#all the characters that writer!sam likes to traumatise

[occasional-hobbyist]

[ivy-pendragon]

SPOILER DONT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE NEW SeaSON

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Robby being Tory’s weakness (and Kim knowing about it) makes me think they will hurt Robby in the Sekai Tekai. That will make Tory back off and, in the meantime, give Miguel the chance to win. That would make me FURIOUS but that’s my take.

I just want them to be fucking happy and I am SO MAD because not running after Tory was SO OUT OF CHARACTER FOR EVERYONE. Robby was texting her and trying to reach her before his match so that’s something but…why did NO ONE go after her? Sam? Robby? Amanda? Devon?

I can’t even blame the characters, I blame the writers because this just doesn’t make ANY sense. Any kid, any sensitive PERSON LIKE SAM AND ROBBY AND AMANDA WOULD HAVE REACTED. Jesus christ, this bad writing 😭

I don’t blame Tory at all, she literally found her mother dead, she is fucking traumatised and grieving. BUT PLEASE COME ON baby she broke your hand, he betrayed you 😭

Fuck Daniel for stopping her and fuck DANIEL FOR BEING RIGHT AND WRONG AT THE SAME TIME. Both Johnny and Daniel has their points and I’m still debating which one is the correct one (spoiler, both of them are both wrong and right).

[miriadalia]

About Keenry and how the CK writers ruined one of the best relationships of the show...

I'll try to keep it short.

These are the reasons why I think Tory and Robby shouldn't be endgame in Cobra Kai anymore:

Their miscommunication will only lead them to more heartbreak.

Back in season 4 I became a fulltime Keenry shipper, especially after the Prom scenes. And the main reason was because we could see how they understood each other, talked things out and worried about the other... After the season 5 breakup nothing was the same for them anymore.

With Tory wanting to solve her problems always on her own and with Robby escaping and assuming things before talking with her properly... They made it pretty clear they have communication and trust problems. And I get it, they both have had hard lives. But I hoped that after they made up in the last episode of season 5, they both had learned their lessons...

Flash forward to season 6 and instead we had more of the same but a thousand times worse.

Their SECOND break up

Listen. I know many couples go on and off for years and then end up getting married anyways, especially when they started their relationship pretty young... But I don't think that's healthy at all.

If you feel the constant need to resort to a break up or pause to fix your problems then that probably means you don't actually go well with that person.

And that's fine. That doesn't mean one of the parts is a horrible person. Just means it doesn't work and even if it's hurting it will be for the best in the future.

And yeah, I think the same about Sam x Miguel in case you're wondering.

The "love triangles" they used to kind of made them up again

They really run out of ideas in the writing room. We already had the drama: Tory mom died and she had to fix her relationship with the Miyagi Dos. She could have been forced to fight Robby in the tournament because of the rules, not because she was angry at him.

Why did Robby had to go through literal SA with that freak of a girl while thinking his second girlfriend had also cheated with another guy??

Why did Tory had to be captain with a guy that was made to be just a cartoon villain instead of an actual companion? And why did she also had to experience watching the boy she loved kissing another girl for the second time??

Kwon and Zara were such a wasted potential it makes my blood boil. They had multiple time Taekwondo champions with really good acting skills and they just went with the psycho gang freak and the superficial jealous bitch (ahem, abuser). But that's for another post...

The solution to these "misunderstandings" was... Pushing their respective freaks to defend each other

I'm talking about Tory pushing Kwon in the hall and Robby throwing Zara like a potato bag during the brawl.

"You really choose her over me?"

"It's not even close"

WTF was that?? It wasn't a choice in the first place!! Robby was drunk to the point of unconsciousness. Who on earth wrote that?

And are Tory and Robby supposed to be back together just because he said that?

He also said: "I know you better than that. I shouldn't have let Kwon get into my head" Well........ Your actions didn't show, honey, you immediately accused her of hooking up with him during the last fight.

Kwon's death and its impact in both their lives

Even if they didn't like him and Kwon made things even more difficult between them, he was still a teen like them.

Look at Tory's face in the picture above. Do you think she can handle any more death after what she had to go through with her mother? Do you think she will be magically cured by the power of Robby's love and fight Zara to "get revenge" in part 3?? Please, don't.

Even if a year has passed between the Sekai Taikai and the new tournament, this kid is traumatised. I don't think she should be fighting at all for a long, long time.

Robby, I can see him fighting, but I'm really disappointed on how his character arc went... Yes, he has finally gotten over his second place complex and understood he is a good leader if he wants to... But I can't see how that can improve his relationship with Tory.

So, lastly, I hope this is what one of the CK creators meant when he posted that "some high school relationships last forever, other don't". It makes me sad if it has to be Keenry the one that doesn't end up being endgame. But at the same time is the only solution I see to this poor writing...

[scarabjewels]

Why I think We Should Say Goodbye to "Euphoria" Now

Yes, I'd rather have no season 3.

I feel like the world has since grown out of Euphoria by now, well, except for the die-hard fans. The director and sole writer of the show has pretty much shown how disturbing his ideas actually are.

It's probably the only reason why the first season of Euphoria succeeded so well is the collaboration of the cast, crew, and director. Now we have news of strained relationships, consistent pauses in shoots going on in the production of the third season, and proper constructive criticism of the director's rebranding of another project, "The Idol."

I am not going to research too much about this as so many articles about it are a headache to read because of the director.

I will be giving my opinions and thoughts about the previous seasons of Euphoria and as well as my thoughts on the Idol, which I actually have never watched but I felt like I shouldn't, I am glad that I didn’t after watching Ashley Ippolito's commentary about the show, on just the first episode.

Euphoria shouldn't be targeted to younger audiences and I really wish it was set at least in senior high school, at best freshmen to second year college.

It's not the depiction of LGBTQIA+ or the alcoholism or even the drugs. IT'S EVERYTHING ELSE . THIS IS RATED X, FOR EXTREME CAUTION TO WAY TOO GRAPHIC SCENES AND STORIES.

Look, Euphoria is quite the show, and I understand the appeal... of the first season. It was a fresh new take at the time it was released. It was drama DRAMA.

I was older when I watched it , I was 19 going on 20 at the time, and decided to give it a shot long after its conclusion. It was around the time the second season was close to be released. Even at a much more appropriate age to digest this content, I still needed to take a break after each episode. It took me pretty much weeks or a month to watch an episode after the other. It was way too much to process at once. That's coming from a binge watcher.

First of all, the characters were pretty good, but it was only because of the collaboration of the writer/director and the actors. I do know that Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Barbie Ferreira had said in interviews that they worked on their characters very closely. As for the remaining main cast, I haven't watched their interviews, so I will leave it to their ability to act to speak volumes of why their characters were remembered and well received. Sam Levinson had said that he projected a lot of his own story through Rue, with his battles of addiction to illegal substances as a teenager.

Now the story... okay. I do not appreciate the use of sex and nudity too much here, especially with Maddie, Jules, and Cassie. Maddie exploring sex at 14 with a 26 year old man with that... commentary narrated by Rue is just not right, I understand 17 and 20, which is not right either, but is often than not much more acceptable. The amount of sexual nudity of Cassie actually dramatised in the series should have stopped at one implied video. That amount in the show is way too disgusting, and they mean to tell me she isn't even 18, or 17 at least, when that happened? This is why I needed to take breaks watching this damn show. Jules and ..Nate’s dad, no. JUST NO. Nate’s father, I already hate every scene associated and showing him. I feel very uncomfortable with all of what Nate saw, and that the audience saw TOO MUCH OF IT ALREADY.

I should have stopped at one episode because it didn't get any better for my psyche the further watched. Now Rue is addicted to a person, Jules is simultaneously showing her toxicity, Maddie gets physical and mental abuse, Cassie is traumatised, Kat finds empowerment in the wrong place, AND NATE CONTINUES TO EXIST.

I hate that it really did influence a lot of younger people to explore these addictions (I truly think Euphoria influenced the satire of 'delulu is the solulu'), instead of reflecting these stories as " DONT DO IT". I do think the adults or even teenagers that do struggle and relate with these stories felt seen and heard and that it may have inspired hope to change, reflect that their choices before and who they were aren't who they are now, or ya know positive things. I hope that is what Sam Levinson meant to inspire with this show at the time because, after that, everything went downhill.

The second season... the few things I liked about it are Fez beating up Nate, Fez and Lexi, Lexi's play, Maddie beating up Cassie (mustve been fun for Alexa to get to slap a literal MMA fighter and getting away with it), Cassie’s desparate pick me skin care routine scenes (props to Sydney for that), Chloe Cherry actually acting, and Rue breaking up with Jules for good. Yes, it didn't get any better for my psyche. What is this show now? Where is the cautionary aspect, and why is it all JUST trainwreck after trainwreck?

