#<- not actually I like them in concept I just think s2 was bad and s2 being bad impacted them

[sandsoftide]

Haven’t seen enough people talking about why timebomb and specifically ekko also suffered from arcane s2 being bad. Spoilers and crit

I’ll say more in depth later when I have gone back and revisited it with a clearer head and let me make it entirely clear I LIKE timebomb in concept. Much like caitvi. Like I see the vision I just don’t like a lot of the creative choices

Ekko in s1 was a REVOLUTIONARY he built the firelights w his own two hands and was sort of a foil to jinx and silco, he hated them but he wasn’t going to roll over to piltover either. He wanted independence but not through exploitation. He was a leader and a caretaker and mature beyond his years bc he was forced to be. And he hates Jinx bc she reminds him of that trauma and he’s betrayed by what she became like there’s SO much there look at it

In s2 he goes “hm my tree is being weird” and then gets sucked into the timey wimey thing and disappears for a whole act and the firelights aren’t even MENTIONED (and ik he wasn’t a major character in s1 either but like, he was still important and relevant to the plot throughout bc of the firelights?)

Then he gets sucked into this au portal (cool concept and cool execution) and falls in love with powder or whatever. And she ISNT JINX. SHE IS NOT THE JINX WE KNOW BC JINX IN MAIN TIMELINE IS FULLY BUILT FROM HER EXPERIENCES AND TRAUMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS. Like what Jayce said to viktor that’s part of her whether it hurts her or not. Her trauma doesn’t define her but it’s a part of her! And then all of a sudden Ekko’s sad bc he misses jinx (who iirc last time he met they had the whole I hate you and I miss you talk and they fought and both thought the other dead or whatever?) and then he’s talking her off the ledge even though he has absolutely no reason to! Because he DOESNT KNOW HER he knows literally nothing she’s done since s1 finale!!! Even the “jinx as a symbol for revolution” stuff from act 1 that went nowhere he would know NOTHING ABOUT bc he basically immediately went to Jayce? And they never did the revolutionary jinx stuff that was implied w the flag waving either so there’s no connection there either

Like a full episode was spent developing timebomb and it was interesting but also contributed nothing bc that is not jinx. She just feels like a mpdg and he doesn’t feel like ekko bc he needs to be in love w her for the plot? So they do absolutely nothing interesting they could for timebomb and still make it the entirety of ekko’s plot while tossing out the firelights and the zaun v. Piltover plotline as a whole

i mean again its hard to say bc this is right. objectively. like the stuff w timebomb was objectively well written. i just feel like it doesnt give ekko the space to be his own character outside of the ship? my point isnt that the stuff was poorly written i actually enjoyed it a lot and i think they did a good job w it i just also feel like it does ekko a disservice to have that be his only plotline and how it doesnt feel like it connects to his character in s1

i feel similarly about other plots in s2, like mel's. like yes this is good stuff! i love seeing mel in the spotlight the black rose magic stuff is interesting in a vacuum but also its totally separate from the interesting thematic roles in s1 that dealt with AGAIN THE CLASS CONFLICT AND POLITICS and dropping that for something different feels. like its a disservice to the characters, i guess?

also by having the timebomb development take place primarily in an au with powder and NOT jinx we dont really get to see jinx's thoughts at all. it feels like a repeat of s1 where someone is trying to save POWDER and not jinx, they dont see her as who she is now but rather who she was or could have been. which couldve been interesting to explore but they clearly werent interested in that ANYWAYS

[pynkhues]

I thought that was so interesting/cute that Sam was like "not really" when they asked in that podcast if he was ready for the show to go on netflix and reach a wider audience. It kind of makes me happy because it makes me feel like either way, we're good. If the show blows up or just gets a significantly bigger audience, then great for the show. If it doesn't, Sam will be happy just making the show in his little bubble lol. Though it's interesting because the show has already grown in popularity/attention this year, but I guess the idea is this could be a bigger jump? The show getting a huge boost from netflix would make me feel more secure about future seasons, though it seems like amc is really committed to the show and happy with it regardless. And I loved what he said about it feeling like amc gave them a lot of money to make a fairly niche show -- so I think/hope that will continue regardless of how popular the show gets, that AMC clearly trusts Rolin's vision and wants him to execute it.

/random netflix day thoughts

Yeah, it's interesting! I think Sam's response there is pretty classy, and goes to that idea that fame and celebrity is often a side-effect of acting, and for many (if not most) not the objective. A lot of actors just love it as an artform, so the perks of getting bigger projects is ultimately about the roles it might open up for you as opposed to how identifiable you are as a name and a face.

I'm very curious to see how the audience grows with the Netflix drop - like you said, it's definitely felt bigger already with s2. A part of me really wonders if a part of that is that peak TV is over, and it feels like a prestige show in an era where even arguably 'good' shows (The Bear, House of the Dragon, Severance) aren't actually that good. Like the TV landscape is currently pretty desolate, and it feels like IWTV and Shogun are probably the only TV shows of the last little while to feel truly exceptional. It's definitely a complex show though and one that rewards attention and re-watching, which is not necessarily something broad audiences want, so who knows how it'll go on a platform like Netflix.

But yeah! I'm feeling quietly confident for a few more seasons. AMC said themselves, they don't want to make something for everyone, but rather shows that are everything for someone, and I think IWTV really hits that sweet spot for them.

[wuntrum]

can you speak on your severance s2 opinions? i promise this isnt in bad faith or anything, im just anon bc im shy lol, im genuinely curious

i'm gonna put this under a read more because it's gonna be long but...yeah [scratches head] if YOU the person reading this looooved this season and see nothing you didn't like about it, thats awesome and i'm happy for you. i also liked things in this season, and also its normal to be able to critique things you like, love and light <3 its literally just television

generally, yeah, i found myself disappointed with it. i think the writing this season, both the dialogue and then the actual character/world writing, fell flat and/or seemed like it was completely incongruous with the characters and world that we had seen in season 1. i think something i really appreciated about season 1 is that yes, mark was our main character and the lens we got introduced to both the inside and outside world, but both felt so much BIGGER than just him.

season 2, the entire plot and world and characters bend and contort to make mark like, the center of the universe lol. it's kind of ridiculous, the extent to which the world revolves around him now. it makes the world feel SOOO small. parts of my favorite worldbuilding aspects are seeing how the outside world feels about severance--i think the part where we see how working as a severed employee makes it almost impossible to work anywhere else is great! and in concept i like seeing other towns that have been devastated by lumon's industrialization, though i don't love the execution that we got. so like...everything lumon does is about mark? ALL of it? i know we don't know exactly how long lumon has been operating but like...they've been working on this stuff for longer than two years, lol. like, how many files have dylan completed? irving? petey? that girlie who wrote the lexington letter? is all of their work literally meaningless? like i get that there were people before gemma who failed the tests and they died, sure, but what about when mark started working there? what about the files that irving started and didn't finish, why don't they care about those? ohhhh right, because that's not the one that mark's working on. i get that it'd be a big deal if they got it to work fully once, but surely they'd want to make it work AGAIN, right??? like a science experiment?? i just wish we got like, A nod to other people on the testing floor, because i think the implication is that all of them are working on files connected to…different people, but maybe they're all just different versions of gemma?

honestly all of the innie stuff this season just felt so…idk, aimless? it feels like parts of the building only exist when the writers want them to, and just generally are not interested in exploring anything outside of the romantic aspects for all of these characters. like sure, after the season 1 finale, their asses are not gonna wanna work (EXCEPT FOR WHEN THEY DO? TO MOVE THE PLOT ALONG?), but where's the camaraderie? what about all those other people in O&D, they literally export things to the testing floor, maybe they know about gemma? fundamentally i think the thing that's the most frustrating about innie mark is that they keep telling us that he doesn't care about gemma. which, sure, outie gemma, he doesn't have that same connection with as helly, whatever. but also, he DOES care about her, he literally knows that that's ms casey and that lumon was just going to do what they always do when they fire people????? like s1 mark cared soooo much about his coworkers, ALL OF THEM, even the ones that weren't there anymore—seeing petey and then ms casey get removed was like, a HUGE deal and vital to his growth as a character!!!! and the way that they constructed this whole season basically to remove everyone that isn't mark and helly by the end. lol. i'm honestly shocked that they didn't make a new version of the desk that was just two chairs, like dylan was just excluded from the finale except for when they needed him to come in and hold the door against mr. milchick. again. lol

