#I’m on like s3 of this show but have gained all of the major plot points thru fyp osmosis

[wlwgang]

Oh these 911 fic writers can COOK

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

I also love getting people into my other interests by simply bombarding them with posts about them long enough 🥰 Feel free to send more asks about gomens or Queen lol

Lol I've got both, well opinion gomens one and a question in the other but I'll send another ask for that.

I don't agree or like the Metatron - Coffee theories that make the rounds because I feel like it take the nuance away from Aziraphale's character because we had the whole season setting him up as not always going with the heaven's plan but not denouncing what he thinks is right too so I don't think the end was out of character for him and if let's be honest if everything went sailingly smooth there wouldn't be a next season, without setting up a conflict I don't see where they could have gone the next time.

Oh, I’m not afraid to say that the Coffee Theory is pure cope. The end wasn’t out of character at all; Aziraphale genuinely believed he’d be able to fix things, make a difference, and do good if he took the Metatron’s offer. Doing good has always been a central part of his character! That’s why he’s the most traditionally “angelic” of the angels we’ve seen. I also think he realized that shit was about to get real when he heard about The Second Coming, too, and that cemented his decision to go (we saw his hesitancy before that). But in general, Aziraphale making misguided decisions because he thinks it’s the right thing to do, and his being brainwashed into thinking Heaven and God are still good no matter what, have been major parts of his character throughout the show. You can argue that the Metatron is a secret villain and was being emotionally manipulative to get Aziraphale to come along, but Aziraphale still chose to go of his own free will because he thinks he can fix things (like he thinks he can fix Crowley wrongly Falling) and wants Heaven to be good.

But I swear, a lot of people in this fandom can’t handle these characters being flawed, so people came up with a theory that would render Aziraphale back into their uncomplicated fanon version of him. I really think people got attached to woobified fanfic versions of these characters after the happy ending of s1, so they’re distressed over…basic conflict at the end of s2. I’d understand if it were OOC, but it’s not. It’s just wild to me, like the Final Fifteen are so obviously written as the temporary breakup part of a traditional romance, with a clear setup for resolution in s3, and people flipped out. I saw some BNFs from s1 more or less like, “Screw this, I hate Aziraphale now!!!” I remember seeing a screenshot on twitter of someone angry at Gaiman because gomens was their escapist, comfort show, and the end of s2 was too upsetting for them.

Not only does that sum up the motivation behind Coffee Theory, but it’s also kind of baffling and concerning, like…if such basic conflict to move a plot forward stresses you out so much, please log off and gain some distance and perspective. Like you said, anon, there would be nowhere to go in s3 otherwise. I love fluffy one-shots with no plot, but that doesn’t work for TV.

[dogbearinggifts]

What are your thoughts on tua S2? Did you feel like the characters grew? What did you like? What did you not? I’m interested in your perspective. Your analysis are super thoughtful and interesting!

Aw, thanks, Anon!

Overall, I really enjoyed S2 and thought it was a solid follow-up to S1. I do have my quibbles about it, so I think (for ease of reference and because my thoughts are a little scattered today) I’ll list some of my personal highlights (in no particular order) before getting into what I didn’t like as much.

Big spoilers ahead.

Allison. I thought they handled her storyline especially well. Of all the siblings, I think she had the most difficult obstacles placed in her way (not only is she a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas, but she’s a Black woman landing in 1961 Dallas who can’t even speak in her own defense for a year) and they sugarcoated exactly none of it. The writers pulled no punches when showing what civil rights protesters went through, which just made their nonviolent response all the more breathtaking. Allison’s fear and anger during those scenes were palpable even as she kept them hidden. But along with that horror, we see the kindness and warmth of the Dallas Black community, the women who take her in simply because she needs their help, and her love for Ray, perhaps heretofore THE most thoughtful husband ever portrayed on screen. I loved him, and I loved him and Allison together. While I understand and respect his choice to stay in 1963, I wish they’d gotten more time together. They both deserved it.

Vanya. We got to see how much the baggage from her past affected her by glimpsing what she might be like if it were taken away. It’s an interesting philosophical question, and it was explored well, in my opinion. She finds it easier to love and be loved, and she stands up for herself more readily—but she also doesn’t hesitate to use powers she can’t quite control and threatens Five without fully realizing how dire her threat is (or how it might dredge up traumatic memories she doesn’t know exist). The moment where Ben finds her curled up, fully convinced she’s a monster, was heartbreaking. I loved watching her find happiness with Sissy, even if that was fleeting (and dear god, Sissy deserved her happy ending with Vanya, dammit, I don’t care if it would fuck up the timeline). Her patience and sweetness with Harlan were just beautiful. And the way she used the confidence she gained during her amnesia to fully come into her own not to exact revenge on her siblings, but to save them, was fucking phenomenal.

The humor. There was a lot more humor this season, and it was awesome. So many iconic scenes—Olga Foroga, Luther babysitting two homicidal Fives, Elliot awkwardly lecturing his guests on the history of Jello, “NEW TIMELINE NEW ME,” “Your vagina needs glasses,” AJ the fish gobbling up the cigarette bubbles, Five getting to say “fuck”….this season was a lot funnier than the previous one, and I think that was one of its strengths.

Klaus’ cult. It was played for laughs, which I both expected and thought was the best way to handle it. He didn’t want to start a new religion with himself at the center; he just wanted to not get thrown out of any more diners, but Destiny’s Children had other ideas. The “I too am a fraud!” scene was hilarious and tickled the question of whether or not a religion founded on false pretenses can still help those within it find meaning.

Luther. Getting him away from his dad, his siblings, and the Academy was exactly what he needed to become the pure of heart and dumb of ass genius we always knew he was, but his first major step in that direction was heartbreaking. We all knew he’d be rejected once he got to the Academy. We all knew Reginald would rip his heart out and stomp on it in his admittedly fashionable shoes. It gets Luther out on his own and forces him to become his own person apart from his dad, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. He got the positive character development he needed, but the catalyst was tragic.

Diego. We see, for the first time, exactly how Reginald kept him in line—not with meds or with PTSD-inducing torture, but with words. Even when he knows Diego as little more than a stranger, Reginald is able to rip off his skin and fling it in his face with a single diatribe; and even at 30, with years away from his dad, Diego is left unable to speak, feeling as if all of his accomplishments up to that point were the work of a dumb kid who thought he was smarter and more capable than he actually was.

Luther and Diego sharing a braincell. Luther has bad ideas. Diego has bad ideas. When they put their bad ideas together, they get terrible ideas. I loved watching them work together as a team, rather than being at each others’ throats for most of the season, even if I’m left hoping Olga Foroga had a pleasant and quiet day after that phone call.

Reginald. At first glance, it may look like the writers were trying to make him likable so they could parade him around as your average abusive-parent-with-a-soft-side. But it’s more nuanced than that. Abusive parents (and abusers in general) often fly under the radar because they fool outsiders into thinking they’re good people. They’re active in their communities. They give to charity. They have friends who attest to their virtue, significant others who think they’re the greatest. And that’s what we see with Reginald. We see him as the rest of the world did: an intelligent, eccentric man with a sharp sense of humor who cared deeply about scientific advancement. That’s how he evaded suspicion—because there were stories from years past of lively parties at his mansion, of what a gentleman he was to Grace and of how he did everything he could to save little Pogo. But those stories would all have come from people he considered his equals. When he’s with people he considers his inferiors—aka, the Umbrella kids—he’s openly condescending and demeaning. We get to see how he fooled the world, and it is chilling.

Elliot. He deserved better, and you can ship him with any one of the Hargreeves kids and get the cutest thing ever. 

The Swedes. They said so much while speaking very little.

Ben. He got more personality and screen time, and it was glorious. His love of his family and resentment toward Klaus practically leapt off the screen. The way he says “I’ve missed you all…so much” once they’ve all left was one of those right-in-the-feels moments; and watching him get so much of what he’s wanted for years when he possesses Klaus was beautiful.

Now, as for things I took issue with….

Ben. I understand why they ended his arc the way they did. I get that they were probably afraid the Klaus/Ben dynamic would grow stale if they didn’t change it somehow and wanted to give him a larger role in S3. His death(???) was heartbreaking and extremely well-done. But it also wasn’t foreshadowed. We never got any sense of what ghosts in the TUA ‘verse are, so the fact they can be destroyed by a ton of sound-turned-energy or by going too far into someone’s psyche or whatever happened….it’s not that it doesn’t make sense so much as there’s not enough evidence to determine whether or not it makes sense. It feels like the writers just kinda made that up so they’d have a reason to change Ben’s relationship dynamics, but if that’s the case, couldn’t they have done it another way? Couldn’t they have made it so the immense energy or psychic woo-woo or whatever gave him a power-up instead of destroying him? Vanya transferred some of her energy into Harlan and brought him back to life. Couldn’t something similar have happened with Ben? And if it tied him to Vanya as well as to Klaus, great! More fodder for angst and humor! (”Vannyyyyyyyy, stop hogging Ben!” “You got him for 17 years, Klaus, you can part with him for 20 minutes.” “Guys, don’t I get a say in this?”) I’m glad they didn’t write him out of the series entirely, but I still wish they’d kept him and all the character development he’d gotten throughout S2.

Episode 10. It looks like they tried to cram half a season’s worth of developments into 45 minutes. Twenty minutes in, I’d already said “Wait what the fuck” half a dozen times. A lot of those moments were explained later on, and I was able to make enough inferences to fill in any lingering plot holes, but…still. Too much stuff, too little time. E9 was a perfectly satisfying ending to the season. Yes, it leaves the siblings stranded in 1963, but they could’ve tied up those loose ends in the S3 premiere.

Lila. She’s an incredibly fun character, but her arc is kind of a mess. Most of that is due to E10, and I do feel that more time to let her arc breathe would’ve worked wonders, but I’m left feeling like her turn from “Handler is the best mom ever and I lurve Diego too” to “KILL DIEGO AND HIS EVIL FAMILY” to “Handler is a bad mom and Diego is right” happened too quickly.

The Commission. Okay, so, the Handler announces the entire Board has been killed, and she’s stepping in as director even though everyone appears to know she’s been demoted (and demoted pretty severely—she went from having an office bigger than some apartments to being a case management drone). There’s suspicion and lots of it. But then, La Resistance is….ten or so people in a single room? And when she calls the temps agents to her side, thousands of them show up ready and willing to fight and die? I dunno. Just seems like there should’ve been more splintering going on there. Again, I think they needed more time to tie everything up.

Aside from those complaints, I loved the season. I set aside most of a day to binge it, and I do not regret that decision at all.

[wankylife]

So, I can't sleep, and my mind just ran wild with Killing Eve's plot in S3. I'm going to write them down before they escape.

All in all, I'm okay with where it all started and where it ends. But there are major things I would have changed. I like that Carolyn and Konstantin's relationship serves as a foil or warning for Eve and Villanelle (they literally were the audience in that scene). C and K have a complicated past, and introducing C's daughter was the right path to further demonstrate the casuality of it (C being a cold mother, K uses her to gain intel etc.). However, the red herring stuff was unnecessary. Instead, I want more in on E's psyche and her relationship with others after getting shot and abandoned by V.

I want E to have a phone call with her parents in Korean(her aunt must have told them). I want her parents to ask E how is Nico and what he's doing, and I want E to admit that "it's not his fault" (the undertone would be "I'm the one that cheated"). I want to know that E's parents are perfectly loving yet they know there's always something E's looking for and they (or Nico) cannot give her. If V does happen to stalk E before making a contact, i want V to learn Korean to eavesdrop conversations in the resturant. I don't particularly care about how Nico is maimed. I do want some introspection on how Nico is the perfectly safe and boring option, yet E chooses to leave.

