went in with an open heart and hopefulness for this show, because my original assumption did a COMPLETE 180.

First of all, I loved Elbe. I have never seen any show this many times, or over such a wide span of time, and I was honestly taken aback every day by how the show progressed and evolved and changed. I was ESPECIALLY thrilled by Kurenai Yuzuru (Beni) as Karl and Kisaki Airi (Airi) as Margit, who by Tokyo, had REALLY hit their stride as these characters, and as a combi in this show. It’s so difficult to keep shows that run this long from getting stale, but from the line delivery to the acting choices, two shows were SELDOM the same. This came at a cost in some ways- if you’re trying out something different every day, you’re bound to have some hits and some misses- and they did have both- but the fact that this cast was able to be as PRESENT in this show as they were that they could live as In-The-Moment as they did was INSPIRING to me, as an actor. I was never bored while I was watching this show, even though there’s a really long stretch of serious scenes ¾ths of the way through. Serious kudos to all of Hoshigumi, especially Beni and Airi.

The plot was pretty simple to follow, though of course my Japanese isn’t NEARLY good enough to get everything about it (and it doesn’t help that Beni and Airi, who do the bulk of the talking, both fluctuated between vocal choices that HELPED my comprehension, and just straight up yelling- which, I’ll give to Beni, because it WAS in character…and Airi too, to an extent, but I could have done with it all being toned down a LITTLE.)

The show opens with a mini revue/parade on the grand staircase. As someone who LOVES revues and parades and big loud party group numbers, this absolutely kicked ass. It also gave some actresses in the troupe who don’t get to do a TON in Elbe the chance to actually be seen for a second, which was nice. Some people didn’t like it because it did nothing for the plot and was kind of out of place. That’s legit, so I’ll just say Your Mileage May Vary on this one- for me, it was one of my ABSOLUTE favorite parts of the show.

The bare bones actual plot of Elbe is this (NOT SPOILER FREE, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION, though the show is closed now so.): Karl (Beni) is a rough and tumble sailor. Margit (Airi) is a high class girl running away from an engagement she isn’t interested in to Florian (Rei Makoto/Coto), who’s just a really good guy who has loved her since they were young I guess and is also rich. Karl and Margit meet one night in a bar at the Beer Matsuri, and fall in love. Florian and Margit’s family are searching for her (rightfully so) because she like…just ran away. There’s a REALLY COOL search song/scene where everyone goes into the audience, the different groups bump into and interact with each other and the audience as they search for Karl and Margit. (Unfortunately, you can only catch this from the first floor) In the end, they find Margit with Karl at a restaurant, Florian asks Margit to come home, Margit says no, Margit’s dad DEMANDS Margit come home, Margit threatens that she’ll kill herself if they don’t let her be with Karl, a policeman threatens to shoot Karl, Florian steps in to end this madness (like the good guy he is, see), and they end up bringing Karl home with them. Obviously, Karl clashes with high society, and introducing him to Margit’s social circle doesn’t go well. Mess ensues, (side plots: Margit’s sister is in love with Florian, some other sailors are running around trying to find Karl, and one of them marries Karl’s sister. These sideplots aren’t super relevant, but are some of the best scenes in the show IMO.), Karl ends up taking a monetary bribe from Margit’s dad and abandoning her. After the beer matsuri ends and Karl takes off on his ship, Florian and Margit bust into the pub searching for Karl. Spoiler- it’s too late to get Karl back, but the desperate search is one of the most beautiful scenes in the show, so I’ll hash it out in a bit.

The sets/costumes, etc. Wow!! Yes! Okay! I loved them! In particular, the harbor set, which was a dark blue wash on the backdrop with the shadows and silhouettes and outlines of the buildings along the water, the golden lights shining from the windows, a lighthouse, pure, pure simplicity- it was just *chefs kiss* Literally my favorite backdrop I have ever seen. I studied it with opera glasses and it looked just as good close up! The Rich People House set was also stunningly detailed and grand.

The pub was more of a big beer hall, than anything- a bit sparse- but that suited the impromptu beer matsuri dance party pretty well. From a purely practical standpoint, it had to be bare. They fit like all of the troupe in those scenes- they needed room to dance. I personally really appreciated the way they used elements from the beer matsuri to segue into other scenes, there were carousels and background actresses in the lederhosen and dirndl costumes moving around throughout so you couldn’t forget that the beer matsuri was still going on- the story takes place over a SHORT amount of time- and I really appreciated the life the usage of those actresses and set pieces, etc, brought to the stage. It was never disruptive to me and fit in with the rest of the action really well. Sometimes the usage was downright clever. The costumes were REALLY pretty and well-suited to the show* , particularly all of Airi’s dresses and the sailor costumes- overalls and rolled up sleeves and half buttoned shirts galore! (yum. More of THOSE, please. The sailors and the bar girls who I guess were prostitutes had a number that I personally found pretty steamy which segued into a rough and tumble Men Of The Sea group number, which was flawless and also sexy.) Anyway, they offered a good contrast to the upper class costumes, which were also BEAUTIFUL. I appreciated the costuming and sets/lighting elements in this show a lot. *Except Nanami Hiroki (Kai) as the sailor Tobias who WAS in a cowboy hat for no good reason for most of the show, but who’s complaining?

The main players- honkouen and shijinkouen casts! Kurenai Yuzuru as Karl. I was incredibly impressed by Beni in this role. She grew with it and lived in it, she was present in a way that I really rarely see on ANY stage and that I know is SO hard to pull off. I loved the way Beni played Karl rough and violent, because the moments where she truly let that all drop and was vulnerable and quiet and still were heartachingly poignant and beautiful. Her monologue after leaving Margit brought tears to my (and her) eyes. Her moments with Margit on the dock prior made me softly go “oh.” more times than I can count. Is Karl likeable? Not really. Is he an interesting character with a lot of dimensions that Beni played with to mostly great success? Absolutely. Kiwami Shin played Karl in the shinjinkouen (SK) cast. This isn’t her first lead, so I was a little surprised by how nervous she seemed- but I guess when you have a lead role in a tough show and only get one night to show what you’ve got, you end up pretty nervous regardless. She worked really hard on this, and had a lot of delightful and present moments. Musically she had her missteps, but her Karl was DEEPLY charming and genuine in a lot of ways. I’m interested to see where she goes from here. <3

Kisaki Airi as Margit. Airi Airi Airi! Margit is HARD but I really saw Airi in her headspace, working through her feelings for Karl, especially when Karl was monologuing to the ends of the earth and all she could do was react. She held her ground against Karl pretty well, I felt. She’s the classic caught-between-two-men ingenue role, and for what it’s worth, I thought Airi really worked with what she was given. She and Beni have hit their stride as a couple together, and that made Karl and Margit’s ( though few) playful moments really, really sweet. Also, boy, she’s beautiful. Mizuno Yuri played Margit in the SK and BOY did she work for it. Acting wise, she actually really had some great stuff going on, and some moments that were fresher and more clear when she did them than when Airi did! It’s cool to have a new perspective on a character like that. I hope she continues to work on herself vocally, because she is incredibly charming to watch onstage. Get it, Yuri.

Rei Makoto as Florian. A good guy. A really good guy. Not to cop out of this, but there’s not a lot to SAY about Coto or Florian. Florian is a good guy to a fault- he’s the one who searches most desperately and calls for Karl in the most heartbreaking way on the docks at the end of the show (seriously, she BROKE my heart every day), even though Karl is, by all accounts, his rival in love. Florian is just GOOD. I get why Margit’s sister is in love with him. And again, not to cop out, but…Coto is flawless. I don’t have anything to say about her. Her acting was beautiful and nuanced, it’s really come a long way and is about to join singing and dancing in the list of Things Coto Is Flawless At. Amahana Ema played Florian in the SK, and was also really good. I want to see her take more risks. She’s solidly unobjectionable- she isn’t doing anything at all wrong, she’s very GOOD, but I want to see her make some big choices! I know we’ll get to soon, though, the girl is currently traaaacked. She could become a force to be RECKONED with!

Nanami Hiroki as Tobias. Tobias is a role that was written specifically for Kai and put into the show for her. Because of this, his story (or…lack thereof?) didn’t really FIT into the plot in a significant way. He’s the only sailor with a good head on his shoulders, and plays straight man to the rest of the background goofball sailors (Seo Yuriya, Shidou Ryuu, Amahana Ema, Mao Yuuki, Amato Kanon). Because of this, Tobias and the sailor crew have the bulk of the comic relief transition scenes. Tobias falls in love with Karl’s sister and gets a sweet bridge solo about his new journey and a really lovely sendoff party in the pub- (which is more than obviously a thinly masked sendoff scene for Kai, the actress playing Tobias, who retired with this show.) Despite this, I loved the scene and the role. I’m biased, but the final scene was a nice button and wrap up to the beer matsuri plot and a good transition into the final scenes of the show. Tobias was perfect for Kai- the big brother part to everyone- handsome and deliberate and good. I loved Tobias, cowboy hat, heart print bandana, and all. Congratulations, and danke schön, Kai!! Amato Kanon as SK Tobias shook me to my core. I knew who she was before this, but only as someone who Kind Of Looks Like someone else I love. Holy shit, y’all, her first moment on the grand staircase (”Bravo, Bravo!”) made my heart burst. Of the three otokoyaku leads in the SK, 102nd Amato Kanon had the most control of herself, made the biggest choices, and ventured off the beaten path the most- to GREAT success. She’s mine forever. I love this kid.