The first season was praised for its drama and good acting, and I do appreciate that it does truly illustrates cautionary tales in the pursuit of euphoria, hence the title. It should have stopped there. But noooo, the director found a new addiction, and he tried to use the formula that worked on his "Magnum Opus" on another show that was not supposed to go in that direction.

The Idol is a show where Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis' daughter, Lily Rose Depp, starred with famous pop soloist The Weeknd and formerly directed by Amy Seimetz.They said that the show was supposed to reference Jocelyn's life as a child star. I mean, judging from the photos, Seimetz really was going for satire. HBO thought the world wanted something dark and shock factor again, but they were proven so wrong when the audience and critics immediately gave backlash, for good reason. From what I have read on several article headlines and from Final Girl Studios' video essay, it was basically no story and all porn, Final Girl Studios said it was...boring. Pretty much of what the world had said is that it's just plain fantasy porn that wasn't even good. To add gas into the fire, the crew was not enjoying the environment. The original The Idol gave Disney Channel vibes and given that the point of the show was supposed to dive into Hollywood exploitation and a dark comedy ? It could've revealed just as dark, maybe even darker and truer topics, about Hollywood all the while showing the highs and lows of a person receiving fame and praise left and right at a young age then at an older age. I would have loved to see that. It would have provided actual substance, even with darker parts, which is the point. Levinson instead made something...disgusting, probably hoping that it would bring back the accolades he got with Euphoria. Well, that formula did not work.

Worst, it failed the WORST way possible.

Here is the thing, I do not care if it's a man, woman, or a member of the LGBTQIA+ directing and/or writing the story. If it's good, it's good, if it's bad, IT'S BAD. I will not dive into misogyny, misandry, discrimination, gender superiority and any other topic related about the influences that lead to the misdirection on the making of the show, because if I talk about it anymore than I do now, it will continue to have power, which is the opposite of what should happen. These influences are meant to be addressed a few times and moved on from it by deeming it unimportant anymore and progressing from it, NOT accepting its existence and normalized.

That's why Euphoria season 3 needs to be cancelled now, as well as Sam Levinson's formula.

We are already at the age where we are increasingly aware of the influences of these shows and how much of a progress society has, by truly critically criticising highly influential media. In order to truly progress, these types of content shouldn't be produced anymore and be left in the past. Euphoria was a good show at its time, but it will not work today, and it really shouldn't work again.

So please, say goodbye and thank the service that the show has done. We don't need that anymore.

[autisticwriterblog]

Fandom 50 Post 13

My eleventh piece of Alan Wake 2 meta. This one is about Initiation 4.

Initiation 4: We Sing

What happened in this chapter?

Alan wakes up in the Writer’s Room and realises that the Dark Presence stopped him escaping earlier. He sits down to write another manuscript to write himself out of the Dark Place.

Once again, Alan finds himself backstage at Mr. Door’s talk show. On the TV, Mr. Door talks about putting on a performance of a song called Herald of Darkness, but mentions that he prefers to call it The Story of the Journey of Alan Wake: The Musical. Interacting with the TV transports Alan to a huge set, where music starts playing as images flash up on the large screens. And the musical begins.

As Alan walks through the set, a song plays, performed by Mr. Door, the Old Gods of Asgard and Alan himself. Throughout the song, everyone sings and dances on the screens around the studio, pointing Alan in the right direction. After a while, Alan gets armed with a flashlight and handgun, and later a flare gun, which are very useful when he comes under attack by enemies.

The lyrics sing about different parts of Alan’s life, starting with his childhood fear of the dark and how his mother gave him the Clicker. Second, the song talks about Alan’s rise to fame as an author and the issues it caused him. Third, they sing about Alan and Alice arriving at Bright Falls at the beginning of Alan Wake 1, and Alan’s encounters with the Taken.

Finally, Alan ends up backstage again, thinking the musical is over. But when he leaves the room, the music continues, this time Alan singing a slow song about how he needs to bring the song to its end. Alan then uses his plot board to make an end for the song. He is then transported back to the studio, where he takes part in one last rendition of Herald of Darkness, complete with a dance number.

Partway through the song and dance, Alan wanders away and takes a sip of his drink before collapsing into his chair, at which point the song finally ends. Alan then finds himself in the now empty studio, and encounters Ahti humming the song to himself. And when he leaves the room, the chapter ends.

My Thoughts

Along with Old Gods, this is my favourite chapter in the game. As shown with Alan Wake and Control, Remedy are very good at making action segments of their games soundtracked to an amazing song by the Old Gods of Asgard, and Alan Wake 2 is no exception. Herald of Darkness is an amazing song and this entire chapter is so fun. No matter how many times I play this game, I always spend the entire chapter with a massive smile on my face.

It is so fun seeing all the characters on the screens as you progress through the level. Door’s facial expressions are amazing, Sam Lake looks like he’s having the time of his life, and Alan looks confused that he’s taking part in the musical the first place. I also love that the Old Gods will point you in the right direction, and you can watch them rocking out while performing the song. At least for me, it’s easy to get distracted watching everything on the screens and take ages to complete the chapter.

Right before Alan sits down and the musical ends for good, a lovely little smile appears on his face. Alan has been trapped in the Dark Place for thirteen years and is clearly traumatised by what he’s been through, so it’s really sweet to see him smile. It might be the first time he has enjoyed himself in thirteen long years and I find that really lovely (but also sad).

At the end of the chapter, I adore the fact that Ahti is humming along to the song. But like most people who’ve only heard a song once, he doesn’t know all the words, and mumbles the bits he doesn’t know. It’s also very sweet that Alan mentions that the song is catchy; it clearly grew on him as he took part in the musical.

[luna-rainbow]

CATWS and the theme of "trust"

I got about halfway through rewatching CATWS again and I keep seeing all the lines they've buried as foreshadowing for Zola's reveal and I just can't see it all as unintentional (even if they've tried now for 8 years to wind it all back).

One of Steve's major internal conflicts in CATWS is "trust". Right at the start, he makes a few humorous jabs at Sam, but as soon as he feels Sam starts to pry, Steve backs away.

Sam: Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing. Steve: It takes some getting used to. It's good to see you, Sam.

It's not just the line that shuts the conversation down, Steve's entire body language closes off and he turns away from Sam. Sam, being the amazing guy he is, manages to draw Steve back by sharing his own personal experience of war. Steve then opens up because he recognises that Sam approached him as a fellow traumatised human being, and not for "Captain America", and not for any ulterior motive.

Natasha then whisks Steve away, and we enter the world of subterfuge that is SHIELD. Immediately during the Lemurian Star sequence we establish that Steve dislikes ulterior motives, double-crossing and people withholding information from him.

He and Fury then argue over Project Insight. There are other important themes there about freedom of choice ("this isn't freedom, this is fear"), innocence until proven guilty ("I thought punishment usually came after the crime"), and American imperialism ("holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection") which I won't go into here. They finish their conversation this way:

Fury: SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap. Steve: Don't hold your breath.

What happens next is an important story moment, both emotionally for Steve and thematically for the overarching narrative. Steve makes three visits - I've said before how these represent his past (the mural of Bucky, the things he's lost), his present (Peggy, wizened and weary, secluded from society), and his future (Sam, youthful and energetic, moving past his trauma). But there's also something else key to these moments, and it is trust.

These are the three people Steve thinks he can trust in his life at that moment in time. He knows he can't trust Nat and Fury (they even told him this). He goes first to find Bucky, because that's his childhood friend and brother-in-arms, but of course Bucky can't give him any answers. He then goes to find Peggy, and it is this very brief conversation with Peggy that has all the foreshadowing for the big reveal.

Peggy: You saved the world, we rather mucked it up. Steve: You didn't. (*CEvans gave emphasis on the "you"). Knowing you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay. Peggy: The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best we can do is to start over.

I'm just going to address the last line first. That line is often given as a mark of Peggy's words giving Steve's character direction. But on my most recent rewatch, I noticed this line.

Pierce: Despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down.

Those lines, repeated only two assassination attempts 20 minutes apart, draw a disturbing parallel between Pierce/SHIELD-ra's intention with Project Insight, and Peggy's advice to Steve about what should happen next. Was it accidental? Or in the hands of a good writer, foreshadowing?

Going back to the first part of the exchange. Steve's emphasis on him staying in SHIELD because Peggy had found it...

Is it any accident that upon walking into the abandoned SHIELD facility, he first lays eyes on Peggy's picture - and is tensely silent when Nat asks him who the girl is - then less than 10 paces from her picture is the entrance to the hidden lift?

