#which btw the last of us show?? just ep one so far? fucking amazing. like genuinely.

[ink-livi]

Mmmm thinking about zombies again... :]

[laufire]

Supernatural s2

I’m halfway through s3 already (technically a rewatch, but there were episodes I didn’t watch the first time around), so this post is a little overdue lol. At this rhythim the posts will overlap. Plus I’m hoping I can finish s4-5 during the holidays to see the ~intended ending~ before I have to slow down on the binge-watch. After that, a season a month sounds achievable AND won’t take longer than 2021 xD

ANYWAY.

-Overall, I’ve enjoyed it more than the first one, but at the same time I’ve found myself missing how... claustrophobic? Insular? Compact? That one was. s2 was about the world opening up just a little bit more, introducing new characters to the brothers’ life, etc. I do love the detail that this is something that can only have, narratively speaking, once John is dead. Again: this show gets abusive families, consciously or not.

-The foreshadowing is beautifully done. 15 seasons make for a lot of unintentional and ironic foreshadowing later on, I’m sure, but the purposeful foreshadowing is superb this season. About the crossroads deals, of course, but especially about John’s last words. I already knew he’d told Dean he might have to kill Sam (father of the year, seriously. Though I side-eye the fandom even more for always having acted as if this is only awful for Dean lol), so I was hyperaware of every single detail. My favourite moment was the absolute horror of hearing Gordon proudly, cheerfully relate how he murdered his sister when she became a vampire (which, btw, as someone that’s still bitter about what went down with the Gunn siblings on Angel, I found it healing to see something like that treated as a horror story).

-Speaking of Gordon: I unashamedly love his character lmfao. Sterling K. Brown is mesmerizing, always. At the same time, I have serious mixed feelings (especially after seeing his arc in full in s3) because man, if it isn’t a racist mess. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s not exactly revolutionary that the first time we see the story from the monster’s POV (something I want the show to do! Often!), it’s when white monsters are stalked and brutalized by our first black hunter. Especifically a white woman, btw (although I’m happy to see Tara Maclay as a brunette vampire. I didn’t know I needed that in my life, but I did). And you can tell that the show thinks it’s just so SMART and FUNNY to have a ~racist black hunter!! I mean, the comment about how psychic kids would be “betraying their race” if they allied with demons?? FFS.

And ofc there’s the fact that he’s condemned for the exact same type of stuff that makes Dean be hailed as a hero lmfao. Though I won’t like, I love the moment where, faced with the comparison, Dean’s response is “I might be like you, I might not. But you’re the one tied up.” I love those kinds of character moments. As of s2 I officially have a love-hate relationship with Dean Winchester, I hate it here xDD

But still, on his own, Gordon is an amazing character (it’s one of the most frustrating things about the show, the greatness tainted by the bigotry :))). Charismatic, terrifying, and ofc superbly acted. Also, I love that the fact that he praised John (as opposed to every other hunter having a rockier relationship with him) is clearly supposed to be a red flag LMFAO.

-I enjoy how the seasons delves more deeply into Sam’s ~~dark origins, since it was my fave thing about him way back when. I’m already mourning the (as I suspect) lost of his powers, ngl. There’s a little more attention in how he tends to over-identify with supernatural creatures struggling with their ~dark sides too (bitch me too, the fuck xD), which I LOVE to see (among other reasons because at least in that way we get a little of their POV in the forefront lol). One of my favourites in that sense was the episode centered around the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-ghost, played by Tricia Helfer. I clocked early one what was going on, but it was still very enjoyable, especially with Sam’s empathy with her (contrasted by Dean being a total bitch about it, btw. I can’t believe I still see post about how Dean is all heart/kindness/compassion/whatever the fuck. Dean is all about selective empathy and only when it conveniences him, pls).

I was more divided on the episode with Madison the werewolf, tbh. OTOH it put Sam in a better position, for a change xD. As the one willing to make The Hard Choices by fulfilling his promise to kill her because she was dangerous, even when Dean offered to ~take the burden from him. OTOH I hate that kind of thing lol. YOU GUYS KNOW A HUNTER PRO LIKE BOBBY, I BET HE COULD’VE FIGURED OUT SOMETHING TO CONTAIN HER A FEW NIGHTS A MONTH. Also, my immediate reaction was to compare this to when my man Angel had a crush on a werelady and helped her every month lmfao. But then, very few characters can withstand a comparison with Angel, in any sense :P

I also liked Sam’s subplot with his fellow demon-psychic kids, though I wish it’d lasted longer :/ (also: RME at the queer girl dying almost immediately AND her power being killing people, her girlfriend first of all, with her touch. The black guy was the last one to die at least...?). My fave was Ava, by far. I loved her since her reaction to helping Sam stealing a psychiatrist’s records was yelling “I’M AWESOME!!”. It made it easy to buy that someone that appeared so mundane, with her easy life and her fiance and whatnot, would become so power hungry and go off the rails, IMO.

BTW: RME at Dean being all “oh Sam is going too dark/becoming to cold” when Sam kills Jake. Jake ripped off his spine and killed him first!! It both amuses me and infuriates me all the times Dean tries to push Sam to be more like himself and then freaks out whenever Sam is not all sunshine and rainbows (while still remaining, IMO, far less cold than Dean himself. Besides, it’s not easy to be colder than Dean, lol).

Lastly, a little character detail I loved was when Sam was jealous about Dean being in the federal database but not himself lmfao. 

-I loved the new foreshadowing crumb with Sam finding out Mary knew the demon, too (information he’ll withhold from Dean, which I approve of LOL). I mean, I know exactly what’s up, I’ve watched most of s4 xD (also, what is UP with this family and making deals with demons. Everyone but Sam so far!! And then HE gets dragged for ~getting too close to one smh. Maybe lead by example!! Also also: yes, it was meant to be ambiguous, but I can’t help but notice the only kiss-pact -or further, depending to how close YED was to Lilith’s levels, since to make a deal with her you have to fuck xD- we didn’t see was the one that must’ve happened between John and YED. Cowards!! xD). Still. I’m so curious about her. Her resurrection is one of the main reasons I’m determined to make it to the later seasons, ngl.

-Another thing I LOVED about this season is how they used sibling relationships to parallel/foreshadow stuff about the brothers, the way s1 did often with fathers. I’ve already mentioned Gordon and his sister, but the others are not less brutal imo: Andy having to kill his evil twin, who wanted him all for himself (... Dean is that you xD); the little girl’s ghost who wanted her grand-niece to commit suicide to stay with her, and didn’t give in until her old sister agreed to die in her place. It was chilling. Also, at one point the parallel was between the brothers and a married couple (the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-a-ghost) and asñdlfkajsf. I’m guessing they had fun with the shippers lol.

Speaking of the brothers’ relationship, this season also goes a little further in escalating the violence between them, when Dean punches Sam in the face and he refuses to respond (“you can hit me all you want, it won’t change anything”. Fuck), or when Dean again punches Sam after Sam was possessed by Meg ¬¬

-Going back to my love-hate relationship with Dean, lmfao. My biggest beef remains how much validation his POV gets from the narrative, granted or not; he’s one of the most irritating cases of protagonist-centered morality and I know it’s only going to get worse smh. At least this season it feels a little more balanced than in s1, with episodes like the one where the civilian Sam had tried to keep away dies halfway through the ep because Dean allowed him to get involved, for example. Still, it grates on me xD. The continuing prison rape jokes/demonic possession rape jokes (with Meg and Sam), his general grossness with women and his lack of sympathy for non-humans even when they’re not trying to hurt anyone don’t exactly help. Also, I often see him praised for some of his political views, a lot of which I agree with (his mistrust of cops, saying convicts don’t deserve to die no matter what they do), but when contrasted with his general attitude across the show it’s really grating ngl.

But then he has such AMAZING character details thrown in, that make me appreciate him as a POV character nonetheless, as much as I often want to curb stomp the guy xD. I loved his speech about how there’s no such thing as a dignified death. I love how he refused to come near his mother’s grave, both at the beginning and at the end of the episode (this show is like, the cure to DCCW’s shows false fuzzy sentimentality istg). I love his pop-culture references, like when Sam mentions Dean always thought OJ was the murderer or Dean jokes about freeing Katie Holmes from Scientology’s cult xD (sometimes it really hits you how old this show is lol). I enjoyed his Wishverse episode, and his lines after Sam dies/he sells his soul to save him (“I had one job”, “my life can mean something”) hit HARD.

But most of all? I LOVE how and why he starts losing respect for John. It’s so fucking cold and abrupt and makes so much sense!! Like, yes, part of it is John’s message about killing Sam (... again, father of the year!), but most of all it’s about John making a pact with a demon and dying TO SAVE DEAN (and probably, simply that he died at all. That shit de-mystifies anyone). IT’S SO FUCKING GREAT TO WATCH. “He spent his life chasing that demon. He was supposed to die fighting, not making a deal with the damn thing. That was supposed to be his legacy, not this." Damn, Dean xDD. The *contempt* with which he said that killed me.

I also love his inherently atheist vision of the world (even if yes, it’s extremely funny knowing this show has canon God and angels and shit -no Jesus Christ though, which I find endlessly funny-, or that they actually meet the archangel Gabriel in disguise xD. Either way, the episode with the fake angel and its foreshadowing was hilarious), his anti-destiny stance, and that it’s him and not John who gets to kill YED.

-I liked Ellen and Jo. Not LOVED, but I liked them. I keep fearing that secondary (especially female) characters will feel empty/shallow but the show keeps proving me wrong, even with one-episode wonders, and at first I wasn’t sure about them, but I was sold quickly. Partially because of the actresses, they both had this... humanizing, endearing quality? It worked really well.  I also loved the explicit contrast between John and Ellen’s parenting styles, with Ellen wanting Jo to return to school and be safe from the hunt, and Jo wanting something different. Also, I wouldn’t ship it if you paid me, but LOL at anyone who actually buys Dean sees Jo as a ~little sister just because MEG said that rme.

This show is just REALLY good when it comes to giving depth to a character with only a couple of brush strokes, which makes it all the more frustrating when they abruptly die or disappear to never be seen again/only once more (to abruptly die!) :)))

I was less sold on Ash; he was amusing, but having a Genius Hacker TM helping them out seemed like the beginning of increasingly giving the brothers ways of deux ex machina-ing them out of problems, when one of my favourite things about the show is seeing them creatively find ways out themselves. I like when they’re competent! Like with the multitude of codes they have to improvise plans, like in the episode where with two words through a lawyer they implemented a quick scheme so that Sam would escape from a police precinct. I like that stuff.

-I’m still so bitterly jealous about the dead man’s blood hurting vampires detail. SO BITTERLY JEALOUS. I love a lot of what this show does with its lore but that little bit is the worst offender. I want it so bad xD

[petekaos]

What did you think about the last episode!!

hi hi! so uhhh... this is going to get long and i’ve combined like 10 other asks i want to address, so your ask may be answered here! if you want Rahul’s Take On The 2gether Finale, then brace yourself.

...I didn't really like the last episode, I feel like it could've been a lot better/more emotional

I dunno if it's because I didn't like the last 2 episodes but even though the show literally finished I'm not emotional? The last episode I felt actually really happy watching was ep 9 but now I'm just 'ok, that show finished.' I'm sad bc I thought I would have a stronger reaction to the ending and them getting back together but I'm just meh :/

Really don't want to sound like those annoying people but damn really no kiss scene

I liked the ending, it was okay I guess but gmmtv better prepare for a shitstorm bc so many people didn't lololol

Honestly the best and well written episodes were ones where they still weren't a couple, like 8 and 9 were amazing

Although the finale was good, I feel llke in the future when I want to rewatch my favorite moments from this series, I will go for the first 10 or so episodes more often than not. It kinda feels like 2gether peaked around episodes 7-10, which is perfectly fine!! It was all in all a great series that did what it wanted to do and I’ll always cherish it but, I probably won’t rewatch much of the last two episodes

They made pam even worse!! Before she had her talk with tine anyway!!

