#also there were some good parts but... overall s3 sucked

[eugeniedanglars]

#very well said!#i think it's because the question of this season isn't actionable in the way it was for S1 and S2#S3E1 poses the question: why is ted still in london?#it's a soul-searcher rather than a goal#and soul-searching is good! it brings on character development!#but if it isn't grounded in some sort of actionable goal it leads to the aimlessness we're seeing in S3#if we had rebecca clinging harder to defeating rupert coupled with a rivalry with nate THAT would have provided more narrative tension#because rebecca's desperation to win at any cost would put her in conflict with ted's belief winning shouldn't be everything#but also force him to think 'well am i wrong? should my purpose be to win?'#it would also have been a fascinating reversal for rebecca#S1 she's trying to bring down the club by any means and it fails#but what if she had tried to have the club win by any means in S3 and THAT puts them on the brink of destruction?#they flirted with that storyline when they brought zava in but then it fizzled too quickly#i've really been liking this season (probably more than most) but there is a distinct lack of overall narrative tension#and i think it's because too many characters are being relegated to isolated plotlines (via @nancywheeeler)

i think the biggest problem of season 3 (of which there are Several) is the shift away from football being the crux of the story, which has undoubtedly resulted in the aimless, overstuffed, unfocused narrative we've been seeing for the last eight episodes. season one was as excellent as it was because whether richmond won or lost a match actually mattered; if they lost too many matches, they'd be relegated, and relegation was always treated as a distinct, tangible threat. there were stakes. and while season two had its issues with pacing and unnecessary subplots, no one would call it aimless. the characters had a goal (pun intended): to get promoted back to the premier league. if they lost too many matches, they would stay in the championship league. we as the audience were invested in whether or not richmond won or lost, and the narrative was all the stronger and more coherent for it.

season one asked us, can afc richmond avoid relegation? and we were invested in the answer. season two asked us, can afc richmond be promoted? and we were invested in the answer. now we're eight episodes into season three, and the overarching goal of the season, the question it is asking its audience to remain invested in, is...what? what are we building towards? is afc richmond's goal to win the whole damn thing? to beat west ham? to beat man city? to do just enough to avoid relegation again?

and because we can't answer this question, the narrative has suffered greatly. how are we supposed to believe beard when he says man city is the team's white whale if we haven't even seen them play each other yet this season? if ted's total football epiphany was so life-changing for richmond, why did we speed past all the matches this episode where the team won using that strategy? if this is all leading to a final nate-ted west ham-richmond match, why haven't we spent any time with nate at west ham? why haven't we gotten to see him grow and develop as a coach? at one point, the team was doing so badly that higgins suggested firing ted, who has been visibly struggling on and off the pitch - and the narrative did not give that suggestion the weight it might have had in season one or two. we spent an entire episode watching rupert, rebecca, and chelsea fight over zava - and then two episodes later he was gone, and we haven't so much as mentioned him since. just last season, sam was being heralded as the star of afc richmond, highly sought after by other club owners - but we haven't gotten to see any of his alleged brilliance on the pitch this season at all. i have to kick a little ball around, which those same people love me for, sam said in 3.07, that is, until i fuck up or miss a penalty, or i decide to fight back - a speech that was excellently delivered by toheeb, but loses some of its weight because we haven't actually gotten to see any negative reaction to sam missing a penalty or fucking up or deciding to fight back (not even in season 2 after the dubai air boycott).

(all this to say: i do enjoy the show. i love the characters, i've been enjoying the episodes as individual units, and i'll continue to tune in week after week. but for a show that once boasted football was life, it's sure been suffering since it decided to stop focusing on that.)

[moistvonlipwig]

BtVS for the favorite things ask game?

ok!!!

my favorite female character: Cordelia of course.....though if we're counting her more as an AtS character then it'd be poor beleaguered Anya, who has too much sense by far for the rest of the Scoobies to handle.

my favorite male character: Spoike my horrible little man who is faking his accent and cheats at kitten poker <3 he sucks sooo bad (affectionate) (also objectively true since he is a vampire)

my favorite book/season/etc: This one's tricky -- I think S5 probably takes it in the end, although I think the overall arc of S2 is very impressive and the highs are higher. But I prefer big sister Buffy to only child Buffy and the later seasons cast line-up to the early seasons cast line-up, and S2 has a lot of bad episodes, whereas S5's worst episodes are just kind of whatever. S3 is also very strong overall, but it doesn't emotionally grab me the way S2 and S5 do.

my favorite episode (if its a tv show): This one's even trickier! I think "Becoming" (especially its second part) is definitely in the running for its amazing character work for Buffy and the whole cast. "Lovers Walk" gets points for the sheer amount of fun it packs into its runtime. "Who Are You?" is another contender, largely due to SMG's absolute tour-de-force performance as Faith. "Restless" would be a contender if it weren't for the horrifically racist treatment of the First Slayer that infects the entire episode, which knocks it soundly off its otherwise well-earned pedestal. "The Gift" is very, very good as well. (I'm not as big on "The Body" as everyone else -- it's good, I just don't think it's one of the show's top episodes.) And I think "Dead Things" is probably the most challenging episode the show ever put forth, which I appreciate deeply. (I enjoy the songs in OMWF a lot, but as an episode I don't think it's super cohesive, so while it's up there for me, I don't think I can say it's the show's best.)

my favorite cast member: I honestly don't really tend to get super invested in actors, so, idk? I guess I'd say that, while she's nowhere near the show's strongest actor -- in fact I would argue she's one of those actors who is extremely good at playing one specific part and basically can't play anything else -- I nonetheless have a lot of respect for Eliza Dushku as a person, what with how she's spoken up about the sexual abuse, harassment, and mistreatment she's faced within the industry, and how she threw her full support behind the people speaking up about Joss Whedon despite having a positive experience with him herself.

my favorite ship: Most of my favorite Buffyverse ships are AtS ships, but my favorite BtVS ship is ultimately probably Buffy/Spike, despite, um, everything -- I think they have a lot of really fun interactions and I buy their friendship in early S6 and S7, and I appreciate that the show made some attempt (YMMV how successful it was) to deconstruct and problematize the enemies-to-lovers trope. That said, my ideal endgame for them is that they end up as friends, not lovers. And the way some people talk about that ship on here is......well. It's something innit. In terms of other ships I like: despite what I'm about to say about Giles below, I do like his interactions with Anya a lot and I feel like there were some romantic implications in "Grave" that weirdly never got picked up again in S7. I think a Giles/Anya romance would be a lot better than S7 trying to resurrect the shuffling corpse of Xander/Anya. ...Although, I'm also a "Willow should've killed Giles in Grave" truther, so, I'll also propose a Willow/Anya romance, because they had good chemistry in "Selfless" and it'd be funny.

a character I’d die defending: It used to be Dawn and Cordelia, but honestly the fandom has cooled off a lot when it comes to hating those characters, so, uh, I definitely still defend them ardently when needed, but they don't need it as much these days as they used to. Buffy still gets some very weird things said about her which I think she should be defended from, although I also think there's pockets of fandom that act like she has never done a single thing wrong in her life ever, which is a point of view I also don't subscribe to. Faith I think is in a weird position where she has done some legitimately awful things, which some of her more hardcore fans gloss over, but some people are strangely hellbent on making up things she didn't do to get mad at her for, which I can't abide. People are also deeply weird about Joyce, as you know, but, like, I'm not a Joyce Fan or anything, I don't even think she's a particularly amazing mother, I just think people seem entirely incapable of seeing things from her point of view and weirdly insistent that her relationship with Buffy was worse than it was. So, IDK. Most of the women, I guess. Except Willow. Sorry Willow, I'm sure some people are weird about you too, but the narrative is too nicies to you already.