i don't inherently have a problem with exploring the romantic stuff, i think that could have been done well, but i just don't think it was. and that's primarily because, i think the writing this season for helly was ass! they took away her agency and subjugated her to be just the love interest for mark! especially with the finale, i just feel like the helly i know would've been like mark, what are you doing??? go?!? like she wants to take down lumon, THAT's what will take down lumon! like whatever, mark made the choice that he did, but helly playing along with it makes no fucking senseee. like they want us to think that it's the same ol helly we know and love, they give us crumbs of her anger, like when she's rallying the marching band people or whatever, but again, only when it's plot convenient. WHY WOULD SHE NOT ATTACK JAME? he's like 90???? and helly doesn't like this man???? she has nothing to lose???? fucking THROW something at him helly!!!! the helly that tried to chop her fingers off and hang herself and gave that speech in the s1 finale is not in the room with us. and i don't mean this in a way where i think it's helena again, it's not. they've just completely fumbled her character because they want mark and helly to be together at all costs. and honestly, i think it's so reductive to make this show just about ships, but textually it feels like that's what they want us to do, and i think that's sad. again, it makes the show feel so SMALL, when the world within it used to feel so BIG and like we would want to learn more about it. i care about mark and helly--before they kissed!! i think it was rewarding to see the ways they challenged each other and grew as people!! them as a romantic thing could work but they haven't put in the work to MAKE it work. and, it feels like of redundant even to say, but i do think it's fucking ridiculous to write a story where we get kissing and fucking for allllll the straight characters and then the one gay couple doesn't even get a kiss before separating them completely and writing irving out of the show, basically. like what are we in, hayes code era television?

but yeah, the information they chose to reveal vs what they didn't was also frustrating. i honestly wish they revealed less! there's so much TELLING this season. it feels like they think we're stupid (which, i can't speak for the entire population watching the show, maybe some people literally do need mark to look at the camera and explain everything, idk). like there's sooo much clever storytelling in the first season that just, completely gets snuffed out from overexplaining. i understand in the finale that oMark needs to tell iMark about why he did all of this but like, WE as the audience already know??? we don't need to see this?? and cobel confirming stuff i feel like we already knew about how the numbers work and like, i just don't knowwww. like you can just show me it, i was picking up on it. like we know about the four tempers, you show it to us all the time, cobel having to look dead in the camera and explain it just made me feel like there was a better way we could've done this. i do think some stuff benefits from a "hard" confirmation. like i'm glad they confirmed the helena thing, BECAUSE it backs up and supports all of the lovely and subtle things they had already shown to prove that it WAS helena! like i've known since the first episode LOL, so they do KNOW how to do subtle storytelling. and i think the gemma episode was great, i loved seeing her as a character and thought it gave her so much depth. but again, i think allll of the explaining they do this season not only snuffs out the fun of speculating on the viewing end, but from a writing perspective it just kind of writes them into a corner. i think they're focused too much on making these elaborate set pieces and events take place without thinking of how they fit together, not only on like a writing/episodic level but just the world of lumon at large.

i think a great way they showed story in the first season is through the paintings, and through irving and burt bonding over the paintings! like it not only establishes the lore of kier and then we get to learn more about them as characters through their reactions to the paintings. the paintings this season, honestly, were weak, they were so heavy handed. love and light to whoever painted them, but they were nottt doing the job for me.

(this is a small thing, but like…the intake questionnaire asks them to "name a US state or territory," so they KNOW that delaware is a state. so why would they think the equator is a building? again its just like. a cutesy moment for mark and helly to banter but they could've done it in a way that isn't contradictory to like, our understanding of what information crosses over the sever and what does not).

i keep thinking about the ORTBO, and it just seems fucking CRAZY to me that they aren't freaking out about SEEING THE SKY? BREATHING FRESH AIR? FEELING FIRE? SLEEPING?? WASN'T THE WHOLE THING THAT THEY COULDN'T FALL ASLEEP???? i guess my impression of how the chip works is that the technology doesn't know how to handle when they enter a subconscious/asleeep state, so the innie and outie memories begin to bleed together, hence why dozing would be a bad thing on the job. but again, they clearly had this idea of how they wanted irving to reveal that it's helena in the waterfall, and yes, i did enjoy the spectacle of the episode, but its another example of how they'll build these moments and only focus on what they want to see. like there's so much interesting stuff that they could explore and just choose not to, because (usually) it doesn't involve mark, or mark and helly.

also, i'm just gonna say it, i feel like the writing for the women this season all was kinda bad! it's, again, a byproduct of the world revolving around mark now. reghabi is brought into the story when mark needs her, and cast aside when he doesn't want her anymore. devon has been completely reduced to mark's lackey, like i guess ricken and the baby are fucking fine or whatever??? because she only exists when mark is around, and her only job is caring about mark (which obviously yes, they're siblings, of course they care—but s1 devon had a life outside of mark as well). cobel is only brought back into the story to explain to mark how cold harbor works. i said this before but honestly i like the concept of her little solo episode, though the execution wasn't great, because at least she was doing something on her own (except for when she needs that guy to help her. heaven forbid a woman does something of her own accord without a man to help). and again, helly is completely flanderized to be mark's love interest. i think there's a way to have mark and helly be together and them be their own people, but for the length of the season they did not have the proper time to unpack all the shit from the ORTBO episode so everyone just…conveniently gets over it very quickly, like in the span of a day. like i do think it's a jump to go from "i don't trust you, are you even you?" to missionary under plastic tarps that quickly, i'm sorry. and i think even gemma suffers from this fate as well. i think with hers it makes more sense, like she fucking loves her husband, but i wish she was given opportunities to like…want things for herself, too. like she hasn't been outside in two years! i bet she misses her job, her students, her family, devon, ricken, like anyone outside of mark? but she has to be the tragic love interest that can't be with mark but can't run away from mark, either. she's reduced to set dressing for mark and helly by the end.

they constructed this season i think, with the hopes and knowledge that they'll likely get a season 3. which yes, we know now that it's been confirmed and approved or whatever, but they didn't know that when making season 2, and it feels like no one got a full character arc. it's all start and no follow through. we've had the same "mr. milchick experiences racism in the workplace" moment like what, five, six times, and yet we haven't even started to see him DO something about it yet? like sure he told mr. drummond to eat shit, but then to play along with the minstrel show cold harbor shit, they just didn't care about giving that plot line any action so it'll just get brushed along to season 3. (and while there's intentional commentary about race in the show, it also feels like there's unintentional consequences to their writing choices that upholds the whiteness. like, natalie is just forgotten about, reghabi is dropped as soon as mark doesn't want to play with her anymore, ms. huang barely gets to do anything before being written off and sent away, and yes, i do think having gemma suffer as mark and helly skip away is part of it. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, sorry!). i think dylan is maybe the closest we get to an interesting arc, and i enjoy the inclusion of his wife, but even he's reduced to JUST this story, only getting to talk to mark or helly when the writers need him to, i guess. and the stuff with burt and fields is so nothing, like it feels like it should be going somewhere but they're just leaving it open for season 3 (i guess??? even though it seems like irving isn't going to be in it at all, so why would we be following burt and fields??? and also don't even get me started on how the outie irving stuff is just NOT EXPLORED AT ALL. like whatever sure who the hell cares, sorry for wanting to see that go somewhere or whatever).

it's too early for full reintegration to happen so, we'll just finish that in season 3. (then why introduce it so early in season 2? ohhh right, we need cliffhangers to end every episode on). it almost feels like they don't have faith that people will keep watching without introducing these dramatic moments, but it's all just gasps of breath, there's no actual momentum. like, i've already watched the first season, you don't need to bait me with the prospect of seeing meaningful progression and then take it away from me when the next episode starts. the structure of how episodes speak to each other is that they…don't? like obviously i don't need every episode to pick up on the exact moment the last left off, but the timeline of this season is just soooo strange. the first two episodes are in the same span of time, and then there's gemma and cobel's episodes back to back…it genuinely just feels like they didn't consider the season as a whole which, considering how much money and time it took to make it happen, makes no sense.