Meanwhile, it would totally be in character for V to go off and marry a rich lady then just abandon her. It would also be in character for her to just show up and think all is forgiven, and the bus scene is gold. But why this happens? V is narcissistic enough to think like that. But why does she think like that? Instead of the Emmy bait episode, I want to have more flashbacks of V and Anna --- because Anna gaslit V and because Anna was hot and cold. It would demonstrate that how some of V's traits are learned behavior and she is capable of change. I want this instead of the home episode because we are not really supposed to know V. Her background was kept intentionally vague and I don't think it needs any clarification. Matricide aside, I think everyone would be more interested to see how young V and Anna manipulated each other, and how this experience negatively affected V's life. Like many others have pointed out, Anna was an abuser. We see a broken down V now and we need to see a broken down V then. Maybe some of these flashbacks will be parallel to some flashbacks of E's past life. I think this will help the story flash out character development without explicitly discussing it. It shows that E and V reflect on their past choices and consciously reach to each other. Because the goal is to have them meet in the middle somehow.

So now you have these 2 people, E and V, standing at opposite ends of a literal bridge, looking in to each other. What's gonna happen next? Will they learn to love how the other one loves? Will they dive while grabbing on to each other? Or will they just, leave? Guess we won't know until next year.

[sometimesrosy]

Hello Rosie, I really like reading your analysis. And I have so many questions in mind but there has been one for some time that has concerned me, you may have already answered, in which case I haven't seen it, my favorite character is Bellamy and i love his evolution over the seasons, I like to know what people think, and even if we aren't all agree, I respect their opinions. There is one that I see a lot of appearing: [1/4]

[2/4] it's the fact that " Bellamy doesn't have his own storyline, each time it revolves around Octavia and Clarke". And I don't know I'm mixed because I think he has changed a lot, with Octavia he learned to detach from her, it took time but the development is there. With Clarke it's different but I don't see why it's bad that he wants to protect her given the importance she has for him. The same for his protectiveness towards others.

[3/4] He matured, he had a pretty good arc in s3 ( for me ) and it's the continuity of s4 where he tries to repair his faults and understands that he can't save everyone. In s5 he's mature, makes thoughtful decisions, and even if he tries to reason with his sister, he clearly takes opposition to her. With s6 it's also a continuity of that, their relationship is at its lowest but it tended to improve at the end.

[4/4] And yes he spent most of the time trying to save clarke, but i think that is one of the decisions where we understand that he makes this choice for him first, because he needs her . If it's not having his own storyline, then I didn't understand anything, and i'm a bad Bellamy stan. What do you think about all of this ?

++

Thank you @wardasmo 

When they say that Bellamy doesn’t have his own storyline they are absolutely, 100% incorrect. It’s a ridiculous statement for the character who is the secondary protagonist and has had MULTIPLE storylines focused on his development as a character and a hero.

They are simply wrong. They have an agenda, and they create a story to back it up, whether that fits with canon or filmmaking or storytelling or what have you, doesn’t matter to them, because they only want to be right, to stan what they stan, and say there’s some sort of injustice there that makes the story wrong and them right.

And it’s ALL BULLSHIT.

And you know it. You have already stated his storylines, which is the opposite of not having any storylines. You are right. They are wrong. But they’re so certain they are right and will allow no subtlety of discussion, that they make you think they must know something you don’t.

They don’t.

You’re the one whose following Bellamy’s narrative, character development and storylines. They are not.

Stan/antis are NOT good at understanding story, because they erase whatever they don’t like and focus only on what they do like. They aren’t INTERESTED in the story. They are interested in the communal activity of worshipping whatever it is they love. 

You have already explained some of Bellamy’s storylines. I can add more.

season 1. Bellamy faces his mistakes, after a life time of protecting his sister, and learns to share the. burden, and also gains freedom and power he never had before, dealing with the high price of that.

season 2. Bellamy, after losing his delinquents, is afraid to take power, and gives it away to Finn, disastrously, before deciding to take matters into his own hands and saving the delinquents himself.

season 3. After the trauma of MW, Bellamy refuses to lead and instead gives his power to Kane. He is retriggered by the destruction of MW and Clarke’s betrayal and then gives his power to Pike. S3a is a fight for Bellamy’s soul between Kane and Pike. Octavia and Clarke are not a part of it. 3b he’s finally accepted his own power and leads the mission and promises to do better to make up for his mistakes.

season 4.  Was about learning how to let go of the need to save everyone, to allow himself some happiness, to trust himself.

season 5. Was the season where Bellamy Blake became a hero. He learned from everything that happened and saved EVERYBODY’S asses. He used his head AND his heart. He refused to take responsibility for his sister’s actions. He told everyone what to do and he was right.

season 6. Ahh see, now. Bellamy’s hero’s journey is over, and NOW he’s that hero, and he gets a love story. He’s been separated from his true love for many major reasons, and he’s willing to sacrifice that love to do the sensible thing and stay with Echo, but when he almost loses Clarke again, he is no longer okay with not having Clarke and he goes after her and admits that he needs her, that he loves her, that he can’t let her go.

And YES. That means season 6 was about a partner, a girl. Clarke. Bellamy Blake has a romance story. This has actually been his romance story the whole time. And it’s finally coming to fruition.

Bellamy is the heart. I believe his story does in deed work around his relationships, and not only with Clarke and Octavia, but also Monty and Murphy and Echo and Raven and the rest. 

A character interacting with other characters and making connections that change them is NOT A FLAW IN STORYTELLING. Holy crap. What are they even thinking?

Let me tell you what my theory is about that theory that Bellamy doens’t have a storyline (ridiculous, he has more than anyone but clarke.)

I believe that is a theory built around the concept that Bellamy should be the star of the show, the main character. That Clarke should NOT. That Clarke is “the hero,” bothers them, because a woman should not be the heroic center of the show. A man should. Women are supposed to have stories about relationships, and families, and MEN are supposed to be the statesmen and saviors and warriors.

SO I think it’s internalized misogyny that is telling these Bellamy stans that if BELLAMY isnt’ the main hero and isn’t who the story revolves around every season then the story is wrong. Because Clarke SHOULDN’T be the hero. 

Despite Clarke being the hero. 

SO, since Bellamy has 25% of the storylines to Clarke’s 25% of the storylines, people feel like Bellamy is being shorted. Overshadowed. Ignored. Despite the season being ABOUT Bellamy’s emotions and character development HEAVILY. 

I think the idea of Bellamy being at the center of the romance plot line this season bothers them. He’s the romantic hero, and Clarke’s the action hero. And that is backwards for them. They’re jealous, and erasing Clarke as the hero in her own story.

I think it’s icky.

[pennhursts]

The Arc of Jane “El” Ives/Hopper/Byers

This post will detail her specific character, and why I think her story will end on a bittersweet (heavy on the bitter) note.

But let me make it clear, and say that this is in no way what “will” happen in the next season(s) of stranger things. I’m not a writer on the show, and I can’t say with any certainty that this is “confirmed” or what have you. This is purely my own speculation from a narrative standpoint, and if it isn't to your taste, that's cool, because my take doesn't matter too much.

Oh, El. 

Beyond her minimal arc in season one, where her narrative purpose was to show the very serious effects of abuse and manipulation on the part of Brenner, as well as her opening of the gate, her multi-season development has been heading in a very specific, obvious place. Self-actualization and becoming her own person, separate from the lab.

I think a lot of casual watchers came away from season 3 with sort of a “okay,, what now?” type of attitude, and I can’t say that I blame them. Both in season two and three she’s been given the journey of self discovery (with Kali,  then Max) and while both carry their own emotional weight, they don’t seem to be held up as important plot lines in comparison to others, such as Max opening up emotionally, and Steve Harrington’s entire season 2 redemption being especially apt examples. As the audience, we are told that El is coming into her own, multiple times, but we are never actually shown long-lasting effects of this, instead opting for one-off easter egg references and her many, many wardrobe changes (which I adore, by the way).

In season one, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas’s stories are all somewhat the same; finding Will and accepting El as their friend. But when you look at season two, everyone has their own different, independent directions to go in. Especially if you focus on every other party member. Dustin & Lucas’s arc’s revolve around love; for Lucas in specific, becoming a more emotionally open, compassionate person. This is vital to his development and subsequent relationship with Max. And as for Dustin, well, he learns that Steve ain’t shit with women, but he gains a valuable relationship in him, even though he doesn’t ‘get the girl’. Will struggles (per usual), primarily with the trials and tribulations of possession-- along with his PTSD. Mike, time and time again shows symptoms of major depression and separation anxiety, his feelings for El having become nearly codependent. Max’s story lies in her horrible family life & opening up, the latter being something her and Lucas share in common. And El’s.... is focused on self acceptance, “who” she is; her familial history. And it was done again in s3. She’s shown who she can be by Max, but she’s still defined by her powers, and by extension her life in Hawkins Lab. I am of the belief that the Upside Down will take a backseat in Season Four, so that the human villains of Dr. Brenner and MKultra can really shine. Brenner was hinted at having survived the demogorgon for a reason, and I’m excited to see where it’ll go, and how it will affect El as a character.

Listen. It would be entirely amiss to not reference her on-again off-again boyfriend, Mike Wheeler. The short version of my thoughts on their relationship (in relation to her arc) is... it isn't meant to last. The long version is that all the charm that their childhood love held fully disappeared come season 2. I'm not saying this because I hate El or Mike, or because I prefer Mike with Will. I side eye their specific relationship because if the Duffer Brothers Incorporated™️ love anything, it’s a slow burn. I won’t get too into it in this post, but seeing as Jopper, Jancy, and even Lumax all had romantic “rivals” in their way,, the fact that Mileven just.... doesn’t? Well, it makes me suspicious. The “endgame” romantic relationships on the show are always flawed in ways that are fixable and realistic, fixed through personal development and communication. But Mike and El haven’t been on the same page since season 1, and if my speculation does end up holding some water, they won’t be seeing eye-to-eye dating wise until they’re broken up for good. Anyways, on with the meta. Sorry for that very long side-bar.

It’s not rare to read people clamoring for El to do a myriad of things to truly “become her own person”, like breaking up with Mike for good and sticking with Max, or staying with Mike and not being Max’s friend anymore, etc. 

(it’s funny how all of these have really nothing to do with El as a human being, just a participant in a relationship. makes you think, huh?) 

I see people wanting her to develop *more*, and while it’s a valid want, I don’t see it happening the way people expect. The duffers aren't trying to flesh her out at all, as I don’t think she was never meant to be the character of a young girl. Rather, she was meant to be a tragic example of parental abuse and science going too far, her story ending with her death at the end of season one. This initial story is a *tragic* one, which is why I think she's doomed (I have a very strong gut feeling that the series finale will *heavily* mirror season one’s, though my proof is non-existent. just a feeling) Her arc, sad as it is, might be that she never will get to be a normal child, or not for as long as she should. And that's really sad... but also very complex writing which I appreciate.

Here’s where things get sad. In the end, while she may come fully into her own, neither powers or abuse victim defining her, I feel her resolved arc will be short-lived. I think El, ultimately, will end up repeating history. Her fatal flaw of caring too much for the people around her will truly be fatal, and so I think she will ultimately sacrifice herself so that Hawkins will finally be rid of the Upside Down, for good. 

Which is exactly the type of heartbreaking thing that I could see them (the writers) doing.

But who knows, maybe they’ll do what they did in season one and hint that she’s not gone after all. Or I'm completely wrong and she’ll live through the finale. Either way, thanks for reading :)

[baeckett-a]

          SEASON 8 OF CASTLE. Canon divergent. 

           I’m putting this under a read more & headcanon, as I feel strongly about this.

          I genuinely enjoyed S8 of Castle, but I have to admit, I was let down. I often feel like it was dragged out for no reason. There were so many times they ended the arc of Bracken being the person behind Kate’s mom’s murder. Yeah, it was hinted that there was often more. Though, I was very disappointed. 

          Since the beginning of this series, we had this slow burn between Castle and Kate. A push and pull. S2 with Kate almost saying she’ll go to the Hamptons, after saying no, and Castle’s ex-wife showing up. S3 with Castle wanting to say he’ll be her one and done, and she gets shot at the end of S3. Season 4 happened, where it made sense to let Kate heal from her trauma before confronting Castle about what he said. It makes sense that a lie slips after being held in so long. It’s fire when they finally connected at the end of S4′s arc. 

