#the second season killed me in the worst way possible

[seidooreiki]

--- SPOILER ALERT OF THE FIRST RESPONDERS SEASON 2 EPISODE 3 ---

I want to be diligent and put screencaps in this post but when I think about it again, I don't think I can so here we go.

Dojin's sudden death is such a big plot twist that I never think will happen-- now I'm kind of mad, I will prefer the cheesy and useless love triangle rather than his tragic death.

But at the same time, I'm kind of impressed.

I do think the script writer has planned it from the first season. It isn't the big plot twist just for the sake of it, but Dojin is destinied to die (for the sake of the plot). It left a big impact, it made me love and hate the script writer for doing it to me.

What you can say? I love angst. It hurts so good. It destroyed me in the worst way possible, I hate it but I love it.

I do love how the director directed this drama. The episode 3 is so... darn painful but very beautiful done, even though I'm reluctant to admit it.

Dojin's death is tragic, but at least, not stupid.

It is very Dojin like.

A noble death, kind of.

I cried my eyes off for the entire episode. It was unfolded in a neat way. In a memorable way.

And here, in the first season, I thought Doujin will get into the trope of nice guy second male lead who will get a heartbreak but find a new love in the second season. I thought for sure Sol will choose Detective Jin, because his trope as the loner and suicidal bad boy MC is too fatal. But, I never thought their love triangle will end in this way.

Not with how Dojin confessed his love in the 'afterlife'. Not with how Detective Jin, secretly, took away the ring from Dojin's finger and put it on Sol, because he just knows.

Not with how after Sol woke up from her comatose state, the first thing Detective Jin did was telling her about Dojin's death. Not with how Detective Jin accompanied her to Dojin's grave because she missed the funeral.

It is like how Dojin knows how Sol has a soft spot for Detective Jin, but Dojin never acted childish about it. Instead, he respects her feeling, and focusing at how he can win her heart without slandering Detective Jin. Detective Jin also knows how Dojin loves her and how Sol regards Dojin as an important person.

The triangle love turned tragic but wholesome, it was so far away from a cliche and toxic triangle love story in most kdrama.

Heck, in alternate story, I won't mind for them to be in a polyamory relationship because those three are wholesome together.

And beside the tragic love triangle.

I'm saddened of how Detective Jin missed his chance to have a good friendship with Dojin. Well, their friendship has improved a lot, but not enough, for me. Detective Jin is so broken and he functions solely on negative feelings, it was almost hard to see. The ones who noticed it the most are Sol and Dojin.

Sol is healing him with her kindness and love,

And Dojin is giving him a strange but understanding friendship, where Dojin can perfectly follow Detective Jin's crazy thought.

For someone as broken as Detective Jin, I can tell how Dojin's death broke something inside Detective Jin more. He didn't show it because he can't show it unless the case is solved. But Detective Jin was very shaken up.

And it was sad.

He is an inch away to have a better friendship with Dojin, in the first and second episodes, they become quite close.

The episode 3 is such a wild ride because it is shown how everyone suffered with Dojin's death. He is an amazing person and he left a big impact for so many people.

The coroner who has a crush to Dojin.

I cried so hard when she cried.

I felt her. She maintained her professionalism to the end and finally shed tears when no one watching. Similar with the comannder of the fire fighter.

The episode 2 is about how people are worrying about Sol, so Dojin's death flew under their radar, well, our radar. It was beautifully planned by the director and the script writer. I'm upset but impressed.

Still, now that Dojin isn't there with them, this drama won't ever be the same. Now instead of trio, it only become duo... and more romantic (but also very painful)? I don't know honestly.

And here I hope the drama will end with Detective Jin healing with Sol's help and Dojin become his best friend that he doesn't know he needed.

I don't think I can ever rewatch this drama again because then I will cry everytime I see Dojin on screen.

He is one of the best second male lead I have ever seen. His death broke my heart to pieces.

And even though it will be hard to watch this drama to the end, probably I will still will. Because I know Dojin will still appear in flash back or hallucination later. But only for this second season.

If this drama continues into more seasons like the rumors said, I don't think I can watch more of this. Especially if Dojin's role is replaced by someone else, I can't bear to see it.

This is such an underrated drama, but I think not everyone can stomach how the second male lead died before the season 2 reach the climax so yeah...

Maybe I will write a fanfic about this drama, about Dojin, later. But now, I need to heal because Dojin's death give me such a trauma now.

F*ck u with love, script writer

[hedgehog-moss]

Last Sunday in October, a story in five parts :)

i. The guy who owns the pasture next to mine took his cows back to their winter lodgings the other day, and told me I could let my llamas eat what was left of the grass if I wanted. That was sweet of him but his pasture's fence is cow-proof, not llama-proof, so I had to wait for a sunny day, so I could sit with a book nearby and keep an eye on the llamas Pampe. Today was the day!

Pampy looked happy about this unexpected change of scenery and started grazing peacefully, meanwhile Pampe started with exploring the whole pasture, including the patch of woods at the back, hoping to find a flaw in the fence.

(Note Poldine below, desperately running after her mum so she won't be left behind if Pampe does find an opportunity to escape)

ii. I found some impressive coulemelles in this new pasture (I don't know any mushroom names in English sorry.) I cut one to take to the pharmacy and ask if they're the good kind (here with my hand for scale)

They're also known as nez de chat, cat's nose mushrooms, in some regions...

I found some girolles nearby last year, but not this time. The llamas seemed to be on their best behaviour so I thought after lunch I'd go look for mushrooms farther away in the woods, down by the torrent, instead of watching them all day.

Poldine, watch your mother.

I asked Merricat if she was volunteering her services as a llama-sitter (it looked like it)

—but she suspected I was going home where the fire is, so she followed me. (I don't make a fire on sunny afternoons, though... she had to nap in my cardigan instead. Not as good, but a tolerated second-best option.)

iii. I took Pan with me after lunch so he wouldn't encourage Pampe in mischief, and he was uncharacteristically audacious in his frolicking! He doesn't like water and he's usually quite prudent when we're near the torrent, even scolding me if I climb on mossy rocks, but today he was jumping from one slippery rock to the other very boldly.

As I was taking this nice waterfall photo, I heard a very dramatic high-pitched squeal followed by a dramatic splashing sound, and when I turned around Pandolf was dragging himself out of the torrent, looking, as we say in french, honteux et confus.

I'm sorry that his bout of audacious frolicking had to end this way :( Back to frolicking gingerly for at least a couple of years... (His fur is magical though, he looks like a drowned rat at first but then shakes himself twice and is immediately back to a normal volume of floof. So his dignity doesn't suffer for long, at least.)

iv. I found no mushrooms but something even better!

I love chestnuts so much, I've been hoping to find chestnut trees for years but was starting to think they just don't grow at this altitude... But I suck at identifying trees so it's very possible I walked past them dozens of times and never recognised them when it wasn't chestnut season.

You really have to earn every chestnut, even with the crushing-under-your-boot method to squeeze them out you still have to extricate them from their burr going ow ow ow the whole time. The worst thing is when you kill your fingers opening a reticent burr and it resentfully spits out a bunch of sad deflated worthless chestnuts.

Still, I ended up going home with chestnuts in every single one of my pockets. When we got out of the woods and back on the road Pandolf and I ran into a woman we don't know (so, not a close neighbour) and we started talking about foraging and I wondered if I should tell her about the nearby chestnut spot. But those things are private. No one told me about the chestnut spot even after I made increasingly heavy casual hints about how much I love chestnuts. After a while though I started suspecting this lady knew about the spot and was on her way there. Or on her way back, through a different path. She looked shifty. So did I. It's very possible that we were both standing there in the middle of the road with our coat pockets crammed with chestnuts, making pointedly non-chestnut-related small talk.

v. I went home and started making chestnut-pumpkin soup while dodging constant coordinated chicken attacks. At first they act like they're napping on a conveniently-nearby chair, or looking the other way, and as soon as you stop distrusting their intentions, they pounce, often from two different directions.

Side plot: Pandolf spent this whole time desperately trying to catch a cat, to restore his self-confidence after falling in the torrent.

Morille went from strolling casually on top of the fence to lounging casually in the hazel tree above my head, making it look like she hadn't even noticed she was being chased, which was very frustrating for Pandolf. Nothing wounds a dog like going unnoticed.

