#this post was mostly a response to a different post about Buck and Tommy having dinner with Bathena

[whineandcheese24]

my unpopular opinion for the day: i don't like the way the 911 fandom shoehorns the firefam into a nuclear family situation. Bobby may be a father-figure for Buck, but he is not really his father and Athena is definitely not his mother. neither of them raised Buck, or even knew him when he was a kid, and that's kind of a big part of being a parent

the thing that pisses me off is the mom!Athena thing, because it feels like the only reason people say that is because of Bobby and Athena's marriage. Buck and Athena never had that kind of relationship. she may affectionately scold him, but like Bobby she didn't raise him, and unlike Bobby, she doesn't feel any kind of responsibility towards him. she loves him and cares for him, and he's part of her family, but that doesn't make her his mom. in fact, Buck already has a mother figure, and it's MADDIE. frankly, Maddie is more of a parent to Buck than Bobby is

and this goes for Maddie, May and Harry too. Bathena are not parent-figures for Maddie. Athena is Maddie's friend, and Maddie's on-screen relationship with Bobby is almost non-existent, same with Buck and Maddie's on-screen relationship with May and Harry. they're not siblings, as far as we know they barely know each other.

I just hate the way people want to shove Buck and even Maddie into the Grant-Nash family like a little nuclear family cutout. Bobby will always feel responsible for Buck, more so than he does for the rest of the firefam, and Bobby is one of the most important people in Buck's life. but being a parent isn't just about a relationship dynamic, it's about child-raising, and money, and teaching.

[lover-of-mine]

Okay, I keep posting around what I actually wanna say about Buck, Eddie, and the parallel love lives, and, well, their love lives have been written as parallel but misaligned, but I don't think they are that misaligned anymore. Or at least they are the closest they have ever been. Abby and Shannon both serve as the first love who left and never gave them real closure, Abby left, forced Buck to leave her, came back and didn't admit to anything, just continued to force Buck to deal with it on his own, and Shannon left, only came back because Eddie asked her to, and she died right after asking for a divorce, so she never gave Eddie time to process the idea of permanently letting go of her before he was forced to do it on his own, and they are the love they keep reliving, because they were forced to find that closure on their own and they can't. Eddie because he is actively chasing Shannon and Buck because he is trapped in the same structure as his relationship with Abby, meeting because of work, the other person starts it, they leave at some point, at most times it feels like Buck is more in it than the other person. Buck gets a whole apartment because of Ali, Taylor was never as intense as we knew she could be about Buck, Natalia ran away because of who he is, Tommy doesn't seem to be putting in as much effort as he could. Ana, Marisol, and Kim and Ali, Taylor, Natalia, and Tommy, they get scrambled in the parallels between themselves though. I think mostly because where Buck needs time, Eddie needs intensity. Buck will realize stuff if you give him enough time, Eddie will only realize shit if it slaps him in the face. And Eddie's breakups tend to be Eddie's fault, where Buck breakups are usually because the other person does something. So one to one parallels are hard to draw, but they are there. Ana and Ali both are relationships that started because people keep telling them it was time to move on. Natalia and Marisol show up in their lives because of a call that wasn't about them, and they go out because they actually want to ask them out. Tommy and Kim both give the impression of it being about someone else, Kim is a carbon copy of Shannon, Tommy is presented to us as very similar to Eddie and he also parallels other Buck li, and there's also the way Eddie doesn't really want to date Kim and Buck and Tommy have the conversation about taking things slow. Taylor exists in a different situation because Eddie doesn't really have a multiseason love interest, Ana has a lot less episodes, so it's hard to compare the introductions, but Taylor and Ana parallel each other with the being introduced in an episode their family gets hurt, the whole thing with the brownies and Bobby and Chris and the skateboard, and the hurting Buck and Eddie part comes from their jobs, Taylor wants to capitalize on Bobby's addiction and Ana was the teacher responsible for making sure Chris stays safe, I think even the way Taylor's camera man teases them and the way Carla teases Eddie about Ana, structure wise Taylor and Ana are introduced in a similar way, and then coming back into their lives in unrelated circumstances, Taylor happens to be covering a scene Buck is working on and Eddie runs into Ana again during an unrelated call and later asking them out because of peer pressure. Ali, Ana, Taylor, and Marisol also parallel each other with being someone they meet while working and then start dating after a period of time has passed unlike Natalia. Taylor, Ana, and Natalia all get treated by them and that's interesting when they are not actually paramedics. There are a bunch of parallels between Natalia and Ana when it comes to conversations Buck and Eddie have with them too.