After these characters, stage time drops off significantly. Of note, Tenju Mitsuki played a good Inspector Kaufmann- though she deserves to play more than a one note, barely-there police role. She was INTIMIDATING though, even while flanked by the much taller and just bigger Toudou Jun and Haruto Yuuho as her underlings. Yuunagi Ryou (who was between all of us, the reason I saw the shinko) and her FASCINATING VOICE were really solidly on it. She’s certainly more suited to comedic stuff (her background sailor How-Much-Can-I-Get-Away-With antics in the HK were out of CONTROL and something I looked forward to every viewing. Double fisting pretzels and holding two pints of beer in one hand! Flirting with girls! Flirting with boys! Flexing! Stumbling half offstage!), but it was nice to see her flex her potential with a gun and a lot of harshly barked commands. Mizuno Yuri was CHARMING as Betty- another unfortunately one-note character, but watching her country bumpkin self charm stoic Tobias was sweet, even if they didn’t get to interact much. With all the love in my heart, I want to point out that she is also the noodliest actress I have ever seen. I wish there was like an equivalent of the specifically comedic brobante but for musumeyaku- she could grow into that NICELY. Ruri Hanaka was SK Betty and honestly y’all she’s ready to be top musumeyaku- I only wish she got to sing and dance in this role. She has more game in her tiny body than most upperclassman otokoyaku do. The Rurihana support society meets Wednesdays- contact me for details. Arisa Hitomi played Suzanne- the younger sister in love with Florian (can’t blame her.) Her voice is beautiful and she works with this part as much as anyone possibly could. Kuracchi is SOLID in her skillset- I really hope we get to continue seeing it. Sakuraba Mai sounded very good as SK Suzanne but did fall into the trap of copying Kuracchi, not that I can hold that against ANY SK actress. Amato Kanon as Johnny, the kid who just wants to ride in a boat, is literally one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Her physicality made me grin and brought tears to my eyes trying to hold back laughter. She’s at 110% every moment of the show, all balled-up fists and shouting and hunched shoulders. She’s channeling skittish TINY dog that’s all bark and no bite and I loved it. Seo Yuriya as the BRASH and rude Martin, Mao Yuuki as the DUMB AND FUNNY AND LOVEABLE AND BIG Oliver, Shidou Ryuu and Amahana Ema as the literally indistinguishable Rico and Enrico rounded out the group of sailors beautifully, and worked together to be pretty seamless comic relief. Senka’s Ema Naoki and Itsuki Chihiro both get to flex their acting chops as foils of sorts to Karl and Margit- as Veronica the barmaid sorta and Margit’s father, respectively, and really brought and maintained some great emotional intensity to the stage. Mari Yuzumi was tragically underutilized as Margit’s mother, but worked the moments she had. Miki Chigusa had some great comedic beats as the owner of the hotel that Karl and Margit stayed at. If you like Hiroka Yuu or Ooki Makoto, you’re in luck, they both get ten second vocal solos, and that’s more than I’d expect for them but less than they deserve. This show as a whole was a bit rough as far as good roles go- there weren’t a lot, so you might be left wanting if you’re rooting for someone in a not-main role. That said, one of the best parts about Elbe actually was hands down the life the minor role actresses were bringing to the ensemble scenes. I have never seen people have more fun or be more playful with food props. They were flirting, they were dancing, they were feasting and drinking and teasing and chasing and doing some truly bizarre miming (a microphone chicken leg for Honoka Kozakura? A steering wheel pretzel for Yuunagi Ryou?) there was one prop that only went around in SOME performances that was, and I am not exaggerating, a turkey leg as big as a large backpack that the actresses who were lucky enough to hold it dug into with abandon. The ensemble truly brought this story to life in a charming, beautiful way.

I loved Elbe. It was a beautiful choice for this troupe and a lovely send off for the graduating actresses, who got their last moments to shine onstage. The story was sweet (cliched, sure, but y’all, every story is, please.), and played so well by the cast. The music will be stuck in my head for years to come, and I’m always going to treasure the way I got to see it evolve over these three months.

ESTRELLAS~

Excuse my language- but Estrellas kicked ass. Usually I like revues with plots and throughlines (think The Entertainer or to an even greater and literal extent, Baddy), or with long spaces for comedic interlude and general mucking around (think Taiwan tour Killer Rouge)- and while Estrellas is NEITHER- it’s more of a jukebox revue than anything- it has solidly landed in my Top Favorite Revues Ever list. Initially, I was nervous. Again, this is a taidan revue, and is directed by Nakamura Satoru, who did Viva Festa- also a taidan revue, and not one that did Misaki Rion ANY sort of justice- (and personally, not a revue I love.) I went in expecting nothing and ended up with everything.

Estrellas opens with the title song, Estrellas- and it’s visually STUNNING. The costumes are blue and gold and starry, classy and cohesive in a way that I thank Jesus and also God for. Everyone looked incredible. We’re introduced to Beni, Airi, Coto, Kai, and Seocchi with little solos, and the rest of the ensemble shines brilliantly alongside them. We also get our first of two aisle sienne bits- including some actresses in the aisles on the second floor! (Elbe also had two scenes with actresses in the aisles, and I loved every bit of those.)

From there, we get Rei Makoto singing Sekai No Owari’s Starlight Parade while the set behind the curtain changes to set up for the taidansha medley. Coto is superhuman. She sings and dances and charms with a smooth ease that I can not begin to wrap my mind around. This song could be boring- it’s a solo on the bridge in front of a curtain, but Coto had the audience wrapped around her finger.

Next up, the taidan medley- a mashup of Ken Hirai’s Pop Star, MISIA’S 僕はペガサス, and Flumpool’s 星に願いを, sung mostly by and featuring Nanami Hiroki, with other taidansha Katori Reira and Seki Yurito beautifully bringing the MISIA number to life. (Amakake Sakura is unfortunately too young to have been featured much :( ) it was a GOOD taidan number- featuring a lot of underclassmen in sweet swing dresses and suits, while Kai got to take center stage and sing some pretty pointed lyrics about making people happy and being a star, having to leave something but wishing you could stay, loving people who support you, etcetera, etcetera. 10/10 points for selection of songs, here. Kai milked every second she had for everything it was worth, turned the (effortless) charm all the way on, and did some of her languid half-dancing that you can’t even be mad at because she’s so busy throwing everyone smiles and love. It was beautiful to see.

The upperclassmen (and like half the ken-7s) come in immediately with Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young (yes, this song.) Which features Beni smoking a cigarette, some lasers, costumes that are exclusively black fishnet, leather, or denim, out of control arena rock music, and some of the coolest high energy 80′s rock concert dance ensemble work ever (shoutout to Hiroka Yuu and Sazanami Reira who have KILLER dance solos at the start- I literally did not know they could dance like that and I really wish we could see the upperclassmen shine like this more often.) Everyone looks hot and this number rocks.

Up next, Coto leading a 9 member boyband in Back- and this is the boyband number to end all boyband numbers. Apparently Coto doesn’t NEED to breathe while singing, even though this choregraphy is off the charts. Energetic and jumpy and intense and sharp and sexy and the woman does not lose a BEAT or a BREATH or miss a single step. To that note, NOBODY misses a step. It is, and I can not stress this enough, intense as hell. Could Coto’s reign be the beginning of top stars leading boyband numbers? I can only hope so. Next is the start of the chuuzume section- Hot Stuff featuring all the otokoyaku doing all your favorite (hot) things including, The Mouth Wipe Thing, the Fingers Through The Hair Thing, the Rubbing Your Thighs Thing, followed by Turn The Beat Around (the musumeyaku equivalent of Hot Stuff- led FLAWLESSLY by Airi), FOLLOWED BY Coto leading Sunny and strutting her stuff on the bridge while several otokoyaku/musumeyaku pairs do some Seductive Sexy Slinky duet dancing together. This goes into Beni and Airi dancing to Libertango - and this is a number that REALLY got me. It was VERY good. I don’t usually associate Beni and Airi with incredible pairwork, dancing wise, but they were both IN this. Beni’s injury she seemed to have been nursing before seems gone now, and Airi and her both are ACTING this number as they dance it (in the most gorgeous gold sequin outfits, may I add.) It was sexy and a little angry and they moved together like they have been paired forever. It’s really nice to see how far they’ve come with each other. Also, Airi can DANCE. The chuuzume could not be more Hoshigumi. It’s set to Orange Range’s チャンピオン, and it felt to me like such a celebration of what this troupe is. It made my face hurt from grinning It’s Beni rapid fire rapping and calling out and Hoshigumi responding and just PLAYING with each other, miming what Beni was calling out and teasing each other. It was fast and funny and it just suited them all so well. The grins on everyones faces and the way this number celebrated the playfulness and friendship between these people was really really sweet to see.

The rockette was good- not too long, and introduced by Beni with a smile and a wink. The revue starts wrapping up after the rockette. Next is a classically structured revue number I think- you know the kind of number where everyone is in matching flowy costumes, it’s all in sync and it’s dancy and it features the whole ensemble and the lyrics are about love or family? This was that（星サギの白）． More than any number, this one made me cry every time. Something about Beni and Airi finding each other and falling in love in the middle of the stage and the rest of their troupe, Kai centerstage right next to them, nudging them on with a grin reminiscent of her Kiroku in Another World just gets me. It’s a peaceful world in this song until a group of (scorpions?) dressed in all black with a firey motif (led by Seocchi) comes on and tears everyone apart by the power of intense dance and lighting effects. The Good vs. Evil dance battle is ended by a thunderstorm brought on by Coto, who comes up and does an (obviously stunning) solo dance and then brings everyone else back on to end the number with a 60-some strong cast filling the whole stage in sync. This song is overflowing with love. I can’t describe this number, but it’s so beyond powerful. Talk to me, I’d love to show it to you sometime.

