#there's also a reason why most of these are quotes from s2

[oswildin]

Debated making this, but oh well, here we are…

I rewatched the Loki series.

Going to add here quickly that I have been a fan of Loki since 2012/2013, and I personally relate to his character for a multitude of reasons.

Now, I enjoy the series, but I wish they made it more character focused than they had. I do feel like they prioritised story in terms of making it fit the next phase over exploring and expanding on Loki’s character to some degree (a lot of it was surface level).

For example, I would’ve loved to have seen:

Exploring Loki’s Jotun heritage, even if it was a variant of him in the void that embraced it, dropped his aesir form, a conversation between Loki and his Jotun variant as they explain why they chose to embrace it, giving a different view to maybe how our Loki sees himself/the Jotuns. If ‘What If’ could have a frost giant Loki variant, why couldn’t the show?

Expanding upon what happened to Loki during that year after his fall from the Bifrost. The reason for this is self explanatory really, it would add more lore/depth to his experiences/actions during the Avengers. Maybe address the trauma he has from it.

Loki fighting with his so-called ‘desire’ for a throne more. By this I mean, I felt he flipped pretty quickly from his plan to overthrow the time keepers to just following along with Sylvie - which is fine, but I kinda thought there would be more push back from him. I get it was a life or death situation and Loki’s whole thing is ‘survival’, but it would’ve added to their dynamic and the fact the writers clearly wanted to push how Sylvie was different to other Loki’s.

Exploring Sylvie’s backstory more. It really did feel like it was an afterthought, which is a shame. I suppose they left it ambiguous for certain reasons, but I think they should’ve had more flashback scenes of what Sylvie could remember. I think it would’ve helped people understand and relate to her more. (I do love her though).

Actually showed Loki’s gender fluidity & shapeshifting ability more. Again, self explanatory really & important to his character, plus the whole implied only ‘woman variant’ thing with Sylvie should’ve not been a thing, like at all.

They should’ve given Loki more time to process everything. This show really should’ve had 8 episodes each season, I get that’s not the writers fault, likely Disney/marvel’s doing. Perhaps then the shift in his character wouldn’t have felt so jarring, especially considering he’s 2012 Loki. I do agree they wrote him as if he was Ragnarok!Loki, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it just felt jarring considering the last we saw of this Loki was Avengers. But then I could also argue that maybe he thought ‘what’s the point of it’ because the TVA know everything about him, but I digress.

Used Sylvie more in S2. It did feel like they didn’t quite know what to do with her, her and Loki clearly just needed to sit and discuss the citadel fight, but the closest thing we got is in EP3 where Sylvie says ‘this is all rather familiar, isn’t it?’, referencing their different/opposing opinions on the TVA/He Who Remains. And also maybe the pie room scene, but it’s very vague/not directly addressed.

Explored the fact that Mobius is not a good guy more. Because, he isn’t. And that’s okay. To me, the whole point of the show is based on Loki’s quote of ‘no one good is ever truly good, and no one bad is ever truly bad’, and whilst they do reference Mobius’ own morally grey actions/traits, they don’t particularly make it clear and most just see him as this ‘happy go lucky old man who likes pie and loves Loki variants’. In fact, I actually really liked the scene where Sylvie confronts him - which is a very unpopular opinion to have it seems, lol.

Delved into the psychology of Loki further than surface level/what we already know about him. Yes, we know he’s the God of Mischief. Yes, we know he isn’t evil. Yes, we know he is redeemable. Yes, we know he’s cunning, manipulative and selfish. We get that he projects this ‘illusion’ of himself, but it was only really mentioned in S1 EP1, maybe slightly EP2, before it’s never really mentioned again. I suppose S2 does this to a degree with the bar scene and EP5 of S1 in the time cell with Sif - also I think they tried to take the narcissist angle from the pov that it’s because of his low self-esteem as to why he needs validation and it’s a defence mechanism, but they didn’t particularly make that clear and made it seem like he just thinks highly of himself.

I know it seems like I have a lot of issues with the show, and I do, but I still enjoyed it. It’s okay to be critical of a piece of media and still enjoy it.

I do prefer S2 to S1, mostly because I prefer the direction they took it in and whilst I, of course, wanted better for Loki, I can’t deny S2 EP6 is a stunning finale. I sobbed so hard during the ending and still feel the grief that I actually lost someone I knew personally. But I also have hope that this means Loki is now a main player in the next phase (am I delusional? Maybe).

I enjoyed the dynamics, the back and forth/chemistry, the story was interesting, the set & costume design, the acting, the directing/colour grading, the music (Natalie Holt, you are genius), the emotions, the fun, the characters…

So this is not a hate post by any means, I will once again state, I enjoyed the show. But, I do have issues with it, and that’s okay too.

Please, dni if you’re just going to be argumentative or confrontational. I also don’t want to hear that just because I enjoyed the show that I’m ‘not a real fan’ lmao. I’m sorry, but I’ve been a Loki stan for over a decade, and I will not have someone tell me I’m not a real fan because of a piece of fictional media. Also, please do not mention anything regarding ships on this post, I do not care for it because it always ends up in arguments and I am a multishipper so I don’t tend to fight for any side. Thank you! :) /gen

[preseriesdean]

Everything. I have given everything I've ever had.

[curlyhairedbooklover]

What is the gender spilt of the murders in NBC Hannibal?

This is the third of three posts though this one works as a standalone, the first two are about the characters saying each other’s names and can be found here and here (I promise they are much more interesting than that summary makes them sound….) I decided to make this post because of this quote from Bryan Fuller; “And we are very conscious in the writer’s room; ‘Okay we just killed a woman, we have to kill a guy now.’” (47:20) And I always wondered how well they actually managed to do that…. thus I went out and collected the data and here it is!!

Adding a quick disclaimer that I did this for fun so I haven’t double checked it meaning there may be some mistakes!

As you can see from the data it turns out that they did kill less women than men during the show!!!! The total known kills in the show are 200 with 98 of them being men, 65 women and 37 were unknown!! I also kept track of who did the murder and those categories are: Hannibal, killer of the week, Will, and other.

To preface, I am only using “women” and “men” for my categories in this data as the show does not depict any trans or nb people (explicitly at least, there are a couple metaphorical/subtextual ones…) and if I could not tell the person’s gender or I simply did not see a body I categorised them as “unknown” 

You will be pleased to know that Hannibal killed 39.5 people (the 0.5 is Dolarhyde which I split between Will and Hannibal as it was a joint kill 😌)  over the show on screen and that 26.5 of them were men, 9 were women and only 4 were unknown! All I can say is that Hannibal is a feminist queen! That or women are significantly less rude in the Hannibal universe… although Freddie seems to defy that theory…. He does kill the most in s1 at 21 times! That essentially halves in s2 to only 12 times and again to 6.5 times in s3.. although it’s worth noting that I was unable to count his kills at Muskrat Farm as we don’t see any bodies on screen (though the script implies it was at least 7) and I only counted the Il Mostro kills that we saw evidence of instead of including the amount killed by the actual Il Mostro killer(s).. Not to mention that he spent half the season in prison! So all that said he did okay! Also I personally believe that his kill count across his lifetime is easily in the high hundreds, he has to meal plan if nothing else so let's put some respect on his name as Hannibal THEE Cannibal!

