#The Blacklist season 1

[darth-rainbow]

Rewatching the Blacklist and dayum. Season 1, Episode 5 Tom Keen is the original Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss. Like sir, you will always be an icon. He lied through his TEETH. With such talent and aplomb woah, I am shooketh. He was out there telling Elizabeth that all that is bad and evil was brought into their home by her, that he'd never used a gun or a fake passport in his life, shook about the amount of money in a box because he'd never seen that much, that he is her husband and that this is a big misunderstanding. Wow. Yikes, but wow.

I don't even know if this is pro or anti Tom Keen ptdrrrrrr just sharing random thoughts.

[writingbyshiloh]

S1e1 of the Blacklist, Ressler says that Reddington has tattoos?! And that they match?

[scoobydoodean]

Sam literally has no idea who Dean is starting out in Season 1. I know we all say this all the time... but rewatching 1.03 Dead In The Water last night, it isn't just that Sam thinks that Dean doesn't like kids. It's also how in the same episode, when Dean decides not to take the out the sheriff gave them and turns around to check on Lucas and his mom, Sam is like, "Who are you and what have you done with my brother??"

And that combined with 1.02 "Saving People, Hunting Things, the Family Business" makes me think like. Oh. Sam really doesn't understand why Dean hunts at all. He has no idea that Dean actually cares about the victims and his primary directive is protecting people he doesn't even know because he loves them—because Dean loves everyone and wants to give them what he can't have. Dean is so conflated with John in Sam's mind that they're virtually the same person to him, and apparently in this situation, John would have taken the out and prioritized protecting their family from the law over making sure the hunt was finished.

This is literally Sam's first time ever hunting one-on-one with Dean and not Dean&John. So every time he's ever hunted with Dean, it was John's plan and John's principles and John's prime directive. Sam never understood that just because Dean followed orders, his own motivations were not the same as their fathers. He never understood Dean's actions as anything other than an extension of their father's feelings and will.

[allmyandroids]

"I was wrong. You're not at all scared of the future."

[jimmyspades]

[jtspaderstills]

S1 E2: The Freelancer (No. 145)

[foxgloveinspace]

My new copy of spn s1 came in😭😌 time to be cozy and have a second coffee.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Hello there 👋

Can you talk about why you feel the way you do about the female bsd characters? (including the female characters you like) and while I don't think the author doesn't know how to write female characters I think the biggest problem with the female characters is that they're underutilized and barely have much screentime ( the most one we saw recently having screentime currently in the manga is teruko)

Hi!! I love you all SO much but seriously I don't have the mental stability to talk about why the bsd female characters are badly written ahah. Here's my best attempt at it:

I hope it's enough for me to say there's a female / male characters proportion of like 1:10, and no female character has any real repercussion on the plot– literally. Besides from Kyouka and Lucy and maybe Yosano? you could hypothetically erease every other female character and... Realistically, nothing would change. That's just how much irrelevant all but three female characters are, and there's already very few compared to the rest of the male cast. The four main / most popular characters are all males. Dazai is openly sexist and it's just kind of there never to be addressed. Akutagawa is repetedly violent with his female coworker and it's treated as a gag (like you DO realize how repulsive it is to write a character who is obsessed with her abuser and never be intentioned to elaborate on that because I guess that's what women are supposed to do according to author? Like. okay). But honestly the main issue for me is how each of them literally gravitates around another male character. God, it's SO annoying. And I mean every single of them!!! Every. single. Every single!!!! I struggle to come up with even one exception to the pattern. Kyouka has Atsushi as her savior, Lucy has Atsushi as her savior, Higuchi is obsessed with Akutagawa, Naomi is obsessed with Jun'ichirou, Gin literally exists because of Akutagawa, Alcott is just there to aid Fitzgerald, Margaret's only role in the story is to save Hawthorne, Elise is just expression of Mori. Teruko is a person in the body of a child who literally drools over her 50-something superior, like we hadn't as a society come to the common agreement that the “not as old as she looks” trope was disgusting pedophilia apologism like ten years ago (but it's okay though, because pedophilia was established to be okay in this manga at like, chapter 15 or something) (is this the good time to bring up that time Aya asked Kunikida out? No? Okay let's just collectively pretend that never happened). Do I need to go on? I haven't read Gaiden, but do I really need to read it to know Tsujimura gravitates around Ayatsuji? Oh wait, I was just remembered about Gaiden's full title: Bungou Stray Dogs Gaiden: Ayatsuji Yukito VS. Kyougoku Natsuhiko, and if that doesn't speak of the consideration author gives their female characters, I don't know what does. It's just– no female character is ever going to have their own novel. No female character is ever going to be protagonist. They'll just keep being treated as they've always been so far, like flat and personality-less disposable plot devices.

