#the only character who has trauma and reacts realistically to it is ben

[ragingstillness]

The Boys thoughts 4x5:

Homelander’s conversation with Ryan: felt realistic to his character but also yikes (as always). Acknowledgement of his manipulation of Ryan +1 Acknowledgement of his own trauma +1 Equivalence of his experience as a deeply privileged white man to slavery -100

Ryan getting the PA to slap the Snyder parody: one of those delightful moments that The Boys does so well where I feel both positive and negative emotions about it. Do I think the Snyder dude deserved to be slapped by his PA? Absolutely. Do I think it’s a good thing that Ryan thinks the ultimate penance is receiving corporal punishment? No I don’t. I do like that Ryan actually let the victim do the punishment and receive the apology rather than white knighting about it. And of course I am deeply aware of how ironic it is that Homelander is helping Ryan stand up for sexual harassment victims when Homelander raped Ryan’s mom in a similar power imbalance situation.

Genuinely feel sad for Ashley that she lost her Ben Shapiro parody submissive (at least partially because I found it hilarious), but she got him back and that felt very earned.

I knew that Ashley and A-Train did more to Homelander’s apartment! Haha I can’t wait to find out what it is.

Man no one is having a great time or talking about it this episode.

Always happy to see more Esposito, love him as the ultimate traitor. Just betraying everyone left and right.

Not super fond of how they’re making it seem like Annie was wrong morally for beating up Firecracker. For falling for it? Sure. For reacting with anger? No.

Big fan of the V-ed up animals. Hysterical and very fun.

“Do you even know who Annie is anymore?” Um has more time passed that they’re showing? Because didn’t Annie decide to use the Starlight name again like two episodes ago?

I like that we got to see Hughie solve a bad situation on his own this time. He’s really coming into his own. Also, I like that we got another chance to say goodbye to his dad. Still sus that Hughie’s mom knows what V is.

Finally we got to see some of Simon Pegg’s comedic chops too. Him spinning around inside that guy had me laughing like nothing else.

Butcher taking that scientist captive? Honestly that doesn’t feel so much like a return to the dark side as just something his character would always be willing to do. Lest we forget he kidnapped Translucent, tortured him, pumped him for information, and would have killed him if Hughie didn’t get there first. I do feel like he’s relying less on other people which is a backslide from his character development but true to where his character was in the first season too.

Not a lot of sister sage the episode, glad to see she saw through firecracker’s fake inclusion attitude. I do feel like she’s growing closer and closer to dropping Homelander as an ally, something I suspected she would do from the minute they teamed up.

No Colin but I’m sure that’s gonna bite them in the ass.

What are the rules of Victoria’s headpopping? We saw her do it a little but there were many more opportunities. Does she need to charge up? Line of sight? Eye contact?

I agree that Victoria turned her daughter into a monster but only because she taught her not to value human lives and also because she turned her into some version of Parasyte: The Maxim.

Not a fan of Frenchie turning himself in. That’s not going to do anything, now they’re gonna have to break him out, and this show’s morality was never black and white enough that it could look at his actions and be like “you finally did the right thing”

Man when they all meet up with Hughie again he’s gonna have some stories to tell.

Side note: I am utterly amazed that now the secret of Compound V is out that no other country is sending like every spy in their arsenal to steal some. Considering how easily Hughie and the Boys can get it, it isn’t very difficult. Take one look at the nuclear arms race and tell me that every country in the world wouldn’t be quietly declaring all out war on Vought to get their hands on some.

[smile-files]

okay okay i just finished watching camp cretaceous and i gotta talk about ben. like as a character is he just so funny

ben starts out polite and shy and sweet and afraid of literally everything. like all the other campers have no idea why in god's name he's here (which is completely fair, as he doesn't seem to want to be here either) - but then he befriends an ankylosaurus, which he names bumpy blongy scimbly scromplo. and then he gets taken by a pterodactyl :)

i think one of the strangest things to me is how you have apocalypse shows like this and of the main cast only one will realistically react to almost being killed. like ben almost gets killed by a carnotaur after being separated from the group and the second he finds cover he just instantly starts crying and like. finally. the fact that i should consider that cathartic is ridiculous lmao

no but seriously it's so funny he's gone for a whole season i think and the second he comes back we get an episode about every new trauma he's unlocked. now he's paranoid and jaded and really disconnected from his friends (and people generally)... this boy fears death. this boy will poke death in the eyes. this boy's first best friend is a dinosaur. this boy will commit arson in self defense. this boy thinks everything threatens him and so will continuously commit arson unprompted. this boy has just screamed for the first time ever and is now startled by how loud he was. trauma catharsis boy! get beaten up by the narrative and then beat up the narrative in revenge! let's go!!

it's been a while so i don't remember how this was addressed right after he rejoined the other campers but anyway his friends are so shocked and so concerned and ben's like shut up i need to blow something up or i'm gonna have a panic attack. y'know eventually he eases back into the group and gets to be an absolute dork again but he's always trauma catharsis boy from here on out. even if he gets barely any screentime later on lol </3

um but yeah it's sad how in the later seasons (especially the last) we don't get much ben-centric stuff... like there was the thing about him not wanting to leave bumpy on the island but besides that it's mostly ben being a dork who knows way too much about explosives.

it's hilarious, ben is like... gay with no gaydar (in a general sense). i'm skipping ahead a bit but yeah when yaz comes out to him - not to say that cishet people can't understand or sympathize with queer experiences altogether but idk his response is so earnest and thought-out that it just seems to me that this boy is queer in some way himself (trans icon? trans icon). and then it's really funny because in the season before ben completely missed a social cue (autistic icon? autistic icon) and thought that yaz was into him when she was just trying to third wheel for someone else. like ben do you even know what flirting is? are you sure?

y'know actually ben is scared of everything for the whole series, it's just that now he chooses fight over flight. if you cover his eyes to play "guess who" he'll shriek, and immediately turn around and stab you. ben surprise party incident 5 dead 13 injured. that's really funny to me because it's taking the timid -> brave pipeline to the logical extreme: still terrified, but now with weapons lol

ben is so funny. my beautiful, disturbed, beautiful boy (to quote darius). my guy who starts a battle whenever he makes eye contact with someone. my scrawny kid with a giant dinosaur. my will byers kinnie. my boy who's better at combat than conversation. ben really carried camp cretaceous and you better admit it

[benperorsolo]

I know you don't wanna read TROS novelisation so feel free to ignore this but I wanted your opinion this scene: when Finn shoots Hux, it says Finn "didn't enjoy killing" but "could make an exception for Hux" and when he does shoot him in the leg he wanted to do "as much external damage as possible". I thought it was a bit weird to show one of the good characters wanting to hurt/kill someone but my sister thought it was completely fine and I was overthinking it. What do you think?