Seocchi pops back up for a well-done original bridge solo after this, segueing into a SEXY musumeyaku dance led by Airi in a bob and a slinky silky skirt with a slit up to heaven, backed by Otoha Minori, Arisa Hitomi, Mizuno Yuri, Otosaki Itsuki, Yumeki Anru, Murasaki Rira, and Katori Reira.

It’s followed by the first REAL kuroenbi Hoshigumi has done in AGES, a sort of latin-tinged number featuring Beni, Kai, and Coto, and backed by all the otokoyaku you’ve grown to know and love (shoutout to Tenju Mitsuki for being more on it than we deserve, and Kisaragi Ren for never giving less than 4000%). This number is danced WELL, and it feels really unique to me as far as choreography goes. It was slick and it was sexy and it was intense and it was sharp- (but I’m not a Takarazuka expert. All I know is that I felt really satisfied by the whole thing.) It looks GOOD. Last up is the duet dance, (Yumeki Anru and Kozakura Honoka singing MISIA’s 逢いたくていま while Beni and Airi dance onstage). Beni and Airi just have something special. This duet dance was really nice to see- sweet and light and pure and so THEM- sometimes duet dances really fit the combi performing them and sometimes they don’t, and I’m so happy to see that this was the former. There’s no lift, there’s plenty of smiles and genuine fondness, there’s hand holding and running onto the bridge together, there’s beautiful fog and plenty of eye contact. The number ends with Beni offering Airi a hand and Airi pulling her into a hug in response, and more than once, Beni let out the softest gasp with her smile. I love Beni and Airi. I love seeing them together in their element. This duet dance is full of love, and it’s right up there with the Chigimiyu duet dance in Greatest Hits as my Favorite Duedan Ever.)

At this point, we’re at the parade. Taidansha Katori Reira is the etoile, and she reminds us with her voice what Hankyu has been sleeping on her whole time in the revue company. Things proceed as you’d expect. Kai gets her sanbante feathers (finally.) It’s all blue and white and gold and lovely. Hoshigumi is my favorite troupe in the world, and even without Kai, they’re going to remain just that (’we know, we know, you just wrote a 500 page review of one show,’ you may say, and to that, I’d say ‘yeah, and you read it, so.’)

Raku was wild. In addition to the emotions running rampant, Beni lost her voice almost entirely on the last note of Elbe and was running code red triage through all of Estrellas. The troupe more than pulled together though, supporting her and not missing a beat. (I feel bad for the taidansha though, and bad for Beni who clearly was feeling brokenhearted with the way things were going- but managed to joke about the situation, even as the combination of the situation and the fact that it’s taidan raku had her in tears.) Regardless of this though, I was inspired by how well everyone worked and the love and energy and professionalism they carried on with. The speeches were beautiful and the love was palpable and the taidansha speeches were touching. There wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre, and the sniffles could have drowned out the speeches. I felt so lucky I got to be there. <3

Overall, I give Elbe//Estrellas a 100/10 (surprise.)

I feel lucky just to have existed at the same time as this show, as this troupe, as my favorite actress. Getting to see it was a privilege, a source of so much love and happiness, and an inspiration to me. If anyone has any questions about any of it, or wants to talk about it, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you’ve read this far (wow), thank you for reading and giving my thoughts a shot! If I could spread a fraction of the love this show has given me, I’d consider it a win in my book.

星組最高！

#takarazuka #elbe #hoshigumi #kurenai yuzuru #kisaki airi #nanami hiroki #rei makoto #estrellas #i hope the formatting this time sucks less.....

18 notes · View notes

whateverisbeautiful · 6 years

Text

Reveling in Richonne

#118: The Golden Rule (8x12)

So each time I’ve done these posts there’s been some character that has spurred me to go on a gif journey expressing how tried they made me feel. 😂

The first time doing these revelings it was Jadis in the season 7 finale. And then during the Retrospect posts it was Jessie. And for this round...y’all we gotta add Enid to the Queens of Trying It, cuz she was all the way out of line. 💯

So we see Michonne standing outside of the Hilltop building as those three ladies wait on the bench. And then she decides to go inside because it’s clear she has something she needs to address.

She walks in and tells Maggie “We should make the deal and let them go before the Saviors get here.”

First of all; yes fierce walk! And it’s sweet to see Michonne wanting these women to be spared of dealing with the pending craziness that’s about to pop off when they face the Saviors.

Also this is why Michonne is fit to be a leader, because she’s decisive and diligent. But Maggie feels they can’t let them go with what they have, and then Enid barges in.

And this is where our gif journey begins. 🙃

Cuz just the physical act of Enid barging into this conversation had me like...

Like I already have an issue with the fact that Enid steps into this conversation between two women who have known each other for SIX seasons now. And then she wants to interject to tell Michonne, “Maggie’s right.”

Just two words into the scene and I already was like...

The way Michonne turns around, you can tell she might be thinking the same things as me which is “Did this little girl really just waltz in here and think she can talk to me like this?”

Michonne has the courtesy to face her (cuz lord knows I would not) and Enid goes on to say, “We take their stuff. Otherwise someone else will. Someone else will kill them. It’s a miracle they’re still alive anyways.” That’s sounding real Savior-ish if I do say so myself lol. 👀

Y’all I low key wanted Michonne to just be like...

So Michonne silently stares at her and I’m telling you Danai is so excellent at not playing anything one-note, even in a facial expression. Because as much as Michonne might feel tried, you also see her feeling compassion on Enid. Like it’s evident that Michonne feels for her that the world has hardened her this way at such a young age.

And then Enid tries it again by stepping closer to Michonne to continue to talk to her like she doesn’t realize she’s talking to the literal queen of this apocalypse.

She says “The Saviors are on their way. We’re gonna fight and some of us will die.” And the salty side of me was like listen boo, Michonne and Rick.... see they’re the ones who live (at least before season 9) so they don’t have to be as concerned with that death stuff like the rest of you lol.

Enid asks why they should care about anyone else and I was like...

The bold disrespect to talk to Michonne that way when this is a woman who one; is grown two; is fully aware of the situation and most importantly three; who just lost Carl who she had a deeper relationship with than Enid could possibly know.

And it’s a miracle Michonne’s even able to be around other people right now, let alone Carl’s broody unofficial “girlfriend”. 🙄

But y’all it don’t stop there. 😑

Getting more heated, Enid says “We take their stuff and we use it. We stop pretending that things just work out. They don’t.”

And hearing her try and talk at Michonne about a concept Michonne knows full well had me really asking...

Michonne responds saying, “Carl rescued Siddiq and now we have a doctor and we have a friend.”

Y’all this is heartwarming because Michonne already is choosing to see the value in what Carl’s “something after” goal was.

She always did understand Carl in a special way so it makes sense that she’s the one to vocalize this understanding of where Carl was coming from with helping Siddiq and even to find the positive in it with the fact that Siddiq is a doctor and friend.

And it’s sweet that she refers to Siddiq as a friend when it could be very easy to resent Siddiq for being associated with the moment that killed Carl. And also because it’s choosing to not just see the fact that he’s a doctor as the only plus side to things, cuz that would only be allowing his value to come from what he can offer them.

So in saying he’s a friend it’s meaningful cuz it shows she’s open to accepting Siddiq as a person and not just a commodity.

It’s like how Carl told Rick in 8x09 that he helped Siddiq not cuz he was a doctor but because he wasn’t going to make it alone.

She then wisely takes the gun away from Enid as an act of letting this girl know that the way she wants to fight away her problems is not the way. (And I think she also takes the gun cuz Enid has no business being this hostile right now.)

And then Michonne says very matter of factly; “Carl was brave.” Y’all, the fact that they have to speak about Carl in past tense still hurts. 😢

You can tell in her delivery of this line that it’s painful for her to have to address Carl as no longer being with them, but she’s willing to go to that emotional place and defend Carl despite the pain.

And I love that she’s choosing to see the bravery in Carl’s commitment to humanity rather than having a more jaded take on his actions.

And then the pinnacle of the triflingness is when Enid steps to Michonne and says, “And now he’s dead,”

Which...

Before I go off 😁 lemme just say;…I get it. She’s hurting and she’s sad because she lost her close friend. But I still have to tell her...

Cuz the disrespect is just too much. Like Enid needs to realize that she is talking to the woman who knew Carl when he was this little boy who just lost his mom. She is talking to the woman who held Carl in her arms after he was attacked by that Claimer.

She is talking to the woman who gave Carl a huge chunk of his happiest memories. And most importantly she is talking to the woman who became Carl’s mom and best friend.

So she needs to come correct with it. Cuz to throw that in Michonne’s face like Carl’s life was wasted is unacceptable, especially so soon after Michonne just buried him.

When watching this the first time, I was very curious what Michonne’s response would be. Cuz my personal response was very much like...

And I know Michonne is extremely good at having a “be the bigger person” response to when people try her. Like she’s the embodiment of...

And I love that about her. But the second I heard Enid say that line, I was literally hoping that Michonne would refuse to play nice with this one right here cuz Enid needed to know...

And I love that, while she kept that signature Michonne composure her response was perfection because she also was more than willing to let this little girl know she isn’t playing games.