My thoughts on the finale: could've been a lot better, could've been a lot worse

2Gether really felt like a giant inflatable castle that was carefully blown up for the past 12 weeks only to let it rapidly and poorly deflate in the end

The ending was fine and was expected but for me it's underwhelming in the sense that the past episodes, especially 4, 8 and 9 were really written in comparison so the finale is kinda meh bc I knew there was gonna be a happy ending. But still the YouTube comments and what some people on tumblr are saying is ridiculous, I don't want to even think about Twitter but imo I don't think any of gmmtvs other shows can top dbks ending like that ending was perfect,

i honestly love that 2gether focused so much on the story and the emotion and became so successful without all the usual fan service. i hope the whole industry takes something away from that! but i still felt like the finale was a little emotionally stunted when it came to tine/sarawat. i just wanted a big YES, I CHOOSE YOU moment, and tine's reappearance and the bracelet scene just didn't do it for me. you know what would have, though? a kiss. or a hug, or holding hands, or something sweet

okay, my friends! here is my opinion on the 2gether finale first, and then i’m gonna address what i personally hold of the more negative response the fandom has shown. i generally thought the finale had... a solid ending. i went into it with absolutely no expectations apart from sarawat’s song and a happy ending, because i knew it would be messy and not as good as ep 4 or 9 etc, considering the sheer amount of open storylines that were left to be resolved in one episode. i knew it would polarise the fandom--but i personally thought the ending was fine! a bit cliche, a bit rushed, but it was okay and it was a good enough ending for me to put 2gether behind me, the first season at least. the bracelet scenes and shots were amazing, the song was incredible (although i wish they would have had sarawat sing a bit more), the conversation pam and tine had was solid as well! there were a lot of things i liked about the finale and bright and win killed their solo acting as always. however, there are some things i wanna get into more detail about that i feel could have been done better, not only as a finale but as a show itself.

time allocated for the storylines. or: plotlines in general. this has been my bone to pick ever since episode 10. not gonna lie, this wasn’t good, especially from ep 10 onwards. there were so many storylines and plotlines that were dragged out further than necessary, and so many plotlines that should have started earlier. best example for this is mil and phukong, the mil redemption storyline should have started in ep 10 and should have had him be sincere for once, and the mil/phukong storyline should have actually made sense from the beginning and started in ep 11 at the latest. the mantype storyline should have also started a bit earlier than that and given us an explanation as to why type was crying at the retreat. however, mantype did pull it off!

writing! this ties in with the first point. the writing felt a bit inconsistent in the last two episodes and it’s a pity, really, that this is one of the downfalls :/ all the actors in this series, from the mains (bright, win, mike, toptap, frank, drake) to the side characters (gunsmile, love, gigie, film, etc.) are such good actors and it’s unfortunate that the last three episodes were a bit :// in terms of writing and plotlines. they all did the best they could with what was written and that... yeah.

conflict. this has to do with the first two points. the finale felt rushed. that’s something that i don’t think anyone really can argue? and i expected that, so i wasn’t too disappointed by it or anything. obviously it would have felt rushed considering the fact that they had to wrap up 3 or 4 episodes’ worth of storylines in one episode, which was a blunder on the writers’ part. the conflict fell flat, then. if they had had pam come in earlier and had tine and sarawat spend more time away from each other, we would have gotten an explosive reaction. i really do think that after they got together for real, the writers struggled to find conflict to keep the story going, jumping from tine’s insecurities to mil to pam for no reason whatever. i think it would have been much better done if we had mil as an antagonist wrapped up and on the road to redemption in ep 10 and had pam come in there, with tine’s insecurities as a b plot. i feel that would have been a bit more gripping. but, hey, guess that’s just me!

order of filming. this has to do with people saying that brightwin’s chemistry was off in the finale. i don’t think it was off, per se, but it was definitely lacking when we compare it to their chemistry in ep 4 or 9 or 10, y’know? that’s because i believe the finale was filmed earlier, when bright and win were still getting to know each other and figuring out how well they could improv. and they can improv, from what we’ve seen! so there really is nothing i can say apart from the fact that it’s a bit disappointing that they decided to film such a pivotal scene at the beginning. if it had been filmed in the end, it would have definitely been better!

flashbacks. the finale needed all the time it was gonna get, and i am disappointed by the amount of flashbacks they used, honestly. i would have cut down on the number of sarawatine flashbacks and used them sparingly when they reunited, because that just... makes sense and evokes emotion in the viewer, you know? the only flashbacks that served well were type’s view of everything and phukong and mil, because they were new. it just... felt a bit inauthentic.

pam. or: the girls in general. there is nothing i can do here but SCREAM. pam should have come in way earlier and replaced mil as the centre point of conflict for ep 11 and 12 to have been as good as the rest of the show, or ep 4 and 9 at least. her character fell so flat and the conflict she brought with her fell so flat as well, honestly. the girls should have been done better--more of earn and sarawat! more of pear! they could have tied into the plot effortlessly!

mil and phukong x mil. yeah this is a... whole ass bulletpoint, unfortunately. call me a clown all you want for expecting him to have at least a half assed redemption arc in the finale but goddamn was that... not good. really bitter over the fact phukong was straight up okay with being a “replacement” for tine even though... that doesn’t even make sense. i just... yeah, this wasn’t good. i feel super bad for frank and drake because they deserve a well written show or at the very least a well written storyline for all of their chemistry and work they put in, considering the fact that they are so so young. i could go on about a good mil arc for ages but i just... yeah i’m writing a fic, so y’all will see.

the reunion. this stems from the flat conflict and the rushed-ness of it all, but yeah. it wasn’t particularly hard-hitting, but i still enjoyed it because it’s sarawat and tine. this has to do with when they filmed as well, and just... because the angst didn’t start early enough for it to hit home. and i really do wish we’d had a scene after that with the both of them, alone. a lot of their things happen with a lot of people around them... and nah.

one year later. bro. bro. bro. the music club thing was cute! but i would have just... loved to see them alone, y’know? a scene of them being alone and intimate, just sitting next to each other on the couch or at a football game or sarawat continuing bringing the cheerleaders snacks, even a year later. them going to another concert. anything where they were just... alone. i wanted to see them together! we got that with mantype and we even got that fucking... scene on the roof where mil and phukong were just fuckin around? yeah? i would have loved to see that with sarawat and tine so much. (also btw pretty sure the rooftop scenes with mil and phukong is also where drake and frank took this photo and it made me so happy dhsndh like... the shot where mil took his hand off phukong’s eyes? i called it immediately and my partner was like ???)

intimacy. chemistry. the biggest thing everyone is talking about. now comes the part that y’all all wanted to know if you’ve been reading this far lmfao, my take on the fact that was no kiss in the finale! and my take is... i expected there to be no kiss in the finale somewhere deep within, and honestly i’m fine with not having a kiss. my only problems with all of this are first of all, that we didn’t get a proper kiss in the entire series and had sarawat kissing tine one-sidedly. secondly, i would have loved verbal intimacy as well! an i love you, or y’know, some hand holding, anything! this is also due to the fact that i believe the series was filmed relatively early on. i just wish... again, that they would have been alone one year later and we could have just seen them being domestic, as we have already seen them!

so those are some of my thoughts on the finale. considering the fandom’s response... i can see why people are upset or disappointed but i don’t think it’s, like, that justified to throw the whole show away as well. yeah, the ending wasn’t perfect, but if you’ve enjoyed the show as a whole... maybe it’s okay, y’know? like, personally, i don’t think i’m ever going to rewatch the finale. but i do love the earlier episodes and i am gonna watch them back at some point, probably! it’s all well and good and valid to criticise the lack of intimacy and kissing in the finale i guess, but if you’re a straight girl then maybe... watch your words. 2gether has portrayed a wonderful love story between two men and to see straight people throw it away as “bromance” or say it’s the “straightest bl of all time” or whatever because of the lack of kisses is kind of hurtful. i am completely open to discussing this with lgbt people, mlm specifically, and you can come talk to me about your thoughts if you’re a straight woman as well. all i’m asking for is that you maybe show a little bit of empathy and respect, y’know? i also do think 2gether peaked around episode 9/10 and i’m fine with that! it gave me so much more than characters and relationships--it gave me the fandom and everyone here and words cannot express how grateful i am for all of you. maybe the last few episodes were poorly written and the finale wasn’t everything y’all hoped for... but i did and do love this show. i cannot wait to see where brightwin go next.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

diefordarkseid replied to your post: read this quote yesterday & naturally immediately...

milo jsyk i have yet to watch this show beyond the clips you’ve been posting of winston but the more i read your posts about him im like “wow i like and relate to winston billions kinda sorta”

scully have you ever Partaken of this really convenient just-under-15-min Youtube Compilation of all winston billions’s appearances to date (seeing as tragically s5 debuts in a couple days, which is why i’m even less capable of shutting up about winston billions than usual, and btw wrol has said that of the 7 eps we’ll get [seeing as production was interrupted by pandemics but at kind of the best point @ which it could’ve interrupted] he is in every single one) like i truly forget if i’ve ever linked that

i realize there’s a lot going on with no context but it’s a delight all the same

and i absolutely Love winston billions (tragically, see: being cursed w/ this series lmao) and yes big relate. i mean you know how wrol Cannot play a heterosexual Or neurotypical character......his can’t-be-straight vibes are radiating same as ever and i am Very Adamant that winston billions is Definitely autistic, that struck me even when all the content we had was his s3 appearances lol. 

also the fact that wrol gets so many Deeply Insecure characters to play lmao, that was pretty much the gist of his originally-meant-to-be-one-off Botched Interview Scene lol, taylor tells him he’s Too Self-Loathing, which they then have him basically confirm in his next appearance way down the line, which they Allegedly started writing as soon as wrol was filming that original would-be cameo lol.........we love the insecure low-self esteem wrol roles!!! he continues to nail it, he’s like yeah i got this

winston is also unusually Earnest and Honest, especially considering the show he’s in, and like, this guy is Putting In Effort to communicate and also connect with the people around him, which is not many people so far b/c he’s mainly interacted with taylor (which is Not a problem lol) and had fleeting interactions with his other 3 Named Coworkers.......he’s a touch ~sensitive~ lol like very prone to kind of capitulating to others’ Feedback, really into Taylor’s Validation which, why wouldn’t you be, but it’s a lil like “haha oh no” considering his and taylor’s first encounter was him annoying the hell out of them and them slamdunking him so hard he just goes off and presumably Has Depression about it until they get back in touch with him months later. Winston And Taylor Dynamic is essential considering a) virtually all winston’s scenes have been with taylor and b) asia kate dillon is Amazing and so is wrol of course and c) Their Communication(tm).....we are obsessed. this is a whole other extremely long tangent about taylor and winston’s mutual respect and ability to Get each other and willingness/ability to communicate well, which means A Lot considering like, everyone else finds winston offputting and does Not communicate well with him, and many people find taylor (at least initially) offputting for different but not-that-different reasons, and taylor often has to struggle for very conditional and transactional “respect” from others (they do get Some genuine respect, thank fucking god) but after his first meeting for taylor involves them reading him for filth and giving him despresso, the next thing he does is show up both Saying and Showing he’s listened to them and he’s clearly trying to Work With Them and they Work With Him and god the essays all about this scully.....the Essays......the Winnie N Tay.............the [they should absolutely fuck] and the Tayston...........