It’s not acceptable in Star Wars for a hero to enjoy killing and for this to never be interrogated by the narrative. You are supposed to offer compassion for your enemies and to attack in defense or last resort. One of the biggest failures of execution with Finn as a character is that dissonance between his place in the narrative and his behavior. It’s the same protagonist-centered morality that TROS treats Rey with, but it happened with all three movies (TLJ less so, but even then it wasn’t exactly interrogated). 

Finn is a Stormtrooper, a child soldier, and yet not only is his trauma never examined, and he never has any real issues integrating into society or working for a group he was raised to consider the enemy (just like Rey is magically well adjusted despite raising herself in a brutal desert free-for-all), but he’s instantly fine with killing Stormtroopers. He’s not neutral about it. He actively enjoys killing them. Remember when that Trooper flew into a cliff and blew up in TROS and Finn cheered? Jfc. It’s horrible. Horrible. It turns Finn into this ultimately unlikeable, selfish character. 

He never learns that there’s a reason to do anything that doesn’t directly benefit him-- Rose tries to teach him this in TLJ, and then JJ walked all of that back and Finn is back to yelling about Rey, cheering when his fellow brainwashed child soldiers are immolated and die, and mindlessly hating Ben while Rey is right there and could have said anything, or Finn himself could have asked himself how it was that Han and Leia’s kid ended up in the FO and oh maybe a lot of people in the FO don’t have a choice, maybe I should help them have a choice. But no, only the Stormtroopers who have the Force, who could magically pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, are worthy of not being killed. The others are open game. But unlike with Ben, where we know he’s the villain and we know that behavior is wrong and is part of what is making him the villain, Finn is the “good guy” and the behavior is never painted as wrong by the narrative. The narrative accepts it.

It’s nasty. Finn’s character had so much potential but this sort of petty, mean, unlikeable behavior like RC wrote in the novel is completely in line with the character JJ wrote and completely disgusting. It’s not Finn’s fault; he’s only doing what his writers are making him do. But the failures of his character and the way we’re supposed to see him as this nice empathetic good guy when none of his behavior ever indicates he’s actually like that towards anyone he doesn’t already like, is more indication of the failures of the ST and its vapidly empathy-less core.

[burgundy-and-navy]

once again talking about ben mitchell

One thing I'm really appreciating about ben's storyline is that at this point, it really couldn't be done with any other character besides ben mitchell. Yes it is an issue based story, but it so utterly character driven. Obviously I've written extensively about why, if the show wanted to address specfic issues like withdrawl of consent and sex as a trauma response/chemsex, it makes sense to use ben's character. Realistically eastenders could have used any character to explore things like chemsex, but it would have seemed forced. Then it would have been box ticking, but with ben's history it seems natural. We've seen his relationship with both sex and alcohol turn unhealthy when it's been used more as a coping mechanism, we know there are addiction issues in his family and a history of turning to substances for escapism, which ben references in his talk with phil. This is behaviour that ben was taught growing up so of course he would end up turning to drugs whe struggling so much. Instead of watching it thinking well I guess this is eastenders new talking point of the week, we are seeing a understandable character progression. It's like the show isn't just including these things because they want to include them, they are including them because this is how that character would react when going through something like this, if that makes sense.

But it's not just that, they are bringing in the entirety of ben's history into this. There's the fact that in that stunning scene with kathy ben links his feelings of powerlessness back to Paul's death, when he's high and talking to his parents about how he deserves if for being a bad person and heather's death (devastating). These are not just narrative beats that exist as part of an issue-based storyline, they are narrative beats made specific by referencing that character's history. The hospital scene is not just a father and son talking about rape, that is very much ben and phil mitchell talking and carrying the weight of the complex, tragic relationship. When ben tells phil he thought he would be ashamed of him that is not only representing feelings of shame that are unfortunately true to life for some people, its backed by that history. Likewise when phil tells ben that he's his son and he loves him, it references decades of ben feeling like he's not man enough to be phil's son (and when I tell you I sobbed when phil, who is always finding these surrogates sons because he couldn't understand ben and to look to closely at ben would just break his heart, looked his son in the eye and made sure that he knew that he was loved and that no matter what ben is and always will be his son. It was the only thing he could do, and in that moment it was all ben needed (but long-term please let that boy get some therapy)).

(I can't help but compare it with Stuart's stories and to me those seem a little more issue of the month. Firstly I think combining the cancer and depression is doing a disservice to both those things, because the show isn't really doing much with either. Really the postnatal depression is little more than hey men can get it to and it's bad, but hey stuart also has chemo to get to. It deserves more and the thing is when that and ben's stories were announced I was way more unsure how they were going to link ben's ptsd to this. I'll admit I was wrong, they did that beautifully, stuarts issues are just distracting from one another. And I know that stuart doesn't have the history ben has, we know his a fair bit of his backstory but we didn't see all the nuances of it, plus he is not a consistent character, he straight up changed (and as a ben fan I am a bit bitter about that fact that the stuart doesn't face the same backlash considering how much of a villain he was and it's not like he developed. Development involves a slow progress, things get better, things regress but there's always effort put in (you know like ben) stuart magically changed one year to the next and I like stuart well enough its just annoying how he is treated in comparison). But really stuarts postnatal depression could involve any character who became a father, timing wise it just had to be stuart. There just hasn't been the same amount of depth).

And it's not just the ben's story is character driven on ben's part, we are seeing both kathy and phil react in ways that are completely character driven. Again we are seeing the representation of an issue that does exist, the struggles that parents go through when something like this happens, but it made specific because everything that those characters do makes sense in the context of their respective histories, both as individuals and their histories with ben. Phil wants to go after lewis because well you would, I mean he hurt his kid, but also because that's what phil was taught. Likewise phil has to sit in that hospital room and reckon with his past parenting (that stella mention) and work to be better. Kathy is trying desperately to keep ben afloat, and is trying to be to ben what she would have needed, but there are moments when she just doesn't understand ben's behaviour. And I really love the fact that the show has taken the story in the direction of exploring how this little family unit copes with everything that is happening. And that's not to mention that if there's a story to do with masculinity, or something that challenges someone's like self-perception of masculinity, it was always going involve ben because that's the character's history, but that's a whole other post. Basically although this is absolutely harrowing to watch I think it has been so well written and carefully considered. You can't say well this is just eastenders tackling another issues of the week when every single moment is informed by what type character ben is.

[thebeautysurrounds]

THIS CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR NEVER HAVE I EVER S2 READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

This is quite long I had a lot to unpack.

Since watching the 2nd season of Never Have I Ever a few things have been bothering me about the way people are reacting to Devi, and the show overall but mostly Devi. First of all she’s what a sophomore in high school? and she’s doing this all while being the only brown girl (up until kinda the middle of S2) and still dealing with grief and having absolutely no idea who she is yet. To me outside of being an honor roll student she is not doing things FOR HER she is doing this to appease her mother. Who while she means well pushing Devi to succeed to certain extremes which if Devi shows the slightest behavior of fucking up her mother makes harsh comments instead of understanding Devi is a literal teenager and needs room for fucking up.

