#I KNOW i didn't watch anything from s11 so i don't have to worry about that. But apparently I did finish S10

[haircoveredwriter]

Episode 1x04 thoughts

This episode wasn't one of my favorites, not horrible, a decent episode in itself but it felt as though it fell prey to a few of the issues similar ones in s11 of TWD did. I'll get in to those later but first we'll put the usual page break for those who don't want any spoilers.

First the aspects I did enjoy:

After taking a swim in walker-infested waters post his ceiling crash like a drunk Mary Poppins (you're welcome for the reference lol), Daryl strolls through Paris trying to get his bearings and comes to see an older couple inside a house, having tea (perhaps). The woman caresses the side of the man's face across the table which causes Daryl to pause, appearing to be lost in reflection before looking down briefly lost in a memory, only moving on once the nearness of walkers is apparent. Now who is the only person/woman who Daryl has ever stroked the face of/had his face stroked by?? I'll give you 3 guesses but anyone with a brain doesn't need that many and in case you've been living under a rock, please refer to my previous precious gifs post.

Later we get to see Daryl-of-old while he's beating a prisoner he and Isabelle took in hopes of finding Laurent. Having him go back to his early TWD season story-telling ways was lovely while also mixing it with the depraved Dixon he learnt to be from his upbringing meshed very well. (Basically Daryl wanted to create his own R-rated version of "Babe"). He must have read some anatomy books over the years to know where to cause the most damage without hitting vital organs.

Fallou's group using Molotov cocktails during their assault on Quinn's place is something I've been waiting for someone to do in the ZA! Like, seriously! Who wouldn't be using mini firebombs at this point when supplies are low and it keeps you at a distance from your opponent? It's just good sense imo.

Norman and the show itself did a very good job again pointing out that there is nothing going on shippy-wise between Daryl and Isabelle. (I know many a worried about it but there was nothing there from my standpoint) Daryl looked honestly uncomfortable when Isabelle hugged him, returning it lightly after a beat or two but happy to break away to continue looking at anything else afterwards. We also got Isabelle's own words that she has no romantic feelings for Daryl but simply concern for his wellbeing. When you watch the scene, they have Sylvie asking (a young girl who only now has her first ever crush but knows nothing of love) who is not equipped enough in life to be able to discern anything different.

Daryl's expression looking at the mini Statue of Liberty made me smile as well. Knowing he's getting closer to getting home, no matter what other tasks people throw at him, and getting back to his person would make anyone happy.

Overall the episode sets up the plot for the remaining 2 installments, getting us where we need to be for certain other aspects to take place. (Gonna let that be for the moment until the next ones drop 😉)

What I didn't like:

The pacing seemed quite slow and the story arc pretty much went in a circle, finally reaching an end point which we realistically could have gotten in 10 mins of another ep. Several points of the episode felt contrived just to fill up space before they could move on to a main bullet point in the story. (This was my main issue with a fair number of s11 TWD eps).

Isabelle's lack of any fighting skill is really getting on my nerves. How has she survived this long? The answer is probably by making things up and having others protect her/do her dirty work and other not so nice things so I'll relent. I haven't seen worse stabby abilities since early on in TWD ... again, yes I am not gonna say anything if I can't say anything nice.

Why'd they do pigeon man like that?!😒

Genet is equally as concerned about finding a man who blew a hole in her years-long-prepped boat as she is a kid who gives people hope? Mmmkay.

Regardless of it all I am excited for next week. It's gonna be great. Trust me.

[illgiveyouahint]

Hello, may I just ask if that's okay. Did you ever watch supernatural and who was your favourite character?

Hello hello

well of course it's always okay to ask. You know I love talking about anything and everything. And yes I've watched supernatural. I'm currently watching s11 after abandoning the show for several years. I've been watching it since I was like 13 or so lol

