foggy2109 - Tumblr blog

[foggy2109]

watching charmed for the first time to fill the buffy shaped hole in my heart -- episode 3

not my fave so far, at least plot-wise. i mean, it was kinda dumb. but i loved the character drama that came out of it.

the “sisters” “tell me about it” moment and the way piper and phoebe look at prue was really funny.  

also, prue & phoebe's hug? so cute.  

and phoebe locking prue in the room was really funny too.  

phoebe’s premonition about the shapeshifters stealing the book at the end is so funny, 'cause in it they just cross the street, look over their shoulders, and giggle like they’re mean girls who just stole someone’s candy.

daddy issues

ewwww. i hate their dad. how do you not recognize your own daughter? the whole massage scene is so yuck. weird. uncomfortable. please stop. while i do understand phoebe and piper's desire to be close to him again, i can’t help but be on prue's side, y'know? i liked that, at the end, it’s revealed that their dad isn’t evil, he’s just a shitty dad. at least he’s not plotting world domination. yay?

prue

i can really feel that distance and conflict between prue and the others in this episode. even when her sisters are trying to encourage her to do something positive (relax at a party and date andy, who she’s so obviously into), prue reacts in a pretty hostile manner. i think she thrives on control, and the whole witch thing is not really allowing her to have that anymore, so she’s throwing herself into her work maybe. on the other hand, it seems like she’s just avoiding having a personal life for some reason?

piper 

she really just wants everything to be ‘normal.’ she’s also always trying to keep the peace, and in this episode, it feels like she’s really under strain to do that. it must be very draining, and i wish the others would try a bit harder to find some middle ground. meet her halfway.

[foggy2109]

watching charmed for the first time -- episode 2

piper’s religion issues  

piper definitely had the most compelling arc this episode. you can feel how overwhelmed she is throughout it. but we also get to see what a caring person piper is (taking leftover food from the restaurant to the church to feed people).  

she finds out that the church thinks she’s evil and should be, yk, killed. casual. and even though she’s doing good things, she believes she’s suddenly evil. it tells me a lot about how she views good/evil. like it isn’t about actions—goodness is more of a fundamental part of someone’s nature to her.  

it’s like piper feels something has shifted deep inside her after her powers were awakened. she feels different.  

sticking with piper, i feel so bad for her lmao (the whole “i hate being a witch” thing). most of us know what it feels like to be overwhelmed at work (or school), and now she’s got these powers that get triggered by stress, which is a lot. it’s clear she’s scared of what her powers might do to her life. when piper says she just wants to be normal again, i think what she really wants is relief from the constant weight on her shoulders. she’s scared, overwhelmed, and in no place to just embrace her powers. and who can blame her? good characterization, very piper-y.

prue and phoebe  

prue’s kinda hypocritical lmao, telling phoebe not to use her powers, while also using her own. very oldest sibling of her, i’ve definitely done the same so i can’t blame her. plus, prue seems to figure out her powers way faster than the others, which is interesting. and with phoebe learning a little lesson about being careful with her powers by the end of the episode, i’m wondering if prue is gonna end up being the more reckless one. that would be such a fun flip!

plot ig  

the villain this week was cool. i honestly don’t have that many opinions other than cool, i liked the premise, liked the beat yk. the guys were guy-ing, i don’t have many opinions on them honestly. detective guy seems nice though!