a character I just can’t sympathize with: Yeah, it's Giles. He's the character who has gone down the most in my estimation over time, particularly as I've gotten older. S1 Giles is arguably sympathetic, with his fate somewhat paralleled to Buffy's, but as the show goes on, the character and worldbuilding develop to a point where it becomes pretty irrefutable that this is a guy who profits off of Buffy's suffering and could stop doing that at any time, who abandons her when she needs him most, and who then has the gall to act like he should have any say in the decisions she makes about her life afterwards. Additionally, the way he seems totally indifferent to Xander's home life and clear desire for a non-abusive father figure/masculine role model, and even more egregiously (given that it is literally his job to 'watch' her) the way he seems totally indifferent to Faith's lack of a home or family or any kind of support, is profoundly foul to me, and yet another thing that's made worse by the retcon that Giles is well-off and gets paid to do this. (The Faith stuff is even worse when you remember that Giles, too, has accidentally killed people, yet he makes no effort to try to reach out to her. Angel's attempt to reach out may have been bad, but at least it was an attempt.) I've read a lot of meta on here about how Giles was deeply affected by Jenny's death and how that made him feel like he had somehow doomed her by loving her, or even when Jenny isn't brought into it a lot of people will say that Giles thinks he is an awful person who makes people's lives worse and that's why he holds himself at such a distance, and like, that's a fine interpretation, but I don't actually see any evidence that that's true? To me that's in the realm of "Xander hates vampires because of Jesse" -- it's something that could psychologically make sense for a real person, and you could write about in a fanfic and have it be quite interesting, but I struggle to see any real basis for that idea in canon. And of course I should add that I think Giles should probably suck, for the show to work; if he's a good father figure the story doesn't really happen. But he sucks in such deeply baffling and unsympathetic ways to me that I just really don't like him anymore at this point, aside from the occasional Buffy-Giles emotional beat or snarky one-liner that makes me smile.

a character I grew to love: This one definitely goes to Buffy -- I think pre-Dawn Buffy is a well-done but ultimately fairly typical Campbell-style comic hero, whose character is largely elevated by SMG's iconic performance and by BtVS's strategy of using monster-of-the-week episodes to mirror Buffy's internal journey. I like her fine in the early seasons, but it's only really in S5 that she starts to grab my emotional attention, and it's in S6 that I truly love her -- S6 is a mess, but I think Buffy's arc in that season is utterly compelling and beautiful, and it gives me so much more affection and appreciation for her character. As for S7...well, let's just not speak of that, shall we.

my anti otp: With apologies as always to my Bangel followers & mutuals, I find Buffy/Angel to be not entirely uninteresting to think about (especially in S2, which is when I think the writers had the strongest sense of what they wanted to say with that relationship), but they are profoundly tedious to watch. Melodrama that is played straight is rarely appealing to me, and I can't for the life of me imagine them in an actual adult relationship -- what would they talk about? As Buffy herself admits, they were never actually friends, and so many of their conversations on the show just revolve around how they shouldn't and/or can't be together but they want to anyway. I also think, as the shows go on, they develop different values and their lives go in such different directions that I don't think they would work as a couple in the future, either. Both of them are better off, IMO, moving on and living separate lives.

[nanakibh]

We gotta do everything ourselves...

Earthspark S3 Spoilers Below

Man, idk what other people are feeling, but I'm just going to pretend that there's only one season of Earthspark from now on. I foolishly thought that things could improve after S2. It really feels like the people who are working on ES now have no interest in anything that ES actually was. Maybe it's also corporate meddling. Whatever it is, I hate it.

I guess I'm glad they brought back the Chaos Terrans because it was pretty messed up for them to kill them off. But I don't think they were ever good characters and I would not have missed them.

The Fairmaestro sucks. He just sucks, dude. I can give his first episode a pass because it introduced Isabel and Cosmos, but this second episode was pure filler. Had nothing to do with the overarching plot. They only had seven episodes for S3 and they chose to completely squander some of them. Infuriating.

Speaking of Cosmos, he was just kind of there. I fail to see why they introduced him and then brought him back if they weren't really going to do anything interesting with him.

I think their treatment of Schloder is extremely fucked up. In S2, they brought him back just to use him for a laugh in the shitty Fairmaestro episode, and now they only brought him back for a couple silly scenes again. I'm going to turn into the Joker. He was one of the best human characters on the show. Genuinely one of my favorite characters overall. The way they've ignored him and turned him into a joke AFTER HE WATCHED HIS SISTER DIE is just disrespectful. It's bad writing.

The whole plot with Isabel was.......... It was something. The way she totally evaporated as a character after the reveal sure sucks. I expected there to be some hint that she really did like Robby even if she was just pretending to be human, but nah. Nah, forget about it.

There were a lot of little moments like that where I thought they were going somewhere interesting with something, but then it went nowhere. For instance, I thought that the Terrans might have been messing up the drive-in theater experience for Robby and Isabel on purpose because they were secretly jealous of Robby spending time with someone other than family. But nope! They're all just THAT incompetent now!

Dude, I'm so tired of them making Jawbreaker look like an out-and-out idiot. I'm so tired of them making the others be mean to him for no reason. It feels like the writers actually just... don't like him? Or at least they don't understand him.

My biggest problem is with the treatment of the Decepticons. They literally just... shipped them off to space? Are they just gone now? I honestly want this show to get cancelled at this point, but I'll also be mad if the show officially ends with the Decepticons just leaving.

Remember in S1 when Dot said that there are no bad Decepticons? Remember that great episode with Tarantulas? Remember Hashtag's heartfelt moments with Starscream? ...And now she's literally stabbing him in the back?? I refuse to believe that she would do that. I think there is a very valuable lesson to be made about how maybe it's not worth giving a person another chance after they've betrayed your trust multiple times, but I don't think that's something the writers were thinking about here. It feels like S1 wanted to redeem Starscream. S2/3 does not. The S1 writers wouldn't have given up on him the way the S2 writers have.

It feels like they were totally stumped about what to do with Starscream in this season, so they kept him locked inside the Titan. That's crazy. lmao I wrote a fic where Soundwave suggests that they should look for Skyfire, someone who actually stands a chance of redeeming him. It was just a small part of a much larger megasound fic, but if I can come up with something like that off the top of my head, I don't know why these writers struggled so much. I'm sure that Starscream fans out there have come up with much better plots for him in the ES universe. (I'm going to assume that they were told that they had to keep the Decepticons as villains. Which you can do! While still making them sympathetic like they were in S1! You can do that!)

This is the part of this rant where I feel the need to say that if you liked S1 of ES, you should write whatever kinds of fics you want and ignore S2/3 at your leisure. If you think something sucks, you don't have to acknowledge it. We can fix it ourselves. I truly believe that popular fanon can overwhelm this shitshow. If enough people say "Actually, Starscream WAS redeemed", that can be our reality.

Soundwave is barely a character at this point, which sucks because he's my favorite character. It seems pretty obvious to me that his feelings of betrayal in S1 came from the fact that he was always so loyal to Megatron. The S2/3 writers seem totally uninterested in examining that at all. We got no meaningful interactions between them. Nothing.

S1 Breakdown and S3 Breakdown are different characters. They actually had the audacity to walk back his S1 character development. And for what? He could have joined the Autobots in this season, but nah.

We simply did not need the Quintessons, but if they had to be there, the Decepticons should have been helping the Autobots fight them. Like, I'm pretty sure a natural trajectory from S1 would have included the Autobots rehabilitating the Decepticons and then fighting a common enemy together to further build trust. That feels like the spirit of S1 to me.

I feel like the status of Cybertron's condition is something that should have been completely left a mystery. If they had to reveal anything about it, they should have saved it until the very end where everyone (including the now-reformed Decepticons!) decide that they're going to stay on Earth even if returning to Cybertron is possible.

Idk how to end this. I'm sure that I'll just keep thinking of more things that bothered me.

Edit: Already thought of more. Jesus Christ... I like Prowl. I don't think this was a terrible rendition of him. But I don't think he added anything meaningful to the show. Again, I'm going to assume that they were told that they had to add a new Autobot for the sake of making toys or something. But why are you going to add a character if they don't add anything to the overarching plot? He literally existed just to give us a ship that would be used to get rid of the Decepticons so the writers wouldn't have to worry about what they would do with them during the Quintesson battle. Especially infuriating when you consider what I said about how they should've been helping the Autobots fight them. Like, we saw this in S1... We know that the Decepticons WOULD help in a fight... That wouldn't be out of character for them... God, this shit is so ass.

