#S2 is where it's going to get reeeeally fun

[mrghostrat]

"He needed an internet connection so he could download an app to draw with, but the whole point of setting the thing up in London was because he knew Crowley understood all of this a whole lot better than he did."

Okayyyyy I just got violent flashbacks to the s2 finale this is evil 😭😭

But in all seriousness, I LOVED the new bnf au chapter, I mean the kiss??? I audibly gasped, it was soooo good

I was wondering if the witch and the witchfinder are a canon couple in the nice and accurate prophecies? Or are they just a very popular fanon ship? Or is it like good omens, where people saw the romantic subtext in the book and where it was made explicitly canon in the show?

I just think all options would be really interesting, given that Crowley and Aziraphale are both middle-aged queer people and the book came out thirty years ago. So they either would have had some representation back then, or they recognised themselves in the story and even though it wasn't canon, maybe those ideas would later explicitly be confirmed by Agnes Nutter nonetheless? Since all these options have really interesting implications for the way they both interacted with the source material, I'm really curious what your thoughts on the matter are.

Thank you so much for all the beautiful things you create for the fandom, both your fics and your art give me life and I'm so grateful for them ❤

omg you have no idea how excited i am about this question 😭 as i've written BNF, i've been quietly fleshing out more about their fictional fandom, and accidentally gotten reeeeally invested and am dying to talk about it 😭😭

i'm actually tempted to make some fanart of the witch & the witchfinder, using michael and david as facecasts to go full meta thphptftf. in b4 i write it as a fuckin book series for real

buttttt i'll put all my N&A thoughts under a cut so i dont ramble too long on your dashes 💛

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy: Agnes Nutter's book series (turned play, turned film, turned tv series); the fandom in my fic Big Name Feelings

the idea of using Agnes Nutter's "Nice and Accurate" book for the in-fic fandom was taken from @tawnyontumblr's fic New Messages (i just thought that would be a fun fanon consistency to follow), but all the details about the story and characters are me.

N&A takes inspiration from Good Omens (as a story, and as a fandom) but isn't intended to be a direct copy of it. the original paperback series is a few books long, and each adaptation of the books are considered good, accurate, canonical content. the tv show (a HBO series) is the most recent, highest quality, and most popular. The Witcher style, high fantasy quality.

agnes is loudly supportive of the lgbt community just like neil/david/michael are. but i imagine that for the series to be so "marketable" over the last 30 years, there isn't an explicit queer relationship between the witch & finder. there are canon queer side characters but the witch & finder are a little more nuanced.

the witch and the witchfinder aid each other through time, working together to defeat the evils in the story (like Aziraphale and Crowley from GO). there's tension between them, but boundless love, and plenty of flirtation, despite the running "we shouldn't, we're meant to be enemies" theme. they would canonically get together at some point in the story, probably towards the end after they've spent some time dancing around each other.

the thing that makes this vague is: the witch reincarnates through the story, almost doctor who style. they're a trans icon, much like how the GO fandom looks at Crowley and all his gender ambiguity.

when they finally tryst with the witchfinder, they're female. it's by pure happenstance that they're female presenting at that stage of the story, but still widely critiqued over the years. the thing that canonises the mlm relationship is that the witch is said to carry their consciousness through each reincarnation— they're not a new person like The Doctor is when he regenerates.

the start of the book series spends more time on "Crowley and Aziraphale's favourite male reincarnation", while the movie and tv show only briefly montages through some of the witch's faces. the mlm side of the fandom most definitely lost their minds over the brief few minutes of screentime that they got of the male witch, and has absolutely gifsetted it to death.

i've done it like this because so much of (every) fandom has always been seeking out representation and filling gaps where the original content lacks. there's something to be said about the solidarity of queer fans creating more queer content for themselves. except, in the case of N&A, they're getting to work from a source material that is genuinely queer supportive, unlike fandoms like SPN and BBC Sherlock that are fighting against the tide of queerbaiting and buried gays.

it also gives aziraphale and crowley a chance to band together in the next chapter when they talk to a dickhead at the party:

i haven't exactly decided what happens with the witchfinder, like if the story takes place over hundreds of years and he keeps reincarnating as the same lookin dude (like how jack whitehall plays both Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery and Newton Pulsifer) or if it's set over one lifetime and the witch just gets killed and regenerates a lot. i do like the idea of there being some "through the ages" shenanigans, and a canonical "modern day" setting like GO has.

but i gotta be careful bc i genuinely can't stop thinking about this fake story that's barely mentioned in my fan fic or i'll end up writing the damn thing myself

[prozac-shaped-urn]

While I have a lull in this migraine imma try and plot out some shit to see if I can hit the nail on the head a second time in S3 of Hacks.