Cuz she looks at Enid with a calm intensity and simply says “Step back.”

Y’all. This was legit me...

When I tell you I was soooooo here for it. For real, it was everything. 🙌🏾

“Step back” is a way of life now lol. 😋 Enid was putting disrespect on Carl and Michonne, and I love that Michonne let her know she will have none of that.

Michonne’s basically telling Enid...

With a dash of...

I was like; that’s right Enid, this is a little different than some of the adults you’re used to giving sass to, cuz now you’re dealing with the queen. 👸🏾

And you can see the moment Enid realized she’s dealing with a queen too...

And when Michonne calmly but firmly tells her to step back, Enid already knows what time it is and she knows not to try it any further cuz...

That’s the kind of influential presence Michonne has, when she says something like that you already know you gotta listen.

Like she really does have this perfect balance of peaceful but powerful, and her words command attention. #queen

And sure enough Enid steps all the way back and out of the room. To which I was like...

Similar to Ron, and Heath, and that chick at Hilltop, Enid joined the list of people who have learned the golden rule that when it comes to trying Rick or Carl in front of Michonne...

But what breaks my heart is Michonne’s expression as Enid walks away. Cuz you can tell that as composed as she’s been it’s hard for her to not want to just break down since losing Carl is still so fresh.

And she’s been being strong for other people but, during this subtle moment, it becomes visible how much pain Michonne’s in over this loss.

And then Maggie dabbles in trying it when she reiterates “Things don’t just work out” And I was really like...

Cuz do 👏🏽you 👏🏽think 👏🏽that 👏🏽Michonne 👏🏽doesn’t 👏🏽know 👏 that? Maggie doesn’t have to tell Michonne things don’t work out cuz Michonne knows this just as much as any.

Michonne then says, in a tone that suggests she can think of a long list of times that’s been the case for herself (like losing two sons), “No. No they don’t.”

This episode had me starting to genuinely ask; do these characters know Michonne? Cuz if they did they would know that she’s had a lot of experiences with things not working out.

Sis has lost a lot. But it’s because she has this winner’s attitude of finding the way they can thrive and rise above it that she’s been able to push through.

It’s times like these where I really wish characters interacted more. Cuz while I know Maggie and Michonne have a friendship, some of these relationships have been put so far on the back burner that it causes us to not even really know what the dynamics between these long standing characters even are and how much they know.

And it’s interesting cuz Maggie’s experienced an overwhelming amount of brutal losses too which if why I hoped the scenes with them in this episode would be focused on them really connecting through that.

So then with emotion Michonne says, “But I think he knew that. He didn’t give up on who Rick wanted him to be.”

It just hit me how significant this line is cuz, I feel like it’s a callback to the season 4 finale when Carl was able to open up to Michonne after that traumatic night with the Claimers.

He told her how he’s not who his dad thinks he is and at that time he was really feeling like just another monster. But with the help of Michonne and Rick and Judith he was able to get better and not give up on who he knew deep down his dad wanted him to be.

There’s something comforting about thinking that personal heart to heart Carl and Michonne had four season ago could be the moment that’s resonating with Michonne now and motivating her to not give up.

And then I love that she also says “And we can’t on who he wanted us to be. We can’t.”

It’s deep for a lot of reasons, but the most important being that this illustrates how she really took Carl’s final words to heart and how she’s determined to fight to not only create the world he wanted but also be the person he specifically wanted them to be, which is people who aren’t blinded by the fight and instead focused on caring and a real future.

And then Maggie seems to take those words to heart and I feel like for the first time we see Maggie have some deeper acknowledgement that they lost Carl, someone she’s known since he was a little kid.

As Michonne walks out, we see Judith and the baby and I feel like again it’s this reminder of why fighting for peace is actually worth it. Because at the end of the day they’re not only trying to create a world just for themselves but for these kids who are most important cuz they will be the future now.

Maggie walks out and lets those ladies know she’s agreed to the deal. Georgie gives them food and explains her whole key to the future and honestly I just have to reiterate, all these characters have to put some respek on Michonne’s name. That’s the moral of the story because her instinct will not lead you astray lol. 👌 🏽

And this was me looking at this show when they pretty much make it seem as though it was Maggie who led them to this advancement and not Michonne...

So then Michonne again is the bigger person by being willing to still speak to Enid in the scene where they’re on watch at the wall.

Enid shares about killing Natania and how she killed her and is alive but Carl saved someone is dead and I was like; girl a lot of that just has to do with faulty lopsided storytelling cuz Enid realistically shouldn’t have survived that Oceanside storyline and Carl absolutely should’ve survived that Siddiq storyline. 😑

Also, the fact that, as this scene starts, it seems like Enid wants to do round two of talking back to Michonne like she still ain’t learn her lesson...It had me wanting to tell Enid my own version of “step back” which is...

Enid asks if they’re supposed to just stop fighting, which makes me think that maybe that’s supposed to imply that in Carl’s letter to her he also expressed how he wants them all to stop fighting.

(Side note: I always felt like it was a missed opportunity to never get a scene or moment where Rick and Michonne got to acknowledge Carl’s relationship with Enid in the past few seasons. I feel like that would’ve been a cute moment between Rick, Michonne, and Carl)

Michonne says “I don’t think Carl wanted us to stop fighting for our future. But I think he was telling us that to get to our future it’s going to take more than just fighting.”

Again, Michonne’s out here perfectly summing up Carl’s message for others. The best of the best friends y’all. 💯

And, as she says this line, she gives Enid’s gun back to her in a way of symbolizing that the fight doesn’t have to be completely unnecessary.

So then, Enid is still not letting it sink in cuz she says “The saviors are coming right now” and I was like girl...

Cuz Michonne knows that. Fr, who does Enid think she’s talking to lol. Michonne calmly responds saying, “And we’re gonna fight them. But there’s gotta be something after” and I appreciate her recalling Carl’s words and how she’s let that really resonate with her.

Even tho Enid tried me like no other, I’m glad that Michonne is able to be a peaceful and wise presence in her life cuz Enid could use that in this time of grieving. Michonne’s presence is good for people’s health lol. #facts

And these Michonne-centric moments relate to Richonne because seeing where Michonne’s at gives insight to the way she’s working to go through this grieving process, and that’s what will play the biggest part in Rick being able to work through the grieving process later.

With the devastating loss of Carl, it could be really easy for time to just stand still for Michonne or for her to just shut everyone out but instead she’s staying present and honoring her best friend by focusing on and working towards the “something after” he wants for them.

It’s such a testament to the resilience and admirable character she has. And I appreciate that there’s a lot of things that are golden about Michonne; including the golden rule. 👌💯😋

gif sources: carlschandler michonnegrimes danaisokoye-archive coolpartytimefan grimescarl

#richonne #richonne fandom #richonne family #michonne #michonne grimes #rick grimes #twd #s8 #8.12

82 notes · View notes

pinktatertots99 · 6 years

Note

Do you still have any ideas for Dread x Kenshirou drabbles? 😋

uhm, idk tbh? (idk whether your legit asking me or if your inquiring a kenshirou x dread drabble) I’m working on a part 2 of the HS au I did for them a while ago. as for actual ideas off the top of my head…I think I got one. (tbh I just wait for whoever you all are for some plot help, it’s kinda hard especially since I haven’t reblogged a writing prompt in a while but idk if I wanna yet)

anyways, this follows my headcanon of kenshirou taking the guard dogs home with him (horizontal lines indicate some time passing)

“yozakura, the dogs hate me.”

kenshirou looked up at her with half eaten toast in his mouth, taking it out to reply. “…what?”

“you haven’t noticed their obvious resentment towards me?” she asked. “they push me out of the bed, steal my food, chew on my boots and lay on my cloak.”

“…I see…” kenshirou slowly replied out. “though, they tend to do that with me as well whenever their upset.”

“I can SENSE it ken! they have a vendetta against me.”

“why would they though?”

“obviously cause I work for warden sauzando. though, could also be because of our past rivalry I suppose.”

kenshirou hummed to himself in thought. “…if you’d like i’ll talk to them later.”

dread sighed. “suppose that could be a good start.”

it wasn’t however. after that conversation and later on the dogs seemed to have kept up their antics against her, and seeming to be more harsher then usual. dread tried to pretend it wasn’t bothering her…until the camel’s back broke one day when finding her goggles and mask chewed up and shattered beyond repair.

“who did this?!” kenshirou barked out. the dogs turned their heads away from the scene. “just because your off duty doesn’t mean you can’t tell the t-”

he paused as he saw dread get up and leave for the house. following suit the group saw her go into the bedroom and taking out a suitcase, opening the clothes drawers.

“dread?”

“it’s obvious I’m not welcomed here.” she muttered out, seeming to force down any emotions she was having. “i’ll just get out of your hair.”

“your not-”

“obviously I am.”

“just wait-”

“I’m NOT breaking up with you kenshirou.” she stated firmly as she took her filled up suitcase. “I just…just moving out. i’ll re-rent my old apartment and such.” she then walked towards him, hugging his waist. “we can try this whole living together thing again later.”

the group of guards watched as their supervisor and friend wore such a broken reaction as he slowly reciprocated the hug back.

“delivery!”

dread looked up from her desk, a thin veil covering her face as she looked to where usually a person was standing over her, but there seemed to be no one around. she looked around till she noticed a very familiar Dalmatian pup’s head and paws on her desk.

standing a bit she found the whole group was there, the tanned and brown colored collie holding a pink present box by it’s bright yellow bow in it’s mouth. she then saw genrou byakuya push through the group a bit as sanohana got off her desk.

