#and i thought they were going to be good writers and flip the script but nooo

[jimothyhalperts]

Like I really like rhaenyra and team black and I think she is the legit heir but they way HoTD is so blatantly team black outrages me bit

[winchester-reload]

I have a few thoughts about the Winchesters finale, and though I wasn’t gonna weigh in on this, it turns out I needed to write this down to get it out of my head, so here we go.

I understand that Misha was approached to be included on the show and that there was a “scheduling conflict” that included multiple conversations with Jensen. Here’s my interpretation of that: 

I believe Cas was supposed to make a cameo in episode 13 to tee up the confession resolution—this was always the episode where they were going to crack open the “surprise twist” even before learning they would only get 13 episodes total. In the original scenario, episode 13 would have been the hellatus episode rather than a finale, leaving room for everything to come to a head with episode 22 instead. It’s then they would have given us the actual Dean and Cas reunion. This would have wrapped both stories nicely with each group going off into their own respective sunsets—their own happy endings, while still leaving all the room for the new crew to explore more seasons; all along, we see, The Winchesters was about Dean and Cas as much as it was about Mary and John.

When they didn’t get the back half of the season picked up, I assume they feared it would be more dangerous to show a Cas cameo without getting to address the confession, so Misha likely opted to be left out instead. With the only hint to Cas being Dean’s line that he was looking for his family when he found the Akrida, then directly drawing the parallel that Jack and Bobby were “family.” The core crew for Dean has always been Bobby, Sam, Jack, AND Cas. And he wasn’t looking for Sam because he was still on earth. So who’s left? You might be compelled to believe he was window shopping AU versions of his parents, but he confirms he ran into the Akrida in this world and then sought to interfere with the order by approaching John in an effort to prevent it from spreading to Sam's world. (Why Cas would be AU hopping, idk. The boy is really afraid of being shot down, I guess.)

It goes far to explain the vast narrative parallels we saw reflected in the Monster Club crew if it was intended as a setup for the confession payoff. It honestly doesn’t make a lot of sense otherwise. There’s no reason these people should be living Dean's experiences and regrets every episode unless the writers wanted the viewer to be thinking about the lessons and resolutions in how they relate to Dean too.

Additionally, as this has been a largely uncontested take, this is Jensen's well-funded fanfic come to life. Complete with the embracing of many of our favorite fanfic tropes and emphasized by Dean’s own words throughout the season. Because this is an obvious embrace of that “write your own story” fan side, I believe the reason Dean couldn’t even say Cas’ name in the episode is because they were going to change the spelling from “Cass” as it was in the show proper to the fan-adopted (and more accurate) spelling of “Cas,” which would have appeared in the subtitles and later the script pages.  And even that little thing right there would have been a huge giveaway to the whole game. And a very dangerous thing to do if there wasn’t going to be enough time for follow-through. 

But the truth is, this isn’t a game for many people, and the harm that can be caused by good intentions is just as real. It also begs the question: why should this be so difficult? The answer is it’s not. Edging forever isn’t fun. It’s torture. I understand there’s an art to storytelling, but your audience is weary, and trust has been violated too many times. Even still, the flip side of that coin is honest to god respect for DeanCas endgame means taking the story and the reveal seriously. It’s a tightrope walk. And one that Robbie somehow managed to keep balanced after the finale, without it falling either way.  Also we also need to consider the possibility that Jensen did pitch a full-on destiel love story spin-off but got shot down, opting to couch it in a more CW-branded world instead. He’s mentioned over half a dozen pitches were rejected. It's up to you whether you want to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

But, I’m gonna be honest here, I don’t know that we will ever get that resolution we crave. Even Robbie confirmed The Winchesters were always meant to “go it alone” after the first season. It’s hard to imagine Dean popping in there to fuck around again after that handoff. But the dude is clearly a very restless sea-faring*, swoopy-haired mofo right now, so I’ll leave that one up to the SPN multiverse and the new Mr. Superwholock’s magical universe-traveling impala. (This show used to be about what again? *looks at notes*.) And FWIW, if they do get green-lit for a whole second season or are allowed to move networks, I believe a good-faith effort will be made to tie the narrative parallels we saw in season one to some real Dean and Cas resolution. If there gets to be a world where John *might* not turn into an abusive dick, then this possibility has to be true too.

For the record, I enjoyed The Winchesters, all the new characters, and the doors the finale opened for the possibility of more. I would have been fine half-watching it with no promises, empty head no thoughts, but I got my clown** suit on again, and though I mostly kept quiet, unlike last time, I did regrettably manage to drag a few friends down with me yet again.  Though the spec sessions were epic, and we did get some art out of it—it still rocks the boat when the base level expectations were only 1. Dean alive, and 2. seeing Cas again. 

But for anyone, like me, upset by the (likely unintentional) Cas-baiting or anyone still reeling about why this stuff can hit so hard, here’s an interesting article about the way our brains respond to fictional characters. Tl;dr: There’s nothing wrong with you. This is science. And while you’re at it, take a look at this article about the very real power of disenfranchised grief over character loss.

Ramble on, fam. And take care of yourselves.

<3 Jackie

*Um hi he appears as a sailor? Literally, on a show with a story Dean is writing whose audience is looking for a resolution to a conversation between two people who’re famously the “most shipped” characters of all time? That’s not an accident. That’s intentional. And it’s another reason why there might be a bitter taste in your mouth. These nods came without resolution, so it still feels dirty, despite the brilliant Easter egg.

**I hesitate to say “clown” here because the lesson on episode 12 was that the clowns were the ones who chose a self-induced limbo rather than face some personal hard revelations. That sounds more like a certain closeted character than it does the people cheering him on, and that felt like an intentional nod too.

***obviously, this is my own rambling spec as I try to reorder my thoughts in the wake of the finale.

[being-of-rain]

I thought I'd continue my usual trend of writing my thoughts down on new Doctor Who episodes, by talking about The Star Beast. As usual, I set out to write something quick and concise, but the Wrarth Warriors busted down my door and told me that I legally couldn't.

Apparently I still have the impulse to describe Doctor Who episodes as 'fun', but by and large it's a fun show! And a fun episode! Even if I'm not as obsessed with him as a lot of fans, RTD has a charm which it's hard not to enjoy, especially with lots of little jokes and bits of physical comedy (I love little bits of physical comedy). And it's a funny episode, I was laughing from the moment the Doctor picked up a box, saw Donna, and put the box back again. Well that's not true, I was laughing from the moment I saw David Tennant just standing in green screen space like he was about to tell me the exciting new direction he intended to take the company. I'm glad everyone else seems to find that as funny as I did.

Another word I could use to describe the episode is a bit surreal. Having Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors on screen was a little surreal, but strangely I found it even more so that the Doctor was walking around not knowing who Beep the Meep was. I mean obviously that was always going to be the case, but all Doctor Who mediums just live together inside my head and it was just weird to see him not recognise an iconic enemy. Maybe that was just me. Oh but Beep and the Warriors looked fantastic! It's hard to believe they're all physical effects! I really wasn't too interested in the UNIT gunfight that didn't really do much for the story, but if the new big budget lets aliens look that good then I'm fine with it. Other slightly surreal or strange things involved finally watching Doctor Who again after more than a year's break, watching it on Disney Plus rather than Australia's ABC channel, and seeing Ruth Madeley on-screen as UNIT's scientific advisor when she's also playing a companion of the Sixth Doctor in the audios at the moment.

Oh and, of course, having the Tenth Doctor and Donna back on-screen, and the TV show doing what fanfiction writers have been doing for 15 years. That was really surreal. I definitely like the two of them, but I don't have the same rampant nostalgia for their time on the show like lots of people do. I'm glad lots of people are enjoying the nostalgia aspect, but I'm also glad this is a mini-series rather than a full one. And already there's some aspects back of RTD's writing which I'm not super fond of- like conclusions that try to use technobabble and music-swelling emotional moments to smooth over the fact that some things are just happening without much cause or set-up. RTD's usually pretty good at that too- that's how the whole DoctorDonna thing started in the first place, after all- so Donna and Rose just 'letting go' of the metacrisis did feel like it fell unusually flat. Especially with it being paired with a 'women are better than men' moment which felt more like something from a Moffat script (I say this as a fan of both these writers).

Okay, that was just me trying to get all of my negatives out of the way! On the flip side, Rose inheriting the metacrisis and saving the day was a wonderful revelation, and I love that daughter/mother and loving family relationships were so important on the whole. Seeing Sylvia stumble with pronouns but still try was so lovely, as was Donna being so aggressively supportive of her daughter. And Shaun was a small role but so hilarious.

The chat outside the Tardis was great too, with Shaun dunking on the Doctor, and Donna being genre-savvy enough to stop her daughter getting into the Tardis but not enough to save herself. The new Tardis itself was a little empty to me (I'll always prefer more homely interiors) but was still extremely cool. All I want is for the show to come up with excuses for creative ways to use the mood lights. And I couldn't imagine a better ending to the episode than the console exploding because Donna spilt coffee on it, 10/10 no notes.

I know basically nothing about the next episode, and it seems that's the case for most people, so I'm terribly excited about it! It seems potentially scary spooky 👀 I'm so here for that

[flutishly]

When “unliked” doesn’t mean “unlikable”, or, Expanded thoughts on Janine Teagues

I’ve been rewatching Abbott Elementary quite a bit these past few days. It’s not an organized rewatch, but a sporadic, messy mishmash of a few episodes from season 1 and mostly episodes from season 2, in no particular order (and I’ve rewatched some of the same episodes a few times already, even in the same evening). The more I rewatched, the more I found myself recognizing just how much I love Janine - something I’ve already posted about - and recognizing just how much the show leans into the idea that Janine is not well-liked by many (if not most) of her peers. And it got me thinking about the differences between “unliked” characters and “unlikable” characters, particularly in modern television.

At the peak of “peak TV” discourse (ugh), critics and cultural writers loved to talk about antiheros, unlikable (men) characters who were fairly obviously not good people, but compelling protagonists. But Abbott Elementary somewhat flips the script. Janine is a character who is demonstrably unliked by several of her colleagues, with the show’s writing often teasing her directly. And yet she remains the protagonist and the viewer is still clearly supposed to be rooting for her.

Janine’s radical optimism is easily mocked. Her insistence on believing that things can happen by sheer intention is taken down in both plot-direct and -indirect ways. Her tendency to rush to try to fix everything is shown to irritate those around her, though they also depend on it. Her chattiness and outward friendliness exhaust some of her more jaded fellow teachers. Some even go so far as to comment dismissively on how precisely they dislike Janine, whether they’re side characters brought on for one episode or part of the main cast. Ava in particular is often very vocal about her dislike of Janine (even if some of it is obviously performative and there’s a seed of genuine appreciation or admiration at the core of their relationship), but she’s not alone; in season 2, we see numerous occasions of Melissa rather unkindly pillorying Janine or shooting her down. Time and again, we see examples of people simply not liking Janine or not having the patience for her. We see Janine struggling to make friends. We see Janine struggling to connect with fellow teachers. We see Janine struggling to gain recognition for her work. Season 2 in particular is filled with such cases or situations where people are outright mean to Janine, which can often feel especially jarring given the show’s general “feel-good” tone. 

And yet despite all of these obvious textual examples of being “unliked”, Janine is not “unlikable” by any stretch of the imagination. Her intensity is also her greatest asset, which the show demonstrates again and again. Her passion and devotion are looked upon with love by Jacob, Gregory, and even Erica. We see Janine solve problems, do her best to stretch out of her comfort zone, and grow as a person. We see that she’s not trying to change her personality; her growth is about finding space for herself after a lifetime of giving it to others, but this has nothing to do with how she presents herself to the world. (I think this can also be seen in how the show treats her fashion choices, but that’s a bit of a tangent.) 

Janine is a character that the viewer is meant to generally like, whether or not everyone necessarily loves her or sees themselves in her (the way that I rather undeniably do). Janine is still very much the main character of the show and much of the narratives presented surround her relationships with her coworkers, which often do center on their respect for her. The show is not trying to cast her as an antihero or irritating “love to hate her” sort of character. She doesn’t have the cringe factor of a character like Michael Scott of The Office, or even Leslie Knope’s obvious over-the-top humor (though Leslie is probably the closest mapping, at least the Leslie of later, more settled seasons of Parks and Recreation). Earnest characters - and people - are easy to mock in an era of cynicism, but it shouldn’t be the case. 

Yes, I wish that Abbott Elementary could be a bit kinder to Janine, truthfully, and to Jacob as well (though he is much cringier...), but I still appreciate that the show is demonstrating how even when a character is disliked by many around her, there are those who still love and cherish her. That maybe the problem with others disliking Janine has more to do with those characters’ issues than Janine’s personality itself. That being “unliked” says nothing about whether the character - the person - is inherently “unlikable” or worthy of love. And I find this helpful when I look at the fandom too, where it often feels like Janine is forgotten as an independent character and is compelling only in the context of her relationships with others. It almost doesn’t matter how others view or appreciate her character. Ultimately, I will continue to love and appreciate her character for all that she is and all that she represents.