Unsurprisingly the killers of the week did make up most of the kills in the show, and killed 62 men, 56 women and 33 of unknown gender altogether. The killer of the week who did the most murder is James Grey at a whopping 50 but he did have a mural to create so that takes a lot of bodies! Second place goes to Lawrence Wells who murdered 17 people over his lifetime to create his totem pole, while Clark Ingram sneaks in at 3rd with 16 murders, although he only killed women and is the main reason why the women’s s2 kill count is higher than the men’s, boooooo! Poor Dolarhyde had to pick up all the slack in s3 as the only killer of the week but he did at least get 15 kills in! Sadly he was bound by the orders of the moon and could not do the suitable legwork 😔

Now Will DID get his own section of the table as is his right as the main character 😤 even if he only killed 3 people (which translates to 2.5 on the table as a result of having to share the dragon with Hannibal…). But they were all monumental kills, I mean Garret Jacob Hobbs haunted the rest of the show, Randall was turned into a magnificent tableau, and Francis was the culmination of his becoming and gave us That Ending!! It’s also not like he didn’t successfully manipulate multiple people into killing (or almost killing) people so I think he deserves extra points for those if only in our hearts!! Despite his low kill count he is the character we see commit murder the most on the show! He fantasises/imagines/hallucinates murdering 32 people across the show!! As the show moved away from the procedural nature he imagined killing less people; with s1 standing at 16, s2 moving down to 9 and then only 7 in s3! Just because most of the time he’s empathising with killers to recreate their kills doesn’t make the scenes any less sexy or iconic!!

The 7 other kills actually all come from women!! Another feminism win!! 3.3 is when Chiyoh killed her prisoner after being manipulated into it by Will. 3.7 sees Chiyoh kill again, this time’s it’s the 2 guys who were going to kill Jack and the 2 guards at Muskrat Farm, where we also we get Mason’s murder from Alana and Margot!! Then in 3.10 we get the flashback to Bedelia killing her patient! Go Girls!! Whooo!! 

In conclusion no one is surprised that there is a lot of murder in this show and Bryan Fuller while not exactly alternating each week in killing off each gender did not kill more women than men so arguably achieved his goal!

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

[ca-suffit]

In response to this (context post)

here's how the fandom gets racist (post S2 finale edition) when it speaks about armand and lestat (or loumand and loustat). user cosmicjoke (nalyra's "reverse racism is real" friend) on June 30, 2024

and here's other examples of virginia and nalyra talking recently in ways that make sure to center lestat in everything and themselves as "victims" for defending his character (never saw ur names on any "fandom PSAs" but ok).

the full context of the "loumand in paris" quote and more

the thing is. the show has *not* centered lestat in the loumand relationship from armand's side of it tho. fucking actually. show fans do *not* have any context for this. so it's rly fucking weird to push this attitude that everything we saw about loustat was a lie. disregard that entire thing bcuz louis is crazy and a liar, armand is prbly mind controlling him fully anyway, it's all the black and brown characters faults. also their relationship sucks and everything u see there is real and BAD!!! armand's abuse is real!! lestat's isn't (nevermind the show has confirmed that within canon, we still have S3 to explain it away)!! we've been so bullied for so long bcuz we're only trying to tell the truth and black fans especially are soooOooo mean to us!!!!!!

it's not about "the books." it's about ppl pushing racist agendas and trying to look as innocent as possible doing it. it's about erasing everything to do with black and brown characters and relationships to serve only the white guy and whatever he does.

I do not understand why anyone speaks to these ppl and anyone associated with them. they are the sole reason this fandom has all of the racial issues it does. this is the whole reason I'm here. yet ppl come to me and tell me I'm the problem and I'm obsessive and deranged and whatever else. if more of u stopped positively interacting with and defending racist shit and/or spoke up about it as much as it occurs, it wouldn't have such a hold here! but it's easier for most (white) fans to just never say shit and any fans of color to just slowly leave over time and the cycle continues forever. all that's left is this poisonous shit, still infecting more and more fans bcuz it's the most prominent thing in the tags.

[rist-ix]

I have a question for you what do you think of the quote unquote age gap between Bloom and Valtor?

I had to do alot of research to understand Bloom age when I started to like this ship better than Mr cheater. So here's a brief information dump:

Bloom is 16 in the first episode and its confirm her bday is December 10 (we don't know the the exact year when each girl was born only the fact Stella is the oldest by that logic Bloom is the second youngest out of the group) when we get to season 3 it is confirmed that the girls is in their 3rd semester so that makes Bloom 19 at point. Valtor's age we do not know however I'm going to say at most early 20s from what we know Valtor working with a younger Griffin before he got Popsicled.

Here comes the tricky part. In s4 the girls just finished their semester and graduated making them 20-21. Up until s5 where Nicklodeon had to reboot their age making them 16 again. Flashforward to s8 and that makes Bloom age 19 if you are following the reboot or 23 if you do not follow the reboot. Since we don't know how long Valtor been frozen his mental age is up for debate.

For me personally I don't see Sparxshipping as an Edward and Bella situation as Edward was aging naturally during his years while Valtor was frozen and couldn't age naturally but only mentally.

Okay okay first of all! Your Bloom math checks out and I just realized that I for some reason always thought Bloom is 18 in s3. Which is still possible, I think, I just dont know why I assumed that. Actually no, it works, if she is 16 in s1 she is 17 in s2 and 18 in s3, but we dont know a lot about how the school years work in Magix so I'm gonna jot her down as 18-19 for the remainder of this post.

Still dont know how I passed math btw.

Anyway. Valtor's age is where the real mystery is at. We've got two possibilities in my opinion.

1. He's pulling the ageless immortal card.

My personal go-to for fics and discussions. Love me some 300 year old mommy issues. He has too much practice being a messy bitch, there's no fixing this man folks.

Evidence: There's a flashback showing him with Griffin as a tween: she looks MUCH younger, he looks exactly the same. Unless he also stole the secret magic of the world's most potent anti aging cream, or Griffin's proximity to Faragonda just aged her by three more decades, he does not age.

2. He is the age he looks.

Which, in my humble opinion, would not put him anywhere near twenty. That is a grown man. He's not college age, unless you count college professors under that word. Even if I were good at guessing ages the very stylized art style would throw me for a loop, but im gonna say 40s, give or take. Look at Avalon, look at Codatorta, look at King Radius if u must. That is the age range we're looking at.

Evidence: I dont have any. We're ballin'. I guess it's never explicitly stated he's immortal, which you'd think would be big enough of a deal to mention. If u got something feel free to let me know.

That being said, the Winx Club Wiki page for the canon timeline (ha, good one) puts the time of Valtor's creation in a rough time frame from "Over 17 years before season 1" to "Under 100 years before season 6". So he could technically be anywhere from 17-97, though I'm not sure the upper limit is as reliable as the lower one, given the check-list format of the website. So make of that what you will.

Now that we've got the question of age out of the way, lets get to the age gap. I have no idea what the situation in twilight was to be honest, so I cant compare that.

Realistically, there's at least a decade between Bloom and Valtor. Possibly two decades and change. And that is just from visible age, we can add a few centuries on top of that if we're sticking with the immortal bit. I'm gonna be gonest, I dont think being frozen for 17 years will make a whole lot of difference here.