“on behalf of our…indigenous behavior, we’d like to apologize personally for such unprofessional acts we’ve acted upon you.” he confessed as ninohana dropped the gift off onto her desk.

the guard stared at them firmly, not even close to phased by this. “…are you really sorry?” she asked, her voice sounded cold. “or are you just saying this cause your boss is upset?”

“we are we are!” inohana replied quickly jumping up a bit. “it’s the truth!”

“we didn’t mean for all this to happen.” sanohana replied suddenly, getting through the group. “it’s just, there’s this cense we get from people. a judgmental cense that determines our trusting of others.”

“and you censed that in me, is what your getting at?”

the five looked at eachother. “actually, the opposite.” ninohana replied, dread raised a bit at them curiously. “at first it was still there, but later on, we couldn’t cense it anymore.”

“and that’s when it got worse.” dread mumbled to herself.

“…we assumed you were playing a trick on our senses.” shinohana stated. “trying to make yourself seem better and take advantage of our lowered defense to go after our supervisor.”

“however,” sanohana started. “,when we saw you leaving…and the look on supervisor’s face…”

“we realized we messed up.” inohana finished.

dread quirked a brow underneath the veil. “and you didn’t try to stop me?…”

“we didn’t have our communication devices.” ninohana confirmed. “nudging at you would just make it look like we were pushing you out.”

“such disadvantages we have.” sanohana sighed. “but anyways, we do all feel really bad about it. so…”

dread’s view then went to the unopened present. bringing it over to herself she started unwrapping the bow and taking the cover of the box off. her eyes widened finding a new pair of goggles and mask.

“…will you come home with us please?”

“I’m back!” kenshirou announced as he closed the front door. work had been longer then expected and thus he couldn’t travel back with the others. it wasn’t the first time this had happened, as the dogs all had shared doggy doors for indoors and outside. doesn’t mean though it didn’t put him on edge a bit. and the fact not one of them replied to his announcement made him curious.

as he took his boots off he noticed a familiar suitcase by the door. …could it be… it had to be, no one else could have a key to his place except…quickly setting his boots down he left the entrance looking through all the rooms till he got to the living room. his eye was wide but softened as he smiled softly at the pile of sleeping dogs and dread snuggling on the couch.

#nanbaka #fanfiction #kenshirou x dread #the pink one speaks #i made this

6 notes · View notes

kaelinaloveslomaris · 7 years

Note

I just listened to some of the Empire Strikes Back radio drama and it made me think of the gifset you reblogged the other day. Particularly involving Luke's emotions at the end. (The guy voicing Vader is too hammy for my tastes, but Mark Hamill adds some feeling to the scenes). Like after the big reveal, you can hear Luke legit pleading with Vader to stay back and it's just you wanna hug the poor guy!

I listened to all the OT radio dramas multiple times last summer, because my job was super boring, all mindless repetitive stuff (repetitive enough motions to give me carpal tunnel, but that’s a separate discussion) and we were allowed to listen to music. I found the time went much faster if I listened to audio books instead of just music, and since I’ve been in my Star Wars kick for over a year now… well. :)

Anyways, back to your ask. I very much dislike Vader’s voice actor, but his extra lines during the gantry scene of their duel added a lot. Just imagine how good it would have been if JEJ had been able to do it…Luke’s lines of course, yes, break my heart… :( Mark Hamill is a phenomenal actor, even with just his voice. He’s very cocky before the reveal and I kind of love it. You know he’s doing it to hide his fear, but the line after Vader describes the long fall down the reactor shaft and Luke says something about not intending to take that fall… oh honey. :) And his “get it over with” after he loses his hand… He’s still expecting to die. And yes, the little “please stay back” is heartbreaking. “I won’t be the first to die to keep you from winning.” Ouch, Luke.

The one bit of Vader’s that I do kind of like the delivery is right as Luke is about to jump and Vader calls for him, and you can hear the panic as he says his name. But then Luke’s response when Vader calls him mentally on the Falcon is not so instinctive and immediate as it is in the movie, which is disappointing.

#asks #esb #radio drama #luke skywalker #this precious child #darth vader #the ashes call my name #you're my dark star

34 notes · View notes

pixieauthoress · 7 years

Text

Did you know that Jason Momoa’s first movie appearance (after he made his debut in Baywatch) was in the 2003 Lifetime movie, Tempted? No? Well, it’s a good thing @momoejaku and I spent our afternoon/evening watching this amazing film on YouTube so that I could review it in all of its glory. Yes, this was totally a sensible way to spend my evening. No, I really shouldn’t be editing my novel. Thanks for asking.

But, I mean, why wouldn’t you want to watch a low-budget movie from the early 00s in which young Jason Momoa hooks up with a middle aged tourist with a white saviour complex who is going through a midlife crisis? That kind of film totally has a universal appeal.

We went into this film knowing nothing more than the plot description on YouTube: “A married woman becomes attracted to a young man after she takes the ashes of her nanny to Hawaii.” It’s a little more complicated than that. Okay, a lot. There’s a lot of drama in this movie.

Let’s start with the font used for the credits in this movie. I’m pretty sure this was the default calligraphy font on MS Word back in the day? I totally used this font for a the headings on a bunch of my primary school projects.

Emma, our heroine, lives in Boston, and literally every shot set in Boston features snow, in order to contrast the sunny, carefree lives of Hawaiians with the cold, sterile, boring life Emma is living in Boston.

We’re presented with our first-shot of Emma--a busy woman who balances making smoothies (people in Hawaii eat fresh fruit; those in Boston blend it into fancy smoothies) with making serious phone calls about legal matters. Her hair is always up in Boston. This is significant.

We meet Emma’s kids--a cute geeky kid called Neil (or Neal? I’m not sure, the subtitles were super inconsistent) and a rebellious teen called Jamie. Were blonde streaks rebellious in 2003? Was it really that hard to find a teenage actress who was willing to dye her hair purple or another whacky colour? She wears band tees and lots of black and gets annoyed when her mom won’t let her talk to her boyfriend, Scott, on the phone at breakfast. At one point it’s mentioned that her parents don’t approve of her piercings, but where are they? They must be somewhere super controversial since they’re never visible in the film.

We meet Eddie (I think it’s Eddie? He’s super forgettable, so let’s just go with Eddie), the husband for whom Emma was making that smoothie. Look at what an attentive wife she is, finding time to make fresh smoothies (I mean, it’s not like something like this existed in 2003) on top of working and preventing her daughter from speaking on the phone with her boyfriend! And look at Eddie, totally not paying attention to Emma’s awesomeness by telling her he has to work late again, meaning she has to look after the kids again. I mean, I get it. My husband has gone on three work trips in the last six weeks and I’m tired of being the sole carer of our kid during that time, but this is basically the only aggravating thing Eddie does in this scene? IN SPITE OF THIS, @momoejaku shouted “Throw that smoothie at him and go to Hawaii to find Jason!” Smooth, @momoejaku. He also doesn’t know where his jacket is (in the closet, duh) so he’s pretty useless.

Casual reminder that Emma is living this boring, smoothie-filled life in a BIG CITY. So unlike Hawaii.

We spent just long enough at Emma’s office to learn that she’s a paralegal with a ton of legal knowledge that goes totally unappreciated by her boss, who is seriously overworking her. None of the old white guys in Emma’s life appreciate her enough. On the plus side, she does stand up to her boss, but gets shot down. She tries. We appreciated her attempt to stick it to the man!

While at her office, she gets the call about her nanny (Lily) dying. She’s super sad. She mentions to her assistant (or whoever the other guy in her office is) that Lily raised her. At this point I assumed this was just a standard “rich white girl is raised by a nanny so her mom and dad can do other stuff” scenario, but having watched the entire film I’m wondering if she grew up without a mom? The details are super vague.

Emma goes to Lily’s apartment (presumably? again, vague) and reads a letter Lily conveniently left out for her. Lily never told her she was sick and apologises for this, and talks about how wonderful it was to raise Emma. We see lots of pictures of the two of them, proving their beautiful bond, etc. Emma is sad and sniffs Lily’s scarf or something. There’s emotional music.

Eddie comes home and strips while talking about his day and we’re just like, um, no, where’s Jason? Emma tells him about Lily’s death and how bad she feels that she didn’t know she was sick, and her husband is just like “Meh, friendships change”. She tells him about Lily’s desire (as expressed in the letter) for Emma to take her ashes to Hawaii to be scattered and take part in some traditional ritual (which I can’t spell because, again, inconsistent subs) and he brushes off the idea because Emma works 10-hour days and he’s busy putting up a building (is he an architect? again, super vague details here) and who would look after the kids? Basically: Eddie is a bit of a douche, Emma deserves better.

Emma is watering a plant and then there’s vaguely ghostly music and she’s taken back to a pretty memory of her and Lily making leis together. From this scene I assumed that she grew up in Hawaii, but was later proven wrong.

Emma shouts at her teenage daughter for staying in bed on a weekend, instead of joining them for family pancake breakfast. I think we’re supposed to think the daughter is super rebellious, but all she’s done is sleep in, listen to loud music (which neither me or @momoejaku could hear on the YouTube version of the film?) and own an awesome poster that says Darkside Skateboards. As in, evil jedis ride them? We both want Darkside Skateboards. Anyway, it’s hard parenting such a rebellious (?) teen. Poor Emma. Domesticity is hard. After this supposedly dramatic scene, Emma takes her wicker laundry basket (seriously, people own wicker laundry baskets? Was this an early 00s thing?) into her bedroom and has another (kind of sensualised?) flashback about Lily teaching her to dance.