[stevie-petey]

hello m i hope you are well. i'm finally reading chap 6 and 7 so that i'm ready whenever you release the final chapter of season 3 and once again, so, so good! i didn't realise how much has happened in such a short time!! here are my thought of chapter 6 before i read chapter 7 so you can get the chapter by chapter update.

Firstly, i wanted to compliment you on how scary you make the whole ordeal. obvs st is a sci fi horror show with elements of comedy, but i felt like s3's biggest flaws was not making the stakes feel as high as they were in certain moments. ofc you can't be held at an emotional tension all the time and there are down to be some low tension moments where it's appropriate to do some comedy, but overall, i felt like the scoop troop's dire situation was not always communicated well to the viewer outside of visual flare due to the actor's being instructed to keep things light and easy in their delivery. this was not the case with your chapter. i was very much feeling dread and horror at the thought of leaving steve and robin behind in the mega torture room together. you've always been quite good at making bug her own character and her own sort of adventure that doesn't depend entirely on steve, but do think that choosing to keep her separated from steve during the russian torture was a very mature writing choice.

immediately, right off the bat, this quote was so good at establishing the tone for this chapter, "it diminishes every sacrifice that has been made, it taunts the blood that has been spilled." reading bug be miserable over all the ways she hypothetically did or did not fail the group is so much more terrible when we keep in mind how much all of their efforts have been undermined, and it surprised me that the show itself was no interested in these fascinating questions. also this part, "All you ever do is try, you will die trying, you just can’t let it be in vain", omgggg bug is soooo "this is me trying" coded (affectionate).

ALSO OMG!!!! THE KISSS!!!!!!!! THIS IS BIG FOR BUG X STEVE TRUTHERS!!!! VAL MY SISTER IN ARMS WHERE ARE YOUUUUU!!!!! BUT OMG M THAT WAS SO GOOD!!!! I was soooo stressed out and everything was going a mile a minute and steve kissed her!!!! he finally did it!!!!! i absolutely love we-are-so-desparate-and-we-might-not-see-each-other-again-so-i-have-to-because-i-cant-die-knowing-i-never-did-it!!!!!! "It isn’t death that terrifies Steve, it’s the idea that he almost died without knowing how you tasted." SHUT UP!!!!!! IF HES NOT LIKE THIS, I DONT WANT HIM!!!!!! I was clutching my heart sweating like a victorian maiden feinting at hearing her lover dying on the sea!!!!! "Urgently, viciously, you scream the only thing you can think of that encompasses all the love and terror within you, “Come home to me!" TITLE DROP AFTER THE FIRST KISS!!!!! STUG ENDGAME !!!!!!! LUCAS SINCLAIR YOU *WISH* YOU HAD ACCESS TO THE FIREWORKS EXPLODING IN MY BRAIN RIGHT TF NOW!!!!!!! A smile spreads across your face when you think about him. The words spill from your mouth without any effort. “I do love Steve.” SHES SMILING WHEN SHE REALISES SHE LOVES STEVE AND DUSTIN KNOWS SHE LOVES STEVE AND SHES SMILING EEN THOUGH EVERYTHING SUCKS BECAUSE JUST THE THOUGHT OF THE OTHER IS ENOUGH TO BRING A SPARK OF JOY LIGHT AN EMBER OF HOPE IN THEIR CHESTS !!!!! YAYYYY!!!!! “Tried promising you I’d come home, angel.” Steve is sprawled on your lap. His eyes are cloudy, he isn’t quite here with you." COME HOME TITLE DROP PART 2!!!!!! WE KEEP WINNING STUG GANG!!!!! SEASON 4 GUILT TRIPS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TORMENT THAT LEAD TO ARGUMENTS IDC IDC IDK IDK THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!!!!

Now I would like to take a moment and discuss bug's excellent additions to the generation of action heroes. "And you’ve always evened out your debts to him." Killer line. Great end for a close up shot of her face while a light flickers in the back and the shot cuts to black before we reset in another scene. A tribute to all the action stars of the 80s, truly a brilliant work my you M.

final note, using the chemical SMART WORK!!! I remember thinking during the episode "wow what conveniently weapon-like substance is this that our heroes have stumbled upon and i know dustin and erica used them as well as dustin and erica and bug, i'll be real, i would started throwing them in the russian guards' faces idc idc!!!!

overall, excellent work as i'm sure you know and looking forward to reading chapter 7!!!!

Ps. "She lets out her own content sigh, and you play with her hair as well. They’re still with you. Still whole and alive." challengers core if u think about it. polycule anon kinda spit game on that one.

HI BABY I MISSED YOU !!!

i really appreciate that u like how spooky i make the chapters. i never really understand the weight of the situations theyre in every season until i write them. season 3 especially has scenes they dumb down to make room for more comedy, and while its silly, sometimes i forget that a literal TEN YEAR OLD GIRL is trapped in a russian lair with very aggressive and armed men who want to kill her. like wtf stranger things ???

as for leaving steve, it simply had to happen. i wanted to do something different since most rewrites have them taken together (which is always juicy and i eat it up every time), i just couldnt do it for this rewrite. bug wouldnt leave dustin and erica behind like that. someone had to stay with the kids, protect them, and bug was perfect for that role !!! plus, it made for a GREAT first kiss scene so it was a win all around (your comments had me DYING LMAO). however, i dread the day i rewrite season 4 because i'll have to figure out how to separate steve, bug, dustin or if i even CAN because the teens and kids pair off differently. bug is the sister, the girlfriend, it will be a challenge :(

my sister and i always joke every time we rewatch the show that we would be so. done with living in hawkins. i think the show forgets its own time canon, because wdym every. single. year. thise kids are thrown inti danger ??? every time they think "hey, we won" MORE SHIT HAPPENS ??? i wanted to really emphasize that defeat, the feeling of doing everything right and it still not being enough. you always see exactly what i want the readers to see, its like you look into my mind <3333 you always know the themes im sprinkling in :')

AND YES !!! TITLE DROP !!! took us three seasons, but we made it!!! now, for the actual scene i have in the come home masterlist, that will be in season 4 when steve can finalllly promise bug he'll come home to her <333 and the ilu scene <333 bug loves steve so much and its so natural to her and i wanna cry thinking about them ugh.

THE DEBTS LINE ,,,, i felt so cool writing that thank u for feeding into my nerdiness and seeing the vision ,,, in my head i have a compilation of badass bug scenes that would routinely get edited and the scene with her preparing to save steve and robin is 100% in there. also for the chemicals sometimes the writers leave me no room to question how a plan gets made so im like ,,,, fine i will do it myself u cowards.

finally for the challengers bit i truly didnt intent for the fic to become so challengers coded but ,,,, whew. it is. and i love it dearly.

n i love u so dearly i saw ur reblog tags for chapter 7 and i am shivering waiting for the analysis i KNOW ur cookin up and u always pick apart my fic in ways i adore so so so much <333

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

man

this may just be the 14 year old me who watched the show with rose filtered glasses on

but I am very bummed the show turned out this way

I mean I haven’t watched it since then but there were so many elements I loved

I really loved the world, even if it had plot holes lol (I did not see them at the time tho)

there are still a lot of characters I really like (catra is not one of them tho 💀 like even while I was watching the show and was sort of in the c//a community I didn’t like her…….. she was so unlikable the entire time, but I assumed it was just me bc everyone else seemed to love her…..)

horde prime couldve been the coolest final boss villain

scifi and fantasy is my favourite combination ever

idk

it’s just such a bummer

it could’ve been so cool :(

they should’ve let ME reboot it isntead!!!!!!!!!!!!!/j

dude i totally get what you mean. i watched it when i was like 18? and i'm still bummed about how they screwed up the series. i think it had a lot of potential, especially around s3-4 when the plot really started to pick up the pace. there were still things wrong with the show at that point too, but i feel like it was salvagable.

i even liked catra as a character. she was a terrible person but she was interesting and i was curious to see how they handle her arc. if i didnt know that c//a was going to be canon going into the show, i would have 100% thought they were setting catra up for a corruption arc. and yeah, a lot of the other characters were really likeable. it just sucks that the show writers thought that c//a was the most important part of the series and it didn't matter if the other character arcs were butchered, so long as this ship becomes canon.

like you said, fantasy + sci-fi is a really good combo! if you want a GOOD show that combines these two genres, i highly recommend infinity train! i know i've mentioned it here before but i'll keep recommending it until it gets the appreciation it deserves (and hopefully gets renewed!) infinity train has amazing characters as well as worldbuilding, although the creators never got to finish the worldbuilding due to the show being cancelled. it also touched on very real and serious topics, and does a much better job of handling these issues. one of the antagonists in the series is much like catra but while he is specifically written to be sympathetic, he does not get redeemed and forgiven the way catra does. overall, just watch the show if you haven't already! it has 4 seasons with different characters in each season, and there are some heavily implied queer characters as well (though they couldn't confirm it because, again, restrictions).