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

From the Outside

The Afton-Herrera household as seen from the perspectives of a judgey teacher, nosy script writers, and gossipy kids looking for a podcast topic.

Time Set: Post-SB, Pre-Ruin

----------------------------------

Three hours in and Mrs. Feldman was ready to escape via the window rather than have to deal with another set of parents who would insist their kid was a perfect little angel and do nothing to help her resolve situations. Being a teacher was equal parts rewarding and demoralizing; some days there was more of one feeling over the other and she never knew what ratio she’d get until she got it.

Parent-Teacher Nights were her bane, but she was finally on the last appointment with her newest student and his guardians. If she could survive this, there’d be a nice chilled bottle of wine with her name on it back home. With a deep breath, she settled herself as best she could and then buzzed in the final appointment.

The door to her classroom opened after a few minutes, letting in the young woman she had met on enrollment day, Ms. Afton, of unfortunate relation to the founders of Afton Robotics which had recently been caught up in yet another short-lived scandal. Following her in was her sulking son, Gregory, the subject of tonight’s chat, and then following him in was someone Mrs. Feldman didn’t recognize, a young man with a tired look to him, like he’d just been pulled out of a long day at work to sit in on this meeting without a break in between. She could sympathize with that; maybe he was thinking of a drink at home for himself, too?

“It’s good to see you again, Mrs. Afton,” Mrs. Feldman greeted her warmly before glancing towards the man expectantly. She couldn’t remember now if she’d been told that the young woman was married. Afton was her maiden name, wasn’t it? Then did her husband take on her name instead? It wasn’t unheard of but this would be the first time she’d encounter such an odd take on family naming.

“Um, it’s Miss,” Miss Afton corrected sheepishly, her cheeks pink at the faux pax, “I’m not married.”

“Oh! I’m sorry for assuming so,” Mrs. Feldman quickly tried to backtrack embarrassedly, ignoring the little snort from Gregory. She glanced at the unknown man again in time to catch him mid-eyeroll. A flicker of annoyance shot through her mind before she reminded herself that this was Miss Afton’s first Parent-Teacher meeting so of course more of the family would show up rather than be present at Gregory’s enrollment. But an introduction would be nice, so why wasn’t he speaking up? “Then this must be-?” she asked leadingly. Boyfriend? Fiancé? ...Flavor of the week?

“This is Sydney Herrera, my best friend!” Miss Afton introduced brightly, smiling over at the silent man staring at Mrs. Feldman. The teacher twitched just a little, a tiny bit. Why was he staring? What was wrong with him? “We co-parent so I thought it’d be fine to bring him along,” Miss Afton went on without a care in the world.

“Coulda brought Freddy, instead,” Gregory muttered grumpily. Neither his mother or the ‘other parent’ reacted to his words.

Mrs. Feldman could feel her stress levels rising. Maybe this was going to be worse than those in-denial parents after all?

“This is my first Parent-Teacher meeting, so I went looking online for some guidelines on how these are supposed to go,” Miss Afton added, digging through her purse before pulling out a small binder with several pages stuck inside, a label slapped on the cover reading ‘Manual for Parent-Teacher Nights’. She opened it and flipped through some of the papers while Mr. Herrera gave her an exasperated look and then shared it with Gregory, the boy just raising an eyebrow at him and folding his arms over his chest. “According to the manual, we go over his grade progress, social progress, discuss any problems with regards to class behaviors and/or schoolwork, then map out solutions to resolve said problems and generate a follow-up meeting to evaluate post-solution status,” Miss Afton declared in a proud tone.

Yes, stress levels would certainly rise with this one. Pretty face, empty head; no wonder this Mr. Herrera was latched to her. Friend-zoning probably wasn’t a problem for him, Mrs. Feldman thought sourly.

Well, she still had a job to do, and she’d do it to the best of her ability. Not her fault Miss Afton was clearly in over her head at parenting. But with how old Gregory appeared to be and how young Miss Afton looked, it was clear that there was a lot Miss Afton didn’t know about the world and people in general. Tragic.

“Alright, so in terms of grades and schoolwork, Gregory does hold a relatively average score for reading, writing, and history,” Mrs. Feldman began, looking over her notes and examples of the boy’s work while Miss Afton listened attentively. “His scores for math and science are above average, so he does have strengths and interest in some subjects. It’s just that he seems to.. let his mind wander often. As if he can’t keep his attention on anything that isn’t of interest to him.”

“Is that a problem?” Miss Afton asked and she sighed at the question. Typical clueless mother type. “He does his work and his grades aren’t failing, right? I mean they could be better and I’ll talk with him about that but him zoning out between tasks…”

“I wouldn’t be tuned out if she let me draw while she’s talking,” Gregory piped up with a petulant shrug, “Drawing lets me get stuff in my head out so I can focus on this world.”

That was the same excuse he gave her for making those strange doodles about the defunct pizzeria and creepy robot animals. Mrs. Feldman expected the same frustration about it from Miss Afton, but the young woman just gave her son a sympathetic look. Great, so she’s why Gregory behaved in such a manner.

“What you draw might confuse people, Gregory,” Miss Afton told him, “But if you need to do something with your hands, we can ask Mr. Woods if he has a spare fidget cube you can have.”

“Cassie is okay with my comics,” Gregory countered with a huff, “She thinks it’s kind of weird but she’s not confused by it.” He paused for a moment, then sighed, “But fine, we can ask Mr. Woods about it. At least Alex won’t flip his shit if it’s just Mr. Woods we talk to.”

“That’s something else I’d like to speak to you about,” Mrs. Feldman brought up, shaking her head at Gregory’s crudeness, “Gregory’s language is not acceptable. He uses a lot of swear words and vulgarities. Such rude language isn’t tolerated in this classroom or this school.”

“That tends to be normal for Gregory,” Miss Afton sighed in exasperation and looked to her son, “Could you tone it down for school at least?” Gregory made a face at her. Mrs. Feldman was not impressed with the display.

“It would probably be better if we knew where he was learning such language and removed that bad influence,” she suggested to Miss Afton. Clearly the young woman was too innocent to have taught her son these behaviors so the only influence that could be responsible was…. Mrs. Feldman snuck another look at Mr. Herrera who only looked back at her with a deadpan expression. Still unresponsive to everything? Probably didn’t even think he had any responsibility for a kid that wasn’t his. “Do you have anything to say about this, Mr. Herrera?” she asked him crisply.

The man just raised an eyebrow at her before lifting a hand, held it flat like he was about to do a salute, then slashed it sharply under his chin. That looked threatening. Was he threatening her?! Alarm rang in her mind as Miss Afton turned her attention back.

“Oh! Sydney uses sign language to communicate, I keep forgetting to let people know that,” Miss Afton said with a sheepish laugh, “I’m too used to being able to understand him. Do you know sign language? Or can at least understand it? That would make it easier to speak with him directly. But I can translate for you!”

Oh. Oh dear. Mrs. Feldman felt her face heat up from stress and embarrassment. Had Mr. Herrera been staring at her to read her lips? How was she to know the man was deaf?! If people expect her to do her job right, they should tell her these things before she makes a fool of herself!

The man was making gestures at Miss Afton and the young woman was glancing between his hands and his face. Maybe she should have taken some classes on alternative languages, then she’d be able to understand some of what was being discussed in front of her. This felt awkward and a little rude, especially since Miss Afton’s open expression quickly became a faint scowl that was directed at her.

“Did you imply that Gregory swearing was Sydney’s fault?” she demanded and Mrs. Feldman shook her head.

“No, I simply wanted his input on this meeting,” she recovered smoothly, “Since he hasn’t said anything the whole meeting, I assumed he wasn’t as invested in Gregory’s upbringing and education as we are.”

“You assume a lot on very little,” Miss Afton said in a colder tone. She looked a lot less like the bubble-headed woman she first walked in as, and Mrs. Feldman swallowed a little.

The young woman reached into her purse again and pulled out another book, a copy of the school’s manual and regulations. She sat back in her chair and flipped through it idly. “Gregory drawing during your lessons is an accomodation, not a disruption, as outlined in section 3, paragraph 2,” Miss Afton began in a flat and toneless voice, her expression empty of the earlier cheer and brightness, “The lack of documentation in his record for this accomodation was an oversight that will be corrected. You’ll just have to deal with it. Gregory can try to curb his language use but there’s no guarantee he can stop entirely. At best, he’ll just make sure you’re not around to hear it and you can simply not be in places where he will be if you’re not necessary to be there.” She smiled, thin and sharp, “That way you can have plausible deniability within the guidelines of the school manual.” She made a small motion with her free hand in Mr. Herrera’s direction. “I’ll overlook your perceptions of Sydney but I can’t say the same for him. After all, your behavior was clearly a violation of section 1, paragraph 1 of this same manual as well as the official charter for the school. He’s within his rights to bring the matter to the attention of your immediate supervisor.”

That would be bad. She wouldn’t be let go, but she’d have a stain on her reputation in the school. Mrs. Feldman swallowed again, thinking of the looks she would get if that happened because she’d lost control of this meeting. How did this happen?! One minute she had everything well in hand and now it felt like she was facing some sort of corporate overlord throwing down hammers of legalese at her!

Mr. Herrera made a few more gestures that Miss Afton glanced over, her fingers twirling her hair idly, like she hadn’t a care in the world. Gregory just looked bored, but then it wasn’t his butt over the fire, was it? Mrs. Feldman looked between them all, holding herself stiffly. Was she about to get blackmailed? Was that it? Over something they just assumed she was thinking?!

“Hm,” Miss Afton hummed in interest before looking back towards Mrs. Feldman, “Sydney is willing to let things slide if you don’t look too hard at what Gregory does.” Her smile stayed in place but everything felt much scarier, darker, like Mrs. Feldman had stumbled into something she should not have. Could she call the police about this? And say what? “He’s just being a kid, drawing to help him keep his focus, and sure he says a few bad words but I’m sure these kids have heard worse on the internet. As long as he’s not using those words to hurt others, and dials it back in front of authority figures to blend in, it should be fine. Nothing against the manual.” Miss Afton waved the book tauntingly at her. “And maybe you should dial it back on being so judgmental. You’re here to teach kids and support them in education and socializing, not try to control how they behave to conform to your idea of how kids should be. Are we clear?”

Mrs. Feldman pursed her mouth tightly. No threats or anything she could take to the police, and if she tried to claim intimidation, the words were just about Gregory, and the only thing about her directly was that accusation. And if she admitted to that to anyone, she’d just as good as tarnish her reputation herself.

She was stuck, and from the looks of the matching smiles on Miss Afton and Mr. Herrera’s faces they were fully aware of it. She scowled and sat back in her chair. “I suppose we’re in agreement over Gregory’s accommodations moving forward, then,” she said, busying herself with straightening the papers on her desk. “That’ll be all for this meeting, thank you.”

“Pleasure working things out with you!” Miss Afton replied, returning to that bright and cheery tone she had when Mrs. Feldman first saw her as a silly blonde girl too naive to get a grip on her boy. How easily she fell for that front. Shameful!

“I told you she was out to get me,” Gregory chimed in with a roll of his eyes, as if he was the one who’d been suffering all this time. Miss Afton just sighed as she, Mr. Herrera, and Gregory all stood up to leave.

“Not everyone is out to get you,” she retorted and narrowed her eyes when the boy just raised a splayed hand, “That doesn’t count!”

“Therapy says it does.”

“Vincent also said you need a different therapist, so ha!”

The dysfunctional little family finally went out the door, leaving Mrs. Feldman in peace at last. She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding and finally relaxed. Frustrating as it was, she was probably better off just letting this slide for her own sake. Those two were still related to Afton Robotics, even if they didn’t seem interested in following the family business. A big enough donation from that company to the school with conditions tacked on could put undue stress on her nerves.

Perhaps she could retire soon and take a well-deserved vacation come summer? Yes, that seemed like a far more lovely idea.

.

-----------------------------

.

There weren’t many places where Therese and Enrique could sit for as long as they liked, watching people come and go, and muse to themselves about what kinds of lives they live. They’d done it through high school and college as a way to amuse themselves and come up with stories for their respective work interests, and now that they both had steady jobs in those fields it became a way of staying sharp. And it was just fun to do for the two friends.

“Ooh, I got held up in traffic on the way, what’d I miss? Anything delicious in the tea today?” Enrique gushed as he slid into the bench in Therese’s booth, a plate of vegan pizza and a salad on his tray. Therese slid the extra apple soda she bought in his direction as she glanced over the dining area to be sure everyone else was still in their places.

“There’s a family over there looking like they’re trying to put on a front for a mother-in-law, but they give each other death glares whenever she’s not looking. Maybe a plot to bump MIL off for inheritance money?” she began with a sly little smile. Enrique looked over at the family with a pout, slice of pizza in hand.

“Mm, kind of generic, expected even, not enough drama and pizzazz,” he remarked, “Let them cook a bit more. See if we can get something juicy. What else?” He bit into the pizza with a happy hum as Therese looked for the next scene.