But oh hmm I'm trying to think who is my favourite character. There's been so many of them over the years. Also it's been years (a deacde even) since I watched the early seasons and I feel like my feelings about the show in general are changing over time. I remember me and my friend on erasmus used to talk for hours about Dean and Sam and their family and the meaning of home and all that. Like my friend wanted to write her paper on the meaning of home in relations to the winchester brothers. Idk if she ever did but we used to talk about it al the time. I remember I liked Charlie a lot. I also liked Kevin but tbh I can't remember much about him now. I was so upset about both of their deaths. I think if I have to think about it and especially now I think my favourite is actually Crowley. I still remember when he first appeared sealing the deal with kissing a bloke and I knew he will be my favourite. His character has obviously changed over the years. Being a king of hell and all that. But he's a fun character and I like that in the season I'm watching now he's more of a presence. I used to like Castiel obviously but I feel like his character has been so over the place and I hate how they always do something to him and then for half a season it feels the brothers forget about him or not worry about him and just idk i just would expect something different with what they all have been through. I used to like Dean a lot more but now some of his what shall we call it bit of a macho bit of a toxic masculinity thing just rubs me wrong way from time to time. Like I think the show was originally written in a different time, right? And nowadays I feel like some of these things didn't age well and some of the characterization for the brothers and the life they lead didn't age well. The girls and the booze and the old school rock type of stuff is just idk sort of supporting that "toxic masculinity" boys don't cry type of manhood which I think we as a society are really moving past. I know in the later seasons they've tried to do better with it but you cannot change what the show and the characters were build on. Which is why I said I wish the show was about that older married gay couple from mexico. 'Cause then it would at least in some way fight that idea of "what it means to be a man". Actually I think the show could have explored this topic quite nicely, but they're not really exploring it as just continuing it to be the default.

Okay I said probably more than I should have and maybe I've upset some of you who love the show but that's how I view it. But please come talk to me and tell me your favourite character or what you see in the show and what you like about it

[signalnext]

aka

Yaz after 10 months separated from the Doctor (ROTD)

Yaz after 4 years separated from the Doctor (EOTD)

...

I was gonna write this in the tags but I ended up going on a bit (just a bit -- okay a lot). Thanks so much for making this gifset @evviejo (and so many great gifsets!) because these two scenes are super important to me (and to see a gifset is excellent). The thoughts I write here are especially for the folks who feel the same way.

Back when I first watched this in EOTD... When I heard Dan clarify, "...how you feel about her" - I gasped.

Then when I heard Yaz's reply: "I don't know what you mean" - the same line as when she'd answered Jack - I wondered if I was hallucinating. I couldn't believe that it was happening. Finally.

Because when I saw her convo with Jack in ROTD those years ago, I thought that was it - that it was on-screen reassurance from one queer person, Jack, to another, Yaz. To me it wasn't so much as "queer-coded" as actually queer.

So after ROTD, I remember looking for reviews/reactions and none of them said anything about that scene! (Granted I didn't look here - that's on me.) I couldn't find anyone else who read the scene the way I did, because apparently to be canonically queer, of course the scene - the dialogue - has to "prove" it without a doubt, because the default is heteronormative and the unironic default is gals being pals and the default is they were roommates.

So I thought, "Okay, maybe I really am reading this incorrectly? Even though it seems so obvious to me? Especially with Najia's 'Are you two seeing each other' line from S11?"

So yeah. When Dan asked her "Have you told her?" and then clarified, I was gobsmacked. Not because I was surprised by what he was asking, but because I was surprised to see this on screen and confirmed finally, and confirmed so clearly on this show. And that the seeds that had been planted all through the series, and especially with that conversation between Yaz and Jack, and all throughout S13, and that other conversation between Yaz and Dan on the ocean liner (easily one of my top scenes of the entire show, along with this one in EOTD)...

To know that I hadn't imagined the signs was an immense relief.

To witness the confirmation was absolutely...something else. I cannot describe the elation of witnessing this scene. (I'm sleep-deprived right now, so please forgive me because a lot of my vocabulary is not readily accessible at the moment.)

And that line in particular, "I don't know what you mean" - it could've been an accident? It could've been a coincidence that it was the same exact line she said to Jack? It could have been a wondrous chance that the line she told Dan, years later after she told Jack, had a different context and yet not different context.

I'd like to believe it was an intentional callback because of the significance of that line and how we can use it as a way to regard Yaz's own progression on her literal journey with and without the Doctor, and on her personal journey - her own growth as an individual and what she believes is important. What and who is important to her.

In any case - when Yaz said it to Jack, it's fair to say that she really didn't know what he meant. When she and Jack spoke, she was still so devastated at having spent that time worried about the Doctor, wondering aloud to a stranger how much it hurt, being away from the Doctor - admitting she'd thought that maybe it'd be better if she hadn't met the Doctor at all. She says she hasn't stopped to think -- stopped to think what it all means for her.