and to continue on the timeline aspect, it feels so confusing as to how much time has really passed. it feels like the wanted the structure of the first season, but the pacing mechanic of the first season (working up to the end of the quarter to get to the waffle party) makes the pacing of the second feel even worse. like a.) mark's completed like 3 files a quarter (if we assume he's worked there for 8 quarters, i.e. two years), so making THIS file the super special final one truncates the possible time by at least a third.but then also, b.) he's been at like 95% complete since like, episode 5..? again, i just think it should've been considered more during the planning stages. and it kind of boggles my mind that the creative team views the marching band in this finale to be analogous to the waffle party in s1 when, it's way closer to the music dance experience? (they said this in the like behind the scenes for the finale ep). and in that regard, it really does kind of feel like a retread that doesn't work as well because, again, it's all about mark! especially after the shit with the kier statue, why would mr. milchick play along with the song and dance, like it just feels like they wanted to use tramell tillman's dance experience again, and they wanted to use the colored lights again. he could've just stood by the door to make sure mark and helly stayed there, which was obviously the goal of having all those people there. and yeah, i get the work is mysterious and important or whatever, but the implication that they have ALL OF THESE PEOPLE whos sole job is to be a marching band makes no fucking sense, i'm sorry. i find it hard to play along with the worldbuilding, again it makes lumon seem like its run by like dr. doofenshmirtz or something, it's so cartoony. like are they a global and successful company, or are they incompetent and leave gaping holes for their employees to undo everything? this is THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN LUMON HISTORY and they couldn't…shut the door to MDR like they had before? the goat sacrifice room is directly outside the exports hall door? the music dance experience works so well as a catharsis moment because everyone has their own shit going on, and we get to see the guy who hasn't really disobeyed yet (dylan) finally snap, and we see the others come and support him as a TEAM. it's just spectacle for us, the viewer. and especially the thing where they make the panels with mark's face on it—HE CAN'T SEE IT???? i don't need fan service winking moments like that, i dunno, that just annoyed me lol.

anyway, i feel like i have more to say probably but i gotta go do things so, i'm gonna leave it here. in conclusion, i'm missing my friends from s1 MDR sooo so bad, i feel like i haven't seen them this season at all. i did like parts of this season, but overall it was not what i was hoping it would be. (i don't even really KNOW what i wanted it to be, and of course it doesn't matter what i "want," but i feel like what i "want" lined up with what they wanted to do explore with season 1 so…maybe that's where the dissonance is coming from). and whereas at the end of s1, where i left it being like "where are they going to go from here?? (as in, theres so many possibilities", this season finale has left me asking "…where are we gonna go from here?" because i'm left like, inherently incurious about the people we have left and the choices they've made. and, i feel like THEY (as in the executive team making it) must feel this way too, because apparently they've completely scrapped the writers room from this season and added on two new showrunners. good luck to whoever that executive story editor is LOL

[sandraharissa]

s2 intro was so fire. and I thought like s1 it showed/hinted at the things that would happen during this season. but most stuff didn't happen or it didn't live up to the imagery used in the intro

Vi smudging the VI tattoo. it implies that she would struggle with her identity and the name connected with it and the legacy connected with it, like Jinx did in s1. maybe this could even be her going so far as to reject the name itself, like denying that she's The Vi to keep a low profile. like how Jinx would insist that she's not Powder in s1. but none of that ever happened. Vi never struggles with 'being Vi' or what it means to her or with being Vander's prodigy even tho he's brought back from the dead.

this shot implying that this was gonna be a story about the sisters, but also that Jinx is Vi's burden or her shadow or a demon on her shoulder. but to explore Vi's feelings on her sister and what she's become they'd have to try to explore Vi at all

this shot which implies to me 'Jinx being Jinx' cos it's a callback to when she does the finger gun in s1, but even more so to when she does it as a kid in the Enemy MV. in the scene she, when she still went by Powder, aims a finger gun at enforcers and as she pretend fires at them it flashes to Jinx standing there. so a 'Jinx was always Jinx' message. but it also alludes to her having a target like the firelight in s1 or the enforcers in the MV, who she always hated.

the two times we see Ekko he reverses time, which ig he technically does but the meat of his story is him going to a parallel universe, not going back in time. idk ig I thought that time travel would be more relevant to Ekko's story than parallel universe travel. in the end time travel is only meaningfully used for the timebomb angst scene even tho it's not really necessary there. ig I thought the powers would be more relevant to Ekko's whole character and arc. in an Ekko lol short he reverses time to defeat the bad guy and when he finally succeeds it's at the cost of the destruction of the mural for dead kids, and so he goes back in time again. that's more meaningful than anything they did with firelights in s2 (and arguably more meaningful than the timebomb scene). why did they drop the sick tree plotline? the firelights? his past with Jinx? his involvement in the revolution? the past vs present and saving the things we love? I swear they were teasing me with an epic time travel episode but delivered a parallel universe (derogatory) episode.

this type of shots made me think that Cait would actually struggle internally to an extreme degree with her actions and how the power corrupts her etc. that she'd become horrified of what she's become. and how she'd hate and struggle with maintaining her appearances to the public.

the first shot made it seem like, just like Cait, Jayce would struggle with public attention and maybe scrutiny, considering he was the head of the council in s1. but then the first thing he does this season is resign and that's that for him being a public persona and struggling with his reputation even tho s1 and his lol lore focus on that. like that stuff's so juicy don't get rid of that.

the second shot hints to me at him discovering smth grand/important connected to the arcane, which ig kinda happened but what it ended up being is that Jayce got transported to a bad universe and learned that arcane bad. meanwhile this shot evokes to me smth more awe-inspiring, idk like smth mystical and magical, arcane, you could say. with white bright light often being used in media to communicate divinity. wild runes mumbo jumbo and Jayce being transported to a bad arcane universe seem so pedestrian compared to like, heavenly lights ig.

both concepts for Jayce's story that were introduced in the intro and the eps delivered on neither.

I don't remember the french revolution ending with the ppl teaming up with the royalty. I also don't get the impression that there are any french revolution stories out there with the hero thinking the revolution is an irritating nuisance. this parallel is so extremely unwarranted and borderline offensive.

Viktor did turn out to be evil and he did get a cult as this shot implied but the mask obvs references his lol mech suit that he never gets. there was no reason for him to be designed the way he was, as an arcane deity with specifically a mask, outside of for the purpose of having the faintest similarity to his lol design. the mask, the cult, all that third arm imagery in s1? it all references his lol lore, for nothing, cos they took his character in a drastically different direction. talk about blue balls. and same thing with the light as with Jayce, the light coming from the mask implies Revelations connected to the mask but also loss of identity/being consumed by it. maybe a glorious evolution? idk it again just feels like someone knew what the fans wanted but it wasn't the writers. but someone still put all this in the intro. teasing a better story that we'll never get to see.

there's also all the Black Rose imagery that seemed important even tho they weren't in the end. it being connected to Mel (politician) and Ambessa (politician/warrior) made me think that they would focus on the Black Rose being a political organization that wants smth connected to Piltover and the PnZ conflict, with all the imagery of holding the rose/squishing the rose/being the rose/picking up the rose alluding to the political scheming between Ambessa/Mel/the Black Rose. but they went the route of out of nowhere making Mel magic. imagine if in a random ep of s1 they made Silco magic.

why? why why why why why?

the intro did more for all the character arcs than the episodes themselves

[loycos]

my head's a bit clearer, some thoughts about act 3

-my biggest gripe is episode 7- cool idea, love the concept of peaking into a different universe and seeing what our characters couldve been under different circumstances, but a WHOLE episode. when you only had 9 episode in this season, that already feel like theyre moving at a neck's pace. for a universe that ultimately doesn't matter to the main universe where the story takes place. the fact it had timebomb made it feel extremely fan service-y.

-no emotional resolution to a lot of characters. viktor and jayce are the only ones i can think of that felt like they got the screen time and care for an actual emotional closure.

-isha wasn't even mentioned in this act. in general she was already a martyr for jinx's character development but guys can you make it less obvious.

-it started in act 2, hence why i was so jaded on it, but it continues here: just where the fuck the political drama between 2 cities go? the conflict between zaun and piltover took a back seat since episode 4 and never came back. the resolution to it isn't bad per say, but when u got so little focus on it in the finale it just feels rushed.

-i loved the cait and jinx scene. but like, that was the resolution to it??? after act 1 thinking about it disappoints me. im not against a conversation being the climax to a story, but that is, and im not joking, the ONLY conversation these 2 have in the show one on one. in general the jinx\cait\vi arc ends with 1 conversation per duo (well caitvi got one fight and one very steamy sex scene but u won't catch me complaining). and after act 1, idk i think i wanted just a little bit more. im biased though- the jinx\vi\caitlyn dynamic is my favorite part about arcane. the teasers for s2 always had them front and center so i assumed it'll play a bigger part in the story???

-i felt like what the show was at its core, which is the conflict between the sisters and the cities, was completely sidelined this season. in general i can't really tell what the main theme of the show is anymore. but yeah look at the resolution to the jinx and vi story.did it feel like it had the emotional impact u expected? cause i felt like it was underwhelming.

-sevika?? didnt speak since episode 4???? huhh???