If you find that icky, which is fair, you can always change that for fics tho! Either turn him into a twenty year old or put Bloom in her milf-era, the options are endless. Personally, I think the age difference is half the fun though, and also the least of their issues. When you're off making out with the objectively worst person in history, wether he's too old for her isnt gonna rank very high on people's list of concerns.

[livinggeekchic]

I’ve been thinking a lot more about Harvey on my most recent reread of Purple Hyacinth. He is set up as this kind of bumbling but good-natured kid, whose death hits us hard—only for us to later find out that he was a spy for the Phantom Scythe all along. And we, like Lauren, feel betrayed.

But we are given clues that everything is not as it seems. To start, Bella tells Kieran that Harvey was eliminated because he wasn’t useful.

That got me thinking about this set of panels. March and Hermann are having a conversation about Lune. This is surely information that the leader would be interested in hearing about. Harvey is in the perfect position to listen in, walking by with a stack of papers. But instead, he hightails it out of there. If you zoom in, you can see the “spinning” of his feet, he’s booking it so fast out of there.

So while he was a spy, he either wasn’t a very good one, or he didn’t really want to be one. We also see Harvey mentioning that he has to do his best for his grandpa--is it possible that his grandfather needs money, and that's why he's doing it? This is just one possibility of many. Kieran says as much to Lauren, after she tells him that Harvey was a mole. Kieran knows there are many reasons someone might join the Phantom Scythe, but Lauren is still thinking in black and white--right and wrong. While it makes sense that Lauren feels betrayed, she's failing to grasp the nuance of the situation.

Nothing showcases this better than Harvey’s funeral. We see Harvey’s grandfather violently sobbing, obviously devastated. He says “you didn’t need to try so hard.” (Another indicator that Harvey was likely making choices for his grandfather’s benefit.)

And how does Lauren react? Her expression here doesn’t look like one of sympathy, or even pity. She looks shocked and almost affronted. She’s so consumed by her hatred of the Phantom Scythe, for what happened at Allendale, that she can’t even see Harvey as a person. She can stand by and watch his close family member grieve, and all she thinks is, “they don’t know what I know.” But regardless of what misdeeds Harvey committed, he was still loved. He still deserves to be mourned.

She calls him a traitor. She’s almost disgusted by the fact that everyone is mourning him. But was he really a traitor? How much information did he actually give the Scythe? He was "useless" after all. Even if he did help the Scythe stall the APD's investigations, we know he wasn't this inherently evil character. He was genuinely concerned for his coworkers' safety. Lauren tells us that he never lied or showed any signs of being part of the PS. She sees this as evidence that she was blind to the truth, but I think she's actually blind to the fact that not everyone in the PS is "the enemy." Their motivations can be complicated.

In S1, Lauren views Kieran similarly. He’s an assassin, and therefore, he is reprehensible. She can’t understand why it's so important to him that he kills only when ordered or when it's the only solution. She doesn't really attempt to unearth his reasoning for wanting to take down the leader, beyond asking about it just once. She is inflexible, and rigid in her thinking: good people don't work for the Phantom Scythe. But of course, we come to see that it's more complicated than that.

A lot happens in S2 that helps open her eyes to this, which I won’t go into now. But I will leave you with a quote from Kieran in episode 93: “all these years within this wretched organization have taught me…it’s not a monolith. Not everyone agrees nor is aware of what is truly going on.”

Perhaps Harvey truly didn’t know the half of it. Maybe he was given a chance to provide for his grandfather and took it. Maybe he was told that the Scythe was helping the poor, and he related to that struggle. Maybe he was told they would only use the info he gave them to protect themselves from the APD, and wouldn't ever go on the offense. Ultimately, we don’t know. But what I do know is that if Harvey was outed as a spy in S3, I think Lauren would try harder to understand.

[atomicpoetrymusic-blog]

Randomly, on a whim, I decided to re-watch Stranger Things s4. I was focused on other stuff, just letting it play in the background, but I had a realisation about my favourite relationship on the show - Steve and Dustin. And I had to write about it.

In s2, when they were first thrown together, no one, not even the writers, predicted how good and compelling a bond they would form. Steve was going through a tough time, but he still stepped up and helped Dustin with his Dart problem. He gave the younger boy advice about girls, and Dustin grew to look up to him as a capable protector, caretaker and role-model, actively enjoying it when Steve complimented him. Dustin, meanwhile, wriggled his way into Steve's heart with his assertiveness, youthful curiosity, high intelligence, and his sweet nature (also because he essentially followed Steve around like an excitable puppy, and proceeded to not leave him alone).

Along the way, the audience saw how they operated as a team - functionally, they were essentially the trope of 'the brains and the brawn'. Dustin came up with the theories and the plans, and Steve implemented them.

By the end of s2, Steve and Dustin had no specific reason to hang out AT ALL, but they both still chose to. As it turned out, they liked each other's company, despite their differences.

In s3, we got more of the same, with added flavours of Robin and Erica thrown into the mix. Dustin, while still the brains of the operation, needed Robin's linguistic skills, as well as her grounding logic to keep him from going completely off the rails, while Steve also needed Robin to lift some of the weight of responsibility for the younger two. Erica, while only initially needed because of her small stature, kept everyone focused on the task at hand, and also provided an iron backbone to simultaneously criticise and embolden her friends. Their dynamic as a foursome worked, and was many people's (mine included) favourite part of s3.

The relationship between Dustin and Steve, in this time, had clearly become more brotherly, with the bickering and snarking overlaying a genuine trust and care for each other. They were thrilled to see each other again after Dustin had been away, insulted each other to their faces despite being incredibly supportive of each other, and were very protective of each other when in the Russian elevator/base.

In s4, however, the duo, while still the same one we know and love, had developed into something even better - a competent team that knew they work well together, and used that to their advantage (sometimes begrudgingly). Because of their intrinsic differences in intellect, physicality, and general skill sets, they both have very different ways of approaching the same problem.

This is probably best shown in the first basement scene of episode 4 ('Dear Billy', probably my favourite episode of the show overall). Steve, Dustin and Lucas are reading up on Victor Creel, and Steve is vocally confused by the information presented. Dustin criticises Steve on not being able to understand the concept, and goes on to talk about his theories on the Upside Down and HOW it is all happening. Steve then explains his confusion, about WHY Vecna would have done these things, and WHY he had started up again.

And later, in episode 6, 'The Dive', when the Hawkins crew are all updating Eddie at Skull Rock, Dustin again is focused on HOW his compass is acting strangely, and concludes it must be because of a Gate (which he was right about). After some discourse between the whole group about HOW Dustin's compass was going wonky, Steve is the first to question WHY a Gate had opened up.

This is why they make such a fantastic team - because they are 2 sides of the same coin. It reminds me of the most famous detective story dynamic - Holmes and Watson (which is fitting, as Dustin quotes Sherlock Holmes in s4, to Steve).

Dustin (Holmes) provides the scientific, factual evidence and uses this to devise theories on HOW something happened. Steve (Watson) provides the emotional, personal reasons for WHY something happened. They round each other out and build off each other's ideas to form a cohesive through-line that explains both the HOW and the WHY.