“See that guy sitting in a booth by himself? Comes in, orders a personal pizza and a salad, then sits like the salad is for someone else he’s expecting to join him, but no one ever comes,” she pointed out subtly, “I’m thinking someone in denial that their lover is lost, never to join them for a meal again. Or someone who doesn’t believe they keep getting stood up for a date.”

“Ooh, that’s a little more like it~! Dash of romance, dash of tragedy,” Enrique sighed and fluttered his eyes, “Maybe one day, a cute someone slides into that seat at lasts and eats the salad with him?”

“You can have that one,” Therese offered with a flip of her hand, “Theatre scripts do better with more drama than that, but it seems right up your alley for a rom-com script.” She scanned the dining area as she took a sip of her diet soda, looking for other potential scene-setters. A flash of bright red caught her attention and her eyes zeroed in on the pizzeria’s owner/manager moving towards the front of the restaurant with Circus Baby at her side to greet a small group that just entered.

That was rare, to be personally greeted by the owner rather than the front of house staff, and with the star of the animatronic band, too. Therese glanced over the people that warranted such a greeting and her eyebrows rose. “Hey, that guy’s back!” she whispered excitedly to Enrique, flapping her hand to get his attention before he dove into his salad, “The one you totally had a crush on but then he, like, vanished for a couple years or something?”

“He didn’t ‘vanish’, he just got a job over at the Mega Pizzaplex before some sinkhole tore the place practically in half,” Enrique sighed with a roll of his eyes, face flushing at the reminder, “And it’s not a crush! I just wanted to know where he works out so I can get a membership there, too.”

“So how come you never asked when he worked here?” Therese asked him flatly, folding her arms over her chest.

“Cuz he gave me sleeper agent, retired assassin vibes!” Enrique protested, face still burning red and eyes bright with excitement, “What if me talking to him broke the vibe? How’d I live with myself if I ruined my best muse? You know how many good scripts I got out of just watching him work here? And I got a bonus from the script I wrote up when I saw him at the Pizzaplex!”

Therese knew about a couple of those scripts; she had traded a few romance concepts based on the co-owners of the pizzeria for some of those secret agent and assassin scripts. A little bit of a rewrite and they worked well for fantasy medieval dramas. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Yeah, well, apparently he’s back and he’s with that blonde guard from the Pizzaplex,” she pointed out and the two of them watched the young couple greet the pizzeria owner and Circus Baby. “She’s kinda pretty, in that ‘I don’t know what to do with my life’ kind of way,” Therese added.

“He’s got a different vibe,” Enrique muttered, squinting at the only man in the group of women. He blinked when the subject of his observation made gestures with his hands, the blonde watching him, then speaking to the others. “Huh, so he went from being careful with how he talked to people to just full on not speaking at all. Did something happen while he was working over at the Pizzaplex?” He grinned, “Hey, notice how close he is to his former work buddy there? Think they were more than just co-workers?”

“I dunno, they could just be friends like us,” Therese pointed out, stealing a slice of Enrique’s pizza and picking off the bell peppers.

“I’m gay, what’s his excuse?” Enrique huffed, jerking a thumb at himself. He fished a notepad and pen from his satchel, clicking once and scribbling on a fresh sheet. “Maybe they were investigating shady business practices in the Pizzaplex and grew closer under the pressure to discover what was going on, then something traumatic happens, maybe his newly beloved is threatened with harm, and the fear is so deep that he’s silenced to spare her life!”

“Hm, not exactly your usual rom-com,” Therese told him between bites of pizza. Enrique pulled his plate away from her with a scowl. “Also a little vague, you need to fill in more plot.” She looked back up, watching as Circus Baby excused herself and walked away, probably to get ready for the stage. It was almost time for the scheduled show.

The pizzeria owner started leading the young couple into the dining area and Therese and Enrique turned to their food, trying to listen without looking like they were listening in.

“So that’s the basics of how to start up a pizzeria. Didn’t think I’d be helping out new competition today when I woke up but you’re family and friends, after all,” the owner remarked, gesturing towards a nearby dining table. “Here, have a seat. At least let me treat you to lunch before you head back home.”

“Thanks, Meera. Hopefully our pizzeria will be successful enough that Sydney here won’t run off again,” the blonde woman replied gratefully before giving the man beside her a sly smirk, “He knows what’ll happen if he ditches us again.” Sydney just made a face and she laughed, bumping his arm with her shoulder.

“They’re totally boning,” Enrique whispered to Therese, smug grin on his face.

“Alex will be on break soon, so he can join you guys. Tío Lucian can handle security during the performance for a while,” the pizzeria owner, Meera, told the young couple, “I gotta get back to work but it’s really good to see you both again, without all the fighting. You’ve got a surprisingly good roundhouse kick! We should spar sometime!” Sydney’s expression grew wary and the auburn-haired woman laughed. “Relax! I’m asking Vanessa for a friendly spar, this isn’t me flirting. But I can totally flirt if you’re into that, ‘Nessa~.” She and the blonde laughed, playing it off as teasing while Sydney just rolled his eyes with a grin of fond exasperation.

“Your eyes are doing that sparkle thing again. Stop smiling so big, you’re gonna give us away!” Therese hissed under her breath, flicking the green peppers towards Enrique. Her friend was practically vibrating in his seat, pen scribbling furiously over his pad. He might have been going gaga over a fellow gay shooting her shot, but Therese was more interested in the supposed ‘fight’ the three of them had been in.

Did they throw hands somewhere? What for? What caused them to become friendly after the fact? Enemies to friends was a good trope for a lot of scripts, plenty of material there, and yes, a little romance there would be good to bring in the dating couples to the theatre.

Eventually, the pizzeria owner moved on and the day shift guard for the pizzeria came over to sit at the booth. Therese and Enrique squabbled a bit over the bowl of salad to keep up their cover of not-listening. Now that both men were at the table, it was easy to recognize the day guard as related to Sydney.

“Oh, that’s right. His little brother hung out here while he was working the day shift. Must’ve taken over the job when Sydney left to work at the Pizzaplex,” Enrique remarked with raised eyebrows. “Wonder if this place is hiring them as extra staff?”

“Sounds more like that Vanessa lady is opening her own pizzeria and Sydney’s working for her there. Ooh, brothers in competition! This should give some good material,” Therese murmured happily, taking her own notes on her phone.

“How are your ribs? Finally healed up?” the day guard asked his brother. Therese and Enrique listened attentively, curiosity ramped up by the questions. The guard was holding his phone up, angled to point the camera at Sydney’s hands as the older man gestured with them. “That’s good. You’re lucky you only got a little roughed up by that guy. My background check turned up some info on that client,” the guard, Alex as the pizzeria owner said, explained in a lowered voice, “He’s apparently an admirer of your past self. You showing up as Pantera was practically his idea of a gift from on high for his collection.”

Sydney just face-palmed while Vanessa scowled, cheeks puffing indignantly. “He can’t have him! I hold Sydney’s contract, so I’ve got legal on my side!” she huffed. The three fell into silence as a waiter came by and delivered a large pizza and drinks for them.

“Just saying,” Alex picked up the conversation once the waiter was gone, “if you go back out again as Pantera, steer clear of that guy. I doubt he’ll just give up on you now that he’s convinced himself you’re somehow a descendent of yourself. Those eyes of yours are too unique to not have been ‘inherited’.” The brothers cringed at his words while Vanessa just pinched the bridge of her nose.

“This reminds me of how Afton thought my body would be perfect for Emelia just because I have green eyes like her,” she growled, “It’s stupid. These are our lives! Our identities!”

“Welcome to the paranormal dumbfuckery club,” Alex quipped, uncapping his bottle of soda, “Where our eyes get us into trouble and our souls are the ball in a decades-long game of keep-away from some dipshit who couldn’t handle competition in business. Sydney, stop looking guilty; you didn’t start this shit, you got taken advantage of just like the rest of us.”

Therese and Enrique stared at one another with wide eyes. Whatever was going on with those three, there was just so much juicy gossip, even if stuff didn’t make any sense. Something like this would make for a great thriller, an action movie script maybe, something with suspense and intrigue. Change some names and ages around, fill in the blanks and smooth out the stuff that doesn’t make sense, this could be another good pitch.

“This one would be good for a summer action flick,” Enrique muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he tapped his pen against his pad.

“I dunno, this almost feels too bizarre to be real,” Therese murmured, squinting at the notes on her phone. “Are we being fed bullshit?”

“If it is bullshit, it’s still nourishment for the garden of plot ideas,” her friend countered, scribbling down another idea. “Could do with a role reversal, woman rushing to rescue her kidnapped man from some mafia boss with a thing for mysterious idols. Is that too tacky?”

“We got a lot of good advice and tips from Meera on opening and running a pizzeria, so we should be set on that front,” Vanessa said brightly, clapping her hands together, “No one’s going to be running off to do mercenary work any time soon, got it?”

“I didn’t even get to do anything!” Alex complained while Sydney just flashed a thumb’s up while grabbing a slice of pizza for himself. “All I’ve done so far is just secure our networks here at the pizzeria and at home so it’ll be harder for us to get tracked. Hacking the Pizzaplex network was the closest I got to my old work, and even then the asshole got further in that than I did!”

“Well, now you’ll get to secure the network for our pizzeria, too,” Vanessa told him and looked down at the pizza. “Uh, what kind of pizza is this? Looks like something we served at El Chip’s.”

“Taco pizza. It’s one of the asshole’s ideas for a signature dish,” Alex sighed, pulling a slice out to eat, “Don’t tell him, but it actually does taste good. I just don’t wanna give him the satisfaction of knowing I said that.”

“Bored now,” Enrique mumbled around his straw as he took another drink of his soda. Therese nodded in agreement, tapping out some more notes about a potential script idea with a jealous king and a clever knight and a princess caught in a trap. “I got a lot of great material to work with though. You?”

“I think I’ve got enough to create a full schedule of shows. Same time next week?” Therese asked as she got up and flicked through her wallet to leave a tip. Music began drifting from the stage as the curtain rose, Circus Baby stepping out in a strut to the beat. “She’s circus themed but I swear some joker programmed her to perform like a flamenco dancer,” she remarked with a squint at the animatronic swirling on stage with rapid steps and taps.

“Not like the kids watching her would know the difference. Yeah, same time next week,” Enrique replied and walked off cheerfully, “I’ll pick up the tip next time! Get that bag, girl!”

Therese gave the group at the nearby booth one last glance before shouldering her bag and heading out. Whatever was going on with them sounded pretty bizarre for such a normal-looking bunch, but it wasn’t her problem anyway. People watching today brought in a rich bounty of script ideas. Maybe she should keep an eye out for when this new pizzeria would open and add that to the list of places she and Enrique hit up for ideas. Wouldn’t do to let a fountain of inspiration disappear on them again.

.

--------------------------------------

.

“Huh, that the new kid over there?” Toby asked over his lunch of burger and fries, blinking at a pair of figures sitting at a table near the cafeteria exit. His companions turned to look as well before returning to their own food.

“That Gregory guy? He’s been here a couple weeks already so not that new,” Christine replied flippantly, swinging her legs as she dipped her fries into her cup of ice cream to eat. “Kinda cute in that ‘I can fix him’ sort of way. Cassie hangs out with him and I heard from Millie who heard from Bobby who overheard them talking about the Pizzaplex one time that that’s where they met so him saying he just moved here last month is a total lie.”

“Why would he lie about when he moved here? This place is the most boring town in the world. Like nothing happens here,” Frank complained, eyeing her fries with disgust.

“What about all those people that kept disappearing from their houses or the Pizzaplex or that one game studio or a whole pizzeria just up and vanishing overnight?” Toby pointed out dryly.

“Conspiracies! No way can so many people just vanish and nobody does anything about it or looks into what caused it!” Frank shot back and folded his arms over his chest, wrinkling his immaculately pressed shirt. Toby and Christine shared a look over their milk cartons; it would just be a matter of time before he complained about that too. “Anyway, what if he’s under witness protection and had to lie about when he moved here to protect himself?”

“His name is Gregory Afton,” Christine replied sarcastically, “If that’s the name he gets under witness protection, they might as well pin a bull’s-eye to his back before letting him get on the bus.” She rolled her eyes and looked back over at Cassie rubbing Gregory’s back as the boy pressed his hands to his eyes and forehead. “Every time I see that guy, he always looks like he’s in pain. I hope he has medicine with the nurse for it,” she added with a concerned look.

“If his last name’s Afton, is he related to the company that made the animatronics for the Pizzaplex?” Toby mused aloud, “Maybe he knows when that place will reopen?” The other two kids shrugged, and he pouted. “You guys suck. That place was awesome and then it closed down and got swarmed by cops, and then an earthquake wrecks it more.”

“God, if you want pizza and animatronic entertainment so bad, just go to Circus Baby’s,” Christine told him in annoyance, “The food actually tastes like the cooks give a crap and Circus Baby takes song requests if she’s in a good mood.”

“She never takes any of my requests,” Frank grumbled as he looked down at his wrinkled shirt in distaste and Christine rolled her eyes again.