Is Devi hella unreasonable at times? YES does she often times act strictly on impulse without a second thought…YES. But as a girl who virtually has no one outside of her friends who also are staring to drift from her and get into their first relationships themselves and have their own activities she essentially is left to navigate the world and her teenage angst alone. While I will give Nalini credit for all the work and time she has put in to not only being a single mother and navigating her own grief but also being a working mother who is a doctor and quite possibly has her own struggles with being a brown women in that filed. My problem lies with her not being able to balance or even let go of a strong arm parenting style that mostly focuses on Devi’s fuck up more than her accomplishments and makes comments on how her fuck ups that haven’t even happened yet. I’m not sure Nalini even realizes Devi is at the very very top of her class because I truly believe (after S1) even though Nalini apologized to Devi Nalini has a ‘hoping for the best but expecting the worst’ attitude when it comes to Devi and that’s in the for front of her mind so much she doesn’t realize Devi goes above and beyond not only for herself but to make her mother proud of her all for her mother to just not acknowledge that.

Now with Devi’s characterization I get where some people are coming from on saying Devi shouldn’t have been “boy crazy” or that they “ruined her character development” but here’s my problem those critiques while valid and your allowed to have those opinions…It’s just not really realistic and let me tell you why like I stated Devi is what a sophomore in high school and she has made it a abundantly clear her parents forbid her to date cause it’s school and extra curriculars only. Which will lead to a good college which thus will turn into a good career. While that’s all well and good. I don’t think y’all realize the FOMO of being in high school and growing up with very strict parents, and wanting to have your first relationship. Wanting to be an actual teenager and not wanting to think about 3-4 years down the line which most teenagers don’t/can’t visualize cause it’s not the right now. Devi wants to have those experiences and there’s nothing wrong with that does she go about it the right way…not exactly but y’all act like YOU have never been a teenager and said and done awful things out of anger or just pure immature stupidity. For the boy crazy part Devi is literally having her first feelings and experiences with boys she has 0 clue what she is doing outside of probably books, tv, movies and what her friends assume they know (even though they mean well) the only person Devi would remotely trusts is gone, and she can’t ask her mother cause her mother would honestly probably shut her down and make her feel guilty for even wanting to start having her first experiences with boys. Y’all have such a warped view of not only real teenagers and high school aged kids but also fictional ones. Y’all are so use to shows having protagonist being awful or starting off kinda okay but then their character turns awful and remains that way. What some of you fail to realize is actual teenagers and “teenagers” in shows can/are VERY morally grey. 

Should Devi have been honest and possibly communicated to both Ben and Paxton that she has some sort of feelings for them both..possibly but Devi is a teenager do you think she is having a in depth analysis and talk with herself (outside of a pros and cons list) about what infatuation versus lust versus genuine connection versus romantic attraction looks like probably not. Let’s also analyze how she literally goes from being in her eyes forgettable to being noticed and even though it’s not talked about in the show explicitly she honestly probably struggles with self esteem/self image issues. To go from being a girl who to her no one cares about/notices to one who is getting the attention of two boys who are in Devi’s eyes attractive in their own right. She is so consumed with two guys ACTUALLY being interested in her that she fails to realize she is/and will hurt them both, Do I think Paxton is genuinely attracted to Devi…maybe. But I’m still on the fence about their relationship to me in the beginning I felt Paxton felt Devi is just another meaningless high school fling that he will forget about once he gets to college but to Devi here’s this guy who is “popular” very attractive and he pays attention to her is she looking at the semantics of the situation and how Paxton is more than likely just using her and is only engaging with Devi to get a passing grade and to basically give her the superficial experience of a “high school boyfriend” no she’s not she’s looking at it like here’s this guy who is attractive and he wants to be with someone like me. But do I also believe Devi in S1 was using Paxton and then fell for him DEFINITELY but I will give credit to Paxton for trying at a real relationship with Devi and I hope he will try to be more open and honest.

Do I think Ben likes Devi I honestly do, While the insensitive jokes (exchanged between both) should be discussed I think Ben over time started to see Devi as a girl who finally saw him not the rich, annoying, know it all. But in his view Devi and him are on equal playing fields because they are both overly driven smart individuals and when she said yes to going out with him it was probably the first time he felt like a girl saw the real him. While Ben too more than likely struggles with abandonment issues him dating Devi in a way made him feel like this was the first time he could actual be happy about something cause it was something he actually wanted and not something he just did to earn points in others books and impress people he genuinely got something on his own and that he was actually happy not a front he put on. To me Ben’s abandonment issues come out even more than in S1 when he tells Devi why he’s so hurt and it’s the night of the party when she runs after Paxton (who he sees has it all) and Devi doesn’t “choose him” Do I think Ben and Devi should date cause they share some form of the same trauma no. But again Devi is not use and doesn’t even know what to do with the attention of two people. Again is Devi looking at the semantics of her relationship with Ben…No. I don’t think Devi even realizes she’s quite literally hurting two people cause we could also discuss how Ben and Paxton probably have had other flings and relationships without a second thought while Devi having no relationship experiences and this is territory for her and she has no idea what she is doing or how to properly navigate this situation.

I’m almost done with this long ass rant I promise but it’s two more things I want to make light of/point out I don’t think anyone really gives Devi credit for still going to therapy, loosing a parent is unbearable especially loosing one as young as Devi did, especially when you feel the only parent that truly understood and supported you is gone. Devi doing things that are impulsive and unreasonable because she quite literally has no guidance her mother is only consumed with Devi not making the family “look bad” Devi’s grief is so heavy and she feels she’s going at it alone because her mother doesn’t take genuine time to talk to her. Now was Devi “stalking” her mother extremely inappropriate yes for sure but do Nalini and her need to communicate better for Devi to understand that her mother wasn’t dating sure even if Nalini was on a date their should have been communication there. Devi will probably never stop grieving her father hell he literally came to her in a dream to tell her she deserves better when it came to “dating” Paxton and Nalini will probably never stop grieving her husband but she deserves happiness too and I believe if Devi and Nalini were both honest with each other her slowly dating again wouldn’t have been a problem. Another point I wanna make connecting Devi, Paxton, and Ben is they all have this view that the grass is greener on the other side and that’s just not the case. Ben is jealous of Paxton cause he feels he has the “Perfect life” but in actuality Paxton is extremely flawed and honestly insecure his own family doesn’t believe in him and he knows people only like him because he is attractive, while Paxton looks at Ben like this, while annoying Ben is smart, rich, and no one ever questions Ben’s intelligence but in actuality Ben is very lonely and has spent most of his life alone or being raised by other people which has caused him to put on a huge front to people and often times overcompensate in his social life, and Devi looks at other girls like they have it all and have 0 struggles or problems (I.e her views on Anissa) but Devi fails to realize thy also struggle, are insecure, is struggling with mental illness, and don’t have themselves figured out, and Devi is looking at this man her mom is “dating” as if he’s taking something away but In actuality he is experiencing his own losses. All in all Never Have I Ever gets teenage angst and messy problematic morally grey teenagers right and the fact that y’all beg for more “flawed or problematic” characters and when you get them you don’t like that they are just that it’s odd to me it seems like y’all only want problematic characters if it’s how you see fit.

