#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain
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Bendy, donât get too comfortable around him! I donât trust this man.
(( Strange... Every plea made towards Bendy seems to be stopped by... Something. Someone? ))
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#joey inau#inau joey#joey drew#bendy inau#inau bendy#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#batim bendy#bendy#inky nightmares au#inau#inky nightmares
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MCOC Wishlist Blog Character Spotlight KNULL
by Marco âProphet of Knullâ Garcia ed. Other Gabe
BACKGROUND
Knull is an ancient malevolent deity whose existence predates the universe itself, and was originally content to drift through the endless abyss that existed before time.
He used his weapon, the Necrosword, to combat the Celestials who disturbed his darkness. With this sword Knull severed the head of a Celestial. That head is now Knowhere, a popularly-known Marvel location and a battle zone in the Marvel Contest of Champions Battlerealm.
Wanting an army, Knull then constructed the aliens we all know, love, and sometimes hate, the Klyntar race of gooey symbiotic aliens.š Later, after a debacle with the Mighty Thor, the symbiotes rebelled against their âGodâ and trapped him on a desolate planet, later known as Klyntar. There the God of Symbiotes waits and plans his escape, hoping to one day lay waste and bring Darkness to the universe.
âThe End is near. God is comingâŚ.â Â
Editorâs note: the next several sections are designed to familiarize the reader with Knullâs worthiness to be featured in a video game, compared with the myriad other Marvel characters from whom Kabam could choose.
POPULARITY
Technically, Knull has been around since 2013, and appeared in Thor: God of Thunder Vol.1 #6 by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic, as he was a shadowed figure from whom Gorr the God Butcher steals All-Black the Necrosword.
He was then revealed by name by his creators in Venom Vol. 4 #3 by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman in 2018.Â
Knull has had huge fan buzz around him since his inception and his name is only getting bigger. Despite fewer than a dozen appearances initially, Knull headlined the King in Black line-wide event that began in December 2020, from the minds of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman.Â
Editorâs note: Arguably named after Knull, the King in Black initial release was considered critically to be a high-stakes situation, due to the perceived hype. Its comics made regular appearances in bestseller lists after the event launched, suggesting the Knull name and story, in conjunction with the strength of his creatorsâ reputations, was strong enough to sell books. Overall the King in Black arc has also gotten good critical reviews.Â
KNULL AS MATERIAL FOR OUR MARVEL GAME
Editorâs note: these character spotlights usually explore several factors to determine whether it is reasonable to expect Kabam to seriously consider the character as a candidate for addition to Marvel Contest of Champions. Among these factors are inclusion in other similarly-marketed games, mainstreaming in comics and other media, mentions in MCOC lore, Kabam conversation, or community rumors, and pure hype among summoners.
OTHER MARVEL GAMES
Knull has been featured in other games already: first in the Spider-Man Unlimited mobile app,² then in Marvel Future Fight. In Marvel Puzzle Quest, Knull was originally only part of the backstory description of the playable Prophet Carnage character, but was eventually released in his own right in May 2021.
KNULL AND THE BATTLEREALM
Arguably no direct mention of Knull has happened in either [Marvel Contest of Champions or Marvel Realm of Champions], but it can be said he was alluded to in the motion comic that accompanied the release of Cosmic Ghost Rider and Red Goblin in October 2020.
Then, when story mode Act 7 was released in December 2020, this dialogue was revealed, which has been strongly speculated to be a reference to Knull.
CLAIM TO FAME: KNULL IN OTHER MEDIA
Knull has not enjoyed a reference in any Marvel Cinematic Universe content to date. Hel has only been mentioned in the Disney XD cartoon Spider-Man: Maximum Venom with a retelling loosely based on his comic book origins.Â
UNIQUE WAYS KNULL COULD FIT INTO THE MCOC META
Knull could be a massive boost (editorâs note: synergy hub) to many Symbiote champions or champions in general. I see him as a Cosmic [based on what I was told by co-creator Ryan Stegman], with massive damage. Being the creator of symbiotes, Knull could outfit any [non-#Symbiote] champ with a âKlyntar symbioteâ of their own to enhance their kit or base numbers. He could also operate with #Symbiote champs similarly to the way Apocalypse enhances Mutant champs. He could also work as a counter to Symbiotes or anyone who would have ever been bonded to a Klyntar before in canon, which would include most of the Spider-Fam!
Knullâs kit could alternately introduce a #Codex tag to add to certain non-#Spiderverse Hero champs who have famously bonded to symbiotes (paging Red Hulk or even Deadpool).Âł
A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN?
No mention of Knull ever came out of the Kabam team or anyone related to MCOC. Then again, Kabam never likes to tease big-name additions like Knull would be. Mid-September 2021, one data miner claimed that Knull is forthcoming.
WHAT DO SUMMONERS THINK?
Summoners seem to dig Knull. He was the winner of the first Tournament of Battlerealm Future, March Addness 2020, which was co-hosted by MCOC Wishlist creator Other MCOC Gabe and Unofficial MCOC Podcast veteran UMCOC Deacon on Twitter. The tournament pitted hundreds of characters against one another for votes from Summoners expressing who they would prefer to enter Marvel Contest of Champions. He cleaned house throughout most of the tournament, earning his addition to the MCOC Wishlist, where he has risen into the top 50 most wanted champions.
Due to recent ramblings by the author, and the introduction of Red Goblin to Marvel Contest of Champions, people have warmed up to the idea that Knull might actually be coming to the contest. (Even community-renowned comics expert CTMCOC agrees!)
Once below rank 250 on the MCOC Wishlist, Knull now stands as the #31 most-wanted champ, with over 550 Summoner upvotes as of this writing.Â
KNULL: CHAMPION BUILD IDEAS
PROBABLE CLASS
As mentioned above, Knull is a canonically cosmic entity or deity who purports to predate the universe itself. This forms a strong case for the MCOC Cosmic class of champions.
POSSIBLE ABILITIES
Like many Cosmic champsâ builds, I can see his relying on many Active Buffs with massive damage and defensive potential due to Symbiotic Armor. Perhaps as Knull collects Codices, he gets stronger and this mechanic could be used in game as persistent charges. The more Codices he gathers, the more potent his Buffs could become. He could utilize Fury, Aptitude, Armor, Cruelty, Precision, and other critical-damage-enhancing Buffs. Bleed and Armor Break Debuffs are likely as Knull breaks down his enemies with bloodthirsty ferocity.
POSSIBLE SYNERGIES
Knull's status as the God of the Klyntar could enhance all #Symbiote champions just as Apocalypse does for Mutants.
Venom could get a unique synergy called âDaddy Issues,â allowing Venom a 2% attack boost for every Buff converted on his sp2 but as passive Fury stacks. I imagine Carnage with something like a âProphet of Knullâ Synergy allowing 95% resistance to incinerate effects, allowing him to heal from Incinerates, since Carnage has no weakness to fire when he is operating as Knullâs prophet in the comics.
Knull could also be built to spend Persistent Charges to enhance #Symbiote champions in order to increase their stats and enhance their buffs.
It would also be clever to have a Synergy with Void called âKnull and Voidâ allowing Void access to a non-stacking Armor Break Debuff, such as on his Heavy Attack. More debuffs for Void would be devastating.Â
Knull could also enjoy a basic âEnemiesâ synergy with Thor and Silver Surfer. A great champ to release in conjunction with Knull would be Gorr the God-Butcher, a notable Thor villain, played by Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder, and the other best-known wielder of All-Black the Necrosword.
â˘.â˘.â˘
Editorâs note: this concludes Marcoâs commentary and notes on Knull as a potential champion. Anyone tracking the conversation about future champs knows that the name of Knull comes up frequently among Summoners, and his rise in every voting event in the community tends to support the notion he is greatly demanded by Summoners and would make an excellent addition to the game.
This article was originally drafted almost entirely in late 2020, and has been dug up and completed in September 2021 after MCOC Trucos released a purportedly datamined leak suggesting Knull âis Comingâ to Marvel Contest of Champions in October 2021. -OG
________
NOTES 1. The Klyntar alien race is most popularly represented by Venom, and his fellow Klyntar aliens Carnage, Scream, and the other names associated with their stories of superhuman symbiosis and âVenomization.â 2. Spider-Man Unlimited was well ahead of the curve announcing Knull for a video game in 2018. It got there by virtue of attempting to release almost every noteworthy Spider- and symbiote character as playable video game characters. Knull was not yet a character most people would consider important for gaming. 3. A codex (pl. codices) is the term for the biological traces a Klyntar symbiote leaves in its hostâs system after separating from that host.
#Knull#All Black the Necrosword#Klyntar#Symbiote#deity#mcoc class cosmic#cosmic entity#cosmic being#immortal#synergy hub#character spotlight#Venom rogue#Silver Surfer rogue#Thor rogue#October 2020 Recursion#Act 7#MarcusPack16#summoner write up#summoner guest feature
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Loki s1 thoughts
That I have to go into desktop mode on browser to get a title section, truly is a webbed site. Notes are biased towards the later episodes
Episode 1 was such a good starting episode, started off strong, highlight was the whole who are you conversation
Canât not hear âTennessee valley authorityâ every time they say TVA
The best emotional Loki scene that really landed was the infinity stones in a desk drawer - just showing how completely irrelevant the power Loki chased was
I wondered if that 2050s Alabama getting wrecked by a mega hurricane, everyone huddled in that future!walmart dying in an apocalypse (itâs compared to Pompeii); was meant as the pointed commentary on Southern states doing little to nothing in the face of climate change wiping towns off the map. (Lmao no, the show is made by the mouse!). I found it the most realistic bit of the show
Hmm the show seems to be facing the struggle all long running large comic franchises do: trying to have character development arcs within a show and it fit with stuff from years and years ago all handled by different writers. So itâs like Loki isnât technically post Ragnorak Loki but show is kind of acting like he thematically is?
Really like Mobius and Hunter B-15, on ep 4 and Loki emotional scene arenât landing for for me but the humor does
Kid!lokis cold blooded willingness to kill was fun to watch
I didnât expect by episode 4 to be wondering âwhatâs the fandoms take on doctor/doctor pairing in doctor whoâ just because it feels like similar to using a shipping pairing as really really thematic exploration of the self
I was convinced by gifs of older magician!Loki to watch the show, he wasnât onscreen long but he was a delight the whole time
He who remains is a good end of show reveal for âman behind the curtainâ with his gambit âYou may hate the dictator but something far worse will fill the voidâ. I enjoyed all the conversations in those scenes, and found the knife fight boring in comparison (a surprise for me). Iâve seen it compared to Neo meeting God in the Matrix movie, and I think itâs a good comparison (I really like the Matrix movie)
His response to âu treated real peopleâs lives as a gameâ, of âmurderer! Hypocrite! Grow up weâre all villians here!â Had me đ clapping yes! No one in that room has the moral highground
I spent a lot of time wondering how much of the sets and props were just CGI outsourced, and it felt like a lot
The Sylvie betrayel wasnât unexpected, but like it honestly isnât that bad. More like Loki what did u expect, her goals and motivation never changed, rather than sudden and surprising
I honestly found the Slyvie/Loki romance kind of boring. Maybe it was that they leaned more on the themes of Lokiâs trustworthiness or can a person change vs like interpersonal chemistry. Their get to know eachother journey in ep 3 just didnât do it for me. If Slyvie had betrayed Loki for personal gain than over a moral point idk if that would have made me like her more, but it just might have
Whatâs that post where it was like 3 different production leads were on different pages as far as the Sylvie plotline? That but kinda for the whole show with character arcs and trying to convey themes
After idle scrolling Iâm totally keeping to only looking at stuff on twitter/tumbr from peoples whose opinion I already care about. People talking about the show as some big bit of queer gender or sexuality representation, and Iâm like lmao, WHERE? Russel t Davies was absolutely right to blast that one line in so 3 as being feeble, I missed it and had to go look it up and rewind again
Overall verdict: fun show to watch on a few days of painkillers vs over 2 months. Owen Wilson especially and the rest of the cast besides Loki and Slyvie were great to watch, but I donât think Iâll watch it again. Not sure if itâs MCU burnout that I found myself bored by Loki himself, or that I went in with bar on the ground for payoff for the ending and thatâs what happened, itâs a big sequel hook for s2. The fanfic Iâm sure will be fun
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Viddying the Nasties #37 | Possession (Zulawski, 1981)
This review contains spoilers.