“No duh. You keep asking for anime songs from a clown performer,” she replied dryly, “She looked like she was five seconds away from kicking you in the head and I would have cheered her on. Listen to Hatsune Miku on your phone; don’t traumatize the robot.”

Chairs scraping the floor pulled their attention back to Cassie and Gregory, and the three of them watched as they left their trays on the table. Gregory had one arm slung across Cassie’s shoulders, the girl helping him stay upright as he clutched at his head with a grimace. Side by side, they shuffled through the exit, slipping out of the cafeteria and probably heading for the nurse’s office.

“Y’know, he showed up here after the Pizzaplex closed and got hit with the cops. Think he had something to do with that?” Toby questioned thoughtfully.

“He’s a kid like us,” Christine told him flatly and pointed her dipped fries at Frank, “Don’t start sounding like him.”

“What if he’s actually a robot who ran away from the Pizzaplex?” Frank whispered in dawning horror, eyes wide and distant. Christine looked at him in disgust before shooting Toby a glare.

“You set him off again!”

“Sorry. But at least we’ll have something for our podcast after school?”

“It’s going to sound so dumb. If we go on the internet and say Gregory’s a secret Afton robot, we’re gonna lose so many listeners. Who would actually believe that?!”

Toby shrugged at her deadpan expression, a mischievous grin on his face, “It’s just a theory.”

[hell0mega]

so i finally watched the Barbie movie, and it was... good. like, i really enjoyed myself, it's very funny, it's acted well, it LOOKS amazing.

but... am i the only one who feels like the script should've had, like... another good month or two to cook?

and i don't mind the lack of explanation. like, it never explained why Barbieland is this, like, weird demiplane connected to Earth and the Barbies are real and not only can they go to the real world and function basically as people, but real people can also travel to Barbieland. it was one of those things where i could easily go, yeah, sure, whatever. like, maybe they could've fleshed that out a bit, but it didn't distract me enough to say that would be necessary

but I'm talking about the actual plot, and the message of the film. it felt... clunky. I've seen people criticize it for being "intro feminism" but i don't even think it's that. i want to watch it again and have a more detailed and in depth analysis, but i remember a few things that bothered me. the idea that the deconditioned barbies used their wiles to make the kens jealous and turn on each other in order to defeat them felt... bad. the way the film said "manipulative women win" felt SO icky, especially how that was just kind of accepted and worked just fine and wasn't called out. and the way that Ryan's Ken was like "i thought it was all about horses anyway" yet the concept of men finding community with each other over common interests was never seen as a positive topic to explore, and it just all came down to oppressing the Barbies.

the whole movie implied that this is what the world would be like if the roles were reversed, right? if women were the one in charge and men were put down and subservient. yet all the kens were dumb, and ignorant, and only cared about the attention from their Barbies. and at the end, president Barbie said "maybe things shouldn't go back to the way things were" and the film recognizes that the kens were bad off... but then made the joke that they were "not ready" for equal representation? "maybe someday" a ken can be in the supreme court, but for now, they have to learn, and they're gonna have to work their way up. if we flip that metaphor and apply it to real life, flip the roles... that feels disgusting. you can't have a reverse metaphor and put down men at the same time. the reason why women haven't had equal rights is exactly this narrative, that they weren't "ready," that they were ignorant or dumb, that they wouldn't use their rights or power "correctly," and that's exactly what the film said about the kens. and it was a joke! funney!!!

it felt like they had this basic idea for the movie and did the worldbuilding centered on the fact that they're dolls and ken is just There while they're a million barbies with a bunch of different careers. and then when they tried to come up with a story, they had to shoehorn in the feminist stuff... and it just did not land for me. if they wanted this to have been a feminist piece for the ages, they should've started there.

I'm actually surprised at the lack of analysis and criticism I've seen of the actual story of the movie. I'm sure it's out there, but i haven't done across it. i know this was written just after covid, and it was written during the worst time to be a writer if we consider the timing of the strike. but... i still wish it had been edited. i think it would've fared much better had they've consulted with feminist and gender study scholars. i think it would've led to a much better lesson and a much tighter script.

[thewadapan]

God Help the Girl vs. the best musical of all time

Having read the withering remarks compiled for the Reception section of this film's Wikipedia page, and the chorus of voices on this site echoing the idea that it's a mindless mess, I was prepared to cringe myself out of my body when I finally sat down to see it.

So now that I have… I'm sorry, remind me, what was your problem again? Push that "Keep reading" button to eject and flip to "Side B" of this post to find out what I thought.

Stuart Murdoch's script here is patently the work of a talented writer; key songwriterly instincts of narrative economy and impressionism are put to good use in communicating the unmoored experience of young adulthood. The film flits through a series of disconnected situations, carefully chosen to show the characters changing, but also often to demonstrate their stasis. Many important events are communicated solely in the music videos which punctuate the narrative; a song will end, and you'll realise months have just passed.

The film's first act is predominantly focused on the main character of Eve, who's been committed to a psychiatric hospital in an attempt to treat her anorexia. Many reviewers have criticised these scenes as being utterly disjointed from the rest of the film, claiming that the narrative has nothing to say about mental illness and no interest in meaningfully exploring the topic of anorexia—or even, that it glorifies anorexia! I feel pretty comfortable saying these viewers really did just miss the point. The core of Eve's character is her striving to escape the prison of her illness. She escapes using music. She physically escapes by sneaking out of the hospital. Her every interaction with James is coloured by her obvious unwillingness to talk about herself or acknowledge her situation.

Anyone with a shred of empathy can watch this unfolding, and sympathise with Eve's attempts to forge any kind of identity for herself outside of disorder. And of course, when her avoidance of the issue reaches a breaking point, and she relapses, it permanently changes her relationships with James and Cassie. I felt that it was a remarkably nuanced and empathetic portrayal of dysfunction.

An even more spurious criticism I've often seen levied at this film is simply regarding the kind of people it's about: namely, artsy-fartsy straight white English kids living in Scotland, as opposed to… well, anything more diverse than that. And like, if that's not you, of course the events of this film might fail to connect with you. But it's obviously drawing from someone's lived experience. It's clearly a personal story set in a specific place, during a specific time. I can make those claims without having done any more research than just watching the film itself, but to satisfy your curiosity, I've just looked it up, and yeah, writer Stuart Murdoch did in fact spend years struggling with isolation as a result of chronic illness. I'm not gonna rag on the guy for writing what he knew; if you want a story about entirely different kinds of people, that's fine, but that's an entirely different story that would be better-told by someone else entirely. Go find it and don't lose sleep over this one.

It's obvious that the plot of God Help the Girl was largely reverse-engineered from the songs that comprised the musical project of the same name. There's a song called "Pretty Eve In The Tub", so the protagonist is called Eve. There's a song called "I'll Have To Dance With Cassie", so another of the characters is called Cassie. Often, the music videos take a laughably literalist view of the lyrics, a kind of audiovisual word-association, which is what will most likely tip you off that these were all pre-existing pieces, rather than musical numbers written specifically to fit into the narrative.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in one of the film's best numbers, "The Psychiatrist Is In", which as originally written, seems to be sung from the perspective of a therapist, albeit with a sardonic thread of scepticism towards the profession keeping it within the worldview of God Help the Girl. In the movie, it's Eve herself who sings, and the song is contextualised as this offbeat pseudosexual roleplay she carries out with James. By firmly grounding it in Eve's perspective, in the context of the film, it takes on new meaning as part of her attempts to reclaim her traumas and seize agency; no longer the patient, but the doctor. Again, to disastrous result.

Shortly before watching this film, I saw Singin' in the Rain—sometimes hailed as the greatest musical film ever—for the first time. I'd seen clips from the film, and thought the songs were fun. But actually checking out the film in full, I was shocked to see that almost every single number is borderline irrelevant to the plot. It's not so much that the plot is an excuse to justify the songs; rather, the songs just occur at random points in the narrative, expositing repetitiously on topics which are tangential at best, with the most egregious example being a thirteen minute song-and-dance interlude framed by the characters saying "by the way, here's an idea we have for an unrelated musical". I haven't bothered writing a full review for that one, because I'd just be repeating the exact same points I made when I wrote about My Fair Lady, which is the exact same thing but somehow even more abominably classist and misogynistic. My point is that God Help the Girl, despite being entirely reverse-engineered around its songs, and for all the criticism levied at it, manages to be a much, much better musical than one of the most acclaimed musicals of all time. I'm not even going to couch that in subjective terms; it is plain as day, on a technical level, that one story functions as a musical, and the other simply does not.

Something I loved about this film was the way it toed the line between the perspectives of Eve, putting her all into music, and James, down bad for Eve. The film positions both James and his romantic foil Anton (who Eve actually enters a relationship with) as men who attempt to assert ownership over Eve in their own ways; much like the hospital, I guess! "Pretty Eve In The Tub" may be one of the film's most annoying songs, but god damn, those shots of James at the end of a long line of anonymous men queuing up outside her door hit hard. It's not nearly so straightforward as to actually make James a villain in Eve's story; we can see how their inability to be truthful with one another damages their relationship in the long run. One of the most heartwrenching bits of the movie is when James admits that he was the one who had to bring Eve to the hospital following her relapse, and she doesn't even remember, and you can see written on his face the noxious cocktail of concern and frustration one feels after being a bystander for long enough.

And although she doesn't get nearly as much depth as the other characters, I also really enjoyed the presence of Cassie from Skins in this flick.

So yeah, this film worked for me as a character study, as a period piece, as autobiography, and as a musical. It's not my favourite film ever, but I can see why it might really connect with some people.

But I will say, it's a crime that this film only includes a single verse from the titular song. It's such a banger! Why wouldn't you throw the whole thing in there!

Rating: 8/10

If you’ve enjoyed this review, you can find dozens of similar essays over on my Letterboxd account.

[nel-world]

hi

INT. THEATER LOBBY - NIGHT

Kathy is seated at a table, flipping through a script, deep in thought. Nick approaches, holding two cups of coffee.

Nick: You ever get those nights where sleep just isn't an option?

Kathy: (smirking) Every writer's nightmare.

Nick: (noticing the script) What’s that you're working on?

Kathy: (flashing the script) My latest insomnia cure.

Nick: (sitting down) Mind if I take a look?

Kathy: (hesitant) Sure, but it's still a mess.

Nick: Aren't they always?

INT. REHEARSAL SPACE - DAY

Kathy and Nick are discussing a scene. Kathy is pacing, script in hand, while Nick leans against the wall.

Nick: What if we add a flashback to that scene?

Kathy: A flashback? Feels a bit cliché, don’t you think? Plus, it might disrupt the flow.

Nick: True, but it could add depth to the character’s backstory. We just need to find the right moment.

Kathy: (considering) Hmm, maybe if it’s subtle... Let’s give it a try and see how it feels.

INT. CAFE - AFTERNOON

Nick and Kathy are sitting at a table, discussing their play. Kathy sips her coffee thoughtfully.

Nick: A museum? I thought you preferred more avant-garde settings.

Kathy: Normally, yes. But this place has an atmosphere that's perfect for what I’m envisioning.

Nick: (nodding) Alright, let's check it out.

INT. THEATER - NIGHT

Kathy is adjusting the lighting on stage. Nick enters, looking remorseful.

Nick: About earlier, I know I’ve been wrapped up in my own stuff.

Kathy: It’s fine. We both have our passions.

(A beat)

Nick: Let’s make this work, together. I want to see your vision come to life too.

Kathy: (smiling) Alright, let's do it. But no more solo missions, okay?

Nick: (grinning) Deal.

INT. THEATER - NIGHT

Kathy and Nick are sitting on the stage, the theater empty. Kathy holds an old photo.

Kathy: I used to perform in my high school plays. It was my escape.

Nick: (smiling) I bet you were great. For me, writing was my escape from a chaotic home.

Kathy: (softening) I didn’t know. We’ll make it the best it can be, for him.

INT. REHEARSAL SPACE - NIGHT

Kathy and Nick are working late. Their disagreement earlier led to a tense rehearsal, but now they're finding common ground.

Nick: I was thinking about the flashback. What if we tie it into the character’s motivation?

Kathy: (nodding) That could work. It would make the scene more impactful.

Nick: Exactly. Let’s try it out tomorrow.

Kathy: Sounds good. (pausing) Thanks, Nick. For pushing me.

Nick: We push each other. That’s what makes us a team.

EXT. THEATER - NIGHT

Kathy and Nick are locking up the theater, walking out together.

Kathy: You know, I never asked. Why is this play so important to you?

Nick: My dad... he always believed in my writing. Before he passed, he made me promise I'd get this play done. It’s my way of honoring him.

Kathy: (softening) I didn’t know. We’ll make it the best it can be, for him.

Nick: (smiling) Thanks, Kathy. That means a lot.

INT. THEATER - NIGHT

Kathy and Nick are having a breakthrough moment. They're excited, scribbling notes and ideas on a whiteboard.

Kathy: I think we finally nailed it.

Nick: (grinning) Yeah, we did. This is going to be amazing.

Kathy: Together.

Nick: Together.