This was supposed to be a moment of betrayal. Steve is not stupid. Neither, supposedly, is Peggy.

Immediately upon seeing Bucky, Steve mused that "whatever (Zola) did helped him survive the fall". He already put two and two together.

The significance of what Zola said about Hydra growing inside SHIELD, and Bucky fighting for SHIELDra would not have been lost on Steve. Even without Bucky explaining the conditions of his imprisonment, it was easy enough to infer that Zola had recaptured Bucky and used him for Hydra's ends.

Now, going back to the theme of trust. Consistently, throughout this movie, Steve reacts badly when he finds out people have lied or withheld information from him. He's sarcastic when he finds out the Lemurian Star "isn't off course, it's trespassing". He is furious upon finding out Nat has been given a separate assignment that he didn't know about. He confronts Fury about it, and doesn't stop snarking at Fury about his "compartmentalisation" even in the end. And for Sharon Carter, who lied to him about being a nurse? His only acknowledgement of her greeting him is a terse "neighbour".

Do we really think he hasn't...at least questioned why a woman he has regularly visited over the last 2 years, who he trusted enough to go to for life advice (he literally gave a monologue to her about feeling lost, which is the most emotionally vulnerable we've ever seen Steve be aside from the post-funeral "end of the line" scene) has compartmentalised this vital piece of information about Zola? If not also about Hydra and Bucky?

At the end of the movie, Steve learns to trust again: it is in Sam, who had treated him like a fellow veteran, and who was open and truthful in all of their conversations; it is in Bucky, who had been steadfast and loyal in his friendship, and who saves his life upon hearing their childhood promise; and it is in Nat, who gradually sheds all her pretences through the movie and show him what she believes in.

But the organisation that he had once stayed in because Peggy had built it? Steve insisted on tearing it down even when Fury suggested to salvage it. CATWS was a story that built Peggy up to be a villain...then the MCU changed its mind and reneged on a Captain America 3.

[boundless11]

I think this Redditor has a point: the show seems to be going out of its way to 'redeem' the villains of the movies by vilifying the hero characters. 🤔

I agree with T2C247. Not very villain needs to be redeemed. However the writers have done this at the expense of the heroes like Daniel and all of a Miyagi Do. A prime example is Tory and Sam. Personally, the writers have used the excuse of a bad home life for Tory and shoved it down our throats. All her previous deeds are forgotten and never mentioned in. All while Sam, who was traumatised by Tory is vilified for giving Tory a piece of her own medicine. What’s the pojnt of Tory’s redemption when she still goes round pulling rubbish- attack on Hawk and the pettiness at Prom with that RIDICULOUS DANCE NUMBER- and hasn’t once taken responsibility for her actions, then has the audacity to run to Amanda for some help???

The creators have talked about the grey area, but they’ve taken it way too far.

[templedragon]

Supergirl 6x19 The Last Gauntlet and 6x20 Kara

Every finale has been action heavy and rushed on key emotional scenes, and the ultimate finale is no exception.

I don't remember much about 6x19 beyond Alex having a meltdown over Esme being kidnapped. A white woman was allowed to scream and damage property at the Tower while Esme's other mother, a black woman, wasn't allowed the same rage. Despite the wonderful wedding, it's too little too late for the sapphic representation, as Alex hasn't been a character since season 2 and has only served the plot, and when it was about her romance then she supported Kelly rather than having her own growth. Given how little screentime Kelly has had over the years, it speaks volumes to the canon representation of an interracial sapphic couple with popcorn parenthood to a child they keep traumatising. Kara has speeches about people she loves getting harmed because of her superhero role as a reason to give one up, while Kelly and Alex literally have their new child kidnapped and don't question their work/life/parenting balance. Alex is prepared to change Earth completely to save Esme, but Kara didn't offer her wisdom from the 100th about doing the same thing for Lena's soul.

The show still diminishes women to give men things to do. Dey's death didn't do anything other than prompt Andrea to set up an award in his name. I have questions about how Dey's body would be handled as he died on a secret location, and who informed his girlfriend? Acrata could have been so much more than emergency transport and a holding place for James (who was split into three characters when he left - CatCo boss in Andrea, MOC in Dey, and an Olsen in Kelly). Meanwhile, Lex is giving the ultimatum speech of all the totems in exchange for Esme, rather than Nyxly who was on this quest. He goes on to show 'true love' in a "If I can't have her then no-on will" crusade of attempted murder. I haven't figured out why Lex and Nyxly's skin became reptilian when they started sucking the totem virtues out of people other than protecting Lex's image - people would remember him well if they didn't know the city damage or virtue removal was caused by him.

I feel sorry for Nyxly. 6B was her journey about being shafted by her family, being stuck in the Phantom Zone, and developing a bitter revenge in order to survive. She is what Kara could have easily turned into, only she had childhood love before trauma. It may explain but it doesn't excuse. But we have seen her take on the challenges of the virtues and pass. Much like The Good Place, when given the opportunity she improved as a person, and had significantly healthier boundaries than Kara when it came to being mistreated by men. She improved, so her being sent back to the Phantom Zone is especially cruel, and with someone who claimed to love her and then turned on her when she rejected his feelings. Would have loved to have seen her team up with the SuperFriends to take down Lex. In previous seasons, the female villain we saw develop (Reign/Sam and Red Daughter) switched sides.

There's also the issue of global threats not being handled by every hero on Earth Prime. Super speed by The Flash could have grabbed the allstone and legged it. I'm also dubious about the allstone splitting. It split initially so it couldn't be wielded, and yet it splits into three opals (after each piece being a rainbow) for plot points. Why didn't it resplit into the seven virtues again? How does Lex get to handle any of them when he's never passed a gauntlet? How did the virtue mechanism work if anyone can unlock them for others to use?

Lex reminds us that this isn't Earth-38 when he tells Lillian her counterpart tried to kill him, so the writers are aware but don't care about continuity. Take Lex using the truth seeker as proof in front of Lena, when she's heard him say he was a changed man and that Lillian loved her. And yet look how they treated her. Why didn't Lena say the truth seeker was subjective, that it conveyed what the person truly believed? Why didn't Kara ever get to use it? Season 5 could have been a lot better if Kara used it to get her truth out.

Whenever characters get development, it highlights that Kara doesn't. Kara quit her CatCo job as she couldn't multitask. Meanwhile, Kelly, Nia and Alex all have secret identities and (with the DEO reopening) public jobs. Two of those are humans, who also split their time between being parents. Why can they do it but not Kara, the superpowered alien. Much like the 100th episode, it's the secret double life that's the issue. Only we're supposed to believe that Kara can openly be Supergirl now without everyone dying, when the premise of the 100th is that people knowing got people killed regardless of how well things seemed to be. Esme's the obvious target for blackmail, as this episode proves. Lena's magic relies on access to resources, so she can be separated from them. Brainy, Alex and Kelly also rely on technology they can be separated from. They all have vulnerabilities for their superhero work. Heck, Lena got kidnapped for her mundane business work in season 3. The finale made it canon that there are superpower deadzones to put all at risk.

The final message seems to be "be your own hero" or "be true to yourself". Instead of Kara thinking she had to fix everything on this planet out of guilt from her previous one blowing up despite being a child and not causing its destruction, we now have motivational speaker Kara getting people to use their abilities to make their lives better. Um, newsflash, we're all already doing that. It's the system that's the problem. Saying people are poor because they don't have a positive attitude is gaslighting. Mount Everest is covered in corpses of people with can-do attitudes. How long until we realise we're supposed to make the physical and social environment kind? How long until we throw the 100 companies causing 70% of global pollution in prison for crimes against humanity? Also newsflash, Kara's go-to to diffuse situations has always been speeches, followed by throwing things into the sun (this time herself for a supercharge, though she knew from killing everyone in season 3 that doing what villains do makes you the bad guy too).

Is the DEO being reopened is meant to be an ongoing undoing of development on the show, or is it being opened as a place aliens can go as a marginalised group to make their lives better? Remember that the SuperFriends didn't save the day - Lex thought opening the Phantom Zone would unnerve Kara and everything would fall apart if she did. Instead, Lena predicted that Hubris would be Lex's downfall, and it took Nyxly with him. If we look back at finale's it's seldom Kara that saves the day. Lena shot Lex, Lena poisoned the atmosphere against Daxamites with lead, Sam overcame Reign with Lena making Harun-El, Brainy gave season 5's technology a virus. Really, Kara only saved the day by murdering her uncle in season 1.