Kim parallels Taylor with the way both of them create chaos in their personal lives, Kim ends up making Chris want to leave and causes the breakup with Marisol, Taylor continues to try to capitalize on Buck's family even in a situation where their lives were actually at stake (and Chim is family in a more traditional way, now obviously because he's Buck's brother in law but at the time because he's the father of Buck's niece, and it is interesting that Chim leaves and actively wants to be as far away as possible from Buck and Chris is trying to get as far away as possible from Eddie, and I know the Chim's situation is not about Buck, but the person getting hurt the most over Taylor/Kim actions actually leaves the state while wanting to stay away from Buck/Eddie after finding out they were keeping something from them, which is something).

So the storyline parallels between all the love interests are there, but the things that's been getting me the most right now are the lines you can draw between Tommy and Kim. Because the thing is, while Eddie is actively chasing Shannon, I believe that Buck has let the Abby ship sail, but they are both looking in familiarity for something they already have with each other. With familiarity I mean the way Tommy parallels all of Buck's love interests, including Eddie, and the way Kim literally looks familiar. But also the way neither would have a chance of working long term because of that familiarity. Eddie can never bring Kim into his life, so that relationship would forever be surface level, and so far no real depth has been added to Buck and Tommy even though the show had opportunities to do so. Both Tommy and Kim presented Buck and Eddie with something they wanted but weren't fully aware of until they slammed into them, with Buck is the general concept of attraction to men he couldn't understand on his own and with Eddie, he didn't fully confront the way he still wants something from Shannon, that being more time, closure, or just the general feeling of grief that sometimes gets so unbearable you just want it to stop for a little bit and Kim was enough to trick his brain so it would stop for a second, I don't know, but she was offering something. But either way Eddie is finally at a point where he might actually look around to try and find out what he wants, because he was forced to confront the ghost of Shannon and Chris is not there, so he's at a point where he has enough puzzle pieces to realize that what he wants is the life he already has with Buck, the same way Buck can trip into the realization he already built his idea of love with someone, he just didn't understand Eddie is also an option. I think both of them work as a way to expand Buck and Eddie's dating pool, Eddie beyond what's expected from him, a mother for Chris, and Buck beyond women. So I think this is the closest they've ever been to actually being able to stumble into each other.

[sitron-sunni]

I watched the new episode of 9-1-1

a personal essay on queerbaiting (sorta)

I watched the new episode of 9-1-1, and immediately burst into tears as the credits started rolling.

Then I rewound the last six minutes, and watched the scene again, pausing to rewind the kiss. Again. And again. And again.

We got a kiss. I didn’t know we were getting a kiss. I sorta knew we were getting bi Buck, but I didn’t know we were getting a kiss. After last week’s episode, a lot of people were 100% convinced we were getting bi Buck. I saw their reactions before I watched that episode, too, and I was so confused once I finished it. Had we seen the same episode? That guy, Tommy, Buck’s so-called bisexual awakening-guy, was barely in there. He had about two memorable lines, and then he was in the background of a different shot, where he received a job-well-done slap on the shoulder from Buckley. That last one’s the one people were focusing on online. Look at the way this is framed, look at how he’s positioned, between Buck and Eddie. This is foreshadowing how he’s gonna get between them. Buck and Tommy is gonna be the gateway into buddie. They’re actually gonna do buddie, why else would they introduce a relationship between Buck and Tommy?

Reader, I’ll keep it straight with you. I did not believe them. After a while I gathered a lot of people already knew the name of the next episode; Buck, Bothered and Bewildered. They’d seen some stills, they knew there would be conflict and jealousy within that trio. They were putting it all together with comments and hints dropped by the actors. All those things added up, and it did paint a far more convincing picture. And I thought it was fun! I reblogged a few posts about it, I think, or at least I liked some. But the fact remains: I did not believe them. I thought, oh, imagine how cool it would be if they actually went there. I thought, yeah, realistically it would make sense to bring in a third person if they were actually gonna do it. That way they could test the waters, gauge audience response, and it could work as a catalyst for the relationship after so long. But mostly I thought Okay, so they’re gonna bring in Buck’s fear of not being enough for the people he loves again, this time through his friendship with Eddie, and we’re gonna get some sort of final resolution for that. Like, a big moment of catharsis. Or something along those lines, anyway. It just seemed to me like the most realistic thing that could happen. I mean, the idea of canon buddie was nice, of course it was! The queerbait is why I started watching the show in the first place: I wanted a good queerbait! But ultimately, a ship like that going canon was completely unrealistic. I speak from experience, after all.

