#your main couple have zero fucking chemistry

[laurenkmyers]

…and welcome to another episode of Charlie disregarding every single boundary Babe tries to put up whilst single-handedly becoming the most annoying character I have ever had the displeasure of watching

[moonah-rose]

Gotta vent my frustrations with that finale because holy fuck. If you don't want negativity then don't click the cut.

So far I've been praising this series for drifting away from one of my biggest gripes with the show and that's the oversaturation of romantic couples over found family and friendships. That hasn't been much of an issue this series, I've loved all the little moments of comradery, for example how it was Isaac and Sam who came to talk to Hetty after her reveal rather than Trevor, as well as Sas bonding with Jay even if just for that one episode. I liked Flower's polyamory being brought up again and had hopes it wouldn't just be mocked again....we'll get to that.

But then this last episode decided to leave me with such a vile taste in my mouth I dunno if I'm gonna bother watching more.

First off I'm not a big Isaac and Nigel shipper so it's not like I'm super devastated they didn't get married but I thought they were cute enough. I praised the show before about having an on screen gay couple as opposed to the typical tragic bury your gays of Caphavers, even if they didn't have nearly as much chemistry as the couple who have three scenes together.

But now Nisaac is dead, or on a respite (OK that made me giggle), and we didn't even get to see them have their emotional talk, just have Isaac sum it up afterwards. The show had an opportunity for a really heartbreaking moment with just the two of them but instead we were left with "He took it well". And Isaac has been dragged into the mud which, I'll admit, was incredibly cathartic on behalf of the basement ghosts and Nancy in particular.

Honestly it's the Thor/Flower/Nancy stuff that angers me the most and had it not been there then I might not have brought up what happened with Nisaac, but it just adds into the whole "queerphobic" narrative by having your mlm couple split while the mlw couple admits their love and another random mlw couple gets their wedding (one half of which is a horrible character). I knew the throuple thing wasn't going to be long term but....why bring it in at all? Just to mock poly people? Why not just have Flower say she needed space to think before being with Thor again? Why the need to mock Nancy as the "disposable unconventionally attractive" third wheel?

As for Flower...talk about character assassination. So last week she's all "how dare you be so cruel to Nancy?" and in the premier the basement ghosts are saying how kind she was to them - now she's abandoning Nancy in the basement and doesn't care that Nisaac didn't invite them - yet Carol was there?! Flower is the only other queer main ghost besides Isaac yet her wlw relationships are treated as jokes of her being a "silly hippy" and apparently she wasn't into Nancy at all? That's that for the only wlw rep in the show I guess. It doesn't help that Thor and Flower have zero chemistry imo.

I'm not gonna pretend the main guys in the BBC show treated the plague ghosts that great but at least they were invited upstairs to watch the panto. Again the thing with Patience was the only saving grace and I like that the guys had no idea she would do that so they're not painted as evil.

As for Pete's subplot, I actually did like Donna and was glad she didn't turn out to be some femme fatal like she was coming off as. But again, we have yet another mlw romantic subplot - when instead we could have had Pete with his daughter and her family and having the same dilemma of if he wanted to disappear there or return to his new 'home'.

Not to mention how irrelevant Sam and Jay felt to the point I forgot they were even there. All previous finales have had some sort of stakes going on with them whether it be the floor collapsing or the fake cousin, but here they were barely spectators.

I think worst of all, it just wasn't that funny. Often I can forgive a comedy's writing so long as it still makes me laugh but I got nothing from this other than disgust. Maybe my feelings will cool by the time S4 rolls around but I can't see myself wanting more of this show.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I'm pleased to have come across your blog. Recently, I rewatched ATLA, and I'm delighted that Kataang is canon. Their chemistry is simply outstanding. Now, I can't help but raise an eyebrow at every Zutara shipper out there because there was no situation or action that indicated any romantic connection between Zuko and Katara. There were no subtle gazes or dialogues suggesting that they shared something more than friendship. Even when considering other ships like ZUKI (Zuko x Suki), I can comprehend why people would be drawn to them, given their little moments together in the comics. Similarly, while I may not personally ship ZUCEST (Zuko x Azula), I understand why some individuals do, particularly due to the intense bedroom scene in Book 3. However, despite considering these ships, I still fail to grasp the appeal of Zutara.

I understand the appeal of Zutara on paper. I've seen many ships with a "bad guy" that turns "good" and eventually starts dating the "main girl", and I like plenty of them - but those work because they have the characters be together because they make sense together.

Zuko and Katara just... don't. They are totally incompatible, and their "connection" through most of the show is very impersonal. Zuko wants to capture Katara's best friend/love interest, and she wants to prevent him from achieving that goal. When Zuko joins the Gaang, Katara is the last person to form a connection with him, and she teases him like she does to Sokka instead of flirting like she did with Jet, Aang and arguably Haru. Zuko also never treats her the way he treated Mai or Jin, and Katara had exactly zero to do with his redemption arc despite Zutarians constantly claiming he changed for her.

It's not just that they wouldn't work as a couple - they wouldn't ever consider it. Hell, they are the definition of those people that, while growing genuinely care for each other, only befriended each other because they happened to be in the same friend group and it would be awkward as fuck if they couldn't at least get along. Zuko only tries to win Katara's friendship after EVERYONE else accepted him, but she didn't, and that creates conflict.

This isn't enemies to lovers. This is enemies to forced-to-coexist to reluctant friends to genuine friends. Adding romance to that mix would be a disaster.

[beevean]

Zero/Ciel

Soma/Arikado (for your problematic ship needs)

Shinji/Depression

Rei/Little breadcrumbs of niceness

Lack of invincibility frames/the lava in Flame Hyenard

Shinji/Misato (ALSO for your problematic ship needs)

Peter/MJ

Zero/Ciel

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

They're cute, I don't know what else to say :( I like their chemistry, I love how much Ciel grows through the Zero games, I think there's a chance for Zero to like her (although good luck making him understand his own feelings lol, boy has issues)...

Soma/Arikado

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

Nope :P Alucard/Arikado is completely unshippable to me, and ofc he'd have zero interest in a boy who's also his dad. (maybe Soma could crush a little on him, but it wouldn't go anywhere)

Shinji/Depression

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

LEAVE MY BOY ALONE!!!

Rei/Niceness

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

I live for it ;A;

Lack of IF/Flame Hyenard

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell / fuck you

Shinji/Misato

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell / it's horrible but I'm intrigued

NGE is that kind of series where one of the main protagonists, Shinji's mother figure, hits on a teen boy on screen. I'm still not over it. I don't think you can blame daddy issues on that, lady :P

Peter/MJ

vomit / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

I'm not a Spiderman fan but from the issues you recommended me they're a great couple with a solid chemistry, and everytime something happens I automatically root for them and their happiness :)

[disaster-j]

Reveal your Watch and Rewatch drama list!

Tagged by @joblessquinoa thanks 💜💜

Currently Watching:

1. Kinnporsche- if you follow me you'll know how much I love this show it's giving EVERYTHING i needed it to give and i am so glad i watched it live bc i would have binged it in one night and lost so much sleep lmao

2. Sky in Your Heart- I'm a little behind but hoping to catch up this weeked. I love this show. Mek in a bl was already enough for me to get excited but I also loved Fah in Star in my Mind so it was even better seeing him in his own show. FahPrince are so cute together they have so much chemistry right from the first meeting and i love love love them so much. Highly recommend it to anyone who liked atots too bc the vibes are identical.

3. Mama Gogo- y'all know i love this show soooo much. It's cracky and over the top but very much self aware. The cast is incredible and storylines are really fun and interesting. The chemistry between the two main leads is already pretty good even tho i believe it's a slow burn enemies to lovers but like IT'S THERE okay. And everyone else in the cast has great chemistry too. So invested in the drama between Annie and Tina like i want them to get in a physical fight so bad i think it would be extremely funny. 10000/10 HIGHLY recommend this one!!!

4. Astrophile- the only way this show could redeem itself is if it turns out Kimhan is secretly a villain and ends up alone in the end, like 500 Days of Summer. Otherwise this is a complete and utter failure. Not only is the main plot mind numbingly boring but the main character is so insanely unlikeable even Bright stans i know refuse to continue watching it. There's zero chemistry between the supposed main couple and the guy is literally a walking red flag. Every single character and side plot other than Kimhan's whole thing is genuinely pretty good, but they get so little screentime and we are instead constantly forced to watch Kimhan use his past trauma as an excuse to be a fucking incel while manipulating the female lead into building a relationship with him. Don't watch this show or if you do just skip every Kimhan scene idk what else to say. There's a reason it flopped across all media platforms not even halfway through. I haven't even been able to get past what 2 eps? Shit sucks.

5. Ghost Doctor- i started this forever ago and even tho i genuinely love the show i have been slacking on finishing it. Kdramas are soooo long and I've been busy so 🤷‍♀️ but it's on netflix now so hopefully that can be a good motivator to finishing it. The story is about this genius doctor who falls into a coma and starts possessing one of his residents whom he has a hate relationship with to treat patients. Very funny and at times cracky show but balanced out with a serious thriller ish plotline going on underneath. Would recommend this to anyone who likes kdramas.

Rewatch:

I simply do not have the time to rewatch shows rn 😔😔

Looking forward to-

Vice Versa, U.M.G, GAP, Eclipse, 10 Years Ticket, Warp Effect, 3 Gentlebros, Home School, Midnight Series (mostly the OffJan and NanonFilm ones bc Moonlight Chicken just isn't my thing)... that's all i can think of rn

Tagging: (i feel like most people have done this recently so ignore this if you have but) @magicaldreamfox1 @onstoryladders @piningbisexuals @demiromanticmickey @ralbeleren @paalove @catravandece @mineonmain

[cocogukkie]

2020 in review: kdramas (the heart fluttering, the disappointing, the saviors of 2020)

it’s december 31st! the new year is quite literally upon us (some of y’all are already in 2021) and my procrastinating self has chosen to upload this today. i’ve always loved these rec lists and I wanted to do one for 2020! this year was a rollercoaster for kdramas with some excellent ones and some not so excellent ones. i watched all of these in 2020 but not all of them were released in 2020.

if you want to use my questions to make your own list please do!! or give your favs in the tags, i’d love to read them. (fair warning, some of these have multiple answers bc i just can’t choose one!!)

drama that made me laugh

When The Camellia Blooms (2019)

i finally got around to watching when the camellia blooms this year and it. was. so. funny. oh my goodness, the comedic timing in so many scenes was pure excellency and im kinda mad at myself that i didn’t watch this last year. this isn’t just a comedy for those who are interested, its a thriller/romance but its also so fucking funny. definitely watch this if you want to laugh (and be touched bc the emotional scenes in this one are beautiful)

drama that made me cry

Sweet Home (2020)

hahah….. um this one is gonna go to sweet home friends. i went into this one with zero expectations and the first couple episodes didn’t really wow me? but i kept watching and holy shit fam. this show really picks up story-wise around ep 4 and makes the viewer love a lot of these initially unlikable characters. all i can say is that the end was devastating for me and i cried quite a bit. (warning, there are a lot of mature themes in this one so make sure you look for trigger warnings or send me an ask and i’ll list them all out for you) 

best OST

Itaewon Class (2020) 

i loved the ost for itaewon class!! the music is just so inspirational and pump up music, its so good. my favorites are ‘you make me back’ by woosung and ‘start’ by gaho.

drama with chemistry royalty (aka the best couple) 

i have three for this one because i just cannot choose one. 