          S5 happens, which is comical. We really see them grow and come together. They have the usual moments of couple’s doubt. They work through it. They work well together, giving us what we finally need. Not this ‘will they, won’t they’ until closer to the end of the season when Kate and Castle struggle. He proposes. ** IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE, THIS IS A BIG SEASON WHERE HE TELL HER SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO GIVE HER MOM’S CASE UP, BUT SHE CAN’T SHUT HIM OUT ANYMORE. 

          Then S6 revolves around working with her in a new career. Being distant. She comes home and gets her old job. They’re inching up to get married, but then there’s a plot twist with Kate being married unknowingly through a Vegas chapel. Then, after getting that taken care of and having this push and shove of Rogan being an absolute ass, they have Castle end up abducted at the end of S6 on the way to his wedding.

          S7 starts, and it’s about finding Castle. He doesn’t have memories of the last few months he was gone. It really strains their relationship. It changes their dynamic for awhile. They elope then. Then we start to see, after not really getting much information on Castle’s disappearance and lack of memory, these teases. The end of S7 is a big turning point because Kate applies to be Captain. She gets that. She gets her happily ever after with Castle and the next step up in her job. They just got through this big push and pull again.

            S8 is when the writers change. IMMEDIATELY, Castle and Kate are split apart. While I loved the angst and understand the estranged relationship behind the scenes, they completely reset us to S4. All of their hard work becomes shattered when Kate falls back into a new hole with a new lead on her mom’s case. We find that in those missing months Castle can’t remember, it’s because Castle’s memory ends up erased by his own doing. They have this mistrust in their relationship because she’s running off and pushing him away and leaving. 

            NOT TO MENTION THAT THEY REALLY RUINED ME WITH THE LAST FEW EPISODES. When they finally decide to work together. Fix it by sex. When Castle gets abducted by the CIA. All of these huge plot points that suggest bad writing on the production end, they only give me two minutes of Castle babies and their future. lIKE WHAT THE      ? ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INVOLVES KATE AND CASTLE JUST GETTING SHOT AFTER GETTING HOME. LITEARALLY, THEY JUST GOT HOME. GOT SHOT. CRAWLED TO EACH OTHER. IT JUMPS FIVE YEARS.

             Beyond that, I don’t always acknowledge S8. Unless specifically asked for. Simply because I feel like Kate and Castle have survived so much. He stuck by her through the bodies piling up between S2-S4. He sat by her side through the shoot. He asked her, specifically, to not shut him out when they got together in S5. That they’d take it all on together. While I understand the risks and threats she faced, the honesty would have been different. It kind of sucks that Kate preached to Castle in S3 about trusting Smith and how he didn’t know the man’s real intentions      when she blindly leapt into a partnership with Rita and Vikram. Not knowing either of them, but taking their word anyway.

           At the very end of all of that, I just felt like they robbed them of all of the progress and trust they gained through their trials and errors of S1-S7. Just to have a rewrite the two producers/writers wanted to have when they bid, and lost, to S4. It read like an awful fanfic in retrospect of all that happened. So, while I do and will write S8, I just feel like in my canon divergence, I’ll acknowledge Kate being more truthful than hiding behind the same facade Castle clawed at to tear down. They both deserved better than make-up sex and fake fighting to get through. If I stick to canon, I want there to be a heavier consequence than kissing the pain away. That would be a major setback for both of them. 

[lnc2]

An Episode as Generic as Its Name: A Stormy Weather 2 Breakdown

I have a lot of... feelings about this glorified in case you missed it recap and they’re all clamoring to be discussed at once so this will not be a pretty essay but a salt dump because that’s all my frantic hands can take.

Mrs. Lot don’t have shit on me rn.

First of all, it’s ironic that an episode centered around the idea of change goes out of its way to highlight just how much hasn’t changed at all. Recap episodes are never my favorite, but especially here, when every monologue from the characters accompanies a flashback that contradicts the very idea that the writers are trying to push forward.

Chloe’s flashbacks did not show her moments of growth, but only her nastiness, reinforced in the present by her continued nastiness.  Gabriel is after the miraculous. Nino and Alya are in love.  Marinette is able to hang out with Adrien, Adrien gets to go to school. Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug.  Ladybug thinks she and Chat are a great team.

I hesitate to even say that Nathalie has changed at all– her behavior is the same we just were given an insight into her head.

... So what exactly were the changes that were supposed to be highlighted?

Instead of focusing on Chloe’s softer moments, or Marinette’s bravery vis a vis Ladybug and understanding vis a vis Adrien, we’re forced to watch half an hour of transformation sequences and flashbacks that show us how ML is in its 3rd season and the plot hasn’t really progressed at all.

The amount of times everyone was like, wow, we’ve changed so much! made me think that this episode was just supposed to be a writers room call out to skeptical fans saying “Here!  I’ll walk you through their character growth that’s happened over the last two seasons.  Now shut up and watch the show!”

Unfortunately it failed spectacularly.

Thinking beyond the heavy-handed theme for this episode, one thing that I will say it did well was highlighting the major players arcs in this series.

And not in a good way.

Poor Chloe.  I’m not sure what they’re trying to tell us about her character– one episode we’re being beat over the head with the idea that people can change and we should give unlimited second chances, and ultimately Chloe has the capacity for good.  Which we’ve seen.  Chloe’s moments of vulnerability are beautiful.  And then she’s right back to being the absolute worst.  And not in a “these things take time” kind of way but in a confusing, wtf is happening kind of way.  Are we supposed to root for her or not?  Is her redemption happening or not?

“Once a villain, always a villain?” I don’t know Zag, you tell me.

Alya and Nino definitely get the short end of the stick here.  As much as I love DJWifi, latter half of S2 and all of their appearances in S3 focus around their relationship as far as it extends to each other and not their great qualities as heroes in their own right or their relationships to their friends.  How is their arc only found in their relationship?  Nino, who was akumatized for his best friend, and Alya, who theoretically wants nothing more than to be a journalist and does anything for the story, have been pushed to the side. (Note: I love that we get to see a happy, healthy POC relationship.  The issue lies in this being their only arc.)

The Agreste storyline manages to be the stalemate shitshow it’s always been.  Gabriel hasn’t changed and with the exception of Nathalie taking on Mayura, neither has that house.

Which brings me to Adrien and Marinette.

Marinette, ugh they did you so dirty here.  I cannot articulate how angry this makes me so I’ll break it down into points:

1. Marinette’s “changes” as presented in this episode revolve entirely around her ability to hang out with Adrien.  Not in her growth as a person, not in her gaining confidence as Ladybug and conquering her fears, not as being the bigger person.  But in how she got to hang out with her crush.

2. They didn’t even show the right changes she’s made.  Marinette always tried to hang out with Adrien.  It would have made a better point with what I think they were going for at the end of this episode to show how Marinette’s feelings have moved from I just want to date him to I want him to be happy even if it’s not with me which we see in Frozer and Captain Hardrock and the Collector to name a few.

3. Tikki’s comment that now starts the beginning of a new, self-improved Marinette completely BAFFLES me.  Beyond the fact that every episode is about improving Marinette whether she needs it or not, nothing changed in this episode from beginning to end.  She dropped off Adrien’s homework as she did before. She already was willing to let him go in Frozer.  Emphasizing how she appreciates his friendship isn’t new here.

Then we have Adrien.  Adrien who is arguably the least changed character from beginning to end.  The only changes shown are his ability to go to school and have friends and we got that in Origins.  There really isn’t much to say here except to bemoan the fact that Adrien is given so few opportunities by the writers to change that even when he’s had those opportunities (Copycat!) they are presented as if he was the one in the right and didn’t need to alter his behavior in anyway.  He even had his moment in Glaciator where he told Ladybug he accepted that she was his friend only to be a total jackass in Frozer when the same issue came up.

Which brings me to Plagg’s little monologue about Ladybug “standing him up” and confessing that she liked someone else.  It was very clear in Glaciator that Marinette never said she could make it to dinner and the way Ladybug is continually framed as being in the wrong here is maddening.  That and the fact that she told him she doesn’t feel the same way and he keeps pursuing her, and attention is drawn to that fact in this episode.  It makes me wonder how any of the writers could view any of this as character growth.

(Also where the fuck was Kagami?)

Now having said, all of this, you would think that an episode that spent nearly half an hour talking about change and moving forward etc. etc. might be building up to something.  And you would be

so wrong.

I held out hope for the end.  I honestly did. When Adrien compared the two letters from Marinette I thought maybe we’ll finally see some momentum with the love square.  Whether it was Adrien’s revelation about Marinette’s crush or even her identity as Ladybug I honestly didn’t care.  I just wanted something to happen.

And it didn’t.

Instead we got a reset button. 

Another, another “lol jk just a friend” with the only exciting actual change in this entire half hour being the Luka/Marinette foreshadowing.

We’re in Season 3 pulling Season 1 jokes.

Will they or won’t they doesn’t work when they never actually do anything.

And finally, in the spirit of actually doing something. 

Someone, please, explain something to me.

Of all the akumas to invoke, why the hell did they choose Stormy Weather, a fan favorite, and not even do anything interesting with her?  I’m all for breaking formulas and having akumas be background nonsense – Clara confusedly describing LB’s lucky charm is how we work around it in fics–  but I want an actual plot to go with it.

We were baited and switched, forced to watch a half hour webisode that attempted to show us growth but only served to highlight how much of a let down this show has been.

Stormy Weather marked a promising beginning.

So why does Stormy Weather 2 make me feel like we haven’t moved forward at all?

[king-of-kings1]

Why Sansa being named as the Queen in the North makes no sense

So, I could never really get my mind out of how bad the final season of GOT was. As everyone know Dumb and fucking Dumber made a shit show of the biggest show in TV history and one of the things which bothered me the most is breaking of the Seven kingdoms into six and one. Let me say some words about that: its dumber than anything I’ve ever seen. Now I prefer the books over the show and I trust George R.R Martin to not make a mockery of his masterpiece like that. As most of the book readers know, the show just buggers a lot of plots and characters unlike their book counterparts and one thing I cannot see happening in the books is Sansa Stark’s coronation as the Queen in the North and the seven kingdoms breaking into six+one kingdom. Its just... its just... its just pure dumbassery is what it is. 

This post is not to say that I hate Sansa’s character or the ending the show gave her but this is me giving my reasons for why I don’t think that it’ll happen in the books. Before I start to take this dive I would like to say that Sansa is the favourite character of Weiss who is one of the retards whose shit we were forced to bear in those final days of Game of Thrones. So the ending Dumb and Dumber gave to her might have had nothing to do with George’s plans for her from the get go especially when we know George R.R Martin got himself away from the show with S3. 

Now for the legit logical reasons for why this whole scene was a masterpiece of D&D’s dumbassery.

Why wouldn’t the high lords and veterans of multiple wars present there in the council ask for their independence? 

This is the major drawback in the scene as it made no sense or reason as to why it never happened. As soon as Sansa asked for the independence of the north all the representatives of the other kingdoms would’ve called for their independence because Brandon “Useless” Stark mean nothing for them and they are no less important or noble than the Starks. The people there laughed straight to Sam’s face for his idea of democracy. If that’s the way then why didn’t laugh at Sansa’s plea for independence? What has Sansa Stark ever done to earn all their respect like that? Why wasn’t Gendry like, “Well, you know what, Fuck you Starks, if you both should have your own kingdoms, I should have mine. Infact I’m the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms since my dad was the last legit king of the seven kingdoms(Dany’s legitimization everyone).” Why would he accept Bran’s rule when Bran’s own sister won’t accept his rule? Then Royce and Sweetrobin. Bronze Yohn Royce is a veteran of different wars and why didn’t he ask for the Vale’s independence? The Starks mean nothing to him. Asha Greyjoy? The Greyjoys have always wanted their own kingdoms why wouldn’t they ask for their independence with the Starks? Edmure Tully? I mean Sansa chastised him for stepping up when no one else did but can I ask for a single thing that Sansa ever did to treat him as if he was a fool? Edmure Tully for his part has led armies and won a battle(however stupid his actions might be). Can Sansa Stark draw battleplans and lead armies?