-maddie was pointless. why was she there?? i don't understand the point of that character. i dont understand her motives. she ended up not mattering at all to caitvi's story. the only thing i got from her inclusion is "caitlyn fucks" but is it that THAT important??? of a character trait??? to add to caitlyn of all people?? in THIS season??? this belongs in the realm of fanfiction.

-a lot here felt like fanfiction actually. every silco inclusion (except of him in the cell with jinx), the whole "nobody dies au" they threw in the middle, even the caitvi sex scene (IM NOT COMPLAINING THO). the caitvi scene at the end was dialog out of fanfiction, wtf was that.

-why did caitlyn lose her eye? im not like against the idea on a base level but losing an eye is very symbolic, and im not sure what its supposed to represent here. caitlyn is an observant person, its a big character trait for her. so youre basically saying she sees less now? that she's more laser focused? i sure hope not. wasnt her whole arc with giving up of revenge about seeing the "bigger picture"? her sacrifice didn't feel in character, because caitlyn is not really a "fight to the death" type of character like ambessa is. if she made that sacrifice for something like love, or for the betterment of other people, that would be more in line. idk, you couldve made me on board with it but im just very meh on it. also caitlyn only really emotes through her eyes, it sucks that we get even less of it now?? though i guess it doesnt matter at this point.

-what was the point of the enforcer that looked like vander?

-ambessa was so wasted in these last 2 acts its crazy. where's the "you have to be the fox and the wolf" mindset from her? she felt like she was wolfing only with no wit anymore by the 3rd act.

-mel????????????? it was. uhhh. maybe you shouldve saved it for another series, riot. but in this show, waste of time. the fight she had with caitlyn against ambessa was cool tho.

-i sound like im a hater but u have to understand. s1 of arcane was a political drama and a character study show. seeing all this discarded for magic and time travel shenanigans on like 4 different fronts was so jarring it took me out of the show multiple times.

-cant believe im saying that, but i wish they'd try to stick closer to the characters' current state in the source material (the cursed game). someof it felt out of left field and done for shock value, which isn't why we love the story or these characters to begin with.

good stuff:

-caitvi sex lmao ill take it babyyyyy

-jayce and viktor's scenes at the end were powerful.

-as usual, the visuals were phenomenal. the animation is gorgeous. fortiche u made this show what it is and youre still its saving grace.

-thank god they dropped the warwick\vander plot

-i liked the implication of the conclusion to jinx's story, even if it felt a little inconsistent with the character.

-the ending to jinx\vi\caitlyn was poetic and i did love it, even if it was rushed and didn't really hit the emotional highs i wanted it to.

[angelshizuka]

You know typically I’m the kind of person that would be really annoyed if a show pivoted away from the main story to go ham on the shipping, so I had been confused why it didn’t bother me with Helluva Boss, especially because it bothered a sizable chunk of the fanbase?

But I realized the reason it didn’t bug me as much is because Helluva Boss didn’t really HAVE a main story to pivot from before it began leaning into the character drama especially with Stolitz.

Like there was a hint of a plot brewing in the background but the show didn’t really start to have a MAIN plot until the latter half of S2, and that plot kicked off BECAUSE of the Stolitz and IMP drama.

So maybe I wasn’t thrown off by the pivot to the Stolitz drama because to me, the plot wasn’t being interrupted by them, the plot was being set in motion by them.

Even in the early days of the show where it was just a murder of the week, this storyline does not happen without Stolitz’s relationship, however unhealthy it was in the beginning.

Not caring about their relationship is one thing, and that’s valid, but this show did not have a grander plot for them to interrupt and as it stands, it wouldn’t have a whole lot of a plot without them.

I guess people just didn’t want Stolitz to be the thing the got the plot off the ground, which is fair but that and that alone doesn’t make the show badly written.

That's a very good point! Stolitz, and anything related to it, is the first real main plot point the show ever introduced (emphasis on main, I'm not at all saying it's the only one).

Even if you make the "b-but it was a murder mission show" argument, even then there already was a Stolas and Blitz situationship going on, because of the book that makes Blitz able to do those missions in the first place belonging to Stolas. The romance didn't really come out of nowhere either when you consider even in the pilot there was already a sexual relationship between the two, even if it was just going to be a running joke.

Speaking of, I don't understand why "critics" call actually developing their relationship as a real romance "fetishization", but literally NEVER complain how the pilot treated it as a joke. Not saying that's a bad thing, but you'd think people who apperently are that "critical" of how mlm dynamics are portrayed in media, would have much bigger issues with the pilot than the show.

And I have yet to hear a "critic" come with an argument that sounds like there's ANY possible outcome where they could've enjoyed Stolitz, literally all their arguments always boil down to just hating the concept in general, so of course they don't like it.

Also, pretty sure Viv confirmed s3's main theme will be family and exploring the Goetias in general, so will go a lot less hard on Stolitz (compared to s2), at least in terms of the drama. Stolas and Blitz definitely still have a lot to talk about, but Stolas' main hurdle right now is rekindling his relationship with Octiava.

The show is so obviously gonna focus on a lot of other main plots now, but "critics" still don't seem to be happy about it. They're just salty that even without the main focus Stolitz will always have a place in this show, because Blitz will always be the main character and Stolas will always be his love interest.

[yannaryartside]

A brief essay of Sydcarmy breaking the old curses in Carmy’s life

There is something so beautiful about Carmy falling for someone that is such a honest person (sometimes even to her own detriment) as Syd is.

Carmy grow up being gaslighted by his abusive mother and his emotionally absent brother (that despite everything is probably the closest thing Carmy actually had to a parent). Even really important things like why his father left of what is the source of income of the family are trapped on in mistery. The stories Michael repeated to serve (what he thought) was his function as the glue of the family (that were all some bullshit), failing to be up front about his addiction and asking for help. The toxicity, the pain, the problems. Nothing is ever addressed or called for what it really is. Avoidance was the way to cope. Lying to themselves was the way to cope.

You can see this still affects Carmy, how he jumps every time someone seems to give him passive aggressive hints (and it’s something that is happening, even Nat does it regularly). He seems to be very vigilant as a kid of what he could do to upset people (also because people around him were not honest about the actual issues, so he thought every time mommy was angry it had to be something about him) and that’s probably why he was so shy.

And then there is Syd, she was just so earnest and transparent even if the beef was not the ambience that supports or celebrates people like that. They still reject Pete, which is kinda the extreme of this concept. I think they even hightailed it by making Pete a lawyer (yk the representation of black and white the law should be).

This family tends to swipe things under the rug until there is an explosion.

(This is not me blaming them for Michael’s death, but his depression and addiction were festered in that house, in those dynamics)

That scene in fishes when he tried to convey to Michael that he felt ignored and abandoned by him and Michael just dismissed it? Carmy really doesn’t seem to be able to distinguish honesty from fakeness, maybe because he desperately wants it to be true.

This is also the reason why I think he hadn’t picked up on some of Claire’s toxic tactics where they were getting to know each other “you own me” “say that again” “I will let the Faks to beat you up”. I think Claire is putting a nice girl facade and he is eating it up (so is everyone else).

His anxiety on the other hand may be his instincts ticking up. If she is so much peace, why his anxiety seems to be around (and even created) in their most intimate moments (he remembering their love making scene, and when they were talking about traumatic experiences and Claire admitted to malpractice)?

This man really doesn’t have much self assurance or boundaries. I imagine he developed the anger outbursts despite himself as a way to defend himself (and mirroring the behaviors around him)

And then there is Syd, she says out loud what she wants or needs even if the environment around her may challenge her. She has not lied to Carmy or assumed anything of him even when at this point she had every reason to do so. She could have given up on him since s2, stop communicating all together and being passive aggressive as the rest of the crew in s3,

Idk, I even wonder if the reason he doesn’t admit he has feelings for her is because what he is feeling cannot be love, because, for him, love is supposed to be half good half bad, that you have to give parts of your dignity to be loved, that your loved ones may manipulate you or lie to you “because they love you so much”

But of course, Syd is not like that.

The scene of them in the back of the restaurant is so special for me because of this. They talked. They were honest. They made compromises and amendments. I don’t think he had much of this growing up

“I love you” was love but a knife at the same time, because it was used to paint over wounds that were still fresh, without ever addressing the issue that were causing it.

And I know in s3 Syd is at fault too, she really cannot stand in front of Carmy and put a stop on the madness yet and I wonder what may give her the courage to do so. While carmy was frozen, it felt like Syd was paddling desperately in dark waters and managing to sink deeper the more she fight it.

This was kinda the most intriguing element of Syd’s character for me recently, how she is super aware of what she wants and how she feels but seems equally incapable of going against whatever flow she is trapped in. She could have seen Sheridan Road was not stable. But she ran into it full speed until it burned. She could have left the beef at one sight of the toxicity. She had reasons to leave every season.