Maybe it would’ve been different if I was younger. I remember being in fandoms when I was a teen. I remember reading theories, watching youtube-videos with “proof” that this or that was real, that it was gonna go canon. I remember getting my hopes up, thinking Oh my god what if they’re actually gonna do it!? for shows and pairings that, in hindsight, were completely unrealistic. Maybe that’s why I, even with fairly good evidence in front of me, didn’t actually get my hopes up this time. Because why be that stupid? Why invest emotionally like that? Why not just enjoy what we actually had instead, and then get anything extra from fanworks? Haven’t we learned by now?

I woke up this morning and opened tumblr, and I read half a sentence about how we actually have bisexual Buck confirmed canon now, before I quickly closed the app to avoid too detailed spoilers. Oh my god they were right! I can’t wait to watch the episode, I thought happily, and went on with my day. I opened the app again a few hours later, and scrolled for a few minutes, until I saw a brief glimpse of one, maybe one and a half gifs. Bucks face, Tommy’s face. Warm orange-y yellow lighting, Buck’s loft, you still owe me a beer. Close the app, move on. There were other posts throughout the day, more glimpses, all along the same lines as the first one. The last one came late in the evening, this time on twitter. Just the word in all caps; ANNOUNCEMENT, and then Bucks face and a bisexual pride flag.

And then finally, finally, after I’d brushed my teeth and gotten into bed, I was alone with my laptop, and I could watch the episode. The hype had built up, I was so excited to finally watch it. I was internally vibrating just a little bit. I was giggly, I was grinning widely, I was making comments to myself out loud, and laughing. I said oh my god, they’re really laying it on thick. I remember watching that scene for the first time and thinking how Tommy really looked so nervous at some points. That last one I found interesting. I really liked the actor’s portrayal; His facial expressions were quite subtle, and I thought he captured that nervous feeling so well. Maybe I took such notice of it because, well, I wasn’t quite expecting it.

I wasn’t expecting nervousness in an interaction between Buck and Tommy, because I still wasn’t actually expecting anything. At least I don’t think I was. Even with everything I’d seen online. Even as I was watching the show, I convinced myself. Those words, you still owe me a beer, they’ve misinterpreted them. They think it’s an invitation to a date because Buck’s jealousy in this episode is making it more plausible than ever before. Sure, the show’s leaning into it this time, but they’re gonna pull the rug out next episode. No, of course it wasn’t an invite to a date, what show were you watching, are you delusional? It’s just gonna be one week of people speculating and theorizing and building it up, and then the show’s gonna resolve it with some no-homo followed by a nice new buddie moment. The buzz will die down, and things will go back to normal.

And then the kiss happened. And then I burst into tears.

And now I think, oh my god isn’t it wild that they’re introducing a new romantic relationship for one of the main characters, and for the entire lead-up to the relationship, both Buck and Tommy are entirely focused on Eddie? Like, they’re just making everything about a third person! Imagine if they did this for anybody else! and, oh my god Tommy’s gonna break up with Buck because Buck’s basically already dating Eddie or something, isn’t he? and, oh my god it’s gonna be glorious! and, oh my god I can’t wait!

And I’m also thinking, I was wrong, and you were right. And I’m so happy I could cry.

TL;DR: If you and I share sterek, or destiel, or god knows what other similarly-shaped trauma, 9-1-1 might heal ya.

[decastde]

I totally agree with your buck/eddie post, I don’t think shipping them is wrong or anything but acting like they must be canon or it’s not a good story is just not a good way to look at it. The writers as well as Oliver and LFJ are telling a wonderful story about two queer men in their 30s/40s and we should celebrate that.

I also think destiel is a very different situation to buddie, for me dean was bi-coded from even season 1, but it became more overt (not explicit but overt) as the seasons went on, kind of similar to how buck was bicoded, but dean’s felt more intentional from the writers since it was over a long period of time and used a lot of queer references that would fly under the radar of a lot of audiences. I think buck’s bicoding was probably accidental at first but by s4 they’d decided to play into it, and obviously now it’s canon (which is great! love that!).