TL;DR: Y’all need to stop acting like y’all weren’t gross annoying and had fuck ups as teenagers y’all should really stop pretending like teenagers in real and some of us as teens didn’t have/engage in relationships that weren’t good but we learned from it while this show isn’t real it shows y’all will scream let people fuck up and let them grow but you don’t actually mean it. Devi is a teenager and requires room to grow she even admits she acts out and is impulsive but y’all act like she’s supposed to have the self awareness of a 60 year old.

[thecrimsondandelion]

pls can u just rant about 1990s eddie, everything and anything, he needs more love 🥺

Okay. Finally getting to this.

So, I L O V E Miniseries Edward Kaspbrak.

 This might be all over the place, and long, this will mostly be adult Eddie, and at the end I’ll talk a little about young Eddie. (I have only read half of the book ffr) also some of this is from notes I took while drunkenly rewatching the miniseries. So it might not be great, but you only asked for a rant <3 

Firstly, I don’t really like what It Chapter 2 did to Eddie, a risk analyst is a huge discredit to Eddie I think, because despite his traumas and abuse, in the book/miniseries Eddie owned his own limo business - which was VERY successful. Starting a business can be a huge risk, and that alone speaks volumes for his character. But looking into it, it shows he had intelligence, charisma, perseverance and bravery. You could put a lot of money into a business venture and have it completely flop, it’s a gutsy move. And Eddie Kaspbrak took a risk, and became damn successful. 

Which leads me to my next problem with Ch.2 Eddie. The clothes he wears. Eddie’s fashion in the miniseries is immaculate, he dresses fucking amazing. Like described in the books, gucci loafers wearing bitch. He owns a successful business and he LOOKS like it, he shows pride in what he does and his achievements in how he dresses, in designer SHIT. He knows what looks good, he’s stylish and fairly effeminate - which I think is really great representation for other men, especially for when the movie was released/when it was set. miniseries Eddie Kaspbrak said no to toxic masculinity, you can be well put together, stylish, not to conform to typical overly masculine traits, and still be successful, brave and no less of a man. Successful and the only male adult loser with s t y l e. I’m sure there were so many men who felt relieved to see a character like Eddie Kaspbrak in the media. 

Adult Ch.2 Eddie’s clothes were fugly which goes with his fugly stupid job. But something I didn’t really connect was in @letsgetreddie‘s post recently (which finally gave me the boost to finally get this ask done, thank you btw <3) was that adult ch.2 Eddie dressed how his mum dressed him as a child. Which, is just... another huge discredit to him as a character. I understand that’s probably what they were going for, but I still think it’s a huge discredit!!!! He was so much more than his mother’s abuse, and his fashion in the miniseries really amplified that to me. And as they also said in their post, that ain’t cute. 10 points to miniseries Eddie. 

One of my favourite moments is when Eddie goes to the pharmacy and sees Mr. Keene. Eddie thanks him for trying to tell him the truth about his fake medicine, Mr. Keene (who at a point seemed to be Pennywise) grabs him, Eddie’s terrified but he doesn’t react violently, doesn’t shout, he very kindly asks to be let go. He doesn’t want to inflict any harm, and as somebody who’s worked in a care home, I really appreciate the kindness he had at that moment. That he wouldn’t harm Mr. Keene despite evil clown man being in him. 

Eddie Kaspbrak in the miniseries, like I’ve seen in the book so far, at his core is very loving and kind. He’s not the “dude” “bro” snapping constantly at his friends type of guy. He loves the Losers, he thinks they’re hilarious, but he also stands up for himself, and can be a funny snarky shit (I hate it when you stutter my name Bill, you sound like Elmer Fudd - like damn child Eddie. Not an exact quote, but it was along those lines) 

Speaking of kid Eddie. There’s the trauma he goes through living with his mother, the placebo medicine, the Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. He’s very sheltered and afraid of a lot of stuff, he panics a lot. But it’s so beautiful how strong he is when he’s with the Losers. For example at some point, when the Losers give him a concerned look (I think it was as they were going into the sewers) he says “I’m with my friends, right?” He sounded so brave and assured in himself.

When they’re fighting It as kids, after Stan is captured by Pennywise, Beverly is fumbling to get the slingshot and silver, and Eddie steps forward with his inhaler, and gives out the famous line “This is battery acid, you slime.” despite his sheltered lifestyle from his mother, her saying she didn’t want him to be around the Losers anymore, despite the fears he has, he steps forward to save his friends without hesitation. Which is SO FUCKING BRAVE, they’re CHILDREN.

Not only that, but when the pact is made, he also agreed to come back with no hesitation. With the Losers he’s brave and FREE. 

I’ll just be adding on to the drunk notes I took while watching the miniseries last. I’m starting to lose concentration so this part won’t be structured at all, it’s just short ramblings. 

- He still lives with his mother and I hate that. -10/10

- Didn't cut his fortune cookie with a fork 1/10 (Great moment in the book. Loved it. Sad that it didn’t make the miniseries)

R E D D I E. Eddie lying on the floor with Richie, cuddled on the couch with Beverly and Richie. The Reddie vibes are way stronger in the miniseries, and their moments together are so tender and sweet. The scene in the library where they’re giggling and playing with each other and he holds up the thing that says silence????? *CHEFS KISS* 

He’s so damn SWEET in the miniseries, he looks like he’s having fun with the Losers, he looks free and at ease, like how it showed him as a kid. He looks safe with the Losers, and the whole thing with the Losers is that they stick together and feel safe with one another. 

Obviously thinks Ben's hot - I wrote this when I was drunkenly watching so I don’t remember the part in particular, but I believe myself. 

Eddie is giggling always, and I LOVE IT, I’m pretty sure he giggles a few times in the book, so where was it in the movies?? I love that they didn’t try to make him overly masculine, because from what I’ve read, that just isn’t Eddie. It doesn’t make him a weak character or person, he cries and that’s damn realistic, there’s an evil space clown that killed children. It’s just great that they made him so open, I love that. 

Immaculate hair - Wrote this note drunk, but we all know his hair is immaculate, no need to say any more. 

"I don't know what's going to happen when the sun comes up, but I do know that I appreciate what you've done for everyone" GIVES MIKE THE RESPECT AND RECOGNITION HE DESERVES. 

H a n d s o m e Dennis Christopher is so handsome, and Eddie is one of the more attractive members of the adult miniseries Losers Club (along with Mike and Bev)

Eddie: convinces Richie to stay with a look and a touch - another quick note I took, this is as Richie talks about the chance of leaving Derry. Honestly, they’re in love, and I love it. Like I said, the reddie vibes are way better in the miniseries. 