In that sense she also mirrors Carmy. The difference between these two is that carmy keeps doing the same thing hoping for a different result because he thinks the toxic way is the only way (of being a chef, to be the best). He sees toxic as good/professional/justifiable, even only subconsciously. While Syd is capable of seeing the toxicity for what it is. She knows what to do to fix it. Is lot like she id afraid to implement change it, that’s why she got here in the first place.

Idk what it is that terrifies her so much. Maybe she is subconsciously is afraid of her own truths? Maybe she is afraid of the person she will be in the other side of this equation. Is there something that happened in the past (maybe her mother’s death) that left her feeling like a broken doll, an incomplete equation, afraid of her own voice? Maybe she (subconsciously) doesn’t want to go full intent into the right direction just so she doesn’t have to find out if she really has what it takes to do this?

Whatever it is, if she is the one that can see the toxicity and react to it, (because everyone else is still trapped in it) then I believe Syd completing her arc could be the catalyst for all the other elements of the story to fall in order, for better or worse.

[all-pacas]

@ariemfox we were talking about characters and their family issues and i started tangenting about chase so making it it's own post: why does chase completely dismiss callie in runaways, given her abusive and addict parents and his own backstory?

answer: he dealt with it, why can't she?

the thing is, while chase really likes kids and always has, he's also historically fairly dismissive of abuse as a concept. we see it with callie, but also in s2 in skin deep: when it becomes clear that alex has been abused and is all kinds of fucked up, chase is almost entirely dismissive. he doesn't think it's a big deal. she "just" has ptsd, whatever. it's kind of the same deal with callie, who on paper seems like she'd trigger something in chase but in reality he is completely disinterested. but honestly, that makes a lot of sense.

while i think we on the outside all agree chase's parents were abusive, i'm not sure chase agrees. that isn't to say he doesn't know they were bad parents and that his childhood was messed up. but even when he talks about them, it's always at a certain remove: i was locked in my dad's study, he says, but it made him a better doctor! we all have damage, but that's a good thing! his dad was never around, and we see in cursed how much he's still fucked up about that abandonment and apathy, but does he think that was neglect? he hated his mother for slowly dying, but he never stops to reflect on how fucked up it was he was parentified so completely; he dismisses adams out of hand when she gives sympathy. does he realize his parents were abusive, or does he just think they were bad parents and it was a pain but he got through it? it's not a big deal, why are we making it one for callie and alex? he's fine. that chase would have a blindspot for abusive parents, especially when it isn't as overt as "this dad beats his kid every day" makes sense to me. (especially because people really weren't talking about emotional abuse in the same way in 2010, and because chase himself would have been going through this in the early 90s; maybe the nuns at his school would have said something if he'd shown up bruised and battered -- although that's more debatable than we'd like -- but a general "i'm taking care of my baby sister because my mother hasn't gotten out of bed in two weeks?" is that abuse, or is that little bobby being a Good Son?)

chase loves kids. when i talk about it, i always say he has big brother energy rather than paternal: his usual MO is to get on their level, buy them a candy bar and talk about girls (cursed) or aliens (cane and able). we do see him sometimes creep into protective -- with the girl in the c-word, or interceding with the patient's parents in cane and able -- but he really is more a friend than a protector or guardian.

this is one of the reasons i had no problem accepting the retcon sister, btw - it makes perfect sense to me given how he acts around every other child. even in episodes where he doesn't explicitly bond with the child patient, like kids, he still takes on a very warm/different tone with them than adults, lol. he likes children! but chase also doesn't do the same for teenagers: he's not rude to them exactly, but he doesn't warm to them in the same way, or befriend them. actually he's notoriously prone to assuming every teenager is using hard drugs. and when we consider that the worst of his abuse was when he was a teenager, when his parents crossed from neglectful and abusive to and now chase you are a single parent and nurse to your dying mother, that also makes sense to me: being aware of callie's abuse and bad situation means chase has to get a lot closer to his own past than he wants to.

we see in the detached and cold way he talks about what happened to him that he's very removed from his experiences: he got locked in a study for days at a time, it was upsetting, but he downplays it. he had to change his sister's diapers and take care of his mother. he uses no emotional language. he hated his mother and his father, he does not examine or talk about why. chase distances himself from his past, but it's clearly still affecting him: we see in cursed he spends the entire episode tense and scared and on the verge of tears or screaming; we see that in the mistake his father's death was so upsetting he killed a woman in his daze, and then was so (implicitly) ashamed of his reaction and his feelings about his father dying he didn't tell anyone for six months. we can see 20 years later, he still resents his mother. he might think he's fine, he's processed, he's speaking of it all from a remove, but clearly he hasn't done any of that, lol. and if he's fine, and his parents sucked but weren't abusive, obviously, then why is callie being so dramatic about her situation? he went through the same thing, and he doesn't make a big deal about it. he was a good boy. he took care of his mother.

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEBLOG: Wakfu Season 4, Episode 4 [PART 2]

I wonder how long he's been standing there. Did he come an hour early? 20 minutes early? Just standing there, doing nothing...

Dios mio... la creatura!

Something very weird happened with the Eni queen/leader. In s2, her cape and hands were like this because she was sitting, in this season — it's just part of her design. Did nobody check this stuff? Am I going insane thinking this is an error? Did she look bad when her cape was down? What the fuck is happening?

Once again, something very silly is happening with Sufokia, if they have an empress and a king. My headcanon to fix it is "the king is a consort-king" or something.

(*sobs in Ankama, or, really, 89% of all media, not understanding that whoever marries the ruler of the nation is a [insert title]-consort, and does not have as much political power or the right of succession* *Hysterically convulses in "99% of all Queens were Queen-consorts, and the title itself, by default, usually means a consort. For this reason, female rulers (rare non-consort Queens who came to throne due to lack of male princes) typically named their husbands "Princes" and not "Kings", because the title king always implies a higher degree of power than a queen; therefore, it might be reasonable to assume, that in this fantasy setting, a Ruling Empress's husband might be called a king for this reason* *Foams at mouth because Ankama just forgot they mentioed Sufokia having a king and I'm trying to cope. badly*)

Also since I'm on this tangent already, YES, this means that Sadida rules of throne succession are:

1. extremely easy for outsiders to abuse (say what you will, but "the spouse inherits the throne" is a BADDD rule to combat conquest by foreign nations, there's a reason it was children or blood-relatives of the ruler, besides patriarchy/divine right of kings/whatever — the spouse is an outsider. All it takes is a princess, who is Wonderful at poisoning, being married off to a foreign nation and whoopsie-daisy, their country is now Her country, and therefore her Family's country),

2. it's unrealistic,

3. probably just bad writing for the sake of drama.

If you're curious why I know all this shit.......... I have a blorbo in a different fandom, and his entire thing is that he was married into a royal family and then tortured by his queen wife in a sort of gender-bent Henry VIII arrangement (except he was kept alive against his will and there was no divorce or church splits). God bless that blorbo for making me learn.

These Huppermages were repurposed from the movie concept art, btw.

I find it quite interesting, that Joris has the authority to be present here...

My personal theory/headcanon is that he is their mediator, and they just call him to their meetings so that, instead of yelling at each other and declaring wars, they can talk to him (and therefore, yell only at him and declare no wars).

Ugh, once again, I am not entirely fond of the English subs. First the translation error about the brotherhood of forgotten/tofu, and now they are making Joris say this spring chicken thing...

It doesn't fit his character and reads weird. Just leave it as "I'm not that young", like in the original. It's more fitting for Joris to speak in negative sentences ("I am not young") than in affirmative ones ("I am old") because he is not fond of stating direct facts about himself and his life... besides the fact that he's standing in front of multiple world leaders.

[kicks my legs cutely thinking about the fact that Joris, older than every king and queen in this place, and fully convinced of his excellence and wisdom and heroism, has been forced to bow down to them for his entire life despite hating at 90% of them for their political decision] I love his commitment to being the protagonist of an 18th century Russian novel about being doomed by the narrative.

Also, kinda wild. You'd think that during Ogrest's chaos they'd— actually I think everyone was too dead to hold meetings during that, nvm.

I wonder what they would do, if the maker of the eyes wouldn't reply. Just stand there? Or is this speech more of a formality — something he always says, in the lead-up to the meeting?

(I am once again reminding you, this blog is LITERALLY about overthinking crepinjurgen lore! Ankama gave no shit while writing this. I'm just doing this for fun.)

He's so unimpressed. Probably still trying to gauge what the fuck is going on.