[eyesontheskyline]

Love your work, you’re an incredible writer and it’s always a good day when you post 🫶🏼 I’m intrigued on a couple of things. Firstly, who do you find the hardest to write in character? Your characterisation is brilliant so I’m curious as to what you found the hardest?

Also what is your process during writing in general. I appreciate that with no such thing you had the episodes to flip, but when you’re scripting AU how would you go about doing so? I know some word vomit (I mean this nicely) and then mould away whereas others go with a rigid structure.

You’re exactly the kind of writer that inspires me to write myself… but also the kind of writer I’m forever envious of because of your effortless writing style haha!!

Aaahhh this is so kind, thank you! (Sorry in advance, this got long.)

So who do I find hardest to write in character... Out of everyone, JJ, definitely. The rest of them, I feel like the rhythm of their speech is distinct and I know when I've got it. (Obviously someone else might disagree with that and think I'm doing a terrible job of someone else lol, but I feel like I know when it feels right to me, when I can hear it in their voice in my head.) And I'm like, reasonably confident about how they'd react to a situation or etc - although that's obv very open to interpretation, and I'm aware I'm sometimes leaning into a fantasy a bit. But JJ... I don't know if I know her well. I don't know if the writers know her well, honestly. So I always struggle a bit with her.

Process is... mixed? With no such thing I figured out the relationships that were most important to me to 'fix' or develop and then what beats I wanted to hit to get there. For example, I hate that Emily spends S7 trying to win Morgan's trust back without ever finding out about the shitty things he said about her in Lauren. So I wanted her to hear about it, confront him, and give her the chance to forgive him and for them to choose to move forward together even though things aren't quite the same. I hate that Reid just acts out like a little kid about Emily's death / return and then that's that, but then when Emily comes back in S12 it feels like they're on a much more equal footing - so I wanted to give him the chance to be an equal adult in their friendship, because he absolutely has the capacity for that level of empathy, and that depth of love for Emily, and the writers just defaulted to babying him a lot. So I started with those ideas and literally rewatched all of S7 while taking notes then figured out the beats I needed and where to fit them in. (Stupid amount of detail, sorry, but doing it this way meant I didn't get caught up in trying to write around every 'missing scene' or feel pressure to address every single episode equally, which is the mistake I've made trying to write alongside canon before.)

My current WIP reckless (just enough) started out as 'I haven't written pregnancy / birth since doing it, maybe it would be good to try that', and then I also had a vague 'what if Emily was pregnant when Doyle was arrested' thought, and then thinking about how that would change the choices she made when he escaped made me think of doing it as a three part thing... From there, I started trying to write a detailed outline but I kept getting myself lost in the weeds, so I started just writing. There was a lot more trial and error this way - like writing entire scenes and then realising they were completely useless and scrapping them, which I did some amount of with no such thing (and also someone else's solid ground), but definitely less.

The ending of the final part is still unfinished and kind of in the air - it's out of my comfort zone tonally, and I just can't really figure out the transition from where I am to where I'm trying to be. (The solution to that problem is nearly always reworking the thing before the part I'm stuck at but I've tried that about 10 times so far, so... we'll see. Help lol.)

So yeah, I'm word vomiting this time, and I word vomited someone else's solid ground pretty much entirely - that started from like two lines of dialogue and a vague idea of how I felt their characters had grown since we last saw them together and 'I haven't written smut in a while, I wonder if that's a thing I can still do'. If I need a plot-shaped plot, I need to outline.

Write!! Do it!! And please know that effortless is not the word for my writing loool, I put a ridiculous amount of effort into this. And I edit a lot. I write terrible sentences, terrible scenes, I spend half an hour trying to get a character to move from one place to another or describe some specific action before it occurs to me (like it's brand new information every time) that I can just change it so they don't need to do the thing I'm struggling to describe... But once I'm in the rhythm of doing it, it becomes the thing my brain wants to do when I get a little bit of free time, and that's a fun place for me to be, and much healthier than all the 'how to be a perfect parent' facebook groups I squandered several years crying over. I spent a few years without access to the writing part of my brain, and I'm just... grateful to be back here. I still feel rusty - I was getting to a point pre-pregnancy/pre-covid (unfortunately these are the same event for me lol) where I could be a lot more expressive with language than I am right now. I honestly feel like I'm struggling just with communicating ideas at this point - if I can make myself understood, it's a win, at the moment. But I'm so so glad to be working on it and to have people interested in reading my things.

So yeah please write if any part of you wants to write, and you'll get better as you go! And if you ever want to bounce ideas or scenes or whatever off anyone, I'm always open to talking with more people about writing and Hotchniss and Emily Prentiss loool.

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

MOVIES I HATE

I watched Halloween Ends (2022)

I eventually had to finish out this new trilogy after watching 2021's dissapointing Halloween Kills. My hopes weren't high for this, but somehow it still managed to severely disappoint me.

The Third installment of David Gordon Green's sequels to John Carpenter's Halloween.

Director David Gordon Green and writer/actor Danny McBride have done some good stuff together and are both very talented. When they rebooted the Halloween sequels by going back to the end of the original film and moving forward from there, they did a solid job of making an interesting and fun, if predictable, slasher film. The follow up, Halloween Ends, started off fun and brutal but quickly descended into a weirdly preachy, aggressively obvious and cringe-worthy statement about mob justice. With Halloween Ends, Green and McBride's sequel trilogy comes to, as the tile suggests, an end.

Why this third installment (that's technically a fourth installment) is jumping four years into the future and wasting our time introducing new characters, reintroducing old characters, rebuilding and reorganizing relationships and basically beginning the reboot again, is beyond me. When this film started, I thought maybe we were going to be jumping right back into the story, but instead this film starts unfolding into something wildly different. At this point in a series of films, it's annoying to have to sit through this much setup. This movie mostly revolves around an entirely new character. The survivors of the last film are here, but not the main focus and Michael Myers is barely in the film.

The plot of this movie is pretty terrible and needlessly convoluted. Basically a kid teams up with Michael Myers and starts murdering with him to gain his power to heal through murder. Are you asking, "What?" "Huh?" And "Why would I want to watch that?" The answer is, "I don't know." "I'm just as confused as you." And "You wouldn't."

This movie is boring and pointless on a lot of levels. It doesn't work within the context of the newer sequels, it doesn't work as a continuation of the original Halloween film, it doesn't work at all. It's trying to flip the script and be different, but it's aggravating to old school fans and must be confusing to new fans. What were Green and McBride thinking when writing this? It has no life to it, it has no fun, it has no scares, it has nothing except rehashed character arcs, some form of magical thinking which is trying to explain Michael Myer's powers (which can apparently be learned by other people) and a storyline I couldn't have cared less about because it deviates so far and pointlessly from everything we've watched up until this point. They wrote a script that blatantly shows that Michael Myers has magical healing superpowers and can't die and then gave those powers to someone much more annoying for most of the film.

I couldn't believe how stupid the story gets. How did we end up here? Why write this? It's not clever, it's not interesting, it's not smart. It's simply a waste of our time, until they decide at the very end to give us fifteen minutes with the killer we came to see. And even then he mostly is there so Jamie Lee Curtis can beat him up.

This sequel trilogy has been an incredible letdown. Like a shit that started out solid and turned into diarrhea. I really can't describe how bad this is or how much it doesn't work. Wow, that sucked.

[luna-writes-stuff]

Perfect, Eddie Munson

Fanfic, gn! writer(-ish)! reader

Fluff

Word count: 1329

Tw: None! And that’s coming from me! Happy fluff everyone! (Not proofread though, oops)

Summary: Writing a D&D campaign can be difficult. Luckily, Eddie has a someone who helps him with the works, and sometimes, the scripts even surprises him. When you let him read your ideas for the upcoming Vecna campaign, he grows amazed, followed by some good old fashioned fluff.

guys come on, where are my eddie x nerd! reader fics? I cannot keep rereading the three same ones.

“They were chanting his name as the players walk in, their cheers growing louder.” Eddie read aloud.

“I was thinking about mentioning more about their appearances,” You threw in, interrupting Eddie’s words, who halted his steps and turned to you in wonder.

“Black cloaks, their hoods covering their faces.” You explained, holding your hands above your head as if to put a hood on. “You know? Typical cult garments.”

An intriguing smile grew on Eddie’s face as he nodded enthusiastically. “Perfect.” He agreed, before turning back to the script.

“Half of them were the cultists you recognize from Makbar,” as he spoke, he turned back to you, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “But there is a new one. One you had not yet encountered.”

Smiling brightly, you waited for him to continue reading. As his eyes scanned the paper, they widened, turning to you in wonder and shock.

“His skin shriveled, desiccated,” You quoted from your memory.

“Not only is he missing his left arm, but also his left eye!” Eddie finished the sentence in amazement. “He lives?”

You shrugged, standing up from your seat on the couch. “Surprise!”

In his excitement, Eddie slams the papers on the little table, before running up to and wrapping his arms around you, leaning back slightly as to lift you off the floor.

You laugh in amusement, holding onto his biceps as he places you back down.

“They are going to love that twist!” He exclaimed, walking back to the small binder you had made for him.

“From there on, it is up to the players to either flee,” You began, trailing off as to let Eddie finish your thoughts.

“Or fight.” He mused, now grabbing the sheet to Vecna’s character.

“All depends on their hit points and that of the cultists.” You spoke, walking over to Eddie and placing your head on his shoulder, reading with him.

“And what if they flee?” He asked, flipping the page to study the character sheets of the party members.

“Then they will have no choice but to return to the streets,” You explained. “But, the cult has already seen them.”

“So the only real option would be fighting.” Eddie hummed, placing his free hand in your back pocket. “But they wouldn’t flee. They’d fight.”

“Good.” You hummed, grabbing the papers from Eddie and closing the binder. “And if they flee halfway, you’d have to decide where they could go. I didn’t have a lot of time to write, so I hope it’s enough for now.”

Noticing your sudden hesitance, the boy frowned, slipping his hand out of your pocket and turning you around.

“Darling, sweetheart,” he interrupted, pushing the papers against your chest. “My dearest, love of my life, babes.”

Gaining your attention, you stopped talking, giving him expecting eyes.

“It’s perfect.” He praised. “I didn’t see this coming, which will make it even better for the party members.”

Letting go of the binder, it fell to the floor with a soft thud. Wrapping your arms around Eddie, you drew yourself into his embrace, merely standing there in the living room with him.

“You should tell it in your own words. I think that’d be better than reading from a page.” You commented, not yet escaping his hold.

Sighing in fake exhaustion, he placed his head on top of yours. “Now why would I ever do that? With your description of Vecna? I don’t think I’d want to do that.”

Snickering at his speech, you took a step back, to which Eddie quickly leaned forward to place a kiss on your nose.

“Are you sure you won’t be there next week?” He wondered, now placing both his hands on your shoulders and squeezing them lightly.

“I already told you, I’m busy next Friday.” You reminded, leaning your head against one of his hands.

“The entire night?” He whined, turning his hand as to hold your cheek.

“The entire night?” You mocked. “Yes, still. Just like the previous eight times you asked.”

“Seven times,” Eddie mumbled, throwing his head back. “But you have written this entire campaign, and now you won’t even see the big revelation.”

“Co-written,” You pointed out. “And it’s not like I haven’t been to the other nights. I’ll just miss a few hours, it’s fine.”

“Co-written.” The boy now mocked in the same voice you had used earlier. “90% of this, is you.” He pointed to the papers on the floor.

“You and your genius little mind.” Now placing both his hands on your cheeks and placing another quick kiss on your lips. “My little genius.” Followed by another.

“My little nerd.” He mumbled against your lips, now finally offering you a proper kiss, his hands traveling to your back.

In return, you placed your hands on his arm and shoulder, relishing underneath his touch. As he pulled away, his hands slowly left you. Turning around as if reminding something, he ran to the kitchen.

“I got you something!”

Standing there in wonder, you bent down to grab the papers from the floor. When you got back up, Eddie stood in front of you, as if he had ran in record time. Grabbing the sheets from your hands rather roughly, he replaced it with a book.

With a hesitant face, you looked down, scanning the object laying in your hands.

“A D&D creature guide?” You read aloud, now studying Eddie’s face, which was gleaming with pride. “Don’t I already have one?”

“Yes,” he nodded, a mischievous grin on his face. “But this one is leather bound. And goes more into details about the creatures. And it includes some new ones.”

Shaking his head at his words, he just gestured to the book. “It’s a new one. Yours was falling apart and this one looked really cool.” He exaggerated.

Smiling at his words, and at the book in your hands, you walked back up to him and placed your head against his shoulder. Happily, Eddie wrapped a hand around your frame, offering you a firm hug.

“Thank you, Eds.” You whispered, your hands subconsciously trailing over the leather cover.

“Anytime sweetheart. Anytime.” He hummed, his voice low in his throat.

A comfortable silence struck between the both of you, simply enjoying each other’s presence. That was, until the boy spoke up, clearing his throat dramatically.

“Are you absolutely positive you won’t be there Friday?”

“Eds,” you groaned, squeezing his sides to make him let go of you. “I can’t.”