I told Morille it would make him happy if she let him catch her, and she was like eh, fine, and elegantly jumped from the hazel tree to the top of the stone wall.

Pandolf immediately followed, poked her a bit brutally with his big nose, and then he didn't know what else to do with her once he caught her so he just wagged his tail like "Well played, cat!! It was nice chasing you" and left.

v. bis (or ter) I want to reassure Pirlouit fans (who might have noticed that he wasn't allowed to graze in the neighbour's pasture with the llamas) that he knows he's entitled to fair compensation as a donkey, and he stood behind the fence the whole time I was preparing my soup, patiently waiting for his pumpkin benefits. Which he did get.

I found some leftover chestnuts in my trouser pocket tonight, that I'd forgotten about, so I'm having stove-roasted chestnuts for dessert after the chestnut soup! Chestnuts were 90% of my dinner and were also the reason Pandolf got dinner. I ran out of dog kibble and I was thinking of giving him a hard-boiled egg and some rice tonight, and go buy kibble tomorrow, but on our way back this afternoon we stopped by our closest neighbour's house and I humbly offered a handful of chestnuts in exchange for one serving of kibble. The neighbour's dog didn't look enchanted with our offer but his human agreed. I usually trade with my chicken's eggs but this woman has hens so I'm glad chestnuts are also accepted as valid currency.

[helaintoloki]

hi can you do a ben hargreeves angst where klaus is still able to see him in season 3 and he sees how close y/n has gotten to ben sparrow you can do whatever you want with it

warnings: language, lots of angst

notes: okay i actually loved writing this you are a genius for coming up with this scenario

summary: Ben is forced to watch you fall for a completely different version of him

Ben once thought having to watch the woman you love live her life without knowing you looked on as a spirit incapable of communicating with her was the worst fate imaginable.

But he was wrong.

Watching the woman you love grow close to another version of you while you can do absolutely nothing to interfere was more torturous than any other possible outcome.

Ben absolutely loathed the Sparrow with his entire being. He couldn’t understand why you would even consider trying to get to know the man- he was a complete jerk, absolutely hostile, and not at all understanding or compassionate to the dilemma your team found yourselves in. Ben also thought his haircut was stupid, and the Sparrow’s demeanor gave the ghost a sense of second-hand embarrassment every time he talked.

And yet you were drawn to the man like a magnet, and how could you not be? He looked and sounded exactly like what you imagined your Ben would have if he had survived the accident and been able to grown into an adult alongside you. Despite his callousness and his blatant lack of trust in you, you were eager to learn more. Did he like the same things your Ben did? Did they share the same interests? Were their mannerisms the same? You desperately needed to know, and the Sparrow did not deny you this. Though he held a certain sense of disdain for your team, he wasn’t prideful enough to turn down the company of a pretty girl who seemed to follow him around like a lost puppy. He took advantage of your kindness and your vulnerability, and your Ben hated that he could do absolutely nothing to stop this.

You sit on a lone bench and watch as the Sparrow completes his workout for the day. He’s allowed you to tag along so long as you don’t get in the way, and you agreed. You’re completely mesmerized by his toned arms and grunts of effort that escape his lips as he lifts weights, and Ben can only roll his eyes.

“Seriously? This guy?” He asks you in exasperation, but of course, you don’t hear him at all. This doesn’t deter him from continuing his attempt to persuade you to stay away from the Sparrow. “You are way too good for an asshole like him. He’s just using you to feed his ego!”

“Do you like to read?” You ask the man as he sets down his weights and reaches for his towel to wipe off the sweat from his brow.

“Read?” He retorts haughtily, almost offended by the notion. “What am I, a nerd?”

Ben knows neither of you can see him, and yet he flips the man off anyway in response to his answer. Your shoulders visibly deflate at his words, and the ghost can only frown and attempt to place a comforting hand on your shoulder. It goes right through you, the coldness prompting you to shiver involuntarily, but it makes him feel better to know you can at least sense him in some way.

“My Ben liked reading, so I just thought maybe you would too,” you offer meekly, prompting the Sparrow to roll his eyes.

“Alright, new rule. You wanna hangout with me? Then don’t bring up ‘your’ Ben. Got it?”

“Right, sorry,” you murmur quietly while awkwardly fidgeting with the rings on your fingers. You hover over the one on your index, the purple gem gleaming in the light. Ben knows that ring because he gave you that ring, and that’s why it nearly kills him all over again when he watches you hurriedly remove it and hide it away in the pocket of your sweater.

“You shouldn’t have to apologize for being you,” he gently reprimands you with a sigh before focusing his harsh gaze on his lookalike. “And you should stop being a dick to quite possibly the nicest girl you’ll ever meet. You don’t deserve her, and I’ll never understand why the universe decided you should get to have her.”

Of course, his lecture is unheard and has no impact on the scene that unfolds before him. He watches in gut wrenching agony as the Sparrow seats himself beside you on the bench, his rough hand coming to rest gently upon your thigh and squeezing to get your attention. Your eyes almost seem to sparkle as you look up at him in search of validation for your efforts to get to know him. There’s a shift in the air that fills Ben with dread, and despite all his efforts to stop it he can do nothing to prevent your lips from meeting the man’s in a purposeful kiss.

Your heart flutters in your chest as the Sparrow pulls away and carefully tucks your hair behind your ear, his voice coming out in a soft whisper as he says, “You’re with me now. Forget about him.”

And to Ben’s absolute horror, you obediently offer a silent nod in agreement to his command.

[rowenablade]

Okay. I’m going to wait to do a second watch before I articulate most of my other feelings here, but I want to address one thing.

I’m seeing a lot of posts like, “I related to Izzy because I am also queer and older/disabled/depressed. By killing him off, the writers are saying that I deserve to die.”

Guys.

I’m not saying your feelings aren’t valid. I totally understand grieving a character that you relate to. But speaking as a writer, I just want to point out that trying to write with the shadow of “what is the absolute worst and most harmful way a reader can interpret this” will smother your ability to create. Twisting yourself in knots, trying to think up the worst-faith takes possible and scotch-guarding all your writing decisions against them is exhausting to the point of making you just not want to write anymore.

And we’ve seen the writers deliberately choose not to do this in Season 1. Remember all those terrible “Izzy is racist” takes that the writers and cast seemed completely blindsided by? That happened because the writers and directors and actors weren’t going over every scene with a fine tooth comb, ferreting out every shot or line of dialogue or micro expression that could possibly be interpreted as racist, and scrubbing it off. Because there comes a point where your story is what it needs to be, and you have to accept that some people will interpret it in ways you didn’t intend them to. And if you can’t accept that, you’ll never find the courage to put your work out there.

The point of diverse casts and writing teams isn’t to achieve a state of, “Nothing bad ever happens to a character from a marginalized demographic ever again.” It’s to achieve a status quo of these types of characters just being people in the world of the story. Not symbols, not representation boxes to tick, not tokens that you can point to so that you can say, “Here, we acknowledged this type of person exists, now where’s our woke points?”

OFMD is full of characters of color, queer characters, older characters, characters of differing body types. And in stories, things happen to characters. Some fall in love. Some make the same mistakes over and over. Some turn into birds. Some die.

Izzy’s character represents a lot of things, but he does not represent every older, disabled fan or fan who has struggled with suicide, any more than Jim represents all genderqueer fans, or Olu represents all black fans. That’s not how the writers were handling him. They were handling him like a character, because that’s what you have to do.

Again, I understand being sad. I am so, so fucking sad. But this idea of, “Any time something bad happens to a character I relate to means that the writer thinks I deserve these bad things to happen to me,” will poison everything you engage with eventually. Because stories are full of things happening to characters, and they won’t all be good things. And the more representation we get, the more often bad things will happen to characters we relate to.

But good things will happen too.

Queer couples get married. Disabled women run off with their favorite husbands. Middle-aged characters change careers. A multiracial polycule finds a home at sea. A fat man covered in tattoos stars in a drag show and all his friends cheer. All these things happened in the same show as Izzy’s death. This is what this world is.

Anyway. I know emotions are running high and I’ll probably get blocked or unfollowed by a few people for this. But I’m just trying to find my peace where I can, and if anyone else finds this useful, cheers.

[toriangeli]

Weirdly as an Armand stan, I feel like Armand should have been...worse.

Maybe worse/better isn't putting it right.

He should have been scarier.