ANYWAYS ugh god we love him and wrol Does What He Does and gives the character depth and nuance and [the energies....the vibes] when nobody fucking asked him to, which is why he was originally just meant to come in and film the one minute long scene, but they liked him so much they wrote him in more episodes, and then in more episodes throughout s4, and then So Far Every Episode of s5 that we can get thus far. and i haven’t watched billions either!!!! i Have seen material outside of the Winston Content, and i Know Of material i have not actually watched, but i cannot bring myself to like, actually watch the series normally and in full lol. taylor is a main character which is absolutely deserved but i fairly loathe like all the Other main characters (including the two supposedly central ones lol.....a nightmare) and what i don’t dislike, i Simply do not care about lol........like, if i did actually watch it Properly? i’m sure it’d be fine and i’d only Sometimes want to slam my head through a wall. i know this b/c i’ve watched a couple eps almost in full (the last couple eps of s4) but like, i do not have to, so no thanks

but winston is So Good we love him and we have so many Thoughts and he is very relatable b/c like. wrol just Gives These Performances and goes above and beyond to make this seem like a fleshed out person before anybody even asked him to lol. or winston would have only ever been Quant Kid 2 in one scene in ep 3x03. and there are even other things we can derive enjoyment from, or we’d be way deeper in hell than we are already. such as: taylor mason, which is akd really honestly being so good an actor they’re carrying this show lol they very truly elevated this series by a lot singlehandedly. Their Performance/s......which is why it’s fucking brilliant that Wrolliam and Akd are scene partners virtually all the time. together they are just killing it, by which i mean, us. that’s why we’re here really, we went and discovered how amazing their scene/s together in ep 3x11 were and it was like hmm. i think i will never shut up about this for A Year And Counting

[dominicvail]

thjslove replied to your post

“do you think this could be end in one of them getting killed and...”

omg what CM receipts? ��

@thjslove cm is one of the most convoluted behind the scenes messes i have ever witnessed and i am just Astounded till this day like, i’ll bullet point for you because i Genuinely will be here writing this for 3 hours if i do details;

think of all the female cast members that have ever been on cm?? yeah?? a lot! well, the only ones who left in non suspicious circumstances? Lola Glaudini (elle) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (kate). Literally. The only ones. 

one time (between seasons 8 and 9) they almost cancelled the show because aj cook and kirsten vangsness decided they didn’t like that their male costars were making $70,000 more PER EPISODE than they were (this was back when they did 24 eps a season so like... i’m not gonna do the math but that is A Lot Of Money). (they renewed it last day of renewals, it was the same year cote de pablo walked from ncis because of the same reason, legit the only reason they got anywhere was b/c they said ‘we both get raises or we both walk’. 

btw while this was happening, minus Moore, the rest of the male cast was holding up negotiations so they got perks on top of being paid over 50% more than the women. 

this sequence is the kicker

u know season six, the jj and prentiss absences??? 

it was because they both got fired, listed as ‘creative decisions’ (that’s important later), which basically seemed to amount to ‘we want both less women and for her to be younger than both of you’. 

they fired aj cook flat out as her contract had expired that year, in the middle of a 2 parter, and didn’t even want to let her do an exit???? they legit had to fight for the right to have her to film an exit episode (they negotiatied 3 episodes, one for finishing the 2 parter, one exit, and one for when prentiss exited). 

brewster’s contract had Not expired (also important later), they just only decided she should be in 8 episodes. 

it’s important to the sequence of events that i mention outside influences, b/c the cm fans were PISSED. There was a straight up public outcry, i have Never seen a response like it in my many years of obsessive TV watching. People were Very fond of Prentiss and JJ and were Not impressed they were being booted as unnecessary to the narrative, those pesky creative decisions!!! the petitions and public support towards them were pretty incredible actually. 

by that point there wasn’t much that could be done about Cook, but seeing the response CBS kept making Brewster film Way more than those 8 episodes she got slotted for actively dragging her along, Still fired but p much unable to find other work realistically??? b/c they kept calling her back in???

public support was still Overwhelmingly on the actresses side. 

To the point that CBS started ardently claiming the actresses were fired for Monetary reasons. Yeah, they straight up lied, and still lie about it today. I have seen cbs affiliate websites print said lie bluntly in their articles (i no longer read cbs affiliate anything). 

I listed the pay scandal first for perspective on the money lie. At that point i think the men on the cast were wearing about $110,000 an episode, and it got out Cook was earning about £50,000 an ep, and we never heard about Brewster’s salary But when i say she made a Big Deal over finally getting paid as much as the men in the past couple of years i mean it, so we can assume she was also being paid a lot less. My point being, if they needed to save money, it would have been more profitable for them to fire One man on the show than two women. They pay gap was that much. 

so they lied, still lie, about why they fired them and it wasn’t even a good lie. 

ANYWAY

i know the show’s writing isn’t really applicable but Prentiss and Seaver  were never meant to be main characters on the show together, where they dragged out prentiss’ exit, they overlapped and Rachel Nichols had very little to do. 

Anyway, by the time the late eps of the season were airing (and i assume they looked at how many viewers cut loose when brewster left) cbs straight up rang up aj cook and asked her to sign back on (why she was in the last ep despite only being hired for 3 eps that season). She said she hated them but she had a young kid at the time and regular work that was local was helpful (plus, u know, i bet it was a great ego boost).

the season finishes airing, it goes on hiatus with the cast listed 4 season 7 as the men, garcia, jj and seaver. 

u know how i mentioned paget had a contract for s6 still but they cut her episodes down??? Well, CBS used the fact that they wouldn’t let her work on the show anymore despite being signed on as evidence that she was breaching contract if she didn’t go back as a regular for season 7. They threatened to sue her for breach of contract. The only reason prentiss was in s7 was because they used what they did against her that she had no power over to threaten her. So, u know, super nice. 

meanwhile, they fire rachel nichols, don’t bother to actually tell her they’d done it!!! and she found out on fucking twitter (and rachel is such a nice person, and she was absolutely vilified and abused by every idiot on the internet too thick to realise none of the above was her fault jeez). 

so s7 happens w/ the same cast as before, but brewster will Only work to contract and refuses to sign on again for s8. Understandable, tbh. 

they hire jeanne tripplehorn, fandom is disgusting as usual, like, absolutely vile, not surprised just disappointed. 

at the end of season 9 (they have 2 year contracts so like.. it was the end of her contract), despite everything in the  storyline process indicating otherwise and how much of a farce for her character what went down was... Blake left???? No more Jeanne???

Not one peep from bts over what happened.

if that sounds suspicious to you, it is, one of the crew members let slip they’d all been gagged and were not allowed to talk about it. So cbs learnt it’s lessons in as such that they learnt to hide their shitty actions rather than not do anything shitty.

p sure there was another pay scandal in here somewhere too??? 

in terms of The Gay(tm), Reid was like, conceptualised as bi from the get go but that thing in season one with Lila happened so the execs said he could not possibly be bisexual. Yeah. Yeah u read that right. Most ppl laugh at that one and say uhm do you not know what bi is??? but honestly it was just an excuse they knew full well what they were doing imo

why? they did it again! the writers, producers and Brewster all agreed on a scene where an episode opens w/ prentiss waking up in bed with another woman, guess who nixed it!!!! cbs. They also put a gag order on That little fact too! Kirsten Vangsness, bless her, did a podcast a few years ago on afterellen (before it got fuckawful and was with it’s original owners) and, i’d say ‘let slip’ but she knowingly dropped that truth bomb knowing full well she shouldn’t have. I love her. 

lately they’ve made brewster do “interviews” with some of those cbs affiliates where they try and get points??? for saying prentiss was gonna be gay??? like they’re not the ones removing the rep from the show??? and expecting a pat on the back for... refusing to have any kind of gay rep in a show that is by this point conspicuously straight (not that LA isn’t, but it’s not nearly as bad as cm). 

the whole mess with Gibson is... Wild b/c as much as i Loathe the dude he supposedly attacked cbs would not just fire their white guy show lead for no reason and i didn’t see any above the level sites claim any funny business there, but he got fired and cbs rang up Brewster and asked her to be the show lead which, honestly, after being fired for being old and irrelevant must have been AMAZING.

she also takes the time to point out to anybody who asks about her and aj being fired for money reasons that no, it was not about money at all. She basically calls her bosses out for being liars in public interviews frequently and it’s Amazing. 

i’m sure there’s more crap but i’m not recalling it rn

honestly cm bts drama is Wild and this doesn’t even get into the Patinkin drama (which while drama, is not actually anything to do with cbs). 

Interestingly enough, it’s super hard to find out all this stuff unless u were in the fandom the whole time because they’ve bloody lied So Much it’s all everyone even believes anymore. It’s disgusting. 

Still can’t believe  ncis:la’s female cast has done this well for so long???? These are just CM’s reciepts, they have a history of doing this stuff over and over on multiple shows, i know of it as far back as when trek tng was airing in the 80′s and can name more in between. 

[sometimesrosy]

Roswell New Mexico ep 1.09 liveblog Songs About Texas

Listen I don’t care that I’ve never done a liveblog about this show before. I love it. I watched the original. I like this one better. Do not watch if you don’t want my buzzed cursing and spoilers and flailing. Because I curse and flail and spoil. it was an accidental liveblog because I was messaging a friend of mine who watches but was not caught up. So I didn’t want to spoil her until she said it was fine and then it became no holds barred. Do I edit it or let you see my terrible typing while I watch a show and drink a beer in the afternoon? 

Ahh. Get it unfiltered.

me--all right. i'm watching the roswell episode

buddy--We had a rather intense work meeting How’s the Rowell episode Roswell*

me-- just started. idk. did you see the last episode? omg i like all these character so well

Buddy--No I’m so behind

me--well then i can't tell you marias not as quirky. i liked the last maria a lot oh i like all these characters. the female sheriff? i like her too can we please have a maria/alex/michael love triangle? please? no wait not love triangle. ot3 polyamory please

buddy--Lol your commentary is awesome

me--michael is canon bi. it works. maria and alex can just be nonsexual partners and share micheale he's SO cute IF YOU HAD KEPT UP TO DATE I COULD GIVE YOU BETTER COMMENTARY

buddy--YOU CAN SPOIL ME

[buckle up I just go IN]

me--they're going to see a faith healer they're wondering if she's an alien. max and michael went to see if she did that, but liz and maria went to see  if she could heal maria's mom who is crazy. the female sheriff went to ALEX instead of his father who is trying to get her to out max.  she found a handprint death and thiks there's a conspiracy and she doesn't trust alex's dad who is blackmailing her to surveil alex. wait why is MARIA going with Michael to heal his broken hand that was smashed by Alex's dad because he cauthg them together. oh wait. liz is talking to max PERSONAL SPACE MUCH? michael is funny. "That feeling babe is naivetee" wait why does michael care about maria? oh she's a fake healer. oh. they just did an indigenous appropriation comment. wait grandma is like, 'they were asking about the sigil?" i love his show confession. i'm on my second beer. michael stole from the scamming healer. liz doesn't care

buddy--Ah feeling a little loose?

me--michael is funny casual let's say better than anxiety oh they just made a cut about healthcare. this show is awesome maria is singing alanis morisette!

buddy--Oh hey I don’t judge at allI can’t go that route or my family would start raising eyebrows

me--i'll probably have to watch again because i'm getting buzzed wait why is michael flirting with maria stop it michael if you're just teasing poor max is moping wait maria's making max sing with her i love max, michael, maria and liz together. oh now we have alex, the female sheriff, and liz's ex boyfriend. i like them too but he thinks the murderer is isobel but it's not i bet it's someone else.

buddy--No I can’t imagine it’s that simple 

me--i think there's another alien out there killing people and taking control of isobel which means she didn't kill rosa but whoever controlled her did I'm REALLY gonna need michael to stop flirting with maria because i used to ship maria and michael and he made me ship michael and alex. michael is both hot and funny at least we get some max and liz bonding. oh no there's a motel across the street!!!!!! girl sheriff just got told her ex bf max is an alien

this show is great

Oh god lol Is everyone in this town in love with max evans? says liz's ex bf what's his name?

buddy--Dude come on you know the answer to that I think Kyle 

me--lol kyle yes that's right uh oh needed to rewind the lol line and i rewound too far. atleast i get to see max and liz again wow how far did it rewind? I guess I'm pushing my kids "clean up your room at 4" back a little bit. wait we're back to alanis again? maybe my buzzed rewinding is making it so i don't need to watch again btw maria can sing wait michael TOTALLY checked out maria stop that! liz is falling in love wth max wait lol line coming up. in love wih max evans DId you just threaten to tattle to our parents Jenna? Manes or the Sheriff. now she's about to find out Max is an alien. wait. the female cop is Jenna. it skipped to the previous commerical l why would it do that? michael and maria flirting again. listen stop playing with my heart. WHICH ONE?Maria or Alex?  they're so cute Liz suggests the hotel. She jus tlooked at Max with love in her eyes If there's only one bed i will die Jenna freaking out about Alien Max wait here's the line. Kyle annoyed because everyone is in love wih Max evans.  Alex says, "angsty nerd isn't my type even though he is tall." Kyle says, "Is angsty COWBOY?"lol

buddy--Lol

me--btw remember kyle used to be a homophobe

buddy--Ohhh right

me--uh oh. Kyle has info too. Alex is investigating. Alex, Kyle and Jenna are a good team. Alex wants to take over project shepherd.