Now. I love Yosano's backstory, I really do- I think it was the best executed arc of the manga, reading those two chapter still gives me chills. But you do have to acknowledge, Yosano herself has no agency in the entire arc development. It's okay, she was eleven, it's natural; but she is just tossed one way to the other by other characters. That, and I can't stretch it enough, is not a bad thing on its own; not all stories have to scream #womanpower to be good stories. It's a good story. But you need to acknowledge it does nothing to empower female characters' role in this manga; it just speaks once again of it being a systematic problem, how author can't write female characters like they were masters of their fate if their life depended on it. And it's not that just because there's one (1) mini arc that happens to have a female character as its protagonist, author knows how to write female characters with depth, or agenda, or an objective, or personality, because... They clearly don't.

Like. I probably became annoying by now but like. When was the last time you found any bsd fan whose favorite character was a woman? When was the last time you found people describing themselves as a Lucy kinnie? If you ask me, it's not a matter of fans' fault for overlooking female characters; the female characters in this franchise are meant to be overlooked, because they're abysmally less stretched out and complex compared to their male counterparts– because male characters are distinctive and unique, while author can't go outside the range of one-dimensional femme fatale, letal woman (Yosano, Kouyou, Teruko, Christie, Gin / Lucy / Elise too to an extent) and woman who's just there to obsess over a male character (Alcott, Higuchi). But do not fret, because author will sometimes go outside that scheme by making a letal femme fatale who also obsesses over a male character! (Naomi). Also this

(Have you ever wondered why I never talk about Beast Gin? Yeah.)

Okay but you see the problem here? You see how it's impossible to make the same kind of argument for the male characters, because they're all diverse and various and multilayered as much as their little screentime allows? Higuchi doesn't exist outside Akutagawa, Lucy doesn't exist outside Atsushi; but it's not like you can say the same goes the other way round. That is, crossing out the various parallels drawn between male characters, but that only speaks more of how precisely curated male characters are, while all female characters... I'll be honest, aren't written as people. Author really sounds like your average Washington Post best selling psychological thriller author of the week that writes women like an alien species from another planet. It would have spared me having been writing this whole post for an hour (two hours? Which is definitely not the time I wanted to spend on this, man) if only author would have formed the thought, at the start of the serialization: “perhaps! Perhaps I should write women as people instead of writing them as female characters (whatever that means)”. Alas, we ended up with the infamous Naomi description from Untold Origins (what the fuck. who in their right mind would ever think of writing something like that. what the fuck.)

Now, I know if you're here reading this you most definitely like bsd. It's okay, really. Unpopular opinion, but people are perfectly allowed to like things that are flawed (and this is a big flaw). What's extremely important, seriously, I'm on my knees begging you, is to be critical of the media you consume. All kinds of media. Even if you end up disagreeing with me on this matter, really!! Just be able to tell apart the things that make appealing a series for you from whatever kind of agenda / worldview the author is pushing through, and peacefully acknowledge you can like something despite it having issues (because bsd has issues). I don't know who needs to hear this, but someone definitely does: “I love s/kk!!” “the bsd storytelling has many compelling aspects!!” and “I recognize the bsd writing has flaws some of which actively harm an already disadvantaged part of society” are statements that can and should coexist, and if anything - and I know you hate to hear this, I'm sorry, I'm sorry - it should be kept in mind when deciding to support the franchise by buying its products.