The “i believe in santa/tooth fairy/Easter bunny, but I don’t believe in you.” And then again, “this is battery acid, you slime” scene, this had me in tears when I first watched it. Again he puts himself in front of the Losers, to protect his best friends the others he LOOKS INTO THE DEADLIGHTS WITHOUT BEING CAUGHT IN THEM, and gets the other losers out of it. He’s gone through a lot of trauma, he still lived with his abuser in the miniseries, but he’s just so GOD DAMN BRAVE. 

The only Eddie to get out of the sewers/neibolt street. And that’s how it SHOULD BE. 

In conclusion. I love Miniseries Edward Kaspbrak, he’s a cutie, but he’s also brave as fuck. And I respect the fuck out of him. Isn’t a stupid risk analyst who  says dude and bro like the movie. But also isn’t fatphobic like in the book. 

I would trust Miniseries Eddie to watch my drink, he’s so sweet, and caring. And he’s the best adult Eddie.

[idiottweets]

Here's the questions and answers from the 3rd Ask the Ghosts Q&A. I'm on mobile so formatting isn't the best, I'm sorry.

0:40 how did you keep yourself occupied during lockdown?

Lolly painted (Ben says they are very good), baking, and eating of the baking. Katy finished writing her book, slept a lot, worried a lot, also a bit of painting, a bit of yoga. Ben says it was terrifying to suddenly teach his two boys. Larry says his son now thinks Larry's the one who stops him from going to see his friends.

3:50 for Lolly - would you be friends with Kitty irl?

She wouldn't mind if Kitty was haunting her, but if Kitty was a real person they probably wouldn't be friends because they don't have similar interests

5:30 since Kitty is always happy, do you get away with laughing when you're filming?

Lolly says she corpses more when she's a plague victim rather than when she's Kitty

6:40 for Katy - do you think Mary ever addresses the trauma of her witch trial?

No because then they wouldn't have the joke, but she opens up a bit more in series 2. Katy likes the mystery of it, and she thinks Mary wouldn't know how to unpack PTSD anyway. Lolly adds that it's nice that the trauma victim doesn't feel the need to unpack for other people. Larry says Mary doesn't feel the need to find out about her trauma, it's the other ghosts who are interested.

9:10 if you became a ghost, what food would you miss most? What would be your food club item?

Lolly replies chocolate, Larry's would be the same, Katy would miss Pasta, Ben says crisps

10:30 if you had to choose a ghost from the show to haunt your own houses, which one would it be?

Lolly: probably Mary

Katy: maybe the plague victims because if she had a cellar she just wouldn't go down there, or Kitty because it would be like having a child

12:50 would Kitty and Mary be friends?

Yes as ghosts, maybe when they're alive, Katy says they have an easy dynamic, Katy and Lolly get on really well

15:00 has Katy ever milked a cow or made a wicker basket?

No, neither, but recently she was on a farm in Yorkshire and she had a go at milking a replica teat out of plastic which felt realistic and had liquid in it that you could pump out and it would go back in through the cow's asshole

16:50 what would your ghosts favourite TV show be?

Lolly: Kitty would like Drag Race (though Lolly hasn't seen it) because she would love the costumes, make-up, and drama

Mary: she'd be open to anything but Katy was thinking the news, and things like Bake Off and anything to do with herbs, Larry would love to see Mary react to adverts

20:20 have either of you seen a ghost and do you believe in them?

Neither have seen one, Lolly sort of believes in them and sort of doesn't, she doesn't trust shows about them but if someone told her they had seen one she'd believe them, Katy says she's similar and she loves hearing about people's experiences especially if it's someone really rational, she really wants to believe in them, Larry replies that he's the same, Katy read a book recently about the subject but she can't remember who wrote it, to her it depends who's telling the story, Larry has a ghost story that he doesn't want to tell it because he's not rational or sane, but he was pulled over in a toilet in a Bristol hotel by an unseen figure, he was washing his hands and it felt like someone grabbed the handle of his rucksack and pulled him off his feet but he was the only person in the room, Katy says that she thinks that when someone dies a lot of people are just so used to seeing them around that they hallucinate them, Larry responds that his grandma used to see his granddad's underpants on the washing line which is silly and really sweet, Lolly says that she thinks it's because when you dream sometimes things that are really important are still there even if they aren't there irl, Larry knew someone who was a twin but the other twin didn't survive childbirth and she used to have dreams where she was a twin even though she didn't know at first, Katy read a novel in which that was a plot

25:50 as there is a large crossover between Ghosts and Stath Lets Flats, which character from Ghosts would be best for Stath and vise versa?

Lolly says Stath's dad would be good in Ghosts, Ben said he auditioned for Stath and it was the first time he met Tom Kingsley

27:50 if you could choose a building to be stuck in as a ghost, what building would it be?

Lolly: a shopping center or a cool music venue like the Royal Albert Hall

Katy: Stonehenge

Ben: a library, specifically the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford

Larry: he likes the energy of sets but everyone thought he said "sex" and started laughing, so he'd be on a set

31:20 if you could take anything from set home, what would it be?

Lolly says there's nice furniture or the dead rat that died in the corridor, Larry says the piano and he could actually have it but he said no, Katy would take the writing desk in the library, Ben would take the caterers home

32:40 if you could have the power of any ghost, which one would you choose?

Lolly says the smell of burning is good, Katy likes the moving objects or being able to speak, Larry would like to be able to be seen but only in a silly way, Ben wants to make places really cold

[smuthuttpodcast]

Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one.

Name/Handle/Alias

@secretreylo SecretReyloTrash

About how long would you say you’ve been rooting for Reylo?

When it comes to smut I tend to go two directions: "Shipping" it or a hypothetical "They'd Be Hot Together". I've been on that TBHT train since TFA, but not contributing and only casual browsing of smut because that's what TBHT is for. Spring of 2018 was when the mediation of how to realistically get these two together, the meta aspect of shipping, really started to appeal to me because of stories I was reading ("Lilies" by diasterisms was my first Soft Ben and I loved him) and I gave writing it a try with Perfumed in Obsession, a story that is 100% mediation of opposing viewpoints. I fell very far, very fast into it.

What did you think of the way Rise of Skywalker handled Rey and Kylo’s relationship?