There are loads more examples, but here are a few off the top of my head:

S3 - Steve hears 'Indiana Flyer' playing in the background of the Russian transmission. Both Dustin and Robin brush him off, asking him to focus on the Russian, but he wants to know WHY the music is there.

S2 - Steve wants to know WHY Dart and the other demodogs leave the junkyard, and Dustin provides him with the HOW (because of the hive mind).

S4 - Once Steve, Nancy, Robin and Eddie get trapped in the Upside Down, Dustin gets stumped on HOW the Gate opened up. His usual way of figuring things out isn't providing him with answers. So, he turns to another way of thinking - WHY there is a Gate in Lover's Lake. Which then leads him to the answer they needed. (Yes, this is all Dustin, but I truly believe he would not have been nearly so capable of coming up with the WHY of it all pre-Steve. Even in s1, he was the one everyone went to for the HOW).

In conclusion, I once again took a single idea and turned it into a multi-point essay. I always loved the Steve and Dustin dynamic so much, and now my love for it has grown that much bigger.

[oreo-oro-orero]

My most crackpot Ekko theory is that he has the potential to develop a split personality due to his abilities with the Z-Drive.

What spurred this thought is this quote right here.

The Z-Drive itself is already pretty dangerous physical and very draining as seen in the "Seconds" cinematic and this is only exacerbated with Ekko's constant rewinds of him trying to make sure everything goes right due to his good-nature and his perfectionist tendencies so if this is how bad it can get physically I can only imagine how bad it can get mentally.

Now we don't know to what extent time travel messes with his mind but we do have an idea based on this quote, maybe it could be he forgets where he's at for a couple of seconds or his words get jumbled and scrambled to the point where it sounds like he's speaking gibberish, maybe he gets random nose bleeds or his eyes glaze over. We do know he remembers the events before the rewinds and this could mess with him psychologically with his short story highlighting that he had to listen to his friends blood curdling screams while he kept rewinds to save him.

Now where the split personality could come in is due to this line from Kindred.

This interesting thing is that we don't really know how the Z-Drive works at least all the way but it has been alluded to that Ekko can see alternate timelines or is at least aware of them with him even having this quote

So what if he accidentally sort of merges himself with another timeline version of himself Or maybe he just develops it because the rewinds basically fried some parts of his brain.

In the Giants Music Video and song, it is alluded to by Ekko in his verse that Time-Travel does effect his brain to some degree and his verse is even sung by two different people.

It could also be the reason why Ekko despite being a positive force in Zaun still has a more brutal side with his quotes to Pilites being a good example of this

It could also be a reason why his eyes seemingly change color in his appearances with, Arcane Ekko having brown eyes, Project L and his Icon on the game having green eyes and even him having silver eyes in one appearance.

One of the writers of Arcane also said that everyone would be sort of the opposite of who they were in S2 so maybe we could see a more unhinged and manic Ekko since in S1 he was probably the most well put together, couple this with this quote as well

And you have my reasonings for why I have developed this ridiculous headcannon/Theory😭

It would be so interesting to see him also interact with Vi/Caitlyn and especially Jinx in the state just imagine Jinx coming across an Unhinged Ekko, desperately trying to fix even the smallest mistakes and breaking himself both physically and mentally, oh the angst would be on a whole other level😭

[liesmyth]

do you see any RJK / artashipatrick parallels? ive been thinking about it a lot lately and wanted to get ur viewpoint

hi hi hi! I actually saw this opinion a couple of times in Ted Lasso fandom, but personally I don't share it. I AM very curious about your reasoning for it because I love looking at ships from different angles and seeing what people take from them.

my tldr is that I don't think RKJ has anything in common with the Challengers trio, beyond the fact that they're about two men ostensively fighting over a girl while also engaging in the kind of simmering homoeroticism that permeates elite men's sport. (this Marylin Frie quote says it better) I get why this can seem a parallel by itself but, to me, it's just a function of both ships being set in a Sports Media canon. When it comes to characters and their dynamics, these ships are built very differently IMO.

relative to each other:

the Challengers trio all start out as peers, both in age and in relative success level of their careers. They're all finalists in the Junior US Open when they meet. RKJ as a dynamic is absolutely hierarchical in comparison: you have Roy being a Legacy kind of Big Name in the sport, Jamie as the talented up-and-comer who idolised him growing up, and while he has promise, there's non guarantee he can come even close to the kind of career Roy's implied to have had. And then there's Keeley, who's absolutely an outsider in their world, and on a systemic level is much lower down the pecking order. I think Ted Lasso, especially in S1 and S2 does a great job giving an overview of, like, how transactional footballers/wags relationships inherently ARE, even to people who aren't already familiar with the context — not just the financial asymmetry and stark difference in career and life prospects but just, like. She's the girl peeking into the changing room and saying, Hi Boys. Jamie makes a joke about oogling her ass because they are both in on the joke that they fulfil a very specific stereotypical relationship dynamic.

Even if on a personal level both Roy and Jamie really respect and admire Keeley, she Does Not Belong in their hyperfocused sport-as-sexually-charged-rivarly world. Art and Patrick want to fuck Tashi first and foremost because she's a tennis phenomenon, they value her athletic abilities and coaching insight. That's a whole completely different dynamic from what's going on between RKJ. Compare Art and Patrick complimenting Tashi's performance at the US Open to Roy and Jamie "fighting over her" in 3x12 where it's all about who she likes more. As someone who actually liked the bar fight because I think it shows a very realistic ugly side to these characters (*) it's just. two men fighting over a girl. vs two athletes being so impressed by someone who is a girl and also a star athlete in her own right.

(*) asterisk because I absolutely loathed so many writing choices in S3, like, even if I like some seeds of plots I hate how they were executed. Oh my god typing this out is making me want to completely AU S3 of TL. anyway; I have beef with the pacing and stuff around that scene but I like the existence of the scene itself.

Keeley and Tashi couldn't be more different

Tashi is just. Her personality is most similar to Roy's, imo. She lives and breathes tennis. She needs to be around that world to live; she struggles to fill the void left with coaching (and living vicariously through Art to an extent). Keeley, meanwhile, makes fun of Roy feeling like the world is ending when he finally admits to himself that he can't go on any longer. Mind, I think that lighthearted "it's not the end of the world" attitude was precisely what Roy needed to hear at that point, because he takes himself too seriously and needed someone to tell him that he can live without football, actually — but the fact that Keeley just Doesn't Get It on a fundamental level, again, marks her as an outsider to the kind of all-encompassing elite athlete attitude Roy and Jamie share. She doesn't even like football! She's occasionally flighty (good for her). She's turning 30 and doesn't know where her life is going (SO valid). She's a completely different personality than the kind of single-minded all-or-nothing attitude you NEED to make it as a pro athlete. Again: her dynamic with the two men who are into her couldn't be any different than Art/Tashi/Patrick, BECAUSE she's a completely different personality. If she was in Challengers, she'd be one of the normie Stamford kids Patrick and Tashi make fun of.

