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tokoyamisstuff · 4 years ago

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Just My (Blood) Type - Hisoka x Ghoul! Reader⭐️—__—💧

A/N: I’ve started to rewatch HxH again, and you guys need to suffer for it. Sorry. That stupid Crossover-idea had been stuck in my mind for some time, and October a fitting time for a reveal, right?

Of all the f/o I ever had, that damn Clown is my guilty pleasure.

Summary: At first sharply cutting off Hisokas flirtatious advances, you soon realize that there’s more to him than just a repulsive murderer.

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of past abuse, Blood.

Noticeable: Gender Neutral! Reader (not 2 GIFs tho), POC suitable (no mentions of blushing, etc...), I used all the Hisoka GIFs I could find

Fandoms: HxH, Tokyo Ghoul (kinda)

Words: ~2400

“The second participant to arrive at the goal is No. 13, Y/N Y/L/N” a robotic voice announced via speakers. “It took 3 hours and 27 minutes.”

So this was the end of the Trick Tower already, huh?

Not really as great a challenge as you hoped for, but whatever. That fact really wasn’t a surprise, considering that you were a Nen-User.

This whole exam up until now was a piece of cake more than anything else. Nothing exciting or challenging at all for a change.

You sighed loudly, your audible disappointment echoing through the great and almost empty hall.

Only a dim light would brighten up the prison cell, and there didn’t really seem to be anything to kill time. So you sat down right where you stood, back leaning against the cold stone wall.

At first, you wouldn’t even bother asking yourself who had entered the goal first - until you heared an all too familiar voice.

“Congratulations. ★ I’ve expected nothing less of you.”

Goddamn it.

Before you could even find a sassy remark, the man itself already stood in front of you. Looking up, nothing less than a broad welcoming smile was playing on his lips.

“Mind if I take a seat?”

Your posture immediately stiffened as you pulled your knees tightly against your chest.

“Yeah. And now get lost!” At least he didn’t underestemate you - otherwise it could mean your imminent death.

He wouldn’t even try to conceal his bloodlust, does he?

Ever since you first met, you gave it your best to not cross his way throughout the whole Hunter Exam - yet for some reason, he seemed to be enjoying your presence, almost as if searching for you.

“My, my...” Instead of keeping his distance, the man just sat down right next to you, making himself at home. “May I ask what I’ve done to deserve such hatred directed at me?”

Only now you realized that the Nen you emitted was an open book to your feelings.

Hopefully he didn’t notice that you were afraid of him...any hint of weakness, and you’d probably be done for.

Yet still: Hisokas voice had always been so tender and kind - a huge contrast to his true self, you thought.

That was not the only contradiction surrounding the mysterious magician. And you knew a things or two about that kind of behaviour yourself.

Only one thing was sure to you: That man was dangerous.

It was obvious what kind of monster was right next to you - his prey. How could this man stay so perfectly calm and contain himself, considering the fact that he radiated this huge amount of bloodlost?

This could only mean this was his natural state of being - and the fact alone made you shiver.

Not answering him, your eyes wandered everywhere but his direction. You remained silent as you scanned the room for any exits, but to no avail.

The two of you were all alone - for 68 hours at max.

Only god knows when the other participants will arrive and end your misery of that unsettling closeness.

“Rumor spreads that you’re planning to become a Head Hunter” the magician tried to engage in a smalltalk, putting his hand on his chin. “Why would that be?”

“Don’t play the fool, Hisoka.”

You were sure that he saw you using nen back in the Milsy Wetlands at least once, so it should be pretty obvious to him: There simply wasn’t any other choice for you to live without a guilty conscience.

“No, I honestly don’t understand” he chuckled, trying to get your attention. “Why someone so innocently looking would want such a profession, I mean.”

Gulping harshly, you now dared to meet his glare. “Look: Stop fucking with me. If you want to kill me, do it quick - but stop strolling for time, or whatever wicked game you’re playing right now.”

Of course you’d struggle, maybe even put up a fight - but in the end, Hisoka was so much more experienced than you.

And you knew damn well opposite to you, he was enjoying spilling the blood of innocents if it had to be.

For a brief second, all of his pretence dropped and he looked shocked, a little bit offended even.

“And why should I do that?”

“Drop the act” you retorted harshly, “It’s annoying. I know all stories about you, even saw you kill before my very eyes. You’re a murderer. I bet, for the likes of you, killing comes to you like breathing.”

“You’re one to talk” he answered, not sounding any less polite, “I could feel your bloodlust throughout the whole tower.”

Now your face dropped as well, and only now you felt how you were shaking - not out of fear, but anger.

“I took that as an invitation” the mage spoke playfully, letting his tongue run over his lips. “Your bloodlust lures me to you every time. We’re not that different, are we? I knew from the very first second.”

What a pain in the ass. And you were not talking about his demeanour. No.

You were simply disappointed in yourself.

For years and decades, you had principles goddamnit! Certainly you’ve never really been a saint, but...well, ever since you first found yourself lost in those golden eyes, you threw your moral compass overboard.

How could you dare to betray yourself like that and feel anything else than remorse for such a vile being?

Why the hell did you feel so damn attracted to someone you simultaneously wanted to either punch or run away from?!

“And what the hell do you want from me, then?! Why are you telling me all of this?”

“I’m just curious” he smiled, face leaning closer to yours. “That’s all.”

You crossed your arms, now awkwardly relaxed yet still annoyed. Furrowing your brows, you just had realized that Hisoka actually managed to engage in a conversation with you.

“You first” you almost gnarled, staring him down expectantly.

“Why not?” he shrugged as he began shuffling his cards in the meantime. “There’s no greater reason behind my doing, my dear. It’s true: I enjoy killing. But I don’t do it all random. I have standarts too, you know? The people you saw me kill in here were an exception: They were way weaker, but they surrounded and attacked me first. Simple self-defense.”

Yeah. Of course.

It would’ve been way too easy for him to simply escape or at least make them unable to fight without decapitating them, but he chose otherwise.

Hisoka wrang out a twisted sound, almost like a cruel laugh as he awaited your reaction.

“Sounds like a cheap excuse. A murderer is still a murderer.”

“Tzch. What a shame.” Your words didn’t really touch him - not that you expected them to awake any kind of regret in him. “I thought you to be different than the others. Smarter.”

You had to admit: Usually, Hisoka won’t lay a finger on innocent or weaker people. Most of the time - if he needed something from them, at least - he was very curteous, even. Or he’d simply act like they didn’t exist, sparing them from a cruel fate.

But that was part of his facade, too: A selfish man who could both be pleasure and doom, considering what would be to his favor.

“And what would that ‘standarts’ be?” You rose an eyebrow, still irritated that you kept conversating about such a useless topic.

“Good you ask” he pointed his index finger in the air, almost as if lecturing you. “I think most people are like me in a way, maybe just not so extreme. They desire to compete with powerful enemies.”

Yeah, that much is probably true - especially in the world of a Hunter.

For some people, there’s nothing better in this world than the adrenaline rush of a real fight. Especially when they need to get all out - mentally as well as physically - to survive.

You on the other hand wished you even had such a choice, and if you had, you’d obviously choose a peaceful life instead of that of a suicidal idiot.

But to each their own, right?

“Want to help me out?” He meant the card house he was building, handing you over some cards as he continued explaining. “I’d never simply kill a person that isn’t prepared or doesn’t accept a challenge. An opponent needs to give it their all - it has to be a battle between equals.”

A shaky moan escaped his throat, face tiwsting in excitement - almost seeming aroused - as he stated “My greatest pleasure comes when such people crumple to their knees and look down upon their disbelieving faces as their plans fail!”

“You really are creepy” was your plain answer, placing the last layer of the card house on top. “Do you know that?”

“Of course. I’m mad, not stupid.”

So this is what this is about.

“Now’s your turn, dollface.” The fact that he still maintained his usual, sly attitude, as well as the nicknames made you more flustered than you wanted to admit.

“I’m not human.” You revealed this fact as if it was nothing, throwing your hands into the air as if you had been catched. “At least not fully. Not anymore. It’s hard to explain, really.”

“I’m listening.”

That caught you off guard: You just dropped this huge bomb of a fact - and instead of being taken aback, he’s intrigued more than anything?!

Well - it’s Hisoka. Why are you even surprised?

It took you a while to collect all of your thoughts, since this was the first time you’d ever tell someone about your past. And gladly, Hisoka just sat there in silence, invested in his cards until you were ready.

“Long story short: I was a child slave. No need to spit out all the details, but you can imagine. Hard times, torture, abuse...I was on the brink of death when my Nen manifested as some kind of defense-mechanism.”

Now you felt like you were experiencing a headache. It was nothing new to you - this happened whenever you tried to surpress the flashbacks.

Burying your head into your hands, tears of regret filling the rim of your eyes, you forced yourself to continue.

“I knew nothing about Nen, yet as if naturally, I made a Restriction and Pledge on that day: The blood of the guilty must be shed. I’d do anything to get the power to achieve this. And whatever kind of higher might determinds the conditions, it took that sentence of mine very literal.”

“So you’re-”

“...a Ghoul, yes. My hatred was powerful enough to save my life, yet the price I had to pay for this power is something I can’t take to this day. So I’ll become a Head-Hunter and still my thirst for blood only on the bodies of criminals worthy of death.”

You’ve expected any kind of reaction: Disgust, scorn, scolding you for doing something so reckless - even attacking you right here.

However, the mage suddenly broke out in huge amusement, his muscular chest having as he laughed loudly and heartily. “You’re not very good of a story-teller.”

There was no time to react, your baffled self only able to look as Hisoka grabbed one of the cards out of a whim, infusing it with Nen.

But instead of attacking you, he cut his wrist without even twitching: Deeply enough to draw blood, yet not to leave a scar.

��Well, you must be hungry, right? Long day, many fights...”

You wanted to object, but instead of syllables your throat suddenly felt dry as if strangulated with barbwire: Seeing him licking his own blood from the card turned this invitation into sweet torture.

Usually it was no problem for you to hold back, even for weeks if it had to be - but for some reason, you desired his blood more than anyones ever before.

“No need to be shy” the man cooed, presenting his wrist to you. “When was the last time you ate?”

The blood was already dripping to the floor, making you desperate as you closely watched every drip. “W-Why are you doing this?”

“I want to see it, Y/N. Do both of us a favor, won’t you?”

There was no use in struggling against your instincts - and as soon as your tongue gently incorporated the red liquid, there was no going back.

Involuntarily, your fangs dug deep into his flesh, yet all that came out of Hisoka’s mouth were ecstatic groans - you weren’t quite sure if it was because of the pain or the strenght of your Nen.

How humiliating.

You despised that appearance of yours: Red irises, the rest of your eyes just a black pit. Together with those flame-like wings made from Nen, most people would say you came from hell itself.

But Hisoka wasn’t disgusted in the slightest - no, quite the opposite.

“Beautiful.💖”

You felt a pet on your head, long fingers digging into your hair as you finally let go off of his arm. “No, you can keep going until you’re satisfied. I heal quick, it’s no problem.”

He didn’t mean your appearance - to Hisoka, only power was attractive.

But still: Never before someone had seen you the way you were now and called you something else than a monster.

Licking your lips, you noticed that his blood tasted sweet: A lot like bubble gum. That was a surprise.

Pulling you over to his lap, Hisoka’s lips needily crashed over yours - and you didn’t reject, rather melting into his touch while he explored your mouth, tasting his own blood on your tongue.

His grip was tight and gentle at the same time, fingernails digging deep inside your flesh so he’d be able to control his murderous instincts.

He felt warm. And somewhat safe, even though that sounded ridiculous considering the situation.

After a while, your bodies would finally part again, leaving you both to gasp for fresh air. Your mind was still clouded by all those confusing emotions - yet Hisoka, pleased by the outcome, seemed to be very much petrified:

“This may be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.”