Somewhere in here was a thread about parenthood, with Lilian contending with both her children having romantic love for aliens and warding one union away from each other and giving Lena her blessing to be herself in a magic metaphor (magic being love) about conversion therapy. Eliza wades in and tells Alex she's parenting with more wisdom than she ever did, in another too little too late confession about mistreatment. (As it didn't happen on screen and there wasn't a funeral I don't think Lilian is dead. I think 'gone' means used a portal, otherwise I'm really salty that the SuperFriends once again skipped out on supporting Lena losing a family member). Nyxly shows a mothering instinct towards Esme against Lex, sort of her being the mother she wished she had against her father when growing up. Esme became the love totem because of the love between her mothers. J'onn gets the suggestion that he's going to have more biological kids and shows more excitement than for the found family daughters he already has. I didn't know white and green martians could reproduce together. Or, if it's an adoption, we have to question why he'd show more excitement for a son than his current daughters.

We get a montage of mundane things people will do in the future. Nia, being openly trans, opens a centre for queer youth. Andrea quits her CatCo job (this is a problematic trend of women quitting their jobs without going to another one, let alone a better one) and runs a school for Dey's memory in Spanish, even though he was Indian. Lena opens her own foundation, for what we don't know as she's still using the name Luthor rather than Walsh so it's not about getting away from the Luthor legacy (and it's cute that she looks up during the ceremony as Kara's probably up there). Alex and J'onn get the DEO, with Kara in support. No idea what Kelly will do, or Brainy. So we use what we can from the Earth-38 and Earth Prime memories. Winn is married with kids and works in the Legion (and what a dick to tell Kara to date Dey if he knew the guy would die in a year). Mon-El is married and works in the Legion. Mxy is free and working with the Legion. J'onn and M'gann have a son in the future. James is single running a small town newspaper and is exactly where he wants to be in life. Brainy is Nia's love interest in the present, in a character serves plot turnaround as last time he said he had to go to the future whereas now he says he creates it. Which is it? J'onn definitely getting a son or it's his choice? Kelly is a mom, wife, and social worker. Alex is a mom, wife and may or may not be running the DEO, the desk job she wanted as field work was too dangerous to be a mom...  J'onn may rejoin the DEO rather than continue with PI business helping aliens. Lena's a godmother with a mystery foundation.

Kara is about to rejoin CatCo as editor in chief with Cat Grant, and come out as Supergirl. SuperCat shippers rejoice! Karamel shippers remorse as Mon-El said he's never coming back to this time ever again. We're still catching up with Earth-38 and Prime differences for these two characters. Kara being fearful that this Cat knew she was Supergirl all along isn't that surprising, given how amiable Prime is to having so many superheroes and aliens. Cat brought back the show's environmental concern, a torch lightly carried by Lena in her pursuit of clean energy production. The finale didn't feel like one, because looking back the show wasn't about Kara. They had to regress her so many times in order to give men something to do, or to tell a particular social issue story. If the show was about the titular character and kept building on it like season 1 did, the show could have been epic.

But instead, we have the Supercorp issue as the show's legacy. It's the third CW show that's treated sapphic leads terribly (Clexa and SwanQueen prior) and tokenising Batwoman and Avalance in Legends of Tomorrow. Supergirl will be remembered for Supercorp, about throwing away phenomenal cast, acting chemistry, and rich story potential. Why did they stop Kara having a female love interest that would have inverted the Super-Luthor lore? Why make so many Clois parallels from Lena's introductory scene and continue with other canon romantic couples? Why have so many framings with coding, song choices, crying over photos, rainbow socks, coming out speeches? It's about using the audience to get viewership, about tokenising and baiting for their benefit rather than telling a good story and doing the right moral thing in society. Kara repeatedly said she wanted romantic love and that she didn't want to be alone when the only person missing was Lena. She wasn't portrayed as aromantic or asexual, and even if they had it wasn't explicit in canon (though it would be hilarious if everyone thirsted over this beefcake Kryptonian but she wasn't interested).

Supercorp gets the following: Kara being the only one to hug Lena when Lilian had passed. Lena looking up in the sky when unveiling her mystery foundation. Kara looking over to Lena when singing "We belong together" at the wedding (Lena never invited to karaoke, yes it's canon that Kara sings well so she purposely ruined it with Dey). Kara specifying magic as an option for saving Esme but not listing anyone else's niche abilities. James saying he had what he wanted in life and Kara looking over to Lena. Lena noticing Kara's absence from the wedding and going to talk to her. Kara saying she doesn't know what it is to be completely herself with someone (reflects badly on all her ex boyfriends) and doing a parallel between her 5x01 identity reveal, only this time Lena stayed and hugged her. Lena uses her freedom to be herself to inspire Kara to do the same, as she has been since telling her to be a reporter when they first met. They said they inspired each other to be better people. Lena says El Mayarah again, and Kara bursts into vulnerable tears at hearing her native tongue.

Here's the thing. A show about Kara being her full self involves Supercorp, and it involves practicing her traditions from the first 13 years of her life on Krypton including her language. It would be about balancing her personal, work and hero work. But the show didn't, and the show can't make it worse. So now fandom can create Kara's story that does her justice.

[castee-yel]

CW censorship, a series:

today im going to give you guys a run through of all the times cw has most likely censored the cast and staff about s15 and explain why the shows ending has become so immensely messy and confusing.

misha collins "bury your gays"

misha stated in last weeks panel that he basically agreed with the statement "bury your gays" being used to describe castiels death and his departure from the show, now in yesterdays panel when someone brought up the phrase "bury your gays" he followed up with this:

to which we get an unenthusiastic attempt of him trying to say he now doesn't believe the cw gave us a "bury your gays trope" which im assuming only means he got in trouble for last week.

jensen ackles "acceptance"

now jensen case is genuinely rather devastating he has been playing this character for 15 years, which is about 10 years more than he could ever imagine to play a role (most shows barely hit the 3 year mark)

he's been giving the writers ideas for how he would want dean to go out for years, and seen deans arc to unfold as someone who doesnt want to die traumatised and get his "peace" in paradise, ie during S4E22 "Lucifer Rising", in which we see deans clear disagreement with this statement.

now jensen ackles has already posted several things that show his distaste for the ending, from his instagram post about the nail all the way to him answering questions in previous panels, but its pretty clear how he was coaxed into being contempt with the current ending as all hes been telling us is how he talked with kripke/the writers AND the cast only to be told that it was a satisfactory ending and he should "accept it".

[x]

jared padalecki's immense "support"

before i get into this point i'd like you all to know that i understand some people dont like jared padalecki, however, he has been playing sam winchester for 15 whole years, and has a very "attatched" personality, for him to see his character be demoted from a main character to just some background brother definitely doesnt sit right. so why isnt he saying anything?

taking a closer look at articles being published about the finale including jareds thoughts we see that most if not all of them have a promotional bit for "walker" the cw's new show (out january 2021) starring jarpad as the main role. its obvious hes not going to downtalk the last episode whatsoever while hes still under the cw's grip.

at the moment we know that the cw promo has spent the entirety of the past 2 weeks following castiels death using misha collins as promotional bait to intrance viewers, theyre a very scummy team we know but they know what theyre doing, right now they've given "bronlies" (the older, cishet male majority of fans who believe that the brothers are the only valuable characters) the "perfect" ending, this same majority is the exact intended audience for "walker", theres no doubt they've been building up to this to use jared to promo the finale thus causing the same bronlies to take liking towards him (and then later the new show)

to sum up, no actor playing a role for a decade and a half will willingly promote a series finale that shows his character and talents be disregarded and thrown out.

samantha ferris + cast being ignored

it was rumoured that samantha ferris and several other cast members (alona tal, chad lindberg etc.) were to be in s15 and there being a "big roadhouse scene" giving into the family trope we were promised for the finale.

when asked about this/this was mentioned samantha ferris confirmed that there was no such thing and that the cw had not contacted them in any way for them to be involved with season 15.

the cw claims that the reason we never got the family esque ending was due to "covid limitations" (clearly not the case seeing as we saw jim beaver come back) but contrary to this statement the cw had never contacted the additional cast before s15 (during pre-covid times and intial writing/recording processes)

thus concluding another lie told be the cw to prevent fans outrage against them for ruining the family values of the show.

overall censorship overview

- 15x20 was supposed to be an hour long yet 5 entire minutes were cut from the show (the scenes were recorded yet cut out in post)

- the original script was altered and the ending we got was different to the original (this was backed up by misha as well) YET according to jensen the only thing that was changed was the fact they didnt get a montage of the characters throught the years (which doesnt make sense since we basically got that in 15x19) which just shows how immensely messy this whole thing was

- the original script leak contained a "me too" line from dean that never made it into the cut (as this is a leak this isnt 100% confirmed)

all in all. fuck the cw.