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

we recognize this one as one of the best things to come out of 2020. go moon young and moon kang tae have some of the best chemistry i have ever seen in a drama couple. i waited on the edge of my seat every single week for the next couple of episode just so i could fawn over these two. they work so well together, lift each other up, and so fucking funny together and support one another. while they’re not the chillest couple (lmao) they’re most certainly one with the most personality. they’re so cute and bicker and they just get each other. who could ask for more.

Flower of Evil (2020)

our badass mom and dad 😭😭. this was another peak drama that came out this year and our married partners-in-crime-but-not-really had amazing chemistry. baek hee sung and cha ji won were so cute as a married couple but they were even more precious later on in the drama after certain things unfolded (no spoilers). they both just get each other and protected one another as well as on the most precious kdrama children this year, their daughter eunha. they were so wholesome, flower of evil is so very worth a watch.

Into The Ring (2020)

this was one of the more underappreciated kdramas of the year but hoo buddy was the main couples chemistry top notch. they were so friggin cute and i just couldn’t. goo se ra is highkey one of the best female characters i’ve ever seen, she’s absolute chaos, lawful chaos, but chaos nonetheless. her other half, seo gong myung is opposite from her as lawful neutral. he’s just along for the ride that is se ra and loves her. they’re both so very fond and protective of each other and back each other up!! very very cute and you’ll definitely replay more than a couple of their scenes together.

most disappointing

Record of Youth (2020)

it’s sad but true… i went into this one with so much hope and excitement (i was riding off that ‘psycho but its okay’ high) and i was vastly disappointed. the plot mostly focused on the male lead, and there wasn’t much characterization for the female lead which i didn’t like. honestly, i only cared about maybe 3-4? characters in the whole drama. the rest were absolutely terrible or plain boring and i ended up skipping eps 14 and 15 and just watched the finale. i would not recommend tbh.

drama you can’t really get through

Crash Landing on You (2019)

this one is absolutely on me, i want so badly to love this one. but i just… can’t seem to get past ep 2? i’ve tried!! i swear, but i just cannot get through it. maybe in 2021, i can try again and i’ll enjoy it more.

drama everyone else liked but was meh

Kairos (2020)

i though kairos was a bit predictable tbh. i know those of us who did end up watching it really liked it but maybe its because i watch so many crime/mystery shows that this one didn’t really do it for me. the writing is quite solid and everything connects well, i would recommend that those who don’t really watch thrillers, to watch this one. (also the friendship between the female lead and her two friends is suuuper cute and worth it alone to watch kairos)

favorite romance

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

yeah… this one wins again lol. what can i say, i just loved it so much and the main theme of the show is romance (its also a comedy and a mental health/healing drama) all i can say is watch this if you haven’t yet, its definitely worth it!! 

favorite mystery

Memorist (2020)  & Watcher (2019)

i really enjoyed these two mystery dramas. both were super fun to watch and very kinda unique in their own ways. i liked memorist because it was lowkey funny and i liked the relationships between the characters, but most importantly i couldn’t guess the main antagonist by the end! i really thought i knew who it was and then i was completely wrong lmao. watcher was also very good, the main trio had really good chemistry and i really cared about all the characters. (also i’ll never say no to watching seo kang joon) plus the plot twists threw me a bit at the end which is always a feeling i welcome, i love being surprised and wrong (as long as it makes sense)

favorite slice of life

Hospital Playlist (2020)

oh my goodness, i was late to the hospital playlist party and i regret it because this show is so. so. good. its just a slice of life following 5 friends who are doctors and work at the same hospital together but its so much more than that. this is honestly one of the first shows i’ve seen that are optimistic? in the show, every time i thought a plot was going to play out a certain way (usually negatively, as tends to be life unfortunately) it surprised me by taking the more optimistic wholesome route. characters in subplots changed for the better, became more understanding, chose to do the right thing, etc. if you want a feel good drama where the main characters have wonderful platonic chemistry and just care about each other but is also super funny, watch hospital playlist!! (season 2 is coming out early 2021 and im so pumped)

favorite fantasy

The Untamed (2019)

this one is a cdrama but i watched it in 2020, mostly because of how many people on the internet were adamant that the rest of us watch this and ngl they were v right. the untamed was very very good and im really glad i gave it a chance and watched it, its also my first cdrama ever. the chemistry between the male leads is honestly what makes this show and its worth the 50? i think? episodes. to be completely honest the fanfiction for the show are peak and if you do watch this, go straight to ao3 and you will not be disappointed.

dramas that saved 2020

The Uncanny Counter (2020) & Run On (2020)

these two dramas are among those that started airing at the end of the year and will go into the beginning of 2021 and absolutely saved the end of 2020 for me. while neither of these are finished, both have been excellent so far and worth starting. uncanny counter has the best use of the found family trope i have ever seen. i fucking love the four counters and their relationship with each other, how protective they are of one another. they all have amazing chemistry and the actors have amazing chemistry in the making films.

run on has one of the cutest couples that will definitely make my best chemistry list for next year. i didn’t put them on this list bc they actually haven’t gotten together yet but once they do, they’re gonna be freaking adorable, i can already tell. there’s no specific grand events propelling the plot forward, but just following the lives of these unique, interesting and relatable people who have casual yet entertaining conversations with each other. the show is super soft and the main couple are so straightforward and honest (plus theres mutual pining!!)

best dramas of the year

here are my best dramas (and one movie) watched this year, no further explanation given lolol. just watch them and enjoy because these are fucking excellent in the feels department. trust me 💞

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

Flower of Evil (2020)

Itaewon Class (2020)

Hospital Playlist (2020)

One Spring Night (2019)

Midnight Runners (2017)

Hot Stove League (2019) 

I hope this gives you some fun stuff to watch!! or convince you to start that drama in your watchlists! 

[carry-on-my-wayward-butt]

He did? Umm.. what happened exactly?

(referring to this post)

my 11th grade chemistry teacher had an associates degree in liberal arts.

you know how in virtually every class you’ve ever had since middle school, your teachers made a big stink about the syllabus? she didn’t have one. this was her first teaching job, which she got because of her length experience as a substitute, not by her licensing qualifications. we were, at first, excited to have her, because she was a “fun sub” and we were 17 years old and stupid as all shit. we were the “normal chem” class in a system where the only other options were “honors chem” which was filled with children who actually know how to study (or cheat) and have an air of proper student activity, and “AP Chem”, which is clear enough if you’ve been an american student in the last 15 years.

she followed the mcgraw hill chemistry book in order of chapters, despite the fact that our state standardized tests did several of the chapters out of order. ever notice how you’ll suddenly be looking at chapter 11 when just last week you were on chapter 5, then the next week you’re on chapter 8? standardized testing is the reason. anyways by asking my friends in other classes who had chemistry teachers of relative competence, i was able to discern which chapters i should focus on, and while she was distracted with literally watching youtube videos all period, I was turning around in my seat and walking across the classroom helping my friends and enemies with the packets. (she was a two-packets-a-week kinda teacher.)

yes i said enemies too. the people i hated, i hated because they were sons of bitches i wouldnt piss on to put out a fire. i hated them so dearly i used to pray to god that they would bump into me so i could throw myself into the concrete and split my forehead open and get them expelled due to the blood-clause of our “zero-tolerance policy”. two of the kids in my class had, only the previous year, attempted to set my hair on fire.

i hated the teacher more. 

it gave me extreme pleasure to see her fume and clench her fists when a student would say “i need help” across the classroom and she would move to get up and they would say “oh not you miss, im waiting for vicky.” jesus christ the only time ive ever felt a comparable high was when i was at a halloween party in college where i was literally so zooted i couldn’t move.

it got worse over time, her getting more and more angry, my ego growing larger and larger. i was a huge bitch in high school, i really thought i was the smartest bitch in the room at any given moment. severe main character syndrome. imagine that kind of person actually being right for 45 minutes out of every day. can you even comprehend the kind of frustration that would create? in a room full of little sociopaths who dont give a shit about anything but getting this joke of a class over with so they can graduate? your first real teaching job and they look right past you, the teacher, to this annoying little shit whose grades are completely abysmal? how are they managing to learn anything from a child who can barely speak in front of more than 10 people? who turns cherry red in the face of literally every authority figure in the building except you? who can’t concentrate and stay still in one spot for more than five minutes? all of your other classes behave! they listen! they sit down and shut up and do the packets! so what fucking gives!!!

so you say “fine, since you all HATE ME so much i just won’t teach then!!!” on literally week fucking ten of teaching. and instead of prostrating themselves before you, begging you to like... point at transparencies and read directly from powerpoints i guess.

and they all collectively say “okay” and let the chipmunk child flutter between desks and help them memorize formulas and mnemonic devices and shit. surely her grades will suffer if she’s constantly dealing with other people and you’ll have justification that her horseshit is “distracting” and “a detriment to her studies”. she got bored gave up on that after two days after nothing changed.

then we did the midterm.

except at the end of the exam packet was something we never learned because again, she was going through the book chronologically. because i actually enjoyed the chem book (so much that i stole it when the year was up lmao), i knew the material.

it was about lewis dots/structures. i couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it today but in december 2010 i absolutely knew that shit. i didnt have too much of a problem with it in the exam, but the students who had gotten to that point were complaining and at first she pulled that “you should have been studying independently uwu” shit but the class was about to get loud during exam period so she shushed us and said that when we get to that point, just stop, and she’ll mark it correct during grading, no harm no foul just keep it quiet. one of the more confrontational students called horseshit and said theres no way we’re trusting that and there’s definitely no way anyone will keep an entire classroom cheating at the instruction of the teacher quiet.

i offered to teach it.