The very existence of Robb’s will in the books

Like many other things cut off from the show Robb’s will in books is one of them. Robb in the books legitimizes Jon as a Stark and names him as his heir to solve his succession crisis. Unlike Dumb and Dumber’s messed up show, Robb is well remembered by his men in the books and his will is very much safe in the hands of Galbart Glover and Maege Mormont who are coming north with it. Now with Robb’s will in picture, it is very well clear that Jon has more claim on Winterfell and the North more than Sansa or the others as he is the eldest Stark now.

Sansa Lannistark

Sansa fans say what you will, but she is a Lannister by the laws of Westeros and not a Stark. Unless her marriage to Tyrion is annulled officially she’ll stay as a Lannister and not a Stark.

Sansa lacks the qualities of Queenship and leadership

Kingship or Queenship is not gained easily in George’s world. Unlike the show where you can become a king and queen just like that, in George’s world you have to earn it. Robb, even though he was Ned Stark’s son was proclaimed as king only after he proved himself as a worthy leader. And Sansa simply lacks the respect of the northmen if that should make things more clear. What has she ever done for the north? Even in the show she did nothing tbh. She brought the Vale to their rescue... but that was creepy old Littlefinger. Sansa simply lacked/lacks the ability to lead in the time of crisis. This was evident in the threat of the Night King in the show. She had no idea how to survive the war and on top of that she was not even approving the help of the others. She had no idea how to deal with this threat of the Night King and then she acts like a bitch towards Dany who was willing to fight for them. Infact her behaviour towards Dany reminded me of Bowen Marsh from the books. She just keeps worrying about food when their very own survival is being threatened. Let me tell this to you darling, you can’t eat all that food yourself when you’re not going to survive for that long. I’m not even a Dany fan but without Dany’s dragons and her army they had no chance of surviving the Winter. Let me give you a good example of that scenario, during the first long night the first men petty kings all ruled their independent kingdoms and were constantly fighting with each other. But when the Others came they all stood together and fought the evil and won. That’s what real leaders do. But unlike Jon, Sansa can’t see over the past differences. Sansa is pretty much the same in the books as well. She does not have the respect of the northerners and moreover she does not have the chance to with that respect and reputation as well. 

So these are some of the reasons why I don’t think that this will happen in the books. If it did happen, I believe George would do it in a more believable way and not like in the dumbass way the show made it up.

[wolfwhiteflowers]

I keep having fan theories/wishes/hopes✨ of the Rick Grimes movies. 😅🙃

Oh boy. ...I’m gonna have high expectations and stuff about the movie. arghhh ...um I need a fanfic or something. 

Anyway, I guess I put some thoughts on here ..so then I don’t make new posts all the time or something. I also wanna do fan edits. It helps to write out my wishes and go like there thats my “head/canon” ending of TWD/RG’s story.

===================================================

-So lately I think the movies are gonna be like a repeat of the show’s premise and I kept thinking maybe Rick will be friending with a teen boy who is similar to Carl or he could be Asian and it also reminds us of Glenn. So it would be like father and son figure trope-storyline like other shows/movie have done.

-It would be cool to see Heath there (idk if the actor’s available and etc.) Then it also reminds of some theories like if Morgan’s son Duane is still alive and they’re at CRM. But I think that messes up Morgan’s story though.

-I have that whole “#Carol’s mission” theory...and was wondering how Carol and Daryl (Grimes kids, and other current characters in the show and FTWD, TWDWB) appear in the movies. Maybe the movies’ timeline takes place after 2 years or less from the show(or after the show’s series finale time-wise). So, it would be like the movies are ahead and we watch the show -on how the characters get to the point they were at in Movie 1.

eta.

I really don’t know what the plot could be and for 3 movies.😑 Like what’s the conflict and who’s the antagonist.

-someone kinda mention it already and I like the idea that it could be CRM (antagonist) vs. Commonwealth. Or, within CRM, Group A vs Group B (where Rick is at). I kinda had this idea that Group A/CRM are dressed in black and Group B are in streetwear, casual, and wear white/Commonwealth soldiers (and red? Commonwealth and TF helps them.) So it’s black vs white.  ....But Idk what A and B means...I’m hearing it’s “after or before” bitten? ok

eta.

-It would be funny or fun if each movie has a different theme to it. Like movie 1 is spy-like movie, movie 2-rom / romcom movie, movie 3- road trip movie.

-I’ve been doing edits and like yeah ok it doesn’t make sense and blah. Idk what my ending I want. Mainly everyone wants a Grimes (and others) reunion. Yeah we want that but i think there’ll be more to it(3 movies!)..other plots going on. 

So, hmm ..it would be cool if they did my wish/idea that I wanted for The 100 show to do. But, the show didn’t but Falling Skies kinda did it. It would be interesting if with my theory TWD does it. The theory/idea is like Rick goes west of USA, territory by territory to save everyone kinda like Lewis and Clark(get it from The100..k) traveling to west... and Rick find other communities. Gaining other communities/friends..against walkers or enemy. Rick would be the leader or someone who help unite communities/territories together. I guess this is like LOTR or a road trip movie. (I told my sis about Falling Skies and she said so there would be bad zombies and good zombies? lol 😑)

- I was thinking maybe there would be an arc, like in the Commonwealth arc in the comics, where it’s Old World vs New World.

Too Long, Read More

eta.

- maybe the movie(s) will be like TWDG s3 with the logo on the title parallel and Clem&AJ are like Judith&RJ. heh Well if the kids are gonna be in the movies. I hope they are.

...*thoughts

- Maybe they film in May ‘20, after DG’s HBO show. *shrug* :\

-I was thinking if Gimple is all about the easter eggs and creating a TWD universe with many shows/things kinda linked together, then I think TWD movie(s) are like the mothership story (right? movies are the big deal of hollywood/franchise).  Anyway, Gimple really have to plan the movie story out or just have this big plan and endgame in mind ahead of time. This seems really hard..and timelines. Like 3 shows kinda hinting CRM, they all keep going forward into their story, while we get movie1 and then later movie2. It gotta make sense. That’s hard..with SW and Avengers it was already based on books or planned out already(George Lucas). Or movies came out first. TWD comic books ended like s12-ish. // ok... Sigh so many promises.

- Those scifi movies or the mythology in the story is all crazy drama but the answer is LOVE. heh that would be cool. Idk how that works in this. They won the great war, found cure from zombie bites, and everyone’s at peace because of (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ , L💖VE. (easy way out-writing)

-Gimple mentioned “wild directions” on the movies and I just hope the movies still feel like TWD and nicely wrap up Rick’s story. Just no retconning, love triangles, and killing other major characters. 👽

-Doing random edits and like ahh it’s like fic but I see it. FeelsFeelsFeels. Anyway what if Rick, every place he’s been at, left Michonne letters just because(and misses her and loves her still) and it kinda becomes like clues for Michonne to find Rick. Michonne finds love letters for her all over the world/US. 😢💖 But uh my theory is he’s in one place or not idk.

-ok but what if Richonne Reunite on a bridge. 😭💞I like the idea of also being like their first meeting in s3 when they’re by the fences. Also, maybe, something do with their hands..hand touches. -they do a lot of hands holding on the show, btw.

-eta. I haven’t thought of ideas lately and I also did my big twd/rick movie AU edits and felt like satisfied like..there’s that my wish or my au wish to depend on. And also felt discouraged or hopeless?.. on those movies and tired of these rushed early plans on what gimple is gonna do. Like I  mainly just want an overall plan. So far I think i figured out that the movies might be after “TWD World Beyond” ends.  And idk whatever crazy thing AMC is gonna do. like solo movies wtf?

Anyway, I guess they’re kinda saying or rumors that TWD other characters(WB, FTWD) will join. Which I figured because hello movies..make it a TWD movie(more interest, fans, $$). ok. So, if true, Carol/Caryl will be there. And I recently thought of a different idea than before. Like maybe Caryl team will go to New Mexico to meet up FTWD’s group..to help fight against CRM.. ..and to bring them to the movies. Just an idea but idk how that works with other TF/Grimes kids and the tv show. Well I guess maybe it works for both before or after Rick movie #1, and tv show still going (if they still continue the show after s12,TWD:WB and movie #1.)

[daresplaining]

Hi, long time lurker, first time asker here. What are your thoughts on Trish's arc in Jessica Jones S3, and where do you think it would go if this wasn't the final season? Would she find a way to appeal her case or break out of prison?

    Hi! 

    I’m really torn on Trish’s Season 3 arc, and I’m not sure if that’s because it was horribly upsetting or because I had trouble making sense of it. I am also trying my best to look at it without the bitterness of it being the last season, because I doubt they knew it would be the last season when it was being written/filmed, and so saying that it was an unsatisfying way to end her character arc isn’t a fair criticism. 

    Jessica Jones has always been a show that takes its characters uncomfortable, morally iffy places. It leans into the fact that sometimes people are just terrible– and sometimes they grow and improve and sometimes they don’t. As Jessica comments in her narration in the very first episode of Season 1, this is a story about seeing the worst in people– the uncomfortable and messy aspects of just being human and handling the cruelties of the world in whatever way works. And that’s something I really like and respect about this show. It never backs down from its darkest themes, and all of its characters are unapologetically flawed. One of my favorites, Jeryn Hogarth, is a terrible person in this universe (her comics counterpart isn’t a paragon of virtue either, but he’s better). She starts out awful, she goes through some horrific experiences, and she clings to her awfulness as a survival tactic. She isn’t given a redemption arc or a neat, satisfying happy ending in any season, and that’s a gutsy storytelling choice that I absolutely respect. 

    On a certain level, I feel the same way about Trish’s arc. She has always been an imperfect person– not to the degree of many of the characters around her, but still. In Season 1 and The Defenders she was a hopeful figure– a success story of someone who had escaped an abusive situation and managed to rebuild her life on her own terms. She believed in the superheroic ideal– the image of a strong and noble individual protecting the weak and saving the world– to a degree that Jessica, thanks to her own traumas, no longer could. Trish served as a light in Jessica’s darkness, to put it sappily, and pushed Jessica along one of her (Jessica’s) main character journeys: that of seeing herself as a good person and a hero again. And that was very powerful and wonderful, and aligned with the themes of the Kilgrave plot. This part of Trish’s characterization was also further boosted by the complicated nature of own desire to be heroic. After spending her life as a victim who had no say in her own life or identity, she wanted the kind of power Jessica had to protect others from that type of situation and to also feel empowered herself. Trish’s desperate desire to be a superhero cannot be separated from her childhood as “Patsy”– an adored public figure who she had no say in becoming. Building herself a new public persona, gaining both literal and metaphorical power… it’s all about “killing” Patsy and recreating that same sense of positive influence on her own terms. 

    With this in mind, it has been horrifying (by design, to be clear) to watch this justified and understandable desire turn desperate and corrupted, and to see Trish transform into an antihero in the last two seasons of the show. As Trish, despite her better judgment, starts rebuilding her relationship with her mother, all of that past trauma comes back to the surface. She loses her grip on her life. And this comes out in her fervent desire to gain powers at any cost, thus warping her concept of heroism. Trish does what, in fact, many of the characters in the show do when their lives fall apart– she copes poorly. Her plans go awry, she makes mistakes, then she tries to justify them, and on and on, digging herself deeper and deeper until the idea of becoming a hero by murdering “bad” people seems like a logical and reasonable solution– the only way to feel like she is actually doing something “good” that makes a difference. This season emphasized the fact that, despite the illusion created in Season 1, Trish never actually escaped from her mother’s influence, she never actually moved on from that trauma, and those lingering ties end up destroying her. 