[foggy2109]

watching charmed for the first time and reviewing (maybe) every episode

episode 1:

alright, so charmed s1, ep 1. i really really like it so far. i think it’s a great intro to the series – self-contained but still got me super excited to keep going. plus, i’m just a sucker for sibling dynamics.

first off, let’s talk about the sisters because that’s really the heart of it. you’ve got prue, piper, and phoebe. prue is already my favorite, probably because i’m an older sister too, and i totally relate to that whole "responsible one" vibe she’s got going. she’s tough, but you can tell she really cares about her sisters, even if she doesn’t always show it. And she curates artifacts! idk whats going on between her and phoebe, i think she slept with her boyfriend?? i do kinda believe phoebe more though. 

i really like piper, but i’m kinda confused by how quickly the show moved on after her boyfriend tried to kill her, like?? and then she turned him into dust, and everyone just… moved on?? it’s like, "oh well, that was tuesday. what’s for dinner?" very middle middle child of her. i do get the vibe that the show isn’t gonna focus too much on consequences. maybe they’re saving the emotional breakdowns for later! you never know (its kinda giving the buffy pilot actually). still, piper seems like a sweet, nervous type, and i’m looking forward to seeing how she’ll grow.

and then there’s phoebe. first of all, that hair needs to go. i’m all for short hair, and she definitely has the face for it, but like… help. phoebe’s the wild card, i feel. she’s definitely the most into the magic stuff, and she’s got the most interesting power. piper has the coolest power though (it’s the one i’d want in real life). prue’s power is kinda mehh so far, but i love her character and it fits her.

now, jeremy. good villain for a first ep, he’s kind of a joke, and i kind of love it. he’s more goofy than threatening. also, omg, his facial expressions were cracking me up—like when he got out of the elevator. what was that??? the special effects were kinda bad, but i like it. it’s charming and adds to the campiness of the whole thing. it’s like part of the show’s personality.

overall, i think it’s a great start. it sets up the premise without dragging things out too much, and you can already tell the heart of the show is gonna be the sisters. i love watching how they clash but still care about each other. ok bye, gonna watch ep 2 like now.

[foggy2109]

Watching The Body after loosing a parents is definitely something else. Its truly a masterpiece of an episode that captures death in a way that's so shockingly realistic. This is a show where our main characters regularly fight vampires and demons, it's so different from the rest of the show. It's confusing in a way death usually is.

Like you feel immediately this isnt a normal episode. The lighting is off, there is no music. The whole stylisation of the episode kinda sepperates you from whats happening, its stark and bleak. And most importantly, there is no metaphor; it's just human

The acting is incredible. Its the first episode willow and tara kiss and its so beautiful. Anya’s whole “why” monologue hits so good (her saying she wishes joyce didn't die, like she is a vengeance demon, wish is such a strong word for her), it's such a great representation of the utter confusion that comes with death. Tara and buffys conversation. Like it's all so well done.

My mom died a month ago and i have felt so lost since. Like im living in the same house she died in, im eating from the plates she ate from, im typing this on the phone she baught for me, im rewatching buffy on her old dvd’s. Im doing the exact same things i used to do before, exept she's not here anymore and feels so wrong, i feel wrong and i think this episode helped me understand myself in a way. If that makes sense.

Art is truly such a wonderful way to put things in your life into perspective, things that you might not understand yourself. Idk i just love this episode.

[foggy2109]

there is just something special about season six of buffy. something about buffy literally being ripped away from heaven, the only true peace she has felt since becoming the slayer, defying the narrative of the show itself to live once more.

and now the world doesn’t feel right anymore; it’s bleak and every moment is heavy. and she can’t understand why. she was given a second chance to live when her mum (and tara) and so many others weren’t. she owes it to them to be happy, but she just can’t.

so she wonders if something went wrong with her resurrection, if she came out “wrong,” but she didn’t. she’s just depressed, and in some way that’s worse.

she tries and struggles to connect with her friends, with her sister, but it feels strained. she knows they want to help, but she also knows they can’t. no one can. no one will ever truly know the depth of her pain, of being ripped away from literal paradise.

buffy falls further into this deep depression full of numbness and self-hatred. she enters a relationship with a vampire, the one thing she was sworn to hate, and it makes her despise herself even more.

she cries and pleads to tara after confessing that she’s sleeping with this vampire, begging her to judge her, to not forgive her. she is desperate for someone to validate her self-loathing, to prove her right, that her actions make her a bad person. but she refuses; tara refuses to judge her, and buffy can’t even begin to understand why.

this season’s “big bad” is not a dangerous and brutal villain; it’s not a vampire or a demon. it’s three insecure, misogynistic men. they have no superpowers, no dangerous abilities. the magic has been stripped away.

and still, despite everything, buffy does want to live. by the end of the season, the world is almost destroyed, and when it’s not, she cries out of happiness. it wasn’t until that moment she realised how much she truly wanted to live, and not just for herself, but for everyone she loves. she wants to “show the world” to her sister and experience it with her friends. she wants to live.