“I know.” Eddie copied, mimicking your groan, making a sad face with it. “But now who will make the sound effects?”

Smiling at his words, you shook your head, sitting back down on the couch. “I’m sure Dustin will be more than happy to help you out.”

Still, Eddie was not convinced, and he let himself fall down on the furniture, placing his head in your lap. A pout was visible on his face, but you pretended to ignore it, opening the book on his chest to look at the pages.

You could feel him staring up at you, his eyes nearly drilling holes into your skull. If he’d stare even harder, he might just start speaking to you in your mind.

When he did nothing but stare at you, even after two minutes, you decided to look back at him, sending him a questioning glance. He just formed his lips in a thin line, his eyes running over your face.

Slowly, you reached a hand down, brushing his hair from under his head so the weight would be lifted. Wordlessly, Eddie followed your gestures, before settling his head back down.

“Perfect,” He whispered under his breath, but it caught your ears.

In response, you send him a grateful smile, already feeling the heat rush to your face. Quickly, you turned back to your book, pretending as if his words hadn’t affected you the way they did.

Yet, another whisper flew through the room, now burning your ears as well.

“You’re perfect.”

[shihalyfie]

Seems like someone translated the now unavailable stage reading from DigiFes2022 and i'm shocked about some things like, the twins not being all lovely around each other (a very common fanbase's interpretation/guess) and how Kouichi does not seem to be a shy (??) person like Ken (another fanbase guess regarding him)

Any thoughts? 😗

There is so much to unpack here. So much. So, so, so much. I thought I was going to answer this quickly, but then this post got too long because I had so much to say, so I'm going to tuck the rest under the cut, but my goodness. I'm actually offended this is from a "vanishable" stage reading (and that the official stance is even that the contents are meant to be disposable and not taken as canon -- to hell with that, material like this, let alone for Frontier, is too valuable to let go of). I don't know about other people, but this checked off all the boxes for things I wanted to see addressed or confirmed, moreso than even The Train Called Hope from 2019 (which I did still like, but to be honest, this one felt more like it was "at home" in a sense).

Well, let's start with stuff about production background (skip to the bullet points below if you don't care about this). This script was penned by Yamatoya Akatsuki, who was an episode writer for Frontier, and was presumably brought on because he's also working on The Beginning right now. But despite working on Kizuna and sometimes being advertised as a member of original staff, Yamatoya was actually very minimally involved on Adventure or 02...and on the flip side, he was a regular writer for Frontier and wrote quite a few of its landmark episodes. In fact, he may be right behind Frontier's head writer Tomita Sukehiro in terms of how significant he is to Takuya's characterization. Him writing for this is arguably more at home for him than Kizuna/The Beginning are -- not to say that he isn't doing amazingly with the Adventure and 02 characters, but I imagine Seki has probably been doing a lot of intervention with them, and while it may just be mental bias, there's a certain sense of comfort that just especially works here with this stage reading's dialogue for the Frontier kids, since Yamatoya was personally responsible for building up these characters to begin with.

(If you're wondering why Tomita wasn't the writer, he retired from anime writing in 2011, so any Frontier content "with original staff" has to be done by one of its episode writers. This sounds like a bad situation at first, but this is where I have to remind people not to get too hung up on auteur theory; Adventure, 02, and Frontier already had drama CDs partially or wholly written by episode writers, and said episode writers deserve way more credit for their influence than people give them. Please reference my posts on Adventure/02 and Tamers staff for more info...actually, I really ought to make a Frontier one too if I have free time, huh... (edit: okay, now I did)

However, our last bit of post-canon Frontier material, The Train Called Hope, was written by a different writer, Masaki Hiro (who also was an episode writer for Frontier). Because of that, and especially because these two "dramas" were written in reverse chronological order (The Train Called Hope takes place in their high school years, whereas this one takes place two years after Frontier's finale), I do have to admit I feel a little dissonance, especially in regards to the portrayal of the twins -- a lot can happen in several years, but it does feel weird to think about the fact that two years later they'll be close enough to bicker with and troll each other, but in high school they'll go back to being a bit more awkward...? Of course, it's very easy to reconcile both portrayals at once -- humans are very multifaceted creatures after all -- but from a writing perspective it's a bit weird. But between the two portrayals, the new drama's interpretation makes a lot more sense to me, and is also just a lot more satisfying in general, so I'm honestly very relieved to have this solidified, and judging from reactions on Twitter I can tell a lot of twins fans were also very satisfied.

(Disclaimer before we go forward: I'm afraid of giving the wrong idea, so to be clear, I do like The Train Called Hope quite a bit, it's just that this current drama was a lot closer to my personal preferences in terms of what kinds of details I wanted to know about the kids' futures. Given that Tamers 2018, which came out in the same batch as The Train Called Hope, was said to have been explicitly inspired by tri., I feel like they were kind of on a kick of trying to give the Tamers and Frontier kids the tri. treatment of big timeskips and future stuff, and I certainly don't mind it but I also felt a little sad at the fact that the character dynamics were a little thinner and we didn't get to see much of the group as a whole because they were busy trying to cram in so much info about everyone's career prospects.)

I already wrote about Ken and Kouichi last year, and this is especially prominent given that Yamatoya wrote both this and the Kizuna drama CD, even using similar story formats, and yet it's very clear that they (and their respective groups) are very different. This stage reading may be one of our most valuable resources for Kouichi lovers, because unfortunately during the series itself he was a little shy with the others due to the circumstances of how they met, and Izumi even admitted that she felt she didn't know him very well at the time (although to be fair, she also admitted she understood Kouji even less). But there were multiple hints within the series that Kouichi was normally very open and sociable, arguably even more so than a good chunk of the rest of the group, and more similar to Kouji in temperament than you might think at first -- so this is the one time we basically got hard confirmation of that. And it was exactly as I said: now that we're seeing Kouichi outside a very stressful situation where he had a lot of things to be worried about with this group, it turns out he really isn't very different from his brother after all (at most, he's a little more down-to-earth...just a little).

Anyway, bullet-pointing the other things I found to be of interest (I am frankly amazed at how much information Yamatoya is capable of conveying in only short lines of dialogue):

We finally get an answer to the question of whether the Shibuya train station elevator is still connected to the Digital World, and the answer is that, at least as of two years later, it’s not there anymore. My impression is that the implication is that it only supernaturally manifested in Shibuya Station at all due to the events of Frontier, and now that it was no longer “needed” it vanished. But the restaurant that replaced it apparently has a connection despite that...

The Frontier kids are confirmed to basically be on “penpal” status. The Train Called Hope made it clear they were still in contact, but to what degree was unclear. So as of this one, it’s confirmed that they don’t see each other super-often and still have to catch each other up, but they also do seem to contact each other regularly to the point it’s a given they have each other’s contact addresses and have rough awareness of certain things ongoing in each other’s lives. (I imagine once smartphones are invented, they might make a LINE group like the Adventure kids have in Kizuna...if they can bring themselves to swap out their phones.)

Izumi has a junior who likes her! (Well, likes her in some way.) I think that’s a pretty good sign that the whole making friends deal has been working out for her.

The group certainly has an interesting perspective on Kouichi, in that apparently they’re aware he’s not the type to throw random uncalled for surprise parties, but also Takuya seems perfectly capable of imagining him as some kind of action hero.

Speaking of which, while the entire group seems to be devoid of any brain cell whatsoever (if anything they might be in the negatives at this point), Takuya seems to be the most “pure-hearted” because he easily believes whatever theory he’s hearing at the moment. Since all of the kids are showing equal degrees of chaos, I like those little things that stand out.

On the other hand, Tomoki has now become genuinely terrifying with his ability to become deadpan at the most unnerving times.

Kouji stopped calling Kouichi “nii-san” as far as we can tell, which is in line with Things I Want to Tell You and The Train Called Hope, as with the portrayal of the twins here as significantly more rough with each other than they were back in the original series. As Izumi points out, the fact they’re so rough with each other is conversely a good sign about how comfortable they are with each other as actual brothers now.

The twins go to the same middle school. I cannot emphasize enough how much of an incredible bombshell this is. This cannot have been an easy feat to pull off, since the twins didn’t live in the same area at the time of Frontier. While it’s not stated in the drama itself, I have to imagine that at this point all three parents are aware and on board with this (possibly even directly assisting with it), because there’s no way the twins could have pulled this off by themselves, but hey, maybe their parents decided to help them to make up for lying to them for eleven years. (Okay, we’re getting into real headcanon at this point.)

The twins look alike enough that they can be confused for each other by appearance alone (basically, it’s confirmed that they have the same hairstyle at this point). I think headcanons were split as to whether both would want to look like each other or stick with their own individual styles, but I do know it’s a popular Japanese headcanon that Kouji only had long hair in imitation of his supposedly deceased biological mother (therefore favoring the idea he’d cut it after the series as a sign of moving on and as a way of looking more like his brother), so I think a lot of people were feeling very validated on that end. I am kind of amused at the fact that their voices are canonically considered to be different in-universe (I’m not sure if that’s actually possible in real life, but it’s definitely a meta joke).

Kouichi apparently has a girl who likes him (whose feelings he doesn’t reciprocate). Well, I mean, the twins are very popular among real-life audience members, so this isn’t really surprising...

Not only have the twins gotten a lot closer, Kouji is not above just completely messing with his brother for the hell of it. I’m not sure if this is a voice actor joke (Kamiya and Suzumura are close friends in real life, and Kamiya is infamous for being a troll who pranks Suzumura quite often), but at the same time Takuya also specifically singles out Kouji as being more on the antagonistic side. Right now this may be the one key difference between the twins in terms of temperament, since it’s otherwise clear that they are incredibly similar now, and it’s probably a byproduct of how Kouji started off with thicker social boundaries than his brother’s and is thus is a little behind in in having a more active social life.

That said, I am sorry to anyone who hoped the twins would be among the more sensible members of the group, because at this point they might actually be the most unhinged. The two of them happened to get in a bickering match this time, but them both ganging up on Takuya at the end makes me really scared of what they’re capable of if they do start conspiring together the way Junpei theorized they were doing.

Katsuharu is still close with Tomoki (this is consistent with The Train Called Hope), but he’s since fallen out of contact with the others.

The twins seem to perceive Izumi as the most sensible of all of them (operative word: perceive)...

The Frontier kids are utter idiots. I say this with all the love I can muster, and I mean this in a way that the Frontier kids truly are uniquely chaotic and borderline unhinged in a way other Digimon groups just can’t match. I already pointed out earlier that there was a difference between how the 02 and Frontier groups handled their chaos, but this is now pretty much as clear as you can get between Yamatoya’s takes on the 02 kids in the Kizuna drama CD and the Frontier kids here -- both follow similar formats of zany comedy followed by a sentimental conclusion, but while the 02 kids were mostly just getting out of control because they were too excited, the Frontier kids actually accusing each other in a game of whodunnit with increasingly absurd justifications is just on another level. This is truly the fun of Frontier in a nutshell -- the shamelessness, the misfit nature of the cast, the chaos, and just the lovable sentiment of it all.

By the way, I really, really love this fanart. If you haven’t seen it, you should. I think combined with the script, it really feels like I finally got to see these kids again after so long.

I basically only have two real complaints, and both are shared between this and The Train Called Hope. The first one is that I feel like they really haven’t figured out what to do with the Spirits, and they feel a little like an afterthought at this point; I know they’re kind of in a tough position because they’re simultaneously the kids and also not, but I would have liked to see a bit more thought put into what kind of relationship they have to the kids besides just vaguely connected guardian spirits. The second is that there is a terrible lack of Bokomon and Neemon, who should be at least hanging out with the Spirits back in the Digital World (I wonder if Sugiyama Kazuko wasn’t available...). They were important too! Don’t forget them! In fact, if anything, this new drama may have indirectly confirmed that Bokomon was possibly the main reason the kids didn’t completely go off track and actually managed to get anywhere in the Digital World, because without him they risk being extremely unhinged. Please give your thanks to Bokomon for saving the Digital World.

[nevermoremagic]

Film Buff!JJ x Film Geek!Reader

obsessed with the idea of film geek JJ after he mentioned CHUD in season one so here’s this little thing I wrote that’s been collecting dust in my drafts for 2 years now. lets all ignore the fact that the Pogues are now stranded on an island post-season 2 :)))

you both like to fuel each other’s inner film geek

JJ brought up C.H.U.D. once and you flipped your shit

“Really? Jesus, JJ. I thought you had better taste than that.”

“Fuck off. Says the one who likes Jaws. I could craft a better Great White than that plastic piece of shit from the junk in my backyard.”

“And my cross-faded ass could write a better script for C.H.U.D. than the writers ever could.”

always bickering about which of your favorite movies are superior, but you enjoy watching them together nonetheless

OBX summer movie nights, drive in theaters, days snuggled in together where you watch films are some of your favorite dates

he really likes watching the sci fi and horror films, ofc

he turns into a giddy child whenever he’s super impressed by the editing or special effects in a movie

and you, you really like to keep an eye out for the artistic shots a director makes

but both of you get enraptured by screenplay, always so easily affected by the script if it’s really good

and you two always spend hours talking about the movie afterwards

...actor crushes that JJ gets jealous of

“You changed your wallpaper to Ben Hardy? Really, (Y/N)? What kind of relationship is this?”