One final note is that like... I'm sorry if this comes off as pretentious but I seriously feel like people have NO idea what media with well written female characters look like, because for people to even question bsd being sexist is just insane to me (in the way: do we really need to to talk about it, isn't it obvious like ten seconds in the show??). And this is probably the least good place to advertise things, but please do yourself a favor and read The Promised Neverland and learn what well written female characters read like.

[sneakerdoodle]

hmmmmmmmmm.

the Job thing -> Aziraphale coming up against a decree by Heaven that he cannot force himself to be okay with, subsequently plunging himself into an existential crisis by falling prey to doubt and questioning and going as far as lying to an archangel, thus irrevocably corrupting his soul and no longer feeling 'holy' anymore

the Elspeth & Morag thing -> Aziraphale having a morality crisis over the intricacies of the human life and the net good of objective wrongdoings, attempting to paint things in overwhelmingly simplistic strokes that would fit things into the neat binary of 'good-bad', uncritically upholding the unhelpful sentiment of 'the blessings of poverty' but eventually being led to direct and powerful transformative action, and not the type that would truly take anything away from him, the entire conflict hinging on the fact that he had to overcome his internal misconceptions in a way that deserves to be written down, reflected upon, brought up again later in life

the??? finale for some reason??????????? -> "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys". "We're the good guys".

[whenfatecollides]

the fact that sweet home writers went 'we're going to kill half our og cast and then skip a year ahead without any explanation whatsoever about what happened in between oh and by the way here's a hundred new characters and half of them are military soldiers' really is baffling to me. everything season 1 managed to build being completely destroyed in a matter of 4 episodes is craaaazy to me. I just can't believe these were the same writers involved in season 1 there's just no way

[the-words-we-sung]

Trying to get back into a better headspace

I've been MIA lately because I've been in a kinda bad depressive episode so I've mostly lurked around and put some likes on lots of things. But I didn't have the energy to do more than that. I miss it though. I miss you guys!! So I guess there's nothing better than a new trailer to help me get out of it and back into the fandom zone! I wasn't expecting it to drop at the exact moment I was checking YouTube while I was in the bus 😱 I almost broke my earphones with the speed at which I tried to plug them in to watch it 😅 Season 3 is gonna be super awesome, I can predict that much ^^ With lots of things happening which I'm very excited to watch unfold!! But I've been thinking and I've decided that I'm not gonna participate in the "analyzing the stills" / "try to guess what's happening in the scene" / "make predictions for different story-lines" that is gonna happen between now and the start of season 3! I loved going in blind for the first 2 seasons and, though I've watched the trailer and saw the stills, I don't think I wanna know/try to guess more about it before it starts! I wanna be a mostly blank slate, ready to take it all in on my first (and second, and third, and fourth...) watch. And then I'll be back to freaking out with you guys ^^ So for now, I still wanna come back here, but I'll just get back to my song analysis and to writing some posts about the first 2 seasons! And!! I'm still going to Omar's concert next week and I'll definitely be posting stuff about that! So yeah, trying to get out of my head and back into something that's gonna bring me a bit of joy and excitement!

[thaliagrayce]

i've been talking abt my voltron playlists and @iveofficiallygonemad asked to hear them and i want to share with anybody who wants!! i know they're not perfect, i'm working on them & trying to make them better. if you have any recommendations for any of them, let me know!! there's like A Lot and i want to give a lil explanation for most of them, so i'm putting them under the cut ^-^

SO first i have my favorite one <3 it's just. all of them. it's the whole team. it's a mess and it's a bunch of different genres because it's them fighting over the aux cord on a road trip. it's them trying to make each other laugh or annoy each other or play something catchy enough it will infect everyone in the vicinity with brain worms.