[terriblygrimm]

guys this article is FANTASTIC. talks brilliantly about everything that was mismanaged w bucky’s character and how they tried to rewrite him in tfatws.

some great bits:

“By and large this discussion focusses on his queer coding, ie that whether a deliberate call by the creators or not, it was reasonable to interpret his devotion to his best friend Steve as romantic. [.........] This is an incredibly rich storytelling stew, and maybe too rich for some. Because The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, while ostensibly offering a deep dive into two previously underserved characters, isn’t just uninterested in exploring any of this, it seems actively embarrassed by how much previous stories have unmanned Bucky, and seeks to reconstruct viewers’ sense of the character and mangle the reality of how trauma plays itself out in order to get around it. Again and again, the writing inadvertently replays toxic and inflexible masculine attitudes to weakness and emotional suffering and packages them as wisdom.”

“In fact there’s a strange emotional distancing from Bucky’s own anguish all the time. His experiences are described only in vague, indirect terms — “that time wasn’t exactly a picnic”, “you’ve been through a lot”, “the hell you’re in”. People tell him off when it comes up or jokingly call him a psychopath. In the one scene where he is offered unconditional support, Wakandan soldier Ayo (Florence Kasumba) recites the ‘trigger words’ used to control his mind, to prove he is now free of their power, then stands as a soldier to attention while he cries alone. This was likely a filmmaking decision — those are great looking shots, but it also implies an unbreachable masculine divide. To offer Bucky physical comfort would be to deny him his right as a man to get a hold of himself. And that’s Bucky’s arc all season: get a hold of yourself.”

“Leaning into the idea that Bucky’s job as a traumatised former slave is to atone for his enslaver’s crimes for some reason, he talks to Sam in episode 5 about why stopping the people Hydra enabled doesn’t seem to be making him feel better. Some have praised the exchange between Sam and Bucky as a golden example of men supporting other men and talking about their feelings:

“You were stopping all the wrongdoers you enabled as the Winter Soldier, because you thought it would bring you closure. You go to these people and say ‘sorry’, because you think it will make you feel better, right? But you gotta make them feel better. You gotta go to them and be of service.”

Yet the core message from Sam’s tough love, however kindly delivered, was “man up and take responsibility”. Far from being an example of men healthily discussing emotions, this is a fairly typically macho rejection of any suggestion of fragility or ambivalence. (He also talks about the ineffectiveness of Bucky telling people he’s sorry, seconds after mentioning he was doing the exact opposite, so the incoherence of this speech really has layers.) These might be the kind of well-meaning observations that a real male friend would make, but coming from the mouth of the next Captain America, we are also asked to take them as unimpeachably correct.”

“I have to ask, because when I’ve suggested to people this advice was, well, bad, it hasn’t gone down well: does it really seem a good idea for Bucky, an emotionally unstable man in the midst of an identity crisis, to go off on his own and talk to the loved ones of Hydra’s victims, who he was forced to murder, given the last time someone found out about this (ie Tony Stark) they tried to kill him? [....] The writers clearly didn’t buy any of this either, since they were so unable to authentically write a scene between Bucky and Yori (Ken Takemoto), the father of a man he murdered, that wouldn’t go disastrously wrong they cut it short after about three lines rather than suggest Sam might have oversimplified the problem. But, they needed their vehicle to get Bucky to his smiley happy ending, so the scene had to stay in. He declares at the end of it “I didn’t have a choice” and it‘s possible this was intended to sound like a breakthrough, but as a character beat it’s rather hollow, given that in six hours we’ve seen no depiction of him coming to this realisation.”

“In that certainty is another strikingly masculine point of view, as encapsulated in the physical object of Bucky’s list. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s universe, the brain is a leaky pipe you can permanently fix if you just apply pressure in the right place, going down a checklist and ticking off the tasks. Not cured yet? Guess you’re just using the wrong list. This mechanical attitude to human psychology and growth is not only macho, it’s pretty convenient [....]”

and lastly, how this whole show felt disjointed and awkward w sam & bucky being paired up

“This all speaks to another fundamental problem, possibly the root of why this was all so hamfisted — the buddy element of the show hasn’t actually justified itself. I don’t question the actors’ chemistry, and loved the boat scenes, but that isn’t enough to carry a story. One of the big muddles is that Sam and Bucky aren’t just different people: it’s that their goals aren’t aligned, they don’t exist in the same universe, so their journeys are just taking up each other’s space. Really delving into much of this could have completely overwhelmed Sam’s story, and something had to give.”

[elizabethrobertajones]

Did Bobo really create the Wayward Sisters? If so, why weren't Jack and especially Cas included in that episode? That's my biggest issue with that pilot honestly, I mean, the fact that the show abandoned Claire and Cas' bond after season 10 and gave that storyline to Salmondean. Her bond with Cas is more interesting because of their connection to the Novaks. I also think that Claire and Jack would've made a more engaging dynamic and spin off together, I think they're strong characters & actors

Hi there!

Bobo isn’t the “creator” of Wayward so much as it can even have one, as it was a very organic idea, which even involved a healthy amount of fandom input. The original campaign in season 10 was for Wayward Daughters, and the idea picked up so much steam the altered title for, I guess, a mix of copyright and thematic relevance was the Sisters one. I’d say 10x08 was the real genesis of it as something that could be really solid. Once Kim and Briana were put together the chemistry and star power they could have had together was really meteoric as far as our small SPN world was concerned. Phil Sgriccia directed 9x13 and wrote 10x08 and was more of the parent of Wayward than any specific writer in that sense. Jody and Claire were pretty much common property of the show by that point. Claire was really introduced again in relation to plotlines and questions about Cas and less to do with them really going out of their way to re-launch her. I think they’d have been much cornier about it from the start and while YA protagonist diary writing her way through the end of Wayward Sisters was cute, it’s the sort of cutesy that really has to be earned. If she STARTED that way, like maybe me and 3 friends would be stanning her and everyone else would be revolted :P

(I am a YA fantasy novel author, but I do think everyone should make room in their hearts for this level of cheese)

In any case, Bobo just threw his hat into an already crowded ring with Alex, but obviously loving the characters and having his own personal wayward child to contribute did help elevate him to the prospective showrunner seat, but also all the other writers who’d written these characters except Dabb had left at that point. If Bobo was going to shepherd them through to their new show, he’d be the legacy writer, even though he was a new baby writer in the season Donna was introduced... Attrition aside, he did genuinely write them very well, loved their stories and was great with writing Jody when he could get her, so he would also have been a good choice even if all the others were left still... 

But anyway. Season 10′s subplot for Cas was about Claire and learning some stuff about himself along the way, but she was used very much for his personal development and for Dean as well, being a mini Dean herself in a season where he had lost a lot of his sense of self. It’s a total accident of scheduling but Angel Heart (10x20) being the last episode before 10x22 is a nice touch in that regard. And while Cas tried really hard with Claire and awoke his inner Dad side so that he’d be more prepared for fatherhood next time, it was pretty insurmountable between them to have anything more than a bittersweet relationship where the best he could do was make up with her and see her somewhere safe. The fact of him looking like her actual dead father is horrendous the more you think about it and while she managed to see him for who he was instead of a horrible monster, that’s more than enough trauma to inflict on an already traumatised girl for the sake of helping Cas’s manpain and tidying up the sticky question of Jimmy and Cas’s right to the vessel. 

Angel Heart very specifically ends with TFW mailing Claire to Jody because they know she’s already good with Alex in a genuine way and can handle these sort of issues and has done it before. And also because she can be a guardian who will not constantly remind Claire that her father is dead but something is walking around wearing a perfect reconstruction of his face. Carver era did a few things here and there with bodily autonomy and the problem of angel and demon vessels, but it was also really hit and miss. They’d get random waves of feeling guilty about it but then by necessity go back to stabbing angels in their still-living vessels an episode later. Claire was a way to address at the very least that whatever Cas was being put through was only a punishment on Cas and not on Jimmy as well, which is probably why we got such sappy Heaven scenes. We NEEDED to be shown he was in Heaven and largely okay with what was going on so that the show could justify using Cas at all as a character without breaking the code of ethics they tried to make their own characters adhere to. Aside from that it also gave Cas a side plot for when he wasn’t needed in the main plot, and any emotional connection to anything that wasn’t Sam and Dean.

Anyway 10x20 caused this huge fandom high which was followed by one of the lowest lows of the fandom immediately after, and both centred on female characters (in fact, now we know, 2 lesbians even! Though I’d wonder if, The Gay Agenda aside, Bobo spite-wrote that specifically because of the roots of Wayward) and I think that galvanised the whole movement of fans and hopefully some self-reflection in the show. They DID start making an effort in season 11, which shows some of the early signs of better inclusion but also backtracking or edging nervously away from the more intense Carver era stuff. Not just because Dean didn’t have the Mark any more but in general it was like someone had opened a window and let in some fresh air... Even before Carver bailed somewhere around the midseason to go do a different show and Dabb started to step up. 