STOP!! THEY ONLY HAVE ONE ROOM AT THE MOTEL!!!!

buddy--LOL

me--Oh no lol

KING SIZE BED ITS THE JALAPENO ROOM REAL SPICY that is an actual quote from actual canon

buddy--LOL What?! 

me--LOL YES LITERALLY But the clerk found anothe rroom I think Wait wait before he found the room

"It's fine, I can sleep in the truck" max "ITS FINE WE"RE ADULTS" liz

LOL OMG THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED

buddy--LOL Oh the kiss of death 

me--lol but they're teasing he finds another room lol. i'm crying with laughter is it the beer or is it really funny? i have to pause and let myself laugh even though the other room is called The Alamo room. "Which one of you is into mass carnage? i love this show Lol rewind i need to see that again WF WTDF WTF i can't even curse without typos IT LITERALLY JUST DID THAT just cut to liz alone in a giant bed. halepenos. real spicy. she's tossing and turning i am pausing with liz tossing and turning because I DONT BELIEVE IT i know how to spell jalapenos. i'm not a good typist especially when watching tv

buddy--It’s okay lol

me--THey cut from Liz tossing and turning in the jalapeno room to max tossing and turning in the alamo room. THIS IS A FUCKING FANFIC neither of them could sleep. YOU COULDN"T GET COMFORTABLE BECAUSE YOU SHOULDA BEEN IN THE SAME BED YOU FOOLS

buddy--LOL CLASSIC

me--Max wants to be a healer, he tells liz. or thinks he should because he's seen people die in his job. She's the only one he's saved."Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." quoting henry the iv. dorks. he just gave her his coat uh oh liz doesn't hate max anymore. she was mad at max becuase he lied to her, he broke her heart. shades of bellarke LISTEN YOU ASKED FOR THIS LIVEBLOG isn't there a writer for this show that used to be on the 100 is it the sisters?

buddy--YEA

me--mother fuckers

buddy--Oh lord almighty

me--i have to keep taking breaks because i can't handle it

buddy--Well I know what I’m watching when I get home

me--they are literally bellarke after coming back together. llz felt betrayed like clarke felt betrayed over madi if i press the wrong button it goes CRAZY on the rewind. it just went all the way back to the fake healer liz wanted to share a bed. she hated the alamo room this is SO fanfic romantic THis is so bellarke even how she walks away kyle and alex are bonding over aliens. but kyle doesn't believe they are terrorist threats. maria and michael are bonding over being shitfaced come on michael OH MY GOD HE KISED HER SHE KISSED HIM BACK OH DOWN THEY GO DAMMIT THIS WAS NOT IN MY PLANS OT3 or bust do NOT mess around with my maria and michael if you're not going there

Faith healer again. This time Max is there with the grandma. The grandaughter is scamming but the grandma knows something. Faith healer wants to see max striptease lol. grandma tells her to get in the car. Grandma calls him a loud white cop lol He shows her his tattoo. Grandma knew someone like him. Sh enever spoke until the day she died. "He has arrived so I may leave." She thinks Max is who she said.

Oh Maria and Michael. "Here's the deal. Never happend. Tell no one." He told Max and Liz or maybe not.STOP FLIRITNG YOU"RE KILLING ME

"I could never hate you" max says to Liz. And she doesn't believe his version of her."youre always muttering in spanish like it's some secret language no one understands but you. hello. we're in new mexico. we all speak spanish."He sees her faults. And he loves her Easily KILL ME NOW STOP WITH THE SUNFLARES WOW SHE REALLY YANKS HIM BACK TO KISS HER HOLY SHIT THAT"S ROMANTIC REWIND HE SEES HER. oh he takes her hands and tells her she thinks that being more perfect than her sister she's easier to love but he sees her fautls and he loves her easily" Is it so crazy that I believe in you too?" I just know. Oh god THAT IS . A FUCKING GOOD KISS. She has her hands all over him

buddy--Sorry a coworker was talking to me

me--rewind AGAIN ou have to catch up

buddy--I will

me--he says, "come on I'll drive you home" and starts walking away and she's like THE FUCK YOU WILL YOU AMAZING MOTHERFUCKER YOU"RE GOING TO KISS ME I"VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR TEN YEARS. I could literally keep rewinding that all day but I realize I need to know what comes next commercial break ends. omg they're still kissing Now they're breathing. Why he asks. "I ran out of reasons not to. Was it whorth the wait?" He says it was worth the wait SOMEONE'S WATCHIN GWHO THE FUCK IS THAT? WHO THE FUCK IS-- WAIT THATS ISOBELS HUSAND HE sees the eggs He sees isobel in the egg. 

kyle and liz. her cure works but the thinks isobel is the murderer. the husband tells the sheriff that isobel is in rehab. he's lying. Kyles father was killed by an alien too.

Alex and Michael oh no. after Maria. He's got maria's necklace in his boot now alex is jealous. YOU MOTHERFUCKERS. Alex says he needs a mechanic

Buddy--.The original Liz shiri appleby directed this episodeBtw

me--Wait no he's confronting Miechael. Alex tells him he loved him. LIke something cosmic and now he wants to start over. motherfucker

yeah i knew about shiri. she has apparently read some fanfiction so have the writers

Buddy--Yeah I’m 100 percent the show runner carina has lol percent sure*

me--alex wants to be friends with michael "Do you want to know who I am" or do you want to know what i am." Max is writing fiction and reading it to Isobel. In walks Liz. He kisses her again. Thanks her for solutions for Isobel. She thinks there's a fourth alien in roswell because she knows the murders were aliens but not isobel because isobel hasn't had a blackout since Rosa. I told you there was another murdering alien.

buddy--Ha!!

me--wow that was INTENSE. next week she tries her cure on isobel her husband knows she's an alien now though

buddy--Oh lord

me--I"m posting this whole thing online. Just so you know. you'll be kept anon.

buddy--That’s fine lol

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 4: Where in Tokyo is Hikari Kagura?

BANANA, IN PAJAMAS, IS VERY BANA-NICE! 

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

Sup everyone, this week we have a what is known as a breather episode. It’s a break to get to know everyone more pretty much! But it was still a good time! Like wow, even the breather episodes are fascinating! Ok! Here we go!

Quick note: I discovered Claudine’s nickname is Kuro, given by Karen it sounds like, so I’ll probably use that from time to time. So Kuro=Claudine, now you know and won’t be confused when I call her that being like “who the fuck is Kuro?”. Odd her image color is orange but her nickname means black and theres no orange on her stage outfit. Eh, whatever.

>Guess who watched the stage play?

Recently I decided to go ahead and watch the stage play, it was a chinese sub (I’ll link ya to it if you like, just message me) so while I couldn’t gather a ton of info I did gather some interesting shit. First off, the stage play story and the anime story are quite different from each other as far as I could tell. So don’t worry too much about spoilers, the show is very quick and compressed pacing wise for example. Ok so first off, remember the mystery names in the cast list on the bottom of the fan translated website? In the stage show there are three teachers overseeing the fights, I only know one of their names so the other two I’ll call Red Jacket and Yellow Sweater.

Red Jacket seems to be a gym teacher of sorts, Yellow Sweater is a music teacher. Yellow Sweater dislikes the fights right away while Red Jacket gradually gets more and more uncomfortable with the kids fighting. The third teacher is the most important one, she’s in charge (might be the headmaster of the school) and orchestrating the whole thing. Her name is Souda Haseda, the girls call her “Souda-sensei”, and I really think its very likely she is going to be in the anime. So we are probably gonna get a face to the system! Good, this will be exciting!

Second thing here, in the stage version it seems like the audition duels magically jack up the girl’s aggression and worst possible traits A LOT. This way they fight each other and its, wild. You can break out of the influences but man does it hit hard! Examples being Maya being really bloodthirsty (my curiosity of the play started cause I saw a screenshot of her stabbing Claudine, don’t worry Claudine is fine its not really mentioned or has consequences as far as I can tell), Nana’s aggression is fuckin nuts, and Hikari starts taunting her opponents and during a fight with Mahiru she knocks Mahiru the fuck out! Like holyyy shit Hikari!

And they snap out of this blinding rage when the duel ends but the winners go right back into it once their next duel starts. Like when Maya beats Kuro she isn’t happy, no. She’s upset and has this look on her face that says “I won but at what cost?”. And then the next fight she’s right back into stabby time. I’m not describing everything cause you could see it for yourself but wow man. I actually don’t think any of this stuff about the auditions will be true in the anime but I think the underground stage is probably set up to egg everyone on into wanting to fight each other. Yikes.

-The word Kirin was used in the musical, and I think it was referring to the mythical animal. I’m thinking I’m right about my theory of what Giraffe is! But there's still a lingering question, if Kirins are supposed to be beings of good luck and fortune why is there one associated with a game of misery and conflict? Hm. The mystery continues.

--Also btw, I tried to see if Souda-sensei’s name meant anything but I couldn’t get anything to make any sense. All I know is her name involves running and feathers and maybe camels and gauze or something silky? I got running away/escaping, going fast. Idk, it’s this 走駝紗羽 (and I’m pretty positive her name is written this way) if anyone wants to give it a go themselves. I’m not an expert at all so maybe you’ll find something I missed.

Alrighty that’s all I gotta say on the play! Glad I watched it, still don’t know what’s gonna happen in the anime tho lol. Yay surprises!

>*Carmen Sandiago theme intensifies as the ep summary starts up*

The episode starts with baby! Hikari and Karen watching the Starlight play. The roles are filled by all the girls doing a repeat of the stairs from episode one. Teen! Hikari and Karen are playing the two goddesses, just like we saw Maya and Claudine do in the flashback last episode. The pink star shines brightly as it did last time we saw this play.

Y’ALL I ALREADY WARNED YOU ABOUT THOSE STAIRS!

After Hikari and Karen’s characters reach for the star, they are each on a raised platform. And then, THEN THE STAR BLASTS KAREN’S CHARACTER IN THE FACE AND SHE DIES. Yeah. Anyways Karen’s platform goes down while Hikari’s goes up and sand rains down from the sky onto Hikari’s character who is crying. Notably the tower that held the star is empty.

Twinkle twinkle little star, IT WILL UNLEASH THE WRATH OF GOD!

Now we are in the present, its the next day. Karen wakes up and notices Hikari isn’t there. So she proceeds to run around the dorm barging into all the rooms looking for Hikari. She wakes up Nana and Junna, looks around the bathing room while Maya is there, and startles Claudine into speaking French while she was looking at photos of Maya dancing on her tablet….Which is for researching Maya’s dancing of course, and for no other reason even though she hides her tablet screen so Karen can’t see the photos. Research purposes only!

After this show is done I might do a best screenshot compilation post. This will be one of them, it’s priceless.

We then go to the living room where we find out Karen woke up Futaba and Kaoruko and the two are on the couch looking very sleepy. Everyone else is also there and being like “God dammit Karen, she’s been doing this all morning!”. Karen runs into the living room, sad she didn’t find Hikari anywhere in the dorm. Nana asks if Karen tried calling her and Karen is like oooh yeah phones are a thing. She thanks Nana by combining her nickname with the word nice getting the amazing phrase “Bana-nice” and floofing Nana’s pigtails. Nana likes this. 

Karen calls Hikari and asks where the fuck she is, Hikari doesn’t say anything but Karen can hear a train station and is like “wtf are you off campus?! You need a notice! Curfew is at 6!” but Hikari hangs up. Karen decides to go and find her. All the girls (including sleepy Kaoruko draped over her gf like a sloth) follow Karen to the door. Futaba is like uh are you gonna get a notice? Junna reminds Karen it's her turn to clean the hallways. Karen is like, sorry I gotta go find Hikari! Karen runs to the train station but no Hikari. She sends Hikari a text and Hikari response with the best emote known to man. And no translation needed honestly.