I forget where I saw a spoiler/hint interview with JPL back in fall 2022 but I remember Deb has a boytoy this season, so I'll be going down that train of thought first. And if I've somehow just made that tidbit up, then I've made that up but I still maintain this is the direction she's going, so fuck it.

Deb has a bit of a sexuality crisis in 204. Maybe crisis is a strong word. A questioning moment. She has a questioning moment at Ava's suggestion and follows through with it even though Marla was literally playing her to get a refund. At the end of the cruise, she's pissed and lesbophobic vitriol goes everywhere -- we all know the story by now. But regardless of whether or not she actually hates lesbians, she bought Marla a drink and enjoyed her company. 1 - 0 for the dykes.

In S2, Deb acquiesced and agreed bisexuality is a thing and that lesbians aren't terrible, hit on that one comedy chick by examining her hand size, and had a one night stand with Casper the Friendly Ghost. Oh, and she 100% realized she needs Ava to be ok, and ok means not having Deb in her life so she doesn't take up all the room in Ava's career. 4 - 0 for the queers.

So how and why do we get to the fucking boytoy?

In most late-life sexuality discoveries, things don't go in a linear direction. Unlearning takes time and it goes the way anything someone's uncomfortable with goes. You get to a level you are comfortable with then move on to the next one and so forth. And at this point, Deb is comfortable with a boytoy. If she went directly from Marty's bed to Ava's bed (outside of flinging the sheets off of her in a rage), that wouldn't be realistic nor healthy. It would mean something was so deeply disturbed inside her that she wouldn't be open with herself to acknowledge her true feelings one way or the other, and she would instead be hoping Ava would fix that disturbance, which is so totally not Ava's job. But. The fact she listens to Kiki and decides to take a chance and fuck Casper I mean 'follow the fun' means she's open to unlearning that one thing she's held onto since 7th grade when it comes to her sexuality. She's letting go and letting new ideas in, and she has a boytoy, which means step 1 of Deb's sapphic realization has begun, folks!

Onto fabulous bisexual disaster Ava Daniels.

Oof babes. She's head WAY over heels and Deb knows this. I don't think Ava actually realizes what's happened. She just knows she doesn't wanna be anywhere Deb isn't, and I think part of that is instinctual -- meaning she's feeling wholly and truly loved and accepted and seen by someone other than her dad for the first time in her life -- and part of it is likely due to her insecurities when it comes to The Business. I mean fuck! Deb has clout and connections spanning back 50 years. She holds conference with Liberace, the mayoress of Vegas and Wayne Newton without issue. She kicked the mayoress out of her mansion when she got too annoying ffs. Who in their right mind WOULDN'T want to take advantage of that! Never mind that this is precisely what I'm going through in my own life. Ava has a lot of growing to do in her career and in her emotional intelligence. She has as much catching up to do with that as Deb does with sexuality. I don't have any Ava hints, so I'll take a wild stab in the dark and guess Ava's doing really well professionally. Like reeeeally well. Almost unbelievably well. Unrealistically well. Like Deb's maybe pulling a lot of strings because she can't stand to see Ava fail. And maybe she'll be able to lure Ava back so they can have a stand-off in Deb's foyer or something. Just a guess. I'll honestly be stunned if this is legit.

As far as trajectory, I'm thinking we have some growing and moving around to do in 8 episodes and that's not a lot of time so it'll probably move fast. (The first ep is 60 mins, so like.... they're gonna pack a lot of shit into very limited time frames and we all gotta pay close attention because not everything will be dialogue. There are 8 eps this season including 301, so we got 4.5 hours of this season to work with folks.) Highlights of my thoughts are as follows:

Deb won't come out yet but she'll have some sapphic realizations she runs by Ava to see if they're actually sapphic and not some kind of weird 'what is this feeling' moments. Dearest Darlingist Momsie and Popsicle...