[spacedlexi]

ive been intrigued by modern au of certain twdg characters, like we know some of their back stories (lee being a prof or javi a baseball player) but like actually picturing/designing them is interesting, idk if you've ever thought of it past clem, louis and violet [unfortunately im unskilled so just sharing my ideas!]

i dont think about modern aus all that often since ive always been more of a fan of in-universe explorations. the only time i Really think about modern au stuff is when im playing them in the sims lmao (i keep my traumatized faves safe there)

i dont think their designs would be all that different? the only reason i see clem vs modern clem as variations of the same person is because we knew what she was like as a kid and we saw how beat down by the world she became after 8 years on the road. but without the trauma of that i feel she would be able to retain a lot of that optimism and kindness she had as a child that she became hardened to as she got older (that kindness is still there deep down but shes become hardened by the things shes been through and shes had to become tough to survive). and even with her parents still dying, getting to have lee permanently as a supportive guardian lets her still retain that general attitude for the most part, she just becomes more of a realist. but she never gets as low emotionally as she was in like S3. she also has less responsibility since she doesnt have to care for aj alone either. she actually gets to be a sister. shes much more lighthearted overall while still taking things seriously

but for characters like lee or javi (or any of the adults), we've seen them outside of the apocalypse. and their outlooks didnt change all that dramatically because of it. at least not in ways that would influence their personal styles. just take the layer of zombie grime off them give them a bath and clean clothes theyre good to go

when i think of modern aus i imagine most of the adults to be the same, just more relaxed as they dont have to deal with fighting to survive day after day. its really the younger characters that i feel would have the possibility of being different. in-universe their lives were shaped by the apocalypse. but without the apocalypse who would they be? and how do you still keep those characters feeling like Themselves when you remove such a big part of why they are the way they are?

especially when it comes to the ericson kids who, when i imagine modern aus, were not sent off to boarding school by their families either. thats another huge change to something so so foundational to their characters. how were those situations handled? did those events even happen? in louis' case i personally keep his relationship with his father tense and strict, but i make his mother more supportive of him and his goals, and so while he still has to fight for what he wants there was never a time where he felt he needed to teach his dad a lesson, because at least he has his mom. in violets case things dont change all that much, her dad still sucks her mom still works 3 jobs and her grandma still offs herself in front of her, only difference is they have no financial ability to send violet off, and so she just has to Deal with it. but even these changes dont have all that much effect on their personal styles compared to their canon selves. louis just gets to keep wearing his expensive designer shit, and violet has had the same wardrobe for 5+ years and it shows in its wear and tear

when i think about how characters would dress its heavily reliant on their personalities, outlooks, and circumstances. how do i show these things based on looks alone? but thats why i dont imagine most of them looking all that different. theyve just been reverted. lee is still a fun but reasonable (for the most part) history professor who wants to start a family, and javi is still a happy go lucky uncle dealing with being kicked out of his dream career while trying to be more present for his family. their styles remain largely unchanged

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S3 E12 - Past Tense 2

Another rough one but for the right reasons.

I knew this one would be more character driven stuff, given that the first part was heavy on the set up, but I am happy where everything took us.

I'm gonna start with BC. I wanted to punch that dude in the face most of the time he was on screen but the episode did such a good job from taking him to brutal Ghost to a dude willing to do what was right. He didn't really have much left for him and I didn't expect him to live, so it wasn't a surprise to see that he died. I wasn't sad really, and I didn't think of his character as a waste IRL, but pretending I was in this timeline and in this actual episode, it did feel like a waste in a "maybe he could have turned over a new leaf" kinda way.

Vin was the other one that I was super surprised and happy about to watch his character grow. There have been times when I've had to forcefully sit down with a relative and point to all the things wrong with the world and how it hurts me specifically (disability, queer topics, being broke, etc) and to slowly chip away at their stubbornness so they can actually see whats ACTUALLY wrong with the world. He felt like that. It was hard to sit through his scenes at first, and they're supposed to be, but I'm very glad he was the character at the end fighting for those in the Sanctuary Zone.

Webbs death actually made me sad. He was a damn good man just trying to do what was best for his family, for all those trapped inside those fucked up zones. He didn't deserve death. I get why, from a story stand point why they did what they did but still, it was sad.

I wanted to laugh every time that Webb and Sisko were dealing with the government, but one of those cold bitter laughs. The way the government was going to hand out pebbles in a way to try to appease folks without actually listening to any of the problems. I was happy to hear later when she was on the phone with the governor that other uprisings were happening in other Zones.

I think the scene that got me the most was when the people from the Zone were telling their stories. Simple stories about who they were. Little two minute things of what they did, why they were sent there to begin with, and maybe of the family they had. Real people telling real stories. Something the public couldn't hide from. It made Jadzia's whole deal with the rich folks in the previous episode kinda worth it.

Also, side note, the whole "aliens want to suck our brains out" scene was supposed to be funny, I think, and it some ways I can see how others might see that, but I can't. Mental illnesses getting ignored because no one wants to care about healthcare sucks. I do think it was sweet that he saw Jadzia as a "good one" though instead of fighting them.

Kira and Miles popping in and out of times, though, was funny. Kira being awkward in each of them and Miles just trying his best to not to make it worse. It was the breath of air between heavy moments.

I once again thought they ended the episode a bit too soon, Bashir and Sisko went through some hardcore shit, it felt like they rushed through dealing with it, but overall it was a great episode.

This is the year of the Bell Riots and they apparently start a week after my birthday this year... with a literal Nazi running for office, I'm wondering if the episode might be onto something.

8.5/10 - would be a 9 but I am a little unsatisfied with the ending

[sothischickshe]

Truly… what season 3 could have been. Speaking of, what would’ve been your ideal ending for it? 💭

👋👋👋👋👋👋👋😘😘😘😘😘😘😘

I feel like I'm def overly romanticising the potential of/s3 bc my immediate thought is that my ideal s3 would've wrapped up the storylines I found annoying ASAP so I didn't have to suffer through them all the way into s4 😂

I primarily mean the Annie's terrible therapist stuff (literally makes me violent though I quite like how the conclusion underlines how rubbish he is, couldve maybe stomached it better were it not sandwiched btwn annie/Noah & annie/Kevin 🤮🤮🤮🤮) & the hills + the donor family stuff (painfully annoying).

I would include the hitman plot too, at a distant third place, cos it felt very lazy -- as a device for why the girls made no money that season, for provision of 😲twists, and in terms of the characters' motivations (particularly re Ruby & annie, but also Fitz at times) around it.

BUT some of the brio stuff was so angsty & delicious!!! It's deffo a strong contender for fave season generally and brio content specifically for me (in part cos of the 🥺Potential, but also bc s1 2 & 4 are all strong contenders for worst season for me sfgfff).

With the context of s4, I do also think my ~ideal s3 would ~end with setting up some of the s4 stuff -- particularly the existence of nick (who seemed to arrive from planet zorbo suddenly) & the Beth-stan conflict (espec cos otherwise stan's response to Ruby being shot comes across as belated). I also would've liked some more annie-nancy content, s4 made the terrible therapist storyline feel ~relevant to annie & nancy repairing their relationship, so it would have been nice to see that seeded in more 😊

& I think I couldve def enjoyed a true to form season finale of Beth + rio + some man + gun! I did enjoy the resolution of the hitman plot overall (and that brio bar scene was fantastic!) but the execution (of the execution lol) was kinda lacklustre, and didn't really feel particularly in conversation with the s2 (& indeed s1) finale, which I think is a waste.