Hikari won’t hesitate bitch!

Eventually Hikari sends a picture of herself in front of a, blurry blob. Karen guesses a rock climbing wall, its wrong. Karen runs around and asks a little girl what she think it is and the girl thinks its jellyfish. Karen runs to a aquarium, its the wrong one. Hikari sends another jellyfish picture and Karen races out to the train. Btw Hikari has her roller suitcase with her the entire time. Anyways, Hikari is in another aquarium but Karen is tired so she sits in a train station. Hikari then finally texts words instead of jellyfish photos, she asks why did you lose. Karen replies saying that Maya and her aren’t on the same stage (as in she means Maya is much stronger than her), if you could even call it a stage that is. Hikari calls her an idiot. Karen then asks well what should she have done then?! Hikari responses with, I don’t know. She wonders what should they do. Karen decides to call her and this time Hikari picks up and responds! She asks if Karen remembers “their Starlight”.

Back on campus, Futaba and Kaoruko are chilling in a training room. Kaoruko complains about having to wear school uniforms/school wear while in the school building. She then brings up the audition duels, she is surprised Futaba is in them and didn’t talk to her about doing that. She wonders if the prize of being Top Star is real. Kaoruko says “aw man that means we gotta fight one day, but you’ll let me win right?”, Futaba doesn’t give an answer. Instead she slides Kaoruko off of her lap. This is fine. Just fine.

Anywho Kaoruko is then like, I got an idea! She starts skipping towards the teacher’s office with Futaba right behind her. Yeah she’s gonna go tattle on Karen and Hikari being off campus without permission cause then less rivals for Top Star, don’t ever trust the sleepy ones you guys. Luckily Mahiru stops them in their tracks saying she’s the goddess of the hallway while pointing with and spinning her baton. Mahiru says she senses wicked intent from them, and figures out Kaoruko’s plan right away and does a great impression of her. Kaoruko tries to be like “uhhh no we weren't gonna. Do anything like that.” Mahiru then aggressively spins her baton at them until they run away. Mahiru then dramatically laments that she’s jealous that Karen was chasing Hikari and not her.

ALL HAIL THE HALLWAY GODDESS! PROTECTOR OF THE IDIOTS!

Back with Karen and Hikari, Karen is like ofc I remember our promise! Then the two have a long much needed catching up talk while they individually wander around Tokyo for the rest of the day. Eventually Karen talks about how much she loves the stage and wants to go even higher, hence she’ll keep doing the audition duels. Finally, at night, the two meet in person at the lit up Tokyo Tower.

Meanwhile, we go to Claudine practicing dance. She’s been doing so for awhile. Maya then comes the fuck in and asks if she wanted to dance with her. They turn on sweet jazzy music and they dance. Maya comments that Claudine seems all psyched up again and Claudine says that Maya tends to fire her up and Maya is like “orly? Cool” (Maya don’t be coy you already knew that). Claudine asks “So, why the hell are you even IN the auditions in the first place? It’s not like you need em, you’re already take center stage with everything!” Maya playfully says she gets jealous is all. They finish their dance with Maya dipping Claudine, she says the idea of anyone having the Top Star besides herself makes her very jealous. What Maya is really saying is she wants Claudine to challenge her and try to take the Top Star, Claudine smiles and calls her greedy. Challenge accepted.

Maya is NOT subtle with her crush at all, it’s amazing. 

Back with Karen and Hikari, they try to go to the aquarium that’s under the tower but sadly its closed for maintenance. The two sit in a park nearby the tower, Karen is like “its okay we can always come together here again!” Hikari then finally talks about the audition duels. She says if you lose too many times and get booted out, you will lose the most important thing to a Stage Girl. Damn. 

Karen is like ooohh that's why you locked me in a shed, but she points out that not going to the duel meant she’d lose by default and Hikari very obviously didn’t think of that. Karen, running up a slide, is like Hikari don’t worry I won’t lose anymore! She’s gonna be shining! She will shine with Hikari! Hikari points out there's only one Top Star and Karen is like uh Giraffe never said there couldn’t be two! Not a bad point. Hikari is like dude thats not gonna happen but Karen is like let’s try anyways. Hikari is like, ok. And joins her on the top of the slide. They stand together holding hands, the tower glowing softly nearby.

They say if a couple witnesses the turning off of Tokyo Tower’s lights at night, they will stay together forever......uh. It’s still on. Uh oh.

Meanwhile at the dorms, their teacher is checking if all of them are there so the girls gotta cover for Karen and Hikari. When their teacher checks the room, Mahiru is like oh they tired so they went to bed early. Kaoruko and Futaba are being body doubles in Karen and Hikari’s bed. However because they didn’t use pillows like most kids in media do, now Kaoruko and Futaba’s room is being checked and they ain’t there. Everyone is thinking fffucck. 

So, to allow the gfs to sneak back to their room, Maya and Claudine join in to help their dumbass friends/floormates. Claudine’s brilliant idea is to stage faint and start rambling random words in French, Maya catches her and is like “oh nooo. She fainted!” the teacher runs over asking what happened and Maya says, what's most likely the first thing that popped up in her head, “She’s got, stage fright!!” I’m. You guys.

Anyways, Futaba and Kaoruko sneaked back to their room door while the teacher’s back was turned. The teacher turns around and sees them by their door. Maya very quietly asks Claudine how long she was gonna lay there rambling in French, so Claudine springs up and is like “HEY I’M FINE NOW!” The teacher is like, well alrighty then. After she leaves, Nana is like “wow i’ve never done that before….but Bana-nice!” Junna is like let’s NEVER do this again.

This goes to show. Top of the class or not, teenagers are teenagers.

The next morning, Mahiru is waiting on the stairs in front of the dorm and sleeping. She wakes up and sees Karen and Hikari walking towards the dorm. She’s like YAY THEY’RE BACK! Junna and Nana come outside while everyone else looks out their windows. Junna is like “WTF What were you two thinking?!” Turns out they ran out of money so they couldn’t take the train back, oops. Karen is like, it’s cool we got back at 6. Junna groans and is like 6PM not AM! Junna scolds them and Nana says Junna did Karen’s cleaning duties for her, Junna blushes. Karen gets emotional, apologizes, and hugs Junna, much to Mahiru’s dismay. 

Then, because these useless lesbians were outside shouting about covering for Karen and Hikari, the teacher rides by on her bike and is like Karen and Hikari come to the office later and bring all those who covered for you too. Yeah she found out, oops. She says they will get “the legendary punishment” and rides away. Junna is like fffffffffuck I’ve heard horrible things about that! Rumor has it that it has caused students to leave the school all together! Karen is like, fuck. Uh, it’s fine! We’re all in this together. Junna is dying squirtle. 

But, she says she’s glad they are safe. Then all the girls tell them “Welcome back”! Hikari is obviously touched by this. The girls go back inside for breakfast. Hikari puts her new stuffed jellyfish next to her bear and the episode ends with the ending theme being sung by both Hikari and Karen.

Let’s face it, getting the jellyfish alone was worth going out for!

>Even the breather episodes have a lot going on!

-Odd to mention now I know, but I love how they draw bangs in the show! They so flippy and cute!

-Also fun fact, the white bear Hikari has everywhere is an in universe mascot character called Mr. White. Hikari loves this mascot so much its on her stage uniform!

-So Hikari straight up leaves the dorms this episode and I think the reason is this, she realized Karen only auditioned cause she was there. If she wasn’t there Karen would’ve never auditioned, so her quest was doomed from the get go. So she leaves hoping Karen would now stop dueling since she isn’t there. But what Hikari underestimated was how much Karen cares about her, she didn’t expect Karen to call her or go looking for her. Hikari at this point is at a loss of what to do, the reason why she came in the first place was a failure. Hence she wanders looking at jellyfish, avoiding Karen since she didn’t want to admit how she felt and that she fucked up. But Karen got it out of her via texting and they finally spoke extensively to each other. This was a good step for them! Looks like Karen convinced Hikari, for the time being, of getting Top Star together!

But is it really such a good idea?...Dunno yet.

-I love that sleepy Kaoruko just drapes herself onto Futaba like Futaba is a big old pillow and she is a sleepy sloth. Very cute girlfriends. Though, there was very strong foreshadowing here that their relationship will be strained thanks to the duels. Futaba isn’t going to just let her win, her silence after Kaoruko asks her that just proves it. Good luck dear lesbians.

-I can’t believe Claudine “I keep photos of Maya dancing on my tablet just for observing her dancing and not because I think she’s hot or anything. JUST FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES!” Saijo is fucking canon. I made a joke of that nature in my last post but then this really happened! I’m SO pleased. Also Karen startled her so much she reverts to speaking French lol. Kuro is the living embodiment of the “600 photos fly out of pockets” meme I swear. I really like her, she’s great!

-Nana’s reaction to Karen fluffing her pigtails was very cute. She is very cute.

-Junna with her hair down is very cute yes but oh man this screenshot of her being startled awake is the funniest fucking thing oh my god. I can’t decide if she was dreaming of titty or if she was ready scratch the face off of whoever came into her room lol.

-I love how comfortable the 8 girls are with each other? Like not all of them are best friends or anything they are just used to living with each other, I assume they’ve been living with each other since their 1st year. And yeah you just kinda get used to any weird shit your floor mates do. We got a good look at that this episode. Karen is running around looking for Hikari and she’s comfortable with everyone enough to barge into people’s rooms and any other room and be like “HAVEYOUSEENHIKARIISSHEINHERE?!”. Also it is funny seeing Karen burst into every room in the dorm like that. She even startled Maya lol. Karen pls.

It kinda gives me flashbacks to when I was in theater and summer camp lol, er not the running into the bathroom while someone was there part tho.

--Also Karen, why do you keep looking under places that Hikari can’t possibly fit or hide in? Unless Hikari is a cat, if she can get her head through she can get in. Maybe, she is a cat. *X Files music*.

-Being Mahiru is still suffering. Like damn it’s suffering! Karen didn’t even really talk to her getting back from the big city. She looks so sad when Karen hugs Junna and not her. OUCH. Currently I’m putting my bets on us losing Mahiru first, she’s the odd man out and that would hurt Karen greatly and up the stakes a lot. Either way it’s only a matter of time b4 she mcfreakin loses it now, and judging by some episode five screenshot teaser that might come soon. SPEAKING OF WHICH!

--THIS. OK. WHAT. IS. THAT. WHITE. THING?! IT HAS AN EYE?! AAAAA?! Is it a prop?! Is it real?! Is it a lovecraftian horror?! What?! Whatcha got in store for us episode 5?! I’m excited and scared at the same time.

-What’s very interesting is that Karen wasn’t sleepy or tired this episode even though it’s post duel. I’m thinking her drive to find Hikari overrode everything else, amazing. The power of gay love!

-When Claudine suddenly dropped to the ground, for a hot second I was like WHAT IS SHE OK but then I realized it was a distraction. Shout out to Maya for just going with it, catching her and everything. Also well well Kuro it looks like you trust Maya enough to catch ya when you stage faint. :3c 

Anywho what cracked me up the most was how slapped together their distraction was, like you guys you’ve been actresses for awhile now and this is the best you can do? Guess they aren’t one for improv lol. I’m honestly glad it went this dumb cause it goes to show that even the top students are still teens, covering for their idiot friends/floormates. I am also happy they took part in this hairbrained scheme, I’ll say more about this later.

-Hikari says when you get booted out of the duels you “lose the most important thing to a stage girl”. Well that’s really vague Hikari. Either she is still withholding information OR that is all she knows. I got the impression in the stage play she was Souda-sensei’s spy/agent to get people to fight, can’t say if that’s true here though.

-Kaoruko omg. I knew she had a secret mean streak but wowww. The good news is she isn’t very sneaky about it, nor is her girlfriend, so Mahiru easily stopped that shit in its track. I still love her though, Sailor Neptune's spirit lives on and is as passive aggressive as ever!

-The Venus de Milo statue didn’t pop up this episode, but that’s likely cause we weren’t on campus very much this time. The pink light was still everywhere like usual though. Also we learned the school has free practice days! That’s neat.