Destiel seemed like the accidental bit to me (at first), misha was initially a guest star but he was playing a great character and had a lot of chemistry with jensen (however you choose to interpret that chemistry). Overtime the writers started to play into that on purpose and I think the actors did as well, misha has confirmed this from his side but tbh I don’t think we’ll ever get a straight (ha) answer from jensen about it. Which is fine tbh, I’m okay with that, I don’t need actors to confirm anything really.

Anyways, I never really got that vibe from buddie? Like Oliver was playing into bi buck slightly, but I don’t think it was ever buddie specifically and I don’t think Ryan, as supportive as he is, ever played Eddie as anything but interested in women (or mostly shannon). I respect people’s head canons but I don’t think buddie is a given for the writers so if people could stop saying “when buddie goes canon”, because tbh i think they’re setting themselves up for disappointment a bit.

Holy fuck, that got long, sorry 😅. I kind of rambled a bit there but I hope you got my point. I would say don’t feel like you have to delete your buddie fics, I have plenty up of fandoms i’m not even interested in anymore (though obviously orphan/delete them if that’s what you feel is best). Anyways have a great day!

Yes, absolutely get your point.

I agree Dean is for sure bi-coded. My jaded heart will forever lament SPN couldn’t hang around just a few more years (despite how weird it had got) so that they could have had the kind of response Oliver and 911 got with the bi storyline. 😭😭 Ah well.

Yeahhh, back when Tommy appeared I feel like, sorry for making a sweeping generalisation, adults understood that was it for Buck and Eddie. If it were not a procedural general audience kind of show then 2 characters having bi/queer awakenings would be awesome. Sexuality is a spectrum etc, later in life realisations happen and all that jazz. But, as you say, they’ve never been intentionally played to be in love with eachother. Again, sure, storylines can change, but if realising you liked men and didn’t consider the man you are closest to then……it’s a shame perhaps, but no.

I don’t know. It’s got slightly better now since the initial finale aftermath and there is no problem with shipping anything you want. Go for it! It’s the threats and entitlement, the rudeness and mean spirited accusations that people who like Buck and Tommy are gross and blah blah blah. It just feels like a real ‘old man shakes fist at cloud’ moment as they (again, sweeping generalisation) don’t realise how amazing the Buck and Tommy atoryline is.

I could be a total bitch and rant on and on about how in general there are some hideous takes and just not understanding media (and the real world) but I know that in ten years most of them will look back on their behaviour and cringe themselves inside out.

I don’t know if I will delete the Buck/Eddie stuff I wrote, it already annoyed me that it went against canon anyway but that’s just me. Lesson (not) learned to not write during the hiatus. I looked into orphaning them but I feel bad.

Gah I went on and on. Sorry. Have a great day yourself! ☺️

[darkwinterchild]

Arrow: how season 1 set up the world

Originally posted on Reddit

Warning: a lot of words, as usual.

Worldbuilding is an important part of storytelling, so I wanted to talk a little about one of the most important pieces of worldbuilding in Arrow: Starling City itself. Because I think it has been neglected after the first seasons. The city used to be so full of life back in the days. It felt whole, it felt real and it felt grounded, and there are two major ways the writers managed to accomplish that: first, they introduced characters from all walks of life, both mains and minors; second, they set up a social background, the issue of class, and used that background to frame, color, compare and contrast their characters from the get-go - give them more depth and complexity.

So first, let’s look at season 1’s array of characters

The main character belonged to Starling City’s elite: that was our point of entry, our main point of view. On the one hand, we had Oliver, Thea, Thea’s friends, Tommy, Max Fuller and Carter Bowen to represent the privileged youths of the city. On the other, we had Walter, Moira, Malcolm, Frank Chen and the people on the List (Adam Hunt, Martin Somers, etc.) to introduce us to the older generation and their shenanigans.

Middle class? The Lance family used to be at the center: Laurel, Quentin, Dinah and Sara (dead but certainly not forgotten). From there, we had Laurel’s friends and colleagues at CNRI (Joanna in particular), and we had Quentin’s friends and colleagues at SCPD (Pike, Hilton, McKenna). We also had Diggle and Carly, poor Rob, and Felicity Smoak.

The people of the Glades were given a voice via Laurel’s storyline as a lawyer: Emily Nocenti, Peter Declan, and Eric and Nancy Moore with their son Taylor. Roy, our main boy, was introduced in episode 15. Raisa, the Queens’ Russian maid, left an impression in spite of only being featured in episode 1. Others were antagonists, but they were still given depth and motivations: the Restons and the Savior in particular.