she scoffed, rolled eyes, said “sure fine but you can’t get your exam back” and i said “okay.” so when everyone was to the point in the exam, we piled them all on her desk and i used the whiteboard to briefly and quietly explain lewis dots, used the book examples and problems, and helped the other kids understand. there were a couple exam questions that were lifted straight from the book problems so i skipped those. while teaching i realized i had gotten a couple wrong which sucked :( it was an incredibly stupid experience overall, and no teacher worth the paper their certification is printed on would have allowed that to happen. and fucking yet.

anyways everyone but me got their exams back and finished it and many of us passed, only a few of them did particularly well.

discussing the chem exam with friends who also took the chem exam, many students found their anecdote about the lewis dots to be confounding, for you see, the exam we took was not, in fact, the midterm, but the god damned final.

she had us taking the fucking final because she didnt read the fucking folders which read “midterm” and “final exam” on them

she was reprimanded severely and we all had to take the exam on different days, in different classrooms, sitting very far apart. after that she hated me even more. like girl it was your fault lmao i am literally a teenager grow up lol. anyways you can imagine how much more fucking insufferable i became, knowing how miserable she was.

it all came to a head in february when some students were giggling quietly following a minor fuck up on her part regarding bellwork. they were making fun of her like “are you sure thats not tomorrows bellwork lol” and a friend next to me did the “hey i need help wait no miss not you sorry” thing and when i answered him, she solidly snapped. blah blah YOURE SOOOO DISTRACTING blah blah YOU THINK YOURE SOOOO SMART DONT YOU blah blah blah and she was like demanding i leave the room and shouting at the top of her lungs at me “ YOU POISON THE MINDS OF EVERY OTHER STUDENT HERE. YOU’RE POISONOUS VICTORIA, YOU’RE A VIRUS IN THIS CLASSROOM.”

i will never forget that line as long as i live. it was like crack to me. i moved to open the door to leave and the vp opened it first. he escorted me to the office and asked me what happened, then told me to keep my head down in class from now on, and that if i wanted to help my friends i should give them my number and help them out on our own time. i was like “bro thats really stupid” and he was like “thats all we can do right now but i promise we’re working on it”

i lasted the rest of the year giving smug smiles as we did packet after fucking packet for the rest of the year. they were all take-home work. i wasnt comfy giving my number to my enemies. the class camaraderie ended.

the final was altered. my class took a different final than the rest of the normal chem classes.

i started 12th grade and got a solid case of senioritis. i told that story to anyone who would listen. while it was happening, i obviously told my favorite teacher everything as it happened. when i mentioned it senior year he was like “oh yeah i forgot about her,

she was fired over the summer.”

[initiumseries]

Hey! I love your thoughts on bad tv and I’d love to hear a series wrap up on CAOS if you want to make a post about it. If not no worries and thanks for posting your thoughts on the show over the last year. Loved them and love your blog too!

Thank you!! Sure I can totally do a series wrap up, pretty much right now, in response to this ask. 

So, if I had to distill my issues with this series into a few bullet points it would be: 

-plot -world building/continuity -characters

Plot

CAOS struggles with plot, and I think the biggest reason why, is they just seemed to completely lose track of what the hell they were doing lol. Season 1, ends up being the tightest season because the plot was simple: Sabrina’s dark baptism and her leaving her mortal life behind to become one with witchkind. They beat us to death with the Satan stuff, and they cram as much corny imagery as possible in, even if it doesn’t really make sense. 

why are they having class in a hallway? Do witches not use technology? Why is that blackboard so small? Why isn’t this just a normal classroom setting?

Sabrina’s Season 1 character arc is also clear: she decides, fuck the rules, she’s going to straddle both worlds and everyone’s just gonna have to accept it. It’s not good, but it’s clear. S2, 3, 4 get completely lost in all this other weird stuff. Sabrina is actually not her father’s daughter, but Satan’s, and that plotline goes absolutely nowhere when Sabrina conveniently doubles herself (and experiences 0 consequences for it) and rules hell while also staying in Greendale as herself (seriously, it’s not like satan was dying or anything, he was perfectly fine. For what reason did Sabrina need to become Queen? There’s no answer or explanation for that, she just...did. Ok :/).  Father Blackwood goes apeshit and pulls a Jonestown, for no real reason, CAOS starts leaning heavily into this white feminism stuff (for godsake, the coven kills a DEMON, with the fucking pain of childbirth?! Are you SERIOUS??) Then, s3, it’s about losing their powers because Satan is childish and petty, and a new group of spellcasters are out to kill the witches, and Prudence and Ambrose hunting Blackwood. S4, the eldritch terrors, which honestly, make so little sense, I couldn’t even be bothered. Each season, CAOs falls deeper into the trap of trying to up the ante, make the danger BIGGER, WILDER, more insurmountable, while being completely unprepared to stay consistent with their characters/motivations and undercutting their own BIG ideas with stupid, nonsensical solutions (let me trap this all powerful eldritch terror by taking it to a party, proposing and luring it into a magicked dollhouse...wtf?). 

Worldbuilding/Continuity

What I hate most about these writers for Riverdale and CAOS is that they just don’t feel beholden to being consistent in their worldbuilding and continuity. I don’t find anything cool about kids living in houses with old tvs and rotary phones, but then having a cell phones or wearing modern clothes. Historical anachronisms like that should serve a purpose. 

It COULD be interesting if the conceit is that Zelda and Hilda are OLD, so they take comfort in old things like that, but then that should be specific to the Spellman house, and it should be weird. People should take note of it when they’re there, Sabrina should be conscious of it because she grew up in a time where TVs didn’t look like they were stuck in the 50s. But instead, it’s just...a stupid mess of aesthetic anachronisms for no reason other than they can do it and I just find that to be lazier than utilizing those details in an interesting way. 

In season 1, we get a relatively clear idea that the witches have a certain way of life, that bleeds into season 2. It’s still very sloppy; the anti-pope, using satan where we’d use “god”, introducing the feast and other dangerous parts of being a witch, and essentially just doing the opposite of christianity (except for the racism/sexism ofc. That would require too much thinking I guess). But by season 3, essentially the witches’ way of life have been completely turned upside down. And we never...unpack that. There’s no mourning for literal millennia of supposed tradition, there’s no real floundering or struggling. There are apparently no other adults AT ALL in this magical world outside of Blackwood, Zelda and Hilda, so there’s no real way to get a sense of the REALITY of losing their way of life for these witches, or this world. Is it even a world? Or just a handful of people? Lol. What it means to have to choose a new god to pray to, and is there an divisiveness over who? In Harry Potter, the kids’ parents are tangentially involved when they start pulling their kids out of Hogwarts. Do any of these kids’ parents pull them out of the school when they start praying to Lilith and then Hecate? Do any of the boys have issues with moving from a male god to a female one? Where did all these kids come from if they didn’t have parents and families? Is this witch world just...the school? Why? It would have been interesting watching the witches struggle and scramble to regain their powers while also being hunted by this new, threatening group whose magic seems to be much older, much darker. But instead, they just pivot, and have a fucking picnic before the full moon. 

There’s nothing interesting about characters just constantly pivoting around obstacles without having any real emotional reaction, any real struggles. Obstacles like losing their powers, should be an actual obstacle. They should struggle, there should be emotional weight, and consequences. Instead, Sabrina continues to break rules to suit her agenda, put her friends and family and risk and everyone just...rolls with it. No one is angry at Sabrina for the loss of their powers? Her choice to not become Queen of hell is why they lost their powers right? No one has feelings about that? Sabrina isn’t ostracized? We never see the way these choices, or the overarching plot obstacles impact the characters emotionally. Instead, they’re doing this stuff:

Which is completely ridiculous to me. It all just...HAPPENS. Which is this entire series. Stuff happens, and the characters just, do stuff in reaction to it. Harvey, Theo and Roz are ostensibly human, living human lives. They end up getting pulled into Sabrina’s world, and no one has any strong feelings about that? Harvey’s brother is killed, Roz is turned to stone and Theo talks to his dead great aunt and none of them are haunted by any of that? No? They just decide to create a faux scooby club to fight demons?  Ok. And that cheerleading things is over as quickly as we see it. Stuff like this is insanely frustrating to watch because it makes the show a nonsensical slog to sit through. There’s nothing interesting or engaging to latch onto because they just hammer through it all and make up stupid solutions to get themselves out of the impossible stakes they threw the characters in in the first place. They introduce ideas and discard them just as quickly. An ex:angels show up, start killing people, Sabrina channels satan and kills them, and then that’s the last of those guys. Metatron (jfc even the name is stupid) shows up and is killed just as quickly.  Why bother introducing them then? Why bother do any of the things you’re currently doing in this show if you have no intention of seeing it through? 

Characters 

No one on this show gels, at all.  I don’t believe Theo/Roz/Harvey/Sabrina have been friends for ages. I don’t believe Sabrina and Nick are “end game” (why the hell do we keep saying this riverdale? It’s stupid and senseless). I don’t believe any of these relationships at all. Part of this is because the cast have no chemistry with each other:

they do not look like a friend group or couples at all, these are a bunch of people paired together.

But also because they weren’t consistent at all. 

Father Blackwood went from a witch/warlock purist, to a raging sexist, to a cult leader who killed his followers, to a raging maniac bent on hitler-esque destruction in 4 seasons...for nothing. It served no purpose. He didn’t even DO anything. He was nice to the Eldritch Terrors, and became immortal...for nothing. He killed the coven, for nothing. He killed his wife in childbirth, for nothing. Zelda stole the baby, for nothing. None of that amounted to anything worth while in the entire series. So what was the point?  Zelda marrying Faustus also made no sense and only happened to show JUST how sexist he was! But why? WHY? We don’t receive explanations for character behaviour, and when we do, it still makes no sense. 

Sabrina breaks all these rules and experiences ZERO consequences. At all times, and it makes her a terrible main character. Everyone else abides by the rules but she doesn’t and doesn’t have to pay for that? Why? She straddles both worlds instead of committing to one, and that was the closest we got to seeing consequences for her. Everyone rushes in to help Sabrina break rules instead of holding her accountable for feeling above them. Sabrina creates 2 versions of herself, and they sloppily tie in that all the realms are converging in on each other because of what she did. Except she and Sabrina Morningstar had been hanging out...ostensibly for days/weeks/months (who knows? Not this show!) before we saw any potential issues, and then we end up finding out that this is about the next eldritch terror, not about Sabrina existing as a double in 1 universe. People get upset for a second and then move on to help her. So why have rules in this world at all if it means nothing to break them? 

Nick goes through literal hell, and immediately cheats on Sabrina because of how a man made of clay looked at her. That’s laughable to me. It makes no narrative sense. Their relationship doesn’t even make sense.