-Hey Maya, I don’t think saying ominous things about the audition duels while dancing is how you flirt with a girl. Granted it looks like it worked? Weirdos. And I told ya guys, Maya really loves dancing with her. She went out her way to do so this episode! Also good to know Maya always smiles at her when they dance even if no one else is watching so her smiling isn’t performative. And man, I’ve noticed Maya seeks out Kuro and only Kuro instead of hanging out with anyone else. That girl has got it bad. 

--Maya hun, did you learn all your flirting tactics from the theater? I think she did, amazing.

-Honestly I’m loving Kuro and Maya’s dynamic more and more each episode, they are actually really adorable? Kuro is in deep denial while Maya is like “That’s ok, take your time. :)”. In the meantime she’s here to impress and think “She’s so pretty when she fights and when she dances and when she-” and so on and so forth. 

However like with everyone else’s relationships, their relationship is going to end up strained thanks to the audition duels. Right now, Maya very firmly believes that being a Top Star means being alone. Throwing everything and everyone away, no matter what. But that begs the question, how will she handle it when it’s Kuro’s time to get booted (I think Maya and Karen will be the last ones standing)? I don’t mean just losing, being kicked out of the duels all together.

If my theory on radiance aka ability to perform on the stage is the thing taken is correct, than that means Maya can’t dance with her or see her fiery passion for the theater anymore after she’s kicked out. When that time comes, will she really be ok with leaving Kuro with nothing and standing alone? Ha ha, what if Maya knows they have limited time together so she’s trying to have as much time as she can? Ahaha...oh I just made myself sad.

-Speaking of Maya and Kuro, those two are a lot different than I expected. Way nicer and for sure not so above it all. They are just teenagers like the rest of them. I really love how different Maya is off the stage, when fighting/on stage she is very intimidating and seems all powerful. But when not she is, very respected and talented yes, but she is just another girl in their class. Maya isn’t an asshole to her classmates like you’d expect most characters like her to do, and like I said she obviously enjoys dancing with Kuro even though they are rivals.

Kuro on the other hand could’ve been like your average rich bitch character but nope! She's actually very chill and playful with everyone not named Tendou Maya, hell she even has a nickname, all of her intensity goes towards Maya instead. And ofc her deep denial about how she feels about Maya. It's very fascinating and I love it, I love them. They could’ve easily been the stock popular snobs/jerks but they aren’t, they are much deeper than that. And that’s wonderful!

-How odd that Claudine is asking Maya why she’s even in the underground duels and says that Maya “doesn’t need them”. So does that mean these fights are for girls who are desperate to get to the top and feel there’s no other way? If so, then why is Maya there? Maya herself doesn’t give an actual answer. Hm.

-The curfew for the dorms is 6pm apparently but the duels obviously go way past that time and into the night. So there’s at least two possibilities here. One, the school is very much in on it so the curfew is null and void for the girls who fight that night. Or two, the dueling does indeed take place in a dream world or dreamlike world. The question is when do the girls enter it? How does the elevator work then? Do their real bodies go with them? Are they just teleported back into their beds afterwards? Or a mix of both, school is in on it and there’s some magic shit going on? Like the school knows but the audition duels are in a dreamlike place is what I mean. HM. There is so much we don’t know about the duels honestly. What are they hiding? And, how much do the Stage Girls really know?

--I’m thinking that it’s likely the duels are taking place in a dreamlike world, that would line up with Karen waking up in bed after them and line up with the girls being tired the next day. However I must point out that even if the audition duels do take place in a dreamlike world, it doesn’t make it less real. No the experience is very real it just takes place in a dreamlike reality (think like in the movies Inception or Paprika). The Stage Girls remember the duels and no these aren’t just normal auditions, we have zero evidence suggesting that still so I’d say get that idea outta yo head. 

I’m also thinking any wounds or hell even dying would all be temporary, like you’d wake up and you are fine physically. However emotionally not so much, you’d remember the experience of either dying or killing someone and that will probably fuck you up a bit, shit. And I think there is a way to die but it maybe only the Revue itself can do that. I’m guessing losing will really scramble your brain in some way. Oh dear.

-We see more of the Starlight play, so the summary I got right now for the plot of this play is this. Once upon a time there were two goddesses, they loved each other very much. But they both wanted to reach for a light high up in the sky, a star. So together they leave their nymphs friends (Idk are they nymphs or what) behind, and they go to the star. Both goddesses reach for the star but, the star fired a laser beam and shot one of the goddesses out of the sky. The other was being pulled into the star, unable to go back for her lover. So she turned her into sand to spare her a horrible death. They were forever separated, their dream could never come true. The End! Soooo this foreshadowing makes me nervous for the girls, I’ll talk about it more in the speculation part.

--Quick note here, I learned that the names of the two goddesses in the play are Claire and Flora. Now Flora is a latin name that means flower and is the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and plants. Interestingly, the school’s symbol is a flower! Or looks like one to me at least. Claire is also a latin name and it means bright, clear, and….famous. Hm, I think I’m gonna assume Claire is the goddess who didn’t die. Could be wrong though.

>IMMA FIRING MY SPECULATIONS! RAWR!

(Is that meme considered old now?)

-So is the legendary punishment legit or was their teacher just fucking with them? I suspect if it is, and if we see it, the punishment isn’t as bad as it’s rumored to be. If it is, maybe it's like the stage play. In the stage play, because Karen was late to class too many times I think, the girls got thrown into the fighty Greek Chorus hell pit. Most of them without weapons, at least Maya and Kuro went for using their bare hands instead. Wow. Death by greek chorus, what a way to go.

-I’m thinking that starlight equals radiance aka talent. The starlight gatherers thing I pointed out last week would match up to this idea.

-The penalty of losing too much in the auditions is that something important to Stage Girls is lost. I strongly think what they lose is their radiance aka starlight. Basically all their abilities they can use to perform. Maybe even weakening their bodies? My current thought for the truth about being Top Star is that Top Star is given all the radiance of the girls who lost, maybe used as a battery by the tiara but even just being given all the radiance is painful too. You’d be alone at the top, all your friends are gone and you’ve literally taken away everything they had. Basically the winner doesn’t even win, the only winner is the cruel system. 

So I got two ideas of where this could go, one is that the girls who lose become shells of their former selves after losing their starlight. Blank eyes, not very active, that kind of thing. And maybe the effect can be resisted for a little while but it will come for you in the end. And maybe it could even cause you to fade away into nothing but pink light....which is all over this anime. UM. OH GEEZ.

The other idea is that, the stage literally steals you away. If the idea is to give all the radiance at once to whoever the Top Star is, storing the losing girls would work too. Like the stage basically catches the losing girl, drags her under or upward (or even stage left or right) and then the girl is put in a deep sleep pretty much. They sleep in coffins or boxes until there is a Top Star, then they will be taken out and drained. This could be a good way for the school to not have to deal with zombie like girls, they can just say they are sick. Not like the other Stage Girls can tell anyone otherwise. What happens afterwards can’t say I know really. Could go with them fake joining the Starlight group like in my theory. Or they just bury whats left of the girls under the stage. Shit.

-Heres a theory that came to me while I was watching the stage version, the Starlight story isn’t made up. The myth is real. The goddess that lived is among them, maybe as the head teacher Souda-sensei? That would explain all the goddess symbolism, specially love goddesses because this one lost her lover and so did Inanna and Venus. It might also explain our Qilin, he is loyal to her. 

So if the goddess is real why is she here? Well, I think she did indeed take the star and stored it away. However, this goddess has become cruel. She had seen other women with their best friends and their lovers and became angry. Why do they get to keep who they love the most and she had to lose hers? So maybe this is a recreation, she might just be a goddess who loves theater and sees it as a good way to lure girls. She puts the same number of girls as there were goddesses or goddesses and their nymphs idk. They fight for the Top Star, fighting friends and lovers alike. And the girl that wins gains the star powers, but now she’s alone and she lost everything else. Just like the goddess herself, another lonely star.

>Bana-nice!

This was a nice breather episode! Got to hang with the girls more, got some more foreshadowing, got some more gay, it was fun! And it gave the animators a break! It looks like episode 5 is gonna be a doozy though, oh boy.

See you on the stage for episode 5!

[justanearth-boundmisfit]

Supernatural - Paleyfest Red Carpet From SpoilerTv

Couldn’t help myself, this is so full of bs. Big sigh, breathe, read:

(under the cut some extracts from the interview, with some things highlighted by me. Long post, and a few bitter thoughts)

Bob Singer Q: What keeps you excited about the show? A: We really make an effort to keep it fresh. You see the show from year one, it’s so much a different show now in terms of mythology and where we’ve taken it. And every year after we end a particular season, we end on a cliffhanger, which we really don’t know where exactly we’re going to go next season. Which is challenging for us. We’ve always managed, I think, to keep it fresh. If we couldn’t keep it fresh, I wouldn’t be here that long. We’ve seen the guys grow into these parts, the recurring actors… there was Misha, Mark Pellegrino, Mark Sheppard for a long time. All terrific, they play these characters for the show, and it’s enjoyable. That’s the big thing. It’s still fun to do, and I feel like every year’s a new challenge. 

Brad Buckner

Q: Have you got a favorite of the episodes that you’ve written? A: I did like how “War of the Worlds” turned out because of the evolution of Lucifer from being this pure monolithic evil character to one that discovers the possibility of being a father and what that’s like and experiences being human in a weird way. He’s never had any empathy for human beings. And the fact that he was disgusted by human beings is what got him into so much trouble to begin with. And now he’s kind of discovering the idea, the subtleties of that and it was an interesting idea to play with.

Q: Mark Pellegrino is amazing in the role… A: He’s gold. And he throws in little things. Basically sticks to script, but every once in a while just tosses in something that is just terrific. Q: And he’s been great with Danneel [Ackles – Sister Jo] – they have amazing chemistry together. That was fabulous! A: Yes! And coming up is his first meeting with Jack, the son. And that’s going to be brilliant.

Eugenie Ross-Leming 

Q: What’s your favorite episode that you’ve done so far this season? A: I’m trying to remember the episodes we’ve done… I love writing for Lucifer. He’s just so deliciously bad. I really like the last episode that we wrote that has not been shot and the one right before it that is about to be shot because they’re heading for the climax, so they’ve got a lot of blood and guts, betrayal, and heartbreak, and redemption. A lot of these characters are looking for redemption in this episode, and they’re trying to find redemption through Jack. Everyone’s got a piece of Jack. So I kinda like the last two.

Andrew Dabb 

Q: And there have been so many new dimensions to the show. Mark Pellegrino has been great, and I’ve really enjoyed his chemistry with Danneel, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of them… A: Cool! Anything you give Mark he makes better, everything you give to Danneel she makes better, and I would say that’d what makes writing for them great, you know they’re going to improve anything you put on the page.

Q: Is there anything you can tease us about what’s coming up? A: There’s a really cool Gabriel episode coming up. That I think people are really, really going to enjoy. A really cool Rowena episode people are going to enjoy, and we’ll see the return of our good friend Death coming up.

Misha Collins

Q:How does it feel being on a series that’s been around for 13 seasons?

A:Thirteen seasons is amazing in any day and age. The show has been on so long now that it represents a significant portion of our lives. It’s actually a quarter of my life that I’ve been working on this show. Half of my adult life. It’s a big, big part of both my career and my personal development, and we all feel that way. Jensen, not too long ago, was telling me and Jared about a dream that he had about the last scene of the series and both of us teared up because it’s that emotionally connected to us. So it feels like we’ve won the lottery and it feels like a big part of our lives.

Q:So Castiel seems to be moving back into being a soldier again, the way we first saw him. How does it feel going back to Cas’s roots?

A: I think it is going back to his roots. I think Cas came into contact with humanity and the boys and it mitigated some of his militarism and now he is kind of abandoning that because he feels like it didn’t work. Cas, I think, logs his failures, so over and over again he’s tried things and he feels like they haven’t worked. I don’t think Cas spends much time reflecting on his triumphs? It’s more regret and loss for him, so I think that he is sort of taking off the fetters and doing what it takes to get the job done. Even if that means casualties.

Full interview is on the link above, although there’s no much left out.