#HxH #Hunter x Hunter #Hisoka x Reader #Hisoka #Hisoka Morow #HxH 2011 #Tokyo Ghoul #Crossover #Writing #Fanfiction #Hisoka x You #Self Insert

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bucksblr · 4 years ago

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tagged by @leonzhng thanks for making me dig through my most embarrassing crushes 😭✋

i’ll tag @highwarlockkareena @yibobibo @lan-xichens @purplexedhuman @aheartfullofjolllly @lanzhansmiles @nyx4 i feel like i tag you guys in everything i am so sorry please ignore this if u don’t wanna do it !!

putting this under a read more for reasons

MEN 2010 – 2016

literally nothing more embarrassing than falling on the same type of white man over and over again (with the exception of minho from shinee bless his heart)

tommy joe ratliff → he was the bass player for adam lambert during his glamnation era (think of songs like for your entertainment and if i had you) idk why exactly i liked him so much but i just did.... however i searched him up again quite recently and found out he’s one of those republicans that says the dumbest shit on twitter so Big Yikes

harry styles → “baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, and when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell...” and BOOM 13-year-old me was sold for well over two years

louis tomlinson → basically i liked harry most until around 2013 when for some reason i started to like him a little less, and i got more focused on louis tomlinson, and although i didn’t like one direction anymore louis tomlinson always had a special place in my heart

ashton irwin → so ashton is 5sos’ drummer, i discovered 5sos through one direction & i stanned them until late 2014

harries twins → the harries twins (jack & finn) are basically the reason i started spending a lot of time on youtube, they were funny and pretty and they just had good videos in general, so for almost two years i’d watch their content regularly

choi minho → my first steps into kpop happened bc i was watching videos on youtube (most probably the harries twins) and suddenly i saw the sherlock mv in my recommended videos so i clicked on it and then 14-year-old me proceeded to fall for minho like an idiot

brooks twins → still youtubers, the brooks twins were 3/5 of the janoskians (jai & luke brooks, beau brooks, daniel sahyounie, & james yammouni), an australian youtube comedy group that was active from 2011-2018 though i was only around from 2012-2014 (when jai brooks was dating ariana grande)

jc caylen → surprise! another youtuber! jc caylen was part of o2l (our2ndlife) a youtube collaboration channel on which each of the 6 members posted videos on a certain day in the week (mondays with connor, tuesdays with ricky, wednesdays with sam, thursdays with jc, fridays with trevi (my 2nd favorite member bc she participated on the x factor), saturdays with ricardo, and then they had surprise sundays every week) and i remember how much joy jc & the others always brought me with their silly videos

misha collins → up next, you might know him as the gay angel that was sent to superhell after confessing his love to the homophobic hunter on supernatural, it’s misha collins! basically misha was a huge source of comfort for me, and i even went around calling myself emmisha for almost two full years (cringe)

henrik holm → he played even bech naesheim in skam and my crush on him reached that level of ridiculousness where i actually tried my hand at learning norwegian (i can only remember how to introduce myself and some curse words i would make a great first impression on him)

MEN 2016 – 2021

min yoongi → okay so my baby steps into kpop happened through shinee’s sherlock, but i only got really invested when yoongi dropped agust d 1 because Holy Fuck y’know??

kim namjoon → oh man i remember thinking namjoon was cute and a very good leader and then BAM he dressed like THAT at the 2016 mma’s and i fell in love. hard

park seojoon → i started liking park seojoon whilst i was watching hwarang (you guessed it, i watched it bc of taehyung), although he wasn’t my favorite character by far, but he was very silly off camera & i liked that (i’m not that into him anymore tho </3)

kim seokjin → OH BOY LET ME TELL U i liked seokjin from the very beginning (i got to know bts in late 2014) and i always liked seeing him perform and be himself and god once i realized i had a crush on him it just hit me like a mf truck, and he’s still one of my favorite people to this day

jung hoseok → god fake love era hoseok really hits different.... also yes i know i have all of bts’ hyung line on my list BUT bts was a really big part of my life for almost 6 years soooo honestly they deserve it i still think they’re great guys

choi san → when ateez made their debut in 2018 i immediately fell in love with san, he was such an amazing dancer and he captivated me right from the very beginning, to this day he’s still my bias in ateez uwu

xiao zhan → AND THEN, OCTOBER OF 2019 HAPPENS AND I WATCH CQL AND... i fall in love with xiao zhan, something i’d never expected would happen bc when i watched cql for the first time i wasn’t as invested in the story, but i really really really liked xiao zhan and one thing led to another and now here i am as a xfx

wang yibo → the thing is, i’ve known yibo since eoeo except i didn’t know cql yibo was uniq yibo (bc i’d forgotten his name) and when i looked it up i can tell you my jaw dropped to the floor bc holy shit????? also he is very silly and i love him loads ok

lee minho → ah, the man who has been my skz bias since 2018, not only is minho my bias i also kin him (there’s a lot of aspects of myself that i see in minho and vice versa) and he’s very comforting to me

bang chan → honestly, it was only a matter of time before i’d fall for bang chan, i knew the moment i got into skz again that i’d start biasing him and, well, here i am, double biasing chan & minho

WOMEN

this list is shorter bc i’ve in general always had less crushes on women than on men??? blame society forcing me into thinking i was straight for a LONG time

ariana grande → remember the 2011 layout of twitter?? where u could not only have an icon and a header, but also a background and ur twitter page was smack in the center of ur screen with the big ugly menu bar at the top??? yeah ariana grande was always my background for my l*rr* st*l*n*s*n layouts

perrie edwards → this was right around the time she was dating zayn & little mix was breaking out into the spotlight, yeah i just really loved her

andrea russett → okay so remember o2l?? andrea russett was kian’s girlfriend for a pretty long time and they always did videos together and i always thought she was super pretty

lily collins → maybe i don’t like clary in tmi all that much but i sure liked the way lily collins looked

alona tal → MY BISEXUAL AWAKENING, it’s only when i saw alona tal in spn that i realized, fuck i might be gay

park jihyo → i discovered twice (my 2nd jype group after day6) through the like ooh-ahh mv and red-haired jihyo really did something to my heart (i just rewatched it and god zombie bang chan is so mf cute)

kim jisoo → when bp made their square two comeback i was immediately smitten for red-haired jisoo in playing with fire, it’s also when i realized she was my bias out of the four members

shin ryujin → the reason that i have blue hair is partially bc of ryujin and her amazing intro in wannabe :D

xuan lu → her portrayal of jiang yanli was SO ON POINT and she’s just such a kindhearted wonderful person wow i want her hand in marriage

lee yoobin → god i’ve known dreamcatcher from back when they were still called minx and ever since i’ve always looked at dami that bit more than the rest, i was also able to see dreamcatcher live in october of 2019 and the whole experience was just so amazing !!

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

there’s a whole lot more than just these 10 but i wanted to fit the evolution into one (1) slide as best as i could lmao

peter pan → this movie came out in 2003 (?) and he’s honestly the first fictional character i remember ever having a crush on

legolas → i was really doubting between placing haldir or legolas here but i only really got a vague haldir obsession when i was like 14

zuko → LOOK. ZUKO IN ATLA? HOT. ZUKO IN LOK? HOT EVEN IF HE’S AN OLD MAN.

will turner → man was annoying sometimes but i really liked him and his relationship with elizabeth was cute

jo harvelle → gosh i can’t believe she’s the only female character in here???? yeah she was one of my two spn faves and i’ll never forgive the screenwriters for the way they killed her off

castiel → does your fave ever get sent to super hell for being gay? no? well. mine did

kili → fili and kili’s storyline tore my heart out, spit on it, and then laughed straight in my face, KILI WAS LITERALLY MY FAVORITE DWARF

howl → i only watched this movie for the first time in 2020 so i kinda fucked up the tl cause i watched cql in 2019 but shh, anyways howl with his blonde hair was good looking but howl with his black hair just hits differently. i want a howl

lan jingyi → MY BABY BOY, TINIE LITTLE BABIE WHOMST I MUST PROTECT ok no but seriously this kid. i love him a lot

mu qing → BARK BARK. that’s all (that’s not all i love him a whole lot and it hurts me to see so many people misunderstand his character and only see the bad parts of him when they can forgive others for fucking up (eg. xie lian himself & feng xin) but bc mu qing doesn’t deal well with emotions suddenly he’s the bad guy??? i s2g if ppl are gonna do to him what they did to jiang cheng in the tgcf la i will RIOT)

#thanks for the tag hanyi my hands hurt now </3 #tag game

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lady-plantagenet · 4 years ago

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What hasn’t already been said: The Spanish Princess 2

Episode 2: SOdden (or Sod ‘Em depending on your persuasion)

(Dont know how long I’ll be able to keep these puns up)

Catherine, like this woman, does not really fit into this era. But while this woman seems dropdead cool and at least looks the part, Catherine just...

To all those of you keen enough to have come back for another segment of ‘what hasn’t already been said: TSP’, as opposed to have just been scrolling when you see this - welcome back! (Scrollers you too <3)

To anyone who’s seeing this for the first time: what this is a list of observations, jokes, reactions and criticism which occur to me upon a rewatch. I wait every week until Saturday to do this so that I have had my fill of scrolling through the tag and aggregating what has already been said. I tried doing a whole spoof (here where I gave up 10% in) but tbh a) I don’t know the history well enough b) it’s more time consuming than I thought and c) this series is just not as funny or as crazy as TWQ, so it’s untenable. Having said that: This is not a hatepost. I’m not hatewatching this series and nitpicking on purpose but expressing my honest views and trying to find the good in it as well as the bad.

Without further ado...

First Scenes:

The baby cloth lifting into the ceiling of the chapel had nice ‘myth of the demon countess of Anjou (ancestress of the Plantagenets)’ vibes. I am 100% that was unintentional. I get this impression by the cringiness of the baby’s screams (what’s up with those sound effects? It sounded like a zipper).

Henry gives me such softboi vibes? It’s pleasing to me because it’s making me attracted to him as a viewer, but no good in convincing me this is Henry VIII.

I think Catherine’s exposition about how she feels is pretty ok actually, it’s fitting that she would feel anger.

CHARLES’ FATHER IS NOT MAXIMILIAN, IT’S PHILIP (or rather it was). ~~ A quick wiki search guyz, a quick wiki search. Ughh

Again with the whole everyone acting like Catherine is Queen. Can they cut it out? Also while we’re at it, what was Catherine’s attendance in councils even like?

The music was nice

Post Child announcement phase:

Oof I hate to say it but I lowkey wanted de la Pole back in this mother. Mainly because it would mean more Margaret Pole and by this point I am scared her storyline will fade in prominence now that there’s no longer a Yorkist subplot (showhorned as it was, it was the crowning glory of last season tied with Arthur x Catherine).

More x Maggie Pole and all of it over Seneca and learning :’). I already know this will be the best part of the episode.

‘We certainly know stoicism in our family’ ~ I guess she’s referring to Reggie? Because our boi Clarence was no poster boy for stoicism. Though could she be making an ironic reference to her father~?

Edmund de la Pole Debacle:

Well this convo at least passed the bechdel test.

Maggie and Edmund’s interactions here are touching. I know this plotline was rushed but I think it was just right to bring us back here for 5 min as a mournful throwback to the bygone era to which Maggie Pope belongs to and now continues to do so alone. It is emotionless and you can just feel how the York cause was hanging on by a tired old threat by that point.

Maggie Pole is becoming matronly now and I like this transition.

What bothers me about a lot of fans of Margaret Pole is that what they don’t realise is that she wasn’t all like ‘I want nothing to do with my family I’ll stay low and obscure’. While far more cautious than the likes of her ancestors, she did engage in land disputes with Henry VIII and was an outspoken supporter of Catherine and Catholic. Having her be a woman woth dubious loyalties towards the Tudors is accurate.

Scotland with Meg and Jammes:

LMFAO it’s like they read my mind when I spoke of how much I laughed when Meg was like ‘Alexander Steward you pig!1!!’ last episode.

Nice reference to Aulde Alliance

I like James.

Henry and Catherine on the balcony:

Was she commander of the forces? Was Howard appointed that? Regent she was, ok.

Charlotte Hope’s new hairstyles really suit her!

‘Will you please stop cursing’ agahsjdk ahah

No offence to women (of which I am one) but this comparison between childbirth and war is just... wrong. I know Starz think they are being smart but childbirth is far less impressive than winning or surviving a battle - comparing the two diminishes the bravery of soldiers. YET ,having said that, childbirth is necessary for our society whereas war is almost always futile and by comparing them, it wrongly represents violence as something inherently as natural to us as birth and continuing of civilisation. overall not a smart, respectful or accurate parrallel to make.

Meg and prep for invasion + Catherine in her weird armour:

So Margaret dreams that her husband is dead and bloody in her bed. Ughh show you neeed to get more creative. But I did like the whole ‘dreams are how our ancestors talk to us’ line from Angus Douglas.

Re: Meg in her beret... Why is Meg dressed like me going to the London shops in October? Digging the aesthetic but not sure about the accuracy.

Rich of Catherine to bring up Edmund.

Why is Ursula Pole crying??? What is all this to her really?

Did Howard just call the guard... sonny?? Is this some WW2 crossover?

Catherine - James and the tent parlay:

Did Catherine just insult Meg’s intelligence??

Also lmao I’m going to miss James.

Re: Howard saying ‘I’m not going to get insulted by a man wearing a dress’ .. UMMM Starz, you do know that just thirty years ago men were prancing about in dresses and leggings (essentially). From around the middle of the 14th century to the beggining of 16th century (if not earlier), Englishmen were also essentially prancing about in ‘skirts’.

Am I getting a weird cooperation-partnership vibe between Meg and James?

The Battle:

Charlotte Hope looks so good with the helmet, she’d really suit an english hood! Such a shame they won’t give her one!

Ewwww he’s eating mud, why?

Just standard battle scene. They are all the same to me no matter which movie.

Aftermath:

Jesus, I find the whole Meg crying over James IV so heartfelt ‘you arrogant bastard’ for some reason just came out so full of emotion. Can someone please explain why the hell I ship them more than Henry x Catherine?? Like how ??