All this to say that the Wayward stuff was always about the female characters and making up for the past sins of the show. It’s even a riff on the “wayward son” line which obviously centres around male protagonists and their journey. Claire stumbled into being a part of it in the lucky way of being in the right place and time, but the journey had already started even in the season 10 momentum with earlier work and it was that which suddenly made the prospect that Jody had two young women living with her now seem like a starter for the next generation of the show as it was a mirrored format to season 1 in a way, if you took Alex and Claire as the new Sam and Dean. It was exciting but people flipped out after Angel Heart because stuff had been bubbling since season 9 and earlier in season 10, so this was just pouring more candy into an already visibly full bowl of potential tasty gems. It made a possibility seem real that hadn’t before because we already had Kim bitterly complaining that the CW refused to hear the case for a Jody spin off because she was too old. The next best thing was a Jody spin off where she was the Gandalf to some CW age appropriate characters.

(the CW is and always has been garbage)

Anyway in season 13 Jack was introduced as a Claire 2.0 but as a male character with staying power for that reason, but he was filling the space she left for Cas. He couldn’t be a father to her and neither really wanted that set up anyway. But thematically it had created the possibility of Dadstiel and the space he had in his heart for that. Since the show was in its waning years they would be looking for endgame and handing Cas an easy win with a son he could unconditionally love who would love him back unconditionally absolutely filled that gap. It was a non SamnDean thing that Cas could have for himself outside of whatever happened with them. Not sure the memo came back that he was supposed to have mORE than that but oh well it’s not real if you don’t watch it :))) But yeah Jack was always going to be linked to Cas’s endgame, he wasn’t a free-floating character such as Jody who could go where she wanted and do as she pleased. He was main story relevant from start to finish and tied inexorably to another main character’s fate. Because the show wouldn’t do that with its female characters they could be bundled into spin offs but in practical terms Jack was both never what the Wayward as envisioned by fans or writers was about, nor would he have been free to go. 

Since it would have been about centering the stories of people overlooked by the main story, Claire a case in point that she had her life ruined in season 4 and it was a footnote until season ten, and then metaphorically more the concept of having queer and non-white characters in the mix of main characters, it would have represented a future of the story where the main show was unable to tread. Probably because of the CW. Also inherent biases in the writers. Bad cocktail. Jack is both too white and too male to fit the brief to ever leave SPN, and not only that but he is so as a precise mirror to the main white male characters, being passably any one of their sons if you squint, and meant to be instantly instinctively read as such... he was one of the safest bets of representing the show as the network wanted to imagine its target demographic.

So I really don’t think that Jack has any place being in a spin off of the show unless you want more of the same. They tried to give us something different and the CW didn’t like it because it wasn’t more of the same. Ironically a Jack spin off, with or without Claire, would have more chance of being greenlit and more chance of success. But the spin off they put their heart behind was Wayward Sisters as it was. And I think it was absolutely correct that never mind leaving Jack out of it after his work was done in the lead up episode to help set the table, but honestly they could have cut all the middle scenes of Sam and Dean wandering in the woods and gained precious seconds with the girls and still had a functioning story with those guys. It was like some cowardly missive was sent that the show couldn’t actually go more than 10 minutes without showing a flesh and blood Winchester or the whole thing would spontaneously sizzle out of syndication and the money tree would wither on the spot. And in the mean time, we could have been having Banter with the girls. Or Claire and Kaia holding hands some more. The good stuff :P 

[the-al-chemist]

Yes, TGI Fanfic Writer Friday!

Who is you favourite character to write any why? Same for your least favourite one (except for Rakepick, because I know that already :D)?

💛💛💛

Me: no FFWF this week, Al. You have lots of writing to do. Stop getting distracted.

You: sends an ask anyway.

Me: ... okay, if I MUST.

So, my favourite characters to write... I have a few actually!

I love Tonks, because she is great fun, especially because I can come up with terrible jokes and not have to take the credit for them, because Tonks is the one saying them, not me!

Secondly, Snape. Because I just love reading everything in Alan Rickman’s voice, and it makes it easier to figure out whether I’m happy with what he’s saying. If I can hear his voice in my head, I know I’ve written his dialogue right!

Finally, and most obviously, my favourite boy Charlie. God, I love him. I think everyone has a slightly different take on him, and my Charlie is possibly a little more stoic than some of the others I’ve read. The reason I like writing him (other than because I’m a massive CW Stan) is because he is often pretty quiet in dialogue scenes, and a lot of what he has to say is communicated through actions and body language rather than words. To paraphrase Ronan Keating: he says it best when he says nothing at all. And that’s really fun to write.

Okay, before I start simping and sharing Sam Heughan gifs, let’s move on to least favourite characters:

Rakepick is number 1. I find it easy to write a character once I get into their heads, and I just struggle to get into her head. This is probably a good thing, but it makes my life difficult.

Skye is tricky because I write her in a thick Scottish accent. It’s fun, but it takes aaaages because I’m not Scottish, and so I have to look up meanings of dialect phrases and try and think in a Scottish accent. So it’s a love/hate relationship that I have with her.

Finally, it has to be (whispers) Ben. At first, he was easy, but as the kids are getting older, it’s getting harder and harder to try and balance out his fearfulness without making him sound like a scared little boy, rather than a frightened and traumatised teenager. I don’t think I’m succeeding, tbh, but I keep on trying!

Thanks for the ask, bestie! Time to stop procrastinating and get back to writing now!

Oops, my thumb slipped

[luna-rainbow]

I am still beyond furious that Bucky’s statement that he thinks Steve was wrong about him is NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. It was such a monumental statement, I remember how my gut clenched when he said that. It’s like how they never addressed that Bucky wasn’t corrupted by the serum. It’s this constant lack of refutation of these types of things that makes it seem like the writers believe that they’re true. They do seem to think that Bucky deserves to feel guilty and like he’s corrupted and Steve was wrong about him because they never have any character say anything to the contrary.

Thanks for the ask!

This is why I say that Sebastian seems to be deliberately undermining what the script is trying to do, i.e. instead of painting Bucky as an ignorant reformed villain, he's portraying Bucky the way we know him to be - deeply traumatised, self-doubting and grieving. The way his voice breaks in that scene, him fumbling at the notebook in episode 5, and the sadness with which he looks at Zemo and Walker when they berate him is different to what the script is trying to say. Sebastian is perfectly capable of portraying pure guilt (as he does when Ayo rips into him for freeing Zemo), but he chooses something different in these scenes.

(GIF not mine) That's not guilt. That's fear, doubt and vulnerability.

(GIF mine but I don't care LOL) Similarly, when Bucky reaches out to say "Don't go down that path, believe me, it doesn't end well" (another irritating script choice to falsify the impression that Bucky had a choice in the path he took), Walker then snaps at him, "I'm not like you." Interesting acting choice there Sebastian - he drops his eyes and his shoulder sinks, looking upset and resigned rather than, again, guilty.

For reference, this is guilt. (GIF from mcugifs)

But yes, that break in his voice as he said "maybe he was wrong about me" twisted my gut into all sorts of knots, but not having a callback later on is far from the most egregious of what the script has done to try and paint Bucky into a villain or not allowing him to refute when he's accused of being a killer (an act he had no choice in and is shown to be an integral part of his trauma).

These are just off the top of my head -

Raynor: With your history, the government needs to know that you're not gonna...*makes a fist gesture* Sam: We're not assassins. Isaiah: You think you can wake up one day and decide who you want to be? Sam: They cleared the bionic staring machine and he's killed almost everyone he's met. Zemo: But there has never been another Steve Rogers, has there? Walker: I'm not like you. Zemo: I hold no grudge for what you thought you had to do.

They also gave Bucky two inane conversations - the first is this one with Walker, and the second when he talks to Karli and tells her "You think your cause justifies all this death but in the end the nightmares don't go away. Trust me." (Again Sebastian's delivery of the line manages to make this sound a lot less personal, but I have no doubt the intent of the original line is to say...Bucky thought he was fighting for a cause and then realised it wasn't worth the people he killed. What a load of BS)

No Bucky, you were not fighting for a cause, your mind was wiped to stop you from fighting for the cause you believed in AND THIS IS WHY THE TFATWS SCRIPT PISSES ME OFF.

Sorry this got long and off-topic, but I've always wanted to list out the ways the script persisted in trying to paint him as a villain, because there's a lot of people out there trying to handwave all this into "oh they're jokes" or "they're part of his healing". They're not. These lines, in combination with what both Skogland and Spellman have been saying, strongly suggest they have no idea about Bucky's movie canon apart from the extremely superficial and extremely erroneous "he killed Tony's parents/other people, he needs to atone for it".

