#why are you acting like the christmas episode redeemed him

[heartslobbf]

do you honestly think people like julian bc they agree with his actions

julian is a character that we as an audience are meant to laugh at. you’re not meant to sympathise with him, he is purposefully constructed to ridicule tories and everything they stand for. i’ve seen people say they like julian because he’s ‘good bisexual rep’ or ‘he’s such a father figure’ or ‘he and x character would be so cute together’ and that makes me uncomfortable. he’s not a good or nice person, and when i see people making out like he is all i can think is oh wow you’re a tory sympathiser. like?? why are you defending a man who is openly misogynistic, proud to be a war criminal, etc. additionally, as a queer person i really don’t like it when people say he is queer because he is literally a tory, and he likes margaret thatcher, and those two things really really don’t coincide with the kind of queer representation i want to see, or the kind of queer representation the idiots would give us. it’s actively harmful, if anything, and if you’re not bi and saying he’s bisexual for the sole reason that he shagged around a lot, maybe reflect on why you think that. it plays into biphobic stereotypes.

[eyrieofsynapses]

Redemption Panel Highlights and Reactions

GATORS

i.e., Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane (mostly Beth) talking about filming the scenes in (what I presume is) The Rollin’ on the River Job, where they’re pulling some stuff out of the water, and finding out the next day that there was an absolutely massive alligator pulled out of the same place just a little while after they filmed it

Beth’s impression of the wildlife folks warning them about the alligators

Beth scaring the hell out of Noah Wyle by yelling “GATOR” at him just after he finished his scene

seriously that was an absolutely WILD part of the panel

Everyone showering Aleyse Shannon with literally all the love!

Aldis Hodge in particular big-brothering her, and also the older actors calling her out for not giving herself enough credit, and Dean Devlin talking about how she blew him away at the auditions with her ability to turn on a dime

Seeing Kane with his glasses off wiping at his eyes, momentarily thinking “you okay dude?” and then realizing that he was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes

(same)

The The Bucket Job clip! I’ve been a bit meh on a lot of Redemption, just in how it didn’t feel quite right, but that is possibly the absolute closest I’ve seen it get to the original in the best way. Brilliant

Which comes as no surprise since BETH RIESGRAF directed the episode!!! And apparently put an insane amount of effort in!

Beth’s utter delight and joy at both directing the episode and having the crew behind her

THE CHAIR

So apparently she and Christian went to town on the fight scene and he winds up tied up in a chair somewhere along the line and there’s a whole wild scene, which I am really looking forward to

Beth knowing how insanely particular he’d be about things like zip ties vs rope and what kind of rope e.t.c. e.t.c.

Apparently this is also tied into a VERY DEEP scene with Eliot? It sounds like they’re going to go super hard on his backstory, which is terrifyingly exciting

Just. Beth and Christian going very hard on that episode together

Speaking of: the panel’s going amazingly, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts, things are relatively light, and then, of fucking course—

Kane hitting us over the head about Eliot being a mass murderer who can’t be redeemed, is trying to stay static so that he can maintain the place he’s in, and is thus LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH HARRY

What the FUCK. This is of course incredibly insightful and perfectly on point (because it’s Kane) but also, EXCUSE ME, OUCH, why would you DO THAT to us?

Everyone talking about having their families on set and their kids!

Beth’s son growing up on the original Leverage set and now going into being a director himself!

Gina’s daughter also growing up on set!

Noah Wyle’s daughter is playing Harry’s daughter I REPEAT NOAH WYLE’S ACTUAL DAUGHTER IS PLAYING AS HARRY’S DAUGHTER

Gina Bellman remaining relatively stoic throughout much of the panel (seriously, this woman, how the heck does she do it) and then losing it when they’re asked about running/inside jokes

A lot of them are, of course, apparently not appropriate to be spoken on-panel

(A lot of the others are the little inside ones that are special enough not to be ones they want to share, which is sweet!)

Everyone collectively losing it over having LeVar Burton on for The Bucket Job

Devlin and everyone laughing about collecting the various Star Trek people on Leverage

Beth talking about Burton coming over while she’s getting ready and asking her if she’s living on coffee and water, her laughing because he was absolutely right, and then him gently reminding her to remember to eat, which is the sweetest thing in the world oh my gods

Kane apparently choreographing an intense scene with Burton and being scared out of his mind, because Burton really wanted to go for it, but to Kane it was like he’s a figurine that’s not to be messed with because he was so worried about hurting him

Kane choreographing a massive amount of the show, which I knew already, but seriously, this guy blows me away

Gina and the crew talking about how he’d be away for a day of shooting a fight and all of them would be missing him and thinking about him

Family Vibes

Everyone talking about how they’re very noisy and loud together on set and it’s a bit like walking into a group of people having Christmas dinner (or something to that effect) because they’re just Like That together

Aleyse being the most surprised by Beth when she met her because she was like a little angel of light during the auditions but turned out to be an absolute ball of wild energy on set

Gina going “wait you were a MODEL” at Beth

Aldis talking about how much he loved how Parker and Hardison’s relationship had developed and grown!

Also, Aldis apologizing when the New York (iirc) background noise got loud and everyone going “no no we get you”

His outfit is ON POINT today

Gina saying that Christian is the goofiest and wildest out of them in terms of humor

(she goes “some of you may not know this,” which, fair, but also, if you’ve seen more than ten minutes of this guy outside of character you know he’s an absolute ball of sunshine)

Gina, Beth, and Christian talking about how they’d challenge each other to stay off sweets back on the original set, because they knew they needed to stay in shape and also just because they’re competitive (apparently all of them are major sweet tooths) and hide brownies and things from each other, while Aldis is just. doing pushups. eating all the healthy stuff. and then wanders into the room with a literal cupful of chocolates

(and Aldis going “well yeah I have to work off the sweets SOMEHOW”)

Beth explaining that sometimes they’d order a “Kane burrito” from Christian and he’d alter it slightly

Like, you know, chopping up hot jalapenos super fine and mixing them in, and Beth practically not being able to talk after the first bite

Apparently Aldis still went back a lot even after that

(Christian just seems very pleased with himself over it)

(THESE PEOPLE)

Gina goes “hey we should have an episode where we all swap roles,” Devlin going “WAIT FOR SEASON ONE TO BE DONE,” and then somebody (maybe the moderator?? I don’t remember exactly) going “uh actually. We did that”

Cue immediate scramble of “WAIT WHICH JOB WAS THAT”

(paraphrasing) “Yeah you remember the bit where you put on Parker’s harness and went off a building?”

Turns out half the cast had actually forgotten that that existed and only remember when reminded

The original cast all think of the episodes as “jobs”!!!!

Everyone talking over each other, Devlin going “it was with Sterling when we blew up the offices,” deciding that it was the season one finale, and then trying to figure out what episode title it was (eventually they figure out it’s the David jobs)

Moderator and Devlin accurately commenting that the fans know the show much better than they do

Noah Wyle very correctly explaining how Electric Entertainment is like a family and Devlin just. Keeps people

Aleyse and Aldis talking about typing when they’re hacking and going “WHAT THE HECK DO WE TYPE”

Aldis goes “yeah I just type all the bad words that we’re not allowed to say”

Aleyse saying that she’s always a little worried they’re hiding a Word document behind the blue screen and they’re going to pull up what she’s typing at the end of the day and print it out and put it in her trailer going “what the HECK is this”

Noah talking about filming The Golf Job and just getting to direct Jason Marsters and Christian together

Apparently their dynamic in that episode accurately mirrors the one with their characters in Angel!

Which promptly goes straight to the comment that it was very hard to make Marsters look like a golfer (pfft)

(Also apparently Christian plays golf for fun with his friends? Not necessarily something I would’ve thought of!)

Aleyse happily talking about how she loved the dynamic on set and it was very different from what she was used to

Also Aleyse talking about doing stunts and everyone else praising her for going whole hog

Beth especially praising her for the bit where she’s hit with the paralysis injection (I don’t remember which ep it’s from) and her acting for it, because it was incredibly hard to drop off screen in the particular way she did

Aleyse promptly answers that she was terrified with some of those, especially one where she had to keep a clock from falling and breaking

Everyone discussing how they see a new aspect of Breanna’s character in The Train Job

Also, to get serious for a moment, Kate Rorick in particular talks about how Breanna’s part of Gen Z and how we didn’t get the “days of yore” where everything was chill. We’ve basically been living in a world of hostility the whole time. It’s something I deeply appreciate, as someone who’s part of that group, and I love how they emphasize that for us.

This panel was pure chaos and I loved every moment of it! My stomach was actually hurting from laughing so hard, I swear. They had me cackling well over half the time. I would happily take panels double or triple the length of this, this was amazing. I also adore how the second you drop these six people in a room together, they immediately take off and literally just run and give you everything you wanted and more. (It is also evidently very hard to get them to STOP talking.)

I’m also just going to stop and take a second to fawn over the effects for the 3D room. It’s gorgeous—I love how they replicated the headquarters, especially with the stained glass ceilings! Super impressive, especially with all the photos, and I just love the whole thing. Kudos to whoever put that together.

Anyway, I’m definitely missing some stuff too; seriously, there wasn’t a second wasted in this thing, they were cracking some kind of joke or dropping some really interesting piece of information practically every thirty seconds. (And I haven’t even gotten into the clips OR the bloopers. I miiiight do a separate reaction purely for those.) It’s still up right now if you missed it and you want to watch it! I’ll probably watch it again, honestly.

[ohmygodtheywereparabatai]

please god let me overanalyze this literal five second bit for christmas

Zhao’s Demise but Actually I Talk About Why He’s a Viable Candidate for a Redemption Arc

—

So, Zuko offers his hand, Zhao refuses, his pride becomes his own downfall. Done deal, no need to read further into it.

Most people arrive at the conclusion that his arrogance is cause for that ultimate look of ‘eat piss’ on his face... I’m most people. I’m not arguing that. What I didn’t notice the first time around was the penultimate expression, one I believe is meant to convey something slightly more human. People have made note of this too, called it a moment of recognition or humility, anagnorisis. I’ll throw up the screencaps, second for second, and walk you through. The reason I do this is, considering how much time and effort goes into animation, I will be treating each and every frame as if it has earned its place in the episode’s run time, 100%. Bryke are the masters. I am but a humble consumer.

Two parts encapsulate Zhao’s final moments. The first, before cutting away to Zuko’s outstretched hand, has nothing to do with vanity or hatred. Rather, it’s the farthest emotion from both, and more importantly, it’s genuine.

He turns to look at him, at the banished prince he’s hunted and ridiculed relentlessly. Zhao doesn’t sour on the onset, at the mere thought of being rescued by someone he regards as a failure and disgrace. Instead it conveys surprise, expected of Zuko’s offer in spite of the heated rivalry they share. It’s everything he doesn’t understand, a merciless man shown mercy, a poster child for rage and grudge given a chance to live by a scarred boy with every right to hate the world around him, and get rid of his competition to achieve the only ends that will restore him. It cuts away after this look, face buried in the ocean spirit’s massive hand:

Looks almost repentant, if the context were switched up a little. Doesn’t it? ;p

The next part is, maybe, even harder to digest in its entirety without really slowing it down. Instead of the dramatically retracting his arm and delivering that lasting, withering look designed to ring with absolute contempt and self-absorption... Zhao reaches back.

His hand moves closer to the lower lefthand corner of the screen. His fingers curl inward, and for a terrifying instant it looks as though he intends to grab Zuko and drag him down with him. The anger fades again, however, and with no reason or motive to not maintain that facade, I assume the next few shots are also authentic, human.

Zhao’s hand falters. It moves back, and the slant of his eyebrows is not so severe. This doesn’t quite come off as the beginning stages of a royal ‘fuck you’... so what’s up?

And there you have it. The most baffling expression to witness on one Admiral Zhao, personally speaking.

It’s as if his hand has gone limp. His eyes are grave, and his anger has dissolved. Into what, is up to interpretation - easily the core of Bryke genius. I see it as mercy. Something Zhao only learns in his last moments, from an adversary, no less, and returns by refusing Zuko’s hand. Either Zhao believed himself worthy of more than damsel-esque rescue from the treacherous enemy of his nation... or he believed in the exact opposite. It’s that kind of realization, which, in my opinion, renders the expression above.

And so, he ends on a characteristically haughty note of dismissal, superiority. His iconic, scathing features return, and like most soldiers, choosing death is in and of itself an act of defiance, and at the same time a display of servile, unimaginable loyalty. Dying for honor or a cause is no light topic... if anything, this scene reveals the extent of Fire Nation nationalism. And we know how it’s repaid, how his story finally ends in a maddening, eternal fog.

So, Redemption Arc?

Yeesh, grim portrait of such a scoff-able moment. But bear with me. Redeeming Zhao deserves an entire post of its own, but I’ll lay down the bare bones of such a hypothetical.

Consider any other ATLA villain that shows such drastic change in their character - a brief, shining moment of humanity, vulnerability, or conflict. Zuko aside, and the crazed Azula, there’s little to nothing to work with. Long Feng, Combustion Man, Firelord Ozai - stagnant, little backstory. There’s a moment in Zuko Alone where we see Ozai standing over the turtle duck pond, regarded as an attempt at processing Ursa’s loss. It’s even said that the royal family was truly happy once. Scant, but plenty to expand on, right? Except Ozai remains the worst father in the history of fathers, and status as a genocidal maniac is generally seen as a hard pass.

Take Zhao, then. Complicit, or a pawn? Arrogant ass, or a brainwashed soldier, raised on the wrong ideals? We’ve seen Fire Nation schools. We know our own history. In both occasions where he’s on the verge of killing a minor, something that immediately lands a ticket to Irredeemable Land - he fails, embarrassingly so. Are his hands clean? Certainly not. Show-wise, however, he’s depicted as a laughable fool, his shot at greatness reduced to insignificance... just like Uncle Iroh’s heart of gold takes precedence over a history of warmongering. It’s framing, and it’s deliberate.

In the end, I leave anyone still reading with this.

If Zhao could learn mercy and return it in the last split-second before his defeat, if he genuinely saw Zuko, for the first and only time, and made a radical choice in light of it... what’s to say he couldn’t learn - or unlearn - more? That he couldn’t make another good choice, and another, if his mind wasn’t being rotted out by fog? *suspicious shrug emoji*

At the foundation of his character is a soldier. Someone hungry for glory, sworn to serve. He hunts the Avatar, he attacks the Blue Spirit, he besieges the Northern Kingdom and yes, takes the moon out of duty - a distorted notion of honor and destiny, and a destructive root to firebending influenced by a century of war. Seems to carry the faintest hint of PTSD. Any chance the show might contain such a hint?

Ah...

[rwbybutincorrect]

So... why do you hate Victorious so much?

BECAUSE I STILL WATCH IT???????? the show sucks so much, tori is a horrible protagonist who is a terrible person and does not learn or grow or really deserve anything she gets. she doesn’t even know half the BASIC THINGS upon coming to the school for performing arts idont remember what it was called. 

she is a HORRIBLE SISTER who treats trina so mean and like I GET BEING MEAN TO YOUR SIBLINGS BUT AT THE SAME TIME THERES LIKE NO REDEMPTION ON HER HALF LIKE AT LEAST TRINA HAS HER MOMENTS WHERE SHE SHOWS SHE CARES ABOUT TORI AND ACTS LIKE SHE CARES ABOUT HER BUT TORIS JUST LIKE “damn right” i hate them

and then dont even get me started on that stupid ass nerd boy who uses a puppet to be misogynistic and harrass women!! “rex why would you say that” SHUT UP NERDB OY YOU SAID IT YOURE A VANTRILIQUIEST STUPID IDIOT MAN BOY IDIOT ugh

anyway theres also that canadian boy who had no character besides being hot and rebellious that guy was an idiot (no offence canadians) hes just so useless as a character because all he does is just have girlfriend and be useless (but knows how to drive) idiot oh my god idiot god i hate him

andre and jade were kind of good i like those two 

(EDITING NOTE ACTUALLY WASNT ANDRE LIKE WEIRDLY LIKE LIKE ALSO LOWKEY MYSOGYNISTIC LIKE AT ONE POINT TORI WAS LIKE “pretend im jade :3″ and he was like “oh my gohg. i going to kiss you without your consent” AND SHE WAS LIKE “AAAH” AND HE WAS LIKE “AHH I DONT KNOW WHAT CAME OVER ME” damn even the good ones have their L’s theres no redeemable people here)

BUT I AM CONSTANTLY ANNOYED WITH HOW THEY TREAT CAT. CAT IS TREATED SO BADLY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW andh er obviously abusive situation at home is played off like jokes and its like “UMM??? ARE WE GOING TO ADDRESS THIS??? ARE WE GOING TO IGNORE HER OBVIOUS CRIES FOR HELP” SHE CONSTANTLY TALKS ABOUT HOW HER BROTHER SCARES HER AND SHE HIDES “TO SURVIVE” AND BECAUSE SHE HAS THAT SWEET HIGH PITCHED VOICE SHES SO INNOCENT AND STUPID AND WE HATE HER UGAHPEHRAPHRWPRHHG cat is so charming and shes treated so badly with whatever she has going on i m so mad im so upset with how they treat her 

AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED WITH TORI AND TRINAS PARENTS OH MY GOD THE MOST NEGLECTFUL PARENTS OF THE YEAR AWARD they are NEVER there despite the fact that their kids are CONSTANTLY going off on probably dangerous situations APPARENTLY ACCORDING TO MY BROTHER ALL OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS WENT TO JAIL???? AND WHERE WERE THEIR PARENTS?? THEY HAVE NO PARENTS Im so mad im so angry their parents are so neglectful like when trina had her wisdon teeth removed they said “okay we goin to hAWWIII” SHUT UP YOU DITIO PARENTS YOURE SO CRUEL I THATE YOU 

remember that time a teacher held a sleep over with his students and if they broke acting character THEY FAILED THE ASSIGNMENT DAWG A CHILD GOT BURNED ON YOUR SUPERVISION AND YOU SAID “IF YA BREAK CHARACTER YOU LOOSE THE ASSISGNMENT” SFHSFHAHFF I HAFSKHFF SHE AHFHFBAHFFF i need a minute im getting adrenaline from my rage  hold on i need to eat my cookies

[eats cookies]

WHY WERE THEIR PHONES SHAPED LIKE PEARS there was also this once scene where cat made brownies and they were OBVIOUSLY LITTLE DEBBYS COSMIC BROWNIES yet tori was like “you never eat my brownies :(” to her exboyfriend now dating cat and hes like “hbrrbrhuububububu” and its like THSOE ARENT BROWNIES THOSE ARE ARTIFICIAL AS HELL THATS A COSMIC BROWNIE i feel violent 

the episode where they crossed over with icarly was pretty good ig because sam and cat wasn’t bad as long as cat was appreciated because sam and cat both come from terrible households and now they’re dating ig guess??? goo dfro them :3

jade is done so dirty shes seen as selfish for being ambitious and wanting to succeed and have people be proud of HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS??? wasn’t there that one point where jade was performing her dark play that was entirely written by herself and performed by herself and none of her friends wanted to support her despite the fact that MORE OR LESS SHE IS ALMOST ALWAYS AROUND EVEN IF SHE DOESNT WANT TO BE LIKE SOMETIMES SHE OPTS OUT BUT LIKE SHES PRESENT??? BUT OYU GUYS CANT JUST KEEP DISREGARDING HER AND NOT LETTING HER SUCCEED JUST BECAUSE SHES A LIIIITOL PETTY all you bitches are petty be a little police to this GAY PERSON jesus christmas okay 

anyway dont take this too seriously, i legitimately dont care, to only reason i say “i hate victorious” so much is because its annoying how much nostalgia and sentimental attachment i have to it despite it being a show made by a terrible person and and a show that is just generally like. dumb. i think. i dont think its going to win any awards but whatever. it was a huge ploy to get victoria justice’s but mostly ariana grande’s singing careers off the ground i just think about this show with red anger glasses i dont mean to like. insult anyone or be mean to people who genuinely do care about this show because honestly i dont. i honestly could care less. i am just saying words because words are coming out of my brain and i need to say them or i will explode but this time i get to say them in front of a thousand + people so read this thank you

OH BUT STAN THIS SCENE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5sGxCpf7ns

[nghtmrsndydrms]

In this thread you'll see all the theories/speculations/ headcanons I have for the anticipated LuciferS5B:

(disclaimer: some of them may have already been said by others but I'm only listing & writing about all I WANT & BELIEVE WILL HAPPEN because I want to get back to these before & after S5B releases) 

Halloween+/Christmas episode (family dinner + gifts. God not knowing how to consume food i.e. how to simply Human, Lucifer being in denial acting like nothing's wrong, Amenadiel busy showing off Charlie, Michael still being a dick, Chloe and Linda's rapidly declining level of  sanity by getting stuck in the middle of a Very Dysfunctional Family Dinner).

Charlie's problem solved. He's half mortal and half angel. He can catch simple human diseases for a while but won't be affected as much (like normal humans) because he's part angel. Amenadiel relaxes a little - one problem down, now to solve 10393829 pending family problems.

Deckerstar being interrupted by Dad while doing something naughty (school storage/gym).

Lucifer serenading Chloe + slow dancing.

A Holy Family musical number (L+M+A+Dad). 

 A Hot Tub High School remake RP scene because Lucifer deserves it and they kinky. 