Organized crime in Starling City used to operate at every level. At the very top, we had Malcolm Merlyn and his organisation. Then, among the lesser rich, we had the Bertinelli family (Frank and Helena). Ted Gaynor and his disgruntled veterans belonged more or less to the middle class. Finally, down at the bottom, we had the Triad, the Bratva, and Count Vertigo’s drug ring.

Throughout the first season, the main characters also mostly all had their own distinct narrative space. Just to cite some of the most important ones: Laurel shared separate storylines with Oliver, Lance and Tommy; Felicity shared separate storylines with Walter and Oliver; Tommy shared separate storylines with Laurel, Oliver and his father; Thea shared separate storylines with her mother, Oliver and Roy. There were so many different factions with different opinions and different agendas, doing completely different things - which made it all the more exciting whenever these storylines intersected (and they all came together in the big finale). This was a way to breath life into their world: Starling City used to be more than just a bunch of vigilante saving nameless faces. It used to be Laurel and the lawyers at CNRI fighting the city’s corrupt elite; it used to be Tommy trying to find his place; it used to be Quentin Lance and SCPD fighting crime and chasing after the Hood; it used to be Walter, a good man trying to solve a mystery; it used to be Moira, trying hard not to drown in her conspiracies; it used to be Roy and Thea figuring out who they wanted to be; etc.

So, this diversity of POV wasn’t a coincidence, but a consequence of the choice the writers made when they incorporated class as one of the thematic pillars of their show. Once they made that decision, it was obviously very important to have both main and minor characters at every social level through which we could explore life in the city. Note also the variety of professions/life styles within the same social class: in terms of worldbuilding, it is doubly important, because of course that leads to a variety of locations. The city didn’t just feel different in season 1 because of all the characters, it also looked different because of all the different sets associated with these characters.

How class was used to ground Starling City and bring it to life

The class issue was an integral part of the story. For a show based on a liberal superhero (from what I’ve heard), it is the one social justice issue they chose to tackle (racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. basically weren’t addressed at all), and they obviously put some effort into it.

Most characters and relationships during the first season explored class dynamics to some extend. When you look at romance, for example, class was the most essential element of Thea/Roy, a core element of both Oliver/Laurel and Tommy/Laurel (Quentin resenting these rich bad boys for what Oliver did to his daughters, Moira telling Laurel that her son loved being at her place because he didn’t feel like Robert’s son there, just himself; Tommy being cut off being an important part of the development of his story with Laurel; etc.), and definitely colored the way Moira/Walter as a high-end couple was written. Concerning characters, the fact that they were billionaires was a defining characteristic of both the Queens and the Merlyns, just like the fact that he was poor was a defining characteristic of Roy. Actually, we can’t just talk about a defining characteristic: their social standing was basically one of the driving character traits in their storylines, for all these characters.

Class used to be at the very core of show. Oliver’s story started when he realized his family’s fortune was built upon the suffering of others - when his father shot himself in the head and left him with the mission of righting the wrongs he committed toward the lower class. On the outside, the Hood was designed to be a champion of the people, an avenger going after the corrupt elite: he was the monster they created, karma in a way, consequences for all those who thought they could abuse their power and get away with it just because they had money. On the inside, the Hood is a deeply personal story about redemption and legacy, it is about an ex- billionaire playboy making amends for not only his father’s cruelty and indifference, but also his own mistakes - the entitlement that made him hurt his girlfriend horribly and irreparably, and left her sister dead at sea.

The Hood going after the List grounded the show in so many ways. First, it made his story different than all the other superheroes out there. Second (and particularly relevant to this post), it allowed the writers to explore the city in so many different angles: these people were not only businessmen but also accountants, investors, financial advisors, etc. By telling us their stories, the writers were also telling us how the city worked in all its complexities, who were the many different players. It made it more whole. Third, it meant the Hood had a justification for being a vigilante: he wasn’t there to replace the police back then, he was there to do what they couldn’t because they weren’t allowed to. Go after the guilty that eluded the law, that fancied themselves above it. His targets and his M.O. meant Oliver couldn’t do what he wanted to do by legal means. Each operation was carefully planned in advance, complete with detective work. This added a layer of believability to his story and the world they lived in that completely fell off in latter seasons.