[foggy2109]

thinking about how joel's decision to "save" ellie at the end of the last of us is probably the most selfish and yet beautiful acts i have ever seen. joel found someone that he cared about so much that he was willing to doom the entirety of humanity just for her, so much that he took away her own wishes and autonomy, so much that he sacrificed his whole relationship with that person, just so she would live.

it is the worst thing he ever does; it’s the thing that leads to his death, and still no part of him ever regrets it.

[foggy2109]

there is something so poetic about daenerys alwas seeking some kind of conection to her ancestors, wondering wether what she is doing is right. only to find out those same ancestors had visions about her coming over a hundred years prior.

it would have been so good of only they didn't ruin her character in the later seasons of got.

[foggy2109]

thinking about joel looking into ellies eyes before he died, watching her cry and scream for them to stop. maybe she was a source of comfort for him in his last moments, maybe it hurt him to know she witnessed the death of the closest thing she had to a father, the way he witnessed his daughters death. either way, he died thinking she was next.

[foggy2109]

Rhaenyra’s fanatic beliefs

I wrote this in the middle of the night after watching ep 6/7

Analysis:

Its very interesting that the show is positioning rhaenyra as this manuipulator, instead of as a leader among the smallfolk. Like when Vermithor starts burning the bastards, she doesn’t let them run away, she keeps them barricaded in.

She has this messianic, almost cult like vibe. Her saying shit like “I have entrusted you with this power,” like she has any idea what might happen to the bastards, or who the dragon chooses. The dragonkeepers call what she’s doing blasphemy, but just like nyra says to jace at the end of the episode; she feels like the gods have layed this before her. It is a divine right.

She lies to the dragonseed, she says they will be promoting peace when she knows (as we have seen throughout the show) that more dragons = more suffering and bloodshed. Her views have changed now that she feels its her divine right (remember when she said “i do not wish to be queen of ash and bone”). Now if that happens, if everyone dies, well, the gods willed it, not her. They want her to do this.

I think addam claming seasmoke was what finally changed her views. She doesn't know what his parentage is so in her mind this is the first non-targaryen (that she knows of) to claim a dragon. Given her desperation and all the bad things that has happened to her, i feel like she started clinging to faith as an anchor (it could also be a way to connect w viserys given his belief in prophecy). That innocent wanting for connection through religion has now lead to these fanatic beliefs. She sees this as her destiny because she cant cope with the alternative.

— i also find it interesting that addam mentions the gods a lot to.

Mysaria tells nyra that she is lucky addam chose to bend the knee to her rather than to himself, and her reply is that it is ordained (there is so much use of religious vocabulary that it must be intentional).

I feel like this “army of bastards” are almost ment to be like a cult following. I think its presented that way visually at least.

When jace questions her, saying anyone could lay claim to her throne if she legitimises them with the power of the gods, her response is again not very logical. Nyra cant understand why jace is afraid that these bastard claming dragons could make his claim less legitimate. She has held the belief that her children are full blooded targaryens, despite all the insults thrown at her. The throne is her destiny, so of course it must be part of her sons as well, why should he be afraid?

— when she says “may the gods bless you,” i wonder what she really means.

Conclusion:

I think this is a great change to the books (the “paranoid mother” trope does get a bit tired). There are a lot of changes the show has done that i am not happy with, but this is not one of them. I was going to write that i love stories abt the “chosen one” being corrupted, but this isn't really that because nyra isn't the chose one. There is no chosen one, she just believes herself to be one and that belief, i think, is what will corrupt her.