    Again, on a surface level, I don’t have a problem with this. I actually love dark stories with hopeless endings, and it is in conversation with Jessica’s journey of escape and personal reinvention. But Trish’s arc felt wrong to me, and beyond the anticlimax of the show’s cancellation, I felt it lacked nuance. If I think about it really hard, I can justify Trish going full-on Punisher. But in the moment, on an emotional level, it felt like a forced leap in her characterization. We weren’t deep enough in her head to fully understand how she ended up going so far off the rails. There’s also the problem of Trish not being the main character. In some ways, her story felt more like angst fodder for Jessica than anything else. As a Jessica fan, I love the final moment of the season, when she decides to stay in New York in spite of everything. But as a Trish fan, it felt unfair for Trish’s pain to just be treated as one more thing Jessica has to endure. There’s also the fact that Trish– Patsy Walker– is a long-established and beloved Marvel character. Her life has been dysfunctional, of course, but she is a superhero. She is Hellcat. And currently, she is a fairly positive, upbeat, and heroic figure within the Marvel Universe. I know it’s not fair or constructive to compare the shows/movies with the comics in this way. The MCU is its own universe, and Jessica Jones in particular has made many, many deviations from the source material. These are essentially new characters in new stories, and that’s fine. But I am always a little grumpy when adaptations blatantly disrespect their source material, and the plain fact is that the many Hellcat fans who waited and waited for Trish to get her superhero origin were given the middle finger this season.

    I have to assume that following seasons would have continued her journey. She is a major secondary protagonist, and with her mother dead and the very real consequences of Doing Heroing Wrong staring her in the face, her story would invite all kinds of further development and, hopefully, an actual, successful origin story. Jessica and Trish need each other, and I feel like that would remain true even now. I could see Jessica agonizing over what to do about Trish, considering breaking her out, deciding against it, drinking a bit… and then maybe Trish would get herself out. Or outside forces would intervene. Either way, I can’t imagine Trish would have spent the entirety of a hypothetical Season 4 locked up– and I suppose one upside of the cancellation is that we can imagine all kinds of scenarios from here to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing. 

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E17 Results (Anime Viewer Only Version)

The poll closed with 135 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note this is the anime only viewer version of the poll. Manga readers, please click here for the results of the manga reader poll!

RATE THE EPISODE 113 Responses

This episode has received a ton of positive views across the board, and the poll here is no exception. Over 90% of respondents gave this episode the highest possible ranking.

THIS EPISODE WAS SO EPIC!! Got me on the edge of my seat the whole episode. Too many emotions were felt once the episode ended

Loved the pacing of this episode

Best episode of season 3

Damn

The animation was soooo goooood!

Definitely one of the best this season

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 113 Responses

At 36.6%, Levi vs. the Beast Titan is the scene that anime only viewers appreciated the most in this episode. At 25.7%, Armin’s sacrifice makes for a strong second favorite scene. 18.6% of respondents simply couldn’t decide what part of the episode they enjoyed the most.

WHO WAS THE EPISODE’S MVP? 112 Responses

Unsurprisingly, Armin easily took the claim to the episode’s Most Valuable Person, with 80.4% of the vote favoring his sacrifice over the actions of the rest of the cast. Levi came in second with 15.2% of the vote.

WHO’S SACRIFICE HAD MORE EMOTIONAL IMPACT ON YOU? 110 Responses

64.5% of the fandom felt more emotionally compromised by Armin’s sacrifice, although we’re sure the choice wasn’t easy for many. Both characters pulled through with their heroic actions!

WHICH CHARACTER HAD THE BEST “FINAL BLOW” AGAINST THE ENEMY? 111 Responses

At just over half, 51.4% of anime only viewers were most excited about Levi’s final blow against the Beast Titan, shredding his nape open to reveal the human inside!

WHICH WAS THE BETTER ONE LINER FROM MIKASA? 111 Responses

“Annie. Fall,” remains the most notable pre-mortem one-liner from Mikasa among respondents.

THOUGHTS ON WIT CHOOSING TO OMIT ANY MUSIC WHEN EREN TAKES OUT BERTOLT? 112 Responses

78.6% of respondents appreciated WIT’s decision to leave the take-down of the Colossal Titan without any music at all, allowing the viewers to really focus on the moment unfold in front of them. 16.1% of respondents enjoyed the lack of music, but also wouldn’t have minded if WIT had included something. A smaller amount think the moment would have been more profound with something playing in the background. 

I didn't notice there wasn't any music

Was still in shock from about Armin so didn't notice

850 YEARBOOK VOTE: WHO HAS THE BEST TEETH? 109 Responses

With a slight edge over the Colossal Titan, the random Redshirt with the… very interesting facial features wins out this category with 27.5% of the vote. The Colossal Titan was in second place, and Eren’s titan ranked in third. Sorry, Zeke. We’re sure Levi would love to rearrange your teeth a bit.

WHO WORE THIS LOOK BETTER? 110 Responses

Reiner wins the most handsome look with 52.7% of the vote. We can probably thank WIT’s quality animation for this one!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ZEKE MEANT WHEN HE SPOKE ABOUT HUMANITY REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER? 112 Responses

65.2% of respondents feel that Zeke was referring to the King’s brainwashing and how it causes humanity to repeat the same history over and over. 22.3% feel that it’s a more broad statement and criticism on humanity in general and how we’re doomed to forever repeat history. 9.8% either lean more on the “time loop” theory or just think we’re quite witty!

The only solution is extinction

The story is an endless circle

humans are stupid? Or maybe he thinks him and his warriors are better than normal humans?

YOUR REACTION TO LEVI VS. BEAST TITAN? 112 Responses

At 71.4%, the overwhelming majority of respondents were super pumped up for Levi vs. Beast Titan and weren’t disappointed. 13.4% felt that everything went relatively predictably without feeling disappointed. 11.6% were simply impressed, and a small percentage felt it was too predictable.

It's beautiful. I've looked at this for five hours now

Levi gave beast titan a nice shave

DO YOU THINK LEVI WILL GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO TRY AND FULFILL HIS PROMISE? 111 Responses

64% of respondents are feeling positively about Levi’s plight and believe he will be able to face Zeke again and see his vow through. 19.8% are slightly less optimistic, believing that Levi will get to face Zeke again, but still won’t come out victorious. 14.4% are certain that he simply will never get another chance to fulfill his promise.

He promised Erwin to kill him, after Erwin’s death I god damn demand the death of the Beast Titan!

Yes, and I have a bad feeling he might end up dying on his 2nd attempt

REINER LOST HIS MEMORY AFTER BEING INJURED. THOUGHTS? 111 Responses

68.5% of respondents went with the more sarcastically worded answer, but feel that he only lost his memory due to the fact that his head was blown off. 21.6% of respondents feel that it’s something that’s going to ultimately affect Reiner personality disorder, and 7.2% feel that the memory loss is simply just a side effect of titan shifting in general.

I didn't notice

I think it will be revealed later

No, this will be momentary

HOW RELIEVED WERE YOU TO SEE HANGE JUMP INTO BATTLE? 113 Responses

The majority of the fandom was relieved to see that Hange is still alive after a couple episodes of not knowing their fate. Bonus points for them coming back in one of the coolest ways!

SASHA WAS INJURED AND RENDERED UNCONSCIOUS. DO YOU THINK SHE’LL BE OKAY? 113 Responses

Nearly 70% of voters aren’t too concerned for Sasha’s fate. 22% don’t want to say either way, and a small 8% believe she’ll be confirmed dead by the end of the arc.

WILL LEVI HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE THE SERUM? 112 Responses

The vast majority of respondents are fully confident that Levi will inject another character to eat one of the enemy shifters.

PLOT PREDICTION: Erwin is barely alive but will bleed out soon. Levi has the serum, Eren suggests they use it on Armin, (despite already being dead and not knowing if the serum works on the dead.) Levi gets angry at Eren for this and that leads into the rooftop trailer from S3 Part 1's final episode. When Levi is pinned by Mikasa, Eren steals the serum and uses it on Armin, not knowing if it will even work.

IF SO, WHICH SHIFTER DO YOU THINK WILL BE SACRIFICED? 113 Responses

72.6% of respondents are confident that with Bertolt out of commission, he’ll be the one to be sacrificed should the serum be used. 15.9% believe that it will be Reiner. At third, a small percentage are firm in believing that the serum will not end up getting used for one reason or another.

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT ARMIN’S SACRIFICE? 113 Responses

A solid 54% of the fandom were emotionally touched by Armin’s sacrifice, feeling that he went out bravely. 25.7% gained a lot more respect for his character than they had previously, and 15.9% feel very strongly about those who consider Armin to be a useless character. Just a few weren’t really moved by the sacrifice at all.

PepeHands look how they massacred my boy

I'm still traumatized... Armin was my 3rd favorite character and I just... can’t believe it

IS THIS A GOOD END FOR ARMIN’S CHARACTER? 113 Responses

78.8% of respondents believe that this is a satisfying and fitting end to Armin’s character arc. The remaining respondents still want to get something more out of him.

Why did Armin have to go ;-;

Ohh Godd! give us Armin back oh lord! ;-;

HOW DID YOU FEEL SEEING EREN FINALLY TAKE DOWN THE COLOSSAL TITAN? 113 Responses

Nearly half of the fandom were excited to see Eren finally take out the Colossal Titan, cheering on his victory. 33.6% were happy to see it happen and felt it was well deserved. 12.4% would rather give Armin credit for the victory, and a small percentage were either neutral or unhappy with the development.

What did it cost?

HOW HAVE YOUR OPINIONS ON THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS CHANGED?

Naturally, Armin got a huge boost in favorability from this episode, and characters like Eren, Erwin and Levi have also gained fairly large boosts in this regard. Mikasa, Reiner and Bertolt mainly remain unchanged, with a few more favoring Mikasa higher, while Bertolt and Reiner are favored lower. Zeke, the Beast Titan, is the only character who’s favorability continues to move in a negative direction, unsurprisingly so. Yes, we do plan on asking this again after episode 55.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

;0;

Best episode yet

Floch came Clutch

Fucking awesome and hawt 💞😔🥵

Hyped for next episode

I noticed Zeke mentioned some underlying daddy issues. Poor guy's going through a phase... I bet he's about to be seriously grounded

Solidifies it as my favourite anime and dare I say perhaps even one of my favourite shows of all time

very noice

yeet

Thank you for running this poll. I've been looking forward to it every week since I discovered it at the beginning of the season and I appreciate the work you put in to it :)

(Thank you to the person who wrote the last comment! <3)

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 105 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in a few days!

[sol1056]

three anons: what the hell was all that in S7

Picking out the three that are most to the point for this answer, but I’ve got another dozen or so that overlap. Not sure I’ll have time/energy to answer the rest individually, so hopefully this meta will be sufficient. 

I mean it could be that they had different execs back then who were better at their jobs and kept Shiro around. No one disliked black paladin Shiro, even the DotU fans were ok with it, and the writing in s1-2 was mostly very good. Changing all that was a bad idea. I would have left on the spot if Shiro died or was benched, like now, I'm only around for closure. Maybe they were different execs with this decision & the EPs leaped at the chance. Well, we know who's also gonna be in trouble if that's the case.

With your theory on how storyboards were reused and characters shuffled around for cost cutting, might this not also partly explain the Adam flashback scene and how it was staged? I mean, they were originally supposed to be roommates and the scene was meant to appear in season 2 but got cut. What if they just reused the storyboard (or even animation, if it was already mostly done) the way it was and then just changed the dialogue? This could explain the lack of intimacy in the staging, too. Ezor and Zethrids interactions were more openly intimate maybe not (just) because they‘re villains who die immediately after, but because the decision to make them an item came before storyboarding was done, so the staging is more suggestive. I mean, if you think Shiro was mostly pasted in in the first half of s7, that might make sense.

If cost was the issue and they already had the black paladin Shiro version written, and got the greenlight to change it to Keith then things don't add up. Because they changed it once more! Which could have been avoided if they stuck to the Shiro one. And it goes without saying it would be better written to follow canon instead of the mess we got, like, I cant imagine this NOT discussed. So if it wouldn't be cost effective to change it again for Keith and it would be badly written, why did it happen?

Behind the cut: the most likely chronology of revisions, the clues in S7 as to its original form, and what this means for S8 and the Black Paladin position. 