The class issue wasn’t used to ground just the hero’s story into something real: it’s the same deal for the big bad’s plot. Everything about the Undertaking is a commentary on class, from Malcolm’s motivation (the crime-infested Glades that killed his wife), its execution (using his power as the most successful businessman in Starling to persuade or bully the other powerful players into joining his cause, take control of the corrupt first class via blackmail, infiltrate the law-enforcement, etc.: all of that to have a hand of command over every important chess piece in the city), to his end-goal (the annihilation of the poorest part of town). Actually, I’ve always found the diversity of Malcolm’s main group, the team that orchestrated the Undertaking, striking: he was the only white man, the others were two women, an Asian man, and a black man (Robert was killed right after they switched objectives so I’m not counting him). The only thing they had in common was their social standing, so you feel like it was deliberately constructed not to be a gender or race issue, but specifically a class one.

Even if you exclude the hero and villain’s plots, most storylines during season 1 had a relation to class in one way or another. The Savior? Fed up with the gangbangers in the Glades and the executives who let them run around free. The Huntress? Couldn’t stand her father oppressing the poor anymore. Ted Gaynor? Resentful over having to babysit rich kids. Firefly? He was created during the Nodell Tower fire, a tragedy that only occurred because the construction company that built it used substandard material to save a few bucks. Etc. Every single one of these storylines served to flesh out Starling City and its citizens a bit more.

Season 1’s most iconic quote is probably “You have failed this city” - the vigilante’s tagline. These words are directly related to the class issue, and what made them powerful was how thoroughly the writers set up the city’s social background, how full of life they made Starling feel.

The current situation

Since season 1 was, well, the first season, it was its responsibility to set up solid foundations for the show, notably a believable world. A city in which the show could grow into something more. I think it did a good job, but the seasons that followed didn’t really respect that work with the exception of season 2.

The class issue was dropped somewhere after the first third of season 2, which was busy trying to introduce more comic-booky elements. Season 3 and on didn’t pick it up again. I feel like season 3 was trying to do something worldbuilding-wise w/ the League of Assassins, but failed miserably (they succeeded in destroying one of DC’s most legendary mythos that’s all, and I’m very bitter about it).

So what does Star City look like today? IMHO: boring. You’d think Oliver being Mayor would mean it gets more development, but it’s more bland and empty and dead than ever.

In terms of point of views in season 5 and 6, mostly all we get is Team Arrow in the Arrow Cave and Team Arrow in the Mayor’s Office. They killed, wrote off the show, or forgot about most of the characters that added layers and diversity to the city. Apart from the masks and their allies, mostly all we have now are some villainous POV here and there, most of them not even originally from the city but just coming around to cause mayhem for some reason (I do think the character of Susan Williams was a welcome break for that reason, but she wasn’t particularly well-received). I don’t even know how the city looks like anymore, empty warehouses is all I can see in my head.

It’s actually a joke how the background of the characters, wrt the totally dropped class issue, simply doesn’t matter now. We were left wondering where Oliver, the main character, lived for an entire season. Most of Team Arrow doesn’t have a job, and it’s only recently been addressed. Curtis, well-off genius who used to hold a good job in a giant tech company, can say stuff like “as a black man I’m 80% more likely to get shot than you” (/paraphrased) to Rene, poor latino guy from the Glades who has actually been a victim of random gun violence and used to be a marine - because the history of these characters barely matters anymore, it’s just superficial.

In terms of believability, all the work season 1 put into making it all seem grounded has been thrown out the window. Revolutionary tech is invented on the fly in a matter of minutes. Felicity can hack into anything in a matter of seconds - her and Curtis basically have God-like powers, I swear. I still don’t understand how Oliver manages to be the Mayor and also moonlight as the Green Arrow. Also he’s good at being the Mayor and Thea was an awesome Chief of Staff despite them having zero credentials in politics because our heroes can now be absolutely anything they want if the plot demands it (or just if it pleases the writers). He can pass magical bills on controversial issues that everyone is happy with because Star City is now just a bland simple-minded mass. The Arrow cave is more technology advanced than the NASA and honestly, since they don’t kill and only go after common criminals, I don’t even know why they haven’t simply joined the law enforcement - as a special unit or something, Marvel style. The whole vigilante thing seem pointless at this point, just another hurdle.

(I mean, for real, last episode, Dinah, instead of confronting Vigilante in her capacity as a cop, had to go put on her costume first - that I have no idea where she hid since FBI lady was snooping around. Seems inconvenient and a giant loss of time when people’s lives are at stakes, yk?)