But mostly my ideal ending to s3 would have been after the number of eps we were supposed to see 😭😭😭😭 and then with a long break before s4 started 😭😭😭😭

espec cos as it is beth & Rio's relationship just seems reset, but like in an unearned way! I appreciate what they were trying to do with the next time empty the clip line in the scavenged s3 finale, but I don't like it much :/ and the bit (in the s4 approximation of the s3 finale) abt rio maybe semi realising the hitman was a hitman seemed to just peter out...? I can totally forgive s4 a bunch of clunkiness cos it had to pick up after AND reset from the aborted prev season but I wish we'd had a dramatic brio semi accidental pair up against a common enemy season finale which got a realllll chance to breathe before eg the (genuinely too silly, and that's ME saying it🤯) brio pool playing scene in s4.

...like ugh can you imagine if they actually got to finally yell @ each other after a season of low energy glaring?! 😭😭😭😭 uNfAiR

Similarly I def appreciate that they chose to leave Ruby & stan in a good place for the cobbled together s3 finale, but it does make the ~retreading in s4 feel pretty 2 steps forwards 1 step back♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️🙃😭

...I feel like this is a v boring answer in essence 😂 but yea I think my ideal s3 ending would have been getting to see the full s3 as it was intended 😭 & even if it sucked, at least I'd be able to judge it on its merits!!!

[fereldanwench]

so i finished my rewatch of s1-s3 and new watch of s4-s7 of the 100 aaanddd i wanna ramble

spoilers and, from what i've gathered, unpopular opinions under the cut lmao

i watched the first three seasons in 2015-16, iirc (binged s1 and s2 on netflix; watched s3 as it aired)--i remember losing interest towards the end of s3 so i wasn't super hyped about s4 and just kinda forgot about it. on rewatch, i was also getting bored with s3, lmao. it starts off pretty strong, and the end revelation is a banger, but the last 4 eps or so just draaaggggg

i really liked seasons 4 and 5, though, with one big exception: giving clarke a daughter-figure to go all mama bear over was quite possibly one of the most obnoxious character development choices they could have given her

clarke in general is kind of a frustrating character for me because on one hand, i fuckin love a female character who does awful things for what she believes are good reasons, and that is clarke 100%

but in spite of that awesome set up, she manages to be so fucking boring

i think a lot of it is the actress' performance, tbh--the acting on the show overall generally isn't anything spectacular, but i find her particularly bad. i cant quite pinpoint my gripes, i just find her very bland

and given that the show is basically one extended trolley problem and there are dozens of characters who are also constantly put in the position of making the most difficult decisions in the universe, that just isn't enough to make her compelling

i found myself really drawn to echo in the later seasons because i am predictable af and i love a character who is loyal to a fault and bases their entire identity off being a loyal follower. i do feel like the relationship with bellamy was a little shoehorned, though. like i see the enemies to lovers potential there, but i think having most of that transition happen off-screen took all the fun from it

and i was stunned when i went looking for echo gifs to find out that most people hate her but love clarke apparently, lmao. hard opposite

s5 also delved into one of my favorite dark apocalypse tropes: what will push people to become cannibals to survive? it's always been a morbid fascination and i wasn't expecting them to get as fucked up with it as they did, but it was compelling shit

s6 had interesting elements to it--the worldbuilding/lore i think is part of the reason i got so sucked into the show, and seeing how becca's influence managed to reach a whole other planet was cool. i also liked the personality chip stuff bc it gave me ideas for valerie, haha. i also liked russel as an antagonist--love a very polite and calm villain being pushed to their limits

but i could see it was starting to lead into a setup for a whole metaphysical aspect to everything that had happened, and i just really don't like that shit

oh, also, kane and abby were my absolute favorite couple and i'm very sad they didn't get their HEA

so s7 was very meh to me. lovedlovedloved echo, dioyza, octavia, and hope getting to be badasses together, but that's about it. the transcendentalist shit was so fucking tedious, and bellamy got done dirty. and i've found myself overly fixated on the logistics of the "finalkru" situation with clarke and her buddies living on earth for the rest of their lives with no hopes of procreation or extending the human race

like at some point there's just gonna be one person remaining, right? and they have to spend their remaining days all alone? unless they do some kind of death pact? or how exactly do the transcendents ensure there are no babies? can the humans undo this? like what if they clone themselves or do in vitro fertilization? i have questions!!!

i don't mind a story ending with unanswered questions--i even really like that sometimes--but ending with a bunch of new unanswered questions is annoying lmao

plus i find the premise of finalkru surviving and maybe trying to figure out a way to continue the human race to be more interesting than 87% of the plot of s7

also two of the big themes throughout the show was never giving up hope and always seeking to rediscover their humanity after doing horrible shit--i just don't feel like this ending really tied those motifs up in a satisfying way. 99.9% of the human population no longer experiencing pain because they basically don't exist anymore feels less like a reward for Good Behavior and more... idk, just unsettling to me.

i mean, it's basically sci-fi rapture, and the whole idea of the rapture always freaked me out too lmao

i know the show is based on books, which i haven't read and don't plan to, so maybe some of this would be better explained there, but i've also seen commentary that it deviates a lot from the novels so who knows

anyway, i do like the show overall. there's a lot of juicy stuff here, but very weak ending. reminded me a bit of how i felt watching lost, actually, although not as egregious

[luighseach]

My thoughts on Stranger Things Season 4:

[These are my opinions -obviously- and I don't mean to offend anyone with them.]

Is it my favourite season? Hell no!

Overall, how do I feel about it? Meh… It was entertaining but, yeah, meh…

Things that got me or that I thought were good:

Max's storyline. In general, I liked her storyline. I feel like in the past, while we got to see her quite a lot, it was never too deep. Like in s3, it was mostly about her and Lucas and having problems or whatever. So, with this storyline we got to see a deeper part of her character, and I enjoyed it. (There are things that I didn't like, but I will mention them later).

Max's almost death: it got me… I know I'm sensible right now (lots of things going on) so that might have played a part in it, but yeah, it was sad and it got me.

Eddie's death. I have refused to watch this season for two main reasons: 1) I was -and still am- pissed at s3 and Billy's ending; 2) I wasn't in a good mindset to watch sth like Stranger Things. The reason I decided to watch it was my curiosity about Eddie. I knew that people in general liked his character, and now that I'm no longer lurking in the harringrove fandom, I've seen how much the fandom loves him (to the point of shipping him with Steve, Billy, and the three of them together). So, yes, my curiosity was peaked. I knew about this fate, I've seen that spoiler, so it was really sad when he says in the first episode that 'this is my year.' However, for the first 5 episodes, I was just 'yeah, he's ok' but that's all. I think the actor did a great job at making him charming in a way, but that was about it. It wasn't until the latest episodes that I really grew to like him. And they definitely pulled at all the strings. Him saying to Dustin not to change, being playful, wanting to be a hero, etc. His death got me… I shed some tears… and it sucks that he died, but also that everyone thinks he is the worst.

Dustin's talk with Eddie's uncle… so sad, and it got me, lol

Jonathan's talk with Will. One thing that I've loved since s1 is the bond between the brothers. Love to see Jonathan in protective older brother mode. So, I loved this talk and their hug.

Robin and Steve continuing to be besties. They have one of my favourite friendship dynamics. So, yes.

Hopper and El's reunion. Could it have been better? Yes, but I still liked it.

Steve and Dustin being Steve and Dustin.

Things that I didn't like nor care about:

Hopper's storyline. It just dragged on for too long… way too long. Most of the time, I just wanted to skip it. I just didn't care. Even things that I objectively know were not bad, it just ended being like 'yeah, whatever'. Like, the reunion with Joyce, I was just 'finally, took long enough. Can we move on now?' And listen, I love Hopper and Joyce as single characters and as a couple, but this was just annoying.