Roz and Harvey spend 90% of their time almost fucking. It’s bizarre. Their getting together was random and every single scene with them alone in it is like a precursor to fucking and I don’t get why. This show does not grasp how to build up relationships. Also do these kids not have parents? Theo and Harvey stay having constant sleepovers with their respective partners, in their parents’ houses? Really? At seventeen? Lol k. 

I feel like, if CAOS were better thought out, it could have actually been interesting. But it was just a smorgasbord of stuff happening, and characters doing stuff, and none of that following in any real narrative way. Storytelling has structure for a reason, and a show with a good story structure usually yields an enjoyable watching experience. CAOS is a pretty strong example of how throwing that out and relying so heavily on aesthetics and still taking the show so seriously it’s not even fun terrible, gets you nowhere. Ultimately I’m glad it’s over.

[cruelsister-moved]

Drop the rec list plsss

ok this is gonna make me sound insane but like

this is a book, but tipping the velvet by sarah waters, she's actually the same 1 who wrote the book the handmaiden is based on but its just like. a lesbian book written by a lesbian and not interfered with like it's just so authentically lesbian. and it has drag kings and socialism and butchfem and like really ahead of its time exploration of like how upper class queer women exploit wc lesbians. the sex scenes are so gross bc like its set in victorian times so it tries to use victorian language like.. what the fuck is a quim ill kill myself. but it has straps and like no scissoring iirc so still a better depiction of lesbian sex than 99% ! (there are I think multiple TV/film adaptions of this idk I haven't watched them bc the butches didn't look butch to me so I didn't care)

yentl ♥️♥️♥️ literally a groundbreaking moment for women in film and even if it wasn't a secret butchfem magnum opus i would still recommend it because its a beautiful film with an amazing soundtrack and it's like a loveletter to prewar eastern european jewry. what baffles me is people always remark on the like gay man + transmasc subtext of this film but no one mentions that theres literally a butchfem lesbian wedding...its basically a choose your own adventure lgbt movie like babs literally put something for everyone in there. like if you want it to be a butchfemme film then it is. if you watch it you're going to be so confused for the first half an hour but just trust me. I feel insane like im frothing just thinking about it

i watched a film recently called drifting flowers which i really enjoyed! it's directed by zero chou who is actually a lesbian ♥️ it's again a really beautiful film and it has various lgbt characters and relationships between them like mlm/wlw solidarity or whatever. and it explores disability and gender a lot. and has like a reallyyyyy gorgeous butch main character. it's definitely really bittersweet but it's just so real and tender and there are some really good butchfemme moments that feel so real, like as much as i enjoy a fantasy fairytale it's also such a rare & special experience to see a relationship like yours on screen like.. i never see that!!

the rest from here down aren't explicitly butchfem but there's a French sitcom/drama idk called dix pour cent (it's on netflix) with like a really good lesbian romance and they lowkey have a butchfemme dynamic even though neither of them are butch. it's not ABOUT the lesbians but i literally love every single character idk it's like succession for normal people it has board meetings and everything. it's about an agency like for actors and the bit is basically every episode there is like a french actor playing themselves so if you're a fan of the isabelles (adjani huppert et al) and idk hot french lesbians in suits pls watch ♥️

i watched a swedish film recently called fucking åmal and all ill say is like. if youre a lesbian who came out during high school this film feels like looking in a mirror like it was literally EERIE to me i was like. they stole my life to make this film what the hell. but again like really sweet realistic characters and it has a sweet cathartic ending too.

and there's a bollywood film called ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laiga that i enjoyed sooo much and its really groundbreaking to have a lesbian lead couple in a bollywood film! its literally so fun and sweet and it has like really cute side characters and explorations of other social issues as well. i think the two leads are just sooo sweet and iirc they weren't allowed to show any kissing so they have gone to such efforts to show the affection and tenderness and chemistry between the couple. the screenplay is by a trans woman and its directed by a woman as well (no idea either of their sexualities but its such a good depiction of a lesbian relationship sooo)

um tldr. the golden rules are not directed by a man, had a lesbian involved w the writing/directing etc, look outside the US, and watch yentl or i will kill myself.

[riosnecktattoo]

Do you have any good shows with good ships (I’m in dire need of being overly obsessed with a ship)

Love you and your work!!

Cant wait for the next update 😌

Oooo!!!! This is tricky!!!!

The thing is good ship does not equal good show haha 😂 like a lot of my fave ships are in shows that I wouldn't force on people or gradually got terrible or the ships weren't canon or weren't endgame. I have horrendous shipping luck!

But! I will tell you my fave ships and then.......if the show is worth it/for how long the show is worth it.

Frank Castle x Karen Page (Kastle) - Daredevil Season 2/The Punisher S1+2

MY BABIES! Daredevil is amazing. Punisher S1 is one of my fave TV series ever. Frank and Karen are EVERYTHING! They first meet and the ship is built in Daredevil S2 it's a must watch for them but yeah. Insane chemistry. The actors adore eachother and pushed the ship to be romantic cause they loved it so much.

Carol X Daryl (Caryl) - The Walking Dead

They were my LIFEEEE. Unfortunately the show enjoyed baiting Caryl/Not having them speak for seasons at a time after around S5 and there were multiple ageist gross reasons where putting their 40+ ‘heartthrob’ with....a woman the same age as him??!?! GASP! was too much of a leap (but have him speak to a 17 year old character for 1 episode and guess what people liked? anyway....) so yeah I was no longer able to tolerate it BUT the show was amazing S1-5ish? The Caryl content was beautiful. But they are not canon or endgame 11 years later. So tbh don't do it to yourself 😂

Sawyer x Kate - LOST

LOST was my first obsession! Skate was my first ever ship! The blueprint! Made me who I am today! LOST remains one of the best TV shows of all time too. They aren't endgame cause they had a torturous love triangle with a guy Kate had ZERO chemistry with and they felt sorry for the basic lead who needed someone to care about him for the show to end properly........but skate are pretty much the main couple for 5/6 seasons. yes I'm still salty.

Jaime x Brienne + Arya x Gendry in Game of Thrones

The actors are amazing and the ships were beautiful. But it's GoT and the TV show is......yeah.

Bellamy x Clarke - The 100

Only until S4 then STOP. Never canon. Baited til the end then shat on. Could have been amazing but NOPE

Damon x Elena - The Vampire Diaries

The show is Not Good™ but if you can find a Delena compilation it's worth it and after a while that's how I watched the show. Delena clips.

Bucky x Sam Wilson - Marvel/The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Not canon but they are in love and my favourites

Matthew x Mary - Downton Abbey

BABIES only until S3 then the show said fuck all y'all

Silver x Flint, Max x Anne, Silver X Madi, Jack x Anne, Charles x Eleanor - Black Sails

Please just watch Black Sails it's the best most perfect TV show ever.

Anyway yeah. Basically shipping is agony.

And thank you so much!!!!! 😘😘❤️

[formerprincewille]

I was tagged by @pamouche and @borborai in this and I finally gotten around to doing it. Thanks so much!

Fav wtfock s3 things: honestly I could go on for hours about my love for this season it’s One of my favorite things to exist in the entire world. I have re-watched it so many times and it always leaves me feeling so happy. Some specifics: Robbe IJzermans, sweet sunshine, love and light of my life, I would throw myself in front of traffic for that boy I love him so much. He captured my heart in a way few ever have. This boy. He’s just such a caring and compassionate person. He’s got his little shit attitude, and he’s definitely a tiny brat, but he is also so full of love to give. I love that he’s not flashy. He’s not somebody that a lot of people are going to notice in a crowd. He’s overlooked by everyone, including his friends. But when you get to know him you see how remarkable he is, because few people are that genuinely good. And the way he grew from hurt and lonely and angry and afraid to happy and confident and not only accepting but proud of who he is makes me cry happy tears. He’s just the best. But the other best is the yin to his yang, his beautiful, wonderful, cool, bold, funny, sweet, and completely dorky art hoe of a soul mate, Sander Driesen. When I think of what my ideal Even would be, he is it. His heart is just right there for everyone to see and he doesn’t hide it. In fact he’s extra about showing it. He’s also vulnerable and needy and feels so very young to be going through such large struggles. He makes me laugh and cry and I would dive in front of the Skam France car for him as well. Love that kid so much. Sobbe. Do I really need to say it? Holy shit they are everything. Soulmates, best friends, loves of each other’s lives. Their chemistry is so good that it doesn’t even exist in this stratosphere. It’s otherworldly. The love that they feel for each other is tangible. They’re one of those couples that when I look at them I think “now those two are going to make it”. You can just feel it. They also somehow manage to hit on so many beloved fanfic tropes but remain realistic because it’s actually canon. Like when couples in fanfic will call each other pet names but it’s rare you actually see it in canon. But sobbe is like hold my beer and goes all out with it. The way they express their love to each other is exactly what the other one needs. Sander is loud end boisterous and goes all out to make it clear to Robbe and everyone else on earth how he feels about this boy. He gives him things to make him feel special and he’s full of affection for him. Robbe is also extremely affectionate, he tells Sander what he needs to hear to feel safe and loved and they love spending time together. Their love is a balm for one another that soothes them both. And it’s clear that neither of them need the other more nor ever did. They both needed one another and met at a time in our lives that they were both in pretty low places and were exactly what the other needed. And they always will be. Sorry, getting emotional again. They’re the otp to end all otps. 🥺 The Soundtrack. I love every single song on the soundtrack. All of them, and I listened to the soundtrack so much on my Spotify that my entire top songs of 2020 were made up of wtfock s3 songs. They not only have excellent musical choices, but they are all placed within scenes so well that they perfectly complement what is happening in the narrative at any given point. Casa Milan and Zoenne and Robbe aka Flatshare Fam. I want to live there. It is so warm, it is so inviting, and it is filled with such love. The support that Robbe got from Milan, Zoë, and Senne was unmatched. I don’t know where he would’ve been without it. Could you imagine if he had had to live with his dad? How differently his story could’ve ended up? Especially with Milan, having someone not much older than he is who has gone through a lot of the same things he has. He was such a big brother figure and mentor and I’m so glad Robbe had that.

Fav clip: Scuse me I’m not picking just one so Dinsdag 16:31, Zaterdag 09:41, Woensdag 21:21, Mandaag 11:03, Zaterdag 08:44 and Woensdag 16:36

Fav scene: Their Vrijdag 21:21 reunion, morning after, ohn/mbm, singing to a shoe, the hotel scenes, and the grocery store. I’m not really sure of the distinction between a scene and a clip 😂

Fav shot: Oh god don’t make me choose. Their hands in Dinsdag 16:31 is a big one. The dual mirror shots of Robbe after Milan tells him about gay pride before the attack to him bruised and battered after. When Robbe is kneeling down beside Sander in Mandaag 11:03. The shot of Milan, Robbe, and Sander playing the pandemic game all cozy by the Christmas tree. Any shots of Robbe and Sander making heart eyes and/or kissing. Any close ups of Robbe’s face and eyes bc Herbots, man. Good god he’s amazing.