[bidean-byedean]

freedom is a length of rope and God wants you to hang yourself with it

you know what, I almost see it

the ouroboros 

it didn’t matter that they stopped Chuck, they could never get off script, it doesn’t work like that. Chuck is a lesser deity of creation, the real cosmic force behind it all is far too powerful to show its hand, to be caught out by the book it wrote. 

So, let’s set the scene:

Dean Winchester a traumatised kid blindly serving as a weapon in his Dad’s crusade at the expense of his own health and happiness and trying to be at peace with that. 

Sam Winchester the main character - so desperately wanting more but haunted by the things he cannot unknow, by the fact he can only have freedom by isolating himself from his family and his past. 

Castiel a piece on the celestial chessboard, created solely as a tactician in a meaningless, never-ending war, devoted to the cause no matter the cost.

For over a decade we watched them grapple with these identities, watched them suffer tragedy after tragedy as they tried to fit themselves into the bigger story. We watched them grow and learn and spill off the pages. It was fascinating and hopeful and heartbreaking.

It was ultimately pointless.

Castiel was the first to go: his sacrifice was calculated, it was a suicide bomb tucked up his sleeve for the crucial moment. Always happy to bleed for the Winchesters. He got to experience love, but it was never reciprocated (out loud) - because no matter what he does, God will not reciprocate. That’s how faith works. He had to be happy knowing that he felt love (for God, humanity, Dean), but it will not validate him back. It’s not in the having, it’s in the saying. He dies for the cause one last time. 

Dean is next. He knows his death to the letter: that he’ll die during a hunt, gun in hand, there’s nothing more for him, nothing better expected of him.  Dean’s arc is epic. He is a torturer in Hell, marked by Cain, a knight of Hell, Michael’s vessel... a weapon in every. single. instance. Giving himself up (literally) in every. single. instance. for the mission. But Dean is loving, he does all of it for love. Then Cas confesses. He uses his words to mobilise Dean one last time, a Captain until the end, to give Dean a reason to stay strong after Cas is gone because Cas knows it destroys Dean to lose him over and over. And it works! Dean Winchester is saved! He is not a killer. Until he is again. Dean dies trying to finish John’s unsolved case. Dean dies a quiet, meaningless death - scared and in pain - in the arms of his only remaining family: his baby brother. The traumatised child resurfaces in his final moments. Dean found love, he found purpose, he found value in his individual life, but it didn’t matter. He was written to be a weapon. Eventually he would blunt, as even the best knives do, and be no longer fit for purpose. He accepts his death. He accepts his empty Heaven. He accepts that he will never get to love the person he wants to. Because there was never anything more for him. 

Sam is last. The black sheep. The optimist. The cerebral one. He tried so many times to have more than the lonely hunter life, trapped in tragedy and self-destruction, but he was always doomed. Always doomed to be alone if he wanted peace. He knew too much. He’d seen too much. His entire found family had to die before he could escape the hunter’s life, and the grief marked every single second of his life. His sacrifice is the story (Swan Song anyone?) and he can never be separate from it; he is haunted until his dying breath. 

The Winchesters reunite in Heaven to complete the circle. They are the same people were saw in the pilot. After everything, we are presented with Sam and Dean reuniting after a separation that was necessary to establish their roles, and resume their storyline of not finding themselves together.

If you read the show as a soul-wrenching tragedy then 15x20 is the perfect ending. If you come to terms with the ouroboros finally catching it’s own tail and trapping Team Free Will in their pre-destined fates, doomed to desperately try to find the weak link and break free. But they don’t. They can't. 

I saw a post saying that you could just watch S1E1 and S15E20 and that would be the whole story. Nothing that  happened in-between made the damnest bit of difference. And if you think about the whole Chuck/Meta arc and S15 in particular, it’s almost genius. The writers came so close to Unfortunate Events-ing us. 

It could've been the greatest tragedy ever framed like this. 

It was the greatest tragedy ever told because it wasn't framed like this. 

[templedragon]

Supergirl 6x11 Mxy In The Middle

"Do I have to?" the reviewer said. Yes. Just suck it up like it's the Space episode from the X-Files season 1 and start typing (that was another show that had mana chemistry, went against it, and paid the price).

It's still not Kara's show. The first eight episodes were about her father, either propping him up in the Phantom Zone or him almost destroying Earth with grief. Episodes 9 and 10 were about two guest male characters and a token amount of social justice topics. This episode is about Mxy, another man. Turns out Mxy has had more arc in three episodes than Kara, who got to be traumatised once this season so far. He succumbed to the patriarchy rather than ending hierarcy, went on a "I can have what I want, and I want Kara romantically" in season 2. Then he was made to atone for all his wrongs, and apparently no-one has asked about him offering to change the universe to Kara and Lena would be happy to know each other, and he's not volunteering it. Apparently there was one final wrong thing he needed to atone for, and it was handing Nyxly over to the patriarchy and the Phantom Zone. He self sacrifices to save the SuperFriends from 1) being killed and 2) doing the wrong thing by resending people back to the Phantom Zone.

This episode is filler. Nyxly had her full powers for all of 40 minutes before having them reduced again. Any key moments are erased by Legends of Tomorrow style magic and bad karaoke exposition. The thing with musicals is that there has to be more than one song, and they highlight narrative points for the whole cast. Were the writers trying to give us a worse candidate than the William/Kara duet last season? Benoist tries with her performance as she grapples with sending Nyxly to the Phantom Zone, projector in hand, being judge and executioner like her mother. This could have been an episode about destroying the projector as having experienced the Phantom Zone twice, Kara decides the punishment is too much for anyone. There's no rehabilitation or behavioural improvement on offer there. Nia is instantly forgiven by both Brainy and Kara for her role in Nyxly being on Earth Prime. This is sharp contrast to Nia and Kara disowning Brainy and Lena respectively for working with Lex last season. I still don't know if Nia and Brainy are romantically involved, or if his insistence of "no more secrets" is a friendship commitment.

Nia and Nyxly (the villain) are the only characters to have consistent development each episode, but dragged out beyond interest. Neither J'onn nor Alex have their own arcs, as whatever nice thing he had with M'Gann disappeared with her (with no explanation as to her absence) and Alex is being Kelly's mentor. But that requires Kelly being in episodes as she becomes Guardian and she was totally absent in 6x08 and 6x11. Most of Kelly's role so far has been about male characters. William doesn't have an arc, as he's been designated nice guy exposition and takes up Nia's role. Case in point, now Nia is interpreting her dreams, William is absent. Andrea doesn't have an arc either, providing threatening motivation to her CatCo employees rather than being a meaningful connection between Supergirl and National City, or providing financial resources to her friend Lena.

Lena is meant to be skint but her rich friends are ensuring she travels in style to reconnect with her family. Fanfic writers rejoice, Lena's birth mother is called Elizabeth Walsh, who spent time in Newfoundland, Canada. This is her Earth Prime family, of which she has no memories as she retained her Earth-38 ones courtesy of a bargain Lex made. Anything poignant is tainted by Lena 1) having forced isolation by not having any of the SuperFriends with her (even Andrea went along when she searched for the Acrata medallion) and 2) the juxtaposition between her emotional rollercoaster and National City fighting off giant magical cats. Lena seems quick to dismiss magic, when in season 3 her best friend Sam turned out to be a weapon created by three Kryptonian witches. That season also saw the sun instantly eclipse because of magic. Here, Lena could explain away the stone having a psychedelic coating on it, influenced by her desire to think the best of her mother, which is why she envisions three women burn an abusive man to death. This is the parallel journey of Nyxly and Lena this episode - they both have magic rocks that will lead them to greater magical power. It adds to the parallels of a dead abusive father and an estranged brother, and women being abandoned to patriarchy.

Mxy may be gone for good, but not before setting up the premise of the remainder of the show, which is finding magic totems before Nyxly does. It's a global threat but none of the other heroes on Earth Prime are summoned. These totems are virtues, reminiscent of the ones from Crisis of Infinite Earths. Whether Kara will undergo a trial in each remaining episode to gain these virtues to be the ultimate hero, or if like Crisis each person of the SuperFriends is a paragon and it's Stronger Together, remains to be seen.

Oh, and people in Newfoundland know that Lena is "arm in arm with a bulletproof alien". Everyone ships supercorp.

[ruffiorocks]

Kara needs to realise she's in love with Lena on her own!!

This one for away from me! 😅

I've been seeing a lot of posts saying they wish Cat Grant would come back and tell Kara she is in love with Lena, or that Alex should tell her.

But the thing is, I don't want that to happen!