Yuri.

Eleven's bullying. I get it, I understand why it was there, I get the parallel with what happened with 'Two' and the rest, but once again, I was just 'can we skip this? thank you.'

Similar to the point above, Jason's storyline. I understand, I get it. He was beyond traumatized and yes, I get it. But I just don't care. It was really just something to delay other storylines and to work as an obstacle.

Jonathan's storyline… or I should say: Jonathan's lack of storyline. They really didn't know what to do with him, huh?

Nancy and Steve. Just no, no! What were they thinking with that? Forget the fact that I ship harringrove… Nancy and Steve?!?!?!!? Fucking again?!?!? For what? Why? This is a completely unnecessary love triangle (I fucking hate love triangles) that's been going on since s1. Just stop! I refuse to believe that anybody would want or ship Steve and Nancy… I refuse!! Make it stop!!

Brenner and his constant attempts at keeping Eleven to himself. In general, every single obstacle that they wrote to delay the story was annoying as hell and most of the episodes could have been shorter if they had deleted unnecessary scenes and plot lines. Him 'arresting' Dr. Owens, putting the collar on Eleven and all that part was just too much.

Mike being the heart of the group. I don't know who is the heart… but it's not Mike, lol

Neil leaving town because he couldn't stand to be there without Billy. Yes, he was such a good father, and he was heartbroken about his son's death, who he loved *rolls eyes* Get out of here!!! He was upset that he no longer had him as his punching bag.

Having Max saying that Billy maybe did deserve to die an awful and extremely painful death. I just can't…

I feel like there were more things that I didn't like, but these are what it's coming to mind

Things that were just 'meh' (It's not that I didn't like, it was just 'yeah, fine, whatever'):

Argyle. I know that he is a fan favourite (sorry, sorry!), but for me, he was just there. He was more than anything a comic relief character, and while, yes, he had his funny moments, I'm just meh about him. Hopefully, if he appears next season, he will have more depth besides being high all the time lol

Vecna. I know, I know!!! But… he just came out of nowhere lol, and I might have missed it bc I'm stupid, but I still don't get how he got any powers or anything. And… I don't know… to suddenly have him being the reason for everything just seems… I don't know… Also, I totally imagined him singing the song from “WandaVision”: instead of Agatha, it's 'it was Vecna all along' lmfao

Will and Mike car scene. One of the things that I liked a lot about s1 and s2 was their friendship (I know that many people ship them, but here I'm really just talking about bromance). Mike was the most affected by Will being missing, when he thought he was dead, he literally ran to cry into his mother's arms. In s2, Mike was all the time with Will… I loved the scene with 'crazy together' and then Mike saying how glad he was that they were friends (paraphrasing) in the shed. I just love their friendship, but since s3 it has been left completely behind. And it's all about Mike and El… Mike's character has become all about El and I don't like it, lol

Nancy and Robin's friendship. While I do find them to have a good dynamic, it felt more as a reason to help along the Nancy and Steve's storyline, which I hated so… yeah.

And I think that's it… I will just add that I did like seeing Billy again, though it was painful!

I will probably have more thoughts as time passes but well...

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

Since series three of Mythic Quest is over what are your predictions on series four? Also what overall thoughts on series three of Mythic Quest because I still feel in the mix about this series.

First I want to say, thank you for asking! My answer ended up kinda long and rambly so I'll put it under keep reading in case anyone isn't interested. But I'm really happy to be able to discuss this!

I'm not sure I have any predictions, but I do really hope they follow up more on Zack's plan from season 2 in season 4. They completely dropped it, even though he was outright trying to manipulate employees and hurt the company. It's weird they didn't bring that up at all in s3. I also hope we get more character development for Dana, Rachel and Jo (I mentioned a while back that I'd love a Rachel backstory episode and I am sticking to that). I'm not a huge fan of Brad, Jo and Dana being split from the MQ office, but I hope that's at least done better than the splitting of characters in s3. I just hope s4 gives decent stories to the other characters again. They did it so well in s2, but fucked it in s3.

Also they better fucking bring back that bit of someone running to Brad for help and Brad already knowing what they want, and saying their words to them at the same time (did that make sense?) It's small, but I missed it in s3. It was a fun bit.

My ideal version of MQ season 4 would have more Rachel and Dana because to me the show is about them (it's not, I'm just constantly starved for good lesbian representation and want more of them being cringey lesbians). On a serious note, I just hope the other characters have more to do. Also more Carol would be great!

As far as s3 goes, I was quite disappointed with it. It had some great moments and I will say the Christmas episode and Sarian were life changing, but the rest was meh at best. It felt like the only characters that had something to do were mainly Poppy and David, and a bit of Ian. And the rest were just there?

The Rachel and Brad dynamic was rushed as all hell, which sucks bc I really like their dynamic, but come on it would not take Rachel one speech to suddenly be a greedy capitalist. Even with the whole idea of "she talked herself into it" it doesn't work imo. There should've been more manipulation on Brad's part for it to work, and it should've taken longer than an episode. (Also multiple people have brought this up already, but it makes no sense that Rachel dropped her goal of writing. I'd get it if she dropped out of Berkley for one reason or another, but her outright abandoning her interest in writing was weird)

Dana felt like she was barely there for a lot of the season imo, which sucks bc she's a cool character! And they barely did anything with her until like the last few episodes.

I hate that all of s3 was building up this movie deal, only for it to get cancelled at the end? Like what the fuck was that! Movies get cancelled often, sure, but for that to just not go anywhere at all was bullshit in my opinion. David standing up for himself was iconic, but the movie just being cancelled like that wasn't a good choice.

Also why was Brad the janitor for only like 2 seconds? Why did he hint towards having a plan, but had nothing? Brad as a janitor could've been so interesting since he was the head of monetization a year before, and now he has to try to get that back somehow. But they dropped that too.

Of course, a lot of people also wanted the Brad Breakdown Episode. I didn't know Danny Pudi had teased anything like it so I never expected it, but it is weird to name your episode To Catch a Mouse, stick Brad and Jo right in there, and nothing? At all? Did the writers forget about the animal sorting episode and Brad being labeled a mouse? Did they forget that Jo directly fucked with him for being a mouse? (Also side note: am I stupid or does it not make sense that Brad had the janitor costume on again in that episode if he's not the janitor anymore?)

The fact that CW didn't get a mention outside of the first episode was also disappointing. People theorised that CW's speech was gonna have an impact on some of the other characters, and I wish it would've. At the very least there should've been a scene where they're talking about CW because he was their friend after all.

I feel like I'm rambling a bunch now and I'm sorry. Simply put, I just hope s4 is better.

[lovecanbesostrange]

On a pure emotional level that Star Trek Picard ending was absolutely fulfilling to me. Once again highlighting to me how as much as I want a good story, I can forgive horsecrap as long as the emotions are true. Character beats sucking me in.

I don’t particularly enjoy either Discovery or Picard. Which is mostly due to the terrible decision of telling season long story arc. Simply not my kind of Trek. It makes one of the things I enjoy most nearly impossible - watching a random ep for fun. With Picard I think this finale (Vox & The Last Generation) work as a sorta movie, so that’s nice. Although of course the problem with S3 is that ep 1-8 tell one story with a great villain, and then the rug is pulled and oops we get the movie that goes down a different path. What a waste of the Dominion... ugh... And it’s so obvious how many storybeats happen just to have an excuse to get all the characters into specific places...

Honestly though, nevermind, who cares, the EMOTIONS! Shaw dying was somewhat of a given, like a 70-30 thing. To give him a quick bowtie to his character arc. Shelby’s death was stupid and unnecessary. Ro... hmmm... we all know Michelle Forbes would not have wanted to return for longer, her death at least brought closure and was the most interesting legacy sacrifice for sure. If they had killed off any of the seven TNG people though... look, I was invested when they said goodbye on that bridge. They played every beat of “this is the last time all of us are in a room together”. Somehow weirdly I especially feared for Will’s life most. Funny, because the Imzadi connection is what saved them. HA! Thank you, Deanna Troi, from the bottom of my heart. For a moment I was baffled how everybody had a thing to do and she was mostly sitting there and yeah, she gets to find the boys to bring them home safe and sound. I’ll take that! (And holy fucking shitballs, Beverly shooting the weapons... what did this woman do the past 20 years?????)