The Armand I think of as the "real" Armand is the one we got in 2.05. So I know they know he's like that. It isn't exactly that he's evil, but when he hurts, when he's frightened, when he's cornered, he becomes something wild and vicious. Even when he's calm, there's a cold ruthlessness to him when dealing with people he doesn't care about.

So what the fuck is up with this wishy-washy betrayal?

The narrative as displayed on the show:

-Armand realizes he and Louis don't share values, so they need to break up. -The coven confronts Armand with the trial script and give him an ultimatum (disputed in fandom, never contradicted on the show). -Armand chooses loyalty to the coven and directs the play, bowing to their wishes. There are people who overestimate the role of a director and assume this means he engineered the entire thing, but see the problems in the next section below. -The tribunal is going to kill both Claudia and Louis. -The tribunal just kills Claudia. Lestat saves Louis. -Armand is demoted and punished (confirmed by Assad). -Armand, perhaps because of guilt, rescues Louis from the wall and urges him to leave Paris. -Armand makes the split-second decision to lie about saving Louis at the trial. This ends up saving his life. He lets Louis kill everyone in the coven (presumably because he's gotten a good look at how fickle they are toward him). -Louis chooses to continue their romance to spite Lestat, who keeps Armand's secret. -Daniel exposes the fact that Armand was free to choose Louis the entire time, that he was never in danger, and he chose the coven instead.

Things that have been said by Assad that contradict this version of events:

-Claudia "had to go" because she was in the way of what Armand wanted. Thing is, Armand wanted Louis, and he was going to let Louis die, so this makes no sense. -Armand "engineered" the "deaths" of Claudia and Louis both. No motive is presented to us. Moreover, there's genuinely nothing in the show that suggests this as opposed to Armand being strong-armed by a coven he lost control over. That version of events is never contradicted in the show.

And here's the thing: if I had my way, Armand would be the force behind it all, because having him fold to his own coven makes him the very opposite of scary. He'd never do it in the books. FFS, in the books, he slaughtered more than half of his last coven in a fit of madness (and I am convinced it's one of the things he blatantly lied about in 2.03). But to see what's actually presented on the show and to hear Rolin talk, they were deeply concerned with him remaining as empathetic as possible, so it looks to me like they did that by simply making him (/plays guitar) ANEMIC ROYALTYYYYY instead of a wild little gremlin. Instead of being empathetic, he's just pathetic. Instead of making the connection between Armand's history and his present behavior, the average viewer says, "That's just how he is. He lies about everything. Who knows why. He doesn't need a reason."

I can't help but feel this season should have ended with the average viewer saying "Oh he's crazy crazy." Which they kind of said of 2.05, but by the time 2.08 rolls around, they've sort of forgotten that side of him (which isn't a side, really, it's what lies beneath the mask).

And I mean, Armand in the books is definitely prone to bouts of self-pity. That's how people react when their trauma goes unvalidated. It's not playing the victim, either, he really does feel that way.

Maybe they're counting on next season to give context to both Lestat and Armand? It would make sense for Lestat to be the one to give real perspective on Armand, because Louis doesn't really know him and Armand himself is too guarded to be forthcoming. Lestat has seen Armand at his worst, but, at least in the books, he has a crippling amount of compassion for him as well.

I just...I need the gremlin. I need him to be terrifying, because only then can he turn around and be weird. He's endearing in DM because people looked at the "uncomprehending villain" of the last two books and saw him stuffing packs of cigarettes down the garbage disposal, laughing till he cried at movies, and quizzing Daniel about why war happens because he's never understood all that shit. That last was the moment I fell for him. He understands the vampiric instinct to kill, but humans don't have that. Humans just kill and maim each other anyway. The vampire who caused so much destruction asking, "What is the physical need to destroy?"

The innocence hidden beneath the cruelty and violence.

The writers know that innocence exists, but the innocence means very little if he isn't legitimately cruel and violent. If he doesn't make hard choices in the name of survival when the issue at hand isn't a matter of survival. If people don't suffer because he thinks suffering is what everyone does all the time anyway.

They know the cruelty exists, because they showed it in 2.05. They know exactly how to write an Armand who isn't pretending to be normal.

I just worry they've undermined what makes Armand so special as a character in their quest to keep him empathetic.

[kitskiis]

I think the saddest part about secret life Joel is just how futile all of his actions are in that season. On a surface level i mean stuff like all of his more careful gameplay being cancelled out by a singular failed tnt trap but on a deeper level i specifically mean how that character contrasts with last life Joel. Joel is undoubtedly at his lowest point in the life series in Last Life. He goes down to red in session 2 and spends the majority of the rest of the season alone (and when he does have allies it’s only bc of a shared bloodlust). The red bloodlust completely takes over and this festers for nearly *8 sessions*. Not only that but the one time he is given a chance to restart and go back to yellow his old alliance member goes to red, leaving him alone again, and he is made boogeyman the next session. This, overall, has lasting consequences (he actually wanted to be fairly friendly at the beginning of LL, a stark contrast to how bloodthirsty he was at the beginning of DL or Lim L), and gained him a reputation that has never fully gone away. This is especially bad bc most people agree that LL was the most violent season (despite the lower kill counts in comparison to LimL) and was generally the worst and most traumatizing experience in the games for most people involved. Compare this to secret life, which everyone agrees was definitely the happiest season for Joel (or at least the most normal. His life is a tragedy no matter the season.) he has allies that (for the most part rip mumbo) stick with him until the end, he is friendlier with a larger group of people, and when he initially has to deal with the loss of some of them he has people who can ground him (bc as much as I adore the bad boys, grian was not qualified to do that). He was so hopeful that season, and was generally in a much healthier place mentally. And yet, despite how much he seemed to have grown, those 2 seasons ended so similarly for him it was almost comical. Joel engaged in a fight at the end, watched his ally get killed by scott, and is then forced into a 2v1 against Scott and another player that results in Scott taking his final life and him finishing 5th overall. I was describing both of those seasons here. After everything he did to grow, after all the improvements he had made, everything ended *exactly the same*

Making this about the bad boys for a second (because I’m me) they kinda suffer similar fates. Grian learned in the most tragic way possible that his allies were doomed to fail as long as he was with them no matter what, that this was not something that he could control by simply avoiding killing them himself. Even when he actively tries to save them (“let Tim do it he needs the time” “Joel you can kill me!”) he’ll still lose them in the end. I think this realization is also what made him stop trying to fight it, which resulted in him killing or almost killing his allies from previous seasons immediately afterwards (stabbing scar in the back and that one scene where grian kinda ominously jumps with a sword like he was about to crit and kill bigb after finding out he had 50 seconds left on his timer). It’s sorta like a way of telling the universe “fine. You win”

Similarly Jimmy. Well. I don’t think I need to explain that one. Even when he was given hope that things could be different, that he could break the curse, he died only a few minutes later. I still hold on to the narrative that the watchers only allowed that to happen to give Jimmy false hope that things can be different only to rip the rug out from under him and drive home the point that he is in a losing battle because by the time of secret life Jimmy was one of the only few people who genuinely still believed he had a chance. Obviously this is not something that can fully be a reality until he goes out first next season so if he doesn’t that’s a little awkward but just work with me here

TLDR; here is reason number 672 on why I believe the bad boys are the most doomed motherfuckers on this server and their alliance is a modern tragedy

[trafficblr-confessions]

I don't like skyblings too much, however that doesn't mean I don't like family headcanons/dynamics

Actually im a sucker for family dynamics, me and my sister both are, and love projecting on silly cubitos a lot (funny cause in this specific duo our genders are swapped)

So I present to you: Snowblings propaganda

Its Scar and Pearl!

First of all they kinda look alike, to the point I've mixed them up in fanart before, which sounds dumb but I'm so fr like actually its happened and I find that funny.

Second, I just love their duo on DL, I lowkey wished they became chosen soulmates, I mean theyre kinda paralels? But on opposite senses?? My sister knew the proper term for this. Like- Pearl got abandoned by her soulmate, and they parted ways completely, resenting eachother. Meanwhile, Scar got cheated on, but even after the betrayal and all that he stayed with Grian and didn't yknow take actual revenge like Pearl did constantly to Scott..

Headcanon section:

Also I love that they seem like- So I think if they were actually related possibly before the series and all, maybe got separated and their memories erased by the watchers? But still met again and took eachother as found family, not knowing the truth. Also, likewise to my online sis and I, I feel like Scar is older in actual age but when you see them interact its like Pearl is the older one.