Hunk: i'm pretty happy with my Hunk playlist! chill vibes. he strikes me as the kind of guy who listens to calm music to try to find his own calm, and that's what i got here :)

Pidge: this is messier and less cohesive than my usual playlist because frankly i think pidge would have a shit taste in music. all over the board. this is a mix of meme songs and 8-bit covers and vocaloid and stuff that i think pidge would genuinely connect with, and i think pidge listens to all their music on shuffle without any regards for genre or mood because they're a gremlin. nobody gives pidge sole control of the aux.

Coran hears 80's music for the first time and loses his mind. He thinks ABBA is humanity's single greatest achievement.

Lance: i have ideas about where I'm going with this but haven't really settled yet. Lance seems like the kind of boy that loves to dance (is that canon? i forgot) so most of these are Bops That Make You Move in some way or another. he likes to present an upbeat face to the world, so there's no angsting in this playlist! we are clinging to the things that make us happy with both hands until our knuckles turn white!

Keith: i'm gonna be honest. i made him a playlist but i honestly don't think he cares about music very much. it's very important to some people! he's just not one of them! i haven't cracked this playlist open in a while but i'm pretty sure it's full of songs that i think he would conceivably train/work out to.

Shiro: this playlist involves the dumbest headcanon i have for shiro that has just not left me alone since i first thought of it. most of the playlist reflects the fact that he had an emo phase in middle school (that one isn't a headcanon, you just have to look at him to know) but BUT there are a few songs on here that are on here because. little known fact. he also went through a Twilight phase that he told nobody about. (keith knows. keith was there.) he has the entire twilight soundtrack memorized. he moved past the story but the music stays forever. he used to daydream about slow dancing to Flightless Bird, American Mouth. the first time Coran mentions that they have to avoid a place because there's a supermassive black hole there, he has to bite his tongue in order to keep a straight face. do NOT ask me why i believe this so wholeheartedly.

Allura's playlist sucks right now. I think it's because in my heart of hearts i know that, were she on earth today, she would go fucking nuts for taylor swift. i have ambivalent feelings for taylor swift. i cannot do allura justice like this. if you see my vision and have recs as to what might actually fit her, PLEASE.

Klance: i haven't done it yet but i'm gonna go through this and sort it to be a sort of progression of their relationship, starting with the more combative Rivalry songs, then slipping into "oh shit oh shit" songs, then maybe ending on the more lighthearted purely romantic songs <3

(i have two songs in a shallura playlist which does not at all encapsulate how much i'm obsessed with them. the tiny cop inside my head is just constantly screaming at me that i'm going to get yelled at for liking shallura. i am going to kill the cop inside my head.)

[itscooltoskate]

I love season 1 Tom

[scoobydoodean]

The thing that gets me about the Haley 1.02 and Dean parallel is that Haley's brother is missing but Haley has TWO brothers and no parents, and Sam is more like the angsty younger brother, Ben. John's parallel is as the older of Haley's two brothers—the missing one—Tommy. And John not being a missing dad and instead being a missing brother is kind of what Dean's life is actually like honestly (in a literal sense, both of Dean's parents aren't dead like Haley's are, but in a metaphorical sense, John as a father died along with Mary). John was Dean's father in terms of authority but in terms of the obligations of a father to his child, those were all deeply warped and even reversed such that Dean was more of an emotional support to John, taking care of him along with Sam (as John himself admits in 2.01 and as is also brought up in 5.16).

[allmyandroids]

[jimmyspades]

Ranking James Spader hottest scenes

Alan Shore “just as soon as I return from Los Angeles” monologue

The Blacklist whenever he gets beaten up

Opening of sex, lies, and videotape when Graham is getting dressed in a gas station bathroom

All of his actual sex scenes in which he’s naked