THE LITTLE SMILE— he's trying to suppress it so hard in the first screenshot here. He's probably glad that Yugo seems to be in good spirits about what's happening, even if he himself is still quite worried.

His expression here is a beautiful mix of "PLEASE DON'T FUCK THIS UP" and "it is a canon event, I cannot intervene"

Literally, Joris's expressions at this moment should be analyzed frame by frame. You can feel the desperation. He now understands that there is a high possibility they are fucked. Because his bestie (who is always right) is an impulsive 20-something year old boy who knows nothing about politics or what people can do, and his mom is a god, and the leaders of the world aren't going to like whatever the fuck is going on, and he KNOWS what they might do, and what might happen, and oh god oh fuck oh god oh fuck—

"Yugo :) perhaps you shuoild :) um. :) ease them into it. :).... :("

He's trying to keep smiling, so hard. It's crazy.

Joris has lived through the huppermage genocide. He knows people don't need that much of a reason to begin killing. He understands precisely just how fragile the position that Yugo and his people are in. He understands his own place in the pecking order, too — he isn't going to act like Yugo's friend if these people are watching.

And neither Yugo, not any other Eliatrope is able to understand this. There are cruelties in this world that they are fundamentally unable to grasp without having truly been seeped in it before.

Like, what is he even to do here, to make Yugo understand how bad the situation is. All he can do is stand there looking haunted, while receiving unprecedented amounts of psychic damage.

If I was Joris at this point, I would simply pull out a flask of whiskey and a cigarette. The political situation has now gone completely unfixable. There is no going back, now that she has said these two lines.

Someone native to the World of Twelve and old enough to understand politics would know how bad this sounds. But to her, these are good things. Of course they are, since she knows what is good and what isn't, and everyone in her world has always accepted those things as good.

Basically: the conflict between WoT and Eliatropes is that a nation of people from a world of teletubbies-level conflict, — with no bigotry or nations or poverty or hunger or theft or inequality, or ulterior motives, — has been added to a "game of thrones" type society with no explanation. And now they are all forced to try and understand one another.

If I was Joris at this moment, I would simply shoot myself in the temple with a gun. If things were bad before, they are horrible now. She is talking to world leaders as her children. It might have been alright even with Eliatropes, but these people aren't Eliatropes.

DO I EVEN NEED TO COMMENT ON HOW BAD THIS IS? IN A WORLD WHERE COLONIALISM, RACISM, SUBJUGATION, AND SLAVERY ARE REAL? IS SHE ON CRACK?

I would give anythign to see Joris's expressions as she's saying these things. I think he should be trembling. Staring vacantly into space.

To someone from a world of violence, a world with "no violence" seems like a world where violence is hidden, and enacted to stop them from voicing their disagreement with the status quo.

Tot has described this as a sort of conflict between the modern world approaches to society — and named China and America as examples of what he was inspired by, while writing Eliatrope.

I will not get into detail on my feelings on it (China is often extremely criticized in the west for things every country in the world does due to racism)

But this might point us towards the fact that the world of Eliatropes wasn't as free of conflict as the show portrays it to be, and it was, in fact, Just A Society, with all that entails. In which case, things get morally morally gray... might explain why, in the earlier drafts of the season, she was meant to be the main antagonist — and why it was decided against.

(Is that maybe why Qilby is so embittered — his experiences were silenced, and he was made to suck it up, only confiding in Shinonome? She does constantly shut up Yugo and Qilby, not letting them speak up about their grudges against each other to keep the peace— [I am quickly silenced by tangent police])

[fizzyrodeo]

my ranking of the seven deadly sins' designs in terms of personal preference. WARNING: I am not nice to Asmodeus or Beelzebub. All simps and stans have been warned. 👇

1. Leviathan (Envy)

Rating: 8/10

I feel like the hate for her is kind of unfair, considering she's the first character we've gotten (or at least the first I've seen) that has two heads and despite being a conjoined demon she's quite cohesive while outlining the differences between her halves. I understand finding her design underwhelming, but before her there was Lucifer (who has the most basic design of them all) and then Beelzebub (whose only interesting feature are her lava bits) so I'm not sure why people are harsh on her like she's the first underwhelming one.

Anyway, I gave Levi an 8/10 because for the sins I don't typically like to fully judge until their demonic form is shown as well. I also feel like it would have been nice to see her be a bit bigger in her base form- not to the extent of Satan's size, but maybe a bit larger than Asmodeus or Mammon.

2. Satan (Wrath)

Rating: 10/10

Dare I say, this portrayal of Satan is kind of iconic. You can see the similarities between him and imp-kind, but he's not designed to just look like a giant imp (which is what most media does if it's not making him a sexy red human with horns). His size is what I'd expect it to be- really, it's nice to see a Sin that actually cares to stand out from its denizens in some way. Him basically being a giant dragon was a good choice.

Despite his rating being higher than Leviathan's, I didn't list him as first because I like looking at Leviathan more.

3. Belphegor (Sloth)

Rating: 4/10

I didn't really pay much attention to her when she was on screen, but her little details stood out to me. She only gets four points though, because not only was I unable to get a look at her full design but what I gauged from her outfit wasn't very impressive. Also, I'm not really that attached to the concept of her character. None of the sins really have roles except to maintain order within their rings I guess, but seemingly all Belphegor does is sleep.

Still, her unique details and coloring does count for something.

4. Mammon (Greed)

Rating: "eh."

Mammon goes right in the middle because I feel completely neutral on him. I know what the general consensus on his design is- too green, too patterned. But I personally can't really think of anything I'd change about him. Even knowing what a letdown his demon form is, it doesn't really impact me– I guess because by the time we got to his demon form being revealed, I was already desensitized.

5. Asmodeus (Lust)

Rating: 2/10

Definitely one of the most annoying designs in the show. I started skipping most of his scenes in S2 because I hate looking at him and his ugly-ass suits that do absolutely nothing for his figure. And as for the matter of his figure, he's just a big, disproportionately buff guy who was given the prototype design for Stolas' head. If Asmodeus wasn't built like a bird on steroids I'd probably like him better.

6. Beelzebub (Gluttony)

Rating: 3/10

Her design has some things I like– namely her ears and the lava hair (when it's under the lighting depicted). The problem is, it just doesn't give 'sin'. She fits in with her subjects too much (and no, I don't think that applies to Leviathan on the same scale).

Her outfits are really bad too. I mean, I get her basic outfit- she's a party girl- but it's basically Loona's regular outfit. She couldn't have had something a little more glam-rave? And the outfit she wore in 'Mastermind' is so random- it feels like she brought it at the last minute from a costume store, not like it's something she'd keep in her wardrobe.

The other issues with Beelzebub, from her not really embodying her sin (her and Mammon should have swapped) to her whole design feeling like another way to snub fat people out of the Vivzieverse (yes I know not all fat people are gluttonous and that gluttony doesn't just refer to food, but it's just so convenient that the embodiment of gluttony- whose whole thing is food- has a lava stomach and can't gain weight) make it really hard to like her overall.

7. Lucifer (Pride)

Rating: 1/10

He's just a disappointment. His outfit fits the circus theme Vivienne was going for, but it's negated by literally no one else in the show following that theme except Beelzebub and her crappy court costume. And personally? I would have made him look a little less angelic considering his current status, but I don't know enough about fallen angel lore (both irl and in the show) to debate if him looking so non-demonic makes sense or not.

The only reason he gets a single point is because he's still better than the absolute worst design in the show, which to me is Loona's demon form. Whoever cleared that needs to be banned from making executive decisions in this show.