Really gross. TLJ was a very sensitive text. It's not about physical force; it's about persuasion. Understandable viewpoints, where they both offer so much of themselves and it still doesn't work, and that's really heartbreaking and compelling. TROS felt like it had taken several steps back. Kylo was more of a bullying, negging presence when before he'd respected Rey's power and autonomy before, he just had hopes about what she'd do with it. now he's controlling. He withheld crucial information about her trauma, which is deeply wrong. He was a generic villain and Rey was physically fighting her way out. Their ending wasn't given space to breathe or feel like something was happening, and then he drops dead in her arms. A lot of simpering was done on the filmmakers part about what he deserved by Rey doesn't get anything she deserved. Their only interactions before the Exegol Disaster are only focused on drudging up pain and hostility, so there's no moment where they "see" each other that matches TLJ. The final battle there is some grasping at recognition, but it's really imbalanced towards Ben's redemption, Rey being rewarded for essentially waiting out his bad boy phase, and nothing to address her anger and grief and darkness. It tipped the scales way out of Rey's favor, and she's an important character!

Do you think the film understood why you, and other people, felt like Rey and Kylo had something together? Did it get their chemistry?

No, it really felt like the conversations between them were missing the point. Negging, withholding, leveraging. These were two flawed but honest people (at least with each other) who had a lot of circumstantial baggage that kept them apart. Ironically a lot of the "hero" and "villain" posturing gets stripped away and they are shown as their truest selves through the bond. Finn never sees this side of Rey. Snoke never saw this side of Ben. It's a relationship that mattered because it was so nuanced that way. TROS Rey being stalked by Kylo in his Supreme Leader Helmet seems antithetic to the sincerity of the relationship. It's telling that one of Rey's lines is a generic, cliche whisper of "No": it falls horribly flat because a conversation can't just be "Yes." "No." "Yes." "No." I constantly bring up TLJ in my answers because it's what solidified my love for this ship, but their conversations that Rain wrote were a compelling back-and-forth that filled in their arguments with detail that made the arguments appealing. What about the handling of Kylo’s redemption? Was it something you had to think through in your stories?Here's the thing. I wanted Bendemption to be painstaking, bittersweet and maybe not even completed in full by the ending (but explicitly in the works). Here's where the mythology of TROS gets really wonky, and why I think fans are so upset: If Ben was mentally infiltrated and groomed by the most powerful Sith Lord in the Galaxy for 9 movies, can we actually have a nuanced conversation about what he deserves? No. We all just want to wrap a shock blanket around him and let him have a nap, which, fun fact, is the actual ending of the Exegol Metlife Stadium Battle. My point here is that TROS took his accountability, his toxicity, and his choices and rendered them meaningless. It is way too extreme. What does he have to atone for if Palpatine ruined the lives of every Skywalker so thoroughly that he never stood a chance? I adore the self-sabotage of his character. I adore that he is his own antagonist. I adore that he faces consequences for his toxicity and that his love for someone leaves the ball in his court to Fix His Shit for the potential of his own goodness. But you take a situation and make it so tragic where he was so weaponized and powerless that I'm actually impressed he only killed Han. I liked when his actions actually had weight. I adore him for how his emotions compromise his happiness and how damaging it is that he doesn't deal with them because I see so many parts of myself. Step one or writing Redemption was always facing those emotions. I love writing Ben throwing himself at his father's, his mother's, and Rey's feet and just letting these repressed emotions out, and their capacity for forgiveness sheltering this change. It didn't need to be completed by TROS but it needed to be started. 

What did you think of where Rey landed at the end? There had been a lot of excitement around Star Wars having a female protagonist. Do you think she lived up to the promise of her character?

Rey's ending devastated me. It was a period of active mourning that went way beyond Ben's death for me. You know when you pick one phrase when you cry and just fixate on it? "She's alone" was mine. For days. That was all I asked for from this series. For Rey to find her home. Rey was stripped of so much, and most insulting was the fucking Skywalkers playing keep away with her own backstory until it was convenient for them made it seem like they were the actual villains. Why did she have to go in ignorant? Why did we retcon a girl coming from a shitty family and excelling despite that? Symbolically, now she as a character is most alike to Shmi, and that makes bile rise in my mouth. A single woman on Tatooine, dressed in her Virgin Whites, waiting for the Force to decide what to do with her? Smhi. It's Shmi. Here to immaculate concept some more important sacred Skywalkers. Because if she's a Skywalker, there's gotta be more, or what was the point? Thanks, I hate it.

There’s criticism of the movie that argues it’s akin to “fan fiction” and that is has too much fan service. As fans and fan-fiction writers, how do you react to that?

No; it's too corporate. Fanfiction has a love for the source that constitutes the FREE effort to write for it. I think the comparison to fan fiction labors under the assumption that fan fiction is lazy and bad: when the most popular stories that do incorporate high levels of drama earn them through painstakingly hard work. Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one. It had very real feelings and a happy ending that was earned in a trial by fire. TROS instead was pure studio interference. It was trying to please *everyone* instead of someone earnestly saying "this is what I love." There is no joy. Just cynicism and punishing people who were sincere. I can't validate its need for me to love it. It's desperate and sad. 

Are you still writing any Star Wars fanfic? Tell us about it! (Don't forget your Ao3 handle!)

Yep. I will be updating my newest story "The Witch and The Holocron" every Saturday. It is the closest I will get to a Miyazaki Movie. I'm still on my WIPs: Soldiers in Petticoats is due soon, Virtue Rewarded requires an extensive amount of time but it's in progress, I really want to pre-write my Romanov Imposter AU before posting but I'm excited for it. I'll be around. We all know how bad I am with WIPs but I'm still enjoying writing. We'll just pretend TROS never happened. 

Thank you Secretreylotrash! you can find their writing here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadOldWest/pseuds/SecretReyloTrash

[fabfrnkie]

@shadycreekbaby​ I’ve seen your reply under this post and I will answer here because replying there is a mess.

You wrote: “Gerard is also a misandrist because Luther is the only character with negative development with regards to his cruelty, Klaus can be very mean for meanness sake, Diego cares more about proving himself than helping people, Ben lacks empathy for his brother's traumas, and Five is actively brutal, haughty, egotistical, and uncaring on a personal level. Characters need to have flaws. The women characters also having flaws isn't sexist, but the opposite would be.”

I personally think that your analysis about the boys is way too harsh. I think the amount of flaws is perfectly equal and the representation is perfect.

Luther has a negative development and that's still good representation. Not everyone reacts in the same way. Everyone else realized who their father was pretty soon, they were not even teens yet but Luther stayed. At 30+ years old he finds out that everything he did, everything he sacrificed, was for a non-existent mission (well, maybe not since it was the moon that exploded). Anyway can you imagine devoting 20 years, almost dying, waking up with the body of a gorilla, to something useless? He realized in a few seconds to have wasted most of his life. While his cruelty can’t be excused, the representation of a man losing all his certainties and reacting with violence is something extremely realistic. 

About Klaus I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. Him getting into a fight at the bar after he was provoked? Where an asshole wanted him to leave just because he was looking at a picture? After he had just seen the love of his life die? Because Dave’s death literally happened a few hours before. 

Diego cares more about proving himself than helping people, this is completely correct but how is that misandrist? That’s literally 90% of the men I met in my life. That’s just reality. And they did a great job representing that. 