A delivery guy drops of Lily’s ashes and Eddie has totally forgotten they were arriving, and the kids are like “Eww, her remains are in there? Like her bones and stuff? That’s gross” and I don’t understand how they’ve got to that age without knowing how cremation works? Emma is upset by their disrespect for Lily (who they apparently didn’t know all that well, given their apathy to all of this) and announces that she’s taking Lily home to Hawaii. We cheer and @momoejaku shouts “JASON!” This has been a loooooong 12 minutes of making sure we know just how boring Emma’s life is, how under-appreciated she is, and how much she misses Lily.

Emma arrives in Hawaii and we finally get to see BABY JASON! He steps out his truck wearing one of the many, many tank-tops he sports in this movie. We’re fairly certain his contract stated that he had to show off his biceps in literally every scene. Not that we’re complaining or anything. He’s pretty skinny, in spite of the bicep thing? He introduces himself as Lily’s nephew, Kala, and his voice is super deep and we spent time pondering how weird this is, but then it’s fine for the rest of the movie so maybe he just had a cold? Maybe something went wrong with the recording? We’re not sure. Send us your theories. Anyway, verdict so far: Baby Jason is adorable.

So, YouTube subbed “Lily’s Emma?” as “They’ll eat salmon” and I had to show you all. Anyway, it’s revealed that everyone knows who Emma is, in spite of the fact that she’s never been to Hawaii, and everyone knows Lily too. Baby Jason explains that it’s a “small island, no secrets” and seriously, if you plan to drink while watching this film, you should do a shot any time someone says that line. Hawaii is tiny y’all and Emma is a celeb, obvs.

YouTube interpreted “I’m driving” as “I’m drugged” but I like the idea that Baby Jason was high for the entirety of this film a lot better. There’s cute-ish car-driving banter, Jason reveals he knows tons about Emma’s life while she has no idea who he is? And he quips about the “small island, no secrets” thing again—which suggests that it’s really not the best place to have an affair with your nanny’s nephew? Maybe this is all foreshadowing.

Jason drops Emma off at Lily’s house (which she didn’t know existed) and nothing really eventful happens except WET BICEPS ZOMG.

Emma wanders around outside the next morning taking in the views of Hawaii for like five entire minutes, until Jason happens to come along and see her in her PJs, OMG SCANDAL. Unlike what the subtitles suggest, he came from his “mother’s old house” across the way, not his “mother’s old ass”. @momoejaku literally had to pause the movie because she dissolved into a fit of laughter for three whole minutes at this point. This film is worth watching just for the bad subs alone. Also her HAIR IS DOWN. SHE IS FREE AND LIBERATED.

She goes to Jason’s mom’s house for breakfast and practically faints at how much Jason’s mom looks like Lily, and his mom is like “Duh, I’m her sister.” Then she admits she doesn’t normally eat breakfast and Jason legit says “You do now” because independent have-it-all women like Emma just love it when men romantically tell them how to eat. But, like, he looks super hot drinking coffee and HIS HAIR (we spent a lot of time discussing his luscious hair) and his biceps are out again? So we don’t blame Emma for eating breakfast to impress Jason.

Emma is like “I’ve never seen so many flowers” and Jason is legit like “It’s a flower farm”. Jason talks about how successful the business is then his mom gives him his lunchbox before he goes to work, suddenly making him slightly less attractive. We have no idea how old he’s supposed to be. 18? 30? Either way he should be capable of making his own lunch. His mom talks about the problems with evil white developers wanting to build on some land that affects the water to the flower farm, and Emma asks them if they have a lawyer and obviously they can’t afford one (even though Jason explained how well the farm was doing literally a minute ago?) so Emma volunteers to be the White Saviour and help them, for free—this providing a reason for her to spend more time in Hawaii with Baby Jason.

They go to the home of the other owner of the farm, Julia, to get papers for Emma to look over and Jason’s mom (her name is Kehau, I should really use it more) says something vague about how Julia had a hard life and means well. Julia is like “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!” and Jason’s mom is like “She’s going to help us!” and we assumed this was just a standard “we don’t want help from white people” thing, but later plot stuff reveals SECRET DRAMA. So this scene is more relevant than I thought at the time.

Emma checks out Jason in the side-mirror of Julia’s car as they drive somewhere for plot reasons.

Emma and Kehau talk about the ritual that Lily wanted her to complete, which is something about talking until each person forgives. Emma is confused by what this means, and Kehau tells her that Julia is Emma’s real mother, and says something about Emma’s father being a cold man. Emma is adamant that he wasn’t—like, seriously, you’re a grown woman and you still think your father is perfect? How is this possible? Isn’t everyone disillusioned about the awesomeness of their parents by the time they’re 12? Anyway, DRAMA TIME. Emma storms off in disbelief. @momoejaku proclaims that she knew something like this would happen, while I’m just wondering where Jason comes into the plot.

At this point, we’re still confused about whether Emma was raised to believe someone other than Julia was her mother, or if she was just told her mother was dead? This is genuinely never explained.

Emma calls her husband to say she’s coming home early. Jason shows up while Emma is stomping around the forest and she asks him if he knew about Julia being her mom and he’s like “small island, no secrets” SO DRINK UP GUYS. Apparently everyone knows.

Emma has a weird flashback dream about smashing some glass sculpture and Lily comforting her/disciplining her? I don’t know. We were confused by what this scene meant. @momoejaku had some theory about the significance of something smashing and Emma’s boundaries breaking down? Very analytical. I have an English degree and even I was lost for ideas. Emma calls her husband to stay she’s staying. She’s very indecisive. This appears to be Emma’s theme.

WET HAIR AND BICEPS. I mean, yeah, Jason is fishing and comforts Emma and is totally chilled and understanding about how she treated him like a dick the previous day when he had nothing to do with her issues. She says she feels betrayed to know that her mother was alive all these years (aha! So she was told her mom was dead. Finally, this is making more sense) and he’s like “You don’t have to deal with this right now, or tomorrow, just chill and spend time with the ocean” and she’s like “Is that the Hawaiian way?” and he’s like, “More like the Kala way” because that’s his name, in case you forgot. We just called him Jason for the entire film. Sorry if this review is confusing.

Julia attempts to talk to Emma and she’s like “I don’t want to know you, EVER” because apparently she’s 13 and just assuming that it’s all Julia’s fault, and that her rich, white, privileged father couldn’t possibly have had a part in this? We see that Julia hung on to trinkets from her time as Emma’s mom. Emma seems like a total dick.

The costume department obviously ran out of tank tops because Jason is wearing a shirt with sort-of sleeves! There’s banter and he makes a comment about her being a poor swimmer? I think this is relevant later? He checks her out, because apparently young, hot Hawaiian dudes have a thing for stuck-up middle-aged white women.

There’s some boring plot stuff that I’m not going to bother screenshotting. Eddie has to work late and trusts Jamie to look after things (ooh, I spy drama. We predicted she was going to throw a party) and Julia attempts to talk to Emma again and explain that her father’s parents put pressure on her. Emma is still a dick and won’t listen.

Emma runs some errand to do with the legal stuff and obviously Jason is at the bar next door because it’s a small island, y’all. She asks the bartender for a drink twice and he gets offended that she’s acting like a mainlander and wanting to rush stuff, just like the people trying to buy up that land. He’s touchy. She buys him a beer, so hey, feminism! Also Jason HAS A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD SON?? Like, what? He’s 24 in this role and could easily pass for younger. This makes literally no sense. Like, an eight year old son we could maybe buy.

My theory, having watched the film, is that they added in the sub-plot about his teenage son after they cast Jason in the role of Kala, and just didn’t have time to replace him with someone older? Or they just seriously struggled to find male Hawaiian actors of the right age? Because there’s no way he could pass for 30 or older. Or maybe they just wanted us to think everyone in Hawaii is youthful and never ages.

Back in Boston, Jamie has Scott over and her shirt and his jeans are undone SCANDAL. Dad freaks out, and she says he abuses her with his dislike of her hair and friends and he’s like “Well, get new ones!” So helpful, Eddie. Great parenting. Jason—who apparently got someone pregnant when he was 9—appears to be doing a better job than you. She shouts “This is who I am!” and seriously, she’s probably the most realistic character in this movie. Oh yeah, Jamie is also 15, like Billy, Jason’s son.

Eddie calls Emma because he can’t parent and Jamie is “her job”. He’s like “ZOMG, she could get pregnant” and neither of them seem to think they could just talk to their daughter about contraception? He’s annoyed that she won’t come home and she’s like, dude, just be a parent already.

Jason’s outfit is really well coordinate with these flowers. And that’s about all that’s interesting in this scene. He looks good in pink.

Jason takes Emma swimming underwater (so much for her not being a strong swimmer??) to some secret place inside some rocks and I imagine it would be romantic if there was any music?

He talks her through a panic attack in the secret blue place and then says “You look good wet” and they admire the pretty blue stuff and then makeout.

MEANWHILE, back in Boston, Eddie and the kids are on their way to visit because a) they’re concerned about how she’s handling Lily’s death or b) he just really can’t parent. Probably b).

Romantic beach chat. Emma says “I was scared but I went in anyway” and @momoejaku was like “Wait, did they do more than kiss?” and I was like “Dude, that would be a terrible innuendo” and they chat about how Emma worries over everything. Jason is like “You could just not worry”. Helpful, dude.