IDK. I think any similarity between Tashi and Keeley starts and ends at "they're both women". Maybe I'm being uncharitable here! I'm someone who thinks that Keeley's portrayal in fanon flattens her a bit (in the way female characters in the periphery of a m/m ship are often put on a pedestal and shoved off the way) so I'm definitely bringing some of my own baggage here; that's why I'd love to know what parallels others see. But I think she and Tashi have very different neuroses. THAT SAID. If I was writing a crossover Ted Lasso / Challengers fic, I really think Tashi/Keeley would be my ship of choice

[raayllum]

I remember starting the show because my friend told me about Callum and Rayla and how cute they were together. But after binge watching all 5 seasons, I just feel like the writers don’t really give a damn about them, in many ways, compared to other couples. But, to be fair, I have lots of issue with the writing. But, to me, the primary idea was to make Callum and Claudia a couple (no, I don’t ship them together), because they actually have a background, development, even chemistry too. So, I don’t understand why the writers changed their minds on this (please, tell me if they ever addressed this issue). I just think that him moving on from a childhood love, like that, out of nowhere to Raylla was again a bit odd and out of nowhere. Because nothing indicated that in the first 2 seasons. Same goes to Rayla too. And, in S5 they have acted more as friends than anything else. It’s just weird. What’s your opinion about this? And again, I don’t ship Callum with Claudia, it’s just my opinion after watching all seasons.

Thank you for sharing your feelings, I definitely have been in fandoms where the Big Ship (canon or fanon, in show or in fandom) have just not been things I could click or with or understand, so you have my sympathies. The crew has gone on record saying that Callum and Rayla being a couple was not originally the plan (we don't know if there were any endgames being considered for either of them as alternatives, but I lean toward no) with Janaya and Ruthari presumably being the main couples. This changed in 2x04 with the lightning flash and moment the two share on the boat, "everyone in the room saw it" (legit quote from showrunner) and they began to write and develop it. It is unknown if they went back to add or shift anything in S1 (we know the crew works on seasons simultaneously) but it wouldn't surprise me given the vibes

I definitely can't promise to change your mind (I'm obviously a big Rayllum shipper and I have been since S1, so I'm clearly coming at it from a different perspective) but I do have some metas that do address what you've brought up, I'm gonna link them below and then do a quick summary in case you understandably don't wanna read all that!

Rayllum and Loneliness (Post S3): a meta about how it is likely (now confirmed in supplementary material) that Rayla grew up pretty friendless and a deeper dive into how Rayla is/was the first person Callum had who was unequivocally his peer and his friend (as Soren bullied and Callum's crush - as well as other things - made him and Claudia have a fair amount of distance.)

Callum and Claudia: You Already Did (Post S3): On what appeal the ship has, why it may not appeal to others, and why I don't think Callum and Claudia were actually that close pre-S1, the various factors why, and why they were doomed to fall apart since 1x02.

How/Why Callum's feelings for Claudia and Rayla Were Overlapping (Post-S3): Exactly what it says on the tin, mostly because he is obsessed with Rayla lowkey in S1 (trying to get her to laugh three times in 1x05, taking a flirty tone with her when they aren't arguing in 1x06, etc) and then outright devoted in S2, trusting her over Claudia in 2x03.

Rebuttals to Rayllum Reservations (Claudia, Pacing, Etc) Post-S3: Pacing, emotional intimacy, platonic development and romantic feelings, etc. Probably the simplest meta and the most on brand for what you're (presumably) looking for, but the other metas I think uh do contribute nicely to explaining why Rayllum is what it is and som of the reasons it appeals to people.

It's also honestly not surprising to me that in S5 they just feel like Friends (hopefully best friends) given that a decent chunk of the Rayllum fandom, myself included, are on the aromantic and/or asexual spectrums, and don't really care if they're Romantic as long as they're Life Partners. (Aspec Rayllum tag here) Callum and Ezran are two of the, if not the, most important people in Rayla's life, and Rayla and Ezran are two of the most important people in Callum's life. To me, romance / devotion / whatever you want to call it intermingling makes sense. One of the things I've loved most about S4-S5 is the fact that whatever they are, they have each other's backs, and they care for and protect each other, no romance required, which hits different since they do both also have romantic feelings for each other. It's just not a pre-requisite for them and a lack of it is never something they'd hold against one another. In other words:

Chemistry is also something that's hard to pin down sometimes - like all shipping preferences are subjective, but evaluations of chemistry tend to be in particular (for example, I don't really think Callum and Claudia have chemistry in that way, but that doesn't mean that they can't or they don't).

That said: platonic Rayllum tag here and foils Rayllum tag here, and I hope whatever parts of the show you do enjoy, well, give you joy.

[unkn0wnnn06]

Okay I’m just gonna go on a little rant here cus people are pissing me off.

Since Joel posted his video yesterday I have seen multiple people say that they are mad at Joel, for what reason you may ask, because he did some silly fucking lore. This is why I am pissed, it’s just why, literally WHY.

I saw a video a bit ago as well about why Empires s2 is bad, and guess what, it’s because of the lore. I will say this over and over again until it gets into people’s heads:

EMPIRES ISNT JUST ABOUT FUCKING LORE

There is lore in Empires, yes, there is some in every minecraft server mainly through the backstories of buildings. But Empires isn’t purely a rp server or a lore server these are real fucking people just trying to play minecraft with their friends, leave them the fuck alone.

Also, I saw in a description of a video, and I quote “Making lore on the spot (he said so himself) is a line that shouldn't even be crossable yet it is.” SINCE WHEN WAS MAKING LORE UP ON THE SPOT ILLEGAL???

To the person who said this, I hate to burst your bubble but so much lore from empires s1 and most fucking servers that include rp, for that matter, is made up on the spot. They don’t fucking script everything. Xornoth from s1 was literally made from Scott wanting to scare Shelby on an alt acc he got Fwhip to whitelist onto the server and cus we, the viewers, freaked out abt it, they made the whole Xornoth storyline.

Am I being over dramatic? Probably but this is just pissing me off sm, just leave Joel alone, let him do his thing ffs.

[grishaverse-chaos]

Nina for the ask game

omg ty!! nina is one of my fav grishaverse characters ever (actually she's my fav crow!) so I loveeee talking about her

why I like them: her badassery. she doesn't take shit from anybody which I love, and she has a really strong sense of self-worth and independence

why I don't: she keeps falling for goddamn fjerdans. for legal reasons this is a joke, I love helnik and hannina more than life itself HOWEVER this girl clearly has a type and it's v funny to me

favourite episode/scene: ooooh I'm actually not sure but I do love her scenes with zoya in s2 because their dynamic is SO deep and SO intricate and I could talk about it for hours

favourite season/movie: so she's brilliant in both s&b seasons and both soc books, but I think she's actually best in the kos duology!

favourite line: I WILL LEAVE THIS WORLD ON A HAMMER BLOW holy fuck it's one of my fav quote of all time, I just love it so much. it perfectly encapsulates nina's personality and her determination

favourite outfit: her red dress from the shu han heist in s2! something about it being red but not heartrender red yk? like she's claiming her grisha powers but still refusing to align herself with the second army.... it's deep okay

otp: ugh I can never choose between helnik and hannina (in an ideal world they'd be polyam lmao)

brotp: okay so I love ninej however. nina and zoya are sooooo deep I could analyse them for Hours. I have a playlist for them in my notes app. also nina and nikolai would be the most chaotic friendship EVER which I love sm

headcanon: there's like zero chance she's cisgender. idk what she would be but there's some gender fuckery going on there I swear

unpopular opinion: I love hannina and idk if that's unpopular as such but I'm pretty sure it's less popular than helnik so let's go with that. also matthias's death adds so much to the narrative and there's no way it could have been as satisfying if he'd survived

a wish: she's going to be such an incredible queen omg, I want her to change the world (and specifically fjerda) forever and leave her mark

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: imagine if hanne (I hc his chosen name as demyen!) dies as well.... leaving nina all alone and widowed..... yeah. that would suck.