Some thoughts:

So basically, it’s the Lucifer fest and redemption arc. I’m going to throw up. They are giving him a redemption arc and they are giddy with it. Yuck! Buckner being so happy with the Lucy/Jo thingy, ofc he is happy the creep! As much as I don’t like Pellegrino I give him props for changing the scene where he takes part of her grace, and refused to make the full on sex scene Bucklemming wrote! Sick fuckers! I want to punch him right in his old pervert face. 

Also they are so glad for the Scooby ep! And oh boy! If we are pissed now, you have no idea how much more we are going to be after that one. There’s a comparison threw in there, that is going to make every bitter Cas fan scream murder around the world. I don’t think they are going to edit that out. But just waiting for the real ep to talk about it. Have at hand something strong to drink if you are planning on watching and you love Cas.

Misha is just a recurring role, hey! I’ve been saying for ages, that Singer doesn’t like Misha, and that they don’t treat him as a regular. Don’t shoot the messenger. I know I’m not positive with this show, but this can’t be twisted as me being bitter. It’s just what the fucker said. Also talking about Misha in past tense. And hey! If metas can read anything from a fucking color on the wall, I can make my own assumptions with what’s right in front of my face. No subtext here.

Cas going back to his roots. Really? Full powered and everything or just another guilt trip from the bros? I bet is the latter. Also Cas is going to keep killing for them it seems. It doesn’t seem that he is out of his depression at all, as some metas said was going to happen after his death. He is full of regret and loss, not my words, Misha’s. At this point in the season if people didn’t realize that they killed Cas for man!pain I don’t know what you are watching really. Misha talks about Cas giving up, and going back to his old soldier self, and that’s NOT progress! I don’t see how metas are going to twist this into happy go lucky Cas, towards the big destiel ENDGAME! I see a colder, killing machine Cas in the few episodes that are left. In the middle we have Dean really obsessed with Daphne. ENDGAME my ass. (Stop lying to people, and shippers I’m sorry you keep being manipulated like that)

Btw I still maintain that they were going to keep Cas dead. The way Singer talks about Misha sort of gives it away imho. Again, the outrage was too strong. That’s why Misha asked to film our reactions, remember that? And Mark S. liking that anti Misha tweet that said if Mark’s fans were as crazy as Misha’s, Crowley wouldn’t be dead.

I’m fuming tbh. I know, I know, I should take my own advice and just not expect anything from this show. But they just keep getting worse and worse and when they talk my head boils. It didn’t help that the girl doing the interview seemed obsessed with Lucifer, or maybe that’s what pr wanted her to ask. It wouldn’t surprise me. 

All in all it is even worse that I imagined. But well if there is little Cas to see, at least I know I’m not going to be watching this crapfest. 

Out. 

[aceofwands]

Ria hateblogs Discovery Episode 4: “CBS cares not for its fans The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb” (originally livelogged to @kendradaynes)

here we go. I've seen some upset comments on already - so boy am I excited to see how awful it is!

ohhhhh good, we're getting some previously from the Klingons. so. keen. to see more awful acting through prosthetics!

we begin with ... weird lightning that's pulling rock/metal together ... and pull out through clouds to a uniform being replicated

at least the effects are cool right, that's all we're here to see right

loooool a holographic mirror. obvs. I mean why use a real mirror amirite?

Tilly brought back Michael a box that's pinging at her. oh lol it's the last will and testament of Captain Georgiou.

why would you make a box that pinged until you opened it??????

oh great. it's Saru again. 

they step out onto the bridge at Red Alert?? the rest of the ship showed no sign of being at red alert. and Michael and Saru seem surprised. oh lol ofc it was just a battle sim

jfc there was a terrifying bridge crewmen with a huge bug head

UM. WHAT. PAUSED IT TO EXPRESS OUTRAGE AGAIN: Lorca is now lecturing the bridge crew, about how they have the only new propulsion drive ('Displacement Activated Spore Hub Drive' which is about the kind of dumb name I'd expect) in the fleet, and when it's up and running they can materialise anywhere in the known universe, "But we will be alone. We will not have backup. There's just us, and we get one chance." WHAT

WHAAAAAAT

WHAT KIND OF RUBBISH NONSENSE BULLSHIT IS THIS

Starfleet is NOT going to make ONE DRIVE for ONE SHIP to do ONE SNEAK ATTACK BY ITSELF. and it's not going to put this drive for this sneak attack on a SCIENCE VESSEL

it's SO fucking RIDICULOUS

you'd think the Federation has never fought any wars or been in any battles, the way this storyline is written!

LORD. had to pause again. to write a long angry sentence about how Lorca and Michael now stepped out of a turbolift into a DARK CORRIDOR which is lighting up as they walk through section by section. JUST. STOP. YOU STUPID STUPID SHOW

he's showing her his creepy weapons lab

Lorca: "I study war"

Michael: "these are some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy" (they included katanas in a box. wtf. that’s the deadliest weapon Earth has? I don’t think so buddy) 

now he's showing her the creepy creature he picked up from the ship

"why would you keep something so dangerous on board your own ship?" GOOD QUESTION

"we need the best weapons available" ... he wants to use its properties for weapons. and wants her to do it.

THIS IS THE WORST

good it's the dumb intro that I can ignore to rant about how fucking STUPID this show is

WHAT THE FUCK

THIS. IS. NOT. STAR. TREK.

it's not even REMOTELY Star Trek

it's SO far away from everything that makes Star Trek, Star Trek

EVEN IF I accept that Starfleet does weapons research - WHICH I DO (though I don't think we need a show about it) - I do NOT believe for one second that it takes place on ONE science ship called Discovery! they'd have labs on a base somewhere. a whole TEAM of scientists and weapons experts!

oh lord. Klingons again. please no. 

just discovered Klingons can move their eyes and hands and that's about it

great I have to read dumb subtitles. the stupid white Klingon is drawing dramatic holographic art. everything on this show is about drama

OH LOL

I KNOW WHAT PEOPLE HATED NOW

the white Klingon and lady Klingon ATE CAPTAIN GEORGIOU

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

YES

okay so Klingons eat the hearts of their enemies .... but pick the flesh from their skulls? since when

oh gross they're trying to develop Klingon houses. and I could just not care less. 

and it's impossible to hateblog and read all the subtitles. it's so hard to follow or care about these Klingons 

back to Michael - Landry said Lorca thinks they'd make a good team ???? how?

I reeeeeeeeeeeeally hate Landry: "let's call it ripper, it's what it looks like, what it does"

it resembles a tardigrade from Earth. it was a stowaway on the Glenn. Michael's like 'lol, nothing in its biology suggests it'll be helpful'

Michael: "It can only be what it is, not what you want it to be."

Landry: "it's amazing how much I hate Vulcan proverbs"

It’s amazing how much I hate Landry and her casual racism against Vulcans (speciesm?)

back to Lorca, receiving a holomessage from an Admiral. got a distress call from Korvan II, which produces 40% of the Federation's dilithium. and Discovery is the only ship close enough to help ... because it can use its new drive even though it's only made small jumps so far.

right, cause I really believe the Federation would leave their major source of dilithium undefended in a war (or not have closer ships ready if their defences went down)

Admiral: "You have no doubts." Lorca: "None." cut to Stamets: "there is no way in hell we'll be ready to jump that far"

Stamets is explaining they don't have the navigation ability ... the drive is based on probability? idk it sounds so dumb and nonsense 

ugh more Klingons. some dude named Kol just appeared, painted in red. oh he's the one from the first eps. saying he's now come with humility. I hate the dumb ships, they have cathedral lighting ffs!

Kol's saying they need this ship back in the war. but they're running out food and don't have dilithium processor blah blah blah who CARES 

sooooooooo boooooooring

Spore Drive is online (that's why they have black alert btw, when they're using the spore drive)

oh good, another android or robot, that makes sense for this time period

the monster down with Michael is NOT PLEASED they're activating the spore drive

oh lord, so much dramatic music and reaction shots

this drive works by them spinning and then jumping. they just jumped into the corona of an O-type star

WHO COULD POSSIBLY HAVE FORESEEN THIS

it's not like Stamets warned you he couldn't control it or anything

Stamets broke his nose, Doctor Culber just said 'hold still or you'll wind up looking like a Tellarite' which I'd usually take as humorous but there's so much racism on the show who can tell (I’d also usually be on board for their snarky flirty banter, but in amongst this dumpster fire, who cares!)

Lorca is still being an ass to Stamets

OHHHHH

Lorca: "the Discovery is no longer a science vessel, it's a war ship"

Stamets: "that is NOT the mission I signed on for, I’m as scientist not a soldier"

Lorca: "then get off, leave the ship"

Stamets: "if I go, I'm taking everything, my spores, my drive, everything on this ship is designed around my specialty" (what)

Lorca: "everything on this ship is the property of Starfleet, Lieutenant"blah blah blah more fighting

SOOO BAD

Lorca's playing the audio transmissions from Korvan II over the shipwide audio. to make everyone feel like shit. esp Stamets

now Landry is getting weapons, trying to sedate the creature, and cut its claw off

LOL IT IS NOT SEDATED

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED

HAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Landry is dead!!! 

Michael just emergency transported to sickbay, cause that's a thing they can do at this time

Lorca: "find a use for that creature, don't let her death be in vain". it's HER OWN FAULT SHE DIED. if she wasn't such an impatient idiot (or you hadn’t pushed her to ‘get results’). if she listened to Michael. 

OH LORD. cut to, Klingons in the wreck of the Shenzhou, wearing their DUMB EVA suits. the faceplate looks more like a Gorn/ (they're stealing the dilithium processor from it)

I just reeeeeeally don't care about any of this. it's so boring. like, the complete absence of excitement

blah blah the white Klingon and the lady Klingon are talking a lot. idk if it's supposed to be like ... flirty? ewwww I think it is. give me Martok and Sirella any day

I cannot wait for the next 20 mins to be over so I can be not watching this.

LOL we're back to Michael and Saru. and he just said she'd fit in perfectly with Captain Lorca (as an insult). this crew is perfect for each other, ALL AWFUL

Tilly has brought some spores to Michael, who's now offering them to the creature. lol it's like licking her like a dog kinda

idk Michael's just real bad at following orders. they didn't ask you to make friends with it!

what's the bet the monster lives in the spore dimension. lol, even better, it eats spores???

the other ship was using the creature to navigate. SO ETHICAL

they've beamed it into the spore forest

Stamets was supposed to be interested, almost nice for a change, but he has the same frown on his face

@kendradaynes: “this show is a car crash”

IT IS! OMG IT'S SO BORING

now we're back on the Klingon ship again

STOP. WHO CARES

HAAAAAAAA. Kol just took over the white Klingon's ship by offering them food from his own ship, and they swore loyalty. the whole Klingon story with the divided houses and whatever is SOOOOO DULL

HA. lady Klingon fell into line with Kol

back to Discovery. they've beamed the creature into the reaction cube and the tech from the Glenn is activating

...... ...... .....

I've just realised. it's Equinox.

THE PLOT IS FUCKING EQUINOX

VOYAGER DID THIS 20 YEARS AGO! except they were on the ETHICAL SIDE

how does the ship interface with the creature to navigate????

IT MAKES NO SENSE

poor creature

Lorca is like, orchestrating the viewscreen battle 

they dropped some bombs and jumped away with the drive

OMG. HYSTERICAL. LAUGHTER. just cut to some kid in her dad's arm on the surface of Korvan II: "who saved us?"

SO

FAKE

why does this REALLY IMPORTANT dilithium mine have no defence or base for its population? they’re out on the surface being killed like???