Also!! Wolf and cat duo, I think thats silly.

And I think possibly they could've hang out more even if we dont see it on camera, trust... like sitting on powdered snow at night as they talk (its mostly Pearl rambling/venting/plotting chaos and Scar being supportive, possibly also making sure she doesn't freeze to death)

Another plus! Scar was a wizard on LL while Pearl got called the witch of DL! And both got villanised a lot on the seasons they won... and they both spent their whole seasons mostly alone, with a small team up at the end...

Pearl was all alone in DL and Scar helped her and kept her company when he could, even if she was unhinged and probably insisted he got revenge aswell. Scar was all alone for most of SL and Pearl still offered him a family in the end... she wanted one of her mounders to win... and he was the last one left, he *was* an actual mounder even if just for one episode, cause she could've helped Gem win, also her best friend (who I see as found cousins, also cause of my relationship with an online cousin), but she wanted her mounders to win, and thats what Scar was, not only that, Scar was her brother, her family.

Have you also considered that Scar, Pearl and Bdubs could make the best found sibling trio ever?

I just think they're the best ever, comfort duo fr..

(A bit Pluto Scar propaganda too, shot out to my genius lil sis for the arguments) Pluto has 5 moons, Scar killed 6 ppl in the finale, but the last one was Pearl who IS the moon. Except to Scar she's more than just another moon, Pearl, who wanted him to win, who offered him a place to belong to, a family, when he had no one, even if it was short lived, Pearl who understood his loneliness, a past winner who very well understood what its like to be the villain of the server, his best friend, his ally, his family.. and the last person he saw before that so called victory.

Plus! Funny quote between my sister and I that sounds pretty DL Snowblings coded:

- "wishing for the best for you and worst for them /j" (sister/scar) - "you see? this is what siblings are for! we pray on other people's downfall… but for good reasons.." (me/pearl)

Thats all tumblr, thank you ^^

.

[flower-boi16]

Why Oops Is a DISASTER

So...Oops. I have ranted about this episode a few times before, and most of y'all would know that this along with Western Energy are my two least favorite episodes of the show. But those were just unstructured rants about the episode. I think it's time for me to give a full analysis on why this episode FAILS in every single way, from the plot to the characters to EVERYTHING. And here, I'm going to analyze why.

1. Miscellaneous Issues

First, let's start with some miscellaneous problems I have with the episode that can't be put into an individual section. First there's the recurring problem of tonal issues that season 2 has where serious scenes are interrupted by unfunny sex jokes as usual with this season.

Then there is the fact that Stolas...is completely fine in this episode, when in the last episode he was in the hospital and the show made a REALLY big deal out of it, but now he is just completely fine? What was the point of making such a big deal out of Stolas being injured and possibly DYING and having a massive cliffhanger when it's not even going to matter anyway?

It simply just shows how big cliffhangers in this show don't matter, Stolas and Blitz's conflict in Ozzie's? Gets ignored and then resolved with a text message. Stolas getting injured and possibly dying? Nope, he's fine the next time he makes an appearance. Why should I care about big cliffhangers in your show if they aren't going to matter anyway? What was the point of that cliff hanger in Western Energy if it was just going to be resolved two episodes later?

But now it's time to get into the REAL meat of this episode's issues and oh boy...there are so, so, SO many of them.

2. The Plot

So...the episode's plot...it's a mess. There is no other episode in this show with THIS many plot holes I can think of. I am just going to name each plot hole in this episode by the order that they appear in, K? K.

We might as well pick up where we left off, that being; HOW DID STOLAS GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL??? How was he SOMEHOW able to recover so quickly? Can blue bloods recover quicker than normal demons??? That would be a solid explanation if that was what the show gave us...but no! Also why is Stolas going to ASMODEUS of all people for advice? And why is Ozzie acting all friendly to Stolas now??? Did the writers just FORGET the last interaction they had was Ozzie MOCKING Stolas???

Then there's the fact that blitz just. Conveniently had a knife in his shoe even though we NEVER seen him use it before, which he could conveniently use to cut the ropes which he for some reason didn't use earlier??? Like you could say it's because Blitz wanted to fuck with Fizz but there's literally no reason for him to DO that! Why didn't he use the knife earlier???

Then there's the fact that NONE of the villains apparently heard all the chaos that was happening during Blitz's whole plan to kill all the minions. Why didn't they think to check up on what was going on?? Like??? Oh ya, then during Fizz's music number Blitz drops a METAL BLOWTORCH and it makes a loud clanking sound that none of the villains hear for some reason?? Why did not hear it? Why didn't they turn to see what that sound was???

Oh ya, and Blitz makes a hole into the building and after Fizz flings them out of there it crumbles??? For some reason??? How does putting one hole into a building suddenly make the whole thing COLLAPSE??? Then after Fizz and Blitz fling themselves out of the warehouse, which they are a LONG DISTANCE FROM, Striker just suddenly catches up to them that quickly?? HUH??? How was he able to catch up to them that quickly when they were VERY far from the warehouse (that CRUMBLED) in only like, 15 seconds??? Also why doesn't Striker have any injuries from being in a building that COLLAPSED??? Striker should not just have a few bruises, he should at least have a broken arm or something at best or be DEAD at worst.

So as you can probably tell, Oop's plot is a MESS. There are so many things that don't make sense about it that make the plot completely and utterly BROKEN. And no, don't tell me that these are just "nitpicks", because they aren't. A plot hole no matter how big or small is a plot hole, and when there are too many of them they begin to add up. So now that we've gone over the mess that is the plot of this episode, let's get into the next problem with oops...

3. The Pacing

This section is going to be shorter than the others but it's still an issue, pacing in this episode is...bad. It's WAY too damn fast and everything in the episode feels very rushed. I'll talk about this later but the resolution to Blitz and Fizz's friendship feels incredibly rushed due to the episode's bad pacing; not to mention the reveal just being 20 fucking seconds too. Nothing in this episode is allowed to breathe, everything happens so fast it feels like the episode was written on cocaine.

The pacing especially affects Blitz and Fizz's conflict in this episode but again I'll talk about that in a later section. Now, all of these issues would be enough to make this episode a 3-4/10 but...there are more problems, two more major issues that make me truly dislike this episode, and what makes this episode a 2/10 boarding on a 1.

4. The Cage Scene

Sigh....the stupid cage scene. Y'all know why I hate this scene, and I already talked about it in my Stolitz post so I'll just get to the point; this scene is basically the show trying to gaslight Blitz for not loving Stolas. We're supposed to believe that Stolas did all of these nice things for Blitz but like, not only is it TOLD to us rather than shown, it's also a retcon; none of what Blitz says about Stolas doing these nice things lines up with Stolas's behavior in Season 1, so it's a contradiction and a retcon.

And the show paints Blitz as in the wrong for not loving Stolas (again, talked about Blitz's demonization in my Stolitz post), because "Stolas genuinely loved Blitz and Blitz just hates him for being a prince!", even though that does not change the fact that it's a retcon AND that even if Stolas does care for Blitz and does some nice things for him, that DOES NOT automatically make his treatment of Blitz good. Stolas is still an abuser, yet the show once again coddles him for his mistakes and portrays him as an UwU soft boy who just loves Blitz, and like I already said in another post, anybody who dislikes Stolas or is upset by his actions is demonized by the narrative. I already went over this scene multiple times so I don't really need to go over it again, but this and a later issue I'm going to talk about is one of the main things that truly makes this episode a 2/10 and one of the biggest problems in it.

So now, let's get into my last issue with this mess of an episode...

5. Blitz and Fizz's Friendship

So Oops was advertised as an episode that would explore Blitz and Fizz's friendship and their trauma. This was one of the many interesting plotlines that season 1 left for season 2, so the writers surely couldn't fuck this up, right?.....right?

As you can probably guess, they did, and they did it SUPER badly. There was so much interesting potential for this storyline...that the episode didn't even touch on. That's my first issue with Blitz and Fizz's friendship here; the episode never really explores it that much. We don't get to learn what their childhood was like together nor do we ever even see any memories of them as best friends, none of that.

Their friendship feels so underexplored and underdeveloped that it makes the reveal of what happened have little impact. Speaking of that reveal; it's...so underwhelming and rushed. It's just a 20-second reveal of what happened that gets randomly dropped out of nowhere. This reveal has little impact because not only does it last for only 20 seconds, the lack of buildup to this reveal combined with the pacing and tonal issues make it so underwhelming.