5 words to describe them: determined, chaotic, badass, independent, vicious (when she wants to be)

my nickname for them: again tbh I don't really have one 😭😭

give me a character and I will answer...

[lilliesthings]

*jumps into your inbox and rambles about Revelations and Tobias Hankel* I hope you don't mind, feel free to just ignore me, but I have to go somewhere with my feelings.m.

Now, I've noticed that we never see the Charles personality and the Raphael personality interacting, which is really a shame, because I think their dynamic might've been quite interesting as well. Especially as Gideon says that Raphael is like the mediator between the other two personalities, but in fact, we never see him mediating anything. I wonder if Charles would've listen to Raphael, because he's, you know, an angel and stuff, but at the same time, I can't imagine that man listening to anything and anyone other than himself.

Also, I saw you mentioned the heart-wrenching 'God gave him to me for a reason' quote, and I'd LOVE to hear what you interpret into that, and what you think Tobias really saw in Spencer.

... Anyways. Have a great day/night!

OoooOOOOh please jump into my inbox to talk about Revelations anytime oh anon I am getting down on one knee.

Putting the rest under read more just in case because I'm currently watching S2 with my dear friend and I've been so incredibly brave in not spoiling anything.

Yes yes! You're right, Raphael never mediated anything he was really doing his own thing. For me Tobias was the mediator, the one they listen to if he makes a strong enough case, which he never managed to do before Reid. In that corn field Charles wanted to kill Reid, but once they're in the cabin, I believe it's Tobias that convinced them not to, because Reid can 'see inside men's minds' and hopefully that's reason enough to make him useful in their eyes.

For how hopeless he seemed, Tobias tried to save Reid's life every step of the way and that kills me a little inside.

So I agree I don't think Charles would have listened to Raphael, by the end of Revelations, Raphael seems to be on Reid's side, or he truly believes Reid is on his side, having come back to life, having chosen which member of his team to die ("who do you serve" "i serve you") This doesn't change anything for Charles.

Oh man. 'God gave him to me for a reason' and what did he see in Spencer, this question keeps me up at night dhnsbsbd. Like, at first he wouldn't kill him because he saw him as truly innocent but at some point this belief evolved into hope and I think part of Tobias believed Reid was the one who would save him, free him from his father, which ends up somehow? Happening in the most heartbreaking way? And Raphael called that damn bullet 'God's will'

Or maybe he saw himself in Reid and that's why he helped him escape the pain the same way he himself did. And his last words 'will I get to see my mom again' was probably something Spencer thought to himself several times during these two days.

Revelations makes me want to launch myself into the sun.

[ca-suffit]

I say "attempted to change it" (about the origin of the harlequin portrayal) because S2 ep3 promo I've seen so far treats the introduction of Lestat playing that character as super cool and awesome and Armand seems to have swooned over him via Lestat's attitude in portrayal of this character. Which is unhinged because Armand of all people would likely know the racism inherent to the harlequin.

And also I think I've seen an interview, but don't quote me here because it could very well be fandom bs, where Sam(?) talked about the difference between Lelio and Harlequin and the only thing he expressed was the trickster nature of the Harlequin vs the lover's nature of Lelio or smth. Nothing to aknowledge Harlequin is blackface and maybe Lestat had those racist biases as a human/fresh vampire (very possible) or etc.

Which is why I'm so serious when I say I hope he comments on the situation, least AMC are utter fools and trying to pull an "It's not racist when WE do it because, um, reasons!!!"

thank u for explaining! I don't want to doom spiral so I can't say anything before seeing the episode. It's a bunch of theatre ppl making the show tho and the racial commentary is usually good, I don't see why they'd skip over a mention of it. It's not surprising it hasn't been brought up in interviews before the episode has aired tho. Sam also is never gonna be the one to deep dive into racial topics lol.

Idk anything about this stuff so I went looking on youtube to see performances and general videos. This is *always* mentioned somehow when talking about the character and the mask, so it's not rly hidden info once u poke around the tiniest bit.

I will say tho that I don't think ur supposed to see Lestat in that role as being very positive tbh. We've basically been told that it's Armand switching the roles for him in the play in his version of events and he's supposed to look goofy. I always took it to be intentional for Armand to try and downplay his desire while still clearly being overtaken by it. The plays are book canon so I don't see anything outright problematic about how this is set up in terms of what it means for Armand and Lestat. It doesn't suddenly make them good or bad ppl by itself. There's limited characters to pick from in the play. They're old, popular plays with multiple influences and versions. Pretty much *everything* is also rooted in racism tbh, especially hundreds of years ago in France. I'm not trying to tell u how to feel, I'm just saying I'm not gonna get angry ahead of time with a show that's already mentioning racial history in every scene we see. Daniel's always ready to blurt out some racist shit to Armand as it is and show off his white, liberal knowledge about history so I can p easily see this being a setup for that.

Sorry the part about Lestat "maybe" having racist biases made me lol too bcuz....of course he did. He still has them through the entirety of S1! He's white and French from 17whatever. He thinks racism is an American problem. He'd be saying slurs all over the place if this show wanted to be authentic about it. We're getting the toned down version of what would rly be "book accurate" for those who want that lol.

Anyways here's the videos. Most of the commentary about race stuff is near the end of all of them.

[flower-boi16]

Lily Orchard’s Takes on Hunter are garbage and here’s why [The Owl House]

I decided to remake this post because there were some things I wanted to add in or change about the original post (and because no one saw the original post lol). So...let’s just get this over with. 

I'm just gonna cut to the chase; The Owl House is a fantastic show and I think LO's takes on one of the characters in the series are poorly thought out or just not true and here's why. For those who (somehow) don't know; Lily Orchard is a youtuber who makes video essays on cartoons, she's also probably the most controversial youtube critic I've seen. I'm not gonna cover much of the drama that Lily's been involved in, but I felt like that was worth mentioning. The Owl House is a show that Lily covers quite a bit on her channel, but she has a very certain dislike of one particular character in it; Hunter. I decided to make this post for two reasons; 1) I don't see many people debunking Lily's arguments about Hunter outside of some asks on LO gossip blogs on Tumblr and 2) I really like Hunter. He's probably my second favorite of the main characters right below Luz for me, and I wanted to make this post after finishing the show because...

Lily's arguments about Hunter aren't very good. They are filled with Lily constantly making poorly thought out and false arguments about Hunter that could be easily disproven if you actually watch the show. So I'm gonna cover some of Lily's points about Hunter and why they are false. This post is going to cover some of Lily's major arguments criticizing Hunter and why I disagree with them. Let's begin.