I did watch Best of Both Worlds last week waiting for the finale and it’s still interesting how we only get the aftermath of Wolf 359. How Locutus is only there for such a short time and how deeply this trauma haunts Picard. (So much the Borg were part of all three seasons...)

I needed a happy ending on this so bad and I got it. Although I find it offensive they didn’t even acknowledge how many people died. HALLO??????? Also nice to get it out of the system via beaming and all, but we have so many young officers with this deep rooted assimilation trauma now. WOW! (Looooooooooooved that hug between Seven and Sidney, Seven gets it.)

I am so ready for the supposed Star Trek: Legacy show, I already adore the crew of the...... Enterpise G.............. the Titan was a mighty ship, but guess the rebranding is a very high honor. And we do need that show to find out what Seven’s catchphrase is gonna be. :3 :3 :3 Baby’s first captain’s speech was so great, Janeway would be proud. (Janeway, for all those namedrops I expected to see her face for at least five seconds. But hey, Tuvok is alive!!)

For me the use of humor was great. A few quips to ease the tension. Thank you. Worf’s “I was worried we might actually survive”, Deanna’s “why am I sensing enjoyment” etc etc. That’s what makes the heartwarming moments better as well, like Worf totally blowing Rafi’s cover (ending her spy career forever) and thus helping her reunite with her family. I need the whole range of human emotions. (Also clearly Data needs a new cat.)

The story... overall......... there is a lot to criticize. But this season was the TNG reunion first and foremost (also setting up a new crew, finally finding a better rhythm). And this hour delivered as that. I believe in the friendship of these people, even when some were gone for 20 years and the contact between others was sporadic at best. Let them drink and play poker.

[lunar-years]

the thing about the t*db*cca tantrums is if they had gotten together in the end... it actually would. have been bad writing. like they spent three seasons making it very extremely clear how much their relationship was Not About That and just reversing that in the last episode would have been... extremely nonsensical. and like... why would you WANT your ship to be treated like an afterthought?

they heard romcommunism and ignored the subversion part

hm I don't necessarily agree that t*db*cca getting together would've automatically been bad writing/an afterthought. I was very much in the "this could go either way" and "i don't care either way" camps (and honestly watching the finale, the multiple "fake outs" were sort of annoying even as a non-shipper, lol). However, I definitely agree that the point of either one of their stories/purpose of their arcs was never getting together with the other (which t*db*ccas clearly don't agree with). The story is So Not About That and the significance of their bond/relationship wouldn't have changed for me if they had taken it into romance territory, only the shape of it.

The problem for me is more in the specific language some shippers use to claim that not putting them together was "bad writing." You can think that's where it was going and be pissed off that it didn't and call that bad writing, but claiming it as genuinely *problematic* writing in a "this is a terrible way to portray a powerful successful cool woman how dare she not be with my Favorite Male Character. What a crime against feminism!1!" manner (which yes, i literally have seen multiple say about both Rebecca and Keeley 🤦‍♀️) is straight up goofy & nonsensical. We shouldn't be basing whether or not woman is written "well" on her end relationship status. IMO, it would be just as ridiculous to claim it was a powerful feminist slay for Keeley to be single at the end. Like, I don't think those two things alone are directly correlated?? Rather, good portrayals of women boil down to whether or not they are written complexly and with the same level of care and nuance as their male counterparts. The status of Rebecca and Keeley's love lives has incredibly little to do with it (and for what it's worth, even with allll the problems I had with Keeley's plotline specifically, I think she is overall a wonderful female character and representation. Her s3 storyline sucked but she didn't suck, you know? She's not a flat one-note stereotypical lifeless female character at all, she's multi-faceted and complicated and so much more than her bad storyline. therefore, I think the writing for her was bad but not "anti-feminist")

Also, you are definitely right about people hearing romcommunism and ignoring the subversion. Even (imo) the show's most blatant rom-com reference/parallel (Roy returning to Richmond in Rainbow) is about love that's not romantic love. anyway... Ted Lasso is a Love Story but it is not a Romance Story...To Me.

[glitch-h]

Me for the entirety of stranger things s3: man I really like Robin. I feel drawn to her. I like her a lot. Dare I say... I’m in love with her. She’s really cute and badass. Damn I really love her

Robin: I’m a lesbian

Me:

[tuiyla]

Ahh literally everything you're saying is just like parts of the bigger reason s3 sucks so bad. They start off the season with Will like "This year everyone's dreams will come true!" and then like Santana gets outed, Mercedes and Tina are constantly struggling to have their voices heard, Quinn is forced to confront her Beth trauma then gets in a car wreck, Kurt gets passed over for literally every big thing he wanted this season, also literally laughed out of an audition for being Too Gay, Blaine is butting heads with Sam and Finn cause they're both acting dumb lol, also Klaine relationship troubles. Swear to god I think Mike is the only one with a conflict that feels like it gets satisfyingly resolved this whole season rip

And then at the end of the season everyone is like "wow what a great year thank you mr schuester for doing everything for us <3" when he literally never cared about anyone but Finn aslfkjsklfsl and then the whole dick sucking ego stroking parade of everyone to Finn, and Kurt to all the guys and it's just like ??? hello? what? where? when? did i miss some episodes??? What is going on

I literally feel like Kathy Bates in Misery when I talk about season 3.

and all the kids cheered - but I didn't cheer, I stood right up and started shouting, "This isn't what happened last week - have you all got amnesia?! THEY JUST CHEATED US - THIS WASN'T FAIR!"

Omg you so hit the nail on the head with that quote, wow. I have to fess up and say that I liked season 3 when I first watched and looked back on the seasons because I trauma-blocked IKAG and many other awful parts and was blinded by the graduation glamour and the soundtrack. Upon rewatch, it's incredibly infuriating and embodies a lot of what was wrong with this show. And it's made worse by everyone always saying s3 was the good old days and then the show declined in quality, which is just not true.

All the things you listed, yes. And I'm gonna repeat some of them here but just cause it's worth stressing just how bad some of this is. Will, teacher of the year, didn't do shit for most students this year and actively made some of their lives worse. He yelled at Quinn and threw Santana to the wolves, scolded both Tina and Mercedes when they asked for an ounce of the respect they deserved. His treatment of Mercedes!! Oh. My god. He should go to jail for booty camp. All the while we had to endure the ups and downs of his sex life and while he, like the whole show, was so far up Finn's ass it was hard to see anything else. Quinn was put through a revolving trauma door and not one adult really cared. All three main women of colour were demonized for wanting a taste of the spotlight and the one canon lesbian given the most offensive "coming out" (i.e. outing) known to tv. Brittany was mute for most of the season and when they do give her something it's the fucking sex tape. Sam had such big flop moments and Blaine was only pulled out for songs and Klaine conflict. Kurt's dreams were shattered despite him doing his best and nailing the audition. Oh and yeah let's have him thank the boys for,,,, whatever reason? Insulting. No one cared about the newbies because the show didn't either. Yeah, Mike's storyline was more or less done well but it was so brief and the only standalone story arc he ever got. Finchel had to be prom king and queen for some godforsaken reason. I mean let's not get into how season 3 Finn is somehow even worse than he usually is because jfc it just never stops with him. I guess Puck's storyline was the most decent? But they also had him fuck the adoptive mother of his bio child also his teacher also his ex's mom so, like. Most of Rachel's stuff was also fine but the Finchel things were intolerable and elevating her by putting others down is not it.

And it's not just the shafted characters and bad storylines and the overall bad execution of even the ones that had potential. It's this tonal inconsistency, this insistence that the sun is shining out of Finn's ass, that Finchel are meant to be and are more important than anyone else on this show, the trainwreck of season 3A especially, the issue episodes. The fact that the show swears it cares about all these kids when it's so quick to discard them and do their stories a disservice. It's not a triumphant last lap of the OGs but a tragedy for most and a wank fest for a select few.