 Linda to file the database release form given to her by Maze. For Adriana to look for her mother and for her and Linda to have a talk. After said talk, Linda will finally forgive herself and accept that even though things could have been worse for Adriana it didn't end up like that and now she has Charlie who she can do everything she wished she could have done for Adriana. Reconciling with her daughter and getting to raise Charlie will be her salvation. 

 Lucifer to permanently lose his Devil face - for him to finally let it 'rest'. 

 Lucifer to inherit the Throne - meaning he's going to be the new "god" whether Dad just steps back and retire or he just simply ceases to exist.

The scene LAB was talking about is the death of both Dan and Chloe that Maze will unintentionally cause by siding with Michael and how she's going to face Trixie (and the rest of their found family) knowing what she did. 

 Maze to realize she doesn't need a soul to be not like her mother (because she already WASN'T). Then Eve helping Maze to find her road to self (re)discovery and redemption by talking about HER (Eve) journey. (Ffs Maze you already have your very own found family, you keep pushing them away so they pull back if only you guys talked, like fine aged celestial (and human) beings that you are, PROBLEMS WOULD BE SOLVED) ILY but seriously

Dan to mirror Charlotte's death - dies protecting an Angel (Lucifer). (So sad but will be satisfying to see.) 

 Dan dies (won't get resurrected - he's been struggling with a lot of guilt from everything he's done before but will probably grow and find acceptance and forgiveness for himself before he dies so he'll end up in heaven. I don't want him to go back because it'd seem anticlimactic for his growth - please see Re: Charlotte) 

 The "ILY please don't go" in 4x10 only this time it's Lucifer saying those words. (At this time Lucifer still believes he doesn't deserve to go back to heaven so he believes he'll never see Chloe again) See 4x10 and 5x08 for the "I lo-" 

 Chloe dies (but gets resurrected, one possibility is her being like Lilith and Eve created directly by the hands of God so going back to her own body would be possible while, the other is once Lucifer accepts his new role, why would he deny Trixie of a parent who still has a lot of criminals to catch and bring to justice. Charlotte and Dan has peaked - Chloe would feel like she hasn't done enough yet, there's still more to be done) 

 Chloe Jane Decker will deck god.

The reason why Amenadiel was so adamant on getting Lucifer back to hell was because Dad gave an order -- the problem is it was too vague and Amenadiel misunderstood BIG TIME. Amenadiel was actually NOT supposed "to get Lucifer and bring him back to HELL" rather he was supposed to "to get Lucifer and bring him back to HEAVEN". Amenadiel was meant to help Dad make Lucifer realize that Dad was waiting for him to come home and also maybe play a little matchmaker to Deckerstar while he was at it. 

The clue of a 'beloved character' dying is Chloe's death because Lucifer will call her "My beloved". 

 Michael will be redeemed. This will be a stretch because I'm thinking that Lilith ends up in hell maybe because she feels guilty about something (her not being a better mother (insert Pete is Lilith's SON theory), a better wife to Adam, and for abandoning her other kids in hell). She might introduce herself as Maze (because they look alike) and convince the demons wage war to Lucifer because he left again but Lilith's after him because he BROKE HIS WORD (Maze found her when she didn't wanna be found and for any of her kids to know what she had done). Demons will go topside, God is dead (or just retired) and it's up to the Angels to deal with Lilith. And in a very defining moment Michael would have to choose sides -- with the demons so he could finally prove, if he defeated Lucifer, that he's the better twin or die trying anyway or side with the Angels, his family, because this is the result of the mess he tried to make out of Lucifer's life. If he never mentioned it to Maze she wouldn't have known and Lucifer wouldn't have 'broken' his word to Lilith. Michael will only be redeemed WHEN he DECIDES to face and deal with the consequences of his actions. No one would get redemption if they can't realize why they have to have it in the first place. (this basically turned into a fanfic huh)

 Ella's talk with Dad will help her deal with her inner 'darkness'. Also, maybe Michael - kinda like when you slowly face your fears in therapy. Exposure therapy? 

 Zadkiel (the rumored new Angel; Angel of mercy and forgiveness) will either come get Lucifer (because after Chloe's Death she's in heaven meeting up with her Dad catching up and all that but also being insistent that someone better get her boyfriend 'cause she ain't staying a second longer in that place without him) OR welcome him by the gates once Lucifer's done grieving and actually tries to go to heaven to get her back or something. I'm biased for the former because Luci is sometimes a Dumbass™ and also because of the bts pics. 

 Lilith's ring will be given to Eve. Maze will ask Lucifer for the ring or give the ring to Maze once he hears about Lilith's death because that's what started everything - then give it to Eve. A perfect symbolism of the garden (the ring having part of the garden) being passed from the first wife to the second. If there's any of the characters who'll enjoy their immortality on Earth it's Eve. She's bored of heaven and she didn't have a nice experience with demons - it's on Earth where she felt most alive and free. Also, if anyone deserves the ring it's Eve because they basically have the same woes -- one of those being made just to become someone's wife. Can you guys imagine, if the situation they're all in were better, we could have had the first two women getting drunk and digging up all of Adam's dirt.

 5x09: FAMILY DINNER Victim is burned + possible casts for a Mom and Dad. The couple might mirror God and Goddess (a workaholic absentee Dad and a cold, manipulative, distant Mom) and the burned victim a parallel to Lucifer being thrown to hell.

I might add more later -- 9.25.2020

[stormtrprinstilettos]

Fun’s For Free - Chapter 6 (Roger x Reader) (smut)

Summary: It’s 1978 and you’re assigned to follow Queen on their North American tour to promote their new album. Only problem is the magazine you write for has not been kind to the band in the past, and someone has a hard time letting go of that fact.

Series Masterlist Here!

In this “episode”: Everything seems to be just fine…

Word Count: ~4K

Warnings: The entire series is language & smut, so 18+ please and thank you!

A/N: I want to thank everyone yet again for reading and reblogging and commenting. Feedback helps keep me motivated to keep writing! ♥️

November 19, 1978 – Uniondale, Long Island You pace around the backstage hall, looking for Mike. He was here somewhere, and you just knew he was trying to be incognito so he could catch you doing something. Or maybe you were just being paranoid. Okay, so you were being ridiculously paranoid, as evidenced by how loud you screamed when he tapped you on the shoulder. “Looking for me?” he said with a loud laugh. “You’re so jumpy.”

“Asshole,” you mumble. “Would you like to meet them or no?” You knock on the door to the dressing room and slowly open the door. “Is everyone decent?” you yell through the crack before walking in.

“No!” Freddie yells.

“So hurry up!” John yells.

You start giggling and look at Mike. “You’ll love them,” you say, taking note of his horrified face. When you walk in, they’re all sitting around, surprisingly calm. “This is Mike, my editor.” After introducing him to Freddie, John and Brian, you start to cringe when walking over to Roger and give him a pleading look, silently begging him not to cause a scene. Of course, that doesn’t happen. Roger greets him almost the same way he greeted you the first time you met, only he didn’t yell when confronting Mike about all of the shitty things that have been printed about the band in the past. You slowly walk away and take a seat next to John and try your hardest to ignore the entire scene.

“I’m a bit surprised he’s not yelling,” John observes. “Then again, he did demand we all be on our best behavior.” He turns to you and starts to giggle. “I don’t know what you told him, but we miss our angry Roger.”

You started to laugh. “I told him I’d get pulled off the job if he acted inappropriately. I didn’t tell him to be nice.” John gave you a curious smile, so you quickly think of a small fib. “If Mike sees I’m having any issues he’ll make me leave and send someone else in.” John nods understandingly and you both look back at Roger and Mike.

“Rog, give it a rest,” Freddie shouts. “No need getting worked up now.”

You walk over to Mike and pull him away and drag him out of the room. “I’m sorry. I knew he was going to start,” you apologize. “I was hoping he wouldn’t.”

Mike starts to laugh. “Why are you apologizing? It could have been worse. At least he’s passionate about his work. If he wasn’t offended I’d not respect him.” He looks at you curiously. “Why do you feel like you have to apologize for him?”

“It’s not… I just know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of it, that’s all.”

You and Mike enjoy the show from the side of the stage. When it was time for Brian’s guitar solo, which seemed to go on longer than usual tonight for some reason, he decided to leave. You walk backstage with him and give him a hug goodbye. “So I guess I’ll see you in time for Christmas,” he said. “Remember, Y/N, I’m counting on you.”

You give Mike a thumbs up and he walks away. When you turn to go back to the stage, you get pulled from behind and drawn into a hug. “I know, I stink,” Roger mumbles in your ear. “But this is the first chance I had all day to do this.” He quickly turns you around and plants a huge kiss on your lips. “Hope you don’t mind,” he says with a smile.

“Not at all,” you smile back. You look over his shoulder and see his roadie smirking. “We’ve been caught,” you whisper in his ear. “I trust you’ll handle that.”

He starts to chuckle. “He’s seen so much and hasn’t said a word yet, I don’t think he’ll start now.” He gives you another kiss. “Are you running off home after we’re done here?”

“Are you coming with me?” you smirk.

He looks over your shoulder now and sees Daisy, who wasn’t supposed to even be here. “Don’t turn around,” he whispers. “That person you work with is here. She didn’t see…” He hurries and moves back before running to the stage. You turn around and Daisy is right there in front of you.

“So, you and pretty boy sneaking off backstage huh?” she jokes. “Is this how you two argue now? In private?”

You start to laugh. “Yep, everything in private.”

November 21, 1978 – somewhere in south Virginia, around 3am Everyone on the bus is sleeping, except for the driver. You wake up from your sleep and stand to stretch your legs. When you stand, so does Roger, who was sitting in across from you. He holds a finger to his lips, telling you to be quiet, and guides you to seats in the back of the bus. “Entertain me,” he says as he closes the divider curtains. “I can’t sleep.”

“You’re the one who gets paid to entertain,” you giggle. “All I do is write about it.”

“Then write me a story.”

You shift yourself in the seat, turning so you can face him comfortably and clear your throat. “Once upon a time, there was this beautiful princess named Y/N. And one day, she met a mean man named Roger.” He starts to chuckle, but you’re keeping a straight face and a dramatic tone. “And Roger hated Y/N…”

“No he didn’t,” he whispers with a smile. “He never hated her. He tried to, but he couldn’t. That’s why he was such a cunt to her.” The smile leaves his face and he starts to get serious. “I’m sorry for all of that.”

“Oh, stop,” you giggle. “I didn’t help matters either.” You start to think about the article and fill with worry. “Roger, I…” You try to explain the situation, but he kisses you and interrupts. You gently push him away, feeling the need to say what you have to say. “Roger, wait, let me say this.” He nods his head and listens intently. “The first part of my article may not be exactly nice to you.” You cringe, but he laughs. “I’m serious.”

“Will I be redeemed by the end of it?” he asks, seemingly not taking your concern seriously.

“It’s looking that way,” you tell him.

“Then I see no reason to be upset,” he smiles. “Lets just say I’ve learned how to, what was it you said? ‘Grow up, and use criticism as motivation.’”

You let out all of your worry with a deep exhale, deciding to let it go. “So what does Roger Taylor do in his spare time?” You are here for a job, after all, and decide to take this time to get more details for your story.

He starts to laugh. “What spare time?” He adjusts himself in his seat to face you now. “What about Y/N Y/L/N?”

You roll your eyes and giggle. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be asking the questions.”

For the next hour or so, you and Roger talk more about anything and everything. You learn more about his passions outside of music, his likes and dislikes, both of you sharing a bit more about yourselves with each other - an extension of the last real conversation the two of you had after leaving Detroit.

Of course, the two of you can’t just have conversations since the two of you are drawn together like magnets. You’re getting sleepy, as is he, but you start to give each other slow, sleepy kisses, and start getting a bit touchy. He rests his hand on your thigh and you start to rub your hand on his forearm. His hand runs up your thigh and stops at the center of your heat. He starts to stroke, up and down, over the softness of you lips, covered in the thin fabric of your pants and the tiny thong you’re wearing. His strokes are subtle and he feels you twitch as he slowly works you over.

"Fuck…" you whisper. For some reason he finds that even sexier than when he makes you scream, and he’s starting to wonder who’s teasing who. He slowly unbuttons your shirt with his free hand revealing your glowing skin and the fullness of your breast, softly caressing the flesh before him, giving you goosebumps even though it’s not cold on the bus. He slides his hand under your bra, gently stroking over your nipple at the same pace his other hand works over your clit through your pants. He slides the cup of your bra down, exposing your breast, and reaches out with his tongue, flicking it across the nipple; you jump. He blows across your damp skin, before lowering his lips over the nipple, flicking at it with his tongue as he sucks the soft flesh against his mouth.

You start to moan, and he raises his hand to your face, sliding his hand over your mouth, smothering your voice. He continues his relentless teasing with his fingers against your clit and his tongue on your nipple. You start to buck your hips and he starts to feel the dampness of the material between your legs. He applies more pressure on your clit, circling round and round, and sits up so he can watch you. Your chest is heaving, and your back arches as you clamp your hands over his against your pussy, preventing him from moving while you ride out your orgasm.

“Yeah, still pretty when you cum,” he whispers with a smile before leaning in to give you a soft kiss.

“Quit smiling at me,” you groan. “It makes me weak and timid.” You run your hand up his leg and cup the bulge that is protruding from his pants. “This must be uncomfortable,” you say with a giggle, and move your hand up to the button of his pants. As you start to unbutton, you hear footsteps on the other side of the curtain and quickly pull away and start to button your shirt.

The curtain draws back and you see Brian standing there, a smirk drawn on his face. “So this is why you two are getting along now,” he jokes. Your face starts to flush with heat out of embarrassment, and you turn to look at Roger who seems to be equally embarrassed. “You two sneak off when we’re all asleep and talk? Don’t want us knowing that you really don’t despise each other?”

“Yeah,” Roger chirps up, his voice amazingly calm and collected. “She’s not so bad, I guess.” He turns and looks at you with a smile before turning back to Brian, whose expression slowly starts to change from amusement to suspicion. “Did you need something?”

“No, no,” he says softly, not looking away from you. “I was just wondering why the curtain was closed, that’s all.” He notices your shirt isn’t buttoned correctly and looks back to Roger with a small frown. “Can I talk to you, Rog?” Roger starts to protest Brian’s sudden need for conversation, but you excuse yourself and go back to your seat. They try to be quiet, but you can hear the entire conversation.

“What are you doing?” Brian fusses. “She is supposed to be completely off limits.”

“Since when have I ever followed the rules?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I happen to like her, Brian. She’s a great person.”

“A month ago you couldn’t stand looking at her…”

“No, I always liked looking at her,” Roger cackles. “You would rather us constantly arguing?” Roger pauses. “Oh, I get it. You’re jealous.”

“I am not jealous. I just think this is a huge mistake that will backfire on her.” Brian pauses. “You can’t be serious about her.”

Freddie wakes up and interrupts your eavesdropping. “What’s going on back there?” He climbs in the seat next to you and gets comfortable.

“Apparently Brian doesn’t like Roger and I getting along,” you sarcastically joke. “We were back there talking like civilized adults and Brian caught us.”

“Talking?” He starts to laugh and points at your shirt. “Must have been some intense conversation.” Oh, fuck, you think to yourself. “Don’t worry, darling. The only thing that’s surprising is that it didn’t happen sooner than it did.” You look shocked. “Oh, please. Everyone fucking knows. Well, now everyone does. Brian was oblivious as usual.”

November 21, 1978 – 11am, Nashville, Tennessee The bus pulls up to the hotel and everyone climbs off. Before heading inside, Roger rushes up behind you and grabs your arm, pulling you off to the side. The two of you kept your distance from each other the rest of the bus ride, so this is the first contact you’ve had in 8 hours. “We can share a room, you know.”

“You don’t think it would be a huge mistake that will backfire on me?” you ask with a raised brow.

He runs his hand under the collar of his shirt, clearly nervous about something. “Ah, so you heard…”

“Only up to the point where he said you can’t possibly be serious.” He seems to be relieved that you didn’t hear anything that was said after that, and your mind starts racing, wondering why. You don’t ask, deciding instead that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. “He sounded pretty upset.”

Roger glances around and turns to you. “Let’s get settled in the room and we’ll talk about it there.” You look at him with a curious smirk. “Oh come on, I don’t have to be anywhere until 4:00 when I have a stupid radio interview.”

“In case you forgot, I have a job to do.”

“And I always let you do your job, but right now all I’m asking for are a few hours of your time.”

“Hours, huh?” you giggle.

He sighs. “Will you at least join me for lunch?”

“No, you need to rest,” you say with a smile. “And I need to get a new typewriter and work.”

“Then dinner tonight?” he pleads. “Let me take you to dinner.”

You giggle and smirk. “You’re not going to let this go, huh?” He smirks back and nods his head. “Sure, dinner. I’ll have dinner with you.”

You knew he was trouble from the second you saw him, but he turned into a different kind of trouble. Now you feel safe with him, not just physically, but emotionally. You know this is just a fling, a fling that will end, no strings attached, and the sex? Well, that’s been phenomenal the few times it’s happened. And you just know it’s going to happen again. The atmosphere is completely different right now from the other times the two of you have been completely alone together. You’re not angry with each other, you’re not frustrated with each other, and you aren’t immediately jumping each other’s bones like you did when it happened back in New York at your apartment. This time, it’s calm, quiet and… sweet. He’s been sweet. And you can’t wrap your head around the fact that the two of you went from wanting to strangle each other to actually wanting to be around each other. You didn’t want to complicate things by talking about whatever this thing between the two of you is, but you had to. You had to make sure you were both on the same page.

He’s standing by the window, looking out onto the downtown lights, soaking the view in, being very quiet. He must have felt you watching him, because he turns to face you and smiles. “Enjoying the view?” he jokes before waving you over. He holds you from behind and pulls you close. You can hear his heartbeat and heavy breathing.

“Bet you can’t wait to get back home, huh?” you ask, thinking that his reply will help you gauge where his head is when it comes to this thing going on between the two of you.

He draws you closer and sighs. “I actually love touring. The others get tired of it, but I live for it.” He turns you to face him and smiles that sweet smile again. “I’m really enjoying this one.” Your eyes roll and you start to giggle before you realize that he’s being completely serious right now. “I wish this one was longer.” He holds the back of his hand to your cheek and starts to laugh. “You’ve managed to disrupt my entire psyche, Y/N.”

“You’re not exactly innocent either, you know,” you say with a laugh. “I really should go back and type up my article. I was supposed to turn it in…”

He draws you in for a kiss, interrupting you. “Stay with me,” he whispers. “You have all day tomorrow.”

“Roger, I shouldn’t…”

“Please,” he begs. “Stay.”

“I can’t. I have to call Mike…”

“Call him tomorrow.” You start to laugh a nervous laugh that he finds adorable. “Ok, then I’ll come to your room.” You tilt your head, amused by him practically begging. “I will let you work. Promise.”

You keep stealing glances, watching him lay back on your bed with his faded jeans and white t-shirt watching television. If he sees you he doesn’t let on. He’s making it hard to keep your focus just by being there, but you’re determined to finish. Only two pages left to type and then you’re done. You feel torn, sitting here preparing to type the part where you write about how childish his behavior is as he’s laying over there. You know if it prints, he’ll not only look bad, but he’ll be angry with you. If Mike and Candice hadn’t seen that part it would have been easy to omit it, but it’s too late. Maybe I can reword it, you think to yourself. Maybe not be so harsh… You look back at him, and this time he’s looking at you and smiling before your eyes even make it in his direction. Jesus, why is this so hard? you ask yourself. You smile back at him and immediately hear Mike’s voice in your head. Your journalistic integrity is at stake, just as he said, and you don’t know what to do. You sigh as you focus back on the typewriter and start to type. Freddie has a seemingly insatiable lust for life. Brian has a seemingly insatiable lust for meaning. John has a seemingly insatiable lust for laughter. And Roger, well, Roger can’t seem to let go of his insatiable lust for… You pause. You can’t do it. “Childish behavior” is what you were supposed to type. Instead, you change it. … insatiable lust for critical respect. That should be fine, you internally groan. You close your notebook, take off your glasses and take a deep sigh before putting everything you just typed in an envelope to mail to your editors.

“Finished?” he asks quite giddily.

“Yeah,” you whisper with a nod. “Finished.”

“Can I read it?” he asks, already knowing the answer. “I’m joking. Come here.” You smile and walk over to the bed and throw yourself down next to him. He points to the phone on the bedside table. “Don’t you have a phone call to make?”

You groan and roll over, dialing the phone and waiting for Mike to pick up. “Hey, I’m putting it in the mail tomorrow.” You roll on your back, the phone still up to your ear and look over to Roger. “Yeah, everything is fine.” You smile at his smile. “Nashville. Then St. Louis.” He turns over on to his side, facing you, still smiling. “Yeah, I’m behaving,” you giggle with a lump in your throat. “I’ll check in again next week.” When you say your goodbye, Roger takes the phone from you, leans over you and hangs it up.

When he makes his way back, he stops to lean down for a kiss. “Now can I have your undivided attention?” You smirk at each other and he lays back down on his side next to you. “You alright? You seemed bothered over there.”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” You don’t want to ask, but the words just blurt out of your mouth and you can’t stop them. “Why were you so relieved I didn’t hear what you told Brian when he said that you can’t be serious about… whatever this is between us?”

“Please don’t ask me that, Y/N,” he begs.