Deb will decide to be more open with Ava about how she feels in general but also how she feels about Ava! She'll want to be closer to Ava by the end of the season and we'll have more apologies and metaphoric funerals to look forward to with that.

Ava will have success in her career ventures even at the expense of her physical connection to Deb because Deb will truly support that growth and Ava will know she has "a home to come back to" n shit so she'll be more amenable to the idea of pursuing that goal. I suspect a solid attempt at success and a final separation from Deb by the end of S3. Think balcony scene all over again but with elated smiles instead of tears... except maybe from the fangirls.

Ava and Marcus will have a come to Jesus moment. One of them will win the fight for Deb's affection and it won't be Marcus.

Marty won't show up in person but he'll likely be referenced a few times, either in dialogue or visually (as in we'll see a shot of the Palmetto or Deb's special is played etc.) Same goes for Frank and flashback clips of Who's Making Dinner? or DJ telling a story about him etc. This will be to remind everyone of where Deb started and where she's going emotionally and with her sexuality.

Kayla and Jimmy are gonna be a riot this season. Pure unhinged comedy gold with these two. Paul and Megan are now series regulars, so expect more of this situational-physical comedy in coming seasons. ~My body is ready.~

Deb's Vegas residency will founder because that's just good dramaturgy. Ava may or may not come to the rescue on that. I'll be interested to see where she stands in terms of her desire or lack thereof to help Deb and whether it'll be from a place of genuine concern or out of guilt or out of spite or out of having something to lord over Deb's head. I wouldn't be surprised if any or all of that is her reason to help or not help.

Ava and Nina... Jesus h Christ on a stick. Yeah these two have some major bumps to work out this season.

Deb and DJ also have some major bumps to work out this season and I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE DEB BECOME A GRANDMOTHER I WILL SOB UNCONTROLLABLY FOR A WEEK I AM SO READY AND I AM SO TOTALLY NOT AND I AM TERRIFIED OF NO LONGER HAVING KLONOPIN TO NUMB MY EMOTIONS AND BEING BOMBARDED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT DEB IS HOLDING A LITTLE SLICE OF HER OWN DNA WITH THE CARE SHE HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO GIVE IT BUT NEVER GOT TO GIVE IT BECAUSE OF HER OWN NEGLECTED EMOTIONS AND BEING SO SCARED OF OPENING UP THAT MUCH GAAAAADDDDDDUUUUHHHHHH never mind that this is precisely what i'm going through in my own life istg this show is a full body mirror and i am staring in disbelief

Storytelling style is likely gonna be a back-and-forth between Vegas and LA in every ep instead of every other ep. I'd be interested to see it come alive in a flashback style tbh but that would probably be too confusing for a comedic tone. Back-and-forth will stop once Ava returns to Vegas, obvs.

I'm still banking on Deb loaning Ava her LA mansion at some point. I'm also banking on a series finale that includes a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as the end credits backing track. Paul saw that on my insta story a couple years ago. I have no idea why. But he knows my headcanon now, so if I end up meeting him IRL I will double down on that. And the biggest crocodile tears will spring from my eyes if it's "Our House".

What the fuck ever JPL and co. have to throw at me I WILL DEVOUR LIKE A RABID SQUIRREL HIGH ON THE FRUITS OF 400 YEAR OLD OAK TREES no questions asked.

Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.

[only-mostlydead]

I finished my writing replay of ZRS1 and I have some THOUGHTS:

There is not enough Janine. Why isn’t there more Janine?

Why did they wait so long to introduce Simon? 5imon brotp hijinks could've abounded this whole time

Maggie Doane deserved better

You pick up on things that seem innocuous but become relevant later. Like, oh, Finland has no Rofflenet? Really?? How strange! (Sigrid you bitCH)

The flip between “I am actively plotting your demise” Sara and “I would trust you with my life” Sara is so wild but also feels completely natural and I love her

I am not prepared to deal with the emotional roller coaster that is Archie Jensen again

Were we really supposed to think Van Ark was a good guy? His name is Ernest Van Ark for Chrissakes. Was Evil Van Badguy taken?