He puts a flower in his hair and just looks really good in that pink shirt? Much romantic silentness. So much is unsaid. Like the fact that the romantic heroine of this film is married, and neither of us are entirely sure if Jason is aware of this? She barely mentions her husband and kids, ever.

Emma’s family shows up and she’s still wearing Jason’s flower, AWKWARD. She didn’t check her messages so didn’t realise they were coming. Jason’s mom is like “The kids can sleep in my house, I thought you could use some time alone with your hubby” which is basically code for “Stop seducing my son”. I’m fairly certain she called Eddie and told him to come.

There’s an awkward family meal—well, for Emma, Jason seems super chilled, maybe he seduces middle-aged white tourists all the time—and Billy shows up! @momoejaku and I speculate over whether he’s going to hook up with Jamie. That would make things even more awks. Billy looks the same age as Jason so this is even more ridic than it was before. Julia shows up because the meal wasn’t weird enough.

Emma finds her husband and Jason chatting about going fishing on the porch, but when she and Eddie leave Jason looks a bit crushed, so maybe he’s not as chilled as he’s been acting. Poor Baby Jason. I still don’t know if he knew Emma was married until Eddie showed up?

Eddie attempts to make out with Emma on the walk back to Lily’s house and she brushes him off because she’s “tired”. GUILT. Seriously, I’m finding it really hard to root for a married heroine. This is just weird. I can’t tell if Jason is complicit and was doing this even though he knew Eddie existed, but he’s Jason and he looks so adorable so gets more sympathy. Fully aware that that’s problematic but, hey, we’re only watching this film because of him.

Jamie sneaks out to hang out with Billy, who she just met, and he randomly mentions that he got caught breaking into a house for fun? Then asks Jamie how long her parents have been divorced and she says they’re not, and he’s like “That’s not good, your mom has been hanging out with my dad” which makes me think either Jason divulges his affairs with married women to his son, or he really thought Emma was divorced?? Either way, Jamie knows now. Uh-oh.

There’s more mom drama, Julia explains the whole “white people had power and made me give you up” but Emma is still a dick. I’m not going to screenshot it because we were really pissed at her by this point.

Eddie runs into Jason’s mom the next day and asks if Emma’s back from her run, and she’s like “Oh, she didn’t go running, went into town with Kala” and he starts getting suspicious. He goes into town, where Jason is shouting “Son of a bitch!” because the bad guys have planning permission. Bad guys obviously show up and he gets into a fight and Emma stops him from properly fighting by, uh, grapping his pecs and biceps and stroking his face? @momoejaku is like, uh, that’s how I’d stop him from fighting too. Obviously her husband shows up right then.

She has a chat with her husband and admits that Jason made her feel like someone she’d lost, general midlife crisis stuff. He actually gives a lovely speech about all the reasons they fell in love and why they should stay married. In spite of his previous uselessness, I like him. Poor guy.

Convenient conversation (@momoejaku was literally like “Is that all he’s going to do? Tell her stuff about her mom?”) between Billy and Jamie where he reveals MORE stuff to Jamie, like how Julia is her grandmother. Also, it’s emphasised again how important Emma was to Lily and that Emma has been a bit of a dick as she hasn’t really kept in touch with Lily all these years. Ugh, she’s kind of the least likeable heroine ever. Jamie blows up at her mom for not telling her about Jamie, and for neglecting Lily. Honestly, she really does a good attempt at talking sense into her mom. I like her. Also her outfit rocks. She tells her mom that she knows about her affair with Jason and threatens to tell Eddie, and Emma storms out shouting “I was never good at being a mom anyway! Maybe it’s genetic? Is that what you want? Me gone?” It’s very dramatic and Jamie gets upset. I get it, parenting is hard. Maybe when I’m depressed and having a midlife crisis I’ll go to Hawaii and hook up with a hot dude to forget my troubles.

Emma goes swimming to the special blue place again in an attempt to hear from Lily, and I’m like, why would you go to the place you made out with Jason to hear from your nanny? Then she goes to the special prayer rock Jason showed her earlier and has a moment where she keeps looking at this one particular flower and finally hears from Lily.

Meanwhile, Jamie is sensible and goes to chat to Julia. That kid is awesome. She also reveals that Emma’s father never got married again after Julia left—thanks, kid, this info would have been useful earlier. It’s taken me a long time to figure out Emma’s family history.

Emma and Kehau have a confrontation where Emma apologises for keeping Lily away all these years and Kehau accuses her of neglecting Lily and gets super upset. Emma says the words that she heard at the prayer rock and everything is better, Kehau confirms that it must be from Lily. Hooray! Conflict resolved by mystical words from beyond the grave! Kehau apologises for making Emma believe that Lily didn’t come back because of her (for all of ten seconds? Come on, let the woman feel guilty for longer than that. She’s done some crappy stuff for the entirely of this film).

ZOMG ominous storm brewing, and the kids are going hunting for fossils? Whatever could happen? Will they a) find an ancient burial ground that makes the land into sacred land that can’t be built on by the bad guys or b) get lost in the storm forcing the families to rescue them and bond together? The possibilities!

You guys, marines are getting into the sacred cave. In case anyone was wondering, RAIN is actually getting in.

So obviously Billy decides to climb the WET WALL to get some candles (@momoejaku and I missed this detail earlier and spent the next fifteen minutes going “Why did he even climb that wall? And where did they get those candles?” We are kind of ridic) and falls off and knocks himself out so they’re stuck in the storm. So far, option b) is looking likely. Anyway, we actually didn’t see this coming, the fall came out of nowhere, and @momoejaku made the most ridic facial expressions and kind of looked like a perplexed meerkat at this point in the movie. It was adorbs. There maaaaaay be screenshots ;)

Parents are predictably freaking out that the kids aren’t back yet. Eddie is pissed that Kehau is making him wait for Jason to show up to help him navigate the mountain and basically acts like a whiny child. Jason finally shows up looking surprisingly hot in a yellow raincoat (Eddie looks like a dork in his) and is annoyed at Eddie forgetting that he has a kid who is missing too. They go off in Jason’s truck to rescue the kids, and Emma stays home. At this point, we’re confused about the turn of events. Shouldn’t this be about Eddie and Emma bonding over rescuing the kids together, and Emma realising how much she loves her family? Not Eddie and Jason bonding? What are they going to do, decide to have an open relationship where Emma gets to be with both men? Run off without her? Seriously, I have no idea what the best conclusion to this film would be.

Meanwhile, Jamie leaves Neil alone with Billy (surrounded by candles like some sort of human sacrifice, but hey, he did almost die trying to get them) so she can run for help. Julia turns up at Kehau’s house and decides to take matters into her own hands, so they head out in search of the kids. Girl power! Oh wait, this film is about Emma and her mom bonding, not which guy she gets. I keep getting lost

Eddie falls down a hill because he’s a dork, Jason still looks studly and offers him a hand to help him up because he’s the better person, and also still manages to look awesome in all that rain?

All the rain in the spooky cave reveals some skulls which freaks out Neil but hey, we called it, it’s an ancient burial ground! And a chance for all the families to bond! Awesome. Jamie (or is it Janie? I can’t tell) is amazing as always and finds Julia and Emma.

Jason looks super concerned when he hears that his son is hurt (ugh, my ovaries) and then when he’d told he’s “in a cave, up there” he’s like “I know where!” So apparently there’s only one cave up this mountain? Cool, let’s roll with it. Jamie starts sobbing and her mom is like “It’s okay baby, I love you” so yay, they fixed that family drama. Only 9284 more to deal with! Jason adorably jogs off like some baby deer. With Eddie, obvs, but who cares about him?

They find the boys! Jason as the anguished, caring father is the best thing ever. He definitely gets into the role in Frontier. He needs to do more stuff where he gets to be fatherly and cause women’s ovaries to explode all over the world.

Aaaaaaand skip to Lily’s funeral. Oh yeah, that’s still happening. Kehau looks beautiful, there’s some lovely singing and dancing. Billy has a plaster on his head but otherwise looks fine, in spite of the fact that he was knocked unconscious for how long? Who knows? Jason looks awesome in pink flowers, obvs.

Jamie randomly gets up and decides to join in with the dancing? Because it wouldn’t be a Hawaiian funeral if the white chick’s daughter didn’t make it all about her. Emma cries and I guess it’s okay because Jamie’s getting in touch with her roots and they’re all actually Hawaiian, but dude, seriously. This felt super uncomfortable. Emma and Eddie look at each other and kiss and hold hands super sweetly but I may have shouted “Don’t make out with your husband in front of Jason Momoa! That’s just disrespectful! Also, you know, it’s a funeral.” @momoejaku totally agreed with me.

Also, the funeral was all Christian and stuff? Kind of unexpected.

Julia and Emma finally have a proper heart to heart. I really don’t care at this point. This has dragged on for ages and Emma has been super childish. She’s a really difficult character to like or root for. They plan to stay in touch, so yay, I guess?

Emma and Jason conveniently have a private moment on the land that is no longer going to be developed because of the remains they found in that cave, also conveniently. Jason is super sad that she’s leaving and all adorable and like “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, we belong together” which really makes me think that he’s like 22 and not the father to a teenager with tons of life experience? She’s like “You helped me to see things differently but I belong with my family, that’s who I am” which basically means “I used you to get through my midlife crisis but now you’re no longer useful”. Like, the things they say are so different? Emma’s is all about how he helped her, whereas his are all about them as a couple and his strong feelings for her. I really feel sorry for him. He clearly cares a lot more for her than he does for him.