“Look, I’m not upset, and I won’t be upset, and I’m not trying to pressure you into anything…” You’re trying your hardest to let him know that you just want to make sure you’re both on the same page here, but he starts to get snippy.

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Well maybe I do, Roger.” Frustrated now, you sit up on the bed and look down at him. “I get that this is fun and meaningless, I understand that…”

“Y/N, stop,” he says quite forcefully. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m not asking for…”

“Stop!” he yells. “Why can’t you ever just stop?” He gets off of the bed in a huff and walks to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says before he walks out.

Permatags: @clogwearingspacepoodle @briansfatbottomgirl @culturefiendtrashqueen @jennyggggrrr @shutup-sorry @dontstopmemeow @letmelivetaylor @tommyleeownsme

Series tags: @toomuchlove-willkillyou @sunshine112 @ohtheseboysilove @luvborhap @painkiller80 @hannafuckingsucks @itsametaphorbriansblog @biscuit-barrel @capsparrowtara @asquiresofftime @aridrowse @geek-and-proud @a19103 @nicholeh7 @caborhapch @catch-a-deak @thebelgiancompanion @ultrablackwidower @maggieroseevans @protectrowanwhitethorn @mercurycrowley @amy-brooklyn99 @bellas2silly @rogxrtaylxr @gylfsz @amagicmess @thessxoxo @mariekuuuuuh @drowseoftaylor @bohemiansweede @loveandbeloved29 @radiob-l-a-hblah

[trishvaylar]

I have done it again...a random pick of The Blacklist episode and a flow of ideas after...

This time it was Frederick Barnes (Gina Zanatakos went first, which again made think about how easily it is to hide the truth if you leave it in plain sight, but Barnes is actually one of my top favorite episodes in Season 1, because it is so many-layered one).

First thought domanating over all others is actually about the greater good. Liz made a choice to surrender her weapon to save a hostage, Ressler told her that it was a bad move considering the greater good. And at the end Liz kills Barnes and said about Ithan that such is life...she sides with Ressler about the greater good. But Red sides with Frederick, who acted both as a moster and a Father, for whom the greater good was the life of his sick son.

And here is what I think - this is about profit vs compassion. IF the research facilities had agreed to study that illness the boy had, if the farmasutical companies had decided to finance the research, however unprofitable, to save those suffering from it, even if it were a very small number, but that number ment people, real people and their suffering, then Frederick Barnes wouldn't have had to sell his talent for money in order to help his son and eventually he wouldn't have had to kill innocents (which did not cause him joy, he just realised he didn't have a choice if he wanted his son to live) to try and find someone with natural immunity and thus procure an antidote to the virus. If only our world would have been more compassionate...but it isn't.

And Liz, a very compassionate person, was forced to accept that the greater good is less victims...As an FBI field agent she may be right. But if she were to look at it from a less detached point of vision and took a personal view? What a Parent wouldn't do for their child...A real Parent would do ANYTHING. That's what Barnes did, the cold indifferent world forcing him to become a monster, and that's what Red did and still does for his child...That is why Red tells Liz he understands what it is like to be ready to burn the whole world to save/to protect one person. Now Liz herself is a Parent and something tells me she will be faced with a very similar choice - her child or the greater good.

After that thought about love, sacrifice compassion and greater good had run its' course, there came another, a very Rederinasque thought. The house...the house Red had bought, said to Luli, had raised his family there, and then blew it up to help himself forgate what happened there... I believe something did happen there on Christmas Eve 1990, which led to an abandoned snowed car and the real Raymund Reddingtons dissapearence. Then exactly four years elapsed between that date and the beginning of the leakings traced to our Red... Liz was four when she shot her Father, so the leaks defenitely came from our Red, the real Raymond being dead... So why would an imposter do such a thing - care for the real Raymond's family, blow up the house connected to his life and past? And the answer seems to be in the words spoken by Katarina herself in Cape May, when she confessed to feeling guilt - she was harsh with Raymond and their daughter shot him dead... So the stories connected to Raymonds past, his face, blood type, DNA, his family and house, all those connections are a way for Katarina Rostova to redeem both herself and the real Reddington. And to give Masha the understanding of the fact that her Parents love her, even so one of them is dead by her hand, and the other is two in one.

There also is one significant moment, psychological - a man becoming a woman because of nessesity, out of disguise, tries to become someone new as a woman, hiding his masculinity. But a woman becoming man is different - she will be BOTH herself and the new person, a combination, a two in one. That explains it all - why there are distinct Russian cultural knowledge and obviously American personal stories. It is respect...love...gratitude...and guilt towards the man who died in a fire but left Katarina the most important gift - their daughter.

PS: there is one other moment I love about that episode - Red forcing Liz to admit just how much she really needs help. "All you have to do is ask". Yes, being useful, needed by one's child - any Parent could relate to that.

#The Blacklist #Random Rewatch #Frederick Barnes #personal thoughts on compassion #Rederina #And male and female psych #And about the desperate desire to be needed by one's kid

[miraculouscontent]

The Treatment of Marinette (Season 2)

Because Season 1 was just the appetizer.

If there's one thing that Miraculous is the most consistent in, it's how they treat Marinette. Aside from a few choice episodes in Season 1, the show simply didn’t know how to respect their main lead.

Then Season 2 came along and just made everything worse.

[Mari-not]

Let's start with the simple fact that the writers feel the need to push Marinette's character in certain directions to get their story going, whether it's realistic for her character or not.

In "A Christmas Special," for example, they try to have Ladybug completely misunderstand the situation with Adrien, which is a small part of why Santa gets akumatized.

The show tries to convey this by having Ladybug reason that Chat must've been fighting a supervillain, due to seeing the result of one of his Cataclysms. Yet, not only is Chat not there when she shows up (surely he would've tried to keep holding Santa off even after using his power and also return as quickly as possible if he de-transformed?), but she has no evidence that Santa was even the one who she thinks took Adrien in the first place.

Why would this man have taken Adrien back home if he kidnapped him?

Why would Adrien argue that the man isn't akumatized if the man kidnapped him?

Why would Ladybug insist that she would know an akuma victim when she sees one when Santa doesn't look like a standard akuma victim?

The idea is so obviously that Ladybug is blinded by concern over Adrien that she's not thinking straight, but the suspension of disbelief can only go so far when Ladybug swung in on this guy bringing Adrien back home.

And Ladybug's involvement wasn't necessary in the first place. Santa was already made fun of and yelled at, so why did Ladybug have to be the last straw?

It's all just a method to cause someone's akumatization and doesn't flow naturally. Even Santa brushing off Ladybug's presumption that he was akumatized is silly because he acts as if he doesn't know that akumatizations are a thing.

The fact that there's even a Christmas special at all in this season really emphasizes where the show's priorities are, and they're not on Marinette.

Then there's "Prime Queen." Yes, Marinette gets frazzled easily, but it's a little too farfetched that Marinette wouldn't connect the dots when Nadja asked her to babysit as Marinette and also asked her to the interview as Ladybug. Marinette loses track of time and doesn't always plan things perfectly, but the writers clearly just wanted to have another Marinette freak-out moment without actually thinking about the details of it.

If the interview was planned as soon as someone got a hold of Ladybug, wouldn't Nadja make plans for Marinette to babysit Manon right after? There's no way that Marinette's mind wouldn't piece that together.

Yet another example is "Queen Wasp." Marinette has never been one to put up with Chloe's behavior, usually wanting to put her in her place as quickly as possible, but when Chloe is arguing with her mom, Marinette instead decides to have them bond over how terrible they are to other people.

Not only is this a blunt attempt to go back to the status quo (which we'll get to later), but it essentially makes the entire "Queen's Battle" two-parter mean nothing. The smaller plot points in Malediktator could've easily been changed to compensate for Queen's Battle not existing (like having Chloe and her mom be close naturally; Frightningale even had Chloe make a threat to the mayor centering around her mom), and I would be much less critical of the fact that Chloe is still a brat given that it's two less episodes I had to sit through of her being obnoxious.

If Queen Wasp went off of Marinette's actual character, Marinette would've either let the scene play out slowly with only gentle nudges, or told Chloe that she's not obligated to listen to what her mother says about her, especially if her mother's just going to be rude and dismissive of her when Chloe is just trying to improve.

Chloe should be trying to improve for herself, not for the approval of her mother, and Marinette would've pointed that out.

This is particularly odd given how sympathetic the episode tried to paint Chloe when she was reacting to her mother's words. The camera angles and writing in general try so hard to make you feel bad for Chloe (despite the terrible things Chloe does in the episode), and one would think that the idea there is the show wanting to redeem her to make you like her, but instead, they use Marinette as a tool to have Chloe and her mother get along for all the wrong reasons.

Put simply, it's just a set-up for "Malediktator" to happen, and even THAT didn't end on a proper note, having Marinette throw her bully a party on the basis of "she saved the city once" (disregarding the fact that Chloe almost murdered people last time and also twisting the knife of anyone who's still salty about Chloe not suffering enough consequences from revealing her identity).

Miss Bustier says in "Zombizou" (another thing that we’ll touch on later) that Marinette should forgive Chloe so she doesn't give into negative emotions, but she's missing the point entirely.

It's not important to forgive. It's important to move past those negative feelings while not under any obligation to forgive or forget. Chloe can have a chance at forgiveness when she apologizes to everyone and proves that she's earned that forgiveness, but under no circumstances should anyone ask or expect others to forgive her.

Some wounds can be too deep and severe for that, and having superpowers that are used for good does not equal actually being a good person; that takes time and effort.

Chloe never should've been rewarded for fixing a problem that she caused. At best, she'd be given a pat on the back followed by being told to continue improving and not repeat those mistakes. Rewarding her with a massive party (something that made no sense in the moment, considering how much unbelievable convincing Marinette would have to do to get everyone on board with that after they were just celebrating Chloe leaving) does nothing but make Chloe think that being a superhero is all she needs to do to earn praise and respect; that she's already as good as she needs to be and doesn't need to try any harder.

And, considering the ending of "Mayura," we can confirm that it's exactly what she thought.

Put simply, it's a terrible misuse of a writer's ability to twist Marinette's character just to get the conclusion that the show wants.

And unfortunately, it's not the only example.

[Taking the Fall]

Marinette does her best to correct her mistakes, certainly, but not all of those mistakes were actually hers, and the show seems to enjoy embarrassing her a little too much.

Take "The Collector" for example. Obviously, Marinette wanted Adrien to be able to go to school again, but that didn't mean she had to take all the blame for what Lila did. It shows how good she is as a person, but why (both narratively and just in general) couldn't she explain that it was Lila who took the book? Adrien could've easily corroborated the story to confirm that Lila did indeed take the book (given that he only had contact with Lila the last time he recalled having the book).

Volpina was probably even a big story since she pretended to be a superhero at first, so Marinette could've mentioned Lila, the fox hero, and the necklace compared to what she saw in the book. There's nothing even remotely "I'm secretly Ladybug" about Marinette pulling the grimoire out from the trash after Lila threw it in there.

Heck, if the show wanted so badly for her to look like a love-struck fool, she could've claimed that she was too shy to give the book back at first because she gets tongue-tied around Adrien.

The reason the scene's important to criticize is that Marinette shouldn't have to sacrifice her dreams when there's already a more sensible solution. Gabriel is a big name in the fashion industry and Marinette could've damaged the respect he had for her.

Speaking of which, the scene adds nothing to future episodes. Gabriel still lets Adrien model her hat for her and doesn't seem to have anything against her in "Queen Wasp." The scene could've even been used as a reason why Gabriel keeps Adrien away from hanging out with his friends (because Marinette basically admitted to being one of Adrien's admirers and Gabriel sees that she's talented, fearing Adrien falling in love and being taken away from him), but it instead amounts to nothing.

Also, because Marinette takes the fall instead of Lila, Lila never gets punished for taking the book. She gets punished by Ladybug for one lie, but that amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things because Adrien doesn't help Marinette counter Lila's lies in "Catalyst" despite knowing that she's a liar.

It could've even been a semi-satisfying moment for "sympathetic" Gabriel if he knew that Lila stole the book and made sure to extra-nail it to Volpina in "Catalyst" to make Lila even madder, since he'd be targetting Lila with the bonus satisfaction that she stole from his son. There's extra continuity in there too.

Another example of Marinette having to make a sacrifice like this is in "Zombizou", though in a different way. Rather than having to take the fall for someone else's mistake, Marinette is asked to compensate for Chloe's by forgiving her.

Yet, the set-up for the episode is wholly in the wrong. Miss Bustier brushes off Chloe's behavior as nothing and even talks about how she'll use Marinette's bag (that Chloe cruelly defaced) to remember both Marinette and Chloe. This essentially praises Chloe for doing such a terrible thing to Marinette's gift when Miss Bustier has sent students to the principal's office for far lesser offenses.

In fact, this could be considered a worse version of what happened all the way back in Origins with Ivan and Kim. Miss Bustier doesn't promote violence, but she also doesn't try and discover the reason why Ivan wanted to punch Kim; Kim insulted him for not being able to confess to Mylene.

So, Miss Bustier's philosophy is essentially that someone's bad offense is completely fine as long as the person being offended is kind and caring in response. Chloe isn't punished, because Miss Bustier believes that Chloe will improve if she's allowed to do whatever she wants and is rewarded with compassion.

It's a ridiculous concept for so many reasons (worst of all being that Chloe has habitually relapsed into bad behavior when people are nice to her), but to bring Marinette into it and essentially tell her that her feelings are invalid and that she should just forgive Chloe - when Chloe isn't even going to be punished for her bad behavior - is a testament to how much the show tries to criticize Marinette for every bad thing she does, yet let bad people get away with their wrongdoings because "they're sad" or "it'll set a good example."

Season 1 wasn't perfect in this regard, but it gave Chloe comeupance for at least some of her actions (ex: Marinette telling her off in "Origins", Miraculous Ladybug not fixing the signed photo in "Dark Cupid", Chloe being banned from judging in "Kung Food", etc.).

If Miss Bustier wants to show how much her "kindness" has improved Chloe, then she should prove it by having Chloe actually apologize to Marinette for ruining her gift instead of encouraging Marinette to promote ignorance in the face of Chloe's actions.

There's a reason why Miss Bustier has to add a "perhaps" when talking about setting a good example. Perhaps they can show Chloe the error of her ways; it means that she knows it's not guaranteed to work. It's the best option she knows because that's her philosophy.

But pushing that philosophy on others is wrong when she has no proof that it actually helps anyone, and is particularly disgusting when Marinette has been so selfless for this whole season and gets trashed on by the narrative in response.

This is even disregarding the fact that dragging Marinette out instead of Chloe is ultimately because Chloe would've hightailed it out of the school the instant that Miss Bustier got hit by the akuma, meaning we couldn't have the plot of "people get taken over by kiss zombies because people keep sacrificing themselves to save Chloe's ungrateful face."

And that's ultimately what the episode amounts to. The episode wants its audience to think that this is some episode about Chloe learning how to be a better person and Marinette learning to set a good example via forgiveness, but it's not.

In the end, it all comes back to the status quo.

[An Icy Cup of Quo-Yo]

The status quo has always been something that's been lambasted by the fandom. Interesting plot threads are dropped and characters are forbidden from changing drastically because everything has to come back to roughly where it was before.

Concerning Marinette, the show refuses to let her branch out from where she is with Adrien. She keeps improving on being able to talk to him, but the status quo keeps pulling her back. Chat was able to confess to Ladybug in "Glaciator", yet Marinette is stuck in the same place.

In "Gigantitan", she tries to go out for ice cream with Adrien, and everyone puts this plan together to get it to work. We're given a fantasy sequence where it's actually pulled off, which actually just makes it all the more obvious that it's going to fail, yet it's still somehow disappointing.

Marinette does not fumble to this degree and shouldn't be in season 2. She fails twice at getting any closer to Adrien, and it's not even because of her.

The narrative won't let her. It makes fun of the fact that she's a stuttering mess, but then pulls her back anytime potential improvement is shown.

"Frozer" was another stand-out here. No one was really expecting Marinette to confess, but all she really tried to ask for was that she and Adrien go ice skating together, just the two of them. It doesn't have to be romantic, but the show shuts it down and has Adrien agreeing to go ice skating with her plus friends instead, meaning that they likely wouldn't get time to talk together with everyone else there.

And, well, you can't really talk about Adrien and Marinette's relationship not changing without bringing up “Troublemaker.” In that episode, Adrien realizes that Marinette has so many pictures of him, but their relationship remains virtually the same and we never actually see her going to more of his photoshoots for the rest of the season. There are plenty of episodes that reference each other in the season, but we apparently can't have Adrien and Marinette's relationship progress further beyond the "standard Adrienette episode," which almost seem mandatory by the show (Kung Food in Season 1, Gorizilla in Season 2), just as we have a "standard Marichat episode" and a "standard Ladrien episode."

This also extends to Marinette wanting to be in the fashion industry one day. Gabriel seems to have a fondness for her considering how lenient he was in "The Collector," but when an opportunity is given to have Marinette be taken more under Gabriel's wing in "Queen Wasp" (since Marinette shouldn't have to go all the way to New York just to learn more about fashion and also shouldn't have to deal with Audrey as well, which is something the episode doesn't address), it goes completely untouched.

It's such a shame as well. Adrien being a doormat around Gabriel would be more understandable if Marinette was working with him, considering that Adrien would be worried that Marinette being friends with him could be seen as a bad thing if he rebels too much against Gabriel, making Gabriel more likely (in Adrien's eyes) to dump Marinette so she doesn't get any time with him that she could've used to "influence him to rebel more."

And really, when the show teases and makes fun of Marinette for her crippling anxiety and general inability to talk to Adrien, what is she really supposed to do about it?

"A Christmas Special" had her giving Adrien a specially-made hat, but he gives it away the very same day so we never get to see him thank her for it or have them interact over it.

"Riposte" had her try to get into fencing, which could've been a great opportunity to get closer to Adrien, but Kagami shows up and presumably gets the place she could've had.

The plan in "Gigantitan" got ruined by the akuma and also the status quo.

"Glaciator" had Marinette almost going out for ice cream with Adrien (and trust me; we'll get there), but Adrien never showed up.

"Gorizilla" was close to letting Adrien and Marinette watch a movie together, but then Adrien took his helmet off, which revealed him to everyone.

"Captain Hardrock" had Adrien arrive so late that he and Marinette didn't seem to spend any time together, which led to Marinette having interactions with a different guy.

"Troublemaker"...well, we just talked about how that went.

"Anansi" had Adrien restricted to video call so he couldn't spend more intimate time with Marinette.

And "Catalyst" only lightly glanced over the fact that Adrien knows that Lila's full of it when it could've been a chance for Marinette and Adrien to bond over their mutual hatred for Lila's lying.

Marinette gets teased/mocked for the fact that she can hardly get a word out around Adrien, but it's because the narrative won't let her and constantly destroys all her chances to make it better.

It's not as if Adrien makes any sort of attempt to get closer to her either. He views her as a friend yet has never tried to make plans with her. Even the suggestion of her attending his photoshoots in “Troublemaker” was still prompted by something she said.

She's always had to come to him. I honestly can't blame her for being nervous about confessing to him yet hopeful that Adrien's talking about loving her in "Frozer," nor can I blame her for questioning if Luka is "like Adrien" when Luka very obviously flirts with her, because Adrien has been giving out mixed signals consistently throughout the entire season.

He slow danced with her in "Despair Bear," made her a lucky charm in "Befana," talks about how glad he is to have her as one of his friends/fans in "Troublemaker," and compliments her on how great she is in multiple episodes.

Yet, he frequently refuses to rebel and doesn't show up to multiple events he promised to be at ("Glaciator"+"Captain Hardrock") despite easily showing up out of nowhere to help her in Season 1 ("Kung Food"), doesn't scold Chloe anymore when she treats her badly ("Despair Bear"), and constantly insists that Marinette is "just a friend" (you don't need me to list example episodes because you know them by heart).

Marinette doesn't know what to think. She's confused. There comes a time where things start to look less like Marinette being interrupted by understandable reasons and more like the universe just hates her guts.

And this, unfortunately, brings us to talking more specifically about Adrien's role in this, as both his civilian self and Chat.

[Chiding the Cheng]

Adrien, Adrien, Adrien.

When talking about the show's issues, it's virtually impossible not to at least mention him. Being the deuteragonist, he gets a lot of the screentime and acts as Ladybug's partner when he's transformed into Chat Noir.

And, honestly, it's a disaster.

See, Adrien's relationship to Marinette is... complicated, made even more so by the status quo. I mean, we just spent a whole segment talking about it, after all.

To fuel the Adrienette train, the show sprinkles in little moments here and there to excite people and make everyone wonder if he might have some semblance of feelings for her.

When, in reality, the show is just teasing its audience. If Adrien felt anything for Marinette, he would've realized it by "Frozer" when he kept ditching Kagami to rush to Marinette's side. There's no "blinded by his feelings for Ladybug" excuse anymore now that Kagami exists and he tried to pursue her romantically.

And how much does Adrien really care about her as Marinette? He does readily protect her in “Catalyst,” but most of his actions in such cases are just what he should do, or what's nice to do.

Yet, all of that comes to a halt when any nuance is involved, and Adrien suddenly doesn't seem so interested in how Marinette feels.

Let's take what we've already mentioned in the last segment: “Despair Bear.” Just like “Zombizou,” it seems like it's a plot that wants to redeem Chloe in someway, but it isn't, because she goes right back to what she was doing before.