LOL the white Klingon was left on the Shenzhou. but the lady Klingon beamed over after him. of course she's ~devoted to him~because we all know that female Klingons want nothing more than to stand behind a powerful man Klingon

blah blah she's going to take him to her own house. to have the matriarchs teach him things "you never knew were possible". but he has to sacrifice, and I quote, "everything"

good

lord

you cannot make up how bad this dialogue is

Michael's back in the lab feeding the poor creature some spores. it sounds super unhappy. WHAT A SURPRISE

"hey, you feeling better?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME

this is unethical BULLSHIT

this is the exact OPPOSITE of Star Trek

oh, it's okay, Michael says she's sorry, that makes it okay

the pillows are printed with a delta with "USS DISCOVERY" on it. I can't

lord I hate Tilly. go away

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Tilly's giving this speech about how Michael shouldn't be afraid to open the will box. cause "I watched you tame the most incredible creature" (torture is not taming!) "and you're not afraid of anything"

STOP

soooo fucking dumb

this show is a train wreck

a dumpster fire

a trash heap

HA

I hope everyone's happy

Michelle Yeoh has appeared again

as a hologram telling Michael her will

handing down her most important possession, handed down through centuries of her family

sucks to be all those people who ridiculously though Georgiou would come back

lol it's her telescope

w o w. another 50 mins of my life I can't get back

oh good, more action in the next one

great. Mudd in the next episode. Lorca captured by Klingons. Michael worried about how much more they can torture the creature. I'm SO excited - ha. not. 

[kinetic-elaboration]

March 2: Thoughts on 4x05 The Tinder Box

Finally watched 4x05. I have to say… I was anticipating that it would be bad (by which I mean uninteresting to me) based on the trailer but it was actually SO BAD that not only do I think it might be worse than even the shittiest S3 episodes, but I also think it might have tanked the whole season. And I was really optimistic and giving generally positive reviews of the season so far! But this was ATROCIOUS. I am so disillusioned and upset tbh.

Putting the rest under a cut so as not to harsh the buzz of anyone who might have liked the ep and/or not be so fatalistic about the season as I am.

Okay, a few things I liked-ish first.

I think the Raven stuff, with her brain going on overload, was interesting and I didn’t have a problem with it so much as it appeared in this episode, although it does make me wary. I’ll put the wariness below with the other ‘bad’ stuff but I will say I liked the floating sequence and I liked seeing a happy, excited, super-smart Raven even if the context was not so great.

Generally speaking, I had the least problems with the Becca’s lab story. I liked seeing more of Jackson and I thought Abby had some good moments too. Plus, while I don’t think tech-heavy sci fi of the bright white sheen variety fits this show very well, Becca’s lab was cool I will give it that.

It was a good Monty episode.

Yet again Bob Morley tragically under-used but his subtle expressions when he first suspected and later found out Octavia was alive = A+.

I’ve never had very strong feelings about Niylah since we’ve seen like 5 minutes of her before but I thought she was great in this episode and if we see more of her and more of her like this I’ll be happy. I loved how she and Clarke greeted each other this is my ideal ex-gf/ex-hookup scenario personally.  

I liked seeing Clarke in doctor mode.

…That’s it lol. The rest sucked major rhino balls.

 The stuff I didn’t like:

Oh where to start? I think I’ll go plot by plot.

Becca’s lab: I realize they’re somewhat constrained based on what they set up in that shitshow that was S3 but the narrative quality of the Becca story line was so poor last season—like I don’t care if the science is fake, even obviously fake, but it needs to be internally consistent and the Becca stuff was 100000% nonsense all the way down to the core, and pretty shallow and childish nonsense at that—so anything they come up with this season, whether “consistent” or retcon, is going to be side-eyed by me. The bar is VERY high for me to give a fuck and this episode didn’t meet the bar. Basically any time I hear about Becca’s lab or Becca’s experiments or Becca in space I just have this Pavlovian eye roll response because I know it’s going to be dumb; like I’ve just given up on any sense being made in this “story.”

I see you, Star Trek reference. (Okay, to be fair the concept of putting criminals on a boat and sending them away isn’t something Star Trek created and it is sort of an important detail of “Space Seed” that the criminals were super humans AND the tragic ham handed way that sci fi is dealt with here makes me think the PTB aren’t really familiar with sci fi let alone such classics as TOS BUT I’m sorry why did they have to be criminals? What sort of random detail is that? How does that make any sense? That just screams gratuitous “Space Seed” reference to me. And I put it in the negative column because I like The 100 but it’s often a mess and it’s not allowed to put its grubby paws on TOS.)

It was weird that last episode we had this big crew of people at Becca’s lab and now like half of them have disappeared. I mean, I know most of them are guest stars but, first of all Harper’s been in like every episode so far so fuck that and second of all it’s just jarring, like where the fuck did EVERYONE GO?

I’m getting pretty tired of the torture Raven Reyes show. Like it’s just literally never fucking ending.

I can’t believe they unveiled a fucking space ship and now they’re going to go into space? I’m sorry I’ve suspended a metric fuck ton of disbelief for this show but this is just beyond the pale I have rolled my eyes so far back into my head that all I can see anymore is the back of my skull.

The tinderbox: I anticipated finding this to be stupid because I am BOOOOOOOOOOORED of war stories I have literally seen 50 of them in this show alone I’m done. And there was nothing new here. Like...was this not literally the situation in 2A when Lxa’s army was ranged outside Camp Jaha? And Clarke has to negotiate to make it work? I’m not saying plots can’t be re-worked and called back to but there’s a difference between ‘we’ve shown you a similar moral problem in the past, here’s a new twist, do you still feel the same way?” and “this is literally the exact same scenario, without nuance then and without nuance now, that you’ve already watched. Let’s spend a good 50% or more of the episode on it!”

From a story telling perspective this plot suffered from two major and related flaws: First, the tension was created using Riley, a character who anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know should absolutely not be given a gun and brought to a tete-a-tete with the Ice Nation. I mean that’s just good sense. At the very least, perhaps they might have learned from previous Jasper experiences that mentally scarred people shouldn’t be armed and then set in front of their former tormentors. (Not that I blame Jasper for the Unity Day thing just saying that he has multiple times proven himself a liability for reasons very similar to the ones creating today’s Riley situation so not only is it obvious it’s a lesson they have literally learned before.) And people even note this! Repeatedly! Like 2, 3 different characters are like ‘hmmm maybe we shouldn’t given Riley a gun….?” YOU THINK SO HUH? Anyway I’m having a lot of fun mocking this but it’s just hilarious to me that not only do they write in this gigantic plot hole they have multiple characters point it out louder for the people in the back.

Second, and on a related note, there were too many main characters at stake for me to ever believe the tinder box would be lighted. Kane AND Bellamy AND Monty, plus potentially Harper and Riley (already credited in another three eps btw) and Papa Miller? Um yeah that bloodbath isn’t happening, I don’t care how long you stretch out that Bellamy/Riley/Echo scene. The result of these two issues was that there was no dramatic tension and the whole thing fell flat.

On a more personal level, while I loved Bob’s acting in the aforementioned show down with Riley and Echo it was VERY obvious to me that the point of that scene was not Riley, or Echo, or Ice Nation, or developing a theme, or developing the plot, or literally anything at all other than yet again shaming Bellamy for the massacre. I mean my fucking God Monty and Harper are given dialogue that implies Monty wasn’t part of the Pike Kill Squad (I know he joined up post-massacre but he was a Pikist let’s not forget that) and yet here Literal Male Lead Bellamy is STILL FUCKING ATONING I mean I’m bored of this. If the audience hasn’t forgiven Bellamy now they never will. Stop beating the dead horse.

And on an even more personal level… I’m sorry, I don’t like Harper, she’s yet to show a personality and this episode managed to simultaneously include a metric fuck ton of shots of her and not develop that non-personality in the slightest. I don’t think it would be clear that she and Monty were “dating” from this episode alone but I’m sure it was supposed to deepen their relationship for the viewer, yet for me it just yet again made it quite obvious that there is nothing here. This is the Emperor’s New Pairing. Why do they like each other? Why do they care about each other? I saw a million shots of Harper looking worried about Monty but that could have been any delinquent at all (except…wait…THEY’RE ALL DEAD WHOOOPS). So I just felt like it was a lot of shallow fuckery that did nothing but remind me of my hatred of this pairing without doing anything alleviate that hatred. (I’m being really incoherent here but my point is I hate Monty/Harper and I’m never going to pass up a chance to say this.)

“Ain’t we a pair?” Hilarious, but if this were fan fiction, I’d say “that’s so OOC Roan would never say that.” AND LOOK IT’S CANON AND I’M GONNA SAY THE SAME THING. ...That’s so OOC Roan would never say that.

Also I never saw anything particularly amazing about L or her leadership and it’s a little ridic that Roan is praising her now but tbh the thing that bugged me the most about that dialogue was the way he was shaming Clarke for caring about her people? I mean it’s all well and good to say you’re “tired of taking sides” (coughBellamycough) but at the end of the day literally everyone would choose their loved ones over randos, let alone their former/current enemies I mean DUH. If you can only save a few people you’ll save yourself and your family. A slightly larger handful, yourself and your community. This is just the human response to a dire situation, not Clarke’s Grand Moral Failing. Also if you think for one second L wouldn’t have chosen her people first and foremost you didn’t watch 2x16 you’re crazy. Also also what is Roan doing right at that moment but planning to kick Clarke’s people out of their own home to save his people like way to be a huge hypocrite you asshat.

The Arkadia plot: By which I mean the Arakadia explosion. Only the destruction of Mt. Weather has saddened me more. I LOVED the Ark. That was (is, in the form of the still living people) my favorite society on this show. And I don’t just like the people I like the whole aesthetic of it and now it’s gone, all gone, and I’m just like…. Was that really necessary? The need to make Nightblood the only true viable solution already exists: only fifty Arkadians saved? Several major characters not on the save list? Please, they didn’t need to do an extended reign of destruction scene to make the other solution more important.

Besides destroying a set I motherfucking loved which I’m not going to lie is my main complaint here, it also just…like we’re almost halfway through the season? This was the midseason finale? And I just feel now like every episode so far has been a giant waste of time? Like literally what have they accomplished: the peace with Azgeda is (was?) broken; a whole episode was wasted on a trip to get a piece of machinery that was destroyed and would have been useless anyway; another episode was wasted on the main characters going on a mission to find a bunker that was useless; the result was that that plot was really the catalyst for the making of the list; which was allegedly destroyed in the next episode anyway and is AGAIN useless now post-explosion; this whole episode with the extended Roan/Clarke negotiation was important for literally .2 seconds, then it becomes...wait for it...useless too--almost everything that’s been done so far is UTTERLY WITHOUT POINT because of the Alpha Station explosion… I mean I know that filler is necessary sometimes. I would say, at a conservative estimate, that 1/3 of 2A was filler. But this just… I have real complaints about the narrative structure of this show; I think it is incredibly sloppy and so many things—little things that build up—make me REALLY question the ability of JRoth/the writers to construct a narrative in even the most basic sense. It’s very, very disorientating and dissatisfying to me.

I never liked Illian and now I’m like…lol bye get outta my face. I should have seen this coming when JRoth (?) said that the killing-his-family scene was included so as not to repeat the Bellamy massacre story line mistake, by making it more clear what the motivations for the character’s bad actions are. But here’s the thing. First, Bellamy is a lead and from the protagonist society so it’s a lot more important that his motivation be clear and viewer sympathies remain with him, than in the Illian situation. It’s not that every character has to be sympathetic. It’s that main characters who the audience is supposed to consistently identify with and root for over time have to behave in understandable ways and maintain sympathy even when they behave badly. (Again—do they not get basic concepts of narration?? A legitimate question because it kinda seems like no.) Second, I will NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS put my sympathy with anyone being antagonistic to the protagonist society. Yet again, a basic middle-school-level English class concept here. If some fucker steps up and destroys the people I care about I’m not going to give a fuck about his sob story. (This is different from morally ambiguous villainous characters like Dante or love-to-hate-them villains.) Third, because I actually know how technology works and I also know the back story of how ALIE got out into society, I know that Illian is just fundamentally, objectively wrong when he says “Skaikru made me kill my family.” Lol nope you’re wrong they didn’t. I understand why you think that but you’re wrong. And on a related note, because the ALIE stuff was so inconsistent and poorly constructed, I’m not super sympathetic to any “this is the consequences of ALIE” story generally because I just want to forget that bullshit entirely. So yeah basically Illian is a villain I don’t need to see him redeemed, I don’t need to see him and O hook up. I don’t give a fuck about him.

Misc. complaints: NO MILLER. NO JAHA. NO JASPER. SAD.