Andrzej Zulawski's Possession is a movie I'd somewhat been dreading revisiting. When I'd seen it all those years back (on YouTube, split into two parts if I recall correctly, as the DVD had been hard to come by in those days), despite being greatly moved by the experience, I'd also found it an extremely exhausting film to sit through. It's a tortured divorce melodrama (among other things) that starts at 11 and only goes up from there. Lots of shouting and screaming, physical abuse, kicking around chairs and tables. The movie is not what I'd call an overtly pleasant experience. Watching it now (on a Blu-ray from Mondo Vision, a substantial upgrade from my original format), while I won't characterize my previous impressions as inaccurate, I was able to better appreciate how the movie modulates this tone, acclimatizing us to its fraught emotional space. The movie starts off in the realm of a normal, bitter breakup, with the husband having returned from a work trip only to learn that his wife is leaving him and struggling to make sense of it, his frustration and anger stemming as much from the fact of her dissolving their relationship as his inability to comprehend her motivations. It isn't really until the half hour mark that it asks us to dive off the deep end with it. The husband hits his wife in the middle of a fight, follows her onto the street as she tries to halfheartedly throw herself onto the path of a truck, which then drops its baggage in an almost comical bit of stuntwork, their squabble ended when the husband becomes surrounded by children playing soccer and joins in. Any one of these by itself is nothing out of the ordinary, but Zulawski assembles them into an off-kilter crescendo, and does away with any sense of normalcy for the rest of the runtime.
That this approach works as well as it does is largely thanks to Isabelle Adjani as Anna, the wife, who spends the aforementioned scene looking like a vampire in cat eye sunglasses and blood streaming down her grimacing mouth. She delivers perhaps the most bracingly physical performance I've seen in a movie, but again this is something I'd maybe underappreciated initially in terms of how finely tuned her choices are. An early scene where she fights with her husband has her manically cutting raw meat and shoving it into a grinder, as if to channel her frustrations into acceptable form of violence for women. When she takes an electric knife to her throat, she begins to spasm about like a farm animal during a botched slaughter, providing a further comment on her domestic situation. The film's most famous scene has her freak out in a subway tunnel, thrashing her limbs about chaotically but almost rhythmically, maybe like the contractions when goes into labour. Her character later describes this as a miscarriage, ejecting the side of her which is neat and orderly and "good". Adjani plays this other half as well, with a much more old fashioned hairdo (braided conservatively like a stereotypical schoolmarm), one which provides a much more tender maternal figure to the couple's son. Adjani is also well cast because of her emotive, saucer-like eyes, which she isn't afraid to point at the camera repeatedly, providing a genuine emotional grounding during both the quieter and more hysterical sections of the movie.
Her husband, Mark, is played by Sam Neill, who had been cast after the filmmakers had seen him in Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. To understand why Neill works so well, it helps to know that Sam Waterston had previously expressed interest in the role. Waterston, while a good actor, would have come off too fogeyish as the husband. Neill brings the appropriate edge and even sex appeal necessary for the material. And like in Jurassic Park, his best known role, he brings an inquisitive quality that keeps him close enough to our vantage point to give the narrative arc some grounding. The other major human character here is Heinz Bennent as Heinrich, a new age guru who happens to be having an affair with the wife. One on hand, this character represents the counterculture from Zulawski's homeland, which he had left after trouble from the authorities when making his last movie. On the other hand, Zulawski was drawing heavily from the bitter divorce he had just gone through, and directs a sizable fraction of the movie's contempt at this character, leading me to believe that his wife in fact left him for some new age buffoon. In one of the movie's funnier scenes, he has Heinrich confront Mark over Anna's disappearance and then go into a dumbassed trance while spouting new age nonsense and basically calling Mark a Nazi. This is the guy his wife left him for? This jackass? Mark sets him up by sending him to Anna, knowing full well he could be killed, but the potency of Mark's rage (and Zulawski's, by extension), as well as the ludicrousness of the Heinrich character, keep us from sympathizing with the latter too much. Zulawski has Heinrich die with his head in a toilet, a final flush by Mark serving as one last hilariously mean-spirited gesture of contempt.
Zulawski originally conceived the movie as having another major character, Anna's ex-husband, to be played by veteran actor and director Bernard Wicki, but after the first day of shooting with Wicki, he decided to drop the character entirely. (I suppose it depends on the personalities, but I wonder how actors react to being let go early from a project. Is it worse if it's on the first day? How about if you lead the filmmakers to realize they should do away with the character altogether? I only hope Wicki got paid.) It's not hard to see what purpose this character would have served, particularly in the way that Anna "upgrades" her lovers, having traded a much older man for the younger, sexier Mark, and then trying to replace him with an evolving monstrous fuck-squid (more on this later) that she was trying to nurture and reshape into the ideal partner. The only remnants of this character in the finished film is his young wife, who appears in the climax and his goaded by the "new" Mark (the final form of the fuck-squid) to shoot into the corpses of the real Mark and Anna. The character's proposed thematic purpose might have spelled out this moment's significance more clearly, but I'm not always convinced thematic clarity is preferable to how things move and feel, and the end product does not feel incomplete or incoherent, or at least not detrimentally so. The emotions make sense, even if the events onscreen are outside the norm. (My condolences to those of you who've been dumped for a monstrous fuck-squid.)
Having been conceived after his last project was quashed by authorities in Poland, there's undeniably a political element here, enhanced by the noticeable presence of the Berlin Wall, near which much of the film is situated. (At one point the camera looks out the window and sees the police from East Berlin staring back.) The realities of the Cold War figure heavily in the characters' lives, as it's suggested that Helen (the other Adjani) is from behind the Iron Curtain (she speak of readily identifiable evil, which could be interpreted as the visible presence of an authoritarian regime) and that Mark's work is in the field of intelligence, maybe even espionage. But the movie is less interested in pointing out political specifics than in the accompanying sense of repression and division, which plays heavily into the visual style. The movie often divides its frames to separate the characters, but rarely with any sense of symmetry, suggesting a sense of emotional chaos enhanced by the bruising mixture of wide angle lenses and handheld camerawork. When we're with Mark, the movie looks overcast, bluish grey, appropriately repressed at first, although Anna's presence throws his neat, fluorescently-lit apartment into disarray. Anna's love nest, situated in the Turkish district right beside the Wall is dilapidated and unkempt, which may have reflected the squalid realities of a hastily rented apartment in what I assume is a poorer part of town, but after having excised the orderly part of herself, it seems like an accurately messy reflection of her headspace.
Now back to the fuck-squid. It's hard to go into Possession this day and age completely blind, and even back when I first saw it, it came on my radar as the movie where "Isabelle Adjani fucks a squid". I have a lot of respect for Zulawski for delivering the goods on this front and for Adjani for throwing herself into this material, not because I'm some kind of sexual deviant who gets off on this stuff (although if you are, I'm not here to judge, it's a free country, just clear your browsing history after), but because modern arthouse cinema often defaults to a mode of cold, downplayed and too afraid to raise the audience's pulse (because apparently it's undignified to force a reaction out of the audience) and it's nice to see a movie serve what it says on the tin (this is one I'd have loved to see with an unsuspecting audience back in the day). Producer Marie Laure-Reyre notes that Zulawski was very hands on with the conception of the monster, drawing inspiration from gargoyles in Polish architecture, as if to further imbue political context into the proceedings. When seeing the end product, I can only assume Zulawski broke up with his wife at a seafood restaurant (I would hope he didn't react like Mark and throw around all the tables and chairs). Of course, the design of the monster means that the movie leans heavily into body horror, and its inclusion on the Video Nasty list in the UK and its release in the US in a heavily-trimmed 81-minute version emphasizing these elements likely contributed to its psychotronic reputation early on. (I am still interested in seeking out this cut, as I can't imagine the loss of 40 whole minutes wouldn't substantially alter the film's character.) It flirts with other genres as well. Certain scenes have a clear slapstick quality. Some of these involve Heinrich, the ever-reliable target of the film's ridicule, but there is also Margit Cartensen, playing Anna's friend and Mark-hater Marge, falling on her ass like a Three Stooges bit. And there's the climax, parodying action movies with its woozy cocktail of car chase, shootout and explosions, which leads a headlong rush into the film's apocalyptic final moments.
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MLQC CN Lucien (Xu Mo) Long Day Date Part 1 & 2
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
It's Xu Mo Birthday which has released on CN server. I'm doing translation for personal reason, so I'm sorry if there's some mistranslation. Kindly tell me if you found some :) feel free for read it~ ^^
PART 1
At 4:30 in the morning, I dragged my heavy suitcase out of the customs gate of Heathrow Airport, and couldn't help but yawn.
There was a problem with the ticket before leaving, and I had to change the red-eye flight, but the plane was late.
Although I rest on the plane for a while, my upper and lower eyelids were still fighting constantly at this time.
MC: No... I have to buy a cup of coffee.
The coffee shop at the airport was very empty, and a blonde crew member was drinking coffee in the corner. I walked to the counter sleepily.
Male passersby: Miss, I'm sorry to bother you. Can I buy you a cup of coffee? You look tired.
MC: ...No, no need. I need to spend all the pounds I exchanged...
There was a moment of stagnation on the man's face, and then a familiar chuckle not far away.
MC: .....?!
I followed the laughter and captured the gentle and narrow eyes that I was looking forward to all the way.
Suddenly, I thought I was really dreaming, but the person who approached me step by step seemed extremely real.
MC: Xu.. Xu Mo?!
Xu Mo whispered something in the ear of the man who was talking to me. The expression on the man's face gradually became embarrassed, he turned his face to apologize hastily, and left in a hurry.
Xu Mo: Miss, can you buy me a cup of coffee with your pounds?
MC: You, why are you here...
Xu Mo: Come for coffee.
Xu Mo casually ordered the order to the clerk and said that it would be charged to my account.
I heard the clerkâs laughter, and my cheeks were hot.
MC: Donât you have an academic conference? How come you run to the airport for coffee in the early morning?
As soon as I finished speaking, I suddenly realized that I accidentally missed my mouth.
Xu Mo seemed to be paying no attention, answering my question.
Xu Mo: This coffee is very good. Suddenly I wanted to drink, so I came over.
MC: ..what?
I took a sip of the coffee that the clerk handed me. It didn't seem to taste anything special.
Xu Mo: How? Is it a little special?
MC: When you say this, well, it seems that you have some taste.
The smile in the corner of Xu Mo's eyes was deeper, and there was a flash of arc in his eyes, which made me react suddenly.
MC: You lied to me again!
I don't know if it was because of his smile or the fresh caffeine that I took in, I instantly became sober. Looking closely at the face of the person in front of me, my heart moved.
MC: Did you guess that I will come, that's why
Xu Mo: Strictly speaking, it is not a guess, but a reasonable guess. As for the basis of the guess, there are at least three things.
MC: Three things?
Xu Mo: First, two weeks ago you asked my new teaching assistant about my schedule for this meeting in the UK.
MC: ....That Assistant actually betrayed me!
Xu Mo: Second, there was a problem with the ticket you booked earlier, and a notification email was sent to my mailbox.
MC: how is this possible?!
Xu Mo: According to the airlineâs process design, Iâm afraid you listed me as an emergency contact.
Xu Mo looked at me, his lips smiled even more, the color of his eyes was also a bit deeper, and I quickly argued.
MC: Because I donât know anyone else in the UK...