Awwww Linna is sooooo adorable ughhh. Also this whole Catherine going into armour among all the women crooning over the children gives this adorable sense of Catherine boyish and bloodying herself out to protect their peace, idk. All I have to say is that these series is less eager to pitt women against each other than the previous. I think that’s a step forwards.

Also, good to see Catherine being modest about her victory so Henry can save face. Finally starting to seem like the real Catherine.

‘Go on you dog’ arghh ahah he sounds like some public school rugby lad egging his mate on.

Re: Wolsey cock-blocker; the real Catherine would know it was uncatholic to have sex when you were pregnant. Also Catherine is not technically speaking in confinement if she’s wandering about.

It’s nice to see Catherine sticking up for Howard, she at least learned to respect him during the battle.

I foresee Oviedo having enough of this Christian stuff and wanting to return to the berber domains (I suppose Spain is out of the question)

Knighting Ceremony:

Apparently Margaret Pole herself was made Countess of Salisbury during this same ceremony... right? @houseofclarence

Also Maggie Pole being like: “being a rebel is in my blood, or so they tell me”... gahhh what’s with these shows and the Clarence erasure? Can’t they make one bloody reference to her dad or grandad Warwick? Ugh. Especially with lines like this. Actually? You know what? Ignore my previous comment about the stoic remark and it being an ironic reference to Clarence. I put such subtlety above this show’s writers.

Catherine has a habit of going to the coldest places possible to lose her children...

Haha @ Henry asking Bessie Blount (of all people) where Catherine is.

Conclusion:

6/10

What I’m happiest about is that Flodden got dealt with in one episode because warrior xena Catherine is not what interests me most about this show. Having said that, it was a true shame that James IV died because his were some of the best scenes. This whole show is starting to feel so historical fantasy-ish because the aesthetics are so confused. Granted it’s still pretty (not eyesore like Reign) but it doesn’t penetrate.

I am as always invested in the Poles (and More) but am also starting to get attached to Princess Mary whose actress exudes plenty of charm. This show remains confused with its feminist message because while it shows women being proactive there is so much emphasis on babies that what remains with the mind after watching is this womanish birthdrama, as opposed to a show about struggles which affect both genders.

You might tut at me and say I’m being ridiculous and that it is historically accurate to put so much emphasis on women’s babies and I say that’s swell. I would happily watch a show where that element is strong (most pre 1995 historical dramas are like that with traditionally feminine characters and I gulp them up like sustenance), but if a show promises feminism and women-men being partners I want it to deliver that properly. As I said in my previous post, why do we keep trying to make women engage in acts like war as if such an abhorrent act is the only way to take them seriously? I await the day where cunning, rationality and cool-headedness will be the traits portrayed as feminist ones.

There is nothing else to really comment on... the only potentially deeper message in this is the gender discourse. I am unsure about the accuracy so I can’t speak of the historical value of the interpretation. But what I will say is that though I remain excited for each new episode... I’m just not as invested as I was in TWQ (rewatch every year dont @ me) or TWP despite their many flaws. Some characters pull me in eg Maggie Pole (Carmichael is a bae), Thomas More etc but not the whole cast like TWQ. Anyway... would be interesting to see if anything happens with Lina and Oviedo tommorow as their storyline is conspicuously slow.

#the spanish princess #the spanish princess 2 #fool if you thought I wouldn't jump on the whole 'being a rebel is in my blood' opportunity to bring up Clarence #I was delighted last time when people left comments and stuff #rofl #so yeah #Please please I love discussions and do not think twice before sending me an ask or commenting !#lady plantagenet's series reviews #the dialogue remains a bit trite #the sugared grape counterpart for this episode was edmund's death and the whole ironic reference to Senenca and stoicism #not because the dialogue around edmund's death was particularly poignant but how conspicuously quiet and swift the whole affair was as #...as compared to previous york pretender plotlines left a mournful note #basically I feel like I keep focusing on stuff the show doesn't want me to focus on #and am projecting therefore

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grilledcheeseandguavajelly · 5 years ago

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What's your favorite and least favorite season?

Hi nonnie!! Thank you so much for your ask!!! I’m guessing you mean AHS seasons?? At least I hope so, because I’ve always wanted to rank them!! (But if you meant weather, then my favorite is spring and my least favorite is summer alsdlfkajsdf)

OKAY, LET’S DO THIS:

9. Murder House

I can’t with this season. I’m sorry, I know a lot of people really like it. But I just can’t. I don’t like the main characters, I don’t like the plot (what plot though) and I don’t like a majority of the dialogue. It’s not bad television, and a good jumping off point, I suppose. But I feel like Ryan Murphy hadn’t really gotten his feet under him yet, like he was testing the waters to see what worked and what didn't.

I remember yelling at @shineestark when she told me she ranked Murder House below 1984, because “HOW CAN YOU RANK A SEASON WITH PAULSON BELOW A SEASON WITHOUT PAULSON?!?!?” And then I watched 1984. And here I am, ranking Murder House last. There’s just something about it that makes me itch with boredom. If I never watched this season again, I wouldn’t complain. I’ve seen it twice, and both times I felt like I wasted my time. Oops. 2/10 solely for Billie Dean, Moira, and Nora.

8. 1984

There were aspects that I loved (Xavier, I’m looking at you) and aspects that I couldn’t have cared less about (hi, Richard Ramirez). But I thought that the general aesthetic was great and Lily Rabe absolutely slayed the game. And Leslie Grossman was phenomenal-- it was great to see her shine. Plus, I could really jam to that theme song. Nice and trope-y while still being compelling. Minus one point for using the theme song in a chase scene, plus two for Eye of the Tiger at the end. Solid 4/10.

7. Freakshow

I couldn’t do it at first. I just couldn’t. I stopped watching Cult halfway through because it was too scary, and I decided to watch Freakshow instead, despite the fact that I knew Twisty was going to scare the fuck out of me. I made it exactly three episodes into Freakshow before I decided that Cult was so much better than this freaky-ass clown shit. And that is with TWO Paulsons as incentive. However, once I got past Twisty and firmly into the Dandy storyline, I ended up really enjoying the season. (But I would personally like to slap whoever decided that the sliding, screeching strings were a good idea for the score, because oof it makes my skin crawl.) 5/10.

6. Hotel

I wasn’t a huge fan of Hotel the first time I watched it. If Sally wasn’t there, I doubt I would have finished it. But after watching it a second time, I realized it was really just John and his wife that I didn’t like. Mr. March is my favorite of Evan Peters’s characters, Lady Gaga is iconic, and Kathy Bates did amazingly. Plus HELLO LIZ TAYLOR??? So John Lowe and the vampire children aside, this season wasn’t too bad. (I would also like to note that the final episode has a heavy bearing on how high this season is ranked.) 5/10.

5. Coven

Coven was the first season that I ever watched, back when I was tiny and sensitive and couldn’t handle the smallest bit of horror. But I plowed through because so help me I was going to try to watch at least one season of AHS. As it turns out, I didn’t finish it. I didn’t intentionally stop watching-- I must have gotten busy with work, and two years later I realized that I still had two episodes left. That’s right. I didn’t even find out who the Supreme was.

So last October I watched “The Seven Wonders” (probably my favorite episode of AHS, period), and I was hooked. But when I went back and rewatched Coven a few months later, I didn’t like it as much I remembered?? I’m not a huge fan of the whole Kyle plot or the zombies. But Cordelia and Fiona are perfect, Myrtle rules the world, Misty is adorable, and Angela Basset is at her absolute peak. Plus, I’ll take that black-skirted, New Orleans witchy vibe mixed with Stevie Nicks any day. A solid 7/10.

4. Cult

Okay I’m going to be honest. The first time I watched Cult, I almost didn’t make it through the entire season. I got to the part with the man hanging from the hooks in the attic, and I just couldn’t do it. Too many of my phobias up on the screen, and it got under my skin in a way that none of the other seasons did. And I hated how I legitimately felt like I was going crazy with Ally. But after taking a little break I made it through, and then I watched it again, and yeah -- this is a good season. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and my heart was pounding out of my chest. Some of it was a bit too gory for me, but overall it was a great season and the more I rewatch it, the more I like it. 8/10.

3. Roanoke

For me, this season was the perfect blend of scary and fun. I watched the whole season from between my fingers or behind a pillow, but I still laughed and I was always 100% invested. It didn’t lose my interest for a second. I loved the plot, I loved how it repeated, I loved the change halfway through, and the new characters. Everything was brilliant, completely different from every other season, and just absolute good fun. 9/10. (She loses a point because I will never be over what they did to Audrey, and perfect scores are only for seasons that give Audrey the ending she deserves.)

2. Asylum

If Apocalypse didn’t exist, this would be my favorite season. I think it is the best season of AHS, by far. Ryan Murphy somehow managed to weave zombies, serial killers, possession, insane asylums, aliens, and nazis into one season, and it WORKS. It’s so cohesive, tied up at the end in a pretty little bow. I always enjoy rewatching it, and I think that every single one of the actors was at peak performance. Absolute perfection. 10/10. (This is usually the season that I recommend to people who have never seen AHS.)

1. Apocalypse

This was the season that really technically started it all. The first full season of AHS that I watched after finishing Coven. And I love every single thing about it. The plot, the aesthetic, the characters, the costumes. I was hooked from about five minutes into the first episode, and I only got more invested as the season unfolded.

I could rewatch Apocalypse every week and probably never get bored. (Although I do tend to skip through the Michael episodes until Venable comes in, but shh it’s fine.) We get our witches, Misty comes back, Stevie Nicks singing “Gypsy”, HELLO?? Plus Billie Dean. Plus an episode directed by Ms. Paulson. And it isn’t too scary. Could we ask for more? Ryan Murphy blessed us with this one and I will be forever grateful. 11/10.

#i had way too much fun with these gifs #and it also took me way too long to find them #ahs #american horror story #ahs murder house #ahs asylum #ahs coven #ahs freakshow #ahs hotel #ahs roanoke #ahs cult #ahs apocalypse #ahs 1984 #ahs ranked #ask me anything #asks #asks and replies #asks answered

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simplylove101 · 4 years ago

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With the horror challenge done, I thought I’d say which movies stuck with me the most out of my watches. This might be one of the hardest years for me to pick for this cuz I watched all kinds of movies, some I maybe never would have otherwise and enjoyed them. I’d try ranking them in a particular order but, just like last year, Idk if I could do that. I wanted to try but well... oh well. lol

1. Ready or Not - It was the first movie I watched in 2020 and it just so happened to be a horror movie, which are ones I usually don’t willingly watch until October. And yet I did, which is why I counted it towards the challenge. It still holds up as one of my favorite watches because it’s fun and smart and the cast is great. It’s something that I’ve watched multiple times since actually so you know I must love it. lol

2. The Fog - Gotta mention this one briefly because bestie Lauren recced it and I do think watching this got me really intrigued with 1980′s horror all of a sudden this year. Def made me think about picking out movies that I wouldn’t have before. Not a perfect movie but it still holds up imo. Still a classic in my book.

3. Daniel Isn’t Real - I still think about this watch sometimes. I think I’m gonna need to do a rewatch eventually to make sure whether I really did like it after all but this one had some majorly intense moments and really good acting in it. Also, it really got me to give Shudder movies a chance. heh

4. Re-Animator - Skipping right now onto this one because I still can’t fully get this watch out of my head. Despite my mixed feelings on the infamous head scene, it is a true 80′s classic. Jeffrey Combs nailed this role. This movie wasn’t afraid of taking chances. Also, it has some genuinely funny and entertaining moments.

5. From Beyond - To piggyback off from that, I also enjoyed this one. Maybe almost more in a way because I loved the role reversal between Jeffrey Combs & Barbara Crampton. Both of them were great and the concept was kinda cool. Also, once again, another movie where it took chances.

6. Upgrade - I still sometimes wonder if this counts as horror (I think you can because of the ending) but as far as watches go, this movie entertained me. I was invested from the get-go and I loved the concept. Logan Marshall-Green did such a great job.

7. The Descent - Still think this movie deserves its spot as a modern day classic. Still very glad that I finally watched it. Idk if I plan to ever rewatch it but mostly cuz those creatures creep me out. lol

8. Revenge - As far as originality goes, it’s not very original of a concept but the execution worked for me. I rooted for Matilda Lutz’s character despite how the beginning painted her and her not speaking a single word once the 30(?? I can’t remember lol) minute mark hits. I wanted her to get her revenge. I cheered when she did.

9. Love & Monsters - Ofc this movie was gonna make its way onto this list. lol Yes, because of bb Dylan but also because I genuinely enjoyed the movie too. Once again, not a perfect movie but it was fun. I liked it.

10. Night of the Creeps - This movie was so memorable because it was so completely bonkers and fun and totally 80′s. lol This is what we call a good bad movie. To the point that it’s actually good because everyone in it was game and it’s made so earnestly you gotta respect it. Also, anything Tom Atkins said was pretty much golden. haha

11. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein - Gotta give credit where credit is due and say that I personally think Kenneth Brannagh pulled off a good adaptation of the novel, despite the beginning feeling very rushed and then it feeling a little long later on. There were some classic scenes in there. Also, De Niro as The Creature!