There's no build-up here, it just comes out of nowhere and the audience is barely given much time to process it at all. It lacks any actual impact to it at all. Ya see what I mean when I say this episode's pacing issues harm it severely? Then there's the rushed forgiveness, where Fizz just forgives Blitz for the trauma he gave him and getting his limbs burnt off. He literally tells Ozzie to give Blitz the crystal cuz he "earned it", implying that he has forgiven him.

This just felt so rushed, it would have been more believable if Fizz hadn't forgiven Blitz but decided to give him a second chance if he really wanted to make amends with him so badly. It would have been more interesting and well-written than Fizz instantly forgiving him.

So ya, in conclusion; Fizz and Blitz's friendship was done very poorly in this episode. It's not only unexplored but the resolution to their conflict is rushed and underwhelming. I think I've gone on enough so I'll end this here.

6. Conclusion

So ya, that's why Oops sucks. It's easily tied with Western Energy as the two worst episodes of the show. They are both complete disasters on every single level, and I think I may talk about Western Energy one day. So ya...bye

[yurnu]

I'm really happy that you see Lucifer the way I do. The way I see it, Lucifer thought he knew better than anyone else, and despite the warnings, he still did what he wanted because he thought he was smarter than everyone else. All because he wanted to play God.

I guess I'm just tired of people saying, " 'uwu' poor baby. Heaven didn't deserve you!" And the book talking about the Fall of Lucifer and Lilith, where they are seen as the victims who did nothing wrong, I just sigh. Because I find it so hard to believe that they didn't do *anything* wrong. Like, really? You sure that's just not, I don't know, a watered-down version to make your parents look good Charlie?

And I do see Charlie as someone who is naive in the worst way. Like, if you want me to sympathize with you, how about NOT going to the Cannibals and asking them to help fight Heaven? You don't SEE anything wrong with that? At all? Or are you just looking through your rose-tinted glasses because you were sheltered?

How was Adam "controlling" when they had no concept of anything? They hadn't had the fruit of knowledge, so they had no concept of evil. How...how was Adam the bad guy in Eden? All I can see is Lilith bored with her lot in life, Adam completely happy and oblivious, and Lucifer who coveted someone else's wife. And he didn't just stop there. No. No. No. He took Eve too.

He doomed humanity to sin and evil, had Adam and Eve cursed and thrown into the wild with no way to know how to survive, and then had the gall to say, "Humanity is a mess. I gave them free will and look what they did with it." Like it wasn't your fault for giving it to them in the first place! No wonder Adam hates you! Because you cursed his family to know what pain feels like for the rest of their lives!

And they just WASTED Adam's potential but I've ranted enough.

That's what I dislike about the HH fandom, they always make Lucifer out to be a poor pathetic little man who wanted to do something good But no dude! Lucifer is the main reason for human decay and the main reason for Adam's suffering! But that's a fact that almost everyone tends to forget since it would make him look bad to your baby.

I feel that Charlie is quite hypocritical and stupidDoes she really want to take her sinners to heaven after having killed a large number of angels with the cannibals to devour their bodies and after having killed the first man? Is there something wrong with this chick's head or what?

Obviously that book at the beginning of the series was made by Lilith to make her and Lucifer look good in the eyes of her daughter, they are the good guys in the story, not the evil heaven where the innocents go after dying at the hands of the sinners she supposedly loves so much.

Adam was a bloody character with quite a bit of potential to exploit, from his tragic history, his love for Eve, his constant ups and downs in his life since the expulsion from Eden and possibly seeing the reason why he came to the conclusion why extermination was the answer to overpopulation. But it was obvious that it would either reveal Lucifer and Lilith's incompetence to lead their kingdom or show how wrong Charlie was about redemption.

But let's just say Viv doesn't want that, she wants her baby Charlie to be the one who shines in the show and the one who is right about everything.

I just hope that in the second season they shut my mouth and show a plot twist that will leave our asses twisted, but knowing who is running the show and already having watched HB and seeing how it turned into a cheap soap opera, I doubt that will happen.

[xf-cases-solved]

S2E2: The Host 😔

Case: In what is an episode I have purposefully avoided rewatching for at least a decade—because it is DISGUSTING—we find ourselves off the coast of New Jersey, bc of course this hellscape of an episode takes place in fucking New Jersey. A Russian kid on a ship gets pulled into a septic tank (ew) by A Creature, and his body is discovered in a sewer (ew) a few days later. Skinner gives this case to Mulder, and Mulder is pissed about it, for which I don't blame him for a second bc it is, quite literally, shit work. (This does, however, lead to a very funny confrontation where Mulder throws a tantrum at Skinner, only to then discover he's currently in a meeting. I did lol at that, I'll admit.) 

Anyway, Mulder reluctantly continues with the case, secretly recruiting Scully on the side to do some autopsy(!!) work and to pick her brain for science, even though the bosses said they aren't allowed to sit next to each other in class anymore. The episode just gets worse and worse and fucking worse from there, when Scully discovers a flukeworm (ew) in the dead kid's body. More evidence continues to compile, soon making it clear that what they're dealing with is something much larger and much grosser than they could have ever anticipated. 

People keep walking around and getting covered in sewer water, making me want to scrub myself so clean all the skin comes off my body; a man coughs up a worm and it is Horrible; Deep Throat is gone, but it looks like he might have a successor (!!!); Mulder and Scully have a friend in the FBI, I wonder who it could be 🤔 (hint: he's bald); and Mulder briefly considers quitting, but somehow THIS fucking episode is the one that convinces him to stay. (Like, I get it, learning he has an ally in Skinner is all well and good or whatever, I GET IT, okay? But look. If my boss was claiming to be my ally and then forced me to chase after a giant man-eating sewer worm—requiring me to BE in the literal sewer in the process btw—I would quietly set my badge and gun down on my boss's desk, walk out the building, and get on the next flight to New Zealand. Fuuuuuuck that, and fuuuuuuck this episode.)

Does someone die in the cold open: Yes, and it is the worst way any person could possibly die.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: He no longer has anyone to present slideshows to. 😔

Does the evidence survive the investigation: If it did, they should fucking burn it.

Whodunit: ☹️ worm man ☹️

Convictions: Chris Carter, for the crime of writing this and then making it exist in the world where I had to watch it with my eyeballs and process its contents with my brain.

Did they solve it: Yes, I suppose they did, in the sense that they figured out what killed that guy, and had a semi-reasonable explanation for how the horrible monster worm was able to come to be. Whether or not the horrible monster worm is still out there being horrid and monstrous? Well, that part remains an X-File.

[how do i determine if a case is solved? check the scale here: x]

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: Bleach. Pour it in your eyes and also over your whole entire body and forget any of this ever happened.

Oh, and also sponsored by this funny text I accidentally sent my sister:

***

General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 13 (first solve of the season. unfortunate that it had to be this)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, It's Me": 6 (told you it starts to go up rly fast)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 6

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 8 

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 8

Total Number of Sexually Charged, Uncomfortably Intimate, and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 13 (nothing overt, but they did have a nice conversation together, and mulder said something to the effect of being able to work with scully was the only reason he could think to stay at the fbi at this point)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 4 (and there was a worm in the body ☹️)

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 2

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 16 (i was too grossed out watching this to properly appreciate it, but X has entered the chat!!!!! my favorite informant!!! i will get into more detail as to why as we make our way through the season, but eep!) 

Total Number of Times People Making Out in a Car Are Hurt or Killed: 2

Total Number of Times Someone Correctly Guesses a Password: 3 

Total Number of Nosebleeds: 4

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 3 (you know what? i'm upping this stat. why did he go to the sewer in a suit???)

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 3 

Total Number of Times Someone Says "I Want to Believe": 3

Total Number of Times Someone Says "The Truth is Out There": 2

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 8

Total Number of Maggie Scully Sightings: 1

Total Number of Lone Gunmen Sightings: 1

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: 0 (but i can hear his slow approach...)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 9½ (of COURSE it's new jersey) 

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 5 (unfortunately i paid attention to the whole thing ☹️)

[yanderes-galore]

Hello Phanter, I hope you're doing well! 🙌

Would you mind writing a few headcanons for a Platonic!Yandere Marcoh and Pav with a rather weak Reader?