Xu Mo: But when I received the email, I was very happy.
I suppressed my accelerated heartbeat, coughed, diverged and talked.
MC: So, what is the third basis?
Xu Mo: The 3rd basis.... Do you want to spend this day with me at the airport?
MC: Of course not! No, does this have anything to do with the third basis?
Xu Mo said, holding my hand on the suitcase, and his gentle eyes fell on me.
Xu Mo: Let's change the place, I can slowly tell you the third basis.
Xu Mo: Besides, you also have something to say to me, don't you?
PART 2
MC: Don't you have a meeting today?
The morning mist faintly enveloped the whole city, and I followed Xu Mo to an apartment that looked a bit historical, and couldn't help but ask in the elevator.
Xu Mo: The original arrangement was to visit the local scientific research room, but I took time off.
MC: Asking for leave? Are you sick?
I stretched out my hand nervously and touched his forehead. Xu Mo smiled lightly as he watched me, his eyes lowered a little.
The temperature under the palm was normal and the elevator bell rang. Xu Mo pulled my suitcase, held my palm with one hand, and squeezed it lightly.
Xu Mo: I asked for personal leave.
MC: Huh? What's the matter?
I was led by him and walked out, watching him turn around and smile at me.
Xu Mo: Very important things, I have to deal with them personally.
I looked at the hand clenched by him, my cheeks hot.
Xu Mo: We're here.
There is a fuzzy chalk mark on the house door in front of the room.
MC: What a coincidence! The number of this room is the same as the initials of your last name.
Xu Mo: ...It's a coincidence.
Xu Mo said that as he opened the door with the key, and what I saw were the large French windows and the tulle curtains raised by the wind.
The European-style furnishings in the house are simple and delicate, I can't help but admire
MC: Wow, this room is great! It feels like returning to my own home!
I turned around and found that Xu Mo was still at the door, seeming a little dazed, with a dull and unclear gaze falling on me.
Xu Mo: Why do you say... it's like returning to your own home?
MC: Huh? I, I can't explain it. Maybe the layout here is very special?
MC: A normal hotel will give people a feeling of alienation and leaving at any time...
MC: But this room looks very safe! It makes people feel like they can stay for a long time.
Xu Mo's eyes changed slightly, and his gentle smile quickly returned.
Xu Mo: Is that right?
I didn't think too much and urged Xu Mo to come in. While he was in the hallway to change his coat, I secretly dragged the suitcase to the kitchen.
MC: Can't be discovered so quickly...
I was about to open the suitcase secretly, but Xu Mo's voice came from behind.
Xu Mo: Donât you take a break first? We still have a whole day. Don't be so hurry.
I turned around vigilantly, looked at the expression on his face, and wanted to see how much he had seen my plan, but failed to read it again.
If you want to keep confidential in front of this person, the requirements for IQ and psychological quality are really too high.
MC: You, you do something else first. Don't look at me all the time!
Xu Mo: What do you want me to do?
MC: Just take a shower, read a book, make a coffee, water the flowers.
MC: Anyway, what do you usually do alone at home, just leave me alone!
Xu Mo: Are you sure I can do the same as when I was at home alone?
MC: Yes! I have no problem!
Xu Moding watched me for a while, and as my eyes turned, a bad premonition flashed in my mind, but I didn't have time to think deeply.
Xu Mo: Okay. Then you... have fun yourself first.
Xu Mo's eyes slid across my suitcase and fell on my guilty face again, as if he chuckled slightly when he turned around.
I panicked. He must have guessed it, no, he has guessed it.
Even so, I waited for him to walk away before opening the box. I was relieved to see the tightly wrapped tools still lying peacefully in the box.
MC: Fortunately, hurry up and start work!
After half an hour, I hummed a song and looked to the kitchen with all kinds of sparkling baking tools ready, and opened the flour bag happily
When I celebrated Xu Moâs birthday last year, I accidentally broke the pre-prepared cake. I have been sorrowing for a year.
I learned that Xu Mo will be attending an academic conference in the UK for his birthday this year.
I have a brainstorm and plan to refer to the farm to table model of European farms.
Bring all the tools and materials to Xu Mo's side, and make the cake on the spot. There will always be no problems, right?
MC: Um, where did you put the sugar packet just now? I can't fail to bring it...
I quickly searched and opened the cupboard, and found that some materials were originally stored here.
MC: Wow, it turned out to be rice! And tea!
There are not many ingredients, and the seasonings are one of the few. Foods made with these ingredients should be so weak that there is no taste.
MC: Wait a minute, this scent is...
The strong coffee aroma spreads under my nose, I can't help but shrug my nose and follow the aroma out of the kitchen, the next second I was stunned.
Xu Mo: Miss, would you like a cup of coffee?
Xu Mo seemed to have listened to what I said. He really took a shower, made coffee, watered flowers, and even brought a newspaper to his side...
His black shirt was loosely draped in a bathrobe, half lying on the lazy couch, relaxed and lazy.
The morning sun fell on the person in front of me through the French windows and gauze curtains that had just stunning me, making his contours appear softer.
It seemed that every thread on his body was plated with a faint layer of silver, and the slowly rolling water droplets on the spider plant and the heat of the hydrogenated coffee made his face softer.
This picture is a hundred times more stunning than what I saw when I entered the door just now.
MC: you..you...
I bit my tongue for a while, and my breathing became short.
Xu Mo: What's wrong? Isn't this your request? You made me feel like I was at home...
The corners of Xu Mo's lips were curved, and he gently lifted coffee cup on his hands.
Xu Mo: The coffee is ready, don't you plan to try it?
MC: I, I donât mean that! If you are alone at home, you have to dress well, or you will catch a cold
Feeling my incoherent speech and the knowingly guilty smile on his face, I took the coffee from him in embarrassment and sat down on the other corner of the carpet.
The rich scent slipped into the stomach along the tip of the tongue, and the whole body was warmed up.
I swallowed the coffee silently, almost burying my head in the coffee cup.
It's all because of this person around, there are too many small conspiracies!
Xu Mo: Actually, I wouldn't be like this when I was alone.
Xu Mo's voice sounded from his side. I looked back at him, his face in the morning light seemed to have a different appeal, and I couldn't help but lean towards him.
Xu Mo: You seem... to be dripping here.
MC: Huh? Where?
I quickly looked down at my shirt and unconsciously moved closer to him.
Xu Mo: It's good now.
Xu Mo's fingers gently rubbed my cheeks, and the light in his eyes gradually settled down, and I realized that I had almost half leaned into his arms.
MC: You...
Xu Mo: Lied.
Xu Mo dropped his finger on my lips and made a silent gesture. The curvature of the corners of the lips was clear and moving.
I swallowed my words all at once, looked at his face close at hand, and heard my heart beating faster.
Xu Mo: You come to me today, There is nothing else to say to me?
MC: ....
I moved my lips slightly, and his fingers lightly rubbed my lips like nostalgia, and left.
MC: Xu Mo...
Xu Mo: Well, I'm listening.
MC: ...Happy Birthday.
Tickăź
The crumbling drops of water on the spider plant finally landed softly, splashing a small beam of light in the sweet morning light.
-to be continued-
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Ch.2 reactions part four
Yâall I have spent all day writing posts about this movie jfc. Anyway, spoilers ahead for everything.
Skateboard Kid & Bill
- I was really surprised by how much I liked Bill in this movie. I really think Andy did Bill more justice than SK ever did because of his choice to focus almost entirely on his guilt over Georgie and downplay the whole... Audra and Bev thing. Bill is at his best when itâs about Georgie and the tunnel vision he gets about that, so watching him project that guilt onto Dean was really, really good.
- Also the kid playing Dean was SO CUTE WTF?? That childâs eyes are half the size of his entire head. And heâs such a good little actor. I still wish he said the iconic âcanât be careful on a skateboardâ line, but him being all creeped out by Bill following him around made up for it. Because... yeah heâs not WRONG, itâs super weird for a grown ass man to show up outside your house and then follow you into a carnival ride looking all deranged like that!!
- That being said, the fun house scene was just as heartbreaking as I hoped it would be. âIâm here this time, please just take meâ - wow. Just... wow.Â
- Bill getting tunnel-vision after witnessing that death and going straight to Neibolt like heâs gonna kill Pennywise by himself is so Bill. Classic Bill. There are three words I associate with Bill Denbrough and they are: guilt, vengeance, and tunnel-vision. This movie was overflowing with that.
Henry Bowers
- First of all, Richie fucking peacing out after Ben convinced him to stay was so fucking funny.Â
- Loved James Ransone in the Henry Bowers scene... heâs such a great comedic actor and he has a special, rare talent for making serious situations have an element of humor without taking away from the seriousness of the situation.
- The Bev-Eddie parallel of him hiding behind the shower curtain to attack Henry!Â
- He stabbed a guy with a knife he pulled out of his own face! And then fucking roasted him on his way out! Love that about him! (and, again, love the Adrian parallel)
- When he looks at Ben and Bev with blood pouring out of his face hole and just says âBowers is in my room. :)â That fucking smile killed me, heâs so WEIRD AND CUTE.
- Ben fucking launching into hero mode and running in to Eddieâs room to murder the shit out of Henry. What a man what a man what a mighty good man, heâs a mighty good man.
- I really... really wish that Richie had killed Henry after finding out he stabbed Eddie in the face. I donât know how that would have worked out? But I still wish it happened that way.Â
- That being said âThat was long overdue. ...Get it? Cause itâs a library?â was SO FUCKING FUNNY.
- Also hilarious was Benâs âAre you alright?â and Richieâs âNO IâM NOT ALRIGHT I JUST KILLED A GUY!â ..... Ben: â... I was talking to Mike.â
Side Commentary:
- During the bar mitzvah speech, I thought it was really important that the âchange is so scaryâ line was paired with the image of Eddie returning to Neibolt for his fannypack. Because change IS scary, and thatâs one of the most important parts of Eddieâs entire character arc. So I really liked that editing choice, and it was very intentional.
- At first I was really pissed that they seemed to be turning Mikeâs parents into âcrackheadsâ, so I was VERY HAPPY when at the end of the movie he looks at the same newspaper clipping and the articleâs title is very different. Like thank God it was just Pennywise being a bitch and Will and Jess still have their integrity.
Neibolt House:
- Loved revisiting Billâs speech after they all rush to catch up to him at Neibolt. I love... parallels... and the IT franchise is just overflowing with them, everywhere you look there are parallels and cycles and history repeating... I think thatâs half the reason I love it so much.
- More parallels: Beverly saving Benâs life using the same spear she later gives to Eddie, which he then uses to save Richieâs life... wow. The Benverly/Reddie parallels... so good. That spear saves lives.Â
- Stanâs head was creepy, but Iâm still partial to miniseries!Stan-head sjfksghs.Â
- Richie immediately running over to Eddie and asking if heâs okay. Continuously putting Eddieâs safety before his own!Â
- I actually kind of liked Eddie freezing up in this moment. It took some reflection to come to terms with Eddie taking so long to summon his courage, but hereâs the take I settled on: in the novel, Eddie IS paralyzed by fear a couple of times because of his motherâs voice in his head telling him to run. As a kid, he manages to push his fear aside and helps his friends, but he grapples with it at first. As an adult, he grapples with it longer and itâs only when Richieâs voice enters his mind asking for help that he jumps into action. So in the movie, it makes sense that Eddie would freeze for such a long time as an adult, after heâs spent a lifetime steeped in fear of literally everything. Of course he wouldnât leap into action as quickly as he did at age 13. Â
- Eddieâs âPlease donât be mad, Bill... I was just scaredâ was fucking HEARTBREAKING and he genuinely sounded like a frightened child who just gravely disappointed his dad. Wow. James Ransone... wow.Â
- Ben fucking stabbed the shit out of that head, though. Jesus Christ.
Next: final battle and ending thoughts.