Tobias Church can just show up and take control of Star City’s organized crime (which, btw, I’m surprised to see is even still around) in a matter of… what was it? Two weeks? Which completely undermines these guys, in addition to being unrealistic. It’s another thing that makes the citizens of Star City look stupid or useless, just like the fact people haven’t figured out Oliver and his little gang are the vigilantes makes them look stupid. The writers destroyed any credibility the city had as a whole.

So, yeah, the world of Arrow’s latter seasons is a senseless one, and Star City feels like it has lost its soul.

This is all my humble opinion. Thoughts?

[rodrigohyde]

Hip-Hop Has Shaped Our Style More Than We Know

How Hip-Hop Influences Fashion

American hip-hop culture has influenced the way people around the world express themselves and identify with each other for decades. From all corners of the globe, fans are financially swayed by their rap icons, so much so, hip-hop itself is now serving as a major source of inspiration for the most elite fashion houses.

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At the 2018 MET Gala (dubbed the Oscars of the fashion world) hosts included not only the event’s annual chair, Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, but also Rihanna. Noteworthy invitees included rappers 2 Chainz, Migos, Wiz Khalifa, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Jaden Smith and A$AP Ferg, who garnered a wealth of social media attention and photo coverage usually filled by fashion’s most elite.

RELATED: Hip-Hop Style

Continuing to buck traditional fashion protocol, Cardi B sat front row alongside Wintour during Alexander Wang’s Autumn/Winter 2018 runway show at the former Condé Nast offices above New York’s Times Square. This seat, next to the most powerful figure in fashion, is typically reserved for A-list friends of the designers, powerful editors, industry exes — even royalty. The placement of the one of the hottest, most talked about female rappers today is a strong example of how high fashion has largely been influenced by hip-hop, which, in December 2017, surpassed rock to become the most popular music genre in the U.S.

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Rappers have long used designer fashion as a symbol of status, both in person as well as in their lyrics, and those stories have a direct influence on high-end fashion. It is evident even from hip-hop’s very beginning.

The ‘80s

Kangol bucket hats, chunky street-tuff gold chains, and name-plated necklaces with “Tonya” and “Lisa” written in cursive were all the rage. New York style with Adidas shell-toe trainers with wide white laces and black tracksuits were created by Run-D.M.C, LL Cool J, Funk Master Flash, The Fat Boys, and Big Daddy Kane, who were trendsetters in making authentic fashion statements.

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LL Cool J wore his then signature Kangol hat when few Americans knew anything about the European hat maker, but its association with hip-hop quickly invigorated the brand.

When Run-DMC sang about “My Adidas,” it at once pioneered the use of rap as a fashion advertisement and paved the way for the first endorsement deal between rap and clothing designers. In the mid ‘80s, the Adidas Superstar was an old basketball shoe, originally handed to players in 1969. The way Run-DMC wore their Superstars was different: The combination of sneakers without laces (similar to in prison, where they were removed to prevent inmates hanging themselves), black Lee jeans, leather goose-down jackets, Cazal glasses, and gold rope chains had long been the look of New York hustlers. But as earlier popular artists such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were pushed by their labels into wearing flamboyant, shiny, post-disco gear, Run-DMC would successfully take the street look mainstream.

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The ‘90s

The rise of female rappers such as Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Salt-N-Pepa all ushered in black pride wearing Afrocentric fabrics, headwraps, large gold earrings, and asymmetric haircuts, which all symbolized a movement that gave rise to social conscious hip-hop.

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The genre had became a powerful mix of influences — especially for clothing — allowing for the interaction of two theories of fashion diffusion. The upper class of fashion leadership proposes that new styles are adopted or started by groups in higher social classes, and they are later adopted in the lower social classes. This theory explains the early emergence of hip-hop fashion in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when consumers adopted aspirational labels not typically marketed to them, black poor teens, and young adults.

In contrast, however, hip-hop artists wore styles from Polo, Timberland, and Tommy Hilfiger, drawn to their all-American, elite, country club appeal. Yet, in 1994, Timberland’s chief operating officer issued a public statement reassuring customers that the brand wasn’t abandoning it’s so-called core base for the urban market.