Ben lacks empathy for his brother's traumas, how about Ben’s trauma? He was born with monsters inside him, all his life was a trauma! He was neglected like all the other ones but he was also used by his family, he was forced to see himself killing people horribly. And we also don’t know what happened to him. But even besides all that, he helped Klaus getting over his addiction more than anybody else and he actually helped him when he was kidnapped.

Five is actively brutal, haughty, egotistical, and uncaring on a personal level, Five has been completely alone for years. He grew up completely alone, he was a child when he disappeared. He had nothing but himself (and dolores, that’s probably thanks to her that he didn’t go crazy). How can someone not become egoistical after spending more than 20 years alone? The only person he met gave him a job as an assassin. In 58 years Five learned how to fight, “to adapt”, to use his power, to kill people. He did not learn anything else because there was no one who cared about him or could teach him anything besides killing and fixing timelines! He is also obviously haughty because, again, he grew up by himself. How can someone change their behaviour without anyone to scold him, without anybody to talk to! We all realize our mistakes and wrong behaviours thanks to others! Five disappeared when he was a teenager, the most important years for our character development, his behaviour is extremely obvious and very much realistic. 

Each character has flaws, different reactions, different stories, and that’s what makes the series so good. It talks about super-”heroes” with weird as fuck powers but they are so real. That’s why the series had such success. That’s why the comic won one of the most prestigious awards.

[fadedtoblue]

My thoughts on The Punisher

Surprise, surprise -- I have (extremely scattershot) thoughts about The Punisher! 

The husband and I binged this over the past 3 days (2 episodes Thursday @ midnight, 5 episodes Friday night, and 6 episodes over Saturday) and given its unrelenting intensity I’m pretty sure there are a lot of details I’m not going to fully grasp until I watch this again, but overall impression -- super solid. I would still personally rank it under Daredevil (sorry, he’s always gonna be my number 1!!), but I think it jockeys for second position with Jessica Jones? This particular show did some things amazingly well that the others haven’t, I think largely due to the fact that it was a standalone series, separate from the Defenders, and didn’t need to mess around with rationalizing any superheroics or powers -- at its core, it’s an intense and violent 13-hour examination of Frank Castle, who incidentally exists in a world with superheroes. But anyway, let’s dive in -- it should go without saying that spoilers absolutely abound after the cut...

Let’s start with the good stuff:

Jon Bernthal as Frank. Listen, whether you loved or hated the show, it can’t be denied that Jon absolutely kills it as Frank. This show lives and dies on those fine as hell shoulders and he brings it in every stage of Frank we see on screen. I liked that they never shied away from all of the messy parts of him -- geez, when he’s holding a freaking knife to Zack’s neck...worst parental pep talk ever? Or when he’s genuinely encouraging Lewis to blow himself up. And the unflinching way he goes about his kills. But as you can imagine, it’s those moments when he loses his grip on his steely control, when he can’t rely on his rage to hold him together...those were my favorite ones. When he has those aching moments with Karen by the waterfront and in the elevator. When he realizes that Russo knew about the mission that would kill Maria and the kids. We know Frank does rage well but I’m glad we didn’t fully leave behind broken, grieving Frank either. 

Well-drawn side characters, especially those that had a direct relationship with Frank. As far as main character relationships go, Frank and Micro pretty much made it for me? They balanced each other so well and were such assholes...yet caring assholes lol. I don’t even think I could keep track of how many times I just burst out laughing during their scenes. Frank explicitly trying to fuck with him by visiting Sarah, Frank tying Micro naked to the chair (of course he would), Micro pushing Frank around in the chair (hee), any exchanges that had to do with food (lol the sandwich bit), the drunk shit-talking...I loved it all. Part of me hopes that David can just live a happy, quiet life with his family and not get pulled into this shit anymore but I’m sure that’s not happening...which makes me feel torn haha.

Frank and Karen were a highlight as well. It was definitely very measured amounts of interaction, but I felt like they didn’t waste a second of it. And the way it culminated was quite emotional, but earned. Like that amazing scene in the elevator with Karen, absolutely beat up and exhausted and nearly broken and the only thing keeping them standing in that moment is that unspoken thing between the two of them -- they want so much to lean into each other and just stop but they know they can’t. She knows he can’t. And her implicit support and encouragement for him to continue on was a really strong character beat. There’s no way they don’t see each other again in DDS3 as far as I’m concerned. 

After that, I did like what they did with his connections to Curtis and Billy, I definitely bought all of them as members of the same unit and connected by this unspoken code / brotherhood. I had issues with some of the background motivations which I’ll bring up later but...yeah, I was just like DAMN Frank actually has some really good friends! I’ll call out Billy briefly here, because shit, he was SO MESSED UP but I think they did a really good job evolving his position as Frank’s grieving brother in arms in the beginning of the series to someone who has gone crazy from losing everything he’s worked for and I’m already shivering a little to imagine the pain he’s going to lay at the feet of Frank Castle and characters like Dinah...ugh ugh ugh! But anyway, well done by Ben Barnes!

Considerate approach to examining grief, PTSD and veteran’s issues. Okay, I’m really not super knowledgeable about PTSD and veteran’s issues in general so I’m only speaking from my own limited opinion, but the way it was approached on this show felt...fresh? It was handled with respect -- mainly in showing how different people process and deal with that trauma differently...you could see that in Frank, Curtis, Billy, and Lewis -- but at the same time worked as an unflinching examination of how the system fails...so that part was really solid. At first I wasn’t entirely sure why we were spending so much time with Curtis and the support group and these slightly caricatured individuals but I think it paid off in the end. Lewis was a struggle for me at first but I ultimately think he was an extremely necessary story to tell because he does encapsulate all of the failures the show was trying to examine and I think Frank needed to confront someone like him over the course of this show. 

And the examination of grief. I’ll touch upon what they did with Sarah in this section because I think that’s basically the purpose she was meant to serve with Frank. I’m sure some people weren’t super thrilled with how much it got drawn out, but I don’t know, it really kind of worked for me? Obviously Frank makes first contact simply to freak Micro the fuck out (and it works), but at a certain point, it’s essentially forced into continued contact with Sarah and the kids and despite his best efforts, I think he starts to confront his own issues and demons regarding Maria and the kids through this connection with a woman who actually has a unique and powerful understanding of exactly what he’s going through. And these meetings are almost like therapy for him? I can’t imagine he’s ever had a safe space to process all of the ways he feels like he’s let his family down. And I think he is able to work through some of this by talking to Sarah, by connecting with the kids. This is really something Frank the character needed. As far as the romantic overtones? Undertones? I found it quite realistic actually. I liked that the show towed a grey area with it for a while, and if you think a single mother of two kids who is still intensely grieving the loss of her husband and her children’s father wouldn’t respond romantically to this man who keeps showing up and essentially fixing her life? I was super opposed to the idea of Frank kissing Sarah but I think the way they did it worked. They were very clear that it was a response borne out of her own struggles, and Frank makes it very clear to her and to Micro that this doesn’t mean anything to him. If you see how Sarah reacts to Micro in the last couple of episodes (damn it was a gutpunch) then you wouldn’t worry about what she thinks about Frank Castle! 