"Hunter Is a Passive Character"

I'll just take this piece of text from a really good article I've found about passive characters right here:

"These characters have goals — from as small as a glass of water to as big as saving the world — and their determination to achieve those goals creates the stakes of the story.  Passive characters are, naturally, the opposite. They wait for things to happen instead of making them happen. They’re reactive, not proactive.  Whereas active characters impact the story, passive characters sit back and experience the story." -WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID WRITING PASSIVE CHARACTERS (& HOW TO MAKE THEM ACTIVE)

As the text says, a passive character is a character that doesn't contribute to the story in any meaningful way and simply sits back, and watches the story as it goes, often waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen. It's important to define what a passive character is to illustrate my point; that being, Hunter is not a passive character, which is what Lily accuses him of being. To take some quotes from Lily's video on Hunter:

"Hunter's character has been passive from his first appearance, even when he had the trash boy Vanitas vibe going for him. He shows up, does nothing, refuses to elaborate and leaves."

"Typically passive characters aren't a good thing to give this kind of screen time to because the majority of that time will be spent watching them hem and haw and drag their feet. This was the problem with Hollow Mind. It doesn't go through much information that's new to the viewer, and indeed that new information is kept to the background paintings. And that's because 90% of the episode is spent watching Hunter cope and seeth which grinds the story to a halt"

"Most of the time when he's actually in an episode, the story grinds to a halt while Hunter sits there and does fucking nothing and you may as well skip to act 3 because its going to go the same way the last few of them went" -Glass of Water Character Potential Doesn't Excuse Lazy Writing

Lily says that in most of the episodes centering around Hunter, he just sits there and does nothing until the episode's third act. However, this simply isn't true. Let's look at four out of the five episodes focusing on Hunter and why the things he does in those episodes don't make him passive.

S2 EP 6: Hunting Palisman: I don't have much to say about Hunter in this one. This episode basically introduces us to Hunter proper where we get to see him grow a slight friendship with Luz and him deciding to let her take the palisman instead of betraying her. Don't have much to say here.

S2 EP9: Eclipse Lake - This is an example of Hunter pushing the plot forward and him not being a passive character. Here, he disguises himself as a coven scout to go to the expedition led by Kikimora searching for Titan blood in eclipse lake so he could prove himself to be useful to Belos after he says that Hunter is "replaceable".  Later in the episode, he gets the Titan blood key and gives it to Belos. This is an example of Hunter being an active character; he pushes the plot forward and contributes to it, which is important because passive characters don't do that; rather, they wait for the plot to happen and react to it rather than actually making the plot happen.

S2 EP 13: Any Sport in a Storm - Now this is where Lily's points about Hunter being "passive" really begin to show their cracks. In this episode, Hunter goes to find recruits for the emperor's coven after being "ordered" by Darius to do, so he could, like in the last episode, prove his worth to the emperor's coven. Here, he joins Willow's flyer derby team and after playing a game he basically kidnaps them and makes them join the emperor's coven against their will. After realizing what he did was fucked he goes to protect them by saying their too weak for the emperor's coven, giving them a chance to escape. Hunter, like in the last episode, is not only an active character by pushing the plot forward, but he also goes through development here as he learns to make connections with people outside of the emperor's coven and is even willing to take a lethal blow from Darius to and sacrifice his status to protect his friends. Hunter, like in his last episode, is not a passive character.

S2 EP16 Hollow Mind - Hey, did you know that Lily thinks Hollow Mind is the worst episode of the show and thinks it's a 1/10? I could cover how bad Lily's takes on this episode are but someone already did make a video on that so I won't touch on her other takes about the episode here, but it's clear from the last quote that Lily misses the point of the episode. In this episode, Hunter gets trapped with Luz inside of Belos's mind and they end up seeing Belos's memories, which challenge Hunter's entire worldview. The episode shows how much Hunter was manipulated by Belos, as he believes that Belos has done nothing wrong and that he is making Hunter do the right thing. As the episode goes on however, and he and Luz begin seeing Belos's memories, Hunter ends up being in denial that Belos is actually evil, making excuses for what he did in those memories, with this line after Hunter and Luz see what the sigils actually do standing out to me;

Luz: You can't deny it now. Belos is trying to hurt people!

Hunter: He was just... perfecting sigil magic! Besides, maybe, he's remembering things wrong. Who knows how mindscapes work?

Luz: I thought you did!

Hunter: Well, maybe I'm an idiot!

Hunter was raised to think that emperor Belos was doing a good thing, and that he loves him. All of that comes crashing down when It's revealed that Belos has killed previous Golden Guards, and the episode ends with breaking from Belos's control and realizing that he was being used and manipulated all along with his whole world turning upside down. This episode has Hunter learn the truth about Belos and shows how much Belos warped his worldview into believing he was doing the right thing. That's the point of Hollow Mind; It's about Hunter realizing that Belos has lied to him this whole time and breaking free from his abusive "uncle". The fact that Lily just labels this episode as another one where he "waffles around about whether to do the right thing again" is just missing the point. Again, he's been lied to his whole life, it's gonna take a lot for him to see the truth.

S2 EP18 Labyrinth Runners - I don't have much to say about this one, but Hunter does still grow as a character here. In the episode, Adrian (The head of the illusionist coven) tries to get the students of Hexside to get sigils for the day of unity, and Gus ends up creating a giant illusion that covers the entire school making many students (and teachers) get lost in the illusion. Before that, It's revealed that after the events of Hollow Mind, Hunter has gone under hiding from Belos and went to Hexside to crash in. Like the previous episodes, this episode has Hunter grow as a character, with him overcoming his trust issues with Gus, but he also saves Gus from Adrian. This is another episode where Hunter grows as a character and actively pushes the plot forward.

So, as we've seen through all of these episodes, Hunter is not a passive character, unlike what Ms Orchard over here would like to tell you. He doesn't spend most of his episodes focusing on him sitting around doing nothing; In all of the episodes he's in he is either actively pushing the plot forward or growing and developing as a character. Lemme take another piece of text from that article I previously mentioned;

These characters have goals — from as small as a glass of water to as big as saving the world — and their determination to achieve those goals creates the stakes of the story. - WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID WRITING PASSIVE CHARACTERS (& HOW TO MAKE THEM ACTIVE)

Hunter starts out as a character that has a goal; that being proving himself worthy to the emperor's coven, and we see him try to work for that goal in S2 EP9 and S2 EP13. So, Hunter is not a passive character, he's a character who either pushes the story forward or is actively growing and developing, unlike what Lily would like to tell you.

And here’s another thing; notice how Lily never sites any examples to her point where she says this:

"Most of the time when he's actually in an episode, the story grinds to a halt while Hunter sits there and does fucking nothing and you may as well skip to act 3 because its going to go the same way the last few of them went" -Glass of Water Character Potential Doesn't Excuse Lazy Writing

“The same as the last few of them went”, Lily, please explain how each of Hunter’s episodes go if you’re going to make this claim. Hunter’s episodes don’t have the same structure copied and pasted throughout, if you actually watch them you would know this. I know Lily watched these episodes, so where is she getting this from?