[beelzeballing]

actually i dont think ive posted my thoughts on ofmd s2 overall here yet have i?

ok here goes: i think it had incredibly high highs, and at some parts i genuinely enjoyed it more than i did the first season, episode 6 being peak imo. however, it had equally abysmal lows with some glaring writing-, tone- and pacing issues that all came to a head in the finale.

i once read someone say that, if you ever feel like a finale ruined the whole story, maybe you should take another look at the story. there were most likely cracks and problems all along, and the finale did nothing besides dashing the hope that these would perhaps be addressed later. very rarely do genuinely well written stories go completely off the rails in the finale and ruin the whole thing.

i think this is applicable here in some ways, SPECIFICALLY in regards to edward. good god edward was a MESS this season, and it's so sad because i loved the starting point! the kraken era was absolutely terrifying and iconic as FUCK but... they shouldn't have leaned so hard into the drama and trauma of it all. don't get me wrong, i loved that it did. it's one of my favorite parts of the season and i'm so glad we got it. but if they wanted this arc to work with the overarching plot as they wrote it, they would've had to lighten up the tone here CONSIDERABLY. had they played the kraken era for comedy then sure! edward's bad youtuber apology would've been funny. his fast redemption would've been less jarring. the lack of consequences less disturbing. but as it stands in the show, this arc is too dark to function with the later episodes.

i feel like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too here. they wanted the gritty drama of ed coming off the hinges entirely but also didn't want to deal with the aftermath of such a heavy arc in their silly pirate romcom. be that due to time constraints and budget cuts or because they were simply unwilling to, doesn't really matter in the end. the result is the same either way: a very tonally messy season with some accidentally troubling implications regarding abuse.

and mentioning troubling implications regarding abuse; izzy. my poor, poor izzy... his arc was absolutely glorious. i liked izzy the second he showed up in s1 and i was absolutely EATING this season up in that regard. and i think in this case, they genuinely did fuck it all up in the finale with that one stupid choice:

choosing to kill izzy was the DUMBEST thing they couldve done here.

ive talked about this over and over and over again. ive reblogged so many meta posts. and still i am left absolutely flabbergasted by how stupid of a decision this was. the fridging, playing at the fallen woman trope, killing the beating heart of the season and the character who delivers what is essentially a thesis statement, killing off the character whose arc is about coming to terms with his disability, having him die in edward's arms, comforting him and apologizing after an entire season of finding community and love outside of edward, the absolutely godawful pacing of it all, the extremely easy and obvious solution of just having IZZY become the new captain of the revenge to mirror s1 and hammer home how much he has developed since then in one go... i could go on. and i have. it was a stupid writing decision, completely fucked the tone and pacing of the finale and took away attention and time from things that really would've deserved a better wrap up (lucius and black pete deserved better)

now. the whole prince ricky & zheng plot line... yeah that shit sucked ass, sorry. they bit off more than they could chew here. i honestly think those are the arc words of this season:

✨️ bit off more than they could chew ✨️

right off the bat: i think he was good as a concept. bringing in a foil for stede who just doesn't Get It as stede does could've made for very good comedy and drama (and to be fair there is some of that). but that shit got away from them extremely quickly. nothing about how he's implemented past his first episode works, and i think this is very specifically because he's mostly played as the comic relief in his debut episode. making this completely bumbling fool, who gets his nose hacked off on his first job, the main villain of your entire season is... definitely a choice. idk. he didn't work for me at all.

ok wow mentioning shit getting away from the writers. this definitely got away from me. this was supposed to be a short lil post. well. i guess tl;dr i loved this season but jesus christ there was a lot wrong with it. if you want to hear more thoughts. ask box is open. be my guest. i have more to say so even if you dont ask i might add more to this at some point but im tired and have work tmrw.

[gikairan]

Ive only sat down to watch s3.01 so far

But now I'm thinking back to one of the things I really like about the wheel of time tv show over the books and...

It's actually giving the Darkfriends REASONS for being Darkfriends.

Like, the books just kinda had them as villains. Maybe some of them were cruel or Just Bad People, but the books don't really touch on WHY someone might swear themselves to the dark.

And the TV show did this quite early on. Episode 1.03 in fact. Right at the end of the first episodes they released.

But mostly I'm thinking about s2. Where they give Liandrin a son.

.... Who is a dying old man. I don't think he even had any spoken words. And I believe Liandrin is the only reason this man is still alive - all because she can't let him go.

And it kinda speaks a lot about the difficulties of being longer lived than those around you. Your loved ones will die while you look middle aged. And you'll keep living. For hundreds more years. Everyone who ever knew her son will die, and everyone who knew THEM will die, but she will remain. A piece of her forever torn out, but she'll continue living. Whether she wants to or not.

And suddenly, she has a motivation for wanting the very concept of Time to stop. She does NOT want her son to die. The fate she's been given, to outlive the person she cares for more than anyone else, is CRUEL. Nothing the Dark can do is crueller than what the Light is doing to her. Why wouldn't she throw her lot in with the Dark if there's a chance her son will live as long as she does?

And it just makes the character SO much stronger? No longer is she a villain bc she just is. There's a motivation behind her actions. And i enjoy that so much more

[ananke-xiii]

This post contains spoilers for the lastest episode of Severance "Attila" (S2E6, I believe?), so big FYI here.

I've already shared my disappointment for how this season was headed and I was really hoping that, as the season progressed, I would've changed my mind but, alas, I haven't. Personally, I don't think the story is currently being told in a way that's engaging to me. Secretly, I just don't think that the storytelling in S2 was either planned or executed well enough for a show with that time and that budget at its disposal (I'm not talking about camera work and acting performances because they're genuinely the only two things I enjoy atm). Like, I can genuinely feel they're buying time for S3.

"Attila" didn't change my mind about it. However, it gave me an important clue as to why I'm not enjoying the show as I used to and it's also making me think that I might've been wrong in the sense that's not about poor planning but purposefully misleading planning.

With Burt's storyline, we've officially entered "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" territory. It's text now, it's clear as day, they couldn't actually spelled it out more than this for us in a way that wouldn't be boring and pedantic. There's not takesies-backsies now.

So I've been thinking... what if... and hear me out because this is a big "what if", the show's actually poking a little (a lot of) fun at its audience?

'Cause one of the things people love about "Severance" and shows like it is coming up with theories, collecting all the details as if they're evidence planned since the dawn of time by the Author that are there to reveal something to us and us alone, the only one who can interpret them just the way they're supposed to be interpreted via our obviously unique relationship with God, ooopsie, sorry, I mean the Author.

Because this is the attitude of lots of fans of this show, lol. Like, chill.

But also, this is Luther. This is Protestantism. This is Burt (allegedly) getting severed because he's been "a very bad girl Gaga" and now he knows he won't go to heaven with his good, good husband. This is Protestantism at its core.

By contrast, it's a Protestantism that's actually doing propaganda for Catholicism which is an INSANELY FUN concept and I actually PRAY that's intentional.

'Cause the facts are these:

Luther's core belief was that Christians didn't need the mediation of the Church. This meant that good deeds cannot be earned and also that everybody could interpret the Bible because everybody is their own priest and has direct access to the word of God.

Now, the fun thing in Severance is that, apparently, the actual, in-universe Lutheran Church is literally saying that the severance procedure can help people get to heaven. Which means that Kier is acting as a substitute for the Catholic Church. This is why rituals are so important in its office culture, because they give meaning to that reality.

Kier, as a corporation, has appropriated the importance and the centrality of rituals for humans to the point that it can now "bestow" salvation to them. Through rituals. The severance procedure being one of them, the most important one. It's a baptism, in a way. However, Kier's also a huuuuuge company. Which means that work has a central (protestant) role in how they run their operations. So we have a creepily fun hybrid between Max Weber's thesis and the emptiness, preoccupations and anxiety that people feel in-universe: "Normal" work is not enough. If you want to be saved, you must get severed. You need a Church that can provide you with this service. You need Kier.

Ngl, this is good shit.

But why did I say that the show was poking fun at its audience? Well, because the show itself has inundated us with soooo many signifiers (the goats, the forest, Ricken's second book, the dentist-like tools, the MDR substitutes, the reintegration process, Miss Huang, the Kier's twin brother fairy tale, the holograms etc.) and has given us so little meaning so far that we, the audience, are actually supplying meaning to the show to the point that, I think, we've reached saturation: forms and symbols don't actually mean that much, because there are just too many meanings.

As of now watching Severance feels like a job: after each episode you have to do homework to understand half of what you've just watched. I honestly feel like I'm working trying to keep up with the show. And this is not enough! Because the following week there's a new episode and new signifiers and new shit and absolutely no trace of payoff and I'm like, wtf? The setups in this show feel like fucking traps atm.

And yeah, of course nobody wants to be spoonfed but a girl also wants a story. Which means that a girl wants to be given meaning. A girl wants an Author that can save her from the excess of signs/interpretations. A girl needs a Church. A girl needs Kier. Boom, here I'm faced with an interesting dilemma: I am just like the people getting severed in the show, I'm also looking for someone to give me meaning, to save me from the meaningless of... excess of meaning. This is good!!!

If they're doing what I think they're doing,

aka a critique of the over-"protestantization" of art to the point that art disappears in the background because what counts is only the discourse around Art, aka each individual interpretation of Art holds the same weight and how this is fertile soil for Kier-like corporations that just can't wait to become the New Catholic Church and give us rituals and meaning and salvation!!! not in exchange for money but in exchange for our Time and half of our Life!!!...

well, if they end up there, I'll totally change my mind about the show.

I'll be waiting.