Episodic pacing + interesting storytelling devices. People usually gripe and grouse that Netflix shows have pacing issues but I felt like Punisher (even with my minor issues with plot and stuff) really kept me engaged through the entire run. None of the episodes felt like filler or stopped the story in its tracks (which has definitely happened on all of the other Marvel Netflix series). They also took some fun risks with storytelling structure, particularly in 1x05 (with the ambush on Gunnar’s property being mainly told via body cam) and 1x10 (with the time jumps / intercutting between various POV, both reliable and not) -- it was things like that which kept the show chugging along at an exciting pace.

The not so good?

Lackluster conspiracy plot / overall antagonist. So listen, I want to be clear that I liked Dinah Midani, so I hate that I’m talking about her in the context of the not so good stuff -- she injected a dynamic the show needed, which was a strong ass female character that doesn’t really need men for anything, and more specifically, doesn’t really need the “hero” of the show for anything either (except you know, a witness statement lol)! I loved the moments we had with her and Billy (even though, UGH BILLY!!! That washing her off in the tub scene gave me legit shivers and rage) and even the briefer moments we had between her and other characters, like Karen, her mom, even her boss Rafi. But she was also the driver of a conspiracy plot that to me, kind of missed the mark. I liked that they took those threads from DDS2 and tried to build them into a larger, more wide reaching governmental conspiracy in TPS1 but...I don’t know, it just never felt like it was realized enough, and the characters more prominent in that plot never felt more than just one-dimensional means to an end (also it didn’t feel realistic that it was basically just two people doing shit in Homeland Security on any case at given time). Her motivation worked but every time they showed her smarts and intelligence and dedication to her job, they would undercut it a bit by making her less than capable in the field, always making questionable decisions and getting her people killed. Overall, it was one of those, works on paper, doesn’t work in execution kind of storylines. 

And tying this conspiracy plot that never quite worked to the lack of a strong, overall antagonist -- I don’t think it’s something a regular show would have needed, but as a comic book adaptation (particularly a Marvel Netflix one), I was expecting a bit more. Rawlins was literally never a convincing antagonist -- his inclusion felt like a necessity on the conspiracy side, but he didn’t play off Frank in any convincing way. He was a blowhard and an asshole, not really a bad guy. That misogynist asshole Wolfe had more convincing presence to me in the small number of episodes he featured in than Rawlins tbh. As for Russo, he was obviously a much stronger foil to Frank (and a compelling secondary foil to Dinah as the female lead) but since the story was actively building him up to become the villain next season, he didn’t really tick the right antagonist boxes for me this time around either. I also didn’t like how his motivations felt really muddled a lot of the time, I liked that we kept switching back and forth from oh wait Billy is a good guy, oh no, Billy is an epic piece of shit, but I would have appreciated more clarity on why he made the choices he made and why that would justify such an epic betrayal of his brother.  

Heavyhanded approach to certain side issues. As well done as the grief and PTSD storylines were, most of the gun control related side plots just didn’t really work for me. I understood why they included it -- you can’t make a show like the Punisher in this current day and age without addressing the elephant in the room -- but it just felt really clunky. I guess at the very least they made the characters symbolizing both sides of the debate equally clunky? Hypocrite senator was about as annoying as NRA blowhard guy (though he certainly didn’t deserve to meet that end, RIP NRA blowhard guy). I guess I just feel torn because I have a very strong stance on this IRL but I almost feel as if I would have rather they not included it in this show if it wasn’t going to be handled with care. I’ve accepted that the Punisher and really any sort of violence driven show created for entertainment (which is...so much of our programming nowadays) can’t always be a grand statement regarding societal ills. Sometimes they just are what they are. But at least in the case of the Punisher, it didn’t feel like the violence was meant to be glorified or cheered on (I didn’t anyway) or viewed as some sort of heightened violence fantasy. It was brutal and unsettling. Anyway, all of this to say that I clearly don’t quite know about I feel about it since this was such a damn rambly paragraph lol. 

Storytelling issues + plot holes. So while I’ve said that the biggest positive the show had to offer was the lack of reliance on an expected superhero formula, I think this made me struggle a bit more than usual with being able to suspend my disbelief about certain goings-ons in-show...like, the moment Frank shaves off his hobo hipster beard, how does NO ONE RECOGNIZE THE DUDE FROM LAST YEAR’S TRIAL OF THE CENTURY?? (Though I legit enjoyed the hilariously awkward silence of the Lieberman family watching the TV and being like WTF) And how does Frank literally get shot / stabbed / tortured in every other episode but manage to bounce back in a day so he could do more Punishing. Even Matt couldn’t recover that quickly if he tried! Like I don’t know, I would have liked to see Frank wearing more body armor or protecting his head or SOMETHING. And as delightfully fanservice-y the Turk cameo was, no way Frank Castle wouldn’t end him without a second thought. Of course, these are such nitpicks but they did take me out of it every so often. 

So as you can see, for me there were more positives than negatives. Everything that I saw makes me extremely excited to see Frank’s Punisher in the Marvel Netflix universe again. I thought they told a very self contained story here and hit nearly all of the beats that you could want in this particular adaptation. I wouldn’t have expected them to leave it so open ended at the end but in retrospect it was a bold choice and I think one that is very considerate of this version of Frank Castle that we know. As someone who doesn’t have the emotional attachment to him via comics, I’m somewhat glad we didn’t just end this show with him as full on Punisher. I think there are more stories to explore before we get there. I also 100% expect him to reappear in DDS3 at this point and I’m super curious about where he goes in TPS2. I feel by that point, they’ll need to lean into the more comic book-y elements and it’ll be interesting to see how they handle that tonal shift. 

[benperorsolo]

I think part of what makes Ben Solo such a popular character is that he possesses a more realistic psychological makeup compared to most characters in the Star Wars universe. His behavior is generally very believable and lifelike (a large part of this is due to Adam Driver’s acting talent) and his motivations and fears are surprisingly grounded. It’s almost a little jarring how realistically he reacts to his trauma when compared to Rey or Finn. Rey’s trauma is addressed very well in TLJ though.

Yeah, exactly. Ben is the only character in the ST (and arguably all of the films) who has a “real world” reaction to trauma (and this is a component to why people both hate him --we are not fans of things that reflect back our flaws-- and demand such “realistic” punishment for him). Nobody else’s psychology is taken as seriously as Ben’s (except yes TLJ Rey is v good) and that’s why his treatment in TROS is extra jarring, because you created this portrait of a very realistic antihero and abuse victim and then shoved him into a cartoon ending. It doesn’t match and it doesn’t heal the wound.