12. The Mist - Can’t not mention this movie simply because that ending stuck with me. I was emotionally invested in the story pretty much the whole time. It had some genuinely tense moments. It was a well-made movie.

13. Near Dark - As far as a last watch for a challenge goes, this ended up being a good choice because it was really solid overall with good performances and a different approach to a vampire story. Also, Bill Paxton was so good in this.

14. The Monster Squad - This movie just ended up being really cute. I’m a sucker for movies like this with kids apparently. It was fun and totally 80′s in a good way.

15. Idle Hands - This movie was so wacky but definitely memorable. It just ended up being exactly the kinda watch I needed when I watched it. Some movies don’t have to be great to be worth watching, you know?

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Maybe The Guest?? At least for that soundtrack? lol Dolls was pretty memorable too, even if it doesn’t feel as classic as Re-Animator or From Beyond from director Stuart Gordon. Also, I still can’t forget Sleepaway Camp, just cuz man, that movie was pretty risky for the time. It was cringe but still hard to forget. lol

Top 3 Least Fave Watches:

1. The Wind

2. The Fog remake

3. Rings

Well... with that said, can’t wait for next year’s challenge!! Still so many more movies to watch!

#horrorchallenge2020

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miss-musings · 5 years ago

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Four episodes into this season and The Blacklist is already in a slump

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed getting these Aram-centric and Cooper-centric episodes back-to-back, but I sadly feel like it’s too little, too late. The show has punted these characters to the side for so long to focus on the Red/Liz drama, that now that we’re actually getting some character development out of them it’s like ????

I guess the Aram thing kind of made sense, since the big thing for him last season was losing Samar. So, as annoying as it was, I guess it made sense to see him starting to get over her and get a little adventure of his own, since Liz and Ressler have to do so much of the heavylifting when it comes to undercover work, etc.

But, the Cooper thing is just so hard to handle. I really liked his little bits of development in early Season 6, when Red was in prison, and Cooper was having to decide whether it was worth trying to save his life. That’s the kind of introspection that really worked to give him a personality and a character, given that he’s been shunted into the background so much since ... ever. Harry Lennix is so vastly underused on this show, and I really appreciate that he got a chance to shine in tonight’s “Kuwait,” but I feel like it’s a hack way to give him some character development. It was so out of the blue and so forced. Ugh.

Here’s maybe a good way to describe it:

Earlier today, I went to the grocery store to get a few things. Since it’s been getting colder, I’ve been making hot chocolate a lot lately, but I never buy milk, because I don’t really drink it. So, I use water, which isn’t as good for cocoa-making. When I went shopping I decided to get a half-gallon of milk, which -- as I said -- is unusual for me. It’s like “Oh, I have milk in the house now..... okay.” I have it so rarely, that when I do, it’s really an adjustment.

That’s what Cooper’s character development was tonight. We get it so rarely, that it’s kind of like “Okay.... what do I do with this???”

Again, I wish Lennix got more to work with than just bland nonsense most weeks, but this is not the best way to give Cooper character development.

Also, I gotta say that I saw the whole “Hutton is the Simoon” thing a mile away. The minute Hutton said “the Simoon” and Cooper said “He’s been an intel leak in the Middle East for years,” I swear I did a ‘look into the camera like I’m Jim on the Office’ maneuver, because that was super obvious.

The whole ‘Katarina as Liz’s neighbor’ thing continues to bug the eff out of me. It’d be great if we had a sense that the show will eventually go the ‘Liz knew it was KR all along route,’ but I think we all know that isn’t going to be the case. No hate toward Laila Robbins, who seems to be a great actress, but I do hate KR so much in the present-day appearances we’ve had from her so far. I enjoy the KR in the flashbacks infinitely more, but Robbins’ KR -- IDK what it is, but I can’t stand the character. I think it’s partly because she’s so disingenuous and is never sincere. The few times I’ve thought “Okay, maybe she’s not so bad” is whenever she’s talking to Liz about wanting to reach out to her daughter. THAT’s the only part that seems sincere, but even that appears to come and go. I felt like when KR first met Liz and Agnes in the hallway in 7x02 that she really didn’t care about them, and almost looked at them with contempt. But, who knows. I’m sure it’s all mega-complicated, and we’ll get some bullshit explanation as to why in the mid/season finale and/or premiere.

One last little bit of food-for-thought is that I’ve been rewatching Once Upon a Time recently, which is a show that I watched the pilot when it first aired in 2011, and basically watched Seasons 1-5 as they were airing. I fell off after the Season 5 finale, and never really watched Seasons 6 or 7. And, as I’ve been rewatching Season 1 and now Season 2 on Netflix, I’ve been going back and re-reading Lily Sparks’ reviews on TV.com, which I read as the episodes were first airing in 2011 onward.

And, I have to say that my viewing experience at the time the episodes first aired -- which Lily captures in her reviews -- is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO different than rewatching the series now. It’s partly because I already know where the show is going -- even if I don’t remember all the little plot points and small details from episode-to-episode. But it’s also because NOW I’m able to watch them 2 or 3 or 4 episodes at a time, in a single day, and watch another few episodes the next day or a few days later. I’m not having to wait for a new one every single week.

And, as I’ve learned from re-reading Lily’s reviews, that makes a HUGE difference. Lily often complains about how the show moves at a snail’s pace, and we have to wait forever to get little crumbs of backstory or revelation or how annoying it is that the characters continue to point to a bigger story arc that hasn’t been revealed to us, the audience, yet. (ie, plot coupons). And she often half-jokingly, half-serious says that nothing happens on the show outside of mid/season premieres and finales. (Sound familiar?)

I honestly wonder whether I would feel this way if five years from now, I started rewatching The Blacklist from the very beginning in 2-4 episode increments. Would I also feel that the show was dragging its knuckles and treading water in between finales and premieres? Or would watching more episodes in a single sitting and with shorter intervals in between help me overlook so many of the flaws I believe it has?

TBL, I think, is a show that seems to lend itself better to multiple episodes in a sitting. Whenever we had those back-to-back episodes in the latter half of S6 this winter, I thought that was a much more enjoyable watching experience than something like tonight’s eyeroll fest. If it was a show that was like Stranger Things, where Netflix dropped all the episodes at once, so people could watch it at their own pace, I think it would help us to see more of the good and less of the bad. But, because we have to wait an entire week in between episodes, sometimes we’re more prone to be disappointed than satisfied when that Friday’s episode is over and we have to wait ANOTHER week for the next one. In a manner of speaking, it feels like we’re living off breadcrumbs that we get a week at a time.

I have a friend who binge-watches the Blacklist whenever a new season is uploaded to Netflix, and while he is also frustrated with the show, he seems to less frustrated than I am with it. I feel like I’m constantly complaining about it between September/October and May, and he gets a three-week span in August or whatever where he’s like “Yeah, this show is really weird.”

In any case, it’s just food for thought. As much as I’d like to, I don’t think I can wait until August or whenever for S7 to be uploaded to Netflix. I’d tear my hair out wondering what’s been going on with the show, and plus, being on Tumblr is just asking for spoilers, even with blacklisting tags.

And, for the record, I really hope S7 is the last. I don’t want this show to get an eighth season (or if it does, maybe it could be an abbreviated 13-episode one). It’s already overstayed its welcome, I feel like it’s a vampire or some other monster -- draining the life-force out of me until I’m old and tired and don’t have the energy to invest in a stupid hour-long drama on network television anymore.

I mean, it really says a lot that -- earlier today -- I was more excited about next week’s Good Place episode than I was about tonight’s Blacklist one. My interest in this show is taking a sharp nose-dive, and “Kuwait” honestly didn’t help much with that. And, the promos for next week look equally snooze-worthy.

I guess I really just need to find something better to do with my Friday nights and then just watch the episodes on the NBC app later, since this show seems determined to slump only four episodes into the season.

#the blacklist #nbc the blacklist #lizzington #raymond reddington #masha rostova #liz keen #elizabeth keen #reddington #katarina rostova #donald ressler #harold cooper #aram mojtabai #tbl #tbl spoilers #the blacklist spoiers #nbc the blacklist spoilers #blacklist #james spader

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aka-willow · 5 years ago

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Heroes, Pt. 3

gif 1 gif 2

Words: 1732

Characters: Willow Wren, Jessica Jones, Kilgrave, Trish Walker, Jeri Hogarth

Prompt/Tag: “Well, that’s tragic.” x /

Summary: Willow reveals her past while trying to discover Kilgrave’s

Timeline: April 2015

Song: Heroes – Peter Gabriel

A/N: Part 3/4

—————————————————————————–

“I’m sorry, so who are you?” Trish asks me later, as Jessica continues to rewind and replay the final moments of the fight on the camera. “And how old are you?”

“I’m Willow,” I say. “I’m in eighth grade.”

“Jesus, Jessica,” says Trish. “Why is she here?”

“Don’t let her fool you,” says Jessica. “You know the Manhattan Angel everyone was talking about? Yeah, that’s her.”

“Wait,” says Trish. “No.”

“Yup,” Jessica says dryly.

“So,” says Trish, lowering her voice. “She actually flies?”

“I’m right here,” I say.

“Sorry, Willow,” says Trish. “I mean, can you?”

I squirm at the question, and even my wings draw themselves tighter into the sides of my spine. “Yeah.”

I can tell that she wants to ask more questions, people always do, but she falls quiet. Jessica takes a swig from a bottle and replays the video yet again.

“He didn’t have to tell me to do a goddamn thing and he had all the control,” says Jessica.

“Got to admire his commitment,” I say, as we rewatch Kilgrave take hit after hit.

Jessica sighs. “Look at that.” She hits play again and scoffs. “Even I feel sorry for him. I just helped his case.” She takes another drink. “I’m such an idiot,” she says and clicks on Kilgrave’s childhood video again, like she’s turning on Netflix. Kilgrave’s eyes open.

“What if we just walked out of here right now?” Trish asks. “Locked the door and never came back. Just left him. Hope could take the deal. I have enough money to get anyone far away.”

Yeah, you know what? I could almost be on board with that. Wait, no. Could I?

“Trish…” Jessica starts.

“I mean it. As long as he has your attention, as long as you care, he’s in control.”

“I won’t let Hope lose twenty years of her life.”

“Why is she your responsibility?”

“That’s not you,” Jessica says. “That’s your boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” I ask, snapping back to the conversation at hand.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Trish says quickly. “And can you blame him? Kilgrave murdered Simpson’s buddies. He almost died.”

I need to find out who this Simpson guy is. Now things are interesting. I search for Simpsons in the city on my phone. Finally, something to do. As Trish goes on about something with a bomb, I’m scrolling through Whitepages. The video continues to play in the background, and I try to not let the experiments on the screen send my mind back to the Facility.

“Wait, okay,” Trish says again, turning to me. “Where are your parents? Do they know you’re here? Aren’t they worried?”

I pause. “It’s complicated. I don’t actually know them? My parents?”

“What, were you abandoned?” Jessica says, and I realize she’s talking to me.

“Uh… it’s a whole thing,” I say. “I’d rather…”

“Well, we’ve got time,” says Jessica. “This asshole’s not moving.” She’s slightly drunk and Trish shakes her head.

“Leave her alone, Jess, if she doesn’t want—”

“Yeah, abandoned,” I say, wondering if I should quickly make a PowerPoint on my trauma or something. I sigh and try to think of the best way to phrase everything. “My mom… okay… I don’t know who my mom was. But she was part of some secret experiment that I think involved manipulating the DNA of embryos. But instead of giving me in like she was supposed to, she was unreliable, or something. I don’t know. So, she ditched me when she saw how messed up I came out and the homeless guy who saw her leave me said she said something about not wanting to raise a demonchild. Whatever that means.”

“Eh, she got that part right.”

I glare at Jessica and continue. “So homeless guy brings me to the fire station on the same block and those guys take me in. They were going to turn me into the police until they saw the… you know.” I gesture to the wings. “Two of them were married and lived in an apartment above the station. So, I lived at the firehouse. In secret.”

“You were, like, what, a firehouse dog?” Jessica asks.

I cringe. “Basically. I couldn’t leave though. After I had been there for a few days, agents from the experiment started going door to door, looking for me. That’s why they decided to keep me there. In secret. So, yeah. I was there for six years. Didn’t leave much. Didn’t go to school. But my dads were great.”

“What happened?” Trish asks. “How did you end up…?”

“Well, they found me,” I say. “Eventually.” How do I explain this part? “There was a bad fire one night. All hands on deck and firefighters got trapped on the top floors. I left the station, flew in, saved the firefighters. But it got caught on camera.”

“I remember that on the news,” says Trish. “I thought they said it was a hoax.”

“Yeah, of course they did,” I say. “The Facility people came knocking the next day to take me away. And that was it. I went away for the next seven or so years. Until I got out almost a year ago.”

“God, I’m sorry,” says Trish, “That’s fucked up.”

“Eh, it is what it is,” I say, shrugging. “Things are fine now.”

“Are they still looking for you?” Jessica asks.