He legit clutches his hands to his heart and says “You feel that? That’s you. You will always be a part of me. That’s who I am” which totally makes him look like the better person. They kiss, but she never says he’ll always be a part of her, so, yeah. Jason wins. She totally used him and what they had was just novelty escapism that she’s going to forget. Also what’s going to happen if she comes home to visit her mom again and runs into him? Awks. At this point, @momoejaku shouted “No, you’ll find a beautiful Hawaiin wife and forget her immediately!” She’s totally not going to go and write Kala fanfiction now ;)

Emma says that phrase her mom said to her at the prayer rock and he smiles and looks heartbroken and says “You’re welcome” and AWW JASON. Don’t use him like that! Poor guy. He was way more invested in this than she was. Jerk.

The women get together for this silent scene (or maybe we just didn’t get the music, again?) where they spill Lily’s ashes in some water and then a rainbow appears in the sky and I could screenshot this all but we were just too sad on Jason’s behalf at this point to care about the other plots. Anyway, that was it. Then the credits roll and we find out that the entire thing was filmed in Australia and we were just BETRAYED? They went to all that effort to show us how beautiful Hawaii is, but nope, it was all A LIE. It was Australia. We feel just like Jason—cheated out of something we trusted. Or maybe that’s how Eddie felt. But let’s be honest, we’re just here for Jason, so we’re on his side.

Anyway, that’s it. I don’t know if you’d really want to watch this movie unless you’re a total Jason Momoa fangirl like @momoejaku and I unashamedly are, but hey, it would make a good drinking game. Suggestions:

* Drink any time someone says “small island, no secrets”

* Drink any time Jamie is rebellious

* Drink any time Neil mentions a dorky fact

* Drink any time Jason checks out Emma

* Drink any time Emma checks out Jason

* Drink any time Emma is a dick to Julia

* Drink any time anyone mentions the land they’re trying to save

* Drink any time Jason looks brooding/moody/emotional

* Drink any time Eddie is annoying/whiny/useless

* Drink any time Emma is in her pyjamas or swimsuit

* Drink any time Jason shows off his biceps. Twice if they’re wet.

...it’s probably best just to pick three of these? Otherwise you might get alcohol poisoning.

Personally, I watched this film entirely sober because I drank one glass of Pimms and one glass of red wine last night after spending three hours in the sun with no hat and woke up with a hangover, because I’m now the parent of a preschooler and just can’t handle my alcohol. So prep in advance, guys. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Go to bed sober in order to prepare for some epic drinking and ogling of wet biceps.

#jason momoa #tempted #lifetime movie #rachel and riah watch terrible films #sometimes i review stuff

9 notes · View notes

zalrb · 8 years

Text

Yard Trolls Tho {TVD 1x03 Review}

Hi all! Welcome to the third review of TVD season 1. Considering that I haven’t like sat down to watch a full episode of the past seasons of TVD in a few years and my memory might not be the greatest I think I will start with my usual disclaimer: I will write my thoughts in real time so if I make a mistake at the beginning of this post, it will be corrected by the end. There will be anti-Damon and anti-Delena sentiments (I’m only mentioning these two because it’s the beginning of the series), and in light of recent events I feel the need to say that there may be some anti-Jenna sentiments too. I will probably bring up other shows and call attention to misogynoir, racism, anti-blackness etc. Ready? Let’s go. Tumblr deleted my numbering for some reason but it's 2:20 am so I will fix it tmr. I remember when I saw this scene --- when Caroline tries to leave the room after Damon bit her, on YouTube and people were commenting on how “comedic” it was that Caroline grabs a lamp and tries to hit Damon in the face with it and how the jokes he’s cracking are so funny and I think when I first saw this scene air I thought it was vaguely funny too but it’s completely horrifying. Caroline is traumatized and hurt and is fighting to escape her attacker who throws her back on the bed to attack her again. Like it isn’t comedic at all. Vicki how are you acting indignant because you’ve been playing with Puppy Jeremy’s emotions for how long and he’s like did you sleep with me because of the drugs? It’s a valid question! Omg I don’t exactly know why but I find it so hot that Stefan goes up to Elena, “Good morning, Elena.” Then, “Good morning, Bonnie.” I lied, I know exactly why. It was polite and inclusive and that is fucking hot. I have it paused on Stefan looking at Bonnie and he just has this gaze that makes me all tingly for Paulerina/Stefonnie purposes. And it’s a DIFFERENT gaze than his SE gaze. LMFAO. “What are you doing, standing there looking like one of those little yard trolls.” “Gnomes”. Maybe because it’s 1 AM but I just find that exchange hilarious, like there are tears of laughter. “Yard trolls” Tyler? Omg. Do we see them in a class other than history at all throughout the show? Elena’s face when Stefan answers that Pearl Harbour question, like omg my boyfriend is so smart and he saves me from embarrassment teehee. She is SO giddy. “Years and years of crossword puzzles, it’s a loner thing.” They tease each other and flirt, like DErs are TRIPPIN. In fact, is Tanner the only teacher we see? Besides Alaric who is Tanner’s replacement? “First my girlfriend, now my team.” Matt doesn’t even give off the vibe that he’s a captain. It’s really disturbing seeing Caroline kiss Damon and get out of the car. Lol Paul looks hot with mussed hair and dirt smudged on his face. I actually wish we could see more of a Matt and Stefan friendship. Another Stefan shirtless moment! “Very Emerson the way you reveal your soul with so many adjectives.” Like the only Damon line I like until season 7. Ian’s hair is becoming less offensive. Seriously, when Stefan is murderously angry with Damon but doesn’t do anything about it, Paul turns into a fucking statue. I find it insane because I think it really shows how much rage Stefan is actually in but he’s containing it so he has to become, like, inanimate. It’s very inhuman and done really well. I didn’t notice this before. Kat’s eyes are beautifully big. That wardrobe though 😒 Salem witches ... Let’s not address that they would be enslaved, like Tituba and Mary Black but whatever. I find it unbelievably disturbing that Caroline and Damon look more like a couple than Damon and Elena ever did. Matt, HOW are you friends with Tyler? He treats your sister like SHIT. That Elena and Damon conversation is like ... I guess. I mean, if they want to say Elena hates cheerleading now because it’s not her life anymore that’s fine, I get it, but it legit just looked like she was confused because she didn’t know the new routine. And how would Damon see her at practice when he drove away before they actually began doing the routine? Something Elena should find creepy but whatever. OK so I know this makeout is just a dream, which sucks, but it really speaks to the Dobsley chemistry, they’re really in sync and when Stefan moves his hands up Elena’s legs when she takes off her shirt, I always find that incredibly sexy. Also when Stefan starts to take off his shirt, something about it I find really hot I think it’s because they’re so sync. And then Damon’s face ruins it. I also find it telling that when Damon terrorizes Elena with that dream, it’s not just that he inserts a sex dream of him in her head, he lures her into a false sense of security with Stefan and then shocks her with his face. Like he goes through all these levels to fuck with her. “There must be a shred of humanity in my brother, somewhere, but how do I make him see it and how do I protect her?” This is 1x03, guys. So Damon’s “You decided I was someone worth saving” speech is bullshit. Julie and the DErs and the show and then eventually Stefan act like Elena was the first person since Damon’s turn who believed he had good in him. When Stefan had BEEN saying, “Damon it doesn’t have to be like this.” “Damon can we just leave it.” ANYWAY. Also I just realized that Elena doesn’t find it a little bit awkward that Damon and Stefan dated the same woman? She’s just like “You lost her too”? And Damon is older. OK. My cat just walked in meowing and dropping one of my old beanie babies by my bed. It distracted the hell out of me. Oh look the DE necklace that Stefan had forever and gave to Elena, the only person he ever wanted to give it to. Seriously, Elena just looks like she feels SO good because of Stefan. “And you’re not in uniform because?” Great delivery. Tyler is such a dick. Like. Wow. Although Jeremy using a bottle is a bitch ass move. “I’m fine!” “Yeah you smell fine!” And Elena just lets Jeremy walk away. He tried to use as a bottle as a weapon and he’s drunk af, girl go after your brother. “Caroline may have some really annoying traits but we’ve been friends since the first grade and that means something to me” yeah, until you sleep with her rapist. So a lamp barely has an effect on Damon but Elena slaps him and his face whips to the side. “You’re not going to hurt her Damon because somewhere deep down, you feel for her” HOW? HOW WOULD YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT. They spoke to each other like three times! HOW? DE IS SO MANUFACTURED. But Stefan really fucking tried with Damon, man. “You hate me because you loved her and you torture me because you still do and that is your humanity” like he’s taking every fucked up thing Damon has done to him and trying to make it a case for his humanity, like he TRIED. I know we keep saying Damon wasn’t that petty in season 1 but he was kind of fucking petty in season 1, fam. Bonnie’s devastation at predicting the death is done so well. Seriously, the Vicki and Jeremy relationship just makes me deeply uncomfortable. That forehead touch before Stefan and Elena hug is everything. I like how Damon invading Elena’s bedroom and stroking her face like a fucking stalker is supposed to show that he has humanity. Like whet? It’s also a really anticlimactic way to end the episode. Yeah TVD doesn’t really pick up until 1x07. OK so I did the first two reviews and I will review 1x04 tomorrow!

54 notes · View notes