This is everything I’ve been able to figure out between interviews, podcasts, tweets, plus researching the industry and a few reality-checks with friends more familiar. As always, any mistakes are my own. 

version 0: "five teenagers"

This would’ve been the first pitch after getting the green light, and probably only a loose synopsis, with just the pilot given a rough storyboard. A post-apocalyptic Earth conquered by the Galra, who are seeking Blue. The execs rejected JDS' mechanism for the discovery of Blue, in favor of simply having Keith ‘sense’ Blue. The execs also rejected the idea that Shiro would die only a few episodes in. This summary seems to be the basis of the "five teenagers" part of the teaser.

version A: "shiro kicks the bucket"

Timelines would've dictated moving onto an outline pretty quickly, detailed down to the episode level, including bits of dialogue, motifs, turning points or emotional beats. In this revision, Shiro dies/leaves at the end of S2 and does not return. This is the “originally we wanted him to kick the bucket” version, which the execs rejected.

version B: "shiro goes away for awhile"

If I'm interpreting the hints correctly, the "does Shiro die or not" question got tossed back and forth all the way into S1/S2 pre-production. Rather than rearrange everything, the easiest fix would've been to leave most of the story intact and write only a new ending where Shiro returns. The execs reject this rewrite, saying Shiro can’t be gone that long. This is the “we tried to just have him gone for awhile, but the execs said he had to come back sooner” version.

version C: "enter the clone"

Again, easiest fix is to insert Shiro/Kuron, remove Keith, and reverse that just before Shiro's return in version B. This impacts only the middle seasons (S3-S6); the clone compromise satisfies the execs. Kuron's characterization makes a lot more sense if it’s Keith, in visuals (ie Kuron leaning against the wall in Keith fashion), dialogue (fighting with Lance), and action (leaving without consulting the team). It's also why no one mentions Keith's absence. Because in the original version A, Keith was standing right there.

version D: "wtf is going on", aka Season 7

When JDS mentions having a full season written with Shiro as Black Paladin, it didn't make sense how they'd have a script and not use it. With @ptw30's visual detective work, I think I may've figured it out.

Technical notes: first scripts are all written for a season, then voices are recorded, and then the combined script+recording is used to storyboard. Production seasons are 26-episodes, independent of actual broadcast seasons; VA may be recording scenes across two 13-episode seasons completely out of order, since the recording schedule's going to be based on who's available, not chronology of the file numbers. The biggest staff changes are usually in April ('staffing season') when new shows get the greenlight and start sharking around to catch writers, designers, directors, etc.

In March of this year, S5 was released. At least some of the storyboarders were released in time for staffing season; in April, Hedrick moves to a new project. With S7/S8 being unchanged since version B, I suspect Hedrick delivered the scripts for S7 and S8 by winter of last year, at latest. Even that would be tight, since that's expecting animation to deliver 26 episodes in an 8-month timeframe. [edit: probably delivered much earlier, given the studio leaks show images we can recognize from S7/S8, so some amount of these seasons were in production by then.]

In June, S6 dropped, and a week later, Hamilton was announced as the new story editor via the Lets Voltron podcast. With the lead time required in production, there doesn't seem to be any reason to even need a story editor, at this point. All the pre-production work should be done.

In August, S7 dropped. Hedrick's editor credit is only for the first half of the season; Hamilton gets it for the second half. That means the last six episodes were written after Hedrick's departure. (May Chan's S2 script was reused in part, and she gains a belated co-writing script credit for that. Hedrick should've received the same; it's standard.)

Let's recap a few things we know (and a few we can intuit) about S7:

The season was already written with Shiro returning as Black Paladin, possibly also recorded and storyboarded. 

S6 reversed the S4-S5 trend, lending strength to exec arguments that Shiro is necessary in the story.

After S6 dropped, the EPs said the wolf's name was a spoiler. See this post from @pwt30; tl;dr is that perhaps the EPs intended the wolf to be Shiro's spirit. 

Despite Shiro's return, he's absent for the majority of the first half; when he is present, he barely speaks a half-dozen words, and none are plot-relevant. See @ptw30's post for more details. 

There's a glaring incontinuity when Allura says the paladin armor protected the team, yet Shiro is frozen with the other non-paladins despite wearing armor. 

Keith never offers for Shiro to pilot, nor mentions it, nor even seems to consider it an issue.

Not everything dovetails since I don't have the full picture, but here's my theory: S7 was originally outlined with Shiro's spirit in the wolf, rather than Black. I have no idea when/how JDS would've thought up the CA:WS parallels for his sole writing credit, but Shiro's "I died" and Lotor's psychotic breakdown are squeezed into S6E6, which was written by Josh Hamilton, Hedrick's later replacement. The only other Shiro-in-Black point is a few minutes at the end of S6's final episode. Shifting from Shiro-in-wolf to Shiro-in-Black really only affects one episode, with a bit of editing for another.

Anyway, S6 ends version C, and we segue to version B. For the first half of S7, the clone's body may have been in stasis while the team traveled through its various non-adventures. The episode we now know as S7E1 may have been the mid-point, with about six episodes of Shiro being unconcious. After watching the numbers drop from S3 to S6, the execs may've rejected another six episodes of where-is-Shiro and insisted he come back ASAP.

S7 only has two episodes that must be in order; the rest are pretty rearrangeable. All they had to do was insert Shiro into the background and record a few lines. (Several lines are pure voice-over, which also saves cost/time by not needing to animate moving mouth.) But the moved episode is only his memory/awakening, and the logical next episode would be Shiro's reconnection, and the rest of the season would roll from there. Without moving the entire second half of the season to the start, moving only his awakening episode would mean Shiro does nothing for 5-6 episodes and then abruptly reconnects.  

In a recent interview, JDS said at first the execs weren't enthused until JDS talked up the new mecha they'd give Shiro to captain. Honestly, there's no way JDS got to be EP without giving a really good pitch, but there may've been another element to his argument: nostalgia. The EPs seem certain everyone suffers from their same nostalgia dementia, which if you do, then you probably have been waiting for any glimpse of that og!Keith. If Shiro returns at the start of S7, then Keith's time in Black has been limited to a few disastrous episodes in S3, and a single big battle in S6. The beginning of S7 is the only time we'd ever see the Voltron84 formation working as a unified team, and returning Shiro too soon would defeat the whole purpose of showing how the team has grown in his absence.

The solution seems to have been to remove Shiro's reconnection completely, and keep Keith in Black. That would mean re-recording Shiro's lines from the midpoint onward, and editing in Keith over Shiro. The savings would be that only half the seaon would have to be reworked, not all. The loose end of the space wolf --- an artifact of version B --- was left in place.  

What I'm not sure of is whether the following are significant enough changes to warrant removing Hedrick's name and replacing it with Hamilton's. It could be, if supervising the revision process is enough to override the previous credits. I have no idea about that part of the industry, and it's the kind of edge case you're just not going to find a lot of blog posts about, so if you know, tell me. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, this would've meant Shiro was switched in for Allura, Allura was put back in a lion, and Keith was switched in for Shiro. This would explain why Shiro speaks as the leader of Voltron despite no longer being a paladin, and the uneasy sensations a lot of people got about the characterizations. It was most striking in the last three episodes: Shiro felt like Allura v2, while Keith felt like Shiro v2. And that further, the Altean-Earthian ship just 'lighting up' for Shiro --- and becoming that oversized white mecha --- may've meant as Allura's fourth (fifth?) deus ex machina.

I'd be willing to bet that mid-battle, Allura repeated her stunt from the end of S2, heading out to destroy Sendak's crystal by herself. She wouldn't need Sam to hack her brain, and then we'd also have a call back to when she got knocked down by the crystal-ball thing on Naxzela. If she was the one meant to go toe-to-toe with Sendak, that would explain the bizarre neutrality of Sendak's words --- he says nothing personal to Shiro, at all --- and the even more bizarre silence on Shiro's part. Allura's words wouldn't fit Shiro, so he's silent.

And lastly, it'd mean that the one leaping out of Black to cut down Sendak wouldn't have been Keith. It would've been Shiro.

Where would the story go from here?

If I look at the events of S7, the first half is terribly disjointed, really. If Shiro was supposed to wake at the midpoint, an episode (or two) is missing. One for him to reconnect with Black, and a second that would provide some minor conflict to settle him back into position. Those two episodes were likely replaced with the unexpected and frankly over-told two-parter of the Earth flashbacks.

Two problems with that, one technical, one structural.

First, the flashback two-parter has a lot of moving parts. Brand-new designs, characters, and backdrops. It's far too elaborate to be done in an ultra-compressed timeframe, not without several heart attacks and therapy bills on the part of the animation staff. (Plus, the US-based storyboarding team is already downsized, so fewer hands to do the work.)

Second, it doesn't make a lot of structural sense, especially against the big revelations in S6 of an existing Altean colony. Within the story, there's no reason to halt everything and travel across the universe to take however long to build a new castle, when the Altean colony question is far more pressing. Returning to earth also violates the structure, because it's really just a standard milieu: start on earth, head out to have adventures, and return home at the end.

But here, they're returning home and then possibly leaving again. That's just... a rather peculiar and imbalanced way to do it. It doesn't help that doing so means literally telling Romelle her people are just gonna have to rot, the paladins are certain they need the castle more. Why would you take one of the more compelling storylines you've come up with, only to background it again, and wreck the traditional bookending milieu structure at the same time? Especially if that means coming up with major set-pieces and brand-new designs in the space of several months, after a chunk of your core staff are already onto other things.

I think those two flashback episodes -- and the rewritten finale episodes --- may've been cribbed from S8. In other words, the second half of S7 was the original end of S8. That would mean repurposing already-created storyboards and animation artifacts, so there's a huge time savings there (not counting the need to re-record voices and edit the visuals to match the changed-around parts). 

[note: if there’s anywhere you want to frontload introductions for the spin-off, it’d be in the final season, not the penultimate season. Here it feels like a big honking distraction, rather than an organic segue into the next iteration.]

That change necessitated that utterly bizarro mecha that appeared out of nowhere with the most ridiculously impeccable timing. There needed to be a reason to pull the team back out to space to deal with Haggar and/or the alt-Alteans and/or Lotor or whomever else it turns out to be.

So... where we go from here depends on when S8 gets released, because that’ll tell us how much they did (or did not) edit the episodes. Another clue will be whose name gets listed as head editor for an episode; if we see Hedrick’s name reappear at the top, we’ll know we’re dealing with episodes that are enough unrevised to qualify as being Hedrick-edited, that it’s a version B episode. 

My expectation? They’ll move Shiro’s reconnection to the first part of S8, and add an episode or edit pieces of another, to blend it into what would’ve been the first half of S8 (probably with filler to mask the gap). Then add an episode to segue into the version B finale of S7, where we’d end with the original VLD lineup. With the time needed for animation, that’d be the easiest (if potentially awkward) way to repurpose as much as possible of existing artifacts. 

If we don’t get S8 in the next 1-2 months, though, all bets are off, and there’s a much greater possibility that the entire final season is being redone from scratch. I’d expect Keith to stay in Black, in that case, but I’m always willing to be pleasantly surprised.  

edited to add: see this followup for another detail that supports the reversed-seasons theory

[welcometoteamz]

verse.    »    canon

Blaine as presented in the iZombie canon. Willing to write him at any point in time during any season. open to all.

verse.    »    i don’t think he’s faking

So there was a year long hiatus between seasons 2 and 3 where I wrote Blaine’s amnesia as being a legit and lasting thing, and he forged new dynamics and relationships with folk. i didn’t want to throw all that out so. he has Blaine’s history, but basically he becomes a new character with the same name/face . selectively open to mutuals.

verse.    »    new and improved version

Blaine tells Peyton when his memories return, and he makes a genuine effort to turn his life around. In her words, his memories come back, but he stays this new and improved version of Blaine. who is honest and doesn’t let his own fears and insecurities and accountability skirting fuck things up for himself. selectively open to mutuals.

verse.    »   bye bitch Blaine never feeds Angus and he’s left to turn Romero and eventually decompose at the bottom of the well.

open to all

verse.    »    untitled DuBeers verse

Rita survived getting shot in the head, and due to having no where else to turn went to Blaine. The two struck up a partnership/kinship/cute yet mischievous little dynamic. pretty much exclusive to @fairisfair, but if anyone wants threads set in that verse they can let me know.

verse.    »    teenage dirtbag

Blaine prior to the iXombie series, where he is a high school/uni student who eventually turns to selling underage kids beer which turns to him pushing drugs which leads to works for Boss after Angus cuts him off. open selectively to mutuals.

verse.    »    untitled au where blaine never started up meat cute

Yeah by this point he had turned Angus and carelessly turned Jackie but in this verse liv confronts him after seeing him with Dougie and Hutch. in this verse blaine didn’t know he could turn someone via sex, but after the confrontation at the morgue and being unable to get drunk he needed to feel something and turning jackie was an accident. so now liv is keeping a close eye on him which means no criminal activities. exclusive to certain mutuals.

verses under cuts bc their descriptions are too long. 