“Oh, definitely,” I say. “Invested way too much money and time into me and the others not to.” I pause to think again. “They were working on a second part to the experiments,” I say. “Obviously, the… wings… and the physical stuff, that’s all the embryo manipulation. But there was other stuff they were working on. Other powers.”

“What kind?” Jessica asks, looking wary.

“I don’t know,” I confess. “It involved exposure to this thing? It was blue? I don’t remember a lot of that.”

I think back to that phrase from the testing, again. October, shh. It’s time to play Monster.

“Helpful,” quips Jessica.

“I know,” I say. “Totally.”

“Well, that’s tragic as shit,” says Jessica. “Makes this look almost tame,” she says, nodding back at the Kilgrave video, still playing in the background.

“Nah, this almost makes me glad I didn’t know my parents,” I mumble to myself. “At least it was strangers.”

Trish shook her head, watching the video. “Who does that to their own child?”

“No one gets under a person’s skin like their parents,” Jessica says. She looked pensive. “That… could push him to the breaking point.”

“If they’re still alive,” I say.

“He thinks so,” Jessica says. “He looked for them for a long time.”

“Should’ve hired a P.I,” says Trish, and I laugh.

We start panning through the videos, pausing and analyzing. I pull over a chair and look over Jessica’s shoulder, listening, trying to hear something, anything that would indicate a location or a name. It looks more like a homegrown or school lab, not like the shiny and bright place I was raised. We spread out work into the hallways, as Kilgrave opens his food and starts each, chewing slowly and staring at us the entire time.

Trish dozes off on one of the cluttered countertops and as Jessica and I continue to work, I hear a squeaking noise on the glass, followed by a knock. I jump, and Jessica gets up to deal with Kilgrave, clearing her throat.

Exhausted, I sit down on the floor, up against the wall, and lean my head back, shutting my eyes. What time is it? How long have we been here?

“Who is Eric?” Jessica asks aloud, sitting back down. “His brother?”

I open one eye. “Could be another kid from the study?”

I hear her typing and I shut my eyes again, dozing off on the floor. I hear snippets of conversation, even while asleep, but most of it is hushed and scattered, although at one point I catch a halfhearted “She’s almost sweet when she’s asleep,” which I despise. When I wake up hours later, it’s just Trish in the room.

“Where did Jessica go?” I ask.

She tells me that Jessica has a lead on Kilgrave’s parents and went to go track someone down. I sit up and rub my eyes to see Kilgrave still staring at us through the glass.

“He’s been like that for hours now,” says Trish, turning to whisper to me.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

She searches in her bag and pulls out a granola bar. “Hungry?”

I nod, taking it and tearing it open. It’s the shitty crumbly kind, but I don’t complain. She rustles around in her bag a little longer until I hear footsteps from down the hall. Hogarth has returned.

“You’re back,” says Trish, and I see her shove something into her purse.

“Jessica said she had something urgent to show me.” She looks over at me. “She’s still here?”

“Jessica will be back soon,” says Trish.

“Why don’t you both go outside and get some fresh air?” says Hogarth. “Last thing I need is another woman losing her mind.”

Oooh. Drama.

“Yeah, I guess we could use a break,” says Trish. “Come on, Willow.”

We leave the room and take a walk to the end of the hall, where we push the doors open, clamber down the several flights of stairs and step outside for the first time in ages. I take a deep breath and suck in the fresh air. It’s nighttime, now, and the sky calls me, but I keep my feet planted to the ground.

“Sorry about… Jess making you tell us all that stuff,” says Trish suddenly. “I’m sorry that happened. To you.”

“I’m over it,” I say. “Don’t worry.”

“Would you tell someone if you weren’t okay?” Trish asks. “I mean, this stuff… it’s heavy.”

“No worse than what I’ve seen,” I say, quietly. “Trust me.” Eh, I could probably use some therapy or whatever.

She sighs. “I just wish Jessica would get back here already.” She picks up her phone to make a call.

I pace around the lot behind the warehouse, and finally start climbing the stairs of the fire escape, onto the roof, where it’s finally safe to take off my jacket and let my wings breathe as well.

I could just fly away, right now. Forget all of this. Run again.

But, no.

After a few minutes, I fold my wings back in and climb back down the escape, not even letting myself glide on down and enjoy the night. There’s more work to be done.

#ww writing #willow wren #jessica jones #kilgrave #jeri hogarth #trish walker

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dios-pants · 6 years ago

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@gamebird

*couGH COUGH* making another post cuz I don’t particularly feel like reblogging that other post *finger guns* also adding a read more because this got a lot longer than I expected whoops

So my dad and I used to be really into watching shows together, and though we don’t watch TV much together anymore, there were a few good shows (we’re trying to make our way through the second season of Luke Cage so we can watch the second season of Iron Fist and then the newest season of Daredevil so THEN we can watch the fourth season of Flash so I can finally finish season six of Arrow but that’s besides the point) and well one day we were trying to figure out what to watch (after a lot of scrolling I found that we had just gotten done with Limitless just an fyi). One of these occasions I told my dad that American Horror Story looked good and he told me no lol (I ended up watching it by myself anyway don’t tell my dad)

Anywho my dad stumbled upon Heroes and he was like “how about this” so I read what it was about and me being me was like “sure”. I can’t for the life of me find out when we first started watching it, but according to the watch history thingy on Netflix, we watched Collision on August 1, 2016. Just to let you know

I don’t know when, but Netflix decided they wanted to get rid of the show, so the little caption thing appeared saying that it was leaving October 1 (yes I looked it up and I’m sad to say that that was the same day Psych left and I never realized that)

So, like I said a while ago, it was a race against the clock to finish it

Offhand comment but I would like to let you know that my dad had watched it before and I had no knowledge of this while we were watching it together and it bothers me. But that’s neither here nor there

We finished it on.... 9/10/16. And it left just over half a month later, so it pretty much disappeared from my mind. So that’s the story of how I started watching it. But then there’s the story of how I got into it

So the following winter/spring (winter ends in like April where I live so I would say the end of winter but that’s just a guess) something happened that I’ll explain in a little bit. First some background stuff:

I have this friend who used to be OBSESSED with DeadRising (I don’t even know how I remember what it’s called). She was especially obsessed with a Very Specific character. That character is Dylan Fuentes. If you don’t know who he is, do yourself a favour and don’t look him up

Well anyway she was like “Dylan is the best fight me” and I said that he wasn’t and that Sylar was the best. Why did I say Sylar? I have no idea. My life probably would’ve ended up completely different if I said someone like Matthew Keller or the Seventh King (the Silver King? What do I even call him) or some other bad guy. But no I said Sylar

So there was this whole thing with this list of “Dylan vs Sylar” where we asked people who was better. I don’t remember how I explained Dylan but I’m pretty sure Sylar got more votes

It’s autumn now which means the next school year. I got myself a school laptop now and I don’t know I think I was looking through emails or something and I found an email talking about the Dylan vs Sylar thing. And I was like “oh my gosh I remember this let’s see if I can find Heroes online”. I found it on Crackle. And I find it hilarious that I can’t remember this part even though it happened more recently than the rest of this but I can’t remember if I decided to watch it by myself or I first started rewatching it with a friend. I have no memory of rewatching it on my own but I remember considering myself obsessed by the time I got him to watch it, so I think that’s your answer

At one point I got into Heroes fanfiction and that was a treat. By this time I was already into the habit of writing, and I was in the middle of a Team Red fic that we won’t talk about. I don’t remember if I first started reading Heroes fics on Ao3 or FFN, but if it was Ao3, then my first ever Heroes fic was either deleted or this and oh my gosh I can’t believe I forgot to mention that the reason I started shipping Petlar was because of a photoshopped picture (you can probably guess what I’m talking about) and I remember downloading it and angrily thinking “I shouldn’t ship it cuz they hate each other and yet”

fun fact the first fic I read was a White Collar fic that I only read because the two people at my birthday sleepover were like “let’s read fanfiction” and I felt left out so I looked up White Collar fanfiction on dA

Okay back to me writing fanfiction. I first started writing Heroes fics as crossovers (my first Heroes fic was a White Collar crossover and it’s so bad and I want to rewrite it), and then it got to non-crossover fics and there you go that’s how a specific fic came about that I’m not sure if I wanna say

Anyway so after that I just slowly got more invested in the show and the characters

Also sorry for the rambling that’s just how I tell stories,,

#how did this get so long you might ask #because i have a tendency to ramble that's why #and now i made myself upset again because i mentioned that buT #that's not the point #the point is that this took half an hour to write #hope you enjoy lol #personal #Primatech #gamebird #gather round it's story time

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hannaswritingblog · 3 years ago

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Hanna's reviews #2 (shows edition)

Disclaimer: I started writing this review some time in September or even October of 2021, soon after finishing Gotham, and since I'm lazy, a) I'm only finishing it now and b) parts of it remain written from the perspective of that time. The main thing is that in the meantime, I managed to catch up with some shows/movies/books, but if I decide to put them into a review, it's obviously gonna be another one. ;)

Another note is that this review is written from the perspective of someone who knows absolutely nothing about DC/Batman outside of this show, so if there's any opinion of mine that's unpopular because of how the rest of the universe influences it in other people, here's your reason. Or at least one of them, becuase mainly, I'm just weird.

I wish I could talk about a couple of shows at once, but there aren't too many interesting things I finished recently except Gotham, which I watched some time ago and now will talk about. (I guess I could count Ragnarok, which I've seen in June, but I need to rewatch some episodes before giving opinions. Maaan, for some reason those are sometimes harder to write than imagines?).

[click here for gif source]

My brain apparently couldn't really proccess fiction last summer and I watched/read many less things than I would want to, but once I started watching this particular show, I got really invested. Having a recent bad experience with a show that a) was new to me and b) had more than 3 seasons the moment I start watching it, I was actually pretty surprised that I made it past season 2 (yes, I'm looking at you, Once Upon a Time. I love you, but not enough to make it to season 3 yet). For some reason the convention of this show clicked with me really fast, even though I'm not into superheroes/villains now and I've never been into anything DC-related before. In a way it might have been a plus for me, since - from what I know - Gotham isn't always 100% aligned with the overall DC canon so to say, and I couldn't really be mad at anything that was changed compared to the rest of the universe, as everything was new to me.

To put it shortly - but at the same add to what was already implied - I really loved Gotham. It was first recommended to me around the time the second season started airing (I think?) and I've been meaning to watch it since, and I kind of regret not starting it then, but I'm also kinda glad I waited so that I could more or less binge the whole show. Interestingly, my final push was also a recommendation that I got when I was doing a survey about things I should write here next and somebody mentioned a character from Gotham I could consider writing for - and now I indeed have them on my list.

Last time I tried to make my reviews spoiler-free and therefore short, but since this time I'm talking about only one and also lenghty show (which I absolutely adored on top of that), I want to make it more detailed. I'll probably say some things that could be considered spoilers though, that's why I put everything that follows under the cut. If you have seen the show (or haven't but are okay with spoilers), feel free to view it, but if you don't want to risk, just know that I truly recommend this show. Maybe you'll trust me enough to give it a chance... 😉

Hey, brave soul! I see you are not afraid of spoilers. Settle in and enjoy my thoughts. 😃

- First of all, am I weird for saying that there isn't a single character in that show that I truly hate? Yeah, sometimes they had to grow on me and it took like two seasons that they weren't even in*, or they're just indifferent to me and I wouldn't call them my favourite, but in the end I can say at least 'yeah, they were kinda interesting or important or anything'. *Honestly, I hated Theo Galavan with my whole heart during the most of season two, but by the end of season four I kept saying to myself 'right now they could ressurect him once again somehow and I wouldn't be mad about it, I kinda miss him'.

- I really need to address Barbara's development; in the first season she was truly annoying, then she got kinda funny but also quite strong and I stan that (if you told me in June when I watched S01E01 that I'd say she's cool I'd laugh at you, yet here I am saying that).

- I also stan Lee Queen of the Narrows Thompkins (do I need to elaborate?).

- The one character I actually started disliking with time was Ivy, her last form didn't really click with me. I still can't tell I hated her though. And when she was aged for the first time she was so cool.

- Oh, I know who I disliked the whole time they were there! I forgot about Valerie Vale! No, really, I couldn't stand her and I still can't, although I must admit that I feel like her arc could use some more closure.

- Obviously or not, I also feel I need to highlight Nyssa and Bane as characters that didn't click with me (even if they didn't trigger the full hate mode I know I have in me for some fictional characters), but it might be because they were added in the shortest AND last season 5, so on top of everything there's wasn't too much time for them to grow on me.

- I feel like here I should name my favourite characters and give credit to the top of the top. On the other hand, I think I could just keep going with that list eternally. xD Let's say I'll name my top 5 characters, and those would be:

Jervis Tetch

Alfred Pennyworth

Harvey Bullock

Ed Nygma especially first season Ed, but I liked him later too

Victor Zsasz

...in that exact order. Or not exactly, but the choice of name is still pretty solid. I know I have issues, but feel free to judge me.

I'd also give a honorary mention to Lee. I really liked her.