And Adrien allowed it. He stood up to her behavior at first, then backtracked when she showed a hint of improvement. Chloe insulted Marinette's macarons to her face and Adrien didn't bat an eye, instead laughing the behavior off.

It seemed like a small offense or a light joke until the rest of the season continued to "reassure" its audience that Chloe was improving when she wasn't. When it was just a one-off episode about Chloe being nice for once, it was easier to ignore.

But then "Malediktator" came along, and it became clear that how Adrien feels towards Marinette and how he feels towards Chloe are very different compared to Season 1.

Was it reckless for Marinette to talk so highly about Chloe leaving in front of Adrien? Perhaps, but not so much when taken into consideration with everything that happened in Season 1. Adrien tended to be very uncomfortable when Chloe hung off him in multiple episodes (Season 2's "Frightningale" also had this going on), actively defended Marinette against Chloe in "Kung Food", and scolded Chloe when she bullied others in "Horrificator." It was reasonable for Marinette to believe that he would at least accept that everyone's happy with Chloe being gone since he knew how Chloe treated them.

And yet, not only does he target Marinette specifically when being offended over the celebration, but he's never shown to be in the wrong or sorry for doing this.

Just because Chloe was his only friend when he was younger doesn't mean that she deserved defending. All it means is that Adrien was so isolated that his options for friends were limited to one person who ended up being a bully. If he wants to be upset at anyone, he should be upset at Gabriel for isolating him in the first place.

The moral high ground is something Adrien has claimed for a long time, to the point where he's even above Tikki, who takes joy in the fact that no Chloe means less akumatization.

And if Adrien didn't have the moral high ground, then why wasn't it addressed? Why is the narrative so insistent on making its audience feel pity for Chloe when she's bullied people for years? Why does it force Ladybug to keep the "useless" comment in mind and use that to encourage Chloe?

It's all about making sure the story plays out exactly the way it wants. No one else is around when Adrien berates Marinette because they'd defend Marinette, which would make Adrien look in the wrong (which he is) and the writers don't want that. Chloe is given a neglectful mom who constantly puts her down because that's the easy road to making the audience feel bad for her. The "useless" line is nothing more than a set-up so the show can bring it back later and pretend that they were clever for doing so.

They're not, because the problem was never that Chloe was "useless." It was that she bullied people for years and threw tantrums, turning lives upside-down, when she didn't get what she wanted. She causes more akumatizations than anyone else on the show and never apologizes for what actually matters.

(Also, side note: if Chloe needed a mystical power-granting accessory to prove that she's useful, then she was indeed useless beforehand. If she had actually used her skills in manipulation to talk the mayor down from his akumatization, that would've been putting the skills she already had to good use.)

Adrien fixates on Marinette calling Chloe "useless" because he has nothing else to go on. Notice how he doesn't even try to touch on Marinette calling Chloe a brat. He happily joked about how Chloe would never change in "Despair Bear," so he has nowhere to go and no defense for Chloe's actions.

It's delusional thinking. Instead of calling Chloe to make her feel better or being upset with Chloe for leaving without even saying anything to him, Adrien scolds Marinette and only Marinette (who, keep in mind, stutters and is shy around him, so it looks really bad on his part to only scold someone who would probably seem to have some self-esteem issues from his perspective), despite the fact that he didn't say a single word to defend Chloe when the class was making fun of her.

And for what? In terms of not speaking up to defend Chloe against the class, there are two options here:

1 - Adrien said nothing because he didn't care enough to, meaning he has no right to suddenly care about Chloe's feelings now.

2 - Adrien did care, but said nothing in fear of retaliation by the other students, meaning that he knows that everyone hates Chloe, isn't bothering to consider their feelings on why, and also purposefully doesn't defend her to save face.

Even in the argument of "Adrien doesn't say anything because Gabriel wouldn't want him to garner a bad reputation among the class," that's still flawed because Adrien could've simply asked Miss Bustier if he could go talk to Chloe after she stormed out or, again, called her after class was over so no one would've even seen him trying to comfort her. "Adrien thought that Chloe's outburst in class was just Chloe being Chloe so he didn't see it as a big deal," also doesn't work because he still gives no verbal sign that he feels guilty that she left unhappy, and he must've known it was more than "Chloe being Chloe" because Chloe actually seemed excited to move to New York and Adrien is guessing that she left unhappy based on what he saw in class.

Point being, regardless of any reason Adrien could've had for not wanting Chloe to leave, the idea that he's taking it out on Marinette while also never feeling sorry for it is not exactly the best for his character.

And, unfortunately, Adrien's behavior extends to him being Chat as well. Chat's there to comfort Ladybug when it doesn't matter and it's just what he should do (”Mayura”), but as soon as nuance is thrown in, suddenly there are questions/ignorance. Adrien claimed that he trusted Ladybug wholly and completely in "Gorizilla," but does he?

"Syren:" Chat gets angry with Ladybug for not telling her information that isn't hers to tell. She's done this before in "The Collector" with being unable to reveal information, making it all the more obvious that these aren't her secrets to tell, so for him to get angry with her when she clearly looks uncomfortable about it is unreasonable. He tries to bribe information out of Plagg as well, despite Plagg also clearly having a reason for not being able to say anything.

It's laughable when Adrien plays with his action figures and shows that he believes that he trusts Ladybug while she doesn't trust him, because if he did trust her, he would know that she would never do this to him without reason. He gets upset with her, then mocks her behind her back.

It's also clear that he knows it's not her secret to tell, but he's making it all about trust anyway. When he stops her from running off to Master Fu, she starts to point out that she can't say anything and he finishes her sentence, only to then proceed to guilt trip her by asking if they're a team.

Heck, Ladybug even apologizes to him, yet the very next scene with Adrien is him threatening Plagg that he'll quit if Plagg doesn't tell him what's going on.

In the middle of an akuma fight, no less. It's one thing to be upset that he's being kept out of the loop, but it's a completely different thing for Adrien to view that as more important than saving everyone from a watery grave.

It was sweet for Plagg to imply that he cares about Adrien a lot, but Plagg was also put in a desperate situation he didn't deserve to be in. Adrien even seems to be pleased to be told that he’s important to Plagg, but he doesn't feel bad for putting Plagg in this position then? Adrien still doesn't take his hand off his ring either until Fu shows up, so what is he trying to achieve and what does this say about how he views Plagg?

Yet, Adrien gets exactly was he wants. Fu caught him right in the middle of threatening to quit and still thought it was time to tell him.

At that point, it looks like Fu goes to Adrien out of necessity, as if it's only "time" now because they'll be without a Chat Noir if it's not and there's no time to find another civilian to be Chat Noir.

But there's no implication of this. Fu doesn't visit Adrien to tell him that what Adrien did was childish, nor does he warn Adrien that him showing up was required in the moment and that Adrien needs to shape up or risk losing his miraculous.

There's nothing. Fu just visits Adrien to talk and introduce himself.

Adrien also isn't mad at Fu for having Ladybug and Plagg keep that secret. He doesn't apologize to Ladybug and Plagg either. He's just happy that he's being put back in the loop, so anything related to that incident is just a distant memory to him now.

We don't see Adrien realizing any of this either. It would still be upsetting that he didn't apologize to Ladybug, but just seeing him feel sorry about all the things he said and apologizing to Plagg would at least be an attempt to make his actions more forgivable.

Marinette even delayed going to the movies with her friends because she wanted to bring up Chat's concern to Fu, but she never gets one iota of thanks for it by Adrien, as apparently the pain Marinette went through for him was deemed unimportant by the narrative.

This is particularly insulting considering that, according to "The Collector," Marinette was only introduced to Fu because she had the grimoire. Tikki even points out that Fu didn't want Tikki bringing Marinette back to him.

Yet Adrien, who put his own feelings above the mission, put unnecessary guilt on Ladybug and Plagg, and clearly doesn't take his hero role as seriously as Ladybug does... he gets to be put in the know.

Even with the smaller things, Chat asks questions. "Anansi" had him question if Ladybug was replacing him, which was a line easily considered a joke until Ladybug reassures him later on that he's irreplaceable. Chat is so oddly confident that Ladybug is or will be in love with him, yet falters, plays the pity game, or gets confrontational when shown any hint otherwise.

"Glaciator" is our next target here and a perfect example to prove my point, because this is another episode that shows Chat getting mad at Ladybug over things she can't help.

Firstly, let's talk about the fact that Chat tries to plan a date with Ladybug on the same day that he and his friends are supposed to go out for ice cream. The event must already be planned, as Ladybug side-mentions that she has plans with her friends, yet the event doesn't seem important at all to Chat since no bells seem to be rung in his head. Adrien texting Nino that he can't come is later, so Adrien still must've planned to go when he was conversing with Ladybug as Chat.

Secondly, Ladybug never guarantees that she'll come. Chat only asks her to come if her plans end early and Ladybug still gives him an up-in-the-air answer. It's very clear that she appreciates the gesture, but isn't likely to come.

Yet, Adrien gets his hopes up unnecessarily anyway. Plagg even points out the fact that Ladybug didn't agree to it, but Adrien continues to be foolishly hopeful regardless.

And instead of sneaking out to go see his friends in an act of rebellion, he goes to plan the date with Ladybug. He sets up this big date and waits for her as if he's sure she'll come anyway, whether through her plans ending early or her ditching her friends to come see him.

Then, he gets upset that she didn't come. He got his hopes endlessly high so it's no wonder he's disappointed, but that's his own fault.

Not only that, but when he goes to visit Marinette, she does all the comforting. She asks the questions, she tries to make the most eye contact (note how Chat Noir doesn't change his sulking expression at all or even glance at her as she confirms that they've met before), and he only asks about her problems when she reveals that information herself (which, even then, seems more like surprise from him being unaware that she has issues in her love life). He might've taken her to the balcony he set up his date on, but then he immediately goes back to sulking, as if he just showed her his efforts in love so he could seek more pity from her.

He doesn't try to pry into her problems and nothing comes from Adrien knowing that Marinette has love issues, so the episode could've been written with Chat realizing that Marinette (in a non-specific doesn't-have-to-be-romantic way) was sad that he didn't show up to get ice cream with them.

It's just a way that the episode sets up Chat's issues as being sympathetic and not Marinette's. Marinette's problems are the ones that cause the akuma, Chat’s are the ones who are given the most comforting, and the scene on the random balcony ends with Marinette thinking that she could've been wrong about him.

That would all be one problem on its own, but despite Marinette's comfort and suggestion that Ladybug could've had problems that evening (the suggestion that Chat completely brushes off, which is both rude to Marinette and a presumption that Ladybug has this perfect life with no problems; laughable considering Adrien's problems that day along with Marinette's), Chat finds it right to get upset with Ladybug in the middle of an akuma battle.

Once again, he puts his feelings over the fight itself, being rude to Ladybug when she suggests they pretend to be a couple. It's a perfectly reasonable solution, yet he shoots her down on the basis that his feelings are hurt, despite the fact that he's never explicitly told her that he's in love with her (which he made a big deal about all the way back in "Dark Cupid" from Season 1, implying that she'd never know if he didn't tell her outright). He's so obviously talking about himself when he refers to playing with people's feelings (a notion that's ridiculous given that they're fighting an akumatized person who won't remember this afterward and the fact that Ladybug made it clear that they'd be pretending; also rich coming from Chat considering what he does to Plagg in "Syren"), so for Ladybug to have to apologize at all is ridiculous.

And yes, Chat does apologize eventually, but it never should've taken this long to get here and the episode never points out the fact that Chat needs to stop expecting such things from Ladybug. Chat's problems are that he hopes blindly for things he's never been guaranteed and that he constantly puts his feelings over missions (the latter problem being something that should certainly not earn him respect from Fu), but these are never addressed. Plagg points out some of his issues ("Copycat" all the way back in Season 1 and now "Glaciator" in Season 2), but Adrien constantly brushes him off.

Despite what happened, Adrien continues to hope blindly, as if the knowledge that Ladybug might someday love him keeps him going.

If that's the only thing that's keeping him going, he needs to re-think things. He has friends, a superhero life that gives him freedom, and with "Syren," a character who has no problems with him nearly about to quit that superhero life unless he gets what he wants.

And he will get what he wants. The love square is endgame, whether the audience wants to admit that anymore or not. Marinette has her moment of considering that she was wrong about Chat and Ladybug blushes when Chat kisses her cheek, which just brings this point home all the more that Chat's feelings dominate over everything else.

Adrien is not a character who got what he wanted because he earned it; he got what he wanted because he felt entitled to it and will continue to get what he wants for the same reason.

He also learns nothing from “Glaciator.” He tells Ladybug that he accepts her friendship, but he doesn't, because he once again tries to flirt with her romantically in "Frozer" (with a rose he stole from a bouquet that might've needed a certain amount of roses but we're not talking about that) even though he's aware that Ladybug loves someone else.

He presses her - tries to find any hope that she might love him - by asking if it'd be different if the one she loved wasn't a factor (something that sounds vaguely like that person dying, but again, not talking about that) when that is clearly not the issue here.

Chat is grasping at straws because he's so desperate to be loved by Ladybug. He doesn't consider her feelings at all and, despite Ladybug's apology at the start of the episode, finds it okay to get mad at her in the midst of an akuma battle for the third time this season.

And this time, there's not even a half-hearted apology; at best, there's an admittance that Ladybug's plan was the correct one. Ladybug is constantly made to feel bad for Chat and Chat isn't given the same treatment in return.

The only reason he even attempts to move on from Ladybug is that Kagami makes the suggestion (the wrong suggestion because Adrien actually needs to just accept Ladybug's feelings regardless of if he changes targets but, again, again, not what we're talking about). Even then, Adrien spends hardly any on-screen time with Kagami before deciding that he's going to continue chasing Ladybug anyway.

This isn't healthy. It's not right, and makes one honestly wonder if Adrien would keep pursuing Ladybug even if she was already dating someone else.

[Respect Ungiven]

For this segment, I want to talk less about the big sweeping issues and more about the little things that happen in Miraculous; little things that aren't really thought about but just pile onto the things that Marinette has to go through in the show.

Teasing, for example. I talked about this when referring to "Gigantitan," but the show really likes to lay into Marinette when she's miserable. Playful teasing is one thing (like Alya teasing Marinette about her phone in "The Mime;" Marinette clearly wasn't bothered by it and even played along), but it's when the teasing either doesn't make sense or is just a jab at Marinette's behavior for no good reason that it starts to become apparent that the show has a certain bias against her.

Let's go back to "Despair Bear." There's already Alya teasing Marinette over kissing Chloe’s cheek (that Marinette is wholly not amused by and that I wouldn't even mind if it weren't for the show's distaste for Marinette in other areas), but we also have a sequel of sorts to the ["Just Like Chloe"] segment of my Season 1 meta as Alya compares Chloe throwing a party for Adrien's attention to Marinette not going to the party until she heard that Adrien would be there.

Not only are those two things not even remotely the same (why would Marinette want to go to Chloe's party unless she had an ulterior motive?), but that particular line digs pretty harshly on Marinette considering all the times Marinette has tried to get closer to Adrien in this season only for things to go south.

Then there's “Reverser,” which has Nathaniel and Marc tease Marinette about being clumsy. Yes, Marinette laughs at it, and it's obviously a reference to the fact that Ladybug was made clumsy by Reverser, but there's no hint of Marinette being clumsy in this episode, so a viewer who’s never seen other episodes will just be confused and put off by that line.

In fact, it's Marc who's clumsy instead (bumping into a pole before dropping his book), so it seems like a pretty harsh insult when Marinette went through so much trouble to get them to work together (and even is glad that they're not mad at her, as if she did something wrong when she was only trying to help).

Another sequel to a past segment I did in the Season 1 meta also happens in "Troublemaker;" specifically, [Tikki the Inconsistent].

Tikki is completely unhelpful in calming Marinette down in this episode, only making things worse when she's supposed to act as a rock to help keep Marinette grounded in reality. Then, she teases Marinette over the TV show recording her Adrien photos, which doesn't even remotely amuse Marinette since she's riddled with anxiety over everyone potentially mocking her.

Then there's "Prime Queen," where Tikki just presumes out of nowhere that Marinette would risk blowing her secret on live TV. Marinette might be easy to fluster, but for Tikki to freak out as if Marinette hasn't been doing a great job at keeping her identity hidden...it's silly. Tikki explains the risks to her like it's the first time Marinette has ever heard them.

"Frozer" even has Tikki be completely oblivious to Marinette's problems. I'll give Tikki slack on Adrien admitting he loves someone else (because really, there was very little she could've said to improve Marinette's mood), but to ask Marinette what's wrong after Marinette's been on this outing where Adrien's trying to court someone else and when Tikki should've heard what Kagami said to Marinette? Yeah, Marinette had enough troubles in that episode without having to explain to Tikki what her issues were.

Tikki's inconsistency extends to "Queen Wasp" as well. Unlike her parents (who seem blissfully supportive of Marinette, which we'll touch on later), Tikki is completely against Marinette going to New York. It might be an understandable reasoning - that Marinette is Ladybug and her powers are needed - but not only could the ladybug earrings be given to someone else (something that almost happened in "Origins"), Tikki pops Marinette's bubble immediately instead of being happy for her yet also asking Marinette to consider the weight of her decision.

Then, Tikki asks at the end of the episode if Marinette is okay with what she decided, as if Tikki tried to give any indication that Marinette should consider going to New York. Obviously, Marinette cared about going, but with what Tikki told her, what else was Marinette supposed to do?

"Befana" could even be used as another example. Tikki continuously shoots down Marinette's theory about a surprise party, yet again taking whatever side will disappoint Marinette most without asking Marinette to pull back on her expectations in case things go south. It also could imply that Tikki doesn't seem to have a high opinion of Alya (or any of Marinette's friends, for that matter) if she's presuming that Alya would actually take Marinette to the dentist on Marinette's birthday and no one would throw Marinette a surprise party.

But, while we’re talking about it, Tikki also isn't the only problem with "Befana."

Marinette's paternal grandmother, Gina, has some... issues. Gina has nicknames for Marinette and does seem to talk highly about spending time with her, yet she doesn't know Marinette's age, can't tell when Marinette is obviously uncomfortable (with either the candies or the fact that she's gotten no texts), doesn't apologize for being gone for over four years at least, and doesn't even consider the fact that other people might want to spend time with Marinette on her birthday.

Furthermore, she goes after Marinette when she gets akumatized, claiming that Marinette lied to her about going to the dentist, which is absolutely not what Marinette did. Marinette started to, then immediately corrected herself by explaining that it was a ruse for her surprise birthday party. Marinette and Gina went to three different places, yet when Marinette decides she wants to go to a party that her friends planned (which, how rude would it be to not show up to?), Gina goes up to Marinette's room to sulk and throw her own pity party by saying that Marinette's "too old to spend time with her."

Yet, there are four hugs between Marinette and Gina in the entire episode (two of which are before this moment), and Marinette initiated all of them (the first two that Gina hardly reacts to and only the last hug which Gina returns). Marinette hung off Gina's arm while Gina walked inside the bakery, didn't seem at all put off by Gina being gone for so long, and insisted that she did want to spend time with Gina when Gina suggested otherwise.

Also to note is that Hawk Moth never tells Gina specifically to go after Marinette; only that he's giving her the chance to get back her place as a grandmother. Instead of considering everyone else bad for taking away Marinette, she targets Marinette to turn her into coal because Marinette "lied" to her, ignoring Marinette when she tries to explain that she didn't want to hurt Gina's feelings. This is in direct contrast to Sabine, who Befana turned into a fairy for saying that Tom never said Marinette was too old to spend time with her when Gina acted like he did. That would've also been a "lie" in Befana’s eyes, but it was a lie to make Gina feel better (which was Marinette's strategy with the candies).

Considering how much Gina ignores Tom when he tries to tell her the blatantly obvious, it starts to feel less like Gina actually cares about Marinette and more like she's obsessed with being considered "the best grandmother." This is further supported by how offended or dramatic she gets at the slightest hint that she doesn't know Marinette (which she doesn't) or that Tom thinks Marinette doesn't want to spend time with her (which is a guilt-trip on her part considering Marinette is standing right next to her).

The stuff concerning Marinette's emotions isn't limited to the Marinette side of things either. In "Prime Queen," Chat doesn't respond to Ladybug getting more and more upset about Nadja's prodding questions about them being in a relationship. He's wholly oblivious to her feelings and even eggs on the idea that they could potentially be in a relationship, which Ladybug rightfully shoots down as it's not the right time to talk about it.

Chat doesn't even realize what's wrong when she pulls the ruse to lead him out of the studio; he doesn't even get that it was a ruse. She has to tell him outright what's wrong, and even then, Chat brushes it off as the price they pay for being famous, doesn't apologize when Ladybug is clearly upset about the matter, and then chases after her while suggesting they get ice cream (which sounds like an attempt to make her feel better but is likely just him flirting).

This is emphasized with the joke about Chat continuously trying to get a kiss from her, but that joke starts to become less funny as you continue through Season 2 and see just how little Chat respects Ladybug's emotions. Just because he didn't force the kiss on her or scold her for pulling them out of the studio doesn't mean that he respects her enough when it matters.