#it 2019#it reacts#stephen king's it#eddie kaspbrak#richie tozier#ben hanscom#beverly marsh#mike hanlon#bill denbrough#henry bowers#initial ch2 thoughts#losers club#i've since retracted some of these opinions
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âChalk One Upâ | Directed by Seith Mann, Cinematography by David Klein
The episode opens with Carrie arriving from a long night out doing⌠God knows what with God knows who. We love the starkness of this close-up on the exterminated motorcycle light. According to Lesli Linka Glatter, this mode of transport is based on a real life story:Â
âThe scene where she gets out of the embassy was based on the real agent who Carrie is based on. She was based in Iraq at the time and thatâs how she got out: by dressing as a man and traveling on a motorcycle. So, we used that for this. Also, you canât leave in Kabul without an armored vehicle.â
...as the camera slowly pans up to reveal itâs Carrie underneath that (gigantor) motorcycle helmet, the question becomes clear: where the fuck was she?Â
Sara loved these scenes between Samira and her friend. Homeland has depicted several cities in the Middle East over the years but has rarely given us glimpses into the world outside the walls of a hotel or CIA station, especially without our main characters. The market that Samira and her friend walk through is vibrant and filled with color, as are their outfits. Itâs a stark contrast to the interiors of the CIA station. And Samiraâs line that the Taliban didnât go away but were no longer hiding proves remarkably predictive of the rest of the episodeâs events.
The real highlight of the scene is the selfie, of course. We love the detail of the man on the far, far left being cut out. Samiraâs friend is the master of the one-arm selfie!Â
This shot of the various players at the Kabul station looking outward at Carrie is striking. Itâs almost a reverse fish bowl. Carrie remains on the outside but everyoneâs looks are in her direction. Jenna standing at the front of the room further suggests she was never âstuck in the starting gate.â Sheâs in the same position of power in that room as the Chief of Station and the commanding military officer at right. From afar, the dynamics are almost similar to early season one, Carrie running an ops meeting with Saul by her side. All of which is to say⌠is Jenna the Carrie to Mikeâs Saul?
Dog.
This was such a specific detail that we thought it required pointing out, but 27 is not a significant number on this show (at least that we can remember), so weâre not sure why they bothered to show this.Â
...unless itâs a reference to the general ominousness of the 27 Club and a hint that Carrie (who, to be fair, is far past the age of 27) is going to die.Â
This week the show confirmed that Tasneem is the Director of the ISI. Which means that (after President Elizabeth Keane) sheâs the second most powerful woman ever depicted on this show. And boy does she dress the part!Â
Tasneemâs all-white ensemble is attention-grabbing and distinctive (the other women in this frame are dressed in dark clothes). Itâs also visually similar--especially with her long, black hair peeking through the sheer fabric of her headscarf--to the dress worn by several other men at the reception.
Homeland has told lots of stories over the years--whether intentional or otherwise--about the challenges women face living in a patriarchal, misogynist society. Whether itâs Martha losing her career because her loser husband couldnât stand having a wife who was more powerful and smarter than heâŚ. Or Allison dying in the back of a car near the Russian border in an act of scorned lover revenge. Or Carrie, screaming and crying at the end of âThe Vestâ... but being right the whole time.Â
Or, as Abigail Nussbaum said more elegantly than we ever could:Â
âCarrie is, in many ways, a boogeyman; she is what professional women, and particularly ones in male-dominated professions, have been taught never to become - emotional, hysterical, crazy. Emotion is how women who want to be taken seriously are undermined and dismissed. Even if youâre perfectly sane, being emotional - and most especially, being angry - devalues you and your professional contribution. A woman can be called crazy simply for behaving like a normal human being rather than a robot (and of course, if she behaves robotically and unemotionally, sheâs a cold bitch). But Carrie isnât simply emotional (though she is that too, and worst of all, she allows her feelings for a man to cloud her judgment) - she actually is crazy and hysterical, in the proper clinical sense rather than the exaggerated one which attaches to any feminine display of emotion, and profoundly pathetic and unattractive in that state. And sheâs completely right, the only person who figures out Brody and Abu Nazirâs plans and motivations, and the person who saves the day by being hysterical, infecting Brodyâs daughter with enough of that hysteria that she calls her father and convinces him not to blow himself up.
Itâs certainly possible to read this arc as purely tragic, Carrieâs self-destruction being the cost of saving the world (though this is a character arc that is applied to men as often as women, for example in Thomas Harrisâs Red Dragon), but to my mind its effect is more complex. It makes a crazy, hysterical woman into a hero without in any way mitigating her craziness or hysteria, and thus defangs the argument that emotion in women is a weakness. Itâs the rational, sane men around Carrie, who turn away from her unattractive mania with distaste and embarrassment, who are blind and incompetent, and itâs that same inability to look past surfaces that leads them to put their trust, wrongfully, in Brody - just as Carrie performs hysterical femininity, Brody performs stalwart masculinity. Both are misleading.â
All of which is to say, weâre really fucking pumped to see how Tasneemâs role expands for the rest of the season, and we think the array of women in Tasneem, Carrie, and Jenna and their varying degrees of power is going to be really interesting to see unfold.Â
Sara is obsessed with this shot. Sheâs obsessed with the set design of Samiraâs apartment. Sheâs obsessed with this moody lighting. Sheâs basically just obsessed.Â
Last week we had a slow pan around Jalal to reveal Tasneem. This week we have a similar slow pan around Carrie to reveal Jenna. This definitely means that Saraâs theory that Jenna will âsingle white femaleâ Carrie is right on track.Â
Also, Gail hereby declares Carrieâs delicate silver jewelry her âFULL circle earrings,â because everything is coming full circle this episode, including accessories.
That said, we canât deny the power of this shot. First, we have to note whatâs going on in the background (which is actually in focus). President Beau has just arrived off Air Force One and immediately stops for a photo op with the Afghan president. From the beginning, the show is clear this is an optics-based trip.Â
But we really love this image of Carrie and Jenna (out of focus, but in the foreground) side by side. Again, they mirror each other, but in opposite ways (âSo theyâre mirror opposites?â --Saraâs brain). Carrieâs light hair versus Jennaâs dark hair. Jennaâs light jacket versus Carrieâs dark one. Itâs eerie.
On the podcast we talked at length about the scene between Beau and Carrie. Itâs genuinely moving. The staging of it is unique as well. The camera shoots them both at the same height. They stand close together. Ironically, the power dynamic seems almost equal. Heâs one of the few people whoâs ever acknowledged the sacrifices sheâs made in service of her country.Â
Their twin smiles here are all the more tragic following the sequence of events that closes the episode. They all sincerely want peace. So many characters smile real, genuine smiles this week. Thatâs not a normal Homeland occurrence!Â
And they all legitimately believe in what theyâre doing. They believe theyâre doing the right thing. Maybe they are. But partly out of necessity, and partly out of more selfish desires (Hayes later says itâs all about getting a second term), they get caught up in the theater of it all. They make poor decisions. They take the wrong risks.
Every so often in this series we have to abandon screenshots in favor of gifs in order to truly capture ~the moment~ and this is one of those times! The way Claire plays Carrieâs reaction here is so specific, so nuanced and strange and wonderful. These âlived inâ moments are something weâll really miss when the show is over.
IJLTP.
Weâve all been there, Carrie.Â
This is another interesting shot choice. Weâre not sure what its purpose is, other than to add interest to a fairly run-of-the-mill scene. But still, the set design! *heart eyes*Â
Saraâs note for this shot was âSaul is so extra.â We talked about genuine and sincere smiles above and Saulâs here does qualify⌠sort of. This is halfway between genuine and self-aggrandizing. AKA âwhere Saul lives 100% of the time.â He looks like a director about to screen his short film at Sundance. The red curtains parting slowly behind him are Too Much.
Tasneem and Gâulom are the kids in the back of the classroom who are so fucking done with this shit but canât leave because theyâll get detention. We will continue to stan.Â
Itâs a classic Homeland device to show a significant moment from a variety of perspectives, especially if those perspectives involve screens. The multitude of angles on Beauâs speech here reminded us a lot of Keaneâs resignation speech in the Oval Office in âPaean to the People.â Coincidentally, that was her last hurrah as president too.Â
(P.S. Another Saul over-the-shoulder shot!)
Two selfies in one episode!Â
We loved the payoff to Maxâs subplot. For once this season the weird LA filter actually looks nice! These are beautiful shots and the reflection in Maxâs glasses is especially striking.Â
The skull and crossbones on the barracks is an ominious detail. As is the rock labeled âBoredom Rock.â Death and boredom really have been the two extremes of Maxâs stint at the combat outpost.
Weâre still divided on the merits of the âCarrie has to save Samiraâ storyline, but the camerawork here, with Carrieâs armed hands appearing out of nowhere, was pretty cool.Â
This RPG shot was one of the cooler special effects the show has done in a while. The entire sequence of Chalk One looking for Chalk Two was tense and thrilling and extremely well-executed.
Bringing us back to the ops room, the âLOSS OF SIGNALâ projected now for both helicopters is pretty chilling.
This is now Saraâs favorite shot of the entire series and weâd be remiss if we didnât mention that itâs another over-the-shoulder Saul shot. This time he observes one of the crowning achievements of his long career literally blowing up in his face.Â
Visually, this shot anchors the viewer back to the Carrie/Saul relationship, the central one of the show. The black blankness--and the failure it represents--engulfs the frame.Â
We love the choice to end the episode on Carrie alone. It refocuses the event back to her. The horror in her eyes, welling up with tears, is palpable. How does Carrie feel? Alex Gansa explained that the writers wanted to create a new 9/11 with this maybe-assassination of the president. And itâs a fitting bookend for the show in many ways. In Homelandâs pilot, Carrie says she âmissed something that day,â misdirecting blame to herself for not preventing 9/11. Now, in the final season, the show seems poised to tell a story in which Carrie is blamed for the ânew 9/11.âÂ
Strap in, folks. Itâs gonna be a rough ride.Â
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The North Star: Arrow 7x08 Review (Unmasked)
Well I wasnât expecting this thatâs for sure. Iâm not listening to reviewers with screeners anymore. Their descriptions of the episode are almost identical, but inevitably whatever episode they watched is not the one I watched. Â Iâm starting to wonder if reviewers are paid for writing agreed upon talking points. Then again I might just be moody.
âUnmasked��� has a lot of good stuff. It also has a lot of bad stuff. And then thereâs the WTF stuff.
Letâs dig inâŚ
Olicity
Before I dive into our faves, I wanted to clarify a few things. Iâve been noticing some push back online about the phrase âdark spiralâ in terms of discussing Felicityâs current arc. The general complaint seems to be when Oliver does whatever it takes to protect his family he is called a hero, but when Felicity does the same thing itâs called a dark spiral. Therefore, there are some misogynistic connotations using this term regarding Felicityâs arc. Since I am someone who frequently uses dark and light terminology to describe our characters I thought I should address this.
Dark spiral does not mean evil to me. It means a moral crisis. Every hero, at one point or another, goes through a moral crisis where they reexamine how they look at the world. This is typically brought on by trauma, loss, anger, grief, etc. This means the hero is not in the best emotional place to be making moral judgments.Â
Please note I am using the word hero. A character does not stop being a hero simply because they are going through a dark spiral. The hero doesnât suddenly become a villain because they are crossing some lines to get the job done.
Light and dark are terms to represent the best part of ourselves and the worst. We all have light and dark in us. We all have the ability to make wonderful, righteous, selfless and virtuous choices. This is the light. We all have the ability to make bad, questionable, uncompassionate and immoral choices. This is the dark.Â
It doesnât matter if you are male or female; we all have these opposing sides in us. We all have the space between light and dark, the shadows, or white and black, the grey, where our morality and choices are not clear cut. This is what it means to be human.