[darling-i-read-it]

Bouquet

Michael Kelso x reader

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings: michaels reputation

Author’s Note: steven supremacy but kelso could be kinda cute too lmao. I hope you like it love!

Requested: by anon, I'm the anon who requested Kelso x reader. I thought of something like, set in the beginning of s6 after Kelso helps Jackie and Hyde get together the reader being the cool girl in school (around Jackie's age) and she's really smart and has a bubbly/nice personality. She starts hanging out with the group (maybe because of Jackie? Idk she could be her friend first) and despite his reputation, she's friendly to him. He really likes her and hanging around her motivates him to review his attitude. She has feelings for him but does NOT want to fall for him because of all the things the group says about him. He's aware of this, and does everything in his power to prove her he's different.

Endings up to you 🥰

You don't even have to use everything in the prompt, I just really like the idea of him trying to be a better person, and I would like to read about the whole 'Michael wants a girl but the group is blocking him out of worry for their friend so he has to show he's a better person'.

And he's also not my favorite but I think he's super sweet in s3 and s4 and with the right amount of character development could be a thoughtful boyfriend

Thank you so much love ❤❤

Summary: the request

Genre: fluff

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director

(not my gif)

Jackie ran up to you before school even ended. She had just gotten this new outfit she was wearing (at lunch because who actually went to school anyway) and wanted to show you. You walked out of your class holding your books tight to your chest, surprised to see a small girl rushing toward you.

“Look at these boots!” she said and squealed a bit. She showed them off to you and you nodded, giving her a flashy smile.

“They look great Jackie!” you said because they really did. You were pretty sure Jackie could pull off anything she wanted to. You started walking to her car together and she flashed the keys, as she often did. They dangled from her fingers.

“I’m going to Formans, you wanna come?” she asked.

“And hang out with your whole group? I don’t know if that’s a great idea Jackie, you all seem pretty close,” you told her honestly. You had seen everyone around school and they seemed nice enough but they were always together. Through Jackie you had found out that they pretty much exclusively dated each other too. You just never thought you would fit in with them.

“They’ll love you! They’ll love you regardless because I love you and I have good taste,” she said, starting her car. You pursed your lips and thought about it for a second. You didn’t wanna be stuck there. You supposed your house wasn’t that far away from Eric’s, you could probably walk if you really needed to. Plus maybe they will like you.

“Okay I guess.”

“Wonderful! Some things you should know,” she started, in her gossipy voice, “don’t mind what Fez says Donna and me just ignore it. If Michael tries to flirt with you, ignore him.”

“I have Michael in my english class, he seems nice,” you said. You knew his reputation and what he had done to Jackie but she was mostly over it.

“Don’t even think about it. I’m not going to let him have his grabby hands all over you. I escaped that and now I’m with Steven thank God,” she muttered. You nodded.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

=====

When you arrived, Jackie introduced you to everyone there. Overall everyone seemed to like you or they were indifferent to your presence.

Donna told you the second you arrived that if Kelso tried to flirt with you you should ignore him. He wasn’t there the day you went because he had been in detention but you ran into him the next day at school. He sat next to you in english class.

“You’re Y/N right?” he said. You raised an eyebrow. You had assigned seating and you knew he wasn’t assigned to sit next to you. Class hadn’t started yet though so you supposed he had time.

“Yeah,” you said carefully. A dumb smile went over his face and he moved his hair to the side.

“I’m Michael Kelso. I heard you met my friends,” he said.

“Yeah I did,” you said. “They were really nice.” He nodded, that smile still there on his face. You gazed at him for a second, into his eyes. They looked almost completely blank. They reminded you of puppy eyes.

“Yeah they are nice aren’t they.” He looked up at the teacher who was about to get the class started.

“No offense Michael but they all told me I shouldn’t talk to you,” you said, adding a little laugh to try and ease up your words. He nodded.

“I figured. Don’t listen to them though.”

“I want us to be friends.” You put your hand up and he shook it, very happily. “But just know I’ve been warned.” He nodded aggressively .

“Noted!” The teacher pointed at Michael.

“Kelso! Back to your seat.”

=====

“I don’t know why you told her not to talk to me,” Michael said as he sat on the couch arm. He crossed his arms. Donna and Eric were sitting on the couch beside him, Fez on the chair to his left and Hyde and Jackie on the chair to his right. You were sitting on the other couch arm.

“We didn’t say that,” Donna corrected.

“All we said was that if you tried to flirt with her, we would collectively put an end to it,” Eric finished.

“Yeah Kelso man, you can’t flirt with everyone who walks through those doors,” Hyde concurred. Fez smiled.

“Not like me,” Fez said.

“Yeah well that’s just part of your personality,” Donna said, laughing a little bit. Michael opened his mouth in amazement.

“It’s part of my personality too!” he yelled.

“Just face it Michael. You’ve messed with too many,” Jackie said, head held high. You laughed a little bit. Michael turned to you.

“I will get you to like me. Even if I have to be good to do it.” You shrugged.

“Michael-” you started but he cut you off.

“No. I will.” He said. You shook your head a bit and leaned back. Donna looked up at you.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said honestly and you believed her. You had to admit, you had a lot of fun with these people. Guess that was why they were so close all the time.

===

Michael kept his promise that he would get you to like him. He spent the whole week doing small things for you here and there, trying to make sure that you noticed him. Sure, after he gave you the flowers and you thanked him he bragged about how good of a guy he was, but he was really trying.

Michael barged into Eric's basement and almost fell over doing it. He was pleased to see that only Eric was home, watching TV and flipping through a magazine. He looked up at Michael, uninterested and then back at his magazine.

“I think I’m in love,” he whispered. Eric scoffed.

“Didn’t you say that about Jackie?” he asked.

“Maybe.” There was a pause where Michael tried to retain the information but he came up empty. “I don’t know. But I mean it this time.” He sat down aggressively on the chair to the left of Eric. Eric finally closed his magazine and looked up.

“You barely know her.”

“I know her plenty!” he exclaimed. “We have english together and she’s so smart. She’s so nice to me!” He said that last part with a whisper scream. “And she hasn’t given in yet. She’s got stubbornness.”

“Got stubbornness?”

“You know what I mean!” Michael shook his head and Eric saw his expression grow serious which was very very rare in the case of Michael Kelso. “I feel excited when I see her and when she smiles at me it makes my stomach feel…” He put his hands up and waved them aggressively in demonstration. Eric leaned back in his chair.

“Well dang. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Me neither!” “Do you think she likes you?”

“Not now that you’ve all told her I suck!” Michael shook his head, defeated. “So stupid.” Eric laughed a bit.

“You can’t blame us. If you want her, go and get her.”

===

Michael held a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He had used the last of his money for the week buying them and still wasn’t all that sure if you would like them. He didn’t expect the nerves that came with trying to ask you out. Usually if someone rejected him (which was rare, he liked to point out) he could move on quickly. He didn’t want you to reject him.

He walked into english class and you were already there, sitting at your desk, flipping through the assigned book. He took a deep breath and took the strides over to sit beside you. You looked up at him and gave him a small polite smile.

He took one more breath and then brought the bouquet out from behind his back. Your eyes went wide at the size of it.

“Would you pretty please go on a date with me?” he asked. You took the flowers from him and for a moment was stunned that he had actually asked. The flowers were truly beautiful.

You met his eyes.

“Yes Kelso I will go on a date with you.” He fist bumped the air aggressively and you laughed a bit, trying to ignore that he was making a big scene. He turned to you with a big smile.

“You won’t regret it.”

“You better not make me.”

“Kelso!” The teacher called, pointing his pen at Michael. “Get back to your seat!” they hissed. You laughed a little bit as he shook his head.

“I’m very comfortable right here,” he pointed out.

“Kelso.”

“Alright alright.” He turned to you as he got up. “I’ll see you at Forman’s basement tonight. You nodded.

“Yeah.”

“They’re never gonna believe it.”

“Jackies gonna scream,” you said. He shrugged.

“Let her scream. I think I won this one.”