Ed and Molly are underutilized

Major De Santa's big damn hero entrance gives me chills every time

S2S absolutely banked on people continuing to play because they made us fall in love with Sam

Also I only have three chapters left on The Cave, HOW

[shame-in-italian]

What are your ranks for the characters in each remake like the characters you felt adapted each character best and made it their own ,the characters are william, noora , vilde, eva, sana, jonas, isak, male chris, female chris

Oooh, this is such a difficult question! I’ll try and not go into too much detail, I could easily write an essay haha. If you want to ask me anything off the back of this go ahead :)

William - Edoardo (SkamIt), Charles (SkamFr), Daniel (Skam Austin), Alexander (Druck) Edoardo takes this easily, they’ve made real changes to the character and for once there’s potential for more than a ‘dark and brooding asshole’ character. I will admit though, I liked the chemistry between Charles & Manon though.

Noora - Mia (Druck), Grace (Skam Austin), Manon (SkamFr)/Eleonora (SkamIt) So I’ve put Manon and Eleonora together, I couldn’t say one was worse than the other. I’ve not been blown away by the Nooras. Manon was great in s2 though, I loved that they actually had her doing things rather than preaching them. Mia has had stand out moments and I’ve felt while she’s very different to the Noora we know, she has the same principles. She’s also canon bi and well I’m all about that rep.

Vilde - Daphne (SkamFr), Kelsey (Skam Austin), Silvia (SkamIt), Kiki (Druck)Daphne has had me cracking up so much. She’s got the right amount of naivety and vulnerability but has these surprise moments where she’s actually quite sure of herself. Kelsey also made me laugh, that little smirk face killed me. I also just wanted to hug her when she started crying. I found Silvia and Kiki less naive and actually just too brutal at times.

Eva - Eva (SkamIt)/Megan (Skam Austin), Hanna (Druck), Emma (SkamFr)Both Eva and Megan tugged at my heartstrings and tbh Hanna was a very close second. I found Emma less memorable, she got better scenes in s2 but I feel like because SkamFr has been so copy and paste there’s been less room for character development.

Sana - Zoya (Skam Austin), Amira (Druck), Imane (SkamFr), Sana (SkamIt)Zoya is an absolute queen. She kills it in the fight scene and I love how deadpan she is with some lines. Amira was a super interesting interpretation too, less brutal than the Sana we know, we’ve seen her soft side a bit more which I like.

Jonas - Jonas (Druck), Giovanni (SkamIt), Marlon (Skam Austin), Yann (SkamFr)Druck was the one remake where I wanted Jonas and Hanna to stay together and that was more down to Jonas I think. He shows a much bigger span of emotion than I feel we saw in the original. I’ve always wanted a Jonas season and Druck is where I hope we might get it. Giovanni was incredibly realistic, he reminded me more of my high school friends.

Isak - Shay (Skam Austin), Martino (SkamIt), Matteo (Druck) Lucas (SkamFr)Ah, can I just put them all together please? This was super difficult and I honestly commend the castings by every remake, they picked reeeeally well. Isak is a sneaky one in season 1, I think it was less expected from Shay despite knowing it would happen (if that makes sense). Martino got a rounded out personality which made the betrayal more heart breaking too, but overall I’m excited for every remakes’ Isak season.

P-Chris - Fede (SkamIt), Samuel (Druck), Jo (Skam Austin), Alexandre (SkamFr) I’ve never been a huge P-Chris fan tbh but I did think Fede was fun, he reminded me of guys I went to school with tbh. Samuel felt a lot more slick, like if I was Hanna I would definitely be inticed.

Chris - Josefina (Skam Austin), Sam (Druck)/Alexia (SkamFr), Federica (SkamIt)Josefina is possibly one of my favourite characters ever. She steals so many scenes and is the well deserved development Chris never got. Sam and Alexia were well rounded out thankfully, the way they handled Alexia’s sexuality was perfect too. Federica felt bland in comparison.