Another honorary mention that I'm adding after MONTHS of having this in my drafts is Hugo Strange. He's not among my absolute favourites, but I keep remembering that one of the main things that prompted me to write this review was seeing him in season 5 and thinking 'maaan, I love how he's still around.' I found it kind of funny that after this whole time he kept on being there one way or another, and I needed to share this thought with the world.

Here's the part that I always hate the most in those reviews and that's probably what has been keeping me from writing this to the end, but I need to mention it somehow, which is talking about the plot.

I know I allowed myself to give you some spoilers and that's why we're under the cut, but I always struggle to know what to say. If you've at least heard about Gotham before, you probably already know what I keep telling all the people that ask me about the show, before Batman became Batman and all this. And what can I say beyond that so I don't give you a detailed summary of each episode?

- Maybe I can tell you that the vibe of every season is different. I feel that the whole show is getting darker as the story progresses and looking back, the first season feels quite light-hearted (even though it started with a crime/tragedy and it only goes downhill from there). As I mentioned before, it doesn't mean that the whole show gets worse, because as much as season 5 is probably my least favourite indeed, I was interested enough to get to the end of it.

- What I also keep telling people is that although this show could be treated as Batman's backstory, there's much more to that. If you end up liking Bruce and all his adventures - that's cool, you're gonna see a lot of him, but if not - other characters and their arcs are also quite deeply explored and you'll be able to catch a break from those that you don't particularly like. Most (if not all) characters, including Batman's villains, are provided with the backstory and/or development throughout the series. Sooner or later there will most likely be someone you get attached to and enjoy seeing on screen.

I feel weirdly satisfied with everything I've said (including the newest addition about the plot), so I think I'll leave you with that. I really need to go before I fully realise this is a bad idea.

But! if you want me to elaborate further on anything, or if there's something I didn't mention at all but you think is important, feel free to send me an ask and I'll either share my thoughts or publish your addition.

The last thing I wouldn't forgive myself for not mentioning - if you don't mind me keeping you here for another while - is that this song [if you don't want to click the link, I mean Savages by MARINA/Marina and the Diamonds] reminds me of Gotham since I first heard it around the time I started watching it. If anyone here both has watched Gotham and knows the song - please tell me I'm not going crazy and there's something about it!

Aaand if you're still here for any reason and you don't feel like you hate me - I love you for that! :*

#this one feels like total chaos and I'm sorry for that #but I'd be kicking myself if I didn't at least try to write everything down and since it's written down I can just have it published #Hanna's reviews #Hanna's reviews: shows edition #shows reviews #Hanna's watching thoughts #gotham

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inevitably-johnlocked · 7 years ago

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Hey Lovely! I was wondering how you first became a part of the fandom? When did you start watching the show, at what point did you feel John and Sherlock might be(come) a thing, what made you start a blog on these two? I just want to know it all ^^ Hope you don't mind sharing a bit :) Thank you for everything you do for this fandom, love you lots!

Hi Lovely!

Oh gosh, what a nice question! I think I’ve talked about this in snippets in various posts, this post being the one talking the most about it, but never as a whole! Apologies if this turns into a long ramble, hah hah!

So I remember exactly when I got into the show SO CLEARLY. It was July of 2013, just a few months before S3 was to air in January 2014. I was over at my friends’ place, and they suggested the show to watch, since we always watch movies together whenever I visit. I remember asking, “Is that the show with Martin Freeman and that Khan actor from Star Trek 2?”. We finished Season one all in one go, and immediately fell in love with Ben and Martin’s portrayals and their chemistry. And then I had to head back home. I was ANGRY because OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT and my friends just laughed.

So as soon as I got home, I downloaded S1 and S2 and watched them ALL the way through. I needed more. So, because I already had a Tumblr and knew it was for fandoms, I decided to see what it had to offer.

Oh boy what did I get into???

So I lurked for a bit, and then I discovered something called “meta”, back when the TRF theories were the prominent meta in the fandom. So while I was getting deep into meta, I started switching my fanart from Ninja Turtles to Sherlock, because I was warming up to Ben’s ethereal face and I wanted to draw it. And I wanted to be a Sherlock fanartist. I briefly shipped Sher1011ie for a week or so, until I rewatched the series again and it just didn’t jive like it did the first few watch-throughs. I was too invested in John and Sherlock’s friendship – I saw them as bestest friends ever, too devoted to each other.

Now, at this point, y’all need to remember this: I was naïve, have never been exposed at length nor ever heard of subtext, was and am not part of the LGBT community (I grew up in a different time and in a conservative city, so being “gay” just wasn’t a thing), had a very heteronormative view on my life, and I just had always just insisted that in all of my fandoms, when I liked two male characters together, it was because “bestest friends ever!!”. I didn’t know I was ace and I’d never read smut up until 3 years ago (yes hi hello I’m so old and so innocent LOL).

Okay, so I was just lurking for a bit, learning my way around fandom, reading meta and just generally dipping my toes quietly into the fandom.

Then came Season 3.

As many of my followers know, a lot of my fondness for season 3 stems from this being the season that LITERALLY opened my eyes to EVERYTHING: subtext, Johnlock, my own sexuality, and my meta-writing career.

So, season 3 aired and I decided to dip my toes into “reviewing” the episodes as my first “meta”. They were posted onto my multi-fandom blog here, here and here. I was so proud of them, because it reinvigorated my love for writing (I used to be a pretty prominent Sonic fan-fic author back in the 90′s… I never finished my stories because my interest in the fandom died before I finished them), despite how laughably bad they were, haha. I got a couple compliments on them, but nothing beyond that, especially since I sat down and wrote them for HOURS after each episode aired.

Sometime between TSo3 and HLV, I discovered loudest-subtext-in-television (aka LSiT) and deducingbbcsherlock completely by accident and I was FASCINATED. I ate up everything they wrote. The first time I watched TSo3, something was niggling at my brain but I couldn’t quite place it. It was one of LSiT’s meta that twigged at it. That’s when I learned about subtext, heteronormativity and the queer community. And suddenly, just like that, something in my brain clicked.

Oh. My god. This show is gay, and I actually SHIP these idiots like I did in the Mother Ship (ie. The X-Files Mulder / Scully). That’s why I was SO ANNOYED with Irene. Why Molly was slowly grating on me. Why Mary’s introduction kind of annoyed me but okay I guess I can deal with it. Why everything seemed really romantic but it just couldn’t be, could it?

I rewatched the series. And it was gay. Y’all, those rainbow-coloured glasses were suddenly GLUED to my head, and I saw gay EVERYWHERE.

So, after HLV, I discovered The Johnlock Conspiracy and I was eating up all the meta about Johnlock I could. Around this time, I also was learning a lot about the LGBT community, its history and sexual fluidity from wsswatson. It was also around this time I discovered asexuality, and I started reading a lot about it.

In February of 2014, I started this blog because I wanted a place to reblog Johnlock meta. This was the first post I made on this blog, and looking back at it now, I am DYING because wow I never imagined I was going to be this deep into the fandom the day I wrote that. I don’t even remember writing it, to be very honest. I just shake my head, HAH. I think I really started understanding Johnlock because of this post here. It’s still one of my favourites and is one of the ones I credit for helping me understand what I was watching was actually a romance, not a “crime show”.

Anyway, after learning how to read subtext from mostly LSiT (they wrote a meta about how to read subtext and it was super informative) and other Johnlock bloggers, I wanted to try my hand at my own little Johnlock meta. It was more of an observational post, as my way of trying to interact with the fandom. I am a terribly nervous and shy person, so I never tagged anyone in anything. It was an overwhelming fandom, and it was terrifying to interact. A few bigger bloggers noticed me and were nice enough to comment on a couple of my posts, but I mostly stayed in my little corner, and interacted with my small little group of other smaller fans. I dabbled in both fanart and writing, just plopping my thoughts and art into the aether, hoping something would interest someone enough to start a discussion.

I started getting braver, and I was “moderating” some of my favourite posts that weren’t mine, but had my additions to it. Mostly, the Phones and Hearts post. I didn’t want to impede, but it was one of my favourite posts, so I went and copied all of the comments in the notes and put them onto one post. I don’t honestly remember HOW I ended up moderating it, but I just did because I was FASCINATED with symbolism, and I was excited because I could finally read subtext and understand it. I still had a small following, and a few people I regularly interacted with on my blog.

So, during the hiatus between S3 and TAB, somewhere along the way I suddenly had a sexuality crisis, when I suddenly realized I wasn’t broken and there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, and damn it, there’s such thing as split attraction model and asexuality?? Mind was BLOWN. I was also slowly becoming obsessed with Mary’s character, and at the time I couldn’t understand why (inevitably, it was because of events happening in my own life and me trying to understand them), but I really enjoyed just psychoanalyzing her. It’s something I’ve ALWAYS loved doing – character studies; I’ve done it in EVERY fandom I’ve been in – and I was doing it for her, Sherlock and John’s characters.

So yeah, nothing much really happened to me during the S3 hiatus, except my entire world view flipped on its head and I was completely Johnlocked beyond repair. I became known for some painful posts and some lovely revelations and writing a lot of character study posts on both John and Sherlock. I’m very proud of some of my earlier meta, just sad they never really got seen (some of my earliest meta can be seen on my Ao3).

Then came the announcement for TAB in 2015, and the start of my “Tumblr Career”. I put a lot of my energy into my fandom life. I was OBSESSED with TAB, and became known for it. I put my moderation skills to use and created the TAB Starter Pack, which started gaining me some followers because OMG some loser is taking the time out of their day to compile all the news about this new series! AWESOME. I remember, it was around this time I was excited because I got to 1895 followers and it was one of those milestones all Johnlockers like having, hahah.

In October of 2015, I lost my job and was unemployed. Conveniently, this is also the time when the promo season for TAB started, because we now had a name and airdate. I devoted a LOT of my time, when I wasn’t job hunting, to working on this blog. I was just writing a lot, and obsessing about the upcoming episode.

Then the trailer aired.

And immediately after that trailer dropped on October 24, 2015, I made this post here, which, some would probably say, was the beginning of everything for me. As I was writing that post, with a cracking headache, something clicked in my head, and several hours later, I had written and posted the original Mind Palace Theories of TAB at 2AM-ish, and went to bed.

When I woke up, my post had suddenly gone viral and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it just kept expanding from there, and I made sure to include everything I could onto it, because WOW something I wrote was gaining traction, and interaction, and I just wanted us all to have a good time with it. And as the time for TAB drew closer, suddenly I was gaining followers, and more people interested in what I had to write. I welcomed everyone to continue to predict the outcome with me.

January 1st. Was a complete and total mind fuck. I was liveblogging the episode, and inadvertently created another viral post with my Mycroft’s Death post because FUCK ARE THEY KILLING MYCROFT OFF?? kind of freaked people out (sorry loves!), which gained me some more followers, and at the time, my top post was my December 31st reblog of my Mind Palace Theories post, so anyone who came to my blog, it would have been on the first page of it.

After the episode aired, suddenly, EVERYONE had questions for me, about EVERYTHING, but mostly to scream at me that I was a mind reader, LOL. No, I’m not, I was just a sad, unemployed twat with too much time on my hands and was avoiding job hunting. But good god, all DAY on Jan 1, I was replying to asks, gaining followers like crazy, and pretty much just stating my opinion on anything that someone wanted to know.

I became known as the unofficial TAB blog, and the one to come to with questions about my interpretation of the episode. I was SO obsessed with TAB, studied every nuance and narrative structure I could. 2016 was “my heyday”, and it was fun. I found my niche, and meta-writing is what I became known for. And until I got a job in April of that year, I was a pretty solid presence in the fandom, if I understand some of what I’ve been told correctly. I still ran my blog as full-time as I could having a full-time job, and still do in some ways, but yeah, 2016 is when I produced a LOT of meta, mostly Mary meta because, as I said above, I was and am obsessed with her character arc. I was learning about myself a lot more by writing meta, and my “original” meta turned into “asks” meta, which was fine by me, because I do like a good prompt to get me going.

Somewhere in there I also somehow became the blog new bloggers came to, which I didn’t and don’t mind at all, because being new in a fandom is scary and I wanted to be a friendly face because I like meeting new people.

Then we got an announcement for S4, and like TAB I also kept track of anything and everything S4-related, so once again I was sort of the “go-to” place for everything S4 because I compiled all the stuff from setlock bloggers and listed them all for easy-access. I kept track of everything promotional, and I reblogged some of my favourite pre-S4 meta here.

Essentially, I LOVE organizing things, and people liked that I LOVED doing it, so that’s sort of how I kept my following when I wasn’t posting as much new meta. I did make a few original meta before S4, and I made a 68 day video countdown to the series which is cringy AF and I’m not linking it (lol you can find it if you look hard enough).

We all know what happened in S4. I took a bit of heat after S4 aired, because I got people’s hopes up. I was discouraged for a bit, but then I started receiving asks that weren’t really asks, but “I need advice” and “I need support”.