Fav kiss that Robbe initiates: Woensdag 21:21, Dinsdag 07:27 and Woensdag 17:21

Fav kiss that Sander initiates: Zaterdag 09:41, Dinsdag 16:31, and Vrijdag 21:21

Fav Sander dialogue: Can I say everything? Okay okay, I’ll give some examples. “Wow, that’s expensive!” “You and me, a hundred percent forever, in every universe.” “I’m holding onto you and I’m never letting go of you.” “🎵Ground control to major Tom. Circuit dead there’s something wrong.🎵” “Are you going to leave me behind?” (🥺) “Zero stars on booking.com.” “The moonlight was shining down on you and I knew immediately ‘he is the one’.” “Get ready to be mindblown!” “All the way or no way.” “Take it or leave it, eh?” “You could try bribing the teacher.” “Robin.” Also literally everything he said during wtfockdown because there’s not a moment where he isn’t iconic. But a really special moment, “Just because other people are close minded doesn’t mean that you should make your world smaller.”

Fav Robbe dialogue: “You touched me and I’ve never felt something like that.” “That kiss was really *head explosion noises*.” “Not in this universe.” “Sander, there is something between us. I love you.” “Jawel.” (I just love the way he says it, it’s so fuckin cute). “Fuck Chernobyl.” “Always.” And of course, his verse in eenvoud.

Fav hug: Mandaag 11:03 when Robbe holds a crying Sander. Also, does the spooning and cuddling in the hotel scenes and Dinsdag 07:27 count? Because I love that. Also Woensdag 17:21. Or really anytime Robbe is being a clingy koala. And we can’t forget his hug with Milan after he tells him about the attack. He really needed that comfort.

Fav 21:21: Nope. Nah in all seriousness they just hit different. Woensdag is my favorite in terms of clip alone because from beginning to end it is just so beautiful and perfect. The music, the tunnel, the pool, the kiss, just absolutely gorgeous. But at that time everything was still really new between them and the aftermath of that was rough. Vrijdag is my favorite clip in terms of what it means for Robbe and Sander. The clip itself is shorter, but it has much larger impact in terms of sobbe’s relationship. It’s not just their first time physically, but their emotional declaration to one another as well. It comes with a commitment. Also them falling off the bed laughing is the greatest thing ever. They are so HAPPY. So basically my answer is both, just in different ways.

Fav Sobbe instagram pic: Why are all these questions so mean? Okay- their first one together obviously because along with Robbe’s caption it’s just a showing of their love being official. But also the grocery cart pics for their 6 month anniversary. The grocery store pic in Ardennes getaway. Robbe’s bday pics of them embracing they’re SO HAPPY omg. And of course, we cannot forget the pic posted for Sander’s birthday. It is absolutely perfect. I love it so much.

Fav song/scene pair: I have a few- both examples of wildfire obviously, past lives in Zaterdag 09:41, and rebel rebel at the grocery store. But I have two more that are not at all happy clips but are two of my fave clips regardless: life on mars/zaterdag 21:43 (that scene is impeccable along with its followup which I consider them a pair but LoM only plays in the first one) and I found/zondag 15:12 (my god I love that scene it’s brilliant).

Fav message between Sander and Robbe: Woensdag 12:45 when Sander sends Robbe the sketch of them and talks about that kiss earlier being Chernobyl. Also everything during wtfockdown but especially “I love you so much Robin.” “I love you too. So damn much.” But honestly they had so much adorable banter during those clips we were truly fed.

Fav banter on Instagram: lmaooo they’re always so thirsty on main you could pick a million examples. I will say I loved their back and forth about emojis on their anniversary.

I will tag @onzeziggy @everyone-has-their-story @bowieexaminprogress @sanderxrobbee @ayellowcurtain and whoever else wants to do it. This was fun!

[noassallclass]

So what do you think of FJ? Please be a little mean lol I like your thoughts on CR stuff✌

Oooh i am glad I have piqued your interest!

For me Fjorester at best is stale, boring, no flavor, zero chemistry. Like inoffensively milquetoast and I literally cannot grasp the concept of people actually enjoying the ship and finding it engaging.

Like I was never interested in FJ but I mean Travis describing Fjords feelings towards Jester as "being worn down" really solidifies it as a bad ship...

Because how exactly did Jester wear you down Fjord? Like what steps did Jester take to make you fall for her basically against all your reservations? Because where I am standing Jester really hasn't shown any interest in Fjord since the mid 40 episodes, which was about 60 episodes before the Playlist came out.

And that’s where Fjorester comes at worse, a complete reversal of at the very least Jester’s character growth. Because From episode 40 to episode 99 Jester has taken steps away from being romantically interested in Fjord and also finding self worth within herself and not having to find value in how a guy she had a crush on saw her. Especially since he’s kind of a goober that I feel like Jester questioned what she saw of him in the first place.

Like to me, Fjord and Jester consciously uncoupled throughout the series. I feel like there were times where Jester would try and test the waters again with Fjord to see if there were any romantic feelings still there and it seemed like the interactions always came up short for Jester.

The most prominent example I can think of right now is Jester asking Fjord if she could workout with him and everything went horribly wrong. Like yes some of that had to do with the poor rolls that Travis was rolling, but Fjord acted so poorly about it and acted like his masculinity was injured, even if he was trying to be comedic, and Jester was just like “Ok yikes dude nevermind”

At that point I think Jester thought Fjord ain’t shit anyway and that seemed like a big old nail in the coffin. Because before that we had moments where Jester couldn’t be less interested in Fjord, like when Beau knocked him down for touching her fresh tattoo and he whined to Jester who just told him to “Stay Down”. I mean she also kicked him when he was drowning and told him to “just get up man”

I mean even recently Jester told Fjord to shut the fuck up because he was mumbling to himself about how he was hoarding his money. Like as much as Fjord has grown out of his machismo phase and has just become a more open, vulnerable person. With Jester I still see the old Fjord who has to defend his masculinity in front of Jester and just be a general asshat and Jester at the very least didn’t find it charming. That is until the Hiatus attacked.

“You wore me down” is such a bad, unappealing way of describing how you feel about someone romantically, especially when there was really no effort or attempt on Jester’s part to pursue any type of relationship with Fjord for the majority of their in canon time together. Like not “I got to know you as you are and I’ve grown fond of you” or “We’ve grown so much and I admired you for who you have become”. Ya know...things that would make sense narratively and character development wise. like 3 months of Jester having crush did nothing for you Fjord but 9 months of radio silence is what wore you down?

No, what really wore Fjord down was the rest of the friend group, especially Nott/Veth poking and prodding both him and Jester to get together because for some reason the party doesn’t think Jester has the ability for growing out of a highschool crush that wasn’t really based on reality in the first place? And that is one of the worse parts of Fjorester is everyone keeps putting their own ideas of who Jester is and what she wants above who Jester actually is. It’s like their extreme makeover home edition but instead of making the kid’s bedroom all about one thing the kid likes its the mighty nein making Jester’s romance all about Fjord because she liked him that one time.

It’s honestly like highschool friend group relationship drama shit where your friends won’t give up the fact one friend has a crush on another friend until it either becomes so awkward it ruins their friendship or they date each other even though it would never end good from the start. Like Veth wriggling her eyebrows when Jester and Fjord had dinner together, but it was so uneventful they just skipped it but of course Veth had to make a big deal about it.

Not to mention that Fjord is one of the worse culprits in fundamentally not understanding Jester At All. Like he doesn’t infantilize Jester but he greatly underestimates her complexity, like he looks like a deer in headlights when Jester talks about anything more complicated than liking cupcakes. He also condescends and negs her a lot. Like he thinks Jester is an incurable fibber and just straight up doesn’t believe her when she does things she is capable of.

like not even thinking Jester could dupe the Hag into lifting the curse on Nott and Jester rightfully called him out because his pattern of condescension is irritating AF. And he pulled the exact shit again when Jester said she talked to a tree. Like he fully gets on board with Caduceus talking to plants and stuff but for Jester it must be all make believe. I’d have less of an issue if he didn’t believe everything Jester says if he didn’t always do it in a snotty, passive aggressive way of like “oooh suuuure Jester ooooof coooourse”

like sir, with that attitude you should get nothing, you lose, Jester is better off without you! 

with all of the above you would expect “oh yeah it doesn’t seem too likely, even if Fjord has feelings for Jester now” because like it isn’t great, and Jester up until the Hiatus gave him Nothing. But Now! Now they are pushing it, like it is 1 of the 2 main ships steering the show and the cast thinks we should be gobbling it up as much as they are.

Like why should we be rooting for a couple that 1) don’t understand each other 2) don’t necessarily enjoy each others company and 3) are completely adversarial to each other I think at any moment they’re ready to throw down

Is it because “oh they make each other better because they call each other out on their shit”? because it would be better if they didn’t do it through gritted teeth like they are thinking of which layer of hell they will be sent to after they kill the other person

Is it because the majority of straight couple in media have the two people in a couple hate each others guts until they kiss? I don’t think we should be setting our standards for het romances that low.

Because Jester showed interest in Fjord once and can no longer have feelings for any other person?

Or is it because now that Fjord has caught feelings it doesn’t matter what development Jester has made that has pushed her narrative away from being about romancing men that ain’t shit for her?

like CR is tripping over themselves and destroying any compelling romance to give us the blandest, low budget, hallmark hetero romance story that literally nobody asked for.

[lady-plantagenet]

I'm going to be sooooo predictable and ask for your thoughts on Owen Tudor/Catherine de Valois (for the ship meme)

Hey hey ;) I’m glad I could do this one for you! These two deserve all the love!