»    the blaine didn’t steal the cures au/rob thomas is inconsistent

» the latter half of s3 and all of s4 were lackluster imo and i wanna ignore it them

verse    »    the blaine didn’t steal the cures au/rob thomas is inconsistent

bc i’m bitter. Blaine tries to turn his life around, but get caught in a lie and fuck it up for himself due to his own insecurities and fear of rejection. it’s more tragic if he still tried to behave himself even after his lie was exposed, and it was the hit from Angus that dragged him back into his old life after he got his retribution. like he was all angry but also defeated when don e showed up and told him they were taking his clients. he was just resigned to his miserableness. he was that devastated over losing his new life, nothing mattered to him anymore. and yeah. the fact he was with Peyton while lying is no doubt problematic and i’m mad at them for getting me on board with that and then pulling the rug out from under me…

But in my mind, he was still going to try and start anew even if she chose Ravi. even after his lie was exposed, and he knew he wouldn’t change how they saw him…he knew he was capable of doing good, and would have kept doing it. imo. He stopped caring about the business when he was in his depressed funk. Candy had to get on him about the orders. He wouldn’t have stolen the cures, because in that state, he didn’t care. he was so apathetic about everything. it took nearly getting killed for him to have a sense of what to do with himself. and yeah, they showed him with the blue juice recipe. that’s what i mean by inconsistent. one episode he’s all “well at least i have this and i can be dastardly” and the next he’s drunkenly singing love songs and moping and neglecting the business. You’re telling me that Blaine stole the cures, went shopping for the blue juice ingredients, and then went to get drunk and sing his set? nah son.

Which goes into the whole “i think there was more to the Natalie situation than we got, but they changed it bc she left the show for a new one and they were reduced back to 13 eps.”

Not just the inconsistency of her having money, and of Oates not finding her like she said he would. esp. when she was amnesiac…but they had the bodyguard see Ravi’s ID, and note where he worked. There had to have been a reason for that.If she told him about the cure and used it to barter her freedom.If she sold the information to them or something…because if she said she got it from Major, and his friend Ravi, then they’d know to ransack the morgue. For that matter, when she escaped, you don’t think they’d go looking for her with the guys who tried to save her from them? but like. if Ravi hadn’t slept with Katty Kupps and if pavi had sailed in s3. Blaine would have kept working as a lounge singer while also doing shady plots stuff, and he would have been content.

Which goes to ways Blaine could have gotten out of his lie, that someone like Blaine would have thought about. Like.

Why not just get out of his lie with another lie? It would have been in character. Lie and say Ravi’s memory serum works. Major is injected with both at the same time, no one thinks anything of it when his memories come back. then do the same thing when a cure is able to be mass produced. Blaine gets to be happy and be with Peyton. Yes he loses the brain business, but I think he’d be willing to give that up for a fresh start and someone who loves him. Even if he gains it through bad and shifty/dishonest means.

Let’s not forget that was the episode where he had to sign the millions in inheritance back to Angus. if he that had not happened and he had all that money to fall back on? my trashy lil dude is set. so yeah. that was inconsistent and Lazy and this verse ignores that. open to all.

open to all.

verse.    »   the s4 was lackluster and i wanna ignore it au

S4 was all over the place and Not Good imo. idk if that is due to the episode count or if they changed things when they realized they had promoted a predator... but you have the Renegade stuff, the FG stuff, and the angus stuff.

Which wound up being all filler. like. why not tie it all together and have Angus as the ultimate big bad? not that i wanted fuckface to get more screentime. but like. how about Angus’ cult his plan to team up with FG from S3? if Blaine or don e tell them?

IT DOESN’T EVEN COME INTO PLAY AT ALL IN S4 WHEN FUCKFACE RETURNS. NO ONE CALLS HIM OUT ON HATING FILLMORE-GRAVES, REMINDING HIM OF HIS PLAN. HOW AWESOME WOULD IT HAVE BEEN IF THIS WAS EXPOSED TO HIS CHURCH AND THEY TORE HIM APART LIKE THE HYENAS DID SCAR IN THE LION KING?

And they never mention Blaine killing chase’s brother/Vivian’s husband Harrison. Now there are two tangents I could go into here. the first is how Blaine storyline in the back half of S3 may have suffered due to Andrea Savage leaving the show for her own series, I’m Sorry.

It’s possible we would have seen her and Blaine face off if she learned he presumably killed her husband Harrison.  but like. they still could have done that with chase. chase is Harrison brother. he worked with Blaine. he is smart enough and would easily be able to figure out that Blaine was the OG brain supplier and would have been the one to kill his brother.

Once he no longer needed Blaine, i.e. was done with his blackmail? He would have but him in the guillotine. I expected this. I expected Blaine to pull the same card he pulled on Liv in S1. That without him, they have a zombie apocalypse on their hands. There was a brain shortage prior to the outbreak when Blaine approached him in the S3 finale. In S4 it’s even worse. There’s even a plot about Major tracking down watered down brain tube dealers.

Chase is a proud man, he wouldn’t have gone back to Blaine automatically… but after the US Government cuts off the brain supply in the finale, Major enlists Blaine to increase his operations.You don’t think that in the middle of the brain shortage crisis, Chase would have bitten the bullet and remembered Blaine’s proposal?

Ok, at this point, you’re probably asking yourself. “Mmhm, okay, so maybe that’s a better plot for Blaine… but then who did steal the cures?”

Again, see the last verse. Osborn Oates. Don’t remember him? Yeah, neither do any of the characters, apparently. He was the guy who was Natalie’s captor. Who apparently had the the influence to bribe Max Rager guards under Vaughn Du Clark’s nose. He was described by Ravi as being like a Bond villain. Natalie warns Major that wherever he goes, he’ll find her, but then… he doesn’t.

She travels the world. He doesn’t track her down. Even when she herself would have been vulnerable and amnesiac.

He doesn’t even try to track down Major and find out what he knows… if he was responsible for her escape. We know he is aware of Major. Major and Ravi followed he and his body guard.His body guard even checked Ravi’s morgue ID, and would have known where the cures were kept had he known about the cures.

Which… I think, Natalie might have told him about, in an effort to barter her freedom. Remember when we first met her? She said that since she was paid in brains by Blaine, who had become her pimp after turning her, that she ran through her savings and was broke. Yet… when she returns in S3, she tells Major that she traveled the world and had a place in Italy that she got thanks to her savings earned as sex worker.So… what is the truth?

I don’t want to speculate about a villainous Natalie. I actually liked her character, and she was certainly victimized and I don’t want to take away from that at all. Given her desperate situation though, might she have made some choices out of self preservation? Her own best interest?

I think there was more to the Natalie situation than we got. I think it suffered because they went from 19 episodes in season 2 back to a 13 episode order. I don’t know if her exit had more to do with propelling Major’s character’s decisions, or if because Natalie’s actress Brooke Lyons had gotten work as a series regular on the show Life Sentence. Maybe a bit of both? Maybe they did plan to kill her at the end of the arc, but the arc happened sooner than anticipated due to the shortened season? Knowing that they’d be losing her, they couldn’t carry that thread over to S4?

So instead they just dropped Osborn Oates, and over the summer Rob Thomas decided to change it to Blaine in S4 because no one would question it? Sorry Rob, I question it. You said in post S3 interviews that you planned to reveal who stole the cures in the finale, but there was no time so you’d get to it in S4.Really? That’s why? No time? If you had the time, how would it have come into play? The way it did come into play was Blaine seeking out Mama Leone, because Chase was blackmailing him. Are you telling me Chase would have done that in the S3 finale? That you would have seeded Renegade as a plotline even then?

I’m calling bullshit .I think it’s far more likely that plans fell through, and you needed the time to do a rewrite.

Even if Natalie had nothing to do with the cures being stolen, if it was planned to be Blaine all along…

You kill her off, and she doesn’t even get to confront Blaine? They never have a scene together? He’s responsible for her being a zombie, which led to her being kidnapped, and then held hostage.Yet he helped Major find her when he could have pleaded ignorance. He gave him Oates’ address and let him know when he was back in town. He didn’t have to do that. He could have said that it’s not the address on record, and Major wouldn’t have questioned him.

He could have elected not to tip Major off that he was back in town, and he wouldn’t have been able to find Natalie and give her the cure when he did.I’m not saying this excuses Blaine of what he did to her at all, or that the two would have been “even” or made peace. Not at all. There is no retribution for what he did to her.It does however, go back to my belief he was legit trying to change. open to those who are interested.

[bushybeardedbear]

[P1] Thank you for your answer, which I think was very exhaustive. I would, however, like to speak my mind. You say “Lotor should be evil because nobody will expect that.” Well, I honestly expected it to happen, and not only because he was the villain in the original show but for the way he has been introduced. Lotor can be clearly identifiable as a Machiavellian charmer for which the ends justify the means, it couldn't have turned out any other way. What I didn't expect was ...

Well, I do hope it was exhausTIVE rather than exhaustING nonny. And you point of view here is perfectly legit. I think the only place I disagree is that it could not possibly have turned out any other way. I think the idea of Lotor, despite being Machiavellian, finding peace would have been a great an unexpected twist. Mind you, I’m also a fan of Ben Solo being redeemed rather than Episode Nine ending in just another Duel of the Fates. Lotor I don’t feel was Machiavellian without cause. Machiavelli himself argued that deception was necessary to attain power for it’s own sake - iirc it’s been a while since I read The Prince. Lotor, at least in my opinion, was being set up to be gaining power simply to survive in a universe set against him. His racial heritage, his parents, his entire empire, was against him. So he gained power to survive by any means. In that much I agree he’s an “ends justify the means” type... But at the same time, I believe he was genuinely changing. As the writers have declared, genuinely in love with and loved by Allura.I think the truly changed man would have been a more interesting angle to explore rather than the bad guy staying bad. Maybe I’m just elevating my own head-canon, but I was certainly led down that path by the writers. Who knows, maybe in season 8 they’ll pull a redemption out of the hat...? Maybe not...

Anonymous said:[P2] Lotor to reveal his true colors so suddenly going into a totally psycho mode. I was sure he'd be a valid antagonist at least up to mid-s7. That's a waste, just like the lack of interactions with Keith, I see so much parallels between them, they might've had an interesting dynamic, and all those hints in the interviews "Keith would be torn between Lotor and Allura" "He would help Keith to come to terms with his garlan part" EPs had have us believe we'd have a better show than the one aired. 

On this I can agree 100%. If they were going to make Lotor an antagonist right from the start at least give him the narrative he deserves. Him serving as a foil and narrative parallel to Keith would indeed have been a much more satisfying course than what we got. I’d still prefer the idea of Lotor being a good boy eventually... But making he and Keith kinds of mirrored nemeses for one another would have also been far better than the very sudden, very jarring, needlessly abrupt “Romelle info-dumps, Lotor goes mad” that we got.

Anonymous said:[P3] They also told us Keith learned to be a leader camping with his mom for two years instead of show us how he worked alongside his team, I would've preferred an episode mirror that one in s3, when he screwed up hunting Lotor, just with a different finale that really showed his growth. I hate this, they explain in interviews instead of showing, wasting time with pointless filler episodes. Too much important things have happened offscreen, many questions left unanswered.I agree 100% with everything you say here, Nonny.