[foggy2109]

Analysing A&W because its my fav LDR song

Also this is my first ever post so idk wtf im doing lol

Also also tw for: rape ig and other mature and generally sad topics

//

Lana has this special ability where her lyrics seem to be from both the first and third person at the same time. Her descriptions are specific, but not obvious, it creates this unique duality in a way. And its what i love most abt her writing. Its so specific, but not obvious.

Part 1 (American Whore):

“I haven't done a cartwheel since i was nine”

Lana starts of the song by commenting on the premature loss of innocence in young girls (loss of innocence is a big theme throughout the song, just in different ways). Doing cartwheels is just kids being kids and goofing off, so by lana saying she hasn’t done one since she was nine (which i don’t think is necessarily meant in a literal sense), she’s saying that maybe she had to grow up too fast. Which is a very common experience among young girls (the whole ”girls mature faster than boys” thing).

There could also be a far more sinister ig connotation in that line, with girls especially being sexualized from a very young age. Themes of sexualization, esp of women, are present throughout the whole song, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what she meant.

"I haven't seen my mother in a long, long time"

This can be linked to the loss of innocence thing. The absence of a mother figure probably leads to feelings if abandonment and such, which could lead people to look to external sources, like men to fill that void.

"I mean, look at me, look at the length of my hair"

"My face, the shape of my body"

"Do you really think I give a damn what I do"

"After years of just hearing them talking?"

This, i think, is obvious abt the focus society places on womens appearance. This obsession with looks overshadows everything else in a way (lana also talks abt this in black bathing suit, another incredible song).

"I say I live in Rosemead"

"Really, I'm at the Ramada"

"It doesn't really matter"

"Doesn't really, really matter"

More LA references lol (very typical of lana). So from what i know, rosemead is a nice, smaller neighborhood in la, while ramada is a chain of budget hotels. So, she says she is in this nice neighborhood when really she's hooking up with people in a motel. I love the way she says it doesn't matter, when you can clearly tell through the song that it does matter, and it does effect her.

"Call him up, come into my bedroom"

"Ended up, we fuck on the hotel floor"

"It's not about havin' someone to love me anymore"

This feels like sex as a coping mechanism (in the same way gods and monsters does). It also delves into the loss of innocence from the very first line, exept instead of loosing childhood innocence its where sex has transitioned from being an intimate act between two people who love each other vety very much into just an addiction or coping mechanism (also could tie back to ocean blvd with the “fuck me to death” line).

"This is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"Called up one drunk, called up another"

"Forensic Files wasn't on"

Forensic files is a true crime show i think (i haven't watched it). I get the sense from this that she knows what she is doing is self-destructive and dangerous; she has self-awareness, yet continues down this path. Unlike in “gods and monsters,” she’s not even in denial anymore, she’s not telling herself that “this is what she really wants.” Which i think is even sadder, like there is no delusion, she consciously doing this FULLY aware that its bad and dangerous.

Like this is not casual sex for fun.

"Watching Teenage Diary of a Girl"

"Wondering what went wrong"

"I'm a princess, I'm divisive"

The princess reference is juxtaposed to being divisive; to be perfect and passive yet also judged and divided.

I dont really know what “teenage diary of a girl.” Apparently its abt a girl starting a relationship with her mum’s boyfriend (??). I can only imagine this is supposed to abt the mother line from the begging.

"Ask me why, why, why I'm like this"

"Maybe I'm just kinda like this"

"I don't know, maybe I just like this"

It's clear why she is like this; society. The way society treats women, or "whores," the way society treats young girls, and the way society has treated lana specifically.

They judge womens bodies until they end up seeking validation from men, then judge them even more for being whores. Like it's crazy.

The "Maybe I'm just kinda like this ... I don't know, maybe I just like this" are probably the saddest lines in the whole song.