Chat really seems to have no grasp on what's important. For a further example, "Queen Wasp" had Chloe almost kill people due to her recklessness in trying to save a speeding train that she caused, yet instead of Chat being angry at this, he says nothing, his outburst being directed at Ladybug instead when Chloe implied that Ladybug lost a miraculous.

The fact that the son of a fashion designer has no concept of holding one's tongue in front of a camera is baffling. Chat could've at least waited until after the cameras were off to question Ladybug about losing a miraculous.

It's easy to blame Ladybug for Chloe getting away, but after “Prime Queen” and now this, I honestly appreciate Ladybug’s continuous attempts to scold Chat despite none of her efforts ever seeming to stick.

Also, Nadja didn't even inform Ladybug that Queen B was trying to escape, so Ladybug is hardly to blame when Queen B was unwilling to return the miraculous and Chat was thoroughly unhelpful in the actual issue at hand.

Even when Ladybug actually trusts Chloe with the Bee Miraculous (something the narrative kept trying to get the audience to want Chloe to have), Fu still has questions about that decision after Queen B had already done a great job in "Malediktator."

It's another case where it wouldn't be a big deal otherwise (I question the decision too honestly), but with all the trouble Marinette has gone through as Ladybug, all the akuma she's purified, all the good decisions she's made as Ladybug, and the fact that losing the Bee Miraculous wasn't even her fault (considering she got pulled away after being corrected that the magic ladybugs didn't return it), I'd hope that Fu has full confidence in her.

While I'm stoking the fire of "moments that seem like nothing until you see more of the season and think about it," I'd also like to bring up "Riposte." In this episode, Adrien is determined to get a decisive match with Kagami because he believes that Kagami touched him first instead of what Marinette suggests, which was the other way around.

It's not important who's right here; the important thing is that the touches went by in an instant and Adrien only thinks that Kagami struck him first; he's not positive. We never hear Kagami's side of the matter and Adrien brushes off Marinette's conclusions as her being flustered.

Adrien also calls Marinette a friend again, which is something I've thoroughly questioned throughout this piece and am questioning again, because from Marinette's side of things, that's a little more skeptical.

There was only one spot left on the fencing team. Marinette came to be on it and seemed rather excited about it as well.

Then Kagami showed up, and Adrien not only disregards Marinette's conclusion on their match, but he chases a random stranger that he doesn't know to give them another chance at the spot that Marinette wanted.

And, in a way, that's not entirely wrong. Kagami was definitely a skilled fencer - most likely better than Marinette - and Adrien's choice to give her another chance is a good gesture from a person who's trying to be as unbiased as possible.

However, Adrien is not an unbiased person. In fact, he might be one of the most biased people in Season 2, given the fact that he frequently brushed off Chloe's behavior when it was obviously not the right decision.

Taking that into consideration with the treatment he occasionally gives Marinette... yeah, it doesn't look great.

And why did it have to be about Adrien thinking that Marinette's conclusion was wrong? Couldn't it have just been that he thought Kagami was really great at fencing and wanted a rematch regardless of who had actually won?

Moving on, I want to talk about "Catalyst" next, with both Alya and Tikki roles in particular taken into consideration.

For Alya specifically, the stuff I said in "The Collector" (about Gabriel never knowing that Lila stole the book) honestly isn’t important. The problem isn't that Alya doesn't know that Lila is a liar; it's that she dismisses Marinette's attempts to call Lila out as mere jealousy.

Back in, say, the early parts of Season 1, I could maybe see Alya coming to such a conclusion (if only because their friendship had begun very recently), but not in Season 2.

Not after "Frightningale," where Marinette was willing to give up acting alongside Adrien to be with her friends (even if it was partly to prevent her identity from being revealed, Alya doesn't know that), and only decided to take the part because it was Chloe who was playing Ladybug.

And certainly not after "Frozer," where Marinette put aside her own feelings to join Adrien on his date with someone else; if she could do that, then some girl flirting with Adrien wouldn't bother her for no reason.

But that's not what the episode considers. Instead, it focuses on Marinette hating Lila's lies and then promptly lying to her class.

I imagine this is the replacement of the "Just Like Chloe" nonsense, and once again, it's a complete failure.

Marinette does not lie out of nowhere. She lies to protect herself (any time she has to hide her identity), to protect others (not telling Fu that Adrien had the book in "The Collector"), or - like in this case - because she panics.

Not only is this an insult to put in the season finale of all things (when the main plot could've used more time for its story), but it tries to paint Marinette as being just as bad as Lila when their situations are not even remotely the same.

Tikki is also, once again, completely useless in helping Marinette with her problems, because she's not getting to the heart of them. All she does is tell Marinette to tell the truth and that nothing will ruin the party.

Even if Marinette's friends understood and forgave her, there would still be a disappointment (which is Marinette’s issue). Instead of telling Marinette to practice control of her emotions so this doesn't happen in the future (and not to put so much effort into being "perfect"), Tikki boils it down to a very basic "do the right thing and everything will be perfectly fine."

Tikki does something similar at the beginning of the episode where she suggests that being Ladybug is a good enough deed, to which Marinette rightly points out that it's not a deed she can share. It's as if the concept goes right over Tikki's head and it never registers with her that Marinette puts so much into trying to please everyone even when she's already done enough.

And obviously, the writers knew that this subplot wasn't going anywhere interesting; it didn't have the time to. By the end of "Mayura," the subplot gets skipped all the way to everyone helping Marinette with the picnic.

I honestly don't know if that's a saving grace on Marinette's part (since it cut her slack by not making her have to say anything), or admittance that this entire subplot was a mistake.

It's at this point that I have to ask my question from [An Icy Cup of Quo-Yo] again: if the narrative is not going to give Marinette full and uninterrupted chances to do what she needs and not actually help her with her problems, then what is she supposed to do? Her anxiety is made fun of on a relatively consistent basis and Tikki only gives her calming advice half of the time, so she's stuck in an endless loop of being a frantic mess and not being able to make any progress with Adrien while being given lessons she doesn't need to learn instead of focusing on the one thing (i.e: being overly emotional) that would actually help her (and would've made the end to the season 2 finale make all the more sense).

[What Matters]

The steps taken by a creator and the expectations of an audience can be two very different things. Where a creator can see one thing, an audience can see another.

I don't think the creator's intentions are to imply that Marinette is a bad person or that she deserves to be criticized for every small thing that she does. I honestly think they believe that they're being fair with her.

They're not. It's admittedly not always her (some characters definitely get the shaft in the writing department too), but the treatment towards her specifically is the biggest factor in all this.

When asking myself why certain decisions were made in the show, I tend to come to the conclusion that the writers just didn't notice or were reckless and didn't think the fandom would care.

Why did "A Christmas Special" focus more on songs than Adrien's actual home situation, not even having Adrien keep Marinette's hat long enough for them to interact over it? Because it's a Christmas special, and all they had to do was mark off a checklist of Christmas special tropes. They ticked the boxes and called it a day.

Why did "Despair Bear" have Adrien stand up to Chloe but then let Chloe continue to do as she pleases right at the end? Because the writers wanted to have a plot where Chloe has to be nice for the laughs, but then didn't want to actually follow up on what that would mean for her character.

Why did "Prime Queen" have Chat be ignorant to Ladybug's feelings? Because it was more focused on having Chat react to the kiss with Ladybug and the comedy that could come out of him trying to get another.

Why did "Befana" ignore the issues with Gina? Because apologies in the show are usually reserved for only Marinette to say, even when she shouldn't have to.

Why did "Riposte" have Adrien go so far out of his way to get a rematch with Kagami? Because Kagami will be important later on and Marinette was only there to be taught the rules of fencing. Marinette's feelings were secondary.

Why did "Glaciator" make Marinette feel bad for Chat but not the other way around? Because Chat's feelings took priority and Adrien's flaws get brushed away by his backstory.

Why did "Zombizou" brush Chloe's behavior off as nothing? Because the episode wants to teach Marinette and everyone else to bury their feelings so Chloe can continue acting like a brat with the excuse that she might improve eventually.

Why did "Syren" let Adrien get away with threatening to quit? Because the writers probably thought the audience felt like Chat did and would encourage him trying to do something about it without thinking about the actual ramifications that causes in the canon.

Why did "Troublemaker" add so little to the Adrienette dynamic? Because it was an excuse to have Adrien react to Marinette's pictures (while simultaneously having Marinette's freak out "comedically" over the knowledge that it happened) without actually following up on that in a meaningful way.

Why did "Frozer" let Chat get away with being salty at Ladybug? Because Marinette/Ladybug's feelings are so disregarded by everyone who isn't Luka that they're basically non-existent.

Why did "Queen Wasp" have Marinette's subplot be so black and white between Tikki and her parents? Because the arc was all about Chloe, meaning that Marinette's was only there so Marinette could get Chloe and her mother together in the end, thus the blatant "yes" group and "no" group to Marinette's choices.

Why did "Malediktator" try to make you feel sorry for Chloe? Because they wanted an arc that makes you feel bad for her but simultaneously wants you to accept it when she goes back to her old ways, hence having Marinette at the forefront treating Chloe with respect even when Chloe brags about her phone case in the end. By having Marinette excuse the behavior as "baby steps," it gives the show an out for whenever Chloe continues behaving terribly.

Why did "Catalyst" shoehorn in a subplot about Marinette lying? Because they want to continue to remind their audience that Marinette is a flawed individual despite not having the actual comprehension skills to understand basic comparisons in morality.

I don't doubt that the writers had good ideas, or at least that they thought they had good ideas. However, they ultimately had no foresight to what other people would think and also no tact when it came to playing favorites.

[Fixing What's Broken]

In terms of adding episodes into Season 3 to try and fix these issues, it would be near impossible to cover all of them in a way that made sense.

It would involve calling Alya out for making Marinette's problems all about Adrien. (a light offense; possible)

It would involve calling Tikki out for not understanding Marinette and giving unhelpful advice. (a medium offense; possible, but also difficult because episodes don't typically revolve around a kwami getting development and Tikki would need much more screentime than she usually gets)

It would involve retconning Master Fu's faith in Adrien. (not that retcons haven't been done before on this show but I like to think I have a bit more care than that; "Syren" would have to be an exception where Fu only trusted Chat because Ladybug needed him, so any further screw-ups would get a scolding from Fu that Adrien is on thin ice)

It would involve undoing what little work Chloe had done. (Chloe is a heavy offense and they treated Marinette far too badly on their way there, so showing that Chloe will never improve means Miss Bustier has to reverse what she said, at least to some degree, and Marinette is no longer required to be nice to people who don't deserve it)

It would involve showing Adrien that what he's doing is wrong. (And also mean that Adrien apologizes for everything; scolding Marinette, not respecting Ladybug, etc.; this one would probably take the most work to get to)

And having episodes try to mend what other episodes tore apart isn't entirely going to fix the issue. Going back to the previous episodes would still leave a sour taste and it won't change things like "Queen Wasp" putting Marinette's plot off to the side; now that they've done that plot, they're not likely to do it again, which is a shame because it had potential.

The narrative also still roots for these characters in those previous episodes, so it's not as if it would feel like something the show was building too. It'd be too obvious that it's fixing something that no writer thought needed fixing at the time of writing it.

But, in just changing the season 2 episodes? Maybe that can do a bit better.

A Christmas Special - Have the episode actually feel special by not having an akuma for once - Tone down saccharine "Christmas special checklist" vibes to add more watch value when not being watched in winter - Adrien still runs away as Chat, but de-transforms and seeks comfort at the warmest place he knows: the bakery - Adrien gets to actually talk about what he knows concerning his mother (potential flashback episode) - Marinette's line in "The Collector" about Gabriel being cold even around Adrien carries more weight since Adrien would tell her outright about his father's behavior - Marinette gets to ACTUALLY GIVE ADRIEN HER PRESENT IN PERSON and thus gets to witness Adrien's reaction - Adrienette baking scene to relieve Adrien’s stress - Supportive parents Tom and Sabine in a role that's outside of Marinette, scolding Gabriel when he shows up (on a tablet held by Nathalie) at their doorstep after hearing that Adrien was there - Gabriel forces Adrien back home and is too conflicted to yell at Adrien as he usually would - Cue original ending where everyone shows up to see him and Gabriel lets them inside

The Collector - Gabriel learns that Lila stole the book instead of being fooled that it was Marinette

Despair Bear - Adrien doesn't brush off Chloe's behavior, especially when Chloe starts insulting Marinette's treats. He breaks off their friendship, deciding that, if she is going to change, he probably doesn't have to ability to help her do so

Prime Queen - Nadja had another babysitter who had an emergency and only Marinette was left to watch Manon (Marinette’s parents could've even agreed to it instead of her), absolving Marinette of the confusing schedule mix-up - Tikki doesn't freak out over the interview; she merely questions what Marinette plans to do in it - Chat still encourages the idea that he and Ladybug could date one day, but when Ladybug chides him for it, Chat realizes how uncomfortable Ladybug is and is the one to lead them out of the studio instead; Ladybug thanks him for it and Chat assures her that he has her back - Chat is much less direct about the kissing jokes and more dramatic, being playful (with maybe a bit of hope) rather than actually trying to steal a kiss

Befana - Gina actually feels sorry for being gone so long and her goal is that wants to make up for all the time she's lost (which she clearly can't in one day and that’s the problem) - Gina is built up by Tom to be much more competitive and ignorant, making it a character flaw that will be addressed; it’s also implied that Tom and Gina apparently argue about this a lot (this gives more build-up to Befana turning Tom into coal) - After Marinette leaves to go to her birthday party, Sabine manages to talk to Gina before Gina goes up to Marinette's room; Gina realizes Marinette's distaste for the candy and comments that she's a sweet girl for never wanting to hurt her grandmother's feelings - Instead of being akumatized to turn Marinette into coal, Gina instead sees Marinette's friends as foes getting in her way of spending time with Marinette, due to her competitive nature -The episode plays out as normal, but Gina apologizes after she realizes all the trouble she put Marinette through with her akumatization, agreeing with Tom that Marinette has more love than one grandmother can take on her own (thus, Marinette should be able to hang out with whoever she likes)

Riposte - Adrien wants his rematch because he thinks Kagami is the most skilled out of everyone who came to fence and not because he thought Kagami had won - Adrien is conflicted by this, but is encouraged by Marinette, who agrees with his choice even if she wanted to be on the team (Kagami is just plain better than her at fencing, after all) - Adrien talks more highly of Marinette since he never has to mention that she was flustered in her conclusion

Glaciator - Chat still plans his date with Ladybug, but actually realizes his mistakes in not sneaking out to go for ice cream instead (as Marinette vaguely talks about how she was a fifth wheel and felt alone instead of directly referring to her love problems) - Marinette and Chat comfort each other equally over their situations, with Marinette sheepishly suggesting that Ladybug might not even know how he feels about her (which Chat admits he didn't consider) - Chat acts slightly awkward around Ladybug during the akuma fight (not having their usual synergy), but eventually gets it together so they can pretend they're a couple (which Chat isn't offended by the suggestion of due to his earlier conversation with Marinette about Ladybug not knowing) - Ladybug doesn't blush by the end since Chat's behavior is going to return and actually be addressed in "Frozer" - Adrien realizing how Marinette feels will eventually get him to sneak out in "Anansi" or possibly snap at his dad near the end of "Captain Hardrock"

Zombizou - Marinette is more upset that Miss Bustier keeps pushing her feelings aside, but Miss Bustier still defends Marinette from the akuma in time - Chloe doesn't pull a 180 and isn't actually sorry - After her de-akumatization, Miss Bustier calls Marinette back out into the hallway because she was reflecting on everything that happened - Miss Bustier realized that, by not punishing Chloe and simultaneously trying to convince Marinette to forgive Chloe, Miss Bustier prioritized how Chloe might eventually feel to how Marinette felt in the moment, which caused the negative emotions that almost got Marinette akumatized; she acknowledges that there are times to be nice and times to be assertive, and Miss Bustier understands now that treating bad people with forgiveness and doing nothing about their behavior isn't always the way to go - The class still tries to get an apology out of Chloe for everything they went through for her; Chloe attempts to play the pity game to get Miss Bustier to make them stop, but Miss Bustier isn't having it and gives Chloe the ultimatum of apologizing or going to the principal's office for defacing Marinette's gift (bonus if someone points out that Chloe can just threaten to call her dad and Miss Bustier smiles and states that she feels it’s better than doing nothing or pretending like it’s okay)

Syren - Chat is still upset at Ladybug for her secrets, but makes a point that he trusts her wholly and just feels confused as to why he's being left out - Fu makes his reason for not telling Chat clear to Marinette: Chat is reckless and lets his emotions interfere with his superheroing (like in Glaciator), and thus Fu doesn't know if he can trust Chat with new powers if he's just going to waste them - During the Syren flooding, Chat wants to dive down into the water anyway to fish Syren out (showing his recklessness), but Ladybug insists that this isn't the way - When Ladybug summons her lucky charm and tries to go see Fu, Chat tries to press her about her secrets; Ladybug insists that everything's fine even if she can't tell him, but she trusts him to do good while she's gone - Chat doesn't understand what Ladybug meant, but is happy that she's confident in him; he sees people suffering due to the flood and wants so badly to just try to fight Syren anyway, but maintains self-control and instead does what he can to help the people around him - This is enough to allow Fu to reveal himself to Chat

Frozer - Gigantitan is sacrificed for the sake of changing this to a two-parter to better accommodate the focus on four characters - Kagami and Marinette's relationship is changed to a more friendly one - Marinette has more time to spend with Luka to distract her from Adrien spending time with Kagami - Ladybug and Chat save Luka and Kagami from being frozen in ice - Chat isn’t miffed at all over Ladybug’s rejection (having learned from Glaciator and Syren) - Luka and Kagami try to help in fighting Frozer (giving them more moments to shine as characters) - Frozer eventually manages to freeze Luka and Kagami in ice (how Chat and Ladybug react to it could possibly make them realize how they feel towards the two) - Post-battle, Ladybug and Chat talk about Chat's feelings and what they're going to do now - Chat decides that, regardless of whether he continues to date Kagami or not, he'll respect Ladybug's feelings and not make her uncomfortable

Troublemaker - Tikki actually comforts Marinette - More focus is given to Adrien seeing all the pictures hanging around Marinette's bedroom; Adrien's actual conclusion could be anything (Marinette would bring him down to a neutral state regardless), but the important thing is that he considers if Marinette could like him romantically

Style Queen - Gabriel doesn't see Style Queen as some sort of masterpiece (but still has the scene with his wife; he'd realize post-akuma that he needs more thought in place to protect Adrien rather than just quitting), allowing more time for Marinette's hat subplot - Ladybug still takes the bee miraculous, but it won't be stolen; she realizes belatedly that powers of subjugation wouldn't work on someone made of glitter like Style Queen - More emphasis is put on the fact that the lucky charm sent Marinette to Fu's to encourage Plagg to help, not to get a miraculous - The bee miraculous doesn't get used this season (as Ladybug picks it back up before taking Adrien back to the fashion show), but it's implied that Marinette might have an idea for who could be a good fit for it (likely Kagami, who's bold and aggressive enough to be able to use a miraculous that stings)

Queen Wasp - Completely redone episode; rather than being about Chloe, the episode actually focuses on Marinette choosing between staying in Paris or leaving for New York - Audrey's relationship with Chloe is adjusted; Audrey and Chloe can't bond over their mutual rudeness because Chloe still needs to learn how to something exceptional herself if she wants Audrey's respect - Marinette's parents tell Marinette to exercise caution with her decision, but that they'll support her regardless - Tikki is actually flawed and is shown as such, not supporting Marinette going to New York, but more out of a selfish desire because she likes Marinette and doesn't want anyone else to be Ladybug - Episode acts as part-recap as Marinette considers everything she has in Paris versus what she could have if she went to New York, along with who she could potentially give the earrings to if she left - Tikki eventually apologizes for tending to disregard Marinette's feelings completely in favor of spouting her sage advice - Marinette obviously decides to stay, realizing that, even though her job as Ladybug is difficult, she loves helping people and recognizes that she makes a great Ladybug.

Malediktator - The classmates arguing with Chloe is something unrelated to Queen B (since she doesn't exist in this canon) - Chloe, not having a relationship with Audrey, has to go to Andre herself to demand he shut down the school - Chloes's decision to go to New York is partly to get away from her classmates and partly to spite her mother (which is an obviously flawed idea, but she's thinking delusionally) - Adrien isn't upset about the party, but still upset that the only childhood friend he had turned out to be such a bully who didn't even consider him in the end - Ladybug takes care of Malediktator himself, using the laser pointer to have Chat knock down Andre to remove his orbder orb of order so Ladybug can swoop in and take his sash - The episode isn't about throwing Chloe a pity party (or an actual party); rather, the episode actually rolls with Chloe going to New York, with Ladybug telling Andre post-deakumatization that spending time around Audrey might give her some experience in actually doing something with her life (this also opens the door for Lila to come in next season) - Adrien joins the party in the end, having moved past his feelings because he realizes that Chloe being his childhood friend was something he had no choice in and was his only option; it wasn't good of him to favor her just because they were friends once

Catalyst - The subplot is dropped completely and Heroes' Day is reworked so that no one feels pressured to do a good deed; it's encouraged, but doesn't get glorified in class by having everyone talk about their plans - Gabriel sought out Lila to be akumatized both because she was a good target and because it's revenge for her stealing from his son - More time is spent with Marinette talking about the Peacock miraculous with Fu (optional addition if Adrien joins the conversation over voice call) - The picnic at the end is something everyone set up for Marinette since she's their "everyday Ladybug"

It's not easy, but there it is; Season 2 is written to be less sympathetic toward bullies, more validating toward Marinette's feelings, and doesn't let Adrien get his way all the time.