Some Comments:

These two are the *definition* of delicious and for all the obvious reasons, though I fear they are never taken seriously enough. That’s the real issue, and I think it’s insulting to both parties. I’m not too picky because given that I have not spent as much time with this couple as I did with some of the others closer to my time period of interest, however, I must confess I feel a revulsion towards the whole ‘Owen wasn’t Catherine’s true love he was second-best to Henry V’ and all that crap. That might also be down to the fact that I’ve never really felt the Henry V hype, at least not at the level it’s usually at. But it can go many directions and I am intrigued, it would take great lack of skill to make such a couple boring. I mean I got through a full-length novel about them (Crown in Candlelight) so I guess you *could* say I read fic for it hh, I would further but there’s not much on them! On AO3 there is that *one* good fic (Caged Birds Sing) but I want more! Romantic and Sexual goes without saying. As for the ‘more interested in the consequences’ square, well I don’t like the insertion of ‘more’, the consequences are surely tied with the ship aren’t they? I don’t mean to say it’s the 16th century Tudors I’m necessarily interested as much as how English society reconciled the fact that Owen was both a welshman but also the step-father of the king. His legal status as a result of this marriage intrigues me (yes I know I am weird). I also like to think Catherine and Owen created a precedent and Jacquetta and Edward IV had this legendary couple in the back of their minds when they entered their own scandalous matches. It really makes me wonder because while modern society (eg 18th century - 21st) had its rigid class distinctions it was just plain snobbery but in the 15th century, there was a belief in a hierarchy on the assumption that it was part of a divine pre-ordained order, so I wonder if this union shocked some people to the degree of some blasphemy (yes I know Owen was of noble blood but at the same time he wasn’t even a citizen!). I put unhealthily and not softly because idk, I can easily be made to see this ship as being full of obsession from either (or both) side and then developing into something more healthy but still very gripping (after all the marriage had longevity), but I can’t really see it as hurt/comfort-y so I didn’t put ‘softly’. I personally have zero problem with that. I didn’t check any of the friendship ones because I feel like this is one of those couples which is very heavily on the eros and romantic side of things that the platonic part is kind of smothered. Personally I think that’s fine, it doesn’t make it any less true. Though of course I could see a an angle of friendship built on the fact that they were both foreigners living in a country that had wrecked havoc in both their lands. I think that’s adorable. Soulmate goes without saying, if anyone in 15th century history was star-crossed it was those two!

The Ship:

I said in my previous that I like couples where there’s that clear sun-moon opposites unite angle. I don’t see it very clear in these two, to me they are both sun-like, but I think that makes it all the more ardent and compelling. However and factually-speaking, it doesn’t have the hallmarks of one of those fast-burn and then nothing relationships (like Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn), there was no infidelity on his side, he never remarried after she died, they seemed to have spent substantial amounts of time in each other’s company. It was anything but shallow. I am also a massive fan of ‘they only had each other’ ‘the world was kind of against them’ (kind of like George and Isabel), and based on my limited knowledge that appears to have been the case. Ok, please don’t shoot me but the main reasons I ship them is because of Rosemary Hawley Jarman’s Crown in Candlelight, fuck-boy rapey Owen aside, they had so so much chemistry there (“cariad” *swoons*). Catherine gets the unfair reputation for being a nymphomaniac (bayed like a drunken whore when she was cavorting with Tudor quote never fails to make me laugh) and I don’t buy that but I buy CIC Catherine where she is one of those people very needing of love (both physical and spiritual) and full of heart (a contrast to the ice princess archetype) and Owen is one of the few people with the amount of heart to match it. I like the idea that they were the only two people at court who didn’t have a stick up their ass and only thought of war hahaha. Also, I love reading the trope of class difference when it’s the man who is below the woman, it’s usually always the other way around in modern media and I’m tired of it, add to that the whole medieval courtly love and marianistic worship and *chef’s kiss*.

[threeletterslife]

chana, what are some of your pet peeves while reading a story? like things such as bad grammar. btw i love your works!!

god i love this question so much. and thank you for reading! 🥺🥺🥺i really appreciate the love!

i’m seriously going to sound like a grumpy ol’ bitch saying this but i have a LOT of pet peeves lol. i have such specific, meticulous taste that it’s hard for me to find stories (internet fics and irl books alike) that pertain to my weirdass standards 😀

quick disclaimer! just because i don’t like some of these popular/infamous/adored tropes doesn’t mean they’re not bad at all! remember, i’m just rEALLy picky! here goes:

fake dating. (i hate it. i can’t stand it when a story’s main idea is fake dating. i just can’t seem to understand why anyone would want to fake date. the scenarios always seem so bs-ed or middle school-esque to me. but someone is always welcome to prove me wrong.)

bad grammar. (this one speaks for itself. i can’t stand bad grammar. this doesn’t mean i’ll jump on you if you make oNE little mistake <because, i mean, we’re all human, you know>. but if the grammar mistakes are consistent... and far too many... i will be pissed 😀😀😀) honorary mention common mistakes: every day vs everyday; your vs you’re; .” vs ”. ; affect vs effect; anymore vs any more; their vs they’re vs there; lay vs lie; except vs accept; then vs than; -- vs —

bland/generic y/n. (i love writing in 2nd pov. but just because this ‘y/n’ character doesn’t technically have a name... doesn’t mean... she isn’t allowed to have a personality. a bland or mary sue-type y/n with zero dimension can single-handedly deter me from reading the rest of the story. remember, y/n deserves a personality too 😭😭)

starting the story with “I woke up in my bed after hearing my eomma call my name from downstairs.” (this is just a very specific pet peeve of mine that triggers my fight or flight. i’m blaming this on wattpad.)

using honorifics and romanized korean. (this is going to be very controversial. but... i think it kinda has to be said. i do not want to read an english story that is very obviously not set in korea and have to go through words like “eomma” “oppa” “jagi” “saranghae” “hyung” “jimin-ah” “taehyung-ie” “unnie” “noona” and sometimes a whole SENTENCE in romanized korean. as someone who is korean, i find it—for the lack of a better word—cringy. because of some of the stories i’ve seen, i can’t even speak my own language sometimes without cringing. you could NEVER catch me calling my older cousins “oppa” anymore even though i’m supposed to out of literal respect and culture. and it’s thanks to the fact that some (thankfully, a minority of) fanfiction authors romanticize/sexualize it. don’t even get me started on my younger cousins/siblings calling me “noona.” i wanna d-word every time i hear it because it’s been so sexualized in the ff community that i just don’t feel comfortable with them calling me that for platonic/respectful reasons. but i digress. if i can tell the author has done research and it is written well and correctly and in a non-sexualized manner, then i don’t have a problem with it. still wouldn’t read though 😭😭)

idol au’s. (also controversial. but this is mainly my fault LMAO. once upon a time, long ago, little chana first stumbled upon bangtan and decided she wanted to venture into the fanfiction world for them. her first fanfiction was a jungkook idol au. and now she will probably never write another idol au again because she is scarred. but seriously. idol au’s make me want to cry inside because 1. they’re unrealistic 2. the writers usually do little to no research on korea/the music industry 3. personal (humiliating) history 😔which again, is totally on me. i feel like this pet peeve of mine is unjustifiable tho lmao. a lot of people adore idol au’s. but i just can’t get into them)

adding photos in the middle of the story. (this just boils my blood for no reason i’m sorry 😭😭to me, it seems unprofessional. BOOKS may have illustrations. but only if the illustrations are showing a SCENE that the writing describes. not necessarily an outfit. usually, when internet authors put photos in their stories, it’s to show the ootd/makeup/hairstyle/what y/n is supposed to look like. i’m personally not into that. i think that should all be up to the reader’s imagination! that’s why we read, isn’t it? to be able to create our own faces and scene layouts from scratch!)

social media au’s. (VERY controversial. and kinda ironic since i’ve actually made a whole ass text fic. but lemme tell you it was not fun and i will never do it again 😭i don’t know. i’m not very big on social media lol. and a possible romance developing from such unauthentic apps like instagram, twitter, snapchat doesn’t sit right with me. i’m more into traditional/authentic romance! the kind where you sit down face to face and talk and giggle for hours—without the presence of devices)

a bad ending. (man this one’s a very personal pet peeve of mine. imagine slaving away reading a 100k+ fic just to find out the ending is abrupt, the strings are left untied and your favorite character just... dies. for no reason at all. i hate that feeling of no closure. a bad ending doesn’t necessarily mean a SAD one. i prefer sad/angsty endings to a happily ever after. but i think the ending makes up the whole story. and to have a good ending, the ending must somehow still connect to the rest of the story.)

character inconsistencies. (i love character development as much as the dude next door but just because a character does a 180 out of nowhere doesn’t mean they actually developed at all. real people take time to change!!)

when there are author’s notes IN THE MIDDLE of the story. (believe it or not, i’ve seen this happen. it interrupts the flow of the plot and it looks unprofessional. and the fact that i used to do this when i first started writing ff’s bYE—)

when the romance escalates from 0 to 100. (i’m guilty of this. but it’s also a pet peeve of mine to read something like this LOL. but i get it. writing subtle developments in romance is hard 😭😭but it doesn’t excuse itself from being one of my major pet peeves 😀😀)

when mental illness, domestic abuse, trauma is romanticized. (this is a given, i think. don’t romanticize someone else’s struggles for your fictional pleasure, please!!)

telling instead of showing. (probably one of the biggest pet peeves of mine. too often, i see writers outright telling me that their oc is ‘independent’ and ‘strong’ or that oc and jimin’s romance is ‘unparalleled.’ but if i don’t feel that from the writing itself, i’m not going to be able to believe it. but if you show me that oc is independent and that oc and jimin are meant to be with little scenarios and anecdotes, that’s gonna be a lot more effective!)

when’s there’s no chemistry between the couple. (this is probably everyone’s pet peeve LMAO)

the “oh no! there’s only one bed!” trope. (i never understood this because. damn just take the couch or sleep on the floor. OR just sleep in the same bed with a pillow barrier. it’s literally not a big deal 😭unless 👀 idk this one 100% depends on execution)

and i saved the worst for last:

when you read 50+ chapters for an ‘ongoing’ fic but when you get to the ‘end’... you realize it’s been discontinued since 2017 😀😀😀(the pain is fucking real y’all)

um.... that was a lot 😭😭i’m sorry. i actually thought i’d be a lot pickier, but i guess i’m actually really lenient on types of tropes and au’s. i’m okay with basically 99.9% of all tropes (yes, including vampire, abo, love triangle, etc) because i believe all tropes depend solely on EXECUTION. so generally, i keep an open mind. (with the exception of fake dating, idol au’s, social media au’s and the tHeRe’S oNlY oNe bEd trope lmaoo) 

basically, i’m quick to give things a chance but quick to leave too 😔😔

i swear i have more penchants than pet peeves 😭😭but that’s a story for another time!!

[b-listbadboy]

Castlevania Season 3 was disappointing

(Spoilers for Castlevania Season 3, if you haven’t seen it yet it’s out now on Netflix. I suggest watching that first before reading this review)

I won’t say it was an awful season by any stretch of the imagination but man was it a drag to get through.