[sympathytea]

[ID in alt] Zam! The Prince in Yellow himself! This is mainly a design I mocked up to make writing him easier on my brain since having a physical image for me to reference and describe is significantly easier on my brain than not having one. Uh reason he doesn't have the trident this fic is (so far) taking place inbetween ep 4 and 5 rather than like. post finale ok? ok. more fun stuff under the cut (maskless included, along with other details on the fic that i'm writing!!!)

[ID in alt] Kept seeing everyone draw him half blind? Love that for him. I'm assuming that's a reference to his LifeSteal designs either way i think the concept is sick and wanted to work with a character that has that detail worked into the fic as something they need to work with/around since this is a combat heavy series which I'd imagine wouldn't be easy to do with one eye, but not impossible. girlboss is gonna have it rough in the fic though tried to make the scar more obviously trident-shaped? since that's where I'd imagine he'd get it assuming he was sent to the sword civilization against his will? rather than to actually retrieve the eternal sword on his own accord like Tabi was. idk hopefully s2 don't fuck me up some expression testing + additional notes on behavior

(excuse him he's been shaved for this, also IDs in alt) disclaimer uh. very minimal research was done for his behaviors. i'm not a medical professional but i did find a giant thread full of folks who had half-blindness who did mention the head tilt thing as a thing that they did, facial paralysis is from the injury assuming the trident went deep enough to do nerve damage thus the whole 'one side moves other side doesn't' my apolocheese for inaccuracy I'm sure that the tilt thing and the facial paralysis thing are probably a bit too extreme to some folks but due to my artstyle being very exaggerated, this too had to be exaggerated for it to be something noticeable, otherwise its completely hidden despite me being mostly focused towards expressions i have made a decision that might seem jarring to some to..limit the faces of characters in my fic. mainly because all of them are hiding or masking something underneath, it just suits them well to have this be a trait that everyone in pvp civilization shares in various ways Characters like Evbo, Julie, Tabi and Parrot are more obvious masking via emotional repression rather than a physical mask that they wear Wemmbu, Ferre, The Guard Friend and Zam mask due to wearing some form of face covering but once that face covering comes off then they start to be a bit more honest, not having anywhere to hide MinuteTech masks via..other means. More on him specifically later when i get around to designing him. he's fascinating is all im gonna say There are of course other characters in this fic, Marty and Ellie are two iron-sword level specific OCs I made for the sole purpose of being evil, and they are shockingly the only two people in the fic that are full on honest with themselves and others. They have their shit figured out (so I wont feel bad killing them off hehe) PVP Language guy and the similar Wooden Plank guy are the two non-main characters turned major characters that due to their species, literally don't have a face nor a proper voice for others to understand what they are thinking, but if you give them a way to talk, then they will! This project be warned: gonna take a long time. I'm notoriously slow at pumping good quality stuff out. I'm working on like 4? other character refs at the time of writing this and I am nowhere near finished with any of them. Dear god.

Thats all for now, though. Until I post again!

[the-glorious-evolution-fanart]

Was watching schnee's video essay on why arcane's characters are lonely from around 2 years ago and at the 1:17 timemark we see a scene from s1 where Heimerdinger praises Stanwick Pididly to Jayce. I was like why does he sound familiar? Then went yooooo it's that bitch who stole credit for making Blitzcrank from League Viktor!!!!!!

Damn, Viktor really is the opposite of a creator's pet.

Got a complete revamp instead of just getting an Arcane skin like the other champions that were in Arcane, was written in a very ableist way in both seasons, doesn't have his disability or terminal illness named even though it's a big part of his character, lost his agency for most of season 2, got confirmed as ace after the show ended because one of the showrunners hated jayvik, didn't form any meaningful relationships in the show outside of Jayce, isn't properly credited for making the Hexgates in the show, had actually cool concept art for his transformations into the Machine Herald just to have it scrapped and now the guy who wronged Viktor the most in his lore and is the actual reason why he started to self-harm as well as the main reason he completely embraced "Glorious Evolution" is treated like an outstanding dude 🙃

Plus it's not just Viktor. They deleted Jinx's schizophrenia in season 2 and screwed over any complexity Vi had in order to get her back together with Cait by act 3.

Yeah, Stanwick Pididly was an NPC in old league lore who not only stole the credit for creating Blitzcrank from his doctoral students, he also stole Viktor's earlier research and designs for prosthetics and used those in the process of revival and reconstruction of Urgot in the collaboration with Noxus's Bleak Academy, of course presenting those as his own. He also went to Piltover to advertise "bringing Urf back from the dead" while Piltovians were mourning Urf's passing. Unsurprisingly, he was kicked out. He later became a councilor on Zaun's Board of Directors. An absolutely deplorable person.

And what did Arcane do? It turned him into a hero, a founder of Piltover way back in history and Heimerdinger's friend.

One could argue that a viewer would have to think about worldbuilding to come to conclusion that whoever was involved with Piltover was directly involved in creating and perpetuating suffering in Zaun, thus Pididly is portrayed as a villain... and that theory could hold water, if literally any Piltovian was actually fully held accountable by the narrative for what they did to Zaun. Yet none of them, other than Marcus (whose crime was also hating Caitlyn!) was. Heimerdinger is a silly little goofball who might have been too serious earlier and "stuck in his old ways", but he felt sad when he went to Zaun (once? For the first time since Piltover started oppressing Zaun?) and narrative instantly treats him as fully redeemed. Jayce's moral dilemma disappears in S2. Caitlyn is not held accountable.

Arcane does a very poor job of actually following through with its portrayal of brutality Piltover enacts on Zaun which was shown through enforcers in Season 1. It is shown, yes, but the narrative doesn't always frame it as bad. Oftentimes it behaves like it's the case of "it is what it is". Which means there's no strong basis to say that Stanwick Pididly was portrayed as anything other than a hero.

~

For the rest of your points, I have nothing to add because they're all true, other than the ace argument - bear with me - if you view it through the lens of "it's a tool to deny jayvik", it may seem to you as something bad. But ace people are real, one of my best friends is ace and as an orientation it's not good or bad, it just is. It really shouldn't be used as a negative in ship wars.

[aceingonthecake]

I'm Back

(I actually never left, just wanted to make an entrance into 2025)

I want my first post of this year to be about...Good Omens! Is anyone surprised? No? That's fair.

So, I read a lot of fanfics and I'm soo happy that there are so many for the GO fandom. However, in the summaries of some fics (luckily not a lot) following canon events, I found certain elements which upset me a bit.

I've noticed that these fics start at the end of s2 and describe a hypothetical s3 and are summarised more or less like this: poor baby Crowley abandoned by the mean bad angel is sad and alone on Earth. There, they learn to live for themself and are supported by their human friends. Meanwhile, Azirawho is in Heaven wasting their time and is fairly suffering because they made a mistake "rejecting" the most perfect being in all the universe.

And hey, of course everyone is free to write whatever they feel like writing, but I'm also free to say that, for me, this is a liiitle too much. I mean, really? I get that Crowley is probably sad (nobody can know for sure until we see s3), but are we really pretending that Aziraphale isn't in the same state, if not worse? Are we really saying that Aziraphale abandoned Crowley, but omitting that then Crowley abandoned Aziraphale the exact same way? I'm not trying to minimise Crowley's pain, I'm just saying that ignoring Aziraphale's is unfair.

This concept of Crowley reorganizing their life without Aziraphale like they were in some kind of toxic relationship where Aziraphale stopped them from really living is absurd to me. Did we even watch the same show?

I can't be the only one reading this kind of summary and thinking "Okay so Crowley has a support system and is on the planet they love and have always lived in. Aziraphale is in Heaven alone, after a bad split up with the being they love the most and trying to change a toxic system surrounded by other beings who have always treated them wrong. Mh. Yes, Crowley is clearly The Victim here."

And I'm not saying they are not a victim, I'm saying that, if we want to see things like this, then Aziraphale is also one. Ignoring or minimising Azi's pain just because you don't understand it (even if I find it kind of weird if you don't) is not the way to go. They can both be suffering. You don't need to put someone down to bring someone else up. That's just mean.

And if you want to write a fic more focused on Crowley's pain that's totally fine. Just don't bring Aziraphale's pain down or portray it as fair. I personally think they both suffered enough and not because of each other, but because of the system they're in. They survived for each other and because of each other. Literally.

Also, I'm saying all this as a person who actually shares a lot more traits with Crowley than with Aziraphale, so I'm not even particularly biased. Or maybe I am? I mean, Crowley is Aziraphale's first defender so...

Important Disclaimer: I am NOT referring to any specific fanfiction and this is NOT a personal attack on anyone, just something I noticed a couple of times and personally don't like. Don't come at me with flaming swords and cars' parts, thank you.