I donât describe what villains do as darkness either. Damien Darhk, Raâs Al Ghul and Diaz are evil. Can our darkness lead to evil? Yes, this is why we must be vigilant about it. However, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak and John Diggle arenât going to become the villains in this story. They are the heroes who will sometimes experience a moral crisis and make questionable choices.
Oliver Queen is a character who consistently makes questionable choices and whenever he does I call it darkness. It doesnât mean Oliver stopped being a hero. More often than not, his intentions are very good and he has a moral justification for his decisions. The problem is we can justify just about anything, which is why it is important to have some kind of moral code. This isnât a standard I merely hold fictional superheroes to. It is one I hold myself to.
Arrow is being extremely sloppy about the kinds of situations they are putting their characters in, particularly Felicity. They are conflating very different scenarios into the same scenario and then saying it requires same response. This could not be further from the truth.
There is a very big difference between self defense and murder. If Felicity had to kill Diaz after he broke into her apartment, while in witness protection, then it would be self defense. It would be a completely necessary and reasonable decision. Felicity absolutely has the right to protect herself and her child.
However, killing Diaz when heâs unarmed, handcuffed, and in protective custody is not okay with me. That wasnât about self defense. That was about retribution. Felicity wanted to take Diazâs life because he took hers. That is murder.
I apply the same morality with Oliver Queen. Oliver had to kill Raâs Al Ghul when they fought on the mountain. He couldnât work out an agreement over Sarahâs death over tea with Raâs Al Ghul. However, I had an issue with Oliver killing a de-magicked Damien Darhk. Yes, I know he killed thousands with a nuke. Yes, I know he was only de-magicked because the city imbued Oliver with hope and he was able to repel Damienâs powers.
However, thereâs the rub. There was another way to stop Damien short of killing him. Would Oliver have to think outside the box a bit? Yes, but my frustration with Arrow is they never allow Oliver those types of outs, even though Barry Allen is given multiple options to avoid killing the villain. Itâs always about killing or not killing with Oliver. Â He couldnât even use the friggin underground prison he had on Lian Yu. This is one of the reasons I am very excited about Arrow giving Oliver the option of the justice system.
Every Big Bad deserves to die. They are all horrible, evil people, who murder innocents, have unstoppable ninja skills, magic, super strength, armies, a city under their control, and the ability to escape from prison. So why does Slade Wilson get to live? Why does Malcolm Merlyn? Oliver is making emotional decisions when heâs choosing whether or not to end someoneâs life. This is why he picks up and sets down his no killing vow as it suits him. Thatâs not having a moral code. Iâm not losing sleep over any of these bad guys dying, but it doesnât mean I agree with the decisions. Nor does it mean I believe this is the kind of hero Oliver Queen should be.
There have been several times Felicity Smoak is acting in self defense and that is perfectly acceptable. There are other times she is making the same moral judgments I disagreed with Oliver over and Iâm going to call her on it even though it is Felicity. Am I saying I donât like Felicity or believe sheâs a bad person who has gone all evil? No, absolutely not.Â
This is part of the hero evolution process and Felicity Smoak is as much of a hero as Oliver Queen. This is why exploring a darker arc is vitally important. Is Felicity morally justified in some of these more questionable choices? Yes, but simply because you can morally justify a choice doesnât automatically make the choice morally right. I also hold Oliver, Felicity and Diggle to a higher standard than I do a regular Joe because they are heroes.
I also recognize killing a villain is not the same as killing an innocent person. Letâs say Felicity killed Diaz while he was in police custody. This is not the same as Bl*ck S*ren murdering a bunch of innocent people. If a hero kills a villain it doesnât automatically make the hero a villain. If I believed Oliver Queen was a bad person because he killed bad people then I wouldnât have watched the show. I recognize Oliverâs heroism when heâs making decisions nobody is willing to make and accepting the responsibility for those choices. Â
However, I donât believe killing is right. There are very few circumstances where I believe killing is justified. This is just my personal morality. It doesnât have to be yours. However, I am applying the same morality to Felicity I apply to Oliver. I am going to keep describing it in the same terminology as well. Â So, I hope this clears up any confusion regarding my meaning behind dark, light, dark spiral and my general view on morality in regards to Arrow.
Okay. Enough of this. Letâs talk about the sex.
To be honest, it was a letdown.Â
We started out so good.Â
We were micro inches away from shower sex yâall! But Oliver goes into full prison PTSD mode.Â
Source:Â oliverfelicitygifs
He pulls the shower curtain back to reveal a startled, but silky robe clad Felicity Smoak. She was about to hop in the shower with him. Nobody can tell me different. I know my truth.
Oliver is available to zip up her dress though. ( I want you to zip it down you big pine tree. We really should be united on this. I am shocked I have to explain it to you.)
Felicity leans into his touch as he slowly zips the dress up.Â
She rests her head back against his chest and broad shoulders and feels the warmth of his breath as he whispers in her ear.
This is what she missed. Not simply having someone around to help with her dress, but the physical reassurance she is not alone.Â
Felicity can finally lean against the man she loves, take comfort in the strength of his arms, and find reassurance in his soft, gentle voice. The voice meant only for her.Â
Thereâs no more glass separating them. Felicity can touch Oliver again. Heâs real. Her husband is home.
Source: Â oliverfelicitygifs
Oliver tries to wiggle out of going to the fundraiser being held in his honor.Â
Heâs clearly nervous about seeing his friends and citizens of Star City post prison. Oliver is quieter, softer, reserved and more withdrawn after his violent life at Slabslide. Heâs gingerly dipping his toe back into the water, unsure of his next steps, like a child walking into the ocean for the first time. Oliver has returned from yet another island. After seven months, everything that was once familiar is now unrecognizable.
Source: andjustforthismomentÂ
Everything except Felicity⌠or so he thinks. She still believes in him, even if Oliver is uncertain. He knows the people of Star City are angry with him. He feels apprehensive because Oliver also understands they have a right to be.Â
Star City citizenâs can clock a 2 on an angry scale of 1-10, due to the inordinate amount of times Oliver Queen/Green Arrow saved them from mass destruction and certain death. Not to be a stickler on the maths, but facts are facts. At least the ungrateful twats are publicly recognizing Oliver as a hero. Iâm still waiting on the key to the city though (side eyes B*rry All*n bitterly).Â
However, Felicity explains this is finally Oliverâs opportunity to show Star City who he truly is without a mask. Oliver may be apprehensive, but Felicity knows once the city sees Oliver for the hero he is they will fall in love with him just like she did.
Source: Â oliverfelicitygifs
This is what he missed. Not simply the softness of her skin or the way she looks in that dress, but Felicityâs unwavering unconditional love and belief.Â
Oliver could feel it while he was in prison, but itâs very different when sheâs kneeling before him and he can stare into her big, blue eyes while holding her hand. Thereâs no more glass separating them. Oliver can touch Felicity again. Sheâs real. He is home.
Oliver runs his fingers over her wedding band, the infinite loop reminding him of the promises they made each other one year ago today. Remembering the anniversary is Husband 101, but Felicity is trying to give Oliver time and understanding as he eases his way back into everyday life. So, Felicity is thrilled when Oliver repeats a line from his vows.
Girl, heâs been separated from you for months and you are the literal air he breathes. Anniversary also equals guaranteed sex and itâs been seven months. Oliver ainât forgettinâ it.
We start out with so much promise.Â
Source:Â oliverxfelicity
Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards should teach a course on how to kiss on camera. We shall call this course âHow to Be Hot 400.â Yes, itâs an upperclassmen course. Sorry freshmen.Â
Source:Â whoeveryoulovethemost
Oliver takes off his shirt (no invitation needed - thatta boy) and Felicity runs her hands over his chest.Â
Source: Â oliverxfelicity
Oliver lifts her up into his arms and they fall back onto the bed. Yes, yes⌠go on.
AND THEN THE CAMERA CUTS AWAY.Â
We didnât even get that great of a shot in the mirrorâs reflection.Â
Source:Â oliverxfelicity
Iâll take a lower half shot if Oliver is getting handsy, but thereâs no handsy. WHEREâS THE HANDSY? Itâs been seven months. He should be migrating to the glorious Felicity Smoak arse in record time. The dress should be off by now. I should see it fly across the room in the mirrored reflection as Oliver moves other⌠places. I wonât get into too much detail. Iâm a lady.
Listen, Iâm a nice person. I deserve nice things. We waited a year and a half for a shirtless 15 second make out session???Â
We didnât get post nuptial sex and now they shorted us on anniversary sex.Â
 I demand angry sex as recompense.
At least they had the common sense to include some dirty innuendo.Â
Source:Â oliverfelicitygifs
Hehehe. Oh, we all know your first meal, big fella. Say no more. Wait, isnât a double double four? WELL DONE SIR.Â
Felicity, girl you deserve it.
Every time Oliver returns home from an island there is the inevitable mob of aggressive reporters and cameras. One of the loneliest scenes in Season 1 is watching Oliver fight through it on his own.Â
Source:Â hollandrooden
Now Oliver has Felicity and she not only holds his hand through it, but is his friggin bodyguard to boot. (Yeah, I said what I said Diggle.)Â
Ugh, Max Fuller. This douche bag again. Weirdly has not aged a day, so he may be a vampire.Â
Source:Â oliverfelicitygifs
At least his asshole comments provide an opportunity for Felicity to mark her territory and that never gets old.Â
Source:Â felicitysmoakgifs
No, Oliver was not the marrying type until he met this genius, funny, warm, insightful, bullshit detecting, red pen-chewing, blonde sunshine and then all he wanted was to have lots of sex and babies with her. Catch up Fuller.
Bl*ck S*ren swings by to keep up appearances and Lyla asks in a not so hushed tone, âAre we friends with her now?âÂ
This cracks me up any time any character says it. Iâm comfortable with the classification of frenemy. Bl*ck S*ren is the Cordelia Chase of Team Arrow. You know, if Cordelia was a murderer. Scratch that. Bl*ck S*ren is the Spike.
Felicity reminds everyone the only person who actually helped her get Oliver out of prison was BS.Â
Oliver for his part tries to be gracious and thank her.Â
Bl*ck S*renâs response is a back handed compliment, but it reveals an uneasiness between Oliver and Felicity not even four orgasms can fix.Â
Source:Â katie-mcgraths
Worth a shot though.
Olicity has the fight weâve been waiting for after Max Fuller sends one of his goons after Oliver.  First, we need to talk about Felicityâs state of mind. She is clearly traumatized from her experiences with Diaz and as a result is obsessed with security.Â
When Curtis asks Felicity what is next she tells everyone sheâs building a new security system. Itâs her Spidey sense tingling, and not Oliverâs, when she realizes the security system she installed didnât go off when Oliver entered the apartment. Then, Felicity hides behind her chain linked curtains, which can stop arrows, when the goon breaks into the apartment. And finally, she goes for her gun.Â
So, clearly Felicity is experiencing PTSD no different from what we witnessed with Oliver in the shower earlier.
Oliver is handling the situation with the Fuller goon. Itâs one guy. Arrow has finally remembered Oliver Queen can take down ten without breaking a sweat. This will not be a problem. Is it taking a minute? Yes, but heâs still Oliver. He dove over counter tops and furniture to throw his body in front of arrows to protect Felicity. Heâs got this.
Oliver throws the goon into a wall and heâs essentially down. He begins to question said goon in his big, scary, lower octave, Green Arrow rumble when Felicity joins in with her gun.Â
I agree with Oliverâs reaction which is, âWhat the fuck are you doing?âÂ
This distracts Oliver for a microsecond and the goon gets up.Â
Prosecutable in a court of law? No, the goon broke in. Technically it is self defense, but also whoa babe! Stop shooting suspects!!!Â
Letâs holster the happy trigger finger.