Before I end this long, long, long piece, I want to bring up "Catalyst" one more time. Specifically, the moment where Marinette says that it wouldn't be very heroic to use her powers to solve her problems.

I disagree. I mean, yes, maybe it wouldn't be heroic, but... why not allow her leeway as a reward for being Ladybug?

Marinette does so much for others, both in and out of her mask. Is the show honestly telling me that, for all the schedule overhauling she has to do, all the excuses she has to make, and all the lying she does to keep her secret identity safe, she shouldn't be rewarded for her efforts? If it's not hurting anyone, why shouldn't Marinette be allowed to use her powers selfishly once in a while?

This idea that Marinette should constantly put all her feelings aside and never try to do things for herself is unhealthy. Characters scolding her for feeling an emotion and encouraging her not to is unhealthy.

Marinette has a deeper problem than simply being overemotional: she's a giver.

She gives to others. She gives, gives, gives, and so rarely asks for anything in return.

And others take from her. They'll take because it's easy to, because Marinette is constantly told to be the best person possible and put her feelings off to the side.

Marinette has so much to give, but even that has its limits. People will take, take, take until there's nothing left.

Nothing but an empty shell; an empty shell who never thinks of herself and whose only problem is that she's a human being who can't detach herself enough from reality to give even more.

That's what messed up. Regardless of intent, regardless of the future, this season shoved Marinette to the side countless times because it deemed people who acted worse than her to have more value in their emotions.

There's no value in that.

[hamliet]

Scrubs (yes the sitcom)

Seasons 1-8 since we’re not touching season 9 and its new cast. 

A sitcom that, by its fourth episode, showed (as it would continue to show) that it was at its best when it was at its most heartbreaking, because those were often the moments that it was also at its most heartwarming. The theme of “My Old Lady” (the fourth episode) is really that you can’t save everyone and death is indeed scary (a recurring theme in Scrubs), and you have to acknowledge that. But even in that fear, there are beautiful moments too, and taking the time to breathe and feel the sun and find something warm even in those moments can get you through them. 

Dr. Kelso, Dr. Cox, Jordan, Elliott, Turk, and Carla were my favorite characters, though everyone was well done, from JD to Laverne to the Janitor. Jordan was just... an enjoyable twist on the devil woman archetype. For that matter, almost every character was really a hyperbolic, exaggerated character for comedic effect. Elliott’s eccentricities, Kelso’s cruelty, Cox’s grumpiness, Ted’s cowardice and incompetence, Todd’s sexuality, JD’s need for approval--they were all exaggerated for comedic purposes (which ties into why things weren’t ruined for me with those characters, but they could be for other people and it’s legit if so). Elliott was relatable in her anxieties, her parental issues, her relationship struggles. Cox’s breakdown in season 5 really got me, and Laverne--along with Turk and Cox’s sister Paige--all had their faith treated as an important part of their character just as Cox’s atheism was an important part of his, which I appreciated. Everyone was respected. 

i also enjoyed how different seasons focused on slowly building up towards a breakdown of different characters. For example, Carla and Turk in season 4, JD and Cox in season 5 (kept focusing more than normal on his arrogance and that went places). The relationships were also really well written and enjoyable. From the Janitor and Lady, to Ted and Gooch, to Cox and Jordan, Elliott and JD, and of course Carla and Turk, each couple had their own unique foiling and unique strengths that made them appealing together. Their personalities always remained unique, but together they made something beautiful. And the friendships were just as powerful.

I appreciated that a main theme was that there are no easy answers. Be it professionally, relationally, grief, marriage, parenting--nothing is easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s miserable either. As Dr. Kelso says in season 4, “nothing worth having comes easy.” The nuance was great in this show. For me in particular, the episodes that focused on grief (and a LOT of them did) were incredibly cathartic and healing for me, as I’ve been working through my dad’s death over the past year. 

The show was really good. The soundtrack was always on point--music as a whole was brilliantly used in this series. I highly recommend it if you want a feel-good show that doesn’t avoid even the darker aspects of life, and if you’re wrangling with grief. 

Of course, it’s got its issues too. It hasn’t aged well, like at all, in how it portrays race and especially in its portrayal of sexual harassment. Todd Quinlan is basically Mineta from BNHA as a doctor--but somehow still likable/has redeeming qualities. STill, Todd’s actions are really despicable (as are Dr. Kelso’s towards his wife) even while played for comedy, and none of these things would fly today as funny, nor should they. But within the context of the series as a whole, in my personal opinion they didn’t ruin it for me even if I cringed. I still liked Todd and loved Dr. Kelso as characters. 

Season 8 in particular was weaker than the other seasons, and if it weren’t for the writer’s strike in season 7 which cut it very short, I kind of think season 7 would have wrapped the show up. Season 8 had less budget, so the main characters didn’t always appear in episodes, and the jokes were a bit more... insensitive/cheap rather than clever like in the past (it switched networks between seasons 7 and 8 too). That being said, Season 8 did magnificently conclude the characters’ arcs, with Kelso stepping into a mentor role and a new friendship with Cox, to Cox and Jordan’s relationship, Carla and Turk’s, Elliott finding her worth and feeling as if it was okay to chase her desires, Ted and the Janitor both finding love with Gooch and Lady respectively, and everyone passing the torch to the new interns, wherein our cast became the teachers. 

For my favorite episodes: 

My Old Lady (season 1 episode 4). This episode really set the whole theme and tone of the show, and deserved the award it won. 

My Own Personal Jesus (season 1 episode 11). A hilarious rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and the really cool theme of Christmas spirit made this great.

My Dream Job (season 2 episode 22). The last minutes of this episode were pure satisfactory gold that also marked a really important step in Dr. Cox’s, Elliott’s, and Dr. Kelso’s characters, and honestly JD’s as well. Also Ryan Reynolds guest-stars. 

My Own American Girl (season 3 episode 1). This is one of the few ones on here for mostly comedy. “My machines!” is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen. 

My Brother Where Art Thou (Season 3 episode 5). Scrubs has a habit of doing excellent mini, cross-season arcs with its minor characters, and JD’s brother Dan had a great arc that continued in every episode he appeared in over the seasons. But his moment with Dr. Cox at the end makes this my favorite of the Dan episodes. 

My Friend, the Doctor (season 3 episode 8). I loved the development for the Janitor. 

My Screw-Up (season 3 episode 14). Like with Dan, Ben’s episodes as the brother of Jordan and best friend of Dr. Cox all really stood out, and this one’s twist at the end, plus expert foreshadowing, made it fantastic viewing. 

My Boss’ Free Haircut (season 4 episode 20). Dr. Kelso’s humanity begins to emerge more, and his speech to his patient and to Turk is what I referenced above. It also deals with Carla and Turk’s marital issues in an empathetic way, and Carla is given room to grieve for her mom in a way that really resonated with me. 

My New God (season 5 episode 5). Cox’s reveal of his childhood and interactions with Paige--a character who easily could have been played for ridicule but was instead given empathy for her beliefs just as Cox was--resonated with me. 

My Bright Idea (season 5 episode 16). From JD’s hilarious slip-up in front of the priest to Carla and Turk’s pregnancy reveal in the episode’s final episodes, it was golden all the way through. I cried from happiness in this episode. 

My Lunch & My Fallen Idol (season 5 episodes 20-21). I don’t remember the last time I cried so hard at a show/movie since Hodor died in Game of Thrones. It was based on a real case, and helped me cope with my own grief, in addition to giving a powerful development to Cox and JD’s relationship. I think these are the two best episodes. 

My Musical (season 6 episode 6). Despite the idea of making an episode a musical, the premise for why it was a musical was clever, and the songs (”Guy Love” in particular) were hilarious. 

My Long Goodbye (season 6 episode 15). Within a week of watching “My Lunch,” I watched this one and cried just as hard. This episode and the one that comes before it are really powerful, but they hurt. 

My Cold Shower (Season 6 episode 19). Despite Elliott making a mistake, the way her friends are all genuinely happy for her and JD’s realization in the end that he loves her were... moving. 

My Dumb Luck (season 7 episode 9). The episode that shows you just how much Dr. Kelso developed, from character you loved because you hated him to character you saw how much he cared. It was the perfect development for him.

My Princess (season 7 episode 11). A really clever use of a fairy-tale AU, and a powerful story too that allowed for Jordan and Cox to have one of their more humanizing, tender moments. Yet again, in the end though, the implications aren’t that you can save everyone, but even in failure, there’s something to believe in. 

My Full Moon (season 8, episode 13) On the whole I think season 8 is the weakest of the acknowledged seasons (I’ve no interest in season 9) but it does have some really lovely conclusions, like I said, and this one concluded Elliott’s arc in a satisfying way. As she’s one of my faves, and as it has a really well-acted scene where she tells a patient they are HIV positive (as HIV awareness and decreasing the stigma are very important to me), it’s one of my favorites.

My Finale (Part 2) (season 8, episode 19) A really excellent final scene and a powerful series message. 

[skull001]

Friday... It was like 7:30 PM and thought I could take a quick 10 minute nap but was so exhausted from work that next thing I knew was waking up at 3:00 AM. And since there is not much to do to pass time, I decided to do something about it: write.

One of the things I always liked about the Sonic franchise is it's characters. It's not only that they have very appealing designs that combine cute traits with a touch of coolness, but also their well defined personalities. Saddly, I often see people get the wrong idea about them... and it's not just the fans (particularly the fandumb who misinterpretate them into something they are not out of spite) but even the people who are supposed to be professionals who for some reason struggle to get the hang of characters that at first glance seem to have simple personalities.

Today I'm just going to focus on the main cast besides Sonic: Eggman, Tails, Amy and Knuckles.

Dr. Eggman IMO is a character that was always meant to be a cartoony villain who is as goody as he is dangerous. While in Japanese manuals he calls himself a scientific genious of evil, the truth is that Eggman is for the most part, just a very selfish and immature fellow who happens to also be the most brilliant mind in the entire world.

The reason why Eggman is so dangerous is that he pursues his selfish desires such as building an entire amusement park just for himself (and to absolutely share it with no one else) without ever thinking of how he puts everyone, himself included, in great danger by handling forces that he can't expect to control. He is like a very spoiled manchild who is playing with fire in a tinderbox.

While he considers evil, it's also important to note that Eggman is not exactly what I would call sadistic (except in the Archie/IDW comic) since he never is shown to enjoy the suffering of innocents that are caught on his schemes... Eggman simply just doesn't care, but I believe that if he were to be conscious of how his actions affect others, he might at the very least hesitate on going further with his plans because despite being a trouble maker, Eggman is not a monster and in some occassions has shown to still have redeeming aspects that do surface from time to time.

Another interesting aspect about Eggman is that despite him boasting about how great it is to be him and acting all smug, he might actually be a character that feels lonely. In Sonic Unleashed, this point was brought by Chip and think there is validity to it because in the next game, we're introduced to his two assistants Orbot and Cubot, who ever since have kept company to the doc, though as expected, he treats them awfully (but never in a cruel way) just like a bully would to their henchmen. Perhaps Eggman does want to have friends, but because of his selfish and self-centered personality, he drives away anyone who might want to try to come close to him. Heck, the only reason he and Amy remained Fuzzy Puppy buddies in Sonic Boom was that for once, Eggman stopped acting like a spoiled brat and returned the stolen figure after Amy threatened to stop being his friend.

Tails (aka Miles Prower). Tails is a character that has suffered a lot in recent games because of what I mentioned at the start of this wall of text: simple characters who are misunderstood.

This is a character that is meant to be the kid of the group, and as such, he would be the one who experiences doubts and self-confidence issues because while you have strong and experienced characters like Sonic and Knuckles, or the self-made heroine that Amy Rose eventually grew to become, Tails is just the youngest member of the group who for the longest time relied on being by Sonic's side to have the confidence to do things.

Tails has a talent when it comes to tinkering with machines which seems to bring him great joy (I imagine it's the kind like when I build sci-fi model kits), and is always seeking to gain the acknowledgement from his friends by showing to them his latest inventions. At heart, Tails is a gentle child who is the exact opposite of Dr. Eggman because while the doc uses all his talents and resources for self-serving purposes, Tails wants for his inventions to help make life easier for others. However, often his inventions have flaws/bugs that the boy oversees because of his child-like enthusiasm, and this can sometimes cause troubles (like in Sonic Boom's "UT" episode) that causes for Tails to sink into his own doubts.

One thing that I feel is very important to take into consideration is that Tails should never be the kind of character that guilt-trips the audience into feeling sorry for him. When one feels empathy for a character, it's often because they struggle and show very humane and relatable emotions. Tails being confused about what went wrong is IMO a very sincere form of showing his doubts and him trying to correct them is his form of struggle. A trap writers could fall for is to make the other characters act mean to him which is something I feel should be avoided because it cheapens the whole thing.

Amy Rose. With Amy, the thing I liked and always believed is that out of all the characters, she is the one with the most potential... And what annoys me is the way Sonic Team fails to deliver on it by all of the wrong reasons.

I always loved Amy because she is one of the characters that to mee feels the most "real". Amy is a very energetic and bubbly girl with an endless supply of optimism that always makes her see the best out of any situation. She also has quite some flaws too, like being impulsive, quick to jump into conclussions, can be a bit feisty, etc... IMO, this makes Amy feel closer to the normal people and believe that in the Sonic franchise, she serves as a bridge between Sonic's bigger than life adventures and the normal, everyday life. But if there is one thing that this character has that won me over, is her compassion and empathy for others. Sure, every character can show that too because it's a basic humane quality. However, none of them takes it to the length that Amy does because what makes Amy unique is that her compassion and empathy also extends towards the bad guys. You see, Amy is the kind of character that believes that everyone deserves to be happy in life, and because her insight makes her realize the sadness experienced by those who lost their way and deviated into a dark path, she will try to make them realize the inner good that they forgot existed or did not know was there. Where Sonic saves the world, Amy saves bad guys from themselves.

Funny enough, Amy herself is a character that I am very sympathetic for because unlike Tails and Knuckles, who from the very start of their careers had the full support of Sonic Team and always received a preferential treatment, Amy is a character that had to start literally from zero to get where she is now... and even then, sometimes it feels like she is often left behind by the developers who overlook the many things that she as a character can contribute to the main cast, what she herself can accomplish as a hero, what she can add as a playable character... And it's this one-sided form of exclussion that feels so unfair, based on dumbass ideas like "she wasn't part of the Genesis trilogy" that has resulted in so many missed opportunities... From SA2 not continuing her character development by giving the spotlight instead to Knuckles (who didn't even contributed to the plot in any meaningful way and was just there for the sake of pandering to his popularity), to being robbed in Forces from being the leader the IDW comic showed (and which previous games hinted she would one day become) to Mania not having her in the game despite already haven proved to be a great addition in Sonic Advence, giving her spot instead to a couple of literal nobodies. Even the animated mini-series would had also forgotten all about her had it not been for Tyson Hesse, who likes the character and always wanted to feature her and insisted until he got the green light to go ahead with what I feel is the most special episode of the Mania Adventures mini series (and the oerfect Christmas gift for me).If only Christian Whitehead and Takashi Iizuka had been more like Hesse... Cowards. No, I'm not even fucking sorry for calling them that.

Sometimes, as an Amy fan, it's so very hard to have any love for things like the immensely popular "classic trio" (the concept, not the characters involved) because how this has resulted in Amy always getting the short end of the stick. This is a character that IMO should had been right up there along Tails in terms of importance, not being sidelined or excluded over crap "reasons".

And finally, Knuckles.

Oh Knuckles, where do I begin. Despite how sometimes I may sound harsh towards the character, I have to say that I do like Knuckles because as a character, I believe he can be one of the most entertaining and relatable of the franchise, but because Sonic Team are a mixed bag themselves (they create wonderful character designs and give them unique personalities for the most part, but God if they can be clumsy when it comes to handling them) I feel that Knuckles is the opposite of Amy in that he is a character that fell victim of his popularity, where Amy on the other hand is a victim just because she wasn't introduced in a certain trilogy of games.

As a character, Knuckles feels like a mix between Donald Ducks short-tempered personality, and Daffy Duck's jealousy towards the main character. Indeed, Knux can be quite explosive with his temper, especially if it involves unwanted visitors laying their filthy casual paws all over the master emerald, or when facing unexpected obstacles (I know how this feels... I too hate when my work is affected by factors outside my own power. XD) which in animation, were hilariously captured by Tyson.

Knuckles relationship with Sonic on paper is that of a friendly rivalry... Not because Knuckles is this supposedly good, close friend of Sonic, which I still believe he is not (Tails has a reason to be a close friend, Amy has a reason AND had to struggle and insist until she finally got there... Knuckles though, he was never given one, although it's never too late to start working on it), but rather, because Knuckles was never a bad guy... He simply was some echidna with a very honest and naive sense of what is right which Dr. Eggman took advantage of to pit him against Sonic and Tails. Even if Knuckles was thankful to Sonic for helping clear the mess and recover the master emerald, I believe that deep down, Knuckles still resents having not only been tricked by Eggman, but also being beaten by Sonic... and not just in the literal sense of having been KO'd in Kombat, but also in the sense that Sonic did what he was supposed to do: retrieve the master emerald. This IMO is a wound in Knuckles' pride that never truly healed.

And this brings me to what makes Knuckles so sympathetic. Knuckles is the least brilliant mind of the group. He us also stubborn... A literal knucklehead. And yet, Knuckles is aware of this and in more than one occassion has expressed his frustration and regret for how easy he can be taken advantage of... How could someone not love Knuckles and just want to give him a good hug? This is why I was so very moved when the Archie comic had a heartwarming moment where he and Amy have a talk during a journey to retrieve the shards of the master emerald. Ian Flynn did a great job IMO at humanizing Knux by having him open up to Amy and talk about the things that trouble him, from Sonic being a teased, to his doubt to whether he is worthy of being the master emerald's guardian... And how Amy not only reminded how despite his mistakes, he never ever gave up. And when their adventure was over and succeded in their mission, Amy gave Knuckles that hug he deserved and needed so badly to make him feel appreciated.

They are all wonderful characters when they are done right, and why it so frustrates me so very much when they mess up with them because people, like the unintelligent mass of meat that they are, will always jump to the laziest and easiest conclussion, which is why they all have been given negative stigmas that have been so hard to shake off.

I really wish that these characters were made not only justice, but also to be handled by competent people that can understand what makes them themselves, who understand how they are suppose to act like and provide something that actually rewards their fans instead of punishing them (I'm looking at you Sonic Forces!). Funny how it's cartoons like Sonic Boom, the very last Archie comics and the IDW comic that has been delivering the things I always wanted while the games struggle and fail to deliver. This is why the idea of the next game worries me because I really don't have much faith in Sonic Team doing anything that has not been done in the last games: Sonic only, Tails's character being further butchered while Amy and Knuckles are glorified extras. How can I even have the least faith in them when their track record speaks so loud and clear? Only way the next game will give this characters the care they deserve is if the story is writen by either Ian Flynn or Tyson Hesse. They're the only ones that deliver what Pontac, that other guy and Sonic Team themselves failed to do.

[atmilliways]

You like AUs, right? Mash up Metalocalypse and That 70s Show, go! Mash up Metalocalypse and Friends, go! Mash up Metalocalypse and Frasier, go!

Oh jeebus, why?

… But yeah you’re right I do.

That Dethklok’s Show

You know what makes me mad is that I want to say Nathan and Charles are Eric and Donna, but Seth is unarguably Lori and that messes everything up.

Okay so Pickles = Eric, Seth = Lori, Calvert = Red but with hair, and Molly = Kitty except Seth is her favorite child too.

Skwisgaar = Kelso because he’s tall, pretty, and horny. Also, in this AU, he is drowning in brothers because Servetta can’t keep it in her panties.

Toki = Fez because he’s foreign, happy most of the time, sings and dances for the simple joy of it, and his room is decked out with toys and fun stuff.

Murderface = Hyde because of the righteous fa-RO baby, and also because he DOESN’T HAVE ANY PARENTS. He moves in with Pickles’ family and lives in the basement. (Pickles was hoping this would give Molly and Calvert another Target to rag on and give him a break. It didn’t work.)

Unlike Hyde, Murderface is not cool and doesn’t get any eventual Hyde/Jackie storyline. Instead, his relationship history goes more like Fez’s. Without the weird forced Fez/Jackie stuff at the end of the series, which really went downhill has soon as Donna dyed her hair blonde.

Charles = Buddy, the random rich kid who is canonically gay, only he’s a regular part of the group instead of a one-episode throwaway character.

I’m cool with Pickles/Charles, and that fits with Buddy coming on to Eric in the show. But I would eventually break them up and put Charles with…

Nathan = no one on the show, but he’s got a lot of Hyde’s qualities in terms of stoic, bad boy vibes. However, like Kelso, he is an Adorable Dumb (see “that’s doable” hat).

Rebecca Nightrod = Jackie, but she’s not a necessarily a regular character. Murderface fawns/lusts over her like Fez, even though she’s a bitch. Nathan hates her, even though he does date her briefly in a relationship that she holds onto tenaciously until, in an act of desperation that absolutely horrifies Pickles, he cheats on her with Seth.