"Hunter is Stapled onto Other Characters"

This is another common complaint Lily has with Hunter, that being he is "stapled" onto other characters in his episodes and that he often overshadows them. I'm just gonna cut to the chase; wtf does this even mean? Lily doesn't specify what she means by Hunter being "stapled" onto other characters nor why it's a bad thing, if anything all she is describing here is Hunter interacting with other characters in his episodes. However, there is another side to this argument that Lily has, that being that she thinks that Hunter overshadows other characters, mainly Willow and Gus, and that they get pushed to the side for the sake of his arc, and that Hunter takes up too much screen time.

The issue with this point is that Hunter really doesn't overshadow other characters as much as Lily says he does. For Gus in particular in Labyrinth Runners he isn’t pushed to the side in favor of Hunter like how Lily says he is; the episode shows both of them working through their trust issues. Hunter isn’t being “stapled” onto Gus here just so he could overshadow him, both characters support each other’s arcs and help them grow. It really feels like Lily hates Hunter for just...being in an episode, regardless of the reason. As for Willow, I don’t think Hunter overshadowed her much either. That being said, I always found Willow to be an underdeveloped character to begin with so maybe that’s why, but like Gus she also does support Hunter’s arc and helps him grow. 

She even sometimes says that Hunter is just shoved into an episode for no reason other than Dana apparently liking him a lot which...also no, Hunter is not shoved into an episode for no reason, in his episodes he is interacting with other characters and growing because of them.

So yes, Hunter is stapled onto other characters....why is that a bad thing tho? He’s just interacting with other characters in the show, what’s wrong with that? Why is a character interacting with other characters bad? Like, in her TOH season 2 round up video, one of the cons for the episode Hollow Mind is “Golden Guard is stapled onto Luz to inflate his importance”...so she’ll just list Hunter being there or interacting with the characters as something wrong with an episode...ya. If that’s not another really bad point I don’t know what is.

"Hunter is a superfluous character"

This section is going to be shorter than the other two mainly because this was partially responded to in the first section, but it was a big enough criticism for Hunter that Lily has so it's worth giving its own section to. So anyways, Lily often says that Hunter is an unnecessary character and that you could remove him from the story and nothing would change. This, like Lily's other points about Hunter, isn't true. Aside from how, like I mentioned earlier, Hunter has a connection to Belos, the main antagonist of the series, he makes major contributions to the plot outside of that. He's the one to give the titan blood key to Belos, he saves Gus from the illusionist, he discusses what is going to happen on the day of unity with the other students at Hexside, and he's the one to get possessed by Belos. So no, Hunter is not an unnecessary character, he's a character that makes contributions to the plot , and major ones at that.

Conclusion

So, that was my mini-essay on why I disagree with Lily's points on Hunter. I had never made a post as big as this one before, but hey, at least I get satisfaction out of defending one of my favorite characters in a show that I like from someone who clearly misunderstands it. So ya...bye

[ikkleosu]

I have seen your tweets about the spin off. You seem really positive that Melissa is coming back, but I'm so confused by it? Why do you feel so hopeful? I don't want to get my hopes up and be heartbroken all over again.

I wouldn't say I'm "hopeful" I just think for me looking at all the evidence it seems very likely. Other people think differently and that's absolutely okay for them. But if you want to know WHY I think the evidence is in favour, I shall detail it so you can make up your own mind.

So, yesterday Angela Kang commented this

And she's right, when she said "we've all" she meant it. Most of the people involved in the show have said Melissa will be back, though most have not specified the show.

Gimples quote is the one most alluding to non-Caryl stuff:

However, the others are more about Caryl together:

(THIS IS A LONG IMAGE HEAVY POST WITH LOTS OF INFO!)

Nicotero hinted very strongly at Carol going after Daryl:

And then of course there's Norman. He has literally staked his reputation (such as it is) on them reuniting and promised until he's blue in the face that is happening.

Of course he could be lying, however how would that serve him? It would make him more obviously a liar, make those who do still trust him lose that trust and just anger his already thinning fanbase.

And most importantly, Melissa herself said she would be back:

This was only the first step of evidence that has been ever evolving since. The main one of course being Joao on YouTube. The Brazilian youtuber has a very solid track record of spoilers - he had several call sheets from season 11. I can't find the translation of his video, but Hanna summed it up here: https://mcbride.tumblr.com/post/702367502037057536/daryl-spinoff-carol-rumorsspoilers The gist being that Melissa would return to the spin-off either at the end of s1 or start of s2, and that season 2 would have her as a main character, and s2 would start filming back to back with s1 in March 2023.

Many didn't believe Joao, however over time all he's said is proving true.

The showrunner's WGA page shows he is showrunning 2 seasons and employed at least until 2025:

And now, Duane Manwiller has confirmed that yes they are filming the seasons back to back:

And the info we have fits with Joao saying the season 2 filming starts in March.

Early casting calls for returning characters had them listed until Feb:

That seems to indicate one story ending in Feb and another starting in March. We know they are still filming s1 in February from this:

And it looks like they are reaching the end of the season by mid-Feb as those casting calls suggested, given episode 5 appeared to start filming on 20 Jan:

We also now have casting calls for March, and a filming location for 4 week. Given eps are normally filmed over 2 weeks (or so) that does scream of a s1 cliffhanger and s2 resolution:

So given ALL the information that Joao gave in his video about the timing and season 2 has now been proven correct, stands to reason it makes it MUCH more likely the connected information - that Melissa is returning - is also correct.

Now in terms of the negatives, or questions I have seen people posting which make them think it can't be true, here's my answers.

If Melissa can come to France to film now, why couldn't she before?

Two key phrases to note here - 1) "at this time" 2) "filmed in Europe this summer". Filming was delayed by at least 4 months, and while Melissa may not have been able to travel to Europe then, she very well could be NOW. It very much appears from this statement - which she would have approved - that it was a timing/logistics issue.

This seems backed up by this phrasing from Kang, which also agrees with Joao's statement that it was always the plan to get her back:

"Were", past tense.

Also, it's entirely possible that neither she, nor the production will be STAYING in France.

Early on in production, a crew member's partner said they'd be in France until March/April:

(Source: DearTvShow)

If they are just filming season 1 final mid-Feb, it seems highly unlikely they are going to complete a second season by April. Thus, it seems likely they are only filming a couple of episodes of s2 in France.

It's very possible then that Melissa can do s2 because it WON'T be filmed entirely in France.

2) If Melissa is returning why haven't AMC announced it?

Well, that is a question, and obviously I don't know the answer. Yes, I agree it would make more sense if they did. BUT I can see logical reasons why they might not:

they might be gun shy in announcing anything until Melissa's filming is in the can, after what previously happened

they might not want to overshadow Norman's "epic" solo first season

they might think that a surprise appearance by Carol is a bigger impact

And they have precedence for this, when Morgan returned in season 5, it was kept totally secret and Lennie James went to great lengths to remain hidden - traveling under a false name, staying in a different town etc: https://youtu.be/UParJyrTqIg

3) If Melissa is returning, why haven't we seen her filming yet?

Have you met Melissa? LOL We know Melissa has ALWAYS been the queen ninja of filming. Even location shooting like the beach from 10x01, where fans ONLY saw Norman and Lauren Ridloff interacting and never saw Melissa.

But also, she wouldn't have been filming until this week anyway, as it seems likely they just NOW are getting to the s1 finale. And whose to say she isn't on set now, filming, hidden away and using a pseudonym?