Source:Â oliverfelicitygifsÂ
Do I feel the use of the gun is necessary in this circumstance? No, Felicity is married to The Terminator. Heâs home now and perfectly capable of protecting her from one guy.Â
However, this break in is clearly meant to echo the one we saw in the premiere with Diaz. Her security system failed then too. Only she was home alone with a 12 year old boy and Diaz was the one with a gun. All Felicity had to defend herself was a pot of coffee and a poker stick.Â
She is literally reliving Diazâs attack, so Felicity responds to this goon with what she wished she had back then â a gun. It doesnât matter Oliver is there now because her trauma is triggering this response.Â
Itâs no different than Oliver with the shower curtain.
Do I think it is madness for Felicity to carry a gun? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!Â
Oliverâs response to it drove me nuts. Heâs more concerned she has a gun than with how sheâs using it. This is missing the forest through the trees.
I donât have any problem with Felicity carrying a gun. Iâve had a general annoyance with Oliver and Diggle for the past seven years regarding Felicityâs training. Theyâve trained her to defend herself somewhat. Is she as physically proficient at self defense as everyone else on Team Arrow? No. Not even close, which I find grossly irresponsible on Oliverâs part.Â
While weâre training L*urel, Rene, Dinah and Curtis to be ninjas, Felicity is just sitting at the computer typing. We canât toss the girl a staff and go a few rounds? Instead, they send her out into the field in high heels and a mini skirt as she uses a stick, laptop, or whatever she can find to defend herself. Give me a break.
Diggle warned Oliver about this when Felicity joined the team. Oliverâs entire defense strategy for Felicity was HIM.
She didnât need to know how to fight back the same way other team members did because Oliver always planned on fighting for her.Â
He would throw himself in front of any bullet or arrow before he let it touch her.Â
Itâs romantic, but not very practical. Oliver also never planned on Felicity going into the field as much as she has. As soon as she did he had a responsibility to train her more and he didnât.
Generally speaking, Oliver has does an extremely good job protecting Felicity.Â
He is true to his word. Oliver always uses his body to shield Felicity from anything coming her way.
Oliver did teach Felicity to defend herself too.Â
Weâve seen her defend herself time after time.Â
By no means am I saying Felicity Smoak is a damsel in distress.
She was not, however, capable of defeating someone like Ricardo Diaz. Felicity Smoak is the wife of the Green Arrow. The minute Oliver made that announcement to the world he put a target on her back and then disappeared into his island.
The only defense Felicity has against someone like Diaz, or anyone else with a fighting capability beyond her own, is Oliver. But he was gone. She was alone to defend herself and their son.
The security system Felicity had in witness protection was A.R.G.U.S. and they were completely worthless. What does A.R.G.U.S. do besides screw up? Their big plan was to watch Felicity and William, which equated to a failed security system and taking five minutes to respond when sheâs under attack. News flash: it doesnât actually take that long to kill someone.
It is irresponsible for Felicity not to have some kind of weapon to defend herself with. Oliver, Diggle, Dinah, Rene and L*urel all carried guns, but the minute Felicity does itâs, âGASP. OH NO! SHEâS EVIL.â Talk about your Madonna/Whore complex. She has a gun so sheâs a whore! Unbelievable.
I have a problem with how Felicity used the gun. I have no problem with Felicity having a gun. It is just smart. Â In the immortal words of Frank Castle, âYou still got that hand canon?â Start packing baby girl. Go with God.
But weâre not dealing with Frank Castle. Unfortunately, weâre dealing with Oliver Queen. Who has apparently forgotten all the bullets and arrows heâs pumped into suspects the last decade, because heâs super judgey.
Oliver: Whereâd you even get a gun? Youâre new best friend Laurel?
Felicity: Of course not. I got it from your ex-best friend Anatoly.
Oliver: You what? Iâve barely been gone seven months and youâve aligned yourself with two of the most immoral people we know?
Listen, pretty boy. I am glad youâve found moral enlightenment and are now walking the higher plane, but youâve been there for all of five minutes.Â
Letâs not forget youâve made an entire career of aligning yourself with the most immoral people on the planet. In fact, you worked with Talia and Turner inside of prison!!! Neither one is exactly a Care Bear. Turner may have some good in him, but heâs also a murderer. So, dial down the moral condemnation.
Thank goodness Felicity is not taking any of Oliverâs crap.
Felicity: Â Oliver, you donât get to judge me.
Oliver: You just shot a man in our living room.
Felicity: Something youâve done a million times.
Whatâs frustrating is Oliver isnât asking the right questions.Â
Source:Â felicitysmoakgifs
Heâs not focusing on the clear trauma Felicity has suffered. Heâs not asking why she feels unsafe, what her fears are or how he can help her. Itâs all about who Felicity has been working with, which is again, missing the forest through the trees.
I have a real beef with Oliverâs remark, âThis isnât you.â Felicity is going through a dark spiral and is reexamining her morality. However, this concept Felicity is this lily white Virgin Mary character is baffling to me.Â
Felicity was already breaking the law as a hacker before she even met Oliver. Then, she signed up with a guy who was dropping bodies regularly and fell in love with him. We arenât dealing with Rainbow Brite! Felicityâs morality was light years ahead of Oliverâs, but she could reconcile murder and breaking the law for the greater good. Thatâs a darker skew on morality.
And apparently Oliver has just erased all of Season 5 because he clearly has no recollection of Helix. Maybe one of his head wounds is more serious than I thought and heâs experiencing amnesia.Â
Felicity showed she would do whatever was necessary to avenge her boyfriend of five minutes. What did Oliver think she was going to do when her husband and child were threatened? She wasnât going to Pottery Barn to pick out fabric swatches for the new apartment, Oliver.
Arrow is really focused on Oliver putting people in boxes because he has to learn not to. I get it. However, itâs resulting in some sloppy writing because heâs blatantly ignoring Felicityâs history to keep her on this pedestal. Oliver needs to realize his wife is human. I thought he already realized this in Season 5, but I guess weâre repeating it in Season 7. Itâs fine. Hopefully they do a deeper dive on it than they did in Season 5.
Source: Â felicitysmoakgifsÂ
âThis is me because of you,â is the line Iâve been waiting seven months to hear Felicity say. We had a little taste of it when she visited Oliver in prison, but she couldnât unleash her anger full force because he was in prison.Â
Oliver is home now though and itâs time to deal with this.Â
Felicity reminds Oliver he destroyed their lives. He left his wife and child to the wolves without even discussing it with her Felicity. I mean, sweet mother of Moses, what did he expect?
Source:Â felicitysmoakgifs
Oliverâs response to Felicityâs completely warranted anger pissed me off too. Heâs very, âHow many more times do I have to apologize for this?â MORE THAN ONCE ASSHOLE.
But Felicity isnât looking for an apology anymore. What good is an apology at this point? Whatâs done is done.Â
Source:Â felicitysmoakgifs
Oliverâs actions have consequences. He continually lies and believes an apology will somehow be a magic wand erasing all the damage heâs done. Marriage doesnât work like that. Life doesnât work like that.
I just had this fight with my husband, which is why I respond so much to Felicity in âUnmasked.â She is saying very similar things I said to my husband. Believing you are not going to impact each otherâs personalities over the years is naive. You canât continue the same hurtful behavior and expect it not to change who your partner is.
Felicity has told Oliver several times she feels abandoned when he makes decisions without her. This behavior hits Felicity where it hurts. This is her greatest fear. Her pain is raw and exposed. Yet, Oliver continues to make decisions without consulting her. I donât even think he checked with her before going back out into the field as Green Arrow. I hope to God he did, but if not this is exactly what sheâs talking about.
Felicity is required to make changes inside of herself due to the impact of Oliverâs decisions. Oliver abandoned her. He left her alone, with a child and defenseless. As did their âfriends.âÂ
So, Felicity had to learn how to defend herself. She had to learn how to survive.
Oliver Queen wasnât the only one on an island. Felicity is on one too, but her island was made by her husband. Oliver may be home, but Felicity is not.Â
Felicity is still on that island, fighting alone every day to survive, because she canât trust Oliver wonât make another decision without her. Felicity doesnât trust Oliver wonât abandon her all over again.
Felicity is making decisions for herself that, yeah Oliver, maybe arenât typical to the woman you knew seventh months ago. His behavior in this marriage is impacting the decisions Felicity makes and those decisions are changing who she is. It is cause and effect.
Oliver can say heâs sorry all he wants, but it doesnât erase the trauma Felicity is dealing with now. Oliver needs to walk through these consequences with his wife and understand the impact heâs made. Thereâs no magic wand.
I understand Oliver is dealing with trauma too and acclimating himself to life outside of Slabside. Heâs missed a lot and needs a moment to catch up. We are dealing with two traumatized people. However, Felicity has always treated a traumatized Oliver with compassion. One of my main frustrations with Oliver in âUnmaskedâ is heâs coming to this fight with a lot of moral condemnation.
Weâve been down many dark spirals with Oliver Queen. He is constantly reexamining his morality. Oliver is constantly pick up and putting down his âno killingâ vow. He expects everyone to get on board with whatever he decides whenever he decides it. Felicity has never approached Oliverâs darkness with moral condemnation. If anything she treated him with kid cloves.Â
Felicity harnesses Oliverâs light with cups of coffee, reassurance, forgiveness, belief and unconditional love.Â
Oliverâs response to Felicityâs dark spiral in âUnmaskedâ is, âWho the hell having you been working with?âÂ
Oliver realizing criminals are human too does not make him morally superior to everyone else. Felicity has been arguing this kind of morality for the last seven years. Iâm happy Oliver has finally gotten on board, but heâs not suddenly Jesus.
That said, Oliverâs experience in Slabside, and his new found moral code, will make him into the superhero Felicity Smoak needs right now. He is absolutely capable of harnessing her light, but unfortunately we did not see much of that hero in this fight.
There is a glimpse of that hero though. We get a clear view of the deep hole Felicity is in when she tells Oliver the person she was before was weak.Â
Oliver is just completely dumbfounded by this. How can Felicity believe she is anything, but the strongest person Oliver knows?
Source: whoeveryoulovethemostÂ
I shared Oliverâs shock because I too cannot fathom Felicity ever viewing herself as weak. The line really bothered me, but itâs supposed to. This is another manifestation of Felicityâs trauma. Sheâs viewing herself as weak both physically and emotionally. The person she was couldnât physically protect herself.  The gun and new security measures are all coping mechanisms for Felicityâs deep rooted fear.
Felicity can feel her fear inside and she views that as weakness too. She never wants to feel afraid like this again.  So, sheâs reviewing her morality. The woman who was not willing to do whatever it takes was weak.Â
This is a very Oliver Queen Season 1-3 attitude. Oliver always believed his humanity was a weakness.Â
Now Felicity is viewing her humanity as a weakness, which is so heartbreaking.
Oliver is shocked and saddened by Felicityâs remark because her humanity inspired his humanity.Â
Source: whoeveryoulovethemost
Itâs why Oliver believes Felicity is the best part of him. Anything to the contrary is unfathomable. Felicity needs to see herself through Oliverâs eyes, just as Oliver saw himself through Felicityâs eyes. He needs to be a hero to Felicity like she was to him. Thatâs the love, the light, which will illuminate the path out of the dark.
However, thereâs another reason Oliver repeated those vows. âYouâre the very best part of meâ assigns an ownership and responsibility to Felicity over her husbandâs soul that is unfair. Itâs something Felicity touched on when she tells Oliver ultimately who she is, and the decisions she makes, arenât on him. Those decisions are on her.
Source:Â oliverfelicitygifs
The same goes for Oliver. Felicity canât be responsible for harnessing Oliverâs light all the time. He has to inspire himself. Oliver has to harness his light on his own. He did a good job in Slabside, but now that heâs home he canât fall back to relying on Diggle and Felicity to be his cheerleading squad. Oliver has to be a good person all by himself without someone holding his hand.
This pushes both Oliver and Felicity in new and important directions. This dark spiral gives Felicityâs character a freedom sheâs never had before. Oliverâs enlightenment gives him a new sense of accountability.