Guys, one of things that has been annoying people to no end is the fact that Kara has to be TOLD she's into someone. She had to be told she was into Mon El and she's basically being told she's into William.

Lena had to be told she had chemistry with James, a romance that came out of literally nowhere and didn't go anywhere but rock bottom because of the lack of build up, chemistry, communication and utter disrespect James had for Lena both as a girlfriend and as his boss.

Anyone who reads my posts knows I couldn't stand James, but at least he and Kara had actual chemistry in season one right from the get go. Kara didn't need to be told she was into James, she was aware of it. She did however have to be told by Alex that Adam was flirting with her.

So why would we want someone to once again tell Kara she is into someone rather than her coming to this realisation all on her own?

Should the writers ever put Kara and Lena together they need to come to the realisation that they are into each other all on their own. Constantly having to be told you are into someone is a poor way of showing a romance.

Antis would have a field day it Alex or anyone else told Kara she was in love with Lena. They would say the exact same thing we've been saying, that they had to be told this because there is no chemistry.

So no, I don't want Cat Grant to come back to tell Kara she's being and idiot and is in love with Lena. Should the writers want to make SC canon I want Kara to realise she's in love with Lena. I want the writers to stop making her an oblivious dumb ass who protests she isn't into someone only for another character to tell her she must be and for her to be like "yeah you must be right and I must be wrong " and to constantly second guess herself.

Kara had chemistry with Mon El but the relationship was riddled with problems, lies and a lack of respect. Not all on Mon Els part, Kara didn't have a lot of respect for him either and tried to push him into doing something he didn't want to do.

My biggest issue with Karamel and why I never saw it as endgame was because these two characters didn't really know all that much about eachother. Kara knew Mon El the ex royal guard and the new person he decided to be on Earth and Mon El knew Kara Danvers and Supergirl. Kara didn't know who Mon El truly was until just before she had to send him away. She found out he was the Prince she couldn't stand and they had no time to discuss it before he was yeeted into space. After Mon El came back he was someone completely different, he wasnt the Mon El she had known and Mon El finally got to meet Kara Zor El. This would have been good for me if he hadn't come back with a wife. But he did, and he still strung Kara along, even discussing his marriage issues with her to the point she told him she didn't want to hear it.

Now Kara and Lena have a similar issue. Lena got to know Kara Danvers and Supergirl but unlike Mon El she knew them as two separate people. Kara got to know Lena Luthor, Lena didn't have a secret second identity and didn't lie about who she was, she didn't pretend to be "Lena Thorul" or "Tess Mercer". Kara actively kept her identity a secret from Lena which would have been fine if she hadn't gone all OOC in season 3 and decided she could play Lena by being an ass to her as Supergirl but then come back and play nice and be Lena's bff as Kara Danvers. Yes, Lena kept secrets from Supergirl but she didn't do these things to hurt her, secrets were kept to protect Sam and it's not like Supergirl didn't keep secrets from Lena. Lena didn't tell Kara everything either, but why would she tell her civilian best friend about the top secret projects she was working on ? Or that she had met with Lex and was keeping him alive? What buisness is that of Kara Danvers?

Remember when Kara screamed at Mon El that she had given her heart to a lying Jack ass?

what if Lena believes she gave her heart to a lying Jack ass as well? Lena even told Kara that she had broken her heart.

The funny thing about these two is that no matter what they just can't forget about each other. Even when Supergirl was being an ass to Lena she was still there for her and Lena was still there for Supergirl. They may have been mad at each other but they came swooping in whenever the other needed help.

Remember the scene where Kara had hoped that what had happened wouldn't ruin their friendship? But Lena wasn't going to sit and take that and told her that she had real friends, ones that didn't lie to her and didn't ask her boyfriend to vilolate her trust? Kara or rather Supergirl looked broken and what did she do? Kara went straight back to Lena for the first time in RAO knows when as Kara Danvers so she could be with her best friend so she could have Lena in some way. But we still saw the guilt on her face when Lena said she could never trust Supergirl again.

Then we had the reveal and great RAO!! That was one of the most emotional scenes the show has ever produced. Kara was broken! She knew what she had done was wrong, keeping the secret for a while wasn't wrong but all the bull shit that came with it and the length of time was what was wrong. Kara herself has admitted this. Kara was practically hyperventilating when she revealed herself and when Lena just walked passed her she was broken. The look of utter relief when she believed Lena had forgiven her was amazing. Personally to me it looked like Lena really did in some way forgive her and couldn't bear to see Kara like that. She's always been weak around Kara, but the moment she was alone with the AI and only her thoughts for company the hard side of her that closes of any feelings of love came out.

Then we had Kara going out of her way to try to make Lena happy. She flew around the world to her her favourite things to make her happy. Lena really looked like she appreciated this , I know that she was pretending but part of me thinks she really did appreciate it. It only took a request and one pouty face from Lena for Kara to break the law, to go against advice not to do it just to make Lena happy. Non of that was healthy for either one of them, the problem was that they didn't really discuss the 3 years of lies and everything that came with it. They had a few tears and a hug and suddenly were bffs only with super benefits now. We know why Lena didn't bring it up, but Kara was willing to accept that everything was absolutely fine and she didn't really question it, she was to over the moon Lena seemed OK with her.

Then we had the scene in the Fortress. Lena may have been trying to play the big bad I don't need you Luthor in this scene but she failed miserably. This was Lena's turn to absolutely break down like Kara did at the award ceremony. There are true feeling of love between these two whichever type of love you decide it is. You don't break down over someone you don't care about. Lena shot Lex to keep the world and Kara safe even though she felt betrayed by Kara. Now I know people hate that Lena used Kryptonite , but I'm sorry Kara showed no signs of pain, only heart break. Plus no one gave a rats ass when Jonn or Alex used it on her and she showed it bloody hurt. Even after she was released from the fortress she showed no signs of being in any pain, so any 'torture' commentators can sit down before you hurt yourselves.

Kara STILL believed in Lena and didn't want her hurt when she was about to use the medusa virus. It was Alex who used and manipulated her. Kara was almost getting through to Lena before Alex decided trick her then to point a canon at Lena! Rememeber it was Hope that shot at Kara, Lena didn't want that to happen at all.

Lena is still fighting to help save the day even when she supposedly hates Kara. She helped during Crisis and even if she did 100% hate Kara and the super friends she is still the reason 1000s are still alive. But no one wants to remember that. No one wants to remember she's the reason National City survived the Daxamites, no one wants to remember how she helped with Reign. No one wants to rememeber how she re-created Harun El and cured cancer. No one wants to rememeber that she mass produced Harun El and gave it to Alura along with the recipe so Argo could survive. No one wants to remember she saved Argo a second time when she shot Lex. No one wants to remember that she saved all the aliens of National City from the isotope. No one wants rememeber she had a suit ready to save Supergirl from the poisoned air. Shall I go on? Lena Luthor is a hero, she's going down a dodgy path because she is hurt, confused, betrayed and traumatised but it doesn't mean she's evil. A lot of fans don't seem to understand the definition of the word at all, Lena isnt being good right now by any stretch of the imagination but she certainly isn't evil.

People keep saying how she should finally have her redemption, and how bad it is that the guys get theirs. But here's the thing, all those things I mentioned above? Those ARE Lena's redemption. To be completely honest, Lena came into the show with people believing she needed redemption because of her name. But she didn't, it wasnt Lena herself who needed the redemption, it was the family name. Lena hasn't redeemed the Luthor name so much because Lillian and Lex kept f**king it up, but my RAO she has more than earned her place as hero and not like her family at all. This right here? Is a set back and everyone likes to conveniently forget everything she's done.

The writers have made Lena very OOC this season. Personally I think she will give up on this idea of hers. Lena isn't an angel, but then neither is Kara, or Alex, or Jonn or Brainy. The only actual angels at the moment are probably Nia and Kelly since we haven't seen them do anything dodgy or kill anyone (I'm assuming bad past Brainy did) and have it glossed over like it didn't matter.

But now we have Kara still not being able to stop talking about Lena. Even in regards to possibly starting a relationship with William she can't help but compare it to what happened to Lena.

Now that was a lot, but bottom line is if Kara is in love with Lena SHE and only SHE needs to come to that realisation. Having someone else tell her would cheapen it and make it look like the writers had no choice but to have some tell Kara to make it real, just like that have been doing non stop so far.

Plus Lena and Kara can not start a relationship any time soon. That would be a terrible idea. They can realise they are in love but starting something together would be rushed and unhealthy. THERAPY! They have Kelly there! But personally I think Kelly giving any kind of therapy to her girlfriends sister and her brothers ex would be a conflict of interest. She would be biased in Kara's favour whether she would realise it or not.

Peace ✌