And I started answering life questions, and realized people LIKED my responses, liked my little personal anecdotes in each of my replies, and felt comforted by it. So, after S4 aired, I became an eclectic mix of life advice, meta, fics, music and TJLC / tinhatting blog. I have a “no judgement” approach to my blogging, and I think that’s why I’m still gaining a steady dozen or so followers every couple weeks, rather than losing. The only time I took a big hit was the Tumblr Feedpocalypse, where they fucked up the algorithm and I’m not getting nearly as many hits on my posts as I used to, but that could also be because we lost so many people to S4, especially after Jan 1, 2018 when people were hoping for another episode.

I personally don’t think I’m popular, but I suppose I am by Tumblr standards. I dunno, I think we all have that “starry eyed” view of popular bloggers, and I just can’t picture myself as someone anyone would fawn over. I’m just me, and you can take it or leave it.

I think where I’m at now and what I’m known for is a good place to be, to be honest, despite how S4 turned out. I’m not certain, but I FEEL like I have a positive reputation here, but don’t quote me. I know I have people in this fandom who hate me, and quite frankly it saddens me that they feel they need to expel energy on me that way when they deserve to just be happy and forget about me.

ANYWAY, sorry that got long and rambly, but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for awhile, but I was waiting for the prompt to come because *shrugs* I dunno, self esteem thing, makes me think no one REALLY cares until someone actually asks, hah.

And if you made it all the way to the end here, Love ya Nonny, and thank you for asking and thank you for being a follower of my blog

#steph replies #about me #fandom life #steph's storytime #fandom history #Anonymous #long post #my blog

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hopevalley · 7 years ago

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5.7 Heart of the Matter (Thoughts)

NOTE: Tumblr is messing up formatting with readmores on the dashboard. Please click the readmore below to read this on my blog.

I have to admit that overall this was a very enjoyable episode. There wasn’t a whole lot for me to gripe about, which may be in part because one of my favorite characters showed up again (finally). It feels good for me to be able to say that I think Hallmark did a pretty good job this go-around, and not just with the storylines but the characterization and everything. My complaints are minor and not wholehearted. So let’s get this show on the road!

Elizabeth & Greta | The Kids | The Bank Fiasco (Part I)

Bill & AJ (Part II and III)

Hey, it’s broken up in to three parts this time!

Click on the links for navigation! :)

1.) Elizabeth & Greta

I’ll talk first about Elizabeth coming back to town, because it’s how the episode starts.

The pseudo-honeymoon was skipped over entirely. It is the beginning of October now (I don’t think two weeks is an appropriate time frame for travel, but I feel certain Hallmark would think that), and Elizabeth is in the stage right outside of Hope Valley finishing up a diary entry and mooning over a photograph she and Jack had taken together. Check out that picture quality folks; Elizabeth and Jack are living in 2018.

She’s greeted by Lee, Rosemary, Abigail, Dottie, Molly, and Florence. Quite an ensemble. I guess at least people cared enough to come and greet her right away. I’m sure Lee is there to help her with her luggage. ;P

Florence was the highlight of this scene, the way she swooped in and hugged Elizabeth, desperately glad that she was home again so that she wouldn’t have to keep teaching the kids. I got a little chuckle out of it. This is the kind of humor I can appreciate; it’s not really poking fun at anyone in particular, it’s genuinely amusing, and it’s fun to watch Abigail’s face in the background.

Next, Elizabeth goes to the school and does some school things.

Opal accidentally calls her Miss Thatcher instead of Mrs. Thornton.

Robert has absolutely no idea why Mrs. Blakeley might have had to raise her voice so much while Elizabeth was gone.

And Elizabeth once again gives her students a “special lesson” instead of, you know, actually teaching regular school. In defense of this episode, though, at least the lesson she was trying to teach this time felt more relevant than usual. Kids should know a little bit about how businesses are run, especially in a time period where things are a little less complex. This could easily be in their futures.

It’s easy for kids to get worked up about things they don’t understand (the railroad not paying taxes, for example, or not building a depot) because their parents are worked up about it, but it’s something else entirely to understand exactly why something like that might be an issue and how it affects the town.

So Elizabeth gets a bunch of town merchants gathered up together to try and convince them to participate in this latest lesson of hers. Confused? Me, too. Who are half of these people? Where is Abigail? Bill? Bill isn’t a “business” but the law is a functioning part of the town and there’s no reason why it should be excluded. (Also, the Bill and AJ plot would be 500% funnier with a child glued to Bill, c’mon!)

Rosemary sort of steals the show in the saloon and tells Lee he’s special in front of like, everyone.

Which put Ned to good use trying not to laugh about it. I enjoyed that little addition.

For once I wasn’t annoyed to see Carson participating in something.

And I liked that Dottie was here but was disappointed to never see her actually interact with Emily.

But it’s kinda cute that so many merchants stepped up to let kids job-shadow them. I wish we knew who some of these people were, though. And how Elizabeth managed to get so many people together on such short (read: no) notice.

The next morning, Elizabeth releases her hoard of school children on the town and smiles about it like she’s proud of them for getting this far in life. Or maybe she’s just happy to be free of them for a day, like the honeymoon wasn’t enough time away from the job for her. I guess that’s a relateable feeling.

And hey, this is one of the best lessons Elizabeth has come up with on the fly, prooobably because it has practical application. At least...theoretically. I think it would be super cool if it actually went somewhere, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Elizabeth continues walking around town and runs into...an old friend! Hey, it’s Greta! Who we’ve never heard of before!

Greta says “quite” quite a lot. Rewatch her conversations with Elizabeth and it stops sounding like a real word.

Both of them are from Hamilton and there’s lots to talk about! Like Duncan, Greta’s son! Who was...one of...Elizabeth’s best friends growing up? That’s definitely news to us. How many “close friends” did Elizabeth have as a high-society child, anyway? Sounds fake, but okay.

Apparently Duncan and his mother haven’t spoken in a long time, and for having been such good childhood friends, Elizabeth hasn’t heard from him, either. Or...tried to contact him, apparently.

Elizabeth quickly tires of talking about her marital status (she must be tired of the “How’s married life?” jabs that everyone tends to throw at newlywed couples) and so turns her attention to sticking her nose in people’s business. Namely Greta’s business. Her personal business.

Like her relationship with her son.

“Please drop the gosh-darn subject, Elizabeth.” At least, that’s how I imagine this scene in my head.

The way Elizabeth pushed Greta to talk about it was kind of disconcerting, tbh. Like, I get her concern but there are discreet ways to inquire about something like this that don’t involve, you know, repeatedly making the investor Henry brought in to try and save the town uncomfortable.

This could be a really great plotline if Elizabeth didn’t come off so pushy. I know how this plot will end up, too----or at least...I feel like I do. Elizabeth will upset Greta some more, but her pushy behavior will pay off and Duncan will write to his mother or come and see her and ~everything will be great! Gag me. I’d be shook if Elizabeth’s pushiness just pushed Greta right out of town, leaving Hope Valley with Mr. Baxter as their only viable option.

But I guess “to be continued” is what we get here.

Elizabeth was lacking in this episode and I liked it. She had a nice role that was a bit quieter than usual and therefore didn’t consume the entire plot with her presence.

It was honestly a very nice change of pace; I hope more episodes in the future choose this route just to keep things feeling a bit fresher. The way it was done here worked really well, at least for me. And hey, for once she’s not embroiled in personal drama flung on her by the writers, so that probably has something to do with how I feel about it, too.

2.) The Kids

I won’t lie: I vaguely dreaded this part of the episode. In recent seasons the child characters seem to exist as plot devices more than actual characters, and I find it a terrible shame because child characters can be amazing when they’re done right.

So the kids pick who they’ll job shadow and half the kids in the room I don’t recognize. I’m a little extra annoyed that the railroad is in town, the depot is in place, and the schoolhouse has new kids but most of the old ones have left. Suspension of disbelief is something I’m usually pretty good at, but different kids every week is hard to swallow. WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?

Anyway, Emily went to Dottie and Rosemary, Opal went to Ned, Cody went to Lee, and Robert went to Carson.

I won’t go into too much detail about these because I can’t imagine anyone wants to read my Detailed Thoughts™, but Lee and Cody were pretty cute.

All I’ll say about this is that it’d be a whole lot cuter if this didn’t feel so forced. Frank literally just left. You couldn’t have waited for this plot for a few more episodes? You couldn’t have bothered to set up Cody looking up to Lee in the absence of Frank? You couldn’t have just let the characters say that Cody’s missing having an adult male figure in his life and now that Frank’s gone he could use one? There was this active avoidance of even mentioning Frank that annoyed me. Just say his name; people haven’t forgotten him already. It’s okay to bring him up. Continuity is a good thing, Hallmark, I promise you.

Maybe this is petty of me, but c’mon. This would have been really sweet if it didn’t feel like they were shoving it down the audience’s throat. Cody has never acted this way and never will. Also, I resent the idea that he doesn’t have male figures in his life to look up to: he’s had nice scenes with Bill and Jack, too; he’s not lacking in male presence in his life.

Also, the open-ended Frank exit means that Frank is, if nothing else, writing to Cody, so he’s still a part of his life.

With Bill being continually pretty busy (and not exactly a warm Father Figure), Jack being absent so much (and busy with Elizabeth when he is around), and Frank gone (not physically present even if he does write), Cody might decide he wants a male figure to spend time with. But the obsession he has with Lee right away 1) doesn’t feel age-appropriate, and 2) comes out of nowhere. It’s a part of what I call “forced wholesomeness,” where the writers try to cram something wholesome into the story that doesn’t quite fit and therefore feels awkward.

I wanted to like Lee’s interactions with Cody but they just didn’t feel right. Try again, Hallmark.

Emily might have been more fun if, you know, her family was still on the show and she showed up regularly to do things. But in recent seasons Emily mostly hovers in the background if she’s in the episode at all, and when she’s not around the other kids don’t mention her. That makes it really hard to feel invested in her, here.

I will admit, I thought at first that she might come up with something amazing and we’d have a scene where everyone in the shop fawned over her uncanny skill, but no. She’s awful.

And again with the “child imitating an adult” thing. Twice was a bit much. Pick a character and let that be their thing. I could easily see Emily looking up to Rosemary but it’s never been mentioned before so again... Bzzt. Doesn’t fit. Pass.

It was still a fun scene.

If mostly thanks to Rosemary. I wish I had more to say about this. A fun fairly mindless bit of material is all it is, though. Enjoyable for what it was supposed to be.

And I was glad that Rosemary took the time to actually talk to Emily about patterns!

Next, we had Opal at the mercantile...

This part was cute. And her liking the egg and almost spitting it out ‘cause she spoke with a full mouth? Also cute. I was a little disappointed Opal’s scenes weren’t just a bit deeper, though. She didn’t get to ring anyone up or anything. :/

This? Wasn’t cute. She’s not four years old. This kid is like, eight years old by now. I’m a little tired of seeing her act pre-k. I know it’s probably mean to say, and I feel like I’m the only person watching this show who doesn’t love Opal, but...ugh. Please stop using her as a cutesy charming baby. She’s not a baby anymore; she’s a school-age child. Maybe think of cute school-age things she can do instead? :U This was pointless and not at all charming or sweet. Please stop, Hallmark.

Finally, we have Robert who goes to the clinic. Carson immediately wishes for sweet death.

He has a hyper badly behaved child in his clinic who does nothing but complain. Carson thinks to himself, “There’s a reason my wife and I were madly in love and I pulled the heck out every time; kids are irritating.”

Faith tries to be inspiring and gentle with what she’s telling Robert. Sometimes as a medical professional, your job involves helping people who can’t do anything for you in return. Something you’d fully trust in if you went to church, ROBERT. Oh wait, this town doesn’t have a pastor hahahah.

I like that she says this but it isn’t the whole story and that’s a little grating, too. The railroad fronted some money for, at least, the expansion of the clinic but as I remember it, they were supposed to pay part of the expenses for keeping it open, too. Maybe that only held true as long as the line was being built (due to the increased likelihood of injuries at that time), but it wasn’t exactly made clear, so...

Anyway, I get that Robert is a child, but he’s at least 13; I’m pretty sure he’s capable of understanding a little more about 1) the economy, 2) the clinic’s role in Hope Valley’s economy, and 3) ethics of a medical professional, than they bother to explain to him.

UMMMMM.

Get???? Wrecked???? I guess at least this was funny, if not kind of annoying. Trust me, kid, it ain’t ‘cause the clinic workers work for free. I really wish they’d taken the time to try and explain it to him: some people can’t afford to pay but need the help. If those people don’t work, they don’t make money so they can’t spend money. BOOM. Done. Heck, they could have had someone poor come in for treatment. Maybe even a parent of someone Robert knows from school to make it feel personal.

Later, Robert is still being irritating while Faith does all the work. I was never this badly behaved as a kid; I would have never acted like this around Adult Supervision. Absolutely not. Of course, I would have gotten beat for misbehaving and that’s unlikely to happen to Robert, so...there’s that. I thought for sure they were going to try diagnosing him with ADHD or something and luckily they didn’t touch that with a ten foot pole. I might have been pretty offended if they’d tried.