Abigail = Donna, because she’s smart and has good hair. (Zero bleach kits in sight.)

Rockso = Bob, because he’s a cue ball on top and makes liberal use of crazy wigs. Bargain Rockso’s is that store that’s always open on holidays — just in case you’re driving home Christmas night, realize you forgot to get a gift, and rush in to buy a fridge to solve the gift problem and/or some cocaine to forget there was ever a problem in the first place.

Magnus = Leo. He gives Murderface a job at his hilariously unprofitable Photo Hut business, declines to sell his real cool car to Skwisgaar on principal, and generally supplies the gang with all their weed and assorted drugs.

Dory McLean = Midge. She’s young, dumb, has big boobs, and Abigail is exasperated as hell that she doesn’t understand feminism in the slightest.

Knubbler = Mitch, the weird kid who hangs around and is sometimes kinda entertaining but keeps hitting on Abigail, which annoys her. However, he’s also stupid and accidentally self-sabotages (see setting his sleeve on fire while trying to flirt), so she doesn’t really waste energy on slapping him back down.

Pickles “burning down the shed” = Eric telling Red “I do it too” when Hyde gets busted for possession. Either way Abigail (Donna) is standing in the background going, “For the love of god, DON’T.”

Trindle = Cousin Penny, only instead of prankish Pickles (Eric) she targets Nathan, who during her last visit when they were much younger helped Pickles trap her in a revolving door. Abigail is completely secure in her looks compared to Trindle and actually talks Rebecca out of a potentially disastrous sunlamp tan.

Nathan and Abigail go out for like, a second, while Nathan and Charles are I one of their off-again fazes.

Endgame parings are Nathan/Charles, Abigail/Rebecca, and Skwisgaar/Toki.

B.A.N.D.M.A.T.E.S

Nathan = Ross. Can you picture Nathan doing the *long sigh, ex wife is a lesbian blues* “Hi” thing? Because I can.

Abigail = Carol. They got together but it just didn’t work out in the long run. 

Rebecca Nightrod = Susan. Tbh, I think the reason she keeps popping up is because of how @little-murmaider portrayed her in Stay Alive. She and Nathan get along like a house on fire, in that it’s a disaster and Abigail keeps having to turn the hose on them to stop the bickering.

Toki = Monica, although his chef skills are mostly confined to providing fruit and burning plastic. He’s still got the overshadowed younger sibling thing going on though.

Molly = Judy Geller. Dotes on Nathan.

Oscar = Jack Geller. Is amiably odd.

Charles = Rachel. Except not as ditzy. But he does break an engagement off at the altar and moves in with Toki, an old acquaintance he hasn’t seen since high school and one of the few people he, ah, did not invite to the wedding. For the record, he was hoping that wouldn’t come up.

Skwisgaar = Joey. Except when they all go to London, Toki (Monica) does hook up with him, gradually teaches him how to relationship, and eventually they get married.

Murderface = Chandler. He hates his data processing job and keeps threatening to leave it to work on his side project, Planet Piss, but never actually does because the money is really good. When he goes back to the pet store to return the baby chick Skwisgaar impulse bought, he instead adopts an ugly-ass duck that no one wants because it’s original owners thought it was just an ugly duckling that would grow up into a swan. He feels that he can empathize with it, and names it Dick van Duck.

Knubbler = Dick van Duck. Listens patiently to all of Murderface’s Planet Piss ideas.

Pickles = Phoebe. He doesn’t even know who his dad is, and is proud that he doesn’t. (I’m not going to lie, Phoebe’s family situation definitely fits more with Murderface, but Phoebe’s dating track record is too good.) Remember the one where Pickles broke up with someone he’d just moved in with because the person shot a bottle of liquor?

Seth = Ursula. 100% Ursula. Seth is a “career driven” waiter and also a part time porn star on the side, using Pickles’ name.

Fraiser 

I don’t watch this one as much, so this one won’t be as detailed probably.

Skwisgaar = Frasier. Idk, because he goes on dates with a different woman at least every episode. Also, he’s a jackass, but good at what he does and there are some redeeming glimmers of not being a complete asshole that make his presence worthwhile.

Nathan = Niles. Minus most of the neuroses. Instead of successful musicians, he and Skwisgaar are both successful psychiatrists, although Skwisgaar usually gets the bulk of the public’s, ahem, attention.

Daphne = Charles. He’s oblivious to Nathan’s crush on him for ages, but when he realizes it’s there and thinks about how sweet Nathan’s always been to him, he falls hard.

Rebecca Nightrod = Maris. She and Nathan have a rocky marriage, and eventually a rockier divorce in which she accuses Nathan of being emotionally unfaithful because of Charles.

Abigail = The brilliant divorce lawyer that handles Nathan’s case, and briefly dates Charles. They seem like such a good fit on paper that they’re actually engaged for a bit, but they break it off amiably right before getting to the altar, and Nathan and Charles ride off into the sunset in an RV with “road warrior” vanity plates.

Toki = Roz. (I know, technically Roz’s promiscuousness would be more Skwisgaar, but Skwisgaar’s superiority complex fits better with Frasier.) Although competent and successful in his own right, he is not the on air talent. Unlike in Frasier, when Toki and Skwisgaar sleep together they actually become a couple instead of backing off and remaining good friends.

Rockso = That garbage man that Roz was head over heals with for a while… Rodger?He belongs in a garbage can. Anyway, after breaking up with Toki over the latter’s inability to get over his massive cocaine use, Toki goes to Skwisgaar for comfort, which leads to drinking which leads to sex. Toki flees the next morning and flies to Norway for the annual family reunion, only he hadn’t told anyone he’s broken up with Rockso. Skwisgaar, desperate to Talk Things Out and hopefully even Do That Again, follows and (cringingly, but of his own volition) answers to/pretends to be Rockso to help Toki save face in front of his critical family.

Murderface = Bulldog. He and Toki briefly have a thing, and he’s actually kind of sweet when you get right down to it, but things don’t work out. Masturbation photos are involved — don’t ask. Also, at one point Skwisgaar accidentally repeats a rumor that Murderface is going to get fired where Murderface can hear it, so

Murderface goes and yells at the station manager (then Knubbler) and quits. Then he’s unemployed for a while, and scrapes by delivering pizzas. I forget how that situation resolved itself in the show but it does.

Knubbler = Kenny the station manager. Weak willed. Weak chinned. Ineffectual. Good track record in his career, but mostly he’s just there.

Abigail = That domineering and extremely competent lady station manager that’s there for a while… Kate? Has a cat. But she does NOT get it on with Skwisgaar (Frasier) on his desk and accidentally bump the On Air button partway through. She has a very strict policy of not getting involved with anyone she works with, although naturally everyone tries.

That’s all I got.

Magnus = Martin. Because he’s a cranky old man. He and Nathan don’t get along and he resents having to live with Skwisgaar, but they all gamely trade barbed insults and leave it at that. Magnus is a retired cop who still works on old cold cases as a hobby, having vowed revenge on uncaptured murderers everywhere. He and Charles (Daphne) get along pretty well, and there is no stabbing of any kind.

Metal Masked Assassin = Cam Winston. At one point he blocks Skwisgaar and Toki in Skwisgaar’s SUV into a parking space with his own SUV, and only relents and backs out when Charles comes and calmly threatens him, because “that’s my bread and butter you’re blocking in.”

There, are you happy now?? I spent a ridiculous amount of time on this, asdf;lkj lol.

[sulietsexual]

Im doing a DH rewatch atm and since youve seen it too i thought to ask some opinions cause i like reading your metas😊 1. Why arent you a fan of Lynnette and Susan? (me neither, was just wondering on your take) 2. What do you think of male characters on the show? 3. How would you rate the seasons? 4. In the last episode when they moved out of Wisteria Lane, it was implied they lost touch. Do you think that happened (more of a headcanon material here but still).

Lynette is a bully, that’s the main reason I don’t like her. She is emotionally abusive towards Tom, often belittling him and putting him down. She sabotages him so many times in such underhanded ways, such as when she stops him from getting a promotion in Season 1 or in Season 6 (I think it’s Season 6) when she gets him drunk the night before he’s set to take an exam to return to University because she doesn’t approve of what he’s studying. She’s just awful to him. She even physically abuses him a few times and there’s a very uncomfortable scene towards the end of Season 3 where it looks like she’s about to force herself on him. Also, she continually thinks the worst of him and assumes that he’s always cheating on her (which he never does) but then she pretty much has an affair with Rick in Season 3 and when Tom calls her own it, she somehow makes out like she’s the wronged party. I just can’t deal with her.

Susan I can’t stand because I find her so goddamn pathetic. She’s so co-dependent and constantly attaching herself to whoever comes along. Her obsession with Mike is really ridiculous, she throws Bree, Orson and Ian under the bus in Season 3 when trying to clear Mike’s name, not to mention she’s always going on about how in love with Mike is, yet she moves on after six months of him being in a coma?? Plus, every time he leaves her, her reaction is always so over-the-top and hard to stomach, like when she goes running down the street screaming at him not to leave her and then collapses in tears for the whole world to see, it’s like, c’mon woman, get a hold of yourself. 

She also really pisses me off in Season 8 when the women are covering up the murder of Gabby’s stepfather. Susan knows what type of man he was, she knows that he sexually molested Gabby and yet she whines and mopes and cries about how guilty she feels, how bad they were for covering up the murder and she almost blows their cover several times. Not to mention how she basically leads the mutiny against Bree and when she discovers that Bree tried to kill herself her response is to ask if Bree’s joking. Ugh, I could go on and on and on about how much I hate Susan. I haven’t even touched on how she forces Julie to be the adult and can’t function without her daughter taking care of her, like wtf? Act like an adult Susan!

As for how I feel about the male characters on the show, it really depends on the season, because they all have their extreme ups and downs. I can’t stand Carlos in Seasons 1 and 2 but after Season 5 he’s a sweetheart and I adore him. Orson is initially a great character and seems to treat Bree the way she deserves but then he turns on her viciously in Seasons 5 and 6 and is responsible for all her troubles in Season 8. Mike is a fairly decent character but I hated how he strung Katherine along for a whole season, only to return to Susan. I like Tom and I think he deserves far better than Lynette but he’s also unfocused and sexist and pushes Lynette into being a mother when she clearly didn’t want kids. Rex is just a putz. Paul is a creeper (and a murderer) although his final arc is nice and redeems him somewhat. Andrew grows a lot, so even though I have issues with him in the early seasons, I really like the character he becomes. So yeah, very up and down with the male characters. My favourite was probably Keith because I really liked how sweet he was with Bree and how much he loved her and how well he treated her.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched the show, but if asked rank the seasons it would be (from best to worst):

Season 1

Season 2

Season 4

Season 5

Season 3

Season 7

Season 6

Season 8

And lastly, yes, I do agree with the final narration, I think it’s hard to maintain long-distance friendships, especially when you get older, and given that they all moved away from Wisteria Lane, I think they would have drifted apart, although I can still see them having the occasional contact, such as Christmas cards and the odd phone call, especially between Bree and Gabby, they were always portrayed as the closest of the housewives.

[jbuffyangel]

No More Julie Plec Shows

Warning: This is a rant after dedicating 9 years to Julie Plec shows.

The upside of The Originals ending is that I am free.

No more Julie Plec shows for this blogger, folks. You must hold me to this. If I even think about turning on Legacies then you must stage an intervention.

I won’t say The Originals series finale was the worst series finale I’ve watched. No, that title will always belong to How I Met Your Mother, but TO comes close! What a hot friggin mess.

Romance and Shippers Are Not Dirty Words

But let’s start with the PR blitz Julie did before the episode aired last night. After building her career off romance and the loyalty of shippers, JP declares 45 minutes before The Originals signs off that “It was never a show that was meant to thrive on romance.”

That’s just stupid.

The Originals has all kinds of shippy ships to ship and Julie Plec milked them for all they’re worth until she decided to kill off 50% of her cast, including the female protagonist of one of the largest Originals ships.

I am really tired of writers using romance to bait and hook viewers, but then arguing the show “isn’t about romance” (like it’s some kind of dirty word) because they don’t have the balls to make an endgame decision. Nor do they want to listen to the complaints of the fans they baited because, GASP, those fans want a happily ever after for their faves. 

Writers tell us to fall in love with the relationship, but then are angry when we fall in love. The Originals is about family and ROMANCE, so let’s not argue otherwise because it’s nonsense.

Also, if all you care about is the romantic storyline in a show THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT AND YOU ARE JUST AS MUCH OF A FAN AS EVERYONE ELSE.

I wouldn’t say the finale was without romance. Freya & Keelin and Marcel & Rebakah were allowed happy endings. This is no small victory because the way this woman torpedoes ships these couples were not a done deal by any means.

However, the three largest ships on the show were all but ignored (Klamille and   Haylijah) or had the rug yanked from under them (Klaroline).

The Ending

I was spoiled on the ending for The Originals before it aired, but that didn’t  make it any easier. It was still a disaster zone. Klaus decides to kill himself to save Hope’s life and Elijah kills himself too because... why not?

If you are a hard core Vampire Diaries fan like myself then you know the original ending Plec and Williamson planned was for both Stefan and Damon to die. They would spend their hereafter looking after Elena living her human life (and she’s married to Matt or someone other rando). So, I couldn’t help but feel this ending was spectacularly lazy and recycled.

I do not have a problem with Klaus or Elijah dying. I have a big problem with both brothers dying. Elijah and Klaus existed in a toxic, co dependent relationship for the better part of a thousand years. Julie decides instead of freeing the brothers from that toxicity, they’ll go all in on joint suicide because family.

The preferable options were:

Option 1) Kill Klaus and Elijah lives

I am not a huge fan of killing Klaus merely because I think it lets him off the hook too easily. Yes, there was character growth with Klaus, to say otherwise is madness, but one or two decent things doesn’t outweigh a thousand years of being a monster. Klaus even asks Elijah in the finale if his sacrificial death makes up for all the years he was awful and Elijah basically says, “Yeah you’re good.”

I disagree, but whatever Klaus dies. I do like the symmetry of Klaus wanting to kill his daughter in the pilot and dying for his daughter in the finale though.

This gives Elijah a chance to find happiness and purpose beyond redeeming his brother. Julie argued they already gave Elijah that story this season and he discovered all roads led back to Klaus. Uhhh... Klaus showing up on Elijah’s door asking for his help to find Hayley isn’t exactly Elijah finding his way back to Klaus, but okay.

This is what drives me nuts about Julie Plec. She acts like all of these choices just happened to her. YOU WROTE IT LADY!!!!! Stop acting like you’re an innocent by stander in all of this. THE CHARACTERS AREN’T REAL AND YOU CAN MAKE THEM DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

Klaus argued against Elijah dying for Hope because what kind of man would he be if he allowed his brother to die for his only child? Well, I don’t know Klaus, the kind of man who always lets Elijah toe the morality line and do the emotional heavy lifting. Why stop now? (By the way, they could have easily magicked a way for Elijah to steal the Hollow and deny Klaus any say). But yes, I agree, Hope is Klaus’ daughter and he should man up. 

If Klaus is going to die then at least give Elijah a chance at real happiness with the woman he truly loves- Hayley. So, let’s not kill her Julie!!!

Option 2) Kill Elijah and Klaus lives

This is my preferred ending. After they killed Hayley, and made Elijah culpable in Hope’s mother’s death, I thought this would be a fitting end for Elijah. He saves Hope’s life, is free of the eternal torment of living forever, spends eternity with Hayley, and sacrifices himself for Klaus’ redemption. This would instill a deep desire in Klaus to be a good guy for the next thousand years.

Julie also argued immortality is it’s own prison and what were we expecting in a show about vampires (meaning - they are all going to die). I agree with that statement in terms of Elijah and Rebekah, but not Klaus. He reveled in his immortality. Klaus loved being the strongest creature on earth. So, death isn’t a reward. In that sense it makes his sacrifice more selfless. However, I would have preferred to see Klaus earn his redemption by using his immortality for good for as long as he used it for evil. And yeah, if Caroline wants to come along, and they make a stop in Paris, I have no problem with that.

Closure

The Originals writers introduced the afterlife just like they did on The Vampire Diaries finale. We were able to see Josh and Hayley in heaven and at peace. However, The Originals did not give us this glimpse with Klaus and Elijah, their two main characters. Julie instructs us to essentially imagine their peace. That’s like stopping at the 1 yard line and telling the crowd to imagine a touchdown. It doesn’t count. JUST CROSS THE DAMN LINE!

At the end of the day, fans want closure from a series finale. They want to know  the characters they love are going to be okay. This is why the Parenthood finale remains the best ever. You can have heroic deaths, but leaving the character open ended even after death is a little mean. I don’t think it would have been too much to ask to give Hayley & Elijah fans a scene of them dancing in heaven 

or reuniting Klaus with Cami.

But that would make the show too much about romance I guess.

Family

If you want to believe Klaus and Elijah were each other’s happy endings that’s fine, but that’s a tough pill for me to swallow. The Originals was about family, but for most of the series (and their time on TVD) they were people related by blood doing absolutely despicable things to one another. 

Yes, they rallied time and again, particularly when it was in service of Hope. I’m not going to say they didn’t love each other or their familial bond meant nothing. I too get warm and fuzzy about “Always and Forever” but there was plenty of toxicity to go around.

One of my beefs with the finale is it sort of glazes over a lot of that. It was more like The Originals: A Christmas Special than a finale. They look at pictures, make wishes and Klaus waxes poetic about how he secretly adored Kol (despite daggering him and generally making his life miserable for a thousand years). I mean... okay? Feels a little disingenuous, but maybe I’m soulless.

The two familial standout moments for me was Klaus saying goodbye to Hope and Klaus apologizing to Rebekah while making sure she can take the cure if she wants. Stellar all the way around. I felt all the feels and those moments were truly earned. 

Caroline

So… what was the point of having Caroline on the show other than baiting the Klaroline fandom and ensuring their viewership? Cause I got nothing. 

Klaus and Caroline didn’t need closure. They had plenty of that on TVD. Caroline made it abundantly clear she was going to live her life without Klaus, minus a hot up-against-a-tree hookup to get it out of her system. And that’s exactly what she did.

What made Caroline’s presence on The Originals so enjoyable (other than it’s Caroline and she’s sunshine) is it felt like the characters were going somewhere new. We’ve had seven years of Klaus and Caroline dancing around their feelings, but the finale offered more of the same. We get a couple more “if only” moments and a tepid kiss.

Yes, Caroline kept the voicemail. Yes, she enjoyed all the wonders of New Orleans Klaus wanted to show her. Yes, she finally confirmed she cared for Klaus (but anyone who didn’t know that is daft). Yes, Klaus finally earned her respect and had a legitimate shot at a relationship with her for the first time, which makes his sacrifice so noble.

Eh. Caroline already had her noble, sacrifice-it-all-in-the-name-of–family love story (looking at you Stefan). 

Everything with Klaus feels spectacularly redundant for her character.

And to not follow through on this line is criminal.

But that isn’t really the reason I’m ticked. It’s Julie Plec’s explanation for why Klaus and Caroline can’t be together.

It would dishonor Stefan.

Look, nobody (and I do mean nobody) loves Stefan Salvatore more than me. I subjected myself to an additional four years of crap storytelling just to make sure Stefan was okay in the end (yeah I know I could have just watched the finale, but I couldn’t abandon him) only for JP to kill my beloved in the FINAL FREAKING EPISODE.

But this “honoring Stefan’s memory” thing is crap.

Stelena Side Bar

Time to get real for a second. (D*lena and St*roline lovers now would be the time to look away).  Stefan ended up with Caroline because The Vampire Diaries did him dirty with D*lena and they couldn’t get Nina back for their planned (yeah you read that right) Stelena endgame.

Julie Plec loves to put all the blame for how TVD ended on Nina Dobrev’s shoulders.  Yes, Nina left the show and when she left in Season 6 I knew it was game over on Stelena and any hope of a reunion was lost.

I love Stefan, Caroline and their friendship. I begrudgingly got on board with the romance angle because sweet holy Zeus I needed something to be mildly entertained by in Season 6-8.

But let me be clear. Under no circumstances do I favor St*roline over Stelena. 

Caroline Dries absolutely could have put Stelena back together before Nina Dobrev left the show. In fact, that was the direction the show was headed. Elena lost her memories of Damon and suddenly she’s taken aback with the gorgeousness of Stefan Salvatore.

(BECAUSE WITHOUT THE FREAKING SIRE BOND SHE STILL WOULD HAVE BEEN WITH STEFAN SO WHY DIDN’T HER LOVE FOR HIM RETURN THE SECOND SHE FORGOT DAMON? OH THAT’S RIGHT IT WAS GOING TO UNTIL THE WRITERS SCREWED ME OVER). The memory loss storyline was going to be to D*lena what the sire bond was to Stelena.

Then all of a sudden the show turns on a dime. Stelena rebuild is over and it’s full throttle on St*roline. The episodes Dries/Plec would have been writing in January (right around the time Nina let them know she was leaving) put Elena rapidly back together with Damon. Then they dance in the street for some inexplicable reason in her final episode.

Kevin and Julie wanted Nina back for the final 16 episodes of Season 8 to put Elena back with Stefan, but she was unavailable. Guess what cupcakes? You had Nina for the same amount of episodes in Season 6. You had a half season, give or take, to rebuild Stelena. 