Almost nothing of significance happens for the majority of the season and the things that did happen felt extremely off and weird. 10 episodes, 25 to 30 minutes each, and every single one except for the fucking TWO LAST EPISODES were spent dicking around with a mystery that had little to do with anything from season 2 beyond a really out there twist that I’m sort of iffy on. Top that off with a lackluster arguably stupid ending to leave us off on a needless cliffhanger, and that’s the magic remedy that will leave me feeling pretty damn frustrated.

The best parts, in my opinion, were with Isaac’s massive undead crusade he was waging throughout his journey for revenge, and Trevor and Syph’s interactions with each other as well as with the little villagers. Isaac’s arc going from a servant of Dracula to slowing evolving into the master of the damned felt genuine, intriguing, and badass! I really wish he was the next main villain instead as it makes sense thematically. He carries out Dracula’s nihilistic views of humanity in a similar but now more direct way and that can lead into something really intriguing. However, for some reason, this season left him and his whole journey on a back burner, and virtually everything else that is implemented into main villain role fell flat on its face execution wise.

For example; The new vampires of this season are Camilla’s three other empress sisters, and while they do have a plethora of personality at the very least, that kind of comes at a cost of the main threat being extremely diluted. We go from this hurting sympathetic undead overlord with the power of an anchent GOD, to a couple of wicked sassy sisters who just wanna eat people forever? It’s a bit lame of a progression from what we once had, we know Vampires like to eat people that’s nothing new or exciting. There’s no real twist to it besides it being “led by women in the dark ages” and granted that makes sense here since it IS the dark ages, but come on we literally just had arguably the BEST adaptation of friggin’ Dracula! This shouldn’t be all they got moving forward from that.

Now, I have ZERO issue with the main antagonists being female or even two of the four sisters (not by blood don’t worry) being a lesbian couple. I hate that I have to emphasize this, hell I often defend Cinder Fall in RWBY more than anyone in the fandom at all despite her issues as a complex and sometimes flat out badly written character. However, The four of them in this season have the most basic of plans that it seems arbitrary status quote fluff at best. It felt like just because it’s Castlevania, we HAVE to have the vampires as the villains. Even though in the games the Belmont’s were literally fighting werewolves, dragons, skeletons, and the GRIMM REAPER??

Therefore, the sense of urgency and tense calculating plans of ‘survival vs extinction’ is completely gone. And yknow in a way, I can kinda initially SEE that working in a sort of “Empire Strikes Back” esque plot. Yknow, with Alucard and the gang go around cleaning up Dracula’s leftover horde only for Isaac or even Camilla to have this huge vengeful comeback of dominance? But there’s no one exactly “striking back” or even taking any kind of immediate initiative after Dracula’s death. It’s been MONTHS after the whole event and no one seems like they really care about that world changing event from the last two season’s. Everything is fine and dandy, no one has a single worry in the world! How enthralling...I miss Godbrand 😑

Besides the plan the four empresses have as well as Issac’s revenge, which I hope will both be more explored in season 4, no one really has any goal to warrant THAT kind of length of a season. This is more of a Netflix problem that I have with most of their shows and it’s one of the reasons why I don’t like watching them. Almost every singe show Netflix produces now, feels the need to overstuff itself with needless filler that gets us really nowhere until the very end where it SUDDENLY all comes together. But because of the nature of binge watching and considering how Netflix wants to desperately keep their subscriptions in fear of intimidating competition, they make these shows 12 episodes long with HALF HOUR OR MORE amount of filler content that’s supposed to satisfy us cause it’s “cute”?! No, stop this shit! Granted, Castlevania wasn’t nearly AS bad as the live action shows, but honestly, what exactly was shown to us that couldn’t have been reduced to like 5 solidly paced episodes focused on one or two plot lines ONLY like before? It worked perfectly back then, why change what ain’t broke?

As much as I don’t like the immediate rush of Trevor and Syph’s out of nowhere sexual relationship, I didn’t overall mind it too much since they still somewhat felt consistent. Their characteristics play off very nicely with one another and it’s pretty easy to see the chemistry between the two....HOWEVER I’M STILL GONNA COMPLAIN ABOUT IT SO HERE WE GO!

I get that they were setting them up as an endgame ship of the series, there’s no denying that, but they start fucking for what feels like (to the audience) two days after and I think that’s a bit ridiculous! Even if Alucard states that it’s been at the very least a month worth of time since the events of Season 2, there’s no real physical signs showing that statement to be true. Hell, Trevor’s beard and hair remains the same despite a HUGE passage of time where it would naturally grow out to indicate said time passing by. But both him, Syph, Alucard, and damn near everyone else looks the exact same as last season. So for all I know it could have been like a week since Season 2 and that to me doesn’t feel exactly earned. The Season 2 finale didn’t explicitly leave off Trevor and Syph officially a couple, they felt more like partners in crime more than anything else. Not to say that there wasn’t any chemistry there to develope INTO a relationship GRADUALLY, but going from a little spark of interest to the immediate jump of them sleeping together naked all comfortably as if they’re a goddamn married couple is a STRETCH! Even Trevor himself thinks so too so don’t jump down my throat about not being immediately swooned by the shipping fanservice given to us. I don’t dislike them as a couple at all, in fact I think their dynamic is cute! However, I would have also liked to have this couple feel natural and earned. They most certainly do not feel earned this way, at least to me.

Oh god, then there’s this out of nowhere sexual tension between Alucard and his new two recruits from another region hinted at in the previous season? Mind you, Alucard was doing literally NOTHING throughout the entirety of Season 3. Yep, literally the ONE DUDE WHO BASICALLY KILLED DRACULA gets about fuck all story progression afterwards out of the three. But what they DO give him are these two new vampire hunting student’s who look identical to one another (no racial they just literally look like fraternal twins) so I assumed they were either siblings or a couple, which makes it REALLY WEIRD WHEN THEY BOTH FUCK ALUCARD OUT OF NOWHERE?! I’m NOT making this shit up I promise! What makes even less sense is that it was really just a ploy for them to steal the Belmont knowledge of killing vampires to show to their people who have been enslaved. Which of course ends with them being killed so it really makes this entire conflict in his character damn near pointless besides “sad vibes check”, but here’s the thing...why didn’t they just keep doing training with Alucard?? There were virtually no downsides to having him teach you how to kill Vampires to save your village from being enslaved, he was teaching you both very well and gave you like the eternal knowledge of how to kill literally EVERY MONSTER and even let you live in the castle FOR FREE, food and wine included! What was the turning point for them to want to kill him all of the sudden? Cause he’s a vampire?? THEY FUCKING KNEW THAT ALREADY!!! Why was is suddenly not a problem at first but then coincidentally a problem now? If they wanted to use this to somehow depict this notion of “Oh my dad/Dracula was right humans are the worst” mindset, trust me, it was better conveyed with Isaac. These twins side plot not only made no sense, but also felt unjustified for Alucard to be an emo boi. I get that it’s supposed to be symbolic of him going through the same issues that both of his parents went through, but none of that really showed how bad human’s are. Just that those two twins didn’t think things through apparently. So the point of Alucard having this odd character convenience shift feels by the numbers cliché, and most importantly CHEAP.

It really makes no sense to me why they’re adding so much of this filler for such a long time, especially with some of this filler being oddly sexual. I don’t mind honest depiction of sex between consenting adults of course, but it just felt so misplaced and awkward at parts where it showed itself. I felt like I was reading a mediocre fanfic of Castlevania instead of the actual show itself! Granted, Season 2 had somewhat of a similar dilemma but the lull in between was still showing the character specifically doing things to further the story along. Towards the end, it gave us a way more satisfactory closure of that saga with Dracula that felt natural and well earned. This season however, felt like they were scrambling with different ideas here and there and didn’t know which to go with. Alucard training new recruits in his castle, Trevor and Syph figuring out an estranged (and BORING/GENERIC) cult of Dracula’s plan, Camilla setting up an army with her fellow sisterhood of evil vampires to gain ultimate power, Hector surviving captivity by using his wit and charm, Isaac raising up the dead for revenge on his deceased master, a new character introducing an all new world to the lore of Castlevania as we know it, all of these interesting concepts and ideas that could easily make up for a good season alone! And instead of focusing on one or two ideas to develope into something natural, they ended up saying “FUCK IT! Fucking I dunno what to- WE’RE DOING ALL OF IT I DUNNO!” and mixed the whole thing in a blender of different flavors that don’t necessarily blend together well enough for a tasty satisfactory meal. It just ends up being a mesh of okay at best, and gross at worst.

IN CONCLUSION, Castlevania Season 3 had a rocky start, an okay middle, and a kind of cool end. There was definitely some cool and exciting ideas implemented in here, but not enough to warrant that lengthy amount of time that Netflix seems to love to give to most of their TV shows. Sometimes less is more, and all that shiny cool glitter isn’t necessarily going to turn out to be gold. I’ll give this season a 5/10. It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen but it certainly could’ve been a lot better.

P.S. “Who Do Ya Voodoo” from Dead Island is Isaac’s new theme song, you can’t convince me otherwise.

[persephoneofhades]

the thing is i don't think ben and ryn don't work on their own, i think they have a real connection and definitely deep feelings for one another and always have (i'd even argue ryn developped romantic feelings for ben awhile before she developped those for maddie) and i think the fandom acts like they don't work or don't have chemistry because it's the "hetero" leg of the triad which makes zero sense to me

ryn being involved with ben even without maddie doesn't make her any less queer and the same can be said for maddie's involvement with robb. they're both still queer women and they're also and that's something the fandom can't wrap their heads around for some reason but they're both polyamorous. i could see maybe maddie being happy in a monogamous relationship but ryn is polyamorous so i don't understand this fantasy that's been pushed of maddie/ryn and ben completely pushed to the side

if the both of them weren't in love with him just as much as they're in love with each other i could maybe see it but the fandom needs to reckon with the fact that ben pownall is a part of this triad and even though he has acted all kinds of reckless and shitty right now (he can thank the song for that really) he is still at his core a good person. it's just funny to me how quick fandom wants to turn on him

to me the siren fandom sometimes acts when it comes to ben's addiction the same way maddie does when it comes to susan, by that i mean hostile, no understanding and no support. and god bless maddie, i love her but her views on addiction really aren't something to emulate because she doesn't even seem to understand it as the illness it is which makes it all the more understandable why she's the last person ben would reach out to for help unfortunately

Okay, since these are long, I will again attack each ask separately if I can and this will likely get long again, so I will also put it under a cut again.

These asks are starting to sound a little bitter, so while I do love discussing the show, let’s maybe keep the “the fandom needs to do this” to more of a minimum. It’s not my job to police how the fandom ships people together on this show.