"I say I live in Rosemead"

"Really, I'm at the Ramada"

"It doesn't really matter"

"Doesn't really, really matter"

"Call him up, he comes over again"

"Yeah, I know I'm over my head, but, oh"

"It's not about havin' someone to love me anymore"

"No, this is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"I mean, look at my hair"

"Look at the length of it and the shape of my body"

"If I told you that I was raped"

"Do you really think that anybody would think I didn't ask for it?"

"I didn't ask for it"

Lana contrasts being raped with the fact that she enjoys casual sex. People see a “whore” and just assume they asked for it. After being sexually abused, the guilt and shame can be immense. You can feel dirty, and the world will call you a whore because of it.

Sex addiction is often a response to sexual abuse.

"I won't testify, I already fucked up my story"

This is def commentary on society’s ingrained misogyny and rape culture. The "didn’t testify, already fucked up my story" makes me think of the perfect/imperfect victim concept.

"On top of this, so many other things you can't believe"

The "can’t believe" bit also makes me think of how dismissive society is to women who come forward (like when the 97% figures were going around and a lot if men dismissed, or refused to acknowledge it).

"Did you know a singer can still be"

"Lookin' like a side piece at thirty-three?"

Women's value is often tied to youth and beauty. Despite being a successful singer, lana can still be reduced to just a "side piece." Society views her as past her prime.

When she's a side piece, she's having sex, but not a real, true emotional connection. As she's already stated, she doesn't care about "love" anymore, which is a really dark, and scary place to be mentally. She has given up on being valued for anything other than just her body (also loosing innocence in what “love” is).

"God's a charlatan, don't look back, babe"

"Puts the shower on while he calls me"

"Slips out the back door to talk to me"

These lines are obviously about how this man is hiding his relationship with lana from whoever he is actually with.

"I'm invisible, look how you hold me"

"I'm invisible, I'm invisible"

"I'm a ghost now, look how you hold me now"

Despite their apparent physical closeness, she feels invisible and unseen in their relationship.

The more she is giving into these loveless relatioships the more she's disappearing in a way. This was also the theme in the song "How to Dissapear" of NFR.

This whole section also taps into the complicated-ness of being the “other woman” or “side piece” in a relationship. This part of the song forces us to confront this moral ambiguity.

Part 2 (Jimmy):

This part of the song, with the production feels like Lana playing up the part of the "whore."

"It's not about havin' someone to love me anymore (oh, okay)"

"No, this is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"It's not about havin' someone to love me anymore"

"No, this is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"This is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"This is the experience of bein' an American whore"

"Jimmy, Jimmy, cocoa puff, Jimmy, Jimmy ride"

"Jimmy, Jimmy, cocoa puff, Jimmy, get me high (oh, my God)"

"Love me, if you love enough, you can be my light"

"Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high"

According to genius: “Her delivery of these lines interpolates the 1959 song “Shimmy Shimmy KO KO Bop” which is about a man being entranced by an exotic woman (and her dancing). This is most likely meant as innuendo given the sexual themes that are discussed in “A&W.”

It’s also apparently an old children’s clapp-along game, which takes us back to the very beginning of the song, with the loss of innocence, and the sexualization of young girls.

I think jimmy just represents all these men who she's hooking up with (could also be a tie back to ultraviolence). Also a “coacoa puff is a cigarette laced with cocaine lol.

"Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high"

"Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high"

"Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high"

"Your mom called, I told her you're fucking up big time"

The repetition of Jimmy only loving her when he wants to get high shows that these relationships are transactional in nature and devoid of real affection or connection.

After this part, in the rest of the song, lana's voice goes in and out, it becomes distorted, and the beat becomes heavier. Maybe it's the drugs, or maybe it's meant to represent her giving up.

We know from earlier in the song that she knows this is bad for her so... maybe this is her way of ignoring how bad it actually is, just giving into it.