Anonymous said:[P4] And who knows if Keith's sensitivity for the quintessence will be explained? I don't want to talk about shipping right now, don't even get me started on those. Generally speaking, I feel like the EPs have got two road to choose from, but the road of the good writing was too much to handle, so they threw in the towel turning the plot childish and banal as much as possible.Some days I agree the writers have screwed it. Some days I feel like they’re victims of outside forces. I honestly can’t be sure. I would one day like to know the full extent of the mess behind the scenes that led to the mess on screen. You’re right, at this stage we may never get certain aspects of the plot explained. Or if we do, it will be through dumping exposition on us. Like Romelle and Lotor. Like Axca with the three year gap. Like The Druid Who Killed The Entire Blade Of Marmora... (Seriously, what the hell?) I still love the first five and a half seasons. There are some great moments, fights and interactions later on. Maybe season 8 could surprise me as well and I’d love that as well. I love the majority of fans I’ve interacted with here and the Voltron Combiner is probably one of the nicest of multiple combining robot toys I own, not sacrificing articulation too badly despite the combiner gimmick, which is rare. Overall, when I look back on Voltron I will be happy I’m sure. But the last few seasons have 100% dropped in quality and construction. Even if we disagree on precisely how, we do agree on that. Even casual fans I know who would never come close to the Fandom proper, see the same cracks appearing...I’m feeling hopeful today though. So maybe we’ll just see what happens. Prepare for the worst of course, but hope for better.

[ruwithmeguys]

You’ve got to accentuate the positive...

It really doesn’t take much for people to say a TV show has gone stale. Or, that a season is bad because of an episode arc. And something I won’t do is judge what I already love on the basis of a few spoilers or a few episodes (or episode arc). I’m used to it by now to be 100% affected by the ugh of it all...

By 6.11 of Arrow, I wasn’t alone in hailing s6 as the best season of arrow. It has everything in it: Oliver’s growth. Olicity getting married. Starting a family (this coming from the man who used to think he’d die alone). Diggle getting some focus once again (though I question why he wants to be GA, because in every prior season, he hasn’t even mentioned it). Felicity being so clearly strong willed (especially in 6.03/04/07/08/09/10/11) and effortlessly brilliant. The new team progressing in their own way…

Whether it’s a way we like or not.

A lot of people have complained about the villains this season too. I’m good with it. We don’t need to have a horribly terrifying villain every season. We don’t need another Adrian Chase or Malcolm Merlyn. I liked and still like the idea of a group of semi-capable villains, regardless of whether or not the actor/actress is someone we/I can back, because I don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of it yet.

What I’m puzzled by the most however, is the reaction to the current arc; the way people are getting lost and angry and frantic by it.

Don’t you know Arrow by now?

Perspective:

(S1, a season of introduction, isn’t one we can use to discuss this so- nope!)

S2: there was a solid stream of episodes, all focusing on or around Sara Lance, Laurel and Quentin. Sara and her attempt to change so that she could exist in Oliver’s world. Sara’s attempt to fight off her own darkness and failing to do so, arguing about it with Oliver over and over again because of Roy, Slade and Helena. Sara and Laurel’s relationship. Sara and Oliver and Laurel’s history. Laurel realizing her bitterness was hurting her sister. Oliver letting go of any feelings he had for Laurel after his final attempt at caring, once again, ended up hurting him. Laurel and Quentin’s fight against their addictions – it went on and on and on until I thought my interest had gone dry...

S3: the 4 mind-numbing episode arc about LL becoming BC before uselessly being abandoned for another 5 episodes and the team’s morose attempt at fighting the good fight without their leader. Oliver thinking he can’t live, thinking he can’t have it all – that to trust his team, meant inviting darkness. And an extra 2 episodes where we had to watch Oliver make more bad choices and Felicity start a relationship with Ray, 3.10 to 3.15. That’s 6 episodes of UGH.

S4: Less episode arcs and more a general feeling. Oliver was put in the backseat in order to sell LL and Thea as members of the team. I know you all love Thea, but to me, she didn’t quite fit the team. The way her character progressed made this feeling worse. Then we had Oliver lying to the love of his life for 8 episodes. So, yeah. BAD.

S5: love it or hate it, season 5 had several stand alone episodes that made you nauseous. 5.13, 14, 15 were particularly crappy.

Any of you who thought they’d change this pattern for the sixth season, were fooling yourselves, I’m sorry to say. But S6, I think, has been one of the kinder seasons.

There’s no bad Olicity angst (the 6.08 angst was delicious). There’s no ridiculous attempt at selling a character to us. There’s no ‘I’m Oliver Queen which means I can’t have a life’ crapola…

The way the team split was handled has left much to be desired, I know that. It really has. I admit that I can’t love the new guys like I do OTA, but I did like them. Now I can’t stand them. They took every bad habit Oliver has EVER possessed, thrown them in his face and then utilized them x10 and made excuses for their behaviour… and then blamed Oliver once more.

But even with the crappy attitudes of the newbies and their horrifying lack of morality recently, each episode this season has been pretty on the ball.

I also know a lot of us don’t like BS.

In portraying LL or BS, KC seems to have a problem with grabbing the majority audience’s sympathy. Her villain role this year has been decidedly camp and over the top and, once again, her character is rooted in selfishness. No surprises there. And now, well, she’s using (going to use) LL’s identity to get what she wants. I hope Quentin is happy: he gave her the tools for this.

Anyone who wasn’t expecting this or for her to be in 6.15 a whole lot, were not paying attention.

She’s going to use the excuse of being kidnapped for a couple of years and assume LL’s identity. This is not the action of someone who wants redemption. This is the action of a mole. I always thought she’d try to play one side against the other for her own gain and I bet that she does.

She’ll also use her knowledge of the team as leverage: blackmailing Oliver and co so that they can’t prosecute her because she knows so much and, really, they can’t imprison her unless they want to unfairly blemish LL’s reputation, because she isn’t LL.

Happily, Oliver made it very clear that he a) doesn’t care about saving her, he’s looking after the city and b) pretty much doesn’t want to see her again. Everything else he did in 6.14 was rooted in his respect for Quentin. I know Quentin has officially flown over the cuckoo’s nest but after years of friendship etc, Oliver owes it to him. Even if he knows it’s not right. He’ll do it, just this once.

Saying it the way he did too, to never wanting to hear her name or see her face again… it’s like not expecting a child to do the exact opposite of what they’re told. Of course the writers would have her push back.

You know, she could have gone with Quentin. Instead, she’s decided to immerse herself in another woman’s life. When you’re looking for redemption, that’s kind of the last thing you do. She wants something. And she’s going to take it.

And you know what? This could be really good.

They’ve slanted away from a true redemption arc. It doesn’t mean she won’t end up there. But the likelihood of it being about true goodness is pouring away, fast. And it’s going to bite all of them on the ass.

You know, I state the obvious, if it was any other character/actress, we wouldn’t be having the same problem with this SL.

I don’t like LL/BS or KC. I have my reasons, which I won’t force on anyone and I know that if this were a different character/actress/actor, the ‘god, this again’ I’d feel and the outrage everyone else has displayed, wouldn’t be nearly so high.

This isn’t a plot-line to make people happy. It’s designed to both satisfy a trope (for her stans) and not repeat a character (for us, because enough with boring and predicable please) and to make us all freak out and get angry. We’ll be waiting for something to go wrong. They want us on tender hooks and you know what? It’s working.

The amount of hype the people who hate this arc have produced is more than the hype created by those who like it.

There’s goodness coming. There is.

But every year, a chunk of the fandom family start hating on the show with nearly the exact arguments as the years previous. I get it. I do.

But, you know what else happens every year? The slingshot.

Would I like Felicity and Oliver to hog the screen time, I sure would. It took years to get them married. Show us more for god sake! 

But it isn’t realistic. The show has more than one character and the design of it, though flawed, is one they haven’t changed. There are filler episodes and other things. We knew – we KNEW – that 6b (6.10 – 6.14/15) would have little to no Olicity (save some amazing moments, especially in 6.11) and yet there’s still surprise at this. 

We knew, after watching 6.12 that the newbies were wrong and would continue to be so. We knew that the BS arc would be a royal pain in the ass, but this latest twist is going to test the characters and maybe that’s a good thing.

First thing’s first though. Every single season, Felicity’s story goes like this:

We have a group of episodes surrounding her. Then she comes out of the main focus but is still very much part of the plot. She has brilliant moments that make the show great. Then, like a slingshot, roughly during episodes 16/17/18, she pops back into focus for the rest of the season.

Let’s look at past seasons again.

S2: between episode 1 and 5, she’s very much relevant but not the focus and then for 6 to 10, she was very focal. With Sara’s introduction and Roy’s, she’s secondary until roughly 2.19 up till the finale.

S3: episodes 1 and 2, she’s focal. 3 and 4 she’s not. 5, 7 and 9, she’s focal. 6, 8, she’s not. Then the BC arc and episode 14. Then slingshot round again.

I do think season 3 gave Felicity the most SL isn’t given ANY of the female characters in Arrow. Now, there are too many characters for this to work.

Still, it repeats, it repeats, it repeats. Same with season 4, same with season 5.

Would I like more married Olicity, HECK YES. But – and the way they’ve done it is more than a little skewed – they’re trying to make it look like Olicity are currently waylaid by all the drama. They literally don’t have enough time to be together. They’ve gone back to saving the city full time; just like in season 2 and 3 where they had to somehow handle saving the city alone with living their lives. Both Oliver and Felicity were unable to do so alone, from what I remember. Now we know there could be more scenes. They could give us a few moments at least (beyond the few brillo-pads ones we’ve had). But those scenes were sold to Rene and Curtis. Thankfully, there’ll be less of them in 6.15/17 etc.

As much as I don’t like it, we’ll get back to it.

And as much as I’d like to see more of Felicity’s SL, I’m going to leave any and all judgement on the lack of it since 6.07, until the end of the season. Safe to say, it’s been taken over by her break with Curtis. He did the unforgivable. She gave up her money to save Oliver. I believe we’ll get more, but there’s just too much going on.

Would I prefer to see that over the badly handled civil war crap? Yes. Of course I would. Would I prefer to see more married Olicity, more Felicity and Diggle over this BS bull? Yes, I would. But they got MARRIED. The show literally told the audience they were each other’s true loves and destined to be together. The writers actually allowed Oliver to get married. It means they probably think they can afford a few episodes of not giving us much in that department but again, it depends why you watch the show.

I’m also hoping the writers showed the B team to be assholes because they’ve got lessons to learn and forgiveness to earn, I really hope for that.

They’ve mentioned a honeymoon. The show only does that when they plan to deliver, whether it’s this season or the next. Either of them could end up in jail. If fan theory is correct, Oliver gets poisoned/drugged in 6.18, leaving her alone in 6.19.

My point is that, the show isn’t going stale just because of an arc that’s been handled in such a way. Or because of a character that we literally don’t care lives or dies. Or turns into a goat. Whatever.

It’s going to be fine…

In re to BS – Stephen, Emily, Juliana and KC mentioned things about her. KC’s words haven’t been accurate save for aforementioned extreme contention between BS and DD.

The only thing Stephen said about it was that it would be interesting if LL was actually walking around in the daylight the past couple of years. He said it was an interesting take. That was it. And I agree. I don’t like her, but I agree.

Emily mentioned there might still be a thing between Felicity and BS (another possible fight) and really, if BS pretending to be LL culminates in her facing off with Felicity then bring it on because my god, it’s a death wish waiting to happen! I’ll get the popcorn!

I was done with LL./BS/KC long ago but I’m choosing to see the little goodies in the crap because I love the show, even with its faults. It hasn’t gone stale guys. The newbies are idiots but they never used to be, so I’m waiting for the penny to drop for them. Let’s just ride it out, kay?

This season has given us so much, even if it hasn’t delivered on other things we’re waiting for, so I’ve decided to accentuate the positive. If a show pushes it, then they’ve earned the scorn. Arrow hasn’t pushed this season as far they’ve done in previous additions and we get the added luxury of Olicity being a pillar.

For now, I’m good.