May you have a great holiday season!!<3

Sure! I made the separate as idk if you meant sharing or not. They're probably incompatible anyways now that I think about it.

Yandere! Platonic! Marcoh + Pavel with Weak! Darling

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Violence, Overprotective behavior, Murder, Blood mention, Isolation, Fear of death, Forced companionship.

Marcoh

Well, Marcoh stuck around Olivia because she was in a wheelchair.

If you were weak in battle then he'd certainly feel an urge to protect you.

Despite his reserved nature I feel Marcoh would be willing to protect you.

He's protected Olivia and Tanaka during the festival, he'd do the same with you.

Although, as this is yandere, he no doubt protects you more intensely.

You naturally end up gravitating towards Marcoh as he seems like the strongest fighter on the train.

Marcoh feels obligated to protect you because you admit you're a terrible fighter.

People like you wouldn't last long in a game of survival… so you need some help!

Marcoh sees you as either a sibling or friend.

He starts off really reserved but when you recruit him he quickly ends up becoming your bodyguard.

Marcoh towers over you due to his stature and it's like he has an intimidating aura.

Even though he hates his violent past and doesn't want to fight unless he has to….

Marcoh knows in a place like this you have to fight to survive.

Whenever you encounter corrupted townsfolk or creatures, Marcoh is quick to intervene.

Marcoh is strong, you can notice it in his hits.

Although it seems like he's trying harder for you as you can't hit as hard, even with your weapon (unless you have a firearm).

Marcoh mostly acts as a bodyguard, although there's times he breaks his stoic and reclusive behavior to care for you.

Marcoh is socially awkward so speaking is sometimes a struggle, yet he tries to get over it when speaking to you.

Marcoh is kind and friendly towards you.

He often asks how you're taking things and comforts you when you're scared.

If you're injured he tries his best to heal you, although he may also try to find help (Like from Daan).

With a weak darling he'd be extremely protective.

He rarely leaves you alone and is determined to have you both survive the horrors of this city.

Marcoh may also try to teach you basic self-defense due to the danger.

He'll try to be gentle as you're weaker than him.

In fact, Marcoh treats you like you may break any moment.

That's why he keeps staining his hands with more red for you.

As he grows attached and this twisted game continues, Marcoh finds himself wanting to treat you like a doll who may break.

Why should you go out there at all?

Maybe you should just stay back on the train… with him…

That way you two can be safe… after all… what's the worst that can happen?

“You'll be the safest here with me watching you… please don't fight me on this.”

Pavel Yudin

Pavel is a man with a trigger finger

His reason for coming to Prehevil is due to his urge for revenge.

He wants The Kaiser dead for what happened to his home.

As a result, Pavel is often violent and willing to get rid of anyone in his way.

If he had felt something towards you, a weak soul sent to slaughter, he'd be ruthless.

Pavel isn't known for being caring.

He's sly and mischievous.

However, maybe he has a change of heart when you treat his wounds after encountering The Kaiser.

At first he brushes you off.

You're so weak yet you still risked your life to drag him back here to the train and treat him?

How idiotic…

….

On second thought… Maybe he can have you tag along.

You won't last long out here on your own.

You'll need a companion on your journey.

While Marcoh has some hesitance to kill, Pavel straight up doesn't.

If something threatens you he straight up shoots them in the face.

Contestant, monster, Kaiser… doesn't matter to him.

You've managed to worm your way into his mind and heart, so he'll protect you.

He sees you as some sort of comrade, one who gave him kindness.

Such a thing is a weakness… but to him, he sees it as a useful weakness.

He isn't very empathetic so he's more just like a cold bodyguard.

He doesn't mind the blood staining his clothes as he gets rid of foes.

Even covered in the stuff he still checks on you.

Pavel often comes to you for treatment, yet he'll treat you too.

He prefers just having to look after you.

He shows distaste in some of the other contestants around you.

You wonder just how long it'll take before he just decides to kill the others.

When it comes to you… he might actually do it.

Especially in a festival such as this.

You can just see it in his eyes…

You aren't sure if you're ready for when that time comes, either.

“Anyone touches you and they're dead, stay behind me. Don't cause me any problems.”

[familyagrestefanblog]

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!!!

Adrien's amoks!!! Oh my gosh, she didnt notice the wedding rings!

Marinette almost killed Adrien! The entire time their conversation went down Marinette didnt realize that she was holding Adrien at gun point! That changes the entire nature of the situation! Dont tell me that it doesn't, it absolutely does!

Oh gosh this was so much worse that I thought! I need to further look into this. I was already of the opinion that believing that Gabriel gave Marinette his BLESSING after she basically told him in nice words that she will for the greater good let Adrien, as a then orphan, pay for all of his family's sins and mistakes on a disastrous globally scale is absolute insanity or blatant denial, but THIS???

look closer:

You can see Adrien's rings, oh my god...

Gabriel is talking about the day Adrien was born and how happy he made Emilie and him - that he was there little miracle - and Marinette is here not realizing that Gabriel knows exactly that she's ONE word away from making Adrien met his death in a mere second! Even Gabriel and Nathalie still had longer life-spans than the few moments Adrien was at the risk of having left if Gabriel made a wrong move or said the wrong thing!

No wonder Gabriel behaved as well as he did! And no wonder that all of this so quickly became entirely about Adrien while Gabriel kept catching glances at her hand resting on his:

"And Adrien will be miserable"

How have we gotten so far by now that I'm agreeing with Gabriel's faces here?? Adrien would be DEAD! She's even saying that her powers cant remedy any of this, how is this real?

Bug Noire is currently the threat towards Adrien's entire existence. The episode almost had Marinette kill Adrien/ Chat Noir with his own Miraculous! With PLAGG! Gabriel had to end up playing along to de-escalate the threat that SHE posed to Adrien!

I'm stressed right now!

Girl, take that hand away!

Thank you...

Oh gosh, this was so much worse than I though. Marinette is absolutely screwed and she doesn't even know why! Don't think for a second that this didn't had consequences via Gabriel's wish! Gabriel's love for his son very much exists and always has and it's by far the worst thing in Adrien's entire life!

I don't care if you truly think the scale of the wish is nothing but on the smallest dimension of 1:1 just because that's the damn berry explanation Gimmi gave for an easy understanding while obviously being characterized to be annoyed with humanity for how they treat them and how pathetically trivial the things are for Gimmi the humans wished for in the past, and the ending didnt immediately present you with the grand answer of how every chain reaction worked.

It's a reality changing wish after 5 seasons of built-up from the one damn person the show explained to you in ever way possible that it would be an world ending catastrophe if he got his wish!

If there is one bastard who didn't use Gimmi for something small and noble its the fucking MAIN VILLAIN before he dies and the hero almost killed their child who is the hero's love interest!

Come ON people!

[juneisafantasyaddict]

The writers of the SaB show seem to be pulling the exact same shit that lb did in the books. because there’s no way they think ignoring everything the grisha have been forced to endure, pretending that the darkling is the beginning and end of their issues and ravka’s, making sure alina never understands what she’s actually fighting for, etc is going to do anything except make me root for the darkling even more.

The entire second season gives me flashbacks to that insane trilogy because somehow they managed to be even worse than the books. they have alina telling the darkling that he doesn’t understand sacrifice?? really??? a man who has spent centuries of his life fighting for the betterment of his people doesn’t understand sacrifice?? the person who literally made protecting grisha his life goal doesn’t understand sacrifice??? does alina realize that the only reason she wasn’t killed the moment she was discovered was because of him?? because of the work he has done??

They had time for baghra to tell stories about her crazy family and how she killed her sister, but there was no time for her to say “this is what life was like before my son decided he was going to make it better for our kind?” if anything, they just pissed me off more because how the fuck is it possible that they are pretending the biggest issue they have is the darkling?? not the monarchy that has exploited grisha and ravka, not the fjerdans who hunt and kill grisha, not shu han who experiments on them??

Sigh, I can’t even write out my thoughts coherently because I’m so irritated by pretty much everything that happened this season. I’m irritated that instead of telling a complex story, we got this dumbed down garbage that tells us nothing, accomplishes nothing beyond “guy in black is bad.” the narrative condemns him for using merzost because he was so desperate to save his people, he tried forbidden magic, but 20 seconds later the hero is using that same forbidden power to bring her boyfriend back to life??? With zero repercussions?? I want to scream!!