Source:Â olivergifs
We finally achieve a moment that has been a long time coming in Oliver Queenâs journey toward becoming a fully realized superhero. Oliver lied to the people of Star City and understands the only way to gain their trust is by being honest (*cough*apply this to your marriage Oliver*cough*). He decides to go out into the field as Green Arrow with his hood down and without a mask.Â
Source: Â olivergifsÂ
For the first time, Oliver is merging both personas. He realizes part of being a hero is being accountable for his actions. Â He doesnât remain in the shadows, but steps into the light as Green Arrow for the entire world to see.Â
Source:Â whoeveryoulovethemostÂ
This is a moment Iâve written about for years and it fills me with a lot of joy watching Oliver finally putting the pieces together.
While their argument is necessary, it also feels mishandled by the Arrow writers because Oliver and Felicity are acting so extreme. Oliverâs reaction to the gun is extreme. How Felicity uses the gun is extreme. They cram a discussion weâve waited seven months for into two little scenes. Thereâs way too much other nonsense going on. The Olicity scenes donât get the time and attention they deserve. It feels sloppy as a result.
Source: oliverfelicitygifs
The two circle back to one another at the end of the episode to find some way to merge their diverting paths. This time Oliver tries the softer and gentler coffee approach. See? Heâs learning!
Source: oliverfelicitygifs
The last seven months has impacted each of them in permanent ways. Felicity is right. Oliver simply canât talk her down to the old Felicity chewing the red pen.Â
Life changes us, but I donât believe this is about getting the old Felicity back. Oliverâs journey was never about restoring an old version of him. It was about finding the new person, the new hero, he had become. It was about learning to balance the light and dark.
Oliver may not be able to talk Felicity into her old self, but maybe he can inspire the new hero she wants to be. Someone who has light and dark. Someone who is impacted by their trauma, but not ruled by it. Someone who makes choices not out of anger, fear or pain, but from compassion. This is the hero Felicity inspired Oliver to be. So, now itâs his time to return the favor.
I am not remotely concerned about Olicity. There is no shortage of love between these too. They didnât spend seven months fighting to be together just to separate.
Source: oliverfelicitygifs
I know they are on different paths right now, but they will find their way back to one another. This happens in marriage. Learning how to repair broken bridges is a large part of being married. My sincerest hope is they continue with Felicityâs moral crisis and keep examining the kind of hero she wants to be. Â
Sheâs going through the same trajectory Oliver went through. Itâs a mini trajectory. It wonât take Felicity seven years to get there, primarily because sheâs smarter than Oliver, but I do hope the writers give the character the freedom sheâs earned. I certainly was patient with Oliver crossing lines, so I have to give her character the same in turn. Â
That said, Felicity Smoak is always a person who valued human life. So, the moments sheâs not are when I am questioning her moral justifications. She admits to Oliver she would have killed Diaz and I donât mind Oliver being shocked by her actions. Killing an unarmed man in police custody is A-typical Felicity Smoak behavior and Oliver has a right to be concerned.
What drives me nuts about this final scene is when Felicity says this:
Source: oliverfelicitygifsÂ
The idea that Felicityâs darkness is incompatible with their relationship makes me want to pull my hair out. Â
I realize Felicity is channeling Season 1 â Season 3 Oliver and he always used his darkness as a reason why they couldnât be together. However, they werenât married at the time. Yeah, thatâs right kids. You signed the paperwork. You are legally required to wake up next to each other. Â Felicity doesnât need to be sunshine and rainbows all the time for their marriage to function. Itâs okay if Felicity gets lost. Oliver needs to put on his big boy pants anyways. This gives him a perfect opportunity to do so.
The line doesnât even really make all that much sense given the context of their conversation.Â
To be honest, it feels like the toss away divorce line. NO I AM NOT SAYING THEY ARE NOT GETTING A DIVORCE.  In fact, thatâs why Iâm annoyed with the line because I know they arenât getting a divorce. Arrow isnât even considering divorcing Olicity. Itâs just relying on a tired, old television trope to bring viewers back after winter hiatus. âOh no! I better tune in January to see if Oliver and Felicity get a divorce!â This is spectacularly lazy writing.Â
If Arrow is incapable of drumming up drama in Olicityâs marriage without threatening divorce every time thereâs a bump in the road then they are just crappy writers. Plain and simple. Dig deeper, Arrow. Thereâs plenty to mine in Olicityâs relationship without fake threats of legal proceedings.
Iâm not ending on cranky though because I found some additional hope, should you need it, in the flash forwards. Yes I found hope in the flash forwards. Itâs a friggin miracle.
Dinah shows William a tattoo on her wrist.Â
Source:Â mei-pellegrino
Itâs called the Mark of Four and is something Oliver came up with. It represents the four pillars of heroism: courage, compassion, selflessness, and loyalty. Itâs the reason Roy came back to Star City with William.
Dinah: We all got them as a reminder that no matter what happened if one of us was in trouble the other ones would be there.
The tattoo is shaped like a compass. Three of the marks have arrows as end points, but the one at the top faces north with a star end point. Oliverâs legacy, the kind of hero he inspires, is one who embraces courage, compassion, selflessness and loyalty. If they follow the four pillars like the North Star then theyâll never become lost in the dark. Everyone on the team has the tattoo. Everyone decided this was the kind of hero they wanted to be.
We can look at symbolism multiple ways to find more than one meaning, which is the fun. This tattoo also tells us everything we need to know about Felicityâs trajectory. Dinah began at the star when she listed the four pillars. She started with courage. Courage is the North Star and Oliver always says Felicity Smoak is the strongest person he knows.
Her strength has never been physical to Oliver Queen. She may not be able to take down Raâs Al Ghul in a sword fight, but Oliver believes Felicity is stronger than him. Why? Felicity embraces her humanity even when the world has given her every reason to shut off her heart. For Oliver Queen, this is the most courageous thing a person can do. This is why she has always pointed the way for him.
We know Felicity has the Mark of Four tattoo because she inspired it. Courage, compassion, selflessness and loyalty are the very best parts of Oliver Queen. The Green Arrow encapsulates the four pillars because of the light Felicity harnessed in Oliver. When Oliver became lost in the dark he looked to Felicity for his way out. She was the North Star for Oliver, so he could become the North Star for everyone else.
Felicity is on the same path. She is not only Oliverâs great love, but his equal in every way. They are becoming full realized superheroes together. Oliver will remind Felicity her humanity is the very best part of her. Â We all become lost in the dark at some point, but Felicity will find her way again. She simply needs to find the North Star inside herself again. Â Felicity inspired the four pillars because she is the four pillars. The Mark of Four is the kind of hero Felicity will become because itâs the hero sheâs always been.
Flash Forwards
Maya is Blackstar. (Waves excitedly at Katherine McNamara).
Source:Â Source:veronica-lodge
Well done fandom. Â
However, William, Dinah and Zoe don't know who Blackstar is.Â
Does this mean she is not Olicityâs daughter and Williamâs sister? No. I still believe she is for reasons Iâll get into in a minute.  I genuinely wasnât expecting any kind of confirmation from William or even a hint she may be his sister because it blows the lid off Bethâs big surprise. If Felicity is pregnant at the end of the season then itâs Arrowâs big May sweeps shocker. Â
So, they arenât going to confirm anything in the mid season finale. In fact, the smart thing to do is to cast a lot of doubt she has any connection to William.
However, there are signs she does. Arrow made a really big show of Oliver drinking scotch this week. Max Fuller breaks out an expensive bottle and Oliver sits down for a drink.
Source:Â whoeveryoulovethemost
Oliver ordered scotch on his first date with Felicity.Â
It was his drink of choice while drowning his sorrows in the Arrow bunker in 5x19
Scotch is Oliverâs drink.Â
He only switches to vodka when heâs drinking with Diggle.
William asks for Blackstarsâ help at the bar while sheâs drinking, you got it, scotch.Â
Source:Â veronica-lodge
Sheâs cage fighting in Max Fullerâs old club. It doesnât hurt Katherine McNamara tweeted about the booze.Â
Whatâs the reason for making such a big deal out of such a small detail?
The second big hint Blackstar is Oliver Queenâs daughter is her fighting style.Â
Source: veronica-lodge
The cage fight is very similar to the Oliverâs fights weâve seen this season. Sheâs obviously been trained by Oliver Queen or at least by someone who knows Oliver Queen. Not to mention her whole attitude and vibe felt very Oliver Queen.
Source: veronica-lodge
Why does it matter if she is similar to Oliver Queen? Well, Arrow has spent a lot of time showing how similar William is to Felicity. Their connection may not be biological, but it is familial.Â
I think they are doing the same thing with Blackstar only she is her fatherâs daughter.
There are still more clues:
She has a Queen Bee tattoo on her back shoulder â the same place Oliver once had his tattoo.
Her code name Blackstar could be a reference to the Mark of Four. As I explained earlier, the first pillar has a black star as an endpoint and it faces north. Blackstar seems to be a particularly on the nose code name for someone who doesnât have any relationship to Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak, the people who inspired the Mark of Four. Â
The camera transitioned from the Olicity love scene directly to William looking for Blackstar during her cage fight. These transitions are extremely important to pay attention to because they connect the dots.
Blackstar is protective of Felicity Smoak as well. At first, she pretends not to know her, but when William informs Blackstar Felicity is dead she immediately looks upset.Â
Source: veronica-lodge
Blackstar confirms she worked as a broker for Felicity to obtain trigger mechanisms for a bomb. But her warnings sound more like a threat.Â
Source: Â dctvladiesÂ
Sort of like, âIâll slit your throat if you mess with my Mama.â
Did you notice how quickly Blackstar changed the subject when William said she has a lot in common with Felicity? Maybe they are not only working together, but are mother and daughter.
Finally, the characters went to great pains to avoid calling Blackstar by her real name or even asking what it is. She didnât even use the name Maya, which I still maintain is an Arrow code name to avoid spoiling the surprise. Thereâs something about Blackstarâs name which gives away her identity. Could her name be Moira? Methinks yes.
Could Blackstar be Arrowâs version of Mia Dearden, Oliver Queenâs ward? No, I donât think so. Marc Guggenheim said many times in early interviews Thea Queen was Arrowâs version of Mia Dearden. Theaâs middle name is Dearden and she used the code name Mia Dearden while living in Corto Maltese with Malcolm Merlyn. Â
Technically, Roy was Oliverâs ward. Roy was essentially homeless and Oliver took him in. It is Roy who ultimately inspired Theaâs superhero identity â Speedy. Mia Dearden is Speedy in the comics. There are too many Mia Dearden threads in Theaâs character. Theyâve already been there and done that.
Is it possible they are repeating the character because Thea is off the show? No, because they already have replacement sister waiting in the wings with Emiko Queen. If thereâs a character who is trying to fill Theaâs role on the show then itâs Emiko, not Blackstar.
Source:Â arrowdaily
Stephen welcomed Katherine McNamara to the show by tweeting, âWelcome to the family.â This is also what he tweeted to Sea Shimooka and Ben Lewis when they joined the show and they are playing Oliverâs blood relatives.
âBut Jen these are such minuscule details! They donât meaning anything!â Weâll have to agree to disagree these subtle not so subtle hints donât mean anything. I think they do. This is how it starts. We often have very little evidence of the direction Arrow is going in the beginning of these mysteries/surprises.Â
The bouquet was the first hint for the wedding.
In the beginning of Season 4, we had very little hints as to who was in the grave. K*tie C*ssidyâs lack of storyline discussion at SDCC was honestly the biggest clue. Â
These minuscule clues Arrow offers via symbolism or imagery are often all we have to go on. Â
As the season progresses there will be more clues. Once the big surprise is revealed everyone will look back at the earlier scenes and realize the signs were there all along. So, yeah Iâm going all in on scotch.