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In 1991, designer Isaac Mizrahi incorporated hip-hop accessories such as African-inspired medallions into his New York Fashion Week runway show, while Anne Klein launched a clothing line especially based on rap music. Grand Puba name-dropped Hilfiger in his hit 1992 track “360° (What Goes Around)” and wore the designer’s clothes on various album covers. In 1994, Snoop Dogg donned a shirt emblazoned with the Tommy name on “Saturday Night Live,” gifted to him just hours before. The new yet immense popularity of the brand in the hip-hop community provided Hilfiger fueled growth and widespread brand resurgence since its founding 10 years prior.

In 1996, Tupac walked down the Versace runway during a fashion show in Milan. This might be one of the most spectacular visuals of just how intertwined hip-hop and high fashion were becoming.

The transformation of the hip-hop “look” to both a mass fashion and high fashion trend pushed hip-hop pioneer fashion labels such as Rocawear, Phat Farm, Karl Kani, and FUBU into iconic status.

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The ‘00s

The Courvoisier-guzzling, supermodel-dating, bling-bling decade of the 2000s became the next huge fashion influence derived from hip-hop culture. This evolution of the style suggested extreme wealth when hip-hop’s biggest stars began wearing more extravagant attire, while Snoop, Tupac, and Biggie were dressing like old-school mobsters in fedoras, bowler hats, large double-breasted suits, and expensive alligator shoes.

Coming off the bright and colorful ‘90s, the advancement of technology and travel brought a wide variety of influences to fashion, and it seemed like every rapper with a little bit of money and power attached his or her name to a clothing label. For every successful Sean Jean and Rocawear from the ‘90s, there was a failed Akoo, Nostic, Benjamin Bixby, and Outcast clothing from the aughts.

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Outside of full-blown fashion brands, some more obscure trends did make their way into the fashion mainstream. Sweatbands influenced by St. Louis rapper Nelly, which had a bizarre crossover appeal, became a sports accessory that young men — white and black — started wearing on completely non-athletic occasions.

One of the most universally known fashion trends of the aughts was the tall white tee. Mostly because an oversized white tee like a beeper signified drug dealer, tall tees were banned in bars and clubs, condemned in the media, and used by the police to profile assailants. Yet, when looking back at the era, the oversize tee of any color was status quo for high schoolers around the country.

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No hip-hop artist in recent memory has influenced high fashion more than Kanye West. When West released his first album “The College Dropout” in 2004, his prepped out style and popped collars was perfectly timed with the rise and dominance to then absurdly expensive teen retailer with uniquely Waspy appeal, Abercrombie & Fitch. It was a brand of prep Americana in every mall kids would save their money for just to have one of the brand’s ironic logo’d graphic tees.

The ‘10s to Today

Kanye's preppy, collegiate style stood out to begin with, but it was at the start of the 2010s that he came into his own with the creation of his profoundly popular collection Yeezy 1. Best known for his incredibly popular sneaker designs, West began designing footwear for Nike almost a decade ago. The Air Yeezy 1 and 2 collections gained instant popularity, setting new records for how much they demanded in resale prices. According to Business of Fashion, the collaboration had "the biggest impact on sneaker culture in the last decade."

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In 2015, West teamed up Adidas, Nike’s biggest competitor, on a line of apparel and footwear simply known as Yeezy, a project that has since reportedly transformed into a $10 million partnership. The Yeezy Boost 350s and 750s presented during the Yeezy Season 1 show sold out globally within 12 minutes and exceeded the resale records set by his collaborations with Nike, with some pairs selling for more than $6,000 on eBay.

West, who refers to himself as the first “hip-hop designer,” has also designed collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Giuseppe Zanotti, and A.P.C., but it was his record-shattering collaboration with Adidas as the first deal of its kind with a non-athlete, set an industry precedent that paved the way for other similar hip-hop and sportswear collabos, including Rihanna’s cultlike brand FENTY, designed for Puma.

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West is also, according to GQ, directly responsible for the prospering partnership between rappers and high fashion: “Five years ago, no rapper (or rap fan, for that matter) considered buying Givenchy or Alexander Wang ... West's penchant for luxury brands and avant-garde designers paved the way for guys like A$AP Rocky." A$AP was most recently named the face of Dior Homme, and sat front row at Gucci’s Cruise show in Blenheim Palace.

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With hip-hops’ already immense impact on fashion in the past decades, future holds much promise for this marriage. To be involved with the hip-hop culture is to participate in the defining mood of the spirit of the time. Luckily, fashion and hip-hop aren’t inactive ideas. They’re constantly evolving in ways bold and barely perceptible — but always aiming to be in line with that ineffable quality of being cool.

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