Okay, so starting with Ben/Ryn. I think Ben and Ryn COULD work on their own and HAVE in certain episodes/scenes. The issue that comes up with Ben and Ryn that’s always been there and has never been there for Maddie/Ryn or Maddie/Ben is the Song and Ben’s long-term addiction to it. Ben and Maddie were in love long before either of them ended up addicted to the Song and Maddie and Ryn were able to build a relationship away from it, too. But Ben’s feelings for Ryn, while I believe the show when it tells us that his love for her was not CREATED by the Song, has certainly been influenced by it a bit. And even if we, for the sake of argument, say that the Song has not influenced his feelings at all, it’s still influenced his BEHAVIOR. Ben gets really erratic when Ryn isn’t around, really restless. His impulsivity and obsessive nature gets amplified due to the Song and so his behavior regarding Ryn is really really different than we used to see in his relationship with Maddie or what we see in Maddie’s relationship with Ryn.

Personally? Since it was unclear for a while how much of Ben’s feelings were influenced by the Song or not, their relationship has always been somewhat questionable. Ben becomes less and less predictable the longer he’s addicted to that Song to the point now that he’s lying to both the women he loves about really big things that he knows they won’t like and/or will be uncomfortable with. And that’s something I think IS a side-effect of the Song because Maddie got involved in the mission with Ryn pretty quick, he TRUSTED Maddie to be his partner in whatever he had gotten himself into. They WERE partners.

And I think Ben and Ryn have had some really cute moments, I do. I think that Ryn and Ben are also both super fucking impulsive, though, and Ryn is only just starting to learn how to think things through a little more while Ben is steadily LOSING his ability to think things through so by Season 3 their relationship to me seems super dysfunctional and not necessarily super healthy. It’s starting to feel like Ben is getting almost POSSESSIVE of Ryn and is clinging to her as the only thing keeping him going, the only thing that’s keeping him SANE (as much as he even can be right now). And that’s not ideal. Whereas Maddie and Ryn are SUPER open with each other still, we’ve seen them have several conversations about their relationship and how Robb fits into that and Maddie’s break-up with Ben, etc. The ONLY conversation we’ve seen like that with Ben was when Ryn calls him out on the injections. And even then he doesn’t open up about where he’s getting the injections or the fact that he’s re-addicted himself to her Song. He’s still lying to her, he’s still not being open and honest with her.

So while I don’t MIND Bryn as a ship, I don’t they’ve gotten to a really unhealthy stage in their relationship and it needs to fall apart before it can get better. Because while Ben is obviously dealing with a sickness none of them know about, he still needs to be held accountable for some of the things he’s done and Ryn will have every right to be upset about BOTH of the things he’s still hiding from her.

And finally, (wow still on the first ask) Bryn are NOT the only “hetero” leg of the triangle. I think you’ve entirely forgotten that Maddie and Ben are ALSO a “hetero” leg of the triangle. Obviously they’re broken up at the moment, but if we’re considering Polymarine as a closed triad, then there are TWO “hetero” legs to that triangle. I’ve loved Ben and Maddie as a couple since episode 1, they were SO GOOD in season 1, they were an incredible team that was so open and honest with each other and complemented each other’s flaws and virtues really well and had such similar values and just clearly really loved each other. Ben and Maddie were AWESOME.

Okay, moving on to the second ask.

I agree with you, all THREE people in that relationship are canonically polyamorous and Ryn and Maddie are both wlw, as well (I’d definitely headcanon Ben as mlm as well, but that’s not technically canon yet). And those things remain true no matter whether they’re in a monogamous relationship or a heterosexual relationship or not. I have in fact posted SEVERAL things to that exact effect, so you’re sort-of preaching to the choir with this one.

THAT BEING SAID. People are allowed to ship who they want to ship, that’s really none of your business. Lots of people really like Maddie/Ryn but maybe aren’t so solid on Bryn or just Ben as a character and that’s FINE. He’s certainly not my PERSONAL favorite of the triad, but I’ve liked his relationships with Maddie and Ryn in the past and he’s been really cool as a character individually in the past, too. I wouldn’t ship Polymarine if I didn’t like Ben. But ship and let ship, it’s not a terrible thing that people prefer Maddie/Ryn on their own to Polymarine and would prefer Ben not be in the picture so much. As you say yourself, even if they ship Maddie/Ryn without Ben, it doesn’t actually take away from either character being polyamorous. Polyamorous people CAN be in monogamous relationships.

As for Ryn and Maddie still being wlw even when they’re given male love interests, I think the issue here is that wlw in main character roles of a show like this are still relatively uncommon and it’s frustrating to all the wlw who watch this show to have to see Ryn and Maddie only get a couple cheek kisses while Ryn and Ben go on a romantic underwater swim and get full on-the-mouth kisses and sleep in beds together. Ryn and Maddie’s romantic scenes this season have definitely been diminished and PALE in comparison to what we see with Bryn and even with Robb/Maddie recently. I want to believe it’s because they’re just that solid and so we don’t “need” to see them be super romantic to remind us that they’re together and in love, but I can understand the frustration and the worry that the queer polyamorous representation is going to get sidelined so that Bryn can take center stage and Maddie can get shoved off with someone else. While I don’t believe it will happen and I’m choosing to stick with my theory that it’s just another obstacle for Polymarine to have to overcome in order to be stronger, there’s enough precedent in media for me to understand why people are VERY worried about this.

This third ask is mostly just bitterness, so I don’t want to spend super long on it. I’ve put down a bunch of reasons why people are less into Bryn than they have been into Raddie or even Baddie. Also, he is being super messy this season. The thing that’s difficult with just blaming the Song for all of his actions, though, is that they’ve told us that the Song doesn’t just create feelings, it simply seems to amplify them. Ben’s been impulsive and obsessive long before he met Ryn, it was just something he had a better handle on. Now, though, he doesn’t have a handle on it, but that facet of his personality has always been there. So we can’t blame the Song for all of it, we know that, while this is likely something he wouldn’t have gone through with pre-Song, the Song isn’t turning him into someone he’s not, either. Personally, I don’t feel like I can just exonerate Ben entirely by going “the Song made him do it.” I think Ben needs to take responsibility for his actions and recognize the effect that it’s had on other people in order to atone for them over time. He let a man die, that’s something he’s going to have to contend with. He disrespected the body one of Ryn’s tribemates, that’s something he’s going to have to contend with.

I feel like you’re being kind-of unfair to Maddie in this last ask. Maddie and Susan are MOTHER and DAUGHTER. Susan was supposed to take care of Maddie, not the other way around. Susan’s drug addiction likely caused Maddie to feel super abandoned and unloved as a child and it could even have brought her into dangerous situations the way it did in Season 2. And from what I remember, Susan didn’t seek help for a long time, something I can totally understand Maddie being upset about. Addiction is a disease, for certain, but if the person isn’t willing to even try to get better, I think that’s now on them. And, again, Maddie would have been a CHILD through most of this and is totally allowed to hold some bitterness about how she didn’t get a mom during her childhood the way she should have.

And the same is true of Ben. What happened to him originally with Ryn’s Song is by no means his fault, obviously, and I don’t think Maddie ever treats it like it is. But expecting her to remain in a relationship with him when she KNOWS how she’ll react to it due to her history with addiction seems super unfair. She’s choosing not to remain in a relationship where she might end up feeling abandoned and unloved again. And you know what? She ends up BREAKING that rule in Season 2 ANYWAY. She gets back into a relationship with him (and starts one with Ryn) while he’s still under the effects of the addiction and there’s no cure in sight. And then she gets addicted herself and they BOTH go get a cure when it becomes available. She stands by him as he struggles through the jealousy over Ryn’s mating season, as much as she stands by Ryn who is wary of Ben’s jealousy and how that may make him react.

What she’s doing now is acting hostilely to something that she has no idea is even RELATED to an addiction. It might be raising some red flags in her head that she’s got due to her mother’s issues with it, but as far as Maddie knows, the addiction didn’t cause him to let a man drown. If your partner that you thought you knew and believed was 100% NOT addicted to anything just suddenly let someone die when they could’ve saved them, would that NOT raise red flags for you? Or if you found out your partner who you KNOW got cured of their unwilling addiction just suddenly started exhuming graves for science experiments, particularly graves of people that are IMPORTANT TO HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND? Ben is doing some REAL shady stuff right now and while WE THE AUDIENCE know that Ben is sick and addicted to the Song, Maddie does not. That’s really important to remember. I’d go back and look at how Maddie and Ben interacted in late Season 1 and early Season 2 for how Maddie reacts to Ben when she KNOWS he’s addicted to the Song and compare that to her behavior now when she believes he’s been completely cured, the way she has. It’s not like it’s an assumption on her part, either, she had to get cured WITH HIM and she knows that she is fully cured, they saw the brain scans, so she has no reason to believe that Ben isn’t doing these things entirely of his own volition.

Ben isn’t choosing not to approach Maddie because he thinks she’s too hostile to ever want to help him through his illness/addiction. He’s choosing to lie to her and not ask her for help both because deep down he knows he’s in the wrong, and because of a combo of hurt over the break-up and what appears to be a clear attempt to give Maddie some space. It’s why he doesn’t tell RYN, either, he’s not just not approaching Maddie about this, he’s doing the exact same thing with Ryn, even though she DIDN’T break up with him over Ian’s death or get angry with him. He knows that what he’s doing would upset her, so he’s saying nothing. Maddie is not some hostile villain. She has her flaws, I’m not saying she doesn’t, but her decision to not want to be involved in a relationship with someone who has substance abuse issues due to a difficult past with a loved one who has substance abuse issues is not one of them. Expecting her to fix Ben while he’s being super dishonest with her and becoming a person she can’t even recognize anymore seems super unfair.

TL;DR I don’t think Bryn work right now any more than Baddie do and that is entirely on Ben for not being honest and open in his relationships and making BOTH “hetero” legs of the triangle become unhealthy and dysfunctional. Maddie and Ryn obviously are both able to be queer and polyamorous no matter who they’re dating or how many people they’re dating, so let people ship what they want if it’s what makes them feel good and isn’t hurting you. Ben’s actions are not all able to be blamed on the Song any more than his love for Ryn is a product of the Song, so even though he definitely is a good person at heart and can come back to that, he’s super annoying right now and I don’t blame people for being less interested in him as a character. Again, if it’s not hurting you, let people ship whatever they want. I think if you want people to be more compassionate towards Ben as a character, maybe you should think about being more compassionate towards Maddie and not call her “hostile” for being upset with her mother for not being able to truly be there for her and for abandoning her when she was young. Maybe you should not be blaming Maddie for not being a mind-reader and realizing that Ben’s still addicted to the Song instead of doing what’s best for her own mental health.