If the narrative is so sure they are right, if they are so sure the darkling is wrong about everything, then why are they so afraid to expose the hero to the suffering of her people?? Let her see what they have to deal with, let her truly understand then. She has been a grisha for less than a year, and somehow she knows what’s best for them?? She doesn’t even know them. The show writers literally spent this season making her chase Mal around. Look what happened when they were going after the seawhip, two people died because she didn’t want to kill it, but they moment it went after Mal, suddenly killing it was ok. Her side of the war got attacked and instead of checking to make sure everyone was ok, including her friend’s brother who was literally about to lose his arm, she was screaming about Mal. You want to tell me about sacrifice?? She only cared about one person, and he was perfectly fine at the end. What does she know about sacrifice?? Why oh why is this fucking story just so determined to make her make all the worst possible decisions??

Incase you haven’t noticed, I haven’t talked about the crows at all, because I hate their presence in this story. They are a distraction!!! The grisha are fighting for their right to exist, Ravka is in the middle of a civil war, I do not have the time to follow the shenanigans of a group of criminals from a different country. I still don’t understand their purpose in this story, except comic relief?? 🤦🏽‍♀️

I love Alina, I really do, but jfc you cannot girl boss your way out of real solutions. They have her basically serving the monarchy and the whole time I kept thinking, if I were grisha, I wouldn’t follow her. She’s the leader of the second army but she’s wearing a first army uniform, she’s more interested in protecting the Lanstov throne than she is in protecting her people. She’s so blinded by everyone saying “the darkling is bad, the fold needs to go” she’s not stopping to say “what happens when the fold is gone?” “What happens after the war?” Because surely, she isn’t naive enough to think the people who started killing grisha as soon as they thought the darkling was gone are going to live peacefully with them now?? It took 2 seconds after the darkling died for Fjerda to send an assassin on jurda parem into ravka. Now that there’s no fold to stop them, what will stop Fjerda or Shu Han from sending an army?? Ignoring everything else the crows did, Kaz was right when he said “when they stop looking at her with gratitude, they’ll start to wonder if she hasn’t overstayed her welcome.” Which is basically what Aleksander kept saying btw, they are not going to love you for long, they are going to hate you eventually because they are afraid of what they don’t understand.

I don’t even know what the point of this was, but yeah, I guess it was a rant about how Fucking ridiculous season 2 of shadow and bone was.

[tapwater118]

The Post-Split Rant, Part 2

a.k.a.: Grown Adult somehow whines about Baby Cartoon for even longer

Part 1

BFB Post-Split is my least favorite season, so I’m gonna keep whinging on about it. As a reminder to all who bother to read this, this is my opinion. It is fine if you disagree with me about something, and you probably will. This is a good thing! Disagreement invites discussion, as long as all involved are willing to discuss.

Ok let’s just get right into it.

BFB 22

THE LEAFY PLUSH IS NOW AVAILABLE!!!!! I don’t have really anything to say about the ad intro other than it’s become a vocal stim for me. Moving on.

erm taco got out and she was my favortie character so this js the wrost epistioe

Ok, but seriously.

Overall, this is a pretty fun episode! “Court case” doesn’t really sound like it would make for that good of a challenge, but they make it work! A lot of funny moments all around. Jet-flying class is a top tier bit.

That being said, I have two VERY BIG ISSUES with this episode that keep it out of my favorites list. The second one I want to save for later (after BFB 24), so let’s talk about that first one.

This episode, and the resulting elimination segment in the following episode, is the biggest middle finger to Bubble Post-Split ever pulls. She is killed off very early into the challenge, and is not recovered until the next episode. I believe this is directly responsible for her elimination. Leafy gets her moment with Firey (more on that later), Lollipop and Gelatin form their Newbie Alliance, and Teardrop has some cute moments with the typewriter. Every Have Cotter gets to do something intriguing or endearing this episode, except for Bubble. She is, quite literally, written out of the show. It’s not even like she did nothing because she’s a boring character; Bubble is a very interesting character! She was just killed off. (Honestly reminds me of how in season 1 they were pretty obviously trying to get people to vote Ice Cube out near the end, only this time they didn’t have to resort to a contestant vote to do so.)

Like I said, we’ll get to that second issue in a bit.

BFB 23

One last one-two combo on Bubble for really no reason or payoff here. Pretty much nobody remembers she even died last episode, and her elimination is by far one of the most anticlimactic in the entire series. No drum roll or anything, and she barely even gets to say bye. Spongy, the character everyone always seems to point to when people talk about characters being mistreated by the writers (rightfully so imo), had a more impactful elimination.

This episode is just bland. Challenge-wise it’s the exact opposite of BFB 22; the premise for the challenge is really interesting (A jailbreak! That’s exciting!), but they execute it in probably the most boring way possible. One team spends the whole time jumping on boxing gloves, and the other basically has a repeat of BFB 21. The Flower and Purple Face stinger is the best part of the episode.

Just wanted to mention Flower here because I’ll probably forget to do this later; she’s actually written pretty well, by Post-Split standards. I’ve seen people say she wasn’t done well by Post-Split, but I honestly don’t really see it. Post continues her character quite cleanly from Pre-Split; she wants to make friends and make amends for her past behavior, while also still being a bit rude and off-putting. Don’t really see where the issue is here. (As for why she’s like this versus her BFDI/A self, we’ll probably have to wait for IDFB to pick back up.)

BFB 24

Unless something really dumb happens in BFB 28-30 that I’m forgetting (haven’t got there on my rewatch yet), this is probably the worst episode in all of Post-Split, and maybe even the whole series. I know this is the worst episode because it was the only one during my rewatch where I checked how much time was left, saw I still had half the episode to go, and audibly groaned. Nothing happens the entire challenge except for people shitting around and talking, and the overall payoff for most of the contestants not doing the challenges is like one and a half kinda funny jokes. We barely get to see any of them getting the supplies for their parties, or setting them up, or even anything related to the parties until it comes time to judge. The intro/Cake at Stake are so much more engaging than the actual challenge portion. The best part is the Flower and Leafy team-up and even then barely anything happens. Definitely up there with the likes of BFDI 16, BFDIA 1, and BFB 5 for the “real stinker challenge segment” award.

Purple Face becomes a mainstay here, so I guess I’ll comment on him. He’s whatever. He has some good bits, but overall feels like he doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Kinda unnecessary for what Post-Split goes for (or at least tries to go for).

I’ll be completely honest and say I completely forgot about this Gelatin-Teardrop “arc” before this rewatch. It kinda comes out of nowhere too; their moments of “conflict” are not brought up as such (not even any subtle insinuation) until this point. But hey, maybe if they expand on it, Post-Split could really have something intere—aaaaaand it’s over. The same episode this “arc” is established, it gets entirely resolved. Glad that that conflict totally got fleshed out and developed to its full potential. Yup.

Ok, I said we would talk about it after BFB 24, so here we go. My second main reason for making this rant:

I do not like how Post-Split resolved Firey and Leafy’s arc

If you’re gonna disagree with me on anything in this rant, it’ll probably be this.

Let’s start with BFB 22.

First off, bozo, she DID try to talk with you, you just slammed the (soundproof) door in her face before she could get a point across. Ok time to talk about the actual writing.

As a whole, this whole scene comes off as extremely biased towards Firey. Yes, Leafy never apologized for stealing Dream Island, but Firey never apologized for both excluding her for an extremely petty reason and for ignoring her in the years since. This SHOULD have been a mutual make-up between the two. Both apologize for their misdeeds towards the other, and both promise to do better with each other moving forward.

Instead, we this one-sided argument wherein Firey is given much more pity than Leafy by the show. He isn’t even all that remorseful about how he’s treated Leafy, he’s more distraught over potentially being eliminated for stealing the diary. And Leafy, of course, offers to throw the challenge to make sure he isn’t up for elimination. Ok. Sure. Maybe that is in Leafy’s character, to help save Firey from elimination when he’s done something the viewers won’t like; she is the super nice one after all.

Anyway here’s a completely unrelated screenshot from BFB 15. Just putting this here for no particular reason.

Episode ends with them being friends again, and Firey’s only punishment for stealing the diary is to clean the railway. Yippee.

Fast forward to BFB 24: Lollipop snarks in Leafy’s direction, and Leafy tells Firey she’s upset about him not standing up for her, as well as all the time he spent ignoring her. And Firey apologizes! Great!

THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN 2 MORE EPISODES TO GET TO!!! THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN BFB 22 WITH THE REST OF THE MAKE-UP SCENE (aside from the ferris wheel probably)!!!!! I can only imagine the crew realized how one-sided BFB 22 was to Firey, so they decide to shoehorn in this scene into BFB 24 to try and fix it. It doesn’t, and this moment feels so phoned in.

Overall, my main issue with how Post-Split handles this reconciliation is that it feels sloppy. It’s too biased towards one side, and they try and correct for that too little too late. It feels like rather than something they wanted to write, it was something they had to write, as they (correctly) predicted Firey didn’t have much more time in the game left, and if they didn’t do this now they wouldn’t get a chance to later.

Anyway, Firey gets eliminated so no more of this arc for a bit. Let’s move on.

BFB 25

Just want to mention it here, because this episode has a perfect example of it, but Four has definitely changed from Pre to Post-Split. Here Gelatin slaps Four, and instead of Four giving him a face full of zappies like Four most certainly would have in Pre-Split, Four just kinda insults him and then the episode moves on. I won’t really say whether this is a good or a bad change, but I will say I like Four much more in TPOT than in Post-Split.

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

Meme-slop aside, this is a very whatever episode. More just walking and talking, you know how I feel about these already. I do like both the detail of how Flower’s vomit-repelling sweater was what was causing the vomit-filled totem to run away from her, as well as the fact this detail goes pretty much unspoken. Certainly a nice change of pace from the amount of over-explaining characters tend to do (COUGH COUGH LOLLIPOP COUGH).

The best part of the episode happens near the very end. You know what part I’m talking about.

i need her

BFB 26

It’s the Profily episode! I guess I’ll touch on them a bit. They’re a pretty funny joke character! I can’t decide whether it’s funnier for them to have been there all along and nobody noticed, or for them to straight up be lying about everything. This is a good thing. Past that though, they’re just ok. Some good bits here and there, but after this episode they just become another face in BFDI’s minor character menagerie with nothing to really set them apart.

Nothing really to complain about here. Fun episode! Lots of silly things, and nothing stays still for too long. This and BFB 20 really show how good Post-Split could have been, I think. I do prefer 20 a good bit more, but I’d rank this one above 22.

Time to ditch the Pillary Ruins.

BFB 27

The thumbnail is the worst thing about this episode. Just look at it. Why is there just an ugly chartreuse slab on the side. Why are the characters arranged so haphazardly. What even is this composition. It barely even fits with the rest of the Post-Split thumbnails. I hate it.

What gets me is that there was a scrapped thumbnail that looked a lot better! No clue why they switched it.

I do like the desert as a setting more than the Pillary Ruins, which might be an uncommon opinion idk. The ruins always felt too cluttered to be good default backdrops, so going to something simpler is nice.

Yeah I don’t have much to say about this one, another “whatever talky bluh bluh” episode, but this does have some more funny moments than others like it so there’s that. The Flower and TD montage was silly, and it seems like they kinda set Leafy up for elimination solely because they didn’t want her in the top 3 again. Nothing really much else to say.

Actually, come to think of it, this is the last “regular” challenge before the final all-in-one challenge. Maybe escaping the oven was a callback to BFDI 22’s escaping the volcano? If so, BFDI 22 did it better.

This seems like a good time to stop for now. They’re about to bring back all of the eliminated contestants, so I’ll be touching on both Taco and Firey/Leafy again in the next and final part of this rant. We’ll also get to the third main reason I’m making this rant: BFB 30.

Part 3

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 5-21: The Tiger Miraculous 2: YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD ESCAPE JULEKA DISRESPECT!?

Why the worst akuma? Why? Why? Why? Apparently there was a deleted cathartic apology scene and the whole battle was thought about being removed. What the hell?

You're going to London

Damn. Even Plagg is serious.

That feels OOC. I always saw Rose as wanting to be a children's doctor while Juleka, not being like other goths, would want to be a model.

Lila wants to rule the world. I can tell.

Straight to the shredder

Dumbing down Chloe? Really?

They're cooking

Dumb idiot teenagers. Or is this stretching it?

Wait, when did that happen? A few days ago?

There's the damn retcon. You can't fool me, even if you try to say she did it to spend more time with her girlfriend Rose.

Honestly even if you change the power to be more inline with that stuff that traumatized me on Deviantart I still think it'd be better if she caused the Third Impact instead.

Nuclear bomb

Cap

Oh no. Lila's deathtrap.

Even Sabrina is disgusted!

Villain Monologue

Love me a good surprise trap when the villain thinks they have it all!

Damn. Even if it was a few seconds, I'd still rather have that than the [@#!$]

I know we aren't going back to Corrupt Mayor Andre, but a girlie can dream.

And they're admitting Audrey is evil too, right?

Fuck this shit I'm out

I'm classifying this as a retcon. Also Juleka disrespect. She did this back in season 4 as well. And in the English dub she talked in full sentences back in the first three seasons, and I'd argue it's better that way.

I'm thinking about it and yeah, this basically is a middle finger to Crocoduel. The Juleka Respect episode. Were Lukanette and Adrigami not enough to insult that you had to go for one of my blorbos too!?

Wait, he's fired? Does the school board not exist in this universe?

This again? Can we get to Lila's secret lair if it's here?

Oh no. Just another identity.

My theory on Lila is that she's much older than she looks, and is actually a serial killer that kills other students and takes their identities for her own uses. Lila's mother last episode was actually Cerise's considering the same movie excuse, not to mention it would explain the wig: she thinks Lila's putting on the wig for her filming. I also assume Lila's planning on doing the same to Marinette and possibly even Kagami. As for the woman in the season 4 finale, I assume she's actually a friend of Lila's diplomat mother ensured to take Lila to the station, considering how busy Lila's diplomat mother clearly is.

[joltning]

I’M REALLY REALLY HOPING FOR GOOD TUCKER CONTENT THIS SEASON. CHORUS TRILOGY WAS THE BEST HE’S EVER GOTTEN AND HE’S JUST BEEN GOING DOWNHILL SINCE (s18 was the fucking BOTTOM OF THE BARREL for him oh my fucking gd) but Tucker getting corrupted by the Meta COULD BE REALLY REALLY interesting, so I HAVE HOPE. He’s my favorite character and he CAN be a really well done and written character but I’m KIIINDA worried that he’s gonna be corrupted by the Meta WAY too quickly that we’re not even gonna GET much content of Tucker being Tucker, he’s just gonna quickly become an antagonist, and I REFUSE TO LET MY GUY GO OUT LIKE THAT. Thank you for listening rant over, I’m shaking like a leaf until s19 drops

thank you for acknowledging s18 Tucker they totally get him wrong in the Second he’s introduced. the very implication that he wash and Carolina just left caboose even after all their found family spiel always hurts me

tuckers one of my favorites too and honestly I feel like he doesn’t need much more characterization, he’s one of the more solid characters and the fans definitely complain for simmons and sarge development for a reason (a focus arc, I mean. They’ve had plenty of silent characterization, sarge becoming more accustomed to the blues and grif, his speech in s8, simmons becoming less of a brown noser and more outspoken,) but the way his character has just been drilled into the ground is a lil horrendous. I want him to have a good note

Honestly? rvb has always been twisty as fuck. reveals out the wazoo. alpha director. alpha ai. felix bad. Carolina daughter. I’m betting that Tucker isn’t the big bad he’s portrayed as.

The Meta’s whole goal was to collect the ais and armor enhancements of other freelancer to power up and ‘become human.’ With meta tucker, all of the ai would already be in his head, so there would be no reason to attack any of them, unless you’re counting epsilon himself (which is sure to be conflicting asf to tucker if true). Notice how even after he has them in compromising positions, he doesn’t make any moves to actually kill them.

The timing of this is weird too. Wash in the hospital means it presumably takes place after s17 but before s18. So, where’s lopez? There could, of course, be multiple simulations running at once but that would suck Ass.

If my theory of halo infinite being the simulation game (as CE and Reach were before) then there’s a possibility they’ll be out eventually too. There were spottings of the filming on MCC.

I propose the idea that this season is epsilon’s final simulation before giving up for good. His worst case scenario. The thing he fears would happen the most. And Tucker’s role in this is to ‘collect’ him, and end the simulation so he can move on.