[coredrill]

okay, snw thots now that i’m no longer (so severely) emotionally compromised LMAO

overall very good and i enjoyed it!!! not as much as disco but FAR MORE THAN picard. more misc thots w spoilers for the whole season:

i love what they’re doing with the gorn idk why it’s such a point of contention 😭 like i get they’ve been modernized but everyone who’s like “did you even SEE arena” like yeah? it makes arena work better actually? like now the gorn have a REP so the eventual conclusion of arena in-universe speaks even MORE to starfleet’s ideals cause kirk’s up against an enemy that’s that much more vicious and unforgiving!!! i’m a big fan!!

somewhat related: i was mixed on la’an at first but by the end i loved her and i hope she comes back asap 😭 her mind meld w spock was a highlight for me but like that is news to no one LMAO. the power of michael burnham parallels!!

on the flip side i LOVED chapel at first and i still love her personality but i really thought they were gonna give her more than just “is into spock” cause by the end of the season that’s pretty much what she is 🥲 lean into weirdo chapel please she was a DELIGHT!!!! also hell yes to bi chapel but i REEEEALLY hope they’re careful w that cause based on what we know of her personality they could lean into some bad stereotypes :-| so i am cautiously excited for s2 chapel lmfao

i hope we get to see more m’benga fishing trips and i also hope his daughter comes back!! i also think the omelas/adai ep would’ve been stronger had it focused more on him and less on pike LMFAO

i do love pike though, anson mount freaking kills it but literally we all been knew that!

number one was alright, she didn’t really get enough screen time for me to feel one way or the other about her? i assume we’ll get more of her in s2 considering the ending but also uh. like i GET what they were going for with the illyrians and her speech abt how she’s worried pike won’t fight for her if she’s not “a credit to her people” was good but like. DISCO DID IT FIRST AND NOT WITH A WEIRD “EUGENICS IS OKAY SOMETIMES” MESSAGE LIKE WHAT. like idk bro i cannot see this playing out in any way nearly as resonant as saru learning dozens of languages to prove himself as a kelpien, as him recording every single moment in his personal logs so that future kelpiens will never feel alone, as that whole arc for him tbh!!! like i’m queer i’m a girl (or enough of one) i’m an engineer and i’m the youngest on my team by a long shot so i GET IT BUT LIKE. eugenics are still bad!

anyways LMFAO. sorry for getting distracted by disco in my snw “review” it will happen again

hemmer was fun! i wasn’t super attached but apparently was enough to be affected by his death lmao. interested to see what they have for the actor coming up but also a bit cautious abt it because. uhhhhh see two points previous!

UHURAAAAAAAAAAA SHE WAS SO GOOD I LOVED HER!!!!! her whole arc was so lovely to watch and i love how she was given more depth beyond the glimpses we’ve seen of her in the past. also i hope she’s not leaving the show either???? also spock uhura friendship REAL! loved their music vibing session 🥲

ortegas was a delight i want more of her!

and last but not least spock. ETHAN PECK PLAYS SPOCK SO GOOD IT KILLS ME. GOD I LOVE HIM. but pls fix his sideburns LMFAO that shit is wack. mostly i enjoyed him n his struggles this season!! LOVED every time there was a michael reference they are so special to me 🥰 and i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again but like. i KNOW they’re taking spock on his journey to who he is and how we see him in tos (as evidenced by the last ep, where spock was closer to his tos version and uhura as well!!!) and i KNOW it’ll be rewarding once we get there but like. do we have to focus so much on his romantic endeavors. don’t get me wrong i DO LOVE seeing the face of concerned panic ethan peck makes ESPECIALLY when t’pring was like “i’ve been researcing human sex” but like. there are other aspects to humanity and the way it contrasts to vulcans!!!!!!! please!!!!!!! and sometimes it was done well and i had fun, like spock amok was pretty funny, but i was so sick of it by serene squall LMAO. like god just let the man grieve michael in peace!!!!

oh also last comment for now is that the episodic is fun and well done but tbh i don’t mind serialized at all either so. two cakes!! i do think the last ep did a GREAT job of showing that there WILL be growth for these characters, like i enjoy that it is aware that it’s a prequel!!

so yeah!! fun times, last episode fucked me up supremely by confirming spock’s importance, cautiously excited for s2, where is disco s5!