If Blackstar is Williamâs sister then itâs heartbreaking to realize he doesnât know or recognize her. This means William has been separated from his family for much longer than we thought.Â
If Olicity gets pregnant this year, then William will be at least 12 years older than his sibling. Heâll be leaving for college in about six years. Maybe whatever happens to break the family apart happens after William leaves home. It is possible he wouldnât recognize his sister if the last time he saw her was around age 5 or 6. Or maybe William doesnât recognize his sister because he believes sheâs dead. Â
There are tons of plot holes right now because we donât have all the information. However, there are many plausible explanations for William and Blackstarsâ separation. It echoes Oliver and Theaâs separation in the beginning of the series only on a much larger scale. If Arrowâs goal is to expand the show, and William and Blackstar are brother and sister, then this gives the writers tons of story potential to build the relationship going forward.
So, either Felicity or Oliver donât have any more children other than William, which makes me sad or William has been separated from his family even longer than we anticipated. This also makes me sad. Neither option is great. Fingers crossed William is just pretending not to know Blackstar to keep her cover (but I doubt it).
The essential problem with the flash forwards is thereâs  just bad news on top of bad new week after week. I know Arrow is a dark show and I like that it is because it means there are consequences. However, Arrow isnât only dark. Thereâs a lot of hope too.
Unfortunately, we arenât getting a lot of hope in the flash forwards and itâs casting a shadow over any happiness in present day.  This is why weâre not supposed to know the future. Not that thereâs much happiness in present day because the writers are trying so hard to sell Felicity is becoming evil. I know the flash backs were dark too, but the present day scenes countered it because we knew Oliver was moving towards a happier place, even when things werenât going well. Unfortunately, we donât have that balance this season. Â
Itâs making me very concerned about a tone shift. I know I said the minute the flash backs were introduced the writers expanded the story and they needed a Lian Yu level event to kick it off. Â However, I understand the frustration and sadness. Oliver either never saves the city or his happy life with Felicity is destroyed in a relatively short amount of time. Itâs difficult to get hammered with despair on top of despair every week. Oliver needs a win at some point.
Stray Thoughts
Emiko Queen is the new Green Arrow. Oliver has another sister. We been knew.
Oliver is now a Green Arrow consultant for the Star City police department. Heâs a legal vigilante. Uhhh... okay?Â
Dinah has her own Canary network and Blackstar hates vigilantes. So who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
Diggle and Lyla are the stupidest to ever stupid by going to Diaz for help. They could have talked to Oliver and Felicity about it beforehand, but noooo. Can the whole âDiggle only gives a crap about himselfâ storyline end now?
Iâm extremely irritated Diaz is back on my television screen, but if Arrow kills Curtis thatâll make it up to me.
I wrote a scene in The Gift where Oliver helps Felicity by zipping her dress down, so dreams come true.
Seriously Oliver youâve been in prison. We couldnât break William out of boarding school for a long weekend?
I love crab cakes.
Isnât Max Fuller a character on Fuller House? Hahaha. Thatâs funny to me.
I like WASP-y sweater Oliver. Feels very S1. We could throw in a leather jacket again though.
âWe didnât get this treatment when we put Diaz behind bars.â Rene, youâve been released from time out on account of good behavior, but if you keep saying narcissistic and arrogant crap like this Iâm going to throw you back with Dinah, Curtis and Diggle.
âIf anyone in here actually gave a crap theyâd use that money to help people in hard up neighborhoods who end up in the system because they donât have anything else.â This sounds very similar to the anger rumbling around The Glades in the city hall meeting. It also sounds very similar to the âDefend the Glades â attitude in the flash forwards. Calling it now. Given Dinahâs remark about running for office, Rene is the mayor of Star City in the future. Yeesh.
I looooved Bl*ck S*renâs sparkly jacket and wanted to purchase it for myself, but it was $1700 on sale. I think not.
Oliver catching the arrow with his bare hand was sweet. And hot.
Curtis had one line. This is the way it should always be.
Stop wasting my time with all the Newbie crap. I swear, this show is tone deaf to what an audience is interested in. I also need about 50% less Dinah.
Arrow took 2 ½ minutes to replay the same crossover set up scene they showed on Supergirl the night before. There could have easily included this scene once at the beginning of the crossover during the, âPreviously on Arrow/Supergirl and The Flash.â Thereâs no reason to cut into my show and steal minutes which could have been used for sex.
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E3 2018: Destiny 2: Forsaken Campaign Hands-On Preview: Back to the Reef
Forsaken is the next piece of paid-DLC coming to Destiny 2 on September 4th, and as part of our on-going Destiny 2 coverage, I talked my way into a campaign hands-on of the first mission, Prison Break. This mission sets the pace and tone of what will follow, and although only the first half of the mission was available, it gave a good taste of whatâs on offer.
The demo opened with a brief description of events that have led to this event, presumably taking the place of a cinematic. Fighting between alien species has broken out in the Reefâs prison, so Petra Venj has request Cayde-6 to help quell the uprising, and heâs brought along his most trustworthy Guardian â me (or you, I suppose).
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Iâm dropped immediately into a cavernous prison, where all the inmates are armed to the teeth and shooting one another from various tiers and balconies lining the walls. Itâs a massive firefight, as Colossi attack groups of Dregs, while Vandals take potshots from their advantageous position. After a few minutes of shooting, the room is clear and Iâm racing off to the next area.
Nothing out of the ordinary is shown throughout this short build, rooms full of enemies connected by tunnels full of enemies, with a short stop in a locked room to fend off waves of Thrall while Cayde-6 struggles with a lock. A sprint down a balcony lined with turrets controlled remotely by Cayde-6 is explosive fun, but the real moments of joy for me came from using the supers on offer.
Iâd already played as the Nightstalker during the Gambit hands-on preview, so I opted to use the Dawnblade Warlock in one run followed by the Striker Titan in another. The Dawnbladeâs new ability is called Well of Radiance, and is easily described as a more-powerful Rift. Activating the super slams a massive sword into the ground and creates a huge area-of-effect that heals allies up to a complete overshield. This lasts an incredible amount of time, somewhere in the vicinity of 30 seconds, allowing for complete control of a large area. Unfortunately, I wasnât able to inspect the subclass, so no greater details could be garnered about the other abilities on offer. As a Warlock-main, itâs hard to admit this new Dawnblade class tree felt somewhat underwhelming to use, but hopefully this can be chalked up to the early build.
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As for the Striker Titan, this could be the subclass that finally sees me playing a Titan more often than my Hunter. The new tree in the Striker subclass turns the Titan into a guided missile. Jumping into the air and activating the supers places the Titan in a âSuperman poseâ that should look familiar to anyone who played the original Destiny. Instead of just slamming into the ground, the Titan takes off to the sky and becomes completely controllable, able to be manoeuvred through the air while the velocity maintains. Over the space of several seconds, the Titan will lose altitude until it slams into the ground or until you physically aim at the ground and send it down to crush any enemies below with an explosion of arc power. I cannot understate how much fun this was to perform, to the point that I stook around for a few minutes to let it recharge again.
Also on display was the new weapon loadout system, allowing me to equip a sniper rifle in my primary slot and a sniper in my secondary. Though I was useless in close range encounter, this is simply a testament to Bungie letting players do what they want with their weapons. Want to ammo-choke yourself? Use three shotguns.
The Trinity Ghoul made another appearance, so I took the opportunity to look at it a bit closer outside of the hectic Gambit multiplayer mode. The Exotic bow fires three arrows normally, but charging it fires a single arrow that, when it lands as a precision hit, makes the next shot chain lightning to nearby enemies. It really completes the power fantasy of being a Hunter, jumping around hunting things with a bow and arrow.
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One interesting thing I noted was that Cayde-6 sounded odd, to the point where I had to stop and really listen. I wasnât able to confirm anything, but were I a betting man, Iâd wager that Cayde-6 is no longer voiced by Nathan Fillion. It sounded like someone trying their best to sound like the Cayde-6 I remember hearing since 2014. Thereâs no telling whether this is simply a peek behind the curtain of video game production, whether Nathan Fillion was ill during the takes, or if someone else is voicing the lovable Exo robot from here on out.
Upon reaching a climax, the demo ends, and Iâm treated to a cutscene that features Cayde-6 on the ground, ragged and gasping for breath, while Prince Uldren stands over him, Ace of Spades in hand. With a final word to Cayde-6, the prince fires a round that kills the Exo, and sets forth the entire wild west revenge story of Destiny 2: Forsaken. Though Destiny 2 seemingly struggled with the tone of the story at launch, the game looks to be shifting to a much darker and sombre atmosphere for Destiny 2: Forsaken, which launches on September 4.
E3 2018: Destiny 2: Forsaken Campaign Hands-On Preview: Back to the Reef published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/
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#IM ALIVE!!!!!!!! (immortalized)#INAU HOW IVE MISSED YOU<3<3<3<3#it may be very slow to start and my ask box will (TEMPORARILY!!) be closed#only because i have like. a Comic Comic sketched out. like this one but longer :]#but ill answer some old asks as i go!!! i promise youll get more story i am so sorry for being away so long#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#batim#batim inau#inau bendy#bendy au#bendy inau#inky nightmares#inky nightmares au#bendy and the ink machine#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#bendy art#batim bendy#bendy
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*insert a visible concern anon*
Joey, the heck you plannin at?
[Joey and Bendy are now headed to ???.]
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#batim bendy#bendy#inky nightmares au#inau#inky nightmares#joey inau#inau joey#joey drew studios#inau bendy#bendy inau
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Joey seems a bit too friendly⌠whatcha planning for the bean?
ALSO HENRY FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY YOUR CHILD GOT CAUGHT
anonymous asked: Joey if you hurt Bendy I will magic anon your butt out of this universe!
(hmm... somehow, the others can't hear you. Joey only glares at you.)
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#the magic anon threat made me laugh fnfvrjbr#i wish i could allow that itd be so funny đ#there was gonna be 3 extra panels in this post but i think those 3 will be up tomorrow on their own because i have therapy 2day#and im very eepy#alas#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#batim bendy#bendy#inky nightmares au#inau#inky nightmares#bendy inau#inau bendy#inau joey#joey inau#joey drew studios#joey drew
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BENDY, KIDDO, DARLING LOOK BEHIND YOU OR RUN PLEASEE GET OUT!
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#guys look at me go 3 posts in a row !!!!!#tomorrow i have therapy tho so there might not be one 2morrow. but this blog is me posting panels whenever i want so like#uhh ily guyss#we are close to 600 followers btw and im losing my mind??? where did u guys come from#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#batim bendy#bendy#inky nightmares au#inky nightmares#inau bendy#bendy inau#inau#inau joey#joey inau#joey drew#batim joey#joey drew studios#batim joey drew#batim comic#batim au
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Bendy- be careful and please concider, is it really worth it? (Apolgizes for my bad english)
(Bendy chooses to ignore you. He's determined to search the office.)
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#ur english is good! no worries :]#also don't take it personally- he's 11 years old and stubborn. thank u for the ask :)#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#bendy and the dark revival#bendy fan art#bendy art#inau bendy#bendy inau#inky nightmares au#inky nightmares#inau#tw blood#cw blood#blood#sort of. if you spot it
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Henry, I think you're exaggerating a bit... What could Joey do to him? Why would he want to harm him? Maybe he'll treat him well...
anonymous asked: Henry, what happens if Bendy goes to Joey???
anonymous asked: Did Joey hurt any of the toons?
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#inau henry#henry inau#inky nightmares#inky nightmares au#inau#bendy fan art#bendy art#batim henry#batim ask blog#batim art#batim au#TAKE THAT TRIPLE ASK đĽđĽđĽ
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Uh- Henry- not to scare or upset you but- BENDY IS WITH JOEY!!!! YOU HAVE TO SAVE HIM!
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#ARC MODE: The Man Behind The Curtain#batim#bendy and the ink machine#bendy au#bendy and the ink machine fanart#bendy and the dark revival#inky nightmares au#inau#inky nightmares#au henry stein#henry stein#norman polk#henry inau#inau henry#inau norman
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