“I didn’t say anything when I caught you fawning over Florence Pugh the other day.”

“...I was looking respectfully.”

weird compliments that the pogues don’t understand and frankly are quite concerned about?? but they try their best to ignore them

“I love you like Quentin Tarantino loves feet.”

“That is... the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

omfg CONSTANT movie references

when he’s dropping you off at work: “Au revoir, Shoshanna!”

or when he kisses you goodbye: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

there was this one horrible time you and jj were spending the night at the chateau and y’all were forced to choose the couch closest to john b’s room, so of course, john b and sarah were banging all night while you and jj tried your best to cover your ears with pillows

in the middle of it, jj turns to you with a devilish smirk and says in the most melodramatic voice, “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.”

THAT reference for sure earned him a smack to the chest

you like to send JJ and the rest of the boys off with a little, “carpe diem. seize the day, boys! make your lives extraordinary.” at the dock whenever they leave with John B’s boat.

“(Y/N), we’re fishing for lobsters. there’s absolutely nothing extraordinary about that.”

there was this one time you were stuck at a Midsummer’s party, sitting at a table bored out of your mind until jj just shows up?? dressed as a waiter even though he had no business being there and has the audacity to say to you, “nobody puts Baby in a corner” before grabbing you by the hand and whisking you away for night of fun

speaking of which, he would def try to rescue you from as many Kook events as possible

and that leads to his favorite movie reference from you; “Listen to me, Mister. You’re my knight in shining armor.”

jj likes to imitate romantic tropes he sometimes sees in movies and over do it until its almost parodical

boombox playing music outside of ur window? check

except he does it for the most random reasons

“Everyone’s going fishing tomorrow, you wanna join?” he asks while he’s leaning against the VW van, speaker in his hands and a smirk on his face

“Stop playing ‘Careless Whisper’ and maybe I’ll consider it.”

if he’s not blasting music, he’s throwing gravel at ur window and shouting, “Oh, Vivian!”

“Knock it off, Romeo.”

_____________

TLDR; you and JJ act like you’re starring in a rom-com indie movie.

damn, I haven’t logged into this account in a hot second. I'm probably not gonna write anymore imagines since I’m not as obsessed with Outer Banks as I once was, but coming back on here was so nostalgic :’) 

[shycolorstudent]

Uramichi Oniisan oneshot

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan. They/them pronouns sorry for any slip-ups. Age gap. Also, this is all for fun and credits go to the respective creator of the show and anime. If you want a part two let me know by leaving a comment.

Y/n works on the show ( "Together with Maman”) as a psychologist hired to find a way to make it educational while getting more ratings. You also made life a bit easier for the show writer, having a year's worth of segments ready at any moment. Somehow you and Uramichi become a couple.

An important thing to know is that I’m not trying to romanticize mental illness. It’s part of Uramich's character, and I’m sorry if it comes off that way. If it does, let me know nicely, and I’ll make an edit, or I’ll take it down. Thank you.

-” Yup, they definitely settled.” Uramichi said he put his light cigarette into his mouth. You curled up into a ball asleep on his bed. He doesn’t like smoking near you, so he smokes outside on the balcony. The night sky reflected how he felt. It was dark, with no stars or moon in sight. It wasn’t something you said or didn’t say.

-He thinks you settled for him because you are in your late 20s while he’s a 31 depressed man who’s working on a kid's show. He has nihilistic ideas and outbursts exercise a lot. And he feels like a burden. The truth is dealing with depression while in a relationship is complicated. He’s blunt, sees the negative, and at first thought you had a savior complex that you thought could save him or fix him. But you didn’t, and you understood what depression was and knew there would be good days and bad days. Uramichi appreciated that you didn’t pry him to open up if he had an episode where he was lost in his mind; you were there for him.

-Uramichi never overthought the age gap at first. The reason why he did now and why he’s questioning things that happened earlier that day. Uramichi was in his dressing room getting ready for the show. As you flipped through your notes, trying to find what colors children were attracted to the most. “Hey, did you still want to sleep at my house?” Uramichi asked in his regular tone of voice, “Yeah, why? If you changed your mind thats fine.” Uramichi shook his head and explained himself, “No, my mind hasn’t changed. You look stressed, so I thought our home pizza date and sleepover would set you back on work.” You smiled at the sweet thought and walked over to him, fright back the urge to play with his hair, so you just cupped his cheeks. “Thank you for thinking of me, but my work should be done before lunch.”

You then kissed the top of his forehead, “Quick question, how do you feel about wearing a dress? While being blindfolded and changed to a wall?” You said, awaiting your doting boyfriend's response holding your breath and closing your eyes, but then Tobikichi was standing at the door with the pink rabbit head in his hands. He went pale as if he had just met god. “You two keep your kinks or whatever out of the workplace. Uramichi, blink if you need help!” *Bonk* Mitsuo hit Tonikichi. “You opened the door. It’s your fault. We shouldn't shame them.” Tonikichi rubbed his head in pain. “B-but Y/n, you're going to end up killing him or hurting him. He does old to-” You rolled your eyes and started to get your notes together. “It’s for a segment in the show Tonikichi. Before I pitched the idea, I wanted to know if he was ok with doing that. We want to do a segment on breaking gender roles. So Uramichi would wear a dress as the kids would save him from a dragon who chined him.” “Ohhhh,” Tonikichi said. “Now excuse me, I have a pitch meeting to go to.” You grabbed your papers and kissed your boyfriend once more on his cheek as he held your hand, not wanting to let go. “See you after work.” You said, and you gave the two boys their scripts as you walked out.

After Uramichi scolded Tonikichi for coming in unannounced and making things seem wrong, he confessed and showed Mitsuo a ring. “Wow, thats a big step. Are you ready?” Mitsuo said, admiring it, “yes, we’ve known each other for four years and been dating for three, so I feel ready, and we talked about it before.” Uramichi said with a smile on his face, “Wait, and this relationship is serious? I mean, Uramichi, you look young right now, but soon you’ll look like a grandpa.” Tonikichi said in a burst, then ran away once he saw Uramichi's face filled with violent intent. “Don’t listen to him, Uramichi. I know your guy's relationship. I know how it started.” What Tonikichi said was on his mind all day. “I’m I too old for them?”

-The second thing was after work. When Uramichi said goodbye to the children, he smiled and waved goodbye. You two thought it was good, so Uramichi pulled you by your waist and went to place his head on the crook of your neck.

“What! But he’s so old!” A little boy said, forcing you two to separate. The boy just pointed in shock and confusion as his twin sister spoke up, “No, he’s not!” This was beyond bad that their single Oniisan had been destroyed. They asked him if he was single just last week, and he had to say yes. Before you could help fix this, Amon came running in, “Y/N help me! I have nothing for next week's segment help!” And he dragged you away. A woman who looked the same age as Uramich smiled and told her kids to walk ahead. Urmichi changed his voice to become upbeat and happy. “Sorry, miss-” She took a breath, and that made him go quiet, “I was in your shoes before. I was in love with a man younger than me. Don’t do what I did and leave him.” Then she walked away

-After Y/n was done helping, Amon and Uramich borrowed a movie from Mitsuo. You two decided to buy some snacks and alcohol from the convenience store. As you two scanned the shelves, someone shouted your name, “Y/n! It’s been so long!” It was two men about your age who went to school with you. After some chit-chat, Uramich was quite letting you guys catch up for a bit until someone mentioned to him, “Sorry, but we have to ask. Is this old guy bothering you? We thought you would need help.” You looked around confused, then realized, “This is my boyfriend, Uramich.” The two boys looked shocked. “Wow! Sorry man, we just wanted to make sure they were ok. Congrats, man I mean, no man, woman, or anyone in between could win a date with them. Their standards were high.” You blinked a few times in confusion, then Uramich spoke up, “Thats a bit objective isn’t it. They're not an object thats why they didn’t go out with anyone of you. They're not a prize to be won.” He was very pissed that they saw you as a prize. His death stare sent chills down their spine. If Uramich could, then those boys would be getting the Tonikichi treatment right about now. “Alos, my standers never lowered.” You said, then going up to pay for your stuff. “Love, I’m going to pay. I want to get home as soon as possible.”

Uramich still wanted to look for a bottle of his favorite alcoholic drink. It’s an experience. However, it will be a nice touch for another time. One of the boys was talking rather loud “Nah, no way, they settled. I know him. My kid watched that dumb show all the time.” The other chimed in, “I mean, they could do so much better. And the man is looking kinda fat too.” Uramich, heartbroken, didn’t want to say anything.

-Now Uramich is thought about all these things that happened today. He put out his cigarette. And sighed. A set of hands warped around his waist. You said tried. “I’m too old for you… I think we-” You cut him off and pulled away. “Well, I don’t. It’s not like your old enough to be my dad. Those guys at the store are low lives, got their girlfriends pregnant in high school, and works at a car wash. There's nothing wrong with working at a car wash, but It’s unfair to judge a person before getting to know them. Uramich, I knew from the start that there would be some backlash about this relationship, but I was ready. My standers never lowered. I love you with my whole being.”

Uramich smiled at you as if we waited to hear that from you. This was the first time he heard about how weird and old he was. Usually, it would be you coming home upset about the dumb things someone told you about being too young for him. Uramich wrapped his hands around you and brought you in close, and buried his face into the crook of your neck. “I’m sorry, got insecure for a moment. I was in my head thinking that you settled.” The vibrations from his vice tickled your neck a little and gave you butterflies. “If I were with anyone else, then I would have settled. Uramich, you are the man that I waited for my whole life. Can we go back to bed now, or do you want more reassurance that I’m not going anywhere?” You felt his lips go into a smile. “The bed sounds nice. One more thing, do you still want to get married one day?” He asked, holding the box in his pant pocket. “Only to you.” You said with a massive smile on your face. Thats when Uramich knew it was a good time. He wasn't the type for grand gestures, so this was perfect.

He went down one knee in his pajamas. “Y/n L/n, will you spend the rest of your life and marry me?” You couldn’t contain the happiness that you jumped into his arms, knocking down but cradling his head. “Yes!” Then you kissed him.

[zodiyack]

Rude! (3,000+ Follower Fic Special 1/3)

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Female!Hopper!Reader

Warnings: Swearing, Billy stuff, lyrics, fluff

Song: Rude by Magic!

Words: 1,798

Summary: Billy's love for Hopper's daughter is too strong to be stopped by the tough Chief Jim Hopper. Despite being told "not in a thousand years", he plans to love her regardless.

Note: Thank you so so much! I love you all, and writing your ideas, as well as sharing mine with you, has been so fucking fun and amazing! I'm sorry for my lack of words, I wish being an author came in handy with writing this, however, all I can say is that I love you all from the bottom of my heart. I've seen people do shout-outs, and ask-related stuff with their follower things, and I may do that, I'm not sure. For now, I hope you enjoy this... Thank you all, again!

Also 1/3 means that there will be two other fics released for the 3,000+ follower present!

Taglist: @urie-bowie-mercury, @matth1w, @redspaceace-writes, @fandom-puff, @darling-i-read-it, @simonsbluee, @sebastianstanslefteyebrow, @dpaccione

Masterlist | Stranger Things Masterlist

"Saturday morning, jumped out of bed and put on my best suit. Got in my car and raced like a jet all the way to you. Knocked on your door with my heart in my hands, to ask you a question, 'cause I know that you're an old-fashioned man. Yeah."

Billy was freshly graduated, working as a lifeguard whilst his girlfriend worked her own job, both saving up for their chance to ditch Hawkins and move to California. Sweet Cali. Billy was excited to show the love of his life around the place he called home. Though, physically, he left the salty ocean and windy beach behind, the place never truly left him.

You could see it in his eyes. The waves crashing in his blue orbs. He swore the scent had just barely clung to his belongings; the smell of the tangy air that followed a majority of the state. Working at a pool was the closest he got to the memory of California. Chlorine was most certainly not the salted ocean waters, but with the circumstances, he decided it'd do.

The way his face lit up whenever he talked about his home...it made Y/n more and more excited to see it. His girlfriend had grown up in Hawkins, stayed there her whole life. Never once did the Hoppers leave Hawkins.

But the second that was introduced to Billy, he knew it had to change.

Although they were saving for a big move, Billy had...other things in mind with what to do with his first large pay-check (or series, rather. Working as a lifeguard didn't pay well with just one check). He began to work more shifts to make up for the money he'd spent, and one day after calling in for a day off, he decided to put his plan into action.

"Billy, stop messing with the tie."

"It's annoying." Hands slapped away his attempts of adjusting the black silk tie.

"Well it won't stop being annoying if you keep fucking it up."

For the first time in a long time, Neil Hargrove was calm. Not happy, not amused, not pissed off for some unjust reason- just calm. He wasn't wreaking havoc and he wasn't being an asshole to his son. Billy hadn't seen this side of his dad in quite some time, in fact, he thought something important was going on and he was about to fuck it all up. And then, Susan retreated to the living room with a camera and a freshly ironed suit.