And yet when she said it to Dan, she knew exactly what he meant. It was a totally conscious deflection. And wow is Yaz not the same person that she was in ROTD. She's spent a lot more time with Thirteen, and she's also spent way more time away from her. In EOTD it hasn't been that long since they've reunited!

By EOTD, Yaz has spent years wanting to return to the Doctor, enough so that Dan has an idea of how much the Doctor means to her. To Yaz's credit, she doesn't double down on the deflection. She's honest. And we find out through her admission to Dan that after all these years, Yaz still hasn't told herself.

So revisiting the vulnerability she allowed herself to share with Jack, in the context of EOTD - and especially in the context of TPOTD, is even more gutting. I can't imagine EOTD Yaz even considering the thought of wishing she'd never met the Doctor. She is far too gone, far too changed by this point. I think if Yaz remembered what she'd said to Jack, it'd make her flinch, especially since EOTD is right after the Doctor apologized to Yaz for shutting her out and wanting to be more open.

Anyway, as someone who's pondered these two scenes for far longer than any average person has a right to ponder them, and has written extended Sincere Dialogue between Yaz and Dan - because I needed them to talk more, dang it - I'm still so glad that we got these scenes. I'm so glad that Yaz had people she could talk to honestly about her feelings - that she felt safe enough to do so, and that they were indeed supportive for her when she needed the support.

EOTD remains one of my favorite episodes of DW (tbh it is probably my favorite right now) and this scene is a huge reason why.

I have to say, there's part of my mind that's still gobsmacked that this happened. I'm still wholeheartedly delighted.

I'm so proud of Yaz.

revolution of the daleks // eve of the daleks

[freetobeeyouandme]

Finding out I actually watched all of S10 of supernatural from my Tumblr archive because I sure as hell don’t fucking remember jack shit from the end of that season except Charlie dying...yeah ok

[catgrassplantdad]

Love your tags! when we say we like s10 or s11 people think it means we agree with all the writers choices and what not. Like NO some of the stuff they did was uncanny and I will never take it seriously but that’s the thing about those seasons it doesn’t have to be serious. You don’t have to accept everything. I rather watch Gallavich be dumb and silly than go through heartbreak. Anything i didn’t like doesn’t exist to me lol. I wouldn’t change seeing them getting married for anything.

Oh hey thanks!! So I know that post and your ask aren't necessarily completely about Ian and Mickey, but that's the direction I took this answer in and I'm not gonna go back and change all that, so here we go:

That's the thing, it's not like I liked everything about those seasons. I was cringing along with everyone else sometimes. But in regards to Ian and Mickey, we had so many seasons of them hardly ever being able to catch a break, and then tptb brought them back to us just to show them getting married and learning how to navigate a relationship that's suddenly got a stable foundation. Like??? Shit isn't crumbling out from under them anymore! And their story gets so lighthearted compared to what we'd seen them go through before. We finally got to have real fun with them in a way that wasn't as available in canon before. Their problems became so small in relation to the problems they were dealing with before, besides maybe Terry presenting a good amount of conflict periodically (in a way that I found really fucking compelling, I might add. 11x06 still makes my brain feel like it's being microwaved). I love the early seasons. They wouldn't be who they are without that background. But holy shit is it nice to watch them worry about way smaller shit.

And you're right, you can ignore the shit you didn't like, but I think all the dumb shit in there paints an interesting and complicated picture! They're not perfect. They're idiots a good amount of the time. But in the end they always come back to each other and choose their relationship over all else. Even if they're going to be pains in the ass about it first.

I also wouldn't change seeing them getting married for anything. I still can't believe they gave that to us. And then season 11 is full of moments of them being so painfully married. It's incredible!

Please don't take this as me defending Shameless as a flawless piece of media. That's not what I'm saying. But sometimes people talk about these last seasons like they ruined the show, and to me they just fucking didn't? Ian and Mickey are still one of the most interesting queer couples I've seen on television, and that is in large part because of those last two seasons.

Anyway, I literally wouldn't be here in this space if it weren't for seasons 10 and 11. They got a happy ending, and that's what I wanted for them.