There was absolutely no reason why STEFAN couldn’t have been the one waiting for Elena to wake up. Quite frankly, Damon’s struggle to maintain control would have been a lot more interesting because he would’ve had nothing to lose. Stefan would have focused on saving his brother the final two years of the show, only for Damon to sacrifice himself in the end. Damon would have earned redemption, proved he was finally worthy of Elena, and gave Stefan & Elena their happily ever after, WHICH WAS ALWAYS THE PLAN.  

How do you not kill Damon after he says, “Because I am the big brother. I’m sorry I wasn’t better at it until now.” THAT’S THE PERFECT DEATH LINE. 

No one can anyone argue to me that Damon was the better man. (To be fair they were both terrible people, but Stefan was far less terrible IMHO.) Damon telling Elena Stefan is the better man before she wakes up makes a hell of a lot more sense than Stefan saying that about Damon, but whatever. The point is, the choice wouldn’t have been Elena’s but Damon’s (rather than Stefan’s) and it’s so freaking perfect I want to scream.

Anyway, back to yelling about Julie. So, she heaps all the responsibility on the ending for TVD on Nina because she loves to straddle fandoms and refuses to make a damn decision. Not that the D*lena ending was anything to write home about. Y’all got screwed over too. One crappy kiss and five seconds of holding hands isn’t exactly the glimpse into their happy life together that y’all deserved. Sweet mother of Moses, the Stelena fandom had a better glimpse of Stefan & Elena’s happy human life in 5x18.

Stelena side bar over. Back to talking about how ridiculous it is that Caroline can’t move on.

2) The Vampire Diaries had a big old conversation between Lexi and Stefan about how vampires have more than one great love because they are fucking vampires and live forever.

This was said after Elena chose Damon (for absolutely no reason other than it was Damon’s turn to get the girl) and Stefan was driving off to Cleveland or something. This was a difficult for me to accept in terms of Stefan’s character because he lived like 150 years without love until he met Elena. She brought him back to life. So TVD arguing that Elena was not Stefan’s only great love was kind of ridiculous, particularly since Elena was still alive. 

The only reason JP/Dries wrote this line was to smooth the path for a potential St*roline romance. And why? Because immediately after this scene with Lexi, Stefan drowns in a safe all summer while Elena bones his brother. So, yeah they needed to cook up some hope for his character and, at that point, Elena was SO NOT IT.

So, now that Stefan is dead VAMPIRE Caroline can’t move on? The same Caroline who was Stefan’s second chance at love? Is a basic level of consistency really too much to ask? No it is not.

3) It’s been a DECADE since Stefan died. Caroline can move on because it’s HEALTHY

What an abysmal message to send to widowers. Sorry folks, if you lost your spouse you are suppose to live alone for the rest of your life because falling in love again dishonors your spouse’s memory. 

If this storyline was taking place a year or two after Stefan died, then sure I can see the argument for Caroline moving on too fast, but that’s not what is happening here. There was an 8 year time jump. It’s been nearly a decade!!!

Let’s take the vampireness out of the equation as my friend @lipstickandwifi so eloquently said. A woman marries in her twenties and her husband tragically died the day after. She’s now in her thirties and someone from her past, who she always has had a connection with, is back in her life. And her children are almost grown. The answer is: GO FOR IT.

Also, Stefan would never want Caroline to be alone for her immortal life all in the name of his memory. He’d be the first one to say it’s okay to move on. 

He may not love her object of affection, but he’s dead so he doesn’t get a say. MAYBE NEXT TIME DON’T BE SO WILLING TO DIE FOR DAMON, STEFAN. I have some anger issues I am still working through.

So, once again Julie Plec is pulling some bs reason and blaming Stefan for the reason Klaroline can’t be together rather than have the lady balls to say, “I didn’t want them to end up together.” Instead, she plays out forty different scenarios in these interviews, each one pandering to a specific fandom and giving them their happily ever after, but “INSERTS NONSENSE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE.” And Julie deflects any and all responsibility in the choices she made.

The Spin Off

The real reason Klaus, Elijah and Hayley all died is because of Legacies. I’d also say that’s the reason Klaroline didn’t end up together too. Julie Plec wanted Elena 2.0 - Hope to be an orphan so she can rehash the same story she told on TVD (complete with love triangle). Julie blames all these deaths on the actors not wanting to reprise their roles. It has nothing to do with Julie’s need to keep collecting a paycheck. Nope, not at all!

Absolutely no one can argue Legacies did not impact the ending to The Originals to me because it did. It’s fact. Julie Plec admits as much in countless interviews. Anything argued to the contrary is a PR campaign to get jilted viewers to watch the next show. I refuse.

2 shows + 263 hours of television + dozens of ships = 0 endgame couples. That's my shipper maths for Plec shows.  Congratulations to the ships that survived. The rest of us got screwed over. I end yet another Julie Plec show with booze.

And to the sweet summer children anxiously awaiting Legacies, tattoo this on your heart “DO NOT TRUST JULIE PLEC.”

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Thus, this closes the door on both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. At least I can rewatch TVD S1-S3 (and 4x01 as the series finale). There’s always Season 4 of The Originals too.

[th3okamid3mon]

Anxiety is more harmful than Deceit [A ramble because I can, also SPOILERS]

Ok, so.

At the beginning of Sanders Sides, i enjoyed all the characters. Obviously i had my dislikes and likes. I´ve comment before that i dont like Patton and Roman that much, I enjoy their antics and their characteristics, and i know they try their best. The problem i have is that they do not take some things too seriously, well... just Patton, Roman is actually getting more serious so i dont mind him a lot. But Patton is always trying to light up the mood when everything CLEARLY IS FUCKING FALLING INTO PIECES. 

Logan has been my favorite so far, of course he has his moments like when he cannot understand whats going on and pretends to not have feelings but then i remember who he is. He needs to be serious. He reminds me a lot of me, with explosive anger and all, although he has that ¨I am better than you¨ vibe that i dont like (Im not egotistical, im more selfish, pretty sure thats different) 

Now Anxiety... Everyone loves a good villain. I understand that Thomas wanted to...redeem him? But i dont think that was good. 

When Accepting Anxiety came out i was surprised. ¨why would you redeem mental illness?¨ My opinion has a lot to do with me projecting so bare with me: I have social anxiety and depression. Anxiety has been the death of me since i was little.  If i was late at class, i could not enter the classroom out of fear of everyone laughing, i could not defend myself from people, i could not talk to my parents bout how teachers were screaming at me and inflicting physical pain at me because i would think they would laugh or get mad at me. 

It was a shitshow. 

Im an adult now and i still get overwhelm with something similar (More like... I think someone will get inside my house or in my classroom and will kill everyone, but my depression always hits me like hMmmmmmidontcare) 

Anxiety during his time in screen, has acted rough and then started to act a bit better towards others. Sure he has his times like the Christmas Halloween episode in which he tried to scare everyone and such. But... Anxiety is still bad. As a character, sure he is cool and adorable in my opinion, but as the mental illness he is, he is fucking awful. Scare the living crap out of someone because of no fucking reason? What the hell? Why would anyone like to live with that? I understand accepting that thats part of you and it might never leave is a next step to get healthy and its way better than denying but it doesnt take the fact that its horribly to leave in constant fear of everything. 

WHATS THAT SHADOW I SEE THERE? A MURDERER? A GHOST? A MONSTER? WHATS IN MY DRINK? DID SOMEONE RUFFIED IT?

IS SOMEONE FOLLOWING ME? IS SOMEONE OUTSIDE MY WINDOW? IS SOMEONE KILLING SOMEONE? IS SOMEONE TRYING TO ROB THE HOUSE? IS SOMEONE TRYING TO GET INSIDE THE HOUSE? IS SOMEONE INSIDE MY HOUSE WITHOUT ME KNOWING? ARE THEY HIDING SOMEWHERE?

Ive fucking lived with those types of thoughts constantly, pretty sure the character of Thomas would think shit like this. How is that helpful? They tried to point out the goods of Anxiety, i still think its a shit show that you had to check at least 5 times if you close the door, 5 times if you grabbed your wallet, 5 times if you had the keys of your home and other 5 times to see if you made sure you check the whole house in search of someone that might be living there without you knowing (ok that one was just me, I constantly check the whole house because i started hearing noises and then my dog barks and then the doors close and open and i get paranoid and all SEE HOW IT ISNT FUNNY? NOR COOL IF ANXIETY IS JUST SEEN AS THE FUCKIN MENTAL ILLNESS?) 

Now Deceit, he is the lying part of one self. Deceit was probably the one making Thomas lie to himself bout Anxiety but in the video... Deceit made a point: ¨Is it me the one who is making you sin or did you convince yourself that i was all me?¨ One of the errors Thomas is making is viewing Deceit as something else, something out of him, not seeing the possibility of him being a liar. Deceit is trying to make him look its ok to be a liar because everyone lies, Logan even said that in Can LYING be good? Anxiety is constantly there trying to fuck your day up, but Deceit? He appears in times of need, because he functions too as self preservation, he tries to give Thomas certain ways to keep his friends so he doesnt loose them. In the video Selfishness vs Selflessness he actually ask a normal question: DO YOU WANT THE PART OR NOT? Deceit not only wants Thomas to be truth to himself, he wants him to see the path been told by Patton isnt the only one. And Ok maybe he was a bit tough and less direct, I think Deceit needs to work on his communication skills, but he did tried to make it is easy to understand, not only that Deceit actually tried to listen too. When Logan said bout which will be more harmful to Thomas and said loosing the wedding Deceit was surprise but kept asking so he could understand. I know he had an agenda but the agenda was, in his point of view, to serve Thomas.

Anxiety was always trying to not let him be listen because he hates him a lot. He didnt tried to put something useful in the table, he just didnt want Deceit there. (If Logan was there they could have probably get a more suitable decision.) Let´s not forget that people tend to lie more when they are anxious to get out of situations, so if Thomas tends to lie it would have been due to desperation, not knowing which else to decide. He even was fine on lying because he really wants to go to the Callback, IF HE WENT TO THE WEDDING HE WOULDNT EVEN PAID ATTENTION, THATS NOT NICE. 

Anxiety does not help as much as everyone makes it look like, by fearing loosing friends it harms Thomas more than whatever Deceit was saying. Being selfish from time to time isnt harmful, it is by nature. And maybe lying wasnt even the point to Deceit, he just wanted to make sure Thomas knew he could be selfish and that´d be ok. From all Sanders Sides, we havent seen Thomas take care of himself properly, maybe that´s why Deceit has shown up. 

[oneflewovermyhouse]

Snitches Get Stitches: An Ode to The Elf on the Shelf

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

That’s it. That is all parents have needed since 1934 when John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie wrote this endearing and menacing ditty to threaten children into the submissive state that is good behavior. It has been recorded more than 70,000 times since its inception, which speaks to the utter desperation of parents everywhere to get their kids to get their proverbial shit together for just one month. For the most part, it works, however fleeting the results are.

For some reason (most likely the desire to cash in on parents’ hopelessness at the holidays), in 2004, Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell decided to write The Elf on the Shelf, a book that looks to be a classic Christmas tradition of yore, but is in fact a modern manifesto that cheerfully serves as a reminder to children young and old that Santa is essentially Big Brother that is reminiscent of the Patriot Act, or at least Facebook. The presence of an omniscient fat man that either delivers toys or coal to kids based on their behavior apparently was no longer enough. Now, he needs a sentinel to literally watch over children to ensure compliance. It was as if we asked kids to believe all these years, they began to doubt the monitoring referenced in Coots and Gillespie’s anthem, we placed a creepy elf doll on the mantle, and those same kids all of a sudden collectively gathered that shit just got real.

The elf watches over the children and reports back to Santa all of the wonderful behavior and deeds that the children have exhibited, right? Well, if he was honest in his reporting, I think Christmas morning would look a little different in most households. I want to honor the traditions of central Europe and host a miniature Krampus on my shelf. Krampus is paired with Saint Nicholas, but instead of rewarding children for good behavior (a seldom occurrence in my house), he punishes the children for ill-behavior in the forms of lashing with branches, eating them, or transporting them to the depths of hell – ya know, jolly stuff. Think about it – if you are good, you may get another video game, however if you are bad, a horned, anthropomorphic figure described as “half-goat, half-demon” with fangs will come for you in your sleep. Put that bastard on your bookshelf, and see how things go.

Ok, so now we have an elf and a book – not all bad. There are rules? Are you kidding? I have to move this damn thing every night to continue the magic, or is it to tell the kids that nowhere is safe? It says Elf on the Shelf; why can he not just sit in one place for the season…on the shelf? Every night, at approximately 11:00, my wife and I look at each other when we realize we have not moved them (yes, we have two), and we utter some four-letter word and argue over whose turn it is to relocate the spies. We used to get creative like everyone else and have them in cute scenarios like eating fruit, hanging from chandeliers, or taking marshmallow dumps, but over the years we have gotten to the point that if we move them to a different room, we deserve Parent of the Year. Hell, my kids have bought them clothes – if that’s not pouring salt on a gaping wound, I’m not sure what is. So, now we have incorporated wardrobe changes into the equation – awesome.

“Oooh look, Twinkles is wearing her sparkly scarf with boots and a snow hat.”
“Cool! Jingles is wearing his skis and goggles. But where is his leather jacket?”

I also like coming home after work, and my kids ask me if I found them yet. It takes every ounce of me to not look at them and say, “They’re probably right where I put them last night, unless they truly are magical.” But, I don’t. I look around with my feigned look of curiosity and anticipation until I come upon them in the location where I left them. I make some comment about the mischief the little a-holes have gotten themselves into, and then continue with the afternoon. Magical, right?

The scenarios have gotten especially mundane as well. It’s no longer, “what are they doing today?” but more like, “where are they sitting now?” Besides, how can they keep a watchful eye if they are having a sack race with Iron Man and Barbie? They have work to do; this is no time for play.

At this point, I usually wrap up my blogs with some redeeming feel-good synopsis much like Doogie Howser, M.D. did after every episode as to how he pined over Wanda and chummed it up with Vinnie. Not this time. I hate the Elf on the Shelf. I hate what they stand for. I hate the labor involved in maintaining their “magic”. And, I hate that they “watch” my kids all the time – that’s my job. When we were kids, we were told to behave because Santa is watching. Now, he has a felt-clad army - that retail for $30 at Hallmark – that do his dirty work for him. If I were a kid, I wouldn’t want an elf. Those nosy little bastards have no business spying on me 24/7. Snitches get stitches. #Krampus2019

[acsversace-news]

It’s one of those events that happened if you’re old enough to know where you were when Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps of his South Beach villa in Miami. Ryan Murphy takes us back to 1990’s Miami and explores what drove Andrew Cunanan to murder one of fashion’s most iconic designers in his latest series, American Crime Story: Versace. We explored his childhood, but the road that led to the murder. Along the way, we meet David Madison, a young architect, his whole life ahead of him, but then fate leads him to Cunanan who eventually murders the young man.

Actor Cody Fern talks about getting the phone call for the role, how Madison was perceived at the time and working on a Ryan Murphy production in a role that’s shining a much-warranted spotlight on the Australian actor. If you haven’t seen the series, the show aired on FX and can be streamed for all to see. Fern shines brightly in the series, pay attention because you might not know the name now, but you will very soon.

What was it like walking on to the Versace set for the first time?

It’s a little bit mindblowing, even still. I idolized Ryan and his work for such a long time, especially how he conducts himself as a human being and giving back to community stories that need to be told.

I got the phone call that I was going to be on the show and started screaming because it’s beyond your wildest comprehension. It’s this dream you hope of as an actor, but to get the phone call and to hear you’re going to work with Ryan is overwhelming. Arriving on set, the entire production was so precise and was so well researched by Maureen and then Tom and the team around it. Ryan picks the very best people to work with and they’re so meticulous and so knowledgeable.

I got to play David, he’s such an interesting human being, not just because of his tragic death, but the life he had been living before. I think that’s what the series deals with. He’s a very successful architect and this intelligent guy who is so compassionate. The police actually found presents in his house that were for Christmas. He had bought these gifts months in advance for his nephews, that’s the kind of guy he was. So, I felt a real sense of responsibility to that. I think with this series in particular because it threw people for a six because it’s not just about the Versace family, but the real purpose was to jump into this world that we didn’t know about these four men who were not as famous as Gianni Versace but were equally as important, who had value and their lives were cut short by this man, Andrew Cunanan.

It started with excitement and then it moved into the heavyweight. Arriving on set and knowing that everyone was at the top of their game and knowing that everyone was going to trust me to do what I was going to be doing which was so dark and so complex and complicated. It was a real work out as an actor. To also have Darren Criss who is so dynamic and such a surprising actor. I’d seen him in Glee but what he did in Versace was so layered and complex.

Your character was an interesting character, but also complex. How do you craft David when there’s not so much on him?

The first thing that is important to know, Tom Rob Smith is such a phenomenal writer. If I ever felt lost, I’d go back into the script and you don’t have far to fall if you’re being propped up by Tom. Obviously, there’s Maureen’s book, but really the jumping off point for David was, “Why didn’t he run? Why didn’t he stop the murder of Jeff?”  It was really more about the former and that’s where I started to construct everything from.

At the time and with the homophobia of the time and how the police were investigating it, they saw David as a perpetrator. It’s very interesting about what happens when your best friend is murdered right in front of you and stabbed 27 times with a hammer in your apartment by your ex-lover and someone who has been a friend for many years. At this point in time, their friendship had been worn down. Friends and family say he was very compassionate and had a religious background, so these things began to fill in for me as a character who comes from compassion first and foremost. What we were exploring in the series is the shame that gay men carry around and how that shame manifests itself, particularly in this period fo time. That’s a dangerous cocktail because what I learned in playing David was that his compassion knew no bound and he really believed that Andrew was redeemable, even after that horrific act. He believed if they got to the authorities then everything would be alright. Of course, your personality goes out the window when something like that happens. The horror of the media was that they were painting him as someone who was involved in the crime and when you see something like that, your body shuts down. There’s this gay shame he’s carrying around and he doesn’t fit into society and society views him very differently. He must somehow be involved and there’s something sick about him.

One of the police officers in the media stated it was far more likely and it makes far more sense that Andrew and David conspired to commit the crime because gay men have had to hide in the closet for so long. They’re all inclined to dark and psychopathic actions and how that must have affected him growing up.

He was a fascinating character to watch and his arc. Was he fascinating to explore?

Endlessly fascinating. It’s hard to say I had a great time playing him because what happened was so dark. It was a very difficult time but it was very rich. We knew that this show was going to skew towards the victims and that was really important to see and that we were going to see their lives and who they were. To see how Andrew and David fell in love, to see how he had hopes and dreams. In episode four, the death for David, what was most interesting in playing that was how you build a character as an actor and what happens when everything changes in one moment. Jeff is murdered and everything that David has ever known is different. Whoever he thinks he is goes out the window and it becomes about survival. He’s been dogged by gay shame and he’s been hiding his whole life. He has one act and one final act of courage, he grabs the steering wheel and he’s going to stand up. There’s only one way that can go. What it must have been like to mediate Andrew at every step of the way and to know that at any moment he could be killed or anyone else could be killed. To be in public and you’re hiding. In the diner, they’re in there’s this fear. What’s interesting is that it’s not far off from what he would have been feeling as a gay man in that period of time.

I want to see you back on another Ryan show.

So would I

What did you learn from being on a Ryan Murphy set?

First and foremost, so much is said about Ryan as a genius and the word genius is really thrown around these days for anyone who has a hit of any kind. It should be reserved for Ryan. It incorporates something other than stereotypical interpretations. Not enough is said about how kind, how generous and how loyal he is. What I learned the most was not about acting, but it’s about family. The people he has picked and the relationships that he has cultivated. It inspires everybody to dig deeper and to push harder and to be better. There’s this real sense of trust from hair and makeup to the gaffers. Everyone is really together and you’re all ware you’ve been chosen by Ryan to be a part of his family. That means you all band together and you give everything and every moment your all. I think that show.

It’s the director, the crew and everyone is there to do the very best they can for this story. That was really inspiring to come away from. Ryan oversees it all and that’s really touching.

As a viewer, it was dark and sticks with you. Was it easy to shed David?

This was not easy to shed, there was a lot of residue. It depends on how you work as an actor. I try to make a clear distinction as to what my work and my home are. For me, my work is my life. IT’s where I’m most engaged in. With David, the mind knows one thing. The mind knows I’m playing this, this is what’s happening. The body doesn’t., there was a lot of fear, guilt, shame and anxiety. For the most part, there were terrible feelings and it took me a good couple of months to shed that. Also leaving that family behind. I just caught up with everyone at the Pose premiere in New York, to see everyone and to see us all band together was such a special feeling. I will say it shouldn’t be easy to shed the residue of what I went through. Getting`to know David was one of the greatest gifts of my life. To bring him back to life and to say he was here and had value and he mattered, that felt great.

Next we’ll see you in House of Cards. Going from Ryan Murphy into Claire Underwood’s dark world. How is that experience?

It’s been playing longer than I’ve been an actor. I started watching it and knew I had to be on that show. That and Ryan Murphy. I feel like I’m in a weird science fiction world, but again, it was incredibly different. The pace and rhythm have been different. The energy was always uplifting. Everyone is so excited to get behind Robin. It was great. The writers on that show are some of the best on TV. Stepping into the world of Claire Underwood was a real treat.