"You're not putting me in that."

"And who asked for your opinion?" Neil deflected with a raised brow. One heavy sigh later and Billy was leaving the bathroom, dawning the whole black and white getup.

Susan clasped her hands over her mouth, a tear leaving her eye, "You look so handsome! Just like your dad!"

Billy rolled his eyes, "Great."

However, his careless attitude was swept under the rug when the blue Camaro pulled up to the police station, interrupting a clearly distressed Chief Hopper bickering with his daughter. Billy had to get himself together before stepping out of the car, jaw slack after seeing the beauty he got to call his date.

"Hello Mr-"

"Don't even try play nice with me, Hargrove. She's not going anywhere with you. End of story." Hopper kept his eyes trained on the blond, body tense like a snake preparing to strike it's prey.

Y/n grabbed Billy's arm, slowly directing him to the car, "And in the sequel, we find out I am going with Billy. End of that story."

"There is no 'sequel.' The writer got drunk and lazy." She paused, turning to face her father who stood tall, arms crossed and face unamused.

"So his daughter picked up where her father left off, and then the sequel was published and the two lived happily ever after, the end."

While her dad attempted to search for a line that would better hers and force her to stay, she pushed Billy toward the driver's side and slid into the car as fast as she could, rolling down the window as Billy started it up. "Bye! I'll be back before midnight!"

The two drove off toward the school, leaving behind a trail of dust and very, very, pissed off Hopper.

Prom was better than Billy thought it would be. He didn't want to go at first, but after Max found out and spoke to her mom about it (the little redhead a cupid-in-the-making), Neil pushed him to go (as he was "doing something else besides being a lazy-no-good rebel"). It was then that he called Y/n and asked if she'd be going.

The suit came in handy. Clashing with his rocker aesthetic, he put it back on once more. The once-annoying tie proved to be somewhat okay in the end.

Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? Say yes, say yes, 'cause I need to know. You say I'll never get your blessing "till the day I die, tough luck my friend, but the answer is no!"

Why you gotta be so rude? Don't you know I'm human too? Why you gotta be so rude? I'm gonna marry her anyway. Marry that girl, marry her anyway! Marry that girl, yeah, no matter what you say! Marry that girl, and we'll be a family! Why you gotta be so rude?

With a deep breath, he ran-over the conversation in his head once more. Like a script for an actor, he had thought of every possible outcome and every possible line for him to face it with. He almost chickened out as his fist rose to the door, but it was too late, for his knuckles rapped against it before he realized he was even knocking.

El opened the door, eyes wide when she saw the familiar mullet and button-down. "Papa..." She muttered as she backed away and out of view.

Hopper traded places with her, his lazy expression sobering up instantaneously, replaced with a grumpy scowl. "Hargrove."

"Mr. Hopper, sir."

"What are you doing on my front porch?"

He swallowed roughly, palms sweaty against his sides. "I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"You seem to be doing just that right now, Hargrove." Hop crossed his arms and clenched his jaw.

Well, this was certainly not something Billy had thought of. He was on panic mode internally, attempting to find any response that could save his hide and accomplish what he set out to do. Unfortunately, the word-vomit button seemed to be misplaced under the button labeled "help".

"I'd like to marry your daughter, sir."

Hop's eyes grew just as big in size as El's had when she opened the door. He choked on his own surprise, coughing it off, then glaring at the boy in front of him. "Over my dead body, Hargrove. If that's all, I'd strongly advise you to get off of my fucking porch while you're still alive."

I hate to do this, you leave no choice; can't live without her. Love me or hate me, we will be boys- standing at that alter. And we will fly away, to another galaxy, you know. You know she's in love with me, she will go anywhere I go-

"Billy, he's just stubborn."

"No, no, I don't think he likes me."

Y/n sighed, rubbing her boyfriend's back. He hadn't told her of his proposal plans, only that Hop seemed to have it out for him. "It'll take time, but he'll warm up to you!"

"It's been how many years since he's met me?"

"To be fair, your reputation wasn't doing you any good until now..."

"It's not like that was fucking obvious." He slouched further down in the front seat of his Camaro. To Billy, all hope was lost. If he couldn't get Hopper to give him his blessing, he was sure he'd lose his goddamned mind.

Y/n frowned. Her frown flipped around as an idea popped into her head, her lips finding Billy's knuckles and quirking his attention. "Even if he never likes you, I'm not going anywhere."

Billy laughed softly, "he'll fucking kill me if you go against him."

"Eh, that's only if he can catch us."

"You're out of your fucking mind, Y/n Hopper."

"I know."

The rest of the night was spent in the Camaro, of course, doing one of Billy's favorite pastimes. By the time the sun rose, Billy was sneaking a kiss to a giggling Y/n before dropping from her window in the cabin and running to his car, parked far enough that Hop or El wouldn't notice. He blew her one more kiss, which she pretended to catch, then he broke into a sprint.

Maybe, he thought, just maybe; there was still a chance.

His knuckles hit the door again, shifting on his feet nervously. It swung open to reveal Hopper, an unimpressed look bringing no surprise Billy's way. It was quite expected, honestly.

"What." His tone made it clear he wasn't up for fucking around.

"Mr. Hopper, if you just give me one chance to prove to you that-"

"No, no, no, no, no. Let me make it very clear to you that I want you to have nothing to do with my daughter whatsoever. No marriage, no friendship, I don't even approve of you guys fucking or whatever-"

"We're in a serious relationship, sir. It's nothing like you think it is."

This made Hop laugh. He continued to do so, holding his stomach, until he realized Billy was unamused. "Oh, you're serious?... My answer is still no, Hargrove. My answer will always be no. Go find someone else's daughter's heart to break. You're not hurting mine."

"It's not like-"

Before he could even get the words out, he was met with a door in his face. Turned down, again.

Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? Say yes, say yes, 'cause I need to know. You say I'll never get your blessing "till the day I die, tough luck my friend, 'cause the answer's still no!"

Why you gotta be so rude? Don't you know I'm human too? Why you gotta be so rude? I'm gonna marry her anyway. Marry that girl, marry her anyway! Marry that girl, yeah, no matter what you say! Marry that girl, and we'll be a family! Why you gotta be so rude, rude?

Again, again, and again, Billy incessantly pleaded with Hopper. Different tactics were all met with the same answer; rejection.

He held up a sign outside the cabin, only for Hopper to close the curtain and chuckle as he sipped his coffee.

He asked at the door again, only for Hop to threaten to give him a black eye (which was met with "aren't you the sheriff? Isn't that illegal?").

He raced past the police station, Max leaning out the window with another sign, only for Hop to threaten them with holding cells.

He even went as far as to ask Max and El to help, but Hopper had none of that, and sent Max home with a rant full of nos.

However, if Jim Hopper thought any of it would get it into Billy's head that getting his blessing was just not happening- he was as wrong as Nancy when she claimed not to have feelings for Jonathan.

Billy had another plan in mind, and this one was impossible to say no to.

Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? Say yes, say yes, 'cause I need to know. You say I'll never get your blessing "till the day I die, tough luck my friend- but no still means no!"

"Hopper." Billy stood before his desk, interrupting his nice date with a delicious doughnut, and earning a very annoyed glare. "I got Miss Byer's blessing. Aren't you two a thing?"

"You son of a-"

"I got Eleven's too."

"Hargrove, I'm gonna-"

"Before you cuss me out, I think you should know that I've got a stable job, an interview with a mechanic so I have a job when the pool closes for the winter, and I've got a house on the market I'm looking at. I'm devoted to your daughter and she's devoted to me. You may not like me, but I think you're a great dad, better than the one I was unfortunately stuck with. You raised a strong and amazing woman. She's incredible and I admit, she deserves better than me-"

"You don't have to say that twice." Hopper huffed, crossing his arms.

"I know she deserves so much better than me, I'm surprised she's even with me too. But she loves me, and I think you can see that. I love her too. I would never, in a million years, break her heart."

Jim stayed silent for a few minutes. The silence brought uneasiness to Billy, but that was intentional on Hopper's behalf. He finally piped up with a cough, clearing his throat, before his piercing eyes met Billy's blue orbs.

"I'll hold you to that, Hargrove."

Why you gotta be so rude? Don't you know I'm human too? Why you gotta be so rude? I'm gonna marry her anyway. Marry that girl, marry her anyway! Marry that girl, yeah, no matter what you say! Marry that girl, and we'll be a family! Why you gotta be so rude? Why you gotta be so rude?

Bonus:

(after the wedding)

"What was that about a no?" Billy quipped with his infamous smirk.

"You're lucky I'm sheriff, Hargrove."

Why you gotta be so rude?

[pilvimarja]

i have such a strong (and maybe unpopular?) opinion that i need to share and you were the first blog i saw! anyways, i confess to not fully enjoying daniel's character in cobra kai. personally, i feel like the writers turned him into a pretentious, elitist person all because he's rich and has nice things...don't get me wrong, seeing him develop from a low-class teenager to a hardworking adult with a successful lifestyle is great and i'm happy that he got that arc, but i feel as though he's not even a sliver of the down-to-earth, appreciative, eager person he was in the movies. it seemed like in the show, okinawa was the only place we really saw the true lovable, humble, rough-around-the-edges jersey punk that we all know and love from the films. i could be totally wrong...sorry for rambling! let me know what you think. 😅

I don't know if your opinion is that unpopular. I've seen plenty of people in and outside of the fandom criticize Daniel's writing 😅

I'm not great at character analysis, these are just my personal thoughts, but I actually like the show's (and Ralph's) portrayal of older Daniel, for the most part. I admit that I never imagined Daniel LaRusso from the movies living the life of Daniel LaRusso from Cobra Kai, but then again, I don't know how I'd picture his life going. The writers clearly wanted to "flip the script" with Johnny living the underdog life in Reseda, but I still suspect that specific parts of Daniel's early characterization were influenced by the show's sponsors. And now that they have Netflix's much bigger budget they dropped the luxury car salesman part of Daniel's character almost completely. We only got a handful of scenes at LaRusso Auto in s4 and Daniel spent most of them out of his awful suits, helping Miguel fix his mom's car.

Growing up is rarely a straightforward, pre-determined path and people change a lot on the way. We know so little about Daniel's life between TKK3 and the pilot of Cobra Kai, so it's hard to say how he got to where he is, but I suspect he hasn't been living the Encino lifestyle for more than a few years, maybe a decade? And I have a feeling that even adult Daniel doesn't always recognize himself when he looks in the mirror. I think he does pretend and play a role, to some extent. (I mean, who doesn't?) He may have the big house in the Hills and I'm sure he enjoys the success he's had, but I think Daniel himself says that he'll always be an outsider in the circles he runs in as an adult.

Cobra Kai makes a point of avoiding the black and white "good vs bad" narrative that was popular in the 80s and no one on the show is truly good or truly bad. And I think existing "in the shades of grey" is one of the show's strengths. I see Cobra Kai era Daniel as someone who's kind of lost with himself. On the surface, his life is almost picture perfect, but inside, everything is increasingly off-balance. I have a feeling that it's been getting worse ever since Mr. Miyagi's death, and the return of Cobra Kai, Kreese and especially Terry Silver have made him feel truly lost. Even his marriage with Amanda seemed super solid in the early episodes, but it didn't take a lot to make it start to unravel.

I suspect the events of the three movies had a much bigger impact on Daniel than he ever realized. He probably tried to put it all behind himself until that Cobra Kai logo above Johnny's dojo brought it all back. I don't think he's ever really dealt with the emotional trauma of the vicious bullying he suffered first from Johnny and the Cobras, then Chozen and then Mike and his gang of goons - and worst of all, two adult men who, to be honest, shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children. And now he's finally dealing with it all at once in his 50s, poorly.

So Daniel's been making bad decisions over the course of the four seasons and "acting out-of-character" as Amanda has pointed out, and what's really tragic to me is how his attempts to love and honor Mr. Miyagi's legacy have kind of held him back as a teacher and even damaged his relationship with his own daughter. In season 4, a big part of Daniel's character arc was him going from someone who just parroted Mr. Miyagi's teachings to his own students (including Johnny) exactly how he remembered Mr. Miyagi doing it, almost like Miyagi's teachings were some kind of safe space for him, to finally remembering one of Mr. Miyagi's most important lessons: you have to choose your own way. So I don't know what season 5 will bring, but I do think we'll see a Daniel who's finally found some inner balance.

Haha, sorry this got kind of long! Daniel is my favorite character, so I have a lot of feelings about him. And he can definitely be stubborn and has a tendency to suffer from serious tunnel vision, and his flaws are often more pronounced when the narrative shifts to Johnny's corner (but we also have to remember that Johnny is an unreliable narrator, at least in the early seasons), but I personally don't see it as evidence that the creators of Cobra Kai hate him. I'm guessing you disagree with me about many of the things I brought up in this post, as do some other people in the fandom, many of whom are my friends, and that's okay, as long as we all stay polite and respect each other's views 🙂