Then Jesse comes in with an ouchie. Or maybe like, more than an ouchie.

Robert...is pumped. FINALLY! DRAMA!

He is quickly...less pumped.

“Actually, this is kinda nasty.”

“Ugh, ew, ughghghhhh.”

Goodbye cruel world.

Jesse’s face sold this scene, like he both expected this to happen and was shocked when it did. I knew it would but only because when I was in the 8th grade I job-shadowed a country vet with a classmate of mine and there was fainting involved.

Anyway, I predicted he would pass the heck out and let’s just say sometimes it feels good to be right.

This was cute and funny in a non-irritating way, at least in my opinion. It’s a life lesson but a cuter one----less in your face than this series’ usual schtick.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced that Robert really understood why they’d work for free sometimes. I feel like my idea would be a lot better in that regard. The way they presented it, Robert only feels that personal connection to, “Well it’s nice to not be charged money for a service I as a child can’t afford” instead of what they usually deal with, which are adults who can’t afford to pay for treatment with money or at all, at least on occasion. In other words, there are times when it’s not a “dollars and cents” type of business.

And yes, in part it’s an economically reasonable choice, but it’s also an ethical decision. I think these things would have made Robert’s scenes much better, but I enjoyed his the most of all of them anyway, so it’s just a small nitpicky detail.

Again, not bad, all things considered. The kids had their job-shadowing experiences and I wasn’t greatly offended or annoyed by them. Carson was also pretty nice in this episode, which was incredible. Unfortunately the preview for the next episode made me want to kick him into the pond again, but them’s the breaks, huh?

Mostly though I thought these little storylines were sweet and nonintrusive, and worked nicely around the main plots of the story (namely the bank plot that ended up involving AJ and Bill). It was nice to see them happen without disrupting or affecting other storylines.

3.) The Bank Fiasco

I’m keeping the bank plot separate from Bill and AJ for the purpose of talking about two very different things (the latter will be more for character discussion).

So, the first hint of the bank plot shows up when Mr. Jenkins speaks to Abigail by the stagecoach.

He found an investor that will be coming out to Hope Valley to look around and Abigail’s excited about it. So is he. It’ll solve the town’s problems to get the bank issue taken care of, so naturally both of them are pleased to have a second person express a modicum of interest in their bank, especially after they’ve had such bad luck finding someone thus far.

Abigail meets with Mr. Jenkins and the new investor on the scene, Joshua Baxter.

He looks fairly normal, but we already know from the previews and the exclusive clip that he’s the investor Abigail doesn’t trust. That’s a little annoying, mostly because we know exactly how this will turn out without even watching the episode: Abigail’s gut will be right and he’ll be Bad News.

But for the sake of discussing what actually happens in this episode...

First of all, what mayor isn’t somewhat pro-growth?

I like how Abigail doesn’t use the word pro-growth here, but uh, duh. Of course she wants her town to do well? She’d be an idiot not to. And Abigail is kind of insinuating a big “duh” by saying this, which is why I think Baxter comes back with what he does:

Baxter: If I become a majority stakeholder in the bank, I want to make sure we’re partners in promoting new businesses and growth. Abigail: Uh… what kind of businesses and growth? Baxter: Well, whatever helps this town prosper.

Her face says it all lmao. IS THAT SO.

Mr. Jenkins rushes in to, you know, save this conversation but Abigail has obviously halfheartedly checked herself out of it. She’s worried because this guy is dodgy, and he’s dodgy because he didn’t really answer her question in a satisfactory manner.

I don’t know why she doesn’t tell Bill this later, but I guess that’s just too smart of a thing for Abigail to be saying. Besides, the story answers later what kinda growth Mr. Baxter is looking for, and I know they don’t wish to spoil it too soon.

I’m pretty sure the answer’s kind of obvious, though.

Abigail goes to Bill with breakfast the next morning (presumably) and talks to him. He’s pretty much the only confidant in town she has who has a good head on his shoulders, so I’m glad they chose to let her speak with him.

She goes on to be super vague and tell him there’s something about the man that she doesn’t trust, which...could be anything, and either Abigail is choosing to be vague, the writers stink, or Abigail as a character isn’t good at pinpointing why she feels what she does. Bill asks the guy’s name and Abigail gives it, which of course gives AJ a chance to interrupt and repeat the name.

AJ’s kind of busy getting her feelings hurt by Bill being upset with Bill but she’s willing to speak nicely to Abigail, who asks if she knows Joshua Baxter.

“His name kind of rings a bell.”

Abigail jumps on this opportunity like a man plunging into an oasis in the desert.

Bill is 400% against the idea but he doesn’t have a better one, and AJ isn’t about to pass up an opportunity to get something out of this. Now that’s a #mood. Why should she help them out without getting anything in return?

She’s in jail, will be going to trial the day after tomorrow… Why shouldn’t she try to get away with something, right?

While AJ is getting a bath at the jail (and then gussied up by Dottie), Abigail meets the investor that Henry found.

Greta is immediately distracted by Elizabeth and then everyone stands around smiling a lot.

Luckily, Henry peels Greta away from Elizabeth and he and Abigail take her to the mayor’s office to have a chat.

I liked her immediately but did kind of want to kick her for calling Abigail “darling.” At the same time...I like it because it gives her some character. Makes her feel interesting and unique. That isn’t something we see often in this show anymore, you know what I mean? Usually our one or two-episode characters are easily forgettable, but this woman isn’t. Yay!

Abigail tries to be on the level by telling her that another person is in town also looking to invest in the bank.

Which we know is true; Abigail didn’t find out about Baxter until the previous morning. You know, shortly before he showed up. There’s absolutely no way Henry could have known before this point, at least not reasonably.

I liked Greta already but this made me feel invested in her character, at least to the extent of this plot. She’s interesting, she takes no bullshit from anyone, and she doesn’t appreciate games. She’s also not afraid to call things as she sees them, and that kind of honesty was refreshing, especially in this episode where a lot of Bill and AJ’s interactions were quite the opposite.

At least we know Abigail is telling the truth, here. She’s definitely not that sort of person and wouldn’t ever approve of it, not even if she felt pushed into a corner. But boy is Greta not having it.

WHAT A POWER MOVE.

I like that Henry assures her of this and that he doesn’t sound desperate the way Mr. Jenkins did with Mr. Baxter. It feels good to see Henry play a larger role in the story, and it be kind of a positive one? Henry was always best when he managed to kind of toe the line between being decent and...not being decent.

After Greta takes her leave (in kind of a huff, to be honest), Henry asks Abigail about Mr. Baxter.

Henry’s not exactly intuitive, here; Abigail’s terrible about hiding how she feels about literally everything. I do like that he brings it up, though, because it means he’s opening this up for discussion. She doesn’t exactly discuss it with him, but she takes the time to admit that she just doesn’t have a good feeling about him or his intentions, and that’s probably something Henry understands. Abigail isn’t a great mayor by my definition but at least she does try to do the right thing and make the right choices, at least in cases like this. If you’re going to let someone become a stakeholder of the bank, maybe make sure the things they’ll push for are, you know, things…the town wants.

Also worth noticing is that Henry doesn’t actually know who Baxter is and Henry knows quite a few people. That Greta doesn’t know who he is makes him more than a little suspicious, too. Wealthy or not, it’s like, how did Mr. Jenkins even find the man?

And this also kind of implies that Henry wouldn’t bring someone here he didn’t trust, which means he does trust Greta with the town. That’s cool.

AJ, now clean and freshly made up by Dottie (with her hair done up rather badly IMO–it’s just so flat, when her usual hair is kind of pretty at least? IDK what they were thinking with this) heads over to the saloon with Bill to get a peek at this Baxter guy who apparently comes here after he’s done doing whatever it is he does all day.

AJ spots Henry and detours the trip for a while. I thought it was interesting that even though Bill had the opportunity to say why AJ was out of jail (and therefore defend himself), he makes the choice to tell Henry to mind his own business, instead.

They finally get to the saloon and talk about Feelings while they wait for Baxter.

Baxter shows up, AJ says she might need a closer look at him, and then immediately beelines for Baxter’s table where she flirts a little and gets invited to sit down. She accepts, to Bill’s complete irritation and horror, and commences a long discussion with the man.

Baxter is apparently regaling her with stories about some kind of business adventure of his that ends with him firing someone else and she laughs in a way that is obviously fake but still convincing enough for Baxter. If nothing else this tells us Baxter’s full of himself but also charmed by AJ’s attention. I wonder how she introduced herself to him. Maybe using her real first name.

They don’t really drink anything (or they’re on their second drinks, though I doubt that), which is kind of…weird, but okay. Maybe an oversight? It would have helped with the idea that Bill has been waiting a while, though. Or it could be saying they’re so wrapped up in conversation that they forget about them...

AJ excuses herself in a very polite but gentle way, and Baxter shoots out of his seat instantly to pull her chair back out for her.

I mean he could not WAIT to offer that. (Damn, girl, you look busty in that dress!)

He also takes the opportunity to kiss her hand and call her Mademoiselle, which AJ acts delighted at while Bill seethes confusedly (angrily??? something-edly?) in the corner.

This guy is so charmed.

It makes me feel extra certain that the writers kind of intend AJ the character to be ~40 years old; so I guess if nothing else, I did take that away from this scene.

So you’d think AJ would have gotten all kinds of deets on this guy or something if she was sitting there long enough for Bill to start yawning. Among Bill’s many colorful thoughts, that question seems to be on his mind, too. The first thing out of his mouth?

After he complains and gets lightly flirted with he cuts to the point.

Which she evidently does, because the very next scene is her sitting with Bill and Abigail after dark talking about it.

This is clearly something Bill has already heard, as he’s looking at Abigail while AJ talks to gauge her reaction. I get the feeling AJ told Bill more than what she tells Abigail, but you know, AJ would probably watch her mouth around Abigail.

There are two American towns called Cane Ridge (none use one word). One is in Tennessee, and the other is in Kentucky and site of the Second Great Awakening, which is pretty cool. They definitely just wanted to make up a town for this, though, and that’s worth knowing.

Anyway, AJ tells Abigail that a few months ago she passed through this Caneridge place, and Baxter ran its bank.

“Nothing like Hope Valley.”

You know she’s implying prostitution, but she’s probably also implying various other illegal activities (drugs, abuse, etc), if only because Bill feels he has to add to what she says:

Of course AJ couldn’t know if officials in town were being paid off, and I like that she admits it. I can appreciate the fact that she also didn’t specify any payoff; it’s possible officials were happy to look the other way because they themselves indulged in those illegal things and so benefited from a lack of control regarding them.

Abigail says she wants more information on Mr. Baxter and Bill says he has a friend who is a Texas Ranger.

AJ isn’t too happy to be second-guessed this way, but she’s a fugitive so… Beggars can’t be choosers?

Presumably the next afternoon (it’s dark above, Bill shows up while Cody and Lee are playing ball after school) Bill has an answer:

So they rush to Mr. Jenkins to warn him and find him shaking Baxter’s hand. They’re told Baxter has agreed to help the town out! YAY! Or um, not.

Make Hope Valley Great Again!

Y’all should have just listened to AJ and warned Mr. Jenkins right away or early the next morning.

But no. You didn’t believe her enough to take any steps to protect your town? Are you insane? I get wanting to wait to make sure her story checks out, but it seems a little silly to do that when she has absolutely no reason to lie, not one that benefits her in any way, anyway. Besides, she implied she’d like to come and live in Hope Valley at the saloon when she was talking to Bill. Why would she lie and sabotage it?

Wait, I know: we wouldn’t have a plot if they’d gone right away to say something to Mr. Jenkins. Ugh.

Now, there are parts of this that are ridiculous. I can explain away how AJ got to Texas and back (stowaway on trains), but it’s so convenient and plopped into the story only when it’s strictly necessary for it to be there. It might have been nice to have her namedrop Texas earlier and say that’s where she’s come from most recently; maybe Bill could have asked her where she’s been hiding out or something. That way her mentioning it so casually wouldn’t feel weird.

Also, as a consideration: she could have said she’s been through several towns in the American Southwest that Baxter was leading and they were all pretty similar. If necessary, she knew he owed them because… I don’t know. Things were named after him maybe? (Establishments or city streets. Whatever.)

I feel like then it wouldn’t be so sudden and AJ wouldn’t feel like an extremely easy and simple puzzle piece that just…fits riiiight in there (conveniently, even though she’ll be getting carted off to trial next episode).

Bill knowing a Texas Ranger isn’t too strange. He was a very important person in the Mountie hierarchy; he probably has a lot of connections all over the place. I just found it weird that he could conveniently wire the guy and get a response from him in less than 24 hours.

Interested to see where this plot goes even though I feel like it’ll be wrapped up in an unsatisfying way.

CLICK HERE FOR PART II.

#when calls the heart #elizabeth thatcher #carson shepherd #faith carter #ned yost #lee coulter #analysis and meta discussion #season 5 shenanigans #season 5 spoilers #abigail stanton